We're in Kotzebue!

We finally made it here to Kotzebue! We flew in on Tuesday evening from Anchorage. When we stepped off the plane, it seemed like half the village was out at the tiny little airport to meet people coming in. Both of our principals, assistant principals, and other people from the District Office were there to meet us. Our neighbors John (district Personnel Director) and Theresa (district Special Ed and Assessment director) gave us a ride from the airport on their 4-wheelers, and one of the asst. principals delivered our luggage to us. Although there are some trucks, we have come to realize that most people have 4-wheelers for transportation, because there are only a few paved roads in town, and that has only happened in the last few years. Anyway, we got into our apartment and were happily suprised when we opened the door. We have a great one bedroom place, that came fully furnished. There is tons of storage everywhere because, of course, you have to store all of the food and other items that your purchase everything 4 months or so. Here are some pictures of our place:

Kitchen

Living Room- if anyone wants to come and visit, we have plenty of floor space!

Entertainment stand in the Living Room

Our bedroom... complete with boxes in the windows to keep out the light because it stays light right now until around 2am, and then the sun comes up again at 5am. Needless to say, we have yet to see Kotzebue in the dark... but I am sure we will get enough of that come December.

Dining Room and Kitchen

After we got our bags inside and looked around a little, John and Theresa (our neighbors upstairs) took us out on an 4-wheeler (ATV) tour of the town. Michael even got to drive! They took us up to Cemetary Hill which overlooks the town so we could get a good view of where we are going to be spending the next couple years of our life! We are 5 blocks away from the Arctic Ocean. Here are some pictures of our village:

Kotzebue sits out on a peninsula between the "lagoon" and the Arctic Ocean. The ocean is between Kotz and the mountains you see here, but when it freezes over (November) we hear that there is great snow mobiling across the way

Michael driving the ATV

Kelly driving the ATV

Our school. Although there are two "separate" school (the elementary, and the middle/high school) it is really just one school divided by doors!

The Arctic Ocean, 5 blocks away. We almost have ocean front property! Oh, and this picture was taken at 10:00pm, and the sun is still high in the sky.

So, there's a little tour of our life here. Everyone we have met so far has been really friendly and welcoming. The boxes that we sent have mostly arrived, with only a few minor casualties. Our food isn't here yet, so we're having to make due on the few items that we brought with us, and the extremely expensive store in town (although, it does actually have most things you could need, but you pay for it!). We have mostly just been getting our apartment set up, wandering around town getting situated, and getting to know people. But, we only have 3 more days until the real world hits us hard on Monday!