Saving Daylight and Other Sunday Shenanigans

Quite a few people from home have asked me the same questions over the past few days; “do you guys have daylight savings time?”. I just wanted to write a quick post to confirm that yes, we do take part in daylight savings time in Alaska. On Sunday morning, instead of the sun starting to come up at around 9:15, it was showing signs of its approach by a little after 8:00.

Not one to pass up the PIP views on a clear morning, I quickly decided to start my morning off watching the sunrise. There is a small hill right behind the school that I walked up to get the best view of the mountains. I think it’s pretty safe to say that I was the only one out and about at this time, and I didn’t mind that at all. Watching the sky change colors as the sun started to come up from behind the mountains was breath-taking. 

Even without the sunrise the mountains alone are an amazing sight to see. Each day the snow line gets lower and lower and the mountains get more and more beautiful. Add to this the sun hiding behind them and it was almost too good to be true. Not even the best picture I took could capture what I really got to see (this is the same for most pictures I take out here). It was 8:55 by the time the sun finally peeked out from behind the mountains and I couldn’t help but look around me in awe. It was just another instance of the  “I can’t believe I really live in Alaska” feeling. While I couldn’t feel my fingers, I didn’t mind because this was the best spent hour of my weekend.

Even out in the villages its all too easy to get caught up in your work and you can easily miss out on things going on around you. I have to stop and remind myself of the amazing things happening outside of my windows. Just yesterday my students and I stopped class to watch a fox walking around outside (He’s always around and I plan to tame him and make him my pet..). It’s nice to live in a place where you can do that and it gives the students a chance to become teachers; they love when I ask them questions about things they know more about than I do. 

So on Sunday morning, I was all too happy to lose feeling in my fingers to snap some (okay way too many) pictures of the sunrise. My afternoon was spent taking Anya for a walk and collecting three of my students along the way. The boys and I walked along the beach where they filled my pockets with rocks and pumice that they thought I should have. They had so much fun running up and down the beach trying to compete with each other to find me the most unique stones. When I thought my pockets were going to rip from being so full, I took the boys  and Anya back to their respective homes.  It’s all about the taking the time to enjoy the little things:)