Smoke and Drama

Sorry if there are a lot of typos in this one, but Eros turned off the lights to go to sleep and I'm typing in the dark. Well, it doesn't really get dark here but the shades are down so close enough.

Anyway, Our Sunday was event-packed and fun. Eros and I took about 10 kids to see the finish line of the Yukon 800. What? You haven't heard of it? You weren't following the stats and placing your bets online? Geez.

Ok, so it's like the Indy 500, but you make your own racing boat with a stock outboard motor, aluminum sheeting, and plywood, and then you and three other dudes race it at speeds topping 75 mph 400 miles up the Yukon River and then back down to Fairbanks (or maybe it's down the river and back up to Fairbanks - whatever). So we had a little picnic on the river with out 15 kids and watched the big finisher, who has actually spoken to our group so we're totally tight with the guy, and then after that the students managed to get two Baci balls, a football, and a frisbee tossed into the river while waiting for second place. McGyver-style methods were used to procure the submerged items.

After that we went to Chena Lake and buried our students in the sand. See pix below. Then one of them lost his glasses and ruined everything.

Just kidding. He was blind, but pretty cool about it. He has a better excuse to do poorly in his classes now.

Today was a brilliant, clear morning, so Eros decided to go on a field trip to the Upper Chena River with the Wildlife Biology class, where they put on their hip waders and fished around for little river creatures. He learned a lot about what a good-lookin' river looks like, which I'm sure he'll share at a later date.

Right after he left and I went to sit outside in the fair Alaskan sun and bake like a cut sockeye salmon, a haze drifted in. Panic has ensued among the students, for fire season is upon us. Fairbanks is in a valley of sorts, and there are apparently some decent-sized fires going on up north. Last year the fires were so bad that the students had to wear masks all the time and were generally miserable for a few weeks, so now they've started getting freaked out and it doesn't even smell like fire yet.

In student drama news, the two kids that were caught in the room together on Saturday that caused all kinds of mayhem are being sent home tomorrow. Sad face :(

Theft report: some punk stole a bunch of stuff from another kid's room, so now they're all on lock-down until the guilty party gives up the contraband. That spells b-o-r-i-n-g for us and them. Eros and I both gave stern speeches to our floors, and we both enjoyed it immensely.

Tomorrow's our day off , so we're going to try to rent a car and drive to Anchorage. We don't know what's there, but for me it's mainly to find some big-ass vegetables and maybe see a moose along the way. I swear I'm not leaving the state until I get pictures of both.