December

After the Epic Birthday, the rest of vacation went by in a whirl and before we knew it, our day had come to return to Bethel and the frozen tundra.  Before we left for vacation, people kept telling me that we would be so happy to return to Bethel.  I’ll be honest, I thought they were full of hot air.  I mean, it’s vacation fun!  Why would you want to come home from that?!  But a few days before our return flight, I couldn’t wait to get home.  I missed our house, our cats, and our quiet life.  I had finally maxed out on the overstimulation of the Bay Area.  As we arrived in Bethel, I was relieved to be back and ready to see what our first winter in Alaska held for us.

The Quirks of Bethel

Being a city gal, I am always surprised by the funny things that I experience in this town.  People who have lived here think these things are all perfectly normal, but as a newbie to rural life I enjoy sharing these things with you.  Here are some of the more memorable moments:

* ATVs are Bethel’s version of the Bob Stroller: Living in the Bay Area, one of the most common sites is mothers pushing around huge outdoor strollers, like the Bob Stroller.  These things are made for trails, dirt, and jogging but mothers see these enormous strollers as appropriate for common day use and are as unnecessarily large as their SUVs…all show but not often used for its purpose.  In Bethel, however, mothers really do need something more hardcore.  The roads are almost all dirt and it’s hard to get your child around without a car.  I was in awe when I went to the Post Office and saw just how tough these moms can be.  It was a cold day, around zero degrees, and as I shuffled up the steps to the front doors I  hear the roar of an ATV engine as it pulled up near to me.  I turned to see a mom get off the ATV with a tiny baby strapped to her chest.  The baby was fluffy and immobile with all of its layers of clothing and seemed to be as unsurprised to find itself on an ATV as I was surprised to see it there.  She got her mail, hopped back on her ATV, and with a roar of the engine she and baby were off to other errands.  All I could think was, “Did I just see that?!  Is that even legal?  My friends (who are mothers now) would probably faint seeing this!”  But like I said, in Bethel, things are done a little differently.

* Why the driving age isn’t 8 years old: Once the snow starts to fall, there is a sound that arises from the tundra.  You hear this blaring whine dash by your house at all hours of the day and night.  You find the producer of this noise on our streets, the open tundra and even bolting through an unfenced yard..it’s the snowmobile, and during the winter it becomes one of the favorite modes of transportation and fun in Bethel.  Before moving here, I had assumed that these large, dangerous machines were reserved for adults that were willing to take on the responsibility of this danger, but in Bethel, apparently, parents see these contraptions as acceptable ways to keep their children busy and out of the house.  I was shocked the first time that I saw one of these children, no more than 10 years old, driving one of these machines.  Throughout the day, I had seen a couple of snowmobiles dashing up and down our street.  I looked at the drivers as they passed by, thinking they were some teens having fun, but then realizing that these drivers were so short and small that they couldn’t sit on the snowmobile seat to see over the windshield!  They had to stand up just to see where they were going as they zipped around our neighborhood!  My mouth hung open in shock seeing that not only was a 10 year old driving a very powerful snowmobile, but that they had attached a sled to the back of it so they could tow around a few more kids…at that point my jaw hit the floor.  Now, you might be saying, “Come on, Andrea, they’re just having a bit of fun.”  And I would agree with you that my 10 year old self would have been dying to drive one of these around, but the funny thing about being 10 years old, you’re not able to foresee the consequences to your actions.  And I present exhibit A:

Oops

Yes, this child and his friend managed to roll their snowmobile outside of our house, and seeing that a snowmobile weighs around 400 pounds these kids were up a creek trying to turn it over.  Much to their relief, a couple of men drove up and were able to easily right the snowmobile…and they were off again!  I know that some day my child will look up at me with doe eyes, begging to ride on a snowmobile (cause that’s what I would have done), and knowing me I will probably sigh in resignation and say, “Just come home with your head and limbs still attached.”

Interesting Sights on the Tundra:  When you live in a rural town, you have to get creative about how to keep yourself busy and active.  One sunny Saturday, Kyle called me to a window at the back of our house.  In the distance, on the open tundra, I could see something floating in the air.  It was a bright parachute!  And it was gracefully swaying back and forth as it glided above the ground.  I then looked below the parachute and there was person hanging on!  This person was on a snowboard being dragged around by the parachute.  I could see a second parachute in the sky further out…there were two of them out there!  Some of you may know this as a water sport called kite surfing/boarding, well in Bethel we have kite snowboard surfing!  That day there were two people out and enjoying the tundra in a way that never occurred to me…they were surfing it.

Kite Snowboarding! (This picture is NOT from Bethel)

Another popular winter activity in Alaska is hunting.  People go out for ducks and geese in the fall and then in winter it’s all about caribou and moose.  From what I hear, it is absolutely brutal to go hunting for these animals.  They live in country that is extremely cold, windy and slammed by winter storms.  Most hunters drive their snowmobiles hundreds of miles to find these herds, and because so many people might be focusing on hunting a herd it can be very dangerous (picture lots of men with guns in low visibility conditions), without the promise of bring home anything.  That’s why I was particularly impressed when I heard a snowmobile drive by our house and I glanced out the window at it.  The man, covered with icy snow, was coming home victoriously.  Attached to his snowmobile was a sled, and in that sled was a huge frozen caribou.  Nicely done, brave hunter.  Now I can add that to my list of things I have never seen before moving to Bethel…and driving past my house which is even more strange to me.

Just in case you didn't know, this is what a caribou looks like.

And lastly, just when I thought that I had seen a lot of interesting things around our house, I was pleasantly surprised with one more.  Look out your dining room window, what do you see?  Most people see their yard, or a street, maybe pretty trees too. When I look out my window I see the vast snow-covered tundra.  Most days I will only see some birds out on the tundra, but now that it’s December there is a recent addition to the landscape, dogsleds.  In January there is a very important dogsled race that happens in Bethel, the Kuskokwim 300, and now local teams are starting to practice.  They run their teams all around the edge of town.  I look forward to seeing these mushers every weekend, and I can’t wait to see them come together to race 300 miles in our harsh Alaskan wilderness.

Sled team goes by our kitchen window.

A Moment to Take a Breath…

December came in like a lion and left like a frozen lion.  Kyle and I celebrated a quiet Christmas at home.  I love that we no longer feel the pressure to buy presents for each other.  We just like to sit with our hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies…a perfect and peaceful way to end a year that had so many twists and turns.

In 2011, Kyle and I have experienced moments of delirious joy and moments of piercing sadness.  We have moved 3,500 miles from everything we have ever known to start a new adventure, a new opportunity.  I can’t imagine what 2012 has in store for us, but I’m sure the experiences will be as wide and expansive as the tundra in our new home of Bethel, Alaska.

Cheers to a new year.