5 + 1 = 6

November 25^th

I am extremely fortunate to get along so swimmingly with the other teacher, here, in Pedro Bay. Being at only a two teacher site, a personality conflict is something that could have potentially ruined my Alaskan experience. Jessie and her family have been a large part of my adjustment to teaching and living in the bush.

We had the opportunity to cultivate our relationship at new-teacher in-service. We roomed together, and stayed up late talking. We quickly learned that we came to Alaska under similar circumstances. Jessie is also from Pennsylvania, and both our families were very upset when we announced that we were moving to “The Middle of Nowhere, Alaska.” We are both first year teachers. Additionally, we have many of the same interests.  We both enjoy the outdoors, and have the same taste in books and movies; furthermore, we have the same sense of humor.

Our bond was strengthened when we learned how to fly fish together. We were quite the spectacle. Our guide spent the whole time laughing at us. We caught on fast, and were soon reeling in all sorts of fish. Our guide told us it was refreshing to not be guiding a bunch of rich snobs, and that teachings people like us how to fly fish was why he got into Guiding in the first place. He thanked us for being such awesome students. (He could not believe how fast we caught on, and that we caught anything let alone multiple fish.)

We were both determined to do everything ourselves, but screamed like girls every time a fish would move. (This encompasses everything from fish jumping out of the water to fish squirming in our hands when we would try to pull the hook out. Our guide literally spent the whole afternoon/evening laughing at us.) Okay, this could be a whole story in itself, you get the picture, and I will stop rambling….

Jessie is 32, and has three children between the ages of 8 and 11. Her undergraduate degree is in Anthropology/Archaeology, and is [thankfully] not your cliché Elementary Education Major. (Anyone who has sat through Education classes will know the personality I am talking about. For those of you that do not, they are all very nice girls, but extremely dinghy and it can be difficult to get them to follow your thought process.)

She went back for her Masters in Education, and got her Teacher’s Certificate in Elementary Education because of all the time she was already spending in the schools [with her own kids]. Her husband, John, is ten years her senior, and her best friend’s older brother. Cute, huh? John was a Marine, so I feel very safe having him around.

I am grateful for the Geffkens. I have very much become a part of their family. I realize that proximity is probably a large contributor to this, but it is still so awesome of them. We live 200ft from the school in teacher housing, which is basically a duplex. It is now common practice to leave the doors open to each of our respective apartments. There is a front foyer connecting the two apartments, and we like to yell at each other from the comfort of our own individual couches. We only close the door at bed time.

Early on, John and Jessica teased me, “There are already five of us- what is one more?” Initially, I was hesitant on sharing meals, and watching movies with them; I hate to be an imposition, but I quickly got over it. Now, I even am sure to have a “Geffken friendly movie” (something the kids can watch) with each of my Netflix queue deliveries.

It is so fun to share the movies of my childhood with their kids. Most of them, they have never heard of let alone have seen. And in return, they share the movies of their childhood with me.  The kids consistently think my movies are “weird.” Jess always enjoys them, though. But, she also believes in using your imagination, and loves anything with an element of magic, and if there are faeries involved- even better.

Having the support system of a family in my life has been such a huge part of my acclamation to bush life. I think I would have had a meltdown long ago if it were not for the Geffken’s presence in my life. I <3 Jessie, and her awesome family. Thank you, for making my Alaskan Experience all the more amazing.