Friday, March 27, 2009

Hiking Adventures

We've had some really beautiful days down here in March encouraging us to get out and explore. The days are longer but haven't necessarily been that warm. The clear skies are courtesy of the north wind which can sometimes blow pretty strong. One nice place to walk when the sun is out is at the very end of North Douglas. There is a short trail through the woods from the end of the road that takes you to the beach along Stephens Passage between Admiralty Island and the Douglas Island. Here you can walk along the rocky beach or take to the trail just inside the forest. Both back for pretty nice walks. We tend to take the forest trail when its rainy and we keep pretty dry.

Every alert we came across this carcass on the beach and immediately thought it was a bird carcass and that we could use our COASST training to good work. But once we did some uncovering and moved the skeleton around it was obvious that is was a salmon. We haven't had the FISSH training so can't determine what species it is by the bone structure. My best guess it that it is NOT a king salmon.


It struck me as we made our way back to the house that this picture could have been taken at Summitt Lake if you traded the boat trailer for a snow machine trailer and pretended that the water was wave-frozen ice.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Ukraine

Our friend Chuck has been in the Ukraine with the Peace Corps for about a year now. He keeps us posted as to how he's doing and what life is like for him with occasion emails.

He volunteers at the library and was asked to read some poetry (in english) with a translator. He got his picture in the paper! Scroll down a little - he's holding the microphone alongside his lady interpreter.

He says:
I've learned just enough Russian to be in awe of the interpreters who sat between Washington and Moscow during the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s. Clearly, they were linguistic geniuses....otherwise the world would have been blown up.
Short example/favorite story. Word order does not matter in Russian. The way you know what's happening in a sentence is by the (mostly) two-letter endings that are applied to words. One of my teachers uses the example of a three word sentence composed of the words "bear," "I/me," and "kill." The order in which the words are written tells you nothing. And two different two-letter word endings change the meaning from "I kill the bear" to "the bear kills me." And just to make it interesting for an English speaker, to our ears those different endings sound pretty much the same.
The phonetic differences between the verb "to write" and the verb "to piss" are extremely subtle for an English speaker. This leads to some....well, you can imagine...
I'm quite sensitive to language issues because I spend a lot of my time "translating English into English." That's what I call it when English speaking Ukrainians ask me to "edit" or "polish" texts they've written. Sometimes, it's fairly easy but more often I must completely rewrite to give the words rhythm and clarity.
He is working with some students at one of the more prestigious universities in the Ukraine. He says:
The next entering class will be the first student cohort to have lived their entire lives in a free Ukraine.
Here's an example of their work, based on a project based at the Beloit College: "The Mindset of students entering University in the Fall of 2009." Some of them are clearly cultural and I don't really get but others are universal.
Most students in the class of 2013 were born in 1991. They are the same age as our country and are the first generation born in independent Ukraine.

Communism has always been 'the dark yesterday' and never 'the bright tomorrow'.

They never wore Pioneer ties. (I had to google this one to find out more)

As infants, they wore disposable diapers.

Most have been abroad or know someone who has.

Whatever language they spoke at home, Ukrainian has always been the official language of the country.

Their parents have always voted in parliamentary and presidential elections.

The dollar has always been “the second national currency.”

They can not imagine empty counters in shops.

There have always been multiple supermarkets in Nikolayev.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi have always been available.

The martschrutka has always been the only vehicle. Trams and trolleybuses are for old and homeless people.

Sonya is a type of telephone ("Sony Ericsson") rather than a girl’s name.

A mouse is part of a computer, not an animal pest.

They cut-and-paste and type faster than they write.

They do research for their home tasks with a computer, not a book.

Email has been around so long that no one even knows when it was invented.

They are sure to have a page on "vkontakte.ru" or “Odnoklassniki.ru"

McDonalds has always been on ул. Советская.

They never tasted chocolate or cola flavored chewing gum.

Madagascar is a cartoon, not a country.

Radio stations have always broadcast music in Russian, Ukrainian and English.

Television programs have always been in color and have always been interrupted by commercials.

They have never seen a радиоточка.

Black-and-white pictures are a special effect.

KVN (“Club of the Happy and Inventive”) teams have always cracked jokes about “Krivoe zerkalo” ('Distorting mirror') and vice versa.

There has always been “Comedy Club”.

They know about Mickey Mouse, but not Капiтошка.

Thanks to comedian Михаил Задорнов, they are sure that Americans are stupid.

They have never watched a Hollywood movie with a one-voice translation by Volodarsky.

Sobchak has never been mayor of St Petersburg; Sobchak has always been a Moscow celebrity.

They think St Petersburg and Leningrad are different cities.

They have always greeted each other 'Preved medved' (Превед медвед).

They believe Viktor Tsoy is alive (В. Цой - жив), but have no idea who he is.

“French manicure” has always been available at beauty salons.

They do not know that their grandmothers used coal for mascara.

Everyone knows what AIDS is and no one is surprised when condoms are distributed at school.

They do not know what a Гном tricycle is.

Milk has always been sold in bags, boxes or plastic bottles; but never in glass bottles.

They studied the Iliad, but some believe that Homer is the father of Bart Simpson.

This list was prepared in November 2008 by students of Business English (Groups 441-1, 441-2, 441-3 and 542-M) at Black Sea State University named for Petro Mohyla.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Wants some beef with those tires?


We had some new tires put on the Yukon and got something else to chew on at the same time! We got a pretty good deal - 4 tires for the truck and extra spare tires from all the processed and fatty sausage.

Because of food allergies, we don't normally seek out sushi restaurants but this would be one we might have to look for next time we're in abroad, Inamo restaurant in London's fashionable SoHo district. Touchscreen menus for choosing and ordering your food, paying your bill (will separate by order if you're with a group), webcams in the kitchen to see if your food is being spit in or tenderized by being dropped on the floor, and more. Who would have time for eating!

We went to Tarentino's Italian Restaurant for my birthday celebration. Located where the Wild Spice was and before that a Russian Tea House, this new establishment openned around the first of the year. We started out with a nice green salad with mixed greens and the house italian dressing. The dressing was made up of marinated roma tomatoes in a flavorful oil and vinegar mixture. Crusty fresh garlic bread kept us going until the main course came. I had Shrimp Diablo on a bed of angel hair. Spicy red sauce with at least a dozen shrimp. Tim had the Veal Parmagian and the house pasta. Two large filets filled his plate. The food was pretty good. We've had better and we've had worse food. The service was very good. We got there just in time to get a table and the place was packed. Where they had the big round mongonlian grill they have set up bar seating with what looked like a stainless steel bread warmer sitting on the grill itself. We'll go back someday and give it another try as its one of the better places to eat in Juneau.

Birthday Flowers







I received this lovely Narcissus plant for my birthday from Tim's folks. Its in a twig and grass basket and has the long twigs coming out the top and entertwined with the flowers. Very sweet smelling and spring-like!




and speaking of birthdays





these were a gift for Kim to go with her new truck!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Sunny

We find ourselves drawn to the airport dike trail on days when the sunshine it out. There are no big trees or hills blocking the directly sunlight, the pathway is well traveled and usually in good walking condition, there are birds to look at both in the wetlands and in the woods, and there are usually a lot of dogs walking with their people.


It must be spring - Canada Goose! honk honk! There are actually some geese that winter over here but the numbers have definitely been increasing.


This is a still shot from a video I took - I thought the sunlight's ray that extends down to the ground was interesting. I didn't get the camera out soon enough to show what the complete landing is like. On this day, with the lovely weather conditions, the landing looked pretty smooth.

Coasst Survey - Blue Skys - 30 mph gusts

Fact: you often have blue skys when the wind blows at gusts of 30 mph.
It was cold.
At least it wasn't raining or snowing.
With those winds when it rains or snows the droplets hurt.
No dead birds found.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Little bunny Foofoo

Rachelle's sister had a little baby girl several weeks ago and I thought the little one deserved a bunny hat and booties for the upcoming Easter holiday. This hat pattern is made using alpaca wool and very soft.


For the booties I used my favorite pattern and added some little ears: 4 stitches white, 4 stitches pink for about 6 rows (white was garter stick and pink was knit/purl) then k2 tog across, knit 1 row, then k2 tog, then back with white and then knit last two stitches together. Fold in half and sew down ear then use same thread to attach to booties.

Little bunny, Foo Foo
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And bopping them on the head
Down came the Good Fairy and she said,
"Little bunny, Foo Foo
I don't want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And bopping them on the head."

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Perseverance Theater - Battles for Fire and Water


This last weekend Tim, Barb and I walked up to the Perseverance Theater to see their newest play called, Battles for Fire and Water, a portrayal of the Tlingit and Russian conflict in 1804 in Sitka. The production was very good and the acting was great. The part of Baranof was very well executed and the physical characteristics were so very close to what I had in my mind when I think of that Russian America Company leader. I'm constantly impressed with the quality of productions that come from the theater. The production was spoken in three languages: English, Tlingit and Russian but it didn't seem confusing or repetitive. Even the actors took on contrasting roles: sometimes they were the Tlingit and other times they were the Russians. The Empire has a good synopsis.

The play was inspired by Anooshi Lingit Aani Ka, Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka 1802 and 1804 by Nora and Richard Dauenhauer and Lydia Black. All authors have done a lot of research on the Tlingits and the Russians. I have heard very good reviews on the book as well as on their other works.

Since I'm taking an Alaska History class this semester, this play was a great review for me and I really enjoyed some of the more obscure word choices and actions. I guess the only way I would have enjoyed it more is if I understood Russian and/or Tlingit!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Audio Readings - K-12 - free download

I saw this resource highlighted on the Apple Website and immediately bookmarked the site so that I could go back when I needed it. University of South Florida has complied audio recordings of stories, poems, fairytales, textbooks, lectures and more for grade levels K-12 (and in spanish too!) that you can download from free. Use them with your computer or your ipod or other mp3 device.

Two places you can could go and both offer different sorting capabilities:

Direct to iTunes - has the different grade levels in separate tabs: need to brush up on your nursey rhymes? look under K, some of Aesop's Fables are under Grade 4, and under the Grade 12 you have Aristoltle's Physics.

Lit2Go - If you go to this site you can search by author and title, plus you can download a pdf of the reading passage. I also noticed that there was some support material giving suggetions for how to use the document in a class.

I read through the FAQs and saw these two interesting points:

Reading levels are determined by Microsoft Word and then verified by classroom teachers.

According to Microsoft Word Help:
The formula for Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score is:
(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) - 15.59
where:
ASL = average sentence length (the number of words divided by the number of sentences)
ASW = average number of syllables per word (the number of syllables divided by the number of words)
Copyright - you may use up to 25 mp3 and/or text files for education purposes with appropriate credit.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Another Alaska Biography

I just finished reading a book called, A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska, about Hannah Breece who was 45 when she came to Alaska in 1904 to teach in the schools. Its been very interesting to hear her stories. At one point she was in Ft Yukon and had to come to Fairbanks and I was just sure she was going to mention my Great Aunt Flo or my Grandmother who came to Fairbanks in the early 1900s but then I couldn't remember exactly when they were in Fairbanks, it might have been a bit later like in the 1910s.

This lady taught at Afognak, Wood Island (off Kodiak), Iliamna, Fort Yukon, Wrangell, and Douglas - about 2 or 3 years at each place. She liked the challenge of going in and getting things set up and then moving on. It's interesting to see that the school became a the center of the community. Her directive came from Sheldon Jackson, the federally appointed US General Agent of Education (head of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education in the Department of the Interior). You should know that Alaska didn't become a territory until 1912, before that it was a District and was managed by a military overseer. And before that it was the Department of Alaska was under the jurisdiction of the US Army, US Department of the Treasury and then the US Navy. It wasn't until the discover of gold that Washington DC interests in promoting further settlement in the area became great enough to start its financial growth.

Jackson set forth the education policy as:

To instruct a people, the greater portion of whom are uncivilized, who need to be taught sanitary regulations, the laws of health, improvement of dwellings, better method of housekeeping, cooking and dressing, more remunerative forms of labor, honesty, chastity, the sacredness of marriage relation, and everything that elevates man. So that, side by side with the usual school drill in reading, writing, and arithmetic, there is need of instruction for the girls in housekeeping, cooking and gardening, in cutting, sewing and mending; and for the boys in carpentering and other forms of wood working, boot and shoe making, and the various trades of civilization.

It was to furnish educational advantages to a people, large classes of whom are too ignorant to appreciate them, and who require some form of pressure to oblige them to keep their children in school regularly. It was a system of schools among a people who, while in the main only partially civilized, yet have a future before them as American citizens.

Everyone has heard the stories about other American teachers and missionaries punishing native people for trying to keep their culture alive, it appears though, that Breece as a little different. Breece didn't punish children from speaking their native language outside of class time. English was strictly spoken inside the school walls. When she offered sewing classes she encouraged the girls and women to use traditional skins and animal body parts and herself was never opposed to wear these garments herself. When it became clear that the start of school would happen before the families returned from summer fish camps, she moved the school to where they were so that the students could be included in the family activities during part of the day and not miss out on their lessons. She also encouraged men and women from the community to participate in the activities and recruited their expertise in mentoring children who didn't have immediate family to help them. She also talks about her goals is not "whitizing" the children and their parents, but "civilizing" them, a distinction that clearly was not commonly made.

The following image is from the book. She talked about having to climb down the rope ladder from the sailing vessel that would take her to her remove communities. At first she refused and made them lower her in the boat as it went over the side. But she soon became accustomed to it. Image going down a rope ladder or any type of ladder in a full-length skirt!

This book is edited by Breece's great niece, Jane Jacobs, herself an accomplished writer, "about cities and virtues of urban disorder… ." In the commentary following the memoir it did strike me that Ms. Jacobs didn't make a trip to Alaska for research purposes until she was well into her 70s – clearly, adventure runs in the blood!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Awesome Knitting Patterns

Check out these knitting patterns in this Japanese pattern book. My friend Shari showed me this book and I'm in yarn-over-and-cable envy!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Tradition



Its a tradition at KTOO that when someone leaves a packet of growing seeds is dedicated to them. Tim's seed packet is Rainbow Chard. Here's what the back of the package says:


We're just glad that they selected Chard and not Stink weed! He starts a new job next week.

More Troll




Here's some finished photo's of the Ray Troll paintings that I reported on a couple of weeks ago. It was a little hard to photograph without a wide angle lens.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Weather from the North, Again!

I had a nice little walk on Sandy Beach this afternoon in the SUNSHINE! And the beach was full of dogs - they were everywhere and everyone looked like they were having a good time. There were no harsh words, a lot of butt sniffing, and barks of joy to be out in the sun with the sand in between toes.


I'm not sure what the name of these mountains are but I call them "Three Sisters"


and this is the house (blue with dark gray basement) we are renting from the Doulas Harbor side looking towards town.