"Do you perm your hair?"

Here are some additions to

SARAH'S RULES FOR LIVING IN ALASKA:

1. always have food on your person.  always.
2. always have a flashlight
3. always have a book/magazine/entertainment
4. always wear your 'ice creepers'
5. always carry a back-up flashlight

I was walking home from school and I realized that I had left my flashlight in my coat pocket.  I wasn't wearing my coat because it was in the thirties that day, and I could get away with wearing a hoodie.  Lo and behold, I was without flashlight for that walk.  It was alright, but certainly not anything I would like to experience again.  So now I carry my flashlight with me, and I also have another one in my backpack.  I will always have my coat or my backpack with me.

I think Alaska should reconsider their title of "The Last Frontier." It should actually be called "The Land of Hobbies." Out here, you just have time for so many things.  Everybody has at least one hobby, because what else are you going to do when it's -15, oh that's right stay inside and crochet/knit/read/sew/quilt or something like that.  So I was learning to crochet before I came out here and now I have been able to use these skills.  Yesterday was brought to you by the letter C for crochet.

It's actually a headband, you just can't really see the headband part because my hair is covering it.  More crocheted things to come, I promise.

I bet you're wondering who asked me if I perm my hair.  I come in to school today and my kids can NOT get over how curly my hair is.  I don't know why this is so shocking to them, this is pretty much what my hair looks like everyday.  But whatever.  Today, it was just really shocking to them that I have curly hair.  And my students are practically laughing at me because they don't ever see people with curly hair.  All the girls in the village has stick straight (maybe wavy) long black hair.  So to see someone with hair like mine (refer to above pictures) is a little strange to them. They had trouble accepting that my hair is naturally like this and, through their laughter, one of my students asks me really sarcastically, "Did you get a perm?"  And I laughed right back and explained, no, this is really my hair.

Here are more beautiful photos taken this weekend when I was out walking around:

Everyday I think, it's just so beautiful and serene here :)