Day One: Kincaid Park

Welcome to Write Alaska 2013! Today was our first day of the program. I'm pretty sure anyone who had doubts about how this would go was pleasantly surprised at how great it was. Actually, I'm pretty sure everyone new this class would be great. We opened the day with a survey and 100% of the students predicted that this class would be amazing. I can tell you now, you won't be disappointed.

We kicked the day off with a thrilling 3 hours of classroom time. Students explored this blog, did some writing, and went over class and program expectations. When it was finally time to leave the classroom, kids started getting a little misty-eyed, because they could not envision the day getting more exciting than it already was. Let me tell you, though, more exciting the day surely did get.

Ok, so here's where I talk about Kincaid Park. We piled 28 students and nine staff members into a school bus. I say school bus, but I might as well say limousine, because it was so roomy and luxurious. More like a stretch Hummer. I wasn't cramped at all on that bus. I'm 6' tall and the teacher I sat by was 5 or 6" taller than me, but we both had just a ton of leg room. Luxurious is all I can say. I felt like a celebrity. Plus, after we left Kincaid, despite having run around for several hours, everyone smelled great and the limo, I mean bus, smelled great, too. It was like flowers, fresh-baked cookies, and freedom. It was the perfect smell.

Alright, back to the day's activities. We ate some Costco pizza. I'm not gonna exaggerate here, Costco pizza is Costco pizza. There's nothing else to say about it. It was served with a smile, though. A smile and Caesar salad. And Capri Sun. So we ate this pizza, got nice and full. Then we moved on to a sort of field day arrangement. Everyone numbered off into five groups which rotated through some different activities. I'm not sure what the other four were, something like hopscotch, macaroni necklace making, and learning how to correctly brush your teeth. What I do know is that my station was doing NYO. That stands for Native Youth Olympics.

Students at the NYO station tried out and competed in a mix of one-foot high kick, Alaskan high kick, Eskimo stick pull, and everyone's favorite- Indian stick pull. A highlight for me was when I achieved my personal record for one-foot. Coincidentally, my record in the one-foot is about one foot. Anyone you ask will agree that I executed the event with remarkable grace. It was an inspiration for all. I guess Sam was pretty good at one-foot. Noya, who had never done it before, also seemed to have some hidden talent for the event. However, no one did it with the breathtaking finesse that I displayed. I wish I had a picture to show you. It was truly a thing of beauty.

An important part of this blog reporting business is the photography. Where are all my photographs, you say. Well, there are none. That's where Indian stick pull comes in. See, with Indian stick pull, participants wrestle over a short tapered stick covered in Crisco. The Crisco likes to stay on one's hands, which gets in the way of taking pictures. So, that's why I had to use pictures from last year's program.

Alright, this has gotten really long and it's time for me to say goodbye for now. Like you, I can't wait to see what adventures the following two weeks hold!