Unalakleet

The Bering Strait Sea in Unalakleet

We arrived in Unalakleet on Monday afternoon. It was about a 2 hour flight from Anchorage. One thing interesting is that when you fly in-state in Alaska you don't need to go through security ever. Most airports in outside the bigger cities are a landing strip and a few buildings. On our flight to Unalakleet we were the only people on the plane, even though there were many people in the waiting area, they were flying to other destinations.

We arrived at the airport and several district employees who packed us and our gear up and took us for a quick drive to what is called the dorm, or the 5 plex by the locals.

The Dorm

The dorm consists of 4 stories. The bottom is a bedroom with several bunk beds, a couple of bathrooms, an area with couches, a tv and storage. The 2nd and 3rd floors each have two 2-bedroom apartments. The top level is another single room with a bed, desk and microwave, and a large room with several bunkbeds. The girls stayed on the bottom floor, and the guys were on the top.

After we got our gear in our room, they let us go and wander the town and explore.

The School, and to the right is the District Offices (The two story building)

This weather is not normal. The roads are dry, not much ice. 

The Church

The Store

Unalakleet is the Bering Strait School District's headquarters. It's placed in the middle of their school district. To make things interesting, BSSD size covers about the same area as Great Britain. There's no roads to anywhere in-land. Anything that is brought into the villages is either barged in during the summer or flown in by a cargo plane. It makes things interesting in the stores because what they carry is all dependent on the flights and what they order, and of course, what the people want.

There are two stores in Unalakleet, one also serves as the gas station in town. I think someone told me that gas was about $8.65 per gallon. The main store is pictured above.

When you look at the next pictures, you'll see that items in the store are much more expensive than they are in the lower 48. Remember, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING has to be flown in most of the year.

The Mountain Dew was 50% off due to expiring on the 27th.

Something that Mrs. Johnson's Class could do is to find out what the prices are in Portland and then figure out what the difference is. Use the money skills I taught you! Email me and let me know what you guys find out!


After we walked around town, we met back up with Ted, the HR director of BSSD. He took showed us where Peace on Earth restaurant was located at where we ate dinner. The owner made us Mexican food (burritos, tacos). It was really good. We also had pizza there the next night. It was really good pizza, homemade dough. Again, remember, everything has to be flown in!

The Iditarod goes through Unalakleet every year, and apparently Peace on Earth is open 24 hours a day.

A few years ago the student broadcasters in Unalakleet met with some of the top teams while they rested. When the winner got to Nome, he brushed off all of the national news, and would only allow one of the Unalakleet student broadcasters to interview him. That story was cool.

Most nights I spent with the interns, we played card games and talked about our teaching experiences and the silly things we've done as teachers. We've all become pretty close, and I know I will miss them while they are at their placements.

Tuesday (1/28/14) was spent filling out paperwork at the district office. Getting a tour of the school and district offices as well. Jay Thomas also gave us a slide show of the area and sights along with many of his fishing and hunting pictures. We also got a tour of teacher housing (Jay's house). They are talking about bringing us all back to Unalakleet for a debriefing to find out what they could do better/differently. We would like to all go back so we can say goodbye before we all do leave back to our respective homes.