Iraluq

It's been about a month since my last post and a lot has happened as I've been overly busy. I thought I'd start with the word iraluq, meaning moon or moonth. (Ha ha ha) Somebody has previously mentioned that Yup'iks traditionally had 13, not 12, moonths. This calendar would be a better fit than our 12 moonth calendar. But I imagine only a few elders, teggenret (lit. hard ones), still know or have heard of the 13 moonths.

I'm a bit nastalgic since the x-country season is over. The Chevak boys had a chance to win regions for their 8th straight year but struggled at Regionals in Dillingham. I went with them and routed them on at the halfway point. It was cold! Brrrrrrr!!! It even started to snow during the races. Our star, Harald, however won the regional title for his fourth straight year with a PR 16:38. Now that's really flying. Between the girls and guys, 5 made it to state in Palmer this last weekend. I'll see shortly how they did.

Dillingham seems like an interesting place. After the races, I got to walk around in the blowing snow. The three of us walking around looked like snowmen with plenty of snow sticking to our coats. It's small with lots of tundra, some trees, and some mountains in the distance. I've always wanted to visit Wood-Tikchik Park out there. Maybe some kayaking and climbing out there lies in the future. Everything was completely dead on Saturday though. Nothing going on. Nobody driving the streets. Nobody even walking the streets.

I shot a gun for the first time this last week. A few of my students took me out for owl hunting. (These owls we were looking for were small ones called anipat) They taught me how to shoot a 22 and I did a few times in vain. Those darn owls are fast and it's tought to see them well at dusk. Ap'ang hit one but when it hit the tundra he lost it because it was already pretty dark. We were going for these owls for decorative purposes. They have pretty feathers and make great dance fans or trinkits or whatever.

Moose hunting season ended as October started. I didn't get to go. Rats! I really wanted to do some packing. I love packing heavy weights. However, on Sunday after I got back from Dillingham, my roommate Ken had brought home a moose he had caught that weekend. So we spent all night cutting and packing the meat in the freezer.

I went out for a 15-miler yesterday. It was nice. As I started, it was a bit windy and rainy, but the wind soon died down and by the end the sun was shining. It was an absolutely glorious day to run! I got to watch locals get out in their boats to go seal hunting. I also observed some builders driving long pilings into the tundra. Ping ping ping! And a dog joined me for the last 7-mile portion. He looked tuckered by the end, but he could still woop me. Or should I say, "Woof me!"? Ha ha ha.

Piurci