Trying to get ahead of the weather I left the island early. It was pretty windy and shaky taking off. And the sky looked blood red as the sun came up over the horizon around 9am yesterday. I had to run and get my lighter boots, as thought my big Baffin’s would look strange to folks as I came through to Chicago. I usually wear sandals when traveling, easier to talk off for security. The 1st picture here is from the road to the school when it is not so dark and windy.

I got a room in Nome for the night. Milano’s in Nome is run by a nice Korean family and many people were saying “Kamsamnida” instead of thanks for the meal. They said it was green tea, but the flavor was definitely Barley. The burger was excellent as per usual. I also tagged on a spicy tuna roll. Yum!

Some views from Nome, AK.

After making some doodles and notes I retired for the evening.

In the morning I went to the Polar Cafe. Had a decent western omelette and kicked around at the heritage center/museum for a while before I got on the plane.

Half of the museum was closed until after Jan 1st, but the permanent collection was still open.

This is a woodcut by Melvin Olanna of Shishmaref, AK.

I walked around the exhibits 3 times. One time taking a picture.

The second time drawing notes on my iPad in procreate.

And the third time with my sketch book and pens. The sketchbook felt so light compared to the iPad. And working with a pen is also still far more intuitive than an apple pen or stylus. Both are enjoyable though. (this is the limit on pictures for blogging.)

I ended up chatting with the clerk for a bit, hearing stories about moving to Alaska from Seattle and how the job opportunities were better back in the day, they seemed like they had a good ride/they were enjoying their journey.. I also heard stories from the cab driver about dredging for gold, diving and fishing for herring and halibut. They were from Anchorage so they grew up before the marine mammal ban for non-natives. So they also hunted seal growing up.

Before my flight I also chatted with another teacher. Mostly about teaching. But some about politics. We did not agree on a whole lot. Especially about the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and the apartheid between Israel and Palestine. I think it is still good to have those difficult conversations. They did not understand that a population of Christians live in Palestine…that was once 10% of the population, now down to 2%. Although they did agree that Palestine was essentially a ghetto, like what happened in Poland. They did not believe the death toll as reported by many independent journalists and international organizations, And at some point I understood nothing I said was going to sway them from thinking that Israel is within its rights to do what it has done over the last year. It’s strange to me…Ronald Regan threaded to stop arms shipments to stop Israel. So did George Bush Jr.

Cornell West and Norman Finklestein seems to have the best analysis about Gaza if anyone is interested to google them.

Keep Making Art Kids!