Ice Manqing on the Bering Sea

Me & Emily

Me & Mary
Me & all my fish :)
Me Manaqing
Emily & her fish
Emily & her 1st fish
People Manaqing

This year my school district decided to pair up non-native teachers with native teachers and staff. This is supposed to be a Cultural Mentoring program. The 1st of its kind in the State of Alaska. My mentor is Mary Ulroan. She is the middle school language arts teacher. Yesterday she took me and some friends out ice fishing/manaqing.
I drove my own snow machine out (with a brave friend on the back) :)
Until this trip, the farthest that I had driven my machine was to the local dump & back. So, I was VERY nervous to go but, I was also SUPER excited about the ride.
We drove out about 18 miles to the coast. We actually ice fished on the frozen Bering Sea. As a girl growing up in Oklahoma, I NEVER thought that I would even see the Bering Sea. Other than in movies or TV shows. It was never really even on my radar.
I wish that I could have stopped and taken pics on the way out, but I would have gotten left behind or at the very least seriously slowed down the group.
When we got to the fishing spot Qikertakuq, there were already some local people there that I knew. I was able to watch before I participated.
Emily caught a fish before I did. I was really excited for her, because she had been before, but never caught anything. Emily moved on to her own spot & continued to catch the fish. I eventually started catching them as well. We both got double once. So did one of my students that were out there.
It was a great time. I ended up catching 10 fish and Emily ended up with 13. We came in a little early, because we were cold. But hey, we managed to stay for 4 hours :)
It was a great experience and I would love the opportunity to do it again.