The Big City

This weekend Dirk, a fellow teacher, and I went to the big city of Bethel. We were headed to an art retreat. Now, for those of you that know me that might seem strange because I'm not much of an artist yet. That was the phrase we heard. We need to tell our students that they're not artists yet. We learned all sorts of educational tools to use art in science. Dirk and I agreed that it was great and very useful.

Bethel is a strange city in that it's really spread out. There are several clusters of houses and businesses connected by roads. The town is pretty walkable. However, that doesn't stop people from driving everywhere. Interestingly, Bethel, Alaska, has the second highest number of cabs per capita in the U.S. second only to New York City. It's also home to the famous "Bethel cab ride". You might hail a cab only to jump in with two people already in the car. The drivers can make more money by picking up more passengers along the way. So, you hop in and the next destination that comes up is where the driver stops. It's $5 anywhere in town except the airport; that's $7.

The trip was fun. In fact, Dirk and I went to have sushi Thursday night. We left the restaurant deep into conversation and hopped into the first car that pulled up. The driver looked at us and I said, "Longhouse Hotel, please." Dirk stated his destination and we got back to talking. I noticed in all this that I was stepping on stuff on the floor. Finally, the driver says, "This is not a cab. I'm the delivery guy for the restaurant. But, I'll take you wherever you need to go." We laughed, turned around, saw the real cab and hopped in it! Too funny!

I hung out with some more friends Friday night. The best part was the pizza. I picked it up for everyone since I was staying near the pizza place. We ordered two medium pizzas and an order of cheesesticks for-- $70!!!! That's a little pricey even for Alaska.

All in all it was a great weekend. I leave for Bethel again on Tuesday to take 4 students to compete in a speech competition. We'll see how this goes. . .