About Me
My name is Maegan and I'm am currently a Senior at West Anchorage High School. I love to go camping, hiking, fishing, and boating in the summer and in the winter I like to snowboard and go sledding. In town I like to go to the movies and go shopping. I'm a very outgoing person and I love to talk. I love to meet new people and I'm super excited to go on this exchange!
About My Family
I was born in Florida and i moved to Alaska when i was 3 years old. Most of my family lives here in Alaska and I am super close with all of them. As a family we do a lot of outdoor things together. We hike, camp, go boating out on Big Lake and fish together every summer. At my house I live with my mom, brother, stepdad, and stepsister.
Daily Blog
04/18/2010
So now I'm back home in Anchorage and I never thought I'd miss Shishmaref so much. I never thought I wouldn't want to come back home :) but i didn't want to. I learned so much about myself and so much about a culture and lifestyle that I never pictured myself being in. Everyone and everything was so exciting and fun in Shish and I can't wait to go back. This trip was so much fun and I'm so thankful for being able to take part in it. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.
04/17/2010
Today was so much fun. Hung out with some new people and got to have so much fun. We went to the spring carnival and played some games and again realized that the people here are absolutely amazing. I really don't want to leave and I honestly think I'm going to cry tomorrow when we get on the plane.
At the carnival today I got a tattoo of Ariel. Don't worry...it's a fake one.
We had our closing circle and it was super sad because I realized that it was the last time i'd see everyone for a very VERY long time.
I don't want tomorrow to come :(
04/16/2010
Today was the best day so far. I realized just how much I loved this town. I'm already planning on coming back in the summer time. The people are truly amazing and they've totally changed my life and me as a person. I always knew there was a place where everyone was nice and friendly and sweet but I totally thought it was a made-up fairy tale place that didn't really exist but guess what? It does and the name of this place is SHISHMAREF. The people are so amazing and it really is a life changing experience.
Today we had plans to go sliding at 5-mile but when those plans didn't work out we found something equally fun to do instead.
I went to the third day of basketball games and it was a great chance to hang out with new people and talk to them. When I first got here I admit that I had the idea that everything would be weird and foreign but i've realized that I have so much in common with the people my age and even those who are older than me.
I'm really going to be sad when I leave but hopefully my plans to come back work out because I will miss everyone here.
04/15/2010
Today we made fish hooks with John and I realized that people in rural villages are super hard workers. It took forever to make something that i thought would be super easy. I never expected there would be so much work that went into a stick. It made me realize just how hard life in the village could be. I finished mine but I later went home with sore arms.
After lunch we started Kuspuks and I again realized how hard people work. The kuspuks took forever and I felt like I'd never get it done. We worked on the kuspuks until 12:30 at night. I was getting so frustrated but the women we had helping us never once got frustrated or irritated. They were so calm the entire time and it made it a lot easier for me, especially when my sewing machine started acting funny the first time...and the second time...and the THIRD time. They were super Super nice!!
We also watched some more basketball games and they were super exciting. My host mom's team won which was cool. I was super excited when I entered my name into a drawing and I won a bag during halftime.
I love Shishmaref and I'm going to be so sad when we leave.
04/14/2010
Today i woke up to eat some delicious homemade sourdough pancakes by my host mom Kate. Then we went to school where we got to work on our Kuspuks. Mine is a jade-y green and it's absolutely gorgeous. We made patterns and cut them out and I'm excited for tomorrow when we get to sew them together.
After we worked on kuspuks we went to the Nayopuk store and did an interview with the storeowner Percy. He told us a lot about the way life used to be before they had the store as well as how life has changed since they brought the store to Shishmaref.
After the interview we walked back to the school and we went to the bilingual teachers John and Bessie where we were able to carve into antlers and where we could also do some beadwork. It was really fun but the smell the antlers give off when you cut them down is a little funky at first. I carved 3 hearts. The first one was kind of lame but the other two came out okay...i think.
Then later we went to the start of the spring carnival basketball tournment.
I also snow-goed to the snack shack with Davide, Chris, Henry Big and Henry Small where I got a ginormous Shishmaref ice cream cone.
So far it's been a super wonderful fantastic day!
I CANT WAIT FOR TOMORROW!!!!
04/13/2010
Today was so AWESOME!! I had so much fun. First we had breakfast at the President of the School Boards House, Mr. Clifford. We had 92 year old sourdough pancakes and they were delicious. Then we went to school with the shish kids and it's super sweet because they don't start school until 10:30 on Mondays. Then later we went ice fishing on the lagoon. We had to chip away at the ice. It took about half an hour by hand and then like 3 minutes with the auger. It was my first time ice fishing and I was so excited when i caught a fish. Then after fishing we played a shishmaref game. It was super fun. After that I went back to my host house and relaxed.
Super Awesome Day!