Life in Bush Alaska is a lesson in patience and creativity. I'm becoming a seasoned pro at online shopping and getting things shipped to my village!

Hooper Bay has an AC store, so we get fairly regular shipments of produce and have a decent stock of refrigerated stuff. Things are just much more expensive here than in the Lower 48! For example, Jiffy corn muffin mix is something like $0.49 back home. If I bought one here, I'd pay $2.45. Think I'm kidding?

I'm getting really good at going through and getting the 1/2 price items that are getting ready to go out of date. I'm not being dramatic when I say that bread is BOGO right now so we have 1.5 packs in the fridge and 2 (soon to be 4) more in the freezer! I don't have soda (pop) available because I refuse to pay $15 for a 12 pack. Right now 20 packs are on sale for $18, and I may splurge for special occasions :)

For the sake of saving money and getting things they don't sell here, I'm getting quite good at online grocery shopping. Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart (seldom), Best Buy, and a few others are becoming my best friends.

Target
I like getting things from Target because I get 5% off with my card. I get things like microwaveable soups for lunch, bath stuff, canned goods, some boxed goods, Halloween candy, etc. The shipping ranges anywhere from 2 weeks to almost a month when planes are weathered in. So far, there have been two major issues. One time they shipped me 13 bottles of beet juice instead of all the actual stuff I ordered. After a long phone call, they replaced everything but the pasta that was now out of stock. Just the other day, a $200 order of food supplies, bath rugs, and my air fryer were listed as damaged then "issue." I called Target who said the boxes were lost in transit so they refunded my order. I'm thinking I either need to do multiple small orders so the boxes are manageable or only use Target for lighter items.

Amazon
If you plan on living out here, Amazon Prime is a must! I've ordered light bulbs, tea, classroom display items, postcards (that people have requested), shelf stable coffee creamer, rain boots, winter boots, hangers, laundry baskets, etc. I was finally able to get pillows sent out thanks to them. Amazon saved my life when it came to shopping for my cat Cocoa. They shipped out a litter box, big pails of cat litter, huge bags of food, etc. Prime doesn't mean free 2-day shipping here! It's between 1-2 weeks. The good news is that they are the first boxes to get loaded on planes after priority shipping boxes from USPS!!

Wal-Mart
I did a bush order while I was in Anchorage and sent a few things out. It takes a few weeks for the stuff to arrive and they charge you a percentage for packing/shipping. Ordering online is often not the best option because they charge you an "Alaska shipping" fee. Sometimes you actually can get free shipping, but it's not common at the moment. The only thing I've ordered from them is the specialty light for our pantry. Even with the $6 shipping, I got two lights cheaper than I could get one from Amazon.

Best Buy
I ordered our Blu Ray player and HDMI cables from Best Buy with no issue. I also ordered color toner for my laser printer in my classroom since Amazon wouldn't ship to my address here on that item. The price was the same, and I still got free shipping. I find they ship quickly, too. I think both times was right at a week.

Mr. Prime Beef
This order was quite the experience! The teachers get together and make one order for the whole year around Labor Day. It's basically a butcher that you can order all kinds of meat from. Because we order the way we do (over 1,000 pounds of meat together) it goes Bypass Mail which is cheaper. We got chicken, a variety of beef, pork, bacon, catfish, halibut, shrimp, and some frozen veggies. Trying to estimate what you will use in a year is overwhelming. I'm looking forward to its arrival so we can add a bit of variety to our current dinner offerings.

Others
I haven't tried Dollar General yet, but I've been told they are a decent option. Nuts.com has a lot of bulk nuts, dried fruit options, and spices. I plan on ordering from them soon. A teacher here is from Wisconsin so in the next couple of weeks we will put together a bulk cheese order!

Family and Friends
Some things I just haven't been able to locate (yet) online. Things like shelf-stable cheese tortellini and gnocchi have evaded me so far. My family loves me enough to send these in a care package. When we first got here and were eating ramen and cheese quesadillas fairly regularly until we got situated, my sister went shopping and packed up a tote full of food items for us. My Baba has sent a couple of boxes with snack chocolate and cake mixes as well as guacamole and hummus! My mom's friend Melanie, who used to live in Alaska, has adopted me and sends candy for the kids and I as well as some other goodies.

If you want to send care packages or letters, I'd love it! Mail is super exciting here :)

Brittany Taraba

PO Box 249

Hooper Bay AK 99604

If you have to have a physical address for whatever reason, even though they don't exist here:

Brittany Taraba

c/o Hooper Bay School

249 School Road

Hooper Bay AK 99604

Flying to Hooper Bay

I never intended for it to be so long in between posts!  An educators know that the beginning of school is a hectic time. Combine that with being in a new state, new house, new school, and new grade--it's been one heck of an almost 2 months in my new home :)

I flew from Monroe to Anchorage on August 9. Let me tell you that 16 travel hours with a cat in tow makes for an extremely stressful experience. I figured since her happy meds were about done for with only 4 more hours that I'd give a half dose. I will never make that mistake again! I spent Friday with my new friend Courtney doing some quick shopping and getting my new phone. I've taken over her spot at school now that she's moved to Anchorage, and she was so patient answering all my questions!

Friday night my roommate Darla arrived with her dog Lincoln. We flew out early the next morning. My home airport is a small, regional one so the planes aren't nearly as big. I thought that would adequately prepare me for the small planes I was in for. I was wrong. The flight from Anchorage to Bethel wasn't so bad since the plane was just slightly smaller than I'm used to. It was very weird going outside and stepping into the plane.

Bethel turned into an experience! Our flight was delayed due to a low weather ceiling. They suddenly wanted to charge us extra for our pet carriers as well as consider our carryon backpacks luggage. That put us over the luggage weight limit, so we also had to pay for that privilege! After finally getting the okay to fly, we walked out to the smallest plane, that everyone else was excited about because it was the bigger option! I couldn't see anything below because of the cloud cover, and the pilots had no problem looking at their phones during the flight. When an alarm went off, I about came out of my seat before being told it was the signal we were about to land.

The principal and counselor picked us up in the school truck and took us to our apartment. They were so helpful. The maintenance guys had moved almost all our boxes/totes from the school to our place so we could start getting settled in right away. Those first few days were an series of overwhelming piles of totes and boxes as well as moving classrooms across the school.

I'm working on getting better with the blog updates. My immediate goal is to catch up on almost 2 months of life here, then keep it up to date :)