Extra Cirricular’s: Bethel Style

Spring is in the air and everywhere I look I see flowers blooming, grass turning green, trees beginning to show their buds and those winter “bunny” boots traded in for this years newest J Crew flip flops. With a sigh of satisfaction, I say to myself…ahh…what a life! I begin to hear dogs barking ever so softly, but the barking keep getting louder and louder. Suddenly I realize I have a dog in my bed and those pleasant thoughts were just a dream. Before I start my morning ritual of coffee, shower, breakfast and feeding the roommates, I do my usual stroll out into the family room with my I-Phone where I get my neighbors wireless internet and check the weather. After pacing around the room for a minute or two in order to get adequate reception it finally loads up and reads -22, feels like -35! I glance again…what how can that be? It’s March 15th; spring is just around the corner. Then I realize I have been saying that very same thing for about the last 14 days. Well I think, at least it’s sunny today! Spring in Bethel doesn’t exactly follow the rest of the world. In fact, if I recall “Spring” has been colder than December, January or February. Although the cold temperatures persist, the increase in daylight is absolutely amazing as our days increase around 6 minutes every day. That’s around 40 minutes a week…way more time than I actually spend working a week. (Just kidding)

Although cold…the last month in Bethel has been absolutely beautiful. There are few things I have experienced as breathtaking and calming as looking across the icy tundra at high noon. While Bethel may not have the mountains or city sky rise to look at, it does have one of the most crystal clear blue skies of any place I have lived. The increase in days is also a definite plus as it is now light well into the evening. A few months ago I was having a hard time believing that when I arrived in August it was light until around 11 p.m., but once again mother nature is making me a believer.

So, what do Bethelonians do after work and on the weekends? Glad you asked! Every Saturday around 15-20 of us meet at “Pinky’s Pond” and get suited up for our weekly broomball match. Pinky’s Pond is the local Bethel Park equipped with playground, softball field, skate park and of course ice rink. The term “ice rink” refers loosely to a frozen pond that the city plows and maintains throughout the winter months (a.k.a. most of the year). Although makeshift, it is probably the coolest ice rink thingamajig out there. Broomball has fast become one of my favorite past times in Bethel. While running around for hours on end in sub zero temperatures might sound like torture to many, I assure you that it is top quality entertainment. I find myself constantly laughing at how bad I was the first time I played broomball in early November. I literally looked like I had never seen ice before. Needless to say though…this city slicker has found his ice legs in the past few months and is enjoying every minute of it.
For those of you not accustomed to broomball, the basic concept is hockey without skates and a puck. Broomball is played on a similar sized ice rink as hockey and instead of skates, we wear “bunny boots,” and instead of a puck we use a miniature soccer ball that theoretically is suppose to be somewhat bouncy, but when the temperatures approach -20 the ball is more like a block of ice. Since we don’t wear pads, there is theoretically no checking or hitting, but a little physical contact is a.o.k. The great part about broomball in Bethel is the variety of ice conditions. You might think that ice is ice…but you couldn’t be farther from the truth. Some weeks after lots of wind and a little snow, the ice is the slickest thing you could ever imagine. These weeks our broomball games look more like slow motion ESPN curling footage as we struggle to chase down the ball. Other weeks, the ice takes on a more sure-footed feel and our broomball games turn into more of a track meet where speed is of the essence. While temperatures can be absolute frigid at times, I have yet to walk home from our Saturday battles without being absolutely drenched in sweat.

This past month also served to be the start of my acting career. That’s right…I am now an all out thespian. Well, maybe not all out, but I definitely have had my first full out experience in the drama life. A few weeks back I got a call saying that someone had dropped out of the high school musical “Back to the 80’s…the Totally Awesome Musical” and they were wondering if I would be able to fill in. Full of curiosity I said yes and unknowingly signed away my next two weeks of life. In short, it was an excellent life experience and great way to become actively involved within the Bethel community. My role in the musical way to play Corey Senior. Corey Senior played the modern version of himself as he looked back on his high school days at William Ocean High School. My part entailed me being the play narrator as well as sing short version of Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name.” When I heard that I would be singing a short song I told myself “no problem John…you used to be part of the Regis Jesuit boys select choir.” What I didn’t realize was that my singing days were a long time ago. I’m pretty sure when we first started practice the rest of the crew was like…”oh boy…this could be a long night,” but after a few weeks of practice I got my confidence back and ended up doing great in the performance. This past weekend we had three shows (Friday-Sunday) and in total had about 600 people show up to witness the third annual WARPT (Western Alaska Rural Performance Theater) musical.
I have to admit, it was a pretty darn good performance for Bethel Alaska standards. The musical came alive with radical 80’s clothing, smash hits from the Proclaimers, Michael Jackson and even a six-person rock band. Top the performance off with some high quality choreography and the end result is some pretty awesome entertainment full of lots and lots of laughter. Not a bad way to spend a couple weeks! This acting gig has also given me some real Bethel street cred. One of the more priceless moments of the whole experience though was seeing many of the high school students faces when I first came on stage. I think it went something like, Oh shit…that’s Mr. Leer our substitute teacher.