Sauna House

Hi,
I have heard that you have been getting some Arctic weather down there in the lower 48. How do you like it? We like when it gets cold down there because it warms up into the positive numbers for us. You have no idea how warm 25 degrees feels after it has been - 20 for any length of time. I am upset to not be getting any of those snow days though. We have had lots of wind and snow lately. We get huge snow drifts here so that the ground is bare in some places and then there is a 6 foot hill right next to it. Some of the little houses even get covered. When I was walking to the store on Sunday it was blowing snow everywhere and I was so bundled up that only my eyes were showing. I was walking through about 2 feet of snow and then up and over all of these drifts. I felt like the Discovery Channel should be following me. :0)
I had my first Native Sauna House experience on Sunday. My friend Sue and I were invited to take a Sauna with a couple of Native ladies. It was a very interesting experience. We stayed in the sauna house for 3 1/2 hours. It seemed like a very long time to me but they need to make it worth the effort of digging the house out of the snow, chopping the wood, and hauling the water. The sauna house itself is a very small building in which you have to duck significantly to get through the door. There is one room where you rest and cool off and then the steam room itself. Sue and I couldn't go in with the native ladies because they made their sauna's so hot. They would pour several cups of water on the stove and then they would shout and chant in Yupik, "Its hot, its hot, I'm burning, I'm burning." Then they would crawl out the the other room and cool off and relax. After the steam room got cool enough, Sue and I would go and sit in it for a while. We took turns like this several times before the whole sauna house was cool enough to "Wash Up". Then we were showed how they traditionally wash up. They spend quite a lot of time, do a lot of scrubbing and are very careful to conserve water. It was a very relaxing experience until I had to hike back home in the blizzard. I am not sure if I will Sauna again, but I feel very fortunate to have been invited and to have gotten to experience this very old Yupik tradition.
Tomorrow I will be heading to Anchorage for a district conference. I will be returning on Sunday. I am excited to eat out and go shopping, but I wish that Jesse could come too. He will be coaching his basketball kids in a tournament over in St. Michael.
Hope all is well in the lower 48!