Interesting Journeys

So sorry for the delay in postings, I got a little busy and just didn't have the time or energy to post for a few days....but now I am back :)

So let's see we shall start with school. It is going well, and interesting to say the least. The students here are different than any students I have ever seen in the states, and they seem to have a lot of fun testing me. I am trying my best to be strict and I am talking with other volunteers about discipline strategies and I think that I have come up with a few...I have been trying to impliment them and classes have been going a little bit more smoothly, and I have some more ideas for what I can do so I think that they will be getting better. It is just a little hard because my counterpart has been so busy. My counterpart is the other English teacher, she has been busy because a lot of things have been going on with the teachers union...which she is the head of. For a while the high school and general school in my town were merged...and then they were not....and now they are again. Then we had one director...then another director....then back to the previous director. Every day it has been something different, but now they say that we are going to stay merged with the same new director...so I hope that things start to quiet down, just so I can finally get used to things. My director had to go to Bucarest one day this week, so I had all of the classes alone..that was interesting...it was difficult but interesting. One class misbehaved so much that I had to give them an impromptu test...so they know I am serious. They were not to crazy about it, especially the ones that were being good, but sometimes that is the only way to get through to them. So hopefully I can get the kids to realize I am serious...that is my number one battle right now :)

So onto other things, this weekend I went to Iasi, this is the 2nd largest city in Romania. I went there to meet some friends for a festival and just to hang out for a bit. It was a lot of traveling for one day, 2 hours there and 2 hours back, but it was worth it. The bus ride down there was interesting, I met a lady from my town who works at the casa de copii, which is the place where kids who do not have parents or anyone to stay with go, and we got to talk about that a little bit and I am able to go there and help sometime, so maybe next weekend I will just go there to see what I can do :) It was just really interesting that I just happened to be going to Iasi at the same time she was. It was funny she asked if I knew where I was going in Iasi...I said no I will figure it out when I get there, and she just kept saying Iasi is big, be careful. I did figure it out once I got there, and it took me about an hour to get where I needed to go, but I asked for directions and eventually found it, the 10 minute walk that someone informed me it would be turned out to be a 30 minute walk, but I made it and that is all that matters :)

So then we just walked around and hung out in Iasi all day with friends, there was lots of beautiful jewlery and tons of little stands to look at. They had interesting pots, hats, scarves, shoes, food, there were rides, and traditional Romanian food, and tons of other interesting things to see. The venders were crazy, they wanted you to buy their things so bad, so they would bargain with you and put their jewlery on you and say that it was so beautiful and they would give you something else as a gift if you bought it, it was very difficult to say no to them...but you had to try and then they seemed upset, but oh well, that is the life of bargaining sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

Then I had my ride home. For the first time I took a personal train, the worst trains in Romania, and it really was not bad at all. It had a bit of an odd smell, but it was well lit and comfortable, but fine overall. I did however meet a very interesting lady on the train, and I am pretty sure she wanted to take me home with her. She kept trying to convince me to come to Iasi on Wednesday for this saints day, and I kept telling her that I had to work, and she did not want to take no for an answer. She had a good heart, but was a little odd....She had us exchange phone numbers so if I ever come to Iasi I have a place to stay...but I just did that to be nice. I don't really have any intention of calling her, but again no would not be taken as an answer. If I ever was stuck in Iasi, we do have another volunteer there and I know a couple people in my town who know people there as well, so I don't think I will be calling a complete stranger to stay with. I always seem to find the most interesting people on trains. For some reason, even though I do not start talking to people, they start talking to me, and then are drawn to me for some reason, and it is very difficult to avoid a conversation, when you are not exactly sure how to end one, besides leaving...and you can't really leave a train...oh well just another interesting experience.

So today I am going to make some American Pancakes for some of my friends here, they are all excited and I am looking forward to making them for them, and to eating them as well, I haven't had pancakes in months and it should be pretty tasty, we are going to eat them with Jam and Honey, yum :) So off to lesson plan and make pancakes so it should be a good time.

I hope you all are doing well, I miss and love you all bunches and think of you everyday. Take care and have a great day.

La revedere si te iubesc!

Pana mai tarziu (Until later)
~Sarah B.