Spring is teasing me!

So I thought for sure that Spring was here to stay. We had so many wonderful days, I didn't even need a jacket, I had lovely walks outside with the sun shining, and then what do I wake up to yesterday...oh yes snow! I guess that winter and spring are the same in every country and place, it always likes to tease you a little bit before it is here to stay. Oh well, it will be here soon...or so I hope! I would love to have a snow free birthday!

So I had some travel adventures this past week. I had to go down to Bucharest for a Dr.'s appointment and the trip down there was pretty uneventful. It was a night train so I just slept the whole way...or at least tried to sleep! It was a pleasant trip and nothing interesting happened...but I guess that is a good thing. So then I got to Buc and slept a little before my Dr.'s appointment because my train got in early, then wondered to the hotel after a while of chatting with other volunteers. It was actually an interesting journey to the hotel, the place where we normally stay was booked, so they had to put us volunteers into the extension place called "The Nest". So I had to wait for the guy to come get me to drive me over there, because I guess it was kind of a hike. The guy turned out to be really nice (I forgot to ask what his name was...you know me always forgetful!) but we had to stop at his other business for a little bit which was this cool little coffee bar, because he had to do some errands there. It was all cool, and I got a free cup of coffee out of the trip and the opportunity to see an interesting new place in Bucharest! If I could ever find it again I would love to go back there and try the different foods and coffees they have there. So then it was off to "The Nest" and I just had to giggle at my room. I was the last person there, so got the last and consequently the smallest room. It was tiny, but comfortable, that is all that matters and I was able to watch some of the Olympics! It so happened to be figure skating that night so it rocked because the is my favorite event! It was also nice because I was able to see some other volunteers, chat with staff, and just see some friendly familiar faces again :)

So then Saturday came around, and I thought that my train left at 9:30, well I double checked my ticket that morning, at about 8:55 and discovered it left at 9:10, super uh-oh! So I had to run to find a taxi, overpaid for an extremely short trip, said a quick good-bye to the other volunteer I was with who I had just met, and ran frantically to my train! I made it, with about a minute to spare! It was crazy, I should have been more careful with my times! That was the closest I ever came to missing a train. So I made it to Braila to visit with Trisha, another volunteer. I was planning on spending the night there, but we could not figure out where the bus left from, so we happened to go to the bus station and there was a bus that was leaving at about midnight from there, so I decided to go that route. I made it to the bus, and talked to the bus driver about how I needed to make a second bus in Botosani. He told me not to worry that we would be there by 5 AM, I was relieved at first, but then once in the bus, became anxious because we were making more stops than I thought were necessary. When we finally arrived in Botosani it was 5:20 and then we made what felt like 10 stops, including stopping for gas, before we made it to my station, by then it was 5:30. Luckily there was a second bus going through Trusesti and I am really lucky I said something to the driver before-hand, because he had to stop the Maxi-taxi that was leaving as it was already pulling away from the station. The important thing is that I made it home, I almost missed to different forms of Transportation on the way home, but I made it in one piece and was able to spend the day relaxing a little bit as I was thoroughly exhausted from my travels that weekend!

Oh and in case you were wondering, I went to Bucharest to get some blood work done because I was feeling a little off and tired all the time. No worries I am fine, just a little low on iron and calcium. Do you think that they are going to kick me out of Wisconsin for the low calcium thing? I sure hope not! I am starting to feel better already though and trying to make changes in my diet to be sure that I make up for these lost nutrients! Maybe the good folks of Wisconsin should send me a good ole Wisconsin cow to help with my calcium deficiency!

So that brings us to this week. Nothing too exciting happened last week, and I was to tired on Sunday to post, so here it is I guess. School went pretty good this week. There were some days where my students were just a pain in my butt, but that is behind me and I am hoping for a change this week, where it will be a little better and less stressful, we shall see if that happens. So this week in English club we had a lesson on Superheros, we created "The Last Phantom Banana Puma" who's job was to save the animals of the jungle before his evil brother "Mr. Tiger" became the king of the jungle! It was pretty fun. I also had a student tell me I was old! This is how the conversation went

Me: "Daniela you need to talk louder, I am old"
Kids: Look confused
Me: "I'm old right"
Andrei: Sighs "Yeah"
Me: Gasps in shock
Andrei: Realizes what he has just said and starts to laugh hysterically

The funniest part was not even that it was when we were in class, Andrei is in 8A group 1 and I had class with them that afternoon and the word old was actually in the vocab list, which caused him to laugh hysterically yet again. Oh some good times with my students and the silly things that they say!

The rest of the week in school was pretty uneventful, just teaching as usual, no super funny things with my students. Oh I forgot to mention that March 1st is like a holiday here in Romania, in general in Moldova they give presents to the men, and they give the women little things to put on their shirts, they have different designs and whatnot, I will try to remember to take pictures of them and put them on my facebook page. So I received a lot of pins, as well as a flower, a chocolate bar, and a gift that had basically a perfume and some make-up in it. I am wondering what will happen tomorrow at school because it is March 8th, another holiday in Romania, but this one is specifically just for women, so they generally get the gifts...we shall see what happens and I will keep you posted!

I also had my English class for adults this weekend and it was a huge success. I had 6 students this time around, and they were all excited to learn, and very proactive in class, and told me what they wanted to learn and we all worked together, and I am hopeful that it works out pleasantly in the future as well, because I feel like they really got something out of it. Which makes me happy and makes me feel that I am doing a good job here.

In addition to all of this with my regular classes, English club, Adult Lessons, I am also working on starting a secondary project which is actually quite big and will divulge more information when it actually gets underway, in addition to organizing a Spelling Bee with my counterpart, looking into grad schools, and studying for the GRE, so needless to say I have lots to keep my busy.