So this week was another short one, which is always nice for me :) We did not have school on Thursday because the teachers were on strike again, because of the problems with the pay and the insurance of a job for next year. I feel so bad for the teachers because they are having so many problems with salaries and whatnot, I am very fortunate to not be feeling these effects because I cannot imagine what I would do in their situation. However that did lead to another shortened week for me :) The strike was on Thursday and I do not have classes on Fridays so I only had three days this week. I don't know what I am going to do next week, I have a full schedule, which has not happened for the past three weeks! Oh well, I need more to keep me busy and motivated, it is good for me :)
So I have officially started a project. It is going to be long and difficult, but I think that it will be good for the community as does the community. We are going to be putting on a play for the community. So far this includes 4 short Romanian plays and 1 short English play. I will be going to the students on Monday and picking them out for their parts. I will be picking the most advanced students in English, but I am also hoping to pick a few that try really hard for some of the smaller parts. It is going to be hard to decided, because I think that all of the kids have potential. So we are going to put this play on and then charge people that enter a small entrance fee of 1 or 2 lei. This money will then go to the 25% that is needed for a grant that we will apply for. In addition to this hopefully we will be receiving some money from the mayor's office to fully meet this percentage. This money will then be used to purchase and install an asphalt soccer/play area for the kids. Here for physical education and for soccer at the elementary level they play it on a hard surface. While this still is a foreign concept to me, and I myself cannot do it because it kills my legs, they really do need it for their school to make the physical education program better for the kids. Maybe I can even teach them games like Hop scotch and 4-square when it is finally installed. This is the initial idea and I know with hard work and perseverance it can be obtained. The students also seem to be really excited about the play, so hopefully that energy continues until the end of the semester.
Let's see what else did this week bring. Oh I went into Botosani to go to a festival there. This weekend was a big holiday you might say, it was sfantal gheorge (Saint George) which is an important day for the Romanian Orthodoxes (the biggest religion here) and it was also Botosani's birthday for lack of a better word. So they had lots of stands available to buy things, tons of food, traditional dances (which I actually did not get a chance to see :( and live music. I stayed with another volunteer there and we went to see Bad Boys Blue. It was a band I have never heard of, but they were apparently popular in the early 80s (before me time!) and they actually did have a lot of good music. So it was fun to listen and dance and hang out with friends. I had a nice time there :) Apparently the festival was all weekend, so I am sure that Botosani was a happening place all weekend!
Now however I am back to the grindstone, lesson planning, studying Romanian, cooking, picking out students for the English play and I will probably be starting the SPA grant work next week. So I will hopefully be a busy bee, and hopefully the Internet will not be too much of a distraction for me! I love having the Internet here it is fabulous, but it sure sucks me in really quickly. It is a good source of distraction when I am trying to avoid doing an undesirable task. That should be a new resolution for me, more productive work and less play!
On a positive note, I have been doing better with getting more exercise. I try to walk about 4 kilometers a day, and I have been succeeding with that. I took a break yesterday, but I will be back to work today with the walking. I have already had a fairly productive morning with lesson planning, and will be doing my Romanian lesson shortly. I was slacking on the Romanian for a while but am now teaming up with my neighbor. We are hard at work on grammar, which is my week spot. I never know how to end the words, because that is where they but the ownership, plural and the words. Oh and they are normally irregular, so it is just memorization for me! Yipee! Oh well if I keep working hard I will eventually get there, and in time it will just start to click...or so I hope!
So I think that is about it for the week. I wish I had something else interesting to say, but due to a short week, with little excitement I think that is about it. I hope that the weather is treating you well and that you are all able to enjoy Spring. It is warmer here, but so dusty and when it is windy it makes it very difficult to be outside! However I am happy that the snow is gone! I miss you all a lot, and always feel free to send me an e-mail if you want to talk more or tell me some exciting news, I love hearing from you and I promise I will respond! Or you can always get Skype and we can schedule a time to chat :) I always like that! Alright well Happy Sunday everyone and I hope that this week brings you smiles and cheer!
Va iubesc
Va pup
Mi-a dor de voi!
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Back to Work
So after a long and nice 2 week vacation I have to go back to work tomorrow. I suppose it is about time, I mean that is why I am here in the Peace Corps, to teach English, but it is sure nice as it is in any job to have a little break from time to time. It wasn't all fun and games the whole time though. I did have a week of pure relaxation, but last week I was at a conference in Sibiu. The conference really did have a lot of interesting and useful information. It was about encouraging healthy behaviors in youth, but it wasn't just limited to eating healthy, it also focused on pollution, vandalism, reducing your risk for HIV/AIDS and basically anything that would gear to helping a youth grow up to be a better person. One thing that we would like to focus on here at my site is encouraging the youth to spend less time on the computer and more time playing outside, spending time with friends and reading and doing homework. So I guess that means we should lead by example and I don't even want to tell you how much time I spend on the computer each day. All I know is that it is way to much, and it is not always for communication and researching...all too often it is for entertainment purposes. I would like to start a once a week activity with my students where we all get together and play a game for about an hour, maybe on Saturdays. I think it would be cool to have a cross cultural exchange, one week they can teach me a game that they play here and then the next I can teach them a game that I used to play in the states when I was little. So if you all have any suggestions for fun phy ed type games I am all ears!
So there is not to much to say about the conference, it was a lot of sessions and then afterwards we were able to spend time with one another. Which was really nice because I don't always get to see people from my group. My site is a little hard to get in and out of, and if I go anywhere it has to be for a weekend and generally on the weekends I am lesson planning and I have an adult English class, but from time to time I make up for it during the week and we skip the adult lessons or change the date. So it was nice to see some of the people, especially those who are really far away from me, for example in the southern part of the country or in the far northwestern part, because we have this little thing called the Carpathians separating us :)
Also I received some potentially good news this weekend! I am trying really hard to instill the idea of fundraising in my community. They want to put some asphalt behind the school so that the kids have a soccer/handball court to play on and so that it is just something better than dust to have their phy ed on. So my idea is to have a play at the end of the semester, but not just one big play, but rather several small plays so that everyone in the school can participate. Then the parents and other relatives can come to see the play if they want, and either they can give a donation or we can charge 2 or 3 lei for a ticket. This way I can show them that when a lot of people work together and they give a small amount it really does have the potential to go a long way. So I brought this idea up in my student council, and it did not go so well. We have some money left over from the Halloween party and they said we will just offer that to the mayor and then he can cover the rest. I also should add that we are applying for a SPA grant and in order to be accepted we have to prove that we have 25% of the funds first. This is really hard for me to accept because I feel like I am not doing my job here. Maybe I am being a little stubborn and selfish, but my idea of the Peace Corps purpose is that we are supposed to provide and instill ideas that will continue on after we leave. If we just ask the mayor to cover the rest, and receive the SPA grant, they will have the opportunity to apply for a SPA grant after I leave, because it is something generally found through the Peace Corps. I just want to encourage them that if their community works together they can achieve things, and they don't have to wait for someone to hand things to them, they can go and get it themselves and I think that is more satisfying in the end. I did find someone who agrees with what I want to do, and she happens to be the directors wife. She really seems to like my idea and seems to want to work with me, so we will see what happens. So please keep your fingers crossed, and hopefully I am not posting this prematurely! We shall see and only time will tell and I will let you know how things evolve. So with that I would like to end on a happy not and share with you some of my favorite stories that have happened here at Peace Corps, that I myself have experienced, or have heard through the grapevine.
1.) This actually happened this week at the training. There was a bit of miscommunication over dinner and I ended up missing everybody by a little bit for dinner, so I had nobody to eat with. Not a big deal or anything so I just went to the store and bought some bread and cheese and a few veggies to eat on a park bench. So I found a place to sit, and once I was finished I was going to call some friends and meet them somewhere. However my plan did not work out quite as I planned, because these friends ran into me eating my bread and cheese on a park bench as they say like a homeless woman. Needless to say I was rather embarrassed, but picturing me on that bench I am sure it was a site to see. I endured some ridicule, but it was all in good fun, and just another story to remember here.
2.) My second story is from my very first day at my site. So I arrived at around 8:30 in the morning after a night train, in which I did not sleep well, and I had not slept well the night before either. So I was going on about 8-10 hours of sleep covered over the past 2 or 3 days. My friend Ionut picked me up from the train station and then informed me that we were going to be going on a picnic a little bit later. I thought okay, a picnic in the afternoon I will rest for a little bit then I can handle a few hours outside on a picnic...or so I thought! Well we left early in the afternoon, and 6 hours later we were still there, at one point I actually fell asleep on the grass and woke up with a bunch of cows surrounding me! I laughed to myself because of my exhaustion, but then after about 8 hours on the picnic we went home. So I was introduced to the Romanian concept of a picnic, all in good fun though.
3.) This one has to deal with a case of mis-speaking, and before you assume no it was not me! So we had been in Romania for about 2 or 3 weeks at this time. We still did not know much about anything especially the language, but we all liked to go to the terraces after school and have a beer or two. So one of our volunteers was trying to be nice and let someone else out from the table, but he tripped over a backpack, feel into a fence and broke it! The staff saw this and came over to ask what was happened. So the waiter says to the volunteer in English "What happened?" and our volunteer responds with "Imi pare bine" which means "Nice to meet you" instead of "Imi pare rau" which means I'm sorry. We still do not let him forget about this event and it makes me giggle still!
4.) I have a student who is in the 4th grade, he is ridiculously adorable and sometimes quite the little troublemaker, but I have a hard time being angry with him. A few weeks ago he asked me for a book in English, I told him I would look when I had the time, and see what I could find. About a week later he asked me if I had looked, and I had accidentally forgotten, so I told him, "You know Daniel, I am old and sometimes old people forget things, but I will write it down and I will look for you this week." He accepted that and then when we were walking into the school after our lesson outside, he proceeded to hook his arm around mine as we were walking into the school, so I said "Daniel, what are you doing?" and he responded with "Your old I am helping you." I struggled greatly to hold back the laughs and couldn't help but think, man this is a smart kid. Sometimes these kids just make me smile, and on down days I just need to think of them!
5.) Finally a short one I heard through the grapevine. I have some friends who smoke here and one of my friends shared his story with my about mis-speaking. So we have to words here that for us can be a little bit easier to mix up as we are not native Romanian speakers, tigare - cigarette and tigan - gypsy (but it is not a very nice word). So my friend was buying cigarettes one day and accidentally asked for tigan, while the cashier didn't think it was so funny it made me and him laugh because he had asked to buy a gypsy essentially instead of a pack of cigarettes, oh the things that we say sometimes that are completely wrong, just make me smile!
So those are my 5 fun stories after what I realized is a ridiculously long post, sorry if I have bored you. However, know that I love and miss you all and think of you everyday! I hope you are all doing well and that mother nature is being nice to you and allowing Spring to grace you with her presence! I think of you all everyday and I am sending you all hugs and kisses!
Va iubesc!
Va pup!
Mi-a dor de voi!
~Pana mai tarziu
Sarah B.
So there is not to much to say about the conference, it was a lot of sessions and then afterwards we were able to spend time with one another. Which was really nice because I don't always get to see people from my group. My site is a little hard to get in and out of, and if I go anywhere it has to be for a weekend and generally on the weekends I am lesson planning and I have an adult English class, but from time to time I make up for it during the week and we skip the adult lessons or change the date. So it was nice to see some of the people, especially those who are really far away from me, for example in the southern part of the country or in the far northwestern part, because we have this little thing called the Carpathians separating us :)
Also I received some potentially good news this weekend! I am trying really hard to instill the idea of fundraising in my community. They want to put some asphalt behind the school so that the kids have a soccer/handball court to play on and so that it is just something better than dust to have their phy ed on. So my idea is to have a play at the end of the semester, but not just one big play, but rather several small plays so that everyone in the school can participate. Then the parents and other relatives can come to see the play if they want, and either they can give a donation or we can charge 2 or 3 lei for a ticket. This way I can show them that when a lot of people work together and they give a small amount it really does have the potential to go a long way. So I brought this idea up in my student council, and it did not go so well. We have some money left over from the Halloween party and they said we will just offer that to the mayor and then he can cover the rest. I also should add that we are applying for a SPA grant and in order to be accepted we have to prove that we have 25% of the funds first. This is really hard for me to accept because I feel like I am not doing my job here. Maybe I am being a little stubborn and selfish, but my idea of the Peace Corps purpose is that we are supposed to provide and instill ideas that will continue on after we leave. If we just ask the mayor to cover the rest, and receive the SPA grant, they will have the opportunity to apply for a SPA grant after I leave, because it is something generally found through the Peace Corps. I just want to encourage them that if their community works together they can achieve things, and they don't have to wait for someone to hand things to them, they can go and get it themselves and I think that is more satisfying in the end. I did find someone who agrees with what I want to do, and she happens to be the directors wife. She really seems to like my idea and seems to want to work with me, so we will see what happens. So please keep your fingers crossed, and hopefully I am not posting this prematurely! We shall see and only time will tell and I will let you know how things evolve. So with that I would like to end on a happy not and share with you some of my favorite stories that have happened here at Peace Corps, that I myself have experienced, or have heard through the grapevine.
1.) This actually happened this week at the training. There was a bit of miscommunication over dinner and I ended up missing everybody by a little bit for dinner, so I had nobody to eat with. Not a big deal or anything so I just went to the store and bought some bread and cheese and a few veggies to eat on a park bench. So I found a place to sit, and once I was finished I was going to call some friends and meet them somewhere. However my plan did not work out quite as I planned, because these friends ran into me eating my bread and cheese on a park bench as they say like a homeless woman. Needless to say I was rather embarrassed, but picturing me on that bench I am sure it was a site to see. I endured some ridicule, but it was all in good fun, and just another story to remember here.
2.) My second story is from my very first day at my site. So I arrived at around 8:30 in the morning after a night train, in which I did not sleep well, and I had not slept well the night before either. So I was going on about 8-10 hours of sleep covered over the past 2 or 3 days. My friend Ionut picked me up from the train station and then informed me that we were going to be going on a picnic a little bit later. I thought okay, a picnic in the afternoon I will rest for a little bit then I can handle a few hours outside on a picnic...or so I thought! Well we left early in the afternoon, and 6 hours later we were still there, at one point I actually fell asleep on the grass and woke up with a bunch of cows surrounding me! I laughed to myself because of my exhaustion, but then after about 8 hours on the picnic we went home. So I was introduced to the Romanian concept of a picnic, all in good fun though.
3.) This one has to deal with a case of mis-speaking, and before you assume no it was not me! So we had been in Romania for about 2 or 3 weeks at this time. We still did not know much about anything especially the language, but we all liked to go to the terraces after school and have a beer or two. So one of our volunteers was trying to be nice and let someone else out from the table, but he tripped over a backpack, feel into a fence and broke it! The staff saw this and came over to ask what was happened. So the waiter says to the volunteer in English "What happened?" and our volunteer responds with "Imi pare bine" which means "Nice to meet you" instead of "Imi pare rau" which means I'm sorry. We still do not let him forget about this event and it makes me giggle still!
4.) I have a student who is in the 4th grade, he is ridiculously adorable and sometimes quite the little troublemaker, but I have a hard time being angry with him. A few weeks ago he asked me for a book in English, I told him I would look when I had the time, and see what I could find. About a week later he asked me if I had looked, and I had accidentally forgotten, so I told him, "You know Daniel, I am old and sometimes old people forget things, but I will write it down and I will look for you this week." He accepted that and then when we were walking into the school after our lesson outside, he proceeded to hook his arm around mine as we were walking into the school, so I said "Daniel, what are you doing?" and he responded with "Your old I am helping you." I struggled greatly to hold back the laughs and couldn't help but think, man this is a smart kid. Sometimes these kids just make me smile, and on down days I just need to think of them!
5.) Finally a short one I heard through the grapevine. I have some friends who smoke here and one of my friends shared his story with my about mis-speaking. So we have to words here that for us can be a little bit easier to mix up as we are not native Romanian speakers, tigare - cigarette and tigan - gypsy (but it is not a very nice word). So my friend was buying cigarettes one day and accidentally asked for tigan, while the cashier didn't think it was so funny it made me and him laugh because he had asked to buy a gypsy essentially instead of a pack of cigarettes, oh the things that we say sometimes that are completely wrong, just make me smile!
So those are my 5 fun stories after what I realized is a ridiculously long post, sorry if I have bored you. However, know that I love and miss you all and think of you everyday! I hope you are all doing well and that mother nature is being nice to you and allowing Spring to grace you with her presence! I think of you all everyday and I am sending you all hugs and kisses!
Va iubesc!
Va pup!
Mi-a dor de voi!
~Pana mai tarziu
Sarah B.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Hristos a inviat!! Paste fericit!!!
Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Easter and were able to spend it with family and friends and didn't forget the true meaning of Easter :) My first Easter in Romania was wonderful! Easter is even bigger than Christmas, and like Christmas they have celebrations and traditions that are different and fabulous. To start out there is a mass cleaning, it is basically Spring cleaning. People in Romania clean their houses from top to bottom until they are spotless. Now you have to remember that the houses here are already very clean, but they do a super clean before Easter. I asked why this is so right around Easter and the explanation that I received was that if you greet Easter with a clean house then a nice Easter will ensue. I thought that was really beautiful and interesting.
So to go along with the tradition I decided to clean my apartment. While it wasn't as well cleaned as other places I was pretty proud of myself, and it took my quite some time. As many of you may know, I hate cleaning, I do not like to do it at all! If I am at a place of work I don't mind cleaning because I am getting paid for it, but at home I do not like it at all. So even though my place is still small, it took me about 4 hours to clean, not fun, but the end product was really nice :)
So the festivities begin here before Easter actually. It was raining unfortunately so it wasn't as interesting as it normally is I guess but I still thought that it was really interesting. For one thing they have a sort of bonfire in the fields. There are usually many of them, upwards to 20 or 30 I guess that you can see from the bridge in the center of town. These bonfires are started from tires. Yes you read it right tires, while the smell is not so pleasant and it is dark so you can't see the insane amount of black smoke. The really interesting part, and not so safe I am sure is the spinning of the tires. So some of the guys take a cable and tie it around a tire, then they stick this tire into the fire and wait for it to catch on fire, they usually wait until it is going really good. Then the proceed to drag it outside of the circle of people and spin the cable around their heads so that the flaming tire is flying in a circle around them. It is a super cool thing to see and I was very impressed by it and I am looking forward to seeing it again next year!!!
So then after the bonfires we headed to the church. There is like a midnight mass that happens and it is really quite beautiful. Everyone is gathered with candles in which they receive the light from inside the church, the priest comes out and does the blessing, then everyone proceeds to the cemetery to put their candles by their family plots. The really challenge is getting there without having your candle go out...needless to say I did not make it all the way there with a flame...I tried but it was still interesting to be part of that cultural experience and very beautiful as well.
So that brought us to Easter Sunday. I have to admit it was a little odd not to be getting up at 5 AM and heading to the Sunrise service at my church and seeing my Dad and sometimes brother off to help with the Easter breakfast and then going to the school gym to enjoy a nice breakfast with family and friends of my congregation but I had a nice substitute. I did not go to any church services as they were all held the night before, and I could not make it up that late. Some people stay up until around 4 in the morning...and I just could not do that. I went over to a family's house that I greatly enjoy spending time with and we had a lovely dinner along with Tory, the former volunteer that was here before me. We had lamb, sarmale, salata beof, beets with horseraddish, garlic, eggs, mamaliga, I tried racitor and delicious deserts along with wine, coffee, and of course tuica! So this racitor that I mentioned is something that I am not a fan of in the least but it is a traditional dish here especially for holidays. What it consists of is basically meat in a gelatin and I tried it and hated it the texture was terrible and it was extremely salty and I could not handle it. Fortunately since Tory was here before me there was not to much hope that I would like it because it is not a dish that Americans generally like because it is so different than anything that we have in the states. The salat beof is actually quite delicious though, it consists of mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard and garlic all combined together and it is very tasty! Also I had lamb for the first time, and it is yummy! I was a fan, it is sad that it has to be a little baby that we are consuming, but it may be even more sad that it is so tasty...not sure but I enjoyed it, especially with the garlic.
So they also have a game with the Easter eggs. You have to knock the Easter Eggs together and whoever has the uncracked egg wins and it is supposed to be good luck...sort of like the wishbone that we have. It was interesting and I won one side and lost the other side. I am hoping to win more next year! We shall see what happens!
So then I decided to go see some friends in Suceava yesterday, which was really nice and I actually witnessed another really interesting Easter tradition which is the bringing of the food to the cemetery the day after Easter. What it basically was, was that people would bring a picnic lunch to the cemetery and eat it there and I think that they may also leave some food there for the individuals that have passed. It is part of the Orthodox tradition and I wish I could have went into the cemetery to see it, but I was on a bus. It was very interesting to see the scores of people that were in the cemetery and all of the cars, it almost looked like it could have a been a funeral, but there were people at just about every plot, as a part of the Easter tradition.
So that brings me to the close of my first Easter in Romania. I may be a little bit late on my next post as well, as I am not sure how exciting this week is going to be as I am on vacation and I will be going out of town next week as well to a conference in Sibiu, a very beautiful and historical city in Romania. So it may be a bit, but don't worry I will post!! :)
I hope you all are doing well and that the Lord brought you a pleasant Easter and you were reminded of all the good things that are in your life. I am thankful everyday for all the blessings that I have, but more than anything I am thankful for the wonderful people that I have been blessed with (hint this is especially for you reading this blog!) I have so many wonderful friends and family and I am thankful for you each and everyday! I hope that Spring is coming to you as well, and that the sun is shining more and bringing pleasant weather. Take care and remember to smile today!! :)
Va pup
Va iubesc
Mi-a dor de voi!
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
So to go along with the tradition I decided to clean my apartment. While it wasn't as well cleaned as other places I was pretty proud of myself, and it took my quite some time. As many of you may know, I hate cleaning, I do not like to do it at all! If I am at a place of work I don't mind cleaning because I am getting paid for it, but at home I do not like it at all. So even though my place is still small, it took me about 4 hours to clean, not fun, but the end product was really nice :)
So the festivities begin here before Easter actually. It was raining unfortunately so it wasn't as interesting as it normally is I guess but I still thought that it was really interesting. For one thing they have a sort of bonfire in the fields. There are usually many of them, upwards to 20 or 30 I guess that you can see from the bridge in the center of town. These bonfires are started from tires. Yes you read it right tires, while the smell is not so pleasant and it is dark so you can't see the insane amount of black smoke. The really interesting part, and not so safe I am sure is the spinning of the tires. So some of the guys take a cable and tie it around a tire, then they stick this tire into the fire and wait for it to catch on fire, they usually wait until it is going really good. Then the proceed to drag it outside of the circle of people and spin the cable around their heads so that the flaming tire is flying in a circle around them. It is a super cool thing to see and I was very impressed by it and I am looking forward to seeing it again next year!!!
So then after the bonfires we headed to the church. There is like a midnight mass that happens and it is really quite beautiful. Everyone is gathered with candles in which they receive the light from inside the church, the priest comes out and does the blessing, then everyone proceeds to the cemetery to put their candles by their family plots. The really challenge is getting there without having your candle go out...needless to say I did not make it all the way there with a flame...I tried but it was still interesting to be part of that cultural experience and very beautiful as well.
So that brought us to Easter Sunday. I have to admit it was a little odd not to be getting up at 5 AM and heading to the Sunrise service at my church and seeing my Dad and sometimes brother off to help with the Easter breakfast and then going to the school gym to enjoy a nice breakfast with family and friends of my congregation but I had a nice substitute. I did not go to any church services as they were all held the night before, and I could not make it up that late. Some people stay up until around 4 in the morning...and I just could not do that. I went over to a family's house that I greatly enjoy spending time with and we had a lovely dinner along with Tory, the former volunteer that was here before me. We had lamb, sarmale, salata beof, beets with horseraddish, garlic, eggs, mamaliga, I tried racitor and delicious deserts along with wine, coffee, and of course tuica! So this racitor that I mentioned is something that I am not a fan of in the least but it is a traditional dish here especially for holidays. What it consists of is basically meat in a gelatin and I tried it and hated it the texture was terrible and it was extremely salty and I could not handle it. Fortunately since Tory was here before me there was not to much hope that I would like it because it is not a dish that Americans generally like because it is so different than anything that we have in the states. The salat beof is actually quite delicious though, it consists of mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard and garlic all combined together and it is very tasty! Also I had lamb for the first time, and it is yummy! I was a fan, it is sad that it has to be a little baby that we are consuming, but it may be even more sad that it is so tasty...not sure but I enjoyed it, especially with the garlic.
So they also have a game with the Easter eggs. You have to knock the Easter Eggs together and whoever has the uncracked egg wins and it is supposed to be good luck...sort of like the wishbone that we have. It was interesting and I won one side and lost the other side. I am hoping to win more next year! We shall see what happens!
So then I decided to go see some friends in Suceava yesterday, which was really nice and I actually witnessed another really interesting Easter tradition which is the bringing of the food to the cemetery the day after Easter. What it basically was, was that people would bring a picnic lunch to the cemetery and eat it there and I think that they may also leave some food there for the individuals that have passed. It is part of the Orthodox tradition and I wish I could have went into the cemetery to see it, but I was on a bus. It was very interesting to see the scores of people that were in the cemetery and all of the cars, it almost looked like it could have a been a funeral, but there were people at just about every plot, as a part of the Easter tradition.
So that brings me to the close of my first Easter in Romania. I may be a little bit late on my next post as well, as I am not sure how exciting this week is going to be as I am on vacation and I will be going out of town next week as well to a conference in Sibiu, a very beautiful and historical city in Romania. So it may be a bit, but don't worry I will post!! :)
I hope you all are doing well and that the Lord brought you a pleasant Easter and you were reminded of all the good things that are in your life. I am thankful everyday for all the blessings that I have, but more than anything I am thankful for the wonderful people that I have been blessed with (hint this is especially for you reading this blog!) I have so many wonderful friends and family and I am thankful for you each and everyday! I hope that Spring is coming to you as well, and that the sun is shining more and bringing pleasant weather. Take care and remember to smile today!! :)
Va pup
Va iubesc
Mi-a dor de voi!
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Spring is Here!!
So spring has finally sprung, the snow is gone, the winds are here and it is raining! It was not the thunderstorm that I was hoping for, but rain is rain, now maybe there won't be as much dust outside!
The wind has been absolutely crazy here. I think that if I went outside with an umbrella yesterday I would have been able to fly just like Mary Poppins! I tried to go for a walk yesterday, my goal has been to do about 2 miles a day and this goal is very attainable. There is a road that I enjoy walking down because there are not a lot of houses which leads to less people staring at me as I am walking down the side of the road, as exercise is a fairly foreign subject here. I was fine when I was in town, but as soon as I left town and entered the country side, there was no more protection from the wind. I felt as if I looked like a mime who is pretending to move a very heavy object, except I was not pretending! I was attempting to walk into I would say about 30 mph winds and it wasn't working so well. So yesterday the stat was Weather - 1, Sarah - 0. So I tried again today, the wind had died down, and it was a little overcast, but I wanted to go before the rain came. While I was on my walk the rain decided to come, I got a little bit further than yesterday, but again the stat stands at Weather - 2, Sarah - 0. I am hoping to beat it tomorrow when I try again! Oh the weather will not deter me, I want to enjoy the outside now that it is not freezing cold!
So other than the change in weather there is not to much going on this week. I had a rather unpleasant Monday with one class, but I am hoping that turns around this week. We shall see when I let them know what the consequences of their actions are. I hope that will encourage them to behave better...for some it may do nothing, but for others it may work. If I can influence one child to choose a better path, that is a success in my eyes. I just have to remember that when all the other ones are driving me crazy! ;)
This week my dear darling brother celebrated his birthday, now I have to wait another 300 and some days to remind him that he is temporarily not older than me. Oh the fun times I have with that! If you are reading this big bro, I hope you had a great birthday and I will be home to celebrate with you in 2012! Sorry I missed the big 25, but I will be home for 27 and for the later ones, and after 30 it is all downhill anyway so I will be there to witness that spectacular event ;) Just kidding I know you will be awesome for another 50 some years!
Also my Mom and Dad will be celebrating their anniversary this week! They have been married for 26 years! Yay Mom and Dad! Sorry no party this year Mom and Dad, I think after the money spent on last year's party and present and the fact that I am half way across the world will put a stop to that! Just think though maybe you will get another awesome party for your 30th anniversary! Just stay married for another 4 years! :) Just kidding again, I admire my parents so much, they have had such a great marriage (in my opinion and I hope in theirs too!! ;) They raised me and my brother in a great environment and always showed us a great example of love, communication and family importance. Mom and Dad you made me and Fred who we are today and I thank you for that! You rock!! As you can see March is a busy busy month for our family, but I wouldn't have it any other way!!
Well I know that is a short entry...but that is about all I have for today. I have to try to change my sleeping schedule because daylights savings time just hit us! So now my body is a little off, but I am sure I will recover just like we all do every year when the clocks change!! :) I hope that Spring is finding you all well and that flowers and trees are starting to bloom and decorate the landscape that is emerging after a long cold winter. I also hope that the Easter Bunny treats you well, but also while you are enjoying your sweets, ham dinners, and hard-boiled eggs that we do not forget the true meaning of Easter and why we are celebrating it. We are truly blessed everyday and I know I am thankful for every blessing that you all have and the ones that I have as well!
I love and miss you all and hope that your week is full of sunshine and the beautiful melodies of the songbirds. Enjoy your week and I hope the weather is nice enough to permit you to go outside and enjoy Mother Natures miracles!
Voi iubesc
Mi-a dor de voi
Va pup
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
The wind has been absolutely crazy here. I think that if I went outside with an umbrella yesterday I would have been able to fly just like Mary Poppins! I tried to go for a walk yesterday, my goal has been to do about 2 miles a day and this goal is very attainable. There is a road that I enjoy walking down because there are not a lot of houses which leads to less people staring at me as I am walking down the side of the road, as exercise is a fairly foreign subject here. I was fine when I was in town, but as soon as I left town and entered the country side, there was no more protection from the wind. I felt as if I looked like a mime who is pretending to move a very heavy object, except I was not pretending! I was attempting to walk into I would say about 30 mph winds and it wasn't working so well. So yesterday the stat was Weather - 1, Sarah - 0. So I tried again today, the wind had died down, and it was a little overcast, but I wanted to go before the rain came. While I was on my walk the rain decided to come, I got a little bit further than yesterday, but again the stat stands at Weather - 2, Sarah - 0. I am hoping to beat it tomorrow when I try again! Oh the weather will not deter me, I want to enjoy the outside now that it is not freezing cold!
So other than the change in weather there is not to much going on this week. I had a rather unpleasant Monday with one class, but I am hoping that turns around this week. We shall see when I let them know what the consequences of their actions are. I hope that will encourage them to behave better...for some it may do nothing, but for others it may work. If I can influence one child to choose a better path, that is a success in my eyes. I just have to remember that when all the other ones are driving me crazy! ;)
This week my dear darling brother celebrated his birthday, now I have to wait another 300 and some days to remind him that he is temporarily not older than me. Oh the fun times I have with that! If you are reading this big bro, I hope you had a great birthday and I will be home to celebrate with you in 2012! Sorry I missed the big 25, but I will be home for 27 and for the later ones, and after 30 it is all downhill anyway so I will be there to witness that spectacular event ;) Just kidding I know you will be awesome for another 50 some years!
Also my Mom and Dad will be celebrating their anniversary this week! They have been married for 26 years! Yay Mom and Dad! Sorry no party this year Mom and Dad, I think after the money spent on last year's party and present and the fact that I am half way across the world will put a stop to that! Just think though maybe you will get another awesome party for your 30th anniversary! Just stay married for another 4 years! :) Just kidding again, I admire my parents so much, they have had such a great marriage (in my opinion and I hope in theirs too!! ;) They raised me and my brother in a great environment and always showed us a great example of love, communication and family importance. Mom and Dad you made me and Fred who we are today and I thank you for that! You rock!! As you can see March is a busy busy month for our family, but I wouldn't have it any other way!!
Well I know that is a short entry...but that is about all I have for today. I have to try to change my sleeping schedule because daylights savings time just hit us! So now my body is a little off, but I am sure I will recover just like we all do every year when the clocks change!! :) I hope that Spring is finding you all well and that flowers and trees are starting to bloom and decorate the landscape that is emerging after a long cold winter. I also hope that the Easter Bunny treats you well, but also while you are enjoying your sweets, ham dinners, and hard-boiled eggs that we do not forget the true meaning of Easter and why we are celebrating it. We are truly blessed everyday and I know I am thankful for every blessing that you all have and the ones that I have as well!
I love and miss you all and hope that your week is full of sunshine and the beautiful melodies of the songbirds. Enjoy your week and I hope the weather is nice enough to permit you to go outside and enjoy Mother Natures miracles!
Voi iubesc
Mi-a dor de voi
Va pup
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Happy Birthday to me!!
So this week was a little more interesting than the last, I have been feeling better and now I am another year older and also until Tuesday my brother Fred and I are the same age! So for 2 more days he cannot claim that he is older than me! Woohoo! I am an equal :) I used to pick on Fred so much when we were younger during these 5 days, because I would not let him claim that he was older than me, because we were the same age! I also loved the story mom used to tell us, I guess that Fred (or me) not really sure which, used to ask why we were the same age, so mom would tell us "Well, Sarah is a new 5, and Fred, you are an old 5 and soon you will be a new 6." I think that is just adorable, and that makes me realize how I have such a smart mama!
So the beginning of this week was pretty normal, and pretty slow. I stole one of my friends techniques for discipline in the classroom and we will see if it works. My students were being really loud so I made them write sentences over and over again until the end of the hour. They did not like it to much, but I hope that encourages them to quiet down...I don't know we shall see.
So most of my week started from Wednesday on. I had a bunch of St. Patrick's Day lesson plans, all of which worked really well. My students had to write how they would catch a leprechaun and what their wishes would be as well as what they would do with the pot of gold. I was really impressed with their creativity! One group said they would have a girl leprechaun who would lure him into the pub and then they would catch him, another group said they would invite him over for a dinner and then put sleeping pills in his food and once he was asleep they would tie him up. It made me laugh so hard. I was really impressed with their answers for the use of the gold however, I think that 5 out of the 6 groups said that they would donate their gold to orphans, which I thought was really sweet of them! So then after that I went home and baked my goodies for the next day. I decided on Apple Crisp and Brownies. In addition to this I also had ice cream to go with both of the goodies because brownies and apple crisp are always better with ice cream!
That brings me to Thursday, the best day of the year, because that was the day that 24 years ago I was brought into this world! It was actually a really great birthday. I wasn't sure how it was going to be, but it was just a perfect first birthday in Romania. My day started off (and remained) great, I came to school a little bit early so I could make sure that I had everything that I needed for my treat for the day and was able to talk to the teachers for a little bit before class. Then I had to go up to my first class, by myself, which is normal because it is difficult for my counterpart to get there right on time due to transportation. I saw one of my kids in the hall and he went sprinting into the classroom, which isn't abnormal, so I didn't think anything of it. When I got into the classroom however, I knew that something was up because there was only one student in there, and I could not see anymore of my kids, even though I knew that I had seen one of them go running in there. As I went further into the room I could see them behind the desk, and then they all popped up and sang Happy Birthday to me. I think it was the cutest thing I had ever seen and I was impressed that they had remembered that it was my birthday as they were only 4th graders and I had only mentioned it once to them last week. So the day continued on and then the teachers decided that they needed to buy me a present so they got me this really nice red purse, and as many of you know, I love purses! So that was also a really nice surprise. Then I went out to a family's house, someone that I really like to visit a lot and they made a really nice dinner for me and a cake and they had a candle for me and sang to me as well it was really nice. After that I went to Botosani to hang out with my counterpart and we had a few drinks and just hung out for a while. It was a really nice birthday :)
So then that brings me to the weekend, where I was a traveling :) I went to Bacau which is a city in Romania that is about 3-4 hours south of where I am. I went to visit another volunteer there because she is going to be leaving in about 4 weeks because here 2 years will be done with. So I raided her apartment for things that she is not going to be taking with her and also was able to spend some time with some friendly volunteer faces again. We had a great dinner of Tacos and then on Saturday I got another cake, a carrot cake and was sung to again. It was so nice and it was a delicious cake with homemade cream cheese frosting, which as we all know is just downright delicious! So we just hung out and had a good time, had a few drinks, made some good food, went dancing, went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D, and enjoyed the beautiful weather of the weekend. It was really nice and the traveling was really easy to, the bus back was a little tricky to catch as it was late and went to a different line at the station, but I made it on and made it back in time to get my lesson planning done, do some organizing, update my blog and talk to my dear brother for a while. So all in all the week was really nice, and now I am looking forward to closing up this blog and relaxing for a while :) I hope everyone is doing well and that Spring is peeking its head out for you as well. I also hope that Spring will decide to emerge and the nice weather will stay for good! I don't know about all of you but I am done with the cold weather and am ready to move onto sunshine and enjoying the outside! I love and miss you all and wish all the best for you in everything that you do!
Va iubesc
Va pup
Mi-a dor de voi!
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
So the beginning of this week was pretty normal, and pretty slow. I stole one of my friends techniques for discipline in the classroom and we will see if it works. My students were being really loud so I made them write sentences over and over again until the end of the hour. They did not like it to much, but I hope that encourages them to quiet down...I don't know we shall see.
So most of my week started from Wednesday on. I had a bunch of St. Patrick's Day lesson plans, all of which worked really well. My students had to write how they would catch a leprechaun and what their wishes would be as well as what they would do with the pot of gold. I was really impressed with their creativity! One group said they would have a girl leprechaun who would lure him into the pub and then they would catch him, another group said they would invite him over for a dinner and then put sleeping pills in his food and once he was asleep they would tie him up. It made me laugh so hard. I was really impressed with their answers for the use of the gold however, I think that 5 out of the 6 groups said that they would donate their gold to orphans, which I thought was really sweet of them! So then after that I went home and baked my goodies for the next day. I decided on Apple Crisp and Brownies. In addition to this I also had ice cream to go with both of the goodies because brownies and apple crisp are always better with ice cream!
That brings me to Thursday, the best day of the year, because that was the day that 24 years ago I was brought into this world! It was actually a really great birthday. I wasn't sure how it was going to be, but it was just a perfect first birthday in Romania. My day started off (and remained) great, I came to school a little bit early so I could make sure that I had everything that I needed for my treat for the day and was able to talk to the teachers for a little bit before class. Then I had to go up to my first class, by myself, which is normal because it is difficult for my counterpart to get there right on time due to transportation. I saw one of my kids in the hall and he went sprinting into the classroom, which isn't abnormal, so I didn't think anything of it. When I got into the classroom however, I knew that something was up because there was only one student in there, and I could not see anymore of my kids, even though I knew that I had seen one of them go running in there. As I went further into the room I could see them behind the desk, and then they all popped up and sang Happy Birthday to me. I think it was the cutest thing I had ever seen and I was impressed that they had remembered that it was my birthday as they were only 4th graders and I had only mentioned it once to them last week. So the day continued on and then the teachers decided that they needed to buy me a present so they got me this really nice red purse, and as many of you know, I love purses! So that was also a really nice surprise. Then I went out to a family's house, someone that I really like to visit a lot and they made a really nice dinner for me and a cake and they had a candle for me and sang to me as well it was really nice. After that I went to Botosani to hang out with my counterpart and we had a few drinks and just hung out for a while. It was a really nice birthday :)
So then that brings me to the weekend, where I was a traveling :) I went to Bacau which is a city in Romania that is about 3-4 hours south of where I am. I went to visit another volunteer there because she is going to be leaving in about 4 weeks because here 2 years will be done with. So I raided her apartment for things that she is not going to be taking with her and also was able to spend some time with some friendly volunteer faces again. We had a great dinner of Tacos and then on Saturday I got another cake, a carrot cake and was sung to again. It was so nice and it was a delicious cake with homemade cream cheese frosting, which as we all know is just downright delicious! So we just hung out and had a good time, had a few drinks, made some good food, went dancing, went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D, and enjoyed the beautiful weather of the weekend. It was really nice and the traveling was really easy to, the bus back was a little tricky to catch as it was late and went to a different line at the station, but I made it on and made it back in time to get my lesson planning done, do some organizing, update my blog and talk to my dear brother for a while. So all in all the week was really nice, and now I am looking forward to closing up this blog and relaxing for a while :) I hope everyone is doing well and that Spring is peeking its head out for you as well. I also hope that Spring will decide to emerge and the nice weather will stay for good! I don't know about all of you but I am done with the cold weather and am ready to move onto sunshine and enjoying the outside! I love and miss you all and wish all the best for you in everything that you do!
Va iubesc
Va pup
Mi-a dor de voi!
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
What a week
So I am pretty sure this post is going to be pretty dull. Sorry if the title is misleading! :) I did not do a whole lot this week as I had a doozie of a cold. I had not felt that under the weather in quite some time! I even stayed home from school one day, but could only stay home one day because my counterpart also had a rough week in which she had a funeral to attend so someone had to be at school. My worst day was Wednesday I think, and that was when I had to go to school. I could not stand up without feeling dizzy so I actually had my 8th graders do all the writing for me. They thought that it was amusing and I just dictated from the chair what they were to write :) I was thankful that I was with my group 1 kids that day, because that made it possible for me to stay seated and they would do as I said and help me out.
I am slowly starting to feel better, which is a relief. I have more energy and I am hoping that I can start going on my daily walks again soon. The weather became cold again so that prevented it, and then I came down with this nasty cold and that further prevented it, but I think that if I can get back into the swing of things and get some daily exercise that will help.
I wish I had some funny stories to tell this week, but unfortunately I have none. Oh wait I do have one. I was listening to NPR's "Wait, Wait, don't tell me" (which is a hilarious show!) and I was surprised to hear Romania's name on it! Of course it was for something silly, which I just loved because Romania has a very interesting personality (for me as an outsider at least). So apparently there was a mayor in a small town near the Hungarian border who noticed a problem and decided to put up street signs to help control the problem. "What are on these street signs?" you may ask, well they consist of a man on his hands and knees caring a bottle with the words "Attention drunks". Apparently there has been several accidents in which drunk individuals crawl out into the road and pass out there, or walk out in front of oncoming traffic, and it has resulted in many problems. Since there is not much that they could do about the incoherent pedestrian population, they decided to address the driving population. The sign is hilarious, and I do hope that it helps the problem! :)
Other than that not too much to report here. I am looking forward to being another year older this week...it sure did come fast! I will be making some goodies for my fellow teachers at school and I am hopeful that they will enjoy them! :) I don't have a whole lot planned for my birthday, as it is in the middle of the week, but I will go visit a family here that I greatly enjoy spending time with and then over the weekend I am going to visit another volunteer and we will hang out and have some fun :)
This week I will also be talking to my director about a project that I would like to begin. I am hopeful that he will like it and if he does then I will tell you more about it, but I don't want to jinx it before it even gets started. That is about all for this week I think. I hope everyone is doing well, and that the weather is looking nicer by you and the robins are starting to appear and stay while the snow is melting. I miss you all like crazy and think of you everyday! I hope that your wallet's are being kind to you, and that the grace of God is with you each and every day. I love you all!!!
Va iubesc!
Va pup!
Mi-a dor de voi!
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
I am slowly starting to feel better, which is a relief. I have more energy and I am hoping that I can start going on my daily walks again soon. The weather became cold again so that prevented it, and then I came down with this nasty cold and that further prevented it, but I think that if I can get back into the swing of things and get some daily exercise that will help.
I wish I had some funny stories to tell this week, but unfortunately I have none. Oh wait I do have one. I was listening to NPR's "Wait, Wait, don't tell me" (which is a hilarious show!) and I was surprised to hear Romania's name on it! Of course it was for something silly, which I just loved because Romania has a very interesting personality (for me as an outsider at least). So apparently there was a mayor in a small town near the Hungarian border who noticed a problem and decided to put up street signs to help control the problem. "What are on these street signs?" you may ask, well they consist of a man on his hands and knees caring a bottle with the words "Attention drunks". Apparently there has been several accidents in which drunk individuals crawl out into the road and pass out there, or walk out in front of oncoming traffic, and it has resulted in many problems. Since there is not much that they could do about the incoherent pedestrian population, they decided to address the driving population. The sign is hilarious, and I do hope that it helps the problem! :)
Other than that not too much to report here. I am looking forward to being another year older this week...it sure did come fast! I will be making some goodies for my fellow teachers at school and I am hopeful that they will enjoy them! :) I don't have a whole lot planned for my birthday, as it is in the middle of the week, but I will go visit a family here that I greatly enjoy spending time with and then over the weekend I am going to visit another volunteer and we will hang out and have some fun :)
This week I will also be talking to my director about a project that I would like to begin. I am hopeful that he will like it and if he does then I will tell you more about it, but I don't want to jinx it before it even gets started. That is about all for this week I think. I hope everyone is doing well, and that the weather is looking nicer by you and the robins are starting to appear and stay while the snow is melting. I miss you all like crazy and think of you everyday! I hope that your wallet's are being kind to you, and that the grace of God is with you each and every day. I love you all!!!
Va iubesc!
Va pup!
Mi-a dor de voi!
Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
