Monday, June 21, 2010

My First Teaching Experience

My morning began with my gazda mom asking me why I don't wear tight dresses. I had no answer for this.

This week I'm teaching a class of 5th graders with two of my friends, Sara and Freya. The school morning started with about 60 students and their concerned parents swarming into our classroom. We only had 30 desks and chairs so we had to send half the students home.

After the ruckus settled down, we were able to have a successful intro day. We spent the day doing activities to gauge the students' language levels.

I didn't know what to expect going into my first experience teaching young children. I enjoyed myself much more than I thought I was going to. The children were adorable and so curious and willing to learn. Even the students that did not have many language skills seemed to enjoy the activities. I hope the remainder of the week goes as smoothly.

Over dinner, my gazda mom and I had an hour long conversation (in Romanian mind you) about whether I will get married in Romania in the next two years. Then she proceeded to tell me that I need to marry a man who is clever and intelligent. When I suggested funny, she said no, a man who is serious. I'm not sure if that was a translation problem or a cultural difference. Now I think that maybe she was giving me a hint about my dresses this morning.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Călătorie: Getting Out of Our City

Until now we have not been permitted to leave the county. This weekend each language class went on an Integrated Field Visit to the sites of current volunteers to gain a better understanding of what we should expect during our two years of service. My group and another language class went to a small mining town in the mountains of southern Transylvania.


My class took a “tren accelerat” to Bucureşti and walked around a gorgeous park with a giant outcropping of rock and beautiful gardens. We even picked some fruit from a Mulberry tree! We also got to see the Peoples’ Palace, built by Ceauşescu in 1983. This inspired another “I can’t believe I’m sitting on a lawn in Europe” moment.


We met up with the other language class to take a maxi-taxi to our destination. After fighting a lady for seats on the maxi-taxi, we rode about 60 kilometers out of Bucureşti before the maxi-taxi broke down. After waiting for a bus, switching to another maxi-taxi, playing rounds of 20 questions and weaving through a steep gorge, we arrived around 10:30 and were greeted by Joel, Andrew and some of their Romanian friends.


On Sunday, we went for a hike to a cabin in the mountains near the town. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten so many insect bites in my life! The scenery was beautiful though and we had a fabulous time. At the cabin we got to meet some of Joel and Andres’s co-workers and community mentors. Everyone was extremely friendly and hospitable. They prepared what can only be called a feast for us with, as you can imagine, multiple types of meat, salad and bread. The highlight was pig back fat (slănină) which I tried, but I must say that I probably will not eat it again. We spent the entire day playing Frisbee and talking and learning from these amazing people. We also got to practice our Romanian!

Joel’s community mentor, Ledi, was the most memorable person I met this weekend. She has been extremely sick these past two years but she has still helped Joel integrate into the community; he is truly a part of her family. She is a very funny and loving woman who especially loves to give hugs and gain promises from us that we will return. Joel said that he eats dinner with her and her family at least once a week. One of my main goals during my service is to forge relationships like that with members of my community.

We got to visit Joel’s school on Monday. We met a few of his more skilled 7th and 8th grade students and walked around the town with some of them. We saw the coal mine where the majority of people in the town work. After communism fell, unemployment rose to almost 70% because so many people were employed by the mines. The students were extremely well-spoken, intelligent and genuinely interested in speaking to native English-speakers. Monday evening we had dinner with Andrew, his community mentor, Ernest, and Ledi. It was exciting to hear stories and learn more about Romanian culture. It was a wonderful experience to see how well Joel and Andrew have become part of their communities and successful volunteers.


Tuesday, we spent the entire day travelling. Our bus left late because the valley was closed and then it was slow and overcrowded, but that is just par for the course with Romanian transportation. Our bus got into Bucureşti late and we had to run through a downpour to make the last maxi-taxi of the day. We arrived home around 10:30 thoroughly exhausted.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Universal Language

I spent most of today studying Romanian. When I stop to think about it, the creation and spread of different languages is an extremely interesting phenomenon. The ability to communicate with a vast vocabulary and complex sentence structure is something uniquely human. Two people look at an object or contemplate a concept and think of a word that was assigned to that object or concept thousands of years ago.

It is also amazing how much we can communicate with very little shared communication. My gazda and I can have relatively complex and intelligent conversations using my broken Romanian and their smattering of English words. Though trying to explain concepts of early American history in Romanian to a Romanian is not really something a beginner in the language should attempt.

In the two weeks I’ve lived with my gazda I’ve also come to greatly appreciate the universal language of music. Most of the music they listen to in Romania is the western based popular artists that we know in the US – they really love Rihanna and Lady Gaga. Even most Romanian music artists sing in English – though I’m not sure if they know the language or not. I’ve been enjoying getting to know some Romanian artists and their songs as well as some Romanian “Popular” (traditional) music.