Chapter 16, in Which I Discover My Future

Last Wednesday was site announcement day. This was the day when we were told where we would be going for the next two years and what school level we would be teaching. Sufficed to say, the whole group was stressed and anxious to learn where their home would be.

While Romania is only the size of Oregon, it has quite a diverse landscape and culture (and to some extent language, a few people in our group will have to learn Hungarian in addition to language, as that is the primary language in their community). Many people were hoping for mountains while others dreamed of being on the Black Sea or in the Danube Delta.

We also had the American Ambassador to Romania in attendance so there was added pressure on the event. We were lucky to have nice weather so the ceremony was held in the garden of our school.

While I can not post the exact location of my site on my blog (you can e-mail me if you are interested); I can tell you some details. I will be teaching high school at a technical school in a town of about 60,000 in the eastern part of Romania. The school has about 1,500 students in it. I will be in the center of the region of Moldavia which is the poorest region of Romania. My town is a formal industrial center and according to the information I have received has been extremely hard hit by the economic downturn.

Over the weekend I will be meeting my counterpart who will be my main contact at the school for the next two years. Then next week we will travel to my site so I can check it out with my own two eyes.