This and That

I have finished my second week of school and while I haven't actually taught classes yet I have made a little progress. My school still hasn't finished creating the school schedule, so I don't yet know what my typical week will be like during the year. However, I am happy to report that today I finally got the keys to my classroom. I will need to rearrange the room so students' desk are facing the board and I want to decorate. I am very lucky about the size of the room. It is much bigger than the room I first had and it has a fair amount of windows. When I get it set-up I will take more photos.

Thus far, I only have class lists for three of the nine classes that I will teach. I am hoping that on Monday I will get the remaining ones.

This week I have been adjusting to some of the differences in Romanian and American classes. For example, here teachers answer their cell phones while in the middle of teaching. This happened in at least 5 classes I was observing. Some of it has been unusual, like when a teacher's mother called about an errand to run. Yet, at the same time I understand while teachers have to have their phones on. Our classroom buildings do not have phone lines so if the office needs to contact teachers during class they have to call them or walk across campus to the classroom.

Random note: This week my counterpart told her form class that it is rude to call people between 2-4 in the afternoon because you don't know if they may be napping or not. I think a couple students had called to try to get the schedule for the next day. However, this led me to wonder, does Romania have a siesta time I am unaware of? Further observation must be done!