Checking Things Off My Romanian Bucket List

A while ago my dear friend Saskia asked me if I had done everything on my Romanian bucket list.  We chatted about what I had and had not done in Romania and she asked if I had been to a sheepfold.  I said no.  She said, "Don't you know any shepherds?" 

After I explained that I don't know any shepherds and haven't seen any sheep around my block she realized it was a bit of a ridiculous question, especially as I don't have a car to get out to any sheepfolds.  Thus today we set out in her car to mark this off the list.  

I was an awesome afternoon, full of animal goodness!  We visited shepherds tending to 100 goats and 350 sheep, not to mention 15 baby pigs and a giant mama pig, plus 2 litters of puppies.  I got to try my hand at shearing a sheep and milking a goat, although the verdict was that I don't have a future in either. The highlight of my afternoon was cuddling a 2 day old goat.

Shearing sheep

Learning to shear

Saskia and the adorable baby goat

Sheep being rounded up to be milked

headed to the fold

Ready for milking

Milking station

milking time

Trying to learn to milk

fresh goat milk!

piggies

The Beginning of Goodbye

Today I am finally admitting that the massive allergies I've had lately have just devolved into a cold.  I am stating my apologies in advance if I am not the most coherent as my head is a bit cloudy.  However, as I have just three weeks left in Peace Corps, I feel that I should blog as much as I can while I am still here. 

In English class I discovered that three of the mothers in my Monday class are also sick so something must be going around.  I detest starting summer out with a cold, but it seems that I have no choice.  After having lots of rainy and cold days it's finally turned hot and each day seems to be getting steadily hotter.  Over the weekend temps were in the low 90's. It feels wrong to be sitting in my apartment sipping tea, but I am hoping if I lay low I will recover faster!

Doamna Horonica calls roll for 12D for the last time

Last Friday was the last official day of school for the 12th graders.  This week they start their Baccalaureate exams.  Friday morning, my school had a promotion ceremony, closing four years of classes for the form teachers with their classes.  It's quite a sweet ceremony. Awards are given to top students and each form teacher gives a short speech and then calls attendance from their catalog for the last time.  One teacher couldn't even make it through her whole class list, she got so emotional.   After all the attendance is called, the president of the 12th grade hands the key of the school over to the 11th grade class president.  All the students are then wished lots of luck on their exams and  everyone drinks a glass champagne.

The interesting thing is that I only saw a handful of parents at this event (this is the closest thing to graduation in Romanian high schools).  While this event is on a work day morning, to me, this emphasizes the strong bond between form teachers and their classes.  It was sweet to see form teachers have this moment with their classes.  This also got me thinking about the closing of my time in Romania.  I have already said goodbye to 2/3 of my classes and while I have not been emotional at all, I imagine on my final day I might be.

The interesting thing about my role here is that I have such a tiny amount of interaction with my students each week.  To them, I am just someone they see one hour a week, one of eighteen different teachers they have.  However for me, my students have been my world for two years.  They have consumed my thoughts and been the cause of great joy, overwhelming sadness and frustration.  In the end, I wish I could have had more time with them and that I felt like a made a difference to them.

Trying to Complete the Cirle

As I mentioned in previous posts, I am coming to the end of the school year.  It feels odd to be winding down the school year with still a month left of service.  Next week my remaining classes will be taking tests so I won't be meeting with them.  I will have one final week with my 10th graders the following week and then I'll be done.  I am trying to make each day count and do a few new things with my students.  

A few weeks ago I assigned a project to one of my 10th grade classes.  I still needed to check their reading and speaking skills before giving them their final grades and I decided to try to be creative about the manner in which I would do this.  Over the course of my time here I have collected quite a few postcards to surround the United States map in my classroom (thank you to Mom and Dad, Aunt Ginny, Simone, Elizabeth, Vicki, Ona and everyone else for sending them). I let all my students choose one of those postcards and then asked them to prepare posters to present to the class about the subject of their postcard.

The class did a great job sharing a little bit about the US cities and states on their cards.  My favorite was the Chicago poster with drawings of hot dogs and deep-dish pizza on it.

So my classroom is now adorned with some lovely posters that I can enjoy for at least another week, but only after I assured them that I would give them back at the end of the year because they wanted to keep their postcards as an amintire, keepsake, of me. They kill me with their sweetness.

Wednesday

Now that regular classes are over for the 12th graders my Wednesdays are different.  I teach a class of 10th graders at 9:00am and then now have a giant window in my schedule where I used to teach three classes of 12th graders.  

Today I spent a couple more hours in my classroom after teaching to finish grading the final English quiz for two of my 11th grade classes and figuring out their final grades. Next week is last week of regular classes for 11th graders before they start practicum (a month of classes in their profile subject) so next week will mean more goodbyes for me.  For the final question on the quiz I asked students to share some of what they learned in my classes during the past two years. Here are some of the responses I got:

"...she learned us to be quiet and to speack English."
"She gave me a lot of homeworks and this helped me to improve my English writing and reading."
"She is fool of life."
That last one is full of life, I swear.

After finishing averaging grades, I came home and made salsa to bring to some of the mothers at the Foundation.  A few weeks ago I gifted extra seeds that I had left over from planting herbs on my balcony to one of the mothers.  One of the seed packets was cilantro and she asked me what it could be used for so I made salsa to show one use.  Romanian food is not at all spicy so I warned everyone before I shared it.  The responses were pretty awesome.  Everyone generally liked it, but they were a bit overwhelmed by what, for Americans, was very, very mild salsa.  Angela told me she might make it in the winter to warm up instead of making a fire in the fireplace.

While the mothers and I were tasting salsa my dear students were teaching the kids English class in the other room.  Adelina and Oana took over my English kids classes in April and have been going steady since!  They are doing a great job and as you can see the kids love them.

Sharing the Baked Wealth

On Friday I had a long scheduled date with my landlady, Doamna Bintu.  Last year she was forced to retire from her job in a general school and has had more time on her hands.  This has benefited me greatly as she now brings over lots of baked goods and sometimes meals to my apartment across the hall.  I have shared a number of things I baked with her, but there has always been a clear winner for her in the category of "American" baked goods, scones.  I know they are really British in origin, but they get categorized as American since I made them. 

I shared the recipe with her after she asked for it, but when I tried to explain cutting in the butter in Romanian it just confused her, as most baked goods here are made with oil.  Thus we set a date for me to come over and show her how to make them.  She was amazed at how quick and easy it was. When we were done my landlord came into judge our creations and toasted us with wine.  It was a fun afternoon.

Doamna Bintu and the scones

Filling the scones with raspberry jam

Doamna and Domule Bintu

Bakers!

My Morning in Photos

7:45 - making coffee

8:30 - more coffee and breakfast

9:30 - teaching English to the mothers group at the foundation

11:30 - charades in 10C (Cosmina acting out "to pray")

12:30 - group charades in 10A (being "super")

The Marathon of Peace Corps

If Peace Corps service was a marathon, I would be in mile 24.  I am a few days away from my second year anniversary in Romania and two months away from heading back to the United States.  

Last month my Peace Corps group (Romania - group 27) had our close of service conference.  Of our original group of 45 volunteers, we are down to 32.  We received information about what we are responsible for in terms of documenting our service, tying up financial matters in Romania and medical check-out.  We also were given advice about applying for jobs, healthcare stateside and warnings about reverse culture shock.  It was an informative, if a bit stressful, conference.  

Now I am back at my site to teach my last month and a half of classes.  I told my friend Julie about my marathon running theory and she agreed, say, "Yeah, it's like mile 24 is really steep hill."  Yesterday, I had dinner with two fellow volunteers, Julie and Brad, who are both in group 27.  We talked a lot about how exhausted we are and ready to be done.  For me personally, I am exhausted with the cheating and corruption that I witness and am unable to change.  I believe this feeling is somewhat common for Peace Corps volunteers as our service is so individual; especially those of us serving alone in communities.

All Over The Place

Sometimes I think my own biggest personal challenge in Peace Corps is being at peace with my current position.  I think volunteers straight from college have a somewhat easier time, because they haven't quite settled in a life yet, but as a person who quit a job and left a more settled life it's been hard.  During my time in Peace Corps I have missed the weddings of family and friends, the births of babies by some of my closest friends, job transitions, and new house purchases.  I still have yet to meet my nephew who will turn two in July!  As a person who loves to plan it has sometimes been extremely painful to see my friends and family moving forward with their lives while I have felt stuck in my position.  It's challenging because after working quite a few years after college I felt comfortable working towards particular goals; in my job I knew what sales goals I was working toward and positive reviews with the goal of being promoted.  In my personal life, I spent a lot of time building relationships with friends and working on sports training: becoming more flexible in yoga, building muscle and continuing to run races.  My goals in Romania are more obtuse. My Peace Corps program goals are teaching English and sharing American culture, but it sometimes feels hard to understand what I am working towards in a more long term sense.  There are no promotions, 401K plans or pay raises in Peace Corps.  There are no assurances for the future.  After 27 months, I will leave with a small resettlement allowance, one month of free healthcare and my memories.

Sometimes this prospect is incredibly overwhelming as I have no idea what I'll be doing after Peace Corps and after missing so many turning points in the lives of my friends and family it is hard to know exactly how I will fit in.  However, there are moments when I create new memories that help move me forward and realize that throughout the challenges I have had I have also been incredibly fortunate to have some amazing experiences.  Today I was chatting online with one of the daughters of my host mom during my training and she wrote, "credeam ca americanii sunt niste oameni ,,altfel" dar mi-am dat seama ca sunt foarte ok,sentimentali si foarte sociabili!" which roughly translated means, "I thought Americans were different people, but I realized there are very fine, sentimental and very sociable!"  My group of volunteers was the first group of Americans that they had ever interacted with and I can feel proud leaving this little legacy behind me and moving forwards toward the unknown.

Sustain

The dictionary defines the word sustain in three ways: 1) to give support or relief to, 2) to supply with sustenance: nourish, 3) keep up, prolong. As my time in Romania grows short I have started to think more about how the work I have started can continue. I don't worry about my students in the high school; their English education will continue. However, I am trying to figure out how to sustain my work with the foundation. This is especially significant as the Peace Corps presence in Romania comes to an end and there will be no more Peace Corps volunteers in my community.

I have been working on a plan to transition my classes at the foundation to some of my high school students. I want to encourage the spirit of volunteering in my community. While I am still in Romania, I can share information and help them practice lesson creating and teaching. Next year the program would become their own, in the hope that they may help it grow and flourish.

Today we held an additional meeting with my students and Angela and Saskia, who run the foundation, to discuss this plan. My students observed part of my class with the younger kids.  Everyone is on board to start this project. Next week I'll meet with my students and we will create a lesson to teach together. I will also start to transition some of my teaching resources to them. After Easter vacation, while I am at my Peace Corps 'Close of Service Conference,' my students will have an opportunity to teach on their own. After I return from the conference we can continue to work together until they feel comfortable teaching on their own.

While this plan is still in its infancy, I feel excited about the possibility of it working.  I hope to spending the next three months working to get this plan to come into fruition for the benefit of the foundation and my students, both in high school and at the center.

100 Days

Over the weekend Julie and I celebrated 100 days left in Romania.  We decided to treat ourselves for the occasion by going to see a movie.  We took maxi-taxis to meet up in Bacau which is a hour and fifteen minute ride from each of our sites.  Our maxi-taxis arrive at the same bus station 15 minutes apart; my maxi-taxi got stuck behind a train so we arrived about 3 minutes apart which was even better.  We were super excited because The Hunger Games came out in Romania at the same time as it did in the rest of the world.  We both read the trilogy last winter as the series circulated through the volunteer community.  Most movies in Romania are subtitled in Romanian (not dubbed) so it's even more cushy for Americans. It was a lovely spring day.  I felt a little silly going inside to see a movie, but we walked slowly and stopped to get lunch along the way, so were outside for a good part of the afternoon!

The movie was a great adaptation of the book!  We didn't realize that the movie is over two hours long so we had to hustle to get the maxi-taxis back to our sites, but all in all it was a great way to celebrate getting closer to the end.

Breaking My Rules

As a teacher, I have been conscious of playing favorites.  When I was a student, I remember being acutely aware of teachers who had favorites.  I have been on both sides of that equation; I had teachers that I knew liked me and other teachers that I knew didn't like me.  I can remember being in elementary school in class with a teacher that didn't like me and trying so hard to try to figure what I could do to change that.  Becoming a teacher, I have really tried to make sure that all my students feel that I like them.  I think it's human nature to have favorites.  I definitely have some favorite classes and students, but I try to be fair in the classroom. I give grades based on ability and effort, nothing more. Trying not to have favorites has effected how I do things, I haven't done many activities with my students outside of class because I can't quite be fair about it.  About 70% of my students commute to school and have to take buses or trains right after school so I haven't thought it fair to make activities that not everyone could attend.  

However, this weekend I made an exception to my rule.  I have a number of students who live in the dorms at my school from the Republic of Moldova. While I have a lot of students who stay in the dorms Sunday night to Friday morning, students from Moldova don't have the ability to go home on the weekend (it's too far away).  Our school cafeteria also isn't open on the weekend so they have to cook on a hot pot in their room. Thus I decided they needed some warm baked goods. Also, a few weeks ago there was a schedule change in school so I had to stop teaching one of my twelfth grade classes so technically I am not their teacher anymore!

I was excited to have the girls over for a mini-tea party, but we actually had an amazingly beautiful day so at the last minute I made ginger lemonade instead.  I had made scones and banana bread ahead of time and together we made chocolate chip cookies.  We had a great afternoon sharing recipes, favorite music, and plans for the future.  Also, I sent them home with a giant packet of goodies to share with the other students when they return back to the dorms tonight.

Carolina and Doina

Inspected

Today I had a rite of passage in the Romanian education system; I was "inspected" (observed) by the County English Inspector. My school is undergoing a full inspection, all teachers are being observed, paperwork is being checked, parents and teachers are being interviewed.  All schools undergo these inspections every three or four years; it's essentially the equivalent of being certified by the state. All Romanian teachers have periodic inspections as well, but as a Peace Corps Volunteer I am normally exempt from these, but the Romanian Ministry of Education has asked all inspectors to observe PCVs to evaluate our teaching methodologies as Peace Corps exits Romania.  Thus I had inspection just like everyone else.

I was inspected during one of my 12th grade classes.  It was a very interesting cultural experience for me.  I have been teaching these students for two years and I have never seen them act as they did today.  They rose when the inspector walked in and waited until she gave them permission to sit.  The class that was observed was definitely one of my best classes, but their behavior was perfect.  I realized that, as students in Romania, they have been through a lot inspections.  I was able to take my queues from them a little, which was lucky.  For example, at the end of the class the inspector dismissed the class, not the teacher (I would have totally done that wrong).  The inspector was very nice and took a copy of my lesson plan and said she would use it with some of her classes.  I don't know if she will, but I took it as a very nice compliment.

After finishing all my classes at the high school, I went to the Foundation where I teach some younger students each Wednesday. All the girls were missing today. I had three very rambunctious boys. We had to take a few breaks during the lesson to break up some fights and practice deep breathing.  However, we were able to plow through a lesson on body parts and end with a rousing version of "Head, shoulders, knees and toes." 

Springing Forward

During the past week in Romania there was a lot of celebrating.  The first nine days of March is Mărțișor, where the coming of spring is celebrated, also March 8th is Women's Day.  During this time women and girls receive charms, called mărțișoare, that have a red and white string tied to them, the string symbolizes the changing of the season cold to hot and also the cycle of life, white for life and red for blood.

On March 8th, two of my 12th grade classes brought me flowers.  One class sang me "Happy Birthday" in English which was very cute.  There is a common confusion because the song that is the Romanian equivalent of "Happy Birthday," called "La Mulți Ani" which translates "to many years" and is sung for pretty much every celebration: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and baptisms.

Flowers from 12A and 12B

For my own celebration of Mărțișor, I baked cookies at the beginning of the week and brought them to the teacher's lounge.  On the 8th I baked scones and filled them with raspberry jam.  I gave half the batch to my landlady who often brings me food.  We trade baked goods and scones are the one thing she asked for the recipe of.  I brought the other half to the foundation, as Angela, Saskia and I had a coffee date in the afternoon to celebrate.  I had been sick the past couple weeks and not teaching English as I didn't want to risk getting anyone else sick so we had a lovely time catching up.  

When I returned home I discovered in my e-mail inbox that we had been awarded the grant we applied for in February which was a great surprise.  We applied for a VAST (Volunteer Activities Support and Training) grant from Peace Corps to purchase additional educational supplies and a laptop for the spring sex ed programs that the foundations runs in all six high schools in my town.  With these funds the program will be a more interactive and technologically advanced.  It's a small grant, but it will go a long way, helping to educate over 500 students!

This weekend, Julie came to town to visit.  We always like to share when we find more unique ingredients and she had found coconut milk in her town.  I had some green curry, so we combined them and made Thai Green Curry Coconut Sauce, which, in my opinion, was quite possibly the best food we have made in Peace Corps. 

Also while Julie visited, she helped me change out one of the filters in my water filter.  Filters are supposed to last for three years with regular cleaning, but mine simply struggled.  The PC medical office was nice enough to have a filter couriered to me. You are supposed to be able to scrub off the outer layer dirt to make the water flow better, but the dirt and metals got so absorbed into my filter that even after cleaning, water barely trickled out.  The filter on the left is my old filter, after being scrubbed.  Yuck!  Julie holds my new filter on the right.  Yay!  This filter should happily clean my water for the last four months of my service.

Old and new water filters

Side note: while I did title this post Springing Forward, daylight savings time has not actually started yet in Romania.  While it did start in the United States today, it doesn't start in Romania until March 25th so now is the funny time of the year where I am nine hours ahead of Seattle, instead of the typical ten.  Anyone for a Skype date as we are a little closer in time?

My Life: Report, Party, Report

I haven't had too much to blog about recently.  Last weekend I spent a lot of time writing the report for the Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) Annual Survey.  Each year the co-chairs of the committee send a survey out to all the volunteers in the country to get feedback about their service.  This information is then presented to Peace Corps Romania staff at one of the VAC meetings.  This year, as one of the co-chairs, I have been weighing through the data and making all sort of bar graphs and pie charts.  To be honest, I enjoy being able to deal with easy things like number and percentages.  I love having definitive answers unlike teaching, where it seems there is never a clear-cut answer.

After finishing the report I then looked to the week ahead which included Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day I had parties in the three 11th grade classes I teach on Tuesdays.  I especially enjoyed the parties in 11A and 11B as this is the second year I am teaching those classes and I have gotten to know them quite well.

11A

Dancing in 11A

11B giving Violeta a giant valentine they made he

Pingino!  (Yes, it's really the bunny hop)

Group hug!

As the week concluded I realized that in the midst of celebrating I had procrastinated on the Volunteer Report File which is due on Monday so I am headed back to the computer this weekend.  The Volunteer Report File is a document that each volunteer must fill out around the world each trimester showing their activities and how many host country nationals.  It can be a little daunting the first time as you count the number of students in each class and activity, but as I realize I only have a couple more to do I am feeling more hopeful.

Chanting, "Snow day, snow day!"

In my town, nothing will get in the way of education.  Not over a foot of snow, bitter winds or very few students.  For the past two days, I have trudged to school find classes with three, six, or zero students.  I have found myself yearning for a snow day.  As a teacher, I would rather have the day off and make-up the class at another time so that I could present information to all the students at once.

Benches in the school courtyard

I've given up hope of my snow day in Romania, but look forward to future winters in Seattle where we are wimpy and shut everything down with just two inches. I have five months left in Romania, but my real question is how many of these months will be winter months.  Last year we had snow in May, but I am hopeful this winter will be shorter.

Winter in Miniature

Over the past 48 hours we have been inundated with snow as a winter storm rolls across Eastern Europe.  Thus far I have been lucky to have heat, power and water, but even with the heat on drafts still sneak into my room from the unheated hall and uninsulated balcony.  The weather seemed a perfect excuse to make winter treat.  Roasted Brussels sprouts and pecans!  The treat is two-fold.  You get to eat something delicious, but you also have an excuse to turn up the oven, savor the warmth and good smells coming from it.

In Romanian, Brussels sprouts are varza de Bruxelles, literally cabbage of Brussels. I love to imagine that Brussels is a land where everything is tiny.  Perhaps it's a hold over from the hours I spent as a child playing with my Sylvanian Families dolls, but this idea has enchanted me.

As I spent time huddled around the stove waiting for my tiny cabbages to roast, I was reminded of a neat photo trick that I learned about on Bridget's blog called tilt shifting.  This is done by changing the focus on the imagine so it looks like a miniature.  It's one of the most fabulous and totally addicting things I have done recently.  Fueled by delicious sprouts I decided to tilt shift some of my photos from today.

I also even took a snap of my dinner and fiddled with it!