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.