Here and There

Tomorrow morning I will be heading down to Bucharest to check with the doctors again about my eye. I am still seeing the spot I previously wrote about.  It's a bizarre problem, and I'm finding it troubling that in the past three months it hasn't gone away.  However, the spot hasn't gotten any bigger which is a blessing.

After my doctors appointments I will be bound for the United States.  My dear cousin Corona is getting married and I am taking leave to go to the wedding. 

 

It's been about a year and a half since I have been in the U.S. and more importantly, seen most of my family and friends.  I am very excited to see everyone, but quite frankly, I am bit nervous about it too.  I don't quite feel that I am able to articulate all of my nerves, but I feel like so much has happened since I have been away that I am not quite sure I'll be able to take it all in.  However, I shall try.

This and That

the D building at school, where my classroom is

I am finding the second year of teaching a bit easier, but there are some moments that cause me to pause and think, "What on earth am I doing?" One of those moments happened today, at the end of a class of eleventh graders.  I am now in the second year of teaching this class.  At the end of the class, as the students filed out one of the girls looked at me and said, "Hello!" The worst part is she wasn't even being flippant, she really just thought she was saying "Goodbye!"  As they went out the door one of her friends explained the error to her and she seemed surprised.  Sigh.

This year I am teaching three new tenth grades.  I think I enjoy tenth graders the most even though they are the most challenging for me.  It strikes me that my tenth graders still have a little bit of child in them.  I have found that my eleventh and twelfth graders are more weighed down by the world.  In tenth grade, students are still willing to play games and quite frankly, still have fun. This year I decided to do something a little different in my tenth grade classes; I let all my students choose English names.  This is common in American foreign language classes, but not in Romania.  I told students that they could choose any English name, but that it was optional.  In my first class, the girls did not want names, but I loved the boys choices.  I didn't give the boys any ideas; these are their choices, in the order they chose them.

• Jimmy Carter
• Eminem
• Brad Pitt
• James Bond
• Jean-Claude Van Damme
• Bruce Lee

I love the eclectic nature.  Every time I start the class and ask if Jimmy Carter is here, I can't help but laugh.

Achieved

A few posts ago, I wrote about the uniform donation from Brooks.  The handball team was finally able to get their uniforms in preparation for the season which will start in November. Here is part of the team at practice last Tuesday.  They love their new uniforms and look pretty great in them too.

The full team was not at practice this week.  The students at my school have been greatly affected by the change in the train schedule in town; 70-75% of the students in my school commute from villages outside my town.  This means that they rely on trains, maxi-taxis, and buses to commute each day.  Trains are infrequent and a recent change in the train schedule has meant that many students end up leaving school early.  There is a train at 1:55 and if they miss that train they are stuck in town until after 5:00.  Many students need to get home to do chores before it gets dark, not to mention the fact that if they did stay until the end of school there is no place for them to go.  In one of my 10th grade classes 7 of the 14 students leave at 1:40 (20 minutes early from a 50 minute class) to get the train.  Their form teacher confirmed that I need to let them go early, but it's very hard to try to pack in the entire lesson done in the allotted time before they go.  Not to mention that they only have English twice a week.

In my second year, I find it easier to take these situations in stride, but I feel no less sadness for my students and the opportunities that they miss.