My visit to Onesti

So today, Tues. 7/22/08, is my last day here in Onesti. Tomorrow I head back to Ploiesti for my last two weeks of pre service training.

Onest has a beautiful park and it is surrounded by some beautiful rolling hills and small mountains. It’s way cleaner than Ploiesti and there’s not too much pollution which is great.

My school is pretty small but all of the staff that i met seem really nice.

While i was here i had the opportunity to go to Slanic for a day and go to the thermal springs which are up in the mountains. People flock there to drink the natural water straight from the springs because it supposedly can aid in digestions, eye sight and hearing. But basically it’s just like all these little spouts with well water coming out of them and it wreaks of sulfur with that horrible smell of rotten eggs, you know? Anybody whose ever drank well water or water at Procter Camp and Conference knows exactly what I’m talking about hahaha. The water just has a funky smell/taste to it and that’s basically what the water was like at the springs. it was still absolutely beautiful and i really enjoyed walking through the beautiful scenery. I took a handful of pictures and posted them so feel free to check them out.

Other than that I don’t really have much else to say; I’m looking forward to my last day of language class because i don’t think my brain can take any more 4-hour language classes! In 10 days i will become an official peace corps volunteer and i guess that’s when the real adventure begins, right?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see....

Counterpart Conference

This entry was written yesterday but i didn't get to post it until today, saturday.

Today I met my counterpart--well one of them, at least. My counterpart is basically my mentor during my volunteer process; the counterpart for TEFL volunteers is usually a fellow teacher in the volunteer’s school and they help to get the volunteer acclimated to the school’s schedule and basic everyday life. They also help the volunteer to network within the community and they’re just supposed to be a really good resource both professionally and personally. So my counterpart, Christina, is really cool and I like her a lot. She came to Ploiesti today for our “Counterpart Conference” where everybody met their counterpart and she’s young and funny and very smart and her English is pretty good so that was nice. She teaches Romanian at my highschool but she told me that my other counterpart is an English teacher at our school.

Oddly enough, Liz’s counterpart is also named Christina so me, Liz and our Christinas spent the evening just talking and sharing info about Onesti, Romania, and the USA. Both Christinas are nice and I’m glad that I’ve got them to help me get integrated into the city of Onesti.

Tomorrow is the 2nd and final day of the conference and I’m sure it will be just as boring and drawn out as today was but I’m looking forward to just learning more about my new city. Then on Sunday I leave for my sit visit!!!!!! I’m really excited and I promise that I’ll go buy batteries and put them in my camera so I can finally start taking pictures again. I think the thing I’m looking forward to the most is looking at apartments. I sort of got the impression that my apartment had not already been selected for me and that I would have the chance to go apartment shopping which will be cool.

Other than the counterpart conference, there’s not much else to update. The weather has gotten a bit better. I still like the food and pretty much eat any and everything that’s put in front of me. A Volunteer whose service is done in like two weeks came to visit us Trainees and he was from CINCINNATI and it was SOOOOO nice to talk to somebody who knew exactly what I was talking about and we had things in common that we liked and missed about home and he went to UC so we had lots to talk about since I pretty much spent the last 6 months on UC’s campus with Chris haha. So it was really cool to get a piece of home. Also, this week has been the best week of communication that I’ve had in the past 2 months!! Thanks to all those who emailed, texted, skyped, facebooked, AIM Instant Messaged this week! It was really cool to hear and/or see you and it really helped for this week to fly by; I mean, this week was the fasted week I’ve had so far. So thanks. It means a lot.

Site Announcement!!!!!

Ok so today we all found out where we will be living and working for the next 2 years of our lives and it looks like I’m heading off to(drum roll please......)ONESTI (oh-nesht). Onesti is a city in the region of Romania called Moldova which is in the northeastern part of the country. It is a city with approximately 50,000 to 60,000 people and it is pretty close to a couple other larger cities. I will have a site mate and she is from my group; her name is Liz and she’s awesome and she and I will both be living in Onesti for the next 2 years. The high school that I’m working at is a school that has an athletic focus and my school is called “Nadia Comaneci” which, as you know, is the name of one of the best gymnasts in history and she was born and raised in Onesti. So, needless to say, there’s a HUGE focus on gymnastics in the city and most of my students will be gymnasts!!!! I’m soooo happy and excited and anxious!

Luckily for me, there is an airport located about an hour away and the major train lines go right through the city! So for those of you who want to come and visit, you shouldn’t have too many problems getting here! Haha! But in all seriousness, I am SO VERY HAPPY with where I’ve been placed and I just thank God for making the process of moving into this country so easy.... I’ve really had is so much easier than some of my co-workers. So I’m definitely aware of how blessed I am and I’m just so thrilled that pretty much all of my requests were met when it comes to my site placement and the type of school in which I’ll be working. So I will probably be moving to my new home right after I’m sworn in as an official volunteer but before that I get to go and spend like 4 or 5 days in town just meeting people, learning the layout and picking out an apartment. So that should be cool.

But ok, to get back to the site placement today; it was actually a pretty fun process in hindsight but at the time i was just anxious and annoyed that it took so long! So here’s how it went: in the gym of our school they made the outline of Romania with some rope on the floor and inside the outline of Romania they taped pieces of paper where each site is located. So, for example, there were pieces of paper with ‘Bucharest’, ‘Ploiesti’, ‘Onesti’, etc. all taped to the floor in the approximate location of each city. And then, our language professors each got up and read these weird/funny/strange tidbits about a certain city and then they would say that there were 4 people nominated for it and they would say 4 names and one of them would be a trainee and of course the trainee won the nomination for the city and he/she came up and got their info packet and then got to go stand on their little piece of paper. So for me, Simona got up and said something like “This city has a really strong history of sports especially gymnastics. In fact, Nadia Comaneci was born here and there’s a school named after her. The nominees for this city are “No Pain, No Gain”, Monica Lewinksi, Monica Payne and Major Payne!!!” And then of course I already realized that it was my site so i went up and got my info and went off to my little piece of paper. In the event that I wouldn’t be able to articulately explain this whole situation, which seems to be the case, I took pictures so that you could see what I’m talking about! So you can check out the pics on my picture page. I added pictures to the albums entitled "Pre-Service Training" and "My Gazda!" so check them out if you have the chance. But other than that, there’s not much else to say; I’m just so happy and ready to get my new life in my new city started and tell you all how it unfolds.

love you much and hope to hear from you sooner than later.

Oh and LEAVE COMMENTS ON HERE!!!

quick lil' update

ok so i know that it’s been a long time since i updated this but i’ve just been either too tired or too busy to sit down and make a post. But now i’m ready, so here it goes:

life with the gazda is still good. they still love to shove massive plates of food at me but now that i can actually speak romanian, i can refuse all of the food a lot easier now. i have now lost 2 pounds since being here and i think i lost them in the past week because i finally learned how to turn down food haha.

my pre service training is still going on; i’ve got less than a month left (woohoo!!) and it doesn’t seem to be dragging by so slowly now. But the most exciting bit of news is that i find out where my site will be on wednesday!!! i’m really excited and anxious to find out where i’ll be living for the next two years. in my site placement interview i was very straightforward and honest with them and told them that i am not the type of person who would enjoy living way out in the sticks with not electricity or running water and that i also don’t want to work with little kids. So....i guess we’ll just have to wait and see what type of town and what type of school they place me at.

The 4th of July was kind of fun. we had a cookout at our school and everybody came with their gazda and we had lots of food and we all sat around and talked. Some people were brave enough to try and learn traditional romanian dances but not me....i enjoyed just sitting back and watching them trip all over themselves and try to do these crazy dance steps.

Well, i think that pretty much covers everything that’s been going on since i last posted. it’s still extremely hot here; the temperature yesterday was a scorching 98 degrees. I didn’t think that when i joined the peace corps i would miss my pool so much!!!! But i really want nothing more than to just get on a plane, go to cincinnati, go to my backyard and jump in the pool and swim around for a while and then just get on a plane and come back to romania haha. that would be perfect.... i just need a dip in the pool and i’d be happy.

Practicum and stuff

So, I’ve been here for over a month, I‘ve survived the Teaching Practicum and I’m trying to make it through this summer alive, although the weather here is so stifling that I’m not so sure I’ll make it!! On average, the weather over the last week has been around 36 degrees Celsius which is approximately 97 degrees Fahrenheit. So, needless to say, I’m burning up all the time. I think it’s like 93 degrees even in the shade and there’s NO air conditioning anywhere and there are very few fans in my school and none in my house so.....let’s just say it’s hot.

The teaching Practicum went well; my first week i taught 10th grade and then this week i taught 6th grade. Without a doubt, I prefer to teach high school; they just have more to say and they have a lot to bring to the table. I don’t really like just giving out information and then checking for understanding, which is what I feel like elementary teachers do. With high school, we actually have discussions and we share opinions, thoughts, ideas and are able to do more than just grammar or basic conversation. I absolutely loved my 10th grade class and I think they loved me too! But don’t get me wrong, I also like my 6th grade class that I have now but they’re just a little too rambunctious for my tastes!! I actually think some of my pre schoolers back in Cincinnati were better behaved than some of these 6th graders!!!

So, my practicum was basically the most important part of my 10 week training; i got observed 5 times and i was being judged on my classroom management, my presence in the classroom, my ability to convey the material of the lesson and my ability to achieve the objective of my lesson. They also observe us to get a feel for what language levels and ages we’re comfortable with. All of my observations went well and I really want to thank all of you for you prayers and support because I don’t think there’s any way I could have gotten through this whole ordeal without a little extra help from upstairs haha.

Now I have to do this questionnaire in which i have to answer all of these questions about the type of place i would like to live and work in for the next 2 years (yeah, so basically it’s like my next 2 years are somewhat decided by what i write on this piece of paper) so needless to say, it was kind of scary to fill that thing out because i wanted to be sure that they understood everything i wrote and didn’t misunderstand me or anything. But luckily, we also have interviews with our Placement Manager where we get to go over our questionnaire and voice our preferences about where we want to live.

I’ve decided that I want to live in a fairly large city and teach at either a regular high school or a bilingual high school. So hopefully that’s what I’ll get but they can’t promise us anything. Luckily I won’t have to wait that much longer to find out where I’m going though! My questionnaire is due tomorrow and then my interview is next week and then the week after that, on the 9th, I find out where my new home will be!!!!! I’M SO ANXIOUS/NERVOUS/EXCITED!!!!!

But other than the practicum and the oppressive heat, things are still the same: life with the Gazda is great and I’m slowly but surely getting better with my Romanian skills. I think I’ve moved up from talking like a 2 year old to talking like a 4 year old....so things are looking up. It sounds a bit crazy, but in the month 3 days that I’ve been here, I can already feel a change in me; I can’t quite put my finger on it but I definitely feel like I’m learning a lot about myself and it’s really eye-opening. I guess I’m learning that I’m capable of things I never imagined I’d do.

My 1st English Class

Today was the 1st day of our two week teaching practicum and it went very, very well. Katrina, Zack and I are sharing a class so we divide up the 3 hour class between the 3 of us. So we each teach for 1 hour a day, everyday. But, because today was the 1st day, we sort of did a group teaching thing where we each sort of took ownership of different activities in class and allowed the students to get to know each of us.
I think that the class is a really great group of girls; we were supposed to have 16 but 11 showed up and they are all very nice young ladies. The lowest English ability is probably around an Intermediate-Beginner level and the highest level is Advanced-Intermediate level. So the girls who have better skills were really pushing the lower level students and really helping get them using new words and new grammar. It was really cool to see them helping each other and it was only the first day!
As far as my teaching went, I really think that teaching is like riding a bike. I was worried at first that I’d be a little rusty and not really do that great of a job but as soon as class started I was able to slip right back into the “Ms. Payne” role and it was actually really nice to back at the front of the classroom. Katrina and Zack did great jobs as well, especially Katrina because she has never had any teaching experience and she really did a great job of both leading the class and managing them when they got off task.
So anyways, it was a really great morning and it just helped to build my confidence and it reminded me how much I love kids and teaching. It’s not that I thought I was a bad teacher, I just thought that I was mediocre simply because I haven’t been doing it for that long, but it was really awesome how during our lunch break today, like 5 people came up to me and told me that my teaching partners had told them that I was an awesome teacher and that I did a great job. That was an awesome feeling and I’m really flattered that people think I’m good at my job. But anyways, I just wanted to let you know how my 1st day of practicum went. I’ll try and post again soon with another update on my class. Oh, and my class is 11 girls who are going into the 11th grade next year. Ok, I’ve got to go to Romanian language class now. Peace and love!

Brasov

Today I returned from my first weekend excursion here in Romania. I went to a city called Brasov with some fellow PC kids. It was gorgeous! The city is really old (dating back to the 14th century i think) and I just had the stereotypical 'old world charm' that one would expect to see in an old european city. It's situated up in the mountains so the views were spectacular and the aire was cold and fresh. The weather was a bit drizzly and gray when I was there but it wasn't too bad.
I left on Friday evening and took a 3 hour train ride with my fellow volunteer, Rachel. It was an amazing feeling to navigate our way around these train stations where there was no English and to just go on a real adventure. It was a really liberating feeling actually. Also, I got to use my Romanian in an arena other than the classroom and I think it helped to build some more confidence with my language skills.
But anyways, I've posted some pictures from my Brasov trip so check them out (the link is Monica's Photos, located on the right side of the page).
Hope all is well on your side of the Atlantic.

Ice Cream

Today I learned a very important lesson: in Romania, there are rules about getting ice cream. Yes, there are rules and yes, I inadvertently broke the most important one. Ok, so here’s the story:

It was lunch time and, as usual, I was sitting in the park eating and talking with a handful of my fellow PCT’s (that’s Peace Corps Trainees for those of you who aren’t hip to the thousands of abbreviations that the PC has for everything. See? there was another one). Diane walked by with a delicious looking ice cream cone and of course I asked her where she got it and how much it cost because, as well all know, I have a serious love for all things ice cream and it was probably 80 or 90 degrees outside. So she told me that the ice cream was available across the street at a little corner store and the soft serve dispenser was right outside on the sidewalk and that I could just walk up and get some ice cream. So my friend Chase and I walked over there to get some ice cream. As you can imagine, I was very happy to find that the corner store was set up just as my girl Diane had described; the soft serve dispenser was right outside and the cones were on top of the machine in a tupperware box.

I’m the type of person who takes directions/instructions very literally so I remember what Diane said about just walking up and getting my ice cream so I walked right on up to the machine, grabbed a cone and just as I reached for the handle to get my ice-cold deliciousness, a very angry ice cream man came out of the corner store and gave me the kind of look transcends all language barriers and needs no hand gestures. So I just stood there feeling mortified and scared.....meanwhile a group of 6 or 7 children walk up. They walk right in front of me, hand the ice cream man their money and wait patiently as he makes their cones. Well, after those children got their ice cream and then after 3 or 4 other adults got their ice cream the ice cream man then turned to me and took the cone which I had apparently stolen, picked up a NEW cone, gave me the ice cream and a dirty look that basically told me to go away. And he did all of this without ever saying a word. Nevermind that during the whole ordeal I’m stammering “Imi pare rau”(I’m sorry) and gesturing like an idiot to try and convey the fact that i didn’t know the rules and that I did not know I had to wait for him to dispense my ice cream for me.

So anyways, the kids who bought their ice cream all got a good laugh out of me standing there with a cone in my hand and a confused look on my face. As we walked back to our friends, Chase turned to me and said “Hey, you gotta know the rules man....and apparently there are rules for ice cream here, the main one being: you don’t mess with the ice cream man”.

Well, ya learn something new everyday I guess.

Lost in time

I can’t believe that I’ve only been here in Romania for a week. It definitely feels like longer; and I don’t mean that in a bad way I just mean that in a very literal way. I really honestly cannot believe that today is only like my 10th day in this country. It’s such a weird feeling and I’m not even sure I know how to describe it articulately but it’s almost as if I’ve somehow messed with the Space/Time Continuum and I was just in the States a week ago but somehow managed to, in that week, cover like 3 month’s worth of time.... See? I told you I couldn’t really articulate my thoughts very well!!

But anyways, moving on from my refusal to believe I’ve only been here a week, I just wanted to talk a bit about the food here. Ok, well, for starters, there’s a lot of it. With the exception of breakfast every meal that I eat has at least 3 courses. The first is usually “salad” or “soup”. I put these in quotes because they really aren’t soup or salad the way we, as Americans, think of soup or salad. For example salad here is finely chopped cabbage that is SATURATED in oil and vinegar and is sometimes served cold but most times not. Soup here is probably more liquid fat/grease than actual water or broth and there’s usually a huge piece of chicken just chillin in the middle of the bowl. If you want to actually have some cut up chicken in your soup, you gotta cut if off the bone and then cut it into little pieces, but by the time you actually do that the greasy broth is ice cold and so is the chicken! Hahahaha! Now don’t get me wrong: the food here IS good. I mean, I eat all of my food at every meal. But I’ve just had to deal with the reality that most of my food will probably be ice cold and may or may not have some actual solidified fat in it. At first I was kind of scared of eating all this fatty food but everyone here (well more specifically, women here) is skinny so there must be something good about their diet! So I gladly eat pretty much any and everything that’s put in front of me and so far so good.

Oh and one last thing about the food: the fruit here is spectacular! Strawberries and cherries are so tasty and I have never liked cherries before in my life! But they are sooo good here!!

Anyways, my Romanian skills seem to be improving even though I do still speak at the level of a 2 year old. I can understand a fair amount of what people say to me and it seems as though they can understand the pathetic utterances that pour from my mouth everyday. So all in all, things are good and I’m doing well. Much to my surprise, I haven’t experienced much homesickness or loneliness here and I think that is a good omen about how my life in this country will be. I do have lots more that I want to write but this is getting long so I’ll write more in the coming days.

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

So today was our second day of classes and it was a bit of a whirlwind. Well, actually, only the morning is a whirlwind and then when the afternoon comes and the sun is high in the sky, the hours seems to go in slow motion and the heat seems to get more and more unbearable with each passing second. But back to the morning...

We have 3 hours of language classes in the morning and it is...umm....VERY INTENSIVE. I think that in 6 hours of language class (3 today and 3 yesterday) we have probably covered what most entry level foreign language classes cover in 3 or 4 weeks. YEAH....IT’S THAT RIDICULOUSLY INTENSE!! Haha!! But I think that you will all be pleased to know that I’m doing quite well with the vocab and grammar that we’ve learned so far and I’m not having too much trouble....but we’ll see how I feel on Friday I guess.

In the afternoons we have 3.5 hours of classes that basically teach us about any and everything related to either Peace Corps, Romania, TEFL or some combination of the three. Needless to say it gets a bit daunting after two hours in an 80-degree room with 45 people in NO air conditioning and poor ventilation. But we get like two or three breaks during the afternoon and everybody goes across the street to the piata(pee-yacht-zuh) which is the outdoor market, and we all buy water, ice cream, candy, etc.

Our classes are held at a middle school that is still in session at the moment so every time we walk in and out of the building, children flock to stare at us, point at us and, on rare occasions, speak to us. Most of them yell “HELLO!!” and are very excited to see people who speak English. All of the boys are excited to see a black person and they talk about how they love hip hop, especially snoop dogg. They like to rap and dance and show how cool they are....it’s quite a show! The children here are all very friendly and energetic and when they have their breaks inbetween classes, it’s not at all uncommon to hear them running and screaming through the hallways and apparently the school administration has no problem with this. So today when they were on break I took a few snapshots of them, just to give you all an idea of what the school is like here.

Life with my gazda is going great; they make me lots of good food and they’re trying their best to teach me Romanian despite my brain’s inability to understand 95% of what they try to teach me haha. But from talking to other people in my group, I am very lucky to have a family that has a house, pets, a car and internet. So I’m definitely counting my blessings and thanking God everyday for taking such good care of me. Well that’s it for today I think. Oh!! And I was SUPER HAPPY today because I found my iPod!!!! it was inside a shoe(Yeah, don’t ask me how that happened, just be happy I found it ok)!!!! Liz gave me her USB cord and I’m charging it right now; I can’t explain to you how happy I was to find that thing....I really did think that it was lost forever.

My Gazda!

Ok, so today was my first full day with my Gazda Family(Host family) here in Romania. Yesterday I got here at about 3pm and on the way to the house my Gazda Mom(Host Mother), Carmen, turns to me and says “Oh yes, we are having party today for my mother. She has birthday today; so we have birthday party with whole family.” Uh, yeah....needless to say I was REALLY anxious and immediately broke a sweat and was totally freaked out! Haha!

So we get to the hosue and there are about 15 people hanging out inside and outside, drinking and smoking and talking and laughing. All of the older women were in the kitchen cooking and talking and the men were outside talking and drinking vin (veen) which is homemade wine. We were told at our training sessions to accept any and all food that we were offered because it is a sign of respect and appreciation so of course I accepted each and every glass that was offered(I think they thought it was funny that I just sipped it but as a member of PC we aren't really supposed to drink). The food here is really quite good and I’ve enjoyed trying all sorts of different meats, cheeses, salads, sauces, etc.

My Gazda Grandmother (Host Grandmother) is really cool; she just turned 82 and she has a great sense of humor! The word for Grandmother in Romanian is Mamaia (pronounced like the fruit Papaya except with an M instead of a P). She is always talking to me in Romanian and it seems to be no issue to her at all that I speak only English. She’ll just talk to me and talk and talk and I just try to follow her hand gestures.

I really like my house here; my Mamaia has a garden with tomatoes and cucumbers and legumes...she also has beautiful flowers growing out front. My room here is great; it actually made me VERY proud of the way I packed! I have exactly the right amount of stuff to fit in my room. I have my own room and a nice queen size bed and a wardrobe. At some point, I’m going to try and post the pictures I took of the house and my room. Oh, and Fram, my dog, is such a cutie! Suzi is the cat and she has lots of attitude but deep down she’s just a softy.

Tomorrow’s my first day of language classes and Carmen took me to the school where I will be spending 8 hours a day for the next 10 weeks. It is a 30 minute walk away which actually makes me happy because I was really worried about excercise options. Running in public is a bit taboo here since women do not usually wear shorts nor do they run/jog so it’s nice to know that I’ll be walking for an hour a day.

TV is really big here, just like in the USA so I’ve had lots of fun watching TV with my Gazda....even though I haven’t the slightest clue as to what the shows are about haha! But I was very shocked to see that they have MTV, CNN, Comedy Central, Animal Planet and National Geographic. It was a very pleasant surprise when I found channels that had English speaking people. Well enough for now. This is getting long. Please keep the emails coming! It really makes my day when I’ve got an inbox full of emails!

love and prayers!

Monica

IN ROMANIA

Well, I'm FINALLY here. I'll try and give a quick overview of how my travels went, but I actually have to be in the hotel restaraunt in 8 minutes for dinner so this probably won't be as in depth as I would've liked.
So the flight from JKF to Munich was miserable and hot and crowded and of course I got stuck in the middle seat of the middle section of the plane. but the cool part was that the plan had two floors and a lot of us got to go down to the lower level and just hang out and talk and enjoy the nice air conditioning they had down there. So we get to Munich and we had like a 1.5 hour layover. I can't really tell you much about the flight from Munich to Bucharest because I fell asleep before the plane even took off...yeah....i was ABSOLUTELY exhausted in every sense of the word. Then we landed in Bucharest and were greeting by a big group of PC(Peace Corps) staff and volunteers who helped us load the bus and head to Ploiesti(ploy-esht). I can't tell you much about the bush ride since I fell asleep before we left the airpot and didnt wake up until we got to the hotel. I'm sitting in the hotel lobby right now using their wireless internet so that was a very pleasant and welcome surprise.
All in all I'm happy, but I'm sooooo tired that all I want to do is sleep. Oh and the 'fishbowl' affect has already taken place and almost every person who i pass on the street or in the hotel looks at me as if I'm the first black person they've ever seen (and I'm 99% sure I AM the only black person they've seen). so I've already had lots of stares and pointing fingers and hushed whispers...but oh well. its not really that bad.
but i've got to run!! dinner is starting now!!!
love you!
monica

A Rude Awaking

So, this morning we were all supposed to meed downstairs in our hotel at 8am. So lst night I re-packed, organized, laid out my clothes and was basically ready to just get up, shower and get on the road. Well, when I went to bed, I somehow DID NOT set an alarm!(but I didn't know this at the time)
So this morning at 7am I awoke to blasting sirens and a weird robotic voice saying: AN EMERGENCY SITUATION HAS BEEN DETECTED IN THE BUILDING. PLEASE EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. And it played over and over and over and over again and all the guests filed out of the building down onto the streets. So after standing about and watching the fire dept. come, we were told the coast was clear and we could go back in. Well it was at that point that I realized that I hadn't set an alarm and I just told myself that the fire alarm was just God's way of making sure the EVERYONE got up on time to make it to the bus! I kinda picture him up there saying, "Wait a minute, I got you this far, you better not miss this bus child!" haha I told some of my friends that and one of them was like "Wow....I'm amazed...you really can find the silver lining in ANY situation can't you?" And I guess I never really thought about it but maybe he's right....

Well anyways, I just wanted to share that story of how my last morning in USA started with a pretty rude awakening but hopefully that isn't an omen of how the rest of the trip will go.

xoxox
monica

FrUsTrAteD!

OK my level of frustration has just reached an ALL-TIME HIGH today. I just feel like the list of things to do keeps getting longer no matter what I do. It doesn't matter how much i clean, organize, pack, re-pack, throw away or keep I still have more crap to do. It's just too much. There's just too much to do and I'm to the point where I'm just like "Forget it...whatever. Just get me on the plane."

This whole endeavor has gone from somewhat exciting to a royal pain in the you-know-what in a matter of like a day. I'm so sick of looking at lists and looking at the volunteer handbook or the welcome book or the PST packet or whatever other pile of paper I've been given. If there's something that i need for this trip and I don't have it by now, then oh well. Too bad. Because my patience and my energy are gone and I'm done. Just get me to the airport so we can just get this over with. I'm so sick of waiting/preparing let's just get this started already! Geeeeez!

6 days til departure

I leave for PST in less than a week and it still doesn't even feel real. I can't tell if I'm just in severe denial or if there's just so much going on that I'm too distracted to really take in how ridiculously life-altering next week is going to be.

I'm pretty much packed. Everything that I want to take is laid out next to my luggage....now all I have to do is find a way to put in all IN my luggage! I don't know... I keep procrastinating because it's like, once i put those clothes in those bags, it's real. It's happening. I'm leaving. And ya know, maybe I'm just not ready for that yet. Maybe i need a couple more days....
It's weird because the way I'm feeling about leaving is THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE of how I imagined myself feeling. Yes, I'm excited but I'm also like 3,459 other emotions and they're all going through my brain and my heart at the same time. It's confusing, to say the least.

But I'm off to bed now. Gotta wake up nice and early so I can finish up my packing/organizing/cleaning.

besos.

Finally got my travel info!!

the day has finally come and this is all starting to become very, VERY real! I got all the travel info and the final bits of paperwork that need to be done before departure. I'ts a very weird feeling...I'm happy but also anxious and a myriad of other emotions that i can't really articulate just yet. but i'm happy to finally be on the 'final step' of what has been one heck of a year.

Just for fun!

This interview from The Stephen Colbert Report is hilarious and I really enjoyed it. So, even though hit has nothing to do with the PC or anything, I still thought it was worth sharing :-) if it doesnt work, sorry just look it up on YouTube; type in something like Colbert Zimbardo Lucifer interview in your search and it should come up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pyx9hEGPJY

interested in learning Romanian?

If your answer to the question above is 'yes' then read the following very carefully:
There is a guy named Sorin who goes around soliciting Romanian lessons to people. Now, while I have NO idea how he is as a teacher, I do, however, have a little insight to who he is as a person. Below I've posted the ONLY correspondence I have EVER had with this person. And as you can see, he's quite the charmer. So if he emails you or comments on your blog, don't say I didn't warn you....

--this was sent Dec. 17, 2007

Hi Monica
You have been referred to me as willing to learn Romanian. If you are serious about it, I can teach you good Romanian. In fact I am a teacher of English (with almost 17 years of experience in tutoring), but 4 years ago, seeing there were a number of people interested in learning Romanian, I thought I could use my teaching skills the other way round. I know that the materials for someone who wants to study Romanian as a foreign language are of very low quality - coursebooks and dictionaries. As a language teacher, I know how many have tried to learn English from books (even from web sites!). The simple truth is you do need a teacher to guide, correct, organize you, it just doesn't work with books only, let alone when their quality is so poor... So, I have designed my own line of course, which is now available to potential students.
As I am located in Romania, this is an ONLINE course, interactive, with text and live audio. You'll need to have some skill in using file transfer and audio over the Internet. You will have to install the Yahoo Messenger or even better Skype (a 15 minute job, unless you already have either). Also you must have sound capabilities on your computer - a mike, headphones - and a decent Internet connection. We'll meet on the YM to get acquainted and discuss further details, including a convenient schedule. I can also offer you a good dictionary.
It is going to be just like the usual tutoring sessions (if you did that before), except the 2 persons are not in the same room, but connected via Internet.
How did you become interested in RO and Romanian? Are you going to visit RO in the near future?
Looking forward to meeting you (online first!)
Sorin
(Yahoo Messenger ID: sorinromanian)

--this one was sent on Jan. 31, 2008

Salut Monica

How are you? Where have you disappeared?

Are you still interested in learning Romanian? Or was it just "un foc de paie"? (approx: a fleeting caprice)

For info on the course, please see:

www.romanianlessons.ro

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Sorin

-- i sent this reply Jan 31, 2008

Sorin,

Thank you for your interest in teaching me Romanian, however I am currently taking lessons and am quite satisfied with my progress. If I do decide to change my minde, I will be sure to let you know.

Thanks,

Monica

--
Monica Payne
"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised" ~Proverbs 31:30

--this was sent to me on Feb. 4, 2008

Dear Monica

The main question is how serious you are about learning Romanian.

Because, if you are, you cannot waste your time just like that. Very few people learn a foreign language on their own, and even so they need good materials. The materials that you can find about learning Romanian are no more that pathetic garbage, so not even the greatest language genius can have any real progress. You don't even have the right dictionary, so what progress do you think you are making? Actually that is very easy to test. Whenever you are ready.

Actually, that would be called a "regress"! You'd have been better off, if you had never started with those materials. Now you got wrong knowledge and wrong reflexes which will be very hard to correct later. Many of my students went through this ordeal of having to get rid of previous trash. The real Romanian proved to be very different from what the lame materials had described to them.

In case you are not willing to learn Romanian in an organized manner, the language teacher's advice is to just stop those "lessons". They will only harm you.

Sorin

--i sent this reply on Feb. 4, 2008

Sorin,

Please remove my name and email information from your mailing list. I would appreciate it GREATLY.

Have a great day,

Monica

--this was sent to me on Feb. 11, 2008

Dear Monica

I noticed you are one of those strange people who vainly attach some quote from the Bible to the end of their emails. I wonder what connection is there between being a Christian and your rude and freakish attitude?

Why do you pretend you are a Christian, when you are tormented by the devils of blinkeredness and haughtiness???

Are you planning to bring those devils with you to Romania?

I pray the Lord that you are guided to find a gifted Romanian priest to exorcize those nasty devils from you...

Sorin

Yeah.... uh, am I the only one who thinks that this is totally un-called for and offensive? I take my faith very seriously and am very upset by what was said to me in the last email. So if you are a current student of this person or considering being a student of this person, I just thought you ought to know who you're dealing with.

Learning Romanian: Day 1

So, I just finished my first ever Romanian lesson! And it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be! I bought the book Teach Yourself Romanian which is published by the company Teach Yourself, and they make hundreds of books that focus on how to teach yourself various languages using Cd's and a textbook/workbook. I just did Unit 1 and I learned how to say greetings, ask how someone is doing, etc. I actually love the way the language sounds....which isn't what I expected at all! I love Spanish so much and I think its one of the most beautiful languages to listen to and I'll admit I was a bit biased, assuming that Romanian would sound like Russian or some other language that (I think) sounds harsh to the ear. But actually its quite pretty. :-)
I've decided to study/practice about an hour/hour and a half a day, 4 or 5 days a week. I mean, I don't leave til May so I think I've got loads of time to slowly build my skills before I leave. Plus I just wanted a good base on which to support allll of the language that I'm going to learn once I'm actually in training.
But all in all, I'm actually quite surprised by how much I enjoy the language and I'm definitely less intimidated now.

*sigh*

Wow...its just weird that I've begun learning Romanian; it just makes it all so very very real now. Its one of those moments where it feels like everything slows down and I'm somehow able to look at myself and say: I'm learning Romanian. I'm learning Romanian because I'm moving there in 5 months. I'm moving to Romania in 5 months and I'll be there for 27 months. Damn. Am I ready for this???

Well OK, gotta hit the hay-- I start my new job as a preschool teacher tomorrow so I gotta get my rest!!

Noapte buna (that's 'good night' in Romanian!!!!)

Facebook has world domination

Ok so, I know that facebook is teaching young children how to become stalkers one newsfeed/relationship status update at a time and I also know that facebook might be more addictive than crack cocaine but I really really REALLY did not want to admit that facebook is also taking over the world. And by "taking over" what I really mean to say is "has already taken over". The friggin debates the other night were sponsored by facebook. You can rent an apt., buy furniture for said apt. and get a roommate for said apt. all on facebook. You can meet your spouse on facebook and then invite people to the wedding on facebook.....I mean the list truly does go on and on.
And now, when I'm so desperately searching for people who are heading to EE(eastern europe, get with the lingo, ok lol) and for people who are going to Romania with the same group as me, I come to find out that they've all been secretly discussing miscellaneous Peace Corps topics on mother f*%#!@* facebook!!!! So what did I do when I realized that all of this was going on without my knowledge, you ask? Well.... well.... well I joined all the Peace Corps groups. hahaha I mean, I didn't want to be left out!! People were talking about departure dates and what to pack and all that stuff that seems to ridiculously important to me at the moment. So yes, I gave in and am now an active participant in facebook's world domination. But oh well! It's gonna help me get in touch with people who'll be with me on the other side of the earth come May.
Ok, that is all. I'm done ranting. Thank you for your time.