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.