Last Bell

Yesterday was the last day of lesson. Normally, on Wednesdays, I have five lessons and one free period. However, students only showed up three of those lessons, and for two of those classes, we watched movies. So it really wasn’t a very productive day.

Only about eight students came to the first lesson, so we played English games the whole time. We watched “Alice in Wonderland” during the second lesson. Only two students came for the third lesson, but then they left for the computer lab to play games. My fourth lesson is free, and no students came at all to the fifth lesson. The sixth lesson had only about half the students show up, but we combined classes with the other sixth form group and watched a movie.

Today we celebrated the end of the school year. The school honored the graduating students as well as the students with exceptional marks. As with all Moldovan assemblies, some students preformed a dance routine and several students sang songs. One of my favorite things that happened during this assembly was the 12 form students invited their parents to dance for one of the songs. And at the end, the 12 form students were given balloons (red, yellow, or blue) and then they all released them together.

The school director also thanked me for my service to the school. She said very kind words about me and called me to the podium. She gave me a gift from the school (a framed painting of flowers) before handing me the microphone and asking me to say something.

Now my Romanian isn’t great, but I know enough to say a nice thank you and talk about enjoying my year here. However, when I’m speaking Romanian, I have to concentrate on what I am saying. And while I was trying to speak, many students came up to me to give me flowers.  I wasn’t able to get out two words without student coming up to me to give me flowers. And so, I ended up having a hard time concentrating on what I wanted to say.

What I was trying to say: I have enjoyed working with you this year. You were very kind and hospitable, and I thank you very much. Have a good summer, and I will see you next year.

What I actually said: You have…oh, thank you…I have…thank you…ah, thank you…I have, pardon…You was very kind. Thank you.

There were probably a few more “thank yous” in there because every time a student gave me flowers, I thanked him/her. Needless to say, I sounded ridiculous.  But I think they understood that I was grateful and happy to be there.

Ziua Mea De Naștere

My birthday is today, and it was a pretty good day. I have never had my birthday recognized by so many. It seems that most everyone in the school knew it was my birthday. In fact, some of my students told me happy birthday yesterday because we wouldn’t have a lesson together today.

Side story: I mentioned how yesterday during my last lesson, only 3 students showed up. During the lesson, they sang “Happy Birthday” to me and gave me flowers. After that was when one of them left. So I think those 3 students came just to wish me a happy birthday.

Anyways, when I got to school this morning, some of my students 7th form students surprised me with cake and flowers before lessons started. Additionally, Svetlana had a cake and a sunflower wall decoration for me. During my first lesson, several of my 6th form students wished me well and gave me flowers. During one of my free lessons, I had cake and tea with a couple of my partner teachers. Svetlana told me that they wanted me to feel at home because she knows that I miss my home. My partners were very kind and told me how they care for me.

During the break, several students wished me happy birthday. In fact, one student came to tell me that he has a gift for me he would give me tomorrow. And some of my 10th form students gave me a flower and a birthday card.

After the lessons, my partners treated me to lunch at the local restaurant. We had traditional Moldovan foods, and my partners taught me about how Moldovans toast during celebrations. First they toasted to my health and happiness, then my parents, and then to my success. And of course the wished that I find a good and handsome Moldovan boyfriend, whom of which they would have to meet to approve.

Overall, it was a great day! It reminded me of how happy I am to be here volunteering and how much I like the Moldovan people. Today also reminded me about how this time last year I was getting ready to move to Moldova. I was so excited to start the next quarter of my life. And I have to admit, it has been a great start!

End of the Year

So the end of the school year is here. This is the last week of school. May 31 is the last day of classes. There are state exams for some grades, so those classes with continue to work with teachers to prepare for exams. However, this doesn’t affect me. I am done with lessons on May 31.

The end of the year is crazy; students are slightly apathetic and ready for school to be over, which is not too different than in schools in America. However, the biggest difference I noticed is the teachers don’t attempt to have any kind of lesson. For example, during the past two weeks, in my 10th form, my partner and I haven’t taught or reviewed anything. All we have done is allowed the students to get additional marks by speaking in English. Sometimes my partner will try to have a conversation with a student and give him/her a mark based on that. But most of the time, the students just recite a paragraph in English that they have memorized. Not really an accurate way to measure one’s knowledge of English.

All of my partners have been using lesson time during the last week as a way to get their grades done. They will assign the students a task, such as read the text or answer the questions, and then they will work on averaging the grades while the students “work”. While I don’t have a huge problem with assigning the students work so the teacher can work (mind you, I don’t really like this idea, but there are bigger issues I choose to help improve), my partners don’t hold the students accountable for the task. So basically, it’s just busy work.

Additionally, the students have now turned in their textbooks to their homeroom teachers. And since most of my partners plan by doing activities straight from the textbooks, lessons are pretty empty because my partners aren’t sure what to do without them. I’m trying to plan English activities and games for my students so the time in class is not completely wasted. However, it’s difficult to get time with my partners to plan together because they are so busy with the end of the school year. And since the whole point of PCVs working with partners is to create sustainable differences in the classroom, planning the activities alone seems in vain.

Furthermore, it’s difficult to keep the students’ attention. The students seem to like the activities, but most of them have checked out. They know their teachers aren’t holding them accountable for the information, so they really don’t try much.

In fact, I don’t think much is being done about attendance at this point either. I have noticed attendance is a problem all year around; the students just skip classes when they feel like it very frequently. However, today was a new situation. My first lesson only had about half the students present. And my last lesson today only had 3 students, one of which left after the first 10 minutes of class.

I’d hate to admit this, but I can’t help but wonder why we continue to have lessons if the students aren’t present (whether physically or mentally) and the teachers aren’t using lesson time to teach.

Host Mom Is Home!

I came home today from spending the weekend in Chișinău to find my host mom had returned from Spain. On April 3, she left for Spain to spend time with her son and daughter-in-law since they just had a baby. So for the past month and a half, it has been just Roman and me.

Although we had no problems and I got the chance to cook for myself (which I loved doing), the house seemed empty without her. She made the house a home, which is very stereotypical of women in Moldova. Also, she speaks Romanian, so when she is home, I have someone to talk to. In fact, this afternoon, she told me about her trip and asked me about my life during the last month and a half. It was so nice to catch up with her.

Tomorrow, Roman leaves for America to spend time with their other son and daughter-in-law. I’m not sure how long he will be gone, and I wonder what differences I will notice with his absence.

Keep Calm And Teach On

Today in class with my 6th form, we were talking about clothes. I reviewed/introduced the vocabulary words with a PowerPoint, I had the students categorize each type of clothing as boys, girls, or both using a Venn diagram, and we played bingo. In the States, I would have not thought much of this lesson. But my students came up to me after class thanking me for the lesson and telling me (in English!) that they liked the lesson very much.

It was a wonderful feeling, and it reminded me how much I love to teach. I forget sometimes with the stress of working in a classroom in a different culture where I don’t get to do what I want. But I when I have a little success like this, it gives me the motivation to keep going and it helps me remember that my work is not being done in vain, which I forget a lot.

I know that this fade of using the poster is overdone, but I never felt the words ring so true until I was teaching in Moldova.

Middle School Again

Have you ever looked back 10 years and thought, “Man, I was such a kid then!” Well, that’s how I feel looking back 11 months ago, when I first arrived here (yep, that’s right kiddos; I have been in Moldova for 11 months!). I think I have gone through more changes in the last 11 months than I did in middle school.

In fact, I constantly feel like a middle school girl again. Before coming to Moldova, I had grown into a person with confidence and self-awareness. I knew that I was far from perfect, and while I wanted to work on improving my faults, I was comfortable with who I was. I was okay with not being perfect. But more importantly, I knew myself and I liked myself. But since I’ve been here, I often don’t feel like myself or I don’t know myself. Seeing as I’m 25 years old and I once felt like I knew who I was, this is a very disconcerting feeling.

Like a middle schooler, I am consistently self-conscious. With every decision I make, I am worried about what people think about me. I guess this makes sense given that I’m in a different culture with different practices and beliefs, and I need to be aware of how my actions are perceived by others. It’s just a little upsetting being an adult and feeling so extremely self-conscious, as opposed to self-aware.

My emotions are all out of whack. I am numb to things that should be upsetting me. But then I’m overwhelmed with emotions caused by a tiny, insignificant thing. Logic is no longer helping me control my emotions. I think this is due to the fact that I had to change my coping methods being in a country away from my home.

Also, I’m questioning my many of my beliefs. Some of them I am making stronger and some of them I am changing. Plus I’m forming new beliefs. And oddly enough, I’m learning about right and wrong again. I’m questioning why things are the way they are, what fairness really is, how I can make the best of it, etc.

I do try to constantly challenge my beliefs because I am always searching for the right one. This is something I have tried to do all my life. But in middle school, that is when I formed so many of my beliefs or built the foundations of my beliefs. And though some have changed, I still believe a bulk of my beliefs that were formed during middle school. And that is how I now feel about the Peace Corps.

I think the best word to describe myself since I’ve been here is awkward. I don’t do things the same way as Moldovans, and they often look at me strangely. I’m starting to not feel embarrassment anymore because I’m embarrassed so frequently. Oye.

So this can be overwhelming sometimes, and I have a difficult time dealing with it. But I’m really looking forward to coming out of this. Middle school was one of the most defining stages in my life; it made me who I am. And since Peace Corps is causing me to go through similar transformations, I can only imagine how much this will define me when I’m finished. I can’t wait to see who I am at the end of my service.

Legend of Criuleni

Today, my students told me the legend of Cruileni. It doesn’t quite feel complete, but here is what I understood: There were two teenage lovers named Crio and Leana. Their parents forbid the two to be together, so Crio and Leana ran away to the Nistru River. One day, they were swimming in the Nistru River during a storm and they drowned. At this place, the town of Cruileni was started, and it was named after the two lovers.

May At Last

Wow! I am so glad that May is finally here. The past 2 months have not been much fun for me. I had gotten sick a lot, and I was under a lot of stress to complete several projects. I’ve had a huge pile of work to complete and it was hard to see when it would finally ends.

Now that May is here, I feel like I can finally breathe. I have completed most of my work for my projects, and school ends in 4 weeks. So everything is winding down. It’s really nice. The weather is beautiful, and I have the time to enjoy it. And I love that it’s no longer pitch-black at 5 o’clock.