Teacher's Day

Today, my school celebrated World Teacher’s Day. It is quite a lovely thing to see the students honoring their teachers. Back in the States, we had Teacher Appreciation week, which seemed to be sponsored by the parents and school systems. Here, the students take the initiative to thank their teachers. It’s wonderful to see the students show their teachers they care.

This year, the day began with a little assembly where a group of students thanked all the teachers. They presented each teacher (including me) with a rose and a certificate thanking the teacher for their hard work and dedication. The students even wrote my certificate in English.

The rest of the day had shorter lessons so we could finish the day by noon. During the lessons, the students would come to the teacher to give them gifts and thank them for being their teacher. At the end of the day, all the teachers walked out of the building with their hands full of flowers, kitchenware, and other miscellaneous gifts.

Once the lessons were over, the administration had a small masă for the teachers, where they thanked the teachers for their hard work and dedication. Overall, it was a really touching day honoring the teachers!

Old New Year

I didn’t miss it!! I was able to celebrate with my host family. Parascovia made a huge masă, and Roman barbequed some sausages. They invited several friends over to celebrate. As the guests arrived, they threw coins and rice on the floor as a symbol of good luck and lots of money in the coming year. Basically, we ate and we ate and we ate. I would eat and be full, and Parascovia would bring more food. I would eat again and be stuffed, and Parascovia would bring more food. So basically, there was a lot of food.

I talked with the guests as best I could, and they asked me about America. By the end of the masă, everyone had determined that I needed to find a Moldovan man to marry and remain in Moldova to continue working. I’m pretty sure this was meant as a compliment.

After the meal, Parascovia gave each guest a colac with a lit candle along with a handmade napkin and wished the person a happy and wonderful year. Colac is a braided-bread in the shape of a circle. It symbolizes “hospitality” and it’s used in a lot celebrations.

After this holiday season and several family celebrations, I think I can sum up most holidays and celebrations as everyone eating until they burst.

Alone Upstairs

Camilla is leaving tomorrow, so tonight we celebrated with a goodbye masă. Parascovia invited several women who work with Camilla. Parascovia prepared lots of foods and Roman barbequed some chicken. Parascovia asked me if I knew how to make margaritas, and I told her I did. So she asked me to make it. But the only thing that was the same about these margaritas is that I used margarita mix. It was made with vodka, lemons, sugar, and mix. Not exactly the same creature that I’m used to, but it got the job done. Plus, I was happy to have something besides Cognac for a change. We ate, we celebrated, we ate, we talked, we ate, we played billiards, we ate. It was a really good send-off for Camilla.

I will miss her. She was much better at Romanian than I, and she knew some English. So she was able to help me out of a couple jams every once in a while. And it’s nice to have someone else in the house around my age. Plus it was much easier to tell Roman “no more drinking” when we were together. I guess I’ll have to stand up to him alone now.

The 4 Times I Almost Cried During PST

So far, I have not cried, which I think is a big accomplishment. I thought there would be at least one break down by now. However, I did have my weak moments when I almost cried. And the surprising thing is that for all but one time, I almost cried over something I didn’t think would make me cry.

1. It was during the first week of Practice School (7 weeks into my time here in Moldova) when I was teaching by myself. I had been working until 11:30 every night for 3 nights now, and I was not yet feeling particularly proud of my lessons. It was 6:00 and I had at least 5 hours of work ahead of me. I was walking my 40-minute walk home and feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work we have to do and what is expected of us. I was starting to cry as I was walking, but I still had 10 minutes before I got home and no sunglasses. I did not want everyone in my neighborhood to see me cry as I walked into my host family’s home.

2. My host family was having a masă. I was noticing my host mom and sister interacting, and they reminded me of my mom and me. I was suddenly overwhelmed with missing my mom, which grew into me missing my family and friends. I started to get teary-eyed, but there were 15 people around me and I did not feel like explaining why the American is crying when everyone was being very hospitable.

3. It was 3 days before I was leaving Cojușna. I was walking home when one of the neighbor kids has said hello to me. I had recently learned her name, Mihaela (Cute story: she always says hello to me, and her cuteness stands out compared to the others. One day, she said “hello, Maggie” to me and I said hello back. Her brother was with her and tried to tell her how to say “my name is Mihaela” in English, but she just ended up saying “hello Mihaela” instead. It was very cute. I understood well enough, and now I knew her name). It was very dark, and I could barely make out shapes. But when Mihaela said hello to me, I could easily tell it was her. She giggled when I said “hello, Mihaela”, and I could hear her talking about me once I left. All the sudden I realized that I would not be seeing her or any of the neighborhood kids any more. It took me 2 months to make friends with them, and I walk through a neighborhood everyday. In Criuleni, my house is practically on the main road. I was very upset at the thought of not making friends with neighborhood kids. But I was almost home, and I didn’t want to explain to my host family why I showed up in tears. So I held the tears back.

4. It was the last night in Cojușna, and I was spending it with Holly, Jim, Matt, Lauren, and Cassie at the Cojușna winery. On our way out, I said something about how I was going to miss them. And then it hit me that I was going to be the only American in a 30 kilometer radius, and that I was going to see these guys for several months. My eyes started to water, but Cassie demanded that I stopped because she would start to cry as well. So I did.

Moldova Makes Sure I’m Happy

Friday was an interesting day. I woke up not feeling my 100%. I don’t think I was sick; rather, it was a combination of many things. I have been having a hard time sleeping (I think it’s because it’s so bright very early in the morning). It’s been really hot and humid this week, so I’m dehydrated. And then there’s overall exhaustion from so much working. But Moldova made sure I didn’t go to bed upset.

Thursday was my host mom and dad’s 32 wedding anniversary, and around 9pm Friday night, I realized we were celebrating this occasion. I had been resting in my room when Diana knocked on my door saying it was dinnertime. I walked out to go wash my hands and found myself in the middle of about 10 people waiting on the deck (I have to go outside to get to the bathroom). My family’s friends greeted me warmly, and then tried to figure out if I was a ma’am or sir. I told them I was a ma’am, but I could hear them still discussing the issue after I walked away.

Dinner was served, and I was happy to sit and eat, but since I was thinking I was dehydrated (and I realized I was sunburned as well), I decided not to drink alcohol. Luckily there was water, even though it was carbonated. I was able to finish all of my food without anyone saying I needed to drink the wine. However, when you have friends in Moldova, your glass is never empty.

After I had finished my meal, a friend of the family came in and sat beside me. He knows a little English in addition to 5 other languages. So together, we had a mini English lesson. He would say something to me in Romanian and ask for the English translation. It started off uneventful until he wanted to cheer every time he learned a new word or phrase. And my glass was suddenly frequently refilled.

He then tried to explain to me that it was my host mom and dad’s wedding anniversary, but he was not using words I recognized. Once I finally caught on to what he was trying to say, I said the Romanian word for marriage. He hit himself in the head and rolled his eyes because he didn’t realize I knew that word.

Once he established that I understood what we were celebrating, he made me stand up to give a toast. I didn’t mind too much, except that I couldn’t figure out what he wanted. I thought he wanted me to do it in Romanian, which I am not capable of. Eventually, I figured out that he wanted me to say it in English and he would translate. But he didn’t know what I was saying, so he just ended up repeating the English words I said.

He began talking to me about how he likes to sing, and I mentioned I played the guitar. Our conversation ended with him wanting us to go to Chisinau to sing and play the guitar together and make enough money to buy 2 ice creams for ourselves.

There was also a 3-year-old here that night. Later in the night, she discovered my room and curiosity got the best of her. Luckily I saw her wander into my room. I came into my room to find her playing on my bed with my pillow. And then she liked to open and close my guitar case. Eventually, my host mom came in and told her that it was my room so she should leave. So the little girl said good night to me, and as she left the room, she turned the lights off and closed the door on me.

I ended up staying up much later and drinking more than I had meant to. But I went to bed with a smile on my face. It was a nice feeling. And luckily, I was able to take the rest of the weekend off and get some much-needed R and R.

Mel Brooks Is My Grandfather

So week 1 is complete. Even though I have been here more than a week, according to the schedule, this was the first week of the 10-week training period. And I have officially completed it.

I was reviewing the Romanian I have learned since I have been here and a lot has been covered. One of which is the names of family members. Nadia made a family tree using pictures of people from magazines to represent the members of a family. So we practiced saying each members name while pointing the members on the family tree. She tried to not use anyone famous, but Mel Brooks was the grandfather. In addition to learning family members, we have learned numbers, months, days of the week, telling time, basic introduction of oneself, describing our family members, and definite and indefinite nouns. I have not mastered everything yet, but I can sometimes pick out a word my host family is saying to each other!

Last night, the Cojusna trainees were invited to a masă with Lauren’s host family. Masă literally means table, but it’s used for feast too. And a feast it was. The food was yummy, and the company was great. My favorite part of the whole experience was despite the fact there was difficulty in understanding each other sometimes due to language, there was still a lot of laughing and fun. For future reference, always say yes to an invitation to a masă.

At dinner today, I was actually starting to understand some of the Moldovan. At the beginning of my time with my host family, I felt awkward sitting at the dinner table with them without being able to contribute anything except if they were looking for an English word. Now, I do not feel that awkwardness. And I listen to what is being said to try to pick out any words I know. Sometimes, I’m very proud of myself cause I can figure out the topic of the conversation. Other times, I doubt my understanding of Moldovan, because there was a point tonight when I thought “monkey” and “aunt” were said in the same sentence. But maybe they have a phrase like “a monkey’s uncle”!