Finished With Practice School

Hello everyone. So I survived my first experience teaching here in Moldova. It was extreemely challenging, not because the students, but just because this was my first time teaching in front of a group of kids who knew little english, along with creating lesson plans and making ALL my materials by hand! I taught 5th form the first week and it was an eye opener. Most of the children knew very little or no english at all. However, I had to teach the 5th form which assums that these kids have a pretty good understanding of english. However, the textbook had some good exercises for me to use. The 9th form was more challenging in that I had to teach astronomy! So here I was trying to explain the Big Bang Theory and the difference between an meterior and comit (which I don't even know if I know the difference!). My students were really advanced though. We were able to have a debate the first few days of class about different theories concerning creationism, and as the week went on we did a few other creative activities. For this second week I worked with the co-teacher I will be working with in my perminant site for the next two years. I can tell we will be a good team in that we have the same ideas about creativity in the classroom along with dissipline issues.

So the next challenge will be getting through the lat two speaking assessments. The first assessment was really relaxed and comfortable. Basically we had to have a conversation with one of the language teachers along with acting out a situation like buying a present for a friend. On Tuesday we wil have another assessment like this. The last assessment however, will be more formal. Also all the trainees have to prepare some Moldovan songs for our swearing-in ceremony. So that will be interesting to say the least!

Hopefully this coming week I'll be able to download some pictures from practice school. Only one more week or so of training before I can actually call myself a volunteer! It's been the most challenging and unique experiences I have ever had and I have a feeling that this is only the beginning!

Just A little Hello!

This next week is going to be very challenging and exciting. We are starting practice school, which means that all the English Education volunteers will be paired with a Moldovan teacher who will act as a mentor and help us compose lessons for practice school. I will be teaching 5th grade and 9th grade. As far as I know 25 5th graders from the local village will be in my class. Children from the local villages signed up to take part in the practice school. We all were given the correct textbooks and every day we will teach a 45minute lesson in english. I am so nervous and also excited to finally start teaching (even if it is just for practice!). Practice school will last for about two weeks. Wish me Luck!!

Site Visit to Perminent Site!

This weekend I traveled to visit the village that I will be teaching at for the next two years after my training here in Costesti.My new village which is in the north west part of Moldova, has about 5,000 people and the school that I will be working at has around 614 students, 500 of which learn English. The trip there was pretty eventfull. On saturday I met with my school Director in Chisinau (the capital) and we took a buz straight into the village. I had to travel into Chisinau by myself and for anyone who knows me, it won't come as a surprise that I got a little lost. The Peace Corps set a place for us to meet our directors but the map they gave us to find them was hand drawn and for those of us who are directionally challenged, it was difficult. (plus my director does not speak english, so when I was late to getting to our meeting place, you can just imagine how our conversation went on the phone!) But with the right attitude and with a little help from above we finally met each other.

The ride was by bus and it took around 2 hours to get there from Chisinau. Once I got there I got to meet one of my partner teachers and some of the students who go there! My school seems so wonderful. They have a lot of computers with internet for the teachers and the students to use, and they have a seperate English library. I was very impressed with my partner teacher and my director. They were so open to my ideas and it seems like the students are very involved in extra curricular activities. (eventhough some are raising their sibblings by themselves along with taking care of the family garden and house!)

My host family consists of a retired couple. My host mother is 60 and her name is Elfimia and my host father is 67 and is named Nicolaie. It will be a very different experience from my family here in Costesti and I know I will miss my family here very much. But my new host family seems very reseptive and VERY generous. The conditions of the house are very simple and I do not have an indoor toliet like I do here in Costesti..but they gave m the biggest room in there house, and I could tell that they have been preparing for me to come for sometime. It's so amazing how generous people are here, even when life is difficult and they might not have a lot to give. Since my new host parents do not speak any english, our conversations were limited so hopefully in a few months that are left in training I can improve on my romanian.

Later that night, my partner teacher and some of my future students took me out to the center of town and showed me all the buildings and most importantly the disco!! So before I left Chiscarine, I got to dance the hora (the national dance) with most of my future students! Interesting to say the least!

So coming back I got lost again in Chisinau - where it should of taken me 2 hours to get back to Costesti, it took me 4...but my host mother pointed to the word in our english/romanian dictionary that night, which meant to me that the important thing to remember is that I managed and made it home safely without TOO much trouble.

PST IS SOO CRAZY BUSY!

Sorry I haven't been the greatest at updating this! I've send some emails out to people describing my experience here, but I just realized I haven't really done that on here. Romanina is getting really hard in that there is so much to remember from day to day and you really have to practice a ton to have it semented in your brain. Luckily I am hearing the manguage everywhere I go, so I've started to understand the gist of what is being said, it's just creating the sentences on my own that is so difficult for me.

Today I"m learning where my perminent site will be after my training! I have a feeling it will be fairly close to the capital since I brought perscription medication here, but the farthest site in Moldova is only 4 hours from the capital so one is never really far from the Peace Corps Office. I'm a little nervous about my site visit though because all the volunteers are being split up for the first time and everyone has to travel by themselves to meet their director and their new host families. I've really started feeling comfortable with the host family I have now, so it will be hard having to adjust to a new one so soon. Luckily I will be in Costesti, my training site, until the middle of August, so I still have time with my host family here.

Teaching English here in Moldova will be an excreme challenge I think for me. The good thing is that everything is extremely structured here as far as how they want you to write out your lesson plans and how to conduct classes here. However, that can also serve as a challenge because creativily might be hard to impliment due to the strick nature of how classes are run here.

I miss everyone in the states and I hope everything is great overe there! I have to run to class right now, but I'll make sure to let eveyone know about my perminent site as soon as I find out about all the details!

Pictures From Costesti and Chisinau

Ok, So Ihave no idea how to make this look pretty, but here are a select pictures and videos from my host famiy's house in Costesti, a local monistary and just general pictures from my first week in Moldovan. My host family has a nice garden in their backyard where they grow strawberries, cucumbers, and raspberrries ect. The town in mainly situated on a hill and I get a great work out wlking to school everyday. As volunteers we've had a lot of opportunities to sight see a local monistary and the video was talking in the forest where a local group of college students performed traditional Moldovean/ Russian and Romaian dances! Hope you enjoy!

Well Here Goes Nothing..

OK, so I've never done a blog before and seeing as I am not in country right now, there's not much to say besides it's 100 degrees here in Phoenix right now and trying to pack in this heat (especially all those winter cloths) is a test of endurance and motivation. But with only 30 more days before I leave for staging and then Moldova, it's to the point where it either gets done and packed now, or I'll have to go 2 years without it.

Chances are that if you are reading this blog, you already know me and/or you've heard about my plans for the next 2 years. What I want to do with this page is to share what I'm experiencing and learning over here in Moldova with everyone back home.

So far I actually know very little details about what I'm going to be doing over in Moldova. I know the basics, which entails teaching English at the primary level along side a teacher from Moldova and living with a host family for the majority of my stay. The unknown can be a scary thing, and I have to admit I have moments when I wonder what I got myself into...but in the end, the path less traveled can offer a lot to someone who's willing to take it.

So this concludes my random entry which I have to admit was created mainly to test the waters of this whole "blog" thing..and to make my page a little less pathetic looking. Look forward to sharing this experience with anyone who is interested!