Saturday, December 11, 2010

A Semester's Worth of Stories

It’s been a while.

My last blog post is dated August 27 , and now it’s December. I only have two weeks left until the end of my first semester as an English teacher – which means that I am almost a quarter of the way through my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I arrived in Moldova on June 10, and now it’s December 11. The fact that I’ve been living overseas for over six months blows my mind.

One reason that I haven’t written a blog post in so long is because I haven’t had a lot of free time. I teach the sixth, seventh, eight, tenth, and eleventh grades (or “forms,” as we call them here – I think that’s British English). Gymnasium (middle school) students have English twice a week, and lyceum (high school) students have three English lessons a week. Between teaching classes, writing lesson plans, and making teaching materials, I’ve been very busy, and I have a much greater respect for teachers now and all that they do for their students. Thank you to all my teachers for sacrificing your time to help me learn.

Another reason that I haven’t posted in a while is because, according to Peace Corps rules, I’m not supposed to say anything negative on my blog, and, to be honest, my first semester hasn’t been all roses. Teaching is difficult enough, but imagine trying to teach in a different country with a different culture and a very different educational system. The past four months have been challenging, but they have allowed me to grow in ways that I never expected. And the good moments make up for the hard ones ten-fold.

So, to recap my first semester, let’s start at the very beginning (it is, as Frӓulein Maria says, a very good place to start). The first day of school in Moldova (September 1st) begins with a First Bell ceremony. At my school, the first graders sang songs and recited poems. Then the twelfth graders presented the first graders with their first textbooks. After that, one of the twelfth grade boys picked up one of the first graders and carried her around the blacktop while she rang a bell. Throughout this ceremony, I kept thinking about all the first days of school I spent reading aloud from the Prince William County Schools’ Code of Behavior and concluded that the first day of school is much more interesting in Moldova than it is in PWC.

On the first day of school, students also give their teachers flowers. I got some from students I’d never met! The flowers usually come with a short speech asking the teacher to be understanding and patient with students throughout the year.

At my school, there is a dress code which requires students to wear black and white, but the first day of school is usually the only day of the year that the students respect it. On the first day of school, everyone was wearing black and white, and I was wearing green. I think that’s an accurate representation of how I go through life.

October 5th is Teachers’ Day in Moldova. When I walked into school on this day, I was greeted with flowers and a ribbon pin. Throughout the day, there was music blasting in the hallways during all the class changes, and students once again presented their teachers flowers and
speeches – I got some! In the morning, a teachers’ meeting was called, at which students served us coffee, tea, and sweets. After school, there was a masӑ (feast), where I learned that drinking alcohol on school grounds is allowed in Moldova (again, I thought of the Code of Behavior).

As if these things weren’t enough, on Teachers’ Day, the students teach all of the lessons. There were also some twelfth graders who were assigned to be the director (principal) and director adjunct (vice principal) for the day. I’ve decided that I’m a big fan of Teachers’ Day.

I’m also a big fan of Hram, or Village Day. Every village in Moldova has a Village Day, which is like the village’s birthday. My village celebrates Hram on October 14. For Hram, families have many guests and eat A LOT of food, so Hram reminded me of Thanksgiving – except that Hram celebrations last three days. For three nights in a row, my host family had a masӑ, each time with different guests. One morning , I woke up and found three people asleep in my living room who had not been there when I’d gone to bed. There is no school on Hram, and no a lot of learning happens on the days before and after it (another reason why it reminded me of Thanksgiving).

This year, Hram was on a Thursday, which meant that my host mom started cooking on Monday. I helped!...by doing a lot of menial tasks – but I didn’t mind. On Wednesday, I spent three hours de-shelling nuts. I did this outside, and my host mom put a scarf on my head to keep me warm. When my host dad saw me, he laughed and said (in English), “Goodbye, America” and said that I had become Moldovan.

I terms of cooking, I have been doing more than just de-shelling nuts; I’ve been learning how to make traditional Moldovan food. I now know how to make placinta and mamaligǎ. My host mom says that, after two years, I will know how to make every Moldovan dish!

My tastes have also changed since I’ve been here. I used to not like brînzǎ (homemade cheese), and now I eat spoonfuls of it plain. Before I came to Moldova, I wasn’t a big fan of cabbage, and now I crave it. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that vegetables are scarcer here now that winter has set in.

I had another interesting culinary experience on Thanksgiving. My partner teacher told me that she was going to make pumpkin placinta after school (I’ve been eating pumpkin pie – Moldovan style – since October). When I told her that that was a traditional Thanksgiving food, she invited me over to help her make Moldovan pumpkin pie and to show her how to make American pumpkin pie (yes, I made a pie; I can read a recipe). She and her ten-year-old son were fascinated with the American pie, especially the crust because it was so thin and required only a few spoonfuls of water, but her son ate half a pie by himself, so I’d say the American version was a hit. I made two American pies and ate one of them with my partner teacher’s family. We served the other pie to one of our tenth grade classes to thank them for their enthusiastic participation in the seminar that we hosted the day before Thanksgiving.

Yes, I gave a seminar! The raion (region) assigned our school to give a seminar on the topic, “using the internet in the foreign language classroom.” Our seminar consisted of two open lessons, one with sixth form and one with tenth form. Over twenty teachers from the raion attended (there were more teachers in the room than students), and they agreed that both of our lessons were excellent! The official ratings on the participant evaluation forms only went up to “very good,” but our observers decided that that rating wasn’t good enough! I am required to give three seminars throughout my service, and now one of them is already out of the way.

But back to Thanksgiving. I celebrated with other Volunteers who live in a city about an hour away from my village. They are vegetarians, so the meal was going to be meat-free, but then their Romanian tutor donated a goose. However, as we sat down to eat, we realized that the goose wasn’t fully cooked, so it ended up being a meatless Thanksgiving, anyway. The meal was amazing, though, even without Turkey (or goose). We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, noodles, and green bean casserole topped with FRENCH’S FRENCH FRIED ONIONS that had been sent over in a care package. We put one can on the casserole and just ate the other can plain. Including myself, there were eleven people at our meal: five Volunteers; my friends’ Romanian tutor, her husband, and their six-year-old son; my friends’ partner teacher; and my friends’ host parents. Their host dad had returned from Texas that day, where he had been visiting his kids and grandkids. After dinner, we played Texas Hold ‘Em.

Visiting other Volunteers has helped me get the hang of getting around Moldova. There isn’t a lot of transportation to and from my village, so I usually just wait at the bus stop on the side of the highway and flag down rutieras and buses as they come by. Sounds adventurous, doesn’t it?

Until about a month ago, I was going on a walk in my village every day. My village is beautiful, and people usually greet me when I pass them (students greet me in English) – or invite me into their homes. One day, I ran into my student’s mom. Within five minutes of meeting me, she told me that I was a very good girl and asked if I wanted to be her daughter-in-law (this student has an older brother). This was not my first marriage proposal.

These days, it’s too cold and dark to go for walks after school. I’ve had to procure some winter weather items like a knee-length coat – the Poland coat saga will not be repeated! – some more dress pants (one pair is fleece-lined!), warm socks, and winter (fur-lined) boots. My host mom is very happy about my boot purchase. When my partner teacher saw my fuzzy brightly-colored socks, she said, “I know you bought those stockings in Moldova because all Moldovans have them.”

Peace Corps also issued all the PC Moldova Volunteers Yak Trax (imagine tire chains for your shoes). I thought that people in my village would laugh at them, but, so far, everyone who’s seen them thinks that they’re a great idea and wants to know where to get some. This is after people figure out what the Yak Trax are for, of course. One day, I left my Yak Trax on the windowsill of the English classroom. Later, when my partner teacher saw me put them on my shoes, she said, “I thought they were something to put on the mouth of a dog, and I couldn’t figure out why there were two.”

So, that’s how my first semester’s gone down. I’m headed to TURKEY for New Year’s, and I can’t wait to see how Moldovans celebrate Christmas (which is on January 7th).

Peace.