Hai la hora noastra!!

So I just got back from chaperoning a middle school dance....... I didn’t really realize that I would be chaperoning, but as I was the only adult in the building for most of the time, I guess I was in charge. Ok, so the assistant principal was out on the front porch of the school, but I was still amazed at the level of supervision that was not present. Realistically though, it wasn’t needed. The kids set up and ran the whole thing themselves, kept each other in line, and cleaned the place up when they were done. It’s amazing what a group of preteens is capable of.

Anyway, back to the awkwardness of being the lone adult/American at the weekend “disco”.

Actually it was kind of fun. I got to witness first hand the awkward slow dancing of 13 year olds. Mix that in with the fact that these kids have gone their whole lives only witnessing white people dance, and the whole evening was nothing but rap infused europop, with a little techno on the side. The highlight of this musical bouillabaisse was the “crazy frog” song. This “catchy tune” is a thumping techno remix of the theme song from Beverly Hills Cop, mixed with random interludes of the “crazy frog” making weird bleeping noises (think-Alvin from the chipmunks, on speed, having convulsions while trying to sing). Despite the fact that each reiteration (10 time in a 2 hour span) was greeted by squeals of joy (in that particular octave that only 10-14 year old girls can achieve), I will be happy to have this one quietly fade from the charts.

As I said, I did have fun. After a while I got over the “fish bowl” feeling and just had fun dancing with the kids. I was able to make a fool of myself dancing the “hora”, which is an amazingly simple traditional Moldovan circle dance, though I seem unable to grasp the oh so difficult concept of “four steps to the right, two to the left”.

Some new pictures

After spending the weekend near the Chisinau I had a few minutes to add a post to the site , but not much time to write before my bus comes. So, here are some pictures of life in my new village.

Some of the grapes outside our house. While grapes and wine are common in Moldova, they are relatively uncommon in my village. We have 5 varieties, and probably more grapes than anyone in the region. The really weird thing is that they actually taste like "Grape" flavored stuff (popsicles, cough syrup), except that they actually taste good. The grapes in the US don't taste like this. We have the common variety of white grapes you see in the store in the US, but they are less typical, and the others species tend to be sweeter and more robust.

Our new German Shepard puppy that is currently being trained to be our guardian. Three months old and ridiculously cute. He has a habit of chasing the chickens though, and eating the eggs before we can collect them.

My host mother is a Romanian language and literature teacher, as well as a fairly decent artist. This painting is on the back wall of her classroom, and is a copy of a famous painting of the Romanian poet Mehei Eminescu. He is somewhat revered here.....Like a god. I have yet to really get into his work, as I still have the vocab of a 6 year old.

Group work in my classroom with the 7th grade class. Yes I actually do have my own class, though it is a rival for most college dorm rooms as far as space goes. I guess I really can't complain though, since in do have my own room at school. As you can see, there is not a large difference in clothing for students, though track suits seem to be the all time frontrunner in favored apparel.

Back from the dead

A shot of Chisinau near the Peace Corps office. You can see the lines for the electric bus system overhead, and the old soviet style apartment buildings.

Hi folks,
Sorry it has been so long since the last update, but for those of you who still actually check the account, I will try to post with more regularity now. The is only one internet connected computer that is publicly available in my region, and close to 50,000 people, so getting time has been a bit interesting, that along with the fact that this computer is 30 minutes by car from my house.
Anyway, I am safely in my new village, and have started working in my school. I helped "repair" my school, which was an interesting process. Due to financial constraints, things are more frequently painted over rather than actually repaired. My school was built in the 60s, and is in reasonably good condition, especially now that the new heating system has been installed. The expression "everything looks perfect from far away" is perfect for describing many things in Moldova though. Every year everything in the school receives a fresh coat of paint, thus everything is "framos" (romanian for beautiful). There are some problems with this though. The major one being that all of the windows have been painted shut. Thus, you can't open the windows.....ever.....and there is no air handling system in the building. This makes my classroom somewhat fragrant. I actually have my own classroom though, which is a wonderful thing, and will make my work that much easier.
Teaching during practice school in my training village.

Tomorrow will be my first real class at my school, three classes to be more precise, completely in Romanian. Should be interesting to say the least. I did well at my end of training evaluation for language, but there is a large difference between a test and real life. Throw in the fact that the kids use incorrect grammar, talk fast, and actually speak a mix of romanina & Russian and my life gets real interesting. Hopefully it will all improve as my language does. I think I just need to get through the first six months without losing my mind.
Outside of school life is pretty darn good. My host family is great, a single mom and little brother......along with a cow, 8 pigs, 10 chickens, 4 dogs, and 7 geese. Needless to say, you always watch were you step when you are outside. My host mom is also a teacher, Romanian grammar among other things, which is great and horrible and the same time. My language will improve fairly quickly I feel, as long as I can continue to tolerate being continually corrected. Every once and a while though, a could use a quite meal without a grammar lesson.
She really does mean well though, and all other aspects of life are nearly blissful. All of the horror stories from other volunteer families simply aren't true in my house. They respect my privacy (remember there is no word for the concept of privacy in Romanian), they let me cook (unheard of for men generally), and they both speak slowly and clearly, and never seem to lose patience with my infantile language.
We spent over 12 hours harvesting potatoes yesterday, and though it was a lot of hard work, we generally laughed and had fun the whole time. We talked about life, told jokes, sang songs, and generally made the spine deforming process fairly enjoyable. I really do feel lucky to be where I am.
I will try and post again soon, hope all is well in the states, and in the rest of Moldova. My condolences to those affected by the recent storms in the southern US. I hope that the recovery effort gets a little more steam behind it and that things get cleaned up as quickly as possible.

Kids practicing gymnastics outside my school in my training village.