It's Official

It's official, folks: I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer! What was I the past ten weeks? Only a trainee. The lowest of the low. Even pond scum enjoyed a higher social status. Just kidding! Kind of. Wednesday the M23's were sworn in at the American Ambassadorial Residence. So now the PC claims us as its own. The ceremony itself was pretty cool, albeit boiling hot. We had to sit in the sun for over an hour, and I think it was a pretty hefty accomplishment that none of us passed out!

For reasons not fully comprehended on my part, I was asked to give a speech at the ceremony. Thankfully I was not expected to speak extemporaneously (my apologies to my Speech professor Dr. Stewart--I know he would NOT have approved). I wrote my speech in English, and then it was edited and translated by the powers that be. So all I had to do was practice reading it about a million times and pray fervently that I wouldn't embarrass myself. I gave it, and it went just fine. I don't think I'll be starting a Moldovan public speaking career anytime soon, but I'm okay with that.

Speaking of trying to not embarrass myself, there were tons of press at the ceremony yesterday, and I was interviewed by two different crews. My mind went into autopilot and started spitting out all the Romanian I had learned in class (Moldova is beautiful. The people are nice. I came here because I want to learn more about other cultures, etc.). I do also distinctly remember saying that I love Moldovan food and listing off my favorite dishes. I don't know if my other interview made it on-air, but here is a link to a newsclip about the ceremony. My interview is about halfway through (and if you look really hard, you can see quick snippets of me in the other parts. I was wearing a brown shirt and white skirt). http://www.trm.md/index.php?module=stiri_int&news_id=2891

Try not to laugh too hard, please! ;-)

Chickens, Grammar, and Really Bad Romanian

I came home from school yesterday to discover that my host mom had killed three of our chickens. I missed the actual beheading and de-feathering, but I did get to see the bloody chicken guts laid out in all their glory. It wasn't pretty. As I stood their chatting with my mom, trying to act nonchalant and to not stare at the chicken remains like--well, an American--it occurred to me how much my life has changed in the past 2 months. It's pretty hard to describe all the ways, but let me give you my daily schedule. That might give you a taste of what life is like here for me:

I usually wake up around 6:30. Some days I shower (I'm one of the lucky ones-my host family has a shower). I have breakfast with my host mom. She packs me a bag lunch, and then I leave for school. I meet Rebeach, Erin, and Mike (3 other trainees who live really close), and we walk downhill to school. On the way we say "Buna dimineata!"(Good morning) to everyone we pass. Some people say hello. Others just stare. In addition to people, we usually see sheep, goats, ducks, geese, chickens, turkeys, and cows. At school, there are 8 of us that study Romaian 3-4 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. After language, we either go to our hub site with all of the other trainees for technical/cultural/safety sessions or we have SDA's (self directed activties--PC lingo for free time). My host family doesn't eat dinner until 9:00, so I try to get all of my studying in before then. After dinner (in which I try my best to understand the Romanian flying around me and speak a little bit myself), I go to bed.

My schedule for the past few weeks was a bit more hectic because I had practice school. During PS, every waking hour was either spent in class, teaching, or preparing for class the next day. No free time! Practice school, in case you're wondering, is the PC's version of student teaching for us TEFL trainees. We all taught two different levels of students (I taught 8th and 11th graders). Our students were Moldovan sudents who study English in school and who volunteer to come to practice school during their vacation time. As a result, most of them were strong English speakers and pretty well behaved. My students were amazing! My 11th graders spoke English SO well. I was really impressed. Let me tell you though, teaching English is not as easy as you might think. Have you ever tried explaining why we say "It is sunny" not "Is sunny"? or why "Everyone has" but "All people have"? Native speakers of a language don't know grammar rules--they just know what sounds right!

That being said, Practice School was extremely helpful. Now I have a sense of what Moldovan students are like, and I know that I have the ability to teach. The last week of PST will be pretty easy. Most of our time will be spent reviewing for our language proficiency exam next Monday. Speaking of language, let me end this blog on a humurous note. Below are some translations of phrases inadvertently spoken by my fellow trainees (one of them is mine, but I'm not saying which one). Enjoy!

"She was wearing a tomato."
[pointing to cucumbers] "Are these married?"
"I ate myself for breakfast."
"I ate my whole host family for breakfast."
"I am going to armchair grammar."

photos...for real this time!

Technology has its moments. It really does. For instance, I am writing this blog that people halfway around the world can read 5 seconds after I post it. And I appreciate that. I really do. That being said, I think life would be a lot less stressful if we still used letters and carrier pigeons.

Some of you were lucky enough to see my photos before they mysteriously disappeared. That's all I have to say about that. For about 10 other reasons which I won't go into now because it's still to way too frustrating, I haven't been able to access my blog or re-upload my pictures since then. But now I have! So if you click on the "my photos" link, you'll actually see photos. Magic! I don't know if anyone is still reading this (since it has been ages- I can't blame anyone who has given up on checking back to see if I've updated), but I'm sure at least my parents are still faithfully checking. So Mom and Dad, this is for you. ;-)

Seriously though, I've got lots of things to write about since we just finished 3 weeks of practice school. I will write more again soon, I promise.