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."
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4 comments:
Oh Katie, those saying are hysterical!! Andy's family has chickens too - they used to behead them, but now they just use them for eggs (not the same chickens). Amazing what happens between the farm and the grocery store that we never see :)
I personally like the one where someone ate their entire host family for breakfast. :)
haha katie, i said so many hilarious things in japanese this past year! i may have posted it on my blog, but my biggest blunder was telling a man that his baby was SCARY when i wanted to say CUTE!!! the words in japanese are so similar!
I feel your pain with explaining English rules. ;-) It gets easier. Really.
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