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November was one of those months that flew by just because of the sheer number of events. Here's the rundown.
"Welcome to the space olympics... believe in yourself, take your game to outer space." ~ The Lonley Island
The first weekend in November I was able to play European Handball with some of my 7th and 8th grade students. It was a lot of fun to spend more time with them outside of class. I was, however, disappointed in their lack of athletic ability. It looked to me as if some of the boys had never thrown a ball overhand before and when they did, made it seem like a Lion's quarterback trying desperately to get the ball downfield. The highlight of the day was playing one on one with one of my 8th graders, by far the best athlete of the group, it ended in a scoreless tie after about 5 minutes of us running all over and blocking each other's shots. The low light was while I was playing with the girls and one of them hit me in the no no parts with a rocket of a shot... she could throw harder than any of the boys, it really hurt.
"suntem copii, de acum vom fi, Plini de uimire, plini de iubire." -Guess Who "Locul Potrivit"
"we are the children, since now will be, filled with surprise, filled with love"
My director stopped by my apartment for a visit a few weeks ago and I was talking to him about a few projects I was interested in doing with the kids. His response kind of surprised me. He told me in Romanian "You don't need to do any more projects, you can if you want, but you have done plenty just being here. I know the students haven't improved much in English but we can tell that there has been a change in their heart and the way they see the world.".... hands down one of the best things anyone has ever said to me. Especially since I haven't felt like I've pulled my end of the project department lately... While I'm still not satisfied with what I've done, I do feel better knowing my director and other teachers have noticed a change in the students.
"I may be skinny at times but I'm fat full of rhymes so pass me the mic and Imma grab at it." Jason Mraz, Geek in the pink.
There really aren't many song lyrics that go along with this next part so I just wrote down what was playing. Every semester the English teachers from all over the county get together for a meeting. This semester the one in my area happened to be at my school, more than likely because I am there. Our presentation was on how to correct student error in language usage. I gave a nice little five minute presentation that ended up being more like ten. I thought it went fairly well despite the fact that I had only about three days to prepare and was only given 5 minutes to cover a topic that could have easily taken half an hour. In any case the inspector of our county told me I did a good job so cudos to me!
"See you driving round town with the girl I love and I'm like Forget you and Forget her too!" Cee Lo Brown
The next big event was our moldovan Thanksgiving... Thanks to David and Veronica it was huge success. We had about 15 volunteers come and enjoy a day of cooking, conversation and random hijinx, like licking whipped cream off of ted's head and finding new hilarious songs on youtube. The food was excellent as Veronica out did herself once again and many volunteers pitched in to make it a real feast. You can see pictures here... http://picasaweb.google.com/11082036755
Believe it or not the song is actually pertinent, Amanda showed it to us on youtube and it has now become a group favorite along with another song from Gretel... however, the title of said song is too risque for such a family friendly blog!
"You make me feel like I'm livin a Teenage dream..." Katy Perry
Two days before my seven hour bus ride to bucharest my computer decided it would be fun to Erase everything off of my ipod... I was incensed at the time, but now I am kind of glad it happened, I am still missing a lot of things I enjoyed but it also forced me to get rid of the things I wasn't listening to but thought maybe someday I might. And how can you argue with an event that brings you to a deeper understanding of ms. Katy Perry... exactly, you can't!
"I am in misery, ain't no body who can comfort me..." Maroon 5
The bus ride itself was the worst trip I've had in Romania to date. It even beat out sitting next to woman throwing up for 2 hours on our way to Sibiu... The "bus" left at 11:30 pm... I thought since it was a longer trip it would be more comfortable, but the seats were so close together that I couldn't even get my legs in front of me. I was unable to sleep the entire ride and arrived in Bucharest to the biggest surprise to date... McDonald's had breakfast! While this is a great acheivement for all mankind, the only thought that got me through the trip was that I would be able to have a Big Mac for breakfast... it unfortnately didn't work out that way.
"Alright, maybe that was the wrong bus" - Brent Wienert
"All my life I've been searching for something, something never comes never leads to nothing..." Foo Fighters
The whole purpose of going to Bucharest was to attend Thanksgiving at the Ambassador's house. Being awake for such a long period of time had made me a little loopy but left me unable to sleep, so like always, brent and I set out to find coffee and a distraction. We found Funland in one of the Buch shopping centers and I schooled Brent in Air Hockey... then we checked into our hostel and decided to head towards where we thought the Ambassador's house was... where we thought it was... Neither Brent nor myself are much for planning ahead so we just got on a bus that looked like it was headed in the right direction and for a while I think we were okay, but it took both of us a little while to realize that we were in no way going in the right direction anymore... our main goal was to find the Arc de Triumph and walk from there but all the signs kept saying it was not the way we were going... we got out of the bus and walked for about 2km before asking a cab if he could take us... he apparently didn't want our money and just told us it was up the street... another 3km up the street... then we couldn't find the road that starts with "T" that our friend told us the house was on... thankfully we got there only about 30 min late... another successful buc adventure.
"Inch by Inch row by row, I'm gonna make this garden grow" John Denver
The spread at the Ambassador's was impressive, Peace Corps was well represented with volunteers and the French and Turkish Ambassadors to Romania were both in Attendance. I will say that Veronica is a much better cook than the Ambassador's staff, there were no bacon wrapped somkies or green bean casserole so I will give the food nod to Moldova. We were asked as part of the Ambassador's family tradition to sing a song by John Denver which made the Ambassador's wife very happy. She was definetly greatful for being able to do so and we were happy to oblige her... We were also able to play a little football on the Ambassador's lawn... good times all around.
"If I die before I wake, At least in Heaven I skate" OPM "heaven is a halfpipe.
this one goes out to Brent who was able to guess 23 of 25 songs on my one hit wonders of the 90's albulm... well done sir.
"wow wow wow, can we use 8th grade words here, I dont even know what you just said" Brent Wienert
"Lay down, my friend. Close your eyes, breathe in, And I'll take you there and back again." Daughtry
The weekend ended with a trip up to visit Sarah and Carly, two other volunteers who had made the excursion to bucharest. Sarah was a very gracious host and the weekend had some definite highlights, including trying to get sarah to adopt 5 puppies in the park, making tortillas and tacos, apple bars and Alfredo, to go along with numerous card games and amazing conversation... The only down side was sarah's insistence on playing Daughtry and Nickelback all weekend... hence the song quote... A great way to end the trip, even though we slept maybe a combined 8 hours Friday and Saturday night/morning...
That's all for now, til next time... oh yeah... I'll be home in 16 days!
"I'm just sittin out here watchin Airplanes, Take off, and FLLLLYYYYYY!" Gary Allan
"Welcome to the space olympics... believe in yourself, take your game to outer space." ~ The Lonley Island
The first weekend in November I was able to play European Handball with some of my 7th and 8th grade students. It was a lot of fun to spend more time with them outside of class. I was, however, disappointed in their lack of athletic ability. It looked to me as if some of the boys had never thrown a ball overhand before and when they did, made it seem like a Lion's quarterback trying desperately to get the ball downfield. The highlight of the day was playing one on one with one of my 8th graders, by far the best athlete of the group, it ended in a scoreless tie after about 5 minutes of us running all over and blocking each other's shots. The low light was while I was playing with the girls and one of them hit me in the no no parts with a rocket of a shot... she could throw harder than any of the boys, it really hurt.
"suntem copii, de acum vom fi, Plini de uimire, plini de iubire." -Guess Who "Locul Potrivit"
"we are the children, since now will be, filled with surprise, filled with love"
My director stopped by my apartment for a visit a few weeks ago and I was talking to him about a few projects I was interested in doing with the kids. His response kind of surprised me. He told me in Romanian "You don't need to do any more projects, you can if you want, but you have done plenty just being here. I know the students haven't improved much in English but we can tell that there has been a change in their heart and the way they see the world.".... hands down one of the best things anyone has ever said to me. Especially since I haven't felt like I've pulled my end of the project department lately... While I'm still not satisfied with what I've done, I do feel better knowing my director and other teachers have noticed a change in the students.
"I may be skinny at times but I'm fat full of rhymes so pass me the mic and Imma grab at it." Jason Mraz, Geek in the pink.
There really aren't many song lyrics that go along with this next part so I just wrote down what was playing. Every semester the English teachers from all over the county get together for a meeting. This semester the one in my area happened to be at my school, more than likely because I am there. Our presentation was on how to correct student error in language usage. I gave a nice little five minute presentation that ended up being more like ten. I thought it went fairly well despite the fact that I had only about three days to prepare and was only given 5 minutes to cover a topic that could have easily taken half an hour. In any case the inspector of our county told me I did a good job so cudos to me!
"See you driving round town with the girl I love and I'm like Forget you and Forget her too!" Cee Lo Brown
The next big event was our moldovan Thanksgiving... Thanks to David and Veronica it was huge success. We had about 15 volunteers come and enjoy a day of cooking, conversation and random hijinx, like licking whipped cream off of ted's head and finding new hilarious songs on youtube. The food was excellent as Veronica out did herself once again and many volunteers pitched in to make it a real feast. You can see pictures here... http://picasaweb.google.com/11082036755
Believe it or not the song is actually pertinent, Amanda showed it to us on youtube and it has now become a group favorite along with another song from Gretel... however, the title of said song is too risque for such a family friendly blog!
"You make me feel like I'm livin a Teenage dream..." Katy Perry
Two days before my seven hour bus ride to bucharest my computer decided it would be fun to Erase everything off of my ipod... I was incensed at the time, but now I am kind of glad it happened, I am still missing a lot of things I enjoyed but it also forced me to get rid of the things I wasn't listening to but thought maybe someday I might. And how can you argue with an event that brings you to a deeper understanding of ms. Katy Perry... exactly, you can't!
"I am in misery, ain't no body who can comfort me..." Maroon 5
The bus ride itself was the worst trip I've had in Romania to date. It even beat out sitting next to woman throwing up for 2 hours on our way to Sibiu... The "bus" left at 11:30 pm... I thought since it was a longer trip it would be more comfortable, but the seats were so close together that I couldn't even get my legs in front of me. I was unable to sleep the entire ride and arrived in Bucharest to the biggest surprise to date... McDonald's had breakfast! While this is a great acheivement for all mankind, the only thought that got me through the trip was that I would be able to have a Big Mac for breakfast... it unfortnately didn't work out that way.
"Alright, maybe that was the wrong bus" - Brent Wienert
"All my life I've been searching for something, something never comes never leads to nothing..." Foo Fighters
The whole purpose of going to Bucharest was to attend Thanksgiving at the Ambassador's house. Being awake for such a long period of time had made me a little loopy but left me unable to sleep, so like always, brent and I set out to find coffee and a distraction. We found Funland in one of the Buch shopping centers and I schooled Brent in Air Hockey... then we checked into our hostel and decided to head towards where we thought the Ambassador's house was... where we thought it was... Neither Brent nor myself are much for planning ahead so we just got on a bus that looked like it was headed in the right direction and for a while I think we were okay, but it took both of us a little while to realize that we were in no way going in the right direction anymore... our main goal was to find the Arc de Triumph and walk from there but all the signs kept saying it was not the way we were going... we got out of the bus and walked for about 2km before asking a cab if he could take us... he apparently didn't want our money and just told us it was up the street... another 3km up the street... then we couldn't find the road that starts with "T" that our friend told us the house was on... thankfully we got there only about 30 min late... another successful buc adventure.
"Inch by Inch row by row, I'm gonna make this garden grow" John Denver
The spread at the Ambassador's was impressive, Peace Corps was well represented with volunteers and the French and Turkish Ambassadors to Romania were both in Attendance. I will say that Veronica is a much better cook than the Ambassador's staff, there were no bacon wrapped somkies or green bean casserole so I will give the food nod to Moldova. We were asked as part of the Ambassador's family tradition to sing a song by John Denver which made the Ambassador's wife very happy. She was definetly greatful for being able to do so and we were happy to oblige her... We were also able to play a little football on the Ambassador's lawn... good times all around.
"If I die before I wake, At least in Heaven I skate" OPM "heaven is a halfpipe.
this one goes out to Brent who was able to guess 23 of 25 songs on my one hit wonders of the 90's albulm... well done sir.
"wow wow wow, can we use 8th grade words here, I dont even know what you just said" Brent Wienert
"Lay down, my friend. Close your eyes, breathe in, And I'll take you there and back again." Daughtry
The weekend ended with a trip up to visit Sarah and Carly, two other volunteers who had made the excursion to bucharest. Sarah was a very gracious host and the weekend had some definite highlights, including trying to get sarah to adopt 5 puppies in the park, making tortillas and tacos, apple bars and Alfredo, to go along with numerous card games and amazing conversation... The only down side was sarah's insistence on playing Daughtry and Nickelback all weekend... hence the song quote... A great way to end the trip, even though we slept maybe a combined 8 hours Friday and Saturday night/morning...
That's all for now, til next time... oh yeah... I'll be home in 16 days!
"I'm just sittin out here watchin Airplanes, Take off, and FLLLLYYYYYY!" Gary Allan
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