Hey Guys!
I hada very nice last day of classes. My kids in Pleternitza brought a ton of food to class and we listened to Shakira. They all decorated the board with I love Emma signs it was very sweet. One girls mom offered to take me to their horse farm. I was delighted but since my train left at 345 I couldnt go. I said good bye to my host brothers, giving them both big hugs and my host mom drove me to the train station. They really are such kind people. I met two English girls on the train and we chatted for nearly two hours. We are meeting to go to dinner at 9. I really do love meeting new people while traveling, however as a travel girl ive limited it strictly to only girls who are my age and appear completly and totally normal whilst alone. I am staying in a very beautiful old hotel here (my parents offered to pay and I was like well OK!) It is so nice to sleep in a big bed by myself and take a good shower. I take the night train tomorrow night at 9 and Ill be with Evan by 4 pm on Saturday! I am so excited for Prague, all throughout this long seperation Prague has been this magic catch word of ours, this bright bright adventure at the end of my trip. Its going to be wonderful, I just know it.
Love you all so much! Ill be home soon and I cant wait to hug my family!
Emma
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Split and My Last Week in Croatia!
Hey!
Ive been doing a whole lot of reading here, from Anna Karena to The Narcissm Epidemic, and I just finsihed another book and I am sort of in that wonderful dreamy afterglow of finishing a great book. It was The Cowards by Josef Skvorecky and I feel all busted open and mixed up and dazzled by how good it was. It is all about a small town in the Czech Republic during the end of World War Two and a group of boys in a jazz band. They are young innocent idealistic and obsessed with girls. It was just lovely and God I love a good book. Also, I am meeting Evan in Prague in just 4 days, so it was extra exciting.
So, this weekend I went to Split, which is the second biggest city in Croatia and a huge tourist spot on the Croatian Coast. It was stunning, imagine the Jersey Shore mixed with the South of France.
Getting there was a huge hassel, especially since I jumped on the wrong train on my way to Zagreb which delayed me about 2 hours. Altogether it was about 12 hours of travel. I felt a bit souless when I finally did arrive at Splits bus station. I jumped in a cab, made my way to my hostel and then headed out to the main part of town for dinner.
This weekend was the first time I have ever traveled truly by myself and it was an interesting experience. I had some very pure moments where I felt so independent and happy, but I also felt a bit lonely at times. Ive been away for a very long time at this point, and I really miss my boyfriend and my family.
The waterfront of Split is amazing, it looks out into the harbor where massive yahts float and tiny water taxis buzz around. I wandered around and ate a crepe, then headed back to the hostel. It was thunderstorming that night, so I just stayed in and went to bed pretty early. It was great to get a good nights sleep and I woke up at 830 am ready to go.
Saturday was a fantastic day. I made my way to the old town of Split and people watched while sipping my cappucino. I saw so many Italian and British families, which really made me miss my own family. I remember watching this one family, a mom a dad and a teenage girl. She had her ipod on while they were eating breakfast and I looked at her and felt so mad. If I was with my mom there was no way I would be listening to music at the breakfast table! I felt jealous.
The old town of Split is amazing. It is bult around the old palace of the ancient rulers of Split, Diocletans Palace. Everything is made of white marble, the floor, the walls the buildings. It seems like you are walking into this hot dusty winter wonderland, it is all so white. It is filled with charming little alleyways, romantic arches, and tourists. The juxstaposition of desginer stores and old apartment buildings with laundry flapping magesticly on the porch was excellent. I wandered around all mornign, with a grin plastered on my face soaking it all in.
I had decided to check out the beaches of Split in the afternoon. I got a bit lost on my way there and ended up in the docks, where baffled tourists were boarding cruise ships that would take them to see the famous isalnds of Croatia
I finally made it to the beaches and ate pizza alone by the water. The water is a really great shade of blue grey green here. I wandered further down the coast, and finally settled down on the farthest beach, which was lined with immense rocks rounded by the crashing waves. I sat on a paticularly flat one and read my new book, feeling alone and small and a bit awed by the sea. Later on a girl about my age sprawled out her towel on the concrete behind me. She was on holiday here. She was a model from Sweden and quizzed me for insider details about New York City. I told her I could totally give her the low down on Rockland Lake, but she would probably get more accurate information from a Wikipedia search than me. Im an upstate girl. She told me about modeling in Dubai and I told her about the ways the leaves change in autumn in NY. I miss home, I miss New York.
We parted ways and I wandered to yet another deserted beach, where I layed in the pebbles and read. It was hot, and the water felt so sweet. I started to wonder how much better this would be if my sister or Evan were there, if I had someone to share this beauty with. I stopped myself though and repeated my mantra fro the weekend: Stop striving and just enjoy. It was one of the best hours of my whole trip here.
I trudged back to my hostel at 6, feelign pleasantly exhausted. I had walked at least 6 miles that day while exploring and I felt good and achy and sandy, the way I always do after a long day on LBI with my family. I met a girl from New Zealand in the hostel lobby and she invited me to dinner with her and her friend. We clicked instantly and I agreed to meet them.
I really connected with my two new friends from New Zealand over a luxiouriously long dinner in an adorable restaurant overlooking the bay. We ordered a huge bottle of wine, and spent nearly 3 hours comparing cultures, traveling experiences, and school plans. We talked about boys and realationships and I felt the familiar intimacy of girl talk that I had missed so much. One of them is traveling through the US and Canada for 4 months after she is done backpackign around Europe and I think I will meet her in NYC for a weekend or so. The other girl told me about how she is becoming an au pair in Paris for a year. It seemed so brave and wonderful that these two girls my age were traveling so much and with so much zest. I really liked them a lot.
The next morming I woke up and tried to figure out train schedules. It seemed I would have to leave at 530 pm and not arrive in Sulkovci until around 430 am. There didnt really seem to be any other options because the train to my village runs so infrequently. I checked out, determined to enjoy my last few hours in Split. I meandered to the old tow, but inside I couldnt quell my anxiety over such a crazy amount of travel. I shopped for a bit, picking up a beautiful prsent for Evan and a good one for my brother as well.
It was 130, and I on a whim stopped at this tiny restaurant Posiedon hidden in an alleyway. I sat down and ordered cuttlefish risotto with mussles and a big glass of wine. As I sat and stared at the beautiful ivy covered arches gracing the cramped corners of that white washed alley way, I finally felt at peace. It was hands down the most delicious food I have had here yet and I felt much more relaxed. After my lunch, I sat down on the edge of the dock with my legs dangling close to the water and stared out inot the water. I really loved Split. I want to go back,tow days simply wasnt enough. Next time, I want to try to do some of the islands as well, and maybe even take a ferry to Italy.
At 530 O got on my bus and started my long journey back. Thankfully Pasco was able to pick me up in Nova Kapela so I arrived home more around 230 am. It was a great weekend and I feel really proud of myself for just going it alone.
Also, Marko has been really nice to me lately. The other day Pasco was using the bike so I walked to school in Pleternitza which take about 45 minutes. I was sittign in a cafe planning my lessons when Marko showed up. He rode my bike down to the school so I wouldnt have to walk back and then had his friend take him home with his moped. It was a really sweet gesture. Also, hes lately been offering to watch movies with me. Hes really into scary movies and thrillers, which are not exactly my cup of teac, but I appreciate the gesture.
Today is my last day in Sulkovci, and I am so excited to meet Evan in Prague in just 3 days. I havent seen him for two months and we havent been able to talk on the phone for two weeks, so its been really hard. I know Prague is going to wonderful, but I am sad this program is finally over. I loved so many things about it, and I feel like Ive grown up so much.
I ate more tomatos in Romania than I could imagine and more zucchinis than I thought possible in Croatia. Ive been eternally curious as to why no one in either country seems very bothered about refrigerating milk. Ive eaten a lot of weird stuff, and liked the majority of it. Ive fallen in love with my students and felt the deep satisfaction of knowing that I actually got through to them. Ive met people who have challenged my beliefs, my assumptions and simply made me think. Ive met people who do crazy things, who embrace travel as a lifestyle, and been inspired to push myself and my ambitions further because of their example. Ive caught the travel bug and I want to see the rest of the world. Ive decided I really want to go to Africa. Ive accidentally gone to Slovenia. Ive been humbled by the kindness complete strangers have shown me. Ive felt discouraged, frustrated, and homesick, but never lost faith in the program. Ive been convinced that education really is the best tool for developement and that children everywhere are equally adorable, annoying, wonderful and lovable. Ive learned to lesson plan, Ive made a fool of myself in front of 7 year olds and loved every minute of it. Ive met two families who have opened their doors to me with such warmth and hospitality. Their kindness inspires me. I know now that I have two more places to call home in the world. Ive realized that no matter how many trains I miss, with patience I will get where I need to go. Ive noticed that rushing and worrying is not quite as useful as I thought, and sometimes I just have to take adeep breath and figure it out calmly. Ive tried to go with flow, be open to culture of my host families, and been pleasantly surprised by the results. Ive tried not to judge (and not always succeeded) and been hurt when other people judge me according to their assumptions about Americans. Ive learned that I can travel alone, eat in restaurants alone, and simply just be alone and feel happy. Ive realized that humanity and kindness are not bound by any culture, and well we are all generally a whole lot more alike than different. Ive grown up a lot. I came here to teach, but I ended up learning so much. This experience has been lifechanging, and I know I am not the same girl who got on a plane to Budapest with a big suitcase and a whole lot of fear and hope 6 and half weeks ago. I feel more blessed, more aware of the world. In short, Ive had the time of my life.
Now its time for my last class.
I love you all so much. Ill be home in a week and a half, so Ill see you soon!
Emma
Ive been doing a whole lot of reading here, from Anna Karena to The Narcissm Epidemic, and I just finsihed another book and I am sort of in that wonderful dreamy afterglow of finishing a great book. It was The Cowards by Josef Skvorecky and I feel all busted open and mixed up and dazzled by how good it was. It is all about a small town in the Czech Republic during the end of World War Two and a group of boys in a jazz band. They are young innocent idealistic and obsessed with girls. It was just lovely and God I love a good book. Also, I am meeting Evan in Prague in just 4 days, so it was extra exciting.
So, this weekend I went to Split, which is the second biggest city in Croatia and a huge tourist spot on the Croatian Coast. It was stunning, imagine the Jersey Shore mixed with the South of France.
Getting there was a huge hassel, especially since I jumped on the wrong train on my way to Zagreb which delayed me about 2 hours. Altogether it was about 12 hours of travel. I felt a bit souless when I finally did arrive at Splits bus station. I jumped in a cab, made my way to my hostel and then headed out to the main part of town for dinner.
This weekend was the first time I have ever traveled truly by myself and it was an interesting experience. I had some very pure moments where I felt so independent and happy, but I also felt a bit lonely at times. Ive been away for a very long time at this point, and I really miss my boyfriend and my family.
The waterfront of Split is amazing, it looks out into the harbor where massive yahts float and tiny water taxis buzz around. I wandered around and ate a crepe, then headed back to the hostel. It was thunderstorming that night, so I just stayed in and went to bed pretty early. It was great to get a good nights sleep and I woke up at 830 am ready to go.
Saturday was a fantastic day. I made my way to the old town of Split and people watched while sipping my cappucino. I saw so many Italian and British families, which really made me miss my own family. I remember watching this one family, a mom a dad and a teenage girl. She had her ipod on while they were eating breakfast and I looked at her and felt so mad. If I was with my mom there was no way I would be listening to music at the breakfast table! I felt jealous.
The old town of Split is amazing. It is bult around the old palace of the ancient rulers of Split, Diocletans Palace. Everything is made of white marble, the floor, the walls the buildings. It seems like you are walking into this hot dusty winter wonderland, it is all so white. It is filled with charming little alleyways, romantic arches, and tourists. The juxstaposition of desginer stores and old apartment buildings with laundry flapping magesticly on the porch was excellent. I wandered around all mornign, with a grin plastered on my face soaking it all in.
I had decided to check out the beaches of Split in the afternoon. I got a bit lost on my way there and ended up in the docks, where baffled tourists were boarding cruise ships that would take them to see the famous isalnds of Croatia
I finally made it to the beaches and ate pizza alone by the water. The water is a really great shade of blue grey green here. I wandered further down the coast, and finally settled down on the farthest beach, which was lined with immense rocks rounded by the crashing waves. I sat on a paticularly flat one and read my new book, feeling alone and small and a bit awed by the sea. Later on a girl about my age sprawled out her towel on the concrete behind me. She was on holiday here. She was a model from Sweden and quizzed me for insider details about New York City. I told her I could totally give her the low down on Rockland Lake, but she would probably get more accurate information from a Wikipedia search than me. Im an upstate girl. She told me about modeling in Dubai and I told her about the ways the leaves change in autumn in NY. I miss home, I miss New York.
We parted ways and I wandered to yet another deserted beach, where I layed in the pebbles and read. It was hot, and the water felt so sweet. I started to wonder how much better this would be if my sister or Evan were there, if I had someone to share this beauty with. I stopped myself though and repeated my mantra fro the weekend: Stop striving and just enjoy. It was one of the best hours of my whole trip here.
I trudged back to my hostel at 6, feelign pleasantly exhausted. I had walked at least 6 miles that day while exploring and I felt good and achy and sandy, the way I always do after a long day on LBI with my family. I met a girl from New Zealand in the hostel lobby and she invited me to dinner with her and her friend. We clicked instantly and I agreed to meet them.
I really connected with my two new friends from New Zealand over a luxiouriously long dinner in an adorable restaurant overlooking the bay. We ordered a huge bottle of wine, and spent nearly 3 hours comparing cultures, traveling experiences, and school plans. We talked about boys and realationships and I felt the familiar intimacy of girl talk that I had missed so much. One of them is traveling through the US and Canada for 4 months after she is done backpackign around Europe and I think I will meet her in NYC for a weekend or so. The other girl told me about how she is becoming an au pair in Paris for a year. It seemed so brave and wonderful that these two girls my age were traveling so much and with so much zest. I really liked them a lot.
The next morming I woke up and tried to figure out train schedules. It seemed I would have to leave at 530 pm and not arrive in Sulkovci until around 430 am. There didnt really seem to be any other options because the train to my village runs so infrequently. I checked out, determined to enjoy my last few hours in Split. I meandered to the old tow, but inside I couldnt quell my anxiety over such a crazy amount of travel. I shopped for a bit, picking up a beautiful prsent for Evan and a good one for my brother as well.
It was 130, and I on a whim stopped at this tiny restaurant Posiedon hidden in an alleyway. I sat down and ordered cuttlefish risotto with mussles and a big glass of wine. As I sat and stared at the beautiful ivy covered arches gracing the cramped corners of that white washed alley way, I finally felt at peace. It was hands down the most delicious food I have had here yet and I felt much more relaxed. After my lunch, I sat down on the edge of the dock with my legs dangling close to the water and stared out inot the water. I really loved Split. I want to go back,tow days simply wasnt enough. Next time, I want to try to do some of the islands as well, and maybe even take a ferry to Italy.
At 530 O got on my bus and started my long journey back. Thankfully Pasco was able to pick me up in Nova Kapela so I arrived home more around 230 am. It was a great weekend and I feel really proud of myself for just going it alone.
Also, Marko has been really nice to me lately. The other day Pasco was using the bike so I walked to school in Pleternitza which take about 45 minutes. I was sittign in a cafe planning my lessons when Marko showed up. He rode my bike down to the school so I wouldnt have to walk back and then had his friend take him home with his moped. It was a really sweet gesture. Also, hes lately been offering to watch movies with me. Hes really into scary movies and thrillers, which are not exactly my cup of teac, but I appreciate the gesture.
Today is my last day in Sulkovci, and I am so excited to meet Evan in Prague in just 3 days. I havent seen him for two months and we havent been able to talk on the phone for two weeks, so its been really hard. I know Prague is going to wonderful, but I am sad this program is finally over. I loved so many things about it, and I feel like Ive grown up so much.
I ate more tomatos in Romania than I could imagine and more zucchinis than I thought possible in Croatia. Ive been eternally curious as to why no one in either country seems very bothered about refrigerating milk. Ive eaten a lot of weird stuff, and liked the majority of it. Ive fallen in love with my students and felt the deep satisfaction of knowing that I actually got through to them. Ive met people who have challenged my beliefs, my assumptions and simply made me think. Ive met people who do crazy things, who embrace travel as a lifestyle, and been inspired to push myself and my ambitions further because of their example. Ive caught the travel bug and I want to see the rest of the world. Ive decided I really want to go to Africa. Ive accidentally gone to Slovenia. Ive been humbled by the kindness complete strangers have shown me. Ive felt discouraged, frustrated, and homesick, but never lost faith in the program. Ive been convinced that education really is the best tool for developement and that children everywhere are equally adorable, annoying, wonderful and lovable. Ive learned to lesson plan, Ive made a fool of myself in front of 7 year olds and loved every minute of it. Ive met two families who have opened their doors to me with such warmth and hospitality. Their kindness inspires me. I know now that I have two more places to call home in the world. Ive realized that no matter how many trains I miss, with patience I will get where I need to go. Ive noticed that rushing and worrying is not quite as useful as I thought, and sometimes I just have to take adeep breath and figure it out calmly. Ive tried to go with flow, be open to culture of my host families, and been pleasantly surprised by the results. Ive tried not to judge (and not always succeeded) and been hurt when other people judge me according to their assumptions about Americans. Ive learned that I can travel alone, eat in restaurants alone, and simply just be alone and feel happy. Ive realized that humanity and kindness are not bound by any culture, and well we are all generally a whole lot more alike than different. Ive grown up a lot. I came here to teach, but I ended up learning so much. This experience has been lifechanging, and I know I am not the same girl who got on a plane to Budapest with a big suitcase and a whole lot of fear and hope 6 and half weeks ago. I feel more blessed, more aware of the world. In short, Ive had the time of my life.
Now its time for my last class.
I love you all so much. Ill be home in a week and a half, so Ill see you soon!
Emma
Monday, July 26, 2010
Theres Hope For My First Class!
Hey All,
Just wanted to report I am feeling MUCH more positive about teaching than this morning. My last two classes went very well and I even managed to convince the bike hooligans (the boys who hang out arund the school and ride their bikes) to come to class, inflating my first class to a solid 12 kids! I dont know if theyll all return but one in paticular seemed very into it. It was a nice victory. I was hanging around the school house ab0out 10 minutes ago and ran into about 5 girls from my first class. I made them all pinky promise to come to class tomorrow and I think they will. Thank God!
I love and miss you all!
Emma
Just wanted to report I am feeling MUCH more positive about teaching than this morning. My last two classes went very well and I even managed to convince the bike hooligans (the boys who hang out arund the school and ride their bikes) to come to class, inflating my first class to a solid 12 kids! I dont know if theyll all return but one in paticular seemed very into it. It was a nice victory. I was hanging around the school house ab0out 10 minutes ago and ran into about 5 girls from my first class. I made them all pinky promise to come to class tomorrow and I think they will. Thank God!
I love and miss you all!
Emma
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Zagreb, Croatian Folk Music, and Cute Babies!
Hey Everyone!
I had such an awesome weekend here in Croatia! My last two classes on Friday went really well. I taught my oldest class about New York and then I had them write mini compositions about their favorite city. I thought they would all do Zagreb or a coastal city, but the majority of them actually chose Pleternica, their hometown which has around 4000 people. I thought it was pretty cute how much they love their home. They gave reasons like You cant get lost, and I was born here. After that we did an excercie where they had to fill in the blanks to the lyrics of one of my favorite songs. I taught them the names of different music generas. Then they showed me some Croatian folk music. We were all laughing and chatting by the end of class. It was a really fun class and definitely restored my faith in myself as a teacher a bit.
Also, I am pretty sure my family slaughtered a sheep on Friday because I heard what may have been sheep screams and then a huge bowlful of meat appeared in the kitchen. Oh and when I went to go play with the kittens in the yard this morning I saw their dog Juro playing with what looked like a long intestine. Oh yeah.
Friday night my host brothers were staying in so I headed over to the elemetary school where all the teenagers aged 16 to 25 hang out every single night. There are usually like 15 people there or so. The majority of them dont speak English, but Ive gotten pretty creative to communicate with them and I have made a few solid friends. Its pretty funny, whenever I get across something about myself to one person, everyone knows the next day. For example I told one girl who speaks some English that I spoke Spanish. The next day everyone was saying Hola! to me when I came. One of the boys rode a moped there and offered to give me a ride home (it wasnt very far considering Im three houses away from the school). I jumped on and it was quite a thrill. Croatians are very funny people, everyone is constantly teasing each other and laughing uproariously. Its a very jokey sort of culture. I had a pretty good time hanging out on Friday, even though I understood about 5 percent of what was going on.
On Saturday, I decided to take a day trip to Zagreb by myself. I woke up at around 7, and my host brother Pasco walked me to the local train station. Basically you turn down this dirt path, walk for a half a mile through endless fields of wheat, and smack dab in the middle of this farmalnd there is a tiny little house where an old couple lives and 2 train tracks. This is the train station. The level of public transportation is just unreal here compared to the USA. Sulkovci is a village of 700 people and it has its own train station. Yes, its in the middle of a feild, but its there! You can get basically anywhere in Europe with pluck and a working knowledge of bahn.com (this German website is a lifesaver for figuring out train schedules). You truly do not need a car here to get around. It really is a deep flaw of America that our transportation system is so undeveloped.
So I hoped on the train, which took me to Nova Kapela where I connected to my next train to Zagreb. All in all it took me about 2 and a half hours. I arrived in Zagreb, immediatly got lost for 30 minutes, and then made my way to the Archelogical Museum. I was feeling pretty tired (I havent been sleeping very well here) so I popped into the first cafe I saw. It was the restaurant of a very expensive hotel. It was a very expensive cappuccino and crosiante by Croatian terms, but for about a half an hour I felt like I was in the USA (sort of) which was worth it in a way.
The musuem was totally sweet. They had an awesome exhibit on Greek vases that totally blew my mind. They were so stunning yet playful. They also had all this cool Eygptian art and even a mummy. I started to think about my class on the History of Rome next semester and got a nerdtastic rush of excitement. I love nerdy stuff like that so I was in heaven wandering around. I started to feel kind of tired and out of it though, so I headed out.
I headed over to the main square, where I picked up some beautful handcrafted earrings and an almond pastry at a craft fair. It was starting to rain and I was very glad my host mom gave me an umbrella. I walked down further looking for the pizza place one of the musuem emplyees recommeded to me (I always eat pizza whenever I can here it makes me feel sort of at home hahah). As I walked I started to feel more achey, tired, and cloudy. I ate and decided to take an earlier train back, I just really didnt feel good. I walked back and shopped a bit, although I sort of made my purchases in a haze.
I got on the train back and a Croatian lady let me use her cell phone so I could tell my host brother to come pick me up. I slept on the train and felt a bit better. My host mother came and picked me up and some random guy got in the car with us. After a few minutes I figured out he was a friend of Pascos she had run into. There is definitily a certain friendliness and willingness to trust here that you dont see very often in the US.
I went right to bed when I got home, slept until 930 and then with great effort rallied to go out with Pasco and Marko. A few of their friends showed up and we piled into their friends car. The guy who was driving has a utterly unprnoucable Croatian name starting with an M. He also speaks zero English. I started calling him Mike which everyone thinks is hilarious. They all shout Mike Tyson when he shows up.
We headed to their favorite bar and ordered some beers. It was me and about 9 Crotain boys so I just kind of observed while they chattered away in Croatian. Its cutomary in Croatia for girls to never pay for drinks and literally the whole entire night all of their friends were falling over themselves to buy me drinks. It was really sweet of them, but I had three full drinks sitting in front of me at one point. Ive made a point to drink very sparingly whole Ive been in Europe. I have a policy of not drinking heavily in an sort of unfamiliar location. Its just too dangerous. Its worked out pretty well so far.
After about an hour and half, we headed to a different bar that was sort of more like a club. Its kind of hilarious that Pleternitza, which only has 3000 to 4000 people has like 5 times as many bars and clubs than New City. I ran into my Candian friend Tomaslav there, which was a relief. Everyone was having a great time and Marko was even talking to me! (ive been trying terribly ahrd to be his friend for the last week with sort of mixed results hes a very shy guy). Around 1 am, the music switched to traditional Croatian folk and rock music. As the night went on it got more and more traditional. Also, everyone is related to each other here. Every girl I asked about was a cousin or the sister of someones aut who I was with.
I think Pasco could tell I was slightly intimadated by the amount of Coatian dudes staring at me (when everyone knows each other the one American chick really sticks out). He turned to me and said Emma do not worry. I know everyone in bar. I protect you. Noone touch you. It was really nice to see how protective my two host brothers were of me the entire night, and true to their word they didnt leave my side.
At one point, Pascos brothers brother in law (i know thats quite a mouthful), pulled me into some sort of Croatian folk dance. You sort of went over then under other couples while holding hands with your partner. It was ridiculous and great.
Around 2 am, the music switched to hardcore Croatian songs. Tomaslav told me they were all about the war and how beautiful the land is. Everyone had their arms around each other and was swaying to the music, singing every word of the Croatian songs. It was a sort of surreal moment with 5 Croatian dudes hugging each other and me drunkenly singing about Croatia.
Also, I talked with Pasco a bit about the war yesterday. This area was very near to the fighting, just 15 kilometers away. Many many people died in the war and it is hard to believe it was only 15 years ago. Both sides committed acts of extreme violence that many call genocide. Pasco described it as neighbor against neighbor, as Serbs and Croatians have a nearly identical language and a very similar culture. Dijana, my country cordiantor, told me about how she had to leave her village in Bosnia at 16 to escape the fighting and continue her education. In many ways, it seems Croatia and Bosnia are still healing from this violence.
We headed home around 3 and I ate my left over cold pizza from the fridge with Pasco and we talked like old friends. It was a great night. I think they might take me to the Croatian Coast this wekend which would be so fun.
The next morning I woke up at 10 to go to church with my host mom. Somewhere around 95 percent of Croatia is Catholic and religions a pretty big part of life here. Many house have these sort of personal shrines to Jesus on their front law, little huts made of pretty stones and a glass door with a huge statue and a place to kneel inside. Its kind of intense. I am Catholic, and have always been religious so I thought it would be a good way for me and Mrs. Anka (my host mom) to bond. Also, I miss going to church regularly. I go almost every week in Georgetown and my faith is a very important part of my life.
So, we arrive at church and Mrs. Anka tells me she sings in the choir and heads off the the other side of the church leaving me. I wasnt really sure where to sit exactly. Most young people were standing in the back. Anyways I took a seat and isntantly started to zone out. It was hard to pay attention when everything is in Croatian. I attempted to match up the prayers and responces to the English version, but was hopelessly confused. The homely was sort of angry sounding. Also, two babes were baptized which is always very nice to see. I saw one of my favorite students at church, Martina. Shes a really sweet girl. She is also one of the most strikingly beautiful 12 year olds I have every seen in my life.
I was really confused when they finally got to the Eucharist. First of all, they only kneeled for a very short time and not everyone kneeled. This may have been because it really hurt to kneel there were no cushions just stright up wood. I expected poeple to line up to recieve, but then I saw about one fourth of people shuffle to the center aisle to recieve. It was almost all elderly people so I thought maybe the old people go first and then everyone else?? I was extra confused when they then started to put away the bread after. I have no idea why only about 1 out of 4 people recieved. Maybe they are really earnest about not recieving Eucharist if you dont go to confession? I was extremly confused about the whole Eucharist part, but it was really great to be in a church and pray.
After the service, my host mom announced we were going to visit her two week old granddaughter. She is a beautiful baby and I was filled with the wonder and happiness as I touched her tiny little fingers one by one. Mrs. Anka is a sort of tough lady but she totally melted with the new baby, cooing to her in Croatian. She later told me I was Annas "special guest" because she kept looking at me.
After lunch I sort of mooched around all day in PJs. It was a rainy lazy day. At night, Pasco and Marko set up this elaborate screen so we could watch a bootleg version of Robin Hood.
I had another dissappointing day of teaching today. Noone showed up to my first class. I knew at least 4 of my regular 7 were goign to the sea for the week, but still I was shocked and depressed when after sitting in the classroom alone for 20 minutes I finally locked up and walked home. Pasco told me that it wasnt my fault they are all on vacation and I am trying to not take it personally. I just dont feel as needed by my kids here, and I am questioning how much I am accomplishing here. I know its not my fault and I do have 10 very good kids in my other classes, but its hard to not feel disappointed that teaching here is not as fulfilling as Oradea. I know every village placement is different and has different needs, but I am struggling to feel fulfilled by my work here. If I can make a difference in the lives of my 10 other students, then I know its worth it, but Im just frustrated.
I am also feeling pretty homesick. I miss my mom and my bed and sushi. I miss Evan. Sometimes its just a bit lonely to be the foreigner, especially in a village this small. I know my time here is meaningful, but its going to be nice to be home.
Oh a quick obseration on village life, everyone here says hello (bog!) to each other. Its lovely. I really do feel lucky that I am getting to experience village life. There isnt anything quite like a village in the US, and there is something so innocent and comforting about knowing everything about your neighbor it seems to me.
I miss you all more than words can say. I love you.
Emma
I had such an awesome weekend here in Croatia! My last two classes on Friday went really well. I taught my oldest class about New York and then I had them write mini compositions about their favorite city. I thought they would all do Zagreb or a coastal city, but the majority of them actually chose Pleternica, their hometown which has around 4000 people. I thought it was pretty cute how much they love their home. They gave reasons like You cant get lost, and I was born here. After that we did an excercie where they had to fill in the blanks to the lyrics of one of my favorite songs. I taught them the names of different music generas. Then they showed me some Croatian folk music. We were all laughing and chatting by the end of class. It was a really fun class and definitely restored my faith in myself as a teacher a bit.
Also, I am pretty sure my family slaughtered a sheep on Friday because I heard what may have been sheep screams and then a huge bowlful of meat appeared in the kitchen. Oh and when I went to go play with the kittens in the yard this morning I saw their dog Juro playing with what looked like a long intestine. Oh yeah.
Friday night my host brothers were staying in so I headed over to the elemetary school where all the teenagers aged 16 to 25 hang out every single night. There are usually like 15 people there or so. The majority of them dont speak English, but Ive gotten pretty creative to communicate with them and I have made a few solid friends. Its pretty funny, whenever I get across something about myself to one person, everyone knows the next day. For example I told one girl who speaks some English that I spoke Spanish. The next day everyone was saying Hola! to me when I came. One of the boys rode a moped there and offered to give me a ride home (it wasnt very far considering Im three houses away from the school). I jumped on and it was quite a thrill. Croatians are very funny people, everyone is constantly teasing each other and laughing uproariously. Its a very jokey sort of culture. I had a pretty good time hanging out on Friday, even though I understood about 5 percent of what was going on.
On Saturday, I decided to take a day trip to Zagreb by myself. I woke up at around 7, and my host brother Pasco walked me to the local train station. Basically you turn down this dirt path, walk for a half a mile through endless fields of wheat, and smack dab in the middle of this farmalnd there is a tiny little house where an old couple lives and 2 train tracks. This is the train station. The level of public transportation is just unreal here compared to the USA. Sulkovci is a village of 700 people and it has its own train station. Yes, its in the middle of a feild, but its there! You can get basically anywhere in Europe with pluck and a working knowledge of bahn.com (this German website is a lifesaver for figuring out train schedules). You truly do not need a car here to get around. It really is a deep flaw of America that our transportation system is so undeveloped.
So I hoped on the train, which took me to Nova Kapela where I connected to my next train to Zagreb. All in all it took me about 2 and a half hours. I arrived in Zagreb, immediatly got lost for 30 minutes, and then made my way to the Archelogical Museum. I was feeling pretty tired (I havent been sleeping very well here) so I popped into the first cafe I saw. It was the restaurant of a very expensive hotel. It was a very expensive cappuccino and crosiante by Croatian terms, but for about a half an hour I felt like I was in the USA (sort of) which was worth it in a way.
The musuem was totally sweet. They had an awesome exhibit on Greek vases that totally blew my mind. They were so stunning yet playful. They also had all this cool Eygptian art and even a mummy. I started to think about my class on the History of Rome next semester and got a nerdtastic rush of excitement. I love nerdy stuff like that so I was in heaven wandering around. I started to feel kind of tired and out of it though, so I headed out.
I headed over to the main square, where I picked up some beautful handcrafted earrings and an almond pastry at a craft fair. It was starting to rain and I was very glad my host mom gave me an umbrella. I walked down further looking for the pizza place one of the musuem emplyees recommeded to me (I always eat pizza whenever I can here it makes me feel sort of at home hahah). As I walked I started to feel more achey, tired, and cloudy. I ate and decided to take an earlier train back, I just really didnt feel good. I walked back and shopped a bit, although I sort of made my purchases in a haze.
I got on the train back and a Croatian lady let me use her cell phone so I could tell my host brother to come pick me up. I slept on the train and felt a bit better. My host mother came and picked me up and some random guy got in the car with us. After a few minutes I figured out he was a friend of Pascos she had run into. There is definitily a certain friendliness and willingness to trust here that you dont see very often in the US.
I went right to bed when I got home, slept until 930 and then with great effort rallied to go out with Pasco and Marko. A few of their friends showed up and we piled into their friends car. The guy who was driving has a utterly unprnoucable Croatian name starting with an M. He also speaks zero English. I started calling him Mike which everyone thinks is hilarious. They all shout Mike Tyson when he shows up.
We headed to their favorite bar and ordered some beers. It was me and about 9 Crotain boys so I just kind of observed while they chattered away in Croatian. Its cutomary in Croatia for girls to never pay for drinks and literally the whole entire night all of their friends were falling over themselves to buy me drinks. It was really sweet of them, but I had three full drinks sitting in front of me at one point. Ive made a point to drink very sparingly whole Ive been in Europe. I have a policy of not drinking heavily in an sort of unfamiliar location. Its just too dangerous. Its worked out pretty well so far.
After about an hour and half, we headed to a different bar that was sort of more like a club. Its kind of hilarious that Pleternitza, which only has 3000 to 4000 people has like 5 times as many bars and clubs than New City. I ran into my Candian friend Tomaslav there, which was a relief. Everyone was having a great time and Marko was even talking to me! (ive been trying terribly ahrd to be his friend for the last week with sort of mixed results hes a very shy guy). Around 1 am, the music switched to traditional Croatian folk and rock music. As the night went on it got more and more traditional. Also, everyone is related to each other here. Every girl I asked about was a cousin or the sister of someones aut who I was with.
I think Pasco could tell I was slightly intimadated by the amount of Coatian dudes staring at me (when everyone knows each other the one American chick really sticks out). He turned to me and said Emma do not worry. I know everyone in bar. I protect you. Noone touch you. It was really nice to see how protective my two host brothers were of me the entire night, and true to their word they didnt leave my side.
At one point, Pascos brothers brother in law (i know thats quite a mouthful), pulled me into some sort of Croatian folk dance. You sort of went over then under other couples while holding hands with your partner. It was ridiculous and great.
Around 2 am, the music switched to hardcore Croatian songs. Tomaslav told me they were all about the war and how beautiful the land is. Everyone had their arms around each other and was swaying to the music, singing every word of the Croatian songs. It was a sort of surreal moment with 5 Croatian dudes hugging each other and me drunkenly singing about Croatia.
Also, I talked with Pasco a bit about the war yesterday. This area was very near to the fighting, just 15 kilometers away. Many many people died in the war and it is hard to believe it was only 15 years ago. Both sides committed acts of extreme violence that many call genocide. Pasco described it as neighbor against neighbor, as Serbs and Croatians have a nearly identical language and a very similar culture. Dijana, my country cordiantor, told me about how she had to leave her village in Bosnia at 16 to escape the fighting and continue her education. In many ways, it seems Croatia and Bosnia are still healing from this violence.
We headed home around 3 and I ate my left over cold pizza from the fridge with Pasco and we talked like old friends. It was a great night. I think they might take me to the Croatian Coast this wekend which would be so fun.
The next morning I woke up at 10 to go to church with my host mom. Somewhere around 95 percent of Croatia is Catholic and religions a pretty big part of life here. Many house have these sort of personal shrines to Jesus on their front law, little huts made of pretty stones and a glass door with a huge statue and a place to kneel inside. Its kind of intense. I am Catholic, and have always been religious so I thought it would be a good way for me and Mrs. Anka (my host mom) to bond. Also, I miss going to church regularly. I go almost every week in Georgetown and my faith is a very important part of my life.
So, we arrive at church and Mrs. Anka tells me she sings in the choir and heads off the the other side of the church leaving me. I wasnt really sure where to sit exactly. Most young people were standing in the back. Anyways I took a seat and isntantly started to zone out. It was hard to pay attention when everything is in Croatian. I attempted to match up the prayers and responces to the English version, but was hopelessly confused. The homely was sort of angry sounding. Also, two babes were baptized which is always very nice to see. I saw one of my favorite students at church, Martina. Shes a really sweet girl. She is also one of the most strikingly beautiful 12 year olds I have every seen in my life.
I was really confused when they finally got to the Eucharist. First of all, they only kneeled for a very short time and not everyone kneeled. This may have been because it really hurt to kneel there were no cushions just stright up wood. I expected poeple to line up to recieve, but then I saw about one fourth of people shuffle to the center aisle to recieve. It was almost all elderly people so I thought maybe the old people go first and then everyone else?? I was extra confused when they then started to put away the bread after. I have no idea why only about 1 out of 4 people recieved. Maybe they are really earnest about not recieving Eucharist if you dont go to confession? I was extremly confused about the whole Eucharist part, but it was really great to be in a church and pray.
After the service, my host mom announced we were going to visit her two week old granddaughter. She is a beautiful baby and I was filled with the wonder and happiness as I touched her tiny little fingers one by one. Mrs. Anka is a sort of tough lady but she totally melted with the new baby, cooing to her in Croatian. She later told me I was Annas "special guest" because she kept looking at me.
After lunch I sort of mooched around all day in PJs. It was a rainy lazy day. At night, Pasco and Marko set up this elaborate screen so we could watch a bootleg version of Robin Hood.
I had another dissappointing day of teaching today. Noone showed up to my first class. I knew at least 4 of my regular 7 were goign to the sea for the week, but still I was shocked and depressed when after sitting in the classroom alone for 20 minutes I finally locked up and walked home. Pasco told me that it wasnt my fault they are all on vacation and I am trying to not take it personally. I just dont feel as needed by my kids here, and I am questioning how much I am accomplishing here. I know its not my fault and I do have 10 very good kids in my other classes, but its hard to not feel disappointed that teaching here is not as fulfilling as Oradea. I know every village placement is different and has different needs, but I am struggling to feel fulfilled by my work here. If I can make a difference in the lives of my 10 other students, then I know its worth it, but Im just frustrated.
I am also feeling pretty homesick. I miss my mom and my bed and sushi. I miss Evan. Sometimes its just a bit lonely to be the foreigner, especially in a village this small. I know my time here is meaningful, but its going to be nice to be home.
Oh a quick obseration on village life, everyone here says hello (bog!) to each other. Its lovely. I really do feel lucky that I am getting to experience village life. There isnt anything quite like a village in the US, and there is something so innocent and comforting about knowing everything about your neighbor it seems to me.
I miss you all more than words can say. I love you.
Emma
Friday, July 23, 2010
For a Village of 700 people, Sulkovci is Pretty Happenin
Hey Everyone,
Ay, so much has happened in the last few days and I have so much to tell about my new host family and my new kids. After my stressful travel to Croatia, I finally arrive at my host familys house at 730 in the morning, about 9 hours late but pretty pumped. When we pulled up, I noticed the ridiculous amount of chicken feathers on the front law. The oldest brother in my family who lives in a different village just had his first daughter, and my host brother told me it is a Croatian tradition to dump chicken feathers on the familys lawn as a prank after a new baby is born. Dijana dropped me off and I met my host mother. Shes a pretty cool lady, but she doesnt speak any English really. Shes the German teacher at the local highschool so basically she speaks German to me I speak English back and we both wave our hands around a lot. Its pretty hilarious to watch according to my host brothers. Also, side note, I totally went for the hug hello with my host mom and brothers, and they all went for the handshake so it was super awkward haha.
I also met my two host brothers, Marco and Pasco. Marco just turned 19. He is tall and wears glasses. He is a nice guy but pretty shy around me. Pasco is 22 and in school to become a music teacher. He is really friendly and always down to chat.
My host family here has a sort of mini farm in their backyard. Their property had a sort of interesting lay out. Its like 20 feet wide and reallly long. They have a dog named Juro and a few cats and a ton of kittens. In the back is a big garden, chicken coops (and the chickens who live in them), some turkeys (who really are very unfortunate looking creatures), and a sheep pen. At night I can hear the sheep (shuffle shuffle baaaaaaa snort) and the roosters wake me up.
They already knew I was a vegetarian and have been super understanding of that so far. Its been really nice. I laugh remembering how my Romanian host mother would serve me golosh with both soy and pork chucks floating around. Most of what they eat comes directly from their garden, so its been really tasty. Also the eggs rock. No, seriously its like an egg ephiphany. The other night my host mom made sort of stir friend onions and red peppers with paprika (they are all about the parika) and then cracked an egg in the veggies and made it over easy. Then we ate it with this awesome thick grainy bread. It was dobro! (Thats Croatian for Good! I just sort of shout Dobro continuosly through every meal because its basically the only word I know)
The very first night I was here was Markos 19th birthday. Pasco told me they were having a few friends over to celebrate. When I came out of the shower there were about 10 very quizzical Croatian boys in the front yard, drinking my host moms homemade wine with Coke. It was one fo the most intimidating social situaions I have even been in my life because everyone was chattering in Croatian and I understood not a word except for my own name which came up suspiciously often. Pasco said when I first sat down Emma dont worry after three drink Everyone speak english! And true enough later on it was much more fun and I talked to a few of Markos friends. They made me take a sip of my host moms homemade plum schnapps and whoooa it was strong! Just a sip literally cleared my sinuses. They told me it was 70 proof and I believe it.
Teaching here is very very different than Oradea. For one, I only have about 20 to 25 kids in my three classes. Also, they are at a much more beginner level and much less enthusiastic about learning English. It is much more challenging than Oradea, and I am struggling to adapt my teaching style. Some things have worked and some have just failed miserably. However, one thing remains consistant the kids are adorbale and sweet and well as great as every kid is.
My first class of the day is my hardest and today was my most challenging day of teaching I have yet faced. I walked in and began to write out my lesson on the board. I wanted to teach them a little bit about New York before doing the usual vocabulary and grammer stuff. One of other volunteers gave me this idea to draw out the mouments of NYC and then explain them. So I drew the Empire State Building, the Satue of Liberty, Little Italy, Broadway, Cental Park ect. When I was done I started class. I was immediatly frustrated when the kids in the back row pulling their favorite trick, laying their heads down on the desk and pretending to sleep. I told them to sit up or go home and then started to teach. They were talking the whole time, and I finally lost it when I was talking about the 9 11 terrorist attacks and they were all giggling and not paying attention. I turned and said Anna and Kristina thousands of people died in the twin towers what is funny about that????!!! After that we started the regular lesson (we were doing descriptive words tall short fat skinny ect). Things went ok until I tried to get them to play pictionary with vocabulary words. They usually love competitive games like that (I give stickers to the winning team), but today no one was interested and they all kept saying We dont want to play This isnt fun. I finally lost my temper a bit and shouted Fine! If noone wants to play the game well do grammer and writing! Everyone sit down. 5 minutes later, one of my favorite students Josipa asked to go to the bathroom. She had gone only 20 minutes ago so I said No Josipa class is ending in 5 minutes you can go then. And then she started to cry. I ended class a few minutes later and put my head on my desk, feeling near to tears myself. I felt like a failure. Why couldnt I get them engaged? What was I doing wrong?
It was a hard day today, but after talking to my mom who was a teacher for a very long time, I realize that classes like are part of the territory of teaching. Sometimes it just doesnt work and sometimes you just have a bad day. I am really going to try to change my teaching style up to get them more interested. I have some ideas for Monday, so well see how it goes.
My later classes are much easier and my kids are loads more cooperative. Yesterday I had a really successful second class on descriptive words that was both fun and useful. Also my older class is good fun, they are all at very differnet levesl though so it is a challenge to create lesson plans that dont leave the more advanced ones bored or the less advanced confused. We did a lesson on directions that was really fun. We went outside and took turns blindfolding one student while another gave him verbal directions to a tree I chose. I let them blindfold me at the end which was terrifying but hilarious.
Although my host brothers are kind of shy around me ( I get the sense that they are like what the heck do we do with the peppy talkative American girl who just landed in our kitchen), Ive really made an effort to talk to them and its paying off. I think we are going out together tonight.
Every night all the Sulkovci teenagers go and hang out of the school steps (its a village of 700, so this is the cool hang out spot). Ive been going every night and through some effort have made some friends. Also, there is randomly this Canadian family here visiting family and we are buds because they speak English.
Tomorrow I think I am going to Zagreb for the day because its only two hour train and well its the capital of Croatia so why not. I am going by myself I think, so Ill probably just wander around museums all day which should be nice I think. And on Sunday they are taking me to some sort of lake so that should be fun.
I miss you all terribly. I also really miss pizza hahah.
Love you all!
Emma
Ay, so much has happened in the last few days and I have so much to tell about my new host family and my new kids. After my stressful travel to Croatia, I finally arrive at my host familys house at 730 in the morning, about 9 hours late but pretty pumped. When we pulled up, I noticed the ridiculous amount of chicken feathers on the front law. The oldest brother in my family who lives in a different village just had his first daughter, and my host brother told me it is a Croatian tradition to dump chicken feathers on the familys lawn as a prank after a new baby is born. Dijana dropped me off and I met my host mother. Shes a pretty cool lady, but she doesnt speak any English really. Shes the German teacher at the local highschool so basically she speaks German to me I speak English back and we both wave our hands around a lot. Its pretty hilarious to watch according to my host brothers. Also, side note, I totally went for the hug hello with my host mom and brothers, and they all went for the handshake so it was super awkward haha.
I also met my two host brothers, Marco and Pasco. Marco just turned 19. He is tall and wears glasses. He is a nice guy but pretty shy around me. Pasco is 22 and in school to become a music teacher. He is really friendly and always down to chat.
My host family here has a sort of mini farm in their backyard. Their property had a sort of interesting lay out. Its like 20 feet wide and reallly long. They have a dog named Juro and a few cats and a ton of kittens. In the back is a big garden, chicken coops (and the chickens who live in them), some turkeys (who really are very unfortunate looking creatures), and a sheep pen. At night I can hear the sheep (shuffle shuffle baaaaaaa snort) and the roosters wake me up.
They already knew I was a vegetarian and have been super understanding of that so far. Its been really nice. I laugh remembering how my Romanian host mother would serve me golosh with both soy and pork chucks floating around. Most of what they eat comes directly from their garden, so its been really tasty. Also the eggs rock. No, seriously its like an egg ephiphany. The other night my host mom made sort of stir friend onions and red peppers with paprika (they are all about the parika) and then cracked an egg in the veggies and made it over easy. Then we ate it with this awesome thick grainy bread. It was dobro! (Thats Croatian for Good! I just sort of shout Dobro continuosly through every meal because its basically the only word I know)
The very first night I was here was Markos 19th birthday. Pasco told me they were having a few friends over to celebrate. When I came out of the shower there were about 10 very quizzical Croatian boys in the front yard, drinking my host moms homemade wine with Coke. It was one fo the most intimidating social situaions I have even been in my life because everyone was chattering in Croatian and I understood not a word except for my own name which came up suspiciously often. Pasco said when I first sat down Emma dont worry after three drink Everyone speak english! And true enough later on it was much more fun and I talked to a few of Markos friends. They made me take a sip of my host moms homemade plum schnapps and whoooa it was strong! Just a sip literally cleared my sinuses. They told me it was 70 proof and I believe it.
Teaching here is very very different than Oradea. For one, I only have about 20 to 25 kids in my three classes. Also, they are at a much more beginner level and much less enthusiastic about learning English. It is much more challenging than Oradea, and I am struggling to adapt my teaching style. Some things have worked and some have just failed miserably. However, one thing remains consistant the kids are adorbale and sweet and well as great as every kid is.
My first class of the day is my hardest and today was my most challenging day of teaching I have yet faced. I walked in and began to write out my lesson on the board. I wanted to teach them a little bit about New York before doing the usual vocabulary and grammer stuff. One of other volunteers gave me this idea to draw out the mouments of NYC and then explain them. So I drew the Empire State Building, the Satue of Liberty, Little Italy, Broadway, Cental Park ect. When I was done I started class. I was immediatly frustrated when the kids in the back row pulling their favorite trick, laying their heads down on the desk and pretending to sleep. I told them to sit up or go home and then started to teach. They were talking the whole time, and I finally lost it when I was talking about the 9 11 terrorist attacks and they were all giggling and not paying attention. I turned and said Anna and Kristina thousands of people died in the twin towers what is funny about that????!!! After that we started the regular lesson (we were doing descriptive words tall short fat skinny ect). Things went ok until I tried to get them to play pictionary with vocabulary words. They usually love competitive games like that (I give stickers to the winning team), but today no one was interested and they all kept saying We dont want to play This isnt fun. I finally lost my temper a bit and shouted Fine! If noone wants to play the game well do grammer and writing! Everyone sit down. 5 minutes later, one of my favorite students Josipa asked to go to the bathroom. She had gone only 20 minutes ago so I said No Josipa class is ending in 5 minutes you can go then. And then she started to cry. I ended class a few minutes later and put my head on my desk, feeling near to tears myself. I felt like a failure. Why couldnt I get them engaged? What was I doing wrong?
It was a hard day today, but after talking to my mom who was a teacher for a very long time, I realize that classes like are part of the territory of teaching. Sometimes it just doesnt work and sometimes you just have a bad day. I am really going to try to change my teaching style up to get them more interested. I have some ideas for Monday, so well see how it goes.
My later classes are much easier and my kids are loads more cooperative. Yesterday I had a really successful second class on descriptive words that was both fun and useful. Also my older class is good fun, they are all at very differnet levesl though so it is a challenge to create lesson plans that dont leave the more advanced ones bored or the less advanced confused. We did a lesson on directions that was really fun. We went outside and took turns blindfolding one student while another gave him verbal directions to a tree I chose. I let them blindfold me at the end which was terrifying but hilarious.
Although my host brothers are kind of shy around me ( I get the sense that they are like what the heck do we do with the peppy talkative American girl who just landed in our kitchen), Ive really made an effort to talk to them and its paying off. I think we are going out together tonight.
Every night all the Sulkovci teenagers go and hang out of the school steps (its a village of 700, so this is the cool hang out spot). Ive been going every night and through some effort have made some friends. Also, there is randomly this Canadian family here visiting family and we are buds because they speak English.
Tomorrow I think I am going to Zagreb for the day because its only two hour train and well its the capital of Croatia so why not. I am going by myself I think, so Ill probably just wander around museums all day which should be nice I think. And on Sunday they are taking me to some sort of lake so that should be fun.
I miss you all terribly. I also really miss pizza hahah.
Love you all!
Emma
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Mid Point Break and my Adventures Getting to Croatia
Hey Guys!
So much has happened in the last few days, it feels like a century ago that I was hugging Dora, my host sister in Orade, good bye. I had such an amazing indescribable time in Romania, I will never ever forget it.
My mid point break is Oradea was really fun, but kind of of hectic. I arrived at the hostel we were staying at pretty early and hung around till around 9 waiting for everyone to arrive. it was awesome to trade teaching horror stories, compare our kids cuteness, and laugh over some of the more awkward situations created by the language barrier. It was just so wonderful to talk to the other volunteers and compare our experiences. Also I got some good lesson plan ideas. Its difficult to explain how refreshing it was to talk with native English speakers again. We were all joking around about how we never use contractions or slang words with our host families because it just confuses them. (What you do, what mean hang out??)
That night my two really good friends from the program and I did a bit of clubbing. It was great to dance it up with them and show them around Oradea. Also, Csilla came and humg out with us for a bit.
The next day I was the designated tour guide of Oradea and it was really fun to be the expert. I showed them this really famous church in Oradea called the Moon Church because there is this sort of sphere on the front of it that they change to show the moons cycle of waxing and waning.
That night the girl who had been staying with my current Croatian host family arrived. She was absolutly covered in mosquite bites and immediatly told me I need to stock up on bug spray and hydrocortison cream because the mosquitos are insane in Croatia. My mom made me bring a bug net here which I thought was absolutly ridiculous at the time of packing, but I was so relieved she forced me to after seeing the countless bites feeckling her legs.
Later on that day I and the two other people going to Croatia went to go buy our train tickets. I was getting a bit nervouse about the travel, as I would have to take three different trains and travel for about 18 hours in total. We bought our tickets pretty easily and headed back, picking up snacks for the train and bugspray on our way back.
Tha night was really fun. We were all finally together and we went out for a nice dinner with our conutry cordinator. Also my friend Edina came. I really love that girl, she is simply a good person from her head to her toes. I told my program cordinator to chat her up because she could totally be a future country cordinator.
That ngiht we all went out to together to a local bar. At around 1 am we left and sat at this outdoor cafe eating massive sundaes. It was such a nice feeling, to sit outside in a cafe, eating huge sundaes as clubbers sashayed past us. America really needs to get into the whole outdoor cafe thing because we are seriously missing out. After that we did a bit of clubbing, but I knew I had to wake up at 6 am for my train so I didnt stay out very late.
It was sad to say good bye to the rest of the volunteers , I really do feel like I made some lasting friends. We all have such similar interests and values, I feel like I have so much in common with them. Also, after sharing such a life changing experience I know we will always be connected.
The next morning we trudged out the the train station and caught our train from Oradea to Budapest. It was a very empty train so we were able to sprawl out unrestrained on the seats which was great. We talked up possibly trying to plan some weekend trips while in Croatia, either to Sarayevo (the capital of Bosnia), the Croatian Coast, or Zagreb (The capital of Croatia). We arrived in Budapest, and I and another volunteer caught our train to Zagreb with no issues. The train was supposed to be 6 and a half hours long but it ended up being about 2 hours late. For the last hour or so I chatted with some British backpackers in my train carriage. They were very sweet and carried my luggage out for me. My last train from Zagreb to Nova Kapela was at 912 pm. I arrived in Zagreb at just about 905 and literally sprinted through the train station. I hurridly bought a train ticket with my credit card, and raced to platform 2a, the platform the ticket lady had told me shouting Good Bye! to my British friends over my shoulder. I jumped onto the train at platform 2a, and settled into an empty carriage feeling pretty great that I managed to make my train with only 8 minutes.
Some scruffy looking backpackers opened the door to the carriage. They were laughing and chattering in fast French and I was a bit bummed that my quiet carriage was so loud now. The train took off a few minutes later and I settled into my book. After about 30 minutes or so someone opened the carriage door and asked for my passport. I was confused, why would they want my passport if I was already in Croatia. Shrugging, I handed it over along with my ticket. The ticket guy took one look at my ticket and started going No, no, no. When I asked him what was wrong he said I not speaking ze English no no no. One of the French guys turned to me and said You are on the wrong train. Shocked, I asked Isnt this train goign to Nova Kapela. Looking a bit concerned he answered, You are in Slovenia. I was floored. In my head I just kept thinking omg omg omg Im in the wrong country! Its nighttime! I dont have a working cell phone! Im alone! Im in freaking Slovenia! I am screwed! These thoughts almost paralyzed me, but I knew I had to keep it together and stay focused in order to get back to Zagreb.
Seeing I was near tears (keep in mind I had also been traveling for about 18 hours at this point), the French guys I thought were so goofy and weird comforted me and even let me try to use their cell phone. They helped me carry my bags to the door and told me I had to get off at the next stop because I didnt have a ticket. As they wished me luck and the train sped away, I could tell they were worried about me.
Thankfully the train conductor at the very small Slovenian station spoke English and told me the next train back to Zagreb was arriving in 10 minutes. When I asked if I could use the phone, he looked at me and sarcastically said Of course you cannot use the phone. I was like alright then, guess not Mr. Helpful. I sat in his office for a few minutes and then hopped on a train heading in the opposite direction.
Feeling thourally shaken, I sat down in a bright carriage filled with Spanish back packers and a friendly Croatian woman who looked at my worried face with motherly concern. I asked her if I could be my ticket back to Zagreb with a debit card on the train, and she said she didnt think so. Panicking, I started to worry I was going to be kicked off my second train of the night. I almost started to cry (for the second time) when she said Dont worry I will buy your ticket. I was amazed by her genorisity.
I finally made it back to Zagreb and was ablt to catch the 1155 pm train. So basically I went to Slovenia for like an hour. On the way to Nova Kapela, a guy in my carriage stayed up with me just so I wouldnt miss my stop.
When I finally arrived in Nova Kapel (after just about 22 hours of traveling) the train conductor told me Dijana, the Croatian country cordinator who was to pick me up, had told him to look for me and the call her. Mario, the train guy, was super nice and let me use in labtop while I waited.
That day was one of the most stressful days of my life, but I really do feel like I met so many guardian angels that day. From the Croatian woman who offered to buy my ticket to the countless people who helped me carry my bag, I was amazed by the extraordinary kindness total strangers showed me throughout my travel.
Dijana came to pick me up 10 minutes later, She is extremly sweet and speaks English fluently. Because it was around 3 am, I slept at her house that night in her 7 year old daughters bunk bed. I was so glad to finally sleep I just passed out.
At 730 am we drove over to my host familys house. I have so much to tell about my new host family my village and my kiddies and I will write more later!
I am really missing home and all of you! I love you so much.
Emma
So much has happened in the last few days, it feels like a century ago that I was hugging Dora, my host sister in Orade, good bye. I had such an amazing indescribable time in Romania, I will never ever forget it.
My mid point break is Oradea was really fun, but kind of of hectic. I arrived at the hostel we were staying at pretty early and hung around till around 9 waiting for everyone to arrive. it was awesome to trade teaching horror stories, compare our kids cuteness, and laugh over some of the more awkward situations created by the language barrier. It was just so wonderful to talk to the other volunteers and compare our experiences. Also I got some good lesson plan ideas. Its difficult to explain how refreshing it was to talk with native English speakers again. We were all joking around about how we never use contractions or slang words with our host families because it just confuses them. (What you do, what mean hang out??)
That night my two really good friends from the program and I did a bit of clubbing. It was great to dance it up with them and show them around Oradea. Also, Csilla came and humg out with us for a bit.
The next day I was the designated tour guide of Oradea and it was really fun to be the expert. I showed them this really famous church in Oradea called the Moon Church because there is this sort of sphere on the front of it that they change to show the moons cycle of waxing and waning.
That night the girl who had been staying with my current Croatian host family arrived. She was absolutly covered in mosquite bites and immediatly told me I need to stock up on bug spray and hydrocortison cream because the mosquitos are insane in Croatia. My mom made me bring a bug net here which I thought was absolutly ridiculous at the time of packing, but I was so relieved she forced me to after seeing the countless bites feeckling her legs.
Later on that day I and the two other people going to Croatia went to go buy our train tickets. I was getting a bit nervouse about the travel, as I would have to take three different trains and travel for about 18 hours in total. We bought our tickets pretty easily and headed back, picking up snacks for the train and bugspray on our way back.
Tha night was really fun. We were all finally together and we went out for a nice dinner with our conutry cordinator. Also my friend Edina came. I really love that girl, she is simply a good person from her head to her toes. I told my program cordinator to chat her up because she could totally be a future country cordinator.
That ngiht we all went out to together to a local bar. At around 1 am we left and sat at this outdoor cafe eating massive sundaes. It was such a nice feeling, to sit outside in a cafe, eating huge sundaes as clubbers sashayed past us. America really needs to get into the whole outdoor cafe thing because we are seriously missing out. After that we did a bit of clubbing, but I knew I had to wake up at 6 am for my train so I didnt stay out very late.
It was sad to say good bye to the rest of the volunteers , I really do feel like I made some lasting friends. We all have such similar interests and values, I feel like I have so much in common with them. Also, after sharing such a life changing experience I know we will always be connected.
The next morning we trudged out the the train station and caught our train from Oradea to Budapest. It was a very empty train so we were able to sprawl out unrestrained on the seats which was great. We talked up possibly trying to plan some weekend trips while in Croatia, either to Sarayevo (the capital of Bosnia), the Croatian Coast, or Zagreb (The capital of Croatia). We arrived in Budapest, and I and another volunteer caught our train to Zagreb with no issues. The train was supposed to be 6 and a half hours long but it ended up being about 2 hours late. For the last hour or so I chatted with some British backpackers in my train carriage. They were very sweet and carried my luggage out for me. My last train from Zagreb to Nova Kapela was at 912 pm. I arrived in Zagreb at just about 905 and literally sprinted through the train station. I hurridly bought a train ticket with my credit card, and raced to platform 2a, the platform the ticket lady had told me shouting Good Bye! to my British friends over my shoulder. I jumped onto the train at platform 2a, and settled into an empty carriage feeling pretty great that I managed to make my train with only 8 minutes.
Some scruffy looking backpackers opened the door to the carriage. They were laughing and chattering in fast French and I was a bit bummed that my quiet carriage was so loud now. The train took off a few minutes later and I settled into my book. After about 30 minutes or so someone opened the carriage door and asked for my passport. I was confused, why would they want my passport if I was already in Croatia. Shrugging, I handed it over along with my ticket. The ticket guy took one look at my ticket and started going No, no, no. When I asked him what was wrong he said I not speaking ze English no no no. One of the French guys turned to me and said You are on the wrong train. Shocked, I asked Isnt this train goign to Nova Kapela. Looking a bit concerned he answered, You are in Slovenia. I was floored. In my head I just kept thinking omg omg omg Im in the wrong country! Its nighttime! I dont have a working cell phone! Im alone! Im in freaking Slovenia! I am screwed! These thoughts almost paralyzed me, but I knew I had to keep it together and stay focused in order to get back to Zagreb.
Seeing I was near tears (keep in mind I had also been traveling for about 18 hours at this point), the French guys I thought were so goofy and weird comforted me and even let me try to use their cell phone. They helped me carry my bags to the door and told me I had to get off at the next stop because I didnt have a ticket. As they wished me luck and the train sped away, I could tell they were worried about me.
Thankfully the train conductor at the very small Slovenian station spoke English and told me the next train back to Zagreb was arriving in 10 minutes. When I asked if I could use the phone, he looked at me and sarcastically said Of course you cannot use the phone. I was like alright then, guess not Mr. Helpful. I sat in his office for a few minutes and then hopped on a train heading in the opposite direction.
Feeling thourally shaken, I sat down in a bright carriage filled with Spanish back packers and a friendly Croatian woman who looked at my worried face with motherly concern. I asked her if I could be my ticket back to Zagreb with a debit card on the train, and she said she didnt think so. Panicking, I started to worry I was going to be kicked off my second train of the night. I almost started to cry (for the second time) when she said Dont worry I will buy your ticket. I was amazed by her genorisity.
I finally made it back to Zagreb and was ablt to catch the 1155 pm train. So basically I went to Slovenia for like an hour. On the way to Nova Kapela, a guy in my carriage stayed up with me just so I wouldnt miss my stop.
When I finally arrived in Nova Kapel (after just about 22 hours of traveling) the train conductor told me Dijana, the Croatian country cordinator who was to pick me up, had told him to look for me and the call her. Mario, the train guy, was super nice and let me use in labtop while I waited.
That day was one of the most stressful days of my life, but I really do feel like I met so many guardian angels that day. From the Croatian woman who offered to buy my ticket to the countless people who helped me carry my bag, I was amazed by the extraordinary kindness total strangers showed me throughout my travel.
Dijana came to pick me up 10 minutes later, She is extremly sweet and speaks English fluently. Because it was around 3 am, I slept at her house that night in her 7 year old daughters bunk bed. I was so glad to finally sleep I just passed out.
At 730 am we drove over to my host familys house. I have so much to tell about my new host family my village and my kiddies and I will write more later!
I am really missing home and all of you! I love you so much.
Emma
Thursday, July 15, 2010
My Kids are FOR SURE the Cutest Kids in Oradea
Hey Everyone
So today was my last day of teaching here in Oradea, Romania. It was such a special happy day. I played a lot of games with my three younger classes today including variations of duck duck goose which included sheep sheep horse and a lot of hang man. Duck duck goose was a huge hit in every class although it got slightly dangrous at times whith kids leaping over chais at brea neck speeds. i thin they totally got a kick out of seeing me whip off my sandels and run my butt off like the rest of the 9 year olds. Every time one of them would choose me for goose they would pause, giggle, and then excitedly smck my head shouting "goooooseee". I had my littlest ones draw me pictures and i totally intend on decking my apartment room out with them once get back to Georgetown.
Probably the best part of the day was my older class. For the last week and a half they have been working on writng plays in small groups. I gave each grop a theme: Willd Wild West, Prom Night, Aliens, and Fairytale land. They got super into it and the results were hilarious. Wild Wild West group was decked ot in plaid and had semi realistic revolvers. My alien group had werd sunglasses and headsets. They all did such a fabulous job and I was so impressed. My fairytale group actually wrote a 3 page long sort of poem sonnet with a plot and clever jokes and everything. It was so well done. Also, this really quiet kid who generally doesn't speak at all played the dragon in that skit and positively roared his lines in this ridiculous bass dragon voice. Apparently he speaks really great English after all and it was such a nie surprise. Also a reporter came from the loal newspaper and interviewed me and took all these pictures which was kind of cool. At the end of their class I stood in front of them literally brsing with joy. I told them that I had come here to teach but yet I had learned so much fom them. I was so happy I got a bit teary eyed and one of my girls shouted out Emma! Don't cry! It was such a good ending and I am so sad to be leaving my kids but so happy too. It's all mixed up this happiness and sadnes and excitement in the best sort of way.
I came home and sat with my host mother while she made this sort of croissant pastry thing that was filled with sort of apple pie filling. They are delicious. I am really going to miss my host family a ton. they have treated me with such grace, warmth and hospitality in every way. They are moving to Italy relatively soon and I am really hoping I can go visit them there someday.
Tonight was a sort of graduation party for all the kids in my classes It was so reat to see them all one more time. They gave me aton of presents ranging from bouquets of flowers to choclate to a book of the Romanian revolution. One of my kids, Gergo, asked me what my favorite color was yesterday. I told him yellow and he broght me a single yellow rose! Dear god hes a cutie. I have no idea how I am going to fit all their presents in my suitcase.
Tomorrow the rest of the volunteers are coming to Oradea for our midpoint break and I can't wait to see them. It's going to be a great weekend I can feel it.
I am going to go eat some (more) of the chocolates my kids gave me!
Love and miss you all terribly
Emma
So today was my last day of teaching here in Oradea, Romania. It was such a special happy day. I played a lot of games with my three younger classes today including variations of duck duck goose which included sheep sheep horse and a lot of hang man. Duck duck goose was a huge hit in every class although it got slightly dangrous at times whith kids leaping over chais at brea neck speeds. i thin they totally got a kick out of seeing me whip off my sandels and run my butt off like the rest of the 9 year olds. Every time one of them would choose me for goose they would pause, giggle, and then excitedly smck my head shouting "goooooseee". I had my littlest ones draw me pictures and i totally intend on decking my apartment room out with them once get back to Georgetown.
Probably the best part of the day was my older class. For the last week and a half they have been working on writng plays in small groups. I gave each grop a theme: Willd Wild West, Prom Night, Aliens, and Fairytale land. They got super into it and the results were hilarious. Wild Wild West group was decked ot in plaid and had semi realistic revolvers. My alien group had werd sunglasses and headsets. They all did such a fabulous job and I was so impressed. My fairytale group actually wrote a 3 page long sort of poem sonnet with a plot and clever jokes and everything. It was so well done. Also, this really quiet kid who generally doesn't speak at all played the dragon in that skit and positively roared his lines in this ridiculous bass dragon voice. Apparently he speaks really great English after all and it was such a nie surprise. Also a reporter came from the loal newspaper and interviewed me and took all these pictures which was kind of cool. At the end of their class I stood in front of them literally brsing with joy. I told them that I had come here to teach but yet I had learned so much fom them. I was so happy I got a bit teary eyed and one of my girls shouted out Emma! Don't cry! It was such a good ending and I am so sad to be leaving my kids but so happy too. It's all mixed up this happiness and sadnes and excitement in the best sort of way.
I came home and sat with my host mother while she made this sort of croissant pastry thing that was filled with sort of apple pie filling. They are delicious. I am really going to miss my host family a ton. they have treated me with such grace, warmth and hospitality in every way. They are moving to Italy relatively soon and I am really hoping I can go visit them there someday.
Tonight was a sort of graduation party for all the kids in my classes It was so reat to see them all one more time. They gave me aton of presents ranging from bouquets of flowers to choclate to a book of the Romanian revolution. One of my kids, Gergo, asked me what my favorite color was yesterday. I told him yellow and he broght me a single yellow rose! Dear god hes a cutie. I have no idea how I am going to fit all their presents in my suitcase.
Tomorrow the rest of the volunteers are coming to Oradea for our midpoint break and I can't wait to see them. It's going to be a great weekend I can feel it.
I am going to go eat some (more) of the chocolates my kids gave me!
Love and miss you all terribly
Emma
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Cluj Part Two
Hey There!
Ok, so the rest of Cluj! I woke up super early Saturday morning and moseyed around till 11 when we headed out into the streets of Cluj to get some much needed coffee and check out the two huge churches nearby. We sat in an outdoor cafe for a really long time, sipping our cappuccinos and enjoying the day. Afterwards we wandered through a beautiful Catholic Church. Inside, a baby boy was being baptized. It was so lovely to see something as ordinary yet special as a baptism happen in a church that was over 6öö years old and simply dripping in gold and ornate frescos. After that, we met up with one of my closest friends on the trip,ű. It was so great to see him. We walked back to the hostel, dropped off his bags, and then continued our lazy walking tour of the center of cluj. After consulting my friends guide book A rough Guide to Romania we decided to head to this random museum it called the Ethnographic Museum. For the rest of the trip we called him Rough Guy after his comical guidebook. The museum was really cool. We saw all these random farming machines from the 1800s. Basically the whole time went something like this
Me. Oh look at that cool machine! I wonder what all those pointy things were for
My friend, dead serious, They use to use this to punish children, dont you see where they would hook their wrists in, and look that part would pull their hair
Me, verz earnestly, How awful! Thats so crazy!!
My friend, Hhhahaha Im kidding, its a plow
After that we sat outside at the cafe nearby and talked about development issues and Africa and the peace corps and what we want to do with out lives in general. One of my friends was telling me about the work he had done in Ghana with disease prevention and polio vaccination. I love these people. They really inspire me.
After that we headed back and chilled out. At around 8, we bought some snacks at a local grocery store and then walked up this massive hill to this amazing panaromic view of Cluj. We sat their, munching on our chips, watching the sun set over this beautiful old city. It was great. Then one of my friends threw a huge slug at me, which was not so great but hilarious. We went to dinner at the restaurant looking over the whole city. The meal was expensive by Romanian terms which meant it was like 8 dollars a person.
Tha night, Eli and I went to a club with some friends from the hostel. It was really fun, we danced all night to 90s rock oldies and got amazing gyros that actually had french fries in them at 3 am.
The next morning, we woke up and I looked at mz phone which is still on New York time. I wrongly converted the times and thought it was 12, so we jumped out of bed and started to rush through breakfast. When, 15 minutes later, someone told us it was actually 10 it was so cool it felt like we had gained 2 hours!
That morning we headed over to the famous botanical gardens which were quite beautiful. Its semi strange to find this magnificent forest within a city like Cluj but so cool.
It was a wonderful weekend overall.
Ive had a great week of teaching for the last few days and my kids continue to rock. I cant believe it is almost over. Ill write more about that later!
Miss and love you all!
Emma
Ok, so the rest of Cluj! I woke up super early Saturday morning and moseyed around till 11 when we headed out into the streets of Cluj to get some much needed coffee and check out the two huge churches nearby. We sat in an outdoor cafe for a really long time, sipping our cappuccinos and enjoying the day. Afterwards we wandered through a beautiful Catholic Church. Inside, a baby boy was being baptized. It was so lovely to see something as ordinary yet special as a baptism happen in a church that was over 6öö years old and simply dripping in gold and ornate frescos. After that, we met up with one of my closest friends on the trip,ű. It was so great to see him. We walked back to the hostel, dropped off his bags, and then continued our lazy walking tour of the center of cluj. After consulting my friends guide book A rough Guide to Romania we decided to head to this random museum it called the Ethnographic Museum. For the rest of the trip we called him Rough Guy after his comical guidebook. The museum was really cool. We saw all these random farming machines from the 1800s. Basically the whole time went something like this
Me. Oh look at that cool machine! I wonder what all those pointy things were for
My friend, dead serious, They use to use this to punish children, dont you see where they would hook their wrists in, and look that part would pull their hair
Me, verz earnestly, How awful! Thats so crazy!!
My friend, Hhhahaha Im kidding, its a plow
After that we sat outside at the cafe nearby and talked about development issues and Africa and the peace corps and what we want to do with out lives in general. One of my friends was telling me about the work he had done in Ghana with disease prevention and polio vaccination. I love these people. They really inspire me.
After that we headed back and chilled out. At around 8, we bought some snacks at a local grocery store and then walked up this massive hill to this amazing panaromic view of Cluj. We sat their, munching on our chips, watching the sun set over this beautiful old city. It was great. Then one of my friends threw a huge slug at me, which was not so great but hilarious. We went to dinner at the restaurant looking over the whole city. The meal was expensive by Romanian terms which meant it was like 8 dollars a person.
Tha night, Eli and I went to a club with some friends from the hostel. It was really fun, we danced all night to 90s rock oldies and got amazing gyros that actually had french fries in them at 3 am.
The next morning, we woke up and I looked at mz phone which is still on New York time. I wrongly converted the times and thought it was 12, so we jumped out of bed and started to rush through breakfast. When, 15 minutes later, someone told us it was actually 10 it was so cool it felt like we had gained 2 hours!
That morning we headed over to the famous botanical gardens which were quite beautiful. Its semi strange to find this magnificent forest within a city like Cluj but so cool.
It was a wonderful weekend overall.
Ive had a great week of teaching for the last few days and my kids continue to rock. I cant believe it is almost over. Ill write more about that later!
Miss and love you all!
Emma
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Cluj!
Hey all'
Ok so my next class starts in 10 minutes so this will be a very quick one! Oh alsom just a quick note the yzxs are all mixed up on this keyboard for some weird Romanian reason so please excuse the crazy misspelled words. Right, so Cluj was AMAZING. I arrived Friday after a very long and hot train ride, during which several Gypsy children spent a very long time begging me for money. It was really upsetting, especially since many of mz kids are the same age as the Gypsy Children were. They were very dirty and beat up. I dont feel like I properly understand the whole Gypsy situation and I plan on doing some research on it when I get home. Anyways, I arrived in Cluj, and made my way to the hostel which was actually quite beautiful and clean. While I waited for my friends I chatted with some very interesting backpackers in the common kitchen, including a pair of English students who had spent the last three weeks doing physical therapy with severaly disabled Romanian children who were in the orphanage system. I also met a self employed artist who was biking the whole way across Europe. My two friends arrived at 10 and out we went. We sat at an outdoor cafe untill 1 am drinking elaborate but ridiculously cheap cocktails and catching up. We then headed to this Club, called Club Seven recommended to us by our waitress. After being charged twice the entrance fee by the bouncer because we were foreigners which we only realiyed an hour later to our chargrin, we entered. It was dark and grimz and hilarious and there were even go go dancers. We had a great time dancing though as I literallz spent half the night running away from overly touchy Spanish tourists. We went home, and slept in quite late. Ok Ill finish this story after school because class start NOW hahahah
Miss and love you all
Emma
Ok so my next class starts in 10 minutes so this will be a very quick one! Oh alsom just a quick note the yzxs are all mixed up on this keyboard for some weird Romanian reason so please excuse the crazy misspelled words. Right, so Cluj was AMAZING. I arrived Friday after a very long and hot train ride, during which several Gypsy children spent a very long time begging me for money. It was really upsetting, especially since many of mz kids are the same age as the Gypsy Children were. They were very dirty and beat up. I dont feel like I properly understand the whole Gypsy situation and I plan on doing some research on it when I get home. Anyways, I arrived in Cluj, and made my way to the hostel which was actually quite beautiful and clean. While I waited for my friends I chatted with some very interesting backpackers in the common kitchen, including a pair of English students who had spent the last three weeks doing physical therapy with severaly disabled Romanian children who were in the orphanage system. I also met a self employed artist who was biking the whole way across Europe. My two friends arrived at 10 and out we went. We sat at an outdoor cafe untill 1 am drinking elaborate but ridiculously cheap cocktails and catching up. We then headed to this Club, called Club Seven recommended to us by our waitress. After being charged twice the entrance fee by the bouncer because we were foreigners which we only realiyed an hour later to our chargrin, we entered. It was dark and grimz and hilarious and there were even go go dancers. We had a great time dancing though as I literallz spent half the night running away from overly touchy Spanish tourists. We went home, and slept in quite late. Ok Ill finish this story after school because class start NOW hahahah
Miss and love you all
Emma
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Thermal Pools,Discos, and Pancakes!
Hey Everyone!
Sorry i haven't written in a while, i've been rather lazy! Things here are going really well and I feel as though I have properly gotten inot the rhythme of life here in Oradea. I love teaching and my kids continue to surprise and delight me everyday. I was just reading the homework of my oldest group. I had told them to write two paragraphs on their "Perfect Man/Woman". The answers I got were hilarious. One kid simply wrote "1. blonde hair 2. blue eys 3. big chest". Another one wrote his perfect woman is "an animal lover, like me". He also specified that she must "like pizza" Another one wrote he wants a woman with a "tight and soft bottom". Keep in mind these boys are 13 to 15 years old. Another one actually wrote me a whole poem about his perfect woman, it was actually very good. These kids just crack me up.
The debate with my older one was just amzing on Friday. They all worked really hard and one team even typed up all their arguments. I was so impressed with how into it they got. My little ones continue to be absolutly adorable. One little girl who sports very long pigtails hands me part of her snack everyday as I hand out nametags. My bad boy of the class, whos not really very bad just violently enthusiatic and very interested in everything, came up to me and apoligized for being so bad I had to put him in time out. My heart just about melted. I made one of my kiddies cry the other day. He was being very naughty and totally deserved it but none the less I felt pretty bad. Last week I was teaching my little ones the words I'm angry, sleepy, sad, and happy. I was acting out the emotions for them, stomping about and pounding my fist into my hand to demonstrate "I'm angry". They got such a kick out of my performance that I am relativly confident that they kept pretending not to understand so i would continue making a fool of myself.
I am really growing to love my kids. All their idiosyncrises, their little habits and personalites just entertain me to no end. Teaching is a lot of work but really fun!
I had a very good weekend. Last Saturday was Dora's eleventh birthday party. We cooked all morning long, making a million muffins, sandwiches, biscuits, and of course finishing up the cake. There was an absolutly incredible amount of food at the party. Dora had a really good time I think. She was wearing the most adorable all purple outfit. I bought her a beach towel that had a horse print on it which I think she really liked. At the birthday party, Dora's grandpa tried to teach some Hungarian with mixed results. It was semi hilarious. Also, on the subkect of my mis pronuciation of Hungarian words, I was trying to say the name of one of my older girls and I think I ended up saying some sort of curse word instead because the whole class broke into hysterics. Oops.
I was feeling a bit homesick Saturday afternoon, so I went for a long walk in the park in the center of town. I saw five different brides taking their wedding pictures in front of the town fountain looking beautiful and so happy. I love weddings so that cheered me up considerably. I came home, expecting to jsut spend the night in with my host family (my friend Edina was busy). I was talking to my country cordinator on Skype and she asked me if I would like to go out with some of her friends who live i Oradea. I wasn't sure what to do but I didn't have any other plans so I agreed to meet them at 11 in the center of town.
As I left mynhost mother teasingly told me to be back by 8 am because we had daytrip planned. She definantly qualifies as a "cool mom". I took the tram at 10:30 to go meet them, feeling rather excited to hit Oradea's club scene a bit. I was sitting happily on the tram when all of the sudden I noticed that I didnt recognize ANY of the buildings the tram was passing. I started to panic a bit, knowing that the tram stops running at 11. I finally got off and began to fully freak out. I was on an unlit street and I had only a vague idea of where I was. I was alone. I weighed my options and finally decided I had to ask the two men standing at the tram station for directions. They were actually (thankfully) very nice and spoke English. They told me to walk towards the center and look for a taxi. As I turned to leave one of the men said "Be careful". I walked very fast towards the town center, phone in hand, calling Linda, the friend of my country cordinator I was going to meet. She told me to walk until I could find a taxi. It was scary but I found a taxi relatively quickly and got to the town center relatively quickly.
Once there, I met up with Linda and her friend Villie. They were both in their early 20's, probably like 24 or 25. They were very nice, and asked me a lot of questions about the US and my family. Linda is petite and has a beautiful slightly crooked smile. Villie, her friend, told me about how he had studied abroad in Alaska. They were incredibly welcoming considering they didn't really know me before that night. We went to a local pub and met up with their friend Timi. We played fuseball, and around 1 am headed to a local club. After talking at a table for about an hour, we hit the dance floor hard. It was all old 90s music and we had such a great time dancing around. At 4 am, we finally left. I was exhausted but filled with happiness. It was a great night and Linda told me I was welcome to come out with them any night.
On Sunday my family and I went to a thermal bath called Baile Felix. It was sort of like an American pool, but with the temperature of a warm bath. Their was also a water slide. The pool was really crowded and the people watching was fantastic. I saw 400 pound men in itty bitty speedos and old women in string bikinis. I saw lovey dovey couples floating in each others arms. I saw carefee parents carrying their naked, laughing infants through the water. I got a fabulous tan and read a good portion of Anna Karenina. The thermal water felt delicious, and after spending an hour in the really hot bath I dozed off in the shade. I also got a 20 minute massage for the equivelnt of less than 5 dollars. It was lovely. After the thermal baths, we drove to this amazing garden of lotus flowers. Lotus flowers, I was told, only grow in thermal water and only along the Nile and in Romania. Upon first lookign at the pond of white lotus flowers, it seems like it is just some sort of lily pad. But if you creep closer and peer under the leaves, you see this perfect flower, this perfect present floting delicatly. These lotus flowers looked unreal, like the sugar flowers on top of a wedding cake. They were so perfect they looked like they were made of wax. It was stunning. Near the gardens, their were a ton of gift shops and I bought some souveniers for my family.
On Monday, i had the unfortunate experience of being locked out from my family's apartment for 5 hours. It was my own fault, I had forgotten my key. I tried to make the best of the situation and wandered around the market by pur building for a while. I went on got dinner by myself, feeling very alone in my own booth. It was ok though, being alone. At home, I hate being alone. I never like to be the only one in my house and at Georgetown scared when my roommate was away for the night. I think I am starting to like being alone a lot more since I've been here. It's sort of a nice, independent type feeling. I like exploring by myself and thinking and reading. It's nice. Later on I went for a walk with Edina in a thousand year old fortress near the center of town. The wall was very old and very thick and you could just feel the history, the pants of solders who fought and died for those walls hundreds of years ago. It felt like sacred groud, saturated with human drama. We talked of many things, travel, books, politics. I really like Edina and I think she will be my friend long after I leave here.
Afterwards I went home, where my host mother apoligized profusely and insisted on feeding me a second dinner. It was a good day overall, despite the lock out.
Yesterday I went to a pubwith Edian and my new friend Csilla to watch the Netherlands Uruguay game. I am really getting into watchign the world cup here. Csilla is very nice and I am glad to have another good friend here.
Today I watched Kung Fu Panda with Dora, ate a lot of pancakes with apriocot jelly, and generally layed aournd. It's been raining all day so it feels very cosy to stay inside.
I love and miss you all,
Emma
Sorry i haven't written in a while, i've been rather lazy! Things here are going really well and I feel as though I have properly gotten inot the rhythme of life here in Oradea. I love teaching and my kids continue to surprise and delight me everyday. I was just reading the homework of my oldest group. I had told them to write two paragraphs on their "Perfect Man/Woman". The answers I got were hilarious. One kid simply wrote "1. blonde hair 2. blue eys 3. big chest". Another one wrote his perfect woman is "an animal lover, like me". He also specified that she must "like pizza" Another one wrote he wants a woman with a "tight and soft bottom". Keep in mind these boys are 13 to 15 years old. Another one actually wrote me a whole poem about his perfect woman, it was actually very good. These kids just crack me up.
The debate with my older one was just amzing on Friday. They all worked really hard and one team even typed up all their arguments. I was so impressed with how into it they got. My little ones continue to be absolutly adorable. One little girl who sports very long pigtails hands me part of her snack everyday as I hand out nametags. My bad boy of the class, whos not really very bad just violently enthusiatic and very interested in everything, came up to me and apoligized for being so bad I had to put him in time out. My heart just about melted. I made one of my kiddies cry the other day. He was being very naughty and totally deserved it but none the less I felt pretty bad. Last week I was teaching my little ones the words I'm angry, sleepy, sad, and happy. I was acting out the emotions for them, stomping about and pounding my fist into my hand to demonstrate "I'm angry". They got such a kick out of my performance that I am relativly confident that they kept pretending not to understand so i would continue making a fool of myself.
I am really growing to love my kids. All their idiosyncrises, their little habits and personalites just entertain me to no end. Teaching is a lot of work but really fun!
I had a very good weekend. Last Saturday was Dora's eleventh birthday party. We cooked all morning long, making a million muffins, sandwiches, biscuits, and of course finishing up the cake. There was an absolutly incredible amount of food at the party. Dora had a really good time I think. She was wearing the most adorable all purple outfit. I bought her a beach towel that had a horse print on it which I think she really liked. At the birthday party, Dora's grandpa tried to teach some Hungarian with mixed results. It was semi hilarious. Also, on the subkect of my mis pronuciation of Hungarian words, I was trying to say the name of one of my older girls and I think I ended up saying some sort of curse word instead because the whole class broke into hysterics. Oops.
I was feeling a bit homesick Saturday afternoon, so I went for a long walk in the park in the center of town. I saw five different brides taking their wedding pictures in front of the town fountain looking beautiful and so happy. I love weddings so that cheered me up considerably. I came home, expecting to jsut spend the night in with my host family (my friend Edina was busy). I was talking to my country cordinator on Skype and she asked me if I would like to go out with some of her friends who live i Oradea. I wasn't sure what to do but I didn't have any other plans so I agreed to meet them at 11 in the center of town.
As I left mynhost mother teasingly told me to be back by 8 am because we had daytrip planned. She definantly qualifies as a "cool mom". I took the tram at 10:30 to go meet them, feeling rather excited to hit Oradea's club scene a bit. I was sitting happily on the tram when all of the sudden I noticed that I didnt recognize ANY of the buildings the tram was passing. I started to panic a bit, knowing that the tram stops running at 11. I finally got off and began to fully freak out. I was on an unlit street and I had only a vague idea of where I was. I was alone. I weighed my options and finally decided I had to ask the two men standing at the tram station for directions. They were actually (thankfully) very nice and spoke English. They told me to walk towards the center and look for a taxi. As I turned to leave one of the men said "Be careful". I walked very fast towards the town center, phone in hand, calling Linda, the friend of my country cordinator I was going to meet. She told me to walk until I could find a taxi. It was scary but I found a taxi relatively quickly and got to the town center relatively quickly.
Once there, I met up with Linda and her friend Villie. They were both in their early 20's, probably like 24 or 25. They were very nice, and asked me a lot of questions about the US and my family. Linda is petite and has a beautiful slightly crooked smile. Villie, her friend, told me about how he had studied abroad in Alaska. They were incredibly welcoming considering they didn't really know me before that night. We went to a local pub and met up with their friend Timi. We played fuseball, and around 1 am headed to a local club. After talking at a table for about an hour, we hit the dance floor hard. It was all old 90s music and we had such a great time dancing around. At 4 am, we finally left. I was exhausted but filled with happiness. It was a great night and Linda told me I was welcome to come out with them any night.
On Sunday my family and I went to a thermal bath called Baile Felix. It was sort of like an American pool, but with the temperature of a warm bath. Their was also a water slide. The pool was really crowded and the people watching was fantastic. I saw 400 pound men in itty bitty speedos and old women in string bikinis. I saw lovey dovey couples floating in each others arms. I saw carefee parents carrying their naked, laughing infants through the water. I got a fabulous tan and read a good portion of Anna Karenina. The thermal water felt delicious, and after spending an hour in the really hot bath I dozed off in the shade. I also got a 20 minute massage for the equivelnt of less than 5 dollars. It was lovely. After the thermal baths, we drove to this amazing garden of lotus flowers. Lotus flowers, I was told, only grow in thermal water and only along the Nile and in Romania. Upon first lookign at the pond of white lotus flowers, it seems like it is just some sort of lily pad. But if you creep closer and peer under the leaves, you see this perfect flower, this perfect present floting delicatly. These lotus flowers looked unreal, like the sugar flowers on top of a wedding cake. They were so perfect they looked like they were made of wax. It was stunning. Near the gardens, their were a ton of gift shops and I bought some souveniers for my family.
On Monday, i had the unfortunate experience of being locked out from my family's apartment for 5 hours. It was my own fault, I had forgotten my key. I tried to make the best of the situation and wandered around the market by pur building for a while. I went on got dinner by myself, feeling very alone in my own booth. It was ok though, being alone. At home, I hate being alone. I never like to be the only one in my house and at Georgetown scared when my roommate was away for the night. I think I am starting to like being alone a lot more since I've been here. It's sort of a nice, independent type feeling. I like exploring by myself and thinking and reading. It's nice. Later on I went for a walk with Edina in a thousand year old fortress near the center of town. The wall was very old and very thick and you could just feel the history, the pants of solders who fought and died for those walls hundreds of years ago. It felt like sacred groud, saturated with human drama. We talked of many things, travel, books, politics. I really like Edina and I think she will be my friend long after I leave here.
Afterwards I went home, where my host mother apoligized profusely and insisted on feeding me a second dinner. It was a good day overall, despite the lock out.
Yesterday I went to a pubwith Edian and my new friend Csilla to watch the Netherlands Uruguay game. I am really getting into watchign the world cup here. Csilla is very nice and I am glad to have another good friend here.
Today I watched Kung Fu Panda with Dora, ate a lot of pancakes with apriocot jelly, and generally layed aournd. It's been raining all day so it feels very cosy to stay inside.
I love and miss you all,
Emma
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Teaching Mayhem and Lots of Golosh
Hello All!
So I now have two solid days of teaching under my belt and I must say it is seriously hard work! I really do love it though. Anyways, Let me start from Monday night. My new friend Edena and her boyfriend Zoolie invited me out for some sort of walk. I really had no idea what the plan was, but I was prety psyched to hang out with locals my age so away I went. Also, I don;t have a cell phone here, which in gewnerally has been extremly freeing, however it is about 10 times more difficult to find someone in a large Romanian market without one. I did find them, though, and we wne tfor a brief walk through a loval park. Both Edena and Zoolie are English majors at a local college, so they were excited to practice their English with me. Edena is sweet and a bit quiet, she wears long colorful skirts and her glasses always. Zoolie is very, very tall and thin, with a happy face, and a tiny mustashe. He wears glasses which he constantly switches for shiny avator sunglasses depending on the amount of shade. He is a pretty quirky, funny guy with a goofy sense of humor. They have been dating for a year and a half, and they are so sweet and loving to each other all the time. They hold hands whereever they go.
We walked for wuite a bit and then abruptly stopped in front of a closed, unmarked wooden door. Zoolie annouced this is the pub where I would meet some of their "colleagues". At first I was rather confused by how they called everyone we met up with their "colleagues" and not their friends. While on the tram yesterday, we had a very interesting chat about the word. They told me in Romania, you only have one maybe two people you actually call friends. This is someone you have most liely known for years, and trust completly. Everyone else is a "colleague", or an aquaintance. In America, they said, it seems everyone has many friends, however this is not quite true in Hungarian culture.
After the pub, which was quite fun, we headed back to my host family's home. I really feel pretty much at home here now. Dora, my host sister, si adorable and spunky, but she is too shy to speak English to me. As I speak no Hunagrain, we mostly just smile at each other a lot and I nod encouragingly. Hopefully she will feel more comfortable speaking to me soon. The talk of the house is her birthday party, which is on Saturday. Tomorrow I will help her mom make the cake. We have been debating cake flavors, fillings, and frosting for 3 days, but it was finally decided yellow cake, chocolate pudding filling, vanilla frosting.
I lesson planned for about 2 hours that night, but I was so anxious about the next day I woke up several times throughout the night. I was unsure of my students levels, and had no idea if what i had planned would be appropriate.
I had planned with my host mother the night before to wake up at around 745, in order to get to the school a half an hour before class to make photocopies and such. After tossing and turning all night, I woke up to my host mother Otilia gently sayign "Good Morning Emma". I rolled ou of bed and walked to the kitchen where she had layed out a beautiful breakfast of motzerella, tomatos, bread, corn bread with fruit baked in, homemade jam, and coffee. I sat down and lazily looked at the clock. It was 8:37. I was supposed to be my classroom 7 minutes ago! Anyone who knows me well knwos how much I hate being late. I started to mentally calculate how much time the tram would take (15 minutes or so) and started to panic. I downed my coffee, washed my face and put on clothes in 3 minutes flat. As I rush into the kitchen all ready to go, my host sister, who was to come to schoolw ith me on the tram daily, is leisurely drinking her hot coco. My host family, as I learned that morning, does not rush. Their mind frame was Ok we overslept a bit but why not enjoy your expresso? As I waited for her to dress, I took a deep breath and remembered this experience is all abotu fitting into thei culture and mindframe. And really it was going to be just fine. I also thought about how even though my host mother overselp, her first thought was to lay out a beautful breakfast for me and let me sleep a few extra minutes. Yet I had barely appreciated the meal. I am going to try to not rush foir the rest of my time here. It was a goodlesson for me, in a way, I think.
After Dora finsihed getting ready, we rushed to the tram. Riding the tram is a rather unique experience. The tram is sort of the giant, lumbering metal trolley with all sorts of graffitti and such. It goes about 20 miles an hour and makes very frequent stops. Also, it doesn't stop for anyone, so you better look both ways before you cross the tracks. We arrived at the school, which is in a community center in the town square. I ran up the stairs and walked into the classroom and their were instantly 25 curious pairs of eyes glued on me. My first class is my little ones, the 6 to 10 age group. They are seriously adorable.
Being a teacher is kind of intense. For a whole hour, you are on, on, on. My first class went well, we played a game where we stood in a circle and threw a small ball to each other. When you caught the ball you had to say "Hello my name is..." My second class, which is the beginner 11-13 year old group, was a bit more haphazerd. I totally underestimated their language ability so we blew through my lesson plans in 20 minutes. Then I had to freestyle a whole lesson plan baed on the theme, which I dreamed up in class, of "Going to the Doctor" vocabulary. I was exhausted by the end of that class, and I still had two hours left! My third class, advanced 11-13 year olds, went much more smoothly and I felt much more in control. My fourth class, which is the 14-17 year olds was the most fun. They are very advanced speakers so my lesson plans can be much more creative. We played an improv game called Taxi Driver and some icebreakers.
I fianlly went home with Dora, where my host mother had prepared a vat of golosh, a traditional Hunagrian stew. It was very good, and she even tryed putting soy in it because I told her I liked it. Later, I met Edena and Zoolie and walked around for just about 3 hours. They are so sweet, they have sort of appointed themselves my unofficial Oradea tourguides. They showed me just about every church and town, and even a synagog or two. They also wouldn't let me pay for anything. Later, I had dinner with my host family. Afterwards, I had a very long talk with hod mother about education and the Gypsies. There are many Gypsies in Romania. My host mother works in child protection services and has had a lot of experience with the Gypsy community. Gypsises are ostresized by most of Romanian society, and face many issues. She expressed frustation at what she sees at their refusal to integrate into soceity. It was really great to hear her prospective on the violatile issue, especially since she is so committed to education and child rights. We talked about other things as well, such as family and kids. It was a really nice conversation overall.
Teaching today went much more smoothly. My favorite part was the debate I am organizing with my older students. It will take place on Thursday. I am genuinly really excited. I actually like teaching a lot. It's hard work, what with four hours of lessons, two hours of lesson planning, and nearly 100 students, but very rewarding. It is one of the greatest challenges I have ever faced I think.
Edena invited me to her home this afternoon to have lunch. It was so touching, she had set the table the night before in her modest apartment, and had prepared the food. I am a vegetarian at home and her fried chicken was the first full meal of chicken I have eaten since I have been here. My stomach was a bit upset, but I could not refuse. Both her and Zoolie were incredibly focused on making sure I had absolutly everything I wanted. I have been absolutly floored by the amount of hospitality that has been lavished on me since I arrived, but especially by Edena and Zoolie. They will not let me pay for a single thing, and have opened thei hearts and time to me so freely. They are extremly geniune. There is no pretense of being "too cool" or any of that nonsense with them. Once they had decided to take me in, that meant spending every day with me for the last few days, and sharing their lives with me completely.
After lunch, Edena and I talked about food for a long time. We pured over recipes, and I think I will make an "American" dinner for her next week. She also showed me her textbook for her class on American culture, which was hilarous. I think she probably knows more about the American Dream and the Frontier than I do. We then went to the "cinema" with a friend of their and their favorite professor. It was a very funny American movie with Romanian subtitles.
Also, Zoolie informed me my picture was on the front page of the local newspaper, which I find flattering and slightly outrageous. He said he would bring me the article tomorrow.
I geel really happy and needed here. I am so glad I came.
I miss everyone and I love you all so much!!!!
Emma
So I now have two solid days of teaching under my belt and I must say it is seriously hard work! I really do love it though. Anyways, Let me start from Monday night. My new friend Edena and her boyfriend Zoolie invited me out for some sort of walk. I really had no idea what the plan was, but I was prety psyched to hang out with locals my age so away I went. Also, I don;t have a cell phone here, which in gewnerally has been extremly freeing, however it is about 10 times more difficult to find someone in a large Romanian market without one. I did find them, though, and we wne tfor a brief walk through a loval park. Both Edena and Zoolie are English majors at a local college, so they were excited to practice their English with me. Edena is sweet and a bit quiet, she wears long colorful skirts and her glasses always. Zoolie is very, very tall and thin, with a happy face, and a tiny mustashe. He wears glasses which he constantly switches for shiny avator sunglasses depending on the amount of shade. He is a pretty quirky, funny guy with a goofy sense of humor. They have been dating for a year and a half, and they are so sweet and loving to each other all the time. They hold hands whereever they go.
We walked for wuite a bit and then abruptly stopped in front of a closed, unmarked wooden door. Zoolie annouced this is the pub where I would meet some of their "colleagues". At first I was rather confused by how they called everyone we met up with their "colleagues" and not their friends. While on the tram yesterday, we had a very interesting chat about the word. They told me in Romania, you only have one maybe two people you actually call friends. This is someone you have most liely known for years, and trust completly. Everyone else is a "colleague", or an aquaintance. In America, they said, it seems everyone has many friends, however this is not quite true in Hungarian culture.
After the pub, which was quite fun, we headed back to my host family's home. I really feel pretty much at home here now. Dora, my host sister, si adorable and spunky, but she is too shy to speak English to me. As I speak no Hunagrain, we mostly just smile at each other a lot and I nod encouragingly. Hopefully she will feel more comfortable speaking to me soon. The talk of the house is her birthday party, which is on Saturday. Tomorrow I will help her mom make the cake. We have been debating cake flavors, fillings, and frosting for 3 days, but it was finally decided yellow cake, chocolate pudding filling, vanilla frosting.
I lesson planned for about 2 hours that night, but I was so anxious about the next day I woke up several times throughout the night. I was unsure of my students levels, and had no idea if what i had planned would be appropriate.
I had planned with my host mother the night before to wake up at around 745, in order to get to the school a half an hour before class to make photocopies and such. After tossing and turning all night, I woke up to my host mother Otilia gently sayign "Good Morning Emma". I rolled ou of bed and walked to the kitchen where she had layed out a beautiful breakfast of motzerella, tomatos, bread, corn bread with fruit baked in, homemade jam, and coffee. I sat down and lazily looked at the clock. It was 8:37. I was supposed to be my classroom 7 minutes ago! Anyone who knows me well knwos how much I hate being late. I started to mentally calculate how much time the tram would take (15 minutes or so) and started to panic. I downed my coffee, washed my face and put on clothes in 3 minutes flat. As I rush into the kitchen all ready to go, my host sister, who was to come to schoolw ith me on the tram daily, is leisurely drinking her hot coco. My host family, as I learned that morning, does not rush. Their mind frame was Ok we overslept a bit but why not enjoy your expresso? As I waited for her to dress, I took a deep breath and remembered this experience is all abotu fitting into thei culture and mindframe. And really it was going to be just fine. I also thought about how even though my host mother overselp, her first thought was to lay out a beautful breakfast for me and let me sleep a few extra minutes. Yet I had barely appreciated the meal. I am going to try to not rush foir the rest of my time here. It was a goodlesson for me, in a way, I think.
After Dora finsihed getting ready, we rushed to the tram. Riding the tram is a rather unique experience. The tram is sort of the giant, lumbering metal trolley with all sorts of graffitti and such. It goes about 20 miles an hour and makes very frequent stops. Also, it doesn't stop for anyone, so you better look both ways before you cross the tracks. We arrived at the school, which is in a community center in the town square. I ran up the stairs and walked into the classroom and their were instantly 25 curious pairs of eyes glued on me. My first class is my little ones, the 6 to 10 age group. They are seriously adorable.
Being a teacher is kind of intense. For a whole hour, you are on, on, on. My first class went well, we played a game where we stood in a circle and threw a small ball to each other. When you caught the ball you had to say "Hello my name is..." My second class, which is the beginner 11-13 year old group, was a bit more haphazerd. I totally underestimated their language ability so we blew through my lesson plans in 20 minutes. Then I had to freestyle a whole lesson plan baed on the theme, which I dreamed up in class, of "Going to the Doctor" vocabulary. I was exhausted by the end of that class, and I still had two hours left! My third class, advanced 11-13 year olds, went much more smoothly and I felt much more in control. My fourth class, which is the 14-17 year olds was the most fun. They are very advanced speakers so my lesson plans can be much more creative. We played an improv game called Taxi Driver and some icebreakers.
I fianlly went home with Dora, where my host mother had prepared a vat of golosh, a traditional Hunagrian stew. It was very good, and she even tryed putting soy in it because I told her I liked it. Later, I met Edena and Zoolie and walked around for just about 3 hours. They are so sweet, they have sort of appointed themselves my unofficial Oradea tourguides. They showed me just about every church and town, and even a synagog or two. They also wouldn't let me pay for anything. Later, I had dinner with my host family. Afterwards, I had a very long talk with hod mother about education and the Gypsies. There are many Gypsies in Romania. My host mother works in child protection services and has had a lot of experience with the Gypsy community. Gypsises are ostresized by most of Romanian society, and face many issues. She expressed frustation at what she sees at their refusal to integrate into soceity. It was really great to hear her prospective on the violatile issue, especially since she is so committed to education and child rights. We talked about other things as well, such as family and kids. It was a really nice conversation overall.
Teaching today went much more smoothly. My favorite part was the debate I am organizing with my older students. It will take place on Thursday. I am genuinly really excited. I actually like teaching a lot. It's hard work, what with four hours of lessons, two hours of lesson planning, and nearly 100 students, but very rewarding. It is one of the greatest challenges I have ever faced I think.
Edena invited me to her home this afternoon to have lunch. It was so touching, she had set the table the night before in her modest apartment, and had prepared the food. I am a vegetarian at home and her fried chicken was the first full meal of chicken I have eaten since I have been here. My stomach was a bit upset, but I could not refuse. Both her and Zoolie were incredibly focused on making sure I had absolutly everything I wanted. I have been absolutly floored by the amount of hospitality that has been lavished on me since I arrived, but especially by Edena and Zoolie. They will not let me pay for a single thing, and have opened thei hearts and time to me so freely. They are extremly geniune. There is no pretense of being "too cool" or any of that nonsense with them. Once they had decided to take me in, that meant spending every day with me for the last few days, and sharing their lives with me completely.
After lunch, Edena and I talked about food for a long time. We pured over recipes, and I think I will make an "American" dinner for her next week. She also showed me her textbook for her class on American culture, which was hilarous. I think she probably knows more about the American Dream and the Frontier than I do. We then went to the "cinema" with a friend of their and their favorite professor. It was a very funny American movie with Romanian subtitles.
Also, Zoolie informed me my picture was on the front page of the local newspaper, which I find flattering and slightly outrageous. He said he would bring me the article tomorrow.
I geel really happy and needed here. I am so glad I came.
I miss everyone and I love you all so much!!!!
Emma
Monday, June 28, 2010
My First Day Teaching (Sort Of)
Hey There
So today was officialy my first day as a teacher! But let me back up a little bit, because I had a very good day yesterday as well. I LOVE my host family. My host mom, Otilia, is really great. She is a social worker. She has basically bent over backwards trying to make me feel welcome here. Yesterday, she fed my 3 differnet and very large meals from 3 o'clock on. She made polenta for dinner, which i could barely eat because lunch was so filling. Then we went for a walk and ended up getting some pizza. The area I am living in is pretty nice. My family's apartment is small, just two rooms and a kitchen and bathroom. It is very homey though and every square space is covered with croqueted dolies. My room is the playroom of sorts and their is a balcony looking down on the busy street below. On the balcony lives Dora's rabbit, who is named Yasmin. Dora, my host sister, is 10 years. She doesn't speak any English, but I really like her so far. You can tell how close Dora and Otilia are, they are constantly holding hands while we walk. Dora is in one of my classes, however she is going to stay for the entire 4 and a half hours I teach so she can be my guide navigating Oradea's public transportation to work. He birthday party is this Saturday and Dora is beyond excited. We have already gone into about 3 different cake shops looking for the perfect sugar flowers to place on top of her cake.
My first day of teaching was rather hectic. I got the first solid nights sleep in 5 days and then my host mother woke me up. Breakfast was phenomenal, especialy since Otilia makes homemade jam. I took the tram with my host sister and mom to the community center where class is held. By the time 10 am rolled around there were 80 courious eyes staring at me, as I introduced myself and then divided them up into different classes. They are all terribly cute, and I like them so much already. They all kind of look at me as this sort of mysterious American girl who can magically make English fluency happen. One mother came up to me and asked if I would like to spend the weekend in their country home. It was such a nice gesture and I think I'll go for a day on Sunday. The kids are very cute and I hope to go on a few afternoon trips with them and let them show me Oradea. I cannot wait for my first full day of teaching tomorrow, although it is a bit tricky trying to design lesson plans. One of my coworkers, Edena, invited me to go for a walk and maybe to a cafe at 5. it was so nice of her to make the effort to get to know me. My first real Romanian friend! Overall I am loving being here so far and I really do feel at home with my host family. I am hoping to travel a bit the weekend after the next, and I am starting to plan that a bit.
Love and miss you all so much
Emma
Sunday, June 27, 2010
I LOVE Eastern Europe
Hello Everyone!
I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all so much and I cannot believe you are half way across the world! My time here has been amazing so far and so much has happened. Sorry for not writing sooner, there was a computer at the hostel we stayed at in Budapest but it was quite competitive to get a few minutes to check one's e-mail. I arrived in Budapest after an insanely long flight and trudged up the stairs of an unlikely looking building with a night club downstairs and no obvious sign of a hostel. Once I got to the third floor I was in a clean, humble lobby and the ower was handing a key to me saying "Anything for you my darling" in a heavy Hungarian accent. I got to my room, which I was sharing with 8 other people and was immedialy invited out to lunch by one of the girls in my program. We met her freind from school, a native Hungarian and he took us to this itty bitty restaurant that served three course meals for the equivalent of 5 dollars in forunts (Hungarian currency). I got back to the hostel and met the rest of the people from my program. I must say, we all kind of clicked immediatly and even though I was only with these 12 people for a few days I already trust them with my life. Everyone is just so genuinly nice. They are all just good people.
My new friend Megan and I then went to St. Stephen's Basilica which was literally two blocks away from our hostel. We saw the famous relic, the preserved hand of St. Stephens. It was like Disneyworld meets the Vatican, because you have to put coins in this slot machine in order to light up the glass case the decaying hand is preserved in. It was morbiid, powerful, and a bit inspiring to see such a fantascally beautiful church. We went out to a beautiful restaurant that night with our entire program and our beloved in country cordinator Kinga. It was called the citadel and it was literally in an ancient fortress on the top of a very tall hill in Budapest with a sweet view of the entire city. It was wonderful. That night, despute our mutaul jet lag, we all decided to sample a bit of Budapests famous night life. It was so much fun to be with the whole group. Also, I got to witness the really hilarious Budapest phenomenon of everyone riding their bikes to go out to clubs.
The next day we woke up early and went through a teaching workshop. Then we walked aound Buda Castle, which is just stunning. We didn't have too much time their which was sad because it was really impressive. After lunch at this faboulous Greek hummus plate, my two friends and I decided to walk to the famous Hungarian Market Place. It was about a mile or so from our hostel and we decided to walk it. As I walked with these two girls I had met a little over 24 hours ago, our conversation fel like that of old friends. It was amazing how close we have become. The market place is truly hard to describe. There were hundreds of booths nestled in a massive warehouse. The bottom floor was filled with food: strudels and backlavas glistening with sugar, ripe pears peaches and some other mysterious fruits, and huge slabs of meat. Upstairs, there were booths with every type of touristy gift in the woirld. I bought Caitie a sweet present there. On our way our I bought a pear and it was so incredibly fresh as I stood outside eating it bite by bite. We walked back, and hung out a bit until dinner. For dinner we went to this Italian sort of restaurant where this tragic trumpet player was serrounading the entire restaurant. It was such unbelivable ambience, but we had to hustle back to make the Chili-Spain world cup game. Football is a huge deal here and I have watched a ton of soccer since I've came. In a park three blocks away from our hostel, they were showing the world cup game on a massive screen. Hundreds of people were squished into this pack, laughing, screaming, and cheering like no tomorrow. There is no open container law in Hungary, so everyone had beers out and was happily drinking. It was a bit strange to witness almost, but really fun. After the game, we went out to celebrate our country cordinator's birthday at her favorite bar. Our group got super lost on the walk there and we walked for a soild 45 minutes, just laughing and chatting. The bar was very cool and hip, we had a ton of fun.
The next day, we woke up a tiny bit later and headed out to a park for another teaching seminar. Afterwards, we went to the biggest and most famous thermal water bathhouse in Budapest. It was fantastic, there were a million pools of different temperatures, both inside and outside, as well as saunas galore. The highlight was definaly the massive swimming pool with fountains outside which was very hot. It felt like you were taking a bath with about 200 hundred other people. There also was this hectic whirl pool that whipped you around in a circle at a dizzying speed. We happened to run into the group of Irish backpackers we had met while out the night beofre and hung out with them for a while at the baths. After we left, with our Irish friends, we decided to check out the random Rob Stuart concert going on in the park where the baths were. It was pretty wild and the crowd was huge. We weren't lucky enough to get a glimpse of the legend, as some Hungarian artist was jamming out. We left, and agreed to meet up with our friends to watch the US v. Ghana game and eat dinner. We frantically got dressed and made the game. It was pretty thrilling and my friend Eli kept jumping up and screaming during our dinner to the surprise of the other people in the cafe. Then we very quickly got gelato and ran to another telivison. Every open air cafe on our street had a TV out with the game on, so it wasn't too hard to find one. After that, we went to our hostel, finished packing, and hung out with the group. Despite our promises to stay in, my friends and I were pulled in by the horrifically bad DJ blasting music at the night club below our hostel. The music can only be described as what you would play at a very bad wedding reception, but we danced and danced, each one of us trying to out silly the other. It was a great moment, all five of us in a cirle, dancing our hearts out to "Baby you can drive my car" and "Tainted Love".
The next morning we woke up early to catch our train to Oradea, Romania, where all our host families were coming to meet us. I was so excited and nervous. When my host mother and sister came runnign uip to me it was a really great moment. They are just the nicest people ever. My host mom speaks English very well, so we chatted for a while. She specifically made me bean soup and polenta with cheese, as well as a million Hungarian pastries. I am definatly not going to lose weight here. Her daughter, Dora, is adorable. She's ten and super cute. She doesn't speak much English but I really like her. I feel like I won the lottery with my hos family, they are just really great. I am so happy to be here, to start teaching, to start fulfilling the whole purpose of this program. I start teaching tomorrow and i can't wait!
I love you all so much!
Emma
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Keep It PG People
Hey All,
Just a quick request: please keep all comments on posts appropriate as I am planning on giving this address out to relatives and other such important, nice people. So keep it PG please!!
Thanks!
Emma
Just a quick request: please keep all comments on posts appropriate as I am planning on giving this address out to relatives and other such important, nice people. So keep it PG please!!
Thanks!
Emma
I Leave Tomorrow!
Hello All!
I've spent all day packing and repacking my giant duffel bag (everything barely fits) and running around doing last minute errands. I am so excited/nervous/excited to finally get on the plane to Budapest. As I may have mentioned to some of you, I am going to have extremely limited access to the internet and almost no access to a telephone. I thought this blog was a good way to keep in touch with everyone, friends and family, on a large scale, let you know what I'm up to, and assure you all I have not been sold into white slavery (a la "Taken").
I feel so blessed and honored to have been given this opportunity to teach English in Croatia and Romania. I've always loved working with kids, but I have never managed a classroom on my own and I am pumped for the challenge. I can't wait to learn about Eastern European culture, language, and, of course, food. It's hard to leave home and I am certainly going to miss everyone I am leaving behind an insane amount. I think its worth it though. I really do believe in education, and I believe in the mission of this program.
So, my flight tomorrow will take me to Budapest, Hungary where I will have my orientation with my fellow teachers, and explore Budapest a bit too. After that, I am off to my first teaching assignment in Romania. It is going to be a very whirlwind week and I can't wait to start my adventure. I love you all so much.
Emma
I've spent all day packing and repacking my giant duffel bag (everything barely fits) and running around doing last minute errands. I am so excited/nervous/excited to finally get on the plane to Budapest. As I may have mentioned to some of you, I am going to have extremely limited access to the internet and almost no access to a telephone. I thought this blog was a good way to keep in touch with everyone, friends and family, on a large scale, let you know what I'm up to, and assure you all I have not been sold into white slavery (a la "Taken").
I feel so blessed and honored to have been given this opportunity to teach English in Croatia and Romania. I've always loved working with kids, but I have never managed a classroom on my own and I am pumped for the challenge. I can't wait to learn about Eastern European culture, language, and, of course, food. It's hard to leave home and I am certainly going to miss everyone I am leaving behind an insane amount. I think its worth it though. I really do believe in education, and I believe in the mission of this program.
So, my flight tomorrow will take me to Budapest, Hungary where I will have my orientation with my fellow teachers, and explore Budapest a bit too. After that, I am off to my first teaching assignment in Romania. It is going to be a very whirlwind week and I can't wait to start my adventure. I love you all so much.
Emma
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)