Romanian Bar-B-Que

On Sunday I got to attend a bbq Romanian style. We went to a wooded area outside of Vaslui and had a great time. We ate mici (pronounced meech) a Romanian staple at the bbq. It is wonderful. We also had chicken, and steak and sausages. There were tomatoes and of course beer. I also got my first mosquito bites this year, which is great compared to last year. Last year there were so many in my room that i would go on a mosquito hunt every night. This year there have been none in my room, (shhhh don't tell the mosquitoes that I am here, maybe they don't know). The first picture shows the meat that was sacrificed for the bbq (the mici is on the left). There was plenty of it to go around. The second pic is of the area that we gathered. As you can see many people from Vaslui had the same idea. The video shows how they started the fire. A stack of wood and paper. They added some charcoal after the fire was blazing. When I told them that with my bbq I only turn on the gas and turn on the flame and it ignites they said yea but it does not taste as good without the wood flavoring. It is back to work today, Monday after 3 days off. We will see how much the beginners remember. Talk at you all soon.

The zoo and Brucer's hill

On Friday a group of us went to the zoo in Barlad. I made a new friend Razvan. He is 11 years old and speaks great English. He taught himself watching The Cartoon Network and playing video games. He not only speaks great English but he loves to talk, and talk, and talk. So the zoo was nice, although the animals were in small cages. We stopped at a place in the zoo to get a juice before we left and got under cover just in time for another great thunderstorm. Lightning, thunder, and lots of rain. It rained hard for about 1 1/2 hours and probably rained more than 2 inches. The fields around here loved it. The crops look so much better this year than last year, they have had plenty of rain. They told me that last year was so bad that food prices have gone up about 10% this year. Anyway after the rain stopped we headed home.

The trip to Brucer's Hill was also fun. Brucer was a soldier for Stefan Cel Mare who was injured in battle, he lost an arm, and was given this land to watch for the invading Turks. The Turks would come up this valley and Brucer would light warning fires so that Stefan and his soldiers could prepare. The view from here is wonderful you can see for miles and miles. So thats all for now. Talk to you soon.

Bowling in Vaslui

On Thursday night we went bowling in Vaslui. Bowling is still new to Romania and the people that I went with had not been bowling before. The first photo shows the bowling alley at the Silver Mall. Silver Mall is a new mall here in Vaslui and is very modern and very nice. What you see in the picture is not the part of the bowling alley that we were in but in fact is the entire bowing alley. There are 4 lanes in all and we were the only people who were bowling. By the way if you want to see the pictures bigger click on the picture and it brings it up full size. In the second picture you see me demonstrating the correct form for bowling. Hehe ok I was just being funny but they were depending on me to tell them the rules and show them how to bowl. I believe that everyone had a great time.

We finished the first week of teaching. I think everything is going good. The beginners are learning and in the advanced group we are working on polishing their English usage. There is no class on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. We are going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you. on Friday. It is located in a town called Barlad, located about 40 or 50 Km south of Vaslui. I will take some pictures of the zoo and post them later. We are planning a BBQ on Sunday. I hope they are planning to serve mici, a Romanian favorite at BBQs. Talk to you all later. Pa (Romanian for bye)

A visit to a local Monastery

Romania has many monastaries. Most of the population is Eastern Orthodox. The churches are beautiful and beautifully decorated. We went to a local one about 12 miles outside of Vaslui. It was located on the top of a hill and has a beautiful view. You can tell that the priests were in charge at one time because the monasteries have the best views. The pictures above are from the monastery I was able to visit last night.
The first picture is from the outside looking at the entrance. If you look to the left of the entrance you can see some of the original wall. The monastery originated about 400 years ago. Also to the left of the entrance you will notice the preferred method of transportation for the people from the local village, a horse and cart.
The second picture is of the church. They are in the process of restoring the inside of the church at the present time. The government has just fixed the roads well enough to drive to this church. You pass through many villages to get there and the roads are not always very good. But because they have fixed the roads there are more people going to visit this monastery so they are fixing it up. The third picture is of my local tour guides. On the left is Alexandra, she is 4 and is the daughter of Florina, one of my students and my "guardian angel". The other is Andrea and she is 7 and is Alexandra's cousin. They decided to pose for this picture. There ws cow poop in the road and they asked "cum sa spune", they wanted to know what we call cow poop. When I told them that we call it cow poop, Alexandra said cow no poop. Florina started to laugh because in Romanian poop is a little kiss, and Alex was right cows dont give you a little kiss.
Class was great again today, we finished our first week. The beginners are getting more comfortable with English and the advanced class is making great progress. Next week I will have the advanced group practice reading and writing. Reading is not too hard but writing will be tougher for them, just like it is for all of the people who speak English. Thank God for spell check. (I spelled Monastery 3 different ways before I got it right, just don't tell any of my students. They think it is very weird that a teacher might not know how to spell something.)
Bye for now, talk at you later. Keep the comments coming.

Downtown Vaslui

So the rain stopped, and I walked downtown to "drink a juice". Here are some pictures from downtown.

The first is a look down one of the main streets. The people are out enjoying the fact that the rain stopped and for a while it was almost comfortable outside> The second pictures is in the main square of the city, in front of the city hall. The statue is of Stefan Cel Mare. Again the people are enjoying the fact that the rain stopped.

Class is still going well. The beginner class is starting to understand. The funniest thing is one of the students, when she does understand something she tells me what she understands in Romanian and thinks that I will understand. She did that about 5 times today. I just smile at her and shake my head. Actually there are many things they say that I understand and many things that I say that they understand. We worked on simple commands today like stand, sit, pick up, put down. Good Morning, Good afternoon, good evening and good night. We also worked on I see, I hear, I walk and other things like that. The advanced class is working on contractions, verb tenses asking questions and other things. I think everyone is having a good time and learning things.

Talk with you later and don't forget to post a comment, and yes Mom and Dad I got your comment.

The first day of full classes

Hi all,
Today, Tuesday was the first day of classes. I have two classes, one beginner and one intermediate. They meet from 9 to 11 and then from 11 to 1 Monday to Thursday. I was worried about the beginner class. Last year all the students had a pretty good grasp of English, but this year the beginners class is truly beginners. I gave the the ADEPT test which tells the level of English knowledge and most of them could not get out of the beginners level. The test starts with the command to pick up a pencil and many of them could not do that because they did not understand. So when class started today I was worried. But there was no need to worry, they are all there to learn and are working very hard to learn. We started with very basic things like "Good Morning, how are you?" "Nice to meet you" I think they were more nervous then I was and by the end they were ok. We sang the abc song and a song about the days of the week. They were good sports and sang with me. The intermediate class is made up of people from last year, their English level is from early intermediate to early advanced. So the first day is done. It is weird I am typing this at 7am California and my day is already over as far as teaching goes.

After dinner tonight I am going into town to meet several students to "drink a juice". Last night we went out to Podul Inalt (tall hill) outside Vaslui where there is a statue of Stefan Cel Mare (Steven the Great). Those of you who followed this last year remember Stefan. He was the first ruler to unite what is now Romania and as such he is like George Washington, and you find his name everywhere. I went there with a couple of students and their children. One of the kids was 7 and has taken English in Kindergarden. So we had fun with her say "cum sa spune" (how do you say) and then give me a Romanian word to translate. She got to practice her English and I got to practice my Romanian. It just got done pouring rain and lightning and thunder. I bet there was about an inch of rain in about 5 minutes. It was raining hard. But that is good as it does not feel so hot now. I will take some pictures in town tonight and hopefull post them tomorrow. Talk with all of you tomorrow.

Arrival in Vaslui

Well, I am here again. I took the train from Bucharest to Vaslui on Sunday June 22nd. It is a 5 hour train ride and of course it was hot but I got here. Florina, my guardian angel from last year was waiting for me at the train station and took me to my room. I have the same room as last year, so all of you that remember pictures of the shower, well I am there again. We had the first class meeting today. Only 12 people showed up but more will be here tomorrow. Many of the teachers were taking an exam today, in Romania, the teachers have to take an exam every year until like the 5th year of teaching and then one every 5 years after that. Also right now that high school graduates are taking their exams, these are not exit exams like California has but these exams determine what University they can go to. So they are very important.I will be teaching two classes this year, one beginning and one intermediate. The beginning students are very beginning, some of them speak very little English. Last year most of them spoke a little so it will be different this year. My classes will meet from 9 to 11 and from 11 to 1 Monday through Thursday. I will go out tonight and "drink a juice" with several of my students. It is a great way for them to practice their English and a great way for me to get free beer, hehe.
Now about my plane trip from home to Romania. Last year my luggage did not arrive when I did. Well there is good news this year my luggage and I arrived together. The bad news on this trip was that while we were over Canada (I flew from San Francisco to London) the pilot declared a medical emergency. It seems there was a sick passenger on board and so we diverted to Calgary, Canada. In order to land there we had to dump a lot of fuel because the plane was too heavy to land. The flight attendants were talking later that it was about one million dollars of fuel. So, we spent three hours in Canada. Luckily for me I had a 5 hour layover in London, so to all of you who said 5 hours that's too long, it turned out to be just about right, and I made my connection. Many people of the plane did not. So I guess my advice to you is that if you ever plan on flying to Romania make sure that I am not on board or there might be problems. I will write more as things develop. Leave me a comment so that I know that someone is reading this and I am not just writing to myself.
Bye for now
Mark

Last day of school

Well we made it to the last day of school. Now it is on to packing and getting started on this adventure. Since I am going to the same place I was able to send some of my material ahead by mail. Hopefully, this will make it possible for me to travel with only one checked suitcase and a carry-on as opposed to last year when I had to tote around two big suitcases. Also, with only one suitcase hopefully it will be lonely enough to want to make the trip all the way to Romania instead of stopping part way like my suitcases did last year. I probably should not mention this as it might give the suitcase ideas. My plan is to write here at least every couple of days. So instead of sending e-mails to that huge list like last year if you want to know what is going on with me, just come here every few days.

Mark