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