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.