The end of training!
So PST (training) is about to be over, we just took our language proficiency exams (I will find out how I did tomorrow or Wednesday), all our fellow Americans are about to disappear to their different sites all over Moldova (yes it is a small country, but it is still far away), our daily schedule is about to be changed, we are about to move in with our new host families and we are about to be volunteers. Eek! How could two months have gone by so fast? I am not really sure, but it definitely feels like it flew by. I am excited even though, or possibly because of the fact that, everything is about to change. For 2 months we have gotten so used to our schedule for training, it was easy to think that that was how life was going to be here. I feel comfortable now, but I now this is not “life in Moldova, this is life in training under the protectorate of the Peace Corps staff and our language teachers. I know that that was life as a trainee, this will be life as a volunteer. And although it will be different, it is what we all came here to do. We have been so busy, I know I haven’t given very accurate or comprehensible descriptions of what is going on so let me try to do a mini wrap up here. I will be serious, descriptive, and honest, of course. What I can’t promise is creativity, sentence structure or perspective—I am too overwhlemed and semi-exhausted at this present moment.
What have we been doing for the past two months, LANGUAGE LANGUAGE LANGUAGE! Seriously, 5 or 6 hours a day, so much sometimes that my head hurts. This is a picture of our classroom, that I stole from Chris, but it definitely is a good perspective of what learning Romanian looks like. It is intense, but it has been very pleasant. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love school, in the sense that it is fun to learn something new.
But living in a situation where it is sink or swim—where it is necessary to learn these skills to survive, to interact, to express your emotions comes with a lot of pressure. And I think we could feel it. Sometimes you want to learn language but it is just too much. We all try to make language classes more fun by coming up with interesting things to say, or cool phrases, much to the dislike and amusment of our teachers. For example, we use “dulce” which means “sweet” like we would use the word sweet in America, very causally and about situations. But apparently that doesn’t translate at all, and we get werid looks. Also, another fun game that I like to play is to look up random words in our often incorrect Romanian-English dictionary at home, and then use them in class just to see the reaction of our teacher. It makes language class more fun, more interesting, and more tolerable. And although my teacher thinks I am a litle obraznica (cheeky), I think putting the fun in it has really helped me learn. I remember the first day I realised how immersed in the language I had become. I walked into my room and forgot what I was trying to get. But instead of talking to myself in english, I said “am uitat” which is “I forgot” in Romanian. Not bad, huh? How’s that for intergration? Our language teachers were wonderful though, very patient and very helpful, we were really lucky. They definitely helped us with every aspect of our lives, travel, dealing with our families, getting appropriate winter clothing. It was like having guardians for two months.
For breaks after language I would usually go for a run around the town, go for hikes to interesting places (more on this to come), go on walks around town and get lost, only to meet some interesting person who handed me fruit, or actually knew where I lived better than I did, read (the peace corps office has a shelf of books volunteers have left in the past) or play some games with the children who hang out on the street by my house (think kids playing kickball, not gang-style). I taught them how to play Old Maid, which I think they enjoyed—I thought it would be an easy game to teach given the language that I have. Also, I attempted to show them my card tricks which amaze and dazzle children in America—but here, without the stories to accompany them, they are less than my usual state of glamourousness. Sometimes (but suprisngly only twice) I would need an escape, so I was glad I had my computer and a few dvds.
I know I mentioned it before but out of our group of 36 or so trainees (for Community Development and for Agriculture) we are split up into 5 smaller groups, each living in our own villages. At first I didn’t really warm to this idea—I thought it would be weird to be seperated from most of the group for the majority of the week, but it definitely was helpful for a number of reasons, and I understand why they set it up that way. First, it gave us a smaller group of people to interact with everyday. It was easier to get to know people when we weren’t with the large, and sometimes overwhelming, group. And also, these people (from Milest) became like our family. We got to see everyone else two days a week on hub site days, where everyone game from their respective villages and congregated in a “town” for lectures about safety and technical skills and health. Also, each town kind of formed their own support system and did their own activities to become involved in their communities.
For example, withour host parents, everyone in Milestii Mici got together for a traditional Moldovan dinner. Because we are mostly female (6 girls and 1 guy) and none of us are married, our host mothers decided apon themselves to impart on us important knowledge about how to be a moldovan wom
an, so we will all be suitable for marriage. Remind me to thank them later. So at this dinner we learned how to make placenta and mamaliga (which is kind of like corn bread), we also learned how to peel potatoes and how to iron clothes correctly. I actually thought it was pretty funny—at least for me—to be here. You know how I dress at home. But her
e everything needs to be “frumoasa” or beautiful. Its hard for me to get used to, but I think that frumoasa is the word that people here use for good or nice. He is nice, she is nice, that was nice, your shirt is nice, the house is nice. I have a feeling that is how they use frumoasa, although I know I’m not to the bottom of it yet; More updates to come, until then, I will keep using it to the best of my ability. At this party, we attempted to teach them twister. It wasn’t as succesfful as we wished, because people were hesitant to get on the floor—but it was definitely fun.
What else did we do in our community, you ask? So glad you asked. We had a great halloween party with the kids in the school. It was actually very fun. We taught them about bobbing for apples and about pin the tail on the donkey (played pin the nose on the pumpkin). They talked to us in english about what they thought or heard Halloween was about, and it was interesting to hear their perspectives. I love Halloween, so it was great to be a
ble to celebrate it here. But although we had some candy, it wasn’t nearly enough to get that great sugar high, too tired to move, but veigns coursing with sugar feeling. Maybe next year
I know I mentioned it before, but we also went on a very lovely excursion to the world famous wine cellar in Milestii Mici. My host mother works there, she is the head microbiologist, and was able to secure us a cheaper rate for visitng. Also I was able to confirm that it indeed is in the Guiness book. Go figure.
For a final thank you to our host families we prepared a huge american dinner party for them. We made spaghetti and meat balls, a fruit salad, quessidilas and apple crisp. This was a huge undertaking because of our lack of ingredients, and accessibility to other ingredients, and lack of time. But we really wanted to share a little bit of our culture with them—they have been doing everything for us for 3 months. And although some people resented being treated like a child, it is hard to resent it because in their eyes we are children—we speak like children, know as much as children know, and make the same mistakes.
I am very glad to have been in Milestii Mici (if you are wondering why I am speaking in passive and making gramatically incorrect sentences it is because my english is failing me, and I can’t speak Romanian fluently—this poses a problem, loosing one language before you gain the second). The town was small and very friendly, making it easier to adapt and integrate. My fellow trainees here were wonderful and as a group we had good cohesion and good balance. We definitely have become like familiy and I am looking forward to hearing about their new lives at their prespective locations (we are spread out all over the country) and visiting them. My host family was very gracious, and although we had a few personality conflicts, or issues, overall it was a good experience and I hope to come back and visit them.
Thursday we will have a ceremony for swearing in where we will become official volunteers. It seems to be pretty glitzy, at least from what I hear. Some of us have been practicing a traditional Moldovan dance, which will be performed there. After the ceremony we will all leave with our respective future partners to our new sites. While I am nervous about this new relationship, and about starting all over with a host family, I am excited about what it will become. Two years can sound like a lot, but I know that I will have a lot to do. More on the future site later, I don’t want to describe my work until I am actually doing my work (go figure).
That’s my clousure, at least for now. November is a hard month to be away from home for me, but I know that with all the busy-ness of living in a new place, it will help to pass the time. I am moving this week and will be getting to know a new community, so if I am slow on responding to you, don’t take it personally. O zi buna! (have a good day!)
And, to top this one off... I like to think about a quote someone important once shared with me (to end on a philosophical note, of course).
What have we been doing for the past two months, LANGUAGE LANGUAGE LANGUAGE! Seriously, 5 or 6 hours a day, so much sometimes that my head hurts. This is a picture of our classroom, that I stole from Chris, but it definitely is a good perspective of what learning Romanian looks like. It is intense, but it has been very pleasant. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love school, in the sense that it is fun to learn something new.
But living in a situation where it is sink or swim—where it is necessary to learn these skills to survive, to interact, to express your emotions comes with a lot of pressure. And I think we could feel it. Sometimes you want to learn language but it is just too much. We all try to make language classes more fun by coming up with interesting things to say, or cool phrases, much to the dislike and amusment of our teachers. For example, we use “dulce” which means “sweet” like we would use the word sweet in America, very causally and about situations. But apparently that doesn’t translate at all, and we get werid looks. Also, another fun game that I like to play is to look up random words in our often incorrect Romanian-English dictionary at home, and then use them in class just to see the reaction of our teacher. It makes language class more fun, more interesting, and more tolerable. And although my teacher thinks I am a litle obraznica (cheeky), I think putting the fun in it has really helped me learn. I remember the first day I realised how immersed in the language I had become. I walked into my room and forgot what I was trying to get. But instead of talking to myself in english, I said “am uitat” which is “I forgot” in Romanian. Not bad, huh? How’s that for intergration? Our language teachers were wonderful though, very patient and very helpful, we were really lucky. They definitely helped us with every aspect of our lives, travel, dealing with our families, getting appropriate winter clothing. It was like having guardians for two months.For breaks after language I would usually go for a run around the town, go for hikes to interesting places (more on this to come), go on walks around town and get lost, only to meet some interesting person who handed me fruit, or actually knew where I lived better than I did, read (the peace corps office has a shelf of books volunteers have left in the past) or play some games with the children who hang out on the street by my house (think kids playing kickball, not gang-style). I taught them how to play Old Maid, which I think they enjoyed—I thought it would be an easy game to teach given the language that I have. Also, I attempted to show them my card tricks which amaze and dazzle children in America—but here, without the stories to accompany them, they are less than my usual state of glamourousness. Sometimes (but suprisngly only twice) I would need an escape, so I was glad I had my computer and a few dvds.
I know I mentioned it before but out of our group of 36 or so trainees (for Community Development and for Agriculture) we are split up into 5 smaller groups, each living in our own villages. At first I didn’t really warm to this idea—I thought it would be weird to be seperated from most of the group for the majority of the week, but it definitely was helpful for a number of reasons, and I understand why they set it up that way. First, it gave us a smaller group of people to interact with everyday. It was easier to get to know people when we weren’t with the large, and sometimes overwhelming, group. And also, these people (from Milest) became like our family. We got to see everyone else two days a week on hub site days, where everyone game from their respective villages and congregated in a “town” for lectures about safety and technical skills and health. Also, each town kind of formed their own support system and did their own activities to become involved in their communities.
For example, withour host parents, everyone in Milestii Mici got together for a traditional Moldovan dinner. Because we are mostly female (6 girls and 1 guy) and none of us are married, our host mothers decided apon themselves to impart on us important knowledge about how to be a moldovan wom
an, so we will all be suitable for marriage. Remind me to thank them later. So at this dinner we learned how to make placenta and mamaliga (which is kind of like corn bread), we also learned how to peel potatoes and how to iron clothes correctly. I actually thought it was pretty funny—at least for me—to be here. You know how I dress at home. But her
e everything needs to be “frumoasa” or beautiful. Its hard for me to get used to, but I think that frumoasa is the word that people here use for good or nice. He is nice, she is nice, that was nice, your shirt is nice, the house is nice. I have a feeling that is how they use frumoasa, although I know I’m not to the bottom of it yet; More updates to come, until then, I will keep using it to the best of my ability. At this party, we attempted to teach them twister. It wasn’t as succesfful as we wished, because people were hesitant to get on the floor—but it was definitely fun.What else did we do in our community, you ask? So glad you asked. We had a great halloween party with the kids in the school. It was actually very fun. We taught them about bobbing for apples and about pin the tail on the donkey (played pin the nose on the pumpkin). They talked to us in english about what they thought or heard Halloween was about, and it was interesting to hear their perspectives. I love Halloween, so it was great to be a
ble to celebrate it here. But although we had some candy, it wasn’t nearly enough to get that great sugar high, too tired to move, but veigns coursing with sugar feeling. Maybe next yearI know I mentioned it before, but we also went on a very lovely excursion to the world famous wine cellar in Milestii Mici. My host mother works there, she is the head microbiologist, and was able to secure us a cheaper rate for visitng. Also I was able to confirm that it indeed is in the Guiness book. Go figure.
For a final thank you to our host families we prepared a huge american dinner party for them. We made spaghetti and meat balls, a fruit salad, quessidilas and apple crisp. This was a huge undertaking because of our lack of ingredients, and accessibility to other ingredients, and lack of time. But we really wanted to share a little bit of our culture with them—they have been doing everything for us for 3 months. And although some people resented being treated like a child, it is hard to resent it because in their eyes we are children—we speak like children, know as much as children know, and make the same mistakes.
I am very glad to have been in Milestii Mici (if you are wondering why I am speaking in passive and making gramatically incorrect sentences it is because my english is failing me, and I can’t speak Romanian fluently—this poses a problem, loosing one language before you gain the second). The town was small and very friendly, making it easier to adapt and integrate. My fellow trainees here were wonderful and as a group we had good cohesion and good balance. We definitely have become like familiy and I am looking forward to hearing about their new lives at their prespective locations (we are spread out all over the country) and visiting them. My host family was very gracious, and although we had a few personality conflicts, or issues, overall it was a good experience and I hope to come back and visit them.
Thursday we will have a ceremony for swearing in where we will become official volunteers. It seems to be pretty glitzy, at least from what I hear. Some of us have been practicing a traditional Moldovan dance, which will be performed there. After the ceremony we will all leave with our respective future partners to our new sites. While I am nervous about this new relationship, and about starting all over with a host family, I am excited about what it will become. Two years can sound like a lot, but I know that I will have a lot to do. More on the future site later, I don’t want to describe my work until I am actually doing my work (go figure).
That’s my clousure, at least for now. November is a hard month to be away from home for me, but I know that with all the busy-ness of living in a new place, it will help to pass the time. I am moving this week and will be getting to know a new community, so if I am slow on responding to you, don’t take it personally. O zi buna! (have a good day!)
And, to top this one off... I like to think about a quote someone important once shared with me (to end on a philosophical note, of course).
“When you come to a point where you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.” – Louis L’Amour
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 13, 2006 at 4:20 AM.
