Update from Life at Site

Hi everyone!  So I finally made it!  I am officially a volunteer and not just a trainee anymore.  I had an exhausting last 4 weeks of PST.  Practice school is a really wonderful, really draining experience with more emotions involved then I would have thought possible.  There was great achievements in the class room, soaring high!  Then there would be some small disaster, fell back down to earth, hard.  And of course it was 100 degrees or round abouts there which made it hard to want to plan or site at the school for hours on end doing materials development but it had to be done and in the end I feel way more prepared for what is coming next.  The start of school at site.  Bum bum bum!  Our swearing in ceremony was great, we had really good speakers such as Margaret the heading of the language training, Jeffery our country direct and a great pubic speaker, 2 volunteers that MC'd in English and Romanian, and of course two people from our group Ben (Russian speech) and Zach (Romanian speech) that blew the crowd away with their well prepared speeches and snazzy suits.  After that it was say goodbye to the people you just spend 10 weeks with and hello to your new host families.  A whirlwind day that really seems like 3 or 4 seperate days all together.

Since then I have been on sort of a mini-vacation because of a group of holidays here that fall all together meaning multiple days off.  The first was Gagauzian day which was great.  There was a concert in the center that I got to go see that lasted until like 2 in the morning, I wimped out and was home by 12:30, said isn't it?  That same day, I think, was my host-grandmother's birthday which meant I got to meet  a lot of family members and try a lot of good food.  Soon after that it was the Day of the founding of Comrat, which meant I got to march with all the other teachers to the center and each school got called out to walk across an open area.  Then it was the day of the victory of the soviets over the fascists, I think I may not have gotten it all when I thought I did, where we placed flowers on a monument.  Recently it was also the indepence day of Moldova.  And coming up is Limba Noastra or day or our language.  It has been a lot of fun and a much needed break.  I have also atteneded several conferences.  I attended the conference for all teachers in Gagauzia and then I attended a conference about the new curriculum and long term plans.  Lots of Russian, some understanding on my part.  But being surrounded by Russian has been great.  I feel like my comprehension has jumped 3 or 4 places from where it was.  Now I just have to get started on Romanian and not backtrack with Russian and I am set!

School starts in about 2 days.  I will be finally getting started!

PST is over

Well, the time has finally come and PST is over.  Tomorrow (fingers crossed) I will be sworn in as an official volunteer with Peace Corps Moldova.  I am tired, hot, and ready for break but it was all worth it.  Today we did our last PST interviews, in which we sit with several very important people in the PC and talk about how we have been, any suggestions we have, and generally how we thought the whole process went.  I have to say that I feel very lucky to be working the Peace Corps here in Moldova because everyone has been generally wonderful.  My project director is the sweetest, best dressed, best informed, caring, smartest woman I have ever met.  When we did a presentation about the English Education group we introduced her as the best dressed woman you will ever see.  And it is certainly true. :)  In addition to that we have a great country director who absolutely loves the Peace Corps.  

PST was exhausting and very structured.  But looking back, of course in a short sited way because it just ended, it was good in a way.  We were kept busy, mostly out of trouble and given the tools (as we shall see in the next 2 years) to help us with life here in Moldova.  I know that I am starting to sound a little bit like an infomercial for PC but the organization is part of the reason I was so interested in becoming a volunteer.  It is also reassuring to know that some of the glow hasn't worn off.  The support is there so that with a little work on my part it is a great experience.  

Today is my last full day in my PST site and then I am off to my permanent site!!  Exciting, yes?  I have some more packing to do and of course re-packing to do because I magically have more things then I came with. :)  Mostly it is books provided by PC for English teaching but I have also managed to collect a few other things as well all on my own.  I am starting to dread the thought of packing at the end of two years.  It may seem far away but this is a good indicator that I will have a lot of sorting and generally cleaning to do at the end of it all.  I am excited to meet my new host family (there was a switch in host families so I haven't met this one yet) and get started on school and all that.  

I hope that all my friends and family are doing well!  Till next time!

Getting close to the end of the beginning

I may be too fond of funny sounding post titles, for example of end of the beginning, and earlier half-way there to there, or something like that.  I hope that it does not get annoying for anyone who is taking the time and effort to read my blogs.  But it is true this next week will be week 9 of our 10 week pre-service training and then I will be leaving my PST host-family and site to go to my permanent site.  PST has been a mixture of fun, work, exhaustion, and of course heat.  I will be saving a summing up blog for week 10 but as I get closer to then end of PST I am starting to get a little bit more reflective of how my time has been here in Moldova.  

At the moment I am taking a well deserved break from lesson planning and material making to write to friends and family about how my week has been so far.  A friend has some classical music on and the room I am sitting in is sun dappled with a slight breeze to cool me off.  It is a wonderful moment.  The kind where you realize how good life really is or how there is always something that can make your day seem better.  

Today was also the last day that our research teachers are here to help us and observe us as we teach.  It is interesting how it seems like you have been around a person for months only to realize that they were only with you for 2 weeks.  I will miss talking with my research teacher and hearing about her interesting life.  I enjoyed just talking with her the most.  She had some very interesting stories, many which surprised me.  Also, today the COD trainees and ARBD trainees left to go to the swearing in ceremony and then from there on to their permanent sites.  So now the Russian trainees are done to 4.  Sigh.  I will miss them too.  One of them was my next door neighbor so we got to talk a lot and walk to school together as well.

One more week of practice school and then I get a break!!  I am looking forward to a change of pace and to swearing in.  I hope that everyone is doing great where ever the are.