The past month has been hectic, fun, tiring, and a challenge. Much like PST and the whole Peace Corps experience in general but this is a different flavor of all of the above. School has settled down for the most part in that we only had one schedule change and since then classes have been right on track. I teach a wide variety of classes from the 2nd form to the 11th form. It is quiet the spread. Interestingly enough I had a hard time with the 5th form students during practice school, but since i have been at site some of my younger classes are the easiest and most enjoyable, although I must say that I love all my students. There are challenging students, beginner students in high levels mixed in with very advanced students, shy students, and of course out going students. Just a great big mix. I learn more Romanian words everyday but I cannot for the life of me make a whole sentence in Romanian, but I do a really good job mixing the two which amuses the students to no end. Probably because many of them do the same thing often, or at least outside of class. Since the beginning of school I have been mostly just making materials. Every day for at least 2 hours I sit and make posters, vocab cards, dialogs, matching activities, something. I made a comment the other day that if all remains constant at the end of two years I will have made enough English materials and visual aids to fill a swimming pool. One of my friends commented that as long as it was olympic sized then that was okay, or something to that effect.
The weather, which is a constant love/hate sort of thing, has been cool at night and warm during the day. But it is little by little starting to get cooler and cooler, at least this week, last week it was around 75 degrees. I didn't understand that at all. I am also starting to pick up projects as I go along. Some students asked me to start an English club which I am jumping right into. I would have started last week but I caught this horrendous cold and was out for 2 days of school and the weekend. Apparently this is the sort of cold of the season and I am not the only one who had the joy of experiencing. I slept enough to make up for any lack of sleep during PST.
I look forward to spending time with the students outside of English class. In class you have things to accomplish and grammar to teach and you are trying to reach all the students while keeping them interested. Outside of class time and topics can flow easily and there are any number of activities you can do that include English but aren't strictly English.
All I can say at the moment is that I can't believe September is almost over. A little over 1 month at site!! Time does go by so much quicker now that I am working. PST was work but it wasn't the same. Time went slow, fast, slow during PST. Here it just seems to go fast. We'll see if I say that in another month. :)
