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fultas01 · 8 years ago

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Hello reader 🙂

As you may be aware, it’s currently summer! That means heat here in Moldova, and generally a lot of it with very little to no (more likely no) airconditioning. Just this last week, everyday was above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. *Note, this is a reeeeeeally long post.

Europe on one August day

Last summer, I spent my time learning Romanian and sitting in technical sessions where we discussed how to be a teacher (I honestly don’t think I learned much in these sessions, just due to my background in education). So, as this summer drew closer I was faced with the question: what will I do this summer? So today I’m going to talk about some of my exploits up to what I’m currently doing and planning.

Well, for me, summer began May 31 as the school year closed. Here in Moldova, the chool year begins on September 1st, with the First Bell ceremony, and ends on May 31st with the Last Bell ceremony. I love these ceremonies because they are a great symbol of how the school year has changed the community. It neatly book ends the school year and gives school a high level of importance in the community. Community members are invited to these ceremonies and both students and teachers dress formally for these occasions. Students share their appreciation for their teachers at these ceremonies with flowers from family gardens or florists. I was present for the final bell ceremony at school where we recognized all of the different accomplishments of our students, and said goodbye/good luck to the graduating class. I was able to say bye to some of my seniors and hangout with my partners for the last time for a couple of months. Then, I took a hot rutiera (between the months of May and October there are only hot rutieras) to Chisinau to pick my parents up from the airport.

That entire day I had been trying to message with my parents to check on their travels, however that was difficult as they had to wait for wifi (and as people who are not necessarily tech savy, they often did not connect with it when it was available). So I ended up at the airport, just hoping that they had made all of their planes and that I would be seeing them in the next hour. Sitting down to wait for their plane to arrive made me realize just how excited I was to see them. It had been just over a year since I had seen dad last, and exactly a year since seeing my mom last.

When they walked out of the doors into the main airport I called for Mom (which in an English speaking country might have been dumb, but I was probably among a small number of English speakers, and we were surely the only native speakers in the airport. After the teary hugs, we left and they were able to get their first real glimpse of my current home.

*I’ll go into actual details of this trip in a separate blog post.

We spent 4 days in Moldova, two with my host family in Gordinesti, and two days in Chisinau where they were able to meet some of the other volunteers that I have been luck enough to serve with. From there we had a whirlwind vacation across Europe hitting: Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Milan (kind of), Djon (kind of), and Paris. We traveled by train through 5 countries as we worked our way around the continent. But our 14 days together came to an end too quickly for each of us. On our final morning together we taxied it to Charles De Galle and I had the weird experience of watching my parents leave. It was surreal seeing them leave and know that I won’t be seeing them in person for another 13/14 months. Then I waited in the airport to for my flight (which was muuuch later in the afternoon, but I still made it back home much faster than they did).

After I returned to Moldova, I spent some time in the capital trying to recalibrate to speaking Romanian full time again. Then I went back to my village for two week to plan for my other activities them summer. During these two weeks I hung out around the house, made plans on what I would do next (The Launch event, and camp). I also slept like the freaking dead. I slept for a good 10 hours a day. Waking in the late morning and falling asleep around midnight or 2 am every night.

My next planned event for the summer was an event that I was working to create along with seven other volunteers. This was called the Launch Event, and its goal was to bring the new volunteers and older volunteers together in one place. The older volunteers were given the opportunity to share information about their regions, and talk about a topic that interested them. Along with presentations, we also shared volunteer groups with the new volunteers so they could find ways to be involved with different campaigns across the country.

My group planned this event for approximately 2 months, and when the day finally came together I was happy to see it unfold. Of course this day also happened to be a hundred degrees with an unreliable breeze and held on the second floor of an air-condition-less building. Leading up to the event I spent the night in the capital, and that morning I had gotten lost in the city. Even though I have lived in Moldova for almost a year at this point I still found myself in a completely new area because I left my apartment so happily and I confidently turned the a different way thinking it would be a short cut (nope!).

With the lack of AC and the overall stress of the morning before the event I can’t really remember if the event went well or not. People have told me that it did, so I’m going to say it was at least some what a success. I’m pretty sure all the M32s are going to remember about me is my shouting to get their attention and some manic energy that I had towards the end. Oh well!

That night, I said a final goodbye to an M30 friend who had finished her service. She was planning on leaving in the next few days to go home, so I gave her hugs and wished her well, while trying not to tear up. Her leaving was a sign that others would soon be following, as the older volunteers (the M30s) were beginning to close out their service.

Thinking about this, the changing of the guard, really sucked. So, that night and for much of the next day I just hung out and moped. Not the best use of my time, but what are you gonna do? Some times you just need lazy days So I laid in bed and moped, until one of the friends I was staying with came home and convinced me to get out of bed and be at least semi-productive and help her prepare for the dinner party she was throwing that night in our apartment.

The dinner party was to celebrate a successful Launch, welcome the beginning of camp GLOWTOBE (which started the next morning), and really just to say hi to some friends. We had two Moldovans over, and 5 volunteers including myself. While I couldn’t help with the cooking (not a cook, and my friend didn’t seem like she wanted to teach me right then), I was able to keep everyone entertained with music, buzzfeed quizzes, and just my charming personality. 😉

With a successful dinner behind us we spent the rest of the evening putting things together for camp, packing, and dancing. Why dance? Uh, why not??? We played music until some time around 1 am before our most responsible people (not me, obviously) finally grounded us to our rooms to sleep for a couple hours before camp in the morning.

I grumpily woke in the morning and began getting around. My friends laughed at my childish pout, but understood that I am not a morning person (really, any time in the am is not my time). So we got around slowly for camp then left to head to the northern bus station to meet the other campers and counselors. We stopped by Peace Corps to drop bags off that were not going to camp, only for me to realize that I had left my phone at the apartment. I had to taxi it back to the apartment (which while we were on the way, one of my friends received a call from another volunteer to inform me that I had left my phone at the apartment).

We finally arrived to the bus station about 10 minutes late and met up with a group of waiting kids. We all hung out pretty much silently (there was some conversation, but for the most part the early morning and first meeting shyness kept the conversations pretty minimal). As more and more people filtered in we began to talk more and loaded the bus to go to the camp. Here, I lost contact with my bags because some awesome (not sarcastic) Moldovans decided to help me out by grabbing my stuff and putting it on the buses for me.

On the bus ride I slept pretty soundly, helping make up for the fact that I had probably only slept 5 hours the night before. and when I woke up we were at the camp and the week was ready to begin!

GLOWTOBE (Girls Leading Our World/Teaching Our Boys Excellence) is an initiative started by the Peace Corps that gets youth involved in many different areas. We focus mainly on gender equality and leadership; however, we also talked about volunteerism, diversity, team work, and how to address community issues. I think this camp, and other events held by GLOW are super important to bring new values and perspectives to the youth of Moldova, and enable us to (hopefully) make a positive impact on the future for this nation.

The week was spent working with the campers and counselors in sessions, playing sports, working in teams, eating, and just hanging out. I was a part of the Egyptian team (each team was name after a past empire), and my team was, of course, the best. We started we week out strong by coming up with a dance to show off at the talent show, which bonded our team. The next days, we worked on creating a hilarious video about diversity, talking smack, and just generally laughing and having fun. Did we get a whole lot of work done in team time? No, not particularly. Does that matter? Nope, not one bit.

During this week, I also realized that I had the best partner in crime. My partner counselor, who took things as seriously as I did (which was, not at all) and went along with all of my crazy schemes. One of which was on day two, when I stole two other teams’ flags. If you were at camp, I want to point out that I started this game of capture every flag, and my partner and I ended up stealing half of the flags without anyone suspecting a thing. 😉 He agreed on helping me hide the flags without me saying a word. He climbed high into a tree and duct taped the flags in.

Another amazing moment with my team happened as they cheered us on as I, and my partner-in-crime came together and performed “Thrift Shop” at the talent show. I talked him into this the day of the talent show, and we literally listened to the song two or three times before we got on stage and performed. The entire time, I couldn’t help but think: why did I do this???

After camp, we went back to Chisinau, where a friend sold me his guitar so I could use it this up coming school year. With guitar and two bags in hand, I returned to the village for the first time in around 10 days. When I got there it was late, but I was happy to see my host family again before passing out from an exhausting week. Over the next 4 days back at site I slept for close to double digit hours every day, and tried to beat the heat by staying inside during the day. I walked around my village approximately 5 times, learned 3 songs on the guitar, and was in general pretty bored. I had nothing else really planned for the summer, so now it was just time to hangout and see what would happen.

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The week I came back to site was also the last week that my pseudo-site-mate was going to be in Edinet (he is not in my site, but he is in my raion, so he is the closest other volunteer to me). So, I took some time and went to have dinner with him and meet some English speaking Moldovans who joined us. As it turned out, one of these Moldovans had just spent a year studying in the US and the other Moldovan was getting ready to leave to study in Michigan for a year. I was super excited to find out that she would be near my home state and we spent the lunch talking a lot about what the Midwest and America in general is like. I bonded with the Moldovan who had spent a year in America by talking about Starbucks and other food stuffs that you can’t find here in Moldova.

Once I said goodbye some of my M30 friends after they COSed, I was able to go and help facilitate a learning session with a group of the new volunteers (the M32s). I worked with a Peace Corps staff member to open up a dialogue about promoting gender equitable practices in the classroom and shined a light on some of the things that they as teachers or students noticed about teaching practices and how they could improve them. I think this session went really well, as there was a lot of open discussion, and the participants seemed engaged (though, I remember PST, and I could fake caring with the best of them, so who knows!).

Coming back to site after saying goodbye to more M30s, and meeting new M32s has made me think about what I want to do with the rest of my summer. I don’t want to spend my days sleeping, I want to be able to do something. So, I have continued practicing the guitar, hung out with my host family, and I am trying to work on a grant update the library in my community. At the beginning of August I went to a party called a cumtrie with my host family.

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A cumetrie is a party for the birth of a child. It’s similar to having a baby shower after the baby is born and baptized. The whole day lasted 23 hours for me from starting with me getting up and having my hair done, lunch, hanging out at the house, then the hours long party at a restaurant. We ate lots of food, toasted to the baby and family, gave gifts, danced, and played games. It was a lot of fun, while it was suuuper long and I ended up pretty grumpy by the end of the night.

After the party my summer was a little boring again, then we finished the summer with my group having our Mid-Service Conference, which happened about a week ago. Now, I have celebrated my second Moldovan Independence day here. And in a few days I will begin my second school year here.

Until next time!

Angela ❤

Oh-oh Those Summer Nights Hello reader 🙂 As you may be aware, it's currently summer! That means heat here in Moldova, and generally a lot of it with very little to no (more likely no) airconditioning.

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fultas01 · 8 years ago

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One Year and Counting

Hey Reader!

Today is Moldova’s Independence Day! So, La Mulți Ani, Moldova! Sper că vor fi mulți ani mai fericiți! Te iubesc! ! For my non-romanian speakers, I just said: To many years Moldova (literal translation, but basically happy birthday), I hope that there will be many more happy years, and I love you. I say these things for a country that has taken me and made me feel like family. I…

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fultas01 · 8 years ago

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Hi Mom! I’m alive and I’m doing fine.

A little over a year ago today I left home for my Peace Corps journey. It was my first time on an airplane and my last time seeing Indiana for the next few years. By the end of May I had said my goodbyes to extended family, best friends, my dog (the real heartbreaker), and many of the creature comforts that I took advantage of on a daily basis. My mom and brother followed me to staging, so I was able to see them at the very beginning of June before I left.

Now, it has been a year. Have I changed? I don’t really think so, maybe a bit more relaxed and a more willing to say ‘I don’t know.’ However, my parents (who came to visit at the beginning of June) have seen a big change. But! That’s not what this blog is about (specifically), nope! This entry is dedicated to the people who ask me what I miss most about the US. So I’m going to try and make this a short post about the Top 10 things I miss from home. *This is not a ranked system, I miss all these things equally. So here is my Top 10 things left behind:

My family. I don’t always like these people, but living with them my entire life means that I have become somewhat attached to them. I miss being able to get coffee with my brother and cousins. I miss making fun of my mom and enjoying her cooking, I miss my dad. And I really miss my dog!

2. Thunderstorms. Being from the Midwest, I remember these amazing summer storms that you could see coming for miles, the wind would whip around so fast, the rain would be hard and spitting, lightening would light up the sky and the thunder would be so loud you wouldn’t be able to hear yourself think. Here in Moldova, the rain is much more gentle, and I’ve only seen lightening in one storm. While I can still fall asleep to this rain, it just doesn’t have the same passion and drama to an Indiana thunderstorm.

3. My friends. How in the world I can live without seeing these guys on a daily basis is beyond me, and every time we talk on Facebook gives me a taste of home. There is no replacing the magic that is the friendship with these people. And I’m already planning out what we are going to do when I get back to the states.

4. Mexican food. OMG, I miss a good taco, or even an okay taco from Taco Bell! In my first three months I had dreams about Mexican food, that’s how much I miss this food. Moldovan food is good, but it’s missing the heat and seasoning of Mexican. I grab at least a burrito every time I go on vacation, and one of my first meals back in the states will be at a Mexican restaurant.

5. Starbucks coffee. Well, it’s not just Starbucks coffee, it’s any coffee that isn’t instant. Instant coffee is what we drink here most of the time, which means its weak flavored water. Nah, I want the strong put-hair-on-your-chest kind of coffee. Also, frappocinos! If anyone is sending me a care package, put in a bag of ground coffee from Starbucks, please!

6. Driving. The freedom of the open road, singing along to the radio. Yeah… I miss that. Getting around Moldova can be really hard for some volunteers because we can only go places by foot, public transport, or try to find a ride with someone you know that’s going as well. I have had to wake up before the sunrise to make sure I make it to events on time, and you can’t just belt out “Royals” on a rutiere full of Moldovans, it’s just not done.

7. Central heating and cooling. As the summer drags on I am becoming more and more aware of the BO around me. In most places in the country AC is not a thing, and in the winter most houses are heated by Soba (a wood stove that heats a room or two). I’m either dying of heat stroke and dehydration, or teaching/sleeping in my winter coat.

8. Food in general. Ever get hungry at 10 o’clock or later? Me too! And at those times in the village there really isn’t anything you can do, except wake up family members while you mess around in the kitchen. Going out to eat anywhere can take hours and can easily cost 100 lei or more. And just learning how to cook in Moldova is hard because unlike in the states where I can read the instructions right off the box, I have to start from scratch with killing, plucking, and doing everything with my own chicken.

9. English speakers & people my age. Okay, so I live in a literal village, where the ages are 30+ or 18-, there isn’t a single person that I have met that is 23. This is because they are either too busy working, studying abroad, or have moved to the nearest city. That being said, the only people in my village that speak English are my students, and after a long day of work, I can’t see myself hanging out with them. It also makes it really hard to express myself how I want, it’s harder to make jokes with my family (they come so easily in English, but I can’t always translate my sense of humor to Romanian). I can’t explain that I don’t miss a certain thing, and I can’t explain (very well) when I’m frustrated at something. Alas, these are the problems of a language barrier and a culture difference.

10. For the last thing that I miss pretty regularly, I had to really think. Because I have pretty amazing life right now. So I have to go a bit more abstract on this one. I miss being busy and knowing what’s going on. As helpful as Facebook is, I still miss a lot of stuff with friends and family back home. I miss having a full schedule to keep me busy (coming to Peace Corps right after college has been like going from 60 mph to 10 mph in a minute). While you would think having breathing room is great, I still find myself sitting and waiting for something to happen, something to plan, something to do. Life here is a lot less structured and it’s a lot more: let it be. And while learning to let things happen has been a great skill for me, it still grates when I spend a day just sitting around.

So! Those are my 10 missed things as up the beginning of July. I’m sure this list will change as my final year approaches. I know I will be missing the friends I made in my first year here, as the M30 group (the Peace Corps volunteers who came to Moldova the year before me) go home. I will miss these guys terribly as I get used to living in Moldova without a part of my security net that I have relied on for a year. I hope to keep in touch with these volunteers, and I hope that some M32s will think of me as part of their security net here in Moldova. My current goal is be busy enough to not miss these things, or at least only realize I miss them while on vacation where I can indulge.

Until next time,

Angela ❤

364 Days Older, and the Left Behind Things Hi Mom! I'm alive and I'm doing fine. A little over a year ago today I left home for my Peace Corps journey.

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fultas01 · 8 years ago

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Hellllo Reader,

Hi Mom, I’m still alive! Today we are talking about the long trek towards the end of the school year. I have talked a little bit about what teaching has been like for me. So this blog post is going to talk a little bit about what teaching has been like for me, as well as what I have been up to in Moldova for the last few months, when teaching English has been my main focus.

You may be looking at the title of this blog post and wonder where it comes from. What does a second semester have to do with an 80s movie? Well, sometimes I felt like each of the characters throughout this semester, and I would love for my life to be directed like a John Hughes film. I can say that I felt I like all of these characters, from my stern efforts to make sure students paid attention and that no one used their cellphones in my class, to being perceived as a princess because of where I’m from. I have felt misunderstood like everyone of the characters, and I have had dance parties too. I might expand on these feelings throughout this blog post, so I’ll leave this here and get into the actual post.

After Christmas break (and my travels to Budapest, Prague, and Brasov) I returned to school, ready to begin the send half of the school year. I began this semester a little more wary than I had been at the beginning of the year, but still ready to get knee-deep in changing things, and improving my students’ English. However, with the second semester came a bunch of new commitments. The first of which came at the end of January (maybe a week or so after I school had just begun again), where I had a week long engagement in Chisinau to learn about Project Development. I went on this trip with a partner from my school, and we came back super excited about the projects that we were considering for our school. With this little break it was a little hard for me to be aware of what my students were doing in our classes. I had basically taken off a month, so getting back in the swing of things was harder than expected.

Along with that, I began preparing for different events that would take place for me in February and ended up spend 3 out of 4 weekends in Chisinau. Which, is not my village, in fact it is very far from my village. So, for most of my Fridays and Sundays I spent time on rutieres going between the two places that I spend my time. I thankfully did not have classes on Fridays, giving me the opportunity to check-in with my school to see if I could help with anything before heading to Chisinau to work on these different projects. Along with this time spent working on projects I also worked with my teachers to try and come up with new things to do with the students and keep them interested in English as the year continued. We began trying different media types (bringing in music, and short videos) as well as powerpoints, changing the policy for our tests, and creating different test forms to discourage cheating (did it work? kind of…)

February was a blur to me. I began working on a project with my school to renovate the library (which later changed to creating a kind of student center for students to prepare for lessons in). I also began talking with my English teachers to see if they wanted to do a grant to buy more English language resources. Outside of these projects, I also had work with two of the Volunteer committees that I’m a part of (I am on the Volunteer Information Committee or VIC, and I am working with the GLOW camp and clubs of Moldova). Both committees had activities that they needed to do in this month. Sooooo, I was busy thinking about extra-curricular activities and can’t remember what I taught (or if I taught) the entire month.

One of the things I remember fondly about February from school was the Valentine’s day school festival. Where students prepared dances, skits, poems, and other fun things for us to watch that day after lessons. Then they were able to have a school dance to celebrate the day. I spent that time hanging out with one of my partner teachers and talking about some of the differences between American celebrations and Moldovan celebrations of Valentine’s day and Drago-bete (I misspelled this, because I only ever say dragobete, I never write it).

After the craziness that was February came March. Another busy month during the weekends, as I was working with other people and putting different projects together. However, I was able to focus on teaching more in March. This focus showed me that students really are the same everywhere. My students were ready for the end of winter, and they were ready for another break from school. While some of my younger grades were flourishing (my second graders learned ‘Happy Birthday’ which was adorable), my middle schoolers were dropping like flys. Out sick, skipping class, and if they were in class they weren’t paying a whole lot of attention, this has been the month of March and beyond with my middle schoolers.

Not to say that they are all this way, however, there is definitely a majority of my students who shut down in the second half of the year. And this shut down is what made me feel like the Breakfast club. As I was teaching the younger grades I felt cool and welcomed, but with my middle schoolers I oscillated between acting like the mean principal and the absent parents from that movie. Some days I worked really hard to get their attention either through bribery or through a tough stance, while other days I just said that it wasn’t worth the fight. (Not very teacher-like attitude, but I know many a teacher who just have to wash their hands of a certain day and move on. It happens).

In this second half of the school year also came sickness. Sickness for me, for my host family, and for my school. Many students would be absent at different intervals and the same could be said about many of the teachers who either fell ill themselves or had to stay home with a sick kid. And as you can imagine, dear reader, that this puts stress on a school. And Moldova is not like the US where we can call in a substitute teacher to cover a class. No, when a teacher is sick or missing, other teachers are pulled to cover those classes. And that meant that for me, I ended up teaching alone more often than I would have liked. It was an easy choice to pull one of my partner teachers to teach a different class, while I would continue an English lesson by myself. It would mean that very little would be lost in either class. Unfortunately, many of my students took this to mean a free period for them and I had to fight to get things done. Some classes were better than others, but for the most part, I don’t think I ever got better at teaching these kids alone. I think I have a better understanding of what I would do if I have to teach alone in the next school year, but I still would really prefer not to.

A celebration in March that I attended was. International women’s day. This wasn’t a celebration at the school, since the school was closed for the day. Instead this was a celebration put on at the Casa de Cultura (translates to the House of Culture, these are in almost every village, and in every raion and city). This celebration had dancing, singing, and lots of flowers given to the women that had come. While after a couple hours of sitting in uncomfortable seats and listening to singing and poems in Romanian I was exhausted, it was still a very sweet thing. I had to explain that in the US International Women’s day isn’t really celebrated. So, points to Moldova for making every woman feel important and celebrating an international holiday better than Americans. America, take notes.

April, oh April. We had another break in the month of April, this one was a week long break for Easter, and the week before the break, one of my classes just didn’t show up. We talked to their class master (home-room teacher), but nothing really came of it. And that class’ attendance stayed low to non-existent for the remainder of the school year. While this frustrated me, it became obvious that most of the students did not plan on continuing on studying English, so they thought why bother? As a volunteer, I had no power over this, and just started bring a book or something to occupy my time with during this class. I would sit in the classroom and try to talk with anyone if they did attend class.

Also during April my projects fell through, it was a problem with communication. I hardly ever saw my partner on our projects, and I had very little confidence in my abilities to communicate in Romanian. If I could avoid speaking it for a day, I would. This lack of communication brought along some problems between me and the staff. Leading me to feel more like John Bender from the Breakfast club, arguing with the principal and making things worse by not being cooperative. Oops. Looking back on it, I realize that I needed to speak up and let people know what was going on, but I just didn’t fix it for a long time (and I honestly still am not sure if I have successfully bridged these gaps in communication, though I think I am doing better).

Weirdly, in April there was a late snow storm, which the volunteers dubbed: Snow-pocalypse 2017. This storm came through at the tail end of our Easter break, making traveling in Moldova dangerous. Me and a couple friends flew into Moldova at the end of our vacations to find the city basically at a standstill. The cab drivers from the airport were charging 4 times their normal price, none of the buses were going in the city, power lines where down, and it was generally just a mess. Walking around the city the days following reminded me of what cities and towns look like after a tornado. It was crazy.

After Easter break we came back to school, knowing that we were in the final stretch of school. The kids and teachers could feel the summer holidays coming. And, just as you would imagine, that made teaching a bit harder. Along with the end of the school year came end of the year testing, and the stress to make sure we covered everything in the book. In May this came to a head and I don’t think I taught my regular week schedule the entire month. There would be times when I wouldn’t see a certain class for a week or two because of testing, and once they came back, they were done. They thought that since they wrote their finals that everything else was extra, and it didn’t really matter. And I have to kind of agree with them there. They took their final exam and the last two weeks of school grades were being tabulated, so no new information was coming out. I spent the month doing year round ups and overseeing tests. And neither were particularly fun. I can say that they were rather helpful in pointing out where weaknesses were in each of my grades (an example, we spent a week with my 2nd graders going over the alphabet again because they couldn’t remember how we pronounce it in English. Which means that when I said “c” my students thought I was saying an ‘s’ because that is how ‘s’ is pronounced in Romanian. Or the difference between “e” and “i,” since English “e” sounds like “i” in Romanian).

Throughout all of this, I also began to teach an English club on Wednesdays at my local library. This was a fun little exercise that quickly gained popularity with my 4th graders, then died again as students stopped coming. It was a weird phenomenon where I started the club with like 5 students, it grew to 20+ students in a small room, then dwindled to less than 10 again, before I had to pause the club because of end of the year preparations. As some one who had never had an English club it was weird and difficult for me to prepare for these events, so I generally grabbed little things that I thought we could practice and use (like greetings, numbers, colors, etc).

Also on the club side, I began working with another volunteer in the nearby Raion center, I would occasionally come to see him and help with his club at his school (even helping to teach a group of kids how to throw an American football), and we helped at a Romanian school on the other side of town. I think I went to each of these clubs twice during the second semester, but both were good times (though I did get sick at the second meeting at the Romanian school). I worked well with this volunteer and we made some plans to continue working together in the upcoming months. We talked about working with certain students in the community as tutors of English (however we have only been able to meet once). These clubs and students are things that I want to continue either this summer or in the next school year.

The lasts weeks of school saw all the teachers working diligently on compiling grades (which has to be all done by hand here in Moldova, so I have never been so happy and grateful for electronic grade books as I was when I saw my partners working on those). While teachers were working on these I would attempt to talk or review with some of the students. The key word in that last sentence being ‘try.’ I think we were all pretty done with everything by late May.

Outside of school, in March, April, and May, I was preparing for my parents to come and visit. So I was some what distracted along with my students. After lessons, I would begin looking at different things and different places for us to go on vacation and making a plan. I had to talk to my director in Romanian about this trip and make sure that they were okay with me taking the two weeks out of school to travel with them across Europe.

My work with the two other groups began really heating up again in May and April as well. GLOW was fundraising all semester (and we unfortunately did not meet our goals, and we are now doing our best to cut costs to make sure everything still works). GLOW also began really planning out the camp and communication was coming and going fast and furiously. We had a counselor training in mid-June and then camp would be two weeks after that. On the other hand, VIC was preparing for the new group of volunteers to come in. We worked on creating the new website, we thought of ideas of gifts for the new volunteers, and began planning for the Launch Event, which will take place in July. With all of these things going on, this semester seemed both the be a blur and to inch by so slowly I thought I was going to die.

The school year ended with a last bell ceremony on May 31st. The day began with everyone coming to school at the normal 8:30 time, but instead of going to the classroom, I met my partner in the teachers lounge as we waited for everything to be set up. Around 9 am we went outside, ready for everything to begin, but after another 15-20 minutes of waiting my partner and I walked to a nearby store to have coffee and breakfast then return to the school for the festival. Things finally really began around 10 am and took about 90 minutes to two hours to complete. During the ceremony many awards were handed out, and a few poems were shared. The graduating class was recognized as well as some of the amazing teachers that I work with. Then, as the last part of the ceremony, the graduating class walked around the group of students ringing the last bells of the school year (America, it’s a really cool idea and thing to see!). After that, the students were told to go back inside the building so that their Dirigentie (home-room teachers) could talk to them if need be before they go home for the summer. As students were leaving they gave flowers to their teachers. So even though my partner and I don’t have a home-room class we were gifted with flowers at the end of the year to show appreciation of our work (which might have made me tear up, but I’m not saying for sure!).

With the school year over, the teachers had a meeting about the end of year business, which I had to stay at, unfortunately. Do I remember what went on in that meeting? Nope. I was just trying to look like I was paying some attention. We finally left afternoon, and I left school to grab my bag and go to Chisinau to pick my parents up from the airport! But I’ll talk more about that in another blog post.

Well, I think that covers mostly everything from the end of the school year for me. I know there are stories that I didn’t tell, but I just wanted to talk broadly about what I did this school year. If I think of anything else I’ll add it to another post, and if you want me to talk about anything that I haven’t addressed yet, please let me know!

Until next time,

Angela ❤

Second Semester: Aka. The Breakfast Club Hellllo Reader, Hi Mom, I'm still alive! Today we are talking about the long trek towards the end of the school year.

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fultas01 · 8 years ago

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Hello Reader,

Hi Mom! I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely weather, here it is getting hot (that means the smell of BO is becoming more and more pronounced in close quarters here in Moldova). With that lovely image in mind, I want to get into my post, I generally try to talk about the upbeat things about being a peace corps volunteer, and I strive to be honest as possible about my experiences here. However, there are things that I have gone through for almost a year now that I haven’t shared. Hard days. We all have them, so I want to share a little bit about how they effect me and my work here in Moldova. Over the last ten months I have had some of the toughest times in my life. Some days in February it was a struggle to get out of bed, while later it became easy. I have questioned myself constantly and been so frustrated that I have broken down in tears. But Hard days never last, so I want to share some of the ways I get through these days.

It is the end of the school year and I’m fighting my students and myself in a war with apathy. I try to make sure I care and that I bring something important and helpful to my students. I try to engage them in anything that can interest them. But as the weather is nice, we all struggle to care about school. So, we have harder days when I question my purpose and wonder if I’m really making a difference (I’ve heard it said from a few people, but I still doubt my impact constantly). Today, I’m writing for catharsis (this post really for me), and to share a common experience. While my days differ from other peace corps volunteers, and they differ from my friends back home, we all have bad days. Days where things just don’t go the way we wanted them to go. So to get us in the mood, let’s start with a song I catch myself singing on rough days, ‘Mama Said’:

I am currently living over 5,000 miles from my home in Indiana. I’m living in a new culture that has different expectations, different ways to deal with things, and a different language (the daily struggle with a new language is real). There are many different things that can set a day in the wrong direction, and then there are times when it seems like a week, or month just aren’t going your way. Example: today after living in Moldova for almost a year, I still got lost because my rutiera took a new route so I missed my stop, then the next rutiera I took broke down, so I had to walk back to my village. Now, this didn’t necessarily upset me as much as it just stressed me out. However, these are the kind of things that can happen and ruin a day, making it harder and harder to pull out of a spiral. So, today is what I would consider not the best of days (nor one of my worst). I have these bad days less often than I did during student teaching, but more often than I did throughout the rest of my college career.

But, not everything is lost or bleak. Bad days aren’t everyday, and some times things go wrong, but then right themselves. I still have an amazing host family and a community that I feel like I am helping. I want to be here and I want to work in my community. So, on these days I like to start off with that thought. I want to share, both with myself, and with others who are considering the Peace Corps, some good ways to get over a rough day, or several.

Things to help me feel better:

My very first thing is to make sure that I still like what I’m doing. I make sure that I still want to be where I am. Because while there are days where I tell myself over and over again that I want to go home, I always have to decide whether I would happily leave where I am forever to go home. So far the answer has been a resounding no. I want to finish out my school year, I want to see my 12 graders graduate, I want to help in summer camps, welcome the new volunteers, and just be here. So, while I miss my dog, certain freedoms (driving, and talking to my friends whenever), and an ability to eat Taco Bell or Starbucks, I still want to be here.

2. If it’s a big issue I also need physical space. I’m not much for exercise (running in a village has problems like people yelling at you about running as well as a lack of good roads, and wild dogs who want to chase you), so I tend to go for walks. Mixing music, or a good podcast, with the ability to get outside and look at my community allows for a things in school or home to melt away, if only for a little while. Walks can show me new areas of my village, and let me work on my tan while I unwind. If a walk doesn’t seem to cut it, I can always try to get away for the weekend. Visit other volunteers, (as close as a volunteer in my raion, and moving farther a field) or work on projects in the Capital.

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3. For the days when I miss being able to speak English everywhere, I listen to Podcasts and immerse myself in English. I miss pop culture, commercials, movies, and just hearing English on the radio, but I have missed most of the political fallout in the states because I am so far away. But that distance means I have to work harder to keep up with what is happening in my own culture. What are the movements and marches that are happening? Beyonce is having twins? Who is the new secretary of labor? Ect. So, I try to listen to Podcasts (the Cracked Podcast and This American Life are my favorites) and watch a few YouTube videos of my favorite shows. They are not always super relevant, or good at making me not miss home, but they are generally fascinating, and help me forget my problems for a little while.

4. For the days I miss my friends and family, I try to talk to them, or I try to talk to other volunteers. These days are generally the hardest. Because I am torn between stalking Facebook, and wanting to completely turn away from my phone and focus on my community. Other volunteers are great for these days (and every other day) because they understand and they want to use their English as well. Finding a friend (or multiple) that is in country is the only way I have been able to survive here.

5. Poetry. I write, read, and listen to poetry. Back in college I took a few poetry classes, and while I don’t expect to ever be a famous poet, writing is cathartic. And for me, poetry is emotion. Written and spoken emotion. At the end of my service I want to put all of my ‘finished’ poetry up here so that others can see and maybe feel some of the different emotions that I have experienced in-country. I generally only create the poetry in my head, but I occasionally write it down and use the poem to try and understand my emotions and express them better. I read some poetry from online to try and share with my students, and I listen to slam poetry on YouTube. Generally if I find an especially touching piece I share it with others. So, if you are a friend, there is a good chance you have or will receive some dope poetry videos from me.

6. Reading. I read in every mood, at any time. And it has actually caused so of my rough days because I read well into the night, instead of getting my necessary 5 hours of sleep. But, I also read because it takes me out of my head and out of my situation. It can help me to forget about the argument I had earlier, or help me calm down after having another misunderstanding with a community member. Reading helps me feel connected with my culture, and it reminds me of things I did at home (like reading while listening to a thunderstorm and drinking coffee).

7. Planning ahead. Along with my question about whether I am happy where I am, I always look at what I still want to do, or what I have planned. The future is flexible, but having something to look forward to is a huge help for me. This can be a little thing, like looking forward to my next class, looking forward to Monday to see my kids again, Friday so I can have a break from my kids, a weekend to work in Chisinau on a project, a vacation so I can explore a new country, and most recently family visiting! Making these plans helps me to realize that these problems are temporary. Things can, and usually do get better. So, keep your head up.

These are the ways I have noticed that I deal with rough days. And while you might not find this post helpful, I was meant for me. So, here are some videos and images that I tend to look at to help myself feel better after shitty days. I am a visual person and a musically inclined person, therefore I get the most help from those mediums, and they are also how I express myself.

I hope to be posting more soon, so stay tuned and thanks for being curious about my life as it happens across the world. Until next time, let these words of wisdom encourage you, enjoy the song (it’s a favorite right now), and be kind to everyone you meet. You never know who’s having a hard day.

Angela ❤

Per·se·ver·ance: staying power Hello Reader, Hi Mom! I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely weather, here it is getting hot (that means the smell of BO is becoming more and more pronounced in close quarters here in Moldova).

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fultas01 · 8 years ago

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Books! Best quotes :)

Illustrations for the Uppercase Planner by Simini Blocker on Tumblr