It has been some time since I last posted and that is partly due to how quite it has been at site in the past few months. School is out and I am spending my time studying for the GRE and continuing an English Club started by my site mates. I am now site mate less having said good bye to my last two site mates last week. It is odd being the only one left in a town that has had so many PCV's for so long. I have been in Romania for all most 13 months now with 12 to go until I return to the USA. It was strange seeing my site mates go off and making me think about what it will be like to return to Arizona next year. I know time will fly especially when school starts again and next July will be here before I know it. This past year has flown by and from what I have heard the second year goes by even faster. I know few things for certain but what I do know is simple. First it will be a long trip home around 17 hours in the air and who knows how long waiting in airports and that does not take into account the 12 hours it takes to get to HQ and the time spent there. Kendra will be very mad at me since she will spend a great deal of time in a cage and then be exposed to strange people, loud noises, dogs and the over sized cement oven that is central AZ in July. I also know that it will be hard to return to a world that has become alien.For now however I must focus on the present. I have to get through the rest of the summer, MST, health checks, meeting my parents in Wales, and the dreaded GRE.A note about the weather, I have seen the sun only a few times this summer and it keeps raining. I don't remember it being like this last summer and despite beliefs that say other wise the sun does shine in Eastern Europe it just has not lately.

I arrived in Romania a year ago today and what a year it has been. The one thing that I have learned it that no matter what Peace Corps country you are in there are always going to be challenges. I may not be in the middle of Africa or on some island in the middle of the ocean but I am no less isolated. My site mates will be gone and though the nearest American is only about 4 hours away it is too difficult to get there since public transportation in Romania is not reliable. Yes I have many of the amenities I had in the US but I still have to make all my own food, the water is not safe, I have to light my stove and oven by hand and few people speak English. Despite to physically being in the middle of nowhere I am still in the middle of nowhere. In the last year I have gone through so much and it all seems to have happened so fast and yet moments I thought things would never end. I have dealt with crazed students; compete technology break downs and countless other problems. I don’t think anyone could ever expect what it is like to live in a world not your own. The loss of language and culture is nothing that can be prepared for. I thought that I could manage just fine out here all alone. I guess you never know how you will react to a situation until you are in it. I have learned more than I ever thought I could here. Kids are kids no matter what country you’re in and life does not stop just because you’re a world away from everything you know. This is an endurance test like nothing found in the world. In Romania the hardest thing is not being able to see the difference you are making and accepting that you can only measure your success by how your work changes you. A year ago I was a different person and a year from now I will be a different person then I am now. No matter the hardships and the time when I wish I could just go home I will never regret my life here. I am livng in the middle of nowhere and in 13 months I will return to a world I no longer understand.

It has been almost a full year since I left my home and family in AZ and came half way around the world to Romania. It has been far from easy and nothing like what I expected. I have had to deal with computer break downs, site visit disasters, change of sites, two kindle break downs, a laptop melt down, countless arguments with both DHL and UPS over respecting intergovernmental agreements and countless other problems. Yet this evening as I said good bye to one of my site mates Rob who started a year before me I realized I will be just as sad to leave. I have wanted to go home so many times and yet I know that going home is going to be like Alice through the looking glass. Nothing in my old world will make sense anymore and most of my family and friends will not be able to grasp that.So despite the countless disasters I am still here and I hope that this time next year I will still be here. The saying goes Nothing worth doing is easy and Peace Corps is no exception. Once you are a Peace Corps Volunteer you will always be a Peace Corps Volunteer, it is a life time commitment.

It has been nearly a year since I jumped off a proverbial cliff and left home to start on my was to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. I thought that taking that step would be the hardest thing I would ever have to do. I look back and realize that taking that step was like jumping off a cliff, however at the bottom of that cliff was a mountain. I stood at the bottom of that mountain with two choices. The first to turn around and go back and the other to climb that mountain. For the past nearly 12 months everyday I have had to make the choice to go back or to keep climbing that mountain. That is the big lesson every Peace Corps Volunteer learns, getting in is the easy part it is choosing to stay in that is hard.

thousands of miles form everything you know and from everyone you know. In a place where simple problems are not so simple anymore. You have to remember that you never know how you are going to react to a situation until you are in it. Some of us find that we can't take it and we have to turn back, others find that despite the hardship something in us will not let us give up.

Me I have been through so much in the past 12 months from the site visit from hell and the changing of sites to mass electronic failure that resulted in a new computer and more problems. However no mater how many times I thought that this was going to be the end, that I just was going to give up and go home I stayed. Something in me kept telling me no you are not giving up on this not because of this. So here I am still climbing that mountain not yet ready to take the easy way out.

To be a TEFL volunteer in Romania I think is one of the hardest posts to be in in the Peace Corps. Unlike many other countries where the underdevelopment is clearly seen, here in Romania you are dealing with cell phones and the modern world around you. It seems like I am teaching to walls most days and wonder often if I am making any impact at all on these kids. I ask myself, do these kids really need me here and am I doing them any good my standing up here trying to teach them in another language how to speak this language. I am in what looks like civilization even if it is still trying to become fully modernized it is still civilization. Yet they seem to want us here though I suspect that by 2014 Peace Corps in Romania will be a thing of the past. We have done our best to help put Romania on the course of modern development now they must take what we and others have given them and do it themselves,

Well I got the new computer but when my external cd rom drive I called on a Romanian friend for help. She sent me to a friend of her brothers who when he could not get the thing to work took of my official windows and but some unofficial one on there. This did not solve the problem and in fact caused more problems. In the end I had to go to the computer teacher at school to repair some of the damage done to the computer. Now to top it off my Kindle broke and has to be replaced a second time and my old IPod would not work with the new computer so I had to get a new one.

The moral of the story: For PCV’s living in third world European countries like Romania it is better to trust the electronics people where you work. Why because at least in Romania most people do not understand that having a pirated form of a computer software is illegal in most countries but that it is wrong to steel. Unfortunately among the common people of Romania this idea has not caught on. This is in part because some laws are not enforced. I suspect this enforcement will come with time.

The other moral to this story is: When in foreign counties where you plan to stay for long periods of time, be very careful with your electronics. As for me I have gotten everything working to the extent that it will work. I have just under 14 months before I will return to the USA and school ends in a few weeks.

It is late April and my computer problems continue. I have ordered a new laptop and it was supposed to be here today but it never showed up. I have been in contact with my counterpart who will get in touch with the company in the morning. This is just one of many storms I have had to weather since putting in my Peace Corps Application back in early 2008. It is hard to believe that it has been that long since I started all this and what a journey it has been. It starts with a long detailed application and moves into a long detailed application process. The security clearances, the medical clearances’ and the placement all take a lot of time, patients and paperwork. Then comes the placement and the preparation to leave your life behind for two years and three months. The paperwork the packing the saying good bye. The comes trainings part 1 also known as staging, or an introduction to the people you will spend up to 3 months training with and learning general things about Peace Corps. Then off you go to your home for the next 27 months. Training is a whole different world and a challenger in its self. Once this is done off you go to start the real work. This means trying to adjust to your community and then getting them to trust you. Your first year is full of mass disasters and false starts. It is a time of learning and preparation for the second year where you try and truly push forward. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer and in about one month I will have been in country for 12 months. It has been a year like nothing else. To be a Peace Corps Volunteer no mater what country you are in, be it the middle of nowhere in Africa or the Pacific or in a city is to weather storms like few ever see and to come out the other side. Me I take each day as it comes, the good, the bad and the "I am going to throw that kid out the window" days. Now I wait for a new laptop and thank the powers for sitemats no mater how long I have them.

It is Saturday and am at a low point in my service. Reason for this I spilt soda on my laptop and it maybe unfixable. Reason for this my apartment has little furniture, no window screens and no ventilation by the stove. So I was using the chair I normally use as a table as a stool and stupidly put a glass of soda by my computer. I am currently using a site mates extra laptop to be able to connect to the outside world so I can continue to survive at site. If my laptop is unfixable I will have to buy a new one here and spend about 300 USD. To add to this I am sick making this all worse, that and even though I have a sore throat I still don‘t like tea. A note on Peace Corps Medical kits they are basically a well stocked first add kit. For any of you planning on joining the Peace Corps no mater what country you are in it is advisable to bring any drugs you would use to deal with medical problems. Thos does not only mean prescription meds but over the counter cold medications, pain killers, cough remedies, sinus and allergy meds and anything else you can think of no mater how small. I don’t care what country you are in having to get meds for any countries Peace Corps HQ is bound to be a pain in the rump. For mean it means a 12 hour train ride at night, two subway trains and a walk through the wild dog and crazy driver infested streets of Bucharest. Also for all those girls out there who have any form of PMS bring the drugs and anything else you would use to get ride of pain with you. Even here in semi civilized Romania it is hard to get relief form the pain. Now must talk to parents over skype while they look at a map of Wales.

With yet another teachers strike I am off today and able to do nothing, well all most nothing. I do need to take out the trash, go to the little store near my place and use cut up bug netting to use as screens on my windows.

Have no school today is both a good thing and a bad thing, first I don’t have to deal with one of my afternoon classes whom I spend most of the time yelling at them to be quite, but I need to get Pen Pal letters back from everyone of these classes so I can send them on to Maryland before their school year ends.

No the reason for the screens is mainly that the area near my stove has no ventilation and the one window near that area has the heater next to it. The cat likes to get up on the heater and so risks falling out the window.

The reason I need to go the store is because I am out of soda, chocolate and potato chips. In my now nearly 11 months in Romania I have become addicted to potato chips. It is now 1pm and I really do need to get take the garbage out but I will try and blog more.

For those of you who are now part of group 27 who got the address to this blog from information given to you by Peace Corps please check this blogs achieves for posts from my own PST. I gave advice about PST then. The best advice can give you now is don’t over pack, electronic reading devices are a good investment, bring along one or more long lighters that you use to light fire places and barbeques and beware of dogs. Also a little computer advice get the best anti virus you can find, never plug external devices into your computer that you has been plugged anywhere else. This includes Peace Corps computers. My computer crashed on me during training as did the computers of a few others in my group, it has also nearly crashed due to the plugging in of my thumb drive into my schools computer and one of my students plugging their thumb drive into mine. If you want pictures of the parts of Romania I have seen, mainly my site, my originally planed site and my cat but also pictures form last years counterpart conference you can check out http://romanianpeacecorpsexperence.shutterfly.com/ this is where I post all my pictures since it is free and easy to put them up there. The only other thing I can tell you about PST is one it will end and two the staff is doing their best and it is not their fault that the computers in the lounge keep breaking down and that it is unbearably hot. Also, do your best with learning the language and focus on speaking it not getting all the grammar right. Me I speak very little Romanian though I did try. I might have improved if one I tried more after I got to site and two if my school was not Hungarian and I did not find out that my school not my site would be Hungarian until the last minuet. Please check archives for information on my site change and why unless there is a medical problem or security problem as in my case you do not want to do this. I love my site and would not change anything now but it is a pain to change sites and Peace Corps will not do it unless there is a very good reason.

These things don’t work do not try them. I have tried to do debates with my kids and gave them three months to do it and even posted the translations of the topics in Hungarian with the help of my counterpart and did everything to get them to do it with little success yet. Pen Pal letters with kids in the USA may have a better effect. As to Romanian Apartment Cats, please be warned that it is my experience that when locked in an apartment Romanian Apartment Cat becomes possessed by demons and begin running around the apartment like mad attacking any thing and anyone at will.

In the past 6 months of my PC service I have found that it is the little successes that keep me going. Things as simple as my kids turning in their homework or listening to me when I talk. These little things let me know that I am doing my job. I am here to help and recently I got one of my biggest successes. My counterpart is planing to change her grading procedure to be more like the one I use. She sees that by giving points for homework as well as class participation it makes things equal and gives all the children a chance to shine. Now if we could just get the kids to stop complaining about the grades especially when the never give homework or do not come to class.

When I was first told about the probability of my students cheating I thought ok they are going to try and copy something from online and make it look like their own. Then I heard about students just copying and pasting articles and turning them in. I never thought that this would happen in my classes. I thought that if I made it clear enough that no points would be given for cheating that the students would not do anything. Wrong, in the past two weeks I have had two students try and turn in extra credit assignments that are pure plagiarism. One I would tell right off from the language that this student did not have the English level to do this and had just copied and pasted from an online review. The other hand wrote the assignment but started with “If you had asked me in 1980 something.” Now these kids were all born in the 1990’s so this was just too obvious. When I mention this to one of the other teachers she just smiled and said that the same thing happens to her. It is like the students don’t think that I am going to read what they have written. Unfortunately it seems like this is a common occurrence in this country and this is sad.

2010 is my only full year in Romania and it is starting off with crazy weather. New Years was only a little cold and then the Sunday before school started it snowed, but the by the end of the week it was warm again and now it is snowing. My kids are active and ready for a new semester to start. This will happen at the end of this month at which time I will start working with my true counterpart. The students and I are still working on trying to understand each other. As of now I am starting a new semester since I turned in my grades for last semester. My students are now being given the option of doing extra credit assignments. They will also be required to participate in a debate that is worth half their grade. I don't think this has gotten through to the 7 classes I have talked to this week, but it will. In addition we are working on speaking through the homework assignment of telling me a news story. This idea as well as that of the class debate were things that I did during the AP government class and I must give credit to my teacher Sav one of the best history teachers I have ever had in my life.

In cat news my now teenage cat has discovered the TV and will now go from watching it to attacking it.

Here is to 2010 I expect it will be an interesting year

Of all the difficult things that come with being a Peace Corps Volunteer the most difficult is being away from home in times of grief. Of the 37 people who swore in with me this past August one has lost a friend, 2 have lost a grandparent and now I have lost an Uncle. As volunteers we are only permitted bereavement leave upon the death of either a child, grandchild, parent or sibling.

It is hard to be away from those you love in times like these. Tonight I morn alone, but in my heart I know that my Uncle now rests in the Summer Lands waiting to be reborn. He will always be remembered for who he was. My Uncle was a man, neither good or bad, just a man. He loved life and did his best to live well. His faults we the faults of all men, his heart may have been too large at times and too small at others . The important thing is to remember people as they truly were not how we wished them to be.

It is my firm belief that funerals are for the living, the dead have moved on. So I remind you all, even if you can not be there when a loved one leaves this earth, you can morn alone and the dead will here you because for them all life's boundaries are gone.

To my Uncle Chuck may the powers lead you the Summer Land where rest awaits you before you can begin again.

Charles Edward Dodson Jr October 15 1928-December 18 2009

A year ago I was just about to graduate college, now I am in Romania at the end of the first four months of my Peace Corps service. After finishing my group’s In-service training conference, I look back on the past seven months. So much has changed since I first left my home in Arizona that early Tuesday morning at the end of May. It seems like a lifetime ago. I have traveled half way across the world and lived through great hardship. Three months living in the house of strangers who don’t understand your language was far from easy. Living through days that started at 8:40 am and ran until 5 pm, and eating Romanian food, which disgusts me to no end, has added to the struggle of my first months in Romania but I came through it. My Pre-service training days are gone now, along with the food, the long days and the uncertainty of living with a Gazda or host family. I survived it all. After concluding my In-Service training, a week long conference of language lessons, cultural lessons and technical sessions I see now some of the things I can do better. In the past months of teaching I have found myself struggling to figure out everything from how to remember my kids names, how to discipline them to how do I teach without the help and support of a permanent counterpart? I am hoping with this new knowledge, as well as the understanding that I am not alone in my struggles, will help in the coming months. Time has gone by so fast it is hard to believe all that I have been through. My group has past the point of no return, we are no longer uncertain trainees, we are Peace Corps Volunteers with at least some experience.

To Group 27

To those of you who will be joining us this coming May and have come across my blog while looking for information on Peace Corps Romania, I strongly encourage you to look at the archive of this blog. In the archive, you will find postings about PST and your training site, as well why to pack light. Right now I will advise you to spend a great deal of time with those you love and rest up because you have a wild ride ahead. Remember the other members of your group are going through the same things you are and for the 27 months of your service, they will be some of your best resources. You can also turn to members of the other groups and the PC Romania staff. PST goes by faster then you can image and before you know it you will be at site and beginning your services.

Declaration of

the Rights of the Child

Plain Language Version

1 All children have the right to what follows, no matter what their race, colour sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, or where they were born or who they were born to.

2 You have the special right to grow up and to develop physically and spiritually in a healthy and normal way, free and with dignity.

3 You have a right to a name and to be a member of a country.

4 You have a right to special care and protection and to good food, housing and medical services.

5 You have the right to special care if handicapped in any way.

6 You have the right to love and understanding, preferably from parents and family, but from the government where these cannot help.

7 You have the right to go to school for free, to play, and to have an equal chance to develop yourself and to learn to be responsible and useful.

Your parents have special responsibilities for your education and guidance.

8 You have the right always to be among the first to get help.

9 You have the right to be protected against cruel acts or exploitation, e.g. you shall not be obliged to do work which hinders your development both physically and mentally.

You should not work before a minimum age and never when that would hinder your health, and your moral and physical development.

10 You should be taught peace, understanding, tolerance and friendship among all people.

The first thing is that it is the teachers that change classes and not the students.

The good thing with this is that the students are not moving from class to class.

The bad thing is that I think it gives the students too much power and that is never a good thing for teenagers

The second thing is that in Romania religion classes are part of the curriculum at every school. As an American, I believe in that a country should not establish a state religion. However, this system seems to work for them and the kids seem to think nothing of it, so I guess this is just they way things are in some countries.

The third thing is that this country needs to find a way of fixing their stray animal problem. It is ridiculous there are stray dogs and cats everywhere. Adding to this problem is the custom of not fixing personal pets, which means that the not stray cats go around breading like crazy.

The fourth thing about this country that I find odd is that children under 18 can’t work at all. It is my belief that many kids benefit from doing something as little as delivering papers or babysitting. This gives them a sense of responsibility and helps them to mature.

The fifth thing I have noticed about Romania is that there are open air markets in every town and city. These markets are open six days a week and sell everything from fruits and vegetables to meat, dairy products, honey and other non-food items. In Romania I can get a kilo of potatoes for 1 lei that is about $0.33 in the American Dollars. This is rarely possible in the United States where it is cheaper to buy junk food that contains corn and soybeans and large amounts of preservatives and inorganic food dyes then real healthy food. If the United States would cut its production of non-eatable corn and soybeans and return to the old system of small farmers growing real healthy food things would be better for the US. This is use of small local farmers selling their goods daily is one of the things that the United States can learn from Romania

All if my English class are to go to this site to get information on HW and other class information

http://tdromaniaenglish.blogspot.com/

resources for next weeks skit asignment

http://www.geocities.com/pocolocoplayers/one.html

http://www.oneactplays.org.uk/index.html

the group are

group 1

Tamas Domoosc

Ilona Matyas

Sandor Nagy

group 2

Beata Varga

Szabolcs Csapo

Tunde Moricz

Istavan Matyas

group 3

Boros Imre

Zsolt Adi

Robert Kovacs

Sandor Szilagyi

group 4

Ferencz Moricz

Zoltan Veres

Toth Beata

All Homework is due next week any copying will get both or all a 0 on the homework

12 A/B advanced

film skits due next class information and groups will be posted soon

12 A/B

at least 2 sentences describing your favorite clothing and why

Examples

I like wearing my winter boot because they go with everything. Also I have fun memories of dancing and playing in the snow

I love wearing my little black dress because I look good in it. I also wore it during the Peace Core swearing in.

11 A/B advanced

Write as many sentences as possible about a type of future transportation you have created your self.

Examples of created transportation a Type of flying car or Wings for a Horse

11 A/B

Give me a description of your family

Examples

My mother is in her 50's she works with medical insurance and she loves to read. My mother also loves animals and history.

My father is in his late 50's and works as a psychical therapist. He is very active and loves to play sports.

10 A/B Advanced

I want at least 2 sentences describing your favorite clothing and why

Examples

I like wearing my winter boot because they go with everything. Also I have fun memories of dancing and playing in the snow

I love wearing my little black dress because I look good in it. I also wore it during the Peace Core swearing in.

10 A/B and 9 A/B

adjectives describing your family

Examples

My mother is beautiful and loving. She has brown hair and eyes and works as a secretary

My Father is amazing and funny. He has red hair and blue eyes and is a doctor

My sister is young and smart. She has blond hair and green eyes and is a librarian

My brother is tall and intelligent. He has brown hair and eyes and works with computers

IX A/B

Past and Present

X A/B

Hobies

X A/B Advanced

vehicles

XI A/B

Family discription presentations

XI A/ B Advanced

British/ American writers

XII A/B

vehicles

XII A/B Advanced

Movies and TV

As of this week all students must remain in the same seats they were in when the seating chart was made. With the expiation of Monday classes and XB this was done last week. If you are not in these seats you will be counted as absent. If you are unsure of where you were seating please ask me before class.

IX A/B

Two sentences describing something

X A/B and XI A/B

Descriptions of your family and if possible pictures to be presented in Class

All Homework is due next class 3 missed Homework assignments gets you a 2 in English same as in your other English class.

Links to tongue Twister sites

http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/en.htm

http://www.americanfolklore.net/tonguetwisters.html

You can also Google English tongue twisters

To all those who wrote down the address to the American class blog Please go to the blog site and answer these kids questions. It will be good for you to interact with American children even if they are younger then you. I ask you to think of your little brothers and sisters and how they would feel if they could ask American children no mater how old they were questions about America and have them answered. You don't have to answer all their questions just one or two. They posted their questions on October 6th so please take a little time to go there and respond to these kids. You can go to their blog site and click on the link Wondering about Romania and see and respond to their questions or go to Romanian Responses to leave questions of your own.

Thank you in advance, if you do this you will really make these kids happy

This is to all my classes. I will now pass on information about how to expand your English learning, what each class will be talking about each week, what the possible homework is and when it is due and possibly other information. I am doing this in my general blog because it is to time consuming to put all your e-mail address into my computer. If you want to talk to be directly do it after class or in an e-mail I will not chat with you online. I put my g-mail address on the board two weeks ago if you did not write it down please come to me after class and ask for it. As for my grading this is how it goes you get 10 points per class. I give you 3 just for comming to class on-time. The other points are determined by two things first if you do or do not disruped my class and second if you talk in English and respond to my questions in class and do your homework. If you disrupt my class I will mark down your grade, if you ignore me, sleep or refuse to speak at all in my class I will mark down your grade.

If you do not come to my class I will give you a 1. If you do nothing but show up in my class I will give you a 2. If you never speak English in my class you will get a three.

This blog address will be posted for all classes the week of 12th-16th of October

If want your current grades send me an e-mail and I will answer you.

How do I describe the first weeks of school in Romania? Chaos, pure and utter chaos. It took almost two weeks for my schedule to make any sense. Now, at last, things seem to be settling down and I am getting my ideas in order. I have had to set up a grading sheet since this being Romania they have yet to move from the old catalog system into the modern computerized system. Right now I am setting up a seating chart so I can just look at my class and see who is in class and who is not. One of my 12th grade classes is still continuously missing half the class. I am hoping after talking to the director of the school that this week I will see the whole class. My work with the World Wide Schools program which connects me to a 2nd grade class in the states is going all right. I have passed on the classes blog address to my upper level advanced students in hope that they will respond to these American children.

The weather here is getting colder and wet but I am told that Zalau did not get much snow last year. I still have to get some winter clothes from the second hand shop since as a Peace Corps Volunteer I have very little money and most of that goes to food and paying the bills. Kendra, my now 4 month old kitten, is doing well and growing fast. We are still having arguments about the difference between kitty food and human food and why my socks do not belong under the sofa. I love her dearly and having her with me despite the trouble she causes will help in the coming months.

As I have said before and will say again service in the Peace Corps is like a 27 month rollercoaster ride. You have up's and down's and the up's can last as long as a month or be has short as a second. I go up and down on a daily or hourly basis depending on the day. Sometimes I love my students, sometimes I just want them to go away, and other times I want them to just shut up and let me speak. There are days when I am happy to be here and there are days when I think about going home. These are the ups and downs of the service and are normal.

I have known many PCV's and this is how all of us from the Peace Corps Volunteer to the Country director feels about their service. We are told at the beginning that our service will consist of some the highest highs we will ever feel and some of the lowest lows. It is for this reason that most volunteers will tell you that the Peace Corps is the toughest job you will ever love. This is the simplest way to describe it, because being far from home working in a community where no matter how well you try and integrate into it; you will still be something of an outsider. I am an American here for a two year tour, this is a fact that all who know me in this country understand and it is the thing that keeps me from being a full part of the community. This is what I expected, but it does not make it easy. So for those of you looking to join or going through the process, remember you can never anticipate what your tour will be like, and that there is only one guarantee, you will work hard for all you get and only you can make the decision about if you failed or succeed.

First days at school

In most Romanian schools the first day is just the day of the opening

ceremony and then everyone goes home. The first day of actual classes is

the next day after that and that day is chaos. The official class

schedule does not yet exist because teachers who teach at more than one

school must change things around to fit in all their classes from both

schools. This means that through out the first week the schedule is

constantly changing. I do have my own classroom though sometime between

my first and second class the door disappeared. To have my own class is

a nice thing since it is uncommon for Peace Corps Volunteers to have

their own room. What usually happens is the PCV will take their half of

the class and find an empty room. As a Peace Corps Volunteer I teach

half a class while the usual or in my case substitute English teacher

teaches the other half. This means I see one set of students once a

week. I teach only verbal communication; under no circumstances do I

teach grammar. The Peace Corps Teaching English as a foreign language

program does not ask us to teach grammar and I am not qualified to do

so. My job as I told my students today and will the rest of the week is

to teach them to speak in English. It is the job of the other English

teacher to teach grammar and spelling, and they usually follow a

standard foreign language like you would see in the U.S only teaching

Basic English. At this moment there is no text book being used in my

classes because the substitute just arrived at school late this morning.

For now I wait and see what happens and see what words my students know

that start with each letter in the alphabet.

Settling In

In my first few weeks in Zalau or as I have come to think of it PCV central because it has more volunteers in it than anywhere else in the country. In this small city of about 65,000, there are five volunteers, two TEFLers from Group 25, and two others from Group 24 and me, a TEFLer from Group 26. This makes it an interesting site to be in since not only are there five of us here now, Zalau has had PCV's here for I don't know how long. Because of this I get to hear about failed projects, like the SPA grant funded mini golf course sitting unused in the town's central park, as well as the successful ones like the numerous projects being done by Rob of Group 24. As the last of group 26 to get out of Tragoviste, the new training site, I have spent almost three weeks in Zalau and I have accomplished little so far. I have settled in and the settling in allowance was spent and then some. This does not mean I have been extravagant it just means I need more than a single pot, a few plates and eating utensils. First off my one room apartment had two glass shelves and one in the dunlap (armoire, standing closest). This meant that I spent close to a 100 lei buying 3 sets of plastic shelving units for the dunlap, the kitchen cabinets and the display cabinet. Note the display cabinet is not being used as a display cabinet as it contains my books, clothes, and whatever else is not luggage or kitchen utensils. Next, I need cooking wear to cook and that means a frying pan, two different sized saucepans, two different sized baking pans, a medium size chopping knife, wooden spoons, spatula, small ladle, mixing bowls and storage containers, among other things. The settling in allowance does not cover all of this and I am doing without any kind of small table near my sofa/sofa bed or any rugs. In addition, I needed a large fan to cool the place and keep the bugs away and a desk lamp. So a note to group 27 your settling in allowance may not cover everything you need. I have recorded everything and will put it down in the report we have to fill out but I am told it is normal to go over the settling in allowance.

Shopping

You've got to love summer in Romania at least as far as food shopping is concerned. The piaţa is a cheap place to get food. I get honey and veggies there, a kilo of carrots and potatoes for 1.5 lei and much much more. I can spend less than 5 lei getting a week's worth of veggies. The place I lose money is the Carfor a French supermarket chain nearby where I have to buy meat, eggs and other stuff. There is also the magazine or small store across from the apartment where I get sodas and snacks and a few other things. These magazines are all over most cities and towns in Romania and can be useful for a variety of things. I don't know what the prices are like in winter but I hear the selection is not great.

School

I get asked how school is going and I have only one thing to say, "I have been to one meeting that was in Romanian and Hungarian. This means I know very little about anything concerning my school. Also the school is being renovated and I have barely seen it. I do know this about the school, since it is the Hungarian school in town few people know where my school is and a few have never heard of it. I will return to school on Monday for the opening ceremony. Until then I know nothing else about it."

My Life in Zalau so far

My apartment building is not bad, I have to press a button to turn on the hall light when I leave or come back. The place is crawling with children, running up and down the halls and playing outside of the entrance, and throwing apples as those who tell them not to play with matches. I go to the piaţa, and the market, I experiment with cooking, I take the cat to the wilderness park up the street, I play on my computer, I try and write lesson plans and play with my crazy kitten. This is my life in Romania so far. The only changes have been going to dinner at a pair of suitemates' apartment, going and talking with the director of the Zalau library and going out with another suitemate and some of his Romanian friends, which included my next-door neighbors.

Here I am in Zalau at long last. I will be living in a studio apartmenton the second floor of a small apartment building. Zalau is a mediumsize town situated in the hills of northern Transylvania. Zalau has hadPeace Corps Volunteers almost from the beginning of the Peace Corps. Itis a town of hills and like most towns in Romania it is full ofchurches. I am working on getting all the things I need to livecomfortably in Romania for the next two years. In the next few weeks Ihope to get started helping out at the local library and getting to knowthe school I will be working at as well as the rest of the town.

One thing I have learned in these past few months in Romania is thatRomanians are some of the most giving and helpful people I have everknown. During my long trip from my training site in Tragoviste to Zalaua number of Romanians helped me with my luggage even though I had notask anyone for help. My only complaint about this country is that themosquitoes like to drink my American blood a little too much.

I want to introduce to you all now to my roommate who has traveled withme from Tragoviste. Kendra is a three month old calico kitten who nowhelps to keep me from being too lonely in this new city. She and I have traveled a long way together and in two years she will hopefully be ableto return with me to the U.S.

Current Status

I am stuck in Tragoviste until my School director finds me housing in Zalau. So I am stuck here alone doing language tutoring until I get a call from the assistant TEFL program manager telling me that I have a place to live at site. Once I get this call I will be on a train out of town as fast as I can.

Swearing in and the last good byes

There is nothing that can prepare you for this moment in your Peace Corps service. After 11 weeks of training it is finally over. Part of you will be ready to get to your site but the other part will be sad to leave all your friends. This week I have cried a great deal, in part due to my “stuck in Tragoviste” status but all so due to saying good bye to the 36 people who have become such a part of my life. Tears of happiness and tears of sadness have filled these last two days. Yet I have lived more in the past 48 hours then I have in my entire 25 years. There is nothing like this experience in the world and no one outside the Peace Corps Volunteer community will ever understand. We are Peace Corps Volunteers and unlike any other volunteer and US government group we give up two whole years of our lives to help countries all over the world accomplish the goals it has set for its self. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer and in two years if the only thing I manage to accomplish in my community is to show one person the beauty of fighting for change in their country then I have done my job. In a way that is the goal of my entire group. We know that the differences we make in our communities may never reveal themselves while we are in country. As I say good-bye to my friends until December I must remind myself that this is what we came here to do. It is now time to get to work, or as our country Director said at swearing-in “The toughest job you’ll ever love starts now”.

As of this moment my site is unknown. Due to counterpart difficulties I am no longer going to Tergu Jiu. This is an extremely rare situation and does not happen often. This would only happen with cases like mine where the health, safety or security of the volunteer is at risk. It has not been a fun thing to be in limbo in the last week and a half of PST.

A Note to Group 27

By this time during PST you will be sick of the lunch choices, and the afternoon lessons will be hot. You may be sick of your Gazda and of other trainees and be longing to be at site and have some time to yourself. A note about Gazda’s don’t be afraid to talk to the homestay coordinator about problems with your host. However, problems do not mean they are trying to feed you like crazy that is just what they do. They are trying to be nice if you tell you are full or leave some food on your plate they will sometimes understand. By problems I mean your Gazda yells at you or is gone for months at a time, or does not listen when they are told that you can’t eat certain things because of health problems confirmed by the Peace Core medical office. Also, I can’t stress enough that you need to study your language it is for your own good. The language test is a conversation called the LPI or Language Proficiency Interview. You need to reach at least Intermediate Low. This is not difficult just don’t forget your verbs and make complete sentences and answer the questions you are asked and ask a few questions of your own at the end. Speak with your Gazda in Romanian as well as the teachers and fellow trainees. Your future students and others will be happy you learned some of their language. I am not a language expert, in fact I will probably rate no higher than Intermediate next week. I did not sign up for tutoring until these past few weeks and I regret it since my language is not where I want it to be. The teachers are not perfect sometime they just don’t match your style of learning. Go to tutoring with a teacher you like and work on things that way.

On July 8th the site announcements were made. My official site is a high school in Targu Jiu. It is a city of approximately 100,000 people located in the south west region of Romania in the county of Gorj. I will be teaching 9th -12th grade English as a foreign language at the intermediate and intermediate-high level. The site announcement event was set up like an award ceremony in the gym of the school where training was being held. I was the under a category of sites that are considered to be homes of large marketplaces. This is the meaning of the term Targu or Tîrgu. Jiu is the name a river that flows through the town from out of the southern Carpathians and down into the Dunărea River that boarders the country.

As a tradition the PCT’s host a 4th of July party for the Gaza’s. This year we got caught in the rain. It was bad planning on the part of PCT organizers who did not check the weather forecast. This is a warning for group 27 plan on it raining during any outdoor event. We had fun anyway, though I went home with my Gazda to deal with the wet kittens at the house. Another note to group 27 be prepared for rain. I have seen more rain this summer in Romania then I have seen in the last 10 years living in AZ.

The first pictures shown above are those of me teaching a 5th grade class during Practicum. The thing on the board is Robert Frost’s poem “ The Road Not Taken”. The other pictures are of my room at my Gazda’s.

My Gazda or host home. Group 27 please note the thing above the sink, this is the water filter when you finish training you will take this with you. It is not small or light but you need it since we can't drink the tap water, it will make you sick. Also note the missing shower curtain. They are not common in this country. The other pictures are of the main living space and the yard complete with Cireaşă a romanian sheep dog and Vişincă the cat.

Me during IFV on a bridge in Onesit on June 13th, 2009

This is the end of week five. Time has passed by so fast. I find myself thinking back to the first days we were here and how much has changed. Our Romanian gets better. However, for me it is still an uphill battle to learn a language so different from my own. I know the longer I am here the better it will get. It just takes time and a lot of hard work. By this time next week we will know where we will be spending the next two years. On the 18th we will meet with the person we will be working closely with for the next two years, and then see our temporary home for the first time. Life is moving so fast at times I still can’t believe I am here in the middle of Eastern Europe in a country that is in the middle of such great change. A Note to group 27 By the time most of you read this I will be at my site, and this message will be one of many on this blog. Remember that your time as PST will fly by and that when things are at their worst you can turn to your fellow trainees, the PCVL’s or the staff. I guarantee there is nothing you are feeling that is abnormal or that has not been felt by at least one other person going through this process. In the past week I have gone from being extremely homesick and wishing I was through my service to feeling ready to head to my site. I am still on the roller coaster ride that started back this past January when I got my placement or possibly even the December two years ago when I first started my application. So take a deep breath and understand we all go through our ups and downs and as they keep telling us, in the Peace Corps you will experience some of the greatest and some of the worst moments in your life. Also, practicum can be one of the most amazing, frustrating and crazy two weeks of training but I promise you, you will survive like every other PST TEFL group.

Information about PST

You work from 8:40am to 5pm with three breaks and lunch. You will soon find yourself sick of soup especially on the really hot days. You will go on a field visit where you will learn how the current PCV’s live their lives and interact in their communities. Also, try not to worry too much about the language try and learn what you can but you will get three hours of language training every day. Time goes fast for us, it has already been three weeks and our practicum starts on the 22nd and it is the 21st. After two weeks of that we have an hour site interview and the counterpart conference comes that weekend. After that we have five weeks before the end of PST and the start of two years of living on my own in Romania.

A Word on Practicum

Sometime around week four all TEFL will have Practicum where you will teach one week either secondary or primary school and then switch the next week. I am about a third of the way through and all is well. This is not really a trial by fire and most of us are not certified or trained teachers. Take a deep breath and you will be fine.

IFV (Inter Field Visit)

This is a time during training that has recently been reinstated where trainees accompanied by PST staff go and visit a working PCV and learn about their site. This is an adventure you will never forget. A few pieces of advice though, pack lightly, keep track of your belongings and before you leave for staging or for your country insure everything you are bringing with whether you think you will loose it or not. Also keep an open mind these trips are set up by the general PST staff and not your program director so they do not represent the site you will be assigned to. The purpose of this visit is to introduce you to life in the PC and to allow you access to information provided by a PCV and their counterpart. My own experience was mixed due to events beyond my control and that of my roommate. My best advice for the next group is to be prepared for a fast visit with little time to rest, and to go and get food. This is due to the short amount of time you have to spend with the VC. In addition never trust that cab drivers understand anything you say, even if it is in their own language and make sure you know the address of your gazda.

Training

It is the second week of training and so far my Romanian is still horrible but as all the trainees keep saying, it will come in time. All of us have our good days and our bad days. Some are lucky to have some past foreign language learning, though this does not always help. The saying that your third language is always easer to learn is not always the case. We are also learning about the Romanian school system. We have been observing the Romanian schools here. After today I am thankful that I brought so many movies, music, my poetry books as well as a few other books.

A Word on the Food

I once thought I liked bland food then I had actual bland food. In Romania few spices are used, though salt is popular as is dill. I have heard that garlic is used but have yet to see it. Bread comes with every meal; cheese and soup are popular as are potatoes. I have a feeling that after 27 months I will never want to see a potato again. A bland corn meal dish is also popular and is in my opinion disgusting. Chicken is also a common food and is served mostly on the bone. One of the good things about the food here is the sugar is real and the food is as fresh as it comes. However, don’t drink the tap water or the fresh milk and never eat duck eggs. Another warning is that the food protection Americans take for granted in the states is virtually non-extent here so be careful eating at fast food restaurants.

A Message for PC Romania Group 27

Wheeling duffel bags are not necessarily a good idea but bringing toilet paper is. I am not joking if you are studying at the same place we are you should know that the bathrooms in the building have no seats and the toilet paper is provide by the PCT staff. It will get hot and wet if you are here during the summer so be prepared for the heat, humidity and large mosquitoes. On the up side you will be with a group of people that are going through the same things you are and a staff that has dealt with PCT many times. Don’t count on the computers working all the time or your Gazda having Internet access.

This information may also be applied to other cities and towns in Romania, but are still generalizations. A Word on Stray Dogs These dogs are everywhere! They are considered community dog, but they are wild animals so be careful and we are told not to run around them or they will chase us. I have little fear of the dogs and I just ignore them and they leave me alone. Some people feed them but most just let them be. It is hard for an animal person like me to see these animals in the street but there is little I can do. The Food Romanian food during the summer is very fresh and they love their tomatoes and cucumbers. This is not a good thing for me since I like neither and no mater what my parents say a tomato is a tomato fresh or not it still tastes nasty and so do cucumbers. Lunch usually consists of a first course of soup and then a combination of meat and vegetables and then a dessert of fruit, cake or ice cream. Home Life in Romania Here are a few little cultural quarks that I have learned during my first week living in Romania. In the house most people wear house shoes around the house. And in some homes, not the one I am in. It is a big taboo to not wear the house shoes around the house. Also Romanians eat a lot and hosts want to feed their guests and sometimes do not understand the concept that I am full. In addition though vegetarianism has become more popular in Romania it is still a strange concept for some older Romanians to grasp. Internet is wide spread in this country, running water and flat roads are not. Walking and using public transportation is common, however even if you have driven in other foreign countries do not rent a car and drive in Romania. It is simply not a good idea. The roads in the medium size town of Targoviste, which is the capital city of the county of Dambovita, are riddled with holes and the people drive by their own rules. Personal experience has also taught me to watch where I am walking not only because of the holes in the sidewalks but because a car once came up and drove on the sidewalk. This was in the middle of the day and the driver was not drunk, so be careful. This could be different in the larger cities but I would not count on it. Romanian School System This is what I have learned so far about the school system in Romanian. This information comes from my Gazda or host family and my visits to a primary and secondary school. In Romania it is the teachers that change classes not the students. Primary school is first through eighth grade and high school is ninth through 12th. Some of the high schools are focused more on practical information rather then academic information. Also, the director of a school is more like a school administrator then a principal.

Disclaimer: This blog are the personal views of the writer and is not an official publication of the United States Peace Corps.

Who am I

I am TM Dodson and I am currently a trainee in the United States Peace Corps TEFL program serving in Romania. I began my serves on May 27th 2009 at my staging event in Washington DC. I am a native of HI, but have lived outside Phoenix AZ for the last 11 years. I have a BA in history from ASU with a minor is anthropology. I graduated college in Dec 2008 with a 3.4 GPA. I am 25 and this is my first time away from my home and family.

Getting a late start.

I should have done this from the beginning but due to the length and uncertainty of the Peace Corps application program and the time spent preparing for the trip to Romania, I have only started this now with the help of my sister and mother and best friend back in the States.

The BeginningIt started with my mother answering a complaint from my 17-year-old self about wanting to leave the country with a comment about joining the Peace Corps. This turned into a goal that got me through some hard times. Then in December of 2007 I started the general application. This is a large document that requires two, 200 word essays, transcripts from all colleges attended and high schools, three letters of recommendation, from people other then your family, and then work, volunteer, and professional experience, language proficiencies and financial information as well as a résumé and some minor medical information. It took me until the end of May to complete this due to the inability to find the best way to answer the essay questions on describing a multicultural experience and why I wanted to join the Peace Corps. At this point I was worried that do to my lack of volunteer experience I would not get in. However not long after I submitted the first application I was told that I had passed the first part. After this I was sent a fingerprint kit where I had to pay to have two sets of fingerprints taken to make sure I was who I said I was and that I had no military or illegal connections. Once this was done I went to set up and interview with my local recruiter. This took some time since first I had to fix one of my letters of recommendation from my sister to an old friend, and then my recruiter changed because of a promotion. At last I had my interview over the phone because the new recruiter was living in LA. My interview lasted about an hour. I was asked questions about why I wanted to join the Peace Corps, if I did drugs or drank alcohol, was my religion was, if I was a vegetarian, what type of climate I would prefer to live in, what type of leadership experience I had had and other questions along those lines. I passed this part of the selection process and was nominated for the TEFL or Teaching English as a Foreign Language program and was expected to leave with the group leaving in mid to late May of the next year. I then had to go through a rigorous medical examination. This included full dental x-rays and other dental information, a full physical exam with the addition of an adult polio vaccination, a TB test, a tetanus shot and the recording of my Hepatitis B vaccinations and MMR, as well as a confirmation that I was no longer suffering from a minor case of social anxiety and depression. I also had to have a blood test for HIV and other blood diseases. Once this paper work was all complete which took about a month with the addition of having my eyes checked I sent in the paper work. I then had to deal with the problem of a minor amount of protein in my urine that would eventually lead to my doctor writing that my test was clear and that there was nothing abnormal in the test. This lead to months of waiting until sometime in November after talking to my recruiter at a school event I was contacted by my placement officer about having to do 30 hours of tutoring. I accomplished this in 2 weeks while I was finishing my last semester in college. I then sent in the final copy of my college transcript and confirmed that I had completed my 30 hours. Then at last on January 2nd I received my assignment. I was cleared to join the TEFL program leaving for Romania at the end of May. This was followed by months of waiting and preparing and trying to learn some of the language. I left for my staging event in Washington DC on the 26th of May 2009.

**DISCLAIMER** This blog does not reflect the opinions of the PeaceCorps and is not an offical site. This is my experience as a PeaceCorps volunteer in Romania.