He's Back. Again
Just like the last time I was without my power cord for an extended period of weeks, rather than go blow-by-blow about all that I've managed to not post, I'll just go ahead and give a quick run-down. And yes, it's good to be back.
- I managed to kill the last three weeks mainly by doing a copious amount of reading (i.e. about 120 pages a day from Sunday through Thursday). I went on a biography bender too, polishing off two books about Teddy Roosevelt, one on Napoleon, Band of Brothers, which I would count as sort of a group biography, as well as a biography on FBI spy Robert Hanssen and of a horse (Seabiscuit).
- Overall my time in school has been spent well, with a huge exception being last week. To picture how bad things were, picture the one of the worst days you've ever had. That was Thursday (Valentines Day, ironically, and it had nothing to do with love, the usual calamity on such a day. I'll explain some of the reasons in a second). Then picture a day that was still slightly better but still really bad. That was Wednesday. A day again slightly better but still horrible. That was Tuesday. And Monday was just a bad day overall.
Thursday I could either give a rundown of all that happened but instead I'll just jump to the point immediately after which I was very, very close to going to the local store where I could buy a double-shot of vodka for thirty cents. Actually, it's frightening how close I was. Basically, the best way to describe what I saw when I entered into my classroom where I had left my fourth graders is simply make a reference to “Kindergarten Cop” when he meets the kids for the first time. It was chaos, kids running around, shouting. One kid was even lying on the floor like a fish on a dock, flopping around. I looked at him and said, “Dima, what are you doing? Are you drunk? Why are you lying on the floor?” He just shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. I said, “Do you know the floor is dirty? Do you care?” Again, he shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. It was just by the grace of God that I didn't go to the store.
In fact, later in the day I told my host mom this story and about how I almost went for the shot, and she said, “Andy, do you know what kind of people go to the store for vodka after a day of work?” When I answered, “Yeah, the type of people who feel like I felt today after the 6th lesson,” she gave a half-smile, lifted one shoulder a little, and told me that I was right.
- Last Tuesday I was forced to implement a little bit of American discipline. It started the Friday before when a kid in 5th grade wanted to come into my classroom and I didn't let him. He told me some swear words in Russian that, sadly, he didn't think I could understand. I could. So on Tuesday I brought him into my classroom, made him write out numbers one through one hundred on the left side of sheets of paper, then wrote in English “I will respect my English teachers.” I told him how, I having written one sentence, he was going to have to copy it ninety-nine times. He proceeded to look me in the eye and said that no, he wasn't going. Needless to say, this isn't the type of disrespect I take from a kids who's ten years old. I, naturally, insisted that he would and told him he would not be allowed to leave my room until he did.
To make a long story short, he spent two hours joking and running around, telling me that he didn't do anything and that as a result he wasn't going to write. Finally, after two hours, he started to cry and five minutes later asked me to tell him again what he needed to do. Forty-five minutes later he was done. Believe me, it was far more painful for me to be with him than it was for him to be with me.
- To make matters worse last week, on Friday I actually didn't have any lessons so I was free to go to Chisinau early. My plan was to hitchhike out of my village, which is usually not a problem. I've never had to wait more than twenty minutes and when my friends were here two weeks ago we waited literally a minute and a half. This time, though, last Friday I waited an hour in fifteen minutes in twenty-five degree weather for the first ride, which didn't even to take me to my final destination of my regional center but instead to a village about six miles from mine. There, I waited another thirty-seven minutes for another ride. So in total, it took me 1:57 to travel a total distance of six miles. About the speed of a brisk walk.
- I've written before about how much our English has fallen in our time here. Case in point: last Saturday a few of us were at an apartment and talking about pain killers. One guy asked another girl if it was easy to get a 'subscription' for pills and she answered “no, a 'subscription' is easy to get.” Of the five of us present, only one of use noticed that he meant to say 'prescription.'
- A few weeks ago, at the end of January, I went to the south of Moldova to visit another volunteer there, and I walked away stunned. First of all, just pulling up I was in shock of the place – about 3000 people (or 1800 more than are present in my village and the bordering one). There was paved roads everywhere. Even at her house they have running water, a toilet inside, a shower, satellite TV, and high-speed Internet. It was easy to hitch-hike to and from, it's only two hours from Chisinau. I ended up talking to her host-dad for about two hours while drinking wine. I promised to return the next chance I could, as I already prefer her village to mine.
- Actually, my original plan was to go back to her village in a few weeks time when we have the next vacation from school, which starts at 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday, February 29th. Not that I'm counting the days – or hours – or anything. We have conferences in Chisinau from March 2nd to the next Wednesday and I was planning to go hang out for a day or two but there's been a hitch in the plan because I'm fairly sure I'm going to have a team for the national Model United Nations conference that'll happen in Chisinau those days. Another team dropped out, leaving a space for kids from my school. In all honesty I would rather not go, but in looking at my kids I realized that it's the best of the best who are likely going, kids who have been nothing but great to me during all of my time here. I figure it's the least I can do to show them my appreciation and give them this chance to be in Chisinau for three days, to sleep in a hotel and meet other kids. It's the type of thing I just don't want to have pass them by if I can help it.
- I've become increasingly conscious here of my ability to jinx myself. For example, I told people for a year and a half how tough it would be to live here with out a computer when low and behold, my power cord has died (twice) on me. I also made the mistake of always talking about my Ipod, how it was my savior here. Wouldn't you know it, it finally died on me. It actually still works (in theory) – the battery is fine, but when I plug it in I'm told by Itunes that it's corrupted and needs to be reset but, after I do as told, I'm simply told again that I need to reset it. I would take it to a place where they can replace it but . . . that's either in Bucharest or Kiev. And I'm not totally sure they can repair it. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
- Speaking of those places, my vacation plans for my final trip as a Peace Corps volunteer is starting to take place. I may actually go up to Germany or down to a town called Constantsa, in Romania on the Black Sea coast. At the very least, if those don't work out I'm heading to Odessa and maybe Kiev for a few days. Either way I'm excited.
- Finally, I'll end with a note on the weather. Suffice to say, it's gotten cold here after a brief spell of rather warm weather. Actually, outside it's not too bad, getting down to the high-teens during the day and getting into the high-thirties during the day. But for some reason, the house here simply has been unable to warm up, to the point that I can literally see my breath all the time (even as I write this sentence). Ironically, it's not that bad; it takes some getting used to and my fingers get especially uncomfortable, but as long as I wear enough layers the rest of my body is fine. Plus it comes with the added knowledge that 1)It's supposed to get into the high-forties some time later this week, and 2)The spell now is likely to be the final cold spell of the season. I can only hope. And my hands can only hope that warm blood will flow freely through them in the not-too distance future.
- I managed to kill the last three weeks mainly by doing a copious amount of reading (i.e. about 120 pages a day from Sunday through Thursday). I went on a biography bender too, polishing off two books about Teddy Roosevelt, one on Napoleon, Band of Brothers, which I would count as sort of a group biography, as well as a biography on FBI spy Robert Hanssen and of a horse (Seabiscuit).
- Overall my time in school has been spent well, with a huge exception being last week. To picture how bad things were, picture the one of the worst days you've ever had. That was Thursday (Valentines Day, ironically, and it had nothing to do with love, the usual calamity on such a day. I'll explain some of the reasons in a second). Then picture a day that was still slightly better but still really bad. That was Wednesday. A day again slightly better but still horrible. That was Tuesday. And Monday was just a bad day overall.
Thursday I could either give a rundown of all that happened but instead I'll just jump to the point immediately after which I was very, very close to going to the local store where I could buy a double-shot of vodka for thirty cents. Actually, it's frightening how close I was. Basically, the best way to describe what I saw when I entered into my classroom where I had left my fourth graders is simply make a reference to “Kindergarten Cop” when he meets the kids for the first time. It was chaos, kids running around, shouting. One kid was even lying on the floor like a fish on a dock, flopping around. I looked at him and said, “Dima, what are you doing? Are you drunk? Why are you lying on the floor?” He just shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. I said, “Do you know the floor is dirty? Do you care?” Again, he shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. It was just by the grace of God that I didn't go to the store.
In fact, later in the day I told my host mom this story and about how I almost went for the shot, and she said, “Andy, do you know what kind of people go to the store for vodka after a day of work?” When I answered, “Yeah, the type of people who feel like I felt today after the 6th lesson,” she gave a half-smile, lifted one shoulder a little, and told me that I was right.
- Last Tuesday I was forced to implement a little bit of American discipline. It started the Friday before when a kid in 5th grade wanted to come into my classroom and I didn't let him. He told me some swear words in Russian that, sadly, he didn't think I could understand. I could. So on Tuesday I brought him into my classroom, made him write out numbers one through one hundred on the left side of sheets of paper, then wrote in English “I will respect my English teachers.” I told him how, I having written one sentence, he was going to have to copy it ninety-nine times. He proceeded to look me in the eye and said that no, he wasn't going. Needless to say, this isn't the type of disrespect I take from a kids who's ten years old. I, naturally, insisted that he would and told him he would not be allowed to leave my room until he did.
To make a long story short, he spent two hours joking and running around, telling me that he didn't do anything and that as a result he wasn't going to write. Finally, after two hours, he started to cry and five minutes later asked me to tell him again what he needed to do. Forty-five minutes later he was done. Believe me, it was far more painful for me to be with him than it was for him to be with me.
- To make matters worse last week, on Friday I actually didn't have any lessons so I was free to go to Chisinau early. My plan was to hitchhike out of my village, which is usually not a problem. I've never had to wait more than twenty minutes and when my friends were here two weeks ago we waited literally a minute and a half. This time, though, last Friday I waited an hour in fifteen minutes in twenty-five degree weather for the first ride, which didn't even to take me to my final destination of my regional center but instead to a village about six miles from mine. There, I waited another thirty-seven minutes for another ride. So in total, it took me 1:57 to travel a total distance of six miles. About the speed of a brisk walk.
- I've written before about how much our English has fallen in our time here. Case in point: last Saturday a few of us were at an apartment and talking about pain killers. One guy asked another girl if it was easy to get a 'subscription' for pills and she answered “no, a 'subscription' is easy to get.” Of the five of us present, only one of use noticed that he meant to say 'prescription.'
- A few weeks ago, at the end of January, I went to the south of Moldova to visit another volunteer there, and I walked away stunned. First of all, just pulling up I was in shock of the place – about 3000 people (or 1800 more than are present in my village and the bordering one). There was paved roads everywhere. Even at her house they have running water, a toilet inside, a shower, satellite TV, and high-speed Internet. It was easy to hitch-hike to and from, it's only two hours from Chisinau. I ended up talking to her host-dad for about two hours while drinking wine. I promised to return the next chance I could, as I already prefer her village to mine.
- Actually, my original plan was to go back to her village in a few weeks time when we have the next vacation from school, which starts at 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday, February 29th. Not that I'm counting the days – or hours – or anything. We have conferences in Chisinau from March 2nd to the next Wednesday and I was planning to go hang out for a day or two but there's been a hitch in the plan because I'm fairly sure I'm going to have a team for the national Model United Nations conference that'll happen in Chisinau those days. Another team dropped out, leaving a space for kids from my school. In all honesty I would rather not go, but in looking at my kids I realized that it's the best of the best who are likely going, kids who have been nothing but great to me during all of my time here. I figure it's the least I can do to show them my appreciation and give them this chance to be in Chisinau for three days, to sleep in a hotel and meet other kids. It's the type of thing I just don't want to have pass them by if I can help it.
- I've become increasingly conscious here of my ability to jinx myself. For example, I told people for a year and a half how tough it would be to live here with out a computer when low and behold, my power cord has died (twice) on me. I also made the mistake of always talking about my Ipod, how it was my savior here. Wouldn't you know it, it finally died on me. It actually still works (in theory) – the battery is fine, but when I plug it in I'm told by Itunes that it's corrupted and needs to be reset but, after I do as told, I'm simply told again that I need to reset it. I would take it to a place where they can replace it but . . . that's either in Bucharest or Kiev. And I'm not totally sure they can repair it. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
- Speaking of those places, my vacation plans for my final trip as a Peace Corps volunteer is starting to take place. I may actually go up to Germany or down to a town called Constantsa, in Romania on the Black Sea coast. At the very least, if those don't work out I'm heading to Odessa and maybe Kiev for a few days. Either way I'm excited.
- Finally, I'll end with a note on the weather. Suffice to say, it's gotten cold here after a brief spell of rather warm weather. Actually, outside it's not too bad, getting down to the high-teens during the day and getting into the high-thirties during the day. But for some reason, the house here simply has been unable to warm up, to the point that I can literally see my breath all the time (even as I write this sentence). Ironically, it's not that bad; it takes some getting used to and my fingers get especially uncomfortable, but as long as I wear enough layers the rest of my body is fine. Plus it comes with the added knowledge that 1)It's supposed to get into the high-forties some time later this week, and 2)The spell now is likely to be the final cold spell of the season. I can only hope. And my hands can only hope that warm blood will flow freely through them in the not-too distance future.
posted by Andy Buchanan at 1:06 AM
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