1/2 Century Mark

In a few hours it'll be the big 5-0 days til I'm home I leave.  I always forget about my COS trip planned.  I haven't been counting actually bc I've been busy.  Last week a couple of teachers asked me to help out by sponsoring a little project to add blinders to the Physics classroom windows.  I used to show movies there and it was really annoying when the sun was still out so I was glad to help.  BTW, kids here start Physics when they're in 5th grade or something like that.  Health education?  No.  Sex education?  Non existent.  Physical ed?  Not really.  Computer classes?  Uh uh.  Don't ask me why.  They do know 4-5 languages by the time they finish High School though.

Anyway, after my speech the Physics teachers came up to me and said they didn't realize my situation (working for free) and wanted to give me my money back.  Of course after the first sentence they asked me if I understood Romanian as if I've taught for two years in English.  See, even my own supposed colleagues who I've been working with for two years didn't even know.  I said I wouldn't take it back and if they really insist I will just give it to the Director.  That ended their protest pretty quickly.

Well, school really is over.  Is it the last class I will ever teach?  I dunno.  I like to teach but not to unmotivated students and I'm not a very good motivator.  Speaking of which, I gave a test to all my classes.  It was a review of the whole year, some questions we covered, some we didn't.  They got about 50% right, the girls a little higher than the boys.  Ok, given I only teach 45 minutes a week per class and I didn't tell them to study you would think they would get some answers right.

For instance, "True or False, You can get HIV/SIDA from having lunch with someone?"  Out of the 7 classes that I gave the test to, I think 2 students got it right.  This is after four lessons plus the school nurse giving them lectures.  And it's a 50/50 chance!  So you can see where I'm coming from when I say it's difficult to teach here.  Some of the girls even blatantly copied their answers and tried to hand it to their friends as I was watching.

Speaking of the HIV, I am still sick.  It's mostly a cough that just won't go away.  I came into the city to get my final exam (dental and physical).  My doctor said I had some ear wax so she took this giant syringe of water and started squirting my ear with it.  It felt like my ear was getting warterboarded every time.  It took about 15-20 squirts before this giant cylindrical chunk of solid wax came out.  I really wanted her to do a carbon dating on it.  Now that's service!  If she can only do that to my Giardia.

Speaking of Giardia...I went to church last week.  Mm, that didn't work did it?  Last week I attended my first baptism.  We went to the church where the mother (my tutor/partner) isn't allowed inside to see the ceremony bc she sinned by having intercourse. We then went to their house to eat and dance and eat all night.  Then the family gives everyone gifts for coming and everyone announces how much money they're giving the family.  I didn't give anything bc I didn't know and I had about 2 lei in my wallet.  Then after dancing til the break of dawn you're supposed to come over again and have lunch the next day with a giant cauldron of soup.