Tuesday, June 14, 2011

End of school year/Summer vacation!

Moldovan flag outside of school
So the end of the school year came and left already.....and here I am, trying to play catch up. The last day of school was May 31st and it wasn't really a school day, just a celebration known as Last Bell (Ultimul Sunet). Everyone showed up to school at 9am, nicely dressed and all of the students gathered outside in their classes. The celebration started by the 12th graders exiting the school for the last time and parading around the courtyard. They wore red sashes across their chests and looked very regal. Students then were handed out awards for contests they participated in throughout the year and received cash prizes. Some teachers even received cash prizes as well! The local priest was there, gave a speech and blessed us all. The mayor came out and gave a speech too. There were even doves that were released! The festivities wound down with the 12th graders singing a song and reciting a poem and then they paraded around the courtyard again, this time holding some of the students from second grade on their shoulders while they rang the last bell of the school year.


Students lined up, holding their flowers

Having worked at schools back in America, this celebration was vastly different than the end of the school year festivities I was used to. Moldova just has a way of doing things right. Everything is beautiful (frumos) and cordial....whether it be a celebration for remembering someone who has passed away some years back or the last day of school. All the students came to school carrying flowers to give to their favorite teachers and I came home with a nice bouquet of lovely smelling flowers.

For the rest of the week I kind of just sat at home and relaxed. I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't a little bored the second day when I didn't have to be at school at 8am. I started going through my school papers and cleaned and organized them. I read some books and downloaded some movies to watch. I picked some fresh strawberries from our garden, which were divine by the way. I took a long walk in the village and wondered if my students thought it was funny to see me at the local magazin (store), buying a popsicle in basketball shorts and a t-shirt, wearing flip flops and my sunglasses. Summer is definitely here. Or was here. It was nice and hot for the week after school got out....but now it is rainy and cool.

12th formers making their last round at school
After having a week off, I headed to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, for week. The new trainees arrived in Moldova on June 8th and since I am a mentor to a few of the trainees, I had some work to do before their arrival. We were all very excited to meet the trainees or newbies as some of us were calling them. It was an interesting experience because I can remember getting off that plane and not knowing so much about this new land that I was going to call my home for the next 27 months. It was nice to be able to answer questions for them and have a year's worth of experience under our belts. We got them acquainted with the city (or tried to at least) and hosted a luncheon for them. We also had a picnic in their perspective villages where they will be staying for the first three months.

12th formers holding second form girls, ringing last bell
I came back to my village after being gone for a week to meet my host sister's mother and step-father who live in Italy. It was nice to meet them finally since my host sister Skypes with them almost every night and I have been accustomed to hearing their voices. My host sister and her parents then left our village the next day to visit another village where the parents of my host sister's step-father live.It has been very quiet around here after they left.

So now my bags are packed and I am getting ready to go back home for a long, much anticipated visit. Tomorrow I will catch a rutiera to Chisinau at 6am and hang out all day in the capital, waiting for my bus ride to Romania. My flight home is from Bucharest, Romania, so I will have a long overnight bus trip and then fly out on Thursday morning. If I had flown from Moldova home, it would have cost around $700 more....so I can endure the long bus ride. I will be home from June 17th-July 7th. People keep asking me what I want to do, where I want to go and what I want to eat when I get home. I know I want to hang out with my family and friends, spend quality time with Bebe, go to a movie, eat some of my dad's bbq....get a slurpee, drive my car. You know, all the stuff I have missed for the past year. I can't believe a year has gone by already....and now I only have 14 months left here in Moldova. What an adventure it has been!
The last bell has been rung....see ya' in September!

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for writing this blog. I'll be going to volunteer in Moldova within the year, and this is exactly the sort of thing I needed to ease the nerves. I hope there'll be more to your stories. :)

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