Saturday, February 26, 2011

Completely cleared and language learning

This week of school wore me out. I don't even want to think about the amount of sleep Ive gotten since school let out yesterday afternoon. But just a little while ago I realized that it has been a week since I sent in my dental paperwork and I still had not received an email or anything saying that they received it. So I hopped on over to the Peace Corps toolkit and apparently I am finally fully cleared for everything. I was kinda upset that I didn't get an email from Peace Corps about the toolkit change but when I checked my email it turned out they had sent me one...at 5 o'clock this morning. Why is it always at ridiculous hours? Oh well, doesn't matter.

I spent the next hour learning more Romanian from some lessons they provide on the toolkit site. It's an interesting language and is going to take some getting used to, but I was happy that it was a lot easier to pronounce the sentences than the last time I tried. Felt a lot more comfortable and I didn't get as tongue-tied. Luckily since I have tried to learn a lot of languages I was familiar to the feeling of it being really awkward and that it gets better as you become more familiar with the language.

For instance here is a lovely sentence... Puteţi să mă ajutaţi, vă rog. Translated as, "could you help me, please."

It's kinda weird cause the language is very similar to Italian when pronounced, but it also has a lot in common with French in the way that some words blend together, a liaison as my French teacher would say.

But as far as the derivation of the words it is especially confusing. Take the colors for instance:

Red is roşu, similar to the Spanish rojo, the French rogue, and the Italian rosso.

However, white is alb, which is similar to Latin, albus, but not similar to the other three Romance languages at all. Spanish, blanco; French, blanc; Italian, bianco.

Another example is yellow, or galben, which is not like Spanish, amarillo, French, jaune, or Latin, flavi, but instead is very similar to Italian, giallo, or even German, gelb.

So basically what I am saying is that while Romanian is very closely related to many languages Ive studied, it also seems to be annoying confusing with which words it borrows from which language.

BTW...here is an awesome band from Moldova that gives you a good idea of what the language sounds like without the boringness of having to listen to a conversation you don't understand... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZo93VD74Nw

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Stressed out

Being a student teaching is a million times more stressful than I thought it would be. At every turn there is a new question that most be answered, another plan that has to be changed, another student that is tardy, absent, missing work, or slacking off. Because I have no plans to fall back on like tenured teachers I have to spend hours each night after going home trying to write up notes, reviewing the material, creating worksheets, drafting a test and quizzes and designing PowerPoint presentations. In addition to this, at every step of the way I have to turn back to my facilitating teacher for advice and approval on basically everything. In addition to this I am also required to attend and write papers (a giant one due next week) for a college class once a week.

In essence I'm stressed out.

I don't usually get stressed out and I've tried to use all the tactics that Ive learned over the years and especially in college to help alleviate stress but I still feel completely stressed more than I have ever felt before. I can't imagine how anyone could do this while holding a part time job...I would go insane...I'm already going insane. The main reason I am writing this blog is because today I planned out my schedule for the rest of my two weeks at my high school placement and I can see the end in sight. Secondly, when you are stressed it is the little things that you forget to do day after day that really start to stress you out. For the past week (or has it been two??? I don't remember...) I keep remembering and then forgetting that I have to send in my passport application and resend my dental work. Even though I've already been invited it really stressed me out each and every day I realized that I still hadn't mailed them in, or that I hadn't called the Peace Corps office before 5 to get the address for the dental work, or forgetting to call the dental office...Little things but probably the most annoying.

Well today I spent all day after school running around calling, copying, and putting them both in the mail. I even found time to eat before making it back to the school for a parent teacher conference.

One less thing...

Less than four months...

Moldova is calling