The Metric System, More School, Thanksgiving

First let me say:

Now, to my first topic-the Metric System. One thing I have not really talked about is that I am having to completely change my way of thinking when it comes to weight, height, temperature and distance. As most of you I'm sure know, we use the metric system over here. America needs to get on board with this. It would make things so much simpler since most of the world uses this system of measurement.

I decided not to tackle all of the metric system at once. I have opted for the two areas I use most: temperature and weight.

Temperature, because well basically I want to be able to understand weather reports and not be scared when it says that today will be 10 degrees (which is 50 degrees Fahrenheit). Knowing that 10 degrees Celsius is equal to 50 degrees Fahrenheit is not so scary. What is scary is when my host family says typical winter tempertures are around -10 degrees Celsius. (Note: see Becca frantically pull out calculator and compute -10C x 9/5 + 32!) It also helps when needing to convert American baking recipes to Moldovan stoves!

Weight, because my family and school colleagues are obsessed by me losing weight since thin is mai frumos (more beautiful). And my host mom is very happy to tell all the neighbors how many kilograms I have lost since coming to Moldova. (The formula is lbs/2.2)

Having both of those down now and having a decent reference point so that I don't always have to do a mental calculation I have decided next to tackle distance. This is going to prove a little more difficult since I never had a good judge of distance in American measurements. Having a point of reference will not help me like it did with temperature and weight haha.

I am assuming that I will have the metric system down by the time I leave, just in time to come back to America and lose it all!

Happy measuring!

As I posted previously, N1H1 (the Swine Flu) has come to Moldova. But they have the cure or at least the way of prevention-garlic, onions, vodka, alcohol soaked fabric wrapped around door handles and masks! Also, we had an additional week off from school after the Autumn break which was great. But the downside of that extra week is that we need to make up the lost time.

Some schools are making up the time by holding classes on Saturdays (5 Saturdays, one for each day missed). Other's are adding a zero period to the daily schedule. My school decided to add an extra 5 days to the end of the semester. What this means for me: The last day of the semester is Thursday, December 24. The make-up week will begin the next day-Friday, December 25 and will go straight through the weekend until Tuesday, December 29. But it is worth it, because as soon as that last day is done I am on a bus to Chisinau! December 29 is the day we leave for BARCELONA, SPAIN!! (Please note: the picture above of the child is just something I found online, I didn't actually see a child licking a pig-although if I had and was able to get a picture of that, I would have been happy I carried my camera that day. I just found the picture humorous!)

Thanksgiving is this coming week, something that is not well known or even cared about in Moldova(for obvious reasons!) For example, I teach all week-school is not cancelled Wednesday through Friday like in America. Because of this, Peace Corps volunteers will be celebrating this food festival on Saturday. I will be leading one of three cooking teams. Me and 3 other volunteers will be preparing 1 turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing at the home of our Country Director-Jeffery. After our food is prepared, we will meet everyone at the Peace Corps office for lots of food and fun! My friends and I have already booked an apartment for the whole weekend so that we can relax and enjoy the good company and holiday festivities without trying to rush off to catch the last bus to our villages. While I am going to miss spending the holiday with my family and friends at home, I am glad that I will get to have a little piece of home here in Moldova with my new family and friends! Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving.

First birthday away

The first week of November was autumn break for all of the schools in Moldova. I was excited since this happen to coincide with my birthday (the first birthday I've had away from family and friends). As it worked out, we (the English Education volunteers) had an IST-In Service Training that week as I have mentioned in a previous post. This meant that I would at least be with all my friends for my birthday!!

Sunday, November 1st found Erika and Matt (two of my closest friends in Moldova) staying in Floresti with me. It was a great way to start the autumn break. We three went to Chisinau on Monday together and I was able to see another friend Tom since he was still in town. Me, Tom and a few other volunteers went out that night to a bar which turned out to be a karaoke bar. Let's just say, Becca sang karaoke with Tom...it was not good and completely laughable!! (And before you ask, we sang Alien Ant Farm's version of 'Smooth Criminal'). There are pictures somewhere. If I can get my hands on them, I will post em!

The training did not start until Tuesday, but the few of us volunteers who were facilitating presentations/discussion topics had to be in a day early to prepare any materials and go over any last minute changes needed.

The training went well. I enjoyed that it was volunteer led and mostly discussion based versus lecture based. Made it all more interesting! It was also nice being back with my group of volunteers and hearing about their schools, partners and sites. We had a lot of fun being back together.

So, Wednesday was my birthday. After training that day, we all went to a restaurant for dinner and of course drinks. Afterwards, we headed to another bar. It was a really great night and was a good distraction from not celebrating with friends and family back home. Highlight of the night however, was getting to talk to Staci. She called and I was ecstatic that I got to talk to her!! I have posted pictures from that night on my Facebook page and will include a link.

First Moldovan Birthday!

The remainder of the week went well. Not too much to talk about that. Towards the end of the week we heard rumors about schools being closed the week of November 9-13 because of the N1H1 Virus. There was a big outbreak in Ukraine (and as of right now we are not allowed to visit Ukraine). So in response and to allow the schools to implement some precautionary measures, classes were rumored to be cancelled. This did take place. I have not taught for the last two weeks (vacation and school closures). On one hand it was nice to have a week off and feel like we got to have a vacation/break of sorts since the original was filled with training. But on the other hand, I am now bored and a little listless because of all the downtime. However, the week was not all downtime and boring. Dan, one of the other volunteers and a good friend, came for a visit for three of the days. I showed him Floresti and on his second day here, we went to Balti and met some others. It was really nice having a friend visit. I took pictures of the day in Balti and added them to the Moldovan Characters album on my Facebook page. I included that link as well, just go all the way to the end of the album.

Here it is Saturday. There were talks about extending the school closures one more week as the number of N1H1 cases has risen here in Moldova. But the official word now is that we will return to schools on Monday. From there we will just have to see how things play out. Now, this next part is mostly for my mother...Peace Corps will be providing all the volunteers with the N1H1 vaccine. It should be arriving shortly and I will make my way to Chisinau to get it. They have already given us the seasonal flu vaccine. So you don't need to worry about me MOM!! hehe

On another note. While I was in Chisinau visiting the medical office to get my flu vaccine and pick up some misc cold medicines (just in case since winter is here) I decided to weigh myself. I know that I have lost weight (about 4 pant sizes) but I was not sure of how much. I was astonished and even asked the doctor to double check that I had correctly used the scale. Since arriving in June, I have lost about 50 lbs!! This makes me very happy, but the doctor was concerned so she is going to monitor things for awhile. I am not too worried though. I eat throughout the day decent amounts of food. I just credit the 25 minute walk (one way) up and down hills to my school everyday! Trust me, that walk alone would make anyone lose weight.