Busy Day in Barlad

I'm missing my camera so this entry has only words. I woke up around 6 and the weather was lovely. I decided to go for a walk. My first stop was the FugiFilm store to learn about the hours it is open and to do some window shopping for cameras. Tomorrow I believe we will work on my camera problem.

I then walked through the market -- what we might call a Farmer's Market in the United States. I was amazed to see milk being sold in re-purposed plastic bottles -- ones that originally held water or soda. I also was amazed to see the cheese. This is white cheese, a bit like mozzarella, and the cheeses were the size of a very large loaf of bread, if not bigger. I got a jar of honey in the market. I enjoy getting honey in different places and enjoying the different flavors it has due to the plants used by the bees. This is poliflora -- which I assumed means many flowers, and I later learned that was a correct assumption.

I was at the school at 9:00 expecting to work with some teachers, but something happened with that plan -- I don't know what. One of our team characteristics is to "go with the flow," so that's what I did. I had a class of 2nd graders, at the beginner level. They were so much fun. Last week I taught them how to play bingo. Today, whenever someone would answer a question about a letter or word that was challenging, I was say something like "very good" or "super," and then one of the little girls would say, Bingo! This was followed by two third grade classes.

Back to the hotel for lunch, which was Bulgarian Salad. This is definitely a dish I will be making at home -- it is very simply and very tasty.

Back to school for two more classes. One was 5th graders who love to do Simon Says. I've still yet to have just one winner. They are very good at Simon Says and it's hard to trick them. It is good for teaching vocabulary. One I did was "Simon Says, jump and down if you are ten years old or more."

One more class and then back to the hotel. I was tired! The principal drove me back and forth and when we were leaving school this afternoon, he said, "Now I must tell the students you are leaving." I have had a wonderful time, and I hope my classes have been helpful to the students. But I have three more days!

I wandered down tot he street to a sidewalk cafe and had a Coke, a real Coke, because this cafe had neither Diet or Coke Zero.

At 6:15 two high school students met his at the hotel and walked us to their high school where we spoke a bit about studying at universities in the United States. Then we walked basically across the street to Restaurant Alona for our evening meal. All the food on everyone's plate was yummy. Mihaela phoned her mother and she stopped by with a special Romanian bread made for a religious holiday tomorrow.

So I hope this gives you a flavor of volunteering. Go to www.globalvolunteers.org if you want to have this kind of fun somewhere in the world, too.