March Madness? More like February...

I'm in love with this picture. There is no reason it's on here expect for the fact that I wanted to start my blog with it.

I'm back! The last two weeks have been insanely busy with projects, planning, teaching, and life in general. Being sick the last week with laryngitis also added to the chaos but today I am feeling well-so I wanted to update you on what I've been up to.

Last week I started my English classes for adults-both at my school and then for the community.  Having never taught adults before, I was nervous and a little apprehensive but everything went well! We worked on the the basics such as the alphabet and by the end of the class they could use all greetings, introduce themselves, and say where they were from. Success. I look forward to seeing them every Wednesday and I have to admit it's nice not to have to say "sit down, put away the phone, listen!" every 10 minutes. :)

I guess we're on a crazy basset hound kick. I love this one too.

 Vali and I have been planning a big birthday bash for March 1st.  As most of you know, this year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps worldwide and the 20th anniversary of PC in Romania! On March 1st Peace Corps countries around the world will be celebrating and here in Recas we will host a competition then dance for the high school. This month every class in HS has been learning about Peace Corps, the basic information, goals, slogans, etc and they are currently writing essays about what they have learned. The students with the best essays will be awarded prizes on March 1st. Also that day we will have a Jeopardy competition for the HS full of PC questions.  To round out the day, we have organized a dance with food. I hope we can pull it all off in the next week!

The PC logo for the 50th Anniversary and 20 Years in Romania..a break from the basset hounds.

Besides working on the dance for the 50th anniversary, I am working on a mural project to celebrate Peace Corps. The idea is to have students create a wall mural celebrating Peace and exchanging of cultures. We will be painting a mural on a wall somewhere in Recas and at this point are gathering interested students to participate.

We are also working on an ecological project, working towards a "scoala verde" or "green school".  We are focusing on recycling and creating a more environmentally friendly school and surrounding area. The first step is to gather paper from each class to recycle, then we are focusing on creating a garden outside of the school recess area.

There are a few more projects I'm invovled in, including a summer project with an NGO in Timisoara, but I'll keep you posted!

Hope you all are well. Can't wait to see you in June when I'm home for vacation!