Up and Down Week

This week definately had it's moments...both good and bad. My counterpart went on a pilgrimage to Iasi on Wednesday, which in the Orthodox religion is Saint Parascheva Day. Saint Parascheva was, to my understanding, a young woman that died prematurely because she had no concern for her personal well-being. She would go without food or winter clothing simply to give all her worldly possessions to the less fortunate. While I admire this, a question also comes to mind...couldn't she have done so many more good works if she had lived a long life? Anyway, Saint Parascheva's tomb is available to the public as a relic of sorts. People bring many possessions and stand in line for hours simply to pray and be blessed in her presence...she was canonized, it is said, because when the people of the Moldova region on Romania owed money to the Turks they weighed the fee against Saint Parascheva...and somehow the weight on the scale became lighter so the Moldavians owed less money. Being Protestant...many of the Orthodox customs are mysterious to me, but having studied Medieval history I have a small understanding of such matters. I certainly value the piety of individuals and I enjoy learning about the culture in which I am currently living.
Now that is explained...on Wednesday and Thursday I taught all the classes alone. This proved to be more difficult than I expected simply because it was new. However, Wednesday some of my students dressed in costumes and scared the living daylights out of me when I entered the classroom. That's what I get for teaching them about Halloween. Thursday we had a faculty meeting after school (at 7 pm). I'm trying to learn about Romania's education system and specifically the administration...what I've learned so far is that we differ on many tenets of proper pedagogies. I suppose we can all learn from each other, but that is more easily said than done. As my counterpart often says, she was taught to teach during the Communist period and my focus on critical thinking skills is something new to her.

It was a rough week, and I am glad it's finally the weekend. I have cleaning to do and a lot of laundry to do by hand. La Revedere!