Day 6

Today we didn't have many students. Our older students were taking the train into Iasi to go to the mall and to spend time with their friends. I think it's about two hours away. Anna and Andrea came to the museum with us before they went to train station, which was nice. Anna is hilarious; she's always finding something funny to say. We went to an exhibit of Marcel Guguianu's drawings and scuplture. He tends to like the unclothed female form. Many of his sculptures in marble and bronze capture the sense of motion and contortion. He actually went to Codrineau High School and has an apartment above the museum. Mihaela said that some days he comes down into the museum and talks to people, but we didn't see him. Later we played a few games, and I had to help Andrei with a few word suggestions for Scrabble, so he told me that he owes me one (or two, or three). I told him he owes me a paper, which, believe it or not, he smiled at and said okay. They're the most incredible young people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. They're very polite, respectful, and agreeable. They are used to being passive learners, though. I asked one of the eleventh graders, Gheorghe, about how his classes are conducted. The standard format is teacher lecture. I told him about how we try to vary activities and use cooperative groups, and I could tell he didn't really understand the concept. It will be interesting when I have them try working in small groups. They may end up liking it.

Tonight we're going back into Barlad for dinner and to pay for our trip to Transylvania. Hopefully we'll have a little time to pop into some shops. From what I've seen, the shops seem to be small and the merchandise limited. There are so many things that students can't get here or can't afford. Shipping costs are very high, too, so they can't order from the Internet like we can. I showed the students my Flip Video Camera, which only cost about $50 at Walmart. Such items are not available here, they tell me, and if they were, they would be quite expensive. Gheorge uses freeware instead of buying Microsoft Office products because he can't afford it. He bought his computer without anything on it and has installed everything from free Internet downloads. It will be interesting to learn more about the realities of life in Romania in the days to come.