The start of year three at BCA

I have just started my third year teaching at BCA!  After having two years of teaching and living in Romania experience, a lot of things are starting to feel familiar and I am starting to feel a lot more at home in Bucharest. As far as teaching goes, I really love my students, I finally have a real lunch break, and I feel much more confident in what I am doing as a teacher. It's still going to be a lot of work, but I am looking forward to a great year.

After a great summer catching up with lots of family in the US, I jumped right into taking advantage of some of my favorite things about living in Romania. First off I took a day at the seaside. I love the beach!

Last weekend I took in the outdoor opera concert that takes place about two blocks from my house.

Today I went to the market and bought all of this for $8.64.

That's 2 lbs pears, 2.5 lbs grapes, 2 lbs raspberries, 2 lbs red peppers, 1 lb blueberries. I've also been doing a lot of running at the park near my house, and just enjoying the now familiar sights of my neighborhood. 

And of course I have enjoyed getting back together with my friends after most of us have been scattered over the summer holidays. 

I'm very thankful for all of the things and people that God has given me here!

Christmas 2012

It's been awhile since I last posted. I'm afraid I haven't been very motivated to do much writing lately, but since I haven't even blogged about Christmas in England yet, I guess I had better do that!


Back in December I was able to go home with my roommate and spend Christmas with her family in Bristol, England for two weeks. My roommate, Cath, and her family made me feel very much at home and took me around to all sorts of exciting places. I was also introduced to special English delicacies such as Christmas pudding, mince pies, and fish and chips.

I visited the seaside, toured the city of Bath, and went on a pretty great shopping trip in Cardiff, Wales. Although I loved seeing new things in England, I also loved seeing familiar things in England. For instance, I got really excited when I saw the store Staples. It wasn't that I needed or  wanted to shop there. I was just thrilled to see something so familiar. I was also pretty excited to have this. (Don't worry, not all those donuts were mine.)

One of the most unique things I got to do was go to a pantomime. My roommate bought me tickets as a surprise, and I had no idea what a pantomime was. To be honest, I still don't really know what one is, but it was pretty amazing. Later on, I read an article in a magazine about the history of British pantomimes. The author wrote something to the extent of, "I have seen many an American or Australian watching their first pantomime with a look of complete bewilderment, but they always come out enthusing wildly." I feel that that sums up my feelings towards pantomimes pretty accurately. If you can imagine a play of a fairy tale, with lots of slapstick humor, puns, parodies of pop songs, break dancers, audience participation, and outlandish costumes, you will have a small idea of what a pantomime is like. I highly recommend them if you are into bizarre humor.

We also had the chance to go to London for a few days over New Years Eve. The city was crazy full of people, but it was really great to be able to see all the sights. My roommate, her sister, and I ended up standing in one place for 4 hours next to the Thames river waiting for the NYE fireworks. Although I probably wouldn't do it again, it definitely was an experience and some of the best fireworks I've ever seen.

I returned to Bucharest well-rested, well-fed, and ready for the second semester. I will let you know how that's been going next time!

International Christmas

Happy New Year!! I meant to write a few things about Christmas before I left on vacation, but that didn't happen. Right now I am enjoying my last few days of Christmas break in England before I head back and start school again on Monday. I promise to write all about England later, but for today I want share about some of my Christmas activities back in Bucharest.

I was involved in leading a choir for two different Christmas programs this year. It was something brand new for me. I have been a part of choirs for many years and I really enjoy it, but I have never led a choir before, neither have I had any training to lead a choir....so I was a little intimidated about it. However, I think both programs went very well.

The first Christmas program was at the beginning of December for our church. I was asked to lead the adult choir about three weeks before the program date. I put together some songs, and we had practice after church on Sundays. I always had a different group of people practicing, so I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but in the end it was fine

 

The following week we had our school Christmas program. The elementary students put on the play "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and inbetween acts my high school choir that I have been teaching this semester got to perform. It was their first performance as a choir, so they were pretty nervous, but they did an amazing job. I was very proud of them. I have really enjoyed teaching this class. Choir was probably one of the highlights of my high school career, and being able to pass that on to these students has been a privilege. Next semester I will not be teaching choir, but I will be working, with the drama teacher, as the musical director for our spring drama, "Annie."

 

The Opera

I love where I live. In a city of concrete apartment buildings, I am pretty lucky to be able to live in the top floor of a villa on a quiet dead end street in the center of the city. Some pretty important things are close to my house including the Romanian president's mansion, a very nice mall, and the opera house. Last year I walked by the opera house almost every day, but never looked into actually going. This past fall while it was still warm outside, I heard an outdoor concert playing and decided to check it out.
I dragged my room mate out with me and we joined a crowd of about 2000 people for a beautiful outdoor concert complete with fireworks!

I decided I needed to take advantage of being so close and look into going to the opera more often,  especially when I found out that balcony seats could be purchased for as little as the equivalent of $3!

I also worked with the drama teacher to organize a field trip to the opera with my music students. I made reservations to take my students on a Friday night, however when I called with the final number to book the tickets, they had changed the event and were no longer selling student tickets. It was frustrating,  but a very common occurrence in Romania. Thankfully, we were able to get tickets to another show, and I had a great time taking my students to see The Barber of Seville at the end of November.

This week I plan to go see The Nutcracker!

Brasov

I think I have mentioned this before, but when you live in a city like Bucharest, getting out of the city every once in awhile is very important. Bucharest is a pretty big, busy city. The most wildlife I see during the day are some stray dogs and maybe a rat. There are some trees in the city, but it's mostly concrete. There are people everywhere, and they are all on a mission to get somewhere. So, it's just nice to get out every once in awhile and experience a little different environment.
The easiest place to get away to from Bucharest is Brasov. I've been there a couple times already, and it's really very nice. It is still a city, but it is in the mountains, and has a whole different atmosphere. Our church Bible study group planned a weekend trip there at the beginning of the month, and it was great to get away together. We left on Friday, and since I had to work, I had to catch the later train. The train was booked full, so we were not given seats. It was pretty tight, but there were a few nice people who gave up their seats for us, and we even met another American on the train. That doesn't happen very often here.

We spent the night in a cheap hotel, and then next day half of the group went to explore the city, and the other half went off to do something a bit more adventurous.  Since I had already been to the city, I chose the more adventurous option, which happened to be a high ropes course. The name of the place is adventure park, but somehow, while our group was discussing the options, the name got changed to the danger park. It's not really dangerous, but if you are scared of heights, it can definitely feel dangerous. 

Brasov is beautiful in the fall. I loved being able to breathe some fresh air and spend time with my friends. 

A day with Chen Lin

I have been tutoring Chen Lin since last year, when he came in as a fourth grader with no knowledge of English. It was a rough start, but he is extremely smart and determined to learn. He picked up English in no time and is doing really well in school. I still tutor him three times a week in English, and he is a very interesting character. At some point I will share with you all of my favorite Chen Lin quotes that I have collected, but for now, let me just share a day with Chen Lin. 

This particular day happened to be the last day of school in our old rented school building. I don't know if this made it an extra emotional day for Chen Lin or what, but he was pretty dramatic. 

We started off with him wanting to help me pack the classroom. I allowed him to pack one box of books for me before we started talking about homework. He decided he wanted a little bit more homework, so I took him down the copy machine with me to copy some more homework. He had never used the copy machine before, and was pretty intrigued with it. I let him push the buttons, and he asked me "Can I copy my hand?" 

"Sure, you could, but we are not going too," I replied. 

"COOL!!! Then I would have three hands!!" exclaimed Chen Lin. 

"No, Chen Lin, it would just be a piece of paper with a picture of your hand on it."

"Oh" (slightly sad face)

Next he pulls the paper out of the printing tray and starts pressing it against his face.

"This is hot!! Why is this hot!!!"

"That's just the way it is after coming out of the copier."

"But why is it hot??"

We go back upstairs, and the entire time he is following me singing some song about flying.

Back in the classroom I proceed to go over the homework with him.

"Ms. Fessel, will you stay here forever?"

"Probably not forever"

"When will you leave?"

"I don't know. When God tells me too."

"Will you stay here forever until you get married?"

"I really don't know, Chen Lin."

After this little interlude we continued class until it was time for him to go. As he exited the classroom, the door handle fell out. This has been happening all week, but we haven't fixed it since we are moving to the new school. I instruct him to pick up the handle and push it back on the door so I can get out of the room.

"Ms. Fessel, I would be so sad if I made you to be locked in your classroom so you couldn't get out. The would fire me from the school and I would have to go to prison and they would kill me!"

"No, Chen Lin, none of that would happen." I call out after him, but he is already on his way down the stairs. 

And that is a pretty typical day with Chen Lin.

Service day

One day each semester, the high school students at BCA get a break from their regular classes and get to spend the day volunteering at some sort of ministry in Bucharest. A couple weeks ago we had our first service day of the year. The students were broken into small groups and sent off to several different places for the day. Some of the students went to a church, or a clinic, and helped do cleaning and maintenance. Some students went to a home for mothers and helped do babysitting and food preparation. I got to chaperon a group of students who went to a ministry that does child evangelism through puppet shows throughout the whole country of Romania.

We spent the morning learning the puppet skits, and then we drove over to a christian bookstore. The bookstore has an after school outreach to neighborhood kids, and they had asked for a puppet team to come and do something special for them. It was a small space, but we were able to set up all the puppet equipment and put on an evangelistic show for twelve kids. My students did an excellent job with the puppets and really enjoyed themselves. It was a great opportunity to be a part of another ministry in Romania, and I was really proud of my students for using their talents so well!

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