"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Meridian and my typical weekend in Tirana

I started a second job this week. I work for Meridian language center teaching English to other teachers. I work 1 night a week for 90 minutes and don't have to do any prep for the class. It is a TEFL course (or they use TEFL methods) and they were so desperate for teachers that even though I'm not certified to teach they asked me. I teach 10 females, who are all Turkish or Albanian and are older than me. The youngest is 23.

Basically I go into the class and we practice school phrases such as "please have a seat" and "why are you late." They repeat after me and I correct any pronunciation errors. They I read a passage out loud to them stopped at the end of each sentence to answer vocabulary questions. This weeks questions were about words like implicit, rebellious, and notoriously to name a few.Then they each read a few sentences of the passage stopping to clarify pronunciations. Then I read the passage through one more time. We also take a 10 minute break.

I think it is a fairly easy job and it pays well enough to cover my water, beer, ice cream, and machiato consumption each week. I think the thing that makes it so easy is that they are all so eager to learn. I mean they know enough to understand these long passages, and yet they still feel it is necessary to learn words like notorious. When I tell them the meaning/give them examples, they all talk until they find the turkish and albanian precise words to match it. I'm glad they are able to help me out in this way. At the end of the class I told them to please bring me and questions they had next week, on either pronunciation or vocabulary.

During break time they were nice and sat and talked to me about my move here. Jeff (my principal) said I should prepare myself to be invited out to a lot of coffee meetings and dinners with them. He said they are very cliquy  but also really want to practice english as much as they can.

I feel like my first graders are finally starting to learn :) they are getting incredible at addition. Also, they are starting to recognize sight words when they see them on worksheets. I taught them all how to spell/read more and less through a game (these words show up in our math books a lot.) One of the kids had a girl in our class translate for him about two weeks ago. This week he translated for another boy in my class. I'm also enjoying my new social studies time with the kids and used it to teach them manners this week. English is improving :D On Friday our word of the day was "whine" and I told them if they didn't whine all day i'd bring them a treat. I only had to give 2 reminders, so the kids are getting chocolate tomorrow. This week we are going to start nutrition lessons during my social studies time. Eating habits are terrible.

I spent my weekend hanging out with my co-workers in Tirana. Friday night we headed to Hostel Tirana to hang out with our friend Joe (he works there.) I had a great walk in the pouring rain (wet season is here!) had a few beers, and got a nice leg massage from Joe (he is also a certified masseuse.) Typically the weekends here consist of us searching for food that isn't Italian or Qhofte. This weekend we headed to the Stephen Center (missionary based restaurant) for burgers and Dr. Pepper. They also have Mexican food (2 weeks ago I had chimicangas) and America breakfast (last week I had pancakes and eggs benedict.) It's wonderful except for the service. They are very busy and we often feel ignored.

In the afternoon we hiked to the American favorites food store, which really isn't a store, but a room in a christian home stocked with processed American food. I purchased some Ramen (in case I get sick) some tomato juice (for bloodies) taco seasoning, taco shells, maple syrup, wild rice, and Reeses.
The store wasn't at all what I expected it to be. I thought it would be on a major road. We headed out for the 6KM walk and ended up on some curvy, muddy, hilly, back roads. By the river (still on the main road) Cortney was taking some pictures of building and some men thought we were taking their picture. They started shooing us away and came aggressively after us a bit, trying to get us to leave. I yelled at Cortney that we needed to go but she didn't even notice. I was seriously nervous one was gonna whip out a gun and start shooting us. Some sort of illegal something was going on. A little further on we past some sheep and wild chickens on our way. At one point we thought we were definitely lost, but they we spotted a ginger girl with a disney princess shirt on. He mother kindly pointed us in the right direction and then an old Albanian man did the same. We shopped and on our trip home we ran into the couple who run the market and printing press (that is why they originally moved here) and gave them our e-mails.

Today I did some lesson planning, and we out for Pizza and brownies/a machiato. Now I'm gonna veg out and relax before the week starts. Next week we have Friday off for Mother Teresa day (god bless her) so we are heading to a new country. We will be spending the weekend at Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. Hiking, biking, and fresh air here I come. Whole weekend should cost about 100-120 dollars, including hotel, car rental, entertainment and food. It will be fantastic! Also...they are playing oldies instead of pop today :)

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