One week down.

       This first week went well.  Every morning I went to school and observed the 3 English teachers and different grades.  The set up of the school is very different and will take sometime to get used too.  As I said before the schools here work in shifts, so I am done around 1pm.  Also, after every 45 minute class there is a 5 minute break (after the 2^nd class there is a 15 minute break so the children can eat something and the teachers can have a cup of coffee).  This especially through me off, since the only breaks I ever got while teacher were when the students went to lunch of when they went to resource and even then I would normal be working on something during that time.  Also, I found it interesting that the teachers at the end of the school day said that they were tired and “had been going all day”.  I on the other hand was ready to do more.  I also found interesting the teacher to student relationship.  My Geography professor at CNU, Mr. Crippen, used to say that your students need to “fear” you for the first 4 months and then you can start backing down after that because the students know that you mean business, not here.  The students see their teacher more has a friend and not an authority figure.  They like to talk while the teacher is talking and there is no discipline system set up in the schools, i.e. detention, going to the principal’s office. In the states we view education as an extremely important thing, sometimes too much, but here I don’t get the feeling that education is an important factor to life.  They have a national curriculum, like the SOL (standards of learning), so there is material that the students are expected to learn, but I do not think that they see how important education is to their future, at least they do not see it yet.  Another thing is that the students are more independent.  Resen, even though a town, is more like a neighborhood.  The students can walk anywhere and since everything and everyone is so close they know and are friends with everyone.  They do not have their parents or a bus dropping them off or picking them up from school, they leave when they are done.  The students know that they have this independence and it is definitely evident in the school and classrooms.  This is going to be my biggest challenge to overcome, since when I taught I had a discipline system in place and the students knew that I was their teacher first and their friend second.  The student here, just because of my age and the way they see their other teachers, view me as a friend first and a teacher second, something that I will have to change.

     I am still trying to settle into my apartment.  Yesterday, I did my first load of laundry, with no washing machine and no dryer.  After I went to the pazar, aka farmers market, I went to the store and bought 2 buckets so that I could do my laundry.  I had to go back to the store later that afternoon and buy a drying rack since I could not carry everything all at once.  All this walking around, carrying things up 4 flights of steps, and having to do multiple trips out is giving me my exercise haha.  I have to say I was very proud of myself for doing laundry by hand, but my arms are definitely hurting today from squeezing all the water out of each piece of clothing.  Since not everyone has a washing machine, both mom and nana asked if they have laundry mats here, and I am not sure, but I am pretty sure no.  Washing machines are expensive and most people are used to doing things the old fashion way.

       I also got my haircut on Friday, nothing different, just a trim.  I was very nervous since I have had the same person cutting my hair since I was 7 and also not knowing much of the language I was afraid that I would come out with a horrible haircut.  Also, when I talked to Irena, my counterpart, about haircuts here she said that she hated getting her haircut.  That she would rather go to the dentist then get her haircut.  And that is saying something, since no one likes going to the dentist.  But it turned out fine; the girl who cuts my hair was a friend of Irena and owns a nice, clean, small salon.  She does not know any English but with what Macedonian I understand, acting things out, and pictures I came out with a cut that I liked.  I got my hair washed, got a head massage, and then got a cut all for 250 dinar, roughly $5.     

      That’s all I have for now, I am going to post pictures of the apartment either tomorrow or Tuesday. I need to take a picture of the living room but I want to get the drying rack and my clean clothes put away before I take it.  I will also write again on Wednesday!!!!