time at last

hello all! though nothing significant has happened lately (i think), i could update.
hmm.
one of my favourite students, clotilde fasan, left on friday because her family's moving back to france. she's a brilliant girl and was so incredibly well-behaved. i'm gonna miss her a lot. her sister, emilie, is in kim's class (preschool/kindergarten) so our two classes had a pizza party and watched the prince of egypt. one of kim's parents owns a pizza restaurant (pizza chicago) so we didn't have to pay anything for it. they've actually catered a lot of our events; they're pretty generous. the fasan's gave micah, kim, and me each a big box of ferrero rocher chocolates. those are so good, but if i could give the chocolates back and have clotilde stay, i would.
speaking of chocolate, the snickers here taste different. it's almost like the caramel's different. sweeter. i think it's because they use sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. the same goes with soda. it tastes better.

the end of the first quarter is this friday, so i'm going to be really busy this week. i'm not behind in my lessons, but i'm behind in my tests, so i'm gonna have to get that wrapped up. the language tests are the main problem; the tests in the curriculum are almost entirely oral and i don't see how that's feasible with an actual class of students (as opposed to a home school class). it'll take way, way too much time. i could grade worksheets, but i don't really want to do that. or i could make my own tests, but...that's something i'll be resolving today or tomorrow.

hopefully this friday we'll have a halloween/ harvest festival thing; pumpkin carving, scarecrow making, etc. i'm really excited. i think halloween's my favourite holiday. fall has a certain scent, a certain chill in the air; i love it. we're trying to get a trip to berlin worked out for thanksgiving. micah's got some friends there.

the ten day weather forecast for brasov as per weather.com gives foggy weather seven out of the next ten days. foggy weather here is a lot different from foggy weather in dothan. it wraps up the city like a blanket. tucks it in. it's so incredibly thick. i'm hoping it snows mid-nov; i've been told that this is a lot warmer winter compared to the one last year. my parents sent me this awesome parka, but i can't use it if it doesn't snow!



mr. fox's class v2.


an example of the fog. it doesn't translate as well in pictures, i'm afraid.


another peştora pic. they were cooking these nasty sausage things called "mici" over a fire.


me and clotilde before she left.
...back when i smiled.

sorry...

school photo at kinderland in the eliana mall.


sharing at a church in budapest



a road in peştora.



peştora again.


i'm am so, so, so (ad infinitum) sorry for the lack of updates the past...two weeks? it's been something like two weeks, i think. some outrageous length of time that i hopefully won't have to go without a post again. the internet situation hasn't favoured long visits.

quick:
-the 1+ month long search for an apartment is finally over (praise God!). we looked at an apartment that we all liked and the price was right, and we signed the contract later that day (tuesday). hopefully we'll move in tomorrow after school, provided we can find someone with a car and time enough to make a few trips.
-the trip to the school in budapest was really beneficial. they have about 200 kids in the school there, which is absolutely colossal compared to our 44. the whole operation was incredibly professional, and made us all realise how much work we have to do. i had the opportunity to sit in on some classes and see how other teachers managed their classes, and i learned a lot. great trip.
interesting fact: coldplay was in town on the viva la vida tour while we were there.
depressing fact: i didn't get to see coldplay and i didn't get to walk around the city, but i did get to drive around it. it's the most beautiful city i've ever been in, i think.
-i caught a cold a few days ago and have been struggling through that. costina's been taking care of me though; she bought me medicine, made me soup, and let me spend the night at her house so i wouldn't have to walk an hour to the school. she's a wonderful person.

alright! internet time's up. i'll try and have some more info tomorrow about the going on's in brasov. also, a HUGE THANKS to everyone that's supported me with prayer, donations, or comments on this. it means a lot.

ciao!

brief.

hey guys! thanks for all the comments. here's a brief update (along with some pics i managed to upload before the computer i was using crashed. most of these computers don't have mmc/sd card readers so it makes uploading things difficult)

school has gone incredibly well. i have 8 students at the moment: two french girls, one turkish boy, an american boy and girl, one hungarian boy, one korean girl, and one israeli girl. all of the staff get along incredibly well and i have a feeling it's going to be an excellent year. the first week of school was a bit bumpy, but i'm getting my sea legs.

looks like me and the other guys (micah and kim; did i introduce them?) will be going to budapest on the 22nd for a few days to see how they run the school there. i'll get to sit in on the 1st-2nd class and learn some things.

we're still looking for an apartment, but hopefully by the end of the week we'll have something. we've been staying with a wonderful jewish family from the church for the past week or so. costina (the mum) is an administrator at the school and she's been making us absolutely delicious food all week long.

the weather here is starting to get cold; we had the first rain for awhile on saturday and it's not looking like we'll have another warm day again. i'm obscenely excited about snow, but everyone here says that after 3 or 4 months of trudging through it everyday i won't be. we'll see!

(i'll try and get some more related pictures on the next post)



the narrowest street in europe!


wu-tang represent.


a crater lake we went to.

alright, it's 10.30 and i have to get up at 6...blegh.
coffee!

disconnected

sorry about the lack of updates. this week has been absolutely insane, and i haven't had access to the internet/a pc till now.
this city is beautiful, the people are wonderful, and i'm super stoked about this year. i'll be teaching first and second grade and school starts monday, so please pray that everything goes well because i'm (currently) a bit overwhelmed. i'll try and update this with some pics and a longer post later during the week (the school should have internet sometime then...)


don't forget me!

meet brasov.

"Brasov is situated in the central part of the the country being considered the second most important town in Romania. Located 160 km from Bucharest, Romania's capital, Brasov is surrounded like a halo by the Carpathians, being in the middle of the country at the crossroads of the the Eastern Carpathian and the Southern Carpathians. Across the mountains to the South and East there are Wallachia and Moldavia, to the West the Banat region and to the North the rolling hills of Northern Transylvania."




the black church.

"Biserica Neagră or Black Church (German: Schwarze Kirche; Romanian: Biserica Neagră; Hungarian: Fekete templom) is a cathedral in Braşov, a city in south-eastern Transylvania, Romania. It was built by the German community of the city and stands as the main Gothic style monument in the country, as well as being the largest and one of the most important Lutheran (Evangelical Church of Augustan Confession in Romania) places of worship in the region...Construction on it began during the late 14th century... The structure was partially destroyed during a great fire set by invading Habsburg forces on the April 21, 1689 (during the Great Turkish War).^[20] Afterward, it became known as the Black Church."
-wikipedia




rooftops of the old town.




some random street




wintry aerial view (see the black church on the leftish?).


[images (other than the map) are from flickr]