First Bell

School begins in just two days! Thursday, September 1st, is a day called "First Bell". Students will come for one hour, meet with their homeroom teachers, and listen to opening announcements for the school year. I will introduce myself in front of the entire school! Friday is the first day of actual classes, and my first day of teaching. We will be having a simple introduction lecture, and I hope to begin learning about students' names and favorite activities. I am anxious to get the year started!

My school week:

  Monday: Class 5b 8:30-9:15

                 Health Club (Class 6c) 12:15-1:00

  Tuesday: Class 6b 8:30-9:15

                 Class 8a 11:20-12:05

                 Class 6a 12:15-1:00

  Wednesday: Class 8b 10:25-11:10

  Thursday: Class 5a 10:25-11:10

                 Class 7a 1:05-1:50

  Friday: Class 7b 1:05-1:50

I was also informed that I will be teaching a class for students with disabilities. This class, as I understood, will only have about five students. I'm very excited to learn more about this in late September/October. 

School has kept me quite busy during these first two weeks at site. My partners and I had to create our plan for the entire year. Luckily, we are almost finished! 

Life in Țipala is still wonderful. I feel like I need to say this again, my host mother is absolutely amazing. I am a lucky lady! We plan on getting our hair done together tomorrow, so we can look "beautiful for school." I look forward to getting to know her, and other people in the village, better during my time here.

Aside from life in Moldova, I have decided to make a small (or rather large) change in my educational pursuits. I will finish my B.S. in Psychology (I have 4 classes to go) and apply to graduate school (at K-State) in either the Cognitive/Human Factors or Social/Personality program. It is a bit of a drastic change from medicine, but I am quite positive that it is the avenue I would like to pursue. I miss taking classes very, VERY much, and am anxious to begin taking online classes (hopefully this Spring)!