Yes, I am still here....

Since it has been almost two months since I have gotten around to posting anything, I figure it is time for some updates.  This is going to be tricky since I don't even remember all that much.  We will see how much my trusty day planner will help out....

Week of Feb. 22-28

The first week of classes for the spring semester!  This time I am teaching a Master's level course (intro to public history) that meets for three hours Wednesday nights, and I am helping with a course on Monday nights.  I am excited about the Monday course because it is for all first year students in the program.  It is an intro to American history, but then during the discussion part of the class I will help the professor do a semester-long section on reading, research, and writing.  The students have to choose a book to read and take notes on it (and turn them in for a grade!).  They also will be choosing a topic in U.S. history and doing a 10 page research paper on that topic.  To help with this, we will have a tour of the main library at the university and have classes devoted to things like: how to write a paper, citations and plagiarism, sources, etc.  Just like my class last semester, they will need to turn in their topic, outline, sources, and draft during the semester - and they will be graded on it all.  It is a bit of a shock to their systems, but they have no idea how much this is going to help them throughout their program and especially in their final paper.  I really hope that this goes well and that it is adopted by whoever ends up teaching this required intro to US history course.  I will keep you updated.  Monday I left them in terror, and next week we meet at the library for a tour :)

Before class on Monday, I went to yoga (yay, the third time for me!!!!).  Since I only had a 100 lei bill, and I had to walk instead of taking a taxi.  It is about a 40 minute speedy walk, but I figure a walk like that there and back plus yoga for an hour is a pretty good workout.  After yoga, I went over to Shari's house to see how she was doing (she started the Fulbright this spring semester and had a heart attack right after she got here).  I also brought some food that I had made and that I got from someone else.  A group of the women from CIWC have organized to bring her food every day, which has been really nice.  We went for a short and very slow walk (she cannot get her heart rate up at all for while).  We went over to this really nice spa in her neighborhood, and she gave me a gift certificate so that I can get something done, as a thank you for my help.  Totally not necessary but very sweet!  I think I might get a facial because I've never had one of those before (who can afford them in the U.S.??).  I also called this massage place nearby and got a 1 hour massage for 35 lei (like $12).  Can you believe it?  And, it was a really good massage.  A little strange because you just get naked in front of the person, and that definitely is something most Americans are not used to.  But, for $12 it well worth it!  I have started having some headaches again (I think the massage kind of stirred things up), but if I can keep up with the yoga and maybe a few massages, I think I might be headed in the right direction!

Brief Interruption:

Because I don't have any pictures for this week (or actually very many pictures at all since the Christmas/New Year's trip!), here is a hilarious video from "Bulgarian Idol" - think the Bulgarian version of American Idol.  If you can identify this song in the first 10 words, I am impressed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI

Tuesday of that week didn't have a lot of activity.  It was a super nice day (yes, spring seems to have arrived and I am embracing it with open arms!!!), so I met up with someone (Terri) to go for a walk.  Terri actually is from Texas (Waco), what are the odds?  She and her husband are both Lutheran pastors and are here starting an English-language church service.  They are taking Romanian classes at the university, so I walked with her on Tuesday to the organizational meeting for her class.  I really wasn't very fond of my language class in the fall, and I am going to try to sneak my way into this one as a professor at the university.  We'll see how it works out.  I really won't be here long enough to get fluent, and this isn't really a language that I will tend to use after I leave, but I still really want to learn it.

Wednesday I had my intro to public history class and 50% of the students showed up, which meant there were only 2 students there.  But, I think they took me seriously when I explained the syllabus and work and attendance.  I have heard that they are a problem group (probably the 2 who didn't show up...), so who knows what will happen.  After class, I rushed over to knitting group and made a little progress on my scarf.

I did stuff a little differently on Thursday.  Instead of trying to work at home sitting on the couch with my computer on my lap (oh, to have a desk with a computer bigger than a tiny piece of paper once again....), I decided to meet up with someone at the BBU main library.  I did work there for a few hours.  Okay, okay, I looked at plane and train tickets to Budapest and Belgrade, but that totally counts as work, right?  I also worked on some job applications and sent out a few to museums.  It is getting to be close enough to the summer that I can start working on the non-academic job angle.  What a rough year for things, but there seem to be a few interesting options.  I just hope that I will get something.  If not, I did find a neat program in sustainable agriculture at a community college in North Carolina, so maybe my sister and I will end up there (she can also take sculpture classes).....  After the library, we headed off to a symphonic concert at the music school.  It really wasn't all that great, but there was a cute violist and violinist :) 

Friday (the day I am writing this!) - I was going to work on an application for a museum, but I would have had to fax in the 20 pages.  That just seemed a little to complicated and expensive - type, print, fill out, fax.  I don't even know where there is a fax machine here.  Let's keep my fingers crossed for something else.....hopefully that I can submit electronically.  So, instead of working on that, I went over to someone's house (April - she lived in Arizona too!).  She plays the piano and has this really great cd of flute music and piano accompaniment.  We played a few pieces, which was a lot of fun.  A few of the women in the CIWC are musical, so I might try to arrange a concert some time this spring.  That would be nice to do.  Tea, cookies, and music...I can see it now!

This weekend, I might be getting my first driving lesson with a stick shift.  April is going to take me out to the big parking lot at one of the malls and let me loose.  Yikes.  But, it will be really good to know how to do.  And, it means I will be able to go to the nice grocery store out there.  I need to do that because I am in charge of Shari's meals for lunch and dinner on Monday.  Now, what am I going to make.....