6 and 8

Welcome to Ica's Easter table! This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago when we had our Orthodox Easter Sunday meal. An overview of what's presented: Painted hard boiled eggs, Cotnari wine (from Iasi, Moldavia), Salata de Beouf (an awesome potato salad with carrots, peas and pickels...Sarah's a big fan), Drob (a sort of lamb meatloaf made from internal organs with egg in the middle...it tastes better than it sounds), Ica's cheese dip in the shape of a fish (in honor of Jesus), and some sweet cheese bread (special for Easter, with the cross). We also had some baked lamb and other assorted goodies. What a spread!

So, 6 & 8. Six weeks left of school and exactly eight weeks to the day that I'll be coming home for vacation. Man oh man I hope that this time flies. Everybody here is about done with school, the teachers and students. Attendance is bad enough as it is and will continue to decline. I'll be lucky if half of the kids show up by the time June rolls around. Oh well, not my problem.

I'm hangin' in there in terms of how I'm feeling. It's up and down. However, I'm a lot better than I was, let's say, 5 weeks ago. I'm just trying to focus on July. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be headed down to Bucharest on Friday to see Dr. Dan. We'll talk and I want him to take a look at my back. My back has been killing me for some weeks now. I think I may have done something to it while playing basketball a while ago. Maybe I need some chiropractor (spelling?) action? We'll see. I just hope he doesn't keep me overnight until Saturday, as I want to stay in Codlea on Friday and Saturday night before having to go back to Piatra. However, if I have to stay, I have to stay. Health comes first.

I'd like to report a couple of success stories here at school. First, the pen pal project I started between the 5th grade here and Sarah's Mom's 4th grade made the local paper in the SW suburbs of Chicago. It was a nice article with a photo of Barbara's students. Everybody here was excited to see the news article. I'm hoping that I can get a reporter to come to school here and do a similar story. I've got a friend who works in the PR Dept. in the city hall and he may put me in contact with someone from one of the local papers.

The other story is about Animal Farm. My 10th graders finished the book a few weeks ago and are now watching the animated movie on DVD. When I asked some of them what they thought of the book they said that they enjoyed it and it helped them better understand communism, and as a result, created a better understanding of what went on in their country before they were born. Most young people here don't have a very good understanding of the period between 1945 and 1989, nor do they know much about the '89 revolution. The topic is not frequently discussed in school and the information available in print is scarce.

I'm proud that I was able to facilitate a better understanding of things on their part via literature. Also, there are a lot of good non-fiction books available in English about the events in '89, but for some reason they're not printed in Romanian. It's a shame. Many of these kids are curious about the past and should be able to access such information. It would be nice if a publishing house in this country took it upon themselves to make these texts available in English and Romanian. I can think of at least four books I've read about the communist era and the '89 events that I know would sell well here.

So, that's my report for now. It's Sunday afternoon and I'm gearing up for tonight's Rapid match. Rapid has a good chance to win the championship right now and must win tonight to help their chances. It's too bad that I can't watch the game with Victor. However, there's a possibility that I may not have that problem in the near future. More on that later.....

Scott