| 29 , July 2001: Half-way done... |
| Okay, this week was a little better than I thought it would be. My 7th graders shaped up a little, and I realized that the majority of the ones who weren't paying attention were the ones who didn't understand english. Because of that realization, I was able to plan my lessons around it. I don't want to just ingore them and work with the smarter/faster ones like I was told to do. These kids are here for a reason, and I'm going to assume it's because they want to learn english. Isn't that why I was sent to Bulgaria in the first place?? My 8th and 10th classes are great, although I love my 10th class the best. They are awesome!!! On Wednesday we had a debate (their idea) and the 2 teams tried to convice me to travel to either Bulgaria or America. At the end of class, the Bulgarian team gave their "closing arguments" and Velina (my favorite student) got up and told me a few reasons why I should choose Bulgaria. Then she put her paper down, looked at me and said "I don't think I need to convince you to come to Bulgaria, you have made your decision. You are already here. And while Bulgaria may be small, we have a legend: When God gave out land for all the different countries the Bulgarians were last. When it was their turn to receive some land God realized that he had run out. He felt bad so he took part of Paradise and gave it to the Bulgarians." I know this is a sort of cheesy story, but it was incredibly beautiful. This just reiterates the pride that Bulgarians feel. They do not feel bad that their country is much smaller than others, because theirs is so full of beauty that it doesn't matter. I just thought I would share that with you all. On to another note. Friday marked the day of being half-way done with Model school and with Training. It's weird to thik that I've already been here for 5 weeks. Because it was the half-way point on Friday we had what is called and LPI. It stands for Language Proficiency Interview. It sounds a little scarier than it actually was, and I think I did ok. Basically they want to get some idea of how much each person has learned so far, and to make sure that we can get around town on our own. There were four "simulation stations": the train station, the grocery store, the restaurant, and a party. We had to prove that we could handle ourselves in any and all of these situations. The LPI consisted of sitting alone in a room with one of the Language instructors with a tape recorder, so they can blackmail us later in the year! We had to answer a bunch of questions, and ask some ourselves. We also had to use the different tenses that we have learned. It was tough but like I said, I did ok. Well, I guess I should head out now...I will talk to you all later! I love you and miss you all, please write to me!! Love, sarah |