I had a good chat with my host-mother today about whether I would be staying in her apartment after the PC mandatory 6-month host-family stay. I told her I wanted to look around for other places, but hadn't yet made up my mind about what I wanted to do. As the Moldovan culture is more indirect than American, I was impressed that my mother actually initiated the conversation and honestly and directly answered my questions, like if she wanted me to stay or move out. She said that she agreed to host me for 6 months and that was what she had in mind, and that she thought I would be happier living alone now that I knew my way around the village.
So, while it never feels fantastic to be told by someone that they'd like you to move out - even when done so tactfully - I'm excited to find either a new family (with kids!) or a new pad (maybe with running water or working drains!) And I still feel like our relationship is intact and I would be welcome in this apartment anytime. I have about a month left on my contract, so time to start looking. Rest assured, I'll post with pictures as soon as I find my new digs.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Capitalist vs. Communist
I've been wanting to write a blog entry for a long time about some of the fundamental differences between the capitalist and communist systems, and the resulting differences that those systems have had upon the mindset of the people of America and Moldova.
But try as I might to explain these complex systems and relationships, it never seemed to come out too clearly. But, then I found my friend Greg's recent entry, which hits the nail on the head. So check it out.
The only thing I would add to Greg's musings is the difficulty in explaining this difference to someone who actually grew up under the communist system. In America, we have this idea that the communist system was nothing more than long lines for bread, misinformation, and lack of freedom. But it was also plenty of wonderful things - free summer camps for children, goods from all over the Soviet Union, health care, and a sense of being part of something bigger than oneself. To show someone who vividly remembers the "highs" (like we all tend to do by fantasizing the "good ol' days") of the communist system that this system had its flaws is difficult to say the least - especially when it comes out of the mouth of the former Cold War enemy who made their system collapse and now parade around the world like wealthy political cowboys. You can see why I usually don't talk about politics over here.
But try as I might to explain these complex systems and relationships, it never seemed to come out too clearly. But, then I found my friend Greg's recent entry, which hits the nail on the head. So check it out.
The only thing I would add to Greg's musings is the difficulty in explaining this difference to someone who actually grew up under the communist system. In America, we have this idea that the communist system was nothing more than long lines for bread, misinformation, and lack of freedom. But it was also plenty of wonderful things - free summer camps for children, goods from all over the Soviet Union, health care, and a sense of being part of something bigger than oneself. To show someone who vividly remembers the "highs" (like we all tend to do by fantasizing the "good ol' days") of the communist system that this system had its flaws is difficult to say the least - especially when it comes out of the mouth of the former Cold War enemy who made their system collapse and now parade around the world like wealthy political cowboys. You can see why I usually don't talk about politics over here.
Lopsided Bus and Orthodox Easter
I was planning to be home in Copceac for Easter, but when I arrived at the bus station to board the one daily bus from the capital to my site, it looked like it really needed some V8 juice - meaning it was leaning way to the side. I took a few pictures of the tires - one on each side of the bus to show how compressed the shocks were on one side compared with the other. Now I've ridden in a lot of shoddy vehicles in my time in the Peace Corps, both in Moldova and Uzbekistan, but this one just rubbed me the wrong way and I really thought it would be a bad decision to risk a roll-over on such a lopsided bus. So, I called PC and told them I would make a slight detour to Cahul via another bus and return to site the following day.
[This is a whole different discussion about the "PC Whereabouts Policy." Basically, PC must always know where PCVs are in case of emergency. Usually we cannot simply inform PC of our plans, but have to ask permission. Some Americans, used to their independence, chaff under these restrictions. I think in general it's a good system, though it could stand a few reforms.]
That change in plans allowed me to attend Orthodox Easter services at the local church - at 3 in the morning. Yep, round these parts most believers fast for the two days before Easter (which occurs the week after Easter in America) and then go to church starting around midnight and the service goes until around sunrise. There are no pews, so people stand and are constantly going in and out of the church while the priests read and chant. Outside, small picnics encircle the church and all wait for the religious authorities to finish their services inside and begin blessing food and water outside.
All in all, it was a good detour.
ps - here's a picture from the American Easter we celebrated in my English Club the week before. Egg toss anyone?
[This is a whole different discussion about the "PC Whereabouts Policy." Basically, PC must always know where PCVs are in case of emergency. Usually we cannot simply inform PC of our plans, but have to ask permission. Some Americans, used to their independence, chaff under these restrictions. I think in general it's a good system, though it could stand a few reforms.]
That change in plans allowed me to attend Orthodox Easter services at the local church - at 3 in the morning. Yep, round these parts most believers fast for the two days before Easter (which occurs the week after Easter in America) and then go to church starting around midnight and the service goes until around sunrise. There are no pews, so people stand and are constantly going in and out of the church while the priests read and chant. Outside, small picnics encircle the church and all wait for the religious authorities to finish their services inside and begin blessing food and water outside.All in all, it was a good detour.
ps - here's a picture from the American Easter we celebrated in my English Club the week before. Egg toss anyone?
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Silage
I was in the capital for a couple days for the most recent SPA (Small Project Assistance) Committee's meeting. I thought I'd share one of the better projects that was submitted to the Committee so you can get a sense of some of the good works PCVs are doing. This project involves dairy cows. Many Moldovans own 1-2 cows which they keep in a small shed behind their house. The cow is sometimes allowed to graze during the summer and during the winter is fed dried corn stalks - neither or which contain many nutrients. As a consequence, cows in Moldova daily produce an average of 8 liters of milk. Compare this to an average of 40 liters a day in America, where a dairy cow is usually killed if it produces anything less than 20 liters a day.
Why this vast discrepancy? In larger part it has to do with feed. As I learned from one PCV's proposal, the poor nutrients and low quantity of food given to cows results in drastically smaller yields. For many, growing higher quality feed is simply not possible because economies of scale prevent the owner of a single cow from producing what's necessary. But, should several farmers join together in a cooperative, the project should work.
Here's an explanation of just what exactly will be fed to the cows starting in a few months, taken directly from one PCVs SPA application:
Why this vast discrepancy? In larger part it has to do with feed. As I learned from one PCV's proposal, the poor nutrients and low quantity of food given to cows results in drastically smaller yields. For many, growing higher quality feed is simply not possible because economies of scale prevent the owner of a single cow from producing what's necessary. But, should several farmers join together in a cooperative, the project should work.
Here's an explanation of just what exactly will be fed to the cows starting in a few months, taken directly from one PCVs SPA application:
This ration system is composed of the following crops: Grass Silage, Corn Silage, Alfalfa Hay, Corn grain, Soy grain, oats and premix. What is silage? Silage is made using a tractor and a machine that chops up either the corn or grass into little pieces about 2 inches long. The machine then blows the bits of grass or corn into a trailer. The trailer is then hauled to a large pit made of either concrete or dug into the ground where it is dumped. At this stage it is possible to add salt, or microbes to help preserve it. Another tractor then drives over the grass or corn, packing it down and pressing all the air out. Then you cover the pile with a cellophane cover to prevent rain from seeping in. You let the pile sit for at least two weeks and it ferments a little. The lack of air prevents it from fermenting too much and stops it from rotting. It will then keep for up to a year, maintaining the nutrient value of the corn or grass as if it were fed fresh to the cows. An additional benefit to feeding silage is that since it is chopped up (especially in the case of corn), cows cannot distinguish between the parts of the plant they like and the parts that are good for them, so they will eat all of it. This means no burning dry corn stocks year round. Due to the fact that you want to minimize the exposure of the grass or corn to the air and elements, it works best if it is done in a big pile, which is why in our program it will be necessary to create the silage communally.
The other elements in the ration are fairly self explanatory. Alfalfa is similar to grass but contains many more nutrients. Corn, Soy and Oats are all grains that are grown here and in the states and harvested dry (as opposed to silage which is harvested with moisture still in the plant). Premix is a something you buy from farm stores. It is a combination of essential vitamins and minerals that aren’t readily available in plants.
Each of these crops has a specific nutritional value. The first and most important category is green matter. This category includes grass silage, corn silage and hay. Grass silage is good because it contains a high level of protein, which everyone knows is critical to building cells. Corn silage is the base of the ration. Corn silage contains a high level of calories, protein and fiber (critical to digestive systems). It also contains a small amount of calcium and other necessary minerals. Though the same energy can be obtained from grains, silage is much cheaper to produce and contains the added benefits of protein, calcium and fiber. Alfalfa hay occupies another important position, it provides a great deal of protein, calcium, fiber and carotene. These three crops; corn silage, grass silage and hay make up the three main pillars of the well balanced dairy ration. The second category is dry feed, or grains. The grains add more raw energy and protein but they cannot be the only feed for cows because they contain a lower quality protein than green matter and they don’t contain enough amino acid which is necessary for cows to digest the grains. Additionally, they don’t contain carotene, vitamins D or C, and contain very little calcium and other microelements. There are three types of grains; grains that are rich in glucose, grains that are rich in protein, and grains that are rich in fat. We have chosen one of each of the following types and adjusted their proportion in the ration to optimize their effect. Oats are rich in protein, but since our cows will get a great deal of protein from grass silage we will feed only 35% oats out of all grains fed. Corn is rich in sugar and plays an important role, thus we will feed 50% corn grain. Soy is rich in fat, also important, but not as critical, so we will feed only 14% of this. The last type of feed is premix; premix contains the rest of the minerals not contained in the previous feed types (kind of like a multivitamin): calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, zinc, iodine, cobalt and iron. Premix only needs to be fed at 5% of the total ration but its use alone can increase production 10 to 15 percent.
The other elements in the ration are fairly self explanatory. Alfalfa is similar to grass but contains many more nutrients. Corn, Soy and Oats are all grains that are grown here and in the states and harvested dry (as opposed to silage which is harvested with moisture still in the plant). Premix is a something you buy from farm stores. It is a combination of essential vitamins and minerals that aren’t readily available in plants.
Each of these crops has a specific nutritional value. The first and most important category is green matter. This category includes grass silage, corn silage and hay. Grass silage is good because it contains a high level of protein, which everyone knows is critical to building cells. Corn silage is the base of the ration. Corn silage contains a high level of calories, protein and fiber (critical to digestive systems). It also contains a small amount of calcium and other necessary minerals. Though the same energy can be obtained from grains, silage is much cheaper to produce and contains the added benefits of protein, calcium and fiber. Alfalfa hay occupies another important position, it provides a great deal of protein, calcium, fiber and carotene. These three crops; corn silage, grass silage and hay make up the three main pillars of the well balanced dairy ration. The second category is dry feed, or grains. The grains add more raw energy and protein but they cannot be the only feed for cows because they contain a lower quality protein than green matter and they don’t contain enough amino acid which is necessary for cows to digest the grains. Additionally, they don’t contain carotene, vitamins D or C, and contain very little calcium and other microelements. There are three types of grains; grains that are rich in glucose, grains that are rich in protein, and grains that are rich in fat. We have chosen one of each of the following types and adjusted their proportion in the ration to optimize their effect. Oats are rich in protein, but since our cows will get a great deal of protein from grass silage we will feed only 35% oats out of all grains fed. Corn is rich in sugar and plays an important role, thus we will feed 50% corn grain. Soy is rich in fat, also important, but not as critical, so we will feed only 14% of this. The last type of feed is premix; premix contains the rest of the minerals not contained in the previous feed types (kind of like a multivitamin): calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, zinc, iodine, cobalt and iron. Premix only needs to be fed at 5% of the total ration but its use alone can increase production 10 to 15 percent.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Packing List
Here’s a packing list of things that you might not have thought of. I didn't included things like "pants" because I’m assuming you've already got those under control. Many of these things can also be shipped if you're short on space or make great care package stuffers…
-Highly recommend Smart-wool socks and anything by Under Armour – they’re breathable, warm, (or cool when it’s hot), sturdy, and easy to clean and dry
-2 pair of long johns – it will be cold in the winter, and many buildings are not warm inside like you find in America
-You will dress in business casual most of the time, so pack accordingly
-Sunshower – some of us have running water and some of us don’t. If you fall into the latter category, this will be a great way to take a shower. Find them at any camping store
-A gift from America for your host-family: chocolates, a calendar, bottle of wine or liquor, blow up globe, scarves, cologne or perfume or aftershave, matchbox cars, vegetable peelers or other good quality cooking gadgets, Uno decks, or anything with “America” or your state printed on it – t-shirts, mugs, keychains, etc.
-Small flashlight
-A good overnight bag – you’ll frequently go on 1-3 night trips for trainings or to see other PCVs over the weekend and you won’t want your huge suitcase or framepack for this
-Batteries – the quality isn’t so good over here. I’d recommend rechargeables
-Flash drive (also called a jump drive, thumb drive, or USB drive) – You’ll probably want to transport files between computers in the PC office, computers at your site, and various personal computers. A flash drive is the easiest way.
-Musical instrument – If you’re on the fence about bringing a guitar or other instrument, I’d suggest bringing it. It’s a great ice-breaker, and though you may need to pay $150 for a third piece of checked luggage, it will be worth it over the course of two years. Or if someone else is only checking one bag, maybe they’ll help you out. You can probably purchase one of whatever you play here, but might not be as good in quality.
-DVDs to swap
-Start a blog before you leave – might be easier than sending email updates to friends and family. Several free services exist – Blogger, MSN Spaces, Xanga, Travelpod
-Some exercise bands – they’re compact, light, and a good way to stay in shape
-Pack some necessities in your carry-on in case one of your checked-bags is delayed for a day or two. This usually happens to one person in every group.
-Laptop – not absolutely necessary, but very helpful for work, email, and watching DVDs; If you do bring a laptop, try to set up a POP email account on it before you get here (gmail has a great tutorial on how to do this on your laptop). A POP account means you can download copies of your emails from whatever email system you’re using onto your laptop in about 20 seconds and read them offline. You can also compose new messages offline and likewise send them in a few seconds. This drastically cuts down on the amount of time you’re tying up the phone line – and greatly reduces your phone bill. And speaking of phone bills, if you're bringing a laptop try to bring a microphone (if not already included in the computer) and a pair of headphones. We just got Internet cables that you can plug into your laptop and so calling home over the Internet through Skype from the office is easy and cheap (or free).
-Your frequent flyer number(s) – many of the airlines share FF programs with each other. When you check-in at the airport, give your FF# and get credit for the trans-Atlantic flight.
-Granola / energy bars – great nutritious snacks
-Pictures of your life and family in America. Your host family will love them, and you’ll probably like them too.
-Spices – or ship them. E.g. BBQ sauce, soy sauce, olive oil (it’s very expensive here), chili powder, cayenne pepper, taco or fajita or chili spice packets, cinnamon, brown sugar, etc.
-Slippers – or buy them here. Everyone wears slippers inside
-Shoes without laces – not necessary, but you will be taking your shoes off and on a lot when you enter and leave a home
-Very good condition US bills – nothing smaller than 20s. Smaller bills are only sometimes accepted for deposit and those with marks on them will not be or they’ll charge you a fee for accepting them. PC will help you open 2 bank accounts: one for the Moldovan currency (lei) and one for dollars. It’s pretty easy to get money out of both from banks in the capital or big cities when you need it.
-Duct tape – it fixes everything. An easy way to carry it is to just wind some around a Nalgene bottle. Wherever you bring your water bottle (everywhere), there’s your duct tape.
-Leatherman – fixes what duct tape cannot
-Maps – of the world, America, and your state. They’re free at any AAA if you have a membership and make great gifts, wall-hangings, teaching tools, and conversation pieces. Also very helpful when planning out your vacations
-Coffee – I'm not a coffee drinker, but if you want something other than Nescafe instant, you may want to bring your own java
-Canned goods for Thanksgiving! We have a pretty spectacular Thanksgiving celebration for PCVs in Moldova, but it’s only possible because each incoming group of PCVs brings a certain canned good that you’ll get an email about before you leave.
And here's some things not to bring to Moldova...
-Vitamins, condoms, Aspirin or Ibuprofen, Pepto-Bismol, band-aids, sun block, floss, cough drops, etc. PC will supply you with a pretty comprehensive med-kit and free refills. Toothbrushes and toothpaste are your own responsibility, though. [Since I’m not a woman, I’m not 100% certain about how the tampon-issue or birth control works. I believe PC will supply you with two choices of birth control pills and you are responsible for tampons or pads. I think there’s a fairly decent selection of brands in the capital and big cities.]
-Lots of white clothing – gets dirty very easily
-Cell Phone – almost all PCVs purchase phones here, either new for $60-150 or used from departing PCVs. If you need to cancel a plan in the States, you should be able to get out of an early-termination fee under the “Soldiers and Civil Servants Act.” You’ll probably need a letter from PC to be mailed/faxed to your provider as proof that you’re serving overseas. Talk to your customer service rep to find out exactly how it works. Once your plan is cancelled, phones can be donated at most libraries or sold pretty easily online through craigslist.com, ebay, or several other sites.
-A whole lot of books – there’s a pretty extensive library at the PC Office and PCVs are always trading books. You can also send books fairly cheaply at the US Post Office by requesting they be sent in an "M-bag." Good idea to send them when you leave the US or shortly thereafter and they’ll probably arrive about the time training is over, when you’ll actually have time to read.
-A Russian/Romanian to English dictionary – you’ll be given one. Though, I would recommend you find yourself a small pocket dictionary because the one you receive is pretty huge. If you really want, you can probably find a better English to Russian or Romanian dictionary in the US.
-Candy – you’ll be given plenty of it and you can buy it everywhere, though none of it is very high quality
-Envelopes – they’re included with the purchase of stamps at the local post offices
-A suit – guys, you will be fine with black pants and a sports coat, which is a bit more flexible than a suit
-If you’re short on space, you can just bring some extra money and buy a winter coat over here. You can get warm ones here.
Here's a great article by David Pogue of the NYTimes regarding how to use your current (American) cell phone abroad...
As a T-Mobile subscriber, Ken Grunski, a businessman in San Diego, knew that his cellphone would work during a trip to Tanzania. What he did not expect was the bill: $800 for 10 days’ use.
“I didn’t think I was going to use my phone that much,” Mr. Grunski said. “But two to three 10-minute calls a day, and it adds up.”
What a shame that Mr. Grunski did not heed his own company’s advice. If he had, he would have saved himself a bundle.
Mr. Grunski owns Telestial, a company that sells SIM cards, small chips that replace those in cellphones sold by T-Mobile and Cingular and lower the costs of calls when overseas.
While his American phone worked abroad without one, Mr. Grunski was paying sky-high rates because he was roaming in a foreign country. T-Mobile charged him $5 a minute to roam in Tanzania.
If Mr. Grunski had used one of the SIM cards he sells, he would have paid $1.15 a minute to call the United States and his calls — averaging 16 minutes a day — would have cost him $184, rather than $800.
While Americans have embraced the convenience of using cellphones, trying to dial from overseas often brings surprises. Even if the phone works, voice mail may not. Depending on the handset, coverage can be spotty. Make the wrong choices, and you may find a huge bill.
The right tactics to avoid those headaches depend on which carrier you use, the length of your trip and your destination.
GSM vs. CDMA
A majority of the world’s cellphone subscribers — 82 percent — use the GSM technology standard, according to the GSM Association. In the United States, the major carriers use two systems. Cingular (now AT&T) and T-Mobile use GSM, while Sprint and Verizon use CDMA, an incompatible technology.
CDMA technology is found in North America, as well as some Asian countries, but it is basically nonexistent in Europe, Australia and South Africa. As a result, Sprint and Verizon customers can use their phones in just 26 countries. (AT&T and T-Mobile customers can potentially use theirs in over a hundred.)
When traveling in non-CDMA countries, Sprint and Verizon customers can rent or purchase GSM phones from those providers. Sprint rents a Motorola Razr for $58 for the first week, and $70 for two weeks, plus $1.29 to $4.99 a minute of airtime. Verizon charges $3.99 a day to rent, plus $1.49 to $4.99 a minute. Verizon also sells three combo CDMA-GSM models, priced from $150 to $600 with a two-year contract.
Cingular and T-Mobile customers have more options — if their existing phones can pick up multiple frequencies. To complicate matters, the American GSM standard operates on 850 and 1,900 megahertz, while the rest of the GSM world uses 900 and 1,800 megahertz.
To use an American GSM cellphone in a foreign country, the handset you own must be tri-band or quad-band and able to operate on one or both of the frequencies used outside the United States. The Cingular and T-Mobile Web sites, as well as Telestial’s and others, list the predominant frequencies used in each country, and show if your phone can operate on one or both overseas bands.
To protect against fraud, American cellphones are typically blocked from making calls when used abroad. Before traveling, call your provider and ask to have that restriction removed.
A Temporary SIM Card
GSM phones use SIM cards (subscriber identity modules), tiny electronic chips that hold a cellphone’s “brains,” including the subscriber’s contact numbers and phone number. (CDMA phones store such information directly in the hardware.)
GSM customers can avoid sky-high roaming charges by replacing their American SIM cards with ones from other countries. For example, travelers to Britain can pick up a SIM card from the British carrier Vodafone; once inserted, it gives the phone a temporary British phone number. Calls within Britain and to the United States would be much cheaper.
For example, T-Mobile charges its customers $1.99 a minute for using their phones in Britain, whether calling a pub in London or your home in New Jersey.
Insert a prepaid British SIM card instead, and local calls drop to 26 cents a minute, while calls back to the United States cost 9 to 14 cents a minute.
Another benefit when using overseas SIM cards is that incoming calls are typically free in most countries.
Overseas SIM cards can be purchased before you travel from companies like Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com) and Telestial (www.telestial.com) or at local shops in foreign countries.
Unlocking the Phone
Even if you have a GSM phone that operates on both overseas frequencies, domestic cellphone providers do not want you to use your phone with another company’s SIM card, because they do not make any money when you do. To prevent your doing so, cellphones bought through Cingular and T-Mobile are electronically locked — they accept only their own company’s SIM cards.
Before you throw your phone off the Eiffel Tower in frustration, know that there are several ways to unlock your phone and avoid those high overseas roaming rates.
Cingular and T-Mobile will unlock their customers’ phones under certain conditions. Cingular will provide unlock codes to customers whose contracts have expired, who have canceled their service and paid an early termination fee, or who have paid a full rather than subsidized price for their phones, according to Rich Blasi, a Cingular Wireless spokesman.
T-Mobile has more lenient policies. It will provide the unlock code to any customer after 90 days of service, but no more than one unlock code will be provided every 90 days, said Graham Crow, a T-Mobile spokesman.
If you do not meet these requirements, you can still get your phone unlocked from a private company. For a few dollars, the Travel Insider (www.thetravelinsider.com) and UnlockTelecom (www.unlocktelecom.co.uk) will provide your phone’s specific unlocking code.
Other GSM Phones
Cellphone customers with dual-band GSM phones that cannot be used overseas can always purchase unlocked quad-band phones from third-party providers. These phones can be used solely when traveling outside the United States. Since they are unlocked, they can also be used instead of your current phone on your American network.
Because the phone is not subsidized by a carrier, the price is higher. For example, an unlocked quad-band Motorola Razr V3 can be bought for $140 from Cellular Blowout (www.cellular-blowout.com). Cellular Abroad and Telestial also sell unlocked phones.
A Few More Tips
When entering numbers in your phone, always add the plus (+) sign and the country code; that way, the number can be dialed automatically no matter from what country you are calling.
Store your GSM phone’s numbers in the phone itself, rather than the SIM card. Then the numbers will still be available to you when you use an overseas SIM card. To transfer them to a new phone easily, store them on a device like Backup-Pal (www.backup-pal.com), an external U.S.B. memory unit.
While you will not pay any charges for incoming calls when you use a foreign SIM card, tell your American callers to get an overseas calling plan from their phone company before you ask them to ring you. If they do not, they could be paying the same sky-high rates that you just avoided.
And if you take your American phone overseas, make sure that its battery charger is dual voltage; without one, all the effort to get your phone to work in other countries may go up in smoke the first time you plug it in.
-Highly recommend Smart-wool socks and anything by Under Armour – they’re breathable, warm, (or cool when it’s hot), sturdy, and easy to clean and dry
-2 pair of long johns – it will be cold in the winter, and many buildings are not warm inside like you find in America
-You will dress in business casual most of the time, so pack accordingly
-Sunshower – some of us have running water and some of us don’t. If you fall into the latter category, this will be a great way to take a shower. Find them at any camping store
-A gift from America for your host-family: chocolates, a calendar, bottle of wine or liquor, blow up globe, scarves, cologne or perfume or aftershave, matchbox cars, vegetable peelers or other good quality cooking gadgets, Uno decks, or anything with “America” or your state printed on it – t-shirts, mugs, keychains, etc.
-Small flashlight
-A good overnight bag – you’ll frequently go on 1-3 night trips for trainings or to see other PCVs over the weekend and you won’t want your huge suitcase or framepack for this
-Batteries – the quality isn’t so good over here. I’d recommend rechargeables
-Flash drive (also called a jump drive, thumb drive, or USB drive) – You’ll probably want to transport files between computers in the PC office, computers at your site, and various personal computers. A flash drive is the easiest way.
-Musical instrument – If you’re on the fence about bringing a guitar or other instrument, I’d suggest bringing it. It’s a great ice-breaker, and though you may need to pay $150 for a third piece of checked luggage, it will be worth it over the course of two years. Or if someone else is only checking one bag, maybe they’ll help you out. You can probably purchase one of whatever you play here, but might not be as good in quality.
-DVDs to swap
-Start a blog before you leave – might be easier than sending email updates to friends and family. Several free services exist – Blogger, MSN Spaces, Xanga, Travelpod
-Some exercise bands – they’re compact, light, and a good way to stay in shape
-Pack some necessities in your carry-on in case one of your checked-bags is delayed for a day or two. This usually happens to one person in every group.
-Laptop – not absolutely necessary, but very helpful for work, email, and watching DVDs; If you do bring a laptop, try to set up a POP email account on it before you get here (gmail has a great tutorial on how to do this on your laptop). A POP account means you can download copies of your emails from whatever email system you’re using onto your laptop in about 20 seconds and read them offline. You can also compose new messages offline and likewise send them in a few seconds. This drastically cuts down on the amount of time you’re tying up the phone line – and greatly reduces your phone bill. And speaking of phone bills, if you're bringing a laptop try to bring a microphone (if not already included in the computer) and a pair of headphones. We just got Internet cables that you can plug into your laptop and so calling home over the Internet through Skype from the office is easy and cheap (or free).
-Your frequent flyer number(s) – many of the airlines share FF programs with each other. When you check-in at the airport, give your FF# and get credit for the trans-Atlantic flight.
-Granola / energy bars – great nutritious snacks
-Pictures of your life and family in America. Your host family will love them, and you’ll probably like them too.
-Spices – or ship them. E.g. BBQ sauce, soy sauce, olive oil (it’s very expensive here), chili powder, cayenne pepper, taco or fajita or chili spice packets, cinnamon, brown sugar, etc.
-Slippers – or buy them here. Everyone wears slippers inside
-Shoes without laces – not necessary, but you will be taking your shoes off and on a lot when you enter and leave a home
-Very good condition US bills – nothing smaller than 20s. Smaller bills are only sometimes accepted for deposit and those with marks on them will not be or they’ll charge you a fee for accepting them. PC will help you open 2 bank accounts: one for the Moldovan currency (lei) and one for dollars. It’s pretty easy to get money out of both from banks in the capital or big cities when you need it.
-Duct tape – it fixes everything. An easy way to carry it is to just wind some around a Nalgene bottle. Wherever you bring your water bottle (everywhere), there’s your duct tape.
-Leatherman – fixes what duct tape cannot
-Maps – of the world, America, and your state. They’re free at any AAA if you have a membership and make great gifts, wall-hangings, teaching tools, and conversation pieces. Also very helpful when planning out your vacations
-Coffee – I'm not a coffee drinker, but if you want something other than Nescafe instant, you may want to bring your own java
-Canned goods for Thanksgiving! We have a pretty spectacular Thanksgiving celebration for PCVs in Moldova, but it’s only possible because each incoming group of PCVs brings a certain canned good that you’ll get an email about before you leave.
And here's some things not to bring to Moldova...
-Vitamins, condoms, Aspirin or Ibuprofen, Pepto-Bismol, band-aids, sun block, floss, cough drops, etc. PC will supply you with a pretty comprehensive med-kit and free refills. Toothbrushes and toothpaste are your own responsibility, though. [Since I’m not a woman, I’m not 100% certain about how the tampon-issue or birth control works. I believe PC will supply you with two choices of birth control pills and you are responsible for tampons or pads. I think there’s a fairly decent selection of brands in the capital and big cities.]
-Lots of white clothing – gets dirty very easily
-Cell Phone – almost all PCVs purchase phones here, either new for $60-150 or used from departing PCVs. If you need to cancel a plan in the States, you should be able to get out of an early-termination fee under the “Soldiers and Civil Servants Act.” You’ll probably need a letter from PC to be mailed/faxed to your provider as proof that you’re serving overseas. Talk to your customer service rep to find out exactly how it works. Once your plan is cancelled, phones can be donated at most libraries or sold pretty easily online through craigslist.com, ebay, or several other sites.
-A whole lot of books – there’s a pretty extensive library at the PC Office and PCVs are always trading books. You can also send books fairly cheaply at the US Post Office by requesting they be sent in an "M-bag." Good idea to send them when you leave the US or shortly thereafter and they’ll probably arrive about the time training is over, when you’ll actually have time to read.
-A Russian/Romanian to English dictionary – you’ll be given one. Though, I would recommend you find yourself a small pocket dictionary because the one you receive is pretty huge. If you really want, you can probably find a better English to Russian or Romanian dictionary in the US.
-Candy – you’ll be given plenty of it and you can buy it everywhere, though none of it is very high quality
-Envelopes – they’re included with the purchase of stamps at the local post offices
-A suit – guys, you will be fine with black pants and a sports coat, which is a bit more flexible than a suit
-If you’re short on space, you can just bring some extra money and buy a winter coat over here. You can get warm ones here.
Here's a great article by David Pogue of the NYTimes regarding how to use your current (American) cell phone abroad...
As a T-Mobile subscriber, Ken Grunski, a businessman in San Diego, knew that his cellphone would work during a trip to Tanzania. What he did not expect was the bill: $800 for 10 days’ use.
“I didn’t think I was going to use my phone that much,” Mr. Grunski said. “But two to three 10-minute calls a day, and it adds up.”
What a shame that Mr. Grunski did not heed his own company’s advice. If he had, he would have saved himself a bundle.
Mr. Grunski owns Telestial, a company that sells SIM cards, small chips that replace those in cellphones sold by T-Mobile and Cingular and lower the costs of calls when overseas.
While his American phone worked abroad without one, Mr. Grunski was paying sky-high rates because he was roaming in a foreign country. T-Mobile charged him $5 a minute to roam in Tanzania.
If Mr. Grunski had used one of the SIM cards he sells, he would have paid $1.15 a minute to call the United States and his calls — averaging 16 minutes a day — would have cost him $184, rather than $800.
While Americans have embraced the convenience of using cellphones, trying to dial from overseas often brings surprises. Even if the phone works, voice mail may not. Depending on the handset, coverage can be spotty. Make the wrong choices, and you may find a huge bill.
The right tactics to avoid those headaches depend on which carrier you use, the length of your trip and your destination.
GSM vs. CDMA
A majority of the world’s cellphone subscribers — 82 percent — use the GSM technology standard, according to the GSM Association. In the United States, the major carriers use two systems. Cingular (now AT&T) and T-Mobile use GSM, while Sprint and Verizon use CDMA, an incompatible technology.
CDMA technology is found in North America, as well as some Asian countries, but it is basically nonexistent in Europe, Australia and South Africa. As a result, Sprint and Verizon customers can use their phones in just 26 countries. (AT&T and T-Mobile customers can potentially use theirs in over a hundred.)
When traveling in non-CDMA countries, Sprint and Verizon customers can rent or purchase GSM phones from those providers. Sprint rents a Motorola Razr for $58 for the first week, and $70 for two weeks, plus $1.29 to $4.99 a minute of airtime. Verizon charges $3.99 a day to rent, plus $1.49 to $4.99 a minute. Verizon also sells three combo CDMA-GSM models, priced from $150 to $600 with a two-year contract.
Cingular and T-Mobile customers have more options — if their existing phones can pick up multiple frequencies. To complicate matters, the American GSM standard operates on 850 and 1,900 megahertz, while the rest of the GSM world uses 900 and 1,800 megahertz.
To use an American GSM cellphone in a foreign country, the handset you own must be tri-band or quad-band and able to operate on one or both of the frequencies used outside the United States. The Cingular and T-Mobile Web sites, as well as Telestial’s and others, list the predominant frequencies used in each country, and show if your phone can operate on one or both overseas bands.
To protect against fraud, American cellphones are typically blocked from making calls when used abroad. Before traveling, call your provider and ask to have that restriction removed.
A Temporary SIM Card
GSM phones use SIM cards (subscriber identity modules), tiny electronic chips that hold a cellphone’s “brains,” including the subscriber’s contact numbers and phone number. (CDMA phones store such information directly in the hardware.)
GSM customers can avoid sky-high roaming charges by replacing their American SIM cards with ones from other countries. For example, travelers to Britain can pick up a SIM card from the British carrier Vodafone; once inserted, it gives the phone a temporary British phone number. Calls within Britain and to the United States would be much cheaper.
For example, T-Mobile charges its customers $1.99 a minute for using their phones in Britain, whether calling a pub in London or your home in New Jersey.
Insert a prepaid British SIM card instead, and local calls drop to 26 cents a minute, while calls back to the United States cost 9 to 14 cents a minute.
Another benefit when using overseas SIM cards is that incoming calls are typically free in most countries.
Overseas SIM cards can be purchased before you travel from companies like Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com) and Telestial (www.telestial.com) or at local shops in foreign countries.
Unlocking the Phone
Even if you have a GSM phone that operates on both overseas frequencies, domestic cellphone providers do not want you to use your phone with another company’s SIM card, because they do not make any money when you do. To prevent your doing so, cellphones bought through Cingular and T-Mobile are electronically locked — they accept only their own company’s SIM cards.
Before you throw your phone off the Eiffel Tower in frustration, know that there are several ways to unlock your phone and avoid those high overseas roaming rates.
Cingular and T-Mobile will unlock their customers’ phones under certain conditions. Cingular will provide unlock codes to customers whose contracts have expired, who have canceled their service and paid an early termination fee, or who have paid a full rather than subsidized price for their phones, according to Rich Blasi, a Cingular Wireless spokesman.
T-Mobile has more lenient policies. It will provide the unlock code to any customer after 90 days of service, but no more than one unlock code will be provided every 90 days, said Graham Crow, a T-Mobile spokesman.
If you do not meet these requirements, you can still get your phone unlocked from a private company. For a few dollars, the Travel Insider (www.thetravelinsider.com) and UnlockTelecom (www.unlocktelecom.co.uk) will provide your phone’s specific unlocking code.
Other GSM Phones
Cellphone customers with dual-band GSM phones that cannot be used overseas can always purchase unlocked quad-band phones from third-party providers. These phones can be used solely when traveling outside the United States. Since they are unlocked, they can also be used instead of your current phone on your American network.
Because the phone is not subsidized by a carrier, the price is higher. For example, an unlocked quad-band Motorola Razr V3 can be bought for $140 from Cellular Blowout (www.cellular-blowout.com). Cellular Abroad and Telestial also sell unlocked phones.
A Few More Tips
When entering numbers in your phone, always add the plus (+) sign and the country code; that way, the number can be dialed automatically no matter from what country you are calling.
Store your GSM phone’s numbers in the phone itself, rather than the SIM card. Then the numbers will still be available to you when you use an overseas SIM card. To transfer them to a new phone easily, store them on a device like Backup-Pal (www.backup-pal.com), an external U.S.B. memory unit.
While you will not pay any charges for incoming calls when you use a foreign SIM card, tell your American callers to get an overseas calling plan from their phone company before you ask them to ring you. If they do not, they could be paying the same sky-high rates that you just avoided.
And if you take your American phone overseas, make sure that its battery charger is dual voltage; without one, all the effort to get your phone to work in other countries may go up in smoke the first time you plug it in.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
A Younger Brother
I have a new brother. [Don't worry, David, you haven't been replaced.] Actually, two new brothers, but only one is visiting right now. They both live in Russia, one in Moscow and one... somewhere else. They are Valentina's grown sons, and the 23-year old Vanya is visiting for a week. It's actually more a trip of necessity than anything else - he needed to return to Moldova to get some sort of stamp on his passport and apply for a driving license, which is much cheaper here than in Moscow (but I think tranfers between countries).
Anyway, he arrived on Sunday morning around 7am after about 40 hours on a bus. I had been up kind of late the previous night, but that didn't stop anyone from waking me up to try to force some vodka down my throat in celebration of the prodigal son's return. [Note: this drinking large quantities of alcohol early in the morning isn't out of the ordinary. People do it to mark any occasion. In Moldova, locals know that it's always after 5 o'clock somewhere...]
It's been nice having another around, though to tell the truth he really hasn't been at home all that much. There's been a lot of running around to secure the necessary documents, see old friends, prepare for a family visit to Ukraine, and sleep after his long trip. I imagine it's quite similar to my own visits to my parents in America. And even though you'd think mother and son (Valentina and Vanya, and I hope to a lesser extent me and my Mom) having not seen each other for 2 years would be enough to smooth over any problem, there seems to be no end to bickering between these two. "Why didn't you answer your cell phone when I called? Eat something! Did you hear what I said?!" Answered by, "Maaaaaaa!" It's been an interesting learning experience to observe the situation instead of participate in it.
Anyway, he arrived on Sunday morning around 7am after about 40 hours on a bus. I had been up kind of late the previous night, but that didn't stop anyone from waking me up to try to force some vodka down my throat in celebration of the prodigal son's return. [Note: this drinking large quantities of alcohol early in the morning isn't out of the ordinary. People do it to mark any occasion. In Moldova, locals know that it's always after 5 o'clock somewhere...]
It's been nice having another around, though to tell the truth he really hasn't been at home all that much. There's been a lot of running around to secure the necessary documents, see old friends, prepare for a family visit to Ukraine, and sleep after his long trip. I imagine it's quite similar to my own visits to my parents in America. And even though you'd think mother and son (Valentina and Vanya, and I hope to a lesser extent me and my Mom) having not seen each other for 2 years would be enough to smooth over any problem, there seems to be no end to bickering between these two. "Why didn't you answer your cell phone when I called? Eat something! Did you hear what I said?!" Answered by, "Maaaaaaa!" It's been an interesting learning experience to observe the situation instead of participate in it.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Birthday Blues
Last night's birthday party nearly became my worst birthday ever.
My 27th birthday was Thursday. I invited my three closest Moldovan friends - the mayor, the office attorney, and my tutor - and their husbands or wives to a dinner at my apartment for that Saturday night. Everyone agreed to come, I spent a lot of money on food and drink, and my host-mother and I spent most of the day preparing for their 7pm arrival. At 6:30, Valerie's wife called to say they'd be an hour or hour and a half late. At 7:05, my tutor called to say her husband still wasn't home and she couldn't come without him. At 8:30, I called my tutor - spoke to her husband who said it was too late for them to come now, and how about tomorrow morning? I declined. Repeated calls to the mayor's home and cell phone went unanswered. Valerie and his wife finally showed up around 9:15 to save the day - they were in Ukraine buying a dog.
For a while I felt like I got stood up at the prom. I know it's a different culture that doesn't necessarily place the same import on "plans" or "schedules" as we do in America, but it was still dissappointing - and of course I read into the situation as just how important I'm considered by some here.
But on the brighter side of things, I did have a good time with Valerie and his wife, I'm going to eat like a king this week from all the leftovers, and at least it's not Bastogne (this will make sense to anyone who's seen Band of Brothers).
My 27th birthday was Thursday. I invited my three closest Moldovan friends - the mayor, the office attorney, and my tutor - and their husbands or wives to a dinner at my apartment for that Saturday night. Everyone agreed to come, I spent a lot of money on food and drink, and my host-mother and I spent most of the day preparing for their 7pm arrival. At 6:30, Valerie's wife called to say they'd be an hour or hour and a half late. At 7:05, my tutor called to say her husband still wasn't home and she couldn't come without him. At 8:30, I called my tutor - spoke to her husband who said it was too late for them to come now, and how about tomorrow morning? I declined. Repeated calls to the mayor's home and cell phone went unanswered. Valerie and his wife finally showed up around 9:15 to save the day - they were in Ukraine buying a dog.
For a while I felt like I got stood up at the prom. I know it's a different culture that doesn't necessarily place the same import on "plans" or "schedules" as we do in America, but it was still dissappointing - and of course I read into the situation as just how important I'm considered by some here.
But on the brighter side of things, I did have a good time with Valerie and his wife, I'm going to eat like a king this week from all the leftovers, and at least it's not Bastogne (this will make sense to anyone who's seen Band of Brothers).
Monday, April 10, 2006
This Just In...
...your popcorn has been pissed in. Film at 11. [Can you name that film?]
In other news, Moldova will change their visa requirements on April 1, 2007 for citizens of the EU, US, Canada, Japan and Switzerland - so pack your bags and come visit!
In other news, Moldova will change their visa requirements on April 1, 2007 for citizens of the EU, US, Canada, Japan and Switzerland - so pack your bags and come visit!
Success
The first computer class for teachers was a resounding success today! After school every spot in the computer room was full - only 5 minutes late, no less - and everyone paid the 5 lei weekly price I'm charging in order to buy everyone a disk and to lead an excursion to an internet cafe in the next town over. So after our first class, everyone can basically type without looking at the keyboard the letters фыва олдж (the located on the same keys as the Latin alphabet's asdf and jkl; keys). Next class I plan to add another 4-8 keys and explain a little about how MSWord works. We decided to meet every Monday and Wednesday after school from 3:30-5:00, so if anyone wants to come watch - you're invited.
These are some pictures of the class - mostly of cheaters trying to look at the keyboard after I covered their hands with pieces of cloth so they had to actually learn where the keys were instead of hunting and pecking with two fingers each time. Everyone would laugh after I caught them in the act.
I've also got my 4 interns humming away. Today I gave them several short articles that were hand-written by the staff about their responsibilities at work. I want to combine these articles into a small 3-panel brochure to distribute among the village so they have a better understanding of what goes on in their local government - frankly, this isn't a bad idea for the American government, either... Anyway, I have a difficult enough time reading Russian when it's typed, and most of the articles were written in Russian cursive, which is tougher to understand than quantum physics. So I told my interns to type them up on the computer. They did, and tomorrow we'll work together to edit them down and start putting them together in a brochure form. I wonder if I can get them to do my laundry? [Don't worry - I'm not abusing my interns - I showed them all kinds of things like how to properly type, use Excel, and cook my eggs just the way I like 'em.]
ps - Also thought you might find this interesting - I bought paper today. A 500 sheet package costs about $4, which is not cheap by Moldovan standards, and consequently our office rarely seems to have enough paper. People always roam from room to room asking for printer paper and hide it or guard it with their lives once they have it. So I really needed to print some typing lessons for my class today and couldn't find paper anywhere. So now this will be my personal stash for 2 years, and as Mr. T says, "I pity da fool" who tries steal some from me. Does this mean I'm acclimating to the culture?
These are some pictures of the class - mostly of cheaters trying to look at the keyboard after I covered their hands with pieces of cloth so they had to actually learn where the keys were instead of hunting and pecking with two fingers each time. Everyone would laugh after I caught them in the act.
I've also got my 4 interns humming away. Today I gave them several short articles that were hand-written by the staff about their responsibilities at work. I want to combine these articles into a small 3-panel brochure to distribute among the village so they have a better understanding of what goes on in their local government - frankly, this isn't a bad idea for the American government, either... Anyway, I have a difficult enough time reading Russian when it's typed, and most of the articles were written in Russian cursive, which is tougher to understand than quantum physics. So I told my interns to type them up on the computer. They did, and tomorrow we'll work together to edit them down and start putting them together in a brochure form. I wonder if I can get them to do my laundry? [Don't worry - I'm not abusing my interns - I showed them all kinds of things like how to properly type, use Excel, and cook my eggs just the way I like 'em.]
ps - Also thought you might find this interesting - I bought paper today. A 500 sheet package costs about $4, which is not cheap by Moldovan standards, and consequently our office rarely seems to have enough paper. People always roam from room to room asking for printer paper and hide it or guard it with their lives once they have it. So I really needed to print some typing lessons for my class today and couldn't find paper anywhere. So now this will be my personal stash for 2 years, and as Mr. T says, "I pity da fool" who tries steal some from me. Does this mean I'm acclimating to the culture?
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Future Plans
So, I just finished the Foreign Service Exam. We'll see what happens. The grammatical parts and the essay were fairly easy for me, but the parts about US history and economics were not so much. Anyway, if nothing else I got to see the inside of our embassy and experience its very tight security. How many of you have done that? Should find out around the end of July if I passed, allowing me to move onto the next step in the process, an actual interview. Now to focus on the GMATs...
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Trees & Germany
One of the projects of the mayor's office is reforestration or beautification of the village. To that end, one of the schools has been growing sapling maple trees for the last couple of years, and a couple days ago they dug them up and started planting them in a huge field on the outskirts of town. I think the basic idea is to grow them there and make a kind-of park, or possibly dig them up again after a few years and transplant them to line some of the roads of the village. Anyway, it's a nice idea and hopefully villagers will stop grazing their cows and sheep near the saplings so that all their new shoots get eaten like last year... We had some really beautiful weather as you can see by the pictures.
As I was walking home from my tutor's last night, I saw a huge tractor-trailer unloading all kinds of stuff into the Cultural Center. So I stopped by and turns out it was a huge load of humanitarian aid from Germany. There were bags of clothing, bikes, desks, paper for printers (actually, very useful here because paper is pretty expensive), some stoves and refrigerators, and even what I think was a chair for our hospital to do OB-GYN examinations or births.
This gift, which will I'm told will be followed by another truckload of 40 (old) computers at the end of May, comes just after my Russian tutor (who also speaks fluent English, German, and Turkish) led her class to an international conference of students from 11 nations at a high school in Germany. I mentioned this during an earlier post, but did not at that time write about all the hurdles that they faced in actually going to Germany because I was afraid to be too critical of any persons or organizations lest they raise even more objections. But now that the trip is (successfully) completed, I can tell you the basic gyst of the matter... The school director refused to allow the trip to go forward without official permission from the Ministry of Education (which hasn't done $#!% for the school ever). Some official in the Ministry refused to allow this trip - a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of these students to travel outside of Moldova, let alone meet peers from 11 nations - to move forward because the students would miss one week of school. All the kids and parents and my tutor were beside themselves because they had already secured a bus for the 3-day trip since it was the cheapest mode of travel, been writing with their host-families, visited the Polish and Germany embassies numerous times to secure the necessary visas, and just plain excited to go. Ultimately, it took a call from the bashkan of Gagauzia (sort of like our governor, but with a much cooler title), who hails from my village, Copceac, to the Ministry to get the necessary permission.
By far the most difficult thing I deal with here is the fear or reluctance to take advantage of great opportunities. But it's like magic when you find those few people who are ready.
Praktikants
When I came into the office today, there were 4 new 20-year olds here for internships. Oleg asked me to oversee them. So just like that, I have 4 "staff" and one more is supposed to arrive soon. I'm actually glad that Oleg gave me this responsibility - though wish he had given me at least a little notice. In the past, when we've had interns they really haven't done all that much.
If nothing else, I learned from my time with PIRG, MoveOn, and the American Cancer Society that if you're lucky enough to have volunteers or interns, current staff need to devote a certain amount of time to actually developing a work plan for and managing their new staff. I've seen it done well and poorly and know if done poorly people get bored, disillusioned, and leave. So, now I've got them working on modernizing our record keeping system by entering reams of info in currently in huge notebooks into the computer. They'll be here for about 2 months, which may be just enough time to finish this project.
If nothing else, I learned from my time with PIRG, MoveOn, and the American Cancer Society that if you're lucky enough to have volunteers or interns, current staff need to devote a certain amount of time to actually developing a work plan for and managing their new staff. I've seen it done well and poorly and know if done poorly people get bored, disillusioned, and leave. So, now I've got them working on modernizing our record keeping system by entering reams of info in currently in huge notebooks into the computer. They'll be here for about 2 months, which may be just enough time to finish this project.
Disappointment
UNBELIEVABLE! Since I arrived people have been asking me to help them with computers. So next week was going to be the big coming out party – computer classes twice a week after classes at each two schools here. But then I was at School #1 today and the director and computer teacher were opposed to the idea because they feared some of my students – all other teachers – might accidentally erase an important file that would reduce the computer to a pile of rubble. For anyone somewhat familiar with computers, this is pretty near impossible to do – and for the people I would be teaching who don’t know anything about computers it’s even closer to impossible.
I was so pissed that I needed to watch Rob Roy
kill lots of people to calm down.
Fortunately, School #2 is completely behind the idea and classes will start next week. I was motivated before this recent turn of events, but now you better believe that School #2 is going to have the best damn computer classes this side of the Atlantic and School #1 will rue the day!
But I learned an important lesson. Even though starting this class at School #2 was fairly easy, don't assume the same will be true at all locations. I should have had a bunch of the teachers who wanted the course in on the meeting at School #1. I just didn't think it was necessary given the ease at the other school. From now on, I won't go into a meeting armed only with a good idea...
I was so pissed that I needed to watch Rob Roy
Fortunately, School #2 is completely behind the idea and classes will start next week. I was motivated before this recent turn of events, but now you better believe that School #2 is going to have the best damn computer classes this side of the Atlantic and School #1 will rue the day!
But I learned an important lesson. Even though starting this class at School #2 was fairly easy, don't assume the same will be true at all locations. I should have had a bunch of the teachers who wanted the course in on the meeting at School #1. I just didn't think it was necessary given the ease at the other school. From now on, I won't go into a meeting armed only with a good idea...
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Homecoming
After a certain incident that happened this morning, I've decided to
pack my bags and head back to America. This was a very difficult
decision for me, but ultimately I believe it's for the best.
Here's what happened: April Fool's! Just kidding.
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