Running in circles

That was pretty much my afternoon, almost literally. First & foremost, if you have any ideas of games/activities for groups of 10-20 kids, age range between 6-13yrs, which require almost no language to explain and basically no material--please message me!!!! Today was the first day that kids came to the after-school center, and frankly, besides meal time, it was a hot mess. Most of the kids I spent my time with were boys, with an insane amount of energy & a seeming intent to kill each other (lots of wrestling & karate kicks). They barely listened (to my English or spattering of Romanian). There were some good moments. But overall it was quite exhausting. Some of the kids were really cute & I did enjoy spending time with them, also later on there was a group of 12yr olds (with a 9yr old & 13 yr old thrown in) that (mostly) calmly talked to me. And by calmly I mean I only had to try every 7 seconds to stop them all from talking loudly at once, instead of 3 seconds. haha. Mostly names & ages, but it was better than trying to wrangle them out of putting each other in headlocks. There seems to be one 12yr old girl that speaks a bit of English and she was eager to talk and translate (for some reason, half the 12yr old boys don't seem to remember their English from school, but French--but in reality they could only say "Comment tu t'appelles?" and got really confused when I said anything more than "Je m'appelle...").  I was a bit frustrated with the woman in charge because I was simply thrown in with the kids with no introduction, no instructions, no ideas of where anything was (as far as games, etc--though really there are very few toys & only a small bingo & domino game, that I could tell. I'm quite confused as to why I was only asked to gather electronics for donation, and nothing like balls, games, art supplies). It's unorganized, which is highly frustrating. And eventually when there were other adults around, they barely spoke to me, certainly not to offer any ideas of what to do with the kids. Things were fine at the beginning, I had a group of about 6-8 boys on the floor, we started to play a game. Then more arrived & they all got really loud, so I herded the ones that didn't have homework outside so they wouldn't disturb the kids with homework. Somehow the non-homework group was all boys, I'm guessing between 6-10yrs, about 10 of them. More kids eventually got added. I was trying to get them to play a game, which almost worked, but every 10 seconds they were all over the place. I tried to explain freeze tag, which for some reason they didn't seem to get. Then one was crying, another one had someone in a choke hold, a bunch of boys escaped out the fence, and so forth. Eventually the only game that seemed to work was tag, with me as It (they don't seem to get the "I tag someone, now they're It" concept for some reason). They loved that, and more kids kept coming out & getting incorporated into the game. So essentially I spent most of the afternoon chasing kids around the yard. It's unseasonably hot. So I guess that was my workout for the day! I tried to do some more educationally geared games, but it's difficult with 15-20 kids of varying ages in an outdoor area (very unlike being in a classroom!). Simon Says worked for about 5 minutes, but the minute that I tried to get other kids to be Simon, it unraveled. Needless to say, I'll be racking my brain for ideas for tomorrow! Any suggestions would be very welcome! I think I might have to give up the idea of trying to work with everyone at once and instead be content to interact with smaller groups at a time (though how I'll do that & also keep peace in the wrestling group, I have yet to figure out).

Les langues

Les langues...c'est une chose qui me plaît et m'intéresse beaucoup.  Jouer avec  les mots,  apprendre les langues étrangères, apprendre ma langue maternelle aux autres, la façon de parler des gens de régions différentes, les expressions intéressantes et/ou marrantes, les accents, les nouveau mots. Tout ça me passionne. Être en Roumanie sans parlant la langue me rappelle des fois de la Suisse, d’être assois dans la cuisine d’étudiants en train de manger et écouter les conversations en allemande-suisse. Je comprenais un peu, normalement le sujet du conversation mais pas beaucoup plus que ça. C’est presque pareil avec le roumain—c’est une langue latine, alors il y a les mots qui sont similaires aux français et espagnol, et ça m’aide un peu. En fait il me rappelle plus du catalan (que les deux autres)...j’aurais dû l’apprendre plus que l’espagnol quand je vivais á Barcelone! Haha. En tout cas, ce n’est pas la russe ou le chinois—je reconnais des mots et comprendre un peu et le prononciation n’est pas impossible. Or, je ne comprend toujours pas 75-90% dépendant du sujet (aussi quand il y a six personnes qui parlent au même temps, ça y est, c’est complètement perdu!). Pour la plupart, ce n’est pas horrible—au moins personne s’attend que je comprenne, donc il n’y a pas beaucoup de pression (au contraire de la Suisse, avec le français—j’avais des difficultés en comprenant, mais j’étais censée savoir la langue et pouvoir parler, alors c’était différent). C’est bizarre parce qu’en général c’est un peu apaisant de simplement écouter tout le monde et de ne pas être obligé de parler. Par contre, particulièrement quand je peux comprendre assez pour savoir que c’est un sujet intéressant ou une histoire qui concerne les ados de la maison des enfants, c’est énervant que je ne peux pas suivre le conversation. Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais spécialement aujourd’hui et des moments hier, ça m’enerve beaucoup! J’ai envie d’avoir un conversation avec un adulte qui n’est pas trois mots d’anglais, trois mots de roumain, et beaucoup de gestes. En plus j’ai envie de plaisir de jouer avec les mots, de jouer avec la langue, au lieu d’utiliser les mêmes mots tous les jours. Ce matin je buvais du café avec une femme du centre pour les enfants (du ONG) et un homme (qui était là pour réparer le radiateur, je crois)--ils parlaient et moi, j’étais muette. Et en ce moment-là j’avais vraiment marre de ne pas pourvoir comprendre et parler! Grr. Eh bien, c’est ma faute, je dirais, c’est moi qui a choisi de venir ici, dans un pays où je ne parle pas la langue.  D’un autre côté, ma vocabulaire de roumain a beaucoup augmenté en deux semaines et demie. D’une point de vue linguistique, c’est vraiment intéressant combien les mots (les terminaisons, un peu le prononciation, etc) sont similaires au catalan. Tellement qu’au début je me suis rendue compte que j’avais toujours envie de répondre en espagnol! Quand je vivais en Espagne je comprenais un peu le catalan, mais le parlais pas, donc normalement quand quelqu’un me parlait en catalan, moi je parlais en espagnol. Je ne me rendais pas compte de cette habitude jusqu’au moment de vouloir répondre ‘si...’ aux enfants quand je suis arrivée. Les ados de la maison le trouvait hilarant quand je disais ‘si’ au lieu de ‘da’ par accident. En tout cas, c’est sûr que c’est un défi, de vivre dans une langue différente, ou le simple fait d’acheter quelque chose ou d’avoir un petit conversation avec quelqu’un est une réussite.

Bucureşti & La Gradinita Rasarit

I was in Bucureşti Tue afternoon through Thursday afternoon (11.09.12-13.09.12). I helped out at the Gradinita Rasarit (kindergarten) of the NGO Amurtel during that time. It worked out since I don't know the language--I got counting & color & animal vocabulary lessons (figuring out how to say  "what is it?" was my first order of business wed) from the kindergartners though. I was swinging two of the 5 yr old girls on the swings & one was telling me all these things. I said a lot of "wow!" & "da?" (yes?) and had no idea what she was talking about. But they were unfazed. :) And I had an English/Romanian tea party tue w/ an adorable 8yr old (I thought "gata" meant cake the whole time. Since it's gateau in french. But then I found out that really she was telling me her stone soup/dishes were "finished/ready". Haha). So the kindergarten was fun. Wednesday I saw some landmarks and the city centre...Bucharest is such a mix--on one hand there's old elegant architecture, but then some of it is crumbling & then next door is a completely different kind of architecture (art deco, art nouveau, roman/Germanic architecture, all tossed in together) & then there's a huge shopping mall w/ McDonald's & H&M & Zara, but closed, abandoned-looking storefronts down the block & a few blocks away are box-like apartment buildings.  It's certainly a different feel than where I've been before, though some things remind me of Spain a bit (though not as bright & shiny). It's more subdued than Western Europe and certainly looks much less prosperous overall. There doesn't seem to be quite as much of the drastic economical differences between the people that one sees in NYC and Paris, for example. I'm sure they exist, but I think the gap is smaller. At least that's the impression I received from being in the city for a few days. However the wide boulevards do lend a certain wide-open sophistication to the city (this is true, but amplified when coming from NYC), despite the crumbling storefronts dotted throughout.