My Birthday or Moldovan Independence Day

Thursday was indeed a milestone. Not only did it mark the beginning of the twenty-fifth year my beautiful face gracing this good Earth, but it also marks the anniversary of the independence of Moldova.

For those of you not hibby the shibby on Moldova, allow me to help you out a bit. First of all, Moldova is located in eastern Europe. It is a tiny little, landlocked country nestled between Romania and Ukraine. It's the same region as Wallachia and all that jazz. Being an old Soviet Bloc nation, Moldova was hit hard by the downfall of the USSR. Currently, they are the poorest nation in Europe.

That brings me to fond memories of camp. See, each year we would get exchange scouts from all over the globe. Germany, South Africa, Serbia, you name it. Well, as it turns out we had one scout visit us all the way from Moldova. A sweet, innocent, angel who just wanted a fun international experience. Well, as luck would have it, I was Dumitrita's boss at camp. Now, I love working with the international scouts but sometimes I get a bit carried away. Case in point, Chris, a buddy of mine, and I laid into her one week at camp. We made bad jokes at her expense. Things like, "In US of A, your money say, 'In God We Trust.' In Moldova, WE HAVE NO MONEY!" We took it so far as to kidnap the camp's mascot, a rubber chicken named 'Cluck Norris' and framed her by planting a ransom note in broken eastern European English.

Anywho, back to the country at hand. Moldova holds a distinction shared by only one other country, that country being Paraguay. That is, Moldova's flag is different on either side. The obverse shows a blue, yellow, and red tricolour (much like the flag of neighbouring country, Romania) with the coat of arms of Moldova in the centre. The reverse contains only the tricolour.

Obverse.

Reverse.

The majority of you out there in cyber-space fairy land probably know Moldova best as the homeland for hit boyband O-Zone. Their biggest hit, Dragosta Din Tei, was featured on the hit viral video Numa Numa.

Here's to you Moldova! You chose a damn good day for independence. I raise my glass and have a drink for you.

Jai Hind!

Today, August 15 2009, marks the 62nd celebration of India as an independent state. We gathered at the school this morning to take part in the traditional flag raising ceremony. Due to Independence Day being in the middle of August and therefore monsoons, we got rained out and had the festivities in our auditorium. Things were a bit cramped but worked out nicely. We had a guest speaker and a traditional song before the student who has been at school the longest unfurled the flag and we all stood at attention while singing Jana Gana Mana, the national anthem. I have a few photos from the day but I didn't realise that my battery was so low and it died on me without a spare. An interesting note, today is also South Korea's independence day. Due the large numbers of Korean students at the school there was the singing of the Korean national anthem along with a traditional dance.

The Indian music students performing a traditional song along with some staff.

And so, the school year has begun. We just finished our first eight day cycle. So far, I am enjoying myself. It really feels like a majority of the staff has not let the drama of last year get in their way. That's good because I feel like we're focusing on what we all came here for, the kids. Teaching seems a bit easier this year. Probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not planning quite so much since I have all of my notes from last year. Now I'm just trying to organise things into a coherent curriculum that I can pass on should I leave Woodstock when my contract runs out and that I can use elsewhere. My application for the DOD schools has finally been completed and approved. I'll begin looking elsewhere as well. I'd like to stay international for a while and gain a large scope of culture and experiences from across the globe. More updates regarding that as they arise.

On a completely different note, I went into the bazaar last night. I've gotten around to organising a weekly get together at one of the local watering holes and decided to go in a bit early. I had a few errands to run. Stuff like paying for my new lab coat (which looks pretty stellar), shopping for an external hard drive, and going to the local book store. See, last year Mike got me hooked on comics again. Sure, I have picked up a few over the years but nothing quite like this now. Anywho, I went to the local bookstore and began by looking for some Kurt Vonnegut. I picked Breakfast of Champions from the school library and so far am really enjoying it. Anywho, I was going to pick up a few books by him when I started just browsing. Let's just say that I got distracted and ended up picking up two comic books and two Roald Dahl books. Oh well, at least I'm reading.

That's all for now. Here's a couple of random pictures.

My Summer

Well, I did not really post a lot over the summer holidays. Can you blame me? I was on vacation and keeping this thing up is a lot like work. I'm back in Mussoorie for those not in the know. I'm currently poisoning my fruits with a little KMnO4 to make them edible. Odd isn't it? That's what makes this place home. The little things like that. Anywho, on to the summer.

What I did

Well, as soon as the meetings were finished I caught a taxi with three other people and made the haul down to Delhi. Now, Delhi is about as far from Mussoorie as Chicago is from Jacksonville. That's about a four hour drive in the states. Of course, things could never be that simple here in India. The drive is super bumpy. The roads are full of all sorts of things: cars, carts, tractors, animals, people. There are even trees that literally grow out of the pavement. The drive is also a little over eight hours. Eight, bumpy hours.

Well, travel was travel and I ended up in Charlotte, NC a little later the same day I left Delhi even though the flight was something like 17 hours long. Racheal was the only one to greet me at the airport because apparently Cindy came up and kidnapped Kaylee and Mike was too busy dorking out at his comic convention to care. Well, I got showered as Mike eventually showed up and we three decided to get me some food (a burger from Five Guys). We proceeded to tour the happenin' Sunday night downtown scene while waiting to go to a soul-food place for second dinners. I had a wonderful plate of macaroni and cheese, pulled pork, and stewed apples. Of course things were made much more interesting by the fact that one of the gals working at the restaurant changed channels to TLC right at the moment of a birth. I'm sure Racheal's salmon cakes tasted that much sweeter.

Well, the week was spent at a lake house we rented. I did a lot of sleeping, playing with nieces, eating pork and beef, visiting aunts and grammas, having gastro-intestinal problems due to said beef and pork, etc. All in all it was a great week and I had a lot of fun. Probably one of the best things was renting a boat and tubing. Personally, I didn't tube. I did, however, have a great time lounging in the boat watching dad unsuccessfully attempt to climb in the tube.

This man was once in the NAVY disarming bombs and protecting us from commies named 'Charlie.' How's your confidence in the world's greatest military now?

A not too uncommon sight at the house. Dads and uncles are great for playing on. Especially when they make forts for you out of couches.

Easily my favourite picture from the vacation.

This is me helping Becky and Matt make chicken and dumplings. I'm the one watching Mike play with my new toy, a Bamboo tablet to draw on the computer with. People say we look alike. I'm still on the fence about it.

Another relatively common scene. Cousins love playing together. Most of the time.

I spent the next week at home. Not much of note to write about. It was mostly hanging around the house, organizing my things and seeing friends. One evening I got to go out to dinner with Mr Musch, my high school chemistry teacher and part of my inspiration for becoming a chemistry teacher myself.

This man was my inspiration?

The week after I spent in Chicago at Loyola's lakeshore campus taking a class on teaching AP Chemistry. It was interesting but didn't quite cover everything I would have liked. I met some interesting people though. One guy was working with the DOD in Korea and another was working in Columbia last year and was now moving to Saudi Arabia. We all bonded a bit and were even lab partners. Sadly, I did not bring my camera with me so I don't have any photos of my dorm room overlooking Lake Michigan, Loyola's beautiful campus, or Chicago at night from the top of the Hancock Building.

The last week was rather boring. I was back in Jacksonville and just about everyone was gone. My buddy Barrett made a good observation that every time I leave to go somewhere, be it college, India, or wherever, I am always left by myself the night before I go and he's always with me. Not always true, but pretty close. Some other highlights I had from my time in Jacksonville: clothes shopping with Cindy, dinners with my friend Trena, hanging out with my other friend Sarah, and being disgusted by Charles and Erin being all 'I'm gonna hit you playfully and cute stuff like that' on the couch as I sit right next to them. I also started filling out my application to the DOD. I've not decided yet whether or not I'll stay at Woodstock for a third year but I figured now would be the time to at least start dropping hints to places I'd like to go.

Before I left last summer Sarah and I agreed that she would knit me a scarf and I would make her a stuffed animal. Well, neither of us did. She decided she wanted a squirrel so the picture above is the result of a long night's work. I still don't have a scarf.

I also got the chance to make it down to camp twice to see some friends. I was lucky enough to make it down one night as they revealed a rock. Seriously.

Here are some pictures I've done using my new tablet. This first one is obviously Leonardo from the TMNT comics, not the tv show.

This one is of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man battling the two-headed troll dragon thing from the end of Willow.

What I Read

I brought a few books with me to read while home. I started a collection of Sherlock Holmes while on the plane. It's an interesting read but not really my favourite.

I'm sure that most people who read this blog are aware that I thoroughly enjoy a good comic and that was what I really ended up reading the most this summer. Mike was a good big brother and graciously picked up the first four collections of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics for me. They're a bit darker and grittier than the cartoon. Definitely more like the first movie. Also, collections of the other books would be great if anyone wanted to help ensure a young chemistry teacher in India was able to keep his sanity.

I also picked up The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Dark Knight Returns, and Batman: The Long Halloween. All are good books in their own ways. TLEG does a great job of taking Victorian era literary stars and teaming them up as a gang of superheroes. The little nods here and there to other works of the era are fun to figure out. TDKR was a grim and gritty look at Batman. It's easy to see how it helped turn comics from a child centered medium to one with more adult themes. You wouldn't see Adam West's Batman snapping the Joker's neck. OOPS! Spoilers! C'mon, the books been out for 23 years. TLH takes the gritty Batman created earlier and gives more insight to his back story (and also Two Face's). The ending is a bit ambiguous as to who is the Holiday Killer but I'm pretty convinced it's Dent.

Anywho, I wouldn't come to India unprepared as I await Mike's next shipment of books. That's why before I left I picked up the complete collection of Bone. To paraphrase Mike, 'It's like The Lord of the Rings meets Peanuts.' I'm a little over half way through this massive volume and am truly enjoying it. It's a very interesting read and I'm starting to rush through the rest of this post so that I can read some more before bed.

So, that was my summer in a very quick round up. School starts Wednesday. I'm getting ready. This past week we have been in meetings just about the entire time. Some of the kids are here already and the rest will be filing in over the next few days. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.