After a good night’s sleep, we started off Friday morning with a breakfast at Andy’s (eggs, sausage-like things, and tomatoes). After breakfast, we walked in small groups to a lab-work office very close by. We had to get two blood tests done for our residency application. In my typical fashion, I almost passed out after, and had to lay down in the waiting room of the office. Our doctor told me that in the future if I need any additional blood-work or shots, she’ll do it herself in her office so I’ll be more comfortable.
We then walked over to the PC Hub site, which is where we will gather together about once a week in the coming couple of months for training and such. We had several hours of language training, lunch, and then more language training. We also met individually with the doctor to address any concerns and make sure she has accurate information. For our language training, we were divided up by sector. The EE (English Education) program has three language instructors: Svetana, Galina, and Aliona. I really like all of them so far. Svetana is an English teacher, Galina is a French teacher, and Aliona teaches Russian and Romanian. We finished up around 4:3o. Everyone was getting very tired near the end, so Aliona stopped the Romanian lessons and we got to ask questions about other things instead, which was very helpful.
A few of the mentors took us on a very short tour of the tourist-y section of Chisinau, which includes a couple of parks, some statues, a gorgeous chapel, and some cobblestone pedestrian-only streets with shops and restaurants. After the tour, I went for some tea and a slice of quiche (which ended up being my dinner) with 2 other trainees, Andrea and Angela. They are both EE trainees, but I hadn’t really talked to them a whole lot before, so it was nice to get to know both of them better. Andrea was a library media specialist before she retired, which is a career I’ve always considered, so I really enjoyed hearing about her past career. Angela is about my age and is the only other younger EE trainee with a background in anything education-related. We compared some student teaching experiences.
When we got back to the hotel, I hung out with some other trainees then played a game with some of them. We had a good time, with lots of laughter. These people may be our “government-issued family”, but we all seem to get along pretty well so far!
The Oke Den 