Monday, September 5th

Monday, September 05, 2011

Alright. I just went through some very busy days here, so I’m going to try to recap it short.

Thursday morning we left to go to this place called Boge. It’s a place up in the mountains, about 2 hours to the west, right near the border of Montenegro. We went there for a “team building,” orientation thingy, to get to know all the other teachers. We also had some meetings which were very long and dragged out, but those teachers out there know what I’m talking about… J

So we left in the morning, at 7 am, arrived around noon. We stopped for coffee. Twice. I’ve learned a lot of things about Kosova so far, and one thing is that they LOVE having coffee here. However, they don’t serve just a plain ‘ol coffee. They have espressos. Macchiatos. Lattes. And every other type of drink with coffee besides just a normal coffee. I’ve been on a “macchiato kick” lately, since that’s the closest thing I can find to a normal coffee. But anyway, everything is done over coffee here, which I think is kind of cute. The drive would’ve taken only like 2 hours, but it was like 4 since we stopped twice for coffee, and each time was about an hour. You never stop for a quick coffee—it’s always like an hour. Things are a little more relaxed here, when it comes to timeliness. Kind of reminds me of the last place I was teaching…

Anyway, right away we went on this awesome hike up a huge mountain. The area we went to was amazing! So beautiful! (see my pictures on facebook) It kind of reminded me of the pictures I’ve seen of Switzerland and Austria. Very rocky, yet green. Small little, quaint houses out on the middle of nowhere. Bavarian style homes. Sheep and cows roaming everywhere. You can see all of this in the pictures on facebook.

The hike was sooooo cool! The views from the top were amazing. About 15 of us went up, led by our fearless leader Emin. Let me describe Emin to you… Emin is our vice principal. He’s in his early 30s. He served in the KLA, the Kosova Liberation Army, the army that was fighting the Serbs back in the late 90’s. He’s bald (shaves his head), and is built like a brick-shithouse. Strongest guy I’ve met here. He works out non-stop, and even has his own fitness center. He’s recruited a few teachers to come work out with him. He’s so sarcastic, and right away I had a difficult time understanding when he was joking, but now that I’ve met him a few times and hung out with him, I pretty much get him. He’s a lot like me, in the sense that he’s really sarcastic. It’s great.

Anyway, Emin was dressed in his BDU pants (army pants), hiking boots, and was carrying a 50 lb (or close to it) backpack loaded with food. Once again, you gotta see the pictures of him—he is the epitome of a “badass.” J I really like him so far though. He was jumping all over the place on the mountain side. We even saw this little cave, literally on the side of a cliff, and we asked him what was in there, and he started to climb over to it. We all said, “no, Emin, we’re just kidding, it’s ok,” but he continued and sure enough, he somehow found his way to the cave, after his wife was freaking out over him being inches away from his death. Seriously, I was even nervous. Some people were really mad cuz it was really stupid what he did, but looking back, it was pretty funny that he did that.

We carried food supplies to the top (I carried the charcoal bag). We grilled out on the top of the mountain, and had some meat sandwiches. The hike took about 4 hours, and was totally worth it. We got back later that night and had a few drinks. I think I went to bed around 1 am. I was surprised, because I was one of the first people to go to bed. This crowd is quite the rowdy bunch—but I think I’m going to like them.

The next day, we got up, did some group, team-building activities, and then went on a small hike in the afternoon. This one was only about an hour and a half, since we had to get back to do more group activities and informational meetings. Boring. But it’s something that has to be done. Ah well. That’s the life of a teacher. That night, while we were all drinking (again), we hiked up the ski mountain. There was a nice ski run right by our hotel, with a T-bar lift. Not a big run at all, but I’m sure it’s a nice ski place for over here. So we went to the top, had a few beers, and looked at the stars for about an hour. About 10 of us went up there. I went to bed that night again early (midnight), while everyone else stayed up and drank… again.

We got up the next day and left around 8:30 and arrived to the city around noon. By the way, all of our meals were covered and paid for, so it was a free weekend. All in all, it was a really good time, and I got to know a few of the teachers a little bit better. So we got back to the city. This was Saturday, and a lot of us still had a lot to do for school, so most of us went to school. We started to get our classrooms ready to go. However, a few hours wasn’t enough, so I had to plan on coming back tomorrow, Sunday.

That night I wanted to do something fun and relaxing, so Flanza, Ben, Allison, and I played Settlers of Catan, a game that we had played last week. I really enjoy that game. It’s kind of like Ticket to Ride, in a way, but there is different strategy (obviously). We played 2 games of that and I came home at like 1 am.

The next day I had to go to school to get a bunch of stuff done. There were a handful of teachers there, so if I had any questions, they could answer them. One teacher, Scott, has been doing a great job of helping me. He is in his 2^nd year of teaching, and 2^nd year at ASK. He’s technically the head of our social studies department, since this is Natalie’s and my first year at ASK. He’s from Missouri, he’s very strong (he used to wrestle), and he teaches American Government and Psychology. He’ll be a great guy to go to with my problems (if I have any), since he’s been here a year and is very helpful with anything I need.

Anyway, moving on… Sunday I tried to get stuff hung up in my room, but the maintenance guys were not there, and trying to hammer thumbtacks into brick doesn’t work very well, so as of today (Monday), my walls are still pretty much bare. I’ll take pictures of my classroom when I get it all done. So I finished up everything that I could do on Sunday. A bunch of us went out for pizza for dinner, then I came home around 9 pm. Ugh. It was a long day at school, and I don’t feel like I got as much done as I needed to. Oh well. Such is the life of a teacher.

This morning I got up at 6 am, got to school around 7 am, and finished up a few things. It was like 93’ today (‘F), but since it was the first day of school, I kind of had to wear a tie. So that sucked. A lot. It was only a half day though, so we had a short school meeting in the morning, then the students were to go to their homerooms to read through the student handbook. Since I have a homeroom, I had to sit with a bunch of 10^th graders for that long. I wasn’t really nervous though. Just being around them made me feel so happy. The feeling of being a teacher came back to me, and I loved it so much. Just thinking about being in a classroom with kids everyday brings a smile to my face. I know, I know… in about 3 months I’m probably going to be sick of them, but hey, in the end, if I didn’t teach, I don’t know what I would do. I think during the school year I just take it for granted that I really enjoy being around kids. And it has been a very long and busy summer. I kind of forgot the feeling. But today was great.

I’ve been hearing a lot of negative comments from other teachers about the students at ASK. Personally, I don’t like to hear it. Even if it’s true, I’d prefer just to hear someone say “they’re loud and can be kind of crazy, but all-in-all they are good kids if you manage them well.” Well, the things I’ve heard here, at ASK, about the kids are basically the same things I heard about the kids in Guatemala before I started there, and I did just fine there. So I’m thinking it comes down to the teacher. I feel one of my strongest qualities as a teacher is my classroom management skills. If you can “manage” them, they will follow the rules and won’t be disruptive and talk much. After school we had a short meeting with the principal, and he asked us what we thought about today. I raised my hand and said “Ya know, I had been hearing a lot of negative things about these students, but after today, I feel so good about this place. I know they’re only going to get worse, since kids are usually great on the first day, but I really don’t think it’s going to be as bad as everyone made it out to be.” After I said that a bunch of the teachers just laughed and said “Oh, just wait…” I mean, seriously? What do you have to gain by being so negative? If what you’re saying is true, so be it—but let me have my positive attitude as long as I can. Don’t take it away from me on the first day of school. Some people just don’t understand the power of a positive attitude. Blake, one of my best friends from Guatemala, and I came up with a theory that there is no such thing as a loud class, just a teacher that cannot manage their students. Those teachers out there reading this—yes, I understand sometimes there are a few years where the discipline problems are going to be high, but in all honesty, an effective teacher should be able to manage a class no matter what. And that is what I will always believe. If I have a class that is loud all the time and doesn’t listen, I won’t blame them—I will blame myself, and I will work even harder to manage them and help control their problematic behavior. Anyway, enough about my teaching philosophy…

The 2 hours I met with my 10^th graders went great. I broke it up into a few parts. First, we read a bit from the book, then I talked to them about myself for a bit. BTW, new teachers out there… students really seem to enjoy stories that you tell them. Whether it’s about a trip you took once in your life (Central and South America), an interesting job you had (catching shoplifters at Shopko for 3 years), or just about your last job/school (Guatemala), they will almost always seem to listen. I talked a little bit about Guatemala, and they seemed to eat it right up. Then we read through the book a little more, I gave them a short 3 minute break to walk around, then we read a little bit more, and before I knew it, the class was done and it was time for them to go at 10 am.

Like I said, today was a short day, just for the students to get “warmed up,” but I didn’t seem to see a difference with my students now and my students from Guatemala. Sure, they like to talk a lot, but I’d rather have students that talk a little more than normal rather than have students that don’t talk AT ALL. Trust me, I’ve had those classes before and they get REAL boring!

Anyway, I’ll try to wrap this up here. After the kids left, I went out to lunch with Ben and Allison, then we had a meeting. I worked on getting stuff ready for tomorrow which I feel is the real first day of school. It’s just going to be a “hey, I’m Mr. Yohnk, here’s a little bit about me,” then I’ll pass out notecards, and get to know the students a little bit. It’ll be a quick day. Classes here are only 45 minutes long, so that’s really not a lot of time to do anything.

Apartment update: I know a lot of you have been asking me about when I’m going to get a new one. Well, Scott is going to be moving into a different apartment, so I went and helped him with moving some stuff today after school. I checked out his place. It’s less than a 10 minute walk from school (yay!), it’s small and cozy (less to clean), and has a REAL BED (that really shouldn’t be too much to ask for… but I guess it is), and is in a great location, near a lot of the other teachers and has a lot of stores and shops around it. Once he moves out in a week or 2, I’m most likely going to take his apartment. Plus it has a microwave—I was going to have to buy one if I wanted one, since some apartments have one and others don’t.

Tonight I’m just blogging and relaxing. Oh, the water was off in most of the city yesterday (Sunday)—Not really sure why. But now tonight my power at my apartment was out. I came home at about 5:30 pm and my thermometer said it was 95’ outside and 85’ inside my apartment. Aye Chihuahua! That’s hot! It’s supposed to cool down this week though. Most days in the 80’s, some days only low 70’s for a high. FINALLY, some cooler weather. In Kosova’s defense though, at least it’s not a humid heat. In the shade it’s quite pleasant actually. It’s just that in the sun it’s so damn hot. You don’t sweat a lot, unless you have to walk really far or carry a backpack. Oh wait, that’s me, so yes, I sweated a lot today. Plus I had my long-sleeve shirt on, so it was a rough one out there. I’m definitely going polo tee’s the rest of the fall, until it starts to cool down. I never thought I’d be looking forward to winter so much. I might be regretting saying that, but right now I could really use some cool air. Alright, hope you all are following this and reading it regularly, since I’ve been working extra hard to blog this year, and have been taking a lot of time out of my day to do this. Heck, today’s blog alone took me over an hour. I guess when you don’t have internet, nor cable tv, it’s easy to find the time to blog. Bye bye!

UPDATE: 10:00 pm, Monday evening: So I got home from doing laundry at Natalie’s house around 9:00 pm, and my power was STILL out. That means it’s been out for about 5 hours now. It’s almost 10 pm, and it’s still out. At least the water was still working, so I took a quick shower. Pretty sure I’m not a big fan of this “power randomly going off” stuff. But I guess that’s what it’s like normally. I was told last year the power went out 2 or 3 times the whole year. Well, I’m only just over a week into Operation: Kosova, and it’s already gone out once. Not sure what’s going on, since all the buildings around me have power. But my building definitely doesn’t have any power. I talked to a Kosovar couple in the hallways, and asked them if their power was out, and they said yes, then I asked when it will be back on. I didn’t really understand them but I think they said something about “2.” Not sure if that means it’s been out 2 hours, or it’ll be out 2 more hours, or it’ll be back on at 2 am. Who knows… I’m just glad I have 2 flashlights. My computer has about 1:30 of juice left, so I can watch a few movies or tv shows, but after that, who knows. I hung out my laundry on my balcony. I might be able to read a book or something, but hopefully I’ll just be really tired and want to go to bed. Big day at school tomorrow.

Oh, the joys of living in a country where the brown coal factory just doesn’t have enough juice to power the entire country. At least I’m not living in one of those zones where they turn the power off for 2 hours, then back on for 2 hours, for the entire day and night. All in all though, I’ve been staying very positive about all this, even though I may come off as negative sometimes in my blog here. I’ll update you all on what happens with the electricity situation.