Blogs from Arges, Muntenia, Romania, Europe - page 2

It's been a lovely day with sunny spells and some scattered showers. We decided to head off to MUZEUL GOLESTI which is a breath-taking traditional Romanian village with small traditional cottages, a church and school and horse stables, all gathered around the old mansion which used to belong to Dinicu Golescu (1777-1830), a wealthy and wise Romanian landowner who lived in the 18th/19th century. It is on account of many social and political enterprises and projects which he undertook and due to his thinking and understanding of the surrounding world that were far ahead of his time, that his life and enlightened attitude remain as a true landmark in the Romanian history. He founded a school on his property where children were given the opportunity to study free of charge and he took active part in ... read more

11.12 am Romanian time. As I am writing this entry my CAE students are sitting their Writing Paper. I've never been so nervous in my entire life. We've been preparing for this day since the end of September and the day has finally come. The only comparable feeling would be when I myself sat the final exams and delivered my thesis in front of a panel of judges at the end of the 4 years of my undergraduate course... I have butterflies in my stomach and feel I'm gonna faint any minute now. We've put so much work into this, we've fought tenses and subjunctive and inversions and relative pronouns and all the cornucopia of sensational English structures. Many writings along the way, plenty of collocations and idioms, all the do's and dont's strategically aimed at ... read more

In the fall of 2009 a second authorised Cambridge center opened in Romania. That was the EUROGNOSI center in Pitesti. It is a huge step for Romania in terms of private language schools offering top-notch courses and most importantly, preparing students to take a Cambridge examination. The center is well-equipped with interactive boards and cutting-edge technology designed to help students boost up their English in no time, with much less effort and definitely a lot more fun than ever before! Learning a foreign language is so much easier now if we compare it to how languages were taught 10-15 years ago. Memorizing long lists of words and verb forms is a case in point. Learning is so much fun, the resources we use and the possibility to design our lessons in advance is of great help, ... read more

My last entry was a very long time ago and many things have changed since then. The last 8 months have been hectic and at times quite stressful, but the overwhelming feeling has definitively been one of deep satisfaction. I started working at Eurognosi, a Greek/Cypriot franchise in September last year. I took the plunge and accepted the offer after a couple of very intense days, as I had already secured an English Teaching position in Madrid. I guess the rest in history: a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, planning lessons, finding suitable and challenging resources for my students (ranging from kids, to Cambridge and adult levels), working long hours at the weekends, attending training sessions, correcting and grading papers, all the paraphernalia of being a committed teacher. EUROGNOSI 's first academic year is drawing ... read more

A while ago I cooked up a great plan to keep myself busy and active and at the same time do something that feels good and worthwhile. The idea of 'volunteer work' is unfortunately unknown in my country. I was lucky enough to work in a country where 'volunteer work ' is a job in itself ; where people are dedicated and eager to do volunteer work, where the little spare time you get, you go down to a 'Cancer Research' center or any other non-for-profit association and you offer a bit of your time, skills or knowledge to help others. Volunteer work means not only offering your time and skills, but acquiring new ones, learning new things yourself, maximizing your own potential, enhancing your job prospects, etc. It means dedicating time and energy and gaining ... read more