Martisor
Spring poked her head out from behind the clouds on Sunday, but just as fast she was swallowed by the fog. I am officially sick of winter. THe snow has melted and now everything is just gray and brown and ugly...but on to nicer topics.]
Every Wednesday afternoon I teach a 12th grade class at Ferdinand, another highschool in the city. this school isn't so well-off, it is actually a technical school for kids not going on to college. The class that I teach has 26 girls and one boy. Poor Ovi. Time with this class is different than my other classes at Lahovari. They want to be there and it shows. They are crazy about drama and we usually spend the hour improvising scenes. The best part about the class is that i don't have to grade the girls. They come, we have a good time, everyone laughs and we go home. It's great. Recently, two tenth graders from Ferdinand have taken to following me home. At first Andreea and Iulia would trail behind me ten paces or so. Finally a couple of weeks ago they got the courage to come up to me and asked me questions. They are sweet. Every word they speak in english comes out in the form of a question. "My name is Andreea? I am fifteen? I am not too good at English?" Or they blurt out rapid phrases in Romanian that I barely catch. Lately they have become more daring with their questions. "What is the difference between America and Romania?" "I don't know, " I told them "There are a million and one differences and a million and two similarities." So I made a deal with them, I will tell them one difference every week. Last week I told them windows. the windows in Romania are different... they are rectagular and open outward. most of the windows are double paned and have a wooden frame. They found the idea of American sliding windows pretty funny. Today they were very cute. They gave me a present to celebrate the spring. Something to remember them, when I go home, they said. How could I forget them?
The first and March and all through the month it;'s a Romanian custom to celebrate the coming Spring. It's called Martisor and on this holiday the men give women little trinkets called martisoare. They are charms on a red and white thread. The red symbolizes love and the white peace. (We could use a little peace at the moment). According to tradition the women pin the martisoare over their hearts. It is a nice tradition. Although people complain that it has become way too commercial. What hasn't become commercial today, I ask?