Last Weekend Recap

I was in Chisinau last week for the Odyssey of the Mind competition. It was a great time and I got to meet some amazing Moldovans. I was a head judge for the Jungle Bloke problem and I had four volunteers and three nationals in my judging group. The three nationals were alumni from the FLEX program. This program is for students from the 9-11 grades who speak near perfect English. They take a test and if they score among the highest they go to America for a year where they attend a high school and live with a host family. The girls that were in my judging group spoke damn near perfect English and were spitting out slang and making fun of each other using English phrases. When they were alone with each other, they would converse in English. It was really great and I hope to spend time with them in the future. It was a long day of judging but made me realize what an impact English has on these students lives and how much they enjoy the hard work and dedication of their teachers. I camped out at my host sister's house, which was free and had a great time. Fellow volunteers crashed there too and it was like a slumber party. The last night we were there we made steaks. They were amazing! We bought 4 cutlets of beef, an inch thick for only 49 lei, which roughly translates to 5 dollars. I cooked mushrooms with garlic and green onion and we had sauteed corn. Steph made some lovely peach and orange juice cocktails and we had a sample of desserts to round off the meal. It was truly great to sink my teeth into some juicy beef. I almost forgot how it tasted. Now I wish I had eaten more steak when my dad fixed it every other night instead of having him throw a piece of chicken on the grill for me.