So all of last week was orientation, and a lot of it was common sense, but it was still good to know the basic dos and don'ts of Romania. But today I finally was able to observe the group I will be working with for my practicum. It's a group of disabled-some mentally, some physically-Romanians who meet and try to learn about computers, english, and on one day a week, they do crafts. So today while I was there, the leader had me reading an English book to help them learn English. Or, one of the members would read and I would correct them if they were saying a word incorrectly. Then after they had said a sentence they would translate it back to Romanian to make sure they had grasped the meaning of the sentence. At one point, the leader left the group and a woman had just translated it back to Romanian and kept asking 'Da? Da?' So of course I had to do the whole, hands up and shrugging of the shoulders because I don't know if she properly translated it back to Romanian. The only thing I can do is say 'da' when they say something correctly in English, and at one point I understood that she was asking what back meant, so I patted my back with my hand, and she understood that. It was interesting though, all of the members introduced themselves in English.
Interesting little tidbit-in Romania if you buy something in a store and they don't have enough money in cents to give you change, they'll just give you a piece of gum or a small piece of candy, and you can't do anything about it.

Pa-Pa