Spelling Bees and Pumpkin Pies

Phew, what a crazy 2 weeks.  Between Spelling Bees and conferences I have been busier than I have been in country so far. We had a spelling bee at our school to determine which students would continue on to the regional Noyemberyan Spelling Bee.  I had about 15 students participate from grades 7, 8 and 9.  The students had never heard of a spelling bee before so it was actually a pretty good turnout.  I gave the winners (1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place) prizes of English books and magazines so thank you to everyone who sent some things over!  The winners were thrilled, but I felt so bad for the students who did not place.  They studied so hard and were heartbroken. 

Today was the regional competition in Noyemberyan.  I learned that one of my 8^th grade students got the chicken pox and would not be allowed outside her house for 2 weeks (I think the chicken pox is a little stigmatized here, but I’ll get back to you on that).   There were tons of children from all the village schools at the Spelling Bee.  One of my 9^th grade students came in 1^st so that was a huge accomplishment for our school.  Take a look below for some pictures from my village Spelling Bee and the regional Spelling Bee in Noyemberyan. Now that the Spelling Bee is over I will hopefully be able to use my clubs to practice the student’s conversational English skills.

I spent the past week at a conference in Dilijan with all of the volunteers.  I got a hot water shower every day and a flushing toilet, I was totally living the high life for those few days.  It snowed in Dilijan and back in Noyemberyan while I was gone.  I already hate the cold and it’s not even that cold yet, though -10 degrees Celsius sounds pretty darn awful when you have to walk to school.  The conference included more language and TEFL training.  The best part was being able to see other volunteers again, some of whom I hadn’t seen since swearing in. 

With Thanksgiving approaching a lot of us volunteers have been on the lookout for pumpkins.  They don’t sell them in stores, but some villagers have pumpkin patches in their garden.  I spread the word around my school that I was looking for a pumpkin and my counterpart gave me a small pumpkin from her garden.  I made a pumpkin pie from scratch that was delicious!! There is some debate as to whether or not it was a winter squash or an actual pumpkin, but regardless it was good.  If anyone has an easy pie crust recipe to share I would love to have it!

7th Form

8th Form

9th Form

The Winners! With our awesome judges Danelle and Manik :)

Our fantastic students at the Noyemberyan Competition

PC Volunteers

Nervous Students

Last Minute Studying

No competition in Armenia is complete without a certificate :)