I think the jet lag is hitting me hard, but the 2-day workshop with students at Colegiul National “Carol I” (the 2nd-oldest school in Romania where I was working with 9th-11th graders) in Craiova went great. The feedback on today was through the roof, the embassy staffer with me and the teachers were really happy and the kids were coming up with great lines. And it felt good, I feel I did a good job today.
There is something magic about walking into a room of kids, American or other, half of whom say they’ve never written a poem before and then see all of them writing something worth keeping by the end. I really love this, it’s kind of amazing to see happen.
We did writing and performance work for two days and capped it with maybe the first poetry slam ever in Craiova. 19 students participated, 19 students won. I love my job.