We have a very strange educational system in Moldova. 12 forms, 1-4 are elementary level, 5-9 - secondary, 10-12 - lyceum. Complete 9 forms and it's considered that you have a partial High School education, but the exams in 12th form are for bachelor's degree. Yeah, we get bachelor's degree. And then win admission into a supreme educational institute. Even though 12 forms is, basically, just a full High School education. Don't look at me that way, I don't fully understand this myself. Anyway, 12 years of learning I've spent in 5 different institutes. I have warm memories of each and every one, but the brightest are of the lyceum (and not just because it was the last so far).
In the town of Beltsy, commorant to Alecu Russo Beltsy State University there is the Ion Creange Lyceum (forms 10-12 only). This Lyceum not only has Science faculty and Non-Science faculty, but also an Art faculty (which is unofficially called the Amadeus Lyceum, though it didn't manage to get an official status of a stand-alone lyceum). The student of the Art faculty has to choose one of four specialties: Visual Art, Choreography, Music, Acting. Double-classes for each specialty are instructed apart from each other, of course, but during general lectures the whole group (all four specialties) gathered together. And now I will tell you a bit about the group I was in.
I want to say firsthand that I won't tell in detail about each and every student. We had a friendly group, but I hope you understand that there are always some people which are closer to you than others. If you were my groupmate and I haven't told about you in detail - no worries. I still remember you.
To get the full picture, I think it would be appropriate to tell a bit about my beloved self. I got into the Choreography specialty. There were two reasons in my entrance in Lyceum. First, it was a Romanian lyceum, i.e. we've studied in Romanian, our state language. At one point in time I was very fluent in Romanian, but after a long time of studying in Russian I've lost the hang of it (even though I still understand it). So I planned to remind myself of the language while I'm studying. Well, it was worth a shot. But I failed. The second reason - I was already dancing in an ensemble (two after I've entered the lyceum; but this can't be told without first saying about one good man going by the name of Ghena, but that's a story for another time), so it seemed logical. Though, as it turned out, I've spent more time with people from Visual Arts.
Anyway, Now we can get acquainted with people from my group. Special mentions (photos are insolently ripped off from our group's graduate vignette):
Iulia Arsentieva
Visual Arts. The only (besides me) person of Russian nationality. Everybody else were Romanians and Moldovans. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm all for peace between nations. But still, it was kind of nice. Besides (I guess there's no point in hiding this now), if anyone was organizing mass escapes from general lectures (we were taking specialty classes pretty seriously, so don't start it), it was either Stas (i.e. me) or Iulia. One day, Stas and Iulia were feeling very lazy - after the Romanian Language class they didn't feel like going to the English class. So they decided to skip it. No mass leaving, just them two. And still they've somehow to managed to take 6-8 people along the way, half of those actually had French. But still. Iulia is a cheerful, honest, open girl. And also she will probably generate a cognitive dissonance to anyone who thinks with stereotypes. I mean, what stereotypes you could possibly talk about while looking at a girl with black hair, piercing, body shirt with a big skull and ripped jeans who jumps like a bunny, hands clenched near her chest, and squeals out of joy? Right now Iulia is working in Moscow.
Elena Arbuz
Visual Arts. A kindred spirit when it comes to getting in trouble. You know how students from time to time can have problems with the institution they study in (especially young students). The thing is, it's normal students that have problems from time to time, Lena and Stas somewhy ALWAYS had those. Negative mark for Romanian language? Stas and Lena. Talk with the principal for non-attendance? Stas and Lena. Which students have the give out of their diplomas delayed? Stas and Lena. Think of something yourself? Stas and Lena. Even if there are practically no good valid reasons? Stas and Lena. Anyway, as I've heard, at the moment Lena is attending courses of Clothes Design, and is very happy about it. And doesn't get into troubles anymore. That's good.
Alina Corciu
Visual Arts. She is a magnet of dangerous objects - dustpans, water balloons and the likes. Something was always flying her way... But seriously, when I think about Alina, the first two things that come to mind are conscience and just for justice. Also patience, which is probably how she managed to be the class monitor for a very long period of time. I also think about reliability and responsibility. That's five things already. Besides all that, it's just very pleasant to simply talk with Alina. By the time I've got to 12th form, I noticed that, out of all the groupmates, it is Alina who I talk with on topics which I rarely talk about with anyone. She easily encourages people and sees something positive, something to hold on to, in absolutely every situation. Of course, sometimes she wasn't in the best mood herself, but I don't recall seeing her sad or depressed. Or maybe she just hid it well. Right now Alina is studying in Chishinau, the capital of Moldova, for Interior Design.
Ion Crivenco
Visual Arts (yep, again). Ion... How to put it delicately... He's a hyper-active schyzo-maniac. In a good sense, of course. He always does something. This something is always funny. It's impossible not to smile while talking with Ion. He's always parodying something, joking, making irony, being sarcastic, entertaining everybody... Always. Somewhere deep in his heart Ion is a very delicate, sweet and fluffy soul and his behavior is a way of shielding himself from the cruel unjust world. Well, I actually don't think that way, but it's a nice theory, I think. To remember all the funny situations with Ion means to remember each and every day at the Lyceum, and that's impossible. He's studying in Romania now, going for architect.
Tatiana Cruglea
Choreography (finally!). In a sense, Tanya is similar to Alina. Maybe that's because they were studying together at some point, I don't know. But it turned out that Tanya too was a very responsible, conscious person, and also a monitor (though only for the Choreography Sub-group). She didn't study in our faculty straight from the beginning, at first she entered either Science or Non-Science ones... Truth be told, I don't remember. But that doesn't matter, because when she transferred to us, she became *zombie voice* one of us, one of us, one of us. We are war buddies, so to speak. You can count with one hand all the concerts and performances where we weren't together (and I don't mean weren't in a pair, I mean where we didn't perform at the same time). There is one instance I'm still a bit ashamed of, don't know why. One day, Tanya called me. I was sleeping. She woke me up. And said something very important. I thought my brain had processed it. I said thank you, goodbye, and went to sleep again. And when I woke up... I forgot what that all was about. And I had very little money on my cellphone account (only incoming calls are free). So I had to text her a short message, like I woke up and don't remember a thing, please call me back. And, well, she did. Maybe she was cursing somewhere deeply in her heart when she has read my message, but she didn't complain to me. Or maybe she realized it was her fault she woke me up... Anyway, kudos to Tanya, and my respect. Right now she's studying at the Beltsy State University, Foreign Languages.
Mihai Lacusta
Choreography. Also a war buddy. You know which concerts are the most boring ones for the performers? Those with A LOT of speeches (like, each lasts for half an hour), and with performance numbers sparsely spread throughout those speeches. It's especially cool when you DON'T know WHEN it's your exit. You're only told that somewhere sometime during this point you will have to enter the stage. They can't even say after which person is your turn. It's even cooler when they decide to move your act further during the program without, still, saying at what point you'll have to perform. Such organization can make even the nicest of people to want to kill someone. So, here we are, me and Mihai (we each had to perform our own duets with our partners), were doing something which, truth be told, shouldn't be done. We were talking behind the stage. We were angry, hungry, couldn't move an inch. So yeah, we decided to talk a bit. We were talking quietly, of course. So, here we are talking, and then suddenly Mihai stops, listens to something, and is like '%#$@! It's my music!' He and his partner (she probably thought he was in his right position) had to come out on stage from the two different sides, and Mihai was on HER side. So, here he goes, runs behind the curtains to the place he has to come out from, quickly makes his hair, changes the expression on his face from 'OH MY GOSH THAT WAS CLOSE' to a reluctantly romantic one and gets on the stage like everything is going as planned. My point? I always respected Mihai for his professionalism. I mean, even when he, VERY RARELY, has let himself to do a bit something against the unspoken rules behind the curtains (and he usually had very good reasons to), when he entered the stage, he was always acting out 120%. The same thing about training sessions. At the moment Mihai continues to improve his dancing craft in Chishinau.
Popa Natalya
Acting. Natasha is a, I would say, shy person. She says she's not suited for acting, yet she does just fine. She says she can't dance (and tried for a very long time to NOT do anything when it came to dancing), and yet in the University competitions (she had no choice but to participate in them, basically) in Beltsy and Chishinau she has won first and second place respectively. Well, yeah, those weren't the professional dance competitions, but that's not the point. Natasha is also a short person. And, you know, short people are usually very lively and active. During double-classes I communicated with Natasha mostly through cell phone, or, well, using the classic pen and paper way. I don't know how it turned out that way, but all my doodles and sketches which I drew during classes I always gifted her. And I was pleasantly surprised when I've learned that she still keeps them. And I drew A LOT during the three years of studying in the Lyceum. Now, Natasha is studying at the Beltsy State University in the Foreign Languages faculty. Sometimes she still tries to say something how she has trouble doing this or that, but now I have at least very good counter-arguments. In reality, she's doing fine. She was making successes, she's making successes, and let's all wish her further successes.
Anastasia Raciuc
Visual Arts. The first thing that comes to mind is how me and Nastia saw a dancing and playing a musical instrument Indian (Native American type) in the center of Beltsy. And we didn't understand what was going on. We never saw the Indian before, we never saw him again. Oh well. Music was not bad. Pretty soothing, you know. Nastia has a very wide extensive soul, so to speak. She's usually pretty quiet and calm, but if she's astonished, she's ASTONISHED, when she's boiling over something, she's BOILING, when she's happy, she's HAPPY. Now she studies for Clothes Design in Chishinau and when she tells about her studies, she TELLS.
Rusu Gheorge
Visual Arts. At the beginning of the 10th form our group had 6 boys. Since the 11th form and up till the 12th one we had only 4 boys in group (including me). So during general double-classes we were always sitting together. Anyway, at first Gheorge seemed like a quite, shy, timid guy. Maybe it was just because of the unknown surroundings, or we have just spoiled, uh, I mean, fixed him, but at one April's Fools day he came in class wearing a bathrobe. With a newspaper in his hand. If Ion loved to kid around all the time, Gheorge was more of a practical jokes kind of guy. Now he studies in Chishinau. I think he goes for architect, but I'm really ashamed of the fact that I actually am not sure.
Well, I told about everyone who was the closest to me. Telling about everybody else would take just too long. I will just respectfully list them, if you don't mind:
Dana Baltag (Music, she was always seen with a violin)
Patricia Bojii (Acting, also knows as Ion 2.0)
Patricia Ceremus (Music, has a very powerful voice)
Vera Cires (Visual Arts)
Aurina Claihnedt (Music. SHOUTS. VERY. EMOTIONALLY. And that's just when she simply speaks, you should hear her shout)
Olesea Covali (Music)
Tatiana Gandrabur (Acting)
Mihaela Grapa (Visual Arts)
Olga Melnitcaia (Visual Arts)
Nicoleta Moraru (Acting)
Lia Vintu (Music)
Phew... and I actually didn't mention all the older/younger groups.
Anyway, what I would like to say... Thanks to everybody! It was very fun, I had a great time. I wish good luck to you all!
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