Last Thursday, my site mates and I facilitated a seminar for the English Teachers in our area. The topic was Academic Honesty and Positive Reinforcement. We weren't sure how many teachers would come because the seminar was announced by the director of education only two days beforehand, however, 23 teachers from the area ended up coming!

Adam and I led the first part about Academic Honesty. I was a bit worried about this one because it is a really touchy topic here in Moldova, and it's a topic that every education volunteer works with and has to deal with. We discussed with the teachers the different reasons students have for cheating/copying, the reasons we as teachers allow it, some ways to combat it, and the consequences for students, teachers, and Moldova as a whole. Most of the teachers agreed that this is a problem, but that there is no way for them to work on it.

After that session, there was a quick break of tea, coffee, and cookies. This is always the favorite part of every teacher at the seminars!

When the break was over, Alex and I led a session about positive reinforcement. This was informative for the teachers because none of them had ever heard of it. Even in America, the issue of positive reinforcement vs. punishment is discussed quite a bit, so it was great to address it here where positive reinforcement is unknown. The teachers liked this portion much more than the Academic Honesty part.

Feedback was good. The teachers liked the seminar overall and want us to do more in the future. Yay!

Paste Blajinilor is my favorite celebration in Moldova. It translates to "Easter of the Dead." I know at first, that may sound a little weird, and initially I thought so, too. But as I said, it is my favorite celebration.

On May 1st, my host family and I went up north and crossed into Ukraine into a small village called Dranita where my host dad is from. We immediately went to the cemetery and started to prepare. The graves usually have a bench or table nearby for this very tradition. Host mom set up plates of food along with some homemade wine on the table while host aunt prepared gifts for the departed relatives (host dad's parents and grandpa). The gifts usually include towels, dishes, candy, and toys. These gifts are for the loved ones to use in the afterlife. We hung out for a while eating until the priest came. Along with the priest were several men holding crosses and flags of the church. The priest read off a list of names given to him by people in the cemetery of the departed loved ones and then sprinkled holy water over everyone. After this, people give away the gifts to other people in the cemetery. I was given some dishes, a bucket, cookies, and a towel. The day was very nice and I got a nice tan on my face.

May 2nd, we went to host mom's village, Badragii Vechi. There we met up with relatives who only come up for this occasion, so it was great to see everyone. We went to the cemetery, but it was cloudy and cold; I would not be getting a tan face today. The same thing happened at this cemetery, too. The priest came around with the cross holders, blessed everyone with holy water, and read the list of names of the deceased. We stayed at the cemetery for several hours talking and reuniting with everyone until it started to rain.

List of names of the deceased

We then went to the host grandparents' house and ate. I had a few shots of homemade wine and vodka in me, so I decided it would be a good idea to give a toast in Romanian. Host grandma almost started crying and said she didn't even know I could speak Romanian. (I've been here for 2 years and she didn't know I could speak... hmm... I guess I'm just too nervous to speak to people in Romanian!) But it turned out well, I ate a lot, and the day was done. This will be one of the things I miss most about Moldova.

Last weekend was Easter. Easter is one of the more exciting celebrations in Moldova because not only is it one day, but it is in fact a 2 weekends. The first weekend is regular Easter. This year we were supposed to go to the village to stay the night on Saturday with the host grandparents, but something happened where the priest decided to do the service in the neighboring village, and Grandma was sick, so we didn't go.

Anyway.... Amanda's host family invited me to their village for the "Roog" which is a tradition here in the northern part of Moldova. It is basically a big bonfire made out of old tires. Amanda's host uncle was in charge of one of the roogs (everyone can make their own roog, but most of the time families get together to make them.) We climbed up the hill next to Amanda's house and prepared for the roog.

Her uncle and other manly men rolled tires up the hill (which was no easy feat as this is a rather steep hill. I was cheering them on, but I don't think they appreciated it...)

The tires were lit, and the fire started! We sat on the hill for a couple hours drinking homemade wine and vodka and eating meatball type things. There were a couple families included in the roog. From where we were positioned on the hill, we could see several other fires throughout the village. It was really pretty!

Amanda and I were planning on going to church with her host family at 4 in the morning, but neither of us woke up when they came to get us up... While I enjoyed the extra hours of sleep, I really wish I would've woken up as I missed the church service last year, too. I've seen pictures from other people who've gone, and it's a really beautiful tradition. The priest goes around with holy water and blesses everyone along with food they will eat the next day on Easter.

So I missed the church service and had to wake up early anyway to book it back to Edinet to meet up with my host family so we could go to the village to eat and celebrate with the host grandparents. We left the house at around 10 and went to Badragii Vechi, the grandparents' village. We hung out for a while talking and relaxing and then around noon we ate. It was normal Moldovan celebration food, pretty tasty. We also did the tradition of knocking the dyed eggs against one another to see whose egg was the strongest. Host brother Costel won.

After eating, everyone took a nap. It was great.

When we all woke up, we decided to go for a walk along the Prut River. The river is the border between Moldova and Romanian. The first time I went to the village with the host family, it was illegal for Moldovans to cross the border, and there was barbed wire everywhere guarding the border. Since then, the border has opened, and my family loves going down by the river and exploring. We found a trail leading down to the river and off we went. We walked along the river bank while the host uncle fished.



We walked around and explored for about two hours when we decided to try to find a path leading back up. We found one, but it ended up being a bit sketchy and we had to grab trees and hike our way up. It was pretty impressive seeing my 70 year old host grandma make her way up the trail!

We finally made it back up to the village. Everyone was exhausted, people were thirsty, and a few nylons were ripped; all in all a good hike! We got back to the house and everyone relaxed while drinking cold water and compot (which is a homemade juice.) We left the village around 7, and Easter Part 1 was over.

Tomorrow is Easter Part 2, Easter for the Dead. My host family and I will be going to Ukraine (which sounds exciting but it's only an hour away from my town) to the host dad's home village. There we will go to the cemetery with his sister and brother-in-law, eat, and be blessed by the priest. Monday we will go to Badragii Vechi to meet up with the host grandparents again and go to the cemetery there. This is by far my favorite celebration/tradition in Moldova because it is such a unique way to honor those who have passed. Hopefully I'll update soon so you can read about it.

Easter is coming! And along with Easter come Easter cakes! Some people may not like these cakes, but I find them delicious. They are a traditional food here in Moldova that people eat when it is Easter. People either make them home-made or just buy them from the market.

Yesterday outside of my school I was excited to see the annual Easter Market. There was a row of booths with people selling all sorts of things: clothes (lots of underwear for some reason), ducks and other birds, pottery, and Easter Cakes! I went with my partner Natalia to check it out in between breaks and I bought a little cake for 5 Lei. I wanted to eat it right then and there, but she said that was kind of weird and it is more special to eat it on Easter. Sadly I put it uneaten into my bag.

After classes I went with my friend Amanda to check it out again, and I bought another Easter Cake. This one was from a different booth; gotta show them all a little love!

Finally at English Club, I was able to eat both the cakes with my 5th form girls and Amanda. Super tasty. Can't wait for Sunday when I can go crazy with the cakes.

Booth selling Easter Cakes!

Truck with Ducks!

As for Easter, tomorrow we're going to the village to be with the grandparents. Saturday night at about 11 or midnight is the Easter Church service, which I didn't go to last year because I was sleeping. I told my host mom to make me go this year, though, so hopefully I won't sleep through it again...

Flat Stanley is a fictional character that many children are familiar with and have fallen in love with. Stanley is the main character in a children's book. In short, it's about a boy whose bullitan board falls on him while he's sleeping and flattens him. (Sounds creepy, but the author does a good job of making it seem cool.) His parents see this as an opportunity to send him to visit his grandparents and other relatives by putting him in an envelope and sending him through the mail.

Now on to the Flat Stanley Project. This project was started in 1994 by a teacher who had his class make their own "Stanleys", write letters to go along with them, and then send them to other states and countries. Read more about the Flat Stanley Project here at the official site: http://flatterworld.com/

I did this project when I was student teaching back in college with my second grade class. We had them each decorate their own Stanley, write a letter, and send it to a family member somewhere in the United States. The family members in turn took pictures with the Stanley around famous landmarks and such in their towns and sent them back to the students, sometimes with souvenirs.

I was contacted earlier in the school year by a friend's mom back in North Dakota who is a teacher of a sixth grade class. She was doing the Flat Stanley Project, and she wanted to send them to Moldova. I said of course! Last week I received the envelope full of letters and Stanleys from her class. I was talking to my ex-Romanian tutor/English teacher at another school here in Edinet about the project, and she asked if her class could participate. And again, I said of course!

When Luminita told her class about it, they were so excited! They couldn't believe that they were going to be getting letters from "real American students!!" They also each created their own Stanley's out of posterboard. Some used yarn, fabric, and other supplies while most colored them with markers. Each wrote a letter to accompany their Stanley. (While they were all excited about the letters, they thought the American names were odd! (Jacob, Camryn, Ryan, etc.) Common names here are Sergio, Ana Maria, Marina, Oleg, Costel. ) Along with the letters, Luminita asked a student to draw a map of Moldova which turned out beautifully! We will be sending the package back to North Dakota on Monday, and hopefully it will get there before the school year ends.

Much has happened so far in March.

The first day of March, Martisor, celebrated the arrival of spring (although it definitely did not feel like spring with all the snow on the ground.) The 3rd grade students at my school gave a Martisor concert.

March 8th is a VERY IMPORTANT holiday in Moldova. It is Women's Day. Every year, women are given flowers, boxes of chocolates, and other gifts. It is more than Mother's Day because every woman is celebrated. The 5th grade students at my school gave a 8 Martie concert.

Not only is March 8th a huge party because of Women's Day, but it is also my host mom's birthday! For two days before the big day, we were busy preparing food and cleaning the house. We had about 15 guests, and we were eating all day long.

March 11th was a monumental day for Moldovans as Vice President of America Joe Biden visted Moldova! The main street in Chisinau was shut down for the day with people lining the streets holding Moldovan and American flags. Most of us Peace Corps volunteers got to stand behind Biden on the risers while he gave his speech. After the speech, volunteers and Embassy staff got to go to a special "Meet and Greet" where Biden and his wife talked. Afterward, he took a picture with all of us and talked to us about our mission here and several other things. It was rather interesting.

Friday night at school was the Dragobete concert. (Dragobete is basically like Valentine's Day for Romania and Moldova. As I previously posted, Moldovans do celebrate Valentine's Day, but they do consider it an American holiday. Dragobete is all theirs!)

The concert started around 5:30ish and went to 7:30. There were 4 couples, all ninth graders,and 2 mc's. There were different competitions the pairs had to do such as declaration of love, talent, dancing, create an outfit representing love, and impromptu question/answer. I was very impressed with how the kids did. There was some singing, guitar playing, drawing, and even some fancy soccer/football moves. Between some of the competitions while the judges calculated scores, there were some dances and songs by other students. In the end, they all won for their own specific reasons. (If you remember the post about the big sports competition at my school, "friendship" won.) So, everyone won at this competition as well.

Viorel and Irina, MC's from the 11th form in traditional Moldovan dress

Cupid asking why the boy loves his girl

2nd form girls throwing rose petals on one of the couples

Dancing in Russian costumes wore during WWII

Soccer skills

8th and 9th form boys doing a dance. They're so cute!

After the competition, all of us teachers got together to celebrate. A few other teachers and I prepared food and wine. We ate bread with different cheeses, meats, fish, and cucumbers.

Our photographer sneezed while taking the photo :)

Клавдия (Claudia) Claudia is one of the people I'm really going to miss when I leave Moldova. She works at the cafeteria in my school, but she is not a lunch lady. She sells coffee, tea, cappuccino, and different types of pastries at her little table in the corner of the room. Claudia is Russian/Moldovan thus meaning she mainly speaks Russian. She does speak Romanian, though, so that is mainly how we communicate. She has been attempting to teach me Russian, so in the mornings everyday when I come for a cup of coffee, we speak Russian to each other. Last year I went to Claudia's house one day and we knitted together for a while and had lunch. She loves knitting and beading, so she wanted to teach me how to knit a new pattern. I ended up making a scarf with the new pattern. This year I haven't been able to go to her house because we've both been busy, but hopefully I will be able to again at least once more before I leave in July.

I was sitting with my American friend/fellow volunteer Amanda earlier today having lunch, and we were discussing how our lives after Peace Corps are going to be. We got a bit stressed out thinking about grad school (since each of us only applied to one school and the "What if we don't get accepted??" started driving us nuts), so we decided to think about all the exciting things awaiting us in America!

Having our own cars! While it's nice not to have to worry about gas prices and car insurance, it's even nicer not having to squeeze into a mini-bus with 20 other people in 90 degree weather for 3 hours.Air conditioning and central heating. Enough said there.Customer service! I worked in retail in America for 4 years, so I'm really big on the customer service whether it be in a restaurant or in a store. Here in Moldova, they are not. If you want something, you track down that waiter/sales associate and ask!Our own culture! Don't get me wrong here, I love Moldovan culture. It's great! But I'm excited to be able to do "American" things and not be considered weird. For example, last week I wore a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve shirt over that. It was cute, and it was warm. My partner saw me and said, "Oh wow, you are so American! We would never wear anything like that!"Being treated like an adult! Perhaps it's because most of us volunteers speak like we are four year olds or maybe because we act weird and do weird things, but everyone treats us like we're kids. This is a mini list of exciting things that we're looking forward to. While we were thinking about this list, I started thinking about the things I'll miss about Moldova. This brought a bit of a downer on my mood, because I was all excited about being home, and then I became sad about leaving. So, a list of some of the things I'll miss.

Tea at Luminita's house! Luminita is my old tutor/basically my mom here in Moldova. We used to do tutoring together, but we stopped doing that and now have tea dates instead. Her husband, Vlodia, joins us. We have cookies and talk about everything. Her husband speaks mostly Russian, so I learn Russian from him and he learns Romanian and English from Luminita and I. Natalia! She's my partner teacher and best friend here. I know I wouldn't have lasted this whole time without her. The best times with Natalia are when we buy a big bottle of beer and sunflowers seeds and sit at her kitchen table and talk. Candy with Coffee! Whenever you order coffee at any cafe/restaurant/bar in Moldova, you get a piece of candy on the side. The more expensive and fancy the place, the better the candy. The Hora! Some volunteers may not like the Hora, which is the national dance of Moldova, but I absolutely LOVE it. It doesn't matter where you are, if an upbeat traditional Moldovan song comes on, someone is bound to start a Hora. I was at a bar once, and these scary mobster looking guys came in all wearing leather jackets and completely in black. Some music came on, and they all jumped up, got in a circle with hands held, and started to Hora. The Hora brings people together!So this is also just a mini list, but I will continue to update it as I think of things.

It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone back home. I remember crying and all that jazz. But it will be even harder to leave here I think, because I'll most likely never see these people again. When I left home, I knew I'd be returning after 2 years. Unless I plan to vacation back to Moldova someday, I will be saying goodbye to these people for the last time. Man, that sure puts a damper on things.

Today at school,I talked about Valentine's Day with some of my classes. They do celebrate Valentine's Day here in Moldova, but I thought it would be interesting to tell them how we celebrate it in America. They all thought it was "super" that in schools we have parties and decorate boxes to put Valentine's cards in. After discussing Valentine's Day and reading a short handout, we did a word search that had words like "kisses, cuddle, heart, roses, friends, smooch (yes, smooch...) hugs, candy"

After the word searches, the kids got to make Valentines. I taught them how to say a few things: "I love you" "Happy Valentine's Day", and of course "Roses are red, Violets are blue...."

Monday is Valentine's Day, and I'm super pumped because it's my favorite holiday. Hopefully I'll get a few more Valentines from my students like the ones they made me today!

On December 28th, I took an overnight bus from Chisinau to Brasov. The bus left at 7:00 pm, and got to Brasov at 5 in the morning. I tried sleeping on the bus, but it was difficult since we had to stop at the Moldova/Ukraine border for an hour and a half. At each border, we had to get off the bus, and one by one we had our bags inspected and passports stamped. Luckily there were only 17 of us on the bus, so this process went rather quickly. However as if noticing our good luck, our bus broke down at 2 in the morning. We all had to pile onto a rutiera (mini-bus type thing) where the driver turned the lights on and blasted his discotech music. This made sleeping rather difficult.

Arriving in Brasov at 5 in the morning was not really all that awesome. I hadn't yet exchanged my money, and we were dropped off at a bus station on the outside of town where everything was still closed. I ended up befriending a nice guy from Moldova who was now living in a city outside of Brasov. He let me share a taxi with him to another bus station, then he bought me a coffee, and helped me find an ATM.

I hung out at the second bus station for several hours reading and drinking coffee. I decided to leave at 8:45 when a creeper came over to me and insisted on buying me coffee and beer. I ran away while he was buying beer for us and discovered that literally across the road was a huge shopping mall. Unfortunately, the mall didn't open until 10:00, so I hung out at the entrance like a weirdo with my big backpack and read. I ended up making friends with an old security guard who wanted to know what I was doing. When the mall finally opened, he directed me towards the best coffee shop. I shopped for a while, bought some awesome silver tennis shoes, and ate lunch.

After that, I made my way to the old city center. It was absolutely beautiful and there were people selling boiled wine everywhere. (I have discovered I am in love with boiled wine, and I will most definitely make it when I get back home!)

Old Town SquareAt about 3 in the afternoon, my fellow traveling buddy Zack called me up. He was on a train from Budapest and would be arriving later that night around 10. We were originally going to stay at someone's house via Couchsurfing , but that didn't work out so I called a hostel which was located right next to the center. I was really exhausted from the traveling and walking around, so I went to the hostel and took a nap for a while. After that I went to a delicious pizza place which served free pretzels and waited for Zack to come.

Hostel Mara BrasovThe next day we went to the top of this big mountain/hill which has the name Brasov written across it in Hollywood style. We took a cable car to the top and then explored for a while seeing different views of the city. After a while we walked down the hill/mountain.

Me at the top of the mountain/hill with a view of Brasov in the backgroundOn the night of the 31st, our friends and fellow volunteers Amanda and Sinh joined us in Brasov. They had been in Nice, France, and decided to spend the New Year in Brasov. We hung out at our hostel and played cards for a while because it was way too cold to stand outside for hours. At 11:00 we went to the City Center where a concert was taking place. We hung out there and made our way into the crowd while drinking boiled wine. At midnight there were fireworks and a laser show.

Celebrating the New Year in the Old City CenterAmanda and Sinh left on the 2nd, and two more volunteers came. On the 3rd, we went to Sinaia, which is a gorgeous mountain town an hour away from Brasov. We took a train there, which was super exciting because I'd never been on a train before!

First time on a train ever! Woo exciting!On the 4th, everyone went skiing, but since I suck at skiing, I decided to site see around Sinaia instead. There is a famous castle there, called Peles Castle. Unfortunately it was closed on the day I went there, so I couldn't go inside or even get close to take pictures. I did make friends with another security guard who gave me a number "of a guy" to call the next day to get in at a reduced rate. (I didn't go back the next day...)

Peles Castle, SinaiaI also discovered the Sinaia Monastery. Sinaia Monastery On the 5th, we took a train back to Brasov in order to catch our overnight bus back to Moldova. However, one cannot go to Brasov AKA Transylvania without visiting Dracula's Castle!! The castle, Bran Castle, is about a half hour's drive out of Brasov. It isn't really Dracula's Castle, but they say it is anyway (to attract tourists?).

View from a balcony inside Bran CastleWe left Brasov at 7 that night and returned in Chisinau the next morning at 5. It was a really fun trip and it was great to get out of Moldova for a few days. I ate some delicious food, saw some interesting things, and had a great time!

Not being home with family for Christmas, especially when you're on the other side of the world, can really make a person homesick during the holidays. Thankfully now there's Skype, email, Facebook, and cell phones to keep in touch with loved ones. However much I do love Skype, it's just not the same as being woken up at 7:00 am Christmas morning by my sisters and brother to see what Santa brought. Although I hate not being home for the holidays, I do enjoy being in Moldova with my friends and host family. Most people here in Moldova do not celebrate Christmas on December 25th; they celebrate on the Old Christmas which is on January 7th. My host grandparents live in a village close to the Romanian border, and in Romania people celebrate on the 25th, so they too celebrate on the 25th. So I did end up getting to have a Merry Christmas yesterday!In the morning the host family went to buy a Christmas Tree. (I found this out when I woke up at 12:30 in the afternoon...) When I woke up we decorated the tree. Host brother wearing a University of North Dakota sweatshirt that my mom sent for Christmas present last year.

Host brother, host sister, and host dad decorating the tree

Our finished Christmas Tree

Shortly after the tree was decorated, I heard my host brother screaming at the top of his lungs. I ran out of my room to see what was wrong, and it turned out that Santa - Mos Craciun - had come to our house. He brought me a shirt (which I wore that day!), host sister a shirt, host dad some gloves, and host brother pajamas. Host mom didn't get anything because she forgot to write a letter :) After we decorated the tree, we went to the village to celebrate Christmas with my host mom's side of the family. We were at her parents' house, which is where we always go for celebrations. We ate shortly after arriving. There was turkey, various salads, homemade sausage, pelemenii (which is a type of dumpling filled with meat) and rooster jelly. Rooster jelly is basically chicken broth in a jello form with meat stuck in the middle. The meat in this one was pork, and it is served cold. (I don't eat this particular dish!) At the end was a tasty cake the host mom made with cherries in the middle.

Cheers to a Merry Christmas!After eating, the kids sang carols for us. It is tradition that on Christmas and New Years children go around to houses and sing carols. In return, people give them money, baked goods, and candy. If a caroler is older, they will occasionally get a shot of homemade vodka!

Kids receiving candy, money, and baked goods after singing carols.Even though I wasn't home with my real family, it turned out to be a Merry Christmas with my host family!

On Tuesday I'll be heading to Brasov, Romania for a vacation for a week. When I come home, it will be the Old Christmas on January 7th, so it'll be another Christmas for me!

This is my 4th grade class singing Jingle Bells.

Winter finally came to Moldova!Yesterday I decided to take a nap around 3:30, and it was cold out, but no snow. When I woke up at 5:30, the ground was covered with an inch of snow, and everything was white. It continued to snow all through the night and continued on into today. It stopped snowing during the day, but it was super windy so the snow was blown all around. I wore my long underwear, and I'm thankful I did! I'll be wearing them to bed tonight as well.

Thanksgiving was last week, so I talked to my classes about it and explained what it is and why we celebrate it. In my 6th grade class, many of the kids were absent, so with the 6 students that were there I decided to make hand turkeys. They thought this was really cool. In the turkey feathers, I had them write things they're thankful for. They wrote things like "family, friends, teachers, etc."

Before I came to Moldova, I didn't eat tomatoes. I didn't like them at all.As I quickly learned upon arriving here, tomatoes are eaten all the time in the summer. They are served at every meal cut up to be eaten fresh. They are put in salads. They are eaten fresh from the garden. They are eaten ALL the time. I was at a friend's house the second month of living in Moldova. We were drinking her grandfather's house wine, which was much stronger than any other house wines I had drank, and we were in need of food. There was nothing to eat except tomatoes and bread. My friend made me a tomato sandwich, and it was actually pretty tasty! From that point on, I have slowly begun to enjoy tomatoes. Now I can eat an entire tomato; just give me a little salt and I'm good to go.Along with discovering that I do actually like tomatoes, I've discovered that I LOVE pickled tomatoes. Yes, when I first heard of pickled tomatoes, I was grossed out. But here they like to pickle things (watermelon, apples, tomatoes, and of course cucumbers.) Pickled tomatoes are my favorite food in Moldova. Absolutely LOVE them. This last August/September, I had my host mom show me how to make them so I can make them when I get back home.

Pickled TomatoesIn a 3 liter jar, put: -3/4 pieces of garlic-parsley-dill-bay leaves-1 big spoon salt-1 big spoon sugar-3 big spoons vinegar-3 tablets of aspirin -tomatoes

Add boiling water to the jar/s and seal shut. Cover the jars for 3 days to make sure the lids are sealed shut. You can add other seasonings and spices, but these are just the basics.

A week ago on Monday, I was approached by one of the Russian adjunct directors at my school and was told I was going to be participating in a sports competition that would be held on Friday. Later that day, I was approached by the gym teacher who told me that our first practice would be the next day on Tuesday and to bring my sweatsuit and gym shoes.

I had no idea of what was going on, so I went to my partner teacher who was also going to be in the sports competition, and I asked her what was up. Apparently there would be a big competition in which teachers would go against 11th graders and 9th graders. Huh... ok....

Tuesday after school comes along and I'm there ready with my gym shoes and sweatpants. Natalia, my partner teacher, was also there. Nobody else came for 15 minutes, so the gym teacher decided it would be a good idea to run laps around the gym while we waited. After a few teachers showed up, we started to practice for the competition. It turns out that it was going to be a bunch of relay races, which I figured I could do. After practice, I was told that we would be practicing again the next day after school. I got home later that day and wanted to die. It was more physical activity than I have done in a while.

Wednesday I skipped practice and slept.... Oops!

But don't worry, because we had practice AGAIN on Thursday after school! We ran through the relays again and figured out who would be in pairs together for the 3 legged race and such. Then the Russian adjunct comes in and tells us to line up. So we line up, and then we start marching through the gym shouting things in Russian. (My school is Russian/Romanian, but all the teachers speak Russian over Romanian, so everything is done in Russian.)

The day of the sports competition:Oof. I didn't realize how intense this thing was going to be. The whole school showed up wearing face paint and holding posters and pom-poms for their teams. And the local news showed up... I started to get a bit nervous at this point. The three teams all gathered outside the main gym door waiting to go in. The Russian marching music signaled the beginning. We marched in around the gym and ended up in the middle with the three teams making a partial square facing each other. The director spoke and the judges were announced. Then the team captains called out for the team names. Teachers: Profi11th Grade: Favorit9th Grade: V.I.P.We all also had to shout out our team slogan, in Russian... I had to get lots of practice on how to say ours, and now I can't get it out of our head. It translated roughly to "We are stars, we never fade, we will forever shine!" After this, we all lined up to get ready for the first relay.

We did a couple relays, and then the dance team came out so the judges could discuss.

Some of the Relays:-Dribbling a ball-Picking up 3 volleyballs at one time and handing them to teammates-3 legged race-Running with a partner linked arm in arm and back to back-Moving a basketball with a hoop-Popping balloons with some sort of plastic stick thing-Throwing bean bags in a sack-Walking with a ball between your legs

And since this was a Moldovan get together/party, the Hora (the national Moldovan dance) was involved. The dance team came out in traditional costume and we all danced the Hora around them. It was pretty awesome. The last competition was a tug of war. First it was teachers vs. 9th form. It was close, but teachers won. Next was teachers vs. 11th form. Also close, but teachers won again. I guess the teachers just rock!

At the end, there were several mini competitions between audience members. One of them was how many times a person could dribble a ball on their knee. Another competition was a free throw basketball competition. The last one was how many times a person could lift a 25 kilogram weight above their head. The gym teacher's son was the winner with 100 times. It was ridiculous.

The winner was announced: Friendship. Yes, friendship. Huh... I guess that works since we all became closer friends and we didn't want anyone to get their feelings hurt. We all got chocolate medallions. After the competition, the teachers all went and had a mini-masa (a celebration). We had pickled watermelon, bread with meat and cheese, chicken, and apples. And please don't forget the wine, champagne, and cognac!

I haven't written in quite a while because nothing super exciting has been happening. I've been busy with school as usual. This year I'm teaching 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, and 11th grades. Last year I taught up to 9th grade, so it's strange having 11th grade this year. The kids are so much older, and I'm definitely struggling to teach them. My early childhood education degree never prepared me for kids this old!

Other than school, I'm tutoring several people in English. One of the people I'm tutoring is a woman who owns a Greek restaurant in our town. She pays me with food in exchange for lessons. It's quite a good deal as I love this restaurant! Her husband is from Greece, so they really know who to make Greek food.

I've also been helping my old tutor teach at her school on Fridays since I don't have lessons on that day. She is an English teacher and pretty much my mom here in Moldova. My partner Natalia and I will be starting an English Theater Club. I'm really excited for this, and the kids seem to be, too. We will do a show around Christmas with the 5th form doing a play and the 3rd form singing Christmas carols. I'm hoping we can get the parents involved with making costumes and such. We will also do another show in the spring.

I spent Halloween in my friend Amanda's village. It was nice being in the village, but I don't think I could live there forever. It is definitely more difficult than living in a city. We carved pumpkins with her host cousins and cooked the seeds from the pumpkins.

It is November 12th, and there is still no snow on the ground! It's crazy! I've never been anywhere where there isn't snow on the ground at this point. But I guess it's the same way back home; mom said she took the afternoon off last week to hang Christmas lights since it was 60 degrees out! It's not quite 60 degrees here, but it's still really nice.

Current Favorites*Author: James Rollins *TV Shows: Grey's Anatomy, Glee, Dexter, Little Britain USA (super funny show!!)*Music: Florence and the Machine

*Craving Dill Pickle Chips!!!

Today was the first day of school, which is known as "Primul Sunet" - the First Bell. School starts the same day every year, September 1st. My host mom asked me when school starts in America, and I told her it starts on a different day every year and it is different according to states. She was confused by this and didn't think it made much sense! I have to agree with her there. At my school, there are no classes on the first day of school, but I think this varies according to school. However, there is a BIG celebration. Students, teachers, and parents all gathered outside in the school yard leaving a big empty rectangle in the center. The students were arranged by their classes.

First the 11th graders who will be graduating this year escorted in the new 1st graders. First grade is the first year children here go to school; there is no kindergarten. I would like to point out that the girls are wearing traditional outfits that girls wear on special occasions at school.

Next, some of the 11th graders marched through the center to raise the Moldovan Flag.

There were several speeches given during this. Last year I had to give a speech in Romanian. Luckily, I didn't have to give one this year! I got to sit on the side and watch.

The Director of the school gave the 1st graders the "Key of Knowledge."

It was my host brother Costel's first day of school, and he was looking mighty handsome in his suit. He was chosen along with a little girl to ring the first bell of the year. They carried their bells and rang them as they walked along the border of the people. He is the first boy ever to do this at my school, as in previous years a 1st grade girl sat on the shoulders of an 11th grade boy and rang the bell this way. However this year they changed things up.

After this there were several more quick speeches, and the ceremony was done. The students set off to their classrooms to meet their "diriginta" - homeroom teacher. The homeroom teachers remain with one group of students from 1st grade to 4th grade, and a new homeroom teacher has them from 5th to 11th grade.

Two of my teaching partners and I. Cornelia on the left and Natalia on the right. I worked with Natalia all last year, and we've become best friends. This is my first time working with Cornelia, and I'm sure it will be great.

Flowers from some of my students. 16 roses in this bouquet!!

I haven't updated in over a month. Sorry. I've been pretty busy. The new group of volunteers came June 10th, so I was in Chisinau all of June being a mentor and helping out with them. Yes, I was a mentor. Scary thought, huh? I was basically there to take my three mentees around Chisinau, show them important things, and answer questions if need be. This is me and a couple of the other English Education Mentors at the airport waiting for the new group to come.

The 4th of July Party sponsored by the Embassy was quite fun. This year my group of volunteers didn't have a curfew, as opposed to last year when we had to leave at 9:00 pm, so we got to stay and party like grown-ups! There were several contests, as well as free food and drinks.

Roy's host brother got married in July. It was quite a fun party! I arrived at the party at 9:00 pm, and didn't get home until 5:00 am. There was lots of dancing, eating, and drinking. Moldovan weddings are a bit different than American weddings. They had the reception the day before they signed the papers and were officially married. There are also many traditions in a Moldovan wedding that are not in American weddings. The members of the wedding party carried around this colac, which is bread used in every Moldovan celebration. They danced with it around the room, and then gave them along with the blankets under them to guests of the wedding. They also carried around scarves for guests. Lastly they carried around gifts for the bride and groom, including clothes for their future children, around the room for all to see.

After that, at about 1:00 in the morning, the bride and groom along with the wedding party went around the room accepting gifts. They would stop at each table, take a shot of vodka or cognac, and then each person would give a short speech and drop an envelope of money in a little box for the newlyweds. The man in the picture just gave his speech and was putting money in the box.

At the end of July I worked on a project with several other volunteers. Unfortunately I wasn't able to help out on the first two days, but I was there for the last. What we did was transformed a huge concrete sign from an ugly mess into a bright and beautiful welcome sign. It was for a pig farm outside of Chisinau. The main boss, Louis, was an amazing guy from Paraguay. He came to Moldova a couple years ago, after attending a school for pig farming in Denmark. He is working with the Moldovans to make the farm sustainable and workable. Basically he is one of the coolest people I've met thus far in Moldova. This is only part of the sign, but I don't have other pictures. I will put up more when I get them.

The first week in August I helped out with one of the volunteer's camps in a village outside of Chisinau. It was a week long camp for students in 6th grade. There were other ages there, too, but mostly 6th grade. I was there on Wednesday, which was water day. We played Duck Duck Goose using wet sponges and other water relays. I was also there on Thursday, and we made paper mache masks. I think the kids enjoyed it because they hadn't done anything like it before.

School starts on September 1st, so I have about 2 weeks left of vacation. I'll be going to the Black Sea in Ukraine this weekend with several other volunteers, so that will be fun. Expect a blog on that! Then when I get back on the 25th, I will have to start working with my partners from school to prepare for the school year. It's been a long summer, and I'm ready to get back to school!

A couple nights ago was my host sister's Balul de Absolvire. This is a type of graduation/prom for graduating students. Everyone dresses up in prom dresses and suits and prepares for this thing for quite a while.

These are some of the girls in my host sister's class. My host sister is the second one from the right in the yellowish dress.

We arrived at 6:30 at a restaurant in the park. We stood around for a while not doing much of anything. At 7:30 the festivities began. At big Moldovan ceremonies such as weddings and birthdays, there are always cameras and video cameras recording everything.

The parents all came in through a flowered arch, then the teachers, and finally the graduates. As the students entered the room, they ate a piece of colac (a traditional Moldovan bread used in special ceremonies) and dipped it in honey.

The graduates were each presented with a small globe, then the teachers were presented with a certificate and a bouquet of flowers, and the parents were also presented with a certificate and a rose from their graduate.

After all the presentations and such, we finally sat down to eat at 9:00! And of course with a traditional Moldovan masa, you know there's going to be wine, cognac, and vodka!

While we were eating, there were more speakers and activities the graduates had to do. They danced with a partner with a balloon in between them but couldn't touch the balloon with their hands. They had to describe their homeroom teacher by using drawings. There were many contests. And of course, there was much dancing of the Hora. As you remember from previous posts, the Hora is a traditional Moldovan dance that everybody dances at every event.

At 2:00 in the morning, I was tired and ready to go home. My host brother, however, was not.

My host dad gave me a ride home, while everybody else stayed until 5:00 in the morning.

Overall, the night was really fun, I ate a lot, danced even more, and had to give a speech in front of everyone. Oh yes, did I forget to mention that part? The MC was talking (in Romanian of course, which I sometimes tune out...) and all of a sudden she called my name. A gasp went throughout the crowd as I made my way up to the front of the room. She asked me if I like dancing to Moldovan music, to which I replied yes, and then she told me I had to give them a speech in English. One of my friends who speaks English that is a graduate happened to be sitting directly in front laughing at me the whole time. It was great fun... At least it was in English and only probably 5 people understood it!

Last weekend, I went to a friend's village about an hour north of my town. It ended up being me, Liezel, Amanda, Sinh, and Greg. We decided to have a super awesome relaxing weekend. We got there on Friday afternoon, watched Grey's Anatomy season finale (there was lots of yelling at the computer) and drank wine. Saturday morning, we woke up with plans to walk to a nearby lake and have a picnic/barbecue. Well, the day started with rain. Not good, so we decided to wait a little to see if the rain would subside. It eventually did, and then started to rain again. However, we didn't let this stop our fun. The rain stopped, so we packed up a blanket, beer, food, and wood and set out.We walked for about a half hour and ended up next to a beautiful lake.

Sinh and Liezel set up the blanket, I peeled vegetables, and Amanda and Greg attempted to start the fire. Yes, they attempted. It took a while and a lot of wood.

Before we set out on our adventure, Greg made meatballs. They were raw of course, with the plan of cooking them over the fire. One flaw in the plan... there was no grill or anything to cook the meatballs on. However, we did have skewers so we stuck the meatballs on them.

It seemed to be working, when the meatballs started falling off. So, new plan...Let's make hamburger patties and cook them on the skewers!

Nope. Didn't work again. We were feeling quite frustrated at this point. We didn't want to eat just salad. Lame. I continued to cook my vegetables.

But the vegetables didn't work either. Lame again. All of a sudden, Boy Scout Greg finds a rusty old can!!What can you do with a rusty old can, you ask?Well....

Wash it in the lake and stick the meatballs in it of course! It's a mini-oven!

Brilliant Greg!

Mmm look at those meatballs cookin'!

Finished product?

Nice!We sat down to enjoy our meatballs, salad, grilled cheese sandwiches (good idea Sinh!) s'mores, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. It was a successful barbecue, and none of us got sick.

I know what you're thinking! "Eww, that's really disgusting cooking meatballs in a rusty old can that's been who knows where!"But,We're Peace Corps Volunteers!It's how we do Baby!

These snails are EVERYWHERE. And they are HUGE.It has been raining a lot lately, so these snails and huge earthworms are coming out more frequently then ever. You have to watch where ever you walk, because you most likely will step on one. I've seen many a cracked gooey shell the past few weeks. I was at school the other day when I passed by some of my 2nd grade girls playing with a snail. They would poke one of its antennae things, and it would shoot into its head. Slowly it would come back out, and the girls would poke it again. Although I am 23, I had fun poking the antennae as well.

Today was one of the nicest days so far this spring, and it was a perfect day to take English Club outside. Although not much English was actually spoken, the kids had a great time. We played Uno as usual, then also went down to the park. The park next to the school has several lakes, so we walked around those. We also played on the jungle gyms next to my school.

*Only 2 1/2 weeks of school left!

This is my neighbor, Boba Lida, taking her cow to the field this morning.Boba Lida is 74 years old.She is amazing, and I hope I can be as awesome as her when I'm 74.

Tulips are, so far, my favorite thing about spring in Moldova.They are EVERYWHERE, and they're beautiful. Yay for spring!

I woke up on Easter morning (not at 4 am like the rest of my family as they went to church; I slept in until 10...) and was told to wash myself with the red water next to the sink. A red dyed egg was placed in the water and is supposed to represent Christ. By washing your face and hands with this water, you are purifying yourself.

Knocking eggs is a tradition here in Moldova. One person hits their egg on someone else's egg, and whoever's egg doesn't break goes on to hit their egg on the next egg and so on. The last person to have their egg not broken is said to have luck for the rest of the year.

"Easter of the Dead" was celebrated the Sunday after the first Easter. The Saturday before, my host family and I went up north to a small village in Ukraine where my host dad's family is from. We met up with his sister and her husband, then went to the cemetery. First the priest and some men carrying flags and crosses walked the outer part of the cemetery singing. People threw small hand towels on the crosses and they would be blessed. Next we went to my host dad's parents' and grandmother's grave. Host mama and the sister began placing snacks, towels, and Easter cakes (as well as t-shirts, slippers, and candles) in front of the graves. I asked my host mama why they were doing this, and she said it was all for the people who are in the after life in case they don't have this stuff there with them. We waited for a couple hours at our little spot, while eating placenta and drinking house wine. Eventually the priest came by with the cross-holding guys and they all started singing. The priest said names people had written on slips of paper, then threw Holy Water all over. While he was doing this, we were all down on the ground raising the baked goods and t-shirts up and down. As soon as the priest was done, we were free to go. We gave out our little place mat things to other friends and family who were around us, and they gave us some in return. I ended up with a small basket filled with candy.

The next day we went to Badragii Vechi, the village where the host grandparents live. We went to the cemetery there where the host grandpa's mother is. The same thing happened again as in the first cemetery. The priest went around with the cross holding men singing, then started at one end of the cemetery and went to the next blessing people with Holy Water. I knew more people who were gathered at this cemetery, so I went around and talked to a bunch of people. As I talked, everyone was eager to have me sample their house wine. And sample I did! They also gave me their memorial place mat things, and I ended up with about 15 washcloths, 3 coffee cups, and countless amounts of candy and biscuits. After the cemetery, we went to the grandpa's house and had a big meal with a bunch of family members I'd never met before. We ended up getting home at around 5:30, at which time I went to bed and didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning.

It's been almost 10 months now that I've been in Moldova; April 10th will mark the date officially.

Before joining the Peace Corps, I had what I think of as very stereotypical visions of what I would be doing in my mind. I imagined I would be living in a grass hut somewhere sleeping on a dirt floor and walking 3 miles to the nearest well to bucket bathe everyday. Wow was that incorrect.

In talking to other volunteers in that are here in Moldova and even to my sitemates here in Edinet, I have learned that I have life pretty easy in comparison with others. I live in one of the nicer houses in my town. Also, I live in a town, straight up. I really admire my fellow volunteers who live in villages and have adapted to that lifestyle more easily than I think I could have. They really do have to go to the well to fetch water in order to take bucket baths. Whereas myself, I never have to worry about that because I know that my house will always have warm running water. My bedroom is nicer than the room I had in my little apartment back in America. One of my biggest worries is that I'm not allowed to go #2 in the inside bathroom, so I have to go outside to the outhouse. (I guess that's not really a worry, but more of an annoyance.)

I'm in the middle of a book Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (For a Year) By an Ocean , in which is written a series of letters from one girl in the Peace Corps to her friend in New York. Some of her stories are just incredible. This is another girl I admire.

I was talking to one of my good friends who is a volunteer in the next village over. She said she was talking to her mom back home in America and was describing our host families. She said my mom is "posh" (in a good way!) and that I dress nicer here than I did back home. Holy man that is so true. I didn't really realize it until she said it. Moldova has really changed me in regards to appearance. At home, I would more often than not leave the house wearing sweatpants and no make-up. Oh man if I even try to leave the house like that here! At first, I didn't care much, but now there's no way I would want to. Even if I'm running out to meet my sitemates for a drink or running to the piata on a Saturday afternoon, I put on some make-up and my dangly earrings. In America where I was strictly a flat shoe girl, not anymore! I was on a mission last weekend searching every store in my town for a pair of black high heels. (Didn't find any except for a pair that was 700 Lei = $65ish, too expensive indeed!!) (While writing this, I am suffering from blisters on both ankles from a new pair of purple heels. All for beauty, yes?) It's interesting because in the schools, most of the students dress nicer than the teachers! So it's my everyday mission to be stylish and fashionable, yet respectable looking like a teacher. (Teachers find it necessary to comment on my clothes everyday, and I have been told I look more "European." That's good, yes?) Moldovans really put a big effort on looking good and being "frumos." Frumos is a word all volunteers have become familiar with. Literally it translates to beautiful, although it can be used in any situation. (I have found myself uttering it when talking to mom on the phone in America, and then attempting to explain.)

Everyone in Moldova is married. There are so many good looking guys, and they are all married! I met a family the other day who had a very attractive son. I was digging him, so I casually asked how old he was. 22. Nice! Having just turned 23 myself this was a good answer. Then I was told that he doesn't live at home but lives in an apartment nearby with his wife whom he married when he was 19. Bummer. This turns out to be the situation quite often. Bummer again.

People constantly ask me, "Do you like Moldova?" I always reply that Moldova is interesting. And that's the truth. I don't like Moldova, but I don't not like Moldova. I don't want to find a barbat (man) and live here for the rest of my life, as many have suggested I do so, but at the same time, I don't want to go home tomorrow. Life here really shows me how easy I had it in the States. Moldovans are tough, maybe because they've had tough lives, or maybe that's just the way they are. Either way, I do know that I wanna be rocking it like the 70 year old babas (old ladies) that live here. They are super strong and amazing. My 67 year old neighbor has been raising her granddaughter single handed since the girl was 8 months old, and now she's 11. She takes the cow to pasture everyday and brings us milk every night. She rocks.

For those of you who know me, I'm sure you were skeptical upon reading the title of this post. But yes, I have taken up jogging in Moldova. I jogged several times last fall but then it was snowy, and I stopped. Since the whether is amazing again, I decided today would be a good day to start up once again. I put on some jogging gear, created a mix on my ipod, and set out.

"Sunflower Field Mix" (Original name for the mix, yes, I know)

1. Friends - Band of Skulls

2. I Gotta Feelin - The Black Eyed Peas

3. Be Gentle With Me - The Boy Least Likely To

4. If You Seek Amy - Britney Spears

5. 3 - Britney Spears

6. Bruises - Chairlift

7. Coconut Skins - Damien Rice

8. This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race - Fall Out Boy

9. Mushaboom (Remix) - Feist

10. Sea Lion Woman - Feist

11. Rehab - Cast from tv show Glee

12. B*****s from the Milky Way - Heatbox (awesome song; check it out!!)

13. Don't Stop Believing - Journey

14. Bang! Bang! - The Knux

15. Sabes - Korekt featuring Rafaga

16. Bad Romance - Lady GaGa

17. F**k You - LIly Allen

18. Mama Do - Pixie Lott

19. Another One Bites the Dust - Queen

20. Pot Kettle Black - Tilly & the Wall

Jogging went well. Didn't die, so that's a good sign. Hopefully I'll be motivated enough to jog on Thursday...

Birthdays in Moldova are pretty swell. I woke up in the morning on March 12th, rather tired as I had stayed up all night watching movies, and started putting on make up in the bathroom. Host mama comes in and presents me with a cadou (present) and begins the Moldovan speech. Now, some people may say the Moldovan speech is a bit over the top. I agree, but I think it rocks! It goes something like this:"Iti doresc multi ani inainte, multa fericire, sanatate, rabdare, un barbat adeverat, si o casa plin de copii!"(Thank you Dan for my birthday speech!)Translated, this means:"I wish you many years ahead, much happyness, health, patience, a good man, and a house full of children!"This is just a short speech in comparison to the regular Moldovan Speech. So Mama gives me my cadou of a necklace and earrings, and I'm off to school. My first class of the day discovers it's my birthday, and decides to somewhat behave as I teach a lesson on telling time, followed by a discussion of how cell phones make life easier. Next is my 7th form class. Two girls grab me and won't let me go into the classroom for a few minutes, then finally they let me in. This is what I see:The kids all join in a chorus of "Happy Birthday" while one girl brings me a piece of cake complete with 3 lit candles. I was so excited! We then had a 10 minute photo session in which every girl wanted to take a picture alone with me.

After school, I joined Roy and Adriana at our favorite bar/hang out, "Arby's." (We don't really know what the real name of this place is, but the lady who owns and runs it is Russain and speaks only Russian, so we originally called it the "Russian Bar." That was eventually shortened to the "RB," then Roy changed it to "Arby's.")We hung out there for a while when Roy had to leave but Amanda joined! We then moved to Vlados, a restaurant nearby. We stayed there for an hour, then moved to another favorite place, the Greek Restaurant. This restaurant is owned by a Moldovan lady and her Greek husband. They are absolutely wonderful people, and their food is amazing! My friend Roma joined us at the Greek Restaurant and we stayed there for a few hours. We were served a delicious jello type cake with cookies in it. My cake had a rose on top!

After the Greek Restaurant, we moved back to Arby's and stayed there for the rest of the night.

The next day, my family and I had a supper where Mama made two of my favorite salads and a special birthday cake. I got several more Moldovan toasts followed by shots of vodka and house wine.

Not a bad birthday in Moldova!

Dragobete is a Romanian holiday similar to Valentine's Day. It is celebrated on February 24th. The older kids at my school put on a Dragobete Concert. The show began with a skit preformed by some of the kids in traditional Moldovan dress. After was a competition between several "couples" from grades 11, 10, and 9. The competition was basically which couple was the cutest and most romantic. They had different competitions such as dancing, poetry, and confessions of love. The 11th grade boy above took his "love" on stage and confessed his undieing love for her with 1st grade angels in the back holding candles.



The Milestii Mici Winery is really a site to be seen when in Moldova. I went last week during Spring Vacation along with 10 other volunteers. We toured the cellar, which holds the Guinness World Record for largest wine cellar in the world. It is 55 kilometers long and holds millions of dollars of bottles of wine. While there we saw the cellar's most expensive wine which was made in 1975 and costs $3,000 a bottle. After the tour, we had a wine tasting in which we sampled 5 different wines, 2 white and 3 red. Then we chose our favorite wine and had unlimited refills while we ate a meal of chicken, potatoes, and salad. It was very tasty. We also received 2 bottles of wine to take home.



Today is "8 Martie" which literally means the 8th of March. It is National Woman's Day in Moldova, and it is a huge deal. It is similar to Mother's Day in America, however nobody works and there is no school. The men give all the ladies flowers, and everybody calls everybody to wish them happiness and love. When I woke up I had a flower next to my bed from a neighbor girl, and then I also received a bouquet of flowers from my host dad. Not only is it 8 Martie, but today is also my host mother's birthday. So it was double the holiday. As I have previously written about birthdays, you know what I am talking about. We were up late last night preparing different types of foods and up early this morning continuing to prepare. Originally the meal was set to start at noon, but then it changed to 1:30/2:00. Because this is Moldova, people didn't show up until about 2:00, so we ate at 3:00. My host mother prepared a fish which is apparently very complicated to make. She cut open the fish, took everything out, cooked the meat in the fish, took out the meat and separated it from the bones, grinded the fish meat with onions and other condiments, put the meat back in the fish, boiled the fish, and then baked it for several hours. As I said, this was a very complicated process, and everyone was really impressed when they saw the fish on our table. All in all we had about 25 people over, and as of right now at 11:18 at night, there are still people over drinking their vodka shots and kids running around the house.



Last week was Spring Vacation, and it was super fun. The first three days of vacation, the English Education volunteers had a seminar about Project Development in Chisinau. It was pretty interesting. After that, I stayed in Chisinau at an apartment with several Health Volunteers. We had lots of fun, and it was a good break. (That's right, we did karaoke to Backstreet Boys! The Moldovans loved it!)It was really beautiful and turning into spring with no snow on the ground. Then late last week, it started snowing again. At first it was little flakes, then they turned big and did not melt away. Now, there is once again snow and ice on the ground. Ferecita 8 Martie! Multe dragoste si sucess!

2 day Language Training was earlier last week in Balti, about an hour south of my town. It was fun to catch up with some volunteers who I don't normally get to see, plus I got to see the boyfriend who is currently in Balti for the army. The language sessions were pretty intense. We discussed problems our communities are having, what we think the communities could do to solve the problems, and what we think we could do as Peace Corps Volunteers to help solve the problems. We also discussed past vacations and future vacation plans. As I (and the other English Education volunteers) have training during Spring Break, I have no vacations planned.

English Club is going well. Unfortunately not as many students are coming to the older group club days, but the younger group is stronger than ever! 2 weeks ago we talked about Valentine's Day and made Valentine's for each other. And of course don't forget about Uno. One of the students had his mom pick up a pack of Uno cards when she went to Chisinau! (Not sure if they actually sell Uno here, but oh well!) This picture signifies Moldova. These are some of my 9th form boys sitting on the side during a 9th form sport competition. 9c vs. 9d Sport Competition: Lots of different relays were created by the physical education teacher as part of an open lesson. The event began with an 11th form student running around the gym carrying a torch. The director of the school as well as other teachers were the official judges. We even had cheerleaders, a hip-hop dance group, and ballroom dancing during mid-competition breaks. In the end, the teams tied with 78 points each. Great activity!

Oh, please don't forget the mid-game Hora! Soon after this photo was taken I was pulled in to dance with the girls.

Today the 3rd graders put on a "Martisor" celebration which is a celebration that takes place on the 1st of March celebrating the arrival of Spring. They all dressed up in red and white, the official Martisor colors, and sang and danced. At the end, each student gave a teacher a little card with a Martisor poem on it and a pin that you're supposed to wear to bring good luck. To the displeasure of a little girl, another boy got to me first and gave me the card and pin. She cried and gave me her card and pin at the end anyway. *I had a very "teacher" moment during this concert. I was standing in the back supervising my 9th formers (I was supposed to be teaching them an English lesson, but I was also supposed to be at the concert since these are my kids, so I brought the 9th formers to the concert. They were not happy with me for "dragging" them along...) and I felt very teacherly. They were telling jokes and making fun of the 3rd formers, and I would give the "teacher-look" (yes, you know that look!) and they would stop until I turned around again. For some reason, I just felt like a real teacher at this point.

English Club! My partner, Natalia, and I started our English Clubs in January. We have two separate groups: one for grades 2 - 5 and another one for grades 5 - 9. At each of our meetings we drink juice and eat cookies and other goodies. We talk in English and sing songs. UNO is a big hit with all the kids!! We incorporate English into by making them say the number and color of the card they are putting down. For the older group, we plan on analyzing songs and their lyrics as well as other activities. For the younger group, we plan on simply singing songs and playing games. Natalia taught the younger group a song about kitties sitting on a bench, and they got really into it and did actions. The names of the clubs were serious business! Everybody came up with names, and then we voted between all the names. The older group is called "Mr. Sketch and the English Fans." One boy came up with Mr. Sketch from the scented markers we were using, and another girl came up with English Fans. Mr. Sketch had more votes, but we decided there should be something related to English in our title. The younger group decided on "English City". This was after some serious debate between "Copybook", "Babysitter", and "Card Club". Thankfully, English City won out.

Beautiful view walking through the park.

Old New Year's January 14th: My partner teacher/ Best Moldovan Friend Natalia, her daughter, and her aunt

Hram - I guess you could compare this to the city's birthday. The entire town shuts down including schools (another day off!) and everyone parties. I went to a masa/dinner at Natalia's house, then came home for another one. After the masa at my house, we went to the city center where a huge concert was taking place. The entire town was there, and everyone was dancing. After the concert ended at around 10:30, we went to another masa at a family friend's house where everyone did karaoke and of course ate, ate, and ate.

Moldovan friends at Hram!

Host mama and me at Hram

Side view of the concert. I guess this is a famous Moldovan band, but not sure who they are. Everyone was dancing and singing to them.

Host brother Costel with our cat Thomas.

Goal Number 2 of Peace Corps

Help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.I figure a good way to help accomplish this goal is to serve Moldovans with tasty American food and snacks.

Stove Top Stuffing: Had sent from home by Shawn & Natalie for Thanksgiving. Nobody liked it, so I ate it all. (-1)Chili: made from scratch with help from chili seasoning packet sent from mom. Family liked it but thought it was too spicy. Interesting moment trying to figure out how to say ground beef in Romanian at the grocery store. (0)Flavored Sunflower Seeds (BBQ and Ranch): sent from Grandma and brought to partner teacher's house. Her and her daughters LOVED them (+1)Deviled Eggs: family loved them. (+1)Homemade Mom Salsa: made and sent by mom. Initially family did not like it with tortilla chips, but then host dad put it on bread and all loved it. Also mixed it into a grain oatmeal-like dish. (+1)Mocha Chai Tea Latte Mix: Sent from Bob and Carol, Host dad and brother LOVE it, mom and sister think it tastes like cleaning product (0)Reeses Peanut Butter Cups: Really, who doesn't love these?? But all are confused by brown paper wrapper around actual chocolate. (+1)

Total: +3, 50%

I best be cookin' some more!

Winter Break was spent in Budapest. It was a wonderful 7 day vacation spent with several other volunteers. We walked around the entire city I'm sure and visited many sites. We saw several churches and the Parliament building, as seen in the photos above. We also went to a castle and toured the caves beneath it. The Grand Market Hall had many different stalls filled with foods and touristy things. The best part by far was all the delicious food we ate! We stopped at a Mexican restaurant called "Iguanas" where I enjoyed chips and salsa and a Dos Equis!We ate at several pubs where I ate the most amazing cheeseburger ever and some barbeque chicken wings. Of course I can't forget the coffee shops. We went to about 5 different shops throughout the course of the vacation where I ordered Chai Tea Lattes. Very tasty indeed! We stayed in a hostel which was great. I had never stayed in a hostel before, and I had the vision from the movies "Hostel", but it was quite the contrary. The host in the hostel was amazing and cooked us traditional foods and also gave us directions and tips for the best places to go. Everyday we were up early exploring the city. Although it was a great vacation and Budapest is wonderful, I was really glad to arrive back in Moldova, and even moreso to sleep in my own couch-bed in Edinet.

Set up the Christmas Tree with the family. On Christmas Day, December 25th, we went to the grandparents' in the village. We ate some tasty food. Following supper was a Christmas Concert put on by the 3 younger kids which consisted of songs and poems.

It was odd having to work on Christmas Eve, but it was really fun to be at school on that day. There were no lessons taught, and every class pretty much had a party. This is my second grade class. The girls all dressed up in their fancy dresses and danced around the classroom in a big circle. After their party, they went home. Later that night at school was a concert put on by the 8th through 11th graders.



Christmas Eve I went to a birthday party in Balti with my tutor and her daughter. We ate and drank much and danced even more. It was a great celebration on Christmas Eve! My tutor, Luminita, is pretty much my second mom here in Moldova!

It is winter in Moldova, and I love it. It isn't the nasty freezing cold winter like back home, but instead it's a "nice" winter, if there can be such a thing. I'm used to the cold, and it's much colder back home, so this is really just a good ol' winter.

I bought some Moldovan boots that are high heeled and go up mid-calf; nothing I would ever wear back home for winter, as I would be afraid I would slip on ice and break my ankles.

The first pair of boots I bought here ended up being for men.

"You cannot wear those unless you are a man or a bunica (grandma.)" my host mother told me, "When you are 70, then you can wear them. Until then you are a lady."

Sadly I returned my men's leather, ankle height, fur lined boots.

Needless to say, mama was much happier when I came home with boots that were intended for wear by ladies.

I also have my winter coat from home that is working wonderfully,

but host mama is convinced her fur coat is warmer.

I wore my big deerskin chopper mittens to my tutor today; that's the last time I'll be doing that. "What are those things on your hands?" she asked me

To which I replied, "Mittens."

She said "They are very ugly."

I said, "Yes but they are super warm."

"It doesn't matter," she said "because they are ugly."

Summary: Fashion over Function

We finally got snow! Granted, it's only a little bit of snow, but it's still snow! I didn't realize how much I actually like snow and want snow until it was the middle of December and there wasn't any!

I was thinking, and one of the things I like most about Moldova is how hospitable people are when they have guests in their home. For example, when ladies enter into a house, the hostess immediately gives them slippers to wear around the house because she doesn't want their feet to get cold. If a celebration is occurring such as a birthday, the hospitality is ridiculous! Glasses are never empty, whether they are filled with wine, cognac, vodka, or simply juice. And keep in mind, it's usually wine or juice brought from the cellar for this particular occasion. I learned that in my house, we don't drink the compot (boiled fruits and water forming a juice) unless it's a masa. If you're at a house and there's not a masa, you better be ready to eat regardless. Every time I got to my partner's house on Tuesdays and Thursdays to plan, her mom whips out a delicious meal for us. I also tutor some girls with their English, and after every tutoring session, their mother sets the table with little sandwiches and vodka.

Summary: People in Moldova are really great hosts.

*Entertainment Weekly Magazine delivered weekly

*Driving my car

*Speaking English to people who know English

*Squirt

*Christmas music everywhere

*Chinese food

*Movie theaters

*Being an hour drive away from home

*Wearing practical shoes versus fashionable shoes

*Being a block away from a gas station in case of snack emergencies

*Ceasars (the drink, duh!)

*Buffalo Wild Wings

*Shopping clearance section at Wal-Mart

*Target

*Drinking water from the tap

*Snow

*My dvd collection

*Hockey games

*Holiday decorations

*Thanksgiving

*Mom food

*42 cent postage (versus 6,30 Lei to America)

*Moxie Java (not working there, only getting free drinks!)

*Living alone in my own apartment

There's a lot more I could add to this list, but as usual I'm using this post as a way to procrastinate doing other stuff.

I didn't add any people, friends, or family because this list would then be 4 pages long. You know who you are! I miss you alllllll so much!!!

*Finally did find a Bloody Mary in Chisinau... 40 Lei later and I was satisfied, mostly. Apparently Clamato Juice is not popular in Europe. Can't imagine why...

We've been having a lot of masas lately. Masas are basically huge dinner parties. Last weekend was my host sister's 18th birthday. We had a bunch of relatives over, and we celebrated until quite late at night. As usual since it was a Moldovan party, we ate and ate, and drank even more. My favorite dish, besides the sarmales, is a salad made of mayonnaise, chicken breast, cheese, and dried bread crumbs. It sounds too simple, and it is, but it's so dang tasty! Last night we had another masa, this time for my host sister's friends from school. My host parents left, so I stayed to chaperon (although they didn't put it that way. I was "getting to know her friends," which was fine anyway.) The first course was served at around 4:30, the second at about 7:00, desserts followed at 10:00, and a second round of desserts at 10:30. I came home tonight from planning with my partner and another masa was taking place. My family likes to party!

My partner teacher/best friend in Moldova is rockin. She's probably one of the coolest people in Moldova, and she has by far the cutest kids. This is them in the picture above, Nastea and Catea, giving me a make-over. Every Tuesday and Thursday after school, Natalia, my partner, and I go to her house to hang out and eat before we tutor some girls together at their house. Throughout these times, I've gotten to be fairly close with her family, including her mother and father who she lives with, and her husband. I've helped her mother make colţunaş, which is basically a type of Ravioli with either a cheese or potato mixture in it.

I met a really cool kid, Roma, who is a Moldovan high school senior that did a foreign exchange program with the United States for a year. Last year he was in Colorado for a year, and now because of that, he speaks the best English of any Moldovan I know. He uses phrases like:

"Oh my God," "You know, like," and "I fricken' love it."

Totally American and I love it!

Anyway, he is in class with my host sister, and from her he got my number and called me to come speak about education in America to a youth group he is in called SALVE. This group is amazing and I hope I can become a part of it within my time here in Moldova. It's a group that does peer mentoring for youth and young families. They teach about AIDS/HIV, Tuberculiosis, and other stuff which I must find out! They also give out free condoms which is an awesome thing because safe sex is not particulary concentrated upon in this area. The picture above is of me and some of the kids in the group. Like I said, I hope I can work with them in the future, and I will update if I do!

Thanksgiving was three days ago, and I was here in Moldova. It was a particular frustrating day because I wasn't home with my family eating turkey and having the day off. Instead, I was here in Moldova teaching like it's a normal day. I'd never really been thankful for Thanksgiving when I was in the states, but being here, I realize I really am truely thankful for it. It's a time when I can be with my family! However, my host family here did a great job of making me feel good. Someone from home sent some boxes of Stove Top Stuffing which I made for my host family, and we had leftover turkey from my host sister's birthday party. Along with that, we had rooster jelly (which is as gross as it sounds... chicken boiled in water for 4 hours, taken out to be chilled, at which point the water turns into a jello that tastes like chicken noodle soup, and it's cold. Gross.) and pickled tomatoes (which I have grown to love!) And of course don't forget the house wine! Mmm tasty!

In true Thanksgiving fashion, I am thankful for:

*awesome family and friends back home who supported me when I told them I was joining the Peace Corps, and continue to support me to this day

*emails, letters, and packages. Even if you think the email is stupid, it's not! It really makes me happy!

*a great program manager here in Moldova who has my back when times are tough

*Makoto for burning me dvd's of UND hockey games and Mom for sending them

*a partner teacher who actually wants to work with me, enjoys working with me, and can speak English!

*Sally for teaching me to knit; Moldovans think I'm so cool because I can knit!

*Mom, because she is amazing and always calls me back even though it's super expensive, because she sends me packages with dvd's, snacks, home-made salsa, and other important necessities that I can't buy here in Moldova (you know what I'm talking about, yes mom?) because she sits on the phone (still expensive) while I cry about hating Moldova for a half hour then call back the next day about how I love it, and because she's my rock. Without her, I wouldn't be here.

These are some of the houses in my city.

So much for the stereotypical view of Peace Corps and living in grass huts in Africa...

I've been watching a lot of movies and tv shows. I've discovered downloading is NOT illegal in Europe, so I've been going to town watching all sorts of movies. I suppose I should be doing something more constructive instead of watching shows, such as working on lesson plans or maybe even knitting, but hey, I dig movies! So, let's discuss some of the things I've been watching thus far:

Heroes

Apparently the writers of this once awesome show have forgotten what their jobs are. Now instead of discovering new heroes with differing capabilities, we are reduced to watching someone playing the piano to see colors for five minutes. Not exciting. Now don't get me wrong, this season isn't entirely bad; I'm digging that we are meeting the "family" with all the powers, but I don't care about the deaf lady who sees colors. It was cool the first time, but really, gata! Also, Hiro cannot die. If that's going to happen, I'm done.

Grey's Anatomy

I'm glad Izzie is gone. I hope she doesn't come back. I'm sick of her always wining and complaining, and really, trying to seduce your husband with "I miss George"...? Not the brightest idea sweetheart. I didn't see last week's episode, but I read about it online. Didn't sound like anything too exciting happened. McDreamy is a stud; McSteamy is even more of a stud. Bailey rocks, and I don't like Meredith's laugh.

Flash Forward

A new show that my aunt Liz recommended to me. It's honestly not very good, the writing is bad, and most of the acting sucks. However, for some reason I'm hooked! I'm looking forward to the end and finding out why exactly the blackout happened. Also, super pumped that Charlie from Lost is in it. Read online about the show, and people were super upset about the lesbian kiss scene. Really, get over it.

Flowers in the Attic -movie, 1987

I was reading an article online Top 10 Flims That Traumatized Your Childhood and this movie came up. Luckily, the entire movie is in segments on Youtube, so I watched it tonight without having to wait for my internet to download it. I watched it along with my 6 year old host brother who luckily does not understand any English to realize what the movie was actually about. He got the point that it was about a mean grandma. This movie was absolutely ridiculous, but not a terrible way to spend an hour.

300

This is one of my personal favorites I brought with me from home on dvd. Watched it with Adriana last week. It's obviously a pretty bloody movie, but it's so beautifully done that it really doesn't matter. The next day after watching it on my computer, it was on tv here in Moldova in Russian. Even in Russian it is awesome. One of my favorite scenes is when the queen stabs the guy in the conference thing. She does it like it's nobody's buisiness.

Princess Bride

It's a classic! If you haven't seen it, stop reading this blog right now and watch it.

*Stuff I want to see:

-The Fringe (Adriana says it's a "must see")

-Zombieland

-Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (I already saw this, but it was a badly downloaded copy)

Any suggestions for other shows I should watch? Let me know!

Host dad's birthday was yesterday. We had a huge celebration for him with lots of guests and even more food. And of course don't forget the continuous shots of cognac. We started the meal with three different types of salads, fried peppers, vegetable platters, and much more. After that, the roasted duck was brought out, followed by rabbit. Rabbit is surprisingly so tasty! Next came the sarmale. Oh how I love sarmale. Sarmale consists of a mixture of rice, meat, and carrots wrapped in cabbage leaves cooked in some sort of sauce. Definitely my favorite Moldovan food thus far. After sarmale, we took an hour pause to prepare for the desserts, coffee, and tea. There were two different types of cakes, a chocolate one that almost tasted like cheesecake and a poppyseed/nut cake. Also for dessert was clatita, which is similar to the thin pastry thing that crepes are made out of. They are fried and remind me of pancakes. With the clatita was a cream sauce that had coffee grounds mixed in. So tasty!

I came home tonight, and it turned out we were having yet another party for my dad with different guests. The meal consisted of the leftovers from last night, but there was also a salad brought by some of the guests which was made of potatoes, cheese, and some sort of fish. Not very tasty, but I don't like fish, so that's probably why. I ate a lot again tonight, and had lots of cognac shots to go along with it.

As I'm typing this, I'm extremely exhausted and ready for bed. It's only 10:54, but I was up super late last night, and today was quite an eventful day at school. I had a bonding time with my 6th grade class which I teach by myself. I realized that they really don't understand anything I ever say in English, so we had a discussion on what they want and expect from my class. At the end, we created the slogan for ourselves, "Noi sintem ca familie unita!" --> We are like a united family! Hopefully this will make my students feel more comfortable with everything and make them more excited about learning English.

A few weeks ago was National European Language Day, so all the language teachers at my school did a presentation on their language in their language. I did a presentation about English. I had a lot of pictures on my powerpoint, and when the kids saw the pictures of the English Football Clubs, they started cheering and clapping. So that was fun.

A week ago was "Day of the Teacher" which was a European national celebration for teachers. The first two lessons of the day were taught by students, while the teachers all hung out in the teacher's lounge eating, drinking, and dancing. And when I say drinking, I mean there was not only juice and water, but cognac and wine as well. (Keep in mind this is at 9:00 in the morning!) It was really cool because all of us teachers danced the Hora, which is the traditional Moldovan dance, around the teachers' lounge holding hands and such. Then some of the older guy teachers and I danced. *Picture above* After the first two lessons, we all went into the festivity hall where the students put on a concert for us. They also gave lots of gifts which included roses, boxes of chocolates, and photo albums. (Not sure why photo albums, but it was cool anyway.) After that, all the teachers in my district came to the "Casa de Cultura" which is like a big festivity hall. There was a long ceremony with awards given out followed by some famous Moldovan singers.

Today I went to a family friend's birthday party with my family. It was quite fun. I've learned that in Moldova at celebrations, there are usually at least three courses of food. There was the first course, in which all the food was placed on the table when we arrived: fried chicken, several different salads, eggplant, tomatoes, and of course bread bread bread. I paced myself knowing there would be more to come, but I just couldn't stop with the potato salad thing. Then came out the fried chicken wings. The host put the plate in my face, so I had to take one. You cannot say no in Moldova... Course number three was a roasted goose with mushrooms and carrots. Quite tasty but surprisingly really bony. I went to town on those mushrooms. Next was another meat that was like a meatball with cheese in it. Really good - I had two. Keep in mind that throughout this whole thing, the birthday girl's dad was going around pouring shot after shot vodka and cognac. Finally came dessert with coffee, tea, and two different types of cakes. I had a cup of coffee with a piece of cake. It was a chocolate cake with cherries soaked in cognac. Thinking the dinner was done, I began to relax a bit (foolish, I know) when out came another dessert. This one is apparently the hostess's specialty. It was a pancake like thin thing with a sweet cheese in the middle. Very tasty.

We Are RAM

(Roy, Adriana, Miranda)

I have internet, but for some reason my internet hates Blogger and Facebook. When I get these pages to work, they load very slowly and I don't have the time for it!

I've been super busy in my first month of school. I'm teaching 20 hours a week, having Romanian tutoring sessions Monday through Thursdays, and I'm tutoring a couple girls Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours each time. Tomorrow I'm supposedly meeting with a nun who speaks English but wants to learn how to speak better. That should be interesting.

I went to a wedding of an Irish guy I met. I was out with Roy and Adriana at a bar, and as I'm coming back from the bathroom, this eldery guy stops me. (oooh blogger just died on me, but luckily it saves periodically! I told you my internet hates Blogger!) So he stops me and starts talking English to me. Roy and Adriana come over, and after a few rounds we discover he and his fiance, Ludmila, met online. He's from Ireland, and she's from here. She speaks Russian and Romanian; he doesn't speak either of these. So, her son is translating. I can't imagine the kinds of things he must have to translate between them... Eventually we part ways with him inviting us to his wedding. So last week, Roy and I went to the wedding (unfortunately Adriana couldn't come) and we ate and drank all night long.

Today I went to a birthday with my host family. We ate a bunch of food: fried meats and pancake things. I was full when to my surprise they brought out 2 chickens. So, I ate some chicken. I was super full and ready to be done, when they brought out sarmale. I LOVE sarmale, but I just couldn't do it. I was beyond full. Sarmale is a rice, carrot, and meat mixture in either cabbage or grape leaves. I love them. After that, they brought out 2 different kinds of cake. Keep in mind, this is a Moldovan celebration, so of course we were having quite a few shots during this whole thing, too.

Last Friday was "Day of European Languages" at my school. I had to give a presentation about English in English. About 5 people in the room of about 60 understood the presentation, so that's fun. It was for the 7th and 8th graders. I put a few facts about English on the slides with pictures of "English" stuff. They were especially excited about the slide with the English Football Club logos. That got some hollars and a round of applause. Oh how they love their football (soccer) here.

Finally watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Not nearly as awesome as I anticipated.

Going to Romania on November 20th to see the second Twilight movie, New Moon, with some other girls. Oh man I'm excited. I'm a dork, but how I love Edward Cullen :)

Planning a trip to Bucahrest, Romania, Sofia, Bulgaria, and Skopje, Macedonia for Christmas. Going with Adriana and another girl. Originally planned on going to Egypt, but it ended up being far more expensive than I anticipated. This should be a fun trip anyway!

Bought some mascara from a Russian company. The mascara is called "Freaking Amazing Mascara." Also in the catlogue were "Bootylicious Lip Gloss" and "I'm Naughty Mascara." The girl who sells for the company had no idea what these meant so I had to explain Freaking Amazing and Bootylicious...