Just about at the mid point in May, and I guess I can says its the beginning of the end. Only two more weeks of school left and then wrapping it up. Basically, I have been on cruise control that last week or so, mainly just going to where I have to be and trying to enjoy myself the most I can, while not letting much get to me. This coming week all we have is an exam to give to the students and thats it. No more lesson plans, no more meetings to create lesson plans. Just taking it day by day and doing what I have to do. Thus being said, its starting to hit me that I will be leaving shortly. Mainly, because I began to fill out my final paperwork and schedule my medical physicals and all the fun stuff. Kind of feels like it is harder to get out of the Peace Corps than to get in! But, I got alot done today and will be making some trips to the capital in the next two weeks. It is looking like I will be flying out June 3rd or 4th, but has to be before the new volunteers arrive and everything is mayhem. I am trying my best to stay motivated, but it is become harder and harder. Furthermore, seeing some of my friends here, for what maybe the last time ever, is also getting harder and harder. I find myself saying "Only, 2 more weeks" to people when they ask, and then I realize that I may never see them again. Its becoming a bit more difficult than I imagined.

In other news, I had the opprotunity to get to a "real" Moldovan wedding. My host mother's niece got married last weekened and it was a blast. Lots of photos are posted. Hours of dancing, eating and drinking. We didnt get home till 5 am and then went to the parents of the groom's house for more wine and soup the next day. Basically it was a two day party and I was dragging at school on Monday. It was great to meet lots of new people and relatives of my host mom.

But I know this one is short, but I am getting ansy. Comparable to when you are on a long vacation and actually find yourself wanting to be home. That's where I am. Hope this finds you all well. Love and miss you all, and hopefully see you in 3 weeks!!

Why hello again. Tis I, your friend/brother/son/newphew/grandson here in Moldova. I realized a few pretty important developments and other cool happenings have occured since the last time i wrote, so I figured I would let you in on them.

This past weekend, we regretfully said goodbye to a good friend Jill, who left to head back home and start her career in social work, so I wish her all the success in the world. Needless to say, we had a nice little send off party for her, which was a very good time. Upon arriving back in site, a big week was laid out. Being Earth Day, our after school club has been preparing a presentation for a 4th grade class. And by preparing, I mean 5 weeks of poster making, poetry writing, research, and general organization all revolving around environmental protection. We chose to focus mainly on water and air pollution and the effects on human health (sounds awfully close to the Master's program). Ths kids did a great job and a few administators were on hand as well. I am working to put the photos up. For all the headaches the last few weeks, trying to keep these kids on task, and the feeling of an immenent failure, the kids did great. We are planning on going to the school for children with disabilities next week to do the same presentation. Also, tomorrow we are planning to clean up the school grounds of trash, which there usually is alot everywhere.

Today also proved to be very eventful as well. Going into the day, Ifigured it would be just like any other Thursday, filled with lessons and my language tutoring. Well, a few changes were mixed in, which made it all the more fun. After the foutrh and final lesson (a thrilling one I must say about Hepatitis) my kids invited me to go to their next class of Physical Education. Usually, this time is spent with me taking a walk or reading alone trying to cool off from the kids driving me nuts. So, i headed out to the basketball court and scored almost 10291298 points. It wasnt even fair, but one kid was taller than me, so I had to play well. After the massacare, the kids invited me to their Biology Contest. This through me off a bit, not knowing exactly what they meant. Turns out, it was a poetry/essay contest in which the participants brought in their pets. Looking back on earlier in the day, I saw a girl with a dog in school and wondered what was going on and why no one didnt say anything to her. Turns out she won the contest. Kids brought in dogs, chickens, and maily cock-a-too type birds. But one kid had quite a story of his dove. He said his family collects them from different countries all around the world and they have 85 and this particular one is from Indonesia...?!?!?! I heard him say all this and I turned to the Bio teacher and asked for verification, making sure I didnt get the translation wrong, but its true. It was very cool to see some of my students engaged in something other than our usual setting.

In other news, I found out today that I landed a 2 year Graduate Assistantship at the University of Maryland. In short, I will work in the development and implementation of the new Global Health undergraduate program, while taking my Grad classes. Also, this means that I will only have to pay for 2 credits each semester at an in-state rate, while getting paid above and beyond it all. Seems, that I will end up making money, instead of more student loans, while getting a Masters. Things seem to be falling into place, and I am getting more and more excited about the next step in my life. Makes me want to run home now, but I still want to get as much out of Moldova as I can in the last month or so. Hope this finds you all well and healthy. Miss and love you all terribly.

" Human nature is not of itself vicious" - Thomas Paine

Salutations. I say last vacation because I have some news. For those who do not know, I have been accepted into Graduate School at the university of Maryland for Public Health with a concentration in Environmental Sciences and I am planning to be home in early June. So if you didnt know, now you do. Bravo!

The last week or so, I spent in Brasov Romania with a few good friends. Ahmad, Sinh, Leisel, and I went over there and stayed 5 or so nights in a hostel and took in some beautiful sights. Many photos are posted. It was an outstanding way to spend our Easter, and final, break from school before we make the final push through the end of May and summer. Only a few (7 or so) weeks left of school and then I will be packing it in. But, we spent our time mainly eating and drinking alot, while meeting some truely great people. The main attractions were The Black Church, which was built in 1211 by the original German settlers. It is an amazing Gothic cathedral, but unfortunatly we could not take photos inside. Its amazing how beautiful and classical this center peice of the town is. another day, we hikied up a pretty decent sized mountain and made it up the the Hollywood style Brasov sign (see photos) which took the better part of the day and our energy. It provided a stunning view of the entire town and the surrounding landscapes. We also made our way to Draculas or Bran Castle. This was a very touristy sort of place, but one of the spots we really wanted to see. Again, a beautiful structure and alot of history packed into a Gothic building. Plus, this was supposed to be the home of Vlad the Impailer, or the Romanian Prince who was the influence for Bran Stoker to write and create Dracula. Very cool.

One another note, today was the Memorial Easter, where basically we headed to the grave site of family memebers and had a picnic. We headed to the village where my host mother grew up outside of our big town. It was grea tto learn a bit more about my host mom and see some plaes close to her heart. We went to her parent's graves and had a great picnic, or course indulging in the hosue wine. We were there with 2 of my moms sisters, one of their husband, and my host moms grand kids. I really fell in love with this celebration for many reasons. One is having a picnic outside, I am always excited about. Also, the remeberence and reverence Moldovans have for their family, both alive and dead, really hit home with me. We had many toasts to our decesed family members. I had a "This is Moldova" moment as we were walking to the cemetary. Just the simple village, beautiful view as we walked, and the closeness and importance of the whole celebration impacted me deeply and will not soon leave my memories. Today, I really felt the culture of the people here, and i found myself dazing into my own world and deeply thinking and realizing that I really am in Moldova, and the impact of being here is way beyond anything i will ever teach in school or any work I will ever do here. Just by simply being here and engaging in the customs and traditions, while sharing American customs is what being here is really about. Its a shame that I will be ending this experience soon, especially after such a personal influential experience. It will be a few days before I can really wrap my mind aorund the thoughts swirling in my head. Hope this finds you all well and happy. i miss and love you all more and more each day.

"Life is about people" - My Host Mom, Ecaterina Rogojanu

We just put a Peep in the microwave, I filmed it, but I dont know if I can put the video on here. I shall try my best. Heres a photo to hold you over.

Hello again and hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of spring as much as I am. Its amazing how the weather affects my mood. Mainly, waking up for work and the sun is already rising always puts a little more pep in my step. It has been sunny and decently warm. Warm as in, if I do wash, it is able to dry in one day. Also, it has been good to leave the house for no reason at all and just stroll around or do some outside work. Nothing too crazy or exciting to report, however on Wednesday my host mom and I did alot of work in our yard to get ready for spring.

It all started pretty slowly, but quickly caught on like a snowball. Usually, I have things to do related to work on Wednesdays, but nothing to overly important or pressing. Thus being said, I was able to clear my regularly scheduled plans to lend a hand. We started by trimming the grape vines and clearing out the dead vines. Cutting them even shorter and putting them into a bag for a neighbor to burn for heat in her soba (a wood/coal burning stove for heat). After a wine break, my mom layed down the serious work plans for the day. This included moving dirt from out front garden into the back yard to level out the yard to plant grass. This proved to be a little more involved than I thought. We borrowed a wheel barrow from a neighbor which proved to be my saving grace. I would dig dirt from the front, wheel it around back, dump it, while my mom raked it level. This took up the majority of the day and a few more wine breaks were in order. After about 20-30 loads, we were finally covered. By now its getting late afternoon and we decide to put the seed down, water it, then plant some onions, radishes, and carrots for the summer. Basically it was like real live Farmville, and if my calculations are correct in 2 days I should have a few thousand gold coins. But all in all, we worked from about 10 am to 6 pm and I was sore for the next few days, but my mom was so excited that we got it all done. I earned my dinner.

In other news, my weekly shower total has improved 100% from 1 a week to 2. But, due to an unexpected turn of events, it currently stands at 0 because our water/house heating system doesnt turn on. The matienence phone call will be delivered tomorrow and hope they fix it. I had to put water on the stove for a bit in order to have warm water to shave today.

Our trip to Brasov is already this weekend and I am getting excited. Looking forward to getting away for a bit and see some cool castles and new things. Mainly Draculas Castle (bwahh), we wil be there for 5 or 6 days starting Friday night. So the next post will be more eventful, so stay tuned. Love and miss you all.

PS- I shaved my beard

This past weekend was set up the best thing since USA faced the USSR in the 1980 Olympics. With almost the same significance, just a mere 30 years separate these two monumental show downs between the two most powerful countries on Earth (substituting Russia for China, and then Moldova for Russia) and then you have it. The team from Raion Anenii Noi was slated to face the team of American Volunteers, but we felt we represented the best team possible from America so we went by Team USA or Team America. Is was the hottest ticket in town ill tell ya. The mayor was there and said a few words and a roaring crowd of 8-12 Moldovans and 2 Americans filled the Russian School of Alexandri Puskin and had to fight for seating. It was set before the game that out of bounds is if the ball hits the wall or a spectator or someone on the bench. With all the grey areas cleared up, the game was under way and what a game it was. Back and forth the whole game, the "refs" were questionable, but what can you do. Half time showed a slight advantage to Team America, but that was quickly dissolved when the third quarter got going. Dont get me wrong these kids were good, and at least two could dunk and they did, a few times each. Some had this overhead soccer throw in sort of shot, which you would think had no chance to go in, but they were. Back to the game, down a few going into the forth quarter was where the madness came into play. With seconds left and down by two, Pat from the Americans drives under the basket and hits Big Brady with a no look pass and a last second basket to tie the game and send into OT. Madness. OT begins, again the action is intense. A quick 4:15 goes by and the Americans find themselves ahead by two with 45 seconds left and a Moldovan on the foul line. Hits the first shot, misses the second. A rebound is pulled down by Brady and the game seems over if only the Americans can hold the ball and kill the final 40 seconds of the game, but wait. A miscue leads to a turn over and a easy lay up made by the Moldovans moving them ahead by 1 with seconds left. Inbound goes to the hottest shooter of the game, Pat, trys to shake the ever so tight Moldovan D for a buzzer beater, but alas all final efforts were proved fruitless and the Moldovans pull an upset of the ages (or at least I think). A great game and medals awarded to the "second place team" (not the losers) and a big masa ensued and all hostilities were soon forgotten after the first of many toasts and glasses of wine.

A few pictures are posted.

I yet again find myself relieved to be back at site, where I am able to relax and not feel like I am rushing eveywhere. The last few days have been a few of the better ones in a long while. Mainly becasue they didnt consist of school or work or anything of the like. Just a few of us taking some day trips to various places around Moldova. We started off by Jill, Sinh, and Amanda coming to visit me here in Ungheni. It was the first time for Sinh and Amanda, so we went out for a bit to show them the town. Wednesday, we all took off to the Capital to spend the rest of our vacation in an apartment and try and salvage the rest of the week. Thursday was a very memoral day.

We headed about a hour and a half drive out from the capital to a little, sleepy town resting in the valley of some tall ridges. I dont want to call them mountains, but they are some of the taller spots in Moldova. It was here, in Orhei Vechi (Orhei is the name of the town and Vechi means old) that we heard about some caves where people lived before the time of Christ. We made it out there and immediatley were taken by the beauty and peacefulness of this place. I decided to go for a little hike myslef and walked along the side of the ridge and taking some photos along the way. Also, I put photos of all of these adventures on my photo page. We were only there for about an hour, but it was just beautiful. A belltower and the villige church stood at the peak of one ridge. It was a bit chilly and fog was lingering over the town, which just added to the impression it laid upon me. If I picked one place to live in Moldova, I believe this would have been it. Peaceful, with a beautiful landscape played right into my heart.

Friday, a trip was set by an older volunteer to rent a mini bus and head to the largest wine celler in the world. Yes, I said world, right here in Moldova. It was a bit expensive to pay for the bus and tour, however it consisted of a guided tour, by someone who spoke English, 2 bottles of wine to take home, and a meal. So needless to say, I didnt want to pass up the opprotunity to see this, and since it was already organized, I just had to go along for the ride. A group of 12 of us piled into a bus and went out. Again, the cellers in Milestii Mici, are only a half hour ride or so out of the capital. A bus was a nessisty becasue the cellers run for 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) in total. In short, the celler was started as a limestone mine and from there converted into a wine making facility in the mid 1970s. The whole wine making process is contatined in these cellers and make many, many varieties of wine. However, under Mikai Gorbachov (former USSR President) a time of prohibition was established. The workers of this celler wanted to save some of the bottles, so a secret passage was built to save some of the wine, which now is the most expensive wine in the celler ($3000 a bottle). Just a total inside this secret room, we estimated to be in the $3-5 million range. In total, the cellers have many many many million bottles of wine and has been named by Guiness Book of World Records as the longest wine celler. After a tour of the cellers, we sat down to our tasting and meal. We sampled 6 wines, and we each chose our favorite to drink with the meal. After the meal, we packed back in the bus and went to the gift shop and then back to Chisinau.

And again, here I find myself with the rest of today and tomorrow is a National Holiday, Womens Day, so school will not be in session. I wanted to get back today, so I have time to relax and unwind a bit before the work starts again. As rough as Moldova looks on the outside sometimes, there are definatley some hidden gems here and the last few days, I was lucky enough to visit some of the beautiful places. Hope this finds you all well and happy. Oh, and it snowed again.

" [ ... ] when it suddenly occured to him that wealth, power, all the things that men put so much effort into building up and maintaining. if they have any value at all, are never worth more than the pleasure to be had by renouncing them." - Pierre from War and Peace

Well, knowing that I have not written in a while, I was planning until after today to report on all the Happenings here in Moldova. Well to get started, today was the 1st of March, which means only one things (well two) Martișor!!! and also it was my schools "birthday". So we had a big party/concert at school after lessons today, pictures are posted. Usually, we would have off this entire week for Spring Break ,but since our school had a second week off for swine flu, we have to make up the days. Thus being said, I taught today and have to teach tomorrow, while the rest of the Healthies are running around Moldova. Well back to the celebration today. I have heard varying accounts of the reason behind the celebration, one being with a dragon, but basically someone shead blood into the pure white snow and thus every March 1st women pin red and white bows onto men they adore. I got a few. So in the photos, that explains the Red/white bow decorations in the auditorium. Sometimes, people wear these pins the entire first week of March and even until April. It is a very different type of holiday and I was glad to be here for it.

This past weekend, I visited my friend Ahmad's village which a very cool time. He lives in the south east of Moldova, and I am in the north west. So it was good to see a different part of the country and meet different people. His host family was some of the nicest people I have met here, and I wish I could have stayed longer, but due to the change of schedule I was due back here today. We ate a great meal and sat around the table with different family members who stopped by and just relaxed. It makes me want to visit alot more people throughout the country, just to see how they are living.

The weather has finally begun to turn, and the sun is making its grand appearance again. It is unbelievable how much better I feel walking to school in the sunshine, instead of the cloudy darkness that we call winter here. I have been doing more laundry and showering more, since the water is warmer. That could be helping too. But all in all, I am beginning to come out of the dreariness of winter, and venturing out of the house for no reason at all. The snow is vanishing, but the mud is getting worse, so I dont know which evil is better. It seems that things are only looking up from here. A few days off, a few more weeks until Easter Break, then about one month left. Time really has been moving fast, and looking back on all that has happened here, it has been quite unique.

"Little darling, its been a long cold lonely winter." - The Beatles

Another week.......

Sometimes I forget to keep up on my blog and realize over a week has passed since I last wrote on here and wonder where the time goes. It hasnt been too eventful recently. The weather has warmed up a touch, but rains now instead of snow. So, now we not only have ice, but wet ice. Even better.

We just finished up a two day language training, which was actually pretty fun. And a great way to break up the monotony a bit. It consisted of Liz, Tara, my tutor Svetlana, and myself. Basically, we sat around from 10-4 and just talked about ourselves and different topics. It was great to get to know each other better, while working on our language and vocabulary. I volunatrily re-took our language test, just to see if any and how much improvement I have made in the 6 months at site. I feel that some progress has to be made, or at least with my confidence in speaking. We shall see.

I will be back at school as usual tomorrow and I ran into a few of my students outside of school and they want me to start an English Club, which I have been staunchly opposed to before, but relucatant ly agreed to try. This will take place Friday. I am not overly excited about it, mainly because I havent the slightest idea how to teach English, but it is something else to do. Plus, I will get to know my students a bit better outside of our usual class. I really enjoy seeing my kids outside of school, but it does not happen often since I live in such a big town, and I live far away from my school. So the kids in my neighborhood, attend a different school. This is both good and bad, but i think when the weather breaks, i will find some kids in school and set up some basketball or soccer games after school. I just really want to be outside again.

I am beginning to get more and more home sick, thinking of the things I usually do this time of year. But hopefully with the warm weather approaching, I will be busier and just more active than I have been. Plus, I really want to get back to running and to the weight room again. I think I will generally feel better. I have been slcking with new photos and I apologize. just havent been too much to take photos of.

Hard to believe, but we have our first spring break coming up in the first week of March. I have been looking forward to it for a few reasons. Mainly, it will start to be warmer out. Also, after this break, we have a month or so until our next break for Easter, then only about another month till school is out. I have been counting on the second half moving faster than the first and so far have been correct. But hope this finds you well, and not burried in snow. I love and miss you all.

These photos are from New Years with the carolers, I just found them. Ya Dig?!

Hope this finds you all healthy and happy, and most inportantly warm. Again, it is another chillly start to the week. Laying in bed i decided that I just didnt want to do anything today. So, I didnt. Well, I did go to the library, post office, and cleaned my room a bit, but anything work related I said no. The long string of cloudy, miserable days is taking its toll. Talking with my mom, she said that its a different winter than usual, because it has been so cold for so long. Spring cant come soon enough.

A friend of my mothers, also teaches health at a different high school than myself, asked me to come guest teach with her on Friday....Remember?? (see earlier post). Well, I went and I had a really good time. Maybe it was because they werent my usual bratty kids, or they were just interested in an American, or they were older than my usual bratty kids, or something else, but I had a great time teaching. I brought a lesson plan about HIV/AIDS which I prevously taught. Little did I know, the fellow teacher wasnt planning on teaching with me. I thought it was going to be a team effort, but turned into a solo act. So, I taught two 10th grade classes and one 6th grade class. With a pause in the middle. Turned out, she also teaches Russian, so I happily sat in on that lesson, while jotting down a few notes. Oh by the way, I am trying to teach myself Russian, which is hard, but why not.

This weekend was something new to share. We had a "prasnic", which is a big meal/meals in honour of someone who has passed away. In this case, it was my host mother's late husband Pavel. So, starting from Friday, my host mom, her daughter, and her sister were buzzing about the kitchen making tons of food for Saturday. I offered to help, but was only put to wine duty and the occasional run to the store. Early Saturday morning, people begin to arrive. One big meal was at 10 am. Mainly, close family to Pavel (his sisters, host moms sisters, grandkids...) which totalled around 13. After many shots of wine and cognac and a few hours, the first meal is concluded and people begin to leave. Next wave of people, only about 4 more, wandered in around 1 ish. These were ones who I would imagine were busy during the morning and couldnt make it. More food, more booze. Break time. The last meal was with some neighbors around 6 pm. More food, more booze, done! A big clean up effort that lasted a few more hours and I was whipped. I entertained my host moms grandkids with some thrilling games of Uno and I was done. Sunday morning, an early breakfast and then good bye to all. It was very nice to meet many more family members and experience this celebration. It was a long day, but very worth it. I think I just needed one extra day for this weekend. Love and miss you all.

"And any where I went after that, I was RUNNING!!!" - Forrest Gump

I dont think this snow will ever cease. It warms up (Im talking around 30 degress farenheht is warming up) and then snows again once the sun goes down. I dont think it will stick, but its unbelievable how relentless the winter is. Just wont give up, and I have the feeling we have alot more in store for us, no matter what Punxatowny Phil has to say. Well, nothing too new to report on this end. I was in the capital, Chișinau, again for a few friends brithday celebrations, and celebrating we did. Fun to see everyone again, but not in the Training Seminar style.

War and PEace is moving along. About 300 pages into it and feel i havent made a dent. But it is interesting, and just another task to accomplish i rekon. Well, I spoke to my host moms friend, who teaches health at a different school in town and she asked me to help her teach AIDS and HIV to her 10th graders. However, the only day that our schedules line up is on Friday, so I will be heading to a different school and teaching new, older kids. I am excited to get a chance to see how some of the older kids are, hopefully I can strike up some good dialoge with them, and get some useful and constructive information. Also, this gives me a chance to branch out a bit more and make some more contacts. Which is always helpful. I plan on inviting this new teacher to come and observere one or two of my regular classes, so she can maybe take some ideas back that she can use with her kids. Or make the connection between her and my partners, and maybe they can work together to improve Health Education on a broader level. Many different things can come out of this opprotunity, and we will see how it goes.

On a different note, this coming Saturday is the 3 year anniversary of the death of my host mothers husband. According to tradition, a big meal is prepared for friends and family ot join together in memory of the deceased. This is something a bit different, being such a personal event, so it should be interesting to be a part of. I had to back out of my usual bi-monthly meeting on the Volunteer Action Commitee due to this, which I am not to down about, being that I have been in the capital the last two weekends and I am planning on staying in site for a while. Take it easy and realx a bit. Hopefully, get through February quickly and we have the first week of March off for spring vacation. Something to look forward to. Hope all is well at home and in your lives, thinking of you all as usual. Love and miss you much.

”And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make” - The Beatles

Hello again, and I apologize for not keeping up on this the last few weeks, but things have been getting busy again. We just finished a 4 days training over this past weekend, which was very informative. It was based around developing community projects, which included grant writing. It was a jam packed 4 days, but it should prove to be useful in the future. Also, has gotten me excited to get some new projects under way.

However, the weather has become a heavy nuisance to anything I want to do. It is still snowy and icy, however the temperature has dropped tremendously, reaching a brisk -22 to -25 at night. This is around -10 farenheiht.. maybe? Not sure the exact conversion, but never the less, it is cold. The days do not get very warm, and it is still generally unconfortable to be outside for long periods of time. The being said, I go to school/medical center and hurry back. My house is warm, which is my saving grace. I did some wash the other day and was hanging it outside, and it was freezing in the bin before I could even get it up on the line. I have never felt this kind of cold before, and hopefully it will be over soon. We are all looking forward to spring emensely, hoping that the warm weather and sunshine, may refresh our morale. Or just bring us closer to the end of the school year.

Teaching has been getting smoother and smoother. Just the actual delivery of the lesson, and the kids being a bit more receptive to me, has really made those days fly by. In the beginning, just a 45 minute lecture was a night mare, now it seems there isnt enough time to accomplish what we plan for. Plus, the planning and colaboration time has been cut down, since the improvment of my language and just knowing each other better has helped.

It is hard to believe it is already close to February, and soon to be March. Just the thought of spring and sunshine sometimes is enough to get me going sometimes, but many mornings are a drag. A funny thing happened today. I got out of bed and was standing in my room gathering myself to get going, and the light bulb right above me blew out. So I remained standing there in the dark now (since its 630 am), debating if this was an ominous sign to stay in bed. Maybe it was my bad energy that flowed right into the bulb? Who knows. But it wasnt too bad of a day, bedsides being able to see my breath in the classroom today.

On a personal note, I began the undertaking of reading War and Peace. All 1350 pages of it. My host mom is proud of me saying its a Russian Classic, and she had to study it while growing up. In the USSR of course. However, it again brings me back to St. Petersburg in Russia, which i hope will be my next vacation destination. I am really enjoying the Russian history, and have read about the Seige of Leningrad during WWII, and have a few more books on the Tsars, which I plan to read after W & P. Well, hope all is well with everyone. Love and miss you all. Stay Warm!!!!

"Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us." - Leo Tolstoy

Hello all. I'm sure you have all been waiting with bated breath for my next blog post. I know I would. Well, I made it back and so did Lizzy, after trying to convince her to stay here with us, but did want to be too greedy. Well, the trip was absolutly amazing. We made it to Athens and the hotel with no problems what so ever and immediatly went out see the town. Basically, we had no plans and could do whatever we wanted. Everyday, we went for walks during the day just anywhere we felt like and found lots of nice little cafes for lunch and things to see. We spent alot of our time in the "old city" section becasue we found that to be the most interesting. We spent the nights walking around again, finding various places to stop for drinks along the way. Our only real plans was to go see the acropolis and the other monuments or archeological sites. They proved to be very interesting, and this is what I enjoyed the most. Besides the company of course. There are lots of photos posted on my web site, as well as on facebook. There was an open market, where we stopped and bought olives and pistachios. They had lots of dried fruit and nuts to buy. We also found a supermarket where we bought food, so we would try and not to spend tons of money eating out. Our hotel was in a nice location, walking distance to the old city, and close to the metro station. We also made it down to where the olypics were held in 2004 and saw all the pools, stadiums, and venues where the competitions were held. The food was great, weather was even better. Sunny and in the 60s everyday. Also, we went down to a marina/water front area on the Mediterranean Sea which was freezing cold, but we put our feet in. My favorite part of the trip was just our aimless walks through the city, with no particular destination. Those are the times that left the biggest impact on me. For New Years, we found out about a free, outdoor concert where they set off fireworks at midnight. It consisted of a group of drummers and violinists, with a mob of people. Midnight hit, and fireworks were set off. It was a great way to usher in the new year, and was perfect being with Lizzy. no other place I would have rather been at that point. We made it back to Moldova for a few days, so Lizzy met my host mother and got to see my town, which was something I wanted her to see, so she can understand firsthand how I am living. Back to Bucharest for her flight and then home for me. The last three or four days were really hectic moving back and forth from Bucharest to my town, but it was successful and the best trip I have ever had.

The time away from work and life in Moldova has definately made me very home sick and missing everyone more and more. Just the little taste of "Western life" has made me want to come home, but at the same time, has refreshed me a bit. We will see how this week goes, getting back into school and the work routine, but hopefully the next 6 months go by as fast or even faster till summer and maybe a visit home. Furthermore, I have realized how much I appriciate the loved ones that are so supporting and loving through my time here. And how much I need you all to keep pushing me through the low times, and also how much I love/need/want that speical blonde one as well.

I was walking through school today, and some youngster stopped to ask me if I saw moș craciun at our school. I said, wait a minute young man, but we all know moș craciun doenst come till later, its only december 22nd. He rebuted, He was in classroom 206. My response, your telling me hes in MY classroom?! I hurry/sprint knocking people out of the way, throw the door open with a bang, and sure enough, like the christmas spirit he is, has vanished............

That really didnt happen, but moș craciun (moș, pronounced "mosh" = old man, craciun = xmas) did visit classroom 206 with presents today! The presents.... an exam for my naughty children hahahahaha. It wasnt so bad, but I found out that my host mother has a santa costume, so i decided to wear it to school (pictures are definatly posted). The kids mostly laughed and asked if I had presents for them and I said yes. But really, I gave them an exam. Mind you, this was a surprise even for my partner teacher. But, this was all we had planned for the day, so after the exam we had about 20 minutes left of class, so the kids started telling me traditional moldovan customs during the holidays and such, and I in turn, told them of American xmas. Alot is the same, with the tree, and stockings but a few things differed.

1. The eastern othodox xmas is on Jan 7th, which is generally celebrated by more people, and new years is Jan 13th, but most celebrate December 31st.

2. Kids dress up in costumes and go door to door and say "orator" or poems, wishing health and happiness in the new year, for candy or money on new years. So in my pictures, the boys were saying the orators. Every single one is ended with a HEEEEYYYY, hey. Which I loved.

3. Christmas carols are sung, but generally all are about Jesus, not jingle bells. The girls sang those to me.

4. There is a christmas rabbitt with santa...?? not sure what his deal is.

5. The kids liked, that if your bad in america, you get coal. But they wondered what you do with it, I had no answer.

6. The kids also liked, putting grain or oats in the yard for the reindeer. Even though its not very very common, but i had to think of something we do differently to say.

All in all, it was the best time I have had at school thus far. Even the principal stopped in to see mo; craciun, once word spread. Also, other teachers came in to say hi. I told them all, it was too early for presents and I just stopped in to say hi. But speaking of orators and xmas carols, last night we had some surprise visitors. My host mother's neice and nephew stopped by and sang some for us. Turns out they had some news for my mom. I'll set the scene. Their father, mom's brother, died suddenly when they were 4 and 7. The mom has been in Italy working over there, so basically my host mother raised these kids. The neice still ives in town and stops by every now and again, she is now 26. Her brother, went to Romania for school and is now 23. Recently, he has turned Baptist, and every other word out of his mouth is God or Jesus. Turns out, he met a girl, who loves god jsut as much as him apparently in September, and they are getting married in June. I heard my mom's jaw hit the floor. So that is why they stopped by, and all I will say is that it was a night filled with Jesus/God, and my mom was shocked to say the least. I will keep my opinions to myself on this one. But cool part was, that they brought another friend who was playing the fife, while they sang. He in completely blind, which I thought was amazing casue he played so well. When they came over, I was trying out my santa costume for today, so i was dressed like santa while they sang, haha.

But unfortunatly, this will most likely be my last post before my vacation. I am leaving town on Thursday and staying the night with some volunteers before our bus to Bucharest Friday. I just want this week to fly by as fast as possible, so I can see miss Lizzy. Ive been thinking of the day I first see her in the airport, since we started making plans for this trip, and has been in my dreams constantly. I can not wait much longer. I wash you all a happy and safe holidays seasons, and dont take the time spent with your family for granted. Oh, and my host mother might have pnemonia, crap.

"5 more days!"- me

Woke up this morning, as usual in the dark, and begin the morning routine. My mama tells me its starting to snow. I get pretty excited becasue I have been waiting to see what kind of transformation the new weather will bring to people aorund here. Certainly, I am excited, but you should have seen the kids. Between every class period, all the kids rushed outside to play and come back to class white. Snow everywhere, but none of us seem to mind. The day comes and goes and I am walking out of school with a few kids from my club. I notice Vlad scooping up some snow and I like where this is going and I follow suit. I look at him and simply ask "Who?" The target couldnt have been a better choice, being one of the "thorns in my side" during class today. Count to three, whirl around and let fire. The double sneak attack, leaves Iurie stunned. Retaliation ensues and we are in an all out battle. Mind you this is me, 24 years old, and 5 6th graders. Scoopiong down to re load, I get pummeled. Looking up, I see anothe trouble maker within arms length and instead of picking up more snow, I just push him into a big pile of snow. I laughed so hard. I derived a pleasure in taking out my fusterations from class on the kids who are the source of it, yes physically, but with snow. I think this needs to happen everyday after school.

Well, on a little sadder note, my dog back home wasn't doing so well and had to be put down. Really hit hard and made me feel even farther away. These are some of the things I hate to miss and makes it tough being away, but I know the right decision was made to end her suffering. Putting it into perspective, yes it was a dog, but god forbid someone in my family did pass away while i was here. It would be alot to handle, but I couldnt help but make that kind of connection. Made me re evaluate some things, but, knock on wood, everyone at home seems pretty healty. But its not going to be the same at home without Cheyenne. Well hope all is well with you all, and love and miss you. Especially more in the upcoming holiday season. 12 more days till Lizzy. Pictures posted.

"And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make." - The Beatles

sorry for the language of this post, but it is a firm belief of mine and I choose to express it the way I want

I would first like to wish all the best to a very very good friend of mine (nation, nick patullo) who has decided to end his service in Kazakstan and head back home to pursue other avenues and i wish him all the best.

Well, the week came and went as i hoped it would and the site visit on tuesday went very well. My program manager or PM has offered more projects and ways to improve and expand my work here, which i was very skepitcal of before. Now i feel that there ismore to look forward to and the stagnancy is going to be over. I have alot on my plate for the next few weeks before...!!!!...!!!!!... VACATION!!! well vacation really means LIZZY is coming.....

So that being said, we only have two more weeks of work before the break begins and we are setting to kiddos up for an exam right before break. the school is re sceduling some of the days to accomodate the time we had off for swine flu, but i will be away for this time. And by away i mean Greece. Athens to be exact for 6 days, over New Years. I still have some work to do before I am offically free, but it is so close I can smell it. I hope everyone's christmas and all is going to go well. I guess it may be time to express some of my feeling of christmas...

Well, first of all, do not send me any presents or gifts what so ever. I do not need anything. I am here for a reason, and do not want to flaunt anything. If you sent somehting already, please be adivsed it will be donated to my kids in class. The big problem I se with the holidays is the need vs want factor. As in "Dad, I need a new pair of ugg boots!" Well first of all, you dont own a pair so how can you need NEW ones? And you have perfectly good boots as is. I feel that people get mixed up in the feeling to give presents, just as a pretext and facade to accept gifts, which is what everyone really, really wants... am i right? we all truly want and very rarely think to give... outside of giving to those that will give back... what about giving to those who can not give back? charity? homeless? poverty sticken families who live in the same neighborhood as us? what happens to them? when their children just NEED something to wear or eat, but your children WANT a new TV..... lets get our minds around that for a minute.... lets determine what we need vs. what we want.. and get our priorities straight before we make any demands.... and more important, how about we relay this to our children or grandchildren before we give in to their cute little demands, without thinking twice about how we are spoiling them with shit they dont NEED... let be honest with ourselves for once in our damn lives and use our damn heads...how can we be so self centered that we only give to be reimbursed... or that we spoil our little bratty children that they get whaever they want, without any thought of those who do not have..... why not take the opprotunity to educate our children about LIFE and how others live in the world, outside of their school district.

it drives me crazy about how parents stampede into stores to buy the new toy for their kids, with total disregard for others well being. why not take you kid to a historical park, or on a camping trip, maybe might help your kids from being obese and developing type 2 diabetes at such a young age. whose to balme?!?! YOU!!!!!! You might just get the chance to "talk" to them. Also your kids, as well as yourself, may learn a bit of new information about the history of our country or planet Lets stop blaming others for our own childrens problems, such as ADD or ADHD and many others, for our own lack of parenting. How about we take responsilbility for our own actions, and stop giving, giving, giving unnecessiarily without thinking of consequence and purpose.

Also, this is all in the name of jesus?!?!?! give me a break... jesus may have been a real carpender from nazerath, but lets not pretend we are celebrating this holiday for him...... here is an example and you decide....... Myself and a bunch of my friends just got home from a rough semester of classes and we decide to go out and have some fun, they all get a bit drunk and i am the DD and take them somewhere safe, well we decide to head to a local hang out, and i say "hey guys im gonna go for a walk but dont open that last case of beer without me".... I take stroll for a while, a get a mystery text message from someone, saying all these things about not stealing and stuff, i go back to my buds to tell them what happened, and they are drunk dancing around and having a great time............ close to the story of moses? just not happy with the bible and other "religious" holiday that have been completely sacrificed for personal gain.

I can go on and on for a while about my problems with religion or "religious holidays" (mainly casue christian holidays, or the entire religion was based off previous religions and is completelty unoriginal or believable)

MERRY XMAS!!!

Well, I had another weekend in Chișinau and its becoming tough for some reason. I am not sure why, but i find myself not liking to be around groups of Americans. At first it was refreshing, but being in such a small country, there is always the opprotunity to gather in groups, so it is losing its nostalgia. With that being said, I think I am going to hermit up for these next few weeks before break begins. I just keep getting through each day by telling myself it is one day closer. Hopefully, this week moves really quickly for many reasons. I have a big day lined up for tomorrow with a site visit from my program manager, in which, we will go and have meetings with partners, school directors, cheif doctors, and my host mom bascially to get a big picture picture on whats going on here for me. It isnt a type of evaluation, but none the less, still going to raise my blood pressure and prove to be a long day. Also, this is my last week of teaching new topics before our pre vacation test. So that will also be a little relief, not having to plan new lessons and sort of cruise into vacation. We will see.... I cant wait for vacation. Hard to believe 6 months have already passed, well close to it. Hopefully, they all just move quicker and quicker.

Not much more to say... more to come later.

Another busy weekend has come and gone, and left some more good memories to add. It all started on a bitter cold morning of Friday. Wake up a touch early to get some coffee brewing, and my phone rings. "I'm very busy today, just stay home and relax" the voice of my counterpart from the medical center tells me. "Great" says I. A little eariler jump than expected on the tasks that lay ahead. Fastforward 5 hours of travel on a bus, and I am in a fellow volunteers village with 3 live turkeys that need to be eaten on Saturday for our Thanksgiving dinner. 2 fellow male volunteers, 1 female volunteer, and I, do the dirty work. By that I mean, cut their heads off with an axe, pluck, and clean the insides. Pictures are posted. After the work is done, its time to celebrate at the local watering hole. An early morning of 4 am quickly comes and another 4-5 hours bus ride to get the turkeys in town to the cooks in time. Job complete and time to play football. An 8 v. 8 game, or North v. South of Moldova is organized and the tension is tight. When the dust settles, the North has fallen by 2. Shower, relax, dinner time. About 80 volunteers show up and tons and tons of foot. People made pumpkin pie, green beans, broccoli, potatoes, stuffing. Everything. It was delicious. Also, took some of the home sickness away being able to celebrate with other Americans.

Well as for this week, I found out that we have another few cases of swine flu and now we are shut down for 6 more days. This is getting way out of hand, and for coming up on the half way point of the school year, I still dont feel settled at all. My partners dont show up and dont tell me, we are off for weeks at a time, it just all seems so jumbled up. On top of it all, we are supposed to trying to put long term plans in order and it just turns into a mess. I try not to get upset or pass judgments but it is getting very hard to bite my tounge much longer. I do not know how to go about venting my fustrations becasue I feel they are falling on deaf ears so far. Again, just trying to take it one week at a time, and i can not wait till xmas break comes around. Seeing Lizzy will really help me, but I just dont know how many more times I can say good bye to her for 6 months at a time.

"Tell it to me straight and touch my heart - and I'll sing along forever" - Bouncing Souls

"

Nothing too exciting happened this weekend. Just relaxed, did some wash, cleaned my room... usually these are things I don't do in America, guess it's not a bad time to start. Well, the one major event of the weekend was an unexpected lunch invitation to eat lunch with my tutor and her family today. Svetlana (tutor) lives in a nice apartment with her husband, 2 kids, and father. In preparing for this event, which I was very excited for, I got up early and tried to satisfy a craving for shortbread cookies. This should immediately jump out as odd to you, since I am far from being notorious for my sweet tooth. Getting up early (8 am, it's Sunday), cracking some eggs and perculating some coffee, I am ready to begin my undertaking. A quick stop to the magazine (store, weird i know) refreshes my unt (butter), faina (flour), and zahar (sugar) and here we go. The basic prep work went well, and as it sits in the fridge, for reasons I'm still not sure of, I begin to do the dishes and realize my rookie mistake. I used the 2/3 cup scopp thinking it was a 1 cup scoop. Stupid stupid stupid. Well im my defense the label has been rubbed off from use. After doing some quick fraction addition, and realizing how much I need to add, we were back in business. The oven gets pre-heated, mind you there is no definate temperature knob just big flame or little flame, and we put in batch number one. Thinking to myself, don't screw this up Greg. I take it out prob a bit to early, but at least they arent burnt. Round two, goes a little better. Round 3, mom comes home wondering what the hell I'm doing and getting a nice laugh out of it completely distracts me from what I'm doing. Burnt. O well. Off to lunch.

I am very fond of my tutor, being that we spend 4 or so hours a week just talking about anything, I think we have a good bond. Well, I never met her family, or even saw pictures. I know her son really likes cookies and her daughter likes sour cream, that's all i'm working with. Walk in, basic greetings, some congac to get settled a bit and lunch starts. I did not know her father lives here too. He's about 80 years old and so hard to understand. At first, I almost said "I dont speak Russian", which is somehting I say maybe 2-5 times a day, but stopped because he was speaking Romanian. Ok, lunch was delicious and not any very heavy conversations to try and handle. Come to find out, her husband teaches music at a high school in our town and plays accordian, so of course he is ready and willing to play. It was amazing. He played fast, slow, Russian, Moldovan, Mexican, Argentinian. It was so cool. Definatley the best accoridian player I've ever seen. After the concert, we sat and talked for a good few more hours on various topics. And by various I mean the Titanic, Barak Obama, astrology, the ozone, tectonic plates, the military, Chinese people sneaking into Russia, art schools, various factories and why they are closed in town. Just to name a few.

It was good to be able to talk about other things besides giving the usualy speil about my family ad what I studied in college. Finally, get to give my critical thinking and defending an opinion in Romanian a shot. More than just the usual. I had a blast with them, and maybe I'll get invited back. At least I hope. Also, I really enjoyed the chance to talk and get to know Sveta a little bit better. I feel that it opened us up to talk about many different topics during tutoring sessions, and that we are not just a teacher/student but actual people. I have my usual tutoring session tomorrow, and was told I am going to have a test on everything we talked about today. I hope I pass! Time to gear up for another week, love and miss you all.

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." - Galileo Galilei

For some odd reason, I just felt like writing something. Never in my life have I had such a desire as this one, so let's run with it for a bit. First, I would like to thank Aunt Lorraine for sending me an awesome magazine about "Secrets of the Presidents". I found it very interesting and it kept me busy for the better part of the afternoon and evening. Covered my favorite Teddy Roosevelt. He's just a man's man. Enough said.

Well, we are back to school this week and I had my classes today and the kids railroaded me like no other. Just out of control, wild, and feriocious. It was expected coming back from 2 week vacation and the lack of heat in our school. While on the topic, it seems that the gas company refuses to turn gas on to this section of the town because the people here ahve accumulated over 3 million lei debt to the gas company. For years, people have not paid for natural gas heat, so rightfully the company refuses to provide. All is within bounds, but when it comes to an already plagued school, close contact with the everpresent swine flu threat, the cold does not help, and I feel this is a health issue that needs to be fixed asap. Personally, I dont want swine flu, nor do I want kids close to me with swine flu or any other of the assortment of wonderful illness that winter carries in tow every year.

Recently, I have been examining my personal reasons for being here, and it is such a rollercoaster. Still havent had that mystical "wonderful" day that keeps me coming back for more. Sometimes i doubt that it will ever come, and on a very Buddist note, that this entire time is here is truely a struggle to endure and the more and harder you struggle, the more at peace or enlightenment you will find. I think its very fitting here.

However, after some extensive conversations with fellow volunteers over a few beers, I still do not feel better. As for my personal situation, I have all the conforts of home. Heat and hot water mainly. And conpared to other volunteers, i have nothing to complain about. However, I still have the ever growing urge to run out of here. Why can this be? After swapping some stories with my host mother about other volunteers she has shared her home with, I began down this thought proces with I believe is part of my problem. I think that since I am not the first volunteer here, actually the 11th in this house alone, that sometimes I am taken for granted. Just another american here for a few years, then on to the next one. At first, I thought it to be a positive, in the sense that my school/med center/host family, have all delt with the Peace Corps before, and that saves alot of explaining for me. Which has been good, but then again I feel just the next volunteer. Alot of my ideas have already been compared to the past volunteers, which absolutley drives me nuts. Trying to pull creative ideas from other people sometimes is one of the hardest things, especially when they have a whole binder full of lesson plans from past volunteers that are easily repeated. I refuse to teach other people's lesson plans, and this is hard for me to explain to my partners. "Why do you want to do more work when we already have a lesson plan here?" Its a tough mentality to break down, which is going to be one of my hardest battles here.

We will all have to ride this one out to see where it takes me, but I am looking forward to Christmas break for a number of reasons. hard to imagine that I have been at site for 3 months as of tomorrow, and that in a little over one more, will mark the half way point of school year number one. Hindsight, being ever so clear, the time here has moved decently quickly. There has been some extremely slow days, but the weeks seem to move fast. Also helps, that i try to keep my focus on the week at hand and try not to overwhelm myself. It has worked so far and see if it can pull me through the dark winter. Probabley,does not help that i have been back to reading Poe. Its a recipe for some very cyinical, skepical., thoughts that may be ahead.

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary..." - E. A. Poe

I went to school yesterday for a meeting, and found out that they were scheduling a field trip for any of the teachers who were interested. I used a favorite quote from my dad "Why not?". Next thing I know, I'm waking up at 5:30 am today and heading to meet my fellow teachers at our designated meeting spot and away we go.

I didn't know exactly what to expect, but on main thing I learned here is it is better not to expect anything. So after a few hours on the mini bus or ruteira as we call them, we found ourseleves at our first destination. Way up north in the country in a town called Drochia at our first monistary. It was absolutley beautiful. I posted all the photos, so feel free to browse through them. Walking up to it, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Taj Mahal. Just with the walkway leading to it and the towers. All of the monistaries here are beautifully painted and heavily decorated on the interior. The proceedure calls to write names of family memebers you wish for the priest or popa to read and wish health to during the next sermon/mass. Also, for decesed family memebers you wish everlasting rest. So those of you in the immidate family, you have a few popas wishing you health come next Sunday i would imagine. Also, you buy candles and light them and leave them in the church. Really interesting.

Back on the bus and after a few more hours, we find ourselves in Soroca at a monument. Wasn't exactly what is was commemorating, but from what I gathered it is for the Indepedence of Moldova from the former Soviet Union. It was in the shape of a large candle, overlooking the Nistru River and on the other side of the river is the Ukraine. Beautiful sights, being perched high on the edge of a cliff. We walked the 650 + stairs to the bottom and then back up. Needless to say we were ready to sit on the bus again.

We stayed in Soroca for monistary number 2. It was nice, but i liked the first better. Here, we stopped for lunch. Being with 16 middle aged women, it was one of the most efficient feats ever witnessed. You blink the the table is filled with food, blink again and its all packed up. Very delicious. Back on the bus, to what I was personally looking forward to. In Soroca, stands a 500 + year old castle that was once used when Moldova was part of Romania to defend against Russia. Unfortuantly it was closed, so we just had to take photos on the outside. Damn. Back on the bus.

Next we find ourselves in a little villiage of which I forget the name of. We found a waterfall that is dry during the fall and winter, but still fun to hike around. here is where I made my fatal mistake. Standing on some rocks in the middle of a stream, I was instructed to climb father up, in which I took a step on a leave covered patch, which I thought had to be another rock. Splash! Left foot finds the bottom of the stream and was wet for the remainder of the day. Thank God it wasnt too cold. Moving on to monistary number 3.

Monistary number three, which was by far my favorite of all three. Again, followed proceedure of filling out names and purchasing candles. But there was an extra surprise. Minding that this palce was built in 1774, it has served many purposes over the years. The years leading up to this estate being designated as a monistary, it was used as an orphanage during the years following WWII. Here, many children "miracously" were healed from various diseases and it was attributed to the fresh ground water. There is a spring and I had myself a few cups to cleanse myself, thinking it couln't hurt. Other teachers, were filling up water bottles to take home. I was unprepared, mainly due to the language barrier I would say.

Next we moved to another place which I couldnt translate, so yet another surprise. Here we went to an underground cave leading under and old cemetary. Creepy. It was kind of a tight squeeze and the fact it was under a cemetary and with the thoughs of all the mine collapses in West Virginia and PA, I was a little sketchy. But our saving grace was that some teachers had some left over candles from the church to light our way. A few of us braved to go deeper until we all decided enough was enough and got out.

Stopping at a little store to eat yet again, we climbed back on the bus for the big haul home. From 6:30 am and returning to my house at 8:30, it was quite the long day. I loved the opprotunity to see more of the country and some of it's landmarks. Seems that the word for excursion, is ubiqutos with going to see monistaries, I may have to ask for an itinerary before we go again. The monistaries are nice, but mostly very similar. Also, it was a great chance to meet some fellow teachers and get to know them in a different environment from school. Also, one of my partners went, so you will see her in some photos also. I met another teachers nephew, who spent a summer in North Carolina in a work program, so it was good to talk to him. He wanted to talk in english, but I always repiled in Romanian. Pretty cool. All in all it was a great day, and I am pooped. Noapte buna or good night to you all! Hope all is well and love and miss you all.

Oh and by the way, we had off last week for fall break and then they closed schools country wide due to the Swine Flu outbreak, so I have off again this surrent week. Getting boring.

"Be always sure you are right - then go ahead" - Davy Crockett

Greetings all and hope this latest post of my on going saga in Moldova finds you well. Lets get the dirt out of the way early.. I got my flu shot taken care of today. My general dislike and discomfort around doctor's needles had to be swallowed since I am a barbat (man) which means I'm supposed to eat alot and be tough. But it's over. Gladly. Well as for the next 8 days, I am on my own. We currently have fall break from school, which for me consists of a week of sleeping and not doing much, however my host mother has a 7 day training in a different town, in which, she has left me home alone. Lots of reading will be done and my mother thinks it's so funny that I will have to cook and do general housework in her absence. Which brings me back ot the barbat (man) thing, according to traditional gender roles, men work outside, women inside. She was so worried about me having to do this all alone, that she even wrote down phone numbers of the neighbors and family members, in case I didn't want to cook. But little does she know that I just made some damn good curry fried rice.

Well another eventful weekend has just passed and some specific events really opened my eyes to some of the relationships and impact we have by just being here. My neighbor/fellow Philadelphean just finished her 2 years and had a going away party and then actually left our town this weekend. The party was fantastic and alot of heartfelt memories and feelings were in the air is was like sitting in a sauna. I expected it, however it still was alot to actually see. Host families, friends, co workers, and some of her kids she worked with came to the party and all shared memories, danced, ate and then ate more. I was at a loss for words taking all of it in. Its incredible what we actually do here and it goes way beyond our particular assignments. The friendships forged and the footprint we leave with the people we interact with is astonding. These personal relationships far superseed any of the lessons I will teach or club meetings I will have, and this has gotten me more motivated than anything else yet. Personally, Jean Marie was extrodinarily helpful to me in showing me the ropes of life here at our site and for this I would like to thank her. When speaking in private before the party, she metioned to me that the hardest part is saying good bye to people she, most likely, will never see again. I haven't given this much thought yet, since most of my service still lies ahead, but she is spot on. Time has gone by pretty quickly so far, and it will continue to go whether we like it or not. Also, it will move faster and faster as I become more confortable with my language and general new surroundings.

On a lighter note, I also attended my first Moldovan wedding (pictures posted). As we walk in to the reception, my mother and I are ushered to the main table with the bride and groom. Keeping in mind that I never met these people before, I sure they were just as surprised as I was. As tradition goes, the bride and groom have what is essentially a sponser or mentor couple, usually a sister or brother who is married, in place of our best man and made of honor. Well, my host mother and late host father were this sort of sponser to the couple that was sponsering the new bride and groom (get it?). So we were seated with the two other couples at the main table. So as I am seated with the bride and groom, I began to think to myself, How do I find myself in some of these sort of situations? I laughed to myself and decided better that I stay on the dance floor to aviod any awkwardness that might ensue if left alone at the table. They are very nice people and were very interested in me being at their wedding and glad I had the opprotunity to meet them on a little more personal level. A few main differences between American and Moldovan weddings:

- There are no brides maids or groomsmen, just this sponsering couple (Nanash and Nanasha)

- Everyone announces the amount of money given to the bride and groom. Some people were giving thousands of Euro, which turns into thousands of dollars. I just said I am giving bani (money) from the AmeriCAN, which ryhmes and people laughed and I got out of saying exactly what I gave, which was by far the least of anyone.

- There are two rounds of gift giving, one is money which you say outloud, and the other is housewares, towels, etc. The story goes, that the new wife has become a godspodina (home maker) and these gifts are given to start thier new life. The bride sits on the knee of the groom and people take turns draping pants and shirts and sweaters, and wrapping them in blankets and towels. The Nanasha and Nanash brush their hair and spray persume and cologne, put new watches on their wrists and all (pictures posted).

- The bride and groom do not cut their own cake, this is the job of the Nanash and Nanasha.

- The wedding goes really, really late. I'm talking like 3 or 4 am at the earliest. With rounds of eating, dancing, drinking, and then more food. It was incredible.

All in all, it was a great experience and I was able to wear the suit I brought. I am looking forward to my week of rest and have a big week next week, which includes a site visit from my program director, so next Tuesday will be a long one. So until next time in keeping with the wedding theme, I wish you all health, happiness, and love.

"It's in the cards, its written in the stars, it's in the wee wee hours... she knows damn well, I'll be coming back for more " - The Band

Not too much new news to share from here.. Still just going to school and teaching lessons and going to the med center. I decided to hold off on going to Chisinau on weekends and try and save some money and relax a bit here. Also, this weekend will be busy enough. Jenny, the volunteer across the street from me, is wrapping up her service and getting ready to head home. She organized a going away party for her co workers and invited us also. That will be saturday and should be fun, and sad to say good bye to her. She has helped me alot in my transition to life here and just showing me the ropes so to say. Sunday my mother and I have a wedding to attend. It is her god daughters wedding and it is in town at a restaraunt. I am not sure if we are expected to go to the ceremony at the church or how it all works, but that will take up the whole day sunday. Next week is our first break from school. Country wide all schools have a week off for fall break. My mother however, has a training to attend and she will be gone for 6 days! So needless to say, I will have alot of quiet time and reading. Should be a good refresher. I am getting very excited for the World Series to start and I will watch as much as i can without killing myself staying up all night. Glad it falls on our week off from school. Huge life saver. But all is well here and hope all is well at home. Love you and miss you all.

Things i learned from watching the news with my ma today:

1. Someone blew up a grenade at a concert in Chișinau.... many hurt

2. Teachers salary got cut

3. A different guy had a differnent grenade outside the prosecuters office... this one did not explode

4. Avionul cu Șerpi is playing on tv here (snakes on a plane)

The last two days have been an internal battle to get out of bed in the morning. It has been cloudy, cold, rainy, muddy and all the bad things that come with a few days of October rain. But I have successful made the walk to and from work and haven't fell in the mud. But, I really hope this clears up tomorrow. Well I feel I have much to convay, starting with this past weekends festivites they call "Wine Fest". Once a year they set up a huge outdoor festival with vendors from all thoughout the country giving/selling samples and bottles of wine. Also, there ar emany tents with grills, and a huge stage. Needless to say, we filled up an apartment for the night with 7 of us and headed out for the night. It was an absolute blast, but not without it's casualties. My fellow Phillies fan got robbed, camera, phone, and wallet taken. Another volunteer dislocated her knee dancing? Another girl fell into a manhole (they are generally left uncovered for no good reason) and another got punched/ in a little scuffle. But in all of this madness, most of us prevailed relativley unscathed. We payed for in the next day of course, but it was a great experience (lots of photos are up). Haven't played any baseball games due to the rain and our coach is in Ukrane for work. We have one scheduled for next sunday. This weekened coming up, the older health volunteers put together a "sharing expeirences" weekend. Sounds harmless right? We shall see. No staff members are there, just us volunteers who have rented out cabins somewhere fro mwhat I understand for Saturday night, and returing sunday. So, we shall see who will be exactly sharing what.... Don't worry about this guy.. I'm there for the camping/party. Work is well, kids are kids. Put some more photos of my club from today in the random kids folder. Keep checking that becasue I'm trying to bring my camera and take more photos of the kids doing work. I have bought a package online to watch every single playoff baseball game, but due to the time difference the play usually here at like 3 am. Needless to say, I only got to watch the ends of a few games, even then I got up around 5 or 6 am jsut to watch. But I have been watching those Phils and they are making me proud. Safe to say, I'm the biggest Phils fan in Moldova. Also, the last few nights we have had a visitor. He's actually an ex-volunteer here and works in country interviewing and recruiting kids in an American exchange program. About 50 kids a year from Moldova go and live with host families in American and attend American high schools. Also lots from Russia, Romania, and the Ukraine are selected too. Well, he is conducting interviews in my town for two days and staying at our house. Real nice guy and got to talk and hang with him last night. But I guess that wraps it up for now. I'm going to another soccer game tomorrow with my neighbor. Let's make sure we win, or not sit close to any loose rocks for the sake of the refs.

"Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it." - Ben Franklin

now you get to hear from me two days in a row, for better or worse, but usually I dread my Thurdays and this morning was no different. Dragging myself out of bed while it's still dark out, and scrambling to get coffee made, all the while planning/rehearsing my disipline speech for the upcoming classes of devilish 7th graders. As I walked to school, I have a good 20 minutes to plan just what I want to say and what kind of essays I want them to write for punishment, as soon as they step out of line. I was ready to take down the lion and flex a little muscle on these kids. What happened, was exaclty the same as when you call the cable company or go to the cell phone store ready to rip someones head off and they are so nice that you get mad because you couldnt yell. Ever had that feeling? Well, the kids were mostly great today, minus the usual suspects. But the lesson went well, and also I taught with a new woman, who took serious interest in me. Her classroom is directly next to one that I usually teach in. Well my partner is at a conference for three weeks, and this other professor tracked me down, and turns out that her day off, is the same day I teach. She offered to spend her day off, and teach with me. After 4 successful lessons, with a huge grin on her face "What are we teaching next week?!" I can't help but feel some of her excitment and enthisuasm, and put together the most thrilling lesson together about "emotions" Moldova has ever seen, watch out.

"Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft. " -Teddy Roosevelt (favorite president ever)

My main point is what happened today. My neighbor, who I would classify as a good friend of mine, asked me if I would like to go to a soccer game with him, however, the word for game is JOC and the verb "to play" is also JOC (of course when conjugated for the first person). So I was al ready to play soccer and we get to the field and I think to myself, why are all these people here and teams on the field. Well then I figured it out, that our town's team was playing another town's team and my neighbor wanted me to go. Needless to say, it was a cool thing to watch, and I will definatly be at the next home game. HAI UNGHENUL!!! (go ungheni!). The people had chants, booed, threw rocks at the ref (that was my neighbor and only twice), someone had a drum and horn, flags, the whole deal. It was cool, and now I have to find out where to get a jersey. Besdies that, the rest of my week has been ok, just work/teaching. I finally got a tour of our laboratories at our med center. We have a big lab for all bacterial/micro organisms/ blood testing, and they test blood for any type of illness. Also, they test different anti-biotics too. Never knew. Then, there was a separate smaller lab for water and food testing. Once a month, they go out and collect samples from the river, lakes, and public water facilities and chemically test them. Also, they go to the piata, and have permission to take any produce they want from the sellers/farmers to test for nitrates and pesticide use. I think thats pretty cool and would love to work more closely with that lab. I was already promised to be taken out for the monthly water collection. Can't wait till November! But, starting to fill my days more now, which is helping the time move. We started our after school club this week and they voted and want to do some sort of theatre/play. I tried to persuade a bit towards a nature club, or anything else besides theater. Well, that's their idea now, so we will see what happens come next week. I hope you like the look of the blog, started to explore a bit and get fancy. Also, this past week was Teacher Day, and we had a big masa (all you can eat/drink) and the kids put on a concert. Again, misunderstanding on my part, everyone kept asking if I was coming to the CON-Cert, and I thought they said/ment "consiliu" which is a staff meeting. I was not to happy about going, but when I figured out what was going on, i loved it! Sometimes misunderstandings work in your favor....

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

So i'm sure everyone is anxious to know how i spent my birthday, or maybe not, but i didnt do much. I went out last night and celebrated with a few people, but then just slept in today and woke up to a rose, pizza, a card, and mini bottles of vodka from my ma. Also, my ma put up little signs in the house saying happy birthday Grig and health, happiness, and love. Gave me a big hug this morning, and apparently my medical cheif called the house becuase i usually go there on wednesday's, wondering where i was. So, he stopped by with flowers, cognac, chocolates, and a little book. I guess I didnt tell him it was my birthday, but I was there yesterday and did some work for him. So that was a cool surprise with him coming over, he's a really great guy and him and my ma are good pals. Well, my ma was tempting me with a surprise later today and my medical cheif said "maybe a girl." hahaha.. "moldovianca" is the word for a moldovan girl... well the surprise was a chicken parm and pasta dinner made by my two site mates here... they snuck in the house and set it all up while i was reading, then my ma called me into the kitchen.. i had no idea and it was delicious... my ma made banana bread so i guess that was my cake... they sang in english and romanian... it was a good day... i think some other friends are coming friday night to hang so ill be entertaining them.... just a relaxing day and back to work tomorrow... hope all is well back home and thank you for the cards mimi/pa, jill/mike, grandmom and aunt jody....love and miss you all.. i put some photos from today up

"You are the best thing.." -Ray La

Well I found myself with absolutley nothing to do school wise this week casue both of my partners have had to go to Chisinau... so i have my med center work and tutoring and thats it... its ok.. but i just want to be busy and make time go a bit faster... well lizzy and i booked a trip to Athens, Greece over new years for 6 days..... finally, something to look forward too... its going to be so fun and just can not wait to see her... well short and sweet for now.. more to come tomorrow

Well, another generally non eventful week passed. I did have all 8 of my classes for the first time, however my other partner is going away for 3 weeks, so i'll be back down to 4 again. Also, we are starting our after school club this week, so I hope alot of kids come to it. I hope they bring some good ideas too. I am addicted to Farmville on facebook, basically its a game where you plant and grow crops/animals and have to keep checking them to harvest and all and you just keep re-planting and all. It's on facebook, so you have to have it to play. Keeping me busy, and now i want to farm my own stuff in real life. I guess some cool news, the hot sauce i made has reached its 2 week point so it should be good to go. Gonna try it out tomorrow and hope its tasty, or else i wasted a bunch of time and energy. Ah well.... i have been reading a ton as usual. I think i finished 14 books since ive been here...? Not sure exactly... I'm reading some Frederick Douglass right now. It's good stuff. Well not much news to convay at this time. Hope all is well at home and love and miss you all.

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress." - Frederick Douglass

We just had and completed our first of many IST's (in-service training) in Chisinau over this weekend... It was quite the seminar/comference/work shop hybrid... Long story short, we had to bring one person from our medical center to Chisinau for the whole weekend, put us up in a hotel, and it was just our group of health volunteers... or as the lingo goes here "healthies"... well it was cool to see our whole group and catch up on those who are very far away..... but the days were so long... start at 8, finish at 7 pm.. that was our saturday.. it was brutal.. useful for the information, but brutal to sit through... we all went out and enjoyed the city in the evenings to blow off some steam... our saftey and security director plays blues harmonica in a band... they had a show in a bar on saturday night, so we packed that place up real good and it was awesome.. they covered some american songs, like the doors, johnny b goode, and some russian songs, but they were all cool... after today's part of the seminar, we had another baseball game in the moldovan league.. we won.. i caught the whole game, few hits, nothing too exciting, but we actually mercy ruled them i nthe 8th inning (we play 9).. and they stopped the game short.. go moldovan pirates!! actually i think our team is based from chisinau so i guess we are the Chisinau Pirates... but im home now, and odd using the word home becasue i was so relieved when i came back and finally threw my stuff down and sat with my mom.... she was so happy i was back, cooked a moldovan style lasagna because she heard people in italy love it.... it was really good.. had some wine.... she gave me huge hugs and had her arm around me.... i feel relaxed and not worring about things being back here... guess its settling in that ill be here a while....

"We used to waltz on the banks of the mighty Mississippi.." - The Band

ps - this is our finally finished strawberry patch we built... and my friend amanda made me this awesome hat for my bday... she made ahmad a scarf... i got the better end of that deal

The weekend started out with most of our training group plus a few others meeting in Chisinau for Ahmad's birthday... it was great to see everyone and catch up with them.. also to see where they stand work wise and all that..turns out the COD and Agriculture groups just got into Chisinau from a weekend seminar that they had.. so we met them at a restaraunt and had a ball... great to see alot of people who i havent seen in about a month or so now... good to catch up... got home later and feel alseep before everyone got back to our house... by everyone i mean Mom, Her Daughter and Husband, their 2 kids (7 year old boy, 11 year old daughter), Mom's son who works in Romania and his wife.... so we had quite the full house this weekend... it was good to meet everyone who i havent before and talk for a while with them... i was introduced to my mom's son as "This is my American son, this is my Moldovan son." hahaha... but we had a big day.. went to the piata for supplies (i got some stuff for myself, stay tuned) then the daughter husband and their kids got tothe wine making task (photos posted) and myself and her son were on the "grill" cooking meat (photos posted) basically the grill was a wire grate like other grills and we put bricks in a square and lit a huge fire i nthe middle, let it die down to just smoldering embers, then put the meat on.... it took about 40 minutes... we left them a bit to long, a little tough but really good... my ma marinated them over night in white wine.... after the meal everyone took off and left it quiet here again.... well, the supplies that I bought were hot peppers (presumely cayenne) and vinegar... put it together annnnddd.. yes, im trying to make my own tabasco type hot sauce... Lizzy sent me some recipes and its real easy.. Also she designed me labels in case i want to sell it hahaha... I'll put that online too... they have to sit for at least 2 weeks in the fridge and the longer the better... only probelm was i dont have a blender, so i put everything in the jars and will stran it later i guess..... hope its good... that was my big weekend and now back to the grind of the week... love and miss you all

"Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign." - John Stuart Mill

Well I spent today making yet another wooden/stick fence with my mom for a promised future strawberry patch..... this better work, i want to reap the benefits now..... besides, i taught yet another 4 classes yesterday about the thrilling subject of classroom rules... not my favorite but should be useful.. one of my two teaching partners is gone and her and my school director do not want me teaching those classes we would have together for the two weeks she is gone.. so now im down to 4 classes per week, all of which i had yesterday, for the next two weeks.... so as they say here, be patient and flexible... im just going with what is given to me for now.. im way too wet behind the ears, and my language isnt good enough, to argue or push my opinons as of yet... we shall see... been eating well and i finished my 13th book since ive been here tonight... without the temptation of television, its amazing what kind of time you can have to persue other hobbies... i was always a sucker for discovery channel, but when it is dubbed over in Russian, Dirty Jobs looses it's appeal... at least for me... nothing too new and exciting to report, just such a big difference between students and school systems in general between american and moldova... both have pros and cons... just different and will have to get used to it.... for now thats about all... the weather is cooling and cant wait for fall, even though i feel winter is going to come like a bat of out hell, but until then enjoy whats left of the warm weather.. go phils... love and miss you all

"Ideas are more powerful than guns..." - Josef Stalin

So school started this past week on Tuesday and they had a big ceremony for the "First Bell" where all the kids and teachers are outside with also a few parents... we were all on a big staircase in front of the school with the graduating seniors above us and the newest kids below.. we as in the administration, myself, and the mayor came... i was instructed to give a little speech so i did and i think it went well... got a nice round of applause, could have been out of pity... not sure... but then i had the rest of the day off, until today.... i had my first 4 classes of 6th and 7th graders and it was interesting.... the first one was difficult and the kids were just laughing when i was giving instructions... but gotta get used to that since its only been 3 months of training... but overall a good first day and looking forward to the next bunch of weeks until fall break... then its almost christmas, and the visitor comes!!! well besides that, my work is underway and glad to have finally started and put some concerns to rest... love and miss you all

"Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin; but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever say in my life!" - Alice

Well the last week before school has been a blast... we had 27 August was Independence Day, 28 August Hram (our town's birthday), 29th and 30th Just Because and 31st August is our National Language Day or (Ziua Limba) and they have vedors, tents, stage, carnival type rides, cotton candy, and the like.. reminds me of St. Mike's fair to be honest... I put more pictures up of it.. they have had fireworks, concerts, and all that kind of stuff everyday and late into the night.. of course i have partook in my share of the Moldovan fun... and it was fun... i beat a drunk russian in arm wreslting twice (he was so mad)..... but i made some friends with some local guys and we hung out.... I have had some computer problems recently and have been extremely fusterated but hopefully it has all been resolved..... i hope... i really hope... well im=n terms of other stuff school starts on tuesday and i still dont know my daily schedule.. no one seems too worried about it so i guess i won't be either?.. but i am excited to get to work and i have been going to my med center and talking with them.. but this week, with the exception of tomorrow, is the first work week... i am planning on heading to school everyday and see whats going on until we get a concrete schedule to go by..either way i am planning on being at school most of my days anyway just to show my face and meet all the folks there... also time to prep for class and get other work done as well.... maybe i can hook up to the internet.... we shall see, but i have been reading nick's blog and he seems to be going through the same exact thing as i did but we got ameri-CAN or girls got ameri-CANCA.. when people would see us but its not going to change... but i played baseball again today and we won!! it was the first time this team has won in two years, and the team we beat was undefeated in the league... had a few hits, caught the whole game, and also got blasted in the back by a fastball.... figures it happened in the top of the 9th inning... but lots of fun today before work starts and tomorrow will be meetings at school... love and miss you all.. hope all is well

"The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness." -Dalai Lama

Thank you all very much for all of your letters and packages, but I would like to ask you to please limit the corespondence to just letters, and no more packages.... there is no reason why I should be having an excess of food, when the surronding familys do not.... again thank you... love and miss you all

"I'll give you everything i've got for a piece of mind" - The Beatles

Well I haven't been doing too much exciting stuff besides wandering around and getting to know my surrondings a bit better. I do love my mother's cooking. Something new and exciting. Im planning where I want to go camping, and i want to go asap. Might just wing it soon, who knows. I really do enjoy it here. I have everything I need in terms of living and resources. I'm looking to buy a fishing pole, any advice on Moldovan lakes bait...... Uncle Mike... Uncle Neil... Richie? haha... I will find my way.. I dont care if i catch anything... just an excuse to get away.... i got an email from Cabela's saying "Get Ready for White Tail Seaon"..... damn it..... things i miss: 1. Lizzy 2. Family 3. Hunting............ well good luck to all going out.... I hope Aunt Jill gets that buck that I crippled last year..... hahahaha... thinking of you all love and miss you terribley... send any kind of photos/stories to me ... save those big bucks/geese/turkeys (Rich) for me... feel free to miss for a few seasons for me......... Goodluck.. love and miss you all again...... GO PHILLIES!!!!!!!

"The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you" - The Beatles

Since I had alot of photos to add, I re organized my photo page. There are alot of new ones. Enjoy

I am a peace corp volunteer.. we had our swearing in yesterday and immediatly got shipped to our permanant sites... i have been all packed up and havent had the chance to write on here, plus i finally have relaible internet service so for better or worse, you will be hearing more from me.. we had our going away party for our first host families and we sang and did a moldovan dance.. plus i helped with a speech (lots of new photos on my site now)... one thing i learned is that our group can dance like the wind but cant sing a lick..... it was interesting but really fun.. also we had to cook american food to eat with our hands.. we had chicken parm planned but the no forks thing kinda hurt us, so we decided quesidillas and deviled eggs... i was in charge of the eggs and the were awesome... never made them before but really easy and you should have seen how quick they were gone.. other groups did cucumber sandwiches.. PB&J... mac and cheese (they supplied the forks) and egg salad... all was very good and even though it was for our host families i think we ate the most of it.. oh well.... i took the day today to explore my new town.. which is huge... tomorrow i will be meeting with people at school to finalize some things before the school year starts and i have about a week and a half to prepare for the first day on sept. 1st.... or around there not exactly sure.... well we have our idependence day coming up on 27 august which is a blast from what i heard and 31 august is national language day which is another party... also each town has what is called Hram which is the towns birthday and i think ours is beginning of september.. so we have some celebrating to do before we settle in to school.... hope all is well at home love and miss you all

"God I miss my blonde." - Greg A. Raspanti

Well we finished up practice school much to our relief to say the least.. the last half of it went well and our goal was to teach the kids a topic and they had to do a presentation for everyone about that topic... our assigned topic was anemia and the kids did an awesome job for only haveing two days to learn the info and put a presentation together.... i am working on putting pictures online of it..... also we had a presentation to do ourselves saturday also and it was a seminar that we worked with our local medical center and we presented a tuberculosis seminar for the community.. unfortuantly there was a death in our villiage and everyone was tied up with that and no one came to our seminar... but we still did it for our partner teachers and supervisors and it went well... after that we celebrated.... then today i had the chance to play with the Peace Corps Moldova baseball team.... its a bunch of volunteers who want to play and we have all donated jerseys, pants, bats, gloves, and catcher's gear... we played against a moldova team just for fun and we almost won.... i wound up catching the whole game and the other team's coach/pitcher wants myself and another guy to join their team for a league that they play in starting in september.. of course i said sure and it seems that i will be catching for a moldovan baseball team haha... im real excited to play and they only play on sunday's so i should be able to make most of the games..... we have one more full week of training and then next wednesday we swear in and we become a real volunteer and not a trainee anymore... title change i guess.... then we are off to our sites and get right to work for school in september... looking back training went by very fast and it's tough thinking that i will be moving out from this family that i have become so close to and starting all over in a new place... exciting to get to work, but also a bit intimidating.. no more hand holding.... hope everything is well back home

"I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people." -Huey P. Newton