Figured since I kept this blog up over my two years in Moldova that I would tell everybody I'm home, safe, and my Peace Corps service is completed. Living in Moldova for two years I tried to keep this blog updated in some fashion whether it be through photos, stories, and general life as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Being a volunteer in Moldova was a challenge to say the least. I met a lot of wonderful people, and grew a lot as an individual. Hopefully you enjoyed an entry or two, and for future volunteers in Moldova I hope that this was of some help.

I was walking around with Mandy and we came across these Soviet medals at a sort of flea market. I don't know if they are worth anything, but since they are cheap and kind of cool we bought a few. I mostly picked the most Soviet-looking ones I could (Lenin and the hammer and sickle). Also notice there is one here that says "USA" and then some Russian that I don't understand. There is also a five-year anniversary pin for Moldova's independence. These pins are everywhere and I think I might even buy a few more since they are so cheap and kind of awesome.

So today I have one month left. I also think that today marks the exact anneversary of two years in Moldova. Pretty exciting and pretty cool.

With one month left there are very few things left on my work plate. Specifically at Evrica, we have to wrap-up our outreach project. This is a small project which aimed at increasing awareness of our center to the public, as well as specifically targeting street children themselves. We have created business cards for employees to carry, maps of where our center is, hand outs, brochures, billboards, and directions and informational handouts that are targeted specifically towards children that will hopefully entice them towards our center, and ideally a better life. So here it looks like we got a lot of printing and distributing in the works.

Also in work we have a few things left for The Village Project. We have a lot of simple wrap-up and conference left where we will be presenting how ours individually went, and what suggestions we have for it if it were to continue in Moldova. At the conference I believe that the Ministry of Education will be attending. This may be a step in a direction where their civic education project may become more participative.

So basically that plus a bunch of forms and medical exams and then I'll be cleared to leave. Good stuff. I plan on doing a few visits to other villages in Moldova, and taking a few pictures before I leave on a 10-day trip and then arrive home.

With this remaining time I will try to post random things or pictures to this blog during my final days here in Moldova.

Summer is here. It's hot out. I won't dare complain about the weather after our six-month-long-winter. I stayed pretty tough throughout the first part of winter, but the last month and a half was pretty soul-crushing. Every day was short and gray and it was tough to stay positive in any aspect of my day here. I made it. Summer is here and Moldova is green. Soon enough I will be back in America. I leave on July 8th, and have all of my ducks in a row. Getting the next two months planned has made me think of America more than I have in the past. I think things that are awesome in America I have blocked out here so I don't miss things too much. Here are a few things I miss.

1. Parks. Good parks are great, and I think I took them for granted in America. Especially in Seattle where there are parks next to the water everywhere. I plan on taking advantage of this when I get back.

2. Books. Here in the PC library there are a lot of books, but it is nice to know what you want and then go and get it rather than settle for something just to read it.

3. Food. My God, there is great food in America: variety. I can't wait to hit up a Chiplote, Gyros, Thai food, and BBQ with my friends and family.

4. The movie theatre. There are theatres here but they play movies in Russian so I have never gone. The experience of going to the theatre in America is quite American and I miss it. Huge popcorn and Whoppers.

5. Swimming. There are a few pools here, but I have only gone once in Chisinau, and once here in Balti. They were both quite nice, but there is nothing like going for a swim outside in a lake/ocean with the sun out. There are a lot of lakes in Moldova, but we are discouraged to swim in them as they are polluted and many people grow all kinds of infections that I am not trying to get.

6. Beer. America has good beer and Moldova doesn’t. No question. Microbrews are on my list for my return.

These are only a few of the things that came to mind while writing this post. Of course there are many I long for. Of course I miss my friends and family. These are just a few novelties that came to mind.

I was in the center of Balti today reading. A woman approached me, and asked if I wanted my palm read. I told her "No thanks." "Don't you want to know your future," she said. "No" I replied. Her, "Come on, I will do it for 10 lei." "No, have a good day." Her, "You're lonely." Me laughing, "No I'm not." Her, "Do you believe in God?" Me, "No." Her, "Why?" Me, "I don't think God exists." Her, "Give me five lei then." Me, "No, stop." Her, "You're selfish." Me, "Yes I am, that's why I've volunteered here for two years." Her, "You're going to die." Me, "We're all going to die." Her yelling and walking away saying things in Russian "!@#$%^&*()_z"

I have been thinking that the first half of my service was largely defined by a stage of understanding. Understanding Moldova, what defines it, the people, the challenges, the corruption, the traditions, my role (realistically), and Moldovans opinion on life. During this time I was extracting my own definition of Moldova in an effort to understand. And after all of this coming to grips with it.

Moving to Balti (switching PC sites) I entered a different stage where hit the ground running. Or so I felt in comparison to my first year. Many ask me or think this change of sites would have been difficult. It wasn’t. I came equipped with an invaluable understanding. This allowed me to make more practical choices and I entered a stage where I thought I could be more effective.

I think I have been thinking of the first year of my service as a PCV because next weekend is Easter. And next weekend I go back to Hirbovat to visit the family that I spent almost a year with. I have not gone back since I left June 1st, 2010. I have called them and talked on Skype a few times, but my communication has been minimal. The host family is great, and I like them, but distance often leads to a lack of communication.

Easter was my favorite holiday I spent with my host family, and because of this I am fairly excited. Easter here includes standing outside of the church all night until the priest blesses your basket of food with holy water. Candles illuminate these baskets. After this ceremony everyone heads home and eats the food. Similar to Catholic’s “lent” Eastern Orthodox has a 40 day tradition where they cannot eat any foods that are from animals. Basically vegan. After Easter they are free to eat whatever they would like as they celebrate Christ rising.

I look forward to the weekend, the company, and seeing the village that has taught me most I know of Moldova during my first year in this country.

I have been cooking a lot lately. This weekend I tried a few new things. These, surprisingly enough, are the result of me spending too much time on stumbleupon.com. I had checked this website out once before, but never sat down to make a good profile that includes many checked interests. I listed cooking as one, and ran across recipes. Making these my favorites I soon was inspired to bake them up. I find that cooking here has been a great way to occupy my time while living alone. I also realize that it is a benefit to living alone as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Moldova as many host families are a bit iffy on letting volunteers touch their kitchens. This especially applies to you if you are a man.

Some awesome scones.

Lemon Bars.

Garlic Potatoes.

So I leave on July 8th. It really seems unreal. In some ways yes, it did seem like time flew by, but I also think about how much I have grown, and how many different things I have done here. Adapting to a new culture, and trying to understand why Moldovans think one thing or another has been quite the challenge to put it lightly. I've learned Romanian and that was probably the easiest part. All sorts of challenges exist while being a Peace Corps Volunteer, and the majority of them tend to be mental. Or for me they have. It has built a mental toughness that I have to take time to realize I have gained when comparing the moment I came here at age 23, and then now at age 25. Growing takes time, and in my case that time has been 2 years in the Republic of Moldova.

Hey we finally finished our playground. Below you can find pictures of the playground, as well as the celebration.

Here is a short article on the playground.

An album of pictures from the playground celebration.

I spent a lot of time at home today, and it was really nice to enjoy some time by myself. I got the time to edit a lot of photos that I had not given myself time to, which has been fun. Also I have spent some time drawing today, which I have not done since last year.

A couple of weeks ago I started teaching a class at the university here in Balti. It is starting to pick up and I look forward to the discussions we will be having. The focus is American Film: Studying American History and Culture Through Film. Click the link to our blog. I keep it pretty basic. The focus is for them to get a better idea of America's history and culture while improving their English skills. The course is largely discussion based. The class has also allowed me to develop a relationship with the woman who works at American Corner (a sort of library resource center from the US Embassy). things seem to be piecing themselves together well.

At Evrica, the street children center where I work, we have spent the last couple of months planning an outreach-based project. We have so many resources available in our center, but the public and possible beneficiaries do not know we exist. We hope to get our name out to the community in order to attract more children to the services of our center. It is an interesting idea. We plan to simply advertise, but the bigger portion of the project will include local partners playing a large role. These will largely be the workers of bars and stores as they see street children begging and selling flowers more than others. Instead of asking them to leave they can provide them with information on our center, and if they are interested they can call us. They will also be given a mini training on how to approach street children most appropriately. The social assistant and psychologist will check in regularly with these community partners for information. We believe that this will lead to more children receiving the services we offer, thus alleviating the problem more aptly in our community. I am hopeful we will have success in this project. We have the interview for the project this coming Saturday, and soon after we will find out if we will receive funding.

I have not been exercising but have been eating pretty healthy. It snowed again yesterday, and so I have kept to the house. Here I tend to cook a lot more than I used to. I do feel a bit guilty for not running more often, but I hope to do so more often when it warms up.

Boy: By me chocolate!

Me: Chocolate? Why? I don't want any.

Boy: For us to eat, why don't you want it?

Me: I don't have an appetite.

Boy: You don't have an appetite, I have an appetite!

Me: Find a job. Make money.

Boy: Nobody will accept me to work.

Me: Okay, try harder.

Boy: I will try.

I bought this kid a Snickers last week. Now he thinks I'm going to do it every time I see him. Whoops! He is pretty cool though, so maybe another time.

I went to Soroca today, a city of the north. Here there is a small chapel on the top of a hill where this panorama is taken from. Also an old fortress from the 1400s. It was cool to go here even though it was snowing and cold. I can't imagine how awesome the view would be from the top if it were a clear day. A new friend took me here, and we met his sister. They are from the area so they took me on a great walk around, and we stopped for some placinta and coffee.

I really think that these old bloc apartments make for some cool pictures. They are everywhere in Balti and I tend to take a lot of photos of them. They are so weathered on the outside, and usually are not older than 20 years. Also since each person living in each apartment actually owns their apartment they tend to invest a lot in them. As you can see many have the outside of their own balcony covered, or their apartment insulated for winter, or others simply decided it would be cool to paint their own, while the others remain untouched. It can make for quite the patchwork on some apartment buildings. Another thing about these apartments is that they are more often than not amazing on the insides. Moldovans are obsessed with having everything be "frumos" (pretty) so they often have the insides of these apartments decked out and remodeled.

So bad news on a grant that was won by a community partner and myself. We won the grant, but due to several complicated issues we were unable to implement it. We were one of six out of 60 that applied and won. This is quite the accomplishment in itself, and I am proud of this fact. Sadly we had to write an email yesterday about how we would not be able to accept the money. Below is pasted parts of the project, and what it would have done, for those interested in what it is I do here... or don't do. This is what we would have liked to have done.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TARGET AREA

Council for Unity would like to offer support to children who have become socially vulnerable due to the migration of parents working abroad. Earnings abroad shield these children from poverty, but make them vulnerable to other risks. These children lack parental support and are more vulnerable socially and psychologically. Without guidance or communication with their parents, children may fail to develop social skills and struggle to establish healthy relationships with their peers. This often puts children at risk of making poor decisions. As some cases have shown these children are forced to deal with problems they are not capable of too early causing emotional and psychological trauma. Additionally, many parents and citizens of Balti do not recognize that these problems form when parents work abroad. Within „Liceu Teoretic Vasile Alecsandri," 35% of children from the ages 6-19 have at least one parent working abroad, 10% with of which have both parents working abroad. Moreover, it is well understood that many more parents leave to work abroad and do not register with the mayor's office – making the actual number much higher. Finally, this problem is growing. It is with these students, and this grant that Council for Unity hopes to develop better communication, psychological, and social services.

PROJECT SUMMARY

We would like to remedy the aforementioned problem through three goals: 1.) To provide the community and parents with information and resources that will promote awareness and understanding of the gravity of the problem, 2.) to improve the relationship between children and parents through communication, 3.) to help these children integrate socially through team building with others in the same situation, and to have monthly group discussion led by a psychologist.

By helping children integrate socially we can help disadvantaged children in a number of ways. Educating children actively, and giving children the skills and confidence to integrate socially, will thus cause them to make wiser decisions. If we can help children integrate socially, then we can help prevent them from turning to alcohol at a younger age, and mitigate risks of human trafficking that exist in Moldova. Educating the community is key to this success as it will reinforce our goal's and organization's success.

We plan to increase communication between children and parents abroad through paid Skype time and activities such as drawing, writing, and photography. We desire paid Skype time because often parents abroad have access to a cell phone, but not a computer. Skype can make these calls for the cheapest rate available. Activities such as drawing, writing, and photography are great because they will keep children busy with constructive, rather than destructive activities. In turn we will transmit students' work - every smile captured on film, every dried brush stroke, every verse of poetry – to their parents via post. Coordinator of Council for Unity Corina Ceban and Peace Corps Volunteer Christopher Cote will facilitate this project in collaboration with leaders within Council for Unity will plan and lead writing, photography, and art activities for children. Additionally, collaboration among other community organizations in Balti will be necessary for this project’s success. We plan to involve current students and graduates of “Ciprian Porumbescu” School of Art in Balti. “Ciprian Porumbescu” School of Art will make a minimum of two appearances to teach different art techniques. This will both help boost the success of the children’s artwork learning, as well as the project’s integrity within Balti.

Psychosocial activities we plan to utilize are team building activities as well as those in Council for Unity that lead sports activities. With these activities we seek to adapt Terre des hommes' s “MOVE” curriculum. “MOVE” seeks to “increase their [children's] self-confidence through games and sports. It is recognized that this self-confidence is essential in getting young people to integrate socially, and is also a factor in preventing exploitation and abuse.” We also plan on having group discussions with a professional psychologist to shed light on the mental effects related to these issues. Between Corina Ceban, Christopher Cote, and those trained in Council for Unity’s sport department we can accomplish these goals.

In the information section we plan on producing quarterly brochures for Balti which will include what our center offers, has accomplished, existing resources in Moldova, and articles to educate.

SPECIFIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

General Goal: To provide support and education to children who are vunerable due to parents working abroad.

GOAL 1: To provide and increase communication between children and parents abroad.

Objective 1: To increase communication through 60 parcels per month which would include drawings, letters, and photos sent to the parents of 60 children overseas per year.

Objective 2: To increase the direct communication between parents and children through 60 hours of Skype calls a month to 60 parents abroad for our first year.

GOAL 2: To help these children integrate socially through teambuilding activities, psychosocial activities, and psychological consultancy.

Objective 1: To solve problems by offering psychological counseling in groups once a month.

Objective 2: To hold activities once a week that educate the notion of respect, trust, responsibility, self confidence, and discipline.

GOAL 3: To raise community and parent sensibility of the seriousness and impacts that arise when children are left home alone.

Objective 1: To increase the knowledge of problems related to parents working abroad by 20% in the first 6 months. This will be done through surveying the community and parents.

Objective 2: To inform and involve the community (parents) about what we do as an organization, why we do what we do, what we have done, what we plan to do, and the resources available through 500 brochures four times a year.

Through the above set goals we believe that we can more effectively offer children information, communication, support, and confidence necessary for them to integrate into society. This is all done through active education and participation. Additionally, the information we provide will give cultural understanding and sensibility to the issues related to children when parents leave for work. We believe that this is the first step in resolving the issue and that our organization will be one of the first to address such issues first-hand. We imagine that the Small Project Fund will provide us with the financial resources necessary for one year. Beyond that we plan on seeking local funding for salaries and administrative costs when once our program is running and providing a vital service and is demonstrating results in the community. It is our vision that this program will function as long as the need exists.

MONITORING

In order to monitor our progress and evaluate success, we have established the below goals, which we think are possible within the first year of our project. We hope to use the Royal Norwegian Small Project Fund to get our program started, and while progressing and succeeding with these monitored results, search for local funders with evidence of our successes in order to be sustainable.

Within our first six months we aim to accomplish the below goals:

− Monthly: have offered a minimum of 200 Skype calls, totaling 50 hours, for 20 families.

− Weekly: have offered 3 different activities a week attended by 50 children with ages 6-19.

− Monthly: have sent 50 letters/drawings/photos to parents abroad from their children.

− Have increased communication (amount of time) between children and parents abroad by 30%.

− Have reduced the number of school absences by 10% due to our activities (among our group of children.

− Have increased this group's grades by 10%.

− Have successfully informed 600 of 1000 through distribution of brochures.

Throughout the period, we will monitor the number of participating children in activities. At the end of each month we plan on collecting data to record our month's progress. Each person involved will be assigned daily responsibilities to collect these statistics for activity attendance, letters sent, and discussions on Skype. With compiled statistics, we will analyze our progress with our above set goals. From here, we will have an enhanced ability to make any necessary adjustments for the second half of our first year.

Yeah I know, I'm in the Peace Corps and making sushi, kind of funny I suppose. With winter coming I have been cooking more, and I gave a try at sushi a couple of times. It turned out pretty good. I made a lot of it, and invited my site mate Laela over for lunch. Was a pretty nice shin dig.

So winter came last week. A quick snow fall hit, but it was a wet snow. A couple more hit, but were melting. This morning when I woke up I took these pictures out of my apartment window. This seemed to be a good one, but right now the sun seems to be melting the snow away from the trees. All the snow makes for quite the slippery walk, epecially when the water freezes at night. I think I mentioned this in another post last year, but the PC gave us these things called Yaktrax and they work wonders on ice. Even though Moldovans give me (and other volunteers) funny looks it is worth it. Winter has arrived and I have been hunkering down and staying cozy in my apartment. Mostly making a lot of good food while I'm home. Thus the picture of yesterdays hash browns, coffee, and toad in a hole.

This is a "caruta," or horse drawn cart. A lot of people use them in Moldova. They usually use car wheels and tires on their cart as it allows for a smoother ride. In the winter they sometimes use a sled. Last winter I was lucky enough to ride around on one of those.

Picture of Chisinau. Capital city of Moldova.

My favorite kid from our center.

Me on my birthday. The director of where I am volunteering pulling my ears 25 times for 25 years of living.

Me getting ready for a Halloween skit at our street children center.

There was about a week long period where every morning these crows were going nuts. I happened to have my camera with me to document it.

Sooo many volunteers have tried to do English clubs here, with limited, to little success. I happened to get lucky. I have been doing an English class every Thursday for about three months now and enjoying if for many reasons. The 12th graders I teach are awesome. They have great personalities, and them combined with my goofiness gets things moving along well. I started by teaching different kinds of American music. Blues, folk, country, anything. These things usually led into social issues or what have you. Also we would dissect the lyrics to the best of their ability and discuss them. I'm really saving rap for a special day. For Halloween I talked about our traditions in America and so on. When I came back the next week, a few days before Halloween, they put on a full skit dressed up head-to-toe and had prepared all sorts of foods. I was really surprised and regret not having my camera with me.

Recently we have been doing more activities. In some of these photos you can see that somebody had to sit in front of the class and ask questions about what profession they have. "Do I work inside?," "Do I work with people a lot?," and so on until they guess correctly. Obviously they are not allowed to look at the chalk board. I thought this photo "a clown" was pretty funny. I guess they thought "babysitter" was a good one for me.

In the other photo you can see that I am trying to spread a little bit of American slang. I crack up when I teach Moldovans slang from America because it has been so long since I have been home, and it kind of gets me reminiscing. Bottom line though is that this English club is by far one of the coolest things I have been doing. I have made friends with a cool group of students and they actually care about learning when I step in the room. We have a good time a lot of laughs. It is one of the things I look forward to each week, and am really proud of.

A project I helped plan for, and am currently involved in is called "The Village" It is a really interesting participative civic education project. The below is quoted text from the handbook that was put together by another volunteer. It shows some of the reasoning that we set out to do the project in Moldova.

In Moldova, civic education is obligatory for students in the 5th through 12th grades. Despite this

fact, studies done have shown that civic education that is not participative has a limited impact on

the development of democratic attitudes and behaviors. Alongside bookwork, students must be given

opportunities to work together and be engaged in solving real community problems.

Local public administrations and civil society organizations in Moldova, have the mission to educate

and engage youth in civic action—the very mission of the civic education curriculum. Therefore, a

recognized relationship should exist between formal classroom study and the goals of the local public

administration and the NGO community. Civil society organizations have the opportunity to be working

together with schools to enable students to learn in their domain of expertise while accomplishing the civic

education curriculum goals.

Speranţa, in partnership with the Educational Society for Malopolska (MTO), and Peace Corp

Moldova, is introducing two successful participative civic education programs in 18 to 24 communities

in Moldova. These civic programs (Village and PA) will be evaluated in partnership with SIEDO and The

Ministry of Education to explore an official relationship between civil society organizations and the public

schools in order to achieve their many common goals for adolescent civic development.

Essentially these children choose everything in a village. They design a "Peep" which is an identity, not their own, with a biography and so on. Then they speak through this "Peep" in all public discussion. This all leads to a village/town getting constructed. The children choose on a government, city planning, dividing up public versus private land, tyrant-ran village, whatever they choose goes. The point is to get them involved in decision making and all sorts of decision processes. This way, hopefully, they will become more active citizens in real society.

I have been actively taking part with a group of 11th graders, two hours a week. Our group decided on the name "Peepville." Although my group is older than many others who are participating throughout Moldova, they tend to stay focused, and excited when I show overt enthusiasm.

I know, the "Peeps" look like voodoo dolls. Another interesting fact is that all the groups throughout Moldova are keeping track of their "Village Project" through an online blog. Check it out here: http://cetatenieactiva.com/

I’ve been here for more than a year now which means in some ways I’ve acculturated without maybe realizing it. One example is learning that the private busses get me to the capital city Chisinau much faster. These are sketchy guys who you walk by and they just say “ChisinAU!” and you just sit in the van until it fills up. It took me awhile to realize that this option is the best as they go straight to Chisinau while others top to pick up others and let others off in villages. This process can get annoying if impatient. Instead, like I mentioned, in private vance you just have to wait until they are full – which is what I’m doing now, writing in a notebook, to pass the time, and hopefully put on my blog (which is what I am doing now I guess). I have not mad any good entries in a long time. I guess this rapidly approaching winter will solve that issue. So why am I going to Chisinau on a Wednesday? Well, it turns out that we got all the funding necessary for a playground at “Evrica,” the street children organization that requested me as a volunteer. I have to go to the bank and sign forms to get access to the money, and get this playground installed before winter. The grant was through a Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP). This essentially is a project that Peace Corps Volunteers get approved, then gets placed on the PC website. Normally this means that the volunteers get their friends and families to give towards their project. In my case an American NGO lead by Moldovans in Washington DC did all the fundraising necessary for the project. Their name: Casa Mare. They were very hardworking and persistent in doing so. So I am excited. For many reasons. I am glad to be getting something concrete installed as well as knowing that my efforts are working in some way. The playround will have a sandbox, two slides, a swing for four, monkey bars, and a titter-totter. Also we have funding for balls, games, and a ping pong table. I feel more settled in Balti now, but currently moved. The apartment is better than the last. I was completely happy in the last one, but my landlord sold my apartment and bought this new one. So here I am. I have two bedrooms, and as of yesterday hot water, which I still have not used yet. After doing this post I will have a hot shower. I have been bucket bathing for about 16 months now. To be honest it gets you clean, and frankly I’m used to it. I have grown to realize that the challenges here are not condition or amenities, they tend to be mental challenges. Challenges with dealing with others that may not appreciate your efforts, challenges with wondering if you are actually making a difference. What you’re doing. These things tend to weigh heavier than having to heat up water in a tea pot and splash yourself from a bucket.

Well any of you all who know me know that I like to joke around a lot. A lot of the time these jokes or lines I say tend to be pretty stupid, but I like to say them anyway, as I really don't have what people call a “filter.” If I think something is funny, I usually say it.Here in Moldova, in Romanian, these jokes do not translate very well as they tend to be sarcastic. Although, I must say that these kind of things are getting much better for me as Moldovans around me are beginning to understand me. A great example of such a joke is something that I have always thought to say to a Moldovan, and finally had a good opportunity. Here in Moldova they are big on slippers, especially come winter. In the village I had a pair for getting around outside, and a pair strictly for the house. I think that if I wore the outside pair inside, or even joked about it my host mom would have gutted me like one of her chickens. Trust me she is good at it, one day I came home from work to find all 90 dead. Anyway, so slippers in Moldova. A very popular pair of slippers are a comfy looking bunch, with the word “sport” sewed into the tops of them (I wish I had a picture for you all).I have always wanted to joke with a vendor in the piata about this, but decided not to. Yesterday I was at work after about a week off because of some health problems (that’s another long story) and saw that my coworker Ana was wearing these slippers. I immediately smiled, but tried to hide it, and in the middle of our conversation with a stone cold serious face asked, “soooo, what kind of sports can you play in those?” pointing to her slippers. She actually thought this was really funny, and I was really glad. I know the joke is really lame, but it is the kind of sarcasm that I miss, and that I notice I still cling to, I simply refuse to give it all up. It is something that I miss about our culture in USA. Not everyone is sarcastic in the USA, and I agree that too much sarcasm can probably be seen as a sign of weakness, just simply annoying, and even exhausting at points. But I would say that it is something that defines American humor, and I tend to miss that. To cope with this I do simple one-liners like the slipper one daily, and I find that I enjoy my day, and Moldovans around me too, as they are not used to it. I think it really is a great way to spread our American culture to Moldovans, especially in the workplace. Speaking of which, I should probably be on my way right now.

So I guess I'm settled into my new place. I can't believe that I have been living in this apartment, and in Balti, for almost three months now. I guess the one downfall about my moving here is that I do not use, and can not use, Romanian as much. Living in Hirbovat I spoke it constantly at work, and obviously for everything with my host family. Here in Balti the majority on the streets speak Russian. I would guess that within Moldova this city has the highest amount of Russian speakers. A lot of them speak Russian, and only Russian, but when I speak to them in Romanian they understand what I'm saying. I honestly have not had too many experiences where I was doomed. Though yesterday when I got a haircut the lady did let out a pretty big sigh when I told her I spoke no Russian. Thinking of it though, in that situation I should have been the one letting out the big sigh.

Anyway, there is minimal Romanian practicing here for me, and if I want to get better it would have to be through a tutor or some mainly Romanian speaking friends - which I am working on. Spending time at home in Balti though is interesting because I'm by myself, and have nobody to talk to like I did with a host family. The point and fact of the matter is that my Romanian level is at a halt, and the idea of learning Russian seems ridiculous to me.

I do recognize that I am in a unique opportunity living in a city that speaks Russian, and that I have a year left and if I tried really hard I could pick up a thing or two - outside of the 11.3 words I know at this point. But this is what is discouraging. 1. Russian is really hard, anybody will admit that. 2. I studied Romanian intensively for two months, about 4-5 hours a day, 6 days a week, lived with a host family for a year, and I am about average at Romanian. Now I live by myself, don't have a chance (or am I convincing myself of this???) at intensive classwork, or a family to practice it with. I guess I think of how hard I worked on learning Romanian, and what level I am at now after a year, and then I think of picking up Russian - seems too much.

I have recently decided that I do want to learn another language though. I just think that I would like to learn another Romance language as it would 'click' faster.

Living up here with a site mate has been good. We have been pretty good at holding ourselves to running about four times a week for over a month now which is good. We are expecting another new volunteer up here in Balti with us the around the 6th which will be great. At this point the grant writing process is moving along quite well. We are almost finished writing the proposal in both English and Romanian. Now we need to find possible funders who would be willing to fund the playground for our street children center. Speaking of which, I better go and work on that now.

Overall things are picking up. I have been in Balti for a month now. I have began to understand how the street children organization functions and we have been looking into the possibilities of a playground. I am not sure yet where we can find funding for such a project, but I have started looking. Having some kind of material or activities at this center is probably the biggest problem we have identified. These children have a wonderful facility, but simply do not have anything to dig into. Another problem that we would love to resolve is the problem we have with food transportation. We have a kitchen, but since the center is funded through the mayor's office there is a central kitchen where it is all made. Due the the fact that our center functions 24/7 we have to get somebody to take a bus and carry each day's food in bags. This can be complicated when there are many at the center as the containers full of food are very heavy. It is often a two-person job, and when the children at the center are little they can't help! So! We need a car basically. Haha. The most ironic thing about it all is that the mayor's office has budgeted us money for gas, but because we have access to no car we can't use it. Interesting predicament that I am hoping we can resolve.

Below are some random pictures from my days here.Every evening it has been just pouring outside for probably a month now. This is the view out of my kitchen window from last night.

These are "Smilies," some fries that my sitemate convinced me we should bake. They are probably the most unhealthy thing in the world. Between the two of us we couldn't finish this many.

Here is the entrance to my apartment building on a sunny day. I live on the second floor, but on the opposite side of the building.

Here are a few recent articles on Moldova's situation.

Europe's poorest send less money home

Moldovan Constitutional Court gives green light to referendum to change in presidential elections

Moldovan Leader Defiant In "Soviet Occupation" Row With Russia

So I moved. I switched 'sites' as we call it as Peace Corps Volunteers. I now live in Balti, the second biggest city in Moldova (I think). The place is great, and there is even another volunteer in the city with me. I am now assigned to an organization which focuses on street children, or children from rough family situations. The organization is open 24hours a day, and has all sorts of services. Below are a few pictures of my new apartment. I live on my own now and it is awesome. It's been hot out lately and I just bought a fan. About 35 C, which I think is 95 F. Ahh!

Marx, Engels, Lenin

My kitchen.

Room.

Bed. Notice the carpet on the wall. Very Moldovan.

church in park. chisinau.

wrestling at our 'hram,' village birthday. winner gets a ram.

woman walking the village goats.

dead plant by my window.

our outside sink.

door to a village building.

So I decided to finally start putting all of my photos in one album on picasa. You can find it here, equipped with captions. I had multiple different albums in the picasa website, but figured to throw them in one would be much better. I've got them organized and I plan on updating them as regularly as possible. You can also get linked to my albums from the link on the left.

So I never really thought when I signed up for the Peace Corps I would have high speed DSL installed in my room, a cell phone, and a blog like this updated whenever wanted. I'm not complaining because there are plenty of other challenges outside of conditions, but I do bring it up because of the impressions I had before writing an application to the Peace Corps. I thought I would be in a tent somewhere without a bath. Within the application process they ask what kinds of conditions you would be comfortable in where and I said "I am open to any conditions," giving me the feeling I would be somewhere really rural. Wait a second, I am somewhere rural! This leads me to an odd observation I make daily about Moldova with all of its products available.

Moldova has almost everything commercially available to it that other countries have, yet the salaries here do not match the available products. It is kind of an odd combination. I think it forces Moldovans to strive to a level they shouldn't. Almost everyone, even in villages have cell phones. Companies like Orange have got their fingers in almost every community, and I can buy more prepaid minutes for my cell in any village store. But cell phones is not where it gets complicated. This gets more complicated with larger more expensive items like a fridge, car, or TV. These items are often priced in Euros, while people here use the Lei as currency. If it is priced in Lei, it is very high compared to the average annual salary.

I think the availability of commercial products complicates the level of development Moldova is in, and forces a Moldovan to strive beyond their means. I think all of the available products are in the faces of Moldovans daily, plus Russian television pollutes the Moldovan mind as they think that ‘this’ is the level that they need to be living at, yet the prices are so high that it is nearly impossible for a Moldovan to afford many products if they are living on a Moldovan salary without remittances from family members. I say this because in order for any Moldovan to buy this they have to have a family member work abroad to afford it. I think that with this complication it may even force some to work abroad as they feel they belong on that level, with 'those' products.

Some of the luckiest Moldovans I have seen have an extra apartment that they rent out, making money off of the rent it brings. If it is in the capital city they can normally live off of the money this brings, but this is a more uncommon situation.

I think many of these things I notice because I am an outsider coming into Moldova's culture. Especially living in a village where I see the true level that Moldovans are living at. When I come into the capital city Chisinau I am bombarded by all sorts of products available that the average villager would never be able to afford, but maybe because it is available and around them they strive to. When the only real means for making money is work abroad, I think this could almost force people into work abroad. I feel that many see all the available products surrounding them, and they feel a sense of belonging in 'that' life so urge themselves to make money in order to live on the best level they see available to them. The problem with this is that the price often comes with many sacrificing themselves to work abroad, while not investing their time, energy, and knowledge here in there own country. As a simple observer it makes me nervous. This issue gets even more complicated when you considering the level that Moldovans were living under during Soviet rule for 50 years. If that does not give them a sense of belonging on a higher standard of living, and now dropping back some I don't know what would.

I really wanted to put a lot of descriptions next to these photos but after I uploaded them they got all messed up on blogger. That is me with a travel putter my friends sent, so awesome, thanks guys. There is a picture here with my host mom showing us one of our baby rabbits. This huge hill picture makes me want to get a bike, or something with wheels so that I can fly down to the center of my village faster. And there is another photo here, with a house with a green top in the center, that is my house. The other house is just a traditional Moldovan house with a straw roof top, which I just think is pretty cool. Enjoy.

The toughest thing for me here is the lack of structure. I find myself repeatedly worried on Sundays asking "what am I going to do this week?" Not all volunteers in my program have this problem, but I sure seem to. Yes there is an NGO that has requested me, and I dedicate time to them everyday. But the most frustrating thing about this is how I have repeatedly tried to set us up with regular meetings, and this seems to be almost impossible. We do have meetings, which is nice, but they are quite irregular. On top of this we do not have set hours that we are open. This makes things quite slow-moving and frustrating when used to the rate of work in America. We do have a great project plan that I actually do believe in, and so I continually push to find funders and so on. It all seems to come down to money. The NGO where I work had a huge amount of funding for the three years prior to when I arrived, and they were spoiled with large salaries, as well as little monitoring in budget writing. Now nobody has salaries, making it quite difficult for me to motivate them to work for nothing. It is definitely the most challenging thing Peace Corps volunteers face in Moldova - a post Soviet mentality. At the same time I recognize and understand the people I work with. Would I want to work for nothing in America? I mean this is a funny question since I am volunteering, but all of my housing and food is taken care of so I really have nothing to worry about.

I have been getting tutored once a week for two hours. I sometimes feel like I dread going. I feel like I'm a little kid whose mom is forcing him to wash behind his ears or something. "Do I really have to go mom?" Well the answer is no, it is optional, but I choose to anyway because it is for the better. I personally feel like there are no excuses not to go, and yet I still only go once a week. I dread it in some ways, but I always feel good right after I finish. I feel as if I have accomplished something. Learning another language is hard. You really have to want it. The most difficult part about this situation for me is that I know I could get by these two years without problems at the level I am at now, but also know that the level I'm at could definitely increase.

I think of myself as a serious person, but I also like to joke with people a lot of the time. This can make for some of the funniest awkward situations when jokes get lost in translation. For instance I repeatedly try to use the word "magician" in Romanian, just because the way you pronounce it cracks me up, thus, I look for places to use it. One situation, to be exact the worst situation I used it, was when an intoxicated aggressive man asked me if I can get him to a visa to America, Christopher's response: "I'm not a magician." Probably a little too harsh, and no laughs. Moldovans do not like sarcasm too much. Luckily my host family loves it, and so we throw it around from time to time. Sometimes I cannot believe how far we have elaborated on a story. Lost laughs.

Awkward situations are funny. In fact I have come to love them. Joining the Peace Corps has thrown me into some places far out of my comfort zone. Now I've accommodated to most of them. I'll never forget the first week I was thrown into a host family with about a 3 1/2 word vocabulary. If that's not frightening I don't know what is. It's incredible stuff. The reason I mention this is that yesterday my host mom had a guest over, and I didn't know her. I was super tired as we ate food at the table, and these women were chatty Cathying it up. I didn't say much, and the woman probably thought that I did not understand much, and she said "ohhh, he's shy because I'm here." I started laughing because I was just thinking to myself "you've got to be kidding me lady, this is nothing, everyday I meet new people and eating and drinking wine with you is basically nothing." I had to go on to explain that all is well, that I can speak, and that I just am tired. I'm just realizing that I am growing some. Getting out of my comfort zone as much as I have during my time here has finally caused me to notice changes. Good changes, just not always easy changes. Although work may be slow, I know that there is definitely some personal growth going on here, and to think about the amount of time I have left really blows my mind in this sense.

Oh, and for a quick laugh, I introduced my host mother Ludmia to Labron James via this youtube clip. Go America! Stuff like this is awesome to show Moldovans. The tough part is explaining how many meters tall he is, and how many meters he jumps.

OH - and look at what I added to the right column of my blog, you can send me text messages, up to five a day via the web. So go ahead and make my day. Actually, more likely would be, go ahead and wake my middle of the night. Just click the picture of the envelope, on this page, then the next page, and fill out the necessary information. If you get really confused click the 'EN' for English in the top right corner.

I'm not sure why, but I was not expecting much for this Moldovan Easter. I was thinking it would be the same old gig, or the Moldovan gig I have accustomed to. I was wrong, and the simplicity in which I had so much fun caught me off guard. Moldovans celebrate Christ's rising by going to church at about 2am with a basket of food and themselves to be blessed with holy water around 5 in the morning. Or this was the case for me in my village. Although I did not go to sleep, the meeting of the majority of the village around the church was quite peaceful. Around the church we gathered, with breads, meats, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, and candy in our baskets. Illuminating the entire scene were the candles lit from within our baskets, often placed in yet to be baked sweet bread. After all us, along with our food, got splashed/blessed with holy water we made our way home. There we sleepily ate our blessed foods before going to bed around 6:30am.

When I woke up it was around 2:30pm. My host sister said "hey, get ready, we're going to the woods." I said "good," brushed my teeth, wet wiped the necessary body parts, drank a coffee, and dressed quickly. My host family and I met up with some neighbors and village friends and headed for the woods with a fully equipped picnic. There we lounged around, ate until stuffed, and most surprisingly played some Moldovan games with a ball while listening to some classic Eastern European techno and some traditional Moldovan music playing from a stereo speaker attached to the old BMW we arrived in.

It was simple and that is why it was so beautiful. All of us were in our true light, fully relaxed, joking and making fun of each other, and appreciating each other for who we are. This among hitting each other with a pretty hard ball made for a lot of laughing. It was awesome to see my host mom relaxed and laughing and dancing. The woman is one of the most hard working people I have ever seen, and deserves to hang out and relax. I also got to hang out with my neighbor Victor who is pretty cool. I think what I liked the most was how we were making jokes and I didn't feel uncomfortable doing so.

Sometimes I think that Moldovans have too many holidays, but you have to give them credit for actually celebrating them. In America for the most part a holiday equals a three day weekend. Here in Moldova it often makes for a three day weekend, or often enough even four, but these weekends come with obligatory gatherings and celebrations which simply put can be refreshing.

Oh, and another thing, I guess instead of saying "good day," I have to say, "Christ has risen" for 40 days. And if somebody says it to me I have to respond by saying "it's true, he has risen." You may not think that this is a big task, but in a village where you say "good day" to everybody that you pass, it can be a change of pace. Anyway, Easter was awesome, and I hope any of you all back home reading this had a good time too.

OH so today. Not too shabby, stayed pretty busy. I took pictures throughout the day, and threw them on gooooood ollllld picasa - check them if you dare. There is a picture in there of me with a welding mask. Some dude I talk to on the walk to work most days, he is about my age, saw me with my camera and told me to let him take a picture of me with it. Kind of weird, but of course I said yes. One thing that I hope works out is our participation in a film competition. Me and some local youth met today and whipped together a pretty good idea for a short film. Actually that picture of me from above was when we were trying to figure out where to film from. The Plural + Film Festival is an international film festival that allows youth to reflect about migration and diversity. It should be pretty awesome if we put it together.I finished up the day by working in the grape field above our house for a couple of hours. It was cool to hang out with my host mom some, and to show her that I can actually do some work. The view of the sun going down from our hillside into the valley was really pretty and a good way to finish up the day. I bucket bathed and here I am. The weekend is near, and I think I may go to Cahul to do some work and have some fun.Go Huskies - big game.

A conversation between myself, and a 2nd grade kid from my village:

Me: "Hey what's up?"

Him: "Nothing."

Me: (While pointing to a Mărţişor pinned to his jacket) "Nothing? Who gave you that?"

Him: While smiling, "A girl."

Me: "A pretty girl?"

Him: Big pause, thinking, shrugging, "...She works..."

Today I went to work at around 12 o'clock to find that it was locked and didn't really know what to do. I looked in my wallet to find about 28 lei, and figured I would go for a walk and get a haircut to waste some time. I arrived about 10 minutes too late for a haircut, and ran into this funeral ceremony. Here they carry the body through the village and to the cemetery for burial. Everyone stops on the streets, both cars and people in respect. In the back of the crowd is two people. One person has a basket of treats and walks up to everybody on the street. As you can see I got biscuits and some candy. The other guy has a bucket full of wine and he walks up to everybody offering a cup to honor the dead.

Here you can see the candy I was given. It was very interesting to observe how everybody stopped and paid respect. The experience was also very interesting due to the pure spontaneity of it all.

A fellow volunteer Ryne is coming to visit me today, so my host mom hurriedly cleaned my room for him/me. Moldovans are really big on being good hosts, and want things to be really nice for them. I feel bad, and tell her this, because I simply wanted her to help me shake-out my rug, but instead she scrubbed my floors and much more. Spring is out though, and as you can see my dog 'Tîmcă' is enjoying the sun. Another nice indicator is that the flowers have peaked through the dirt, and are reaching out of dormitory. As am I. I decided today to get a tutor for my language. Which is an interesting tale in itself. This basically entailed me walking to a strangers door, pounding on it, and explaining that she was recommended to me as a good teacher. She seemed pretty nice, and it will be cool to meet with her this coming Wednesday to get a move on and a bump up on my language skills.

Here I got to visit the wonderful village of Lozova where Matt (another rad volunteer) and I hit up Loz Vegas and got crazy.

During our language training Neal explained to us why Louisiana 'should' be the richest state in the U.S.

A weathered sign where there used to be a bar.

Me thinking how ridiculous I look in my village with an orange jacket - since (I'm generalizing) all Moldovan guys wear black jackets and hats.

Where I have to decide whether or not to choose ice or mud on my street.

A trail that links my side of the village with the other.

A good Monday. It's sunny out, which means there is no snow, now the next challenge is mud. But still, it is beautiful out, and I almost forgot what everything looks like in my village when it is not blanketed with snow. I'd like to think it is spring, but I'm scared another snow will come as soon as I've accepted that it's spring, so I'm a bit apprehensive.

This morning I woke up and did my laundry. This is not an easy task, especially when you wait until you have one pair of underwear left. I told my host mom that "I'm having an underwear crisis, and need to wash my clothes." She laughed, and helped me find the needed supplies: bucket, soap, water, my hands. It was a nice day so I think it will actually dry out and I won't have to wait for it to freeze, then unfreeze, then put it by the heater for it to dry - it might just be dry today. I also had an awesome lunch which has triggered me into a great mood. This fried bread called turtă, and soup with a chicken breast. I'm pretty sure that is my favorite Moldovan lunch. I don't know what has gotten into my host mom, but she has really been stepping it up with the meals.

Overall things are moving along at work, but we will see this week. We have started discussing the specifics of our budget, and we are having a community meeting tomorrow to discuss the 'newer' direction of our organization. We hope that this meeting will spark some constructive criticism, and maybe spark interest which will lead to more community involvement, or better yet, some people who want to help us.

In other, sadder, recent news: two of my cats died, I left my second debit card in an ATM, and my computer screen's pixels are dying. One of the cats was my favorite, and we have no idea why it died. The debit card system here is different than in USA (I blame that, not myself (denial?)) because it gives you your money and then you have to request the card, so I often put the money in my wallet, turn, and leave. With the computer I might have to send it to USA to get it fixed, which sucks because I just got internet at my house. Sigh. I'm not going to let it get me down too much.

I took these pictures today! So I put them here simply to share before I begin my blog update.

Today was productive, yet funny as well. I believe that I have mentioned it before, but Yaktrax are provided to all us volunteers since we are an investment of the American people, and they care about us. I've been using my pair a lot, but as the snow has melted some, today I left without them. Mistake. My road connects with the main road with a quick uphill spot, and it is here I ran into trouble. As I made my way half way up this short hill that is a sheet of solid ice, I realized I had no traction. I fell down face first on all fours scrambling to get my balance and stand up. It was comical to say the least. On the main road watching me were two women watching and laughing hysterically, along with a neighbor of mine Iurie. Recognizing my audience I became more nervous and said "I don't know what to do!" in Romanian. The women continued to laugh while I was slipping all over the place loosing ground downhill. The women could not keep their composure while laughing hiding their smiles and turning away from me. At one point I stopped trying because I was stuck in one spot and didn't know what to do. I was like a lost puppy that didn't know what to do. Using my humiliation as fuel, somehow, I made it to the top of the ice sheet with both fists above my head in celebration, and a face of embarrassment. The two women were trying not to laugh as I met them there, but they couldn't help it. All I could manage to do was laugh and say, "I didn't have traction!" I then joined my neighbor Iurie into the valley towards work. Oh work (sigh). It is going well, but slow. We are slowly including more and more people in our meetings to have more community involvement, which is ideal. I sometimes guide meetings with activities like today for instance. I had written on a big piece of butcher paper linked questions which produced better strategic planning. What is tough is when we've decided on a goal, and then somebody gets on something completely unrelated to the goal, and I have to ask where the connection exists. So what we are working on? I think I have mentioned it to a lot of you all (friends) but I should put it here anyway. In a nutshell - In Moldova there are a lot of middle aged people working abroad in other countries, and because of this the parents often leave their children with one parent or with grandparents to live. This is an interesting problem because they are often shielded from poverty, yet develop other socially vulnerable problems. No guidance from parents, forced to grow up too fast with responsibilities, and so on many teens act out in different ways. So it is this target group we have decided to focus on. We think that our role can be to promote communication between parents and these children to improve and preserve their relationship. We think that we can achieve this goal through four objectives. These would be providing Skype time to children in our village to call parents, a psychologist to discuss the issue, information and resources that exist in Moldova for parents and children, and provide activities which produce materials to send such as letters, drawings, and photos, thus improving communication with between parents and children. It is a beginning, and we are planning best we can before applying for grants. Another side project that I have started to explore is the weight room beneath the high school. I hope that we can work with community members to plan, then apply for a grant which would provide more weights and equiptment, do some repairs, and establish a more strongly organized program there. This is just in the beginning and I will be discussing with the main guy next week. I personally have been busy in this weight room lifting weights three times a week. I am glad that I found it because I have been making some friends and staying in decent shape. There have been a couple of funny stories in the weight room. One would be the main guy there who is training me Vasile telling me that my calf muscles are small, and asking me if I want to grow them. The other was when I was resting in between sets and I made eye-contact with a guy my age who is in really good shape. I was resting and said "I don't know what to do (nu ştiu ce să fac)." He responded by pointing at his bicep, looking at me, and saying "weak (slab)." I did not take it too personally, I laughed, and then went to do some curls. It has been cool to hang out there and lift weights with guys from my community because they are dedicated to something regular, and therefore in my opinion take life seriously. So again, to sandwich this blog post let us end where we started. That damn ice slope Winter Olympics 2010 patch. As I returned from work to that spot with a smile I was thinking, dang, I am going to fall on my face. And I saw a woman on the bottom part, while I was at the top. I paused, and said to her, "I fell down here this morning," and she said "me too." Then she said, "here, use this fence," as she shimmed up. I smiled, and when she reached me she helped as I began shimmying down by saying "take my hand." I hopped over, took her hand, and made my way to my house. It was awesome to see a complete stranger help me out, but it was even funnier to think that my day ended where it began.

So yesterday I started a snowball fight. It is one of those things you learn over time, that is, when you see a group of kids playing with snow you just know that if you lob one snowball in there that it will start a catastrophe. And it did. Before I knew it I had about 20 kids (no joke) throwing snowballs at me. It was kind of rough, but I like to think I held my own. Moldovans don't grow up playing sports that use a lot of throwing (in my opinion) so my accuracy plus the fact that the average age of my enemies was 10.3 years of age helped me.

I'm glad that I made the decision to peg a few kids with snowballs. I was having a rough day and it made us all laugh. People walking by were laughing so hard at me running around while getting pelted myself.

Anyway, today I went the the raion center in Anenii Noi to get internet at my house. It will be installed soon and I will no longer be only using it at work. So that's pretty cool. What else, hmmmm. Oh I had a pretty good beard going and I shaved it finally. I didn't shave for about a month, and I think that's the longest I have gone without shaving. Not shaving in Moldova means that you are the Pastor of the church, or lazy. Or people don't shave when somebody dies because they are in mourning. To say little on the matter, it attracted attention. Now I feel like I look fresh and young again.

I'll try to update soon with more action I promise.

Hey, I finally uploaded some of my photos. I put them in my web albums. There you can find albums from my Pre Service Training up to present.

In America I'm pretty sure most cell phones have the mp3 player options, but if I remember correctly myself and my friends largely underutilized this feature. In Moldova they love this capability and use it to it's full capability. Not only will you find most people using their cell phone as their primary mp3 player with headphones, but without. This meaning that they use their personal cell phone as a boom box, and you'd be surprised at how loud these bad boys can get. People blast them while walking down the street, while sitting in a bus, standing - well, anything really. Witnessing this as an American makes me laugh for two reasons. The first reason is that if there was somebody blasting music next to you on the bus most Americans would loose patience and say something about how the person was being rude or inconsiderate to those around them. Or, the other American would not say anything while their blood boiled in anger, and while thinking of wringing their neck the whole bus ride. And then to the first friend they saw they would exclaim, "you wouldn't believe this guy on the bus, he was blasting his music and being such a jerk!" Here, blasting music on the bus is accepted. I accept it, but with laughter at the cultural differences. I think I even like it? Okay, so the other reason that it is funny, possibly more funny to me personally is what is often playing/blasting on these cell phones to those around them. I would guess about 50% of the time it is in English, and if I'm lucky, 40% of the time hardcore gangster rap in English. This means that most likely they don't know what is being said, but just like the way it sounds - which is cool. But it gets funny when you see a 12 year old boy walking with gangster rap blaring "get out my face!, get out my face!, get out my face!," (lyrics I heard on the way home to lunch today), or other favorites such as Eminem, DMX "Rough Riders Anthem," 50 cent, and most popular to Moldovans, Akon. I even remember this past summer doing my best to translate the a DMX song for a guy I met named Sergiu, and I don't think I did too bad really.... And in another situation I remember explaining how DMX is in jail, but to do this I had to jump a fence and grip it from the other side for them to understand, but that's besides the point. These mp3 player situations are entertaining, and just one of the interesting cultural differences I find when comparing Moldova to America. If my phone only had this....

It just snowed again and yesterday night my host sister Natalia and I went for a little walk up into the hills of our village. It was pretty fun in the snow and we got some cool views of our snow covered village. While we were up in the hills, where many use the land for farming, we walked into places that she had never even been. But on the way we got to take some pictures of the village below, some of which are pretty cool. I have been realizing that my language is not that bad if I can go on a walk and we can shoot the breeze for a couple of hours without me having to think too hard. On the other hand I know that I have plateaued and need to step it up a notch by studying either on my own, or with a tutor. Anyway, enjoy these pictures of my village.