I know I haven't posted in a long time. But here is a slide show I made for the opening of the Blue Bird Center for Children with Multiple and Severw Disabilities. I have been working with them for about a month now and we just had the grand opening today. I hope you like it!!!

Amy and Yuliya left for Turkey early on Tuesday Morning. This meant that I had a day to explore Georgia on my own. So, I decided to head to the village of Gori, Stalin's Birthplace.

I decided to be adventurous and take the Tbilisi Metro to the Didube Bus Station where I would eventually catch the rutiera to Gori. This was more complicated than I expected. I had to put a 2 lari deposit on a Metro Card and then put money for my fare on the card. After an awkward exchange, I basically ended up hold out a handful of coins to the station attendant, who took what she needed and in return gave me a Metro Card. The next challenge occurred when I had to decide which train I needed to get on. Luckily, I found a rare Georgian, English speaker who informed of the correct train and that I should get off after four stops. I finally arrived at Didube Station!! Now, I had to find the rutiera to Gori. I wandered around about four different rutiera yards trying to match the Georgian letters in travel book that supposedly spell Gori to the Georgian letters on the rutieras. Eventually, I came across a man who was yelling "Gori! Gori!" and I got on his rutiera. After an hour and a half ride, I arrived in Gori.

Gori is not big, but it is not as small as I would have liked. My one goal was to find the Stalin Museum. But first, I came across a restaurant, "Sport Cafe," that had an English Menu; so, I went in for some lunch. After about another half hour of wandering, I came across creeper #1, Grigore. Grigore stopped me on the side walk and attempted to ascertain from me what I was doing in his village. This conversation occurred in a mixture of Russian, Georgian, English and Romanian, as well as gestures. He seemed nice enough, so I asked him where the museum was. And when I say I asked, what I really said was "Museum! Stalin!" So, Grigore took me to the Stalin Museum. However, before we arrived there I had to defend myself from his several attempts to hold my hand and put his arm around me. I was relieved when we arrived at the museum, a mere three minutes later. I said good bye to Grigore and headed inside.

Now, the Stalin Museum was not all that English-speaker friendly, as was indicated by Lonely Planet, but I did get the impression that it was more of a tribute to Stalin than an accurate portrayal of his life. The one room that stuck out was the one that held nothing but Stalin's Death Mask. It was pretty creepy!!! I guess that makes Stain creeper #2 in this blog post.

After, exiting the museum I headed to the Gori Fortress. On my way there, my good friend Grigore tracked me down. This led to a change in my plans. I decided to walk briefly by the fortress (instead of surveying it in more detail) and then back to the bus station, in order to be rid of Grigore as soon as possible. I parted with Grigore about a block from the bus station, but not before he gave me a thumbs up and said "Georgia, Good?" to which I replied "Yes!"

I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Tbilisi, Gerogia. I have been really terrible about writing blog posts, but Amy and Yuliya are sitting next to me posting on their blog, so I feel obligated to post on mine. Their blog has a ton of pictures, so I won't be posting any on mine (nevermind the fact that I chose not to take any), but I will give a shot recap of the trip highlights.

I arrived in Kiev, Ukraine on Wednesday. My flight landed a few hours before Amy and Yuliya's, so I waited for them at the airport. At around 11:00pm-ish, we were all reunited!! Then we all went to our hostel and slept!!! Yuliya brought me my favorite tea, Peet's Xiao's Blend, and a card that another friend, Liz, had sent for me with a picture of a half naked man on it. They know me so well!!!

The following morning, Thursday, we ate breakfast and headed off on our flight to Tbilisi. We spent most of the day in transit and finding out hostel/homestay, but we did make time for a delicious dinner including: Khachapuri, Khilkali and some Georgian wine.

On Friday, we set out on a tour of Tbilisi. We walked through the Old Town, where we saw some beautiful old churches and buildings. While walking by a synagog, the man who ran it seemed to know intrinsically that Yuliya was Jewish and invited us inside for a short tour. Finally, one of the last and most exciting parts of our Tbilisi day occured when we decided to take a taxi up to see the fortress which sits on a hill overlooking Tbilisi. The hill was so steep that is took the taxi driver three tries to get up it. It was all we could do not to laugh throughout the entire incident.

The weekend came and we decided to head to a new city, Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. We took a Rutiera (or marshrutka)and 6 hours and one border crossing later we arrived. The snow covered mountais that we saw on the trip were beautiful, take a look on Yuliya and Amy's blog.. After finding our homestay, we headed for a look at the Cascade and the Monument to 50 years of Soviet Armenia, neither of which was finished at the fall of the Soviet Union.

Yesterday, the weather deteiorated. We headed out into the rain and made our way to the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial Complex. We walked around the main park a bit and made our way to Republic Square. We went to the History Museum to see a statue of Lennin the was supposedly located in the museum courtyard after the Armenian people broke it into several pieces. When we asked about the statue, the women at the Museum simply said "we haven't." After some more research, it turns out that this statue mysteriously disappeared in 1996 and now one really knows what hapened to it (So, Lonely Planet maybe you should update your guide book!!). After lunch, the rain drove us back to our Armenian abode. We headed back out into the weather for a quick dinner in Opera Square and then retired for the evening.

Today, we took the long return trip to Tbilisi. While Yuliya and Amy spent the trip mezmorized by the attractiveness of our Rutiera driver, I preferred the looks of his assitant. We arrived back in Georgia at a decent hour and headed out for an early dinner which included another Khachapuri. Yum!! And that brings me to the present.

Yuliya and Amy will head to Turkey tomorrow morning. I will stay and extra day or so in Georgia and then return to Moldova. Around the 22nd, they will make their way around the rest of the Black Sea and hopefully spend Easted with me and my host family.

Until then...

Yes, I realize that it has been a long time since I posted. I actually do have a lot to post about; however, I have been unmotivated to sit down and write. So, until my motivation returns, here are some videos to tide you over. You can see how long my hair has gotten and the 20 or so pounds that I have put on during the long Moldovan winter. Poftim!!! (Which mean roughly "Here you go..." in Romanian.)

So, after two months of silence, I am finally posting in my blog! A big thanks to the two people who noticed that I haven’t posted lately and actually cared to say something. To tell the truth, a lot has happened: Thanksgiving, my birthday, my vacation, Christmas, New Years and second Christmas (or Craciun Stil Vechi as it is actually called.) Only one of these events is actually important and that is my vacation. Duh! So, I will take some time to update every one my solo venture through the beautiful, but cold, Baltic countries.

I have a lot of pictures and great stuff to write about my vacations, so I will divide my story into four posts: Little Australia: Helsinki and Tallinn, The International Ballroom Dancing Championship: Riga, The Most Awesome Place on Earth: Vilnius and last but certainly not least Riga Part II.

But before I get into the immensely captivating tale of my vacation, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Craciun Fericit si La Multi Ani!

This past weekend, my BiFFle, Matt Black, and I went to several museums in Chisinau. We met at the Peace Corps office and then headed out to the National Archeology and History Museum, the National Library and the National Museum of Fine Arts. Here are some pics from the National Archeology and History Museum:

The National Library (Check out those card catalogues):

The National Museum of Fine Arts:

Upon reflection I think that the exhibition of Military hats at the first museum we visited, the National Archeology and History Museum, was my favorite. There were hats from a variety of different Eastern European Countries and a whole bunch of hats from Moldova’s USSR days. (Really the only way this exhibit could have been better is if it was a shoe exhibition.) There were even a few military uniforms. I have to admit that it was nice to have Matt at a few of the museums because he was able to explain some of the rocks and bones and stuff that I would normally find completely uninteresting. Additionally, I hope all of you appreciate these pictures because we had to pay an extra 15 lei at each museum in order to take pictures!!! And if for some reason someone from Lonely Planet is reading my blog, you should really add information about that 15 lei photo charge to your guidebook. And here are some of the hats:

On Sunday, We wanted to start at the Puskin Museum, but I accidently directed us to the Open Air Army Museum instead. After a quick walk through of the Army Museum, we decided it made more sense to go the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History next. We followed the Map in the guidebook and ended up taking a lovely walk on some out of the way streets on the way to the Ethnographic Museum. The Ethnography Museum had some awesome stuff like dinosaurs and a giant relief map of Moldova. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died half way though that museum, but some of the pics I did take are below.

After a yummy lunch at Andy’s Pizza (possibly the most American restaurant in Moldova), we finally made it to the Puskin Museum. The Puskin Museum is located at the cottage where Puskin spent several months in exile from Russia. We had a tour of the cottage in Romanian. I think I only understood about 30% of what was said, but the museum was interesting nonetheless.

Overall, the weekend was tiring and I have the blisters on my feet as proof of the insane amount of walking that we did. The museums were interesting and I had the most delicious German beer on Saturday night, which really made the whole trip worthwhile!

Last week I spent two days with my friend Melissa, another PCV. The way this visit came about seems to be representative of my general work in Moldova: Hectic. Last Monday, my partner, Angela, told me that on Wednesday we would be going to a dried fruit business and then on Thursday we would be going the see Doamna Ecaterina in “a neighboring village.” We had worked with Doamna Ecaterina before on some seminars for women in rural areas, so I assumed that we were going to discuss something related to either her organization or our organization. As you will see, this turns out to be a completely incorrect assumption.

On Tuesday, I inquired about what time we were going to the dried fruit business and “the neighboring village.” Angela was not sure what time, but informed me that we would be spending Thursday night in “the neighboring village” and returning on Friday. Melissa comes to my town every Tuesday morning to meet for tea and a little chit chat. When I met her that Tuesday, she asked me about the class I was teaching at her school. Apparently, Doamna Ecaterina is also a teacher and I was teaching her Civics classes on Thursday. I informed Melissa that my partners and I were spending the night Thursday, but I had no idea where. Melissa kindly offered that I could stay at her house if needed.

When I arrive back at the office from my meeting with Melissa, I asked about teaching the class. Angela then told me that I was supposed to prepare a presentation about writing a project proposal. I then asked a series of questions about said presentation, to which a received a series of unhelpful answers. For example: Question: how long should the presentation be? Response: between 10 and 45 minutes.

I spent the rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday preparing for my presentation. On Wednesday morning I was informed that we were no longer going to see the dried fruit business that afternoon. When I inquire as to what time I needed to be ready and where we were meeting the following morning to go to “the neighboring village,” Angela told me to be at the office at my normal time. I consider my normal time to be anywhere between 8:00am and 1:00pm, so this is not the most helpful information. I clarify by saying tomorrow at 8:00 and Angela says 8:00 or 8:30. Later Thursday night Melissa called to tell me that her host mom told her that I would be staying with them on Thursday night. I am still not sure who arranged that.

Friday morning at roughly 7:15, Angela called to tell me I will be going to “the neighboring village” alone and to get on the rutiera that stops on the street next to the post office at 8:00. The post office is roughly 30 minutes away and I had to go to the bank on the way, so I left my house immediately. To spite the fact that Angela’s directions were not all that clear, I ultimately made it the school in “the neighboring village.”

I then taught four classes in Romanian. I am pretty sure that the kids understood very little of what I said. Also the interactive lesson that I planned somewhat backfired. I asked questions to the students but then was unable to understand many of the answers that the students gave. I did feel that each class I taught went better than the last, so I view that as a positive thing.

I also had the opportunity the watch one of Melissa’s health classes and attend her health club. In the health club we did a team building activity: the human knot. This was actually the most interesting thing I have participated in Moldova. It was interesting to watch the Moldovan kids, who had never played human knot before. I feel like all American kids have done the human knot at least 100 times and they have it down pat, but this was not the case with the Moldovan kids. It took some extra explaining in the beginning and throughout the activity, but it was so cool the watch them work together and figure it out.

After the club was over, I was a little confused about what I was supposed to be doing the following day. Doamna Ecaterina asked me what I had planned for the following day, I said that I had nothing planned yet. I had sort of assumed that she had something that she wanted me to do and that was why I was staying the night. Again not the case, she had no plans for me. I could have returned home that afternoon.

After the school day was over, I spent a fun, but as it turns of completely unnecessary evening, with Melissa and her host mom. Melissa’s host mom went to town to by a microwave that day, and was really excited about it when she arrived home. We spent some time setting up the microwave, heating water for tea and then we watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The following morning, I watched another on of Melissa’s health classes and then headed back to Hincesti. Overall, teaching the classes was a good experience; however, the rest of the experience was a bit hectic.

Peace Corps does not permit me to say the name of the small village in which Melissa lives. That is why I have referred to it at “the neighboring village.”

I did not feel at all well on Sunday. I started out with a cold on Saturday and what ever I had progressed to my stomach on Sunday. I rested most of the day on Sunday because I wanted to feel better for the BBQ we were having on Sunday afternoon to celebrate my host-sister’s birthday.

At around three o’clock my host sister said that we were leaving for the padure (or forest) where we would be having the BBQ. By that time I was feeling almost back to normal, so I headed out with them. We packed up the car and were off. When we got to the forest, my host dad, host sister and I gathered some branches and my host dad started a small fire to cook the meat with. While he was starting the fire my host mom, host sister and I picked some berries that would be dried and later used for tea. After we gathered enough berries, we headed back to the fire and hung out while my host dad was preparing to cook the meat.

It was at this time things started to go down hill for me. My stomachache came back with a vengeance. When my host dad started cooking the meat, the smell made me nauseous. Finally, the meat was done and I had to deal with my host dad trying to force me to eat it. Not fun. I tried to hide my discomfort, but I eventually had to go sit in the car away from the food smells. Not too long after that my family packed up and we left. I am not sure if they were ready to leave, or if I just looked so pathetic that they felt obligated to leave, but we did leave.

When we arrived back home, I went straight to bed. About and hour after I went to bed, my host mom woke me up and told be to make some tea for myself. Although, I didn’t really think this would assist in improving my ailment, I thought that some extra liquids couldn’t hurt. I headed down stairs and filled the teapot up with water. Next I went to turn on the stove. We have a gas stove and the gas has to be turned on in two places. First the valve on the pipe has to be opened, then you have to turn on the burner and light it. I went to open the valve, but seeing as it was already open, I closed it instead. Realizing my mistake, I then opened it again and lit the burner. I just figured someone had accidently forgot to close the valve.

This turns out not to be the case. My mom was cooking something in the oven. I turned off the valve extinguishing the flame and then turned the valve back on allowing the oven to fill up with gas. Luckily, my host mom came down to check on what she was cooking a few minutes later, before I successfully blew up the kitchen. Let this be a lesson to all of you, leave me alone when I am sick or I might inadvertently blow up your kitchen.

I think this is the exact reason that Peace Corps gives our host-families a fire extinguisher...

Yesterday, myself, roughly 8 other PC volunteer and one Moldovan we met at the park participated in a 5K Fun Run. I came in LAST place!!!

To my credit, the invite said people could run or walk the race. I figured that there would be a few walkers, some run/walkers (like I planned) and some runners. Unfortunately (for me), only the hard-core running crowd showed up.

I felt that having gone for two runs, three weeks prior to the race, I was in prime running condition. I tried wearing some running tights and doing so serious stretching prior to the race in order to intimidate the other competitors into dropping out. My plan failed and I, Katie McNabb, came in last!

I have chosen two separate but equally effective methods of dealing with this crushing defeat. The first is to perpetuate the idea: “If you’re not first, you’re last!” (Thank you Ricky Bobby) This means that technically there were eight others who finished in the same position as me: LAST! The second coping method I have implemented is to tell myself that technically I beat all of the PCVs who did not participate. This means that I finished about 10th place out of 100 or so volunteers. Not too shabby!

Even though I came in LAST, I had a great time and I plan on participating again next year!

Boot Update:

After the run, I bought the $140 boots that I had been considering buying for a while now. I bought them, not because I was completely certain that they were the boots I wanted, but because I couldn’t handle any more of my host dad’s badgering about buying boots. Apparently, he does not consider the shoes that I have been wearing to be weather appropriate. Everyday he asks me what shoes I will be wearing that day and then proceeds to tell me that they are not warm enough and I need to buy boots. I finally gave in and bought a pair, just in time for it to warn up for a few weeks (according to the weather report.)

Travel Update:

I have booked my winter vacation! This December I will be going to Helsinki (Finland), Tallinn (Estonia), Riga (Latvia), and Vilnius (Lithuania), or as I like to refer to it “The Baltic Extravaganza.”

Happy Halloween…

Last Sunday after lunch, my family and I went to pick “porumbele.” When my family told me what we were going to do, I thought that we were going to do something involving corn, because the word for corn is “porumb.” Not the case! We drove to the forest and spent about an hour picking Sloe berries.

I have never encountered a Sloe berry before coming to Moldova (except in the form of Sloe Gin, but I don’t think that counts). I am not a fan! My first encounter was at Ross’s (another ARBD) house in Milestii Mici. My friend Nkosi and I saw a bowl full of Sloe berries in his kitchen. They looked like delicious blueberries and were just sitting there so innocently on the counter. We each tried one. Big mistake!! Their skin is dusty and tastes like chalk and their insides are bitter. Basically, they are like eating bitter chalk, but more disgusting because you expect them to taste like a delicious blueberry. Both of us were actually forced to spit them out. They tasted so bad then we began to wonder if they had been poisonous. We are both still alive, so apparently they are safe to eat.

So last Sunday when my host mom asked my to try another one, I was quite hesitant. I did, however, try a second Sloe berry. It will be my last!

Aside from how gross I find Sloe berries, I did have fun going berry picking. And Sloe berries do have two redeeming qualities: Vodka (which can be made from Sloe berries) and Sloe Gin.

Cheers!

I recently went to visit my friend Matt to celebrate his town’s Hram. Hram is the day that is dedicated to honor or celebrate the town’s patron Saint. Leova's Hram was celebrated in the 27th of October. I think that it is also considered a celebration of the town’s birthday, but don’t quote me on that.

I arrived in Leova around 9:30 and it was cold, probably the coldest day I have had in Moldova up to this point. Matt though that the festivities started at 10:00, but it turns out that they didn’t start until 12:00, so we took the extra time to tour Leova. We went to the piata, the church and Matt’s office. The church is Leova is a lovely aqua color and I felt this color scheme is worth posting a picture of.

At 12:00 we went to the opening of the new stadium. The new stadium is a half sized soccer field surrounded by a huge fence. Even though the field is small, I was impressed that the field had artificial turf. It is the first artificial turf field that I have seen in Moldova. Apparently, this was the grand opening of the field because there was a ribbon cutting ceremony. Also, the Primar (Mayor) and the Raion Council President both gave remarks.

After all the ceremony concluded, there was a kids soccer game. We watched for a while and it appeared that “the green team” led by the “fat kid” was dominating. The highlight of the game was a kid getting hit in the face with the ball. This may sound mean, but it really wasn’t that bad and the kid (after some coercion from his mother) used it as an excuse to go home. I really wish that I knew how to say, “walk it off” in Romanian.

After the game we headed to lunch. We had some more of the popular Moldovan dish, pizza with mayonnaise. Although this sounds gross, after trying in numerous times it turns out that I don’t mind pizza with mayonnaise.

Later in the day we went to a concert at the Casa de Cultura. It was pretty awesome. I enjoyed when the singer sang “Feliculi Felicula!” and I have posted a video below so you too can enjoy it.

The most interesting part of the day was when I tried to head back to Hincesti. Although, I arrived early for the scheduled bus, it never seemed to come. Matt and I waited at the gara for an hour before I decided to hitchhike. Yes, that is right, I hitchhiked. Although this is something, I would never even dream of doing in the US, it is more than common in Moldova.

A lovely man (in a newish Mercedes) picked me up in Leova as he was dropping another passenger off. He was a taxi driver by profession and on his way to Chisinau from Cahul to go to a sauna. We had a lovely conversation and then he dropped me off at the corner by my house. I gave him a few lei for his trouble. I am not sure what the going rate to hitchhike in Moldova is, but I thought 30 lei should cover it.

Did I mention that every one in the town gets the day off for Hram? Unfortunately, my town’s Hram will be on a Sunday, November 21st; therefore, we already have it off. Boo!!! Everyone tells me that our will be “cel mai frumos” even though we don’t get an extra day off.

Until then….

Before you ask, the answer is “no, Mold Expo is not a exposition of spores.” It is actually Moldova’s Exposition Center and a wide variety of expositions are held there throughout the year. This past week, I attended the “Farmer 2010” exposition with my partner Angela.

I wish I could say that this was super exciting, but the truth is that Farmer 2010 was very American. This probably means that the exposition is very exciting for Moldovans, but as an American it didn’t really live up to the hype. I don’t mean to take anything away from it, because it was a great expo, but I think my family and partners talked it up a bit much.

I went early with my partner Angela to help set up the Hincesti booth for the expo; however, there were so many people there that I really felt more like I was in the way. I fact she even asked my to go look around the other booths at one point, but I think she really just wanted me to get out of the way.

There were people at our booth selling honey, shoes, bags, pickled vegetables, treelings, and food; so, you can imagine how crowded it was. To illustrate the large social network that is the Moldovan community, I will tell you that the man selling trees in on the board of directors of the organization that I work with, the woman selling bags and shoes is friends with my mom and I had previously met her at the sauna (however, I didn’t recognize her with her clothes on), and the woman selling pickled vegetables was my host- sister’s God mother.

There was a lot of variety among the exhibitors. Many were selling farm equipment, such as tractors, automatic animal feeders, kit barns, etc. Others were selling products for animals, such as veterinary pharmaceuticals. And still others were organizations and locals selling their own products, such as honey, cheese, seeds, trees, bread, fruits and vegetables.

Vlad Filat, the Prime Minister of Moldova, said a few words at the opening ceremonies and then walked around to all the booths followed by an entourage of news media. With all of those people, I really just tried to stay out of the way when he came by our booth and I think I did so successfully.

At about noon, Angela left and I headed out for some winter boot shopping. I have been looking for winter boots for about two weeks now and have been quite unsuccessful. This is mainly due to the price. Boots cost the same amount here that they do in the US. When I finally found a pair that I like, they cost 1500 lei or about $140. Now, I have been known to spend a pretty penny on shoes, but not on a measly Peace Corps stipend. There are cheaper boots that can be bought at the piata, but I have been warned against buying those boots by several people, all of whom claim that they won’t last more than a few months and I will be buying new boots again before winter is over.

I discussed boot prices with my host mom and she told me that her boots that only come up to her ankle cost 1100 lei. She felt that 1500 lei is a fair price for taller boots and that if I found good ones then I should buy them. However, my tutor says that 1500 is expensive for boots. So, you see my dilemma. I think that I will probably end up buying the 1500 lei boots because they were one of only two pair that fit well. We’ll see, I’ll keep everyone updated on the boot situation.

Anyway, back to Mold Expo. There is a Mold Energy Expo in March. If any of you CPUCers think you can convince the State of California to send you, then you are more than welcome to stay with me.

Until next time…

Last Sunday, I went to help clean up the Jewish Cemetery in Leova. Leova is the next raion over from Hincesti and home to the fabulous PCVs Suzette and Matt. In spite of a few hiccups and a ton of rain, they did a great job organizing a worthwhile event.

I dressed for the rainy weather and left my house at 8:00am and headed to the gara (bus station) in Hincesti to catch a rutiera to Leova. Leova is about an hour drive on a good day and an hour and a half on a bad day. In addition to the varying travel times, the rutiera schedule seems to vary as well. Although there is a rutiera schedule it seems to only be loosely adhered to. My experience has been a rutiera can arrive roughly a half-hour in each direction of the time it is scheduled to be at the station. In order to account for all of these travel variables I left my house at 8:00 in order to arrive in Leova for the 10:00am start time.

The first mistake I made that morning was attempting to arrive on time. Everyone knows that nothing in Moldova starts on time. It is just a general rule here. After realizing this I have started arriving at work at 10:00 every morning instead of 8:00, and sometimes I still beat my partners in. My travel that morning went extremely well by Moldovan standards and I arrived in Leova at 9:15, forty-five minutes early!!!

I then began a series of waits. First I waited for the organizers, Matt, Suzette and Ohad, to meet me at the gara in Leova. They arrived at about 9:45 and then we were slowly joined by a few students, who are in Matt’s debate club. Together we then waited until about 11:00 for the bus from the Jewish center in Chisinau to arrive. When it did we all finally headed to the cemetery to get to work. Once at the cemetery, we discovered that the tools and workers that the Primaria (Mayor’s Office) was going to supply were not there, so we pulled weeds and picked up garbage with our bare hands until lunch.

At the cemetery, we also had what I referred to as the “safety meeting” before we got started. It probably would have been more accurately named the “soul safety meeting.” At this meeting we were all informed that only someone Jewish is allowed to pick up a fallen headstone and/or grave marker. I don’t know what the consequences of a Gentile picking up a headstone are, but I am sure they are “grave.” (Sorry!!!)

For lunch we were supplied with cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches. Luckily, the lovely Emily Getty kindly allowed me to share her PB&J. After lunch the tools arrived and it stopped raining, we really got to work. Matt let be borrow his work gloves, which turned my hands yellow. This led to my spending the afternoon saying I was jaundice and my liver was failing. I am not sure that everyone else appreciated this, but I thought it was hilarious. (As is the case with most of my jokes.)

I think that overall we did a great job. While there is still a lot of clean up left to do at that particular cemetery, but we made some progress and will continue come next spring.

Now many of you may be wondering why I would be interested in cleaning up a Jewish Cemetery, seeing as I am not Jewish. The reason is simple: Jewish Karma. (Yes, this is in fact something that I made up.) I have booked a trip to Israel in February with a group of other PCVs. I figure that in should start racking up the Jewish Karma to ensure that I have an awesome trip.

Here’s to the Chosen People…

It has been a few weeks since my last post, but there is good reason for that. I spent the pat two weeks is Milestii Mici for phase II of my Pre-Service Training. It was really nice to be with all the other ARBD PCVs again. (That is Agriculture and Rural Business Development Peace Corps Volunteers for those of you that don’t know all the Peace Corps acronyms.)

We spent Monday the 27th and Tuesday the 28th at a Partners Conference in Chisinau. All the ARBD PCVs and their partners listened to two days of presentations before heading back to Milestii Mici. In Milestii Mici, we had 4-5 hours of Language training a day and another few hours of technical training. I won’t bore you with the details.

While I was in Milestii Mici, I fell down my family’s stairs and got a really gross bruise on my butt. I considered posting a picture of it, but decided against it. Your Loss!

After PST Phase II was over, I stayed the weekend in Chisinau in order to attend a PC Fun Run and the Moldova National Wine Festival. Due to Rain, the Fun Run was cancelled, but most of us still managed to make it to the Wine Fest. I was able to try a few types of wine that I had never seen is the US. The first was a Feteasca Alba which was a delicious white wine made from Feteasca Alba grapes (Surprise!) that are grown mainly in Moldova and Transylvania (And yes, I do believe it was Dracula's preferred wine, second to blood of course!). The second was a desert wine called a Kagor. I bought a bottle of the Kagor to take home and share with my host family in Hincesti. I think they really liked it.

I am attempting to plan a short trip in December. I am not sure where. It will probably be somewhere close to Moldova and cheap. Please email me if you have any good ideas, or would like to join me!

That’s all I have for now, sorry to be so boring.

Last Sunday, my host parents and I went on an excursion with a tour group. The group consisted of people that worked in my moms office and their friends and relatives. Apparently they go on tours twice a year or so. My host-sister told me that last year they traveled to the ocean twice. This trip, we went to Soroca. There we visited Cetatea Soroca, Monastery Soroca and Luminarea Recunostintei.

We left the house around 7:00 and shared a taxi with our neighbors to the center of town where we met up with my mom's co-workers. From there we took a rutiera to Chisinau. We arrived at the tour bus at around 8:30 and before long we headed off to Soroca. Our first stop was Cetatea Soroca.

Cetatea Soroca was built a really long time ago. And that is all I know about it because I couldn't understand what the tour guide was saying. At the Cetatea, they had some placenta, wine and champagne for us to eat and drink. After having a bite to eat, I explored the fortress and took some pictures.

After we left the fortress, we headed to the monastery. This monastery was not as nice or as interesting as the two monasteries that I went to before. It was smaller and the did not have beautiful gardens like Hincu and Capriana; however, the area surrounding it was much more naturally picturesque.

When we got back on the bus the tour guide was giving every one water, or so I thought. Turns out she was only giving this special water from the monastery to single women. Apparently, if you drink the water you will get married (Yes, I drank the water. I figure it's about the only shot i've got. Lol)

The last place we went to for the day was Luminarea Recunostintei, or that one church-like place with a bazillion stairs. Literally, the stairs continued forever, but once I actually made it to the top the views were beautiful! Here are some pics:

After all the sightseeing, everyone unpacked the food they had bought and we stopped on the way home for a masa. My we had all sorts of food, house wine, champagne, cognac, and visinata. I have to say that cognac is growing on me. When I first tried it, I though it was the nastiest thing ever, bit now I think it's kind of good. After all of that food and alcohol, I didn't have any trouble sleeping in the way back.

The tour bus dropped us off at the Gara de Sud. Where we would normally catch the rutiera back to Hincesti. Unfortunately, we were too late and had missed the last rutiera. We asked another driver if we could pay him to detour through Hincesti. But before we left someone found a rutiera that was going to Leova through Hincesti and we took it.

We finally got home a little before 10:00 and I was exhausted. It was a long day, but now I think I have seen more important places in Moldova than I ever did in America.

Last Thursday, I had the my most interesting experience thus far in Moldova.

On Tuesday during dinner, my host mom invited me to go to the sauna with her and her lady friends in celebration of her birthday. I had to have her both repeat the word sauna and explain the word sauna, just to make sure that I had understood correctly. I said that I would go and then I began to investigate what would be involved in the sauna trip and level of nakedness this event would entail.

I originally imagined a bunch of ladies sitting around in towels and maybe a few would choose to bear it all. Turns out that I had no clue what was actually going to happen.

On Wednesday, we started preparing food for our trip to the sauna. My host-mom prepared sarmale and a roasted chicken. We also bought meat, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers to make appetizer trays. In addition, we took grapes and pears to snack on as well as beer, wine and cognac to drink (Yup, we took alcohol to drink in the sauna).

Finally on Thursday, I left work early because we had to leave for the sauna in Chisinau at 3:00. On the way we bought some bread and we arrived at the sauna about 4:15. We took all the food to the sauna's kitchen and started putting it out on plates (Yes, the sauna provides plates). At 5:00, I actually got a peak into the “sauna.” There was a large room with a table for dinner, a room with some arm chairs and a pool table, a room with a bed (“wink wink”) and the bath area. The bath are consisted of a sauna, showers and a pool.

We had all our food an the table along with some contributions from the other ladies by 5:30. Also by 5:30, all of the other ladies had undressed and were wrapped in towels. We all ate dinner and the ladies went around giving toasting my host-mom. After each toast they sang a song or two. They had even changed the words to some of the songs so they would be about my host-mom. I gave my toast and then, upon request, I sang “Happy Birthday.”

After the dinner, the ladies told me to change so we could go in the sauna. I did so, wrapped myself in a towel and then came upon a dilemma: should I take off my panties? Then I saw one of the other ladies walking around completely nude and decided: Yes, I should take off my panties.

Then I went into the bath area where the rest of the ladies were all completely nude as well. For the next few hours everyone went from the sauna to the pool to the shower and back to the sauna. My host mom brought exfoliant and a home-made body mask for every one to use. By the time we finished, my skin was smooth and moisturized!!!

So yes, in short I spent several hours hanging out, singing and eating while naked with other naked ladies.

The other day, I came home to find my family making moonshine. As exciting as this sounds, it may actually be one of the most unexciting things that has happened to me in Moldova.

My host-dad had set up a contraption, which I believe to be some type of still. When I came home he asked me if I wanted to try his “viskey.” At this point, my host-sister corrected him and said “vodka.” To tell the truth, when I actually tasted it, the flavor was not really reminiscent of either. Here are a few pics of the process:

I always imagined that making moonshine, would some how be like Dukes of Hazard. Turns out it is not. No General Lee, no Daisy, and no hot boys. (However, my host sister does sometimes wear a shirt with a confederate flag that says "Rebel.") It basically distills itself, so there is not much to do besides watch it drip into a jar. The most exciting thing was wondering if I would go blind or not after I tried it. Turns out I can still see (which in a way is kind of disappointing because if I had gone blind it would have made a great story).

My host-dad asked me if I had ever made “viskey” before. When I told him that it was difficult to legally make “viskey” at home in the US, he thought it was hilarious. My host dad is quite the patriot, but I could tell at that particular point in time he thought that it was even more awesome to be Moldovan than he had thought previously.

I spent last Saturday night in Chisinau. I went to celebrate the birthdays of some of my fellow volunteers. To tell the truth, most of the trip was pretty uneventful for me. I had a few drinks, some cake, some McDonald's and that about sums up my part in the birthday celebration activities.

Before I headed back to Chisinau on Sunday Morning, I went to the Piata Centrala to do some shopping. I bought some bed sheets, sunglasses and (drum roll please)...

my first pair of Moldovan shoes (pictured below).

Shoe shopping in Moldova proved to be slightly more difficult than I had anticipated. The are so many women here who walk around in the most awesome heels. I thought finding a cute pair would be a cinch. Apparently, I am more picky when it comes to buying shoes for myself than when judging those shoes worn by others (this is even more surprising when you consider that “judging” is pretty much my favorite past time).

The piata is set up similar to a flea market. Every vendor has their own space and they sell every thing from basketballs to live chickens. There is a decent selection of vendors who sell shoes. As I walked from vendor to vendor inspecting to shoes, a pattern emerged: Rhinestones. Literally every pair of heels had some type of rhinestone embellishment. It was like all the shoes were from a misdirected shipment that had originally been destined for a show in Vegas. I love sparkles, but when it comes to them I take an all or nothing approach. I either want the shoes to be completely cover in, oh say, pink glitter or completely without sparkles. Nether of these seemed to be a viable option.

When I finally found a cute pair without sparkles, they did not come in a size large enough to fit my fat American feet. I wear an 8.5 (which is a 39 or 40 here), not exactly huge. So I went back to find a pair that I had seen earlier, which had only minimal sparkles and came in “Size Sasquatch” (the shoes pictured above).

People mainly speak Russian in Chisinau. I am not entirely sure why this is. I asked my sisters and one said that it is a political statement and the other said it was because they think it is cool. This Russian speaking is not a problem for Moldovans because most of them speak both Russian and Romanian; however for some one who barely speaks Romanian, this is not convenient in the least. In the past, I have tried to ask questions in stores in Chisinau, only to be responded to multiple times in Russian (yes, even after saying than I don't speak Russian). In spite of all of this, the communication through the shoe trying on process went pretty smoothly. The man who helped me try on the shoes talked with me a little in Romanian. His counterpart came and started talking to me in Russian, but when he realized that I didn't understand he immediately started speaking Romanian with me. Both of them thought that I was British, and I just let them think that. It must have been the Red hair.

To complete the whole shoe buying experience, I wore my new shoes the next day. My host mom complemented me on them and then immediately asked how much they cost. I am still always taken aback when someone asks me how much something costs, even though this is a completely acceptable and common practice here. The cost of my shoes was 300 lei. When I told my host mom, I was afraid she would think that I paid too much. Not the case, she simply said “Nu e scump (that's not expensive)” and we continued to work.

I think that I mentioned in a previous blog posts that my host parents have the most awesome car ever. It is a four-door, blue Lada (pictured below):

It may not look like much, but it seems like a tough little car. And why shouldn't it be tough, it was made by the Russians.

I usually walk to work. It is only a thirty to forty minute walk. But sometimes it is raining or I just don't feel like walking, so I hitch a ride to work with the host parents. Every morning a man, Domnul Ion, comes overs, warms up the car and backs to car out of the driveway to the dirt street in front of our house. Then we all hop in. My host dad always sits in the front seat and my host mom and I (and sometimes a neighbor) sit in the back.

Before we can leave the first challenge arises, closing the door. You really have to slam the doors to get them to stay closed. I can now close the door with one slam, but when I first arrived it would take me about three tries. My host dad would yell that it was a Russian car and I wasn't gonna break it. Then I would slam it harder and harder until it would finally close.

The next challenge in the foggy windows. Domnul Ion drives us and wipes the windows with a towel at the same time. I gather from this that the car has no defroster, but the wiping seems to do the job. But, the real challenge comes when we try to turn onto the main road. Domnul Ion wipe the windows vigorously so he can see the traffic, then he watches for an opening and tries to prevent the car from stalling at the same time.

And finally, every once in a while his job even includes jumping the clutch on the way down the hill to get the car started, but this is a rare occurrence. When this does occur, my host dad pushes while Domnul Ion steers the car out of the drive way onto the street. At this point, we all get in and my host dad gives us a final push to get us started down the hill and then he jumps in. I wish that I could say this was a new and unique experience for me, but unfortunately I have bump started many a car and sport bike in my life.

One day on the way home from work, we decided stop by my host-sister's house. We were about a block away when oue car stopped right in the middle of an intersection. I thought it was the end of the most awesome car I have ever known, but alas we had just run out of gas. Now, I didn't really know what we were going to do. The gas station is a little way out of town. I estimate it to be about an hours walk, two hours there and back. I prepared myself for the worst. But in less than 5 minutes, this arrived:

I think that is basically looks like an ambulance and that is just what it is, an ambulance for cars. The drive brought us a 1.5 liter water bottle full of gas, and we were off. If only AAA could be so efficient!!

Now for the real question, why does Domnul Ion drive us everywhere? The answer is that I have no idea!! I don't think that my host mom knows how to drive, but I know for sure that my host dad does. When I find out, I will be sure to blog about it!! Until then....

Here's to my driver, Domnul Ion!!!

Because I have failed to post any pictures of my site, here is a quick YouTube video about the town that I live in, Hincesti. Enjoy!

Stay tuned, I am going to post more about my family's awesome car soon!

My friend and previous colleague, Amy Baker, has in the past responded to emails with the acronym “TLTR,” which stands for “Too Long To Read.” And, if she were to give her input about the following blog post, I am almost certain that she would respond with “TLTR.” But, too bad I am going to post it anyway.

Last Thursday, my partner Angela invited me to her brother's wedding. I was really excited about the prospect of going to a Moldovan wedding (or a “nuntă” as it is called in Romanian). In Pre-Service Training, we learned about Moldovan wedding traditions and they sounded fun and interesting. The only problem was that the wedding was the following evening, Friday evening. Although, I had been verbally informed about the wedding the week before, I only received the official invitation the day before the wedding. That is what I call short notice.

Below in a picture of the wedding invitation. You will notice the continued difficulty with my name. To their credit, my name on the invitation is spelled exactly how Moldovans pronounce Katie: “Catty.”

Thursday night, I went home and asked everyone in my host family about weddings. I learned that I didn't need to bring a gift, because Moldovans give money at weddings. So, I inquired as to how much money I should give. My host mom said that it would be appropriate for me to give $50. $50!!! I am on a PC living stipend here!!! But, I sucked it up and decided the experience of going to a Moldovan wedding was worth $50.

The next day I went to work, but we only worked half a day because we all needed to go home and rest for the wedding. On my way home I accompanied Angela to the florist, where she carefully selected and purchased a lovely bouquet of flowers. I asked if I should bring flowers too. Angela gave me a round about answer about how she was a member of the family, so she was obligated to give more at the wedding and that it wasn't necessary that I bring flowers.

I then headed the rest of the way home, caught up on a few episodes of Top Gear and prepared for the wedding. To begin my wedding preparations, I shined my shoes. Having clean and shiny shoes is very important in Moldova. Almost everyone cleans, if not polishes their shoes pretty much everyday. I am not sure how they do it, but they also manage to walk on dirt and gravel roads with out getting their shoes dusty, scuffed or muddy.

After my shoes were reminiscent of the top of the Chrysler Building, I showered, flat ironed my hair, “put on my face” and made sure to put the battery for my digital camera on the charger. Then, I headed outside to get approval of my wedding outfit from my family. My host dad commented that I was wearing black to a wedding, but my host mom and host sister, both thought it was fine; however, they did tell me to put on nylons.

I then gathered together my “gift (aka $50),” my phone and my camera and called my partner Valentina to see when she would be by to pick me up. She said she would arrive at 8:30. Again with the Moldovan time!!! The wedding was supposed to start at 8:00. At 9:00, she finally arrived at my house in a taxi. When I got inside, she had purchased flowers for me to give to the bride. I can't help but think that it may have been communicated to her that I had not purchased to requisite flowers earlier in the day and instead of someone just telling me that I should buy flowers, they went out of there way to bring them for me.

No one attends the actual Moldovan wedding outside of the couple's parents, the maid of honor, best man, and the “nanaş” and “nanaşa” (which are to couples God parents). Guests only attend the reception, which is held at a restaurant. We arrived at the restaurant (the same restaurant that my host-sister's wedding was at) and were some of the first people there to spite being an hour late.

When guests first came into the restaurant, they gave the couple flowers and a small monetary gift (20-100 lei, which is roughly $2-$10). It was similar to a receiving line at an American wedding. I gave the bride my flowers and wished the couple “mulți ani şi mulți bani,” which means “many years and much money.” (It was at this point, when I tried to take a picture of the receiving line, that I realized that I never put the battery back in my digital camera, so I have no pictures to post. Sorry!) I sat down with Valentina and in about half an hour the rest of the wedding party and guests showed up. Angela and I then did some Moldovan dances. The only one that I know the name of in the “Hora,” but we also did several others. As soon as I sat down to take a break from the dancing, my favorite Moldovan child, Angela's daughter Sophie, came and wanted me to dance some more, so I did.

Then we all sat down at the tables and the happy couple and their “nanaşi” made there way through a tunnel of people holding flowers to the front table. After they sat down everyone chanted for them to kiss and then we started eating the cold meal. The man across from me poured my a glass of cognac, which I used to toast all the people who came around the tables and wanted to clink glasses. These people included the bride's father and any other drunk man (or woman) who felt like toasting everyone. (This was a strange turn of events, because I am usually the drunk that wants to toast everyone!)

After the cold food, we danced more of the Hora and other traditional dances. There was one dance that is like musical chairs but with women. In this dance there is one too few girls. When the music stops every one changes parters and the odd man out has to dance with a broom!!! I would also like to bring everyone's attention to the fact that a certain dance that in the US we call the Bunny Hop, is actually the National Dance of Romania!!

After the dancing, we sat down for the hot food. It was roughly 1:00 am by this time. During this meal, I witnessed several Moldovan wedding traditions. First, the couple broke a loaf of bread and each ate a small piece. Then the bread was passed around and all of the guests ate a small piece. Next, the bride's and groom's family brought them loafs of bread with blankets folded on top of them. After that the gift giving started.

The nanaş was the first to give his gift. He stood up, gave a short speech and then put $1200 Euros in the basket!!! Then the singer/MC of the wedding, the best man, made of honor and the nanaş all went around the tables collecting the “gifts.” Everyone stood up and said something to the couple and then put their money in the basket. And they all said how much money they were giving!!! The average amount given was $100-$200 per couple (not lei, dollars)!!!! When they came to me I said, “ Doar vorbesc puțin româneste. Voi vorbi limbă engleza,” which means, “ I only speak a little Romanian. I will speak English.” Then I wished the couple well in English and I may have forgotten to say how much I gave.

I thought that it would be a unique touch for me to give US dollars instead of lei. It is extremely easy to exchange money here. You can literally exchange dollars for Moldovan Lei, Romanian Lei, Euros or Russian Rubles on almost every street corner, so it wouldn't be difficult for the couple to exchange them if they needed to. Turns out this was not unique at all. About 20 other people gave their gifts in dollars, the majority of people gave euros and only a few people actually gave lei. Great idea Katie!!!

Along with putting their money in the basket, people also tipped the singer. When someone gave the singer a tip they then got to request a song. About five people requested songs. But, my favorite part of the evening came when a drunk man put his money in the basket, but then announced that as part of his gift he would also perform a dance for the couple. He, unfortunately, was no dancer. Everyone, including me, enjoyed the dance anyway. I couldn't help but wonder if this was some crazy Moldovan tradition and I started to feel bad for thinking it was so funny. Later, I questioned my host sister about this, turns out it is not a tradition, just some drunk guy who thought he was a good dancer. Guilt alleviated! Then, I thought it was hilarious that in America we talk about “the gift of dance” and here in Moldova, people are literally giving dance as a gift!!!

After everyone put their money in the basket, the bride and groom walked around and thanked everyone. They thanked me in English!!! After that Angela's brother-in-law gave Valentina and I a ride to our respective homes. I arrived home about 3:30 in the morning and I was one of the first people to leave the wedding. Apparently, Moldovan weddings usually go until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. Moldovans really know how to party!!!

When I talked to my host parents the next morning, I told them that Moldovan weddings are a lot more fun that American weddings (and American weddings are pretty fun, so that says a lot). My host dad, who continually brings up the idea of me getting married to a Moldovan, said “If you marry a Moldovan man, you will get to have a Moldovan wedding.” And honestly, it is the most convincing argument that he has made thus far...

And a special thank you and congratulations to Nataşa and Oleg!!!!

Yesterday was the first day of school in Hincesti, as well as the rest of Moldova. This is a much bigger deal here in Moldova than it is in the US. In America, the biggest thing that happened on the first day of school was my mom embarrassingly walking me all the way to my classroom door, as opposed to dropping me off in front of the school like she would the rest of the year. (Geeze Mom!!) In Moldova, on the other hand, the first day of school is a big deal. Because both of my partners have school aged children, I was able to meet them at the school the experience the festivities.

Yesterday morning, my host-mom dropped me off at “Scoala Unu (It has a real name, but no one says it.)” to meet my partners and their kids. Nether of them was there when I arrived; however, my partner Angela's daughter, Sophie, was and she greeted my warmly. I love Sophie!! She is friendly and outgoing. She always tries to talk to me in Romanian and I usually understand what she says. She also is not afraid to try to speak English with me. I find a lot of Moldovans seem a little “timid” when it comes to speaking English with a native speaker, but not Sophie!!! She then told me that her mom and Valentina would arrive shortly.

Valentina and her brood soon arrived along with their “bunica,” or grandma. Then we waited about an hour for the festivities to begin. (They were running on Moldvan time I guess.) When the festivities did start they were adorable. First, the older students held the hand of the youngest students and paraded around. These youngsters were first graders, who would be attending “Scoala Unu” for the first time. The best part is they all wore suits, full three piece suits. They looked like little business men, or lobbyists. My partner, Valentina's son was one of the newcomers to the school. I tried to take some pictures of him and the little parade, but I didn't want to fight with the parents who were all jockeying for the best photographing position. This was the best that I could do (however, this is not Valentina's son):

The rest of the ceremony went on for about an hour and a half and included your run of the mill ceremonial things: color guard, speeches, introductions of new teachers, a few awards, and a girl who sang a mediocre song. I won't bore you with the details, except that the primar of Hincesti gave a speech and my partner again informed me that people refer to him as “Obama.”

At the end there was the ringing of the bell. One of the older boys carried a young girl on his shoulder and they paraded around while she rang a bell decorated with flowers. I have to say she was pretty adorable with her pig tails and bows that were roughly the size of her head.

After the bell ringing, school started (Big surprise!!!). All the students went to there respective class rooms, but Valentina's son, Augustine, did not want to go to school. So, she took him to his classroom and stayed with him for a while. And then we all met up at the office for a productive work day (Fun!!!)

Later in the evening, I watched the news with my host mom and dad. The first day of school was big news. The morning festivities that I had attended seemed to be identical to those that had occurred all over Moldova that morning. I need to do more research to find out of this is a Moldova thing, a Moldova/Romania thing or a Soviet thing. The answers should be interesting.

Like the title foreshadows, this blog post unsuccessfully attempts to combine two completely unrelated events into one cohesive story. I apologize in advance.

The best purchase that I have made since my arrival in Moldova is a surge protector. This is not because it will protect my electronics from the countless electrical surges that inevitably occur here in Moldova (such as the one that fried my old computer), but because it allows me to flat iron my hair in my room. Let me elaborate....

I brought with me from the U.S. the best flat iron ever, but the problem is exactly that: it is from the US. It requires a hefty power adapter/converter to operate here in Moldova. The outlet in my room is behind my large and immovable wardrobe and there is not enough room to fit said power adapter/converter between the outlet and the wardrobe. So, each morning, I'd head down to the bathroom to plug my flat iron into in unobstructed outlet there. This was really not an inconvenience for me, but I worried that someone would want to use the bathroom for something important (say peeing or showering) while I was busy ironing my hair into submission.

Well, upon the arrival of my new Mac (I just love the sound of that phrase “my new Mac”), I purchased a surge protector to ensure that “my new Mac” did not meet the same fate as my old computer. Now I am able to plug the surge protector into the wall and then plug the cumbersome power adapter/converter into the surge protector. Victory! Now I can fry my hair in the privacy of my room.

All this leads me to a story that is actually only minutely interesting. On Monday morning, I was sitting in my room flat ironing my hair and my host sister, Irina, knocked on the door.

A little background on Irina. Irina lives in the US, in Gatlinberg, Tennessee to be exact. Between studying abroad, work and travel, and now having her green card, I think she has spent about 5 years in the United States. She now lives there permanently and plans to continue to live there for the rest of her live; however, she is currently visiting for a month.

When put down my flat iron and open the door, Irina says “Mananci macaroane cu lapte?” which means “Will you eat pasta with milk?” I think for a minute and then say “Yes.” At this she gives me a weird look and says “You realize that is spaghetti and milk?” I say “yes.” She then says “Do you like spaghetti and milk?” So, I go on to explain that I have never tried it, but I like both spaghetti and milk, so why not give it a try.

I go down to breakfast and sit down to a bowl of hot milk with macaroni floating in it. And it was delicious!!! The best thing I have eaten in Moldova. I put a small amount of honey in it like my host-mom did and about died and went to heaven. It was awesome!

All that I have had in Moldova is raw, but my family boils it and, basically, pasteurizes it themselves. Because of they have to boil the milk, they always seem to drink it hot. At first, I thought this was gross. I have talked to other volunteers that told me their families drink hot milk with honey. Again, I thought that was gross. Wrong, absolutely delicious!!!

This is one culinary delight that I am gonna bring back to America!!!

This weekend is a 5-day weekend. In America we don't really have 5-day weekends. We maybe have a 4-day weekend here and there, but 5 days? Never! I think that we just love work too much in America. Well, call me un-American, but I never had the problem of loving work too much and the prospect of a 5-day weekend thoroughly excites me.

The purpose of this 5-day weekend is to celebrate Ziua Independentei, or Moldovan Independence Day (to dumb it down even further, I could say Moldovan Fourth of July), and Ziua Limbii Noastre, or Our Language Day. Seeing as Ziua Limbii Noastre is not until Tuesday, the rest of this post will be about the Ziua Independencii celebration.

On Friday Morning, my host mom and I headed to the Ziua Independentei parade. None of the rest of the family seemed all that interested in going (probably because they have gone to the past 18 Ziua Independentei celebrations). My host-dad said that he had to work in the garden. I think he had to get his gardening out of the way early because he wanted to go on an overnight fishing trip later in the day. My host sister, Diana, said she wanted to go, but her baby was sleeping. (Right, your baby is sleeping. Like I haven't used that excuse a million times.) And I am not really sure what my other host sister, Irina, did that morning, but it obviously didn't involve attending the celebration. So, mom and I headed to the plaza next to the Primarie (Mayor's Office), but not before getting some flowers from the yard to take with us. Apparently, at the end of the festivities everyone places some flowers on the Stephen Cel Mare Monument, so we took some lovely yellow flowers.

On somewhat of a side note, when I first arrived in Moldova and was picking out flowers to take for when I met my host family, I was told not to buy a bouquet of all-yellow flowers. All the new volunteers were told that all-yellow bouquets are reserved for funerals. I am not sure if the all-yellow bunches of flowers that we took were appropriate because we were going to a type of memorial or if we just chose to disregard the all-yellow-flower rule, but no one seemed to give our yellow flowers a second glance.

We took a taxi to the celebration and we were dropped of just outside the police barricade that was blocking off the street for the parade. As soon as we god out of the car, my host mom started greeting people that she knew by saying “sarbatoare,” which means celebration. She even gave a small child in a stroller, who's parents she seemed to know, 50 lei (High Roller!!). We then met up with some of the ladies she works with (in reality, I am pretty sure that all of these ladies work for her, but lets not split hairs).

At this point, the parade started. It was not a parade like we think of a parade. It consisted of several public officials, what appeared to be several different types of peace officers and then everyone else in attendance (including yours truly) following behind them. The “paraders” walked for about 200 meters (or yards) and then stopped in front of the Stephen Cel Mare Monument where the was a PA system set-up.

The presentation was set off by two young Moldovan children in traditional clothing who recited something in Romanian that I didn't understand. However, they recited it in a loud, clear and well-timed fashion. Everyone was very impressed (I am sure they would have been 4-Hers if they lived in the U.S.).

Then several public officials gave short-ish speeches. Below is the Raion Council President of Hincesti.

And this is the Primar (Mayor) of the town of Hincesti. My host mom referred to him as “our Obama” and then she said “because he is thin and black” and then she laughed. Ha ha. And then I laughed.

Also, a choir from Hincesti sang a song that was really good. A video of it is below. I am not sure what the song in entirely about, but I know they are saying the words thank you a lot. So I assume the song is about thanking someone(s). (Sorry for the poor video quality!!!)

After the presentations were over, we all put our flowers on the Stephen Cel Mare Monument. The police and a few of the general public, including my host mom, continued onto a different monument and placed some flowers on it as well.

And that was the end of the celebration for the morning. My host mom and I walked home and when we walked by the nicest restaurant in town, my host mom said “ That's where Diana's wedding was.” With out going into all I have learned about Moldovan weddings, I think this means that host-sister Diana had a really nice wedding.

There was a concert Friday night to continue the celebrating, but my family didn't go. We could, however, hear it from our house. I also stayed up all the way until 11:00 (a major feat for me by the way) to watch the fireworks. While we were watching them, my host-sister Diana informed me that she loves fireworks so much that she had them at her wedding. This just worked to confirm my suspicion that she had a really nice wedding. When the fireworks were over, my host mom said, “they must have run out of money,” laughed, and then we all went to bed!

As you may have suspected by all of the pictures in this blog post, I now have my new Mac. It is sooooo awesome!!!! AWESOME!!! I don't know why I didn't get a Mac a long time ago. I must have been crazy. Anyway, I am now available to set up Skype dates with, if anyone is interested in talking to me.

Also, I want to thank everyone for all the positive feedback that I have been getting on my blog. It is good to know that people who are unrelated to me are reading and it really motivates me to keep writing. Thanks.

On the subject of Moldovan hospitality, I would like to discuss the two beautiful and intelligent ladies who serve as the Peace Corps Medical Officers in Moldova. Their "generosity" when it comes to treating ailments of all types astounds me.

Just a few weeks ago, I had a minor, minor cold. More of a stuffy nose and intermittent dry cough really. Nothing that I would have ever gone to the doctor for back in the U.S. But it was my first week at work and apparently my partners were concerned that Americans are fragile and this cold could lead to my eventual death, so they informed me that I would go see the PCMO while they went to the Romanian Consulate (they are right down the street from each other).

I fully expected that the PCMO would be appalled that I would come see her for such a minor medical issue (after all, my mom is a nurse whom I am fairly certain went to to "Walk it Off" School of Nursing). This could't have been further from the case. After a 45 minute examination, I left with: Nyquil, Mucinex, cough drops, nasal decongestant, and an inhaler all for my cold-ish symptoms. But that was not all, I also received a Benadryll Anti-Itch Stick and mass quantities of bug spray for what I thought were Mosquito bites all over my legs, but were re-diagnosed as either spider bites or ant bites. Great!!! In addition, I also received multi-vitamins and Selsun Blue Anti-Dandruff Shampoo. In short, I left the PCMO's office that day with quite a generous bounty.

In my opinion, the only one of these items that I really needed was the anti-dandruff shampoo (yes ladies and gentlemen, I have a dandruff issue). However, Selsun Blue SUCKS!!! Before I began using it, my dandruff kindly remained mostly attached to my scalp. Yes, a flake fell here or there, but I casually brushed it off and moved on with my life. Since, I began using Selsun Blue, my dandruff has become almost debilitating. The most minor movement of my head causes a snow storm of dandruff to fall coating whatever lovely outfit I have carefully selected to wear that day. It has gotten so bad that even my Moldovan partners have started brushing this endless coating of dandruff of my back and shoulders.

On this note, I welcome and all dandruff suggestions and again thank the PCMOs for their "generosity." I would also like to say at time, my cold and insect bites are healed, but my dandruff continues with a vengeance!

It was recently brought to my attention that I say "nu" a lot, as well as say it incorrectly. Both of these things really surprised me. Almost anyone that has ever had any dealings with me in the United States knows that I hardly ever say no. Katie, can you do this extra work assignment? Yes. Katie, do you want to get a drink afterwork? Yes! Katie, can I borrow $200? Uh, yes?? However, I have learned that with Moldovans I have to say no. Otherwise, I would drink 17 cups of tea a day, eat cake for lunch 4 times a week, have 43 slices of watermelon between the time I get home from work and the time I go to bed and have 9 Moldovan boyfriends. (Well, the part about the boyfriends might be an exaggeration.) After reflecting on this realization, I think that it is a good thing that I have to say no a lot because it just means that Moldovans are a hospitable and generous people (and that I actually do have a backbone.)

So, saying "nu" a lot turns out to be a good thing; saying "nu" incorrectly, however, does not. As my partners so kindly informed me, when I say "nu" they think it sounds like I am going to say "nud," which surprisingly means "nude." They then proceeded to explain to me that the word "nud" meant by saying "fara haine," which means without clothes, and "striptease." (I am not sure that I want to know why one of the few words that my partners can say in English in "striptease," but anyway…)

I have no idea why the "nu" sound in the word "nu" differs from the "nu" sound in the word "nud," so I asked my parters to pronounce the word "nu" correctly and then the way that I was saying it. Guess what? They sound exactly the same to me!!! So, my partners developed a solution the the problem, I will just always say "da!" Brilliant!

Now, this is obviously not a viable solution to my pronunciation problem. In reality, what now occurs is I say "nu" and then both my partners in unison say "nu" in high-pitched, whiney voices. I think that I must have "Make Fun of Me" stamped on my forehead in some universal language. Sheesh!

…and the Romanian is going well.

Yesterday, I kindly wrote to inform everyone about Moldovan Independence Day and Ziua Limbii Noastre. Although, I did know the correct dates for these holidays (August 27th and 31st, respectively), I apparently did not know the correct day of the week that these dates fall on. The 31st is actually this Friday. This alleviates my concern about the conflict between my work trip Chisinau and Moldovan Independence Day because they are not on the same day. Also, Ziua Limbii Noastre which falls on the 31st is actually on a Tuesday. (You can thank a certain Mr. Matt Black for bringing this to my attention.)

My new computer is expected to arrive tomorrow!!! So Fast!!! Hopefully it gets to the Peace Corps office tomorrow morning so I can pick it up while I am in Chisinau. If not, I will have to make a special trip to get it next Monday. A special trip will mean I have to spend about three hours on Moldovan public transportation and cost around 26 lei (which is roughly $2). Needless to say, I am really hoping it arrives tomorrow morning!

Good News! My new computer is in transit. So, in a few weeks to a month it will arrive and I will once again be complete. With all the blogging I have been doing here in Moldova, I decided to get an Apple. I admit that a Mac will in no way assist by blogging ability, but all the serious writers seem to have one. And by serious writers I mean Carrie from Sex and the City as well as all the angst-filled hipsters I have seen writing at Coffee Shops in the Mission District of San Francisco.

This week has been pretty uneventful so far. I spent 9 hours in the office both yesterday and today. I have started helping my partners translate a grant, which is the most productive thing that I have done since arriving in Moldova. I worked with my partners for about an hour on Monday translating, then I spent five to seven hours hours reading and/or attempting to chat with my partners while some guy tried to fix our computer. You may ask "Why didn't you just go home?" Well, what was I gonna do at home? Read? Yes! So I hung around the office reading in hopes that the computer would be fixed and we could continue on with the translation process. Unfortunately, no more translating occurred yesterday.

What did occur on Monday was a most hilarious conversation between my partners. I am slightly hesitant to tell this story because I am afraid it just won't be funny when I try to retell it, but I am going to try any way...

I am drawn into my partner's conversation when my partner, Valentina, flips off my other partner, Angela. My initial reaction is to think, "What is going on?!?!" Then I start thinking,"Does this gesture have the same meaning in Moldova as it does in America? Maybe I am completely misinterpreting what is going on? Or are mommy and daddy fighting in Romanian?" So I listen to their conversation very closely and think very hard about every word that is being said. I realize that they are talking about things that their children have learned from American movies and this F*** You gesture is one of the top things.

But things get worse, because it seems that the number #1 thing that their children have learned from American moves is the actual F-word. Then while talking about their kids saying the F-word, they themselves are using some variant of the f-word roughly ever three or four words. To me this sounds like "Gibberish gibberish gibberish F**king gibberish gibberish F**ked gibberish gibberish gibberish F**k." You get the idea. I couldn't help but start laughing out loud. Then they realize how ridiculous this must sound to me and start laughing too. In the end it was awesomely hilarious for everyone involved.

The thing is, I really wanted to know how to say the F-word in Romanian before I got here. Just out of morbid curiosity I guess. Turns out I didn't need to know it at all because thanks to Hollywood, Moldovans all know the F-word in English. I am not sure if this is good or bad, but I am gonna go with bad for the time being.

Unfortunately, today was a similar story to Monday, but in reverse and minus the awesome story about the f-word. At roughly 9:00 a different (and far more attractive) guy showed up to attempt to fix our computer. And succeeded after about 7 hours, but not before erasing every trace of the document we had been translating. So, my partner started rewriting the document and I translated as she went. By the end of the work day today, we had exactly the same amount translated as after an hour on work on Monday morning. Super Efficient!!!

This Thursday is Moldovan Independence Day. This is a holiday and most Moldovans don't have to work. However, my partners will be meeting with their partners from Transnistria in Chisinau that day. I am not sure if I will be going to that meeting, but I really hope not because I would like to witness the Moldovan Independence Day festivities in Hincesti.

Also, next Monday, August 31st, is Ziua Limbii Noastre or Our Language Day. Moldovans say that they are the only country the have a holiday to celebrate their language. I haven't verified this, but I will take them at their word. Several Moldovans have told me this day is important because as part of the USSR they were forced to speak Russian, but they consider their true language to be "Moldovan (which they admit is pretty close to Romanian)."

And just in case you are still wondering...

"a fute" is roughly the verb "to f**k" in Romanian.

I tend to be somewhat of an "over thinker." If it is possible to think too much about something, I will probably think too much about it. Due to this over thinking disorder, my cleanliness habits have suffered here in Moldova. (Before you start to judge me for being gross, remember: I am in the PEACE CORPS, I am not supposed to be clean!)

When I first arrived in Moldova, I showered roughly every 5 days. Before you get too grossed out, let me say that I did wash the "important parts" in between showers. The truth is there is a lot of factors for me to consider upon deciding that I need to take a shower. I didn't know how often in was appropriate to shower in Moldova or at what time of the day my family members needed to shower. I didn't know if I should use the inside shower or the outside shower. I didn't know when there would be water pressure. I didn't know when my family was going to eat breakfast and/or dinner and I didn't want to be in the shower when they wanted to eat.

The language added another layer to the thought process. Should I say "Eu fac dus," which is the present tense and translates to "I do shower." It is pronounced "Yo fok douche." Now after saying this phrase for three months now, I can still barely say it with a straight face (I know, so mature!!!). I also wondered if I should say, "Eu voi face dus," which is the future tense and means roughly, "I will do shower." As I learned more Romanian, I also considered saying "Eu pot sa fac dus acum?" or "Am I able to do shower now?" Anyway, with all of these factors to take into consideration, I was only actually able to shower every 4-5 days.

Luckily for the people around me, I got used to my family's schedule and was able to figure out the best times to shower. I eventually settled into a showering every other day schedule, which I continue to keep even after my move to Hincesti. For this, I think I deserve a big gold star.

I would also like to take a moment to mention the awesomeness of the outside/summer shower that my family in Milestii Mici had. For some reason the awesomeness and freedom of showering outside, in collected rain water that is heated by the sun, cannot be beat! If people have to take showers in heaven, I guarantee that they are outside showers.

The second area of my cleanliness that suffered due to my over thinking was/is my laundry. Even in the US, I hated to do laundry. Well, it is not so much that I hate to do laundry as that I hate to fold laundry and put if away after it is clean. As a general policy, I do not wash clothes until I have no clean panties; I brought a ton of panties to Moldova!

At about week four my Milestii Mici Host Family and I came to the agreement that they would wash my clothes for me if I would buy detergent. I was a little hesitant about having my host-sister wash my undies, so I held off asking for my clothes to be washed. At around week six, I ran out of clean undies and the clothes washing commenced. Apparently, this was my ARBD group record for the person to go the longest without washing their clothes.

I would like to say that at this point I settled into washing my clothes at regular intervals, but that is not the case. I did not wash clothes again until yesterday! My new host family and I agreed that I would was my own clothes and, again, the over-thinking commenced...

What detergent do I buy? When does my family wash their clothes? How do I work the Russian washing machine? When is there water? Can I use the washing machine at the same time people want to take a shower? etc. You get the idea by now. Luckily, I ran out of clean undies at around the same time my host mom asked me if I needed to wash clothes. So yesterday, by sheer coincidence all the clothes washing pieces fell into place and the clothes washing again commenced.

My host family has a washing machine, but all the instructions are in Russian. My host-sister gave me the abridged version: the lower the number setting, the hotter the water is and the longer the clothes will be washed for. The numbers go from 1-8, so I picked 5 added my detergent (to what I found out later was the wrong place, but turned out not to matter) and started the machine. It takes about two hours to wash a load of laundry here.

There are no dryers in Moldova, everything hangs outside on the line. I am a little self conscious about this whole practice. I feel like everyone is judging me by my laundry. First, you have to hang your panties out to dry. Every one can see them. I can't help but wonder if people think my panties are too scandalous, not scandalous enough? Do I hang them correctly? Do I let them hang outside for too long. Secondly, I wonder if people judge the hanging technique that I use for hanging my clothes. Do they drive by and think, "Look at how that American girl hangs her clothes, they'll never dry that way!" How long is it supposed to take clothes to dry outside? I have no idea!!! I guess this is all a learning process.

So, at this point in time I am clean and I have clean clothes. I am on top of the world!!! Sorry if I grossed anyone out. I have a little bit of a tendency to over share.

On another note, my new computer has been purchased. My parents will send it on Monday, Yay!!! After I receive it, I will again start posting my own pictures on my blog again. I know you all have been waiting with baited breath!!

Thus far, I think that I really lucked out with my Moldovan partners. They are awesome and they go a lot of places for work. So while some of my fellow volunteers have been sitting in their offices, I have been on the Road!! Last week we went to Nisporeni and Leova. They are each about an hour away from Hincesti, but in opposite directions. We are working in conjunction with these two Raions as well as a Romanian partner to start a business center of some sort. The details are a bit hazy for me at this point, but I imagine I will be taking multiple future trips to both Nisporeni and Leova. You should be able to find both places on this map:

The trips to Leova and Nisporeni were just mini-trips in comparison to the road trip that I took yesterday to Edinet. The NGO that I work with was assisting with a short seminar on empowering women that was held in the north-west part of Moldova.

It takes about four hours to get from Hincesti to Edinet, so I was up and ready to go by 6:00am, just as I was instructed. Now everyone in Moldova operates on roughly the same schedule as my friend Tam. I have known Tam for 10 years or so and I am pretty sure that she has never managed to be on time to anything during this period(I love you Tam!!!). Still when I am going to meet up with her, I am always on time, just in case it's is the one time she isn't late (You would think that I would learn). So at 6:40, my partners arrive and we are on the road!!!

The driver for the trip was Doamna Ecaterina from Bobieca, a small village in Hincesti. I was given the most honored seat in the vehicle, otherwise know as "shotgun," and my partners, Angela and Valentina, road in the back seat. Luckily it was a cool morning, because Moldovan road trips can get hot. This is mainly due to the fact that Moldovans are against both running the air conditioner and rolling down the windows. From what I understand, they think that both of these practices will make you sick. Every once in a while they roll down the window a tiny bit, but not enough to be at all effective at cooling off the car. They actually roll the window down just enough that it only makes you want to roll the window down more.

We took the Moldovan version of the freeway, which I would describe as a somewhat organized free-for-all. I think there is a speed limit, but the only reason I think this is because we appeared to slow down when we saw a cop. There was a lot of passing of other cars, horses and carts, scooters and at one point we almost hit a cow that was crossing the road. I assume that my partner Angela gets car sick because she threw up twice (once outside the car, once inside the car). In spite of leaving 40 minutes late, we made it to Edinet almost on time.

The seminar seemed to go really well. I tried to pay attention to the first part and I was actually surprised by the amount I could actually understand. We had a lunch break at around 1:00, which included apple placenta (my favorite) and, of course, wine. I spent the second part of the seminar talking with Daniela, a Moldovan woman from the organization "People in Need." People in Need is an organization based in the Czech Republic that provides various grants in 34 developing countries. She spoke beautiful English and we had a lovely conversation about Moldova and her work here.

Turns out my new friend, Daniela, lived near Chisinau, which we were going through on our was back to Hincesti. So, we offered her a ride. In the hope that it would alleviate Angela's car sickness, I opted to ride in the back on the way home and allow Angela to ride in the front. Unfortunately, this meant I had to cram in the back seat with two other people. It was a little hotter on the way home than it was on the way two Edinet and the extra person didn't make it any more pleasant. However, Daniela was full of interesting information that she shared throughout the trip (and even better, she shared it in English!). My favorite tidbit was when she pointed out the statue of Lenin in front of the Raion Council in Edinet, and said the people in the northern part of Moldova were "nostalgic."

On the way home we were pulled over by the police. I am not sure the reason (or if there actually was a legitimate reason). This was actually the second time that I have been in a car that has been stopped by the police. The first time was on our way to Nesporeni (again, I am not sure why). Then we seemed to remedy the situation by calling someone. The police officer then came over and confirmed a phone number and we were on our merry way. However, this police stop did not go quite as smoothly. Doamna Ecaterina was asked to step out of the car on go with the police officer to his vehicle, but she returned about 10 minutes later and we continued on our merry way once again.

After dropping Daniela and Valentina off in Chisinau, we finally made it back to Hincesti. I was exhausted, which is understandable since I saw about 2/3's of the country that day! I hope there are more exciting road trips to come!!

I have been doing a lot of reading since I arrived at my site. I have finished two books in the matter of one week. This is pretty much a record for me. Anyone that was in my book club can attest to the fact that I generally can't even finish half of a book in the period of a month. I attribute this to the fact that I am lazy and in the US there are many forms of entertainment that take far less effort than reading, i.e. watching TV, watching a movie, talking, etc. However, in Moldova all of these things take effort. If I watch TV or a movie it is in Romanian (if i am lucky, most is in Russian) and I have to pay really close attention to have even a minimal idea of what is going on. If I talk to people,it is in Romanian and I have to pay really close attention to have even a minimal idea of what is going on. Therefore, reading has become the form of entertainment for me that requires the least amount of effort.

Unfortunately, I only brought two books with me to Moldova. So today I asked my partners, "Biblioteca are niste carti pe limba engleza?" Or for the rest of the world that has not attained my mastery of the Romanian language, "Does the library have any books in English?" To my astonishment both my partners said yes. Not even just "yes," it was more like, "Duh, of course the Moldovan library has books in English!"

So, around one o'clock we headed to the library. With my partner's help, the librarian led me to the section of English books. By section, I mean a three foot section of one shelf. About half the books are math books and another third are obsolete computer manuals circa 1995. Then there are the four books that one might actually read for pleasure, all from the 80's. I open two of the books and inside the writing is about size 14 font. In my opinion this means that the book is for either really old people that can't see, or really young people that can't read. Then, I pick up a third book and look at the back cover, and...

Here in library of a post-soviet nation that is half way around the world from the San Francisco Bay Area is a book with a picture of a man wearing an Oakland A's ball cap on the cover!!! For some reason, this astonishes me!!!

So, with a little difficulty, I check out the book, Catfish: My Life in Baseball By: Jim Hunter. The story of Jim "Catfish" Hunter who led both the A's and the Yankees to World Series titles. I think this book will be a winner!!!

Well, I have had an interesting first few days at my site. First and most importantly, my computer is out of commission. I believe that I fried my computer cord and/or charging port somehow. If it is the just the cord, I will have my parents send me a new one. If it is actually some part of my laptop, I will probably get a new one instead of getting it fixed (this is probably a good decision, seeing as my current computer is worth almost nothing).

Moving on from this tragic piece of news...

I am now at my permanent site. My first day at work was Monday (big surprise). Monday was also a large religious "celebration" at the largest monetary in Moldova. It was a celebration of the "Holy-Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon." Basically, on this day sick people and or their relatives come to the Monastery to be blessed. My partners decided to take me to the Monastery Hincu, so I could see the "celebration."

Before I write ant more, I would like to state the I am not religious in the least, nor am I extremely knowledgeable of many religious practices. So, this whole experience was slightly akward for me.

To begin, I did not know we were going to the Monastery until we parked pretty much right in from of it. Then it took my partners some explaining to inform me that it was a monastery (for some reason they chose not to explain where we were my using the Romanian word for monastery, which is "Manastirea" and when spoken sounds a whold lot like Monastery). On the way in there was a few people sitting on the ground, who appeared to be asking for money. Apparently, San Francisco has hardened my to anyone sitting on the ground asking for money because I walked past them with out any remorse. Turns out that they were all asking for money to build a new church and I was probably the only person who walked by all day who didn't give them anything. My partners gave money to each of them and then proceeded to say that I was American, as if that was a legitimate excuse for my insensitivity and lack of generosity.

Next we proceeded the the "gift shop." Here they sold pictures of all sizes of all saints. They even had what I would equate to Baseball cards of saints. My partner er showed my Saint Ecaterina, because that is my name now (I will talk more on this subject later.) After spending way to long in the gift shop, we headed up the hill to, what I think was, the actual church. With out saying a word, Alexandru (who is known to everyone as Sasha, works in my office as a "Jurist" (which is a lawyer, kinda). He is kinda cute, but married to a dentist, and speaks minimal English.) gave me what looked like a really long birthday, then proceed to grab my hand and drag me through the mass of people trying to get into the church.

Saint Ekaterina

At this point I feel super awkward. I have no idea what is going on, I am in a really old church with a long candle thing and everything is happening in a language that I don't understand. Then I realize that I am the only woman in the entire place that does not have her head covered. One of my LTIs was married to a priest and she told me that it was a myth that all women should cover their heads in a church, that only the married women had to. However, I am obviously the only woman who's head is not covered. I tried to be inconspicuous but, apparently only short women wearing flats came to church that day because, I felt about a foot taller than everyone with a head full of uncovered flaming red hair!

I lit mt candle and put it in the stand next to Sasha's with out a clue of it's significance. Then Sasha continues to drag my over to a line of people who are being somehow blessed. He grabs both my hands shoves them through the line of people out in front of the priest and proceeds to loudly say something about me being American. Great, more attention that I don't want. The priest then uses a smallish paint brush to paint on on my hands and then a cross on my chest (right between the girls). He is then followed my a priest that paints an old cross on my forehead. All i can think is that I was probably breaking a million eastern orthodox rules at this point and on top of that my forehead was going to breakout. Let the awkwardness continue...

After some minimal praying, we finally excited the church and walked down to a pool. We rejoined my other partners, Angela and Valentina, who explained to me that people dipped their feet in the pool and walked around it nine time. When I asked why, the just of their answer was "because its good." I chose to forgo this activity. And, finally, to my relief, we leave.

We begin to drive to what I thought was home. False!!! We end up at...

Another Monastery!!! Monastery Capriana!!! Luckily, there was no religious "event" happening at this monastery. I was a quick tour, quite enjoyable and quite beautiful.

We finally make it back to the office. I am thankful not to have caused a religious/cultural/international incident and feeling confident with my Romanian language. I ask "Unde pot sa comprar cosmetice pentru ochi? Am nevoie de creion pentru ochi," which is horrible Romanian, but the point got across. I need eyeliner!!! Apparently, I am speaking the universal language of women, makeup. My partner Valentina says that I could my eyeliner at the piata, but I might me allergic; therefore she will call....

her Mary Kay Lady!!!!

It was all I could do not to laugh out loud. I am in the Peace Corps and calling a Mary Kay lady!!! We then discussed the pink cars (I doubt they are Cadillacs in Moldova, probably BMWs).

And Finally, as I promised, the story of my name. Since coming to Moldova, my name has been somewhat of a problem. No one can seem to say "Katie." I have been Katherine, Kerry, Kat, Katea, Katerina, Ekaterina and finally, Katusa. As of today, it seems that everyone has settled on Katusa. I have chose to embrace this and from this day forward, please call me Katusa...

La Revedere

Well, it has been a little over a week since I last posted, but soooooo much has happened. I am sure all of you are ripe with anticipation to know how the celebration for our Milestii-Mici host families went. It went great. I sang and danced my little heart out. Even our Moldovan rendention of "The House of the Rising Sun" went well. Another PCV, Tim, sang a solo with the actual lyrics and then we all joined in with the Romanian lyrics. Way to go Tim!!!! As you may have expected based on the picture above, we wore traditional Moldovan clothes. The whole event was actually a lot of fun and our home-made burritos tasted delicious.

On Monday of last week we had our final PST assesment interview with our Project Manager, Vitale. Then on Tuesday, we presented our final project to Vitale and our LTIs (Language and Technical Instructers). As far as projects go, it really was not my shining moment. We presented a business plan to create a Community/Recycling Center in our village. The cost of the center would be sustained by the proceeds from an annual wine festival. This project was purely hypothetical, which is good because in reality it would not have worked. But now the presentation is done, and we can move onto our real Peace Corps projects with our new partners!!!

Last Wednesday was our last day of language class. I am glad it is over, but I still feel like I don't know any Romanian!! We needed to pick one volunteer to give a speech in Romanian at our swearing-in ceremony, so I volunteered. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon working on my speech with my LTI, Doina. Then, I spent the evening packing in preparition for the move to my new site.

Thursday was our last real day of Pre-Service training. We had our LPI (Language Proficency Interview) in the morning. Mine was at 11:00, so I took some time before that to study (boring, I know). The woman that interviewed me was from Hincesti, my permanent site. Hopefully, she will be my Romanian tutor in the future!!! (I don't know how I did yet, so don't ask). After the interview, I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing my speech with various people. I also failed to pay attention to our afternoon session on safety because I was going over the speech in my head! Safety Schmafty!! (I actually think safety is very important!!!)

Friday!!! The big day!!! I became a Peace Corps Volunteer. I am not just a lowly trainee anymore. Below are some pictures of my ARBD group on the big day:

I must say we are so photogenic!!! Everyone who is anyone was there: The American Ambassador to Moldova, The Moldovan Vice Minister of Agriculture, The Peace Corps Country Director, all the members of Ozone. Well, Ozone was not there, but you get bonus points if you know who they are. I gave my speech toward the end of the ceremony. It went okay. I started out speaking too quietly and no one heard the first third of my speech. The MC handed me a better microphone and after that the last part of the speech went well. Below is a pic of me giving my speech (I am aware that this not the most attractive pic):

My partner, Angela, (work partner, not lesbien partner in case you were concerned) and new host-mom, Tamara, attended the swearing-in ceremony. When the ceremony was over, were headed to my new home. Myself, Angela, Tamara and our driver barely fit in the car with all my stuff. (When I say car, I mean awesome blue 80's-ish LADA!!! Go Russian Cars!) I finally made it home and .....

Took A NAP!!!!

I didn't do one big thing this week that I can write about, but a lot of small things have happened in the past few weeks that I should probably catch everyone up on. First and foremost, my host dad is home from Russia. I am not sure if I previously said that he works in Russia, but he does; however, he has been home on vacation for almost two weeks now (Since July 18th). I am under the impression that he originally came home for my host-mom's God-father's funeral; however, his trip may have just happened to coincide with the funeral. Anyway, his name is Constantin and he is Awesome!!! Men don't seem to help out a lot with the house of gardening in Moldova, but I saw him helping my host-mom with some gardening and washing of fruit. When he noticed that I saw him, he sort of made fun of himself for helping her, but he was still helping. So he gets some major points for that.

My host brother turned 20 on the 21st of July, so we had another big gathering. I was actually not aware that we were having the gathering until it started. My host mom kept trying to get me to finish my homework, and I couldn't really figure out why she was so interested in my getting it done. Then all of a sudden there was a bunch of people outside and she then decided to inform me that it was Alex's birthday. The celebration was pretty similar to my host-mom's birthday celebration, but minus the dancing. I think this was because my host-mom's birthday was on a Saturday night and my host-brother's birthday was on a Monday night, so people didn't want to stay as late.

At my host brother's birthday party, I learned that the following night (July 22nd) was my host mom's sister's birthday and that I would be going to her house the following night to celebrate her birthday. So that next night I came home and asked what time we would be heading to the birthday party. I thought that my host mom told me that she had fallen and hurt her foot, so we needed to go early. I figured that we needed to head over early because it would take her a long time to walk to her sisters house, seeing as her foot was hurt. When I arrived at her sister's house, I realized that in was not, in fact, host mom who hurt her foot, but her sister. We had left early so my host mom could help her prepare to have guests. Romanian FAIL!!!

After the birthday celebrations were over, my host dad started working on a few home/yard improvement project. He works all day, everyday (except Sunday) and all sorts of male extended family members have been coming over to work on our house. I am not sure exactly what the projects are that they are working on. It appears they are paving the area where that rabbits, chickens, and ducks are kept. This area used to be dirt. They have also been taking a lot of buckets of cement behind the house, but I haven't gone back there to see what work is being done.

For the most part, this sums up what has been going on with my host family; however, there has been a lot going on with training and the other volunteers. In this area there is one important thing to mention, I have only one week left until I become sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Right now I am only a trainee. It seems like so much work to become a Volunteer.

Because we only have a week left, we are preparing a celebration to thank our host families. This celebration reminds me of the Spring Fling celebration from when I was in about third grade. We have learned two Moldovan folk songs and two Moldovan folk dances. I am sure all of you know that I am not the best singer or dancer; however, my ARBD group has 10 men and only 4 girls. This means that all the girls have to sing all the songs and dance all the dances. I think I am the worst of all the female dancers, and I was paired with the worst male dancer, Matt Black (he requested a shout out in my blog, but I don't think that he wanted a shout out for being the worst dancer. Beggars can't be choosers Matt!!!). Actually, Matt is not a bad dancer overall. I hear that he has some awesome moves at the discotec. He just is not very good at traditional Moldovan dance.

I think that the highlight of the celebration will be when we sing “House of the Rising Sun.” Awesome song, right? Wrong! Our teacher has changed the lyrics into Romanian and they are now about how much we love Moldova and what we learned while living in Milestii Mici. It is going to be really hard for me to keep a straight face while we are singing this gem of a song, but I have to do it. They need my beautiful singing voice!!! Also, we are supposed to prepare a few American dishes for our families, so we have decided to have a Burrito Bar!! So American!!! Ha ha.

Here are our Romanian House of the Rising Sun Lyrics (feel free to google translate):

Cind am venit оn Moldova

O ţară pe-o gură de rai

Noi am plecat оn familii

Pentru a-nvăţa un nou grai.

Zile şi zile muncind

Noi emoţii trăind

La limba romană şi Tech

Toţi voluntarii se-ntrec.

Lumina in suflet se-adună

Cuvinte din inimă răsună.

Mulţumim familiilor noastre

Pentru răbdare şi vorbe frumoase.

One day we found a kitten outside the school. We brought it into our classroom and after class was over Emily took it home. Turns out that her mom hates cats and told her that she couldn't keep it. I am not sure what happened to the kitten after that, but with all the stray animals around, I assume the cat will make it okay out on the streets of Milestii Mici. Below is a picture of it because I don't have a lot of other pictures to post this week.

Also, a special thank you to Cate Crandall's Aunt Martha, who emailed me when I pleaded for email last week. It is good to know that people are actually reading my blog!!! I am hoping I can make a few short videos to post of my group's dancing and singing, or rather someone else will video my marvelous performance.

So only about three people ever email me, and two of those people are my parents. So please send me an email and let me know what you are doing!! My email address is katherinecmcnabb@gmail.com

Or an even more novel idea, you could send me a letter. I didn't know people sent actual letters anymore, but a lot of other volunteers get them and it seems really exciting. I can receive letters at the following address:

Peace Corps Moldova

PCV Katherine McNabb

#12 Grigore Ureche St

2001 Chisinau, Moldova

Or you can try to skype me if you are up in the middle of the night. My screen name is KCMcNabb.

How can you deny this face!?! Send me something!

I finally went to the Milestii-Mici winery. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest wine cellar ever!!!! But the best part about the Milestii-Mici Wine Cellar is that it is under ground and therefore, cool. It has been pretty hot lately (Mid-90s) and Moldova does not have a lot of air conditioning, so the moderate temperature underground was a huge relief.

The wine cellar originally was originally a mine for limestone. Then it was discovered that the temperature and humidity of the tunnels (left after the limestone was removed) were ideal for storing wine. They store wine in two ways: in giant barrels and in bottles. Both storage methods are pictured below.

In the late 80's there was an alcohol prohibition in the Soviet Union and all alcohol had to be destroyed or sold abroad. The employees at the MM cellar created a secret room to hide the most valuable bottles of wine. The rest of the MM wine was sold abroad. Today the most expensive bottles of wine are still stored in what used to be the secret room. The most expensive bottles of wine in the cellar currently run about $3000. There are a variety of other bottles that run about $1000. Here is a picture of me with the pricey wine. Just a quick a note: all the $3000 bottles are dessert wines.

Unfortunately, the tour was fairly short. We were able to taste three of the wines after the tour. We drank out of traditional Moldovan ceramic cups so it was difficult to judge the color and clarity of the wine (like I really care about that). We tasted a red, a white, and some type of rose/dessert wine. The red was good...

We then headed through the giant fountains of red and white wine to the gift shop. The gift shop had a decent selection of MM wines, however I did not buy any of the wine.

I saw this picture at a supermarket in Chisinau. Just thought I would share with all of you. I mean not every Governor can say that their picture con be found in a Moldovan supermarket!

Last Tuesday was site announcement day. This is the day where all of the volunteers find out where we will be living for the next two years. My ARBD group, the majority of which is male and avid college football fans, viewed this day kind of like draft day. So we all wore suits and looked awesome!!! Literally, I think all the other groups were in actual awe of us. Just look:

Our country director pulled names out of a hat and then announced the site. The first names drawn got a huge applause as all the other volunteers waited in anticipation for their site to be announced. As more sites were announced there was less and less applause because the people who already knew their site were busy looking through the information they had been provided about their assignment. My name was drawn roughly third to last, so virtually no applause. Feel free to clap for me in the privacy of where ever you may be reading this from...

Now that you have clapped, I can tell you I am going to the Oras (City/Town) of Hincesti.

On Sunday Morning I left my PST village for a three day site visit in Hincesti. I was really excited, but I was also worried about getting there. I meet up with another ARBD PCV and we went together to the Gara de Sud (South Station). This is were all the buses heading south from Chisinau leave from. I didn't really know where the Gara de Sud was, but I saw my neighbor, Lubia, and her niece, Rachel (I think Rachel is 7 or 8) on the rutiera on the way there. Rachel goes to school in Ireland and speaks perfect English; however, she generally refuses to speak with me in any language. As I was trying to persuade Rachel to ask Lubia if we had already passed the Gara de Sud, someone else heard me speaking English and said that they would tell me when to get off. So with the help of several people, I made it through the first half of my trip.

Hincesti is a large Raion center (County Seat and/or State Capital), so buses leave for there every twenty minutes or so. I bought a ticket for the 12:10 bus and waited for a half an hour or so before attempting to board the bus. However there was no bus to be found, there was only a ruteria going to Hincesti. So I got on after unsuccessfully trying to ask everyone on the ruteria, if this was the 12:10 bus to Hincesti. On the bus I called my partner in Hincesti, Angela, to let her know that I was on my way. Our three sentence phone conversation seemed to go fairly well. I arrived in Hincesti and paid the ruteria driver again, because no one besides me seemed to have bought a ticket in advance and there was no way I would have been able to communicate about paying on the ruteria vs buying a ticket. After two gypsies separately tried to do something with me that involved money and tarot cards which caused me to grab my bag and yell “Nu nu nu!” at both of them, my partner Angela finally found me.

Angela took me to our office where I met my other partner Valentina. We discussed my family, where I was from in America and what I did in America. This conversation basically exhausted my repertoire of Romanian words and phrases, so then we sat in awkward silence for a while. I then learned that a lot of the Hincesti Raion is on the Prut River and has had fairly severe floods. I thought that I understood that we would me going to see that part of the Raion during my stay, but that never happened. I am not sure if this is because my Romanian is so bad or because Moldovans change there plans frequently.

Angela and Valentina then called a cab (my first Moldovan cab experience) and took me to meet my host family. When we arrived, my soon-to- be-host mom, Tamara, was making placenta (pronounce plachenta, no I am not eating after-birth). I must say that I have had a variety of placenta since I arrived and hers was the best!!!! We all sat around a talked, well they talked and I tried to decipher what they were saying. I think I understood my host mom say she was glad that I was not fat and that I was frumoasa, which supposedly means beautiful but seems to be used to describe everything. My host dad, Constantin soon came home with my host sister, her husband and their child (Christina, 2 mo.). Diana (host-sister) spoke English and showed me my room and talked to me a bit. Eventually, every one but my host mom and dad left. We then watched the World Cup final and went to bed.

The next day, Monday, I drove to work with my host mom. She works across the street from where I will be working. Angela came to get me at my host-mom's building and we headed to my future office. That morning two men stopped by, one was named Vitale and I have not idea what he did the other was a farmer and I have no idea what his name was. During the time they were there, I understood that I was being signed up to go to a farming conference in Chisinau in August. Hopefully my Romanian will be much better by then. After a brief time at the office, I went to the Hincesti museum with Angela. What I understood of the tour was very interesting. I failed to take any pictures in the museum so here is a picture of the post card that I received as a souvenir:

Next, Angela the took me the the home for girls. This is an orphanage for handicapped girls that is located near the edge of Hincesti. One of the women who worked at the home spoke excellent English and gave me a tour. It was very interesting!! The home is run by the state, but an Irish organization gives a lot of assistance in money, expertise and man power. It was a real treat and very motivating to hear about all of the positive changes that had been made at the home with assistance from the Irish organization.

Later, I meet back with my host mom at her office to go home. When we got there, my host family told me to change out of my work clothes. I then went out to the garden where I found my host dad making some weird contraption, which I soon figured out was part of a bee hive. Then he told me we were all going somewhere by car. On the way, my host dad stopped by the magazin (store) and went in to get three beers. We then drove to the forest and I discovered that this was where the bee hives were. While my host dad worked on the hives, my host mom and I taught each other words about bees in Romanian and English, i.e. honey, sting, hive ect. She thought the word bees was hilarious, “ beeeeze, beez, beeeeezzzz.” I then got to eat some of the honey, Soooo Good!!! Finally, we sat in the forest and had a beer.

Tuesday morning I left Hincesti with Angela to go to Chisinau, but not before my family fed me cake for breakfast (just like home!!!) and made me clean my shoes. Clean shoes are very important in Moldova. When I arrived at the conference center in Chisinau, I was far more excited about seeing my fellow volunteers than I thought I would be. It was so exhausting not being able to communicate in English for the majority of the time I was in Hincesti. Angela and I only got to the conference center about half an hour before the workshops started, so I had little time to catch up with the other volunteers.

We began the workshop by introducing ourselves, our partners and speaking a little about the organizations that we would be working with. We had to do this completely in Romanian, so it took around an hour and a half to finish the 15 introductions. Then we had a well deserved break. During to break our program manager, Vitale, approached me and said, “Katie, why does your partner call your Katie.” Several people here call me Katherine, so I thought maybe he was asking why my partner was calling me Katie instead of Katherine. Therefore, I responded, “because my name is Katie.” Vitale then said “No, Katie.” to which I responded “Yes, Katie.” At this point a few other volunteers near me came to my defense and insisted my name was in fact Katie. Finally, Vitale clearly and deliberately says, “Car-rie!” So, apparently my new partner/my new host family/everyone I met in Hincesti thought that my name was Carrie, and I never corrected them because Carrie and Katie sound exactly the same when said with a Moldovan accent. Being such a passive person, I then prepared to be called Carrie for the next two years; however, Vitale explained the situation and my partner is now aware of my correct given name. Whew!!!

The rest of the conference was pretty uneventful, aside from the Moldovan hotel party and the worst pizza I have ever eaten. I am glad I had such a great site visit, aside from that whole Carrie thing. I am really excited about my future site and learning more Romanian!

Since I have been in Moldova, there have been a lot of weird birthday coincidences. The first of which is that my “host-niece” Paula and I have the same birthday, November 30. Last Friday, I came home and my host-sister asked my if I wanted to watch her prepare the pie. She says pie, but she does not mean pie like we think of it in the US, she means the yummy flaky stuffed pastry: Placenta (pronounced Plachenta). I then learned that they were preparing the Placenta for my host mom's birthday party the following night. Now my host mom's birthday just happens to be on July 10th . My actual mom's birthday is on July 9th, so with the time difference their birthdays overlapped for about 10th hours. (I later learned that my Hincesti's host mom's birthday is on July 8th. ) So I then remembered to call my real mom (actually I called her and told her to call me back because I can't afford to call the United States on my Peace Corps salary.) and wish her a happy birthday.

Now back to the pies...

So my host-sister was making the pies, which is she makes look really easy when in fact it is pretty difficult. When I started watching the pie making process, my host-sister had the dough already prepared. I asked her what was in the dough and surprisingly it has all the normal dough ingredients except one...Apple Vinegar. I guess the closet thing I have seen in the US is Apple Cider Vinegar. Anyway...she made four different types of pies, Varza (Cabbage/the best kind), Brinza de Vaca (cheese from cow's milk), Brinza de Oaie (cheese from sheep's milk) and Visine (sour cherries). Below are a few pictures and a video of the pie making process

In total my family prepared an insane amount of food. There were plates with appetizers that involved mayonnaise, cucumber and cheese; other appetizers that involved mayonnaise, eggplant and tomato; and fried cauliflower. They prepared other plates with cucumber, tomato and cheese. Here are a few pics:

They also prepared sarmale made with cabbage leaves and peppers (the closest thing I can think of to sarmale are dolmas, but they are not really that similar.) There was a salad with beets, fish and mayonnaise (sounds gross, but all you could taste was the mayonnaise.) The most interesting dish was “rachator (I am not sure exactly the name or spelling, but I think this is close)” which is chicken in jelly that is made from the chicken. I am not sure exactly how the meat-gel process works, but it basically tastes like cold chicken and salty jello. Also, there were sweet crepes with banana and apricots in the middle and cake, which was really like a giant version of those wafer cookies that have several layers of frosting. In total, there was more food than I have ever seen at a single party in my entire life!!

The party started at 7:00, or 19:00 as they would say in Moldova. From the time the party started, I understood almost nothing that happened. Everyone was drinking shots of what they told me was tequila. However, it appeared to be homemade, so I question the accuracy of this statement (mainly because I am pretty sure Agave does not grow in Moldova). I had wine. Then everyone ate about half of the food and toasted to everyone and everything. At this point my favorite member of my host-family's extended family, who I refer to as Verisoara Ana, asked me if I felt like dancing. I said, “yes” and we started dancing, then everyone started dancing. My host brother and host sister started pouring shots for and handing food to the people dancing. This went on for quite sometime. I went to bed about midnight and the party was still going strong. I had previously told my host mom she was making a ton of food, so on my way inside, my host mom pointed out to me that all the food was gone and she should have made more. I was absolutely astounded at the amount that my host mom and her sister could drink. I think they could put frat boys to shame (No Joke). On top of that my host mom was up before me the next morning to make me breakfast. Wow!!!

To tell the truth, I have a lot of trouble keeping track of what the date is here. I am able to remember the day of the week alright, but remembering the actual date seems to be beyond me; therefore, the Fourth of July seemed to sneak up on me. Well, technically it was the third of July that caught me by surprise, because that was the day of the Independence Day celebration sponsored by the Embassy Alumni Association.

Initially, we were told that the celebration was at a golf course. I was quite excited about the prospect of their being a golf course in Moldova, but I was also a little skeptical about there actually being a golf course in Moldova. Turns out I was right to be skeptical, because the golf course was actually a mini golf course. (I wonder if they would have been impressed that I am the reigning CPUC Mini Golf Champion). We didn't actually play mini-golf, but it turned out to be a nice outside venue with a lot of shade. The cost of entry to the event was two-hundred lei or a little less that $20. This doesn't seem like a lot, but a portion of my PC stipend, it's quite hefty. However, the entrance fee included all the beer and wine you could drink. So when you combine 150 or so Americans in a foreign country on the fourth of July, music and unlimited alcohol... Well, I'll let you use your imagination.

Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. I heard that one of the performers was the Moldovan version or American Idol. I cannot confirm or verify this rumor, but I can say she was awesome. Additionally, there was another performer who performed a few Will Smith songs. And really, who doesn't love Will Smith? (You may love him in secret, but I know that you still love him!)

The American Fourth of July Celebration was apparently a big deal through out Moldova. I am not sure if it was a big deal in a good way or a bad way. There were television cameras and reporters taking interviews from Americans and a variety of photographers. I didn't think a lot about it until my family the next morning told me they watched the party on TV. Immediately, I thought, “ I hope I didn't do anything too stupid!” I think that I am actually more concerned about what my host family thinks about me that what my real family thinks about me. This is probably because my host family can get rid of me and my real family is stuck with me (Sorry mom and dad!). Anyway, the only thing that my host family had to say was that there was a lot of food there and they asked me how much I had to eat (Moldovans love food!).

I hope all of you had an excellent Fourth of July...

(I stole the above image from Cate Crandell. Thanks Cate!!)

When I first arrived in my village, my family offered me compot, which is basically the best drink ever. It is not even alcoholic, believe it or not. So last week, I was super excited when my mama gazda (host mom) told me that she was making some. I was even able to respond to her using a full sentence in Romanian, "Eu vreau sa priviu" (the spelling may not be entirely accurate, but it means "I want to watch").

Compot is made with fruit, sugar and water. My family was making compote with zmeura (raspberries)and visine (sour cherries), both from their garden. They start by putting the raspberries and cherries in a huge jar.

They then fill the jar with boiling water and seal it. My host mom the turned all the jars upside down and wrapped them in a blanket for four or so days. After four days you can drink it or store it.

I asked my host sister how long it would last for and she basically said forever. I am not sure how accurate that is, but I know that they drink it through out the winter, so it must last several months at least.

My host family also made some raspberry jam at the same time that they were making compot, which looked delicious but I haven't had a chance to try any yet. So, I encourage all of you to read this and then go make some compot. lol...not really.

And I will leave you with this picture, just because it is adorable.

This past Sunday, all the volunteers met in Chisinau for the Mentor's to show us around the capital. All of the Mentors are M24s (meaning they came to Moldova last summer, I am an M25) so they have been in the country for almost a year and seem to know there way around. To get to Chisinau, we traveled by rutiera from our village to Chisinau. We had to transfer to another rutiera at the central station and then walk a ways to the Peace Corps Head Quarters.

Once we met with our mentor, my group went to the park in the central Chisinau. There is a giant statue of Stephen Cel Mare there, which I failed to take a picture of. There was an interesting array of activities going on the park. There was a bounce house set up and charging 15 lei (a little over a dollar) for 10 minutes of bouncing. There was a booth set up to take old-fashioned dress up pictures. A few other people were selling rides on Hot Wheels to children. And lastly, there was a man with a paint pony selling pony rides. I am sure there was a whole lot more going on, but that is just what I can remember.

After our walk through the park, we had pizza for lunch. I have heard bad things about pizza in Moldova, but both times I have had pizza, it has been delicious. After lunch, we headed to the Central Piata (pronounced Piatza). The Central Piata has virtually everything imaginable: fruits, vegetables, clothes, shoes, meat, animals, deodorant, razors, backpacks, etc. I bought some rain boots for 80 lei. I failed with my bargaining skills, “E prea scump, dati-mi ieftin. (It's too expensive, give me cheaper).”

When we finished at the Piata, we headed to a grocery store called Number 1. This was really similar to an American grocery store. I didn't buy anything exciting, only a bottle of water. We then met back up with the rest of the ARBDs and headed back to the village. We took a rutiera to the central station, where the rutiera back to our village was ready to leave. Only about 10 of our group could fit on the rutiera, so I stayed behind with a few others to wait for the next rutiera. After about 45 minutes or so the next rutiera left for the village and I went home for the evening.

And then I found 20 lei....

Last Friday we had a really interesting day! In the afternoon we met with all the other PCT groups for a Moldovan Diversity session. We had presenters from the Moldovan, Russian, Jewish, Roma (Gypsy) and Bulgarian. We also had folk dancing and singing from each of the ethnic groups, that was both beautiful and interesting. Below are videos of Moldovan dances performed by students of the State University:

The second presenter for the day was a presenter for the Roma community. She explained to us that Roma is the politically correct term for gypsy. After the presentation, a couple performed a Roma dance. The female dancer had a “wardrobe malfunction” during her performance and some of the male volunteers were quite excited to see her butt cheek. Unfortunately, I didn't catch that in my video.

The third presenter for the evening was from the Moldovan Jewish community. I didn't take a picture of her because she was not wearing traditional clothing, but she had a great joke about traditional clothing for Jews being a fur coat and diamond earrings. Our third presenter was from the Russian Community. She was also one of the LTI's (Language and Technical Instructors) for the PCT group that is learning to speak Russian. She didn't seem too enthused about wearing the traditional Russian Garb, but was an excellent sport about it.

The last presenter was from the Bulgarian community in Moldova. After her presentation, her and her assistants sang several Bulgarian folk songs.

After all of the presentations and performances, we all danced the Moldovan Hora. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this, because I was showing off my sweet dance moves. You will all have to take my word about how awesome my dance moves were.

That is all for now. I am trying to write a bunch of entries to update everyone while I have access to the internet, so expect more updates soon. I miss everyone.

So I have failed to update by blog up until this point, but I am now committing to update my blog at least once a week. I have now been a Peace Corps Trainee for a little over three weeks. I started my training in Philadelphia on Tuesday, May 8, 2009. I actually arrived in Philadelphia the night before, on May 7th. I ran into a few volunteers at the airport and we all went together to dinner and to get a drink at McGillen's Pub.

Arriving early gave me a chance to go see the Liberty Bell on the morning of the 8th. After walking around lost with a group of other PC people for an hour or so, we finally located the Bell. After locating to Bell, I fought a large group of school children to take the picture below:

We all registered as Peace Corps Trainees starting at noon on the 8th. We then had about 8 hours of staging where we got to know some of our fellow trainees and discussed our expectations for our PC service. After the staging was over I went out for a Philly Cheese Steak (Sooo Unvegan!) and a few beers. I ended up staying up way too late and having way to much to drink to really enjoy waking up at 5:30 in the morning on the 9th to prepare to get on a bus leaving for JFK at 7:00am. It was exciting to see NYC for the first time, even if it was only from the window of the bus.

We arrived at JFK and the bus drivers managed to drop all 70-something of us off at the wrong terminal. After we all trekked with our bags to the correct terminal, there was a problem with our tickets. We had to wait an hour and a half or so for the problem with our tickets to be solved. We finally made it to the gate and had to wait about an hour to beard the plane. Our flight to Frankfort was roughly 8 hours. I was unable to actually sleep on the plane, but I did catch a few hours of sleep during our nine hour layover (most boring layover ever!). When our Air Moldova flight finally started boring, we all got on a bus which drove us to the farthest reaches of the Frankfort Airport, where we boarded a fairly ting plane.

On the Air Moldova flight, I sat next to a Moldovan woman who was headed home to visit her family. I asked her where she was coming from and she told me she lived in Rancho Cordova. What a coincidence?!?! We finally arrived in Moldova after about 24 hours in transit. Our Peace Corps mentors met us at the airport and accompanied us to our hotel in Chisinau. We then had pizza for dinner and headed our for a beer with the mentors. At the bar, I met a Moldovan named Yuri who worked on telecommunications policy in Chisinau. We had a very interesting conversation (he spoke excellent English) about telco policy in the US and California. Small world, hunh?!?

We started our language training on Friday the 11th at a school in Chisinau. The Mentors walked us from the hotel to the school and back. I never would have found either with out their help. The streets in Chisinau are in somewhat of a grid, but not really. We continued our training Saturday.

My mentor, Vince, went out and found a hair dryer for me. It cost 80 lei, which is about $7USD. I must say, it is an awesome hair dryer!!! On Saturday night, hair dryer in hand, I met my host family in the village where I will be spending the next eight weeks. It is an upper- middle class Moldovan Village and is the home of the largest wine cellar in the world and the cellar is a huge source of income for the community. My host family is wonderful and their home is quite posh. My host mom's name is Veronica. Veronica's son Alex (Sasha) and daughter Tatiana (Tanya) both live with her, as well as her grand daughter, Paula (1.5). Below is Tanya and Paula:

On Sunday, we had a welcome celebration with traditional Moldovan singing and dancing. There is video below:

All the Agribusiness and Rural Business Development volunteers go to training together Monday-Sunday. We have language training roughly 5 hours a day and technical training for 3 hours a day. Once a week we head to the hubsite for training with all of the other PC Trainees. Sunday is our only free day, this is hard for me because I am used to having a two-day weekend, but Moldovens work six days a week so I guess this is park of integrating.

On an exciting note, my host family just got a puppy. It doesn't have a name yet, any ideas??

Well, I am sure I will have more to post next week. La revedere!

Two weeks from tomorrow I will leave for Philadelphia to start my Peace Corps Staging. It's hard to explain how I feel about leaving. I feel excited, nervous, anxious, scared and happy all at the same time. Even though I am unable to pinpoint exactly how I feel, one thing that I do know is that after preparing for my Peace Corps service for the last 15 months I am definitely ready to embark on this new adventure.

I have so much to do before I leave that I am starting to get a little overwhelmed. After packing up the majority of my worldly possessions and sending them home to Sacramento with my dad this morning, I am looking forward to spending my last week in San Francisco sleeping in my sleeping bag on the floor of my room. It may be difficult for me to survive with only the one pair of shoes that I have left in the city, but I will find a way to manage. I guess that this next week will be good practice for Moldova.

My last day at work will be this Friday, May 28. Leaving the PUC is a bit bittersweet. Although I don't think I will miss the PUC itself, I will miss all the wonderful people there (especially all of the great ratepayer advocates!). On the 29th, I will be off to Sacramento for a little over a week to spend some time with my family before I leave.

My week in Sacramento will also be filled with a lot of shopping and packing. The Peace Corps allows you to take two checked bags (totaling 100 lbs) and one carry on. Even though I know how much stuff I can take with me, I have absolutely no idea what I am actually going to take. So far my packing list consists of socks, deodorant, my laptop and a miniature replica of Tony Stewart's Sprint Cup Car. Obviously this is not an exhaustive list, but it's a start!

Well, I am off to pump up my air mattress and watch the final episode of LOST. (I am so glad that the series finale is before I leave, otherwise I might have to reconsider this whole Peace Corps thing.) I will post again from Philadelphia!