Later in the day, myself and some other volunteers from the English Education group headed to the Peace Corps office for a meeting about facilitating presentations during out IST (In-service training) in November. It should be interesting and I'm looking forward to being with everyone in Chisinau on my birthday (that's when the IST is scheduled).
Of course, as soon as the meeting was over, we all dispersed with some haste to catch up with all the other volunteers are Wine Fest. It was a great time: the food was delicious, the wine tasty and varied, and the company extraordinary. It was so nice to be with mostly everyone again and have the chance to meet and talk more with others who I don't see on a regular basis.
Follow this link for pictures I have posted on my facebook account for the weekend:
Here is another link to an album I created on my facebook account of how my house/garden looked in the Summer and so far in the Autumn. The colors seemed to change over night and are beautiful!
This is a link (again to facebook) to see some of the people I have been spending my time with.
I will update these albums from time to time and let you all know when I do!
Sunday morning started out really nice and laid back, which I needed after the fun and festivities of the night before. I had breakfast and walked around with my friend Tom (another volunteer who lives in the south). Then headed home for my host nephew's Cumatria (cu-ma-tree-a). This is a big party for all of the god parents (they have multiple god parents for each child here). Having partied the whole weekend and had very little sleep I was already exhausted when I got home. But here in Moldova, they know how to party! I arrived at the restaurant/party room around 3:30pm. I did not get home until 12am!!! And again, much celebration, drinking, fabulous food and of course dancing! I am working on getting these pictures uploaded and will post a link soon.
By Monday, I was drained. But I still went into work grateful that I only had two classes that day!
Tomorrow is Hram for Floresti. This is a town/village holiday (so I do not have to work tomorrow) that celebrates when the town/village was blessed. I have bee helping my host mom prepare food for the inevitable guests that will be coming over tomorrow. I made the tort (cake) and she was is impressed by my baking skills that she commented what a good wife I will make one day! I just laughed. But it was nice to be able to cook a bit and I had a nice time with her.
As for the last part of my title...holiday travel plans. I was a bit worried about my first Christmas away from my family because Christmas here is celebrated more on January 7 rather than December 25 (and frankly the idea of snow scares me a bit too so being able to get away is great!!) So Erika (another volunteer) and I came up with the glorious plan of going to Spain for Christmas!! We are still getting travel plans together, but originally it was going to be from December 25-30. However, after talking with another volunteer this weekend, the trip is going to longer and I will be ringing in the New Year in Spain!!! Will write more as the details come together.
