Where in world is Becca Niles (for 2 yrs)

As I previously posted, this past Monday we were told where in Moldova we will be spending the next two years of our lives. At first I was surprised to see that 4 weeks into PST (pre-service training) we were told about our sites. All this time I had assumed we wouldn’t find out until closer to the end of training. But now that I am 4 weeks into training I can understand why. Coming into the 4 week we were all starting to feel a bit rough around the edges. We are tired (mentally and physically) and the reality starts kicking in since the newness of being here and the novelty of “Hey I joined the Peace Corps” wears off. So just as you are starting to question things and are in need of a little pick me up or reminder of why you are doing this, the staff announce where you will be going. It was like Christmas, especially towards the end of the day as we got closer to 5pm. You could see it in everyone. The anxiousness, worry, and excitement were almost tangible!!
The announcement was done in a very cool way. Outside on the playground of the school we meet at in Ialovine, the staff drew an outline of Moldova and inside the drawing they placed little chairs with signs that had the names of our sites on the back. Each chair was placed basically where the site is within Moldova. Then they pulled each volunteer’s name out of a basket and announced which site they were assigned to. Mine was the first name called and of course, I was hanging out towards the back so I had to snake my way through a few people. But it was so great once everyone was standing at the chair then you could see who was close, who was far and how close to Chisinau we all are. But Monday was only half of our total M24 group (English Education [me] and Agri-Business Development) and we are scattered all over. Tuesday, the volunteers who are in Community Development and Health Education found out their assignments. I heard a rumor that there was going to be a Community Dev volunteer near me, but I’m still waiting to find out.
So, now that I have rambled on I will pass on my site info. I am being placed in a town called Floresti (Flor-esht). Floresti is in the north east part of Moldova. I am about 2 hours from Chisinau (140 km). I also have a site mate. His name is Kyle Johnson and he has been in Moldova for a year already. He is a Agri-business volunteer. I have talked to him a couple of times before and we are both excited to be placed in the same town.
The town has a population of about 16,000 people and is a raion center for surrounding villages (like Ialoveni is the raion center for my current village-Costesti). I will be teaching at a gymnasium/lyceum which is grades 6-12. The school has two other English teachers and I will work with them both, but one will be my main partner teacher the whole two years. French and Russian are two other languages offered at my school, but 70% of the students there are studying English. There is a total of 419 students at my school. The town is made up primarily of Moldovans, but some Russians, Ukrainians and Romas (not people from Rome haha). There are a total of 4 lyceums, several primary (elementary) schools and 3 kindergarten schools in Floresti. There is also an art school, a music school and a sports school. Because it is a raion center there are a lot of stores, banks, a post office and restaurants (at least according to the write we were given about our sites). I am only 35 km from Balti (Bal-tz) which is a bigger town than mine. I also have several other volunteers both EE and AgriBus who are around me as well. We figure we can get together in Baltz from time to time to hang and catch up since it is kind of in the center of us all and easy to get to for most of us.
Now for my host family. They are similar to what I have now. A married couple who are in their 50s (Valriu 51 and Galina 52). My host mother teaches kindergarten and my host father is a former policeman who is now a guard. I have a brother, Octavian who is 30 but doesn’t live at home and a sister, Diana who is 25 and lives in Italy. I will be in a 4 bedroom house with indoor plumbing (woohoo) and running water (woohoo). They also have some outdoor pets, a dog, goats, hens and rabbits!! I will be staying in the main house with the family, but I will have my own room. I’m very excited to meet them and see the new digs, but sad at the same time because I have become attached to my host family here in Costesti. But after I get settled, I can come down to Costesti to visit with them (they already said I should). They are very happy that I am in the northern part of Moldova.
On Friday, I meet with my new school director and will either visit my new site then or on Saturday. But it’s a quick trip, I come back on Sunday. So I will have more to say after I get back.

On a completely new note, I made a friend here in the village. A woman (Lara-remember to roll the r when you say that) was at the house Monday night cutting my mother and our neighbor’s hair. She stayed for dinner and we got to talk about America and her life and kids here in Moldova. She is the same age as me. She has two daughters 4 & 2. Sadly, her husband died not so long ago, but she is managing well enough on her own. She is really nice and I had a great time talking with her. She understands English so when we hit a rough spot in Romanian, she was able to understand most of my English. At the end of the night she asked if I was able to go and visit others (by myself) and I said yes so she invited me to come over sometime and meet her daughters and hang. I was so excited to get my first invitation in Moldova!!