Bolnav-ed, Birthday-ed, Blessed, Bathed, Burdened, Bye-Byed, Branded and Busy

Well fans, it’s been a busy 2 months since my last post in March so warning now, this is a long post-but I have plenty of pictures to break it up with.

Spring has finally decided to come out of hibernation and life has gotten decidedly warmer, sneezier and sunnier all at the same time. We still have the occasional rainstorm or chilly wind, but that occurs during the summer as well so I can deal with that. My mood and thoughts have become much sunnier since my last post and things are looking much brighter lately. April was a whirlwind month and I cannot believe it is over – or that we are already half way through May. There were so many times during the last 5 weeks that I thought "Huh, this would be good to put in the blog." Of course time got away from me and I neglected to write down what I thought would be great and so it never made it here.

Below are pictures I recently took as I walked around Floresti with my friend Lindsay T.

So a brief recap of my time so far:
After my spring vacation in Istanbul, I got back to teaching. However, with the arrival of spring the students (and admittedly me as well) were not able to concentrate as well. The sun, song birds and general busyness of the street outside draws their attention. I too am tempted to stare out the windows. Spring in Moldova is so colorful and beautiful after the monotone winter. And it seemed almost overnight that the sun now sets much later which means more time for outdoor activities. Everyone is itching to be outdoors either for planting, playing or general pleasantness.

Bolnav-ed (Bolnav is Romanian for sick)
The time between the March spring break and the April break was mostly filled with school during the week and trips to visit other volunteers on the weekends. However, I did have an unexpected and unwelcome visitor for about 2 weeks during that period. I mentioned in a previous post (Winter Blues and The Blue Mosque) that I was having some intestinal issues. Well those “issues” turned out to be the result of Giardia (jar-dee-ah). This is a very common illness among volunteers but I was hopeful that I would be able to make it through my whole service without it. And I was so close!! Alas, that was not to be the case. Giardia is a lovely intestinal parasite that can be found in unwashed food or in water that is contaminated by animal feces infected with the parasite. I’m not entirely sure where or how these little parasites came to live in my stomach, but without going into detail it was a painful and horrible week and a half but on the flip side I really got to know my toilet and I lost about 8lbs in that time from eating only rice and tea and the aforementioned special time with my toilet. Moving on…

Birthday-ed (1)
Fortunately my stomach and intestines recovered in time for me to attend a birthday masa in my friend Vince’s village of Zgurita (zger-ee-za) on April 10th. This was my first time visiting Vince in his village and I was really happy to be there. Not only did we get to eat some yummy Moldovan food but it was just a great time with some of my favorite people. The masa was held at Vince’s partner’s house and they were the lucky recipients of about 13 Americans descending on their home. But in Moldovan fashion they greeted us with open doors, lots of food, laughs and of course wine. Now a masa in Moldova is not a sprint, it’s a marathon of eating…think Thanksgiving but about 8 hours longer! We all sat around that table exchanging stories, jokes, songs and toasts to Vince for about 9 hours. It was hands down one of the best times I’ve had in Moldova. I especially loved that we were all together in one room and at any given time you could hear conversations in English, Romanian and Russian. Yet we all conversed and laughed together. Some of the volunteers learned Romanian like me while others learned Russian so we all helped translate for each other depending on what language was being used. I remember sitting there at one point not talking but just listening to bits and pieces of the conversations around me thinking that there would never be a moment in my life like this; two cultures and three languages coming together in such an easy and wonderful way. Vince’s partner and his family are fantastic people and they absolutely love Vince. He’s a really great volunteer and you can see that he is well respected and loved by those in his community.

Vince getting his ear tugged for each year

Vince with his partner next to him and friends at one end of the table. Notice all the food-we barely put a dent in it even after 8 hours of eating!

Blessed and Bathed (at the same time)
Last year's Easter found me waiting for a car that Tom, MacKenzie and I could take across the Moldova-Romania border so we could catch our plane to Vienna. Being that this was my last Easter in Moldova I wanted to be here for the festivities. My partner Elena invited me to spend the weekend with her and her family. I absolutely love her daughters and I am trying to spend as much time with Elena as I can. I was in Chisinau earlier in the day on Saturday but was at her apartment by the evening. I helped her make food for the next day, talk with her and her cousin while enjoying some cocktails and of course play with her twin 9 year old daughters-Dina and Dana. We stayed up until 11pm but decided that it was best for us to take a little cat nap since we wanted to be at the church around 2am. Devout Moldovans arrive at the church around 9pm the night before Easter for the Easter mass. When we arrived there were a handful of people lining up in the courtyard with their baskets filled with some of the food and wine that they will eat over the following week. The point of lining up with baskets full of food is so at nearly sunrise, the priest can walk down the lines and bless the food and the people in a wash of holy water, incense and laughter (which was unexpected for me). I had a great time taking pictures of everything that was going on around me and talking with Elena and the friends we met at the church. As the dawn approached and we knew the priest would be finishing his Easter service, people set up their baskets around them and lit their candles. It was beautiful (and the lit candles helped warm things up a little bit). In the two and a half hours that we stood in the courtyard I watched as we went from about 50 people to about 300 people; everyone with their baskets, food, candles and scarves. The priest came out with his entourage (someone preceding him with incense and someone to hold the bucket of holy water that he dipped his bundle of sage into) around 4:30am. I debated with myself if I would stand in line, but I figured this was my last year, I should soak it all in….soak being the operative word. I was expecting a light dusting of water flicked on my face and the food. No way!! The priest uses a very large bundle of sage that he dips into his bucket of holy water and flings it all over your face and the food at your feet. I got soaked. It was a blessing and a bath all at the same time!! As he walked up and down the lines splashing everyone and their belongings and giving blessings, I noticed that he was making jokes with some of the people he was more familiar with. He even stopped at one particular man and double blessed him joking that he really needed it. The whole evening was quiet and beautiful and sort of ceremonial that this joking caught me off guard but in a really good way. I thought it was great that he took the time to not just bless but crack a joke with people who had been waiting hours in the chilly April morning. I don’t fully understand all the traditions of the Moldovan Easter, but from an ignorant outsider’s perspective it’s really quite beautiful. I did however find amusement in the fact that as soon as the priest moved on from a person, they started packing up. So the lines emptied at the same rate as the priest blessed them. People wanted to get home and eat their blessed food and drink their blessed wine in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. I finally got home around 6AM. Took a few pictures of the sun rise and promptly fell asleep. A few hours I woke up, I got the phone call to enjoy a masa at a friend’s house and so the celebration continued. Hristos a inviat – Adevarat a inviat!! (Christ is risen – True he is risen).

This is me with my partner's daughters

My partner Elena making "tea" to take with us. Funny that the tea has juice and Martini Rosso mix in it?!?

I was the Quality Assurance Manager

At the church

The priest walking down the line

Elena and I after being blessed (and bathed)

The sunrise from my balcony

Visitors
After the long Easter weekend, I got the apartment all set up for my guests. Two other volunteers had traveled to a city north of Floresti for their Easter celebration then stopped in for a night to visit me on their way back down to the south of Moldova. Na’Ima and Ryne both live in a raion (county) center called Cahul. It’s bigger than Floresti and I believe is the 3^rd largest in Moldova. Na’Ima is a volunteer who came in with the M22 group (which my former sitemate Kyle was part of). She is still in Moldova because she had extended a third year. She was also my adopted mentor when I first landed in Moldova. She is saucy, outgoing, highly intelligent, warm hearted and wonderful. I don’t get to see her as often as I would like because she is about 7 hours away from me and she is rarely in Chisinau. So I was super excited that she was going to come for a visit – especially since her last day in Moldova was on May 10^th. I knew this would be one of my last chances to see her before she left. My other visitor was Ryne. He is a volunteer from my group and one of the funniest guys in our group. I just love this kid!! By the time they left my stomach muscles hurt and my eyes were raw from laughing and crying so much. Those two together were the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I know he has got to be lost without her in Cahul now that she has gone back to America. It was one of my most memorable nights (I’m trying to savior as many as I can).

Later in the week Dan came for a visit and it was great just hanging out the two of us. Even though I was tied up working on a project, it was nice having him here to pull me away and make me be social. Dan is probably one of the easiest volunteers for me to be around. He’s become family for me.

Meet the Kocians
Now, I have to tell you about something that meant a lot to me. Matt Kocian is one of my closest friends and one of the first volunteers that I became close to. He and I along with others went to Spain during our first winter and I traveled with him to Odessa last summer and Istanbul this past March. He is horrible about posting pictures and didn’t start a blog until most of the way through his service here in Moldova. It was a long standing joke in our first summer during our training and for many months after that the only way his parents knew anything about him or saw any pictures was because of my blog and the photos I posted of him. So fast forward to the end of April of this year and I get a phone call from Matt asking me if I was planning to be in Chisinau at all that coming weekend. I had no plans to be there and in fact was hoping to avoid going because I had been away from Floresti so much and thought it would be nice to have a few days at home before our COS conference (more on that later). But then he followed up his question with “…because my parents are here and they have specifically asked to meet you.” Well, there was no way I was going to pass up meeting Matt’s parents, especially because they asked to meet me. So I found myself heading to our favorite Greek restaurant in Chisinau on a Friday. His parents are two of the nicest, most wonderful people I’ve met. I really enjoyed talking with them about their travels around the world and their views of Moldova. We all get so used to talking to each other about being an American in Moldova that it’s nice to have a fresh pair of American eyes looking at this country I’ve come to love so much. I can see why Matt is such a great person after meeting his parents. A definite highlight for me in what became a good month!!

Burdened
While the month of April may have been a good month, its last day was not so much! After having lunch with Matt’s parents, I headed to Dan’s house for the night just to hang out (Dan and I ended up having a lot of time together during the Easter break and COS break and we are still good friends and never once tried to kill each other-but I’m getting to that). So the next morning, April 30, I headed home. I was so happy to be home. I had big plans of relaxing, watching a little “Tudors” and working some more on the project I mentioned earlier. However, Floresti had other ideas for me. When I got home, I realized there was no electricity in my apartment nor in my building. This is not unusual so I figured after a few hours it might come back on. Two hours passed and nothing. So I went across the hall and talked to a neighbor who informed me that the power had gone out that morning and had been out for the whole day. Hmmm, this was not a good sign. Fortunately I was still able to cook (gas stove and oven) and I still had water so it wasn’t a horrible thing. But sadly, my computer had died and my phone was on its last bar. I spent most of the day reading which was wonderful. I even read after the sun went down using my headlamp. At one point shortly before I went to bed that night I looked out my balcony windows and realized that most of the town was without electricity. Hmmm, this was not a good sign. When I woke up the next morning, still no power. Back to reading for me! The power did eventually come back on for about an hour and a half. Just long enough for me to charge my phone, iPod and computer. But it again went out leaving me with my book and headlamp for entertainment. I read three books that weekend. The next morning (Monday by now) I was still without power so I packed my bag and headed to Dan’s since he had power and I had a project to finish.

This is Dan. He mentioned once to me that he wants to see more pictures of him on my blog...poftim Dan (here ya go Dan).

Bye-Byed
After the Easter break school resumed, but not for the M24 volunteer teachers. Our whole group (all four programs) got together for our COS conference. COS stands for Close Of Service. The point of this conference is to bring everyone together from our entire M24 group, reminisce, share stories and experiences, learn about all the fun medical and administrative paperwork we have to do before we are allowed to leave and have one last celebration before we all start leaving Moldova. The conference was wonderful and incredibly fun.
Our first day of the conference we had to put a volunteer, that was assigned to us, on the hot seat and talk about what we will remember about them. It was suppose to a kind of toasting, although it was more like a light hearted roasting. Because of the nature of Peace Corps, you sort of form a family with the volunteers you come to country with. So of course we had to mix in embarrassing or funny stories with our sincerity and toasts. It made for a whole lot of laughs, a few tears and lots of hugs.

While the hot seat was fun, the best part of the whole conference for me was what happen after dinner on the second night. During the day one of the activities we did was to answer question given to us on big pieces of flip chart paper (e.g. What was your favorite Facebook status update? What will you miss about Moldova? What won’t you miss about Moldova?, etc…). One of the questions was “What was your favorite PC story?”. This sheet was filled with one liner titles to our favorite stories. Most were stories I had heard but there were several I had not. Another volunteer during dinner made the comment that he thought we should get the flip chart paper from the conference room and explain the stories so that we can all hear them. And so it was that after dinner and a run to the little market in the next village our group sat around the resort restaurant for 3 hours drinking beer or wine or soda, telling some of our favorite and funniest stories about our time here and laughing our asses off. I remember sitting there at one point looking around the room at all the friends and family I had made over the last two years and realized that it was the last time we would all be together like this and there was no other way more perfect than what were doing to say Goodbye as a group.

The final day was filled with information about the medical and administrative requirements but I still had a smile on my face from the night before. Not only was it great to see everyone, especially those I don’t normally get to spend time with, but I found that I was re-energized about finishing my service after having so much time to reflect back on my time here. Our day ended with group pictures and an uplifting and inspirational speech by the US Ambassador to Moldova. The only down side to the whole conference was that by the end, I was completely drained (mentally, physically and emotionally). I went back to Dan’s village with him (see we spent a lot of time together over two weeks) and as we sat down on his bus we just looked at each other silently as we pulled out our headphones and iPods both of us needing a little “me” time even if it was just for the 45 minute bus ride to his village.

Below are a few random fun pics of our three days

These picture are groups pictures by program

1)English Education 2) Health Education 3) Agriculture and Rural Business Development 4) Community and Organization Development

1) 2)

3) 4)

This is our country director Jeffrey (left) with the US Ambassador to Moldova and his wife

Group picture of all the volunteers with Jeffrey and the Ambassador

Me and my program manager Nina!

The bell we ring as we exit for the last time the Peace Corps office on our last day.

Birthday-ed (2)
Sixty-five years ago on May 12^th my favorite person was born-my mom. While I have loved mostly every minute of my Peace Corps experience and my mom has been supportive of my being here, its been rough for her. I’m the baby of the family and I've now missed two birthdays, two mother’s days, a Christmas and two Thanksgivings. She’s told me that she’s ready for me to come home. And while I think that my going home at Christmas helped, we still miss each other a lot!! Since I cannot be there for her birthday, I try to do what I can to at least be there in spirit. Last year for her birthday I sent her Sunflowers, a VERY common flower here in Moldova. This year since it was Tulip time I sent her 30 Tulips and my 6^th graders (one of my favorite class) helped me with a project for her. We recorded a video of us singing Multi Ani Traiasca (pronounced multz an tray-a-ska) a birthday song in Romanian and of course since they are learning English we sang for her the Happy Birthday song. They had so much fun with it and were eager to hear if my mom had liked the video when I saw them again this past Monday. When I got home from class on the 12^th I was able to upload the video long before she even woke up in America. This is when I love being 10 hours ahead! I anxiously waited to call and wish her a happy birthday until it was 7:30am in Sacramento. I knew that we were going to Skype a few hours later, but I didn't want to wait. She was really happy with her day of birthday surprises – her morning birthday song video and later in the afternoon her flowers. At least next year, I’ll be there in person.

Branded
Even before I left for Moldova I had kicked around the idea of getting a tattoo that was related to Peace Corps while I was here. In the beginning I was not sure about it because after all this is Moldova and I did not know if they even had tattoo parlors here. Throughout my first year there were several volunteers who got tattoos. But I was not always overly impressed with the quality. And for me, a tattoo is not something that you skimp on quality. One of the guys, Matt (different than Matt Kocian), who came in last summer as part of the M25 group has a lot of tats and we talked about the possibility of getting one here. He asked around and found a studio that was actually legit. We took a look at the tattoo artist’s work (his name is Sergiu), booked our appointment and jumped on a rutiera to another part of Chisinau where the studio is located. It was a great experience and I loved that Matt and I both remarked after we left the studio that neither of us had the least bit of doubt about getting our tattoos and that we are both considering another one while I am still here. Sergiu is regarded as the best in Chisinau (which subsequently makes him the best in Moldova hahaha) and has been doing tattoos for about 20 years. He was really friendly and talkative-he told us about his family and asked us about our time in Moldova and where in America we were from. He was willing to show us whatever we wanted to see, used all brand new equipment and even at one point had to answer his cell phone with a gloved hand, then changed the glove after he was finished. I never felt a moment of discomfort (except for the whole needle and tattoo part but even that wasn’t too bad). Matt had more discomfort than I did, but he did get his tattoo on his ribs while mine is on my wrist. I wanted a tattoo that signified my time in Moldova and in the Peace Corps. I took part of the Peace Corps logo (a star that is turns into a dove in three parts) and instead of using the colors in the logo I used the colors of the Moldova flag (blue, yellow and red). I’ve included pictures. It’s been 3 days and I am still in love with my tattoo (and my kids at school are too-they are enamored).

That’s a wrap!
School is wrapping up. In fact we have to have most of our grading done by this Friday even though we still have a whole other week of school. But that is Moldova and I’ve found that most of the teachers won’t have their grades in on time so I think it’s the Ministry of Education’s way of ensuring that they do get all the grades by the last day of school. The last month of school is typically busy with testing or test preparation. This semester our 10^th and 11^th graders have special exams called Teze (tay-zay) for specific subjects. While they are working on those, our 9^th and 12^th grades are preparing for their exit exams. Mostly we are trying to finish up with our text books and get the kids ready for the end of semester tests. It’s a crazy time because there are rumors that our school will combine with another school either next school year or the year after. Everyone is trying to look good so as to secure their teaching position when that happens. O sa vedem (We will see).

A thank you masa - American style
So that brings us to today. While I type this post (or at the time that I started writing this post) I have pumpkin muffins baking in the oven and chocolate chip cookie bars cooling on the counter. Tomorrow I will be baking lemon squares, banana bread and apple-lemon bread, making deviled eggs and an assorted fruit tray as well as a salami and cheese tray. Why the baking and cooking frinzy you ask - well I have been saving up and planning to have a small masa as a thank you for all the teachers at my school. Normally when we have a masa there is a ton of Moldovan food, but I am one lowly volunteer and American to boot so I decided to do a “Tea and Coffee Masa”. I am making a bunch of American inspired finger foods along with hot tea and coffee. Normally the wine and vodka is flowing but again I am poor and cannot afford to have alcohol for 30 Moldovan adults. Plus, I want to keep this an alcohol free event. The masa itself will be on Thursday, May 19 after the last lesson at the school. My partner Elena does not teach that day and I only have one class so she is going to help me get everything set up so that its all ready in time. She even called me today to see if I needed any help with the baking. I am going to miss her most of all. She really has become like a sister to me. But I digress and will get overly sappy if I think about it, so instead… fingers crossed that it all goes off without a hitch! I will of course be taking pictures and will post them soon, I promise.

Glimpsing my future
On my immediate horizon (after the school masa) is the visit of one of my closest friends from America-Leslie. She is visiting friends in Spain and decided that when was she going to get another chance to visit me in Moldova than now. So she got her tax return and booked her flight and I could not be more excited. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been a little jealous of other volunteers who have had friends and/or family visit them in Moldova. I know things have been rough back in the States for a lot of my friends and my dad is already coming to Europe at the end of my service for a family trip so I get why it hasn’t been until now that someone is coming. But I’m not gonna lie - I’m feeling a whole lotta love that she is coming. And I’m really excited that I get to share a bit of my Peace Corps experience with her especially because she has contemplated joining the Peace Corps as well.

I believe I’ve mentioned in a previous post that my dad and I are planning a European trip after I leave Moldova. He and I are going to meet in Prague and make our way to Glasgow via Berlin, Paris, London and Edinburgh. I have been looking forward to this trip for many, many moons now. But to make things even better, my brother is going to be joining us for part of the trip. I am so excited that he is coming. We haven’t had a family trip in a really long time (not since I was in junior high school) and with my brother and his family living in Denver, we don’t get to see him often. I think it has been almost 4 years since I’ve seen my brother which makes this even better. We are still working out the details, but I foresee booking airline tickets and hostel in my not so distant future. I will post more about that as details get worked out.

Oh and one last thing...as of this posting I have 70 days until I COS and 92 days until I land in Sacramento!

365 Days Project

So this is a quick one to let you know that March 1, 2011 marked 50 years of Peace Corps. Although I would imagine that back home in the States this made the news a little. Well, there are events and projects in all the Peace Corps countries happening all year in honor of this achievement. In Moldova there is a committee of volunteers who are leading our project "365 Days of Peace and Friendship". I have included a link to the blog where every day beginning with March 1 volunteers in Moldova have posted a short story and pictures about a project they are doing in their village. Just thought this would be a fun way to hear about the work others are doing here in Moldova. Check it out!!

365 Days of Peace and Friendship

My blog post for this project is dated March 18!

Winter Blues and the Blue Mosque

Its been a very long while since I've posted anything here. I just haven't had much motivation to write.

This has been a harsh winter for me. Last winter was much colder for longer with a lot more snow, but somehow this winter has been more difficult emotionally and mentally. Maybe it was going into winter with so much of my mind and thoughts with my family at home. Maybe it was that the winter I was expecting never seemed to settle in because the temperatures would warm up just a bit, but enough to tease us then plummet again. I thought going home would be a good break. See my family and friends, get the chance to say goodbye in my home city to family members who had passed, hug my mom and enjoy warmer temperatures, soft comfy beds and American culture. But coming back to Moldova, I just couldn't get back on my feet. I know the weather played a big role. The lack of sun, bone chilling temperatures and an inability to never fully be warm started to take its toll. Talking to others here and at home helped take the edge off. Knowing (logically) that Spring was just a few months away helped (a microscopic amount). But really at this point pure stubbornness and knowing that I just gotta make it through these first few months of 2011 is the only thing that has kept me here.

I've also realized more so after this winter, the important role fruits and vegetables play in one's mental, emotional and physical well being. I've been mostly living on cheese, chicken, pasta, rice and beans because I can get those at markets that are close to my apartment as opposed to walking to the valley to get the fruits and vegetables also (which motivationally is hard to do when its -20 degrees and snowing). But without having those, I am lethargic and tired all the time. I found the few times when the weather was decent enough to go shopping and I bought fruits and vegetables that during that week I ate them, I felt much better. We take it for granted in America (at least in California) that we can just hop in our car and run to the market where we have whatever fresh produce we want at our fingertips. Sure its a little more expensive, but there are always bargains to be found. Not so true here. Produce is more expensive (tomatoes in the summer are about 6-8 Lei per kilo, in the winter 28-30 lei per kilo) and there is much less variety and the quality is not always great.

The winter while taking a toll on my mental health took its toll on my physical health as well. I've been down with the flu twice (Jan and Feb) and most recently intestinal issues (this past week). The problem is that it break my momentum I start gaining at school. Just as I start getting back on my feet with school, teaching, working out and trying to get myself into a happier place I get knocked down.

Why do I tell you all this? Its not to bring you down or to whine. I'm simply telling you where my head has been of late. But I did find ways of pushing through. I created milestones for myself such as "Well, there's only XX many more days until vacation/end of school/end of service/Spring/Summer (fill in with whatever). I also started working on a big project that I am putting together for my partners. I started reading a lot again. Anything that kept my mind busy.

So here I am sliding slowly into Spring. The temperatures are indeed warmer, the weather is not overly inviting outside but still much better than two weeks ago and the sun is making more appearances. I am pretty sure I am through the roughest part and now that intestinally I'm feeling better I'm looking forward to more days of teaching, being outside and being more productive and motivated. With that more positive end to a very sad beginning I move onto a highlight of the last dreary months...my trip to Istanbul, Turkey!

Istanbul was wonderful!!!

I loved it and I want to go back and see more of Turkey. The food was great, the sightseeing was amazing and the people are really nice. Although, I went hoping for warmer temperatures than Moldova and was greeted with two days of snow, wind and coldness while Moldova had sunshine and warmth. Just my luck. However, the last 2 days in Istanbul were gorgeous and sunny. Despite the weather, we walked and fulfilled our tourist duties with grit and determination.

I went with Dan and Matt, both volunteers and English teachers in my group. Dan and I have traveled a couple of times together. He and I went to Greece and Ukraine last summer. I have also traveled with Matt to Spain during my first Christmas here and Ukraine last summer. Matt had lived in Istanbul for almost a year so it was wonderful having our own personal tour guide who could tell us the history of certain places and knew how to get around. It was kinda nice not having to think and just be able to follow (although there is no way I could tell anyone how we got to any particular place since I just blindly followed haha). Oh and some of the men were downright gorgeous (that is for Suzette one of my fellow volunteers who loves men and told me to appreciate them while I was in Turkey)!!

The hands down highlight of the trip for me was the Turkish bath. Since men and women are separated (because the country is about 99% Muslim) I was alone for the two hours I was there while the guys got to hang with each other but that was ok with me. It was wonderful. At first it was a little uncomfortable cause I was in the main bath area naked but eventually I just went with it and relaxed since all the other women were naked and they weren't all a size 4! Honestly though, I don't think I have been that clean in years haha. The bath woman scrubbed me down from head to toe then washed my whole body then gave me a full body oil massage. After 3 days of basically nonstop walking and standing it felt great. Then she washed and conditioned my hair and I got to hang out in the dry sauna. It was awesome and a great way to start our day. The other women tried to talk to me a few times in broken English, but mostly I just sat back and watched how they all interacted with each other. It was like they were all family the way they teased and joked with each other. It was interesting to see how free and relaxed they were about being naked with each other, then as we all dressed I noticed them getting back into their head covers.

Another fun part was sitting at the hookah bars drinking, kicking back, smoking hookah (in a variety of flavors) and playing Backgammon. Love that game now and I've gotten a little better although I am still really slow at it. I took a ton of pictures (almost 800) but I've only posted about 70 on Facebook. I've also included a few of my favorites in this post.

Istanbul was beautiful and it only made me want to go back an explore more of the country!

Our first night in Istanbul

While strolling through Taksim, I took this

Inside the Haghia Sophia

At the Spice Bazaar. One of my favorite places.

Dan playing Backgammon. We both learned how to play while in Istanbul.

Enjoying breakfast (and the view) on our last day at the hostel

Peacocks ran wild in one of the palace gardens

View of the Haghia Sophia while exiting the Blue Mosque

Inside ceiling of the Blue Mosque. So named for all the blue tile work inside.

Me standing in a park near the Blue Mosque (which is in the background)

Matt and Dan goofing around at Topkapi Palace. I said act like your like each other and this is what they did.

Throwing the gauntlet

This link has quickly been making the rounds on Facebook by many of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). Its a really interesting concept and a great way to share my experience with people back home (at least it is in my opinion-those of you at home may not feel the same haha).

So consider this my challenge to my dearest friends and family at home. For one week-live (at least in some aspect) like a Peace Corps Volunteer. If you are up to the challenge, message me and I will be happy to describe what you can do to have a little taste of my life in Moldova beyond reading my blog. I know you can do it!!

If you'd like to read more about this go to the Live Like a PCV Challenge website.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

Wash all of your dirty clothes by hand in the bathtub

Walk don't drive (or take public transportation)

Make ALL your meals from scratch with fresh ingredients for an entire week (no eating out or pre-made/pre-packaged food)

Sweep your carpets and floors rather than using a vacuum

Turn off the electricity and/or water for one full day and night

I have others so if your interested and up to the challenge just ask me! Let's see who will respond :-)

Funny yet true video

So you want to join the Peace Corps...hilarious in its sarcasm and honesty. Some days I feel like the guy, others I feel like the woman. This experience is definitely a mixture of idealistic optimism and sometimes crushing reality.

Giving thanks, snow, Christmas and a new year

I had every intention of posting around Thanksgiving (I even started a post on November 22 but it was only two lines long). Then I thought about this blog towards the end of December as Christmas and my journey home for a visit was drawing closer, but I worried that I would get too excited about coming home and mention something then the surprise for my mom would be blown. Then of course, the blog was a fleeting thought while at home with my friends and family, but I was running around so much I didn't have the time to sit down and formulate the million thoughts and emotions running through me.

So here it is, almost a week since I returned to Moldova from Americaland and 4:50am (I am battling a wicked case of jet lag) and thought what better way to use my early morning time than to update everyone-especially since there is much to update. Now, I sit in bed half under the covers (cause its a wee bit chilly) with a cup of instant coffee (mostly because I am too lazy to bring out the french press and make real coffee) and settle in for the next 20 or 30 minutes while I type and upload pictures. Also, you'll notice the new look of the blog-figured new year, new look!

Warning: this is unfortunately going to be text heavy and light on the photographs since at the end of October I had a problem with my memory card and subsequently was unable to take many photos, but I will include what I do have which will include some recovered photos and videos from Halloween day.

I last left you with a post about my birthday celebrations. But what I did not mention was how great the Halloween day at my school went. Our classroom was a revolving door of students (some who were not mine but heard of the good time that was going on) wanting to complete Halloween activities, bob for apples, get wrapped up in toilet paper, play pin the head on the monster and listen to my retelling of scary stories (with translation of course and my partner did a wonderful job of mimicking my scary voices and well timed whispering to add to the effect).

Some of my students participating in the activities

At the end of the day we moved the party outside for the Toamna Aur (Golden Autumn) celebration. Each class set up tables of food and crafts and sold them while a mini concert and for some reason a wrestling match took place in the center of the courtyard. It was great and I pleasantly surprised my students by being able to dance the Hora (traditional Moldovan dance). Sadly, I was not able to stay for very much of the celebration because I headed to Chisinau. Since Halloween was on a Saturday, PSN (Peer Support Network-a volunteer led group I belong to and am Events Coordinator for) put on a scary movie marathon at the Peace Corps office. It was a lot of fun and we actually had a decent turnout.

November was an interesting, bittersweet month (sweet: birthday fun, Thanksgiving with my Peace Corps family and students, and gorgeous weather / bitter: more sad news from home and a lot of time spent contemplating whether I would stay in Moldova or go home). Let me explain fully. I spent the first week (as previously mentioned in my last post) in Chisinau to facilitate training sessions for the new English Education (EE) volunteers. The weather was gorgeous and sunny and warm which is entirely unusual for that time of year in Moldova, but I relished it! And luckily that beautiful weather continued for about 2 more weeks. Regrettably, it had to end and winter came on with a vengeance with our first snow and the freezing temperatures decided to settle in for the winter. Shortly after returning to school after our holiday break, my last grandparent (my grandfather) died. This was only 2 months after my uncle's passing and was incredibly rough on me being over 6000 miles from home and my family. I took some time off from school and a good friend came to stay with me for a few days. My little Peace Corps family stepped up and gave me a lot of love and support. Not wanting to dwell on this, I will move onto the sweet of the month. Now enters Thanksgiving. Since I am counting everything this year as "my last" in Moldova, my last Thanksgiving was wonderful-I had 3 of them! The first was similar to last year. PSN puts on a big Thanksgiving feast either the weekend before or the weekend after Thanksgiving day for all the volunteers and staff in Moldova. Last year I was on a cooking team, this year I coordinated the whole thing and boy was that exhausting. But it went off without a hitch. This year we cooked 4 turkeys and enough mashed potatoes and stuffing for about 90 people. Let me tell you, that's a lot of potatoes and bread crumbs! The food was delicious and I was fortunate to have a wonderfully hardworking crew of cooks who prepared everything! Sadly the big difference between our T-Day dinner and a usual one back home...no leftovers. Everyone cleaned up! My second thanksgiving dinner came on the real Thanksgiving day with the sitemates. We made chicken instead of turkey (mostly because of cost and chicken being easier to get) along with the traditional trimmings. It was great just having our little Floresti family together (only we were missing Lindsay who couldn't make it from her village).

Thanksgiving Dinner Pose

My final T-Day dinner came in the form of a masa with one of my partner teachers and her 11th grade class. She is working on moving up to the next level as a teacher and wanted to do a special presentation about Thanksgiving for one of her classes and some colleagues who would be observing. I worked with her to layout the masa and to talk about the history (a semi nice glossed over version) and how the tradition has changed over the years in America. Then we enjoyed some delicious Moldovan food (no traditional T-Day food except for the apple pie I made). It was really nice to sit with a group of students I do not teach and have the opportunity to talk with them and share a bit of my culture.

The first snow on November 26

December was a blur of snow, celebrations, anticipation of my trip home, tests and finalizing grades. Most of the days were pretty normal for my Moldovan life and they mostly were just what led to my going home on December 23rd to surprise my mom for Christmas. She believed I was going on vacation with another volunteer Tom to Sweden for two weeks. All of my friends and most of the family knew otherwise. The look on her face was priceless. The story was that my best friend Staci had a package for them from me with their Christmas gifts. She delivered it Christmas Eve morning. While she was talking to my mom after bringing in one piece of my luggage she said she had forgotten one other thing. At this point I came running up to the house and stood in the doorway. My mom sat in the chair looking with disbelief at me simply saying "What? No! What? Really?" over and over. As I hugged her she asked if she was in heaven. I laughed and told her no and that I was really hugging her in her living room in Sacramento. After that moment, it was all happiness, love, lots of running around and general glee over the little things I have missed (e.g. driving, brunch at Tower Cafe, sushi, playing cut throat Uno with the girls, movies in English in a theater, sunshine in rain, only wearing one layer of light clothes in the winter, hugs from my family, my aunt's cheesecake-which incidentally is THE best in the world and kisses). The two weeks home went by too fast and I am sad that I was not able to see everyone I had hoped to see. However, I am grateful to those who I was able to see and especially to those who I was not expecting to spend so much time with. Coming back was really hard to do, but I am happy to be back in Moldova and even more happy to have been home. Going home in a lot of ways was a great way of seeing some of the changes in me that my new friends and family here would not necessarily recognize. And I came back with a new perspective about myself. More to come soon about the new year and what's coming up this year!

La Mulţi Ani Rebecca

La Mulţi Ani (pronounce: la multz an) translated is Happy Birthday in Romanian. I have heard this a lot over the last week and I love this phrase. The literal word for word translation is At More Years.

This is the story of how my birthDAY turned into my birthWEEK:

My last birthday in Moldova was a spectacular one. Like last year, my birthday fell during the Autumn vacation week and I was in Chisinau for the English Education volunteers' IST (in-service training) Monday through Friday. The difference between this year and last is that I was not a participant in the IST, I was facilitating some of the training sessions. It brought back a lot of memories and when I first arrived at the hotel on Monday, I was a little sad that none of "my people" were there. I really like the new volunteers and this past week was a wonderful opportunity to get to know them better, but that first night was a bit odd for me because my EE (English Education) volunteers were not there. Plus my group of volunteers had recently lost two of my favorite people making some of my memories from last year a little bitter sweet. Thankfully, Jonathon a volunteer from the group before mine was there and we hung out.

The week went really well and by Tuesday I was joined by some other M24s (Moldova 24-24th group in Moldova). The days were filled with training and the nights were filled with fun. We could not have asked for better weather the whole week (typically around 65 degrees and sunny). The night before my birthday, a group of us went to dinner then to a bar where others had gathered to celebrate the birthday of one of the Health Education volunteers. After the bar we moved onto a karaoke bar. Last year during this week, I went to a karaoke bar and (very badly) sang with some friends. This year, I just sat back and enjoyed the show! But at midnight, the group I was with wished me a Happy birthday and sang to me. It was great, because some of the Moldovans who were at the karaoke bar joined in. And one even purchased a song to sing in honor of my birthday. My favorite part of that night however we a duet by Jonathon and Kelley. They sang Scorpion's "Winds of Change" and it was one of the most entertaining and funny renditions I have ever seen in my life. We all got home really late and I was happy that I was able to sleep in a little before my session.

When I got to the school where our training was held, I was greeted with congratulations, happy birthdays and singing in both English and Romanian. It was awesome! After the day concluded, me and a small group of my closest friends (Dan, Annika, Jonathon, Matt, Erika, Mackenzie and Lindsay) went to a restaurant called Tulip. They have amazingly good Thai food and I left very full of Pad Thai and very happy. Later we met up with more volunteers at a nearby bar where again, as I walked into the room I was greeted with the birthday song (Thank you Dan). It was great spending time with everyone. I was greatly complimented and a little taken aback when one of the M25s Alex pulled me aside and said "Becca, only you could get this mix matched group of volunteers all in one place to celebrate. They are all here for you." For me, it was one of the nicest things anyone had said to me and I was smiling the rest of the night (even bigger than I had already been). As the group dissipated and volunteers turned in for the night, those of us who are hard core and night owls, decided to move onto the karaoke bar AGAIN! So we hailed several taxis and descended upon the small, Russian Karaoke bar. We jammed ourselves into a corner, ordered songs to sings, beers to drink and danced our butts off. I could not have asked for a better way to spend my last birthday in Moldova. And as a side note-Dan Falknor, one of my closest friends here, was the party coordinator for the night and he kept me moving from place to place in a timely fashion. Gotta say it was pretty nice not being in charge and letting someone else run the show!

The next day in a very hung over and tired state I made my way back to my village with Dan and Annika. Later we were joined by Tom, Matt and Erika. It was another wonderful night and relaxing night with my friends over a little Mexican food and some Margaritas!! The next day our little group expanded to 16 people as other volunteers came into Floresti for my birthday celebration. The weather was gorgeous and sunny as we walked through the piaţa to purchase food for the party. We even enjoyed a game of beersbee (frisbee drinking game). I had so much fun making dinner for all my friends, sipping margaritas and talking with everyone. After dinner, so as not to make all my neighbors angry, we took our loud group out on the town. We played a little Russian billiards then moved on to the disco where we danced the night away (and I tried to avoid making an ass out of myself in front of many of my students who were there).

After a long, busy (and usually late night) week and weekend I was exhausted! Sunday afternoon everyone went home except for Tom and his girlfriend Virginia who helped me clean my apartment and get everything back in place. When they left I kicked back for the night trying to rest before the first day back to school.

As I got to school I was greeted with a few "felicitare" (congratulations) from students and teachers who knew my birthday had been the prior week. But during the longest break between classes, the bell rang three times signalling a meeting. So I went with my partners. There was the usual business: reminders about staying current in the grade book, arrival of a new student, and information about a parent meeting occurring the next day. But then my director turned to me, smiled and started talking about an important day that occurred last week-my birthday. She gave a little speech about my being part of the faculty, how the kids like me, that I am a beautiful and open person which in turn makes others more open and that the students and teachers are lucky that I am here. It was really sweet! Then she gave me a bouquet of flowers and a coffee serving set from the faculty (I've included pictures of all my gifts). It was a wonderful gesture and I love my gift. I also received gifts from one of the faculty members Tanea (pronounced Tanya) our music teacher, from my 11th grade class and from my partner Elena.

This could not have been a better birthday in Moldova!! I felt love from all of my Moldovan family as well as family and friends in America. My cheeks are hurting from smiling non-stop since last week.

All of the lovely gifts I received

Flowers from the faculty

A cactus from my 11th graders for my computer (to help absorb the radiation from it)

Lovely smelly stuff from friends and Tanea

My new coffee serving set-I love it!!

A new purse and scarf from Tom and Virginia

A handkerchief that my lil sis Sarah made for me