Settling in

Where to begin? I've finally adjusted to the 10 hour time difference, and I've been in my training site town south of the capital since Sunday. I have lost all sense of time here! They weren't joking when they said we'd be busy during PST. Most mornings I have language classes, which are held in the front room of a home a short walk from mine, and then in the afternoon I'll sometimes have "cross-cultural training", have to get shots, do errands, or just get to hang out at home. I have to get 10 shots or something like that, because all of mine were expired. Yippee...

My host family is awesome. My host mom is a great cook and really patient with me as I say "One more time, please?" or "What's that?" and repeat words and sentences over and over. My host sister is 15 and has studied some English. I call her my dictionary. Most evenings the two of us are there at the dinner table, furiously flipping through our respective dictionaries. Which reminds me - I am continually amazed by how easily people switch between Russian and Romanian (the state language) here. My host sister speaks to me in English, then looks up a word/verb in her Romanian dictionary, then says it back to me in Russian. Amazing. I'm excited that I'll probably come away knowing a bit of Romanian, since so many people around me speak it, and almost all the signs are bilingual.

Oh yeah, back to my family. They have a cat (hooray!) named Timofee, a garden in the yard and chickens, which they have both for eggs and for eating. The produce here is all home-grown (none is sold in the stores, because everyone has a garden) and I'm actually eating healthier in some ways than I did back home. Lots of fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, pears and apples.

I have a feeling my living situation is not representative of the norm here. It feels virtually like a home back in the states. I have a large room to myself, an indoor flush toilet, hot water, a bath tub, etc. I've never been in any other homes here, though, so I can just go by what I've overheard from other volunteers. I'm not complaining - I spose the other way would be more "authentic" or something, but I'm sure I'll get
Speaking of learning language, even though it was what I had hoped for, once I found out that I was in the 6-person Russian learning group I had worried that I would feel isolated from the other 32 trainees learning Romanian. As it turns out I love my little group, and it has been a lot of fun to get to know them and have class with them each day. I have class with two guys, Brian and Brad, who have a comprehension level similar to mine. Amy is starting from scratch and two guys, Adam and Nic, are all fancy-pants and know quite a bit of the Roosky. [Hi guys if you're reading this.] School here is great - ever hour or two we stop and have a tea break, and try to coax this little black puppy to come into the yard of the house from behind an adjoining fence. He's all chubby and wiggly and acts like his tail is propelling his butt around. So cute. There are a lot of animals around (incl. cows, geese, chickens), but they're a bit skittish. I think it's because they're viewed/treated differently - one former volunteer here described Moldovan dogs as doorbells.


plenty 'authentic' when I move on to my work site in a new town. What else...my parents here say my Russian is getting better every day, and I'm pretty thrilled any time I successfully convey an idea in my new language or say something a little faster than usual. Last night Timofee was meowing as my mom served me dinner, and I looked down and said "The cat wants some also" with relative speed/accuracy. It was my big accomplishment for the day. I like to tease people and make jokes quite a bit so I'm doing my best to have a sense of humor in Russian. (I already make people laugh, but I'm looking more for the laugh with me type than laugh at me.)

I should probably get going, I don't want the computer to switch off mid-sentence when my hour runs out like it did yesterday. If you have any questions for me about life here, let me know! There's so much to say, it's hard to think of it all.

Oh! One last thing. People here love them some pointy shoes. Men and women alike. And women wear heels and really fitted clothes all the time, so I pretty much am dressed like a boy in comparison. All the women are SO thin - the only women my size are the mothers. Young women are really tall and slender, and pretty. They also seem to have a smaller bone structure than me. I'm a pretty strapping lass by Moldovan standards. I don't think the concept of "badonkadonk" would go over big here.

Really, one last thing, about the welcome ceremony! The six of us in this town plus our host families and teachers met at the house where we have class, and while two kids played music on a drum and accordian our families led us in this dance where everyone holds hands and goes in a circle, while someone in the middle picks a person to dance with who then gets down on one knee. The chooser leans over and kisses them on the cheek, then they are the person who picks the next. For a little cross-cultural exchange, we showed them the electric slide, and I led a nice little round of the hokey-pokey. We all laughed and some of the guys in my group played songs on the guitar (ie hotel california) that the rest of us attempted to sing along to. It was awesome.

Ok, really, it's time to go. Dos vedanya! La revedere!

P.S. re the importance of humility: the computer just switched off so I bought 30 more minutes, and when the woman said "vtah-roy" I sat down at the third computer and was thinking, 'Man, my Russian is really getting better, I knew what she said without even thinking about it!' And then a man came in to tell me she said the second computer.