Peace Corps Email #18

Whew, who had any idea that I wrote so many emails home?  We haven't even gotten to the INSANE volume of emails I wrote to other volunteers!

It’s Getting Chilly

Original Sent Date : October 17, 2005

Hello Everyone!

I’ve been informed I am way behind in sending a mass e-mail.  Though I doubt you all are checking your e-mail every thirty seconds, hoping to hear from me, I will oblige.  Honestly, I would have obliged without the reminder. 

It makes me feel special…

I returned to Moldova on the 12th of October after a three week vacation in AMERICA!  On my flight into Mother Moldova I sat across from a guy wearing shorts and looking very American.  Unfortunately, I was wearing my grumpy pants that day (you may know them; they’re a sordid  green color) and chose to stare at him rudely rather than speak.  I’ve learned this in Moldova.  You’d be surprised how well it gets people just to leave you alone.  After getting off the plane and going through customs, I meet my buddy Aaron and his fiancé Nata at the gate… turns out the American I was glaring at was Aaron’s brother, visiting from America.  I need to wear the grumpy pants less…

Incidentally, Aaron is engaged to the Moldova who was our language teacher (dum da dum).  But don’t worry Mom; both of our language teachers are women…no Moldovan fiance for me. 

My three weeks in America were wonderful.  It’s weird that going to “Kansas” can be construed as a vacation, but it is.  Yay. I got to see almost everyone I wanted to (and if you’re reading this and I didn’t see you—that almost is for you, darling), go to two football games (regardless of the fact I didn’t return to either after halftime), go to the bars (and realize that I am far to old, at almost 24, for the college bar scene), meet our EIGHT labradoodle puppies (well, now there are 7 since I hid one in my purse and it lives in my room off of scraps now), and become cured of my nine-month struggle with leaky eye syndrome and the wart (yes, wart—I know) on my eye.  It was a productive and exhausting three weeks.

The day after I returned, I went to the training session of the newbies and gave a speech over camps.  I learned the perils of American fashion, as my new sparkly shoes immediately gave me a blister.  I will, however, continue to wear them.  I am stubborn.  It’s nice, though, that there is a new group here and I am now the older and more experienced volunteer.  Woo!

I went back to site late Thursday night. My host mom told me it felt to her just like her daughter had returned to Moldova (her daughter has been in Italy for 5 years without coming home).  I gave away my presents.  My host mom followed me to my house and talked for what felt like 4 hours.  Luckily, I didn’t forget Romanian.  That could have made the long conversation a little rough.

Friday was my first day back at work…we had a celebration for “Fall of Gold” and the kids all dressed up like vegetables.  Cute.  The little girls I love—Adriana and Oxana actually fought over who would get to sit next to me.  Coming back was a lot easier since I was missed!

Friday afternoon I went to the Town Days of Chisinau the capital. We went to a masa at a friends house and I drank a little too much cognac.  Either that or the time difference really got to me, because I fell asleep on the ride home and was mocked by my counterpart and her husband.  Oh well.

This weekend is the Health Expo, and I am somehow involved in that.  So, I’m going to spend Thursday through Sunday in the capital meeting with doctors and medical students.  Luckily, I do not have to give any information out, since I am, surprisingly, not a doctor.  I plan to wear my sparkly shoes and suffer.   

I hope you all are doing well back home!  Take care and feel free to send me e-mails/packages with reckless abandon!

Darcie

Helping the kids attack the pinata I made.

Olea wearing the remains of the pinata.

Oxana doing PT.

Tom and I posing in front of "Big Steve" (Really called Stefan Cel Mare) the hero of Moldova.

I had a very tiny cell phone while in the Peace Corps.

The girls at the center.

The big boys at the center.

One of the boys and his grandmother at his home.

Another student at her home.  I think their grandma slept on the outdoor bed.

Tailgating in AMERICA with some of my girls!

And here are the puppies I obsessed over.