This is the family there on the top left. That’s Stephan, tudor, veronica, and mama Maria. To the right of that is at the closing ceremony below that to the left is me and and my father with tudor in the middle before I went to the nunta. To the right of that is breakfast the morning I left. That’s rabbit in the middle with some meast on the right and placenta to the left of that. Heaven on a table right there ;-) . below that to the left is at the ceremony and then to the right of that is my two good friends phil and Jessica on our walk.
It has happened.
Tuesday was amazing. Last full day living with my host family and it ended better then I could have imagined. Ok so I had my language assessment that morning at 8am. That was really early for me to get my brain in romanain mode and I was not really in gear for the test but I did it and its over. I have a feeling its for our teachers more then its of us to give them feedback on how well they taught us because from my perspective it is impossible for anyone to fail.
Right after completing the test I went on a 3 hour hike around the town as a kind of farewell. We walked places i had not been before but always wanted to hike. It was beautiful. In the inclusion of the sentence I am talking about the weather, the landscapes, the conversations I had with my friends, but excluding most of the pictures I took.
Phil and I had a great time taking pictures of ourselves in mid air poses with scenery in the back ground as if we are snow skiing of ramps pulling off grab moves like a couple of 8 year olds. I did manage to get jess involved but only slightly. Stephen had nothing to do with this small tribute to our less mature years (though I have yet to grow up and those actions accurately portray my current state of maturity). I have a couple of pictures of the event, one of which is now the wallpaper on my computer and facebook picture. Nobody really gets it but I think it looks cool, (Moldovan people that have witnessed the pictures clearly state “nu inteleg” or I don’t understand).
After the walk I spent time packing up all of the things I own into my suit cases and then walked around the house talking to my mom waiting for my host brother and sister to come home. Im throwing host brother and sister in there now because now that I am not living with them ( I will get further into the fact that im writing from my new house later) its just sad to think of them as my brother and sister who I no longer live with. I ate lunch with my parents and grandma. We had delicious rabbit and an assortment of other items. Of course I was instructed to get my drink on because it was my last day and I had yet to get drunk with the family at our house. I have a few glasses of wine finished packing just in time for my brother and sister to come home.
As I was sitting inside I realized my host dad had begun cutting all of that small forest we had piled next to the house with a borrowed… rented… don’t really know the story with the chain saw. I went outside to help but was greeted with a no way go back inside and have a good time. I insisted by just helping anyway where ever I could getting in the way when I could until they included me. They told my jacket would get way to dirty so I was given one of my dads work coats (my favorite one in fact that I secretly wished he would give to me, it is this tan color and it could well be 20 years old with a Moldova patch in Russian and some other words I can’t make out yet).
We began working with a glass of wine and about every hour we had another one. We probably cut wood for 3 hours before we finnaly finished thoroughly dehydrated from the wine and the physical activity but feeling good that it was over. We all thoroughly wallowed in self pity equally about the pain in our backs and the hunger in our stomach in which my mom should have prepared by then. Haha I’m not going to lie I was feeling pretty manly by that point with the jacket and the sawdust everywhere with a small buzz from the wine and the praise for a job well done by my bad ass father. (I love you more dad in America don’t worry :-) ). By this time my (ok this will get confusing but ill try to explain it to ya by calling him Johnny his name of course) new host father from my new site Johnny who was coming to pick up my luggage to take to their house in the north. I quickly told him where our house was .. (that’s right talked to him on the phone without gestures in Romanian) ok.. it wasn’t quickly but I got the job done. I loaded up the van just in time for my old family to meet my new host dad and there was this instant invite to come inside and eat and talk about me. So it happened. We merged families and my fathers and I with my old host fathers best friend and work partner and my new dad’s driver all sat around a tiny little table with rabbit and chicken and salad and a lot of wine. We laughed we talked we patted each other on the backs we Tim Taylored it up ( from the tv show home improvement “o orah ah ah” grunting and all that other manly stuff) .
After that we said our goodbyes my old dad sent my new dad off with 6 bottles of wine and a promise that I would spend new years with them. It was a great time and a great transition for me that my parents knew my new host parents and they approved and in a way it settled my mom down a little about her anxiety of my leaving the safety of their home. At this point it was near 11 pm and I was exhausted sleepy from the wine and all of the labor. I stumbled upstairs to get my presents for my family as a kind of going away gift.
I came down set it down next to them and said here ya go I bought these for you because you have been so great to me. My brother grabbed his present (the mp3 player and went to work getting it to work right away with excitement.) but my sister and mother looked really confused like what? My sister flipped through the phone and the hair dryer and her straighter that I had bought and just asked me why would I do this. They didn’t seem all that excited but more in shock like what do you want from us in exchange for this. I told them again and again its because of how great they treated me and that I could afford to give them these gifts. I wanted to give them these gifts and I didn’t want anything for it but liked giving gifts when I can. They said thank you but it was still awkward like I thought it was going to be but I don’t care im glad I did it. I went to sleep shortly after that.
That next morning I woke up early to eat breakfast with the family before my brother and sister went to school. My mom set out an amazing breakfast with rabbit and other meats and even a cake for my going away breakfast. I was so stunned and amazed. My dad rolled out of bed and participated even though I know he doesn’t eat breakfast and would have rather been sleeping. At the close of it my sister ran out of the room and my mom began to cry and left as well. My brother just shook my hand and smiled. I tracked down my sister and mother told them to stop crying because I wanted a picture of the whole family before I left. Got them together and then snapped the picture. Soon after that I made my way to chisnau to begin a new adventure.
I am getting tired of typing and its my own fault for not writing more each day and saving it all up for a big wrap up. I will be more concise for now on but I wanted to explain my magical goodbye experience though I know I missed some stuff but im ok with it if you are. Chisinau was Chisinau ( oh wait I have to stop im going to a birthday party I will finish this later. Sorry J)
And so it is later. The time is now 20:36 and I have had a few shots of vodka in my system but I have survived. Chisinau like I said was Chisinau. It’s a big city I stayed in a horrible hotel I was able to talk to all my friends for one last time before leaving for our sites and that was that. On a more detailed level we were sworn in as official peace corps volunteers I broke in my dress shoes by walking no less then 4 miles in them as I walked around the city. That sounds like a good thing except by the time the ceremony was over I was limping and flinching in pain as my heels began to bleed inside my socks. Luckily I was walking with some friends and I was able to switch shoes with one of the nice girls I was walking with (her shoes did not have a back and she had big feet :-) .
After that I said goodbye to my friends and mother and host sister who came to the ceremony to watch me graduate. It was a little emotional but less then me leaving the house. I was able to get to my house alright on the routerea with my site mate and that about covers that day. Once I got to my new house I ate a small meal then went to bed. Yesterday is kind of a blur… let me remember here.. ok I woke up unpacked all my stuff went to the piatza ( or large market where there are a bunch of vendors selling everything from batteries to high class clothes)
i don't know if i should complain about this but my family is entirely too normal. my room is spacious, clean, warm given i have my own soba heated by gas and my dad is the director of the gas in the city so im not sure if we don't pay for it or if he is just loaded because they keep coming in my room telling me that its too cold in my room and according to the temperature gauge they have here its at a nice 70 degrees. my mom keeps coming in and turning it up. i have a steady wireless connection where i found out im going to be paying 250 lei a month for but im am completely alright with that.
my walks have consisted of me walking down the main drag to visit our amazing large piatza and spending money. bought some track pants, slippers and some flowers for a birthday party im going to tonight. i have yet to meet the partner here but i think im supposed to go to work on monday.
i witnessed red squirrels with what looks to be ears or a frow coming up off of thier heads but my host mom was freaking out with delight when she pointed them out for me.
that’s about all i have. house is too normal, food is too good, i am waiting for it to all come crashing down around me at any point now.
I guess I should talk now about how that birthday party was. Ill be brief but it was kind of humerous and a little sad. I still am not sure exactly who this person was that was having the birthday but that matters not. The family seemed to know this person very well and she was going to be heading to Canada to be with her husband in less then one month. I bought her a boquite of flowers as I was instructed that would be an apporpiate gift and headed off to the party with my host mom, dad, and new host brother. I met most of of my mothers side of the family. It was a good time except my language skills were severly tested. Because people at the talbe did not know romanain. I am in the northern part of the country where there is a large Russian influence. So get this as I sat at the dinner table with everyone my host dad was translating the Russian they were all speaking into romanain. It was the craziest experience for me because I was understanding a lot more then you would think I would. Maybe it was because I hear all of this language that makes no sense at all to me (Russian) then its translated into a language that I have more of a comprehension of and add to that vodka to smooth out the brain cells and for some reason make everything clear. I think they gave me more credit then I deserved for understanding but never the less I felt like I was not completely lost during that crazy time and I came back survived and have a positive attidude about my language in the future.
I also think that it will be a good idea if I learn Russian seeing how it is the primary language anywhere that one person speaks Russian. The scenario is everyone in the room speaks romanain, but they also speak Russian. One person walks into the room that does not know romanain so everyone speaks Russian so everyone understands. Only problem with this is that Russian is like 5 times as hard as Romanian and I need to get romanain down before even trying Russian or else I will just get really confused. Oh geez.
On the plus side I have internet 24/7 so I will be able to chat it up with anyone with a aim, msn, or skype account.
Let me know your name and talk to me.
kylestremme@hotmail.com – msn
kycertaintragedy – aim
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