Awakward is the word

10-20-07 15:07

I failed again to keep this blog updated every other day. This time it was not because I did not have enough to talk about but because there was just too much going on for me to sit down and type this all out. The biggest problem with this is that I forgot a lot of the smaller details in what was going on but I will try my best to recap this last week.

Ok well lets see what happened this past weekend. I had an adventure getting into Chisinau for the festival of wine day. I was asked to go with some friends to hang out in the biggest city in Moldova for the festival of wine day. On this day I also had to clean my room from top to bottom including getting on my hands and knees to make sure that the floor was completely spick and span. My room needed it so it was good that I took the time to go over it all. After doing some cleaning I did some much needed reading. Currently I am reading “Three Cups of Tea” By Mortonson and really enjoying it. A big thank you to Jessica for lending it out to me.

It was fairly cold outside so the fam was sitting around the tv watching the festival of wine going on 20 min away in Chisinau while I was trying to convince them to go with me to meet my friends. They weren’t having any of it so I thought I would go by myself to meet my friends. This was my first time venturing out to Chisinau alone and I was looking forward to getting lost in a city that I had very little experience in. To be quick and brief I took an unreliable way of transportation and ended up somewhere on the outskirts of the city where I proceeded tot hen get completely lost and then found my way talking in horrible Romanian to passing strangers.

The festival was interesting. There was a large stage in the center of the city where traditional dances were being performed to traditional music. All around the stage was wine tents made up of different producers trying to win the passerbyers into buying either a small shot of wine or a whole bottle. Lets just say there were a lot of people having a very good time. I wondered around the city with my friends ate some really good food and then we made our way home.

The next day was judgment day. I was to travel again to Chisinau alone to meet with a PCV who has been working in Moldova for a year now. I met her so that I would travel with her to my future site in North Chisinau. The ride wasn’t too interesting but it was long. As soon as I arrived I was left alone with my partner who I just then met and driven to meet my first potential host family for dinner. My partner seems very nice and doesn’t speak a lick of English. I felt I did surprisingly well communicating with her and the family I was visiting. I was given some great food and then stayed the night at that house. It was a little awkward there with the first family for multiple reasons that I will not get into on this blog but it was an experience.

Monday I was picked up by my partner outside of the house and driven to “work”. I was able to sit in the office and talk with my future colleges… or try to talk as my language is about the equivalent of a 3 year old. For the first part of the day I went on some errands with my other partner which consisted of us driving to a gas station while he went in and had some papers signed. While he did that I was given the fun job of sitting in the car which I was completely comfortable doing because I it relieved pressure for me to talk with them or for me to understand what they were trying to say to me. We made several trips like this back and forth and then I sat in the office copying words off the walls where books hung translating with my dictionary words like horse, or cabbage.

I then awkwardly expressed my desire to see another potential host family that I would be living with when I did finally move up there. I was given blank looks by my partner even though I knew she knew what I was talking about. After some reluctancy she took me to see the second and final host family I was to see. It is a good 30 minute walk from work but it is worth it. The family is awesome. There is currently only the mom and dad living in the house because the daughter is married to an American and living In America and the son is working in Chisinau. Their ages are roughly 24-26. The parents look to be in their low 40s and very friendly. The host mother cooked some food that was out of this world. Really great food that I ate in mass quantities. After we then proceeded back to work where I sat for a while longer trying my best to look constructive when my new friend Andrea who is living in the same city came by to show me around the town and speak to me in English. She has been working in this town for just nearly a year and she showed me what kinds of things she has been doing as well as the best ways to traverse through the city. I was able to walk through a beautiful park that was even more beautiful because it is autumn and all of the leaves are colored. I took some pictures of what I could before my battery died. It made me think of my dad in America because of how much he enjoys autumn and how much he would have loved to see the trees in the park. (miss you dad). To my surprise guess what this city has? A gym full of every type of work out equipment I thought I was going to be without while serving in the peace corps. WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

After walking for nearly 3 hours and visiting her house and her adorable pets ( 2 eight week year old puppies and newborn kittens) we went back to that second host family’s house to eat dinner ( we had pancakes with syrup and an assortment of meets and vegetables (truly wonderful food). I then stayed the night there and in the morning was given a ride by my family there back to Chisinau with my partner for a kind of get to know each other conference with the rest of the 38 trainees. The conference was informative and it gave each my partner and me a good idea of what kinds of obstacles we are going to come up to with regards to the language barrier or just finding things for me to do during my first 6 moths of attempting to learn the language or local community.

I was able to eat my first piece of pizza in a good 2 months at a local pizza shop in the city with some friends and then the next day eat my first hamburger known as a “big mac” here in Moldova. If you order a hamburger you get a piece of ham on bread ;-).
Finally Wednesday I was able to come back to my village to my family who I missed and continue with the language class routine. It is going to be sad leaving my family. They keep asking why I have to leave and why I can’t just stay with them. A part of me doesn’t want to leave but then again I want to see more of the country. I hope I am able to visit them when I do leave.

Thursday passed without any crazy things happening but I was informed that we will be having the opportunity to learn a traditional dance that will be performed for all of our host families and peace corps at the end of our training. I am excited to learn some new dance moves given the sorry state I am in when it comes to dancing now.

Friday was just another day in language class followed by some work in the garden. I also took used this day to photograph my entire house in and out. I took some video with my camera as well of my family eating lunch. They got a kick out of themselves when they watched the video on my computer. I also took an excursion with my mom and sister down into the valley about 20 minutes from our house to my moms brothers house to watch my dad work. My dad works in construction was busy building a house when we arrived. We of course brought with us some beer and snacks. I greeted him and his fellow workers then played football with some of the cousins and their friends. I am really not very good at football (soccer) but I have the intimidation factor given I am 22 and they are anywhere from 10-14. My team got slaughtered and but we had a good time and I was able to teach my team the art of intimidation by beating our chest and making grunting noises before we took the field to show the other team we ment business but I digress.

On our way home from the valley we stopped by my fathers brothers house for a masa ( or a dinner thrown when guests arrive). I was first taken to the cellar to take a shot of wine with my uncle then we sat around for a good 2 hours eating and conversing. I busted out the camera and gave everyone a good laugh and gave one of my favorite little cousins one of my two flashlights. I decided to give him my flash light because I noticed when he had to go to the bath room he was getting scared because there are no lights outside of their house and it is a good 20 yards to the out house in the dark. He was clearly scared and I thought this guy needs a flashlight! Once he used it he came back with a big smile and I was like that’s yours now buddy J. Making a difference just one person at a time ;-). My uncle who the previous week I danced the hora with at the city festival gave me some Russian money the equivalent to 20 cents in American dollars and wrote his name on it and a message so that I would remember then when I went back to America.

I then crashed with the rest of my family back out our house at about 8:30 partly because of the wine and partly because of all the walking and soccer I played.

Today I have gone to language class, washed some clothes and am preparing to have a little frizzbee action going on in the near future. Hopefully I will be talking with my parents via web cam today 8:30pm my time and 12:30pm their time but I am not sure if they have gotten the message. If anybody would like to chat with me I will be on MSN messenger at 12:30pm central time under the name kylestremme@hotmail.com if your not on no problem, let me know another day that works for you and I will try to make it on.

At my new house I should have DSL connection which I can possibly make wireless with a router so I will be more available online to send pictures and videos online and even talk on skype J

Hope everyone is well, send me more emails… I want to know what is going on over there. Thanks to everyone who does send me messages.

_kyle_