pst is coming to an end

11:19:07 8:52

And so ends another week on the other side of the world. It really was a great week if I could only remember what happened each day for this little recap… As far as language goes mine has gone down hill. I feel as though I am worse at speaking this week then last week but I think it has to do with my lack for caring about the language this week. I am so burned out I kind of took a week to do minimal effort on my homework and watched a few movies.

This week was a combination of emotions for me as I was preparing for my upcoming speech on Saturday I was nervous about it and spent entirely to much time stressing about it. It kind of put a damper on my mood for this week. The biggest problem was that I put together a presentation with my partner but that we had a change in audience in the last 2 days. At first we designed a presentation on the basics of computers including a this is a mouse this is how you save this is where “word” is so you can type with a little speal on how you connect to the internet. This presentation catered to an older audience not familiar with computers. We find out on Thursday that no we are inviting the kids from the 11^th and 12^th grade to attend. Well crap! I say we have 2 days and we are going to be baby talking (that’s basically how we speak with our horrible language skills) for 20 mins about something that is about as common to them as tying their shoes!. That put the hurt on my emotions but we recovered added some content about how to open up an email account and use google combined with a little this is a mouse.. this is a key board.. this is how you type in word.

It went smoothly, we went first and I really didn’t’ have any of the nerves that I had the night before as I was so stressed my dreams were accompanied by even more stressful things. I was being chased by the police in America because I didn’t not have my passport on my and they wanted to look at it or something along those ridiculous lines (I escaped in my dream but I woke up in a sweat around 4 in the morning). Everyone did a good job given the situation our language skills were in and the 5 kids that showed up to watch our presentation did a fair job of acting interested regardless of what we sounded like.

Also this week we had the American ambassador for Moldova give us a little pep talk/ talk about his life/ talk about the state Moldova is in. He was a very interesting character with a wealth of knowledge to boot. He is a well traveled man with a calm demeanor and he opened my eyes at least onto the situation Moldova is in as it pertains to getting into the EU and the backwards way farming is done currently with out proper crop rotation and tilling far too deep into the soil with will only lead to further decreasing of production and possible dust bowl if it gets dry enough.

I was also captured by a sweet old lady off of the street. As I was walking home from school saying hi to everyone that looks at me (and most don’t and I say hi anyway) when I came across a sweet looking old lady. I walked over to her and said hello and then proceeded to go about my business. She looked familiar but I could not place her face. She waved me closer and then mumbled something incoherent to me but it was clear she wanted a response. I gave her a great big “poftim!?” (meaning pardon could you repeat that for me I am an idiot American and I have no idea what you just said let along mumbled to me). We stood there next to the street for a good 15 minutes when I realized I had seen her at a family event about 8 weeks prior. I asked her how she was doing and just mumbled “crappy im old can’t you see?” Alright, im sorry your old what are you doing, standing by the street want to come inside and eat something and talk. (she said to me but that is not a direct translation because most of what she said was lost and I caught bits and pieces). I agreed and we walked 20 feet into her house and that took a good five minutes. We ate, ( I pretended to eat because it was fish and we are not supposed to eat non imported fish) and drank a glass of painfully sweet wine. She showed me her grandkids and around her house. I did not understand very much but she didn’t seem to mind all that much. It was a fun afternoon.

Lets see what else? I traveled to Chisinau bought a gift for my host brother, dealt with some poor customer service and bummed a ride back on a autobus (I was a routeara but I can’t spell if of course and spell check kept wanting to make the word uterus). The ride we were met with a variety of different people who enjoyed listening to us Americans speak English and even more so when we attempted to speak Romanian and explain to them we were in the peace corps and what it is and why on earth would we want to come here when we could be living in America. That night I went to a wedding with my parents. (veronica and tudor didn’t wanna go and left me hanging) I really didn’t want to go because there was going to be a lot of dancing and I am at best a sub par dancer and don’t’ really enjoy it all that much to boot. The thought of meeting some girls my age or just seeing them in general gave me a strong drive to go but I was told there would be little alchohol and in this type of situation the lubricant of a few drinks greatly smoothes my language skills and dance moves. In short I was able to have a few drinks danced my butt off (enjoying it way more then I thought I would) and talked with a lot of lovely ladies. The one I talked with the most had just been to America on if you’re a student in college and you want to work in America for 3 months we set it up you pay us $3000 and you get a visa and a plane ticket there and back. And you keep the profit (if any). She traveled to Florida and worked at burger king and loved every minute of it. She kept hinting she really wants to go back and why was I moving to the north of Moldova so far away from my current location and her location. How I should just say here for 2 years that kind of stuff. That night started at 10pm and ended at 5am, I was thoroughly exhausted the next day (yesterday) and spent most of the day laying around being lazy with veronica and tudor. Played a little counterstrike (computer game) with Tudor and was beaten savagely to his delight as it cost me a snickers bar and one ego. I did win back a little respect in chess but we were both horrible at it and to be honest strategy had very little to do with the win as most of the credit goes to luck.

I have 3 days until I leave for the north and I am excited and saddened at the same time. Playing around with my emotions this week that kind of put me in a rough mood was this thought of leaving my current family. I will miss playing games with my brother and sister every night and the constant ridicule they put me through but I guess life must go on and I will just have to come see them when I get the chance.

Also hey chad if your reading this send me an email. I got your message on my blog but I can’t respond to you. Also, lionel im glad you got your dvds send me an email to you lazy soldier.