Ploua! And a birthday party

It rained this morning. A lot! I love that kind of rain when I'm inside. It's Sunday, so I didn't have to go to school and got to sleep in. There is nothing better than hearing the sound of rain outside your window when you know you don't have to get out of bed. I did peek out the window during a lull in the rain and saw a bunch of fluffy birds sitting in the tree outside eating cherries. Lucky birds!!

I have to go work with my classmates on a school project this afternoon, so I am hoping the roads aren't muddy. We are planning to meet at one of their host family's homes, so that means I need to walk up the hill out of my neighborhood and down the hill into town (about a half-hour walk) and then 10 minutes up another hill to get to our classmate's host family's home. That's about an hour of walking, so you can see why it would be more challenging in the rain/mud.

Here's hoping the rain stays stopped for the rest of the day. Although, we hear that it's supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon, too, which means walking home uphill for 40 min in the rain. I wonder if my raincoat will do me any good here? I didn't bring an umbrella!! Seattleite problems...

Update: It was my host mom's birthday party today! I didn't know until I went downstairs that there was a birthday lunch for her! Relatives came over to celebrate. I got to meet her sister and daughter-in-law. And then her sister's nephew and his fiancé came over to announce their engagement! 

It stopped raining, so I was able to go to my classmate's house to work on a project. We are mapping the town and have to present to the class on Tuesday. 

While I was walking in her neighborhood, I saw the most amazing flowers and lots of cherries! Her family also has a rooster and chickens.

On the way home I peeked into the market just to investigate. Lots of lovely things, like pelmeni in the freezer case and pickled watermelon in the produce section! (And of course, lots of dill!)

When I got home, mamă mea gazdă (my host mom) was watering flowers in the yard and she took me around the backyard and told me the names of the different fruits: caisă (apricot), prună (plum), struguri (grapes), căpșună (strawberry), and of course cireaşă (sweet cherries) si vişină (sour cherries)!

Rest and thoughts about weather

Today is Saturday. We had language and cultural training in the morning, but had the afternoon free. I walked around the town a bit with one of my colleagues and then wandered home and took a nap. A nap!!! I can't remember the last time I did that. There was so much to do to get ready to come here that I was busy nonstop for several months before I left the U.S., from early in the morning until late at night. Since we arrived, we have also been scheduled nonstop. It's a weird feeling to have a few hours to myself. I've been told that once training is finished and we go to our permanent sites, that we will have quite a bit of free time as we get settled in and get started with our work. But for now, I will take these few hours of rest to get ready for more training next week.

It's was a perfect day for a nap because it's overcast today, and the forecast is rain. I haven't heard or seen any rain yet, but obviously this PNW girl feels at home in overcast drizzly weather! It's humid, though, and that is something I am not used to. Still getting acclimated to it. I'm also thinking ahead and trying to prepare myself for cold, snowy winters. Yesterday, when I was walking home from the school, I noticed huge drainage ditches on the sides of the road. Definitely something we don't have in Seattle. I've experienced snow, but have never lived in a place that gets lots of it or has it for long. It's hard to imagine a snowy winter right now when I am so warm all the time, and haven't worn long sleeves since I arrived in Moldova. But I know it's coming. I have my warm coat and snow boots, but it's the mental preparation I really need, I think.

Challenges and cherries

We arrived in our communities for Pre-Service Training on Sunday afternoon, and today is Thursday. We will be in these communities for 10 weeks. I have been working on integrating into my host family and community, but it has been challenging because I don’t understand the language very well yet, and am probably missing lots of cultural queues. Sometimes I feel like I blend in ok – like the time a truck driver pulled over to ask me for directions – and other times I feel like I am obviously an outsider. But so far, the people we have encountered have been willing to talk to us and help us get to know their community better. Yesterday was a tough day because my host dad was speaking to me a lot and I couldn’t understand anything he was saying. I was so frustrated because I really wanted to understand him. But I have to be patient and realize that I have only been learning this language for about a week! I have definitely learned a lot more Romanian in a week than I have ever learned of any other language in a week! The language training is really fantastic, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to participate in such a great program. It was helpful to talk to my Peace Corps mentor, who reminded me that the language skills will come with time.

Today I felt better about my language skills. I was able to communicate more with my host family, and even understood a joke my host dad told! My PC colleagues and I also started working on a project to map our community. In small groups, we spent the afternoon walking around town, visiting offices and landmarks, and asking people about the town. Despite our very limited Romanian, we were able to talk to staff at the Mayor’s office, the city council, and the cultural center. We have also talked to staff at the library and at a few cafes. I was interested to learn about these places, and glad to have this assignment to give me a reason to go talk to people. I definitely feel like this helped me get to know the town better so I can feel more at home here.

Before I came here, I had no idea that Moldova is full of cherry trees! They are everywhere in town, and the cherries are delicious! There are gorgeous roses everywhere, too, and they smell amazing. I’m also very lucky to have a view of sunset from the window of my room. A few times this week, I have stood staring out the window for half an hour or so watching the sunset until there is just a faint pale pink glow in the distance. These are some of the things I already love about this country (at least this town!), and I am sure that there will be many more.

Almost home

Today, we spent more time learning language and learning what is expected of us as representatives of Peace Corps and the United States. I’m glad we have had this time at the hotel for the past few days to get accustomed to Moldova, learn useful information, and get to know each other better. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the nice weather. It has been a little too warm during the afternoon when I’m tired and trying to learn language, but fine otherwise. In fact, I was expecting hot and humid weather like the day we arrived and it has been much better than that. I’m over the jet lag enough that I’m sitting outside in the cool evening air as I write this, listening to birds and the sound of other trainees practicing their Romanian language. I can also hear music and smell barbecue coming from nearby. I’m honestly so happy to be back in Eastern Europe. I do feel at home here and I am glad to be back. Although I’ve never been to Moldova before, there are many things that are familiar to me here, from electrical outlets to food. Sometimes I have to remind myself I am in a new country. I’m excited to learn the things that are uniquely Moldovan.

Tomorrow, we will move to the communities where we will live for the next 10 weeks during Pre-Service Training (PST) and meet our host families. I feel like I know enough language to be able to communicate a little bit with my host family and I’m excited to be in an environment where I will have the opportunity to use the language I already know and learn more. We will be divided up in 6 communities by type of work: 2 communities each for Health Education, English Education, and Community and Organizational Development (COD). I’m in the COD group, and I’ll be living in a town that is a regional capital. The town I will be living in is also the place that the whole group will meet in once each week during PST for combined training. On a different day each week, the group of COD trainees in my town will travel to the town where the other COD trainees are living and participate in combined COD training. It will be different living with a family, and not seeing all the other M32s every day, but there will be about 10 of us in the same town and we will see each other nearly every day for language training.