Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Over a year has passed in the stage of my life defined as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and it seems impossible to reflect back on all the events that have come to pass in the most interesting year of my life to date. Perhaps this is why I have been notoriously bad at keeping friends and family updated about my life here in Moldova. I remember thinking, preparing, and planning how I pictured my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer when I was preparing to make this journey. I pictured learning a foreign language, learning a new culture, meeting new friends, and doing work which I passionately believed would be making a difference in people's lives...and I pictured writing home about it every step of the way. Thankfully, I can honestly say that I have achieved all of those goals, except for the last! Truth is, sometimes it's hard to sit down and write about something when you're in the midst of doing it. Well, summer has arrived, and although I've already been on vacation for a month, I'm finally finding the time to sit down and write some reflections on the past year.
First of all, for friends and family who are going to be in the NYC or Olean area between the dates of July 20th and August 3rd - I'm COMING HOME!!!!!!! This will be my only trip back to the states as a PCV (according to my bank account) so I want to take advantage of seeing as many loved ones as possible. Just send me an email and we'll plan a good time to meet up. Second of all, let's talk in general about what the past year has been like for me.

School starts on the 1st of September every year in Moldova with a really fun opening ceremony where the whole school gathers and gives good wishes for the school year and lots and lots of flowers for the teachers. I had just arrived in my town, Cimislia (a small "city" located in the South of Moldova), and had no idea what was going on. It's funny to look back at how much I progressed from the first day of school to the last. Although I gave a speech in Romanian on the first day of school, my partner teacher had to write it for me, and I had no idea what I was saying! I had the privilege of presenting some awards at the end of the school year and this time I was able to write the speech myself, and had no problems pronouncing it! In fact, in a year I progressed from a beginner to advanced level of Romanian language, and hope to keep progressing from here. So, the school year began and I was given all the groups of 5th, 6th, and 7th grades, plus one 11th grade group to teach together with my 4 fellow English teachers, Doamna Elena, Oxana, Olga, and Ludmila. Unfortunately, in the middle of the second semester my colleague and close friend Ludmila immigrated to Canada with her family in hopes of making a more prosperous life. Anyway, the first semester passed quickly and I fell into a schedule of lesson planning, teaching, learning Romanian, and giving English lessons to various community members. One of the best parts of Moldova still remains THE PARTIES!! No one celebrates like the Moldovans, and no one finds so many reasons to celebrate! I felt like once a week I was coming together with my colleagues to eat, drink, and dance the night away. Soon, Christmas came and Moldova was covered in snow! I hadn't seen a snowfall like that since I was a kid, and apparently, neither had the Moldovans. Hello global warming! But the Moldovans didn't seem bothered, and soon we were all bundled up with fur hats looking like Eskimos and pulling the kids through the streets on sleds.












I took advantage of our two week winter break and planned a trek over Eastern/Western Europe with some friends. We set off from Chisinau the day after Christmas and took an 18 hour bus through Romania to the border of Hungary. From there a short train ride brought us into Budapest, maybe one of my favorite cities in the world. It was like a gigantic Christmas market. Christmas trees and decorations everywhere and hot mulled wine on every street corner! I was in heaven. We had some great adventures including swimming in hot springs in the snow, and then took off for a night in Vienna. This was my second trip to Austria, but I had forgotten just how beautiful of a country it is. The architecture and layout of the city is really breathtaking. With just one night to spend we decided to "Couch surf" for those of you who know what that is, and ended up finding ourselves in the student Union of the University. Unknown to us, the person who agreed to take us in was in fact living in the student union which was taken over by protesters of the high fees of the educational system. I guess they have never been to America! After taking in the scene, we threw our packs down on a hammock and headed down to the soup kitchen where we made some friends who took us for a whirlwind tour of the city by night. Next morning we hopped on our bus, next stop Prague, where two other PCV's were waiting for us in a penthouse apartment we had rented for the New Year's weekend. Oh the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer! Prague proved to only escalate the level of beauty in this part of the world, and the good times continued to roll. We spent 3 days exploring the city, eating street sausages and yes of course more hot wine. The architecture of this city was breathtaking, and the fortress on the hill overlooking the city held one of the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen. New Years Eve 2010 was a blur of smoke and fireworks set off by people in the streets right in front of our apartment. A little dangerous, and a friend even got hit in the leg with one! Time flew as it always does and it was time to leave this amazing city for 5 days of relaxation in the German countryside with an old friend, Thomas. I took an overnight bus to Hamburg where Thomas met me and bought me out to his family's house in Ferden, about an hour outside of Hamburg. There we relaxed, ate delicious German food, drank delicious German beer, and caught up on the last couple years of our lives. Overall, a two week vacation spent unwinding form the stresses of living in a foreign country, speaking a foreign language, and being a teacher - one of the hardest jobs in the world!



I returned to Moldova refreshed, recharged, and ready to resume the hard work. January and February passed with a full schedule of lessons at school and the local community center, sports games with the kids, and preparing for the "odyssey of the mind" competition in mid February. We met the national competition of Odyssey of the Mind with success, with one team placing 3rd and one team placing 1st. The first place team was invited to the international competition "Eurofest" in Belarus in April, and I was invited to come along. This was right around the time that I was seeing $30 tickets to Italy, and planned an Easter vacation. Looked like April was going to be a busy month. March passed full of conferences, seminars, and a production of Cinderella at the Primary School in Honor of foreign languages week. I helped find and translate the music and script, and drew the cute little animals that the kids are wearing on their heads! So, we've arrived in early April, spring break, and Italy! I have to say that after this trip it's pretty clear to me that I have Italian ancestry. I was in heaven in Italy! The food! The wine! The GELATTO! A week to explore Venice, Florence, and Rome with tow of my favorite PCV's - does life get any better? I think not. We saw everything that someone sees when they go to Italy, the maze of the streets of venice, the David, the Domo, the Tuscan countryside, museums, the Vatican, ancient Rome, the Coliseum, trevi fountain, spanish steps, and even made it out to the beach one day! After 10 days and about that many pounds added to my waistline, we were back in Moldova rushing to complete the preparations for the next trip - Eurofest in Bearus one week later! After several trips to the embassy, I finally received my visa and hopped on board a 3 day bus ride with 50 other Moldovan students, teachers, and 3 other pcv's. Not the funnest bus ride ever, but seriously one of the best things I've had the opportunity to do as a PCV. Kids from 16 countries ranging from Germany to India and Kazakhstan gathered for a week of collaboration, cultural exchange, and of course competition. We were paired up with a group of kids from Russia, and another from Poland, and given a creative thinking problem to represent with an 8 minute skit in 3 days. The days were filled with hard work, and trying to translate between 4 different languages. I don't think I could have found a better example of why my students need to learn English if I tried! We managed, and luckily our team was full of a number of perfectionists including myself and the other coaches who wouldn't stop until we got the best results. We filled the nights with talent competitions, discos, international market place, and other fun activities, but the days were all business! The last day arrived at last and it was time to present our problem. not having seen any of the other performances, I had no idea how we stacked up, and I honestly couldn't judge the judges reaction. They seemed really pleased, but who knows? That night we all gathered for the closing ceremony where the winnners were to be announced. We sat feeling our hearts drop as they announced the 3rd and 2nd place winners, feeling our victory slipping away. I honestly couldn't believe my ears when they announced us as the 1st place winners! I jumped up, screamed, and wrapped my arms around my partner, Doamna Rodika. We went on stage to accept our awards and I can honestly say I have never felt so gratified in my life. These kids worked so hard and it's they never get to see any positive results from the hard work they do. They felt like superstars in that moment, and to so many people they really were! We returned back home to be met by the community like celebrities, the news station and paper waiting for interviews, and everyone in the community congratulating us. GO GIM JUNIOR!!!! Here's hoping that next year we make it all the way to world fest! So, May came in with a bang, but no time to rest as we planned a field trip to the ancient ruins in the city of Orhei with the 3rd grade. I never knew it was possible to pack so much into one day, but we did! 7am driving to the capital to go to the history museum, early matinee of "The Princess and the Frog" (In Russian of course), picnic by the lake, exploring the caves and monasteries of the ancient ruins, a stop at the village of a famous Moldovan author, the amusement park in the capital, and dinner at McDonald's bought us back home at midnight! What an awesomely exhausting day! Next cam time to begin preparations for another volunteer project in the school community. I wish I could say that I could take credit for this idea, but I am so proud to say that I didn't. I was lucky enough to help the student body fund raise to gather clothes and funds to make a donation to a local orphanage. We held a lottery, clothes drive, and the school theatre troupe went around town performing their show to raise money to get us to the orphanage in Hincesti. Altogether we raised about $300 and several boxes of clothes - a truly amazing feat! I accompanied the theatre group and volunteers responsible for organizing the trip to Hincesti, where our theatre troupe put on an amazing performance titled "O zi in orasul florilor" or a day in the city of flowers, for an excited audience of about 100 disable orphans. We also donated clothes, and each participant received a bag full of sweets and goodies. I was honestly moved to tears when I saw the excitement on those kids faces. It made their whole week, and maybe even year! For me, this was such a special bonding experience with my students and fellow teachers alike, one which I will never forget! Now we have arrived at June, and the end of the school year. I felt that I had really come full circle standing up in front of a school full of students on the last day of school, who 8 months earlier I viewed as strangers. I was treated just like a true Moldovan teacher and soon my arms were full of flowers, my cheeks covered with kisses, and my ears ringing with words of thanks and well wishes from my students. It was such a satisfying feeling to reflect back on the progress we had made together as a community in the past school year, and mostly to know that vacation was beginning! This is one time when it becomes clear what the benefits of being a teacher are! So, I took a week off, relaxed, had picnics with my students, picked cherries from Olga's garden to make pies, and really just enjoyed not going to work! Unfortunately, that week flew by and was followed by 3 straight weeks of chaos! Beginning with the arrival of 70 new PCV's in Moldova, a trip to the beach in the Ukraine for my birthday, summer camps, and PC trainings.....oh boy! 13 of my closest friend in Moldova took off for a few days in Odessa, probably the closest beach town to us on the Ukrainian black sea. We indulged ourselves with Mojitos, sushi, Mexican food, and margaritas - not something we do everyday in Moldova! I swam in the Sea everyday for hours, lay in the hot sun, bought a beautiful new dress, and got a pedicure. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the beginning of my 29th year in this world. We returned to Moldova where I had to fit in a summer camp before preparing for the 9th and 12th form "Balls" which is like a mix between American graduations and prom and goes until 4am! The following week was spent out in the region where all the new volunteers are living, facilitating sessions preparing them for the jobs here in Moldova and working with a summer camp in the capital city preparing students from all over the former soviet union who will be going to spend a year studying in American high schools. Believe it or not, through all of this madness I found time to meet a boyfriend! His name is Petru and he is probably the nicest Moldovan I have ever met. He speaks English along with 4 other languages, is super smart, and most of all makes me happy. More details on that to come! This past weekend about 400 Americans and Moldovans celebrated the 4th at a local country club, and it was awesome! Hotdogs, hamburgers, and real potato salad! Lots of fun games - I liboed, got trampled in tug of war, and danced my butt off to some old school rock and roll! Lot's of great people from PC, the US Embassy, NGO's, and Moldovan's who have been working with Americans both in the States and here in Moldova. I met so many great people and had an awesome day! This week has been pretty quite with no summer camps to work on. I just finished writing a grant for a project at my school last week and am waiting for DC to approve it before it can get up on Peace Corps website. I will be sending you all details on that and asking for your donations - don't worry! Now I think I'm going to hang my laundry out to dry and go for a run. I hope I didn't bore ya'll too much. It seems like I've talked a lot more about what I've been doing outside of Moldova - ooops! Don't get me wrong, I could talk all day about what life is like in Moldova, but after 4 pages I'm gonna save that for next time, or maybe even tell you in person in a couple of weeks. All I'll say is, what can I say? This country is my home away from home, and I am loving every second of every minute of every hour of every day. It truly is more than I ever imagined it could be and by far the best experience of my life so far! Mi-e dor, si va iubesc mai multt decat stiu cum sa spun in orice limba! Noroc si senatate!