Maratonul de Craciun

Merry Christmas from Moldova!

My Christmas was far from Christmassy, but that doesn't mean I didn't do a bunch of Christmassy things leading up to it! More Hallmark Christmas movies than I can count, a sparkling tree, hot wine with Christmas music, and dressing up like Santa Claus to lead my team of reindeer down the streets of Chisinau. 

It's a good thing I've watched Rudolph 147 times, because it helped me keep my reindeer in line (just kidding, that was impossible - it did help us designate names for everyone though). There was a Christmas fun run in the capital that a bunch of PCVs decided to participate in (I say participate rather than run because our sleigh team didn't do a TON of actual running.. Why run when you can prance?!), and 10 of us dressed up as Santa and his reindeer. 

Don't think we've gone crazy or anything, because it was truly a costume run. While we may not have crossed the finish line even close to first, we definitely won first prize for team spirit, holiday spirit, most creative costumes, loudest caroling, most adorable, most fun, best team ever.. I'm sure I'm forgetting something! 

We got fun little gifts along the way, a covrigi medal, diploma to prove our achievements.. There was a lot of dancing, including the hora with all the other costumed participants, a lot of picture taking, and a lot of prancing! And of course, rewards afterwards in the form of brunch and beer. 

The reindeer were adorable with antlers, red lips, and holiday spirit! Santa rocked an '80s onesie, and Rudolph had her red nose to light the way for us all. Blitzen and Comet kept playing reindeer games, Dasher carried us through the 12 Days of Christmas singalong, and Vixen was the snuggliest of all! Oh, yeah, and we were tied together with twine, like a real sleigh team who loves each other so much they never want to be separated! And apart from a few wardrobe malfunctions, we never were. This added challenge really tested our endurance and friendship, and I'm happy to say that both held up. Because we're amazing. No one can say that we didn't win the day. 

Enjoy a million pictures! And here's a link to a news video with an appearance by our very own Rudolph the Red-Nosed PCV. 

Now dash away, dash away, dash away all! 

Wining & Wining

I've been doing my share of whining lately (I always do), but it's been far less than my wining, because it's WINE season in Moldova! I know you might think that every season in Moldova is wine season, and I can't say that you'd be wrong, exactly.. But the beginning of autumn is decidedly more of a wine season than the rest of the year. (My host mom has informed me that they made more wine this year, so they'll definitely have it until I leave.. Apparently they ran out a lot earlier than normal this year, so.. Oops.)

The start of the parade!

Traditionally, National Wine Day is held the first weekend in October in Chisinau. The wineries come and set up booths, there's food and music and dancing.. Kind of like a tiny Oktoberfest, but in Moldova, and for wine. Lately though, Moldova has been having a tough time politically. There has been protesting going on for a while in the main square (really throughout the country), so this year the Wine Day celebrations were cancelled in Chisinau and held other places instead. Individual wineries hosted events, for example. While I didn't participate in any of those, I knew that there was a Wine Day in my raion center that same weekend, and I had planned already to go with my village. 

Villagers and PC friends at our booth

After the "wine weekend" last year, everyone at work asked me why I didn't come to the Stefan Voda Wine Day - where was I, what had I been doing?! Well, guys, you sort of forgot to tell me it was a thing, soooo.. That's why I wasn't there. But this year I knew it was a thing, so I got to go with the mayor and some ladies from the gradinita to the raion center. 

Our delicious spread, which I wish I'd eaten more of..

Another village's super cool display

We dressed in traditional costume and set up a booth for our village - most of the villages in the raion were there with booths, some with elaborate setups of crafts and food and wine. It was like every village brought out their fanciest things to display, including mine! Some of them were really cool, and there were other displays out too - art exhibitions, a display from the best metalworker in the raion (who just so happened to make the fence for my park - I could tell it was the same work so I introduced myself, and of course he already knew who I was), a setup from Et Cetera (the cutest winery in the raion), and people making and selling food.  

We're in the parade! It wasn't led by even ONE trombone.. But there were many accordions.

Once we were dressed and the tables mostly set up, we suddenly had to rush over to the main road. The women were practicing a song and asked if I would sing with them. I mean, sure, but I don't know the words, and you seem to have them memorized.. But I'll stand there and look pretty if you want. We didn't end up having to sing, but we did find ourselves the correct spot in the village parade, which was starting without us, because we dawdled a little bit I think. How we found our spot, I don't know.. Though I suspect the villages were lined up alphabetically, it was still pretty confusing. The parade was very short; we walked past the big crowd in the center, cheered for Caplani, and then we were done. Back to the booth! I found my friends and had lunch and wine with them, and eventually got a call from the mayor asking me to bring my friends over to the booth to have a glass of Caplani wine! Then I changed out of my borrowed costume (though not before a quick photoshoot so I could send photos to my mother, which they are always pretty concerned about) and my village left, so I spent the rest of the day with my friends in the raion. It was fun!

Last year I got to spend a long day with my friends picking grapes for wine that I would unfortunately never get to taste, but this year I didn't have the opportunity to do any grape-picking. I thought that was kind of unfortunate, so I figured maybe I could ask the mayor if I could join him one day while he was working on his wine - his wife is known in the village for making very good wine. I've been at masas where I try to leave, only to be informed that I've only tried Ana's wine from x year, and I need to also try it from y year (and maybe even from z year? It's all a blur). 

Once the mayor knew I wanted to learn how to make wine, I think he got pretty excited. He seems to really love when I participate in things, which I find curious because I can't imagine not participating in community events and traditions and such. But he's always very happy to share things with me. He loves taking my picture so that I have a record of my time here, which I think is sometimes just adorably silly, but which I'm also pretty thankful for.. There's only so much you can show in a selfie, but when you essentially live alone, there aren't too many opportunities to have your picture taken in this place where you're living for two whole years. So it's nice to have some photos of me in my village, thanks to the mayor. And on this particular day when I went with him to make wine, he did not disappoint on this front. I now have over 100 pictures of myself making wine - he appointed himself the photographer for the afternoon and took his job very seriously. 

One day soon after the Wine Day, I talked to the mayor at work and he asked if I wanted to learn to make wine with him at his brother's house. I think I probably said something like, "OBVIOUSLY!" So he picked me up at my house after lunch and we went over to his brother's house - coincidentally, it's right next to his. (Sorry, Hannie, but I don't think I plan to move in right next to you in the future.) I was actually confused when we arrived and thought I'd misunderstood about where we were going, but we walked through the "backyard" and were suddenly at Misha's house.

I don't know what I thought would happen, but it definitely wasn't what happened. I guess I assumed they would be at some point in the process, and they'd explain what they'd done prior and what they would be doing after. I didn't think they would be midway through every single step and that I'd get to try them all! But I did! I had barely greeted Misha when the mayor asked for my camera to start snapping, and immediately I was turning a crank to grind grapes while smiling for the camera. They were almost done with that, so we quickly moved to the next step, which involved handing me a caveman club so I could beat the grapes that were in a barrel. I was not very adept at this step, but Misha kept adding grapes and I kept attempting to squash them. At some point he decided there were enough in there, so he put a top on the barrel, weighed it down with a bunch of stuff, and added a handle, which I had to turn to squish the grapes more so that juice would come out. Eventually a longer handle was added so I could just walk around and around the barrel - this part was the most fun, I think. 

Wine (or the beginnings of it) started pouring out into a container below the barrel, which we took in buckets to the REALLY big barrels in the garage area and poured it in, where it would ferment for 40 days. Luckily, they already had some fermenting (I told you they were midway through every step!), so I got to fill a jug from one of the barrels and we sat down to drink and eat - the mayor, his brother, their wives, and me. The mayor's wife thought the whole process was pretty hilarious, especially, I think, because the men would explain something really quickly, I would take a minute to understand so I'd look confused (I clearly need to add feedback to language learning - need more wine-making vocabulary), and then I'd attempt to do it while the mayor shouted directions - not about the wine, but about posing for the camera. So she laughed and laughed and took her own pictures while we were working.

Now we'll interrupt this blog post for a complete documentation of this event. 

The tiny masa afterward was just as fun - it was one of those days where you feel really good about your Romanian so things make sense. I was even able to make everyone laugh with a joke or two (clearly I've MADE IT), and it was just like I was at home for family dinner. Or family wine night. Afternoon. Whatever! They joked about how whenever I went back to America, I needed to stop at the house first to get a bucket of wine to take on the plane, and when I told them how long the trip was, they said, "Oh. You're going to need two buckets."

Both Wine Day and my wine day were really fun, but odd as it feels to say (because of my love for wine and all), I don't think it was at all because of the wine. Both days were time spent with different people in the community that treat me more like family than like a visitor in their village. Last year at this time I was having kind of a hard time, but this year I feel like I'm in the right place, doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm part of the community in a way that I wasn't before, and frankly, didn't expect I ever would be. It's like I belong here, and these people are my neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family. (I'm even getting along GREAT with host mom, so you'll be happy to hear that!) The majority of the majority of my days are happy, and it's got nothing to do with the wine.

Orthodox Easter

Hristos a înviat!

This weekend was filled with food and traditions, as it was Easter in Moldova. 

I left work on Friday around noon - the rest of the office had been cleaning up and painting outside the building, which I'm not sure why I wasn't asked to help with, but if I had known what they were doing, I would have - and was told not to come back until Tuesday. 

What, does Easter really take that long? Oh yes, it does.

My host mom started cooking on Friday.

On Saturday, we cleaned the entire house. (Maybe we just cleaned my room and the entryway and it just seemed like it took forever..) We took out the carpet and vacuumed and "mopped" the floors (mopping here meaning bending over with a rag and a bucket of soapy water - they could be on the next "real people" Swiffer commercial, I swear), and I reorganized everything while dusting it all off. It was a beautiful day and the sun made it more bearable to be cleaning for hours.

Later that day I was called downstairs to find my host mom making Блинчики (which sounds to me like blinch-ki and which I used to call clatite until I got to my village where they prefer the Russian). I was excited because A. I love those, and B. I know how to "make them." I have never made the crepe part, which admittedly is kind of the whole thing, but I've watched it enough that I'm sure I could, if given the recipe. I helped her with cooling and stacking the crepes and she told me I could fill them with fruit later. Which I did! I filled them with strawberries and cherries. She made cream to put on top of them, but that didn't really end up working so well, so next time we're going to melt ice cream to put on top (WHAAAAAT) - next time being this upcoming weekend, I think!

The "blinchki" process

She made tons of food Friday and Saturday, including boiled eggs that she dyed red.

There was a sunrise service and food blessing at the church way early in the morning, but I have not known her to go to church in 8 months, so we did not attend that. Nevertheless, there was knocking on my door around 9am to eat, which I thought was extraordinarily too early for a Sunday/for a huge meal. Did not matter what I thought, as the table was more full than I've ever seen it, and for only 3 of us. 

Champagne, fruit, blinchki, potato salad, eggs, chocolate cake, racituri, multiple kinds of meat, fish, etc..

She put on a kerchief and we all stood up for the prayer, where she thanked God for the meal and for our health and for a lot of other things. She had said the night before that the first thing we had to do (after the prayer, I assume) was play a game with the eggs, but it didn't end up being the first thing we did, so I hope we're okay with that. 

Pasca, traditional sweet bread for Easter - ours was store-bought but AMAZING

We had a champagne toast and then set to eating more food than I've probably eaten in the last month. We did play the egg game: two people take an egg and hit them together - whoever's egg cracks is going to die first. This is how she explained it to me; I might have gone with "whoever's egg doesn't crack is going to live longer," but, whatever. Then we each had to eat an egg. Oh, and I'm going to die first, which she thought was hilarious. 

We also had to have a jug of wine to symbolize the blood of Jesus. So after the two hour masa, I had to take a nap.

I woke up and ate again, at my host mom's insistence, which was then confusing, because we went to visit one of her friends (and then a second), and obviously they had a table full of food they wanted us to eat, too. I feel as though she sabotaged me, making me eat right before we went to more food and Moldovan women who try to make you eat everything (We can't NOT eat another Easter egg, because it's Easter!). I also think she might know some egg secrets because she won that game again with another person.. Proof that she'll outlive us all.. 

We stayed out much later than I would have liked, and I met a CHARMER who toasted to me: "La mulți ani, la mulți bani, și un moldovan!" (To many years, much money, and a Moldovan man.) Then he drunkenly, regrettably said that he would like to be that man, were it not for his wife sitting right next to him, who he loves very much. I don't know if everyone ignored just this or if they ignored him the whole time, but he would not be ignored by me. 

In the village, when I walk down the road, I greet people with "Good morning!" or "Good day!" depending on what time it is. After Easter, for the next 40 days, I will not say that. Before Easter, I was told that I would have to remember two new phrases - a greeting and a reply. I thought, oh no, I can never do that! Turns out that once I knew what I was supposed to say, it was easy to remember. Instead of my usual greeting, I must say "Hristos a înviat!" and if I don't get to the person first and they say that to me, my reply is "Adevărat, a înviat!" These mean, "Christ has risen!" and in response, "Truly, He has risen!" As we walked down to visit my host mom's friends, families were out on the roads in nice dresses, smiling and greeting each other with Hristos a înviat! and having such a great time with each other. I obviously enjoyed eating tons of good food and drinking champagne at 10am, but watching that was my favorite part of the day. 

We stayed home Monday and we are still eating delicious leftovers on Tuesday. Next weekend is Memorial Easter, so stay tuned for that adventure. 

Adevărat, a înviat.

Dragobete

Tuesday was Dragobete, which I think is a holiday kind of like Valentine's Day. I had planned to go visit Kelsey after work for the Dragobete celebration there, but on my way back to work after lunch, I met some 9th graders. I said hello, but they stopped walking and very politely invited me to their celebration at our school, so of course I said yes. 

I got there shortly after 5:00, because they'd said it started at 5:00, and I didn't know where in the school to go, so I just followed kids going upstairs and found a classroom to go in. There were kids going in and out and getting ready, and they made sure at least one was in there all the time, to babysit me, I suppose. I said I'd just go to where the thing was if they told me where, but they said, No! It's not ready! So I waited, and some teachers showed up to try to hurry them along.. Which didn't work. 

Eventually one of the boys took me downstairs to a cafeteria-like room and I sat down, but not where he wanted me to, so he moved me and left for a second. He came back with a chocolate bar and the cutest handmade notecard from his class. It thanked me for coming and said that they hope the evening's traditions will fill my heart and soul and was basically the cutest thing ever. My favorite part is: "Vă dorim să fiți iubită și să iubiți la nesfîrșit." AKA, We wish that you will be loved and that you'll love forever. HOW CUTE. I almost cried, obviously. 

It was a rather long celebration but it was very cute. There was singing, love poetry, skits, games.. And the night was a competition between couples from the different classes, scored by some of the teachers. 7th grade won, which I supported, because they were adorable. The MCs went around with a microphone at one point asking people what they thought love was, so OBVIOUSLY they asked me, and told me to do it in English.. Which I don't know if anyone understood, but that turned out to be a good thing because I had no idea what to say and probably sounded like a moron.

It was also relatively dark and I didn't have a very good angle, BUT I did take one or two pictures of what I considered highlights: a girl in a wedding dress talking to a boy on a ladder, and my favorite, a competition where girls raced to tie the boys' ties the fastest.

The kids were adorable and I think they had a lot of fun! It was fun to see, too. I didn't stay for the dance afterwards, as it was past 8:00 by then and I'm an old lady, but I imagine that was pretty exciting too. Happy Dragobete!