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.

Currently #8

Currently...

Reading the entire Peace Corps library. Okay, not the whole library - it's too big. But I've just picked up a new stack to keep me busy, and I'm almost done with my first one, Ten From Infinity (but of course I'm reading at least 4 books right now because go big or go home, right?). I actually can't wait to get back to my house so I can finish the last 30 pages or so and learn the fate of the androids (there were 10 of them, and they came from infinity.. aka outer space, aka the characters in the book have no idea about anything). 

Writing in my journal - lists and thoughts and dreams I had the other night that were so perfectly analyzed by my PCV bunica. How could I survive without my journal? Answer is, I couldn't.

Listening to Ellie Goulding lately. Though, right now I'm listening to Alexandra work quietly next to me. Thursdays in the Primaria aren't much of a thrill ride (as opposed to Mondays, which are CRAZY). Occasionally she'll tell me a story, though! Today she told me about what her son does in Texas, and that through his work, he just saw my host brother, who lives in Texas also!

Thinking about how amazing it is that I've been in Moldova for 300 days now (302, to be exact, because this post took me too long to write). On Saturday, it will have been 10 months exactly. How close is that to a year? Hint: very. I cannot fathom how that could possibly be true. Didn't I just get here?

Smelling spring! Or is that mud...? 

Wishing for more spring. And hopefully good weather this weekend, because I have friends coming to visit my village! We're about to increase the Americans in this place by 200%. Assuming I can do math correctly. They don't have long in the village because of our great, frequent bus schedule, but I think we can cover all the highlights in a few hours. (It's quite small.) 

Hoping I don't have a heart attack and die when I try to run jog/walk in the Chisinau 10K that I just signed up for. I think it was an April Fool's lack of judgment on my part - my brain fooling me into thinking registering would be a good idea.. (Or was it peer pressure? Or a combination of the two? At least if it was peer pressure, I'll have good company while I struggle.) Because the last time I ran anywhere it was because a dog was literally chasing me (thanks, Moldova) so my ability to do this is questionable. I'm good at walking though, so if I just stick with that, I'll do great.

Wearing my favorite horse sweater over a dress and bright orange tights because I think it's autumn, apparently.

Loving my walk to work this morning, even through the mud, because on my way I saw a group of little boys, one of whom I recognized from the Pregatitoare class at the kindergarten (he's one of my favorites, too!). One said good morning to me, and I passed them (little boys dawdle, whereas I of course do not), and then I heard a tiny voice shout, "Okay!" I tend to say "okay" a lot, which I didn't think was that weird because I hear Moldovans say it too, but it's possible I say it TOO much.. So for the next few minutes (until I got far enough away) we just said "Okay!" back and forth to each other - he thought it was hilarious. 

Wanting to sneak our new puppies, Buzz and Woody, into the house to snuggle them. If only, if only. 

Needing a nap. Turns out it's exhausting to get up around 4 in the morning, travel ~3 hours, walk around Chisinau all day in heels (my fault, obviously), then travel ~3 hours back to site in one day. (What?? The title of this blog has the word "whining" in it - you should expect some of it.) Plus side, I got to see the sun rise while on the bus and it was OFF THE CHARTS beautiful.. Totally worth seeing the clock at 4:00. And I got to have a lovely coffee date and bonding time with "o Moldoveanca frumoasa."

Feeling excited about our park renovation project! Remember that time we applied for a grant and didn't get it? Yeah, me too. But then we went to a project design workshop and learned how to make our project better. We worked really hard for almost all of February rewriting and making sure everything was perfect and then submitted an application for a Peace Corps small grant. After returning from Italy, my partner and I went to Chisinau to present our project before the committee, and last week we heard the good news - our grant was approved! So we will be renovating a park this spring/summer and it's going to be awesome. 

Clicking this article about How Smiling Changes Your Brain and this #100happydays challenge I'm participating in - today will be day 11! (You can find my 100 days on Instagram by checking out the sidebar or by following me.) Read about it and join me and we'll change our brains by smiling for #100happydays! Or something like that.

Roman Holiday

Sometimes you go somewhere or you meet someone or something happens that makes you think, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be (or who I'm supposed to meet, or what was supposed to happen). Sometimes all of that happens at the same time. 

Maybe you're thinking, okay but what are you talking about? I read the title of this post, aren't you just going to recap your trip to Italy with your friends? I can do that, if you'd like. But this trip turned out to be more than just going to the Colosseum 14 times (that's not even MUCH of an exaggeration; it was at least 7), or eating 5 scoops of gelato in 2 hours, or getting fast food lasagna (yeah, that's a thing), or having a different unofficial tour guide for each day (I was even one of them - how do you like me now, Goolsby). I guess maybe I'll get to that.

I went to Italy with two of my favorite PCVs. 

Was it part of my plan? No. 
When it came up in conversation, did I even think the invitation was serious? No. 
When it turned out to be serious, did I immediately think, wow this is the greatest idea you've ever had? No. 
Was it the greatest idea? Absolutely. 

I feel myself getting into soul-searching territory again, sorry. I'll get back to the narrative. 

We spent the first night in Rome, which ended up with us crashing a girl's 21st birthday party bus. Yeah, you read that right. Bartender on the bus, lots of woo girls, strobe lights, spring breakers (way to make us feel old, guys, because guess what, we aren't) and a few stops at different places in the city. That brought us to our first Colosseum stop, which was pretty much the main reason the party bus was worth going on. It was awesome to see at night. 

The night day we took a train to Naples. We spent two days there, walking around, taking Giovanni's suggestions, visiting churches, wandering around underground (maybe wandering is misleading.. There was a tour guide), drinking coffee and eating gelato and pizza, reading on the terrace of our third floor hostel, getting slightly lost, visiting the beautiful sea, making our own dinner (with lettuce! LETTUCE), and relaxing at night with about 18 decks of cards (none of which had the necessary 52) and our journals. 

We returned to Rome on Saturday and met some friends one of us knew from studying abroad. They took us around to different places and knew all about them, which was great! They unknowingly brought us to places on our list that we would not have been able to find on our own but that we were quite glad to get to see, and places that weren't on our list that were cool! They were very sweet and it was nice to meet them. We went back to the hostel and met our roommate, a sweetheart from Argentina who was our age and on his first trip out of the country. We went out for a drink with him and got to know him a little bit, and then he returned to the room and we stayed out a little later at the hostel bar, where we met some other cool people. That's when we got to cross "dancing" off our list, among other things. 

We went to the Pantheon the next day, and spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how to properly describe it, knowing the perfect word existed, but not finding it. Putting that thought on hold, we met up with some of the people from the night before who gave us another tour, also great. Everyone you meet knows different things. That's super simple; somebody knows one fact about the Colosseum (yeah, we're at trip #3 now I think) and another person knows another one.. But on a larger scale, doesn't everybody you meet have something new to teach you? That must be some quote that already exists. (If you read my blogs for my constant eloquence, you may as well quit now.) Later the three of us met up with our roommate again, and taught him very important things, like the word "cumbersome" and how to play beer pong.

Monday we had a great day with our roommate, despite the rain. We went to Vatican City, but rain + super long lines meant we didn't end up going in. Instead we wandered around to other places (the Pantheon again, a gelato place with 150+ flavors, etc.). During the afternoon, the girls had journal time while the boys napped, and we met up again to have Mexican and walk around the city at night. We visited St. Peter's again without crowds and with all the lights on, and it was beautiful. We got a tip from one of the study abroad friends that the Colosseum was lit up with green for St. Patrick's Day, so we went there again, and that was amazing, too. It was one of the best nights (well, one of the best full days, really) that I've had in a really long time. That word we were trying to describe the Pantheon with? Our roommate, not knowing that we were trying to do so, independently tried to explain it in Spanish, and came up with exactly the word we needed. We decided that it's better in Spanish, so now we all use the word imponente. If that's not fate, I don't know what is. How could we possibly be all looking for the same thing, and then meet each other and help each other find it? Again, that's simple, just one word.. But think about that concept being even more than that. 

On our last full day, our roommate had left and the three of us spent the day solo. I did things I had skipped so far on this trip and my last trip to Rome (Audrey's Mouth of Truth, to be specific), and after getting lost and found again, sat in front of the Pantheon with wine, a huge cheese plate, and my journal. Later we met up again with various friends and there was more pasta, drinks, and dancing. The next morning we split up again and I went back to a church we'd visited a few days ago, where I got to do a little more soul-searching that I won't talk about here. Eventually it was time to return to Moldova, and it was strange, because I was both sad to leave Italy but happy to return to Moldova. It's not always easy to return to site after time away, but for the first time, not only was I not dreading it, but I was happy about it, too. 

I guess after writing the recap, I find that I don't want to go into anything super existential or anything. Here's what I will say: I remember the first time I went to Rome and what an impact it had on me, and I didn't think the same city and the same sites could do that again, but it did, even more so. I learned more about my friends and I can tell you my favorite things about each one of them. We got to have conversations in multiple languages at a time and that's how we understood better, not worse (I can't imagine now what people do if they only know one, and I'm not even saying I know two, but I know a little bit of many). How often do you get to meet people and feel like you were meant to meet them, meant to be there at that moment with those people? I have a new outlook on life, love, and the future, and I don't know what it all means, or if I'll even figure it all out.. But I'm excited to try. Essentially, I'm just really glad I went on this trip with these friends and had all these adventures. Whatever happens after this.. Well, we'll just see. 

One slight addition: I just saw on the "Humans of Chisinau" Facebook page this quote by a woman (which I think is better in Romanian so I'll put that and their  English translation): 

"Întâlnim diferite fenomene, oameni, pentru care trăim anumite stări şi care ulterior se transformă într-o eleganţă a cuvintelor, care se numeşte poezie.

**
We encounter different phenomena, people, towards which arouse certain feelings in us, feelings which often create a certain elegance of words called poetry."

If that doesn't perfectly describe life, I don't know what does.

The Penguin Dance

Are you ready, are you ready?!! 

Well wait a second. 

In case you aren't caught up, the mayor asked me to teach a dance to the kindergartners for their International Women's Day program. Each class had one, but they gave me the oldest class (6 and 7 years old) to teach. They wanted it to be American, but they don't speak English, so I had to do something simple that I could translate and teach. I learned the penguin dance in college and since then have taught it to adults and kids at camp. It's simple and I figured I could easily translate it, which I did. Then I taught it to the class, and today was the big day! 

I wasn't there for practice yesterday but they apparently practiced it without me.. But I didn't know how it was going to go, and everyone's mother was there (it's a Women's Day program but that essentially means it's like a Mother's Day thing - every other poem/song was about how beautiful their mothers are) and everyone was dressed up all fancy, so I was kind of nervous, even though I wasn't even on stage doing it. 

I thought I knew when in the program it was, but it turns out I didn't, so I was always nervous at the wrong times. There were cute skits, dances, songs, poetry.. Then they said, "Acum, pinguinii!" so I went up to "direct" AKA, make sure they didn't mess up. 

I'll just let you watch it now. 





It's even more precious in tiny prom/wedding dresses, right?!! 

It was foarte successful and I'm so proud of them!! The moms even got me a flower and after the kids ate lunch, the moms and I drank beer and ate pretzels while the kids played.. So that was interesting. I mean, I should have expected it, but for some reason I didn't. 

Enjoy some pictures!

The (Little) Village People

So let me tell you about my kids. 

No, I haven't birthed any, although I have been here for 9 months now (if you read this on March 4). And I'm not a teacher, either. I don't even have any host siblings at site. But I want to talk about my kindergartners! 

I spend at least one day a week at the kindergarten/nursery school, so I'm obviously obsessed with some of these kids. Today we worked on our penguin dance for the International Women's Day program on Thursday, and I helped them with math and we got to play a little bit. I spend most of my time with the "Pregatitoare" (preparatory) class, so they're 6 and 7 years old, but my host mom is in charge of the "Ghiocelul" class, the 2- and 3-year-olds (Ghiocelul means "the snowdrop" so that's adorable). I have some favorites in there, too. 

There's a little troublemaker who is secretly adorable, and who passed me on the street once with his mom and told her who I was.

There's a boy who, before I learned his name, could only be described by smiling as big as possible, because that's what he always does. 

There are two cousins in the Ghiocelul class together who are always so sweet to each other!

There's a girl who asked me how old I was and when I told her, her eyes got big and she said, "You're so big! But also beautiful." 

There's a boy who seems to always wear sweatsuits, which are super cute on a 6-year-old.

There's the perfectionist, who has a special "poetry voice" and makes sure all of her crafts exactly match the example. 

There's the boy that got the whole class excited about the penguin dance as soon as he learned the part that goes, "Penguins, ATTENTION!" He seems tough but he'll cry at the drop of a hat. 

There's the girl who can't speak and might not be able to hear, but she sure loves to give hugs. 

There's the tiniest boy that has the best memory for poetry.

There's the girl that probably wants to talk to me but isn't as brave as the others.. But I can tell, and one day it's going to happen. 

There's the girl who carries the rest of the class when we do the penguin dance - she happens to be front and center and thank goodness, because she is awesome at it. 

And then there's the whole class who just wants to hug me after everything we do! I can't spend all day with them because they are 6 and I'm not, but.. The few hours are so precious, because they are just adorable. They want to know my parents' names and why I'm not wearing earrings like last time (guys, it's because I'm lazy sometimes) and how I got to the village from America (by plane, I said.. not fully accurate, but they were impressed).. 

I'm so excited for us to do the penguin dance for all the moms on Thursday! It will definitely be recorded so everyone can see the wonder that is the penguin dance in Romanian - this may turn out to be my greatest accomplishment so far.

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!

Good Things

Let's recap: over the weekend we went through one of many mental breakdowns (why do they happen on the bus so much? That wasn't the first time I'd gone back to site crying on a rutiera). We were hopeful that things would improve, and I'm here to tell you that they did. I don't know how I've suddenly become a "we" - maybe things didn't get better and now I have multiple personalities...? No, that's probably not it. Anyway. We'll just go through the days of this week.

Monday's Good Things: 

• I started a new to-do list system, which involves filling one bright colored post-it with things I want to accomplish for the day - no more than fits on that one page (which has 15 lines, so I can only hope to do 15 things - 16 if I use the skinnier, bottom line). This week I've been writing them when I get to work in the morning, and they've been super helpful (plus, they make my planner bright and colorful!). 
• The librarian (I think she's the librarian; our library moved so the librarians switched.. now we have multiple libraries and librarians - I don't know, it's confusing) came in to my office and asked what my name was, and then said, "Catea, I invite you to the opening of the library today at 1:00." I've possibly mentioned working with the library, but I have been waiting for the Novateca computers and equipment to be delivered, as I'm hoping to be able to teach some computer skills classes there. They were delivered! So Monday was the "Grand Opening."
• I went to the opening and since I got there at 1:00, I was early, so I talked to the mayor's wife (also a librarian, for the school library) for a bit about reading contests and Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain (unfortunately, as I have not read Mark Twain, I couldn't contribute too much) and other interesting stuff.
• At the opening, we had cute kids in costume, guests from the Raion Council, speeches, poetry, dancing, and even a woman with a display of her handicrafts. At the end the librarian suddenly realized she hadn't let me say anything, so she quickly said, "Oh! And we have our volunteer from Peace Corps! Would you like to say a few words?" I, um.. Politely declined. I thought that might happen, but even thinking it, I still didn't quite know what to say, so I just didn't. 
• After all this, we went to the OLD library location for wine and food - which was excellent, as I hadn't had time for lunch.. and as I love wine. There was some vodka, too, because that's what a bunch of women who just opened a library need in their lives. 

Tuesday's Good Things:

• Tuesdays are my gradinita days, which means I go to the kindergarten and do things. I assumed I would be teaching computer skills again, but no one had time for that, so they sent me to the "Pregatitoare" class. This is a drastic contrast from my host mom's class - she has the 2-3 year olds, and I love them, but not for any extended length of time. The Pregatitoare class is the 6-7 year olds who will start at the big kid school in the fall, so they can talk to me and they're okay at crafts.. Aaaaand they love me, so it's a good time. 
• We made whale pictures out of different kinds of seeds/beans, and then the teacher said, okay are you ready to teach them your dance? So the room was cleaned up while I freaked out about whether or not my translation of my song was correct. 
• For some background, International Women's Day is March 8. It's super important here and there will obviously be a program with songs, dances, poetry, gifts for mothers.. All of that. Someone had the bright idea that I would teach the class an American thing, and it was never really clear what exactly they wanted, so I just decided. It's going to be totally different than the rest of their program, but in my defense, I have to teach it in Romanian and well.. Americans are weird, right? Let's go with that.
• I learned the penguin dance as an adult, but since then, I just keep teaching it to children. It's adorable and it reminds me of my sorority sisters, it's easy, and kids love it. So I translated it into Romanian and then suddenly on Tuesday, I've got two dozen kids looking at me and I have to teach it to them. It started out a little rough, but when we got to "Penguins, attention!" (Pinguinii, atentie!) the little boys got really into that. We did it a few times and they were adorable, and then when they realized we were done, they all swarmed me with a giant group hug - it was THE GREATEST. It's gonna be a hot mess when we actually perform it for the moms, but it will definitely amuse.
• As I left after lunch, I told my host mom I wanted to make pancakes, and she said, okay, I'll be home at six, you're making dinner - or something to that effect. She was definitely home before six and definitely made her own dinner, but she let me make my pancakes and didn't tell me how to do it or micromanage me.. And she and her husband even tried the pancakes and liked them! She wants me to write down the recipe for her, but really I think it's the syrup that they liked, which I had found in Chisinau over the weekend. My measuring spoons were at Kelsey's house, but I improvised with soup spoons and tea spoons and everything tasted great! It's always an accomplishment when they let the American into the kitchen, and since it was Fat Tuesday, I needed pancakes, so we had them!

They kept getting bigger.....

Wednesday's Good Things:

• Well, Wednesday was mostly great because I got so much work done. My to-do list was full - 15 things, some of them kind of big.. And I did every. single. one. It's the most accomplished I've felt in a while. I have a lot of things due at the end of the month - a grant application that is super involved and multilingual and exhausting, and our VRF (Volunteer Reporting Form) for the cool dudes in DC who want to know all about what we're doing. 
• On my way home after work, I passed by my friend's house, who I haven't been to see in much too long, and his mom was outside and made me come in for lunch! There was SO MUCH FOOD because it was the other son's birthday, so I didn't see him, but I'm glad he was born however many years ago because I had a great lunch. I just love this kid and his mom! He's precious and we have stuff in common and our conversations are just the greatest combination of Romanian and English - we switch back and forth probably without even realizing what we're doing. After eating we sat and watched TV for a while while we talked, and then I went home to get some more work done. It was a good afternoon.
• Nina invited me to her birthday, so I get to go back to Magdacesti and see my PST host family again!! SO EXCITING!
• We realized group chats are just better for everything in life, and we've got train tickets booked from Roma to Napoli! (Oh yeah, did I mention we're going to Italia? WELL WE ARE.) 
• Aaaaand I rewarded myself for all my hard work of the day with The Bachelor! My only mistake was not having a glass of wine while I did it. 

So it turns out things are not too bad at the moment. I mean, just look at that blue sky. What more could you ask for? (Well, okay, maybe Dunkin' Donuts or some hot light Krispy Kreme.. with some Sheetz iced coffee..) If you're wondering about the latest count, it's now been 260 days in Moldova, and this is where we are.