Fourth of July in Moldova

Today we had a half day at school, so a group of us walked around our town. I took some pictures as we were walking around. I hope you all had a good Fourth of July in the US.

Fourth of July Party

July 3, 2011

Yesterday, I attended a fourth of July party put on by the American Chamber of Commerce Moldova chapter. It was pretty fun. The music was kind of loud, but the food was delicious. I had some chicken wings that were just a tad spicy, a hot dog, and a really well-seasoned hamburger. I could taste the pepper in the hamburger. I also had a soft-serve ice cream that had chocolate sauce on it. The Moldovan food I have been eating is good, but it is very mild. It tends to be seasoned with salt, oil, dill or some combination of the three. The Fourth of July party also had free drinks. They were cold, which is unusual for Moldova.

Nothing else new to report, except that I find out my permanent site on Tuesday. The only thing I know about it so far is that it will be a mixed village where people speak both Russian and Romanian. I am really looking forward to finding out. This coming weekend I will visit my site. I am both nervous and excited about that.

I hope all of you are well and are having a nice holiday weekend.

3 Weeks

6/28/2011-6/29/2011

As of today, I have been in Moldova for three weeks. Much of my Moldovan routine has remained the same. However, there are a few of things worth mentioning. First, I tried Compot. Compot is fruit juice with pieces of the fruit still in it. It is made by boiling the fruit in water and adding sugar. It is good hot or cold.

Weather wise, it has been raining a lot. Basically it has rained for the last week. Usually I don't mind the rain, but here in Moldova when it rains the streets become very muddy.

English Education training is progressing nicely. On Tuesday, we taught a lesson in front of our peers. I chose to teach a lesson for 12th grade about cultural diversity. It went pretty well. For that lesson we had to write a 45 minute lesson plan and teach the lesson in 20 minutes.

Today, I also learned some information about my future site. It will most likely be a village where they speak both Romanian and Russian. The people in charge of placement asked me if I was okay with teaching in a mixed school and village, and I said that I was. I find out my permanent site on July 5th. That is actually really soon. Soon after we find out, I will visit my permanent site for a couple of days.

Also, for the first three weeks we were not allowed to leave our village unless it was for training. Now that the three weeks are basically over, we can stay in Chisinau after training sessions are over and come to Chisinau to shop.

Nothing much else to report. I am looking forward to finding out my site, and am glad that the first peer teaching is behind me.

More Pictures

So, I have pretty much settled in to a routine here. We had some team building activities on Friday, but not much else exciting. I finally have some more pictures to post though. View of the Castle
View near my house
View of Chisinau in the Distance

View of the Graveyard
My School

Hopefully I will have more pictures to post soon

One Week in Moldova

6/15/11: Training Continues

So, I have been in Moldova for a week. I have been super busy so far. We have language class every day from 8:30 until 1pm. Afterwards, we have technical sessions where we learn how to teach English. On Tuesday we observed two demo classes with Moldovan students. One was taught by a Peace Corps volunteer alone. The other was team taught. There was one Moldovan teacher and one Peace Corps volunteer. It was interesting to watch the different teaching styles of the two Peace Corps volunteers. When we returned to our village, we went home. On my way home, I pass a cemetery and a gorgeous view of the countryside. I can see Chisinau in the distance. In between are fields and some bigger houses off in the distance. Hopefully I will post pictures of it soon.

Today, we had language class in Chisinau from 8:30 until 10:00. Afterwards, Peace Corps staff went over expectations and how we will be evaluated. We also had a food and water safety session. There are a lot of things we are supposed to do in order to have clean food and water. After the training, several of us Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) hung out in Chisinau and had a drink. It was nice to relax after such a long day. When I returned home, I ate dinner. Then, I helped pick cherries in the backyard. My family has several cherry trees. They keep some of the cherries for themselves, but I think they sell the majority. I'm sure they probably also preserve some for winter. My host brother climbed up one of the trees, cut one of the branches, and with a hook-type tool, lowered it to the ground. My host sister took it and then the two of us started removing the cherries from the trees. We put the good ones in a bucket and put the bad ones on the ground. It was interesting to see the work that went into harvesting cherries. Overall, today was a tiring but good day.

Walk Around the Village

6/13/2011:

Yesterday, a group of us walked around the village we are staying in. We have language classes and technical sessions there. We stopped at some people's houses and got a sense for what the town looks like. We walked by the cultural center and the Mayor's office. While we were walking around, I worked on drawing a map. Our safety trainer told us to make one of our village. I ended up just basing mine off of Google maps though. It was nice during the day, but at night there was a thunderstorm. My host sister made sure I unplugged my computer and kept the lights off. During the storm, the town lost power. It didn't return until sometime after I left for school today. To the left is a picture from my village.

First Full Day in Moldova

06/09/11: First Impressions of Moldova

Today, training really began. We met up around 9 and then proceeded to go from our training village to Chisinau. We had some more orientation-type talks. Afterwards we had our first language training session. I am learning Russian. I am glad. We spent today’s session learning the alphabet. Russian uses Cyrillic instead of the Roman alphabet. So far, Russian seems like it is a hard language to learn, but I think it will be useful to know after I finish my two years of Peace Corps service. It is funny that I spent all that time learning some Romanian when the language I really should have been learning was Russian. Oh well. I have been able to use the Romanian I used since my host family speaks both. Nothing else is really worth mentioning right now. Tomorrow, I have more language training.