First Bell Has Rung

The first day of school in Moldova is a day to remember. Everyone dresses in their sharpest black and whites. There are many speeches and many flowers handed out. I unfortunately, once again, did not bring my camera. My life does not even exist without my professional photographer cousin Quintin around. I had a teacher friend take some pics so hopefully I can post those soon. I received so many flowers and kisses on the cheeks from students that day, they really know how to make a teacher feel appreciated. Its a good thing considering the fact that teachers here make about a $4.50 a day. I could barely carry all those big red roses home.

I am so happy to have finished my nine weeks of Pre-service Training and to have been officially sworn-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, although I did have some good times during PST. Getting to know my truly hospitable and cool PST host family was so much fun. My host mom Ecaterina turned forty a few days before I turned twenty-six. She ran the small family shop just up the hill from my house and also worked her but off at home, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the fam. Ecaterina can also assemble a Kalashnikov, all the girls learned at her high school, pretty cool huh? My host dad, Mihai, is forty and drives a truck. He drove that same truck in Russia when he was in the military. Mihai was very nice to me and always served me as much wine as i wanted, but I usually could not understand anything he said to me. He would always say something that seemed like it was probably very funny and everyone would laugh and so would I even though I didn't understand the joke, then he'd say, "did you understand?" and I'd say no. He also looks just like Cesar. My host sister Irina is nineteen and is currently attending a University in Chisinau for cosmetology and fashion design. My host bro Tudor is the sweetest fourteen year old boy I have ever met. My host mom and dad were constantly making him run and get this or that from the store or making him do some kind of housework, and he walked around with a constant melt-your-heart smile on his face. When he wasn't doing a chore, he was playing soccer, and i got to play with him a couple times which wore me out completely, he's fast! He even came and played some American football with me and a few other trainees. It was so fun, Tudor scored the first touchdown.

One of my highlights was when I got to go and help my family trim their grape vines in their plot of land about five miles drive from the house. Almost every Moldovan family has some plots of land where they may grow grapes for wine, or other fruits or vegetables, or sunflowers. My fam was big into the wine and went out to the vineyard and worked a few times a month. The day I finally convinced them to just let me go, and not worry about planning for my practice school lessons or study Romanian for one day, I was stoked. It was pretty lame that day, not hard at all, we just trimmed the vines that were too long for a few hours. The grapes were good though, and I told my mom I preferred drinking the wine. She laughed pretty hard at that.

During PST, I got to hang out with a cool young Moldovan family, learn a bit of Romanian, drink some very good (and very strong) house wine and eat a ton of delicious Moldovan cuisine. I also had some long and very informative technical sessions on teaching English, but I have to admit, that wasn't my favorite part. I personally preferred my chance at practicing the actual teaching of a Moldovan class during our three weeks of practice school. The drawn out lesson plans we had to write were not fun, but I absolutely love working with Moldovan kids.

I also made some great PC volunteer friends, who I think of as my family while here in Moldova. Its nice to have such great people you know you can count on. We can help each other out as we all face the ups and downs of our Peace Corps service together, so far away from our hometowns, friends and families.

All and all, my time here has been pretty amazing and I have only just begun my service.

Anyway... I'm gonna see about how to post some pictures now.