Time to Pick the Grapes and Make the Wine

Me and my host bro after a hard days work. Ok, not that hard, this was actually a short day for them, but it was just enough for me.

That's some beautiful Moldovan landscape there. My host mom on the right. Love her!

My awesome neighbor Nastea with the basket of grapes we were gonna take home to eat. The other thirty huge bags we picked were already on a truck headed home to be made into wine.

Host bro, displaying the gorgeous apples I eat everyday.

Look at all this cabbage. Yes! Now thats good eatin'. Right in my backyard.

There's a glare, but I'm holding a giant pear. Soooo good.

An abundance of giant pears.

These are filled with only a small fraction of the grapes my host family and I picked from their grape fields.

Soon to be delicious (ok, so-so) white house wine. Nice and tare though.

My host bro crankin away for hours. The beginning stages of wine.

Tatel meu (My Moldovan Dad) workin on his wine.

This is the dance we kept doing while we picked big dark purple grapes all day. So sweet and good, and even sweeter when we finished work.

Me n my Moldovan Mamma as she roasts peppers to preserve for the winter.



































Look at my host dad up in the Pecan tree.



















This Friday I went and picked pecans with my host parents. It was pretty fun, and funny to see my host Dad up in the tree shaking them out so my host mom and i could collect them. They taste good, and makes me want butter pecan ice cream, something i have not seen here.

A far away view of the new church under construction in my town.

Entrance to my house.

Other entrance to my house which leads to my room and also the 'casa mare', where they have their nice dinner parties. I think every Moldovan house has a room especially for large table dinner parties.

Floareasoarelui

A bunch of goats.

My first friends in my new town. Every time I pass their house on my way home from work and they are outside they invite me in and feed me tons of food. They are the cutest little couple ever. They live in this little house with low ceilings, it seems it was built for their size. They have a huge garden and tons of chickens, pigs, and rabbits. (they make a delicious rabbit dish here in Moldova. I got to eat it my first day with my last host family and I never knew it was soooo good) The woman on the left is an English teacher I work with. I walked home with her my first day.

This is the amazing Erika, who flagged down the bus she had been wanting to ride on for so long. It looked just like the Darjeeling Limited bus. It was pretty sweet.

Me and my trainee friends totally stoked to be on the Darjeeling Limited bus after a long hard day.

Playin some American football with my trainee buddies.

My host bro in at my last site. Burning trash I think.
My balcony, last site. Notice the grape vines growing off the right side of the house. They made the best wine.

Me at my last house.

My last host dad working on his truck.

My current host mom and dad, with my school director and her husband and son. This was during my visit to my permanent site while I was still in Pre-service Training.

The well and the huge garden at my last host family's house.
My current host mom and dad. Olga and Gheorghe, in their sunflower field.
The monastery and church in my current town.

Traditional Moldovan dance.

My host sister in the outside kitchen. My previous house.

My first host mom and dad.

A church in my last town. My PST town.

Me 'n' my host sis.

Just a random pretty house with the

cool well.