Dreaming of Cactus

I have never quite experienced anything such as a Moldovan winter. Being from Phoenix, Arizona this doesn't come as much of a surprise, but this being said, I never thought I would miss the sight of a cactus or a dry sandy mountain in all my life. The air here sinks right into your bones and into your lungs. As soon as you step outside you find yourself catching your breathe and shielding your face from the stinging air. And your 5 layers of clothing quickly dissolve and you are left feeling like you are wearing nothing. The last three days it has been between -20 and -30 degrees Celsius which in Fahrenheit translates to from a range of -4 degrees to about -22 degrees Fahrenheit. And for a native Arizonan, that translates into misery. In my naivety, I thought that I had seen the worst of what Moldova had to offer in terms of winter weather and laughed at the people who warned me that I might suffer a little bit during these months. Part of this was due to the fact that I thought that December would be the coldest month of the year (again, this is my Phoenician experience speaking). Little did I know that in fact January and February are the coldest months. Oh, but I've caught on quick. It's amazing how fast the winter weather makes you dream and long for the hot summer days; even those nights when the lack of breeze leaves the air stale and stiff. But even amongst all the hardships that the winter might bring, it's amazing how the beauty of it all is juxtaposed right along the unforgiving aspects. For example, these last few days when it's been the absolute coldest, the sun has shone so bright and caused the snow to almost glitter all around you. If you can stand to take a second to stand still (just a second though) and hear how still and quiet everything is around you, winter can also give you an amazing sense of peace and calm. Everything and everyone is stripped down to the bare essentials, and staying warm becomes the main priority for man and animal alike. A true equality of all living beings is reached. So as I am laying underneath a sleeping bag and three sheets trying to become motivated to do work, even though the blood in my veins feels like it has turned into slush and causes every movement to require more time and even more effort, I am trying to reflect and focus on how this experience is not only teaching me to toughen up a bit but also teaching me how even the most harshest of circumstances can provide opportunities to see and experience amazing beauty. Hope this message finds everyone thinking warm thoughts and even warmer feet :)

Crăciunul Fericit ! Merry Christmas!

Wow! What an amazing few months it has been! Christmas and New Year’s celebrations are just wrapping up over here. Here is Moldova people have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas and New Years two different times in the year depending on which style calendar they follow. For example, my village celebrates what is called the Old Style Calendar. That means that the people in my village celebrate Christmas the 7,8 and 9^th of January. Other villages and cities here celebrate Christmas on the 25^th of December just like in America. For Christmas, it is common for children to get maybe one present. This is often fruit or chocolate. One of my students got a computer for Christmas, but that is very uncommon. Food is the main attraction here for Christmas. Families get together and hold “masas” which are like the meals we have at Thanksgiving. Many toasts are made for good health and prosperity. Carols are also popular at this time, although for my village carols were sung primarily on New Year’s Eve. The Old Style Calendar celebrates New Year’s on the 14^th of January. This is actually the day for Saint Vasile so both Saint Vasile and the New Year are celebrated at this time. New Year’s Eve (the 13^th) is really interesting here. Children go from house to house and sing carols, dance, and recite poems wishing their neighbors good health, prosperity and happiness in the New Year. It is sort of like Halloween because the kids go from house to house and their neighbors give them money, candy, and coloci (a round loaf of bread). Some of the boys can choose to wear masks, but none of the boys in my village did so. One thing that is similar is that families stay up until midnight and drink champagne to celebrate the new year. The next day which is New Year’s say, I still had to go to work….even though most of my students did not attend! For New Years Day, the neighbor children come over and throw seeds in your house and as I found out, on their neighbors as well! As they are throwing the seeds they recite words of (again) good health and happiness in the new year. It is a sign of good luck for the person to catch as many seeds as they can as your neighbors are throwing them at you! At school many of my fellow teachers and my director also threw seeds at me, but as I told many of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers, I had a pocketful of seeds but no students! Even though school was officially open, most students stayed home, which was a little frustrating on the part of the teachers. Finally, Friday the 15th of January is the birthday of a famous Moldovan poet Mihai Emenescu. My school had a assembly to commemorate his work. Romanian is already a beautiful language, but it is so inspiring to hear it in a poem. It is also amazing how many of my students had memorized his work and were able to speak it so lyrically. I think that as an English teacher it is important for me to hear my students express themselves in their native tongue. Poetry here is very big, and many people here, especially teachers, are able to recite tons of poetry beautifully.
For Christmas (25th of December) I was able to spend time with some other volunteers and have more of a traditional American meal. The guy who hosted the party even bought all of us Christmas presents and had a little tree up in his living room. It was nice to listen to some Christmas music from home and spend some time just relaxing and catching up with the other volunteers. Then amazingly I was able to spend New Years in Rome! Me and two other volunteers went together. We took a rutiera (a 15 passenger van) from the capital of Moldova all the way to Bucharest (the capital of Romania). It was about a 10 hour trip and by the end of it I was aching in every part of my body. We left Moldova at about 5 pm and got into Bucharest around 3 in the morning. Then we took a quick two hour flight into Rome. It was like night and day over there! There was no snow, you could walk around with only one layer of clothing (though it did rain a lot), and most of the vendors spoke some English! We only ran into a few minor snags along the way. The major one was that in Rome we could not exchange Moldovan lei into Euro. Me and one of the other girls wanted to use most of our Peace Corps money to pay for the trip, but very quickly we found out that that was not going to happen. So anyone who is ever going to travel around Europe in the future, just remember - Moldovan lei is not taken in most other countries around Europe! Good to know :)
We were able to see the Colosseum, the Vatican, Palatine Hill where Rome was originally formed from, the burial place of Cesar, The Spanish Steps, The Borghese Museum, and many gelato bars and fine establishments where Italian wine and cheese are sold! I was very lucky to have traveled with two other girls who have more of what I would call "street smarts" than I. But overall, we all worked as a team to get to all our sites, and really with the metro system they have set up in Rome, it was very easy to get from one place to another. We stayed for about 6 days and we stayed in 2 different hostels. The hostels we stayed in where so interesting. They're extremely cheap and it was fun talking with the other people in the hostel, since most of them are from all around the world. One of the hostels we stayed in offered free breakfast and a few nights they also offered a diner.
I think the height of our trip was New Year's Eve. One of the reasons we chose to visit Rome was that one of the girls had a friend who was studying art in Rome. We met up with her and she then introduced us to all the friends she had in town. Ironically, all the people were from around the world. We met a few people from France, one from Germany, and a few from Romania. It was truly a cross-cultural event! For New Years we all bundled up under our umbrella's it was raining pretty hard) and headed out along with the rest of the city toward the Colosseum. There the city let off fireworks, people were dancing in the street and toasting to the New Year. It was a once in a lifetime spectacle. It was also so cool to see how everyone from around the world gathered together and celebrated this important night. It's like no matter where you are in the world, New Years translates into a fresh start and new beginnings.

So now I am back in my village and I am beginning my second semester as an English teacher here in Moldova. It was very hard to get back into the swing of things, but now that it is the end of this first week, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable and relaxed. There is fresh snow on the ground, the sound of chickens in the backyard, and a horse-drawn carriage sitting in the middle of our street...all in all I feel like I am back home.
I hope for all who read this a happy, safe, and exciting New Year full of new discoveries, patience, humility, and courage.

La Multi Ani Cu Sanate !(To Many Years of Good Health)