Well anyone that actually reads my blog may have noticed I
haven’t kept up, teaching 18 classes devoting
an additional 2 hrs to each of them outside of class (as all teachers know
leaving class doesn’t mean you’re done), Russian studying and tutoring, 2 hours
to do hand-washed of laundry, sometimes no hot water – an hour to heat water and wash, an hour back
and forth to the store, and a constant sterilizing of my kitchen due to mice
well not much time for blogging…. I am on break until Jan 8th and
will now make sure I catch up. Heck I don’t know if anyone reads this thing but
oh well, it make a good way for me to keep a diary.
My Moldovan Christmas
They celebrate xmas on the 7th, orthodox calendar.
They have fake xmas trees and many decorations in stores (American decorations)
and this week I see REAL xmas trees and even Christmas branches for sale. However,
they are called New Year’s trees. Sorry folks, call it what you want, Santa is
xmas not new year's, deal with it.
My host mother put this little tree up,
I was Skyping with my good friend Lori, I brought “her” out
to see our tree. Maria (host mother) showed here a santa clause (see him on the bottom?), however she was
calling it Mickey Mouse! I don’t know if she was kidding or not but it was
pretty funny.
I was shopping and
caught myself singing “I saw Mommy kissing Santa clause…” I realized the store
was playing it, surrounded by “xmas” decorations I stopped in my tracks and
looked around and thought “uuuhhh where am I?”. A surreal life-moment - here is another surreal moment – in my bedroom I felt
eyes on me, I opened my curtains and there were lined up 4 turkeys looking at
me (two were camera shy and jumped off).
SKYPING is so cool, how did PC members survive without it? Lori was cracking me up, what are these?? CHRISTMAS GHOSTS! No… they’re just choir boy candles. Skype is cool.
And oh so special to say HI to family, they wouldn’t
appreciate this photo that is not-so -flattering but hey, they put me on BIG
SCREEN TV – I bet every wrinkle on me looked like crevasses (that's me in the bottom corner)
Christmas turned out to be a lovely day (lovely, did I just
use that word, lordy I’m getting old). I am SO BLESSED to have site mates, most
people don’t share their site with anyone. Marjorie invited Sylvia and I over
for - GOD LOVE HER HOMEMADE MAC AND CHEESE - It was to DIE FOR. Her first experiment making
American food, sautéed Brussel sprouts, salad, fruit, and to top it off HOMEMADE
BUTTERY COOKIES and HOMEMADE BANANA BREAD!!
Christmas music and eating next to the fireplace….. 2 tiny
candy bars for a gift and taking home some tangerines, then a lovely walk home
on a beautiful day. Running into students “MERRY CHRISTMAS KIDS” (a boy sang “we
wish you a merry xmas….to me in English, wonderful…) now THAT my friends is all you really need to have a happy,
heartwarming, Christmas. An amazing Peace Corps moment….. Please friends and
family, learn from this KEEP IT SIMPLE – it’s not about gifts, it really isn’t.
Normally I wouldn’t go to the city, horrible ride (last one
2 people threw up – that is how bad they are) on Marshrukas (vans with 18 seats
and 35 people crammed on, not kidding) and add in the fact that Sylvia had a
god-awful accident in one (they are death traps and you hear about accidents
all the time they are , indeed death traps, most accidents result in numerous deaths) It takes a LOT to get me on those
things for a 4 hour ride Oh, and when we
were in training we had a speaker from the embassy, he actually said “make sure
you wear a seatbelt and don’t sit up front” OMG want to hear a room of people
die laughing? SEATBELT!? WTF IS THAT? CHOOSE A SEAT? CHOOSE??? You are lucky if
you get pushed into ANY seat that opens up! He admitted he had never been on
one (no kidding) oh, and be sure to watch your bags and pockets. ARE YOU
KIDDING? Bags, they fit wherever your body can find a space. POCKETS? There are
stranger’s body parts on top of you you, under you, against you. Someone wants
to pick pocket you? If he can MOVE HIS ARMS ENOUGH TO DO THAT then hey he deserves
a reward from the closest pocket he can get to.
It’s expensive to stay overnight, to eat, do some shopping
buying special supplies to lug back,, and using up a precious vacation day. My
best friends were there for the week, their final week, they moved back to America.
Their situation was simply intolerable, worse than any of us. . They stuck it
out 7 months, pretty amazing considering what they were living with. But I watched
our bubbly, always happy Janet, sinking fast, and sick a lot, the PC simply
wouldn’t accommodate a move, what a disappointment, two terrific volunteers who
gave up so much, going home to the unknown. And for me? ABSOLUTELY heartbroken,
they have been my rocks, Janet my pal, who I texted all day when stupid or hard
things happened, we Skyped almost every night (still doing this a lot from the states).
I'm not in the habit of taking pictures of skyping but the Marilyn in the back was priceless and they needed to see what I saw.
But low and behold… small
miracles DO HAPPEN. I developed a TOOTH ACHE! Not a happy thing but NOW I HAD
TO GO IN!!! Turns out my fear of a root canal was for nothing it was a minor
problem! Was done so quick I was able to meet them at McDonalds before they
ordered! What a miracle if you ask me. Too much of a coincidence.
We went to a really nice restaurant with another volunteer,
Lynn. YYYUUUMM CHEESECAKE!!
When we came out the snow was gently falling. We went to see
xmas lights in the city, stunning…
MERRY CHRISTMAS JANET AND KC MISS YA TONS
My cousin said I look Russian in this photo - nnnaahhhh I don't have a fur hat or vodka in my hand
I then shared a luxury hotel apartment with
them for the night, I was in HEAVEN. A
tub so deep I stayed in until I shriveled, my hair has not felt so clean since I
arrived. My bed was like clouds. And best of all I was blessed to be with them. Oh and strangely
I didn’t know I missed this but WALKING BAREFOOT ON CLEAN FLOORS! That is
unheard of here, people are obsessed with slippers, and even the kids leave
their shoes at the door and wear slippers to classes. Oh the small luxuries in
life. Oh and by the way, though to us, using Moldovan Lei, it was expensive, converted
to $$ it was about $49 a night! And this place was AWESOME I swear with the little money i have in the bank I could live very comfortably over here without working for a long time.
Happy holidays to everyone . And to those of you that read these things, thanks for following my story. I hope SOMEONE is reading them, they take a long time to do! :-)
PS. Dang,
my “mama maria” came in and I spit out some short sentences in Russian instead
of just grunting an unconjugated verb – (me to eat, you to go to husband house,
me to have lots of work)).
She did
say с новым годом! Happy New years, guess it’s a pretty big deal, me I’ll hide in
my room.
с новым годом to all of you!!!
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