Dancing and Singing in Romanian!

Host sister Eugenia and our dog Tom.

This is the Primarie in town. It's the mayor's office.

The famous OK Pizza. We hang out here all the time. It has one of the only indoor toilets in Costesti!

Tata gazda Gheorghe and me after our performance. I tried to make him smile with teeth; he wouldn't :(

Mama gazda Alexandra. She wouldn't show her teeth either :(

A delicious meal of chicken, potatoes, salad, and of course house wine.

Today was our performance for our host families. Each group (healthies and English Education) performed songs, dances, and speeches. My group danced and sang a song. I was quite impressed with how awesomely well all the groups did!
After the performance, which lasted about an hour, we ate food with our families that we prepared. The dishes were supposed to be "American" foods. My group made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cookies. Other groups made macaroni and cheese (which was shipped specially from the US!) cucumber sandwiches, banana bread, deviled eggs, egg salad, salsa, and quesodillas. Quite tasty indeed. However, the American volunteers ended up eating most of the American food.
Tomorrow I'm heading to Chisinau with my mom and sister to do some back to school shopping. I'll probably pick up some gifts for my next host family while we're there.
Huge language assessment on Monday. This one's a "real" one, as opposed to the others being practice.
Tuesday we swear in and become official volunteers. After the swearing in, we are picked up by our future school directors and brought to our permanent sites. Super scary.

I Want Free Ice Water

In 8 days, I will be leaving my village for my permanent site. I will be at that site for the next 2 years of my life. Needless to say, I'm a bit nervous. However, I cannot begin to describe how excited I am to almost be done with PST (Pre-Service Training). It has been a hectic past 8 (or is it 9?) weeks, and I'm ready to head to my permanent site.
On Saturday, all of us EE kids and the Healthies will be getting together to have a big bash for our families. We are going to be performing dances, songs, skits, and speeches, and we are going to make American food. My group is making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (very simple and very American!) and I think the other EE group is making macaronie and cheese.
Monday we have a huge language assessment, and then on Tuesday we swear in. Yes, that's right! I will finally be an official Peace Corps Volunteer, not just a trainee! After swearing in, I head to my next site.
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with how quickly things have gone. Although there have been times when I've hated PST and wanted it to be over NOW, it has gone surprisingly fast.

I really miss ice. Ice water, ice in pop, ice, ice, ice.
I also really miss getting a free glass of water at restaurants. It was something I completely took advantage of in America. Here in Moldova, you don't get a free glass of water. You have to buy a bottle. I didn't realize that would be something I would miss.

What Does TDY Stand For? Not sure...

I'm currently sitting at the Peace Corps office in TDY. I'm not sure what TDY means, temporary duty something. I think it's a military term.
Saturday night I woke up at least 15 times with the worst stomach ache intestine thing going on. It continued through Sunday and Monday. Monday afternoon I came to Peace Corps where I was told I have food poisoning and given some medicine. I was sent home to rest.
Tuesday morning it wasn't better, so my language instructor made me call Peace Corps again. I was picked up and brought back to Chisinau and put into TDY. I got here yesterday around 10 in the morning. I slept most of the day.
Now it's Wednesday morning, and I'm still here. I'm supposed to stay another night, which is ok with me because they have toilets and showers and tv in English! Hey, it's ok to be spoiled when you're sick.
My stomach is better, but it's still cramping up every so often. I'm on a bread and rice diet, although I've been eating only crackers instead. I don't know how to make rice tasty with just rice. If I could add some soy sauce and vegetables, then we'd be in business!
*Side note: Have lost about 15 pounds so far! Or at least that's what the scale in my family's garage told me!