Masas, Makeovers, and Moms

We've been having a lot of masas lately. Masas are basically huge dinner parties. Last weekend was my host sister's 18th birthday. We had a bunch of relatives over, and we celebrated until quite late at night. As usual since it was a Moldovan party, we ate and ate, and drank even more. My favorite dish, besides the sarmales, is a salad made of mayonnaise, chicken breast, cheese, and dried bread crumbs. It sounds too simple, and it is, but it's so dang tasty! Last night we had another masa, this time for my host sister's friends from school.  My host parents left, so I stayed to chaperon (although they didn't put it that way. I was "getting to know her friends," which was fine anyway.) The first course was served at around 4:30, the second at about 7:00, desserts followed at 10:00, and a second round of desserts at 10:30. I came home tonight from planning with my partner and another masa was taking place. My family likes to party!

My partner teacher/best friend in Moldova is rockin. She's probably one of the coolest people in Moldova, and she has by far the cutest kids. This is them in the picture above, Nastea and Catea, giving me a make-over. Every Tuesday and Thursday after school, Natalia, my partner, and I go to her house to hang out and eat before we tutor some girls together at their house. Throughout these times, I've gotten to be fairly close with her family, including her mother and father who she lives with, and her husband. I've helped her mother make colţunaş, which is basically a type of Ravioli with either a cheese or potato mixture in it.

I met a really cool kid, Roma, who is a Moldovan high school senior that did a foreign exchange program with the United States for a year. Last year he was in Colorado for a year, and now because of that, he speaks the best English of any Moldovan I know. He uses phrases like:

"Oh my God," "You know, like," and "I fricken' love it."

Totally American and I love it! 

Anyway, he is in class with my host sister, and from her he got my number and called me to come speak about education in America to a youth group he is in called SALVE. This group is amazing and I hope I can become a part of it within my time here in Moldova. It's a group that does peer mentoring for youth and young families. They teach about AIDS/HIV, Tuberculiosis, and other stuff which I must find out! They also give out free condoms which is an awesome thing because safe sex is not particulary concentrated upon in this area. The picture above is of me and some of the kids in the group. Like I said, I hope I can work with them in the future, and I will update if I do!

Thanksgiving was three days ago, and I was here in Moldova. It was a particular frustrating day because I wasn't home with my family eating turkey and having the day off. Instead, I was here in Moldova teaching like it's a normal day. I'd never really been thankful for Thanksgiving when I was in the states, but being here, I realize I really am truely thankful for it. It's a time when I can be with my family! However, my host family here did a great job of making me feel good. Someone from home sent some boxes of Stove Top Stuffing which I made for my host family, and we had leftover turkey from my host sister's birthday party. Along with that, we had rooster jelly (which is as gross as it sounds... chicken boiled in water for 4 hours, taken out to be chilled, at which point the water turns into a jello that tastes like chicken noodle soup, and it's cold. Gross.) and pickled tomatoes (which I have grown to love!) And of course don't forget the house wine! Mmm tasty!

In true Thanksgiving fashion, I am thankful for:

*awesome family and friends back home who supported me when I told them I was joining the Peace Corps, and continue to support me to this day

*emails, letters, and packages. Even if you think the email is stupid, it's not! It really makes me happy!

*a great program manager here in Moldova who has my back when times are tough

*Makoto for burning me dvd's of UND hockey games and Mom for sending them

*a partner teacher who actually wants to work with me, enjoys working with me, and can speak English!

*Sally for teaching me to knit; Moldovans think I'm so cool because I can knit!

*Mom, because she is amazing and always calls me back even though it's super expensive, because she sends me packages with dvd's, snacks, home-made salsa, and other important necessities that I can't buy here in Moldova (you know what I'm talking about, yes mom?) because she sits on the phone (still expensive) while I cry about hating Moldova for a half hour then call back the next day about how I love it, and because she's my rock. Without her, I wouldn't be here.

Home Sweet Home

These are some of the houses in my city.

So much for the stereotypical view of Peace Corps and living in grass huts in Africa...

Too Much Time on My Hands

I've been watching a lot of movies and tv shows. I've discovered downloading is NOT illegal in Europe, so I've been going to town watching all sorts of movies. I suppose I should be doing something more constructive instead of watching shows, such as working on lesson plans or maybe even knitting, but hey, I dig movies! So, let's discuss some of the things I've been watching thus far:

Heroes

Apparently the writers of this once awesome show have forgotten what their jobs are. Now instead of discovering new heroes with differing capabilities, we are reduced to watching someone playing the piano to see colors for five minutes. Not exciting. Now don't get me wrong, this season isn't entirely bad; I'm digging that we are meeting the "family" with all the powers, but I don't care about the deaf lady who sees colors. It was cool the first time, but really, gata! Also, Hiro cannot die. If that's going to happen, I'm done.

Grey's Anatomy

I'm glad Izzie is gone. I hope she doesn't come back. I'm sick of her always wining and complaining, and really, trying to seduce your husband with "I miss George"...? Not the brightest idea sweetheart. I didn't see last week's episode, but I read about it online. Didn't sound like anything too exciting happened. McDreamy is a stud; McSteamy is even more of a stud. Bailey rocks, and I don't like Meredith's laugh.

Flash Forward

A new show that my aunt Liz recommended to me. It's honestly not very good, the writing is bad, and most of the acting sucks. However, for some reason I'm hooked! I'm looking forward to the end and finding out why exactly the blackout happened. Also, super pumped that Charlie from Lost is in it. Read online about the show, and people were super upset about the lesbian kiss scene. Really, get over it.

Flowers in the Attic -movie, 1987

I was reading an article online Top 10 Flims That Traumatized Your Childhood and this movie came up. Luckily, the entire movie is in segments on Youtube, so I watched it tonight without having to wait for my internet to download it. I watched it along with my 6 year old host brother who luckily does  not understand any English to realize what the movie was actually about. He got the point that it was about a mean grandma. This movie was absolutely ridiculous, but not a terrible way to spend an hour.

300

This is one of my personal favorites I brought with me from home on dvd. Watched it with Adriana last week. It's obviously a pretty bloody movie, but it's so beautifully done that it really doesn't matter. The next day after watching it on my computer, it was on tv here in Moldova in Russian. Even in Russian it is awesome. One of my favorite scenes is when the queen stabs the guy in the conference thing. She does it like it's nobody's buisiness.

Princess Bride

It's a classic! If you haven't seen it, stop reading this blog right now and watch it.

*Stuff I want to see:
-The Fringe (Adriana says it's a "must see")
-Zombieland
-Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (I already saw this, but it was a badly downloaded copy)

Any suggestions for other shows I should watch? Let me know!

La Multi Ani Tata Gazda!

Host dad's birthday was yesterday. We had a huge celebration for him with lots of guests and even more food. And of course don't forget the continuous shots of cognac. We started the meal with three different types of salads, fried peppers, vegetable platters, and much more. After that, the roasted duck was brought out, followed by rabbit. Rabbit is surprisingly so tasty! Next came the sarmale. Oh how I love sarmale. Sarmale consists of a mixture of rice, meat, and carrots wrapped in cabbage leaves cooked in some sort of sauce. Definitely my favorite Moldovan food thus far. After sarmale, we took an hour pause to prepare for the desserts, coffee, and tea. There were two different types of cakes, a chocolate one that almost tasted like cheesecake and a poppyseed/nut cake. Also for dessert was clatita, which is similar to the thin pastry thing that crepes are made out of. They are fried and remind me of pancakes. With the clatita was a cream sauce that had coffee grounds mixed in. So tasty!

I came home tonight, and it turned out we were having yet another party for my dad with different guests. The meal consisted of the leftovers from last night, but there was also a salad brought by some of the guests which was made of potatoes, cheese, and some sort of fish. Not very tasty, but I don't like fish, so that's probably why. I ate a lot again tonight, and had lots of cognac shots to go along with it.

As I'm typing this, I'm extremely exhausted and ready for bed. It's only 10:54, but I was up super late last night, and today was quite an eventful day at school. I had a bonding time with my 6th grade class which I teach by myself. I realized that they really don't understand anything I ever say in English, so we had a discussion on what they want and expect from my class. At the end, we created the slogan for ourselves, "Noi sintem ca familie unita!" --> We are like a united family! Hopefully this will make my students feel more comfortable with everything and make them more excited about learning English.

Cognac for Breakfast Followed by a 7 Course Meal

A few weeks ago was National European Language Day, so all the language teachers at my school did a presentation on their language in their language. I did a presentation about English. I had a lot of pictures on my powerpoint, and when the kids saw the pictures of the English Football Clubs, they started cheering and clapping. So that was fun.

A week ago was "Day of the Teacher" which was a European national celebration for teachers. The first two lessons of the day were taught by students, while the teachers all hung out in the teacher's lounge eating, drinking, and dancing. And when I say drinking, I mean there was not only juice and water, but cognac and wine as well. (Keep in mind this is at 9:00 in the morning!) It was really cool because all of us teachers danced the Hora, which is the traditional Moldovan dance, around the teachers' lounge holding hands and such. Then some of the older guy teachers and I danced. *Picture above*  After the first two lessons, we all went into the festivity hall where the students put on a concert for us. They also gave lots of gifts which included roses, boxes of chocolates, and photo albums. (Not sure why photo albums, but it was cool anyway.) After that, all the teachers in my district came to the "Casa de Cultura" which is like a big festivity hall. There was a long ceremony with awards given out followed by some famous Moldovan singers.

Today I went to a family friend's birthday party with my family. It was quite fun. I've learned that in Moldova at celebrations, there are usually at least three courses of food. There was the first course, in which all the food was placed on the table when we arrived: fried chicken, several different salads, eggplant, tomatoes, and of course bread bread bread. I paced myself knowing there would be more to come, but I just couldn't stop with the potato salad thing. Then came out the fried chicken wings. The host put the plate in my face, so I had to take one. You cannot say no in Moldova... Course number three was a roasted goose with mushrooms and carrots. Quite tasty but surprisingly really bony. I went to town on those mushrooms. Next was another meat that was like a meatball with cheese in it. Really good - I had two. Keep in mind that throughout this whole thing, the birthday girl's dad was going around pouring shot after shot vodka and cognac. Finally came dessert with coffee, tea, and two different types of cakes. I had a cup of coffee with a piece of cake. It was a chocolate cake with cherries soaked in cognac. Thinking the dinner was done, I began to relax a bit (foolish, I know) when out came another dessert. This one is apparently the hostess's specialty. It was a pancake like thin thing with a sweet cheese in the middle. Very tasty.

Freaking Amazing & Bootylicious!

We Are RAM
(Roy, Adriana, Miranda)

I have internet, but for some reason my internet hates Blogger and Facebook. When I get these pages to work, they load very slowly and I don't have the time for it!

I've been super busy in my first month of school. I'm teaching 20 hours a week, having Romanian tutoring sessions Monday through Thursdays, and I'm tutoring a couple girls Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours each time. Tomorrow I'm supposedly meeting with a nun who speaks English but wants to learn how to speak better. That should be interesting.

I went to a wedding of an Irish guy I met. I was out with Roy and Adriana at a bar, and as I'm coming back from the bathroom, this eldery guy stops me. (oooh blogger just died on me, but luckily it saves periodically! I told you my internet hates Blogger!) So he stops me and starts talking English to me. Roy and Adriana come over, and after a few rounds we discover he and his fiance, Ludmila, met online. He's from Ireland, and she's from here. She speaks Russian and Romanian; he doesn't speak either of these. So, her son is translating. I can't imagine the kinds of things he must have to translate between them... Eventually we part ways with him inviting us to his wedding. So last week, Roy and I went to the wedding (unfortunately Adriana couldn't come) and we ate and drank all night long.

Today I went to a birthday with my host family. We ate a bunch of food: fried meats and pancake things. I was full when to my surprise they brought out 2 chickens. So, I ate some chicken. I was super full and ready to be done, when they brought out sarmale. I LOVE sarmale, but I just couldn't do it. I was beyond full. Sarmale is a rice, carrot, and meat mixture in either cabbage or grape leaves. I love them. After that, they brought out 2 different kinds of cake. Keep in mind, this is a Moldovan celebration, so of course we were having quite a few shots during this whole thing, too.

Last Friday was "Day of European Languages" at my school. I had to give a presentation about English in English. About 5 people in the room of about 60 understood the presentation, so that's fun. It was for the 7th and 8th graders. I put a few facts about English on the slides with pictures of "English" stuff. They were especially excited about the slide with the English Football Club logos. That got some hollars and a round of applause. Oh how they love their football (soccer) here.

Finally watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Not nearly as awesome as I anticipated.

Going to Romania on November 20th to see the second Twilight movie, New Moon, with some other girls. Oh man I'm excited. I'm a dork, but how I love Edward Cullen :)

Planning a trip to Bucahrest, Romania, Sofia, Bulgaria, and Skopje, Macedonia for Christmas. Going with Adriana and another girl. Originally planned on going to Egypt, but it ended up being far more expensive than I anticipated. This should be a fun trip anyway!

Bought some mascara from a Russian company. The mascara is called "Freaking Amazing Mascara." Also in the catlogue were "Bootylicious Lip Gloss" and "I'm Naughty Mascara." The girl who sells for the company had no idea what these meant so I had to explain Freaking Amazing and Bootylicious...

Woo I'm a Real Volunteer!

Swearing In Ceremony in Chisinau on August 18th. Now we're officially volunteers. The Health group and English Education (which I am) swore in together. After the ceremony, we each loaded up our suitcases and headed off to our permanent sites.

Going for picnics in forests is a common hobby here in Moldova, especially in the northern part. My family has gone several times. This time we climbed a nearby mountain/hill. It was pretty fun, and I saw a crazy little lizard while climbing.

This is my current host family. We are at a cumatria, which is a celebration for a baby's baptism. We got together with a bunch of people at a fancy restaurant, ate a bunch of food and drank lots of cognac, beer, and vodka, and ended up dancing until 3:30 in the morning. We danced the Hora, a traditional Moldovan dance, and I got a bunch of blisters on my toes. But it was definitely worth the blisters!

This is with my extended host family at my host grandparents' house.We stayed for a night. This was day 2. We ate rabbit, which was surprisingly not bad, chicken, potatoes, and of course cucumbers and tomatoes. My host mom's second cousin was there. She makes her own cognac and vodka, and she made sure I sampled each of them several times.

School is going really well. I am teaching 2nd through 9th grades, and I have 19 hours of work each week. I am team-teaching all the classes except one group of 6th graders I teach by myself. Here, I am with a Russian 8th grade class. They had a big birthday party for all the summer birthdays in their class. We ate lots of treats and danced to English music. It was quite fun!