- greater likelihood of having paved roads

- less likelihood of having to avoid cow dung on said roads

- less likely to be stopped in traffic as the cows or geese cross the road (really, it shouldn’t be “why did the chicken cross the road” it should be geese…they do this a lot here)

- more likely to have a sitemate

- we have a few restaurants and 2 discos in the rayon center

- we have a Fidesco (think Moldovan interpretation of a corner supermarket.)

- there is an autogara (bus station) to go to Chisanau, so I don’t have to wave down a rutiera

- there is a greater possibility of having running water, electricity and gas lines in the rayon center (my host family has all three)

- AND – the newest addition to this list – a greater likelihood of being able to get DSL installed at home.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I decided that the $25 a month for DSL is definitely worth the cost (remember – I’m a ‘volunteer’ and have a stipend of like $200 a month) especially considering how much it costs to call the states and then to use an internet café. However, it’s not DSL like you may be thinking. Lets talk numbers here, shall we:

- dial-up connection in my PST village – 20mbps (since 2006, available on any land line in Moldova)

- dial-up connection in my rayon center – 35mbps

- DSL in my rayon center – 100mbps

- General dial-up in America – 56mbps

BUT – I’m not complaining…I have internet. Its fast enough for me to Skype people and to do webcam calls. (usually). I can also do research for school now without waiting for an hour to load one page.

Other things…

I have a sitemate. Her name is Drea and she is awesome. We sometimes have dinner or watch movies. I walk right by her apartment building (she lives alone) every day on the way to school. She works, literally, within spitting distance from my gate (its directly across the narrow street). On my site visit (after being in country only a month or so) a PCV from an older group told me that he would give his left foot for a sitemate, and that I was so lucky. I didn’t doubt him by any means, however I thought this was a slight exaggeration. Turns out, its not…He cut off his foot….no sorry, it is an exaggeration, but not by much. The last two weeks Drea was out of town on vacation to Bulgaria and doing work-type stuff in Chisinau (the capital). I totally understand the comment now. Man it was boring not being able to hang out with someone and really be able to talk and understand and all that jazz. Gosh – I’m so freakin’ spoiled sometimes.

On Saturday, all the PCVs in my group had to go into Chisinau to pick up some immigration documents from PC HQ. It was wonderful to see everyone again. I hadn’t seen most of my group mates since ‘swearing in’ a month prior. It was like a mini-reunion. (We are on ‘lock down’ for the first 3 months we are at our permanent sites to allow us to ‘integrate’ into the new community. We can only leave our villages on official PC business and with permission.)

I must make a side note here…PC Moldova is very unusual. We have perhaps the highest concentration of PCVs in any single country. There are 120-ish volunteers in country at a time (come Jan 08, that number will go up to 160). This is pretty average in the world, however Moldova is an extremely small country. There are about 4 million people in country (probably less considering how many people work abroad) and its about the size of Maryland. So, everywhere you go, you run into PCVs. Many PCVs in other countries only see each other a few times a year, if that. Also, they generally never get to go to the capital b/c it is frequently too far away and takes literally days to get there. However, in Moldova, you can get from the northern-most part of the country to Chisinau in about 6 hours and from the south to Chisinau in about 4 hours. I am 45 minutes NW, so it is quite easy for me, and most PCVs here, to go in for a quick daytrip.

Continuing…So, on our mini-reunion of the M-20 TEFL and HE PCVs, we went out to eat. We wanted to go eat this Greek restaurant, so we started walking. We got there and the place was closed. A woman in the restaurant came to the door and said to us in broken English, “Sorry, we are closed. We should be open in a week”. Then her daughter came to the door and said the same thing in a bit better English. We were disappointed, but understood. Then, as we began to walk away, this big guy comes up to the door from the back of the restaurant. He begins to speak with us quite well in English. At first we are all surprised that this Moldovan’s English is so good. Then it slowly dawns on us, as he is using ridiculously American slang, this is a Greek-American, probably from NYC…in Moldova of all places.

Later, back at the PC HQ, we watched “Black Hawk Down”. Some of the M-19s were there for a training and had watched the movie like 6 times in 3 days. They were throwing out lines like you would in “Rocky Horror” (however the material of BHD is a bit more harsh than RH.

After the movie and printing off some ppwrk for school, I decided to go for a swim. WHAT??? Yeah, I went for a swim.

To tell you the truth, these past 3 ½ months have probably been the longest time I have ever been away from a pool in my whole life…well at least since I was 14 and was on swim team and then lifeguarding year round

Anyway, we are somewhat limited in our swimming options. We are not suppose to swim in any lakes or rivers here due to the Soviets contaminating the underground water with bad storage containers of various chemicals. Also, it is rare for there to be swimming pools in the towns/rayon centers much less villages. In Chisinau there are a few pools. I was informed by an older PCV that there are 3 decent pools. She gave me directions to the mid-price one, but had good chemicals.

I walked about 25 minutes from the PC HQ towards the center of town. I got to the Gym and then went to the pool. It cost me 30 Lei (just less than $3) and they gave me a lock for my stuff. The pool was outdoors. I was a bit worried that it might be too cold b/c it was like 60 degrees outside.

Well, when I got on the pool deck, I realized the pool is more like a semi-indoor pool b/c there are walls and/or bleachers on all 4 sides but there is no roof. The temp was great…probably about 89 degrees (all those lap swimmers at Offutt should be jealous). The water was mirky, the CL was low and the PH was high, but these are not complaints…just comments (after lifeguarding for 10 years, you can tell if the chemicals are off by the taste of the water).

The pool was set up for laps; however there were tons of kids swimming through all the lanes. There were people swimming laps too. Man did I feel slow and low in the water, but that’s what I get for being out for nearly 4 months. It felt great to be able to swim. I can’t wait to go back and swim again.

However I will need to moderate this b/c it’s expensive. 30 lei to get in, 16 lei for the 45 minute ruitera ride each direction. If I do nothing but swim, that is at least 62 lei for one day. Ouch!

As many of you know, I lived with my parents before joining the PC, so I didn’t have a NEED to cook my own meals. In fact, like many young people, I only cooked an ‘actual’ meal (or dish) about once a month. Sometimes it was a prepackaged thing or used something that was packaged (like a homemade meal, but using microwavable instant rice as a side). Also, a lot the annoying small steps had already been done by manufactures. (For example, I like to cook with garlic, but we have already minced garlic in the fridge, ready to go, back home.)

So, the other day, I went to the piatza and decided to buy some good stuff to do some cooking b/c I was sick of having soup (my host mom’s favorite thing to make). I bought some eggplant (b/c its in season) some onions and garlic. And no, I didn’t really know what I was planning on making at the time. I was gonna ‘wing it’.

So, I got home and began to chop up some onions. I have done this before and it was no big deal (besides the crying. Lol). Then I got to the garlic. I’ve seen people on TV (Rachel Ray) talk about how you just take the clove and can ‘pop’ it open with the flat part of a knife and pressure from your palm. However, I wasn’t quite sure how to get to the clove. Hmmmmm……

I decided to just try cutting it in half. That didn’t work so well b/c my host mom doesn’t have good knives. When I finally got it cut open, I realized that probably wasn’t the best idea. I took another thing of garlic and tried to unpeel it like the outer layers of an onion. This was harder than I thought it would be.

Finally, I got the damn garlic out of the ‘pods’ or whatever people call them. Then I just had to do the Rachel Ray-inspired thingy to get the actual clove out. I did that, and it worked (not well at first, but after a few tried, I had the technique down).

At this point, I had been in the kitchen for damn near 45 minutes and hadn’t done squat. I had cut onions and cloves of garlic that I had no idea what to do with. I didn’t know how to use the garlic in a dish. Should I chop it up, or leave it as a whole clove, or is there a particular technique? Goodness, I gave up…and I didn’t even get to the eggplant.

The really great part about this adventure in the kitchen is that my hands stunk like garlic for the next day and a half. Now I really understand why my mom buys the pre-minced garlic. It sucks to do that by hand.

I’ll keep you up to date as more amusing adventures in Moldova and in the kitchen occur.

Miss you all!!!

Yeah, I know, I’m not very good at updating this blog quickly, so I apologize. However, if you notice (mom) it is updated on a regular basis of about once a month.

After arriving at my new site, I had 2 weeks to get ready for my classes. Everyday my partner would tell me if I was to come to the school or not for the next day. Quite frequently the plans would change, and I would get a phone call in the morning saying that I no longer needed to go to school. I kept asking my partner when I was going to be informed about my classes so I could prepare and do the boring paperwork that PC demands that we do. She kept telling me, we’ll figure it out next time, tomorrow perhaps. Everyday she would say this. So, on the Thursday before school started, I was finally told which classes I would be teaching.

I have six classes: 6th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade and 3 sections of 10th grade. My partner teacher and the other English teacher have actually broken the English classes in half, so when I am teaching, they are teaching the same exact class. This has its advantages (if I’m sick, for instance, it won’t disrupt other people’s schedules as much as it would otherwise). I have all girls in 3 of my classes b/c my partner didn’t want to give the ‘hard to handle’ kids, which I am totally cool with.

So, over the weekend, I started prepping for my lessons. On the first day of school, Monday September 3, I made sure I was at school early so I could get some stuff set up in my classroom for the first day. (Yes, I have my own classroom. It’s actually a PC policy. However, it is really small, like the size of a small dorm room). I got to school at 7:30 and the first bell was to be at 8:15. Well, 8:15 came and went.

Then, around 9:00, I heard music coming from outside. I looked out the window (I am on the 3rd floor) and there was a swarm of kids all over the grounds of the school. I decided to go downstairs to check out what was going on.

On the front steps of the school, they had set up a huge stereo system and all the students were gathered infront of the steps and on the anywhere they could stand. The teachers were all dressed up. Since they are mostly female, it looked like a “mothers’-of-the-bride” convention. (They really like wearing those dress-separates that match with lots of beads, sequins, etc.) The kids were definitely wearing their “Sunday Best”. Most of the boys (especially the younger ones) were wearing 3-piece-suits. Many of the girls were wearing some version of the following: black shoes, white tights, black skirt/jumper, white blouse, white fluffy hair-ties (with hair in ponytail or braids).

When I got to the front doors of the school, there were several speeches being made. Many of them were by teachers. They also had some of the older students give speeches, and even invited some of the young kids up. There were several older students who sang songs too. The kids in the audience all sang along. Then, all of the sudden I heard it…”Acuma, noi avem un voluntara de Corpul Pacii din SUA”. Now, for those of you can’t read Romanian, and are bad at guessing, that was my introduction (which I was completely unaware was coming). I walked out of the doors of the school onto the top landing at the top of the stairs and they handed me a microphone.

Now, I know that you might all be thinking this is like a nightmare happening in real life…ya know, like when you can’t hear anything b/c it’s all muffled. Actually, everything was quite vivid, especially the enormous roar from the crowd of students.

(internal monologue) “Holy crap!!! What am I going to say? I can’t think of what to say in Romanian. I can’t think of anything in Romanian. Oh good Lord why didn’t they warn me about this???”

I survived. I just said to them (in Romanian of course) “Thank you, thank you. I have been being exited about moving there. I am Colleen Williams from America. She was happy about that”. (Of course, I just now translated EXACTLY what I said – or, something close…I know I did not say it correctly in Romanian, so this is my guess at how bad it was.)

Then I eagerly handed back the microphone. After about 1 minute of the director talking, I suddenly heard “Canta in Englaza”. My internal monologue was screaming “No way in hell…you can have me give an impromptu speech, but not a song”. Much to my relief, a student walked out to where I had just been standing. He had a guitar with him. He sat down on a chair and played and sang “Hey There Deliliah” by the Plain White T’s. The song was so freakin’ beautiful. (It was stuck in my head for like 5 days afterwards too). So, after the English song, there were a few more speeches, then the students dispersed.

I followed the rest of the teachers into the ‘cantina’ or teacher’s breakroom. In there was a long table set up with so much food! We were having a ‘masa’ (translates to table, but means a dinner party – Moldovan style). There was sarmale, stuffed peppers, cakes, cookies, open-faced sandwiches with mayo and salami or mayo with a small fish (head cut off) and thin lemon wedge (I find this one odd). There was also eggplant wraps, and tons of other food I can’t really describe (next time, I swear, I’ll take a picture). There was tons of wine and cognac.

During the ‘masa’, there were lots of toasts and speeches. The Moldovans love to toast and hear themselves talk over a cup of wine nearly as much as Americans like to do keg-stands. (ok, bad example, but you get the idea). After we ate and drank and toasted (and some got toasted) it was decided that we were going to go on a picnic in the woods.

The town that I live in is situated on the side of a hill and down into a valley. The hill on the other side of the valley is still pretty much forest. So, after the masa, all the teachers went home to change clothes before going out into the woods. I followed suit. We all met up 2 hours later. We took taxis out to the woods. Once we were there, we hiked to a known clearing in the woods. We set up a camp fire to cook some fish, and we set up a picnic area on the ground with blankets.

Any of you who know me well, know that me being in a wooded area (for mosquitoes) is like a fat kid at the supermarket on ‘free sample’ day. Good Lord – I am NOT a buffet. However, the mosquitoes would most likely disagree. I was wearing jeans and had a long sleeve shirt on, however I still managed to get at least 100 new bites. Now, you might ask “Colleen, didn’t you use any repellant?” The sad answer would be ‘no’. The PC gave us medical kits with more stuff than you could even imagine (like a little Walgreens in a kit) however it didn’t contain repellant. I also didn’t think the mosquitoes would be so…vicious. They must be a sister strain to the mosquitoes from Minnesota. They were huge and didn’t mind being swatted at. They could bite through denim without problem.

Other than my drama with mosquitoes, the picnic in the forest was quite nice. We played some circle volleyball. We sat around and ate and talked (in Romanian, but whatever). We had smoked fish (I didn’t eat it – we’ve been warned not to eat the fish b/c of chemical contamination of the water. Plus, I’ve seen their food storage – its not always the freshest). We also ate bread with mayo and salami, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, butter cookies (think like x-mas cookies that come in those tins) and more wine and cognac.

After being out in the woods for about 3 hours, we decided to go home. Unfortunately, we were receiving no cell service in the woods, so we had to walk out onto the road heading to town and wait until we could get a signal. Well, the taxi station is at the other end of town and they said it would take about 20-30 minutes. It was getting dark and was looking like it was gonna storm, so we decided to walk while we waited. Fortunately, after several attempts, we were able to catch a ride hitchhiking. Yeah, in the truck I got into it was me and 3 teachers in their 50 and 60s. How funny that must have looked. He dropped us off in town and I walked the 20 minutes to my home. It was drizzling, but literally as I opened the gate to my house, it started to pour. Thank God we caught that truck, otherwise it would have been a nasty walk.

So, the first days of actual class were interesting. No, actually, it was the first two weeks of actual class were interesting. Everyday the schedule would be different. They said that it would take about 2 or so weeks to have the ‘real’ schedule because they didn’t quite know how many students they would have, which classes they would be taking, which teachers they would have and what classes the teachers would be teaching. To me, this seems silly because every year they have to go through the same thing. I would assume that they could anticipate these variables with information concerning what classes the students took the previous year, the number of students, and by discussing with the teachers if they plan on returning. (Please note that it is not normal for students or teachers to ‘come and go’ like we do in America. People don’t really move homes or towns unless to get married and they wouldn’t stop working unless there was an extremely good reason.)

Now that things are settled, and we have a permanent (God I hope it’s permanent) schedule, things are rolling along smoothly. I am really enjoying teaching here. The kids are so enthusiastic about having an American teacher, and their English is, generally, petty good for their age (props to my partner!). The other teachers are very helpful and really interested in me. My partner says that every time I’m in the breakroom, they are talking about me. Good thing I don’t understand, b/c otherwise I’m sure it would bother me greatly. Oh well…

In preparations for the swearing-in ceremony, the PC staff organized some singing and dancing lessons for those of us interested. At swearing-in, those people would then perform what they rehearsed. Well, as many of you know, I can’t sing, so I decided to do the dance lessons. The dances we learned were traditional Moldovan folk dances. (our accompanist played an accordion). The lessons were quite fun! We all had dance partners and practiced 3-5 times a week for the last 4 weeks of training.

Well, when it came down to it, they could only have 4 couples in the dance for the actual swearing-in…and not surprisingly, some of the cuts were based on who would be most likely to fit into the costumes. It kinda stinks that I wasn’t able to dance for the swearing-in, but I understand the reason.

Along with our training coming to a close, I have had to say good-bye to my host family that I have come to know and care for very much. It kinda stinks to have to say good-bye, but I will keep in touch with them. In fact, my host sister is getting married in 1 month, so I will see them at the end of September.

So, the last few days I was at their home, I had to pack up all my stuff. OMG – I can’t believe how much crap I have accumulated!!! When I left the States, I had 2 checked pieces of luggage, a back pack and computer bag. Granted, when I left my PST host family’s home, I didn’t do the greatest job of packing, but still…. I had all the luggage I came with plus: 2 large ‘pungas’ (woven sacks that are about 2”x2”x1”), my laundry hamper full of stuff, and two boxes of more stuff, and a guitar I bought from a PCV whom left for home already.

Some of this stuff was sent to me by friends and family back home. (Thank you all again!!!) However, most of it was stuff from PC. 1 entire punga was full of just PC books and resources. I also had my water distiller, britta filter, etc. When we got to Chisinau (for swearing-in) we got more stuff: a space heater and fire extinguisher.

Sorry for the tangent…

Anyway, the last few days at my host family’s home were kinda bittersweet. I was excited to get started with my actual service, but sad to be leaving them. The last day I was there we took some great photos. I’ll send them out to you all in an email (for some reason I can’t seem to post photos here). We had some awesome Moldovan food and lost of wine. (Have I mentioned the wine before???!!!)

I am at my new site. Its close to the capital…only about 1 hour away in a rutieria. I am living with a very nice couple. My host mom is Natasa and my host dad is Vasile. They have 2 grown kids who both live and work in Italy. They have hosted another volunteer a few years ago, so they already have an idea of how weird and crazy we can be.

My living arrangements are quite nice. Although I am living with a host family, I have my own separate space called a “casa mica” (or small house). It is really the nicest living arrangement I have seen for any PCV (and other PCVs have said the same). I have a bed room, living room/kitchen area (but without a stove or oven), and my own bathroom. Unfortunately, there has been a very serious drought this summer in Moldova, so in this city, they have limited the hours that water is available. At the moment, we have water for 4 hours a day…yikes! So, I have been using the quazi-outdoor shower. It’s enclosed (don’t worry). There is a water bucket on the roof with a knob inside to allow the water to be turned-on. The water in the bucket is heated by the sun, so by 11am it is a nice temperature. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it is also the toilet. Yeah…there is a ceramic “squattie pottie” in the floor of this “outdoor shower room” so it sometimes smells like piss.

To make this situation even more frustrating…it is really hot here. This is the 3rd really bad heat wave this summer…and with limited running water, it is hard to stay cool (remember – there is practically no AC in the entire country). According to their records, this is the hottest summer in over 100 years, and Moldova is the hottest place in all of Europe this summer.

As you may know, my ‘job’ here is to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL) in high school. I have a partner whom is very kind (she is also an English teacher). We had a meeting on Monday with all the teachers at the school. It was nice to meet my collegues. I definitely think that I am very spoiled b/c not only are there 2 English teachers at my school, my director/principle speaks English as does one of the French teachers and one of the Romanian teachers. My school has had 5 PCV TEFLs teaching at in the past, so they definitely know what to expect from Americans. I am counting on this to be an advantage.

After the meeting, I was suppose to find out which classes I will be teaching, however there was an argument between my partner and the other English teacher, so this has not yet been decided. Unfortunately the argument was completely in Romanian, and I didn’t understand all of it. So, I’ve been here for almost a week and have yet been unable to start prepping for my classes because I don’t know which classes I will be teaching.

Well, I hope that you find this interesting, or at least gave you a reason to stop doing your work and play around on the internet for a while. I’ll keep you all up-to-date on what is going on here.

I love hanging out with my host family. My mom is a total sweetheart and my sister is always trying to help me with everything. My 13 year-old brother is a total hoot. The other day we had a water fight in the yard. It was so much fun! My 17 year-old brother is fun to goof around with. We listen to music a lot in the living room (of course its all Euro-techno, but whatever). My dad works a lot so I don’t see him all that much, but when he is here he is very kind and funny (his son’s definitely take after him). In the typical Moldovan fashion, he is always trying to get me to drink wine or vodka or other alcohols. Surprisingly, I drink that much with them b/c they don’t really drink that much either. Also, once Moldovan’s start, its hard to stop.

The fish bowl syndrome is such an odd thing when you are the fish…It is an odd feeling to know so few people who think they know you. I try to talk to people I meet along the street (a common practice in villages in Moldova) and when I tell them who I am, they all already know. In fact, my host mom asked me if one of the other volunteers in my village was ok before I even knew that she was really sick. It’ll get worse when I can understand more of what people say I am sure.

Here are some interesting things about Moldova:

- when it is your birthday or other celebration, you do all the cooking (people don’t practice pot-luck)

- getting on a ruteria (public conversion van) is an interesting experience rolling down the bumpy road at 80 KPH standing-up with your face in someone’s smelly pit.

- They believe that you can get sick from the ‘current’. So, on that crowded ruteria, in 115 degree weather, they will close the windows for fear of getting sick.

- Along with that, they will not sit directly on anything. They generally have small carpets for chairs and would rather sit on their bag or shoe than on a stone or concrete step.

- The superstition behind this crazyness is that if you sit directly on anything cold, women will freeze their ovaries. (and men similarly will freeze their testes). Even my educated partner for practice school believes such things.

- They do not smile for pictures. They usually look quite mad…its just odd.

- They told us that on our site visits, it was important to check to make sure that the fridges were actually turned on. Seems like an odd notion, but the sometimes think that just having food IN the fridge is gonna keep it fresh (hey, at least they are ½ way there).

Right now I am in the middle of the 2nd half of practice school. I have the 9th grade and my class is all girls. They are much more inhibited than the 5th graders and are not as willing to be silly…yet. We have had 2 days of classes and have 5 more to go. I definitely enjoy teaching this level too because I can actually talk to these students (again, not all of them get it, but that is a multi-leveled classroom for ya).

There are definitely some things which I do not enjoy about practice school. Like in America, we write lesson plans, however the Moldovans are very specific about what they want on their plans and have the belief that if the plan is short or not how ‘they’ would do it, then the lesson was horrible and you are not a good teacher (even without observing the lesson). They also put so much effort into long term plans and the agenda (like a grade book kept for the grade with info about all the classes they have) and it seems like much less effort is put into actually teaching. This is something that I definitely will struggle with (me being so stubborn) and will have to accept the cultural difference of it.

That reminds me! The other thing that I have a HUGE issue with (as do most PCV TEFLs – and we were pre-warned about this) is that Moldovan teachers give out grades in class in front of everyone and tell them what they are doing right/wrong. (for example: “Maria, you did not pay attention today, you were rolling your eyes and talking too much to your neighbor – you get a 6 (equal to a D)” and this is a very ‘nice’ example.” My American sensibility is that grades are private and no-one’s business but the students, the teachers, the parents and the administration…not the other students. My partner teacher argued with me that I will change my thought on this, but I don’t think that I will. Only time will tell.

As you may know, I am currently in training (PST) and am living with a host family and after my training; I will be moving to another site and staying with a different host family for the next two years.

I went to visit my future site a few weeks ago. Most sites in Moldova (and all of PC for that matter) are usually small villages, but my site is actually a regional center, but not a very large one. It has about 15,000 people living in it and s about 1 hour from the capital. I wanted a site that was not a small village so I am very happy. My town has 2 discos and 3 pizza shops and a small supermarket (about the size of a new big gas station). It is not the largest place, but I can get what I need on a regular basis, and the capital is not far away. It is very green and lush. It is situated in a valley of sorts and there are lots of hills everywhere. A big plus is that most of the roads are paved (good for walking in the rainy season so I don’t get too muddy).

My site has had several PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers) before. Very surprisingly, there is another PCV already in my site. Her name is Drea (Andrea) and has been in our site for about 9 months. She is not a TEFL teacher like me; she is working in different programs. I was so happy (as was she) to have a site partner. She showed me all around town and made me feel right at home. Another volunteer (Andy) from our region who lives in a very small village came in to visit Drea while I was there. Drea cooked us a delicious pasta lunch and we went for pizza and beer for dinner. It was awesome!

I met my future partner teacher (of English). Her name is Eofrosina Dragon. (don’t ask me how to pronounce it because I cant. I just call her Doamna (Mrs) Dragon). She is a pleasant older woman in her late 50s/60s. I also met my school director (principle). Surprisingly, he spoke very good English (it is not required for the directors to speak English and most do not) and he lived in the states in Des Moines for several years. The school I will be working in has had several PCVs so they have an idea of how ‘crazy’ we Americans can be…which hopefully will work to my advantage.

The main reason we went for this site visit was so that we could choose our future host families. We were given three choices. Let me run down the options I had:

1 – Beautiful big house with lots of technology, an enormous bedroom with TV, but I didn’t click with the host mom, and she has the brattiest 3 year-old granddaughter whom is at the house at least 3 times a week.

2 – Wonderful family of four with a son in the university in the capital who comes home on the weekends and a daughter in 9 grade. The family is the host uncle & neighbor of Drea’s host family. Both kids speak English very well and the dad understands a lot. The mom doesn’t speak English, but she teaches history at the same school as me. But I was previously informed that they weren’t sure about getting another volunteer (had one a few years ago) because they want to remodel their apartment). Also, the four of them live in a very small two bedroom apartment with an average size living room and tiny kitchen. It would have been uncomfortable to squeeze another person in there, much less if I had people come to visit (the day or long term).

3 – The family I choose is wonderful. I really clicked with the mom and the dad is very pleasant. They hosted a PCV previously and love her to death (think of my parents and Feranda). They have a nice house and a separate ‘casa mica’ (small house) where I will stay. The casa mica has a small living-room/kitchen area with a fridge/freezer but no stove/oven/microwave (but that is totally ok by me). I have my own bathroom with an indoor toilet and shower. On the second floor there is an average size bedroom with a freakin’ fantastic view down the valley. The house is about a 20 minute walk from school (I believe…not 100% sure b/c I have not yet made that walk directly). I am ok with that at the moment, b/c it means that I will be getting a minimum of 40 minutes of exercise a day, and that is about how far my current home if from school.

So, I am very excited to move to my new site in about 2 ½ weeks!!!

So, I have been having major problems with my computer/slow internet connection, internet cafe's with Russian language and a lack of USB ports have prevented me from posting. I've also had issues with the previous website, so I've moved my blog here (hope you don't mind).