Picture Day!

Last Thursday was picture day for the teachers, and students in the 9th and 12th grades. Also, the best students from each grade in the school had their pictures taken for a kinda "Who's Who" of the school wall. A teacher, the day before, was discussing the process and said that I could have my picture taken with different animals. In my head I am thinking, "why would I want to take a picture holding a stuffed animal squirrel?" like in my preschool and kindergarten days. Oh well, I have seen stranger things before.
Picture day came and I was supposed to have my picture taken but as in Moldova style, no one could tell me when that would take place. The consensus was, "they will call you to take your picture." I waited and waited, went home to eat, came back for my final lessons and still no one had called me to take my picture. I took matters into my own hands. Upon entering the lunchroom/auditorium/picture studio the table in the far corner immediately drew my attention. On the table were layed out live animals...a baby alligator, a chinchilla, a small spider-type monkey, an iguana, and an owl perched on a pole. Well I will be darned! To have you picture taken you had to pay 15-30 lei depending on if you wanted the picture on the spot or in two weeks. I decided I would think about it and instead went to the line where the students were having their headshots made. I was immediately spotted and told to move to the front of the line. "Why didn't you come earlier? You are late." the teacher assisting asked me. Ugh, go figure.
I eventually yielded to the idea of posing dangerously close to such wild beasts and decided I could not live without such a picture. I gathered the three girls I tutor and we had our pictures made, I held the baby alligator. It was a fun moment, holding an alligator and trying not to strike a Moldovan no smile look.