Help Send A Girl On A Trip of A Lifetime

This Christmas is a great time to go explore other countries and help make your dreams come true. A while back I began to plan how I would spend my Christmas vacation. With my best bud in on the scheme we decided to hit up other countries in Eastern Europe. Original plans of travelling to Budapest, Prague and Krakow were changed to do lack of funds until only Prague and Krakow remain. Still, funds are EXTREMELY low and unless I decide to join the urban entrepreneurs club (becoming a call girl/prostitute) than my dream will not come true.
So, what can you get me for Christmas? You can send me money. :)
I am over here working hard to spread the culture of America and to absorb all the culture knowledge of Moldova to bring back to the states. I am working hard to make our people look good and to help those that need help over here.
Whatever amount you want to pledge I will be willing to receive. If you want to send me a few benjamins email me and I will let you know how to do it...which would mostly be sending the money to my parents and them sending it to me all in one large (rather large, i hope) lump sum. So think it over. This holiday season, give the gift that keeps on giving.

An Early Halloween

Last year I handed out candy for Halloween and that was the extent of my sharing this American holiday with the students at my school. This year, I was bent on doing something different…larger, if you will. So, with my fellow English teachers we came up with a great contest of sorts. Every class in the school would decorate their door to celebrate Halloween. They would also create a mask and a presentation for the mask which would be held after school as an assembly. Six judges would rate the classes according to the three categories, door, mask and presentation.
Because of other events happening next week, our contest was pushed up to today, giving the students two days to prepare. I was a little worried about what would come out of it, but the other teachers assured me it would be just fine. Students leave everything till the last minute anyway, so why plan it for a week in advance?
So today we celebrated Halloween. I dressed up as a pirate, with a painted on beard, black eye, and even missing teeth. Everyone at the school loved it and children would peek in during the breaks to check me out. I would smile my toothless smile and say “arrr.” It was very entertaining.
The students’ doors were AMAZING! They did such a great job and were so freakin’ creative! One of the classes went as far as setting up their room as a sort of haunted house, without any prompting from others! Above is a picture from their room. I almost got teary eyed seeing how the students enthusiastically celebrated an unknown holiday. Other students decorated their room as a crime scene with police tape, blood and chalk outlines.
The presentation went well and was done entirely in English. I did read the final scores off in Romanian, so no one would be confused. And of course, afterwards there was a disco. And, of course, I danced.
Overall, it was great and I was proud and honored that my school would embrace Halloween with such energy and excitement. Some students came to school with made up bloody faces and others yelled out “Happy Halloween!” to me. It was really really great. I am excited for next year (although I will not be here) when the celebration will be bigger and better. The students are already planning for it!!!

Wine Festival & Haram

This last few weeks have been busy in Chisinau. The weekend before...October 7th, was the fifth annual Wine Festival in Chisinau. Wine is a big part of the tradition here, and there are tons and tons of wine factories throughout the country. The all took part in the festivities, each setting up their own booths for people to sample and buy their wine. I was lucky enough to be in town and with my friend Steph. We caught up with one of her friends and cruised around the place with the mission:wine. We sampled a few and bought some bottles of several white wines and a champagne to try. Then came dancing the hora in the center of the capital while watching concerts. It was a great time and one of the top 10 best times here in Moldova, if not the number one spot.
This last weekend...October 14th, was Chisinau's Haram. Every village, city and whatnot has their own day. This is a chance to boogie on down with your friends and relatives and eat and drink the day/night away. I was in town with my host family and we stopped in the center to check out all the fuss. There were a lot more people here than for the wine festival and after about ten minutes of being pushed around decided to head back to my sister's apartment. Before the concert the men cooked barbecue and the women went on a beer run and prepared the rest of the food. I haven't ate that much food..well, since the day before.
I will put up pictures of Steph and I's good time when she sends them to me.

It's Wine Time!

This is the time of year when families pick their grapes and start producing home-made wine. I have never tasted as delicious of wine as I have here in Moldova. The flavor is fresh and goes down easy. I would venture to say it is a little bit more potent than the supermarket variety. If you are lucky, you will be a guest at a house where the wine is completely natural. This means that nothing was added to the grapes in the process of making wine. No water, no sugar…just grapes. My host family makes natural wine, and I am quick to point out to guests that what they are drinking is straight from the earth. No wine in America that you find in the supermarket or wine store can claim theirs is homemade.
So we head to our garden in the back and begin filling buckets upon buckets with grapes. I ask if there is a special process or selection and they tell me “no, everything.” So everything goes into the wine. The small grapes, the withered grapes, the stems, the bunches, it all goes in. Of course, we don’t fill our buckets with the grape leaves, because that would just be silly. In about two hours, the grape vines in the garden are barren. All the grapes get sent through this sifter type device that is a wooden box sitting on top of the enormous wooden wine barrel. As we dump the grapes in, my host dad begins cranking the sifter, which mashes the grapes, coaxing out all the juices. I get the honors of climbing on top of the shed to collect the grapes from the vines on top of the shed and surrounding the house. This requires several positions, sitting, kneeling, squatting, standing, lunging, as the vines are low and tangley. By this time, my hands are covered in grape particles and grape juices. I am quite certain my hair is matted down with grapeness and the bees have named me their queen by the looks of all of them swarming around me.
After the barrel is full of squished grape bunches it is covered and allowed to sit and marinate and ferment a bit. Within three or so days, depending on the weather, you have wine. But it is “new wine” which means it is not fully fermented and still contains a little bit of bacteria. As volunteers, we are not encouraged to drink “new wine” unless we want to be ill and camp out in the outhouse. But as the wine was pouring out of the barrel and into the barrel where it will finish fermenting, I couldn’t help but take a taste. “New wine” is very tasty and resembles grape juice with a kick. I had a glass and savored it. Hours later and I still feel fine. I escaped the clutches of the “new wine” monster. Now I will have to wait a few weeks and/or months to taste this year’s wine. Happy Drinking!