Pale Gold, With a Pear Aroma, and a Bubbly Splash of Peaches

I’ve developed a bad habit of waking up two hours before I actually need to leave and simply lying in bed for the rest of the time I could be dreaming through my REM phase. Instead, the night before, I set my alarm for 6:30 when we have to leave at 9. Why???

Anyway, Vera, Amelia (who returned from camp last night!) and I all went to the US Embassy this morning to board a bus that would take us to the Curchi Monastery in Orhei, another city near Chisinau. The day before, in order to get to Ultimate practice, I had to pass by the embassy. Being unaware of the restriction on photographing the embassy, I snapped a photo of the building with its guards and gates. I noticed a couple moments later that the guards had all gathered and were pointing at me. Woops. I just kept on walking. I got the picture!

After everyone had arrived we set off for the monastery. It took about forty-five minutes to get there by a contracted minibus that kept on stalling out and giving me little heart attacks. We made it eventually, driving through many farm fields with corn, grapes, and lots of other fruits and vegetables. Many of the farms we passed owned goats, cows, and horses. Some of the goats were relaxing (jchillin’) only a couple yards away from the highway! While the picture doesn’t show the country’s true beauty, the green and yellow of the farmland sprawls over the ground for miles and is just picturesque.

When arriving at the monastery, us women had to cover our heads with scarves we had brought with us, out of respect to the building and customs. Unfortunately we were not allowed to photograph the inside of the building, for it was stunning. Built from a light wood that was glossed over, the walls and ceiling of the building were gilded and the candlelight illuminated the church, reflecting of the gold. All the writing being in Russian, I couldn’t read the words on the walls or descriptions of artifacts but I recognized pictures of the Virgin Mary with Jesus and a few other disciples.

After visiting the gift shop, we boarded the bus again and this time headed to Chateau Vartely Winery! The winery was handsomely built with a tourist-like appearance but simultaneous authentic wine factory aura. The surrounding scenery was also amazing as the winery was built on one of the hills in the area. Our tour guide led us through the distillery and storage buildings, showing us the enormous metal tanks that held the wine. We ended the tour in the cellars holding the newest wines. Countless barrels filled the room, each labeled with the sample and vintage.

We proceeded to the wine tasting in the lower level of the basement. Each placemat at the table held four glasses, a smaller one for white wines, the regular red wine glass, and an extra glass. The fourth glass held still water. Between every few placemats, a wine bottle that was tempered into an appetizers tray was filled with cheese, walnuts, crackers, and dried apricots and grapes. Included at each placemat was a pamphlet for scoring each wine by color, bouquet (smell), and taste. I scored each of them, and my favorite was a white wine, which, of course, I didn’t catch the name of. Everyone was just a little tipsy by the time we went to lunch!

The lunch banquet was outside in the shade with a warm breeze blowing. We had a huge meal for only about $20, which is great, and my meal was delicious! It was way too much food, but I got to try a bit of everything. My first course was a game meat soup, which I had with placinte. Then I had mamaliga with cream-and-chicken. For dessert there was sweet placinte with some type of berry in it, maybe sour cherry, and powdered sugar sprinkled on top.  I was so stuffed!  A nice perk was that we got to finish the wines that were opened from the tasting so whichever was your favorite you could sample a little more of. The wine, sun, and excess of food made for a great car nap on the way home. When we got back to Chisinau I was exhausted but I had had an amazing day!

 

To top it off, I woke up this morning and had a two-hour Skype session with the best big brother in the world! <3

The Things I Do For Ultimate

I went from having little to write about to having essays to complete!!

Over the past few days I frequented a couple more restaurants and coffee shops and met new people. I wandered into a sweetshop called Delice D‘ange. Does the name itself not make you want to bake a cake and let the rich, bittersweet flavor melt smoothly over your taste buds? I tried a strawberry shortcake slice and it was joyous. Look at the beauty of unhealthy amounts of sugar.

On Thursday night, I met with Daniela, a Lehigh Global Village alum at Eli Pili Restaurant. She was very engaging and we talked at length about schooling, the differences in drive of people who live in respective countries, and many other topics.

Later in the night I met with Raluca at the Rodrigo restaurant. It was Hispanic Thursday so many Latinos and Spaniards who live in Moldova were watching the USA vs. Germany game there. We had appetizers with a bottle of wine with whoever came to chat with us. Raluca knows everybody in town. That is how you fundraise! Later we went to Eli Pili (again!) and had a couple drinks with her neighbors. One being from Canada had an “American” accent. For some reason it felt great to hear English unmarred by other accents, but in no way am I trying to be offensive to anyone who has does have one! I have loved meeting everyone here, and am grateful to those who can converse in English with me!

AAAANNNNDDDDD…..highlight of the week…..

I FOUND AN ULTIMATE TEAM IN MOLDOVA!!!!!!!!! I JUST THREW A DISC FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TWO WEEKS.

I found the Flying Mamaligas’ Facebook page a couple days ago and contacted them. They told me they were practicing last night at 6:30. By the time I got home it already was 6:30 so I dropped everything and rushed out the door in a dress (I was meeting someone afterwards).  It took me about an hour and a half to get to the Parcul Dendrarrium where they practice. WHO creates a park with only one entrance located ON THE FAR SIDE OF CHISINAU?? That being said, the park is HUGE so once I had walked the full length of it to get to the entrance, I spent about 30 minutes inside weaving through all sorts of trees and flowers and bushes and streams trying to find their practice! It was all worth it, though, when I saw the familiar setup of orange cones (on the less than mediocre field, of course). I met the team who welcomed me immediately. On the sideline, I talked with Natalia for a long time. She injured her knee a couple months ago and in order to play again she would need surgery, which is too expensive. That is such a bummer. Well I threw with her for a few minutes and feeling a disc fly off my fingers was the best feeling in the world.

Following the practice, I took the minibus for the first time by myself! Minibuses are the public transportation in Chisinau, but I don’t really fancy their system. There are a multiple buses labeled with numbers that drive around the city all day and pick up/drop off people. But they are inefficient in that they will pick people up wherever and drop people off wherever! There are no bus stops so a bus could end up stopping five times in two hundred yards. The buses are also unlabeled by the routes the take, so I have no idea which bus I need to get on to get to my house, or the Hospice. It’s crazy, but it is part of the culture here! Anyway, I successfully flagged on down and dropped myself off right next to my house. A small personal glory!

Plăcinte and și Mămăligă

Over the weekend I was able to visit a few places like the MallDOVA, the Museum of Etymology and Natural History, and La Plăcinte. On Saturday Vera took me to Chisinau’s mall, which is four stories high and I believe the largest mall in the country. There are many clothing and shoe shops there. I was looking out for a pair of shoes to wear when it rains here because my Toms got soaked last week. Instead I bought a pair of pants because I am sorely in need of a bigger wardrobe. I really screwed up that one in my packing!!

            For dinner Vera and I tried out the Japanese restaurant in MallDOVA. I got the tori don, which was not as good as what I can have back home, but that is why I am here, right? To enjoy and revel in the pleasures that Moldova can offer me! And that is exactly what I have been doing!

            On Sunday afternoon myself, Angee, Marina from American Councils, and Angee's host twins Ioana and Christina visited the museum. Our tour guide thankfully spoke English and we all learned much about Moldova’s history of secession, civil and inter-country wars, and independence, as well as culture.  Afterward we went to the city’s emporium and saw a number of interesting birds I have never set my eyes upon in the US.

 Following the museum tour and emporium we walked to La Plăcinte, a restaurant a little northwest of the center of Chisinau. We ordered many traditional dishes like mămăligă (a porridge-cornbread like food) and of course, plăcinte (bread with different types of vegetables in them). We had sarma (stuffed cabbage rolls) for dinner tonight, another Moldovan cuisine. So almost everything about this post is going to be about food then because I also went to lunch with Angee this afternoon at La Taifas, where the waiters dress up in traditional Moldovan costumes. I had some plăcinte there also. It took a couple hours, but that is the European way, no? To sit back, relax, and take your time! Everything I experienced this weekend was beautiful and informative, and everything I ate was delicious!

Doin' It Right

(6/19)

First off, this afternoon I passed a guy in his car listening to Timeflies’ “Doin’ it Right.” Timeflies has made it all the way from Boston to Moldova, good for them!!

Our office

I think I found my “niche” at the hospice today! While researching new developments on hospice and palliative care as well as ostomies and stoma bags, I came across a detailed description of a recent alternative to permanent stoma operations called APPEAR, or Anterior Perineal Plane for ultra-low Anterior Resection. I found the article so interesting and engaging that I ended up spending quite some time reading up on it. I would elaborate but it’s a process that might overwhelm people. I felt a bit queasy myself picturing it.  Here are the articles I was reading if you would like to look at them:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2070375/New-bowel-operation-replace-colostomies.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18438111

I walked around a different part of town today, and came across a big outdoor market with different booths selling hundreds of magnets, jewelry, paintings, and hand carved wooden statues. It was the first place I’d seen selling anything close to souvenirs! Wandering around the “central park” of Chisinau, I came across this terrific chess set! Set in front of a big white church, is a hugely proportioned chessboard and pieces. One can move the pieces around and actually play a game! Not quite at Harry Potter level, but close enough!

(6/21)

Last night I went to an EVS volunteer’s birthday party! Her name is Annely and she is so cool for just letting me come with my knowing her or anything. I walked there with Tomas, Tony, Lasse, and his girlfriend, also an EVS volunteer, Mirjam, from Germany. It was just outside the Center district at a building the volunteers call the Cave.  We stayed there for a while until we decided to go back into the city and look at a couple bars. All this was after watching the Italy vs. Costa Rica game. Unfortunately for Tony who is Italian by ethnicity, Italy lost.

I met many new people at the party last night, finally meeting some people who are not EVS! It turns out that there are only about thirty EVS volunteers in Moldova but it seems like there are a hundred because I’ve met so many of them! Now I have met Jean from France, Charles from Cameroon (studying IR), Stas and Vlad (who are both Moldovan students here, but also mentor some EVS people in Romanian/Russian), and Matt (who is from New Jersey! He is finishing up his Peace Corps assignment. He’s heard of Lehigh!!).  There were a lot more people with whom I didn’t get to chat with but it was so interesting hearing everyone’s stories and backgrounds. Chisinau is so diverse and I love it!

 

 Finally, like promised, the bagged milk! Isn’t it cool??

Bagged Milk

As a result of our late night yesterday, Reluca allowed me to come in at 11 instead of 10 today. However I still woke up at 6:30 due to jetlag. I do hope it clears up soon. I arrived at the office 10 minutes early due to the fact that I still don’t know how long it will take me to get certain places. I met Christina this morning, another volunteer with the European Volunteer Service (which I’ll refer to as EVS from now on as it looks like I’ll be mentioning it often) whose main service lies with an orphanage in the Botanica of Chisinau, one of the five main sectors of the capital. She is from Holland, and has been here ten months already. She and almost everyone I’ve met through EVS have already learned Romanian and/or Russian fluently. So impressive! She and a few other EVS members are planning to meet at a pub tonight to watch the Netherlands vs. Australia match, so I may join them.

I went to the supermarket with Christina to get lunch this afternoon. It was crowded but I wandered around and ended up getting a croissant with chocolate filling. And it was delicious! I would marry a croissant if I could. What I found most interesting about Moldova’s supermarkets is that they package their milk in bags! I forgot to get a picture, but next time I’ll be sure to. Labelled Lapte, the Romanian word for milk, the bags are either rectangular or pyramidal, so they can sit in the fridge with one edge cut but still spill proof.

I almost forgot to mention the AMAZING dinner Vera made last night that I had for breakfast this morning. She put together some stuffed green peppers and pilaf and it was out of this world! I’ve never had pilaf because I didn’t know what it was and I’m never bold enough to go out my way to try new things. Well I tried the pilaf and my palate was blown. Vera had made it out of chopped peppers, ground beef, carrots, and probably some other ingredients that perfected it. I’ll definitely be bringing that recipe back with me.


I’m back in Tucano with my Frozzychino Caramelo. Like I said, I didn’t try something else because I don’t like change. When I’m feeling particularly courageous, it will happen. I’m desperate to know what “Cannabis” coffee tastes like. I also got some kind of healthy carrot cake with walnuts in it. It’s not so sweet but still moist which is why I like it.

Finally an adorable picture of Masya. She's decided my bag is now hers. 

It's football, not soccer

I began my first day of work today! I did not oversleep this time, and arrived at the office at 11:00am after a meeting with American Councils at 10:00. We have not yet established a definite work schedule for me but have agreed that I will be responsible for a new social media approach we will be implementing. Every few days, we will begin to post on the Hospice Angelus Facebook website, facts about palliative care. What it is, who it is meant for, societal views on it, research being done to improve it, and many other interesting troves of information. We are doing this to raise awareness of the necessity of palliative care and hospices and the constant demand for donations. Hospice Angelus is partners with Hospices of Hope in the UK and they receive 25% of their donations from the UK organization. The rest has to come from beneficiaries and other everyday donors. 

The hospice is also running a fundraiser during the month of June by giving these mascots to anyone who sponsors a home visit to someone in need of palliative care. It costs 200 Moldovan Lei, which is about $15. If you would like to donate (and receive 

a mascot!) please take a look at the flyer I posted. 

Well after work I visited a popular coffee shop called Tucano, about five minutes from the office. I ordered a Frozzychino Caramelo, which was similar to a Dunkin’ Donuts’ coolatta in terms of texture, but overall the Frozzychino was much better (and pretty unhealthy)! I stayed there for a few hours with my laptop, just relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere.

At 6:30, I met some coworkers and some new friends at an outdoor convention center, set up especially for the World Cup. These centers are located in many places around Chisinau, and provide locals and visitors with a place to watch the football games. The perimeter of the center is surrounded by beer companies selling cups for around $1 and fast food joints. My one coworker, Tomas, is from Belgium and he came out in full force with a large Belgium flag around his neck like a cape. I loved watching his reaction when they scored and won!

I met some new people last night who have come to Moldova with the European Voluntary Service, which is almost like the internship program I am doing, except the applicants include all of Europe! That’s quite a bit more competition. Tony is from the UK and he is doing service in an animal rescue shelter, which is really helpful because there are thousands of stray dogs and cats here. Lasse is from Germany and he is working with wheelchair accessibility and the infrastructure necessary to make Chisinau more wheelchair-friendly. Tomas is also here with the same program and he is working with the Hospice Angelus. They all have very important jobs and it’s great they are here. 

As we also watched the Mexico vs. Brazil game, I came home around 12am last night, and was thus unable to write this post earlier. Sorry about that! It seems as though I'll be writing everyday. There are simply too many things I experience every day for me not to keep writing!

the REAL way to make coffee!

So I began the day by oversleeping my first American Councils meeting. That was embarrassing. I guess jet lag has more effect than I thought! I was able to sleep through an hour and a half of my alarm going off. Impressive. However, my supervisor was incredibly understanding about it. She came to my house and walked me through everything, setting me up with a phone, telling me when the next meeting was, etc. Everybody is so amiable and welcoming here and I am blown away by it.

The weather is also great at a comfortable 70-ish degrees and sunny but pleasant. Chisinau is beautiful, with many tall trees and colorful flowers planted in all the streets. Lots of small shops and restaurants line the roads, as well as street vendors with a myriad of goods. A popular table holds an IQ test through a puzzle. Multiple young people were clustered around to try and solve it.

I met my coworkers, Raluca and Tomas, this afternoon at a quiet restaurant called Propaganda (I also wondered after the name). We had a sweet tea with sour cherries and strawberries in it; very refreshing! Gero, from the Austrian Embassy, joined us later and he invited me to visit him there sometime so he could show me around and explain what he does. Raluca joked that it would only take two minutes for him to explain everything haha.

I am now living with my host mother Vera, and her young daughter Amelia. They have an adorable cat named Maysa. I am petting her right meow. Lera works at the US Embassy, while Amelia goes to school. She plays piano very well and loves taking pictures! She’s already taken about fifty of them of me, Maysa, and her on her ipad, using all sorts of filters I don’t know anything about. #allllthefilters. She got a kick out of the backdrop effect on my photobooth app!

On a final awkward moment, after I missed showered this morning, I decided to make some coffee. Grabbing the tasty German coffee we had bought yesterday, I proceeded to look for the coffee filters. Well, I searched EVERYWHERE, and I couldn’t find them!! Turns out, we’ve been making instant coffee wrongly –the REAL way to make coffee is to boil water, then add the grounds. After the grounds settle to the bottom and release their flavor, pour the coffee into your mug. Who knew?

Sunrise

As I fly over the English channel, the sunrise I witness is spectacular. Over the endless sea of clouds the crimson ball of fire creeps towards the pale blue sky. The horizon slowly shifts from a perfect rainbow to mute its colors and become a separation of greenish-blue and peach. The sunlight streaming through the plane window is breathtaking and my picture will never do it justice.

That first paragraph brought out all kinds of inner wannabe creative writer. It is now 11:10 pm in Sudbury but already 5:00am in Germany, where I will be flying with Air Moldova to my final destination, Chisinau, the capital. I am starting to struggle from the lack of sleep. I woke up early this morning as a result of a number of different factors, including my sister and my dog being such heavy sleepers that they didn’t realize they wer sleeping on top of me last night.

I couldn’t sleep at all on the plane so instead I rewatched the second Hobbit movie, played some Plants vs. Zombies, finished my book “the Rental Sister,” and am currently writing this post. We had dinner around 7:00pm (ET) and as usual, it was the super sketchy plan meals. I ordered the chicken dinner (meat was a bold move) but it came with RICE so that was brownie points to Lufthansa!

Well we are preparing to land so I will wrap this up. Looking forward to writing the next post!