...and now from the [new] homebase, a recap.

11/17/06

Yesterday, after the swearing-in ceremony, where I delivered an amazingly well written and brilliantly presented speech IN ROMANIAN, I squeezed into a sedan with my counterpart, her friends, and my six heavy and enormous bags. The ride to Ocnita wasn’t the most comfortable; as the car was crammed with all of my stuff. But the trip went fast, just a little more than three hours (as opposed 4-5 by bus/rutiera.) When I arrived at my new home, Tamara, my new host mother who already calls me Amychka, prepared dinner for my neighbor across the hall (another American PCVolunteer who’s been here for over two years and used to live with Tamara) and me. I gave them presents of gold, delicacies, and treasures from America and Tamara served us peppers with special tomato sauce and homemade lemon cake for dessert. After dinner, Tamara and I snuggled together in her bedroom and watched Russian soap operas like we do. Today I spent the day unpacking, and left the house only to use the internet for an hour. I assume tomorrow will be more productive.

Leaving Ialoveni felt pretty good. My host family and I had some really nice nights before my departure that consisted of eating, drinking (and drinking) and dancing in the kitchen. During PST we trainees learned a little song and dance that teaches directions, like front, back, up, down. The first time I performed it for my family they were rolling and insisted I do it for them again and again. The night before I left, Big Sasha and I danced it together. When I tried to teach him the hokey pokey he told me it sucked, and I told him it was just because he didn’t understand the words.

Big Sasha is really going to miss me I think. He got really emotional when it was just the two of us left in the kitchen. He pretty much told me his life story and secrets about Ana, Little Sasha, and his ex-wife. He told me I was his daughter, and he wished I could stay with them for the two years. I promised I would visit, and spent the entire night packing all my shit and all the extra shit I had acquired during PST. The next morning, Big Sasha, Little Sasha, and Ana drove Michelle, Annie, and Me to the hotel in Chisinau and laughed as the American girls yelled “Goodbye Ialoveni! Thank you Ialoveni!” in Romanian.

The swearing-in ceremony was really beautiful and worth all the hours of rehearsal we had to endure through the two days we were in Chisinau. As I mentioned, I gave a speech in Romanian, and as I do when I’m in front of an audience, I pulled it off impeccably. I’m not sure if my pronunciation was dead-on, but I do know I received laughs at the jokes, tons of compliments after the ceremony, and three interviews by the press where I had to explain that I don’t speak Romanian as well as it might seem from my speech, I just practiced it a lot. I looked slamming, the group wasn’t embarrassing, and now, as opposed to a trainee who just fucks around, I am officially a volunteer who just fucks around.

My birthday this year was a success. Worrying about this one because I’m so far from my family, I pretty much gave a PSA every day about my birthday coming up. My friends got the hint, and for our last weekend of PST, we lived it up in Chisinau. My friends took me to an awesome restaurant called Kakudu that was ‘jungle’ themed and even had real! live! monkeys behind glass watching us eat other animals like baby lambs and baby cows (mutton and veal, for those culinarily with it.) No one let me pay for anything, and we all drank enough wine to have an amusing time but still get home safely in a cab. Funny to think that we’re here as volunteers in the poorest country in Europe, yet still manage to celebrate a birthday like we would in the states; at a nice restaurant, sporting our nice ‘fits, and splitting bottles of wine amongst friends. I don’t know how many times we’ll be able to go out like this as we are on a budget, but I think my bash set the precedent for future volunteer birthdays amongst our little group.

This evening I tried starting “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer and I’m really pissed because I already have read “A Curious Incident About a Dog at Midnight” once. I’m starting now on “Absurdistan” by Gary Shteyngart in addition to my non-fiction read, “The Price of Whiteness” about Jews and race in America, by Eric Goldstein, a professor at my hopefully future law school, Emory. This weekend I’ll probably be taking it easy as early next week I’ll again be back in Chisinau for Thanksgiving with all the volunteers around Moldova. After that, I’ll [mentally] start working. I imagine my future entries will not just consist of what restaurants I’ve visited or the contemporary books I’m reading, but instead will be about my cultural revelations and all the lives I’m touching, saving even, while I’m out here.