Sunday, December 19, 2010

Pics

                                                                My first little snowflake
Some more snowflakes

My host sister Valeria on the steps of the house

Walking to school

Me walking back from the store during break

The hill down

English Club girls outside of school

                                              The finished product of my snowflake tutorial
Celebrating 6 months in Moldova-dinner at Tulip, a Thai restaurant 12.10.12


Winter Wonderland

Winter is here in Moldova….well, technically winter starts on Tuesday but it started to snow here on December 1st. How appropriate is that? Rewind back to the 1st...I woke up for breakfast at 7am and went to the kitchen, which is under the house (think basement) so I have to walk outside of the house to get to it…anyways…it was cold so I hurried in the warm kitchen to eat my oatmeal with raisins and tea and then when I left to go back in the house and it  had started to snow! It was so pretty. It was only a little bit snow, but I don’t think I had ever had snow fall from the sky and land on me. I usually have just seen it on the ground already after it fell. Make sense? Needless to say, I was excited! I ran in to get my camera and took a pic of my first snowflake. This also shocked me too…because I could make out the shape of the snowflake…like the ones you cut out of paper as a kid.


So I have obviously never lived in snow before…I have visited Lake Tahoe before and seen the snow, and maybe stayed in cabin for the weekend…but never lived in the snow. It is so beautiful….but cold. Everything looks like a Christmas card out here…the big open fields, covered in a thick blanket of sparkling white snow. And then when I see the horse carts/sleighs on the streets and it’s perfect!

I made snowflakes with my English Club kids and taught them a wide vocabulary of Christmas words, which was fun because when I worked at an elementary school back in CA we weren’t allowed to talk about Christmas….so I’m happy I can talk all I want about Christmas here in Moldova. We even watched Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer but I’m not sure how much they understood because I wasn’t able to find Romanian subtitles and just had English ones.

I finally got my pair of Sorel boots that I ordered online and had sent home to me in CA. (Thanks Stacy for sending them to me!) They are really nice and warm and prefect for the snow. I haven’t broke down and bought a pair of leather boot like a true Moldoveanca. I just don’t see how walking in the snow in leather boots, usually with heels, makes sense. Knowing me, I probably would fall down and break my arm if I was wearing those type of boots…so I will have to deal with not being “frumos” (beautiful). Plus…I’m not a big fan of leather…and don’t see a need in buying animal skin products.

So anyways, there is a huge hill that I have to climb to make it to work but it only takes about 8 minutes to get there…but it’s pretty steep. I put on all these layers every morning and bundle up to make my snowy trek to school and by the time I get there, I am hot. I get to school and take off the majority of my layers off because I’m sweating now and then just get cold later. It’s a funny game that my body likes to play with me, and all I can hear is Katie Perry playing in my head…”cause you’re hot then you’re cold…”

So, so far, so good. I have only fell once, knock on wood. Of course it was coming down the steep hill home after school. I’m not sure who saw me, but I quickly got up and pretended like nothing happened. I have heard from other volunteers that have fallen and by the time they get home, their host family has already heard about their spill….because word spreads quick in a village. I wasn’t wearing my Yak Trax either…so I probably deserved it. Peace Corps gives us these cool little things to put over our shoes that provide traction on ice and snow but when I leave school, there really isn’t a place for me to sit down and put these things on so I figure I’ll be okay without them…until I fall. Then, if it is warmer one day out than the previous, the snow starts to melt and then it will just freeze over the next cold day and that makes for ice, which is not a clumsy gal’s friend. It’s cute though because the kids at school play on the ice and run and slide on it during their breakds from class while I try to avoid it at all costs.

They tell me it will get colder in January, which I can’t even fathom right now because it’s pretty damn cold to me know. If it stayed like this…I think I could handle it…but we shall see what January has in store for me. All I know is that there is one week left of school before winter break and I'm not sure who's more excited....me or the kids? Liz and I leave for Turkey on the 28th and will be back on Jan. 5th just in time to celebrate orthodox Christmas here on the 7th. My host mom told me that she wants to celebrate the 25th of December as well, since I am living with them, which I thought was really nice of her. So Feliz Navidad and Merry Christmas to all my loved ones,

Love, Neet