Mărțișor

So this is my last March here in Moldova and I thought I would share with you the beautiful tradition that we have here about spring.

It's called the Mărțișor. It is an old Romanian celebration at the beginning of spring. On March 1st you are to wear a little red and white amulet on your lapel called the "mărțișor," pronounces mur-tsi-shor. The name Mărțișor is the diminutive of marț, the old folk name for March. (March in Romanian is Martie).

Some people say you are supposed to wear for the first 9-12 days of March. At school on March 1st, students give their teachers these beautiful red and white amulets to wear. Well, usually my partner just puts them on her desk, so I decided to wear all the ones that my students gave me, which got a few looks from people. I was told by someone that I looked like a general with all of the adornments on my jacket. I just wanted my students to see that I appreciated their gifts. ;)

I also wanted to share with you the legend of Mărțișor. Poftim! (Enjoy!)

There was a time when the Sun used to take the shape of a young man and descend on Earth to dance among folk people. Now a dragon found out about this and followed the Sun on Earth, captured him and confined him in a dungeon in his castle. Suddenly the birds stopped singing and the children could not laugh anymore but no one dared to confront the dragon.

One day a brave young man set out to find the dungeon and free the Sun. Many people joined in and gave him strength and courage to challenge the mighty dragon. The journey lasted three seasons: summer, autumn and winter. At the end of the third season the brave young man could finally reach the castle of the dragon where the Sun was imprisoned. The fight lasted several days until the dragon was defeated. Weakened by his wounds the brave young man however managed to set the Sun free to the joy of those who believed in him.

Nature was alive again, people got back their smile but the brave young man could not make it through spring. His warm blood was draining from his wounds in the snow. With the snow melting, white flowers, called snowdrops, harbingers of spring, sprouted from the thawing soil. When the last drop of the brave young man's blood fell on the pure white snow he died with pride that his life served a noble purpose.

Since then people braid two tassels: one white and one red. Every March 1 men offer this amulet called Martisor to the women they love. The red color symbolizes love for all that is beautiful and also the blood of the brave young man, while white represents purity, good health and the snowdrop, the first flower of spring.

http://www.e-scoala.ro/martie/martisoren.html

My COS date and some very awesome news!!

I found out that my "close of service" date will be July 18th! It feels kind of weird having an actual date now. Before, when people would ask me when I would be leaving Moldova and coming back home,I would say sometime in the summer....but now I actually have a date. How exciting is that?! Well if that wasn't exciting enough, my parents will be visiting Moldova on July 18th too!

Yes, tickets are bought. They leave California on July17th and will arrive in Chisinau, Moldova's capital, on July 18th....which happens to be my dad's birthday as well! I can't wait to show my parents my village and introduce them to my host family. I know it will be a little hard since they don't speak the language, but I will just have to interpret everything for them. I want them to stay in my village for a few days, then hopefully we will be able to see the capital for a day or two and then we will fly off to Spain!! That is the plan thus far, we already have tickets from Barcelona back to California....so what we do in between is still in the works.

This seems like a dream come true to me...I know that some people didn't think my parents would ever come to Moldova, but they are. It will be the first time for the both of them to experience Europe and we are going to have a blast! Watch out Moldova, the Mexicans are coming!!!

October-January.

So I guess I have been hibernating since winter is in full force over here in Moldova. Let me recap the past 4 months:

October:

We held a Halloween dance at school. The priest got upset because he believes Halloween is of the Devil. He showed up to the dance but did not witness any sacrifices or pagan worship.

November:

It really started getting cold in November, and when my partner teacher Sveta invited me for a BBQ in the woods, I almost said no. I didn't want to spend the day in the cold woods when I could stay at home, in bed with my Turkish boyfriend, aka, my electric bed warmer from Turkey. Well, I decided to go and I am glad that I did. It was one of the best days I have had here in Moldova. I met a lot of fun people, ate some great food and drank some hot wine.

December:

I spent Christmas Eve in my friend's village since it is her birthday too. She made handmade decorations for us which were super cute. We then took a vacation to Romania. We went to Bucharest for a few days, and then headed to Brasov then Bran. Brasov was a super cute town, we spent New Years Eve there and then headed to Bran the next day to see Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle. Romania was great. It was nice being able to know the language and they have movies in English there, which was a nice treat. (In Moldova, all the movies are in Russian w/Romanian subtitles).

January:

It was hard going back to school after winter break, as I am sure it was for the students as well. It didn't start snowing until January here in Moldova, which was nice. Last year it started to snow in the beginning of December. I have been using my Yak Traks everyday to try to avoid falling but somehow have managed to fall three times already. I really dislike ice, and January was full of it. There wasn't a ton of snow, it would snow one day, then melt a little bit, then freeze and continue to be freezing cold for a week. The wind was really bad and made for a horrible walk to school.