The Wanderer
I did the math yesterday morning on a mini-bus from Chisinau to my village and realized that from the 5th of June to the 4th of July I went back and forth between my home and the capital of Moldova an amazing 7 times. That's means I traveled back and forth every four days, a shockingly large amount considering that as a teacher, I made the trip maybe once every two weeks during the school year. It was getting to the point that when one of the two drivers with whom I go saw me, they would give me a look that was a combination of “You again? Why?” and “It's been a while. Where have you been?” I got to know the road amazingly well, listened to over 250 songs on my Ipod, and finished two books. I spent fourteen hours of my life just inside buses/minibuses and spent twenty-seven dollars just on transport. I never spent more than three consecutive nights in one place. And this is supposed to by my vacation . . .
It was at that point that I decided to relax a bit (admittedly a bold statement coming from someone who has just spent three days in Istanbul and another two in Odessa). So I've decided to stick around my village a bit, not going anywhere for the next six days until I have to go teach two sessions of training to the new group that has come in. Yes, there is nothing to do and I may go stir crazy from boredom. But on the plus side, I'm almost guaranteed to sleep ten hours a night, I'll practice my Russian (which was fine when Mom and Dad were here as well as in Odessa but, like my mind is taking a vacation from Russian because of over-use, has in explicitly fallen hard in the last week). I'll read a lot, go for walks, add to my tan, and maybe get a hair-cut. It'll be nice to relax a bit.
Notes:
- As anyone who has read this recently knows well, I spent two days in the Ukrainian resort city of Odessa for two days. It's 5.50$ and five hours from Chisinau, and needless to say it was one of the best times I've ever had. We arrived at 5:20 the first morning and after talking with some drivers we found our way to the center, where we quickly met up with a woman who told us we could sleep in her apartment for 15 dollars a night, per person, not a bad deal. We followed her there and got totally set up by 8:30. We spent the day, from 1:00 in the afternoon to 6:00 at night, sitting on a beach and sipping beer. That was it. The whole day. At night we went down to relax and re-charge at 8:30 with the plan to wake up at 9:20, be out the door by 9:30. I set my phone alarm, double checked it, and went to sleep with my friend relying on me.
Then I woke up at 12:30, in the middle of the night. It wasn't clear at the time (and it's still not clear) what exactly happened, but all I know is that we wasted one of our two nights in Odessa. Not fun.
The second day proceeded a lot like the first, with us walking around the center of the city first before heading to the beach where we basically repeated the previous day's lounging around. At night, after giving too much gas to the boiler and having my friend singe off all the hair on his right arm (literally) after getting too close with a match, we departed to a bar near our neighborhood. Our plan was simply to talk to someone there and figure out where to go (our previous day's searchings had led us to two possibilities: One main street in the center or to a boardwalk area near the beach we spent the first night. In talking with the waitress she said that the center was no good; there was only one decent disco there and it were “a lot of Arabs and Turks there.” Her recommendation: the boardwalk.
So that's where we ended up, taking a taxi. It was great selection on the part of the waitress, as it was a lot of fun there, the type of place that was relatively dead because it was a Monday but which we knew would be a blast on a weekend. It was there that I had the aforementioned run-in with the cop and bought him off with a 1.20$ pizza, then spent the next three hours talking with these two French guys from Lyon who spoke English well and just happened to be doing a huge road-trip through Europe. We had a really nice talk and they bought us beer – who could ask for anything more?
- Last Saturday was the annual Fourth of July party sponsored by the US Chamber of Commerce in Moldova. Like last year, it was at a park near the center of Chisinau and was full of either Americans or Moldovans who had some association with the US Embassy or any number of US based NGO's (like USAID). It was a great chance to get out and meet some new people – while the Peace Corps community here is great, it's small too (only 125 of us) – so my buddy and I spent the night talking with some Marines who guard the Embassy as well as some Moldovans who had spent some time in America (including one girl who studied for a year at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse). At night, after the party, two of my friends and I went out with a Moldovan girl I met (more in a second).
- Last Sunday was our graduation ceremony at my school for the 11th graders, another great time. It started with a ceremony at 8:30 at night at which my director gave a speech and handed out diplomas, and we quickly moved to a huge dinner in our cafeteria with all the parents, teachers, and students who either finished school this year or, for whatever reason, had to leave at some point. I ended up leaving at 5:45 in the morning, laughing on my way home when I realized that, on June 5th when I went to Istanbul, I walked out my door at 5:30 AM. That was quite the revelation to have.
- Finally, on Saturday night after the Fourth of July get-together a Moldovan girl I had met brought my and two friends of mine to a really nice bar a little north of the center of Chisinau. We were walking through the door when a guard pointed to a buddy of mine, scrunched us his face a little, and said, “He's wearing shorts. I don't know . . . .” Having a Moldovan girl there helped a lot and she started to negotiate with him in Russian, at one point saying “and they're Americans.” The guard started to perk-up a little at that, then asked us what states we were from.
“I'm from Minnesota,” I said.
He responded, “Minnesota, really? OK, I love basketball and play it all the time. Tell me, please, who is the basketball player in the state of Minnesota?
There is only one answer, of course: “Kevin Garnett.”
His faced brightened, he smiled a little, stepped to the side while opening out his arm, and warningly welcomed us in.
It was at that point that I decided to relax a bit (admittedly a bold statement coming from someone who has just spent three days in Istanbul and another two in Odessa). So I've decided to stick around my village a bit, not going anywhere for the next six days until I have to go teach two sessions of training to the new group that has come in. Yes, there is nothing to do and I may go stir crazy from boredom. But on the plus side, I'm almost guaranteed to sleep ten hours a night, I'll practice my Russian (which was fine when Mom and Dad were here as well as in Odessa but, like my mind is taking a vacation from Russian because of over-use, has in explicitly fallen hard in the last week). I'll read a lot, go for walks, add to my tan, and maybe get a hair-cut. It'll be nice to relax a bit.
Notes:
- As anyone who has read this recently knows well, I spent two days in the Ukrainian resort city of Odessa for two days. It's 5.50$ and five hours from Chisinau, and needless to say it was one of the best times I've ever had. We arrived at 5:20 the first morning and after talking with some drivers we found our way to the center, where we quickly met up with a woman who told us we could sleep in her apartment for 15 dollars a night, per person, not a bad deal. We followed her there and got totally set up by 8:30. We spent the day, from 1:00 in the afternoon to 6:00 at night, sitting on a beach and sipping beer. That was it. The whole day. At night we went down to relax and re-charge at 8:30 with the plan to wake up at 9:20, be out the door by 9:30. I set my phone alarm, double checked it, and went to sleep with my friend relying on me.
Then I woke up at 12:30, in the middle of the night. It wasn't clear at the time (and it's still not clear) what exactly happened, but all I know is that we wasted one of our two nights in Odessa. Not fun.
The second day proceeded a lot like the first, with us walking around the center of the city first before heading to the beach where we basically repeated the previous day's lounging around. At night, after giving too much gas to the boiler and having my friend singe off all the hair on his right arm (literally) after getting too close with a match, we departed to a bar near our neighborhood. Our plan was simply to talk to someone there and figure out where to go (our previous day's searchings had led us to two possibilities: One main street in the center or to a boardwalk area near the beach we spent the first night. In talking with the waitress she said that the center was no good; there was only one decent disco there and it were “a lot of Arabs and Turks there.” Her recommendation: the boardwalk.
So that's where we ended up, taking a taxi. It was great selection on the part of the waitress, as it was a lot of fun there, the type of place that was relatively dead because it was a Monday but which we knew would be a blast on a weekend. It was there that I had the aforementioned run-in with the cop and bought him off with a 1.20$ pizza, then spent the next three hours talking with these two French guys from Lyon who spoke English well and just happened to be doing a huge road-trip through Europe. We had a really nice talk and they bought us beer – who could ask for anything more?
- Last Saturday was the annual Fourth of July party sponsored by the US Chamber of Commerce in Moldova. Like last year, it was at a park near the center of Chisinau and was full of either Americans or Moldovans who had some association with the US Embassy or any number of US based NGO's (like USAID). It was a great chance to get out and meet some new people – while the Peace Corps community here is great, it's small too (only 125 of us) – so my buddy and I spent the night talking with some Marines who guard the Embassy as well as some Moldovans who had spent some time in America (including one girl who studied for a year at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse). At night, after the party, two of my friends and I went out with a Moldovan girl I met (more in a second).
- Last Sunday was our graduation ceremony at my school for the 11th graders, another great time. It started with a ceremony at 8:30 at night at which my director gave a speech and handed out diplomas, and we quickly moved to a huge dinner in our cafeteria with all the parents, teachers, and students who either finished school this year or, for whatever reason, had to leave at some point. I ended up leaving at 5:45 in the morning, laughing on my way home when I realized that, on June 5th when I went to Istanbul, I walked out my door at 5:30 AM. That was quite the revelation to have.
- Finally, on Saturday night after the Fourth of July get-together a Moldovan girl I had met brought my and two friends of mine to a really nice bar a little north of the center of Chisinau. We were walking through the door when a guard pointed to a buddy of mine, scrunched us his face a little, and said, “He's wearing shorts. I don't know . . . .” Having a Moldovan girl there helped a lot and she started to negotiate with him in Russian, at one point saying “and they're Americans.” The guard started to perk-up a little at that, then asked us what states we were from.
“I'm from Minnesota,” I said.
He responded, “Minnesota, really? OK, I love basketball and play it all the time. Tell me, please, who is the basketball player in the state of Minnesota?
There is only one answer, of course: “Kevin Garnett.”
His faced brightened, he smiled a little, stepped to the side while opening out his arm, and warningly welcomed us in.
posted by Andy Buchanan at 5:16 AM
1 Comments:
Andy-
Your blog entries are always so informative and interesting that I can feel myself right there with you! I loved the account of your stay in Odessa, and think back to your earliest experiences in Dmitrov. The sense of openness in experiencing the local culture is a great gift!
By now I am Fresno, CA as senior minister of First Congregational Church. Yesterday I interviewed a 23 year old young man for a position at the church. Only as we parted did we discuss his background- he's from Moldova!! I told him about you, and when he returns on Friday, I am going to introduce him to your blog.
Glad your folks got to visit. Has Sasha gotten down yet?
Lastly- I cannot locate your current Email address. Mine remains the same. Drop me a note, and I can re-enter it into my address book.
Poka,
Norman
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