America's Birthday
There are a few days of year in the life-cycle of a Peace Corps Moldova volunteer that we – all of us – look forward to for months and months. I'm not talking about Halloween or Easter or Christmas. I'm talking about Wine Day and the Fourth of July, both events taking place in Chisinau with massive amounts of other volunteers, plenty of Moldovans, and everyone around in a great, jovial, celebratory mood. This year was no different. Rather than go blow-by-blow I'll just write about the many highlights.
1) In our first year here we paid no entry fee, there was a ton of food, as well as free beer, red wine, white wine, vodka, cognac, and coke. For everyone involved, things got a little nuts. One year ago we paid 100 lei (ten dollars) and got only free beer and intermittent food. It was fun but could have been better. This year we paid 150 lei and there was free beer, the two types of wine, and a lot of food. It was, despite the increased price, by far the best of the three. There were at least 120 Peace Corps volunteers there as well as another 100 Americans and a lot of Moldovans – it was a great combination of people, all of which were there just to have a good time.
2) Another difference compared with the first two years was the location: most of us agreed that the new place was a big improvement (a big statement because it was a great location in the past). It was basically a huge patio with a big pool in the middle. The party started at 3:00 in the afternoon and it took four hours for volunteers to start jumping in. We were just standing around talking when we heard a loud splash and turned around to see one of us in the water. It took literally seconds for others to follow. When I saw what was going on I turned to a friend of mine and asked him when we were going in. His answer?: after one more beer. Very soon after that, we had joined with the ten or so others in the pool, spending about forty-five minutes there. It was my first time swimming since June of last year and it felt amazing to get back into the water. The fact that I was there with ten friend with another 200 or so surrounding us and watching our spectacle made it that much sweeter.
(Apparently, when the first guy went in a Moldovan woman there turned to another volunteer and asked him what time it was. He told her that it was 7:04 and she said she was disappointed. The reason? Her and her friends had a bet on what time the first volunteer would jump in and she had 7:15. Sometimes in this country, our reputation proceeds us. The urge to dive ahead actually came from the wife of our country director who asked us, “Did anyone tell you not to jump in? Are there any signs? OK, what are you waiting for?” Her impetus pushed us over the top).
3) There was a Moldovan cover band there that has played the last two years as well and they're amazing. They play everything from Lynard Skynard and The Beatles to Jet and The Strokes. They played the last two hours and had everyone dancing.
4) I was especially excited because our new Peace Corps financial officer is from Minneapolis and had just gotten in the day before. I spent a good half-hour talking to her and her husband about life in my hometown (one of my favorite conversational topics).
5) They were also doing face painting for a small fee (two dollars for the biggest one). We wanted to pay my friend to get a teddy-bear painted on his neck but he passed. So my friend and I went with our own selection: a unicorn for me (which ended up looking like a horse with a saber through it's skull) and a kitty-cat for him. They were huge too, going from my ear to the center of the neck. The woman who painted them on thought we were totally crazy for doing it and laughed the whole time. Mine stayed on only for an hour or so due to my jumping into the pool but the outline stayed until the end of the night (4:30 in the morning). I got so used to the thing being there that I didn't realize until I woke up in the morning why I was getting so many odd looks all night at the bar – it was because I had an outline of a discombobulated horse on my neck. That realization actually explained a lot.
6) Another annual highlight is talking to the newest volunteers, those who actually aren't technically volunteers because they're still in training. It a lot of fun to have a few drinks and talk to them one-on-one, outside the presence of any authority and get a feel for them as well as have then have the chance to ask us some questions. This new group is really, really good, far better than my group was two years ago - we were and still are a very young group and at times were very difficult to work with. The new group and the group that came in last year, by contrast, are great. Part of me cant' believe that they have two more years here (which seems like a long time) but the other part of me can't believe that I was in the same position as them a mere two years ago (it feels like yesterday). It won't be long at all before they're dolling out the same advice that they were seeking on Saturday.
Notes:
- As I'm sure you've noticed, my posting are getting a little more spaced out then they've been in times up to now. The reason is simply – my life has become increasingly simple. I'm in my village from Sunday afternoon to Thursday morning and in Chisinau the other times. There is simply far less going on in my life for me to report about. My village life is painfully simple: I sleep, play my Super Nintendo Emulator, run, and eat. That's it. In Chisinau on Thursday we go to one disco there for Salsa night, on Fridays we lay low, and on Saturdays we go out again. That's it. It's a rather enjoyable lifestyle and one that allows me to save a little money for my three week trip between August 1st and 21st.
It looks to me like now like I'll only post two more times but I think the last one may be a big, end of twenty-seven months type of entry. I'm still debating on if I want to write something like that but it's looking more and more like I will. Just don't keep your fingers crossed.
- One of the things that my Peace Corps lifestyle has allowed me to do is to read. A lot. So the following is a list of the literature I've gone through here, written in chronological order. On one hand it's a lot of books – eighty-five. But there are volunteers who have read far more, as many as 120, and one girl who left after the first year did so after reading 165 books. In eleven months.
In A Sunburnt Country - Bill Bryson
Rasputin’s Daughter - Robert Alexander
The House of Sand and Fog - Andre Dubus III
Running with Scissors - Augsten Burroughs
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Interview With the Vampire - Anne Rice
Made In America - Bill Bryson
Ben-Hur - Lew Wallace
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
The Russia House - John le Carre
The Best American Sports Writing, 1998
Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Tony Hawks
Into Thin Air - John Krackhauer
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
Fever Pitch - Nick Hornsby
High Fidelity - Nick Hornsby
Bleachers – John Grisham
Skinny Legs And All – Tom Robbins
The Bourne Identity – Robert Ludlum
The Bourne Surpremecy – Robert Ludlum
The Rainmaker – John Grisham
Can I Keep My Jersey? – Paul Shirley
The Bourne Supremacy – Robert Ludlum
Naked – David Sedaris
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
A Widow For One Year – John Irving
Blowing My Cover – Lindsay Moran
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price – JK Rowling
The Game – Neil Strauss
Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows – JK Rowling
Brual – Kevin Weeks
Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
A Thousand Splendid Sons – Khaled Hosseini
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
I Know This Much Is True – Wally Lamb
The Lost Continent – Billy Bryson
Nickled and Dimed – Barbara Eirenreich
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time – Mark Haddon
The Intuitionist – Colson Whitehead
War And Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
How Soccer Explains the World – Franklin Foer
The Last Czar – Edward Razinsky
About a Boy – Nick Hornsby
The Innocent Man – John Grisham
The Red Tent – Anita Dimant
Atlantis Found – Clive Cussler
River Town – Peter Hessler
The Cider House Rules – John Irving
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
100 Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Seabiscuit – Laura Hillenbrand
The Bureau and the Mole – David Vice
The Perfect Storm – Sebastain Junger
Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose
Theodore Rex – Edmund Morris
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Napoleon – Felix Markham
Mornings on Horseback – David McCullough
Life of Pi – Yann Matel
On the Way Down – Nick Hornsby
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas
The Three Musketeers – Alexander Dumas
A Train to Potevka – Mike Ramsdall
Kingdom of Fear – Hunter S. Thompson
How the Irish Saved Civilization – Thomas Cahill
Playing for Pizza – John Grisham
Hells Angels – Hunter S. Thompson
Lullaby – Chuck Palahniuk
The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck
The Girl With The Pearl Earring – Tracy Chavelis
Rabbit Redux – John Irving
Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser
Choke – Chuck Palahniuk
The Godfather – Mario Puzo
The Education of a Coach – David Halberstan
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson
Othello – William Shakespeare
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
Stranger than Fiction – Chuck Palahniuk
The Russian Debutant's Handbook – Gary Shyngent
Snow – Orman Pamuk (in progress)
1) In our first year here we paid no entry fee, there was a ton of food, as well as free beer, red wine, white wine, vodka, cognac, and coke. For everyone involved, things got a little nuts. One year ago we paid 100 lei (ten dollars) and got only free beer and intermittent food. It was fun but could have been better. This year we paid 150 lei and there was free beer, the two types of wine, and a lot of food. It was, despite the increased price, by far the best of the three. There were at least 120 Peace Corps volunteers there as well as another 100 Americans and a lot of Moldovans – it was a great combination of people, all of which were there just to have a good time.
2) Another difference compared with the first two years was the location: most of us agreed that the new place was a big improvement (a big statement because it was a great location in the past). It was basically a huge patio with a big pool in the middle. The party started at 3:00 in the afternoon and it took four hours for volunteers to start jumping in. We were just standing around talking when we heard a loud splash and turned around to see one of us in the water. It took literally seconds for others to follow. When I saw what was going on I turned to a friend of mine and asked him when we were going in. His answer?: after one more beer. Very soon after that, we had joined with the ten or so others in the pool, spending about forty-five minutes there. It was my first time swimming since June of last year and it felt amazing to get back into the water. The fact that I was there with ten friend with another 200 or so surrounding us and watching our spectacle made it that much sweeter.
(Apparently, when the first guy went in a Moldovan woman there turned to another volunteer and asked him what time it was. He told her that it was 7:04 and she said she was disappointed. The reason? Her and her friends had a bet on what time the first volunteer would jump in and she had 7:15. Sometimes in this country, our reputation proceeds us. The urge to dive ahead actually came from the wife of our country director who asked us, “Did anyone tell you not to jump in? Are there any signs? OK, what are you waiting for?” Her impetus pushed us over the top).
3) There was a Moldovan cover band there that has played the last two years as well and they're amazing. They play everything from Lynard Skynard and The Beatles to Jet and The Strokes. They played the last two hours and had everyone dancing.
4) I was especially excited because our new Peace Corps financial officer is from Minneapolis and had just gotten in the day before. I spent a good half-hour talking to her and her husband about life in my hometown (one of my favorite conversational topics).
5) They were also doing face painting for a small fee (two dollars for the biggest one). We wanted to pay my friend to get a teddy-bear painted on his neck but he passed. So my friend and I went with our own selection: a unicorn for me (which ended up looking like a horse with a saber through it's skull) and a kitty-cat for him. They were huge too, going from my ear to the center of the neck. The woman who painted them on thought we were totally crazy for doing it and laughed the whole time. Mine stayed on only for an hour or so due to my jumping into the pool but the outline stayed until the end of the night (4:30 in the morning). I got so used to the thing being there that I didn't realize until I woke up in the morning why I was getting so many odd looks all night at the bar – it was because I had an outline of a discombobulated horse on my neck. That realization actually explained a lot.
6) Another annual highlight is talking to the newest volunteers, those who actually aren't technically volunteers because they're still in training. It a lot of fun to have a few drinks and talk to them one-on-one, outside the presence of any authority and get a feel for them as well as have then have the chance to ask us some questions. This new group is really, really good, far better than my group was two years ago - we were and still are a very young group and at times were very difficult to work with. The new group and the group that came in last year, by contrast, are great. Part of me cant' believe that they have two more years here (which seems like a long time) but the other part of me can't believe that I was in the same position as them a mere two years ago (it feels like yesterday). It won't be long at all before they're dolling out the same advice that they were seeking on Saturday.
Notes:
- As I'm sure you've noticed, my posting are getting a little more spaced out then they've been in times up to now. The reason is simply – my life has become increasingly simple. I'm in my village from Sunday afternoon to Thursday morning and in Chisinau the other times. There is simply far less going on in my life for me to report about. My village life is painfully simple: I sleep, play my Super Nintendo Emulator, run, and eat. That's it. In Chisinau on Thursday we go to one disco there for Salsa night, on Fridays we lay low, and on Saturdays we go out again. That's it. It's a rather enjoyable lifestyle and one that allows me to save a little money for my three week trip between August 1st and 21st.
It looks to me like now like I'll only post two more times but I think the last one may be a big, end of twenty-seven months type of entry. I'm still debating on if I want to write something like that but it's looking more and more like I will. Just don't keep your fingers crossed.
- One of the things that my Peace Corps lifestyle has allowed me to do is to read. A lot. So the following is a list of the literature I've gone through here, written in chronological order. On one hand it's a lot of books – eighty-five. But there are volunteers who have read far more, as many as 120, and one girl who left after the first year did so after reading 165 books. In eleven months.
In A Sunburnt Country - Bill Bryson
Rasputin’s Daughter - Robert Alexander
The House of Sand and Fog - Andre Dubus III
Running with Scissors - Augsten Burroughs
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Interview With the Vampire - Anne Rice
Made In America - Bill Bryson
Ben-Hur - Lew Wallace
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
The Russia House - John le Carre
The Best American Sports Writing, 1998
Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Tony Hawks
Into Thin Air - John Krackhauer
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
Fever Pitch - Nick Hornsby
High Fidelity - Nick Hornsby
Bleachers – John Grisham
Skinny Legs And All – Tom Robbins
The Bourne Identity – Robert Ludlum
The Bourne Surpremecy – Robert Ludlum
The Rainmaker – John Grisham
Can I Keep My Jersey? – Paul Shirley
The Bourne Supremacy – Robert Ludlum
Naked – David Sedaris
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
A Widow For One Year – John Irving
Blowing My Cover – Lindsay Moran
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price – JK Rowling
The Game – Neil Strauss
Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows – JK Rowling
Brual – Kevin Weeks
Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
A Thousand Splendid Sons – Khaled Hosseini
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
I Know This Much Is True – Wally Lamb
The Lost Continent – Billy Bryson
Nickled and Dimed – Barbara Eirenreich
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time – Mark Haddon
The Intuitionist – Colson Whitehead
War And Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
How Soccer Explains the World – Franklin Foer
The Last Czar – Edward Razinsky
About a Boy – Nick Hornsby
The Innocent Man – John Grisham
The Red Tent – Anita Dimant
Atlantis Found – Clive Cussler
River Town – Peter Hessler
The Cider House Rules – John Irving
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
100 Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Seabiscuit – Laura Hillenbrand
The Bureau and the Mole – David Vice
The Perfect Storm – Sebastain Junger
Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose
Theodore Rex – Edmund Morris
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Napoleon – Felix Markham
Mornings on Horseback – David McCullough
Life of Pi – Yann Matel
On the Way Down – Nick Hornsby
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas
The Three Musketeers – Alexander Dumas
A Train to Potevka – Mike Ramsdall
Kingdom of Fear – Hunter S. Thompson
How the Irish Saved Civilization – Thomas Cahill
Playing for Pizza – John Grisham
Hells Angels – Hunter S. Thompson
Lullaby – Chuck Palahniuk
The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck
The Girl With The Pearl Earring – Tracy Chavelis
Rabbit Redux – John Irving
Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser
Choke – Chuck Palahniuk
The Godfather – Mario Puzo
The Education of a Coach – David Halberstan
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson
Othello – William Shakespeare
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
Stranger than Fiction – Chuck Palahniuk
The Russian Debutant's Handbook – Gary Shyngent
Snow – Orman Pamuk (in progress)
posted by Andy Buchanan at 2:53 AM
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