Missing Moldova
The past couple of weeks I have really been missing Moldova. I’m not sure why that is. Yes, it is getting very close to the one year mark. But it’s not like I think, “Oh, I’ve been home for a year, what do I miss?” It just pops into my head more and more frequently. I wonder if Host Mom is back from Italy, I wish I could spend an afternoon tossing the baseball with Cristina, or walk to work with Nadea. Sally brought home some grapes from the farmers’ market and although they smelled great when I tasted them I was disappointed because I know what excellent grapes taste like. A year ago I was drinking moost and eating dried fish with Vanya. We went to a bar a couple of weeks before I left and sat at a little table eating peanuts, drinking cheep beer and talking for hours. I looked out the window at the store across the street and thought, “This seems so normal but soon it is going to be a memory. There will be no more trips to the piata, no more masas or incredibly long toasts, no more stifling rutiera rides.” I was so ready to go home that I wondered if there would ever come a day when I would miss those very things. Now, I do miss them. I miss feeling that life in a foreign country was ordinary.
Of course some of the people I miss the most are my fellow volunteers. Lamai promises that she’s going to fly to Philly before too long and she and Ari will up and meet me. I am going to find a Romanian restaurant in NYC for us to visit. Dan called me a couple of days ago and we talked about life plans. He’s in D.C. going to grad school so maybe he will be able to come up as well.
In other news:
Fall has arrived in the Catskills. We’ve had a couple of nights of serious frost and the trees are blazing with color.
www.facebook.com/album.php (These are the only pics I could post after 1/2 hr of fighting with LJ and facebook.)
I went to that little Presbyterian church yesterday. I enjoyed it, they were warm and friendly but almost everyone was over the age of 50 so I think I’ll visit another church this coming Sunday.
I had a strange encounter at the library last week. The librarian was talking to another woman about an art project involving her spending 32 hours in a “nest.” I put my books on the counter and the lady turned to me, “With books like those you are a teacher, a student, or a writer.” “Well,” I said, “I guess I would have to err on the side of writer.” “How could you tell?” the librarian asked. “Well,” said the lady. “They’re the only adults who read children’s literature.” It turns out this lady is involved in publishing although just how I’m not sure. She knew Gail Carson Levine the author of Ella Enchanted. She was so cordial and nice. After I left I was all excited for having run into someone connected with publishing and five minutes down the road I started kicking myself for not getting any of her information.
Sally’s mom is visiting for a week so Sally is attempting to get a lot of outside/organizational stuff done while her mom is here. But, she’s still going to take time to make apple pie this week. She made chicken pot pie on Saturday and I think it ranks among my top two or three all time favorite dishes that she has made so far. The crust was made with cream cheese. Yum!
While I was packing to come up here I found some volunteer quotes that I’d forgotten I wrote down. They made me laugh, they are so morose. I’m not sure they will seem amusing to anyone who hasn’t been a PCV but here they are anyway.
Quotes of the Day:
“I have bad language days and then I just have bad days.”-Anna
“I have only three hours of work each week and today I cancelled it.”- Adam
“Just lay down and assume the fetal position as always.”-Larson