до свидания, Ukraine.

Yes, the inevitable 'lasts' are starting. This past weekend was my last trip to Odessa. I can't believe I have now visited there 4 times. Never would I have thought I would spend so much time in the Ukraine which up until this experience had just been a major conquest in a heated game of Risk, but I have grown to love that country. True it is huge and I saw barely a speck of it, but it is great. I have visited Odessa at various times of the year and it has always been great. This time it was a quick turnaround trip for my roommate, Holly's birthday. But we all know what it was really about, food. That's what all vacations are about. We lovingly called it our day of 'sushi and dudes.' Holly, me and our friends Natasha and Dahnika left on a midnight bus out of Moldova. It is about a 4 hour ride to the Ukraine border, there is always some time spent there especially when there are Americans involved, and then another hour into the city of Odessa. We got into town just as dawn was breaking. The driver was pretty crazy and the ride itself turned into somewhat of an amusement ride. Thankfully we were all a little too tired to worry.
When we arrived there was NOTHING open so at 6:00am we were forced to walk around the city for a while. Not ideal, but thankfully the weather had warmed up just enough to not make it uncomfortable. We were basically just looking for some place to sit and have coffee. The only place we found to sit was in the train station and you had to pay to sit there. Ugh. Finally at around 8, places started to open. When I had visited last year with John and Jeremy, we had discovered this delightful restaurant called "Kompot." We found it and I assured my traveling companions that they would not be disappointed. I was correct. I got a giant homemade croissant covered in bacon, cheese lettuce, tomato and a garlic aioli dressing that all melted in my mouth. I can't remember the last time I had a fresh sandwich. It was served with a steaming glass of hot cocoa. It was seriously the best thing I have eaten in a very long time. Completely satisfied, we walked over to our hostel which was just around the corner. We had all (at different times) stayed there before so when 'Shekhar' opened the door to let us in, his face lit up as he was happy to see us. The hostel is owned by an American named John, who married a Ukrainian named Masha. Shekhar and two other students run the hostel in exchange for living there while they attend medical school. Shekhar is from Agra, India and speaks 6 languages. And he's adorable. We couldn't technically 'check in' until 2, and it was now 9am, but he saw we were tired and since our beds were free, he let us nap. It was just what we needed. We woke up by 1:00 and were ready for the day. He recommended a good Indian food place in town. I had never had Indian food and neither had Natasha, but Holly really wanted it so we went. Good LORD I don't think I have ever experienced such flavor. It was amazing. I couldn't even tell you what the hell we ordered but it was amazing and I will most definitely be exploring this ethnicity of food again in my future. 
It had started to rain which was unfortunate. We ducked into a coffee shop and had some coffee until the rain stopped. From there we walked around the historic district, shopped, took some photos, people watched, just relaxed.
As it headed toward evening, we found an Irish Pub to relax at for a bit until we were ready for dinner. Seriously, this trip was all about eating. Next door was the sushi restaurant I had been at twice before. I was very excited. And it didn't disappoint. We were so, so happy at such a successful day of eating and relaxing.

4 satisfied girls - Me, Natasha, Holly and Dahnika

There were a group of students at the next table who heard us speaking English. They too were medical students and were so delighted to speak English as they were used to speaking Russian all the time. We spoke to them for a while but we were all pretty exhausted. The best part of the evening was our waiter кириелле. (Kee-ree-yell). He was beautiful and he enjoyed us. He asked us to please come back. Oh, how I wish we could, кириелле.

Me and кириелле. 

We had planned to go out to Karaoke but in reality, we were all just really wiped. We went back to the hostel and our host, Shekhar and the other guy who worked there were still up so we hung out with them for a while before we all crashed. 
Unfortunately, this was the night of Daylight Savings in Eastern Europe so we lost an hour of sleep. We woke up later than planned as we did want to get back to Kompot for one final delicious croissandwich. We quickly packed and got ready and said our goodbyes to Shekhar and the glorious hostel that is the Babushka Grand. (Seriously, the best hostel I have ever stayed at.) We got to Kompot just in time and enjoyed our breakfast. 
From there we walked to the bus station but had a few more hours to kill before our bus left. The weather was absolutely beautiful (finally) so we could walk around without coats on. We found a coffee shop and had some dessert while we waited. 
The bus ride back was simple and it was so nice out so I could see the scenery. Started to feel a cold coming on which is so rare to me that it worried me. 
And now, it's the full-blown flu. Blech! All is well though. Only 95 more days to go. But who's counting?

The Inevitable Underdog.

Sports fans? No. Well suck it up, for a second while I gush. This may seem superfluous information, but stick with the narrative, just for a second.
Yesterday in March Madness, Florida Gulf Coast University defeated San Diego State University. The first time ever that a #15 seed has made it into the Sweet Sixteen. If you are not a sports fan, or a college basketball fan, that sounds like gibberish. So quick fun facts. March Madness is the nickname for the NCAA college basketball tournament. 68 teams are chosen and within 6 days (that's 34 games) they are narrowed down to 16 teams aka 'The Sweet Sixteen.' The word 'bracket' is thrown around a lot. There are four sections to the bracket. In each section there are sixteen teams and they are ranked 1 to 16. #16 plays the #1 seed and so on and so on. So basically at the end of the two weeks when the "Final Four" are announced, in theory, it should be four #1 seeds. Make sense? Why is it called Madness? Because in the history of this tournament, that has happened only once. There are upsets, heartbreaks, buzzer beaters (a shot made at the last second when the buzzer rings to win/lose the game) excitement and all the heart and passion that seem to get lost when they join the NBA. (#opinion) 
So why this diatribe on March Madness and Florida Gulf Coast? Because it is the age old story of David slaying Goliath, a Cinderella story, use whatever literature metaphor you like, the point is, everyone roots for an underdog. When people fill out said brackets, you always pick the #1 or #2 seeds to make up the Final Four. But no one can resist the Cinderella stories. And that's what Florida Gulf Coast is. They were paired against Georgetown, a #2 seed that has as many haters as they do fans and they beat them. Then they played San Diego State, a #7 seed and the beat them again. Now they are sitting pretty in the Sweet Sixteen with such monster basketball schools as Indiana, Duke, Kansas, Syracuse, just to name a few. It is improbable and yet they have everyone on their side. 
What does this matter to me? Well...I always root for the underdog. My bracket is destroyed and yet I don't care. 
And as much as all you non-sports fans hate to admit it, it's a great metaphor for life. When people asked why I joined the Peace Corps? That is why. Because I root for the underdog. As much as we don't want to admit it, Americans tend to be Duke, UNC and Florida (who Florida Gulf Coast will play next week and more than likely lose to). There is so much work to do at Florida Gulf Coast. They are a smaller school, they are living in the shadow of bigger schools in the same area and trying to find their own identity, there's not a lot of money and yet there s a bond and a desire to strive to be more like Duke. Not exactly like them, but to follow their model to get bigger and more successful and more sustainable. Just now are they making a name for themselves and starting to get recognized so that people can realize their potential and start treating them as equals rather than inferiors.
I have 3 months left here at my equivalent of Florida Gulf Coast. And even though we're not gonna slay any giants, at least we had that glorious moment of getting to the Sweet Sixteen. And next year and the year after that...it's just going to get better with time. And even though I'm going to 'graduate' I know that the future of this University/Country is in good hands.

Pure Elation.

St. Patty's Day...Making it work...

Moldova doesn't really celebrate St. Patrick's Day, surprising, huh?
So we made do.
Irish Nachos, substituting French fries for chips.

And yeah, you guessed it, homemade Shamrock Shakes, not gonna lie...they were AMAZING! 

So I'm okay with not being able to really celebrate it this year. Why? Because in a few months, I'll be in Ireland and that will make up for it all!

Governmental Drama

The sequester? The Filibuster? No, my fellow Americans, actually other governments have troubles too. In fact, I am sitting in a country where the government just collapsed. What does this mean? Here's a quick summary:

• The Democratic party aligned with the Communists to pass a “no confidence” vote against the current AIE (European Integration) party.  The Prime Minister (Filat) is required to submit his resignation within three days of the passing of this vote.  He is expected to do so tomorrow, March 8, 2013. 
• President Timofti is expected to nominate a candidate who can form a new government with the backing of Parliament.  They have 45 days to do so.
• If they are unable to do so, Parliament will be dissolved and early elections with be scheduled.

Yeah. Does this affect me? I don't think so? Right now it is just an alert of possible disturbances/protests during the possible upcoming elections. Moldova is still struggling to find its own identity. There are many in the country who still subscribe to the Soviet mentality and are loyal to Mother Russia. There are others who remain loyal to Romania and would like to merge with them. And then there are the final group who would like Moldova to find its own identity. Needless to say, this causes much tension during elections as well as 'unity' rallies to either of the aforementioned countries. This is all fascinating isn't it? Nope, not really. Politics suck everywhere, not just in the good old U.S. of A. 

Spring has tentatively arrived. I don't know if we're going to get another cold front before we're done, but it has been in the high 50's all week and it's glorious. I'm not confident enough to start the 'shipping winter clothes home' process but I'm hoping the worst is behind us. 

Tomorrow is a celebration of Women. The country shuts down for a federal holiday to celebrate Women, isn't that nice? Think Mother's Day but including all women. So I will be going out to dinner with my friends Natasha and Holly and we will be treating ourselves as we deserve to be treated.

As of Saturday, we are at the 4 month mark. Suddenly time is flying. 

The end is in sight...

I haven't written for almost a month, man it's been a long one. I have been dreading February for a while. It's cold and miserable here, there's not a lot of work and everyone is in a bad mood. So today, on the last day of the dreaded February, I can say...eh...wasn't too bad.
It didn't start out very well. My roommate's brother passed away suddenly in the middle of the night so she left on an impromptu month long trip to California. Without her here, suddenly I was reminded of what it is like to live on my own and be responsible for everything. It took a while to get back into the swing of things but it all worked out. 
On the brighter side, I got to meet the US Ambassador to Moldova. He came to Cahul to observe one of the English programs here and he invited me, Jesse, Liz and Maggie out to lunch with him. He was a super nice guy from North Carolina and we chatted for a good hour. At the school, he was really supportive and took questions from the kids for a few hours and posed for photos. It was a great afternoon.

Embassy Worker Mike, Jesse, US Ambassador Mosier, Maggie, Me and Liz

Ambassador Mosier poses with the kids from Cahul and Ceadir-Lunga (Chee-ader-loon-gah)

Ambassador Mosier with Sasha's brother, Vlad.

I finally received some long overdue Christmas Packages, thank you Moldova customs. But once again, the Too Faced girls came through for me. They sent me a bunch of things for cold weather and were worried they would be useless now. Thankfully, Moldova extends winter through March so they are still plenty needed. 
Valentine's Day came and went in its uselessness as per usual. I had a lovely dinner with my Russian tutor, Natasha and we toasted to be single gals.
We had a COS (Close of Service) draft. This means that the Country Director drew our names out of a hat and assigned us what date we were leaving. The first day we can leave is July 9th and only 5 people can leave per day (budgeting). My name was drawn first. I couldn't believe it. I mean all of a sudden there is a date and I have to plan. It was a fun day getting together with all these people that just 2 short years ago, I didn't even know and now we are all about to leave. From there we had an all night Super Bowl party complete with wings, blue cheese dip and chili cheese dogs. The boys, as usual, all passed out by 3 so I wound up watching the game by myself. And that's okay. Side note? Beyonce rules!

The group of us after we found out when we are leaving. Look at the smiles. Significantly smaller since 21 people have resigned or been sent home since we first arrived.

Kitsy and I at the Draft. We were in training together and have since become great friends.
She is called Kitsy because her name is Jen too and we needed a distinction in training.

I met with my program managers and my work partner and we had a very productive meeting. My organization has recently won a Democracy Grant from the US Embassy for funding to produce another anti-trafficking festival like we did last year as well as a 10 month awareness campaign in Cahul and the surrounding villages. It is a pretty big deal as only 7 organizations in the entire country of Moldova won these grants. So these last few months here will be busy with a lot of things to get done before I leave. It is exciting to have things to do though. 
Yesterday I judged a song/drama competition for English week here in Cahul with Liz and Jesse. 6 of the schools here in Cahul as well as 4 from surrounding villages competed. Each school performed a song and a drama scene. It was interesting to see the different interpretations and pronunciations of English songs and theater. My favorite was the production of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' when they performed a hoedown type dance to 'Cotton-Eyed Joe.' Hearing Tom Sawyer in a Russian accent was definitely a highlight of my time here in Moldovan. It was a fun day. After being lectured by the host teacher to be non-biased when picking the winners, she was none too pleased when her students did not win and tried to convince us that we had made a mistake. It is just remarkable the level of corruption that is still left to be dealt with here in Moldova. Overall, it was a good experience though.
On the home front, my brother Bob turned 50 last Sunday. I was sad to have missed it but know I will see him soon. He's doing so well at this point in his life, he had a lot to celebrate.

Bobby's 50th.

And lastly, the Oscars. It's pretty well-known that the Oscars is my favorite night of the year. The unfortunate part here is that the broadcast starts at 3:30am, however, this is way more worth it for me than the Super Bowl. Before it started, I got to Skype in with my dear friends in CA Diehl, Gracie, Bruce and Josh. We usually watch the Oscars together so it was so nice to be a part of their party even if only for a few minutes. I miss them all so much. I was pretty tired when it first started but I woke right up when Christoph Waltz won the Oscar. I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a die hard Tarantino fan and I think Christoph Waltz is just pure genius so to see him awarded for the 2nd time in 4 years for his work just made me incredibly happy. The entire show I just thought was great. People gave Seth a lot of shit, but I thought he was great. At this point I don't think there's anything that anyone could do to get positive reviews as an Oscar host. People are just out to hate them. It is a big undertaking and I applaud him. I'm a musical theatre nerd so when he did a Sound of Music spoof to interview Captain Von Trapp himself, Christopher Plummer, I was in heaven. And to see a musical medley of Chicago, Dreamgirls and Les Miserables I was over the moon. I just smiled the entire night. I knew Anne would win and I knew Daniel Day would win, both deserving. And Jennifer Lawrence winning, falling and recovering gracefully, I just love that girl. She's just wonderful. But the icing on the cake was Argo winning. I just loved it and Ben was so humble and gracious and moved, I'm such a nerd but it was great. The broadcast ended here at about 7am and I couldn't sleep for another hour because I was happy. It's just the little things in life, right? I know people think the Oscars are stupid but I enjoy every second of them and this year was my favorite in a long, long time.
I will try and write more in my last few months here at site. The winter is slowly coming to a close and things are starting to move again, thank Goodness. I am at the 4 month mark now. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone.

**Side note - an overdue review of Les Miserables.
I went to Romania to see the movie in a theatre with some friends. I believe it is now a Pavlovian response but when I hear that music, emotion fills me up instantly. I had heard mixed reviews from my hyper-critical theatre friends so I don't know what I was expecting when I went in. But from the first chord to the last note, I loved every second of it. Yes, I loved the close ups, yes I loved Russell Crowe, yes I loved Marius' quivering lips, every second of it. It was beyond my expectations for what could be done with that movie. I honestly don't care if people don't like it, the point is that I did. And really...isn't that all that matters????

You oughta be in pictures...

It's nice living in a culture/geographical location that celebrates winter. Snow is pretty. And you put on your boots and your coat and your hat and your scarf and coffee and hot chocolate taste a million times better and it's cozy and you wear pajama pants at night and it's nice. Then...a week later, I'm OVER IT!!!!!!! I moved to Southern California from Pennsylvania for a reason and this was it. Winter was meant to be spent on the beach and wearing sweaters instead of winter jackets and boots are fashionable not necessary. 
It's been snowing a lot here, much more than last winter. The things about this country is that if it's too cold, people don't leave their house. It's really expensive to heat places when it's cold so they just stay home. Needless to say, I've been cooped up in my apartment since about the 2nd week of December. 
The positive spin is that I have been doing nothing but watching movies. And since it is Oscar season, it ain't a bad gig! Instead of waking up at the crack of dawn to watch the Oscar nominations (as I do in CA every year) they air hear at 3:30pm which is definitely a perk. Since I'm an award show junkie, this is truly the season.
As far as best pictures, I think the Oscars got it pretty right. I am glad they expanded the category from 5 because sometimes in a year there are too many to not be recognized. However, if they're going to expand the Best Picture category...why not expand the Best Director category? Snubbing Tarantino, Affleck, Hooper and Bigelow is just plain wrong. WRONG, I tell you!
So, my picks for Oscar:
Original Screenplay - I'm biased because Tarantino is a demi-God to me and he just may take it, but I feel like Zero Dark Thirty boy, Mark Boal may take it.
Adapted Screenplay - TOTALLY rooting for Chris Terrio for Argo but It will probably go to Kushner for Lincoln.
Best Supporting Actress - Kind of a lock on Annie. And that's okay. I think if anyone spoils the lock it will be Sally Field. 
Best Documentary - I've seen 3 out of the 5 nominees. Going with what I've seen, Searching for Sugar Man is my favorite. But I think The Invisible War is the most important.
Best Supporting Actor - Totally rooting for Christoph Waltz. He is a force to be reckoned with. And as a friend of mine said "is there anything better than Quentin Tarantino's words coming out of Christoph Waltz's mouth?"* Agreed! BUT, I think Tommy Lee Jones or Philip Seymour Hoffman may sneak in and steal it. Tough category. All perfect performances.
Best Actress - I think Jessica Chastain has it 80% locked although I think she has the weakest performance in the category. Naomi Watts is incredible in the Impossible. I think I'm rooting for JLaw to be the spoiler of the evening.
Best Actor - Let's talk about who would win if Daniel Day Lewis didn't exist. I have a feeling it would go to Hugh Jackman, justifiably, but again, tough category. All great performances. And possibly THE best looking category ever? Can I get an 'Amen?' But regarding DDL, is it possible that one of the greatest actors ever is playing one of the greatest Presidents ever directed by one of the greatest directors ever? I mean, did that really happen? 
Best Director - Ugh, I'm still pissed about the Affleck snub. But I'm sure this will go to Spielberg.
Best Picture - I want Argo or Django Unchained to win so bad! I think Argo's got a shot to be a huge spoiler and an Argo eff yourself to the academy. I will cheer if that happens...but I think it will go to Lincoln. And it's not that Lincoln was a bad movie, it wasn't. It was a sweeping epic just like the Academy loves but in a year that produced Argo and Django...it just wasn't the best movie. But the Academy gets it wrong...a lot. I mean in looking back, was Forrest Gump REALLY the best picture that year? In a year that produced Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption? Uh no.

Other awards that should be given out IMHO:

The "Rip your heart out" award - Amour. You will need to lie in a dark room in the fetal position for a while after this one.
The "Vomit scene that literally almost made me vomit" award - Naomi Watts in The Impossible.
The "I should be riveted but Homeland is way better"award - Zero Dark Thirty. I will again give credit to my friend* for pointing out that films like this are so story driven as they're based on actual events that the characters fall by the wayside. And since I knew the outcome...I'm sure I"m alone on this, but I was a little bored. 
The "Holy shit, DeNiro is FINALLY delivering again" award - Silver Linings Playbook.
The "Holy shit, Bradley Cooper is actually a really good actor" award - Silver Linings Playbook.
The "This movie deserves way more attention than it got" award - Looper
The "This should annoy me with its quirkiness but I actually love it" award - Moonrise Kingdom
The "Are they writing about me in High School?" award - Perks of Being a Wallflower
The "I cannot believe this actually happened/happens" award - West of Memphis, The Invisible War, The Imposter, The Impossible.
The "oh there ARE still good people in the world, thank goodness" award - Craigslist Joe
The "I'm completely ashamed at how hard I laughed at this movie" award - That's My Boy
The "I'm a little embarrassed at how much I LOVED this movie" award - Pitch Perfect, Rock of Ages.
The "Shut up, Spike Lee, you're just jealous" award - Django Unchained
The "Damn, that kicked my ASS!" award - Argo, Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook
The "I feel like I should like this so much more than I do" award - Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty
The "in case I didn't make it clear, these are my two favorites of the year" award - Django Unchained, Argo. 

With a month to go until the Oscars, I have only to see The Master and Les Miserables. I have putting off Les Miserables because I refuse to watch it on my computer and it doesn't open in Romania until the end of the month. I have heard pretty much every compliment and criticism that I care to hear and yet I am still looking forward to seeing it. In the meantime, I wish everybody would just shut up. I don't know why "I don't want to hear about it" signifies someone to say "OK, well let me just say this..." Ugh!
Sigh...I need to get out of the house.

*Aforementioned friend is one Christopher Cadena. He's way smarter than I am.

New Years in Transylvania

12-29-12

Jesse and I started our journey up to Chisinau at about 3:00 in the afternoon. We had a 3 hour bus ride to Chisinau and then had time for some dinner before hopping on the overnight bus to Romania. The bus was pretty empty and John nearly missed it, which meant we all would have missed it since he had our tickets. But we were 3 of 6 people on it so we were able to stretch out and sleep. It was about a 10 hour ride with a half hour stop at the borders. It was pretty damn cold.

12-30-12

We arrived in Brașov, Romania (pronounced brah-shov) at about 7:30am. It was brutally cold. Our plan was to hop on a local bus, head to the train station, drop our bags off and buy our tickets to Sinaia and then explore the city. Without knowledge of the city bus system, we hopped on the first one we saw. It was immediately boarded by the bus 'security' and since we didn't have a ticket, we were fined 45 RON (about $12). Romania was not endearing itself to us very quickly. We were all pretty irritated but went on with our day. We made it to the train station and stored our bags and bought tickets for a 3:00 train to Sinaia which was about an hour away. We got back on the bus (tickets in hand) and headed into the center of the city. It was quite beautiful.

City center.

Jesse and John enjoying a hot cup of mulled wine.

But it was freaking cold! So we found a coffee shop and warmed up. After that we walked around, found a museum about the local history, had some Chinese food (!!!!) and did some people watching. We headed to the train station and jumped on the train...it was the wrong one. Quickly jumped off, ran across the tracks and jumped on the right one just as it was leaving. (Never a dull moment). It was a lovely ride through the Romanian countryside down to the Ski Resort town of Sinaia. (Sin-ay-ya)

The train pulled into the station and where we had to go was about 1000 stairs up...I may be exaggerating but it sure felt like 1000. It was more like 100 but still...
When we got to the top I was NOT happy, but we found the place we were staying. Our friends Lindsay and Conrad had booked an apartment with Conrad's parents and they were being kind and letting us crash there. They had left a key for us at the front desk. It was a tiny hotel in the mountains with an apartment in the back for us. It was great. 

Our 'apartment.'

The front of the hotel.

The boys wanted to put their stuff down and go for a walk. I rolled my eyes and bid them farewell as I passed out on the couch. I had a nice nap before Conrad's parents arrived. Had a lovely chat with them before the boys came back and soon Lindsay and Conrad joined us after their day of skiing. The group of us headed into town and had dinner together. 
Back at home we all shared a nightcap of "Maker's Mark" that Conrad's Dad had brought for us from the states and we all fell asleep watching 'The Shining.' (I know...)

12-31-12
Staying at the hotel included breakfast, a luxury we volunteers were SO not used to. John is an early riser (and is NOT quiet about it) so he and Jesse got up and went to breakfast early. Lindsay and Conrad joined them soon after. I slept in, as did Conrad's parents and the three of us went to breakfast at around 9:30am, a more feasible time to wake up! We all kind of went our separate ways for the day, which was great. Lindsay, Conrad and John went skiing, Jesse went hiking and Conrad's folks went walking through the town. I bet you can't guess what Jenn did? Yeah...I napped. Ha ha. That's vacation! I was awoken by the housekeepers who were SO nice. They loved that I spoke Romanian and we chatted for a while. After they left, I went for a walk of my own. Walked through the town, people watched and enjoyed the cool but fresh air. 

Yeah...I did a double take too...

A view from the bottom of the hill.

I went back to the hotel and read outside for a while, it was quite relaxing. Everyone arrived back home and we decided we would go shopping and make dinner since we had a full kitchen available to us. Conrad's Mom, Lindsay and I cooked up a dinner of Spinach Dip, Tortellini, Vegetables and sauce. It was a big hit and very nice. The plan was to have dinner and then go out and enjoy some New Year's celebrations but everyone was really wiped out from the day. Instead, we chose to stay in, chat, watch some TV celebrations and enjoy the fireworks outside our front door at midnight. It was way more low key and uneventful than I was expecting, but so much better. The new year was here. We all toasted and each said one resolution we'd like to accomplish in 2013. 

1-1-13
We got to sleep in since the free breakfast wasn't starting until 11:30am. (Of course John was up again at 7...). The hotel had a lovely brunch and we all enjoyed it together before saying our goodbyes. Conrad, Lindsay and the folks were headed up to Brașov for the day and had hired a private car so they had to head out. We all said goodbye and the boys and I headed to the train station. We were going to the mountains. We had to meet our ride at 5:00pm. We got back to Brașov and had some time to kill. We had to find a grocery store to buy some food as the place we were staying was quite remote and we were told to bring supplies. We could not find an open store anywhere. We asked a local and he almost laughed at us. Nothing was open on New Years's day. We got to the train station to meet our host, Joseph. He was the owner of the place we were staying in the mountains and he was going to drive us there. He managed to find an open store and we were able to buy some food for the next few days. The road up to his place in the mountains was very steep and very dark but the stars were SO bright and so beautiful, I don't remember the last time I saw so many. It was great. We arrived and he took us around. It was SO quiet and we had the place entirely to ourselves. It was 7:30pm and we were ready to sleep. And we did!

1-2-13
AGAIN, awoken by John at 7am, but I didn't mind this time since I had been asleep for about 11 hours. When I walked outside, it took my breath away. I literally felt like I was on top of the world. Just surrounded by the Carpathian mountains, fresh, clean air and just silent. It was heaven. I went to the kitchen and Joseph had fresh milk and cheese for us that they had made there at the farm. John and Jesse had decided to go on a hike so they were getting directions from Joseph. I was going to stay behind and spend the day reading. I went outside and sat on the porch and read for about 6 hours. The house dog laid across my feet which normally would have annoyed me but I didn't mind because he was quiet and he kept my feet warm.

My view while I read.

The boys showed back up at around 4:00pm, they survived and we all had a simple dinner together. We played cards for a while and looked at photos that they (and I) had taken during the day. They were pretty wiped out from their hike so again we were all in bed by 7:00pm. We laughed at the absurdity of it but were asleep within the hour. 

1-3-12
One final morning of being woken up by non-subtle John. We woke up and Joseph gave us a full tour of the farm. It is a self-sustaining farm, they don't mass produce anything, it is just for themselves. The hostel doesn't see a lot of business in the winter and we found out we were their first guests in a few months so they were pretty pleased to see us. Joseph is a very smart man who loves the country. He is very interested in eco-friendly lifestyles and asked us a lot of questions about what he could do better. But to be honest, he was doing great. I was very impressed by him. He was a hard worker, he loves his country, he loves his home and yet is not 'old school' at all. He uses the internet as a tool to constantly learn new ways of improving his home and his life and is just a very smart business man. 

The sign at the gate.

My friend that kept my feet warm.

John looking at the mountains.

The front of the common room.

Where we slept.

We left around 1:00. Joseph drove us down the mountain. And I will say, it was a beautiful view...but maybe the scariest drive I have ever been on. It was a single, one lane dirt road down a steep mountain, covered in ice with no guard rails filled with twists and turns. And yes...we did face cars coming the other direction. It was terrifying. I kept my eyes closed the majority of the time. The drive back to Brașov was about an hour and a half and Joseph dropped us off at the bus station. We said our goodbyes and thanked him for a wonderful experience. Jesse and I were leaving that night on an overnight bus back to Chisinau but John was going to meet up with some other volunteers and stay a few more days. Jesse and I tried to buy our bus tickets at that time but they said we had to wait and pay the driver that night. So we headed back into city center and decided to have more Chinese food while we could. John left us and went to drop his stuff off at the hostel he would be staying at. He re-joined us with 5 other volunteers in tow. So the 8 of us had dinner together before Jesse and I had to head out. We went to get on the bus but there was no place to buy a ticket. Having learned our lesson, we wound up walking to the bus station. The bus left at 7:00pm. We arrived at 6:45pm and got the last 2 seats. Whew. It was packed and it was HOT! They pumped the heat so much I was sweating. It was a long ride and this time, since it was full and a big bus, we were at the border for 2 hours. Ugh! We arrived back in Chisinau at 4:30am. There wasn't too much to do and PCHQ doesn't open until 6:00am so we headed to Tucano coffee and hung out there for a few hours. Finally headed there and received a Christmas package from my loving sister. Yay!
New Years. 
So, 2013...I get to go home this year. Only 6 months of service left which is a little weird. I can't decide if it's flown by or dragged on. I am dreading the inevitable goodbyes that will happen but at the same time, I am ready to go home. I miss the good old US of A...especially the cheeseburgers.