2 Cool 4 School

5 months down..do you believe it!?

It is getting cold here. Really cold. I am such a wimp in cold weather-I cannot STAND it. But the leaves are changing color and there is a constant smell of campfire (although that’s probably not a good thing b/c that it the way Moldova takes care of all trash-PC does take care of our batteries for us if we bring them in to headquarters) anyway, fall is nice.

The bite of the cold weather is so cold to me b/c when I feel it I anticipate the full-blown winter and how the hell I am going to handle it. The brisk feeling is good, but just takes some time to get used to I guess. Either way, winter is coming and actually, I am secretly super excited about trying out the yak-trax (for our shoes) that Peace Corps gave us…so… there is something to look forward to!

Also, it means the best month of the year is drawing closer…December..which, as we all know, contains the best day of the year (the day of my birth of course) and Christmas. But yeah, Dec. 10. What a day. I will probably be in my house cuddled under blankets singing happy birthday to myself in Romanian with hot chocolate and my yak trax on b/c I am too much of a wimp to go outside in the cold. ;)

Haha, yeah right, I have already been scouting out good sledding hills. I remember one time in college when a bunch of us freshman girls got bored of ordering pizza and watching movies and decided to call some boys and go sledding on the massive wood chip pile covered in snow and ice next to Wells Hall. It was awesome until Holly realized she had lost her keys in the pile. It was the coldest and most miserable looking for keys experience I have ever had. (A needle in a haystack is NOTHING compared to a key in a pyramid of wood chips.)

And for those unfortunate souls who know me too well, you know that I have had some pretty miserable losing key experiences...(or for those who REALLY know me.. you know I have many more to come! Haha. I have already had to have a new key made for my classroom. You should have seen the fuss all over the school when I told them I had lost it;

… it started with the seriously drunk Russian janitor who was convinced that she had the key and made me stand there while she clumsily tried to make the 20 random keys in her pocket fit in that darn hole that kept moving on her..haha..then, she took me to the other drunk janitors (there are “holidays” practically every day here) b/c they speak Romanian and she wanted me to explain it to them…then 3 other sober but clueless teachers got involved…the school director and one annoying student who follows me around all the time…it was quite a search party…total confusion. I actually ended up leaving school amidst all the chaos because I forgot what we were looking for.) Nah, I’m just kidding, I didn’t forget I just couldn’t take it anymore! But I have a new key and that’s all that matters.

Yep. I hate keys-they are so little and easy to lose unless you get one of those big clunky whistle key chains or “things” with sparkly crap all over it...I refuse..don’t even think of sending me one. Although that might go well in the box of random things that have been sent to me in Moldova. I think the BOX full of earplugs beats all. (Don’t worry, I will use them…just haven’t figured out exactly how yet…) ;)

I had one key chain all through high school and college…it was a small square Austin Powers one that said, “do I make you horny baby?” It was one of those things I got as a gift and used it for kicks for awhile b/c it was so dumb (anyway then I just got used to it…lugged that thing around not even really thinking…until my Granny asked me why I was carrying around such a thing. I really didn’t have an answer so I got rid of it…gave it to my 1 yr. old niece as a chew toy (of course I washed it..what kind of an aunt do you think I am?!) Shout out to my nieces Lillykitty and Morganbug. I miss your little faces so much!!! (Erin I had a dream about them last night. They told me-“your home Auntie Ryry”..so presh-it’s weird how my dreams of them seem so real! Send me pics of them before I explode!)

Anyway, guess I better figure out something out soon because you know what they say about people who have lots of keys….they are sooo important or something. What a croc. As long as you can get in, what difference does it make?

Enough about keys. However, if any of you have any new keys to something..please email me and keep me updated…Les you have a new house right? Tell me all about it. Is it warm? What color is your carpet? How is your water pressure?

Anybody else? New keys to cars, houses, hearts…spill it.

Things here are great. I love it here. Well, honestly, it’s either heaven or hell. Few in-betweens at this point in time. Some days I feel like I couldn’t be happier and more alive if I tried, and other days I am ready to pack er up. Same as everyone I suppose.

I have had a few problems with transportation and some serious problems with Peace Corps and the “fine print” about student loans. Headquarters in Washington has been disorganized and given me one rude email in response to my problem which has been equivalent to NO support with the situation.

Ah, I know you don’t want to hear about all that and you don’t even want me to GET started on that. But I thought maybe since Peace Corps checks our blogs, maybe I would get some attention this way as emails and telephone calls have been practically useless. If not, that’s ok, some other way then. I won’t be giving up any time soon.

(For those of you considering Peace Corps, don’t take the above comments too harshly. It is a wonderful organization that I am proud to be a part of, but we’ve all got our problems.)

Health: knock on wood; fortunately, I haven’t had any illnesses yet. Minor colds but that’s to be expected with the season change. I am one of the few individuals in my group (Health group: around 20/ English group: same) who has not had food poisoning yet. It’s funny because as some of you know I was in the hospital 2 weeks before my departure with food poisoning. Maybe that built my immune system..who knows, but it is seemingly inevitable, as all the other volunteers have experienced this among other delightful ailments. But my fam is pretty good about refrigeration and I am also very careful about distilling/filtering my water. Peace Corps actually supplies us with a bigass distiller along with a Brita. We can distill then put it through the Brita or boil the water and then put it through the Brita (which is what I do and it works fine). It’s not that much of a pain anymore because I am used to it and it’s just become part of the routine in the morning.

We are also supplied with a big medical kit and I hounded them for a dog whistle (the ones that are so high-pitched they make the dog run away). Its weird the things that I took for granted at home-for example, animal control. There are random dogs everywhere. This too has become a norm. At first I was terrified of them and demanded my dog whistle I was promised as any American would, but now I realize it was ridiculous. If you act like you are picking up a rock they run away and they generally don’t bother you anyway. (But don’t worry Mom, I still carry my whistle.) Anyway, now I am more concerned about THEM.

They run wild or if people take them home they become guard dogs. Guard dogs…they are not pets. They are chained and have limited living/walking space and the food they eat is dependant upon their master. Dogs are nicer when you feed them right? So you can imagine how useless a well-fed guard dog is…I believe I mentioned part of this in a mass email once, about my other host family’s dog named Shark…my host dog at here at my new host family’s house is a bit more mild and has a little more room to walk.

Don’t blame people here for the treatment of animals, it happens solely in their mind for the protection of their home. They are only doing what has been done in the past. Please don’t judge, think of things we do in our lives without reason-or the reason simply being because it is just the way it was done in the past by our families or other influences.

Sorry, don’t mean to lecture.

So anyway, yeah I am still too cool for school. I am getting into a routine with the 8 classes (5th-8th graders health education). So far we have discussed topics revolving around self-respect, emotional intelligence and other things. I still have a club after school on Wednesday for yoga and this Wednesday we are discussing healthy eating habits and then yoga. During one of the stretches one boy farted so loud last week. It was funny, I was trying to be serious faced and not laugh cuz I knew I would lose them and we were meditating (doing that walking through the forest and ocean floor bit) but they all were laughing so so hard and I finally broke. Ah, universal humor. Farting.

So anyway I am having my fun with clubs. I miss home but it’s not time to come home yet. So, for now, I am just shopping for when I do come home…I’ve been looking for a Moldovan baseball bat as a souvenir for my new brother-in-law. ;)

By the way, email smiley faces don’t always mean I am kidding Justin. ;)

Anyway, ha. It’s all happening fast and hopefully and soon hopefully I will get rolling with the other Peace Corps clubs I am interested in…the travel club, domestic violence club, model united nations and here is my dream come true…..supposedly we may get to put on a huge AIDS benefit concert!!! So, anyway, when I am not taking is easy or working on school, hospital, or club stuff…I am sleeping, walking, reading Fountainhead, my first Ayn Rand or catching up on the TV show Lost. The married volunteers helped me download it to my computer…the entire 2nd season. I have never watched so much “TV” in my life!!! They also gave me some nice movies, V for Vendetta, Broken Flowers, The Matador, Tsotsi, Memoirs of a Geisha, Thank you for Smoking, Amelie (but we forgot to download the subtitles so I am learning French haha), Shopgirl (I am not a fan of Steve Martin AT ALL but I’m giving it a shot for Claire), and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Thanks for taking time to read this!

Yeah, I know I said I’d make entries shorter…I lied muahahahahahha!!

I was gonna attach some pictures but the batteries in my camera are dying. I’ll try my best. If there is one thing I hate more than flies it’s batteries. If anyone has anything positive to change my outlook on either of those 2 things, please indulge me.

Pace în suflet,

(peace in your soul)

Ry