Because Americans Like to Make Lists

As my time in Moldova is drawing to a close, the nostalgia has started to kick in. But nostalgia or not, I would be a liar if I didn't admit that there are a lot of things I won't be sad to leave behind. So I decided to make a list of everything I won't miss about Moldova. No worries--I haven't suddenly become bitter and cynical. I've also compiled a list of some of the (many) things I will miss.

I will not miss...
● eating soup 4 times a week, even when it's 80 degrees out
● common displays of public drunkenness
● living under a magnifying glass, and all the well-intentioned advice (criticism) that comes with it
● having to discipline my students in Romanian
● widespread corruption
● being asked if I'm married, why I'm not married, if I plan to get married, and would I like to meet a nice Moldovan boy and get married?
● being hit on by male students
● having to keep track of my students' attendance and grades by hand, in pen
● hearing European techno music everywhere I go
● living in a culture where it's socially acceptable for 14-year-old boys to smoke
● being shoved/cut in line as I try to wait patiently at the post office, bus station ticket window, etc.
● spooning with strangers on crowded public transportation

I will miss...
● my host mother's coltunasi, sarmale, placinta, mamaliga, and homemade donuts
● being able to speak 3 languages in one day
● buying 25-cent ice cream
● being greeted by "Hello, Miss Kate!" everywhere I go
● living in such a small country
● walking everywhere
● Moldovan holidays (Moldovans know how to party!)
● being able to travel abroad so easily (and cheaply)
● being able to fit all of my possessions into 2 suitcases
● striking up conversations with random strangers on a regular basis
● getting all of my fruits and vegetables from a garden, not a supermarket
● passing by goats, cows, ducks, and chickens on my daily commute to and from school

**Note: It goes without saying that the people here I've built relationships with are, by far, what I'll miss most. Since I'm sure I'll be writing more about them (in length) in upcoming posts, that's why I didn't mention them here.

When Good Romanian Meets Bad English

So I recently had an article written about me (I know, I know--I'm a big deal). Two other Peace Corps volunteers and I were interviewed because a new Chisinau newspaper was doing a feature on the Peace Corps in Moldova. The article itself is a nice tribute to the Peace Corps, and the other two interviewees and I were able to talk a lot about our experiences in Moldova over the past two years. When the article came out, it was, naturally, published in Romanian. I wanted my friends and loved ones back in the States to be able to read it, so I decided to paste the entire article into Google Translate to see what would happen. Now, for those of you not familiar with Google Translate, it's a program that allows you to type a word, sentence, or--it turns out--an entire webpage in a certain language, and it translates it into another of your choice. As far as individual words go, it's fairly accurate. But if you try to translate more than that, it starts to get sketchy (as my lazy students who try using it to translate entire essays have found out the hard way).

So when I pasted in the article, the result was a much more interesting article than the original. For those of you who are interested in reading it, just go to http://translate.google.com and type in the following url in the text box: http://ziar.jurnal.md/?p=3351. I hope you're as amused as I was.