Week 1 Day 2

After breakfast at the hotel, we packed our bags and had them stored in the lobby, because we were meeting our host families that afternoon! Once again, we all agreed that we should procrastinate on thinking so we could avoid high nerves.

We then had a presentation about navigating in the city and downloaded some helpful apps. We also learned about the different neighborhoods in Chisinau. There is the “centru”, located at the city center; “botanica”, near the botanical gardens; “telecentru”, located outside of the ‘centru’; “riscani”, which is separated from the rest of the city by a bridge (where our hotel was located); “buiucani”, which has the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe (fun fact); and “ciocana” which has a large Romanian population.

(Unfortunately, I could not find a map of the neighborhoods.)

Next, we went on a short walk near the hotel and saw a lot of (stray?) cats and dogs, as well as a bunch of people selling fruit along the street.

After lunch, the host families started to arrive. Everyone was really nervous, even though one guy, Cameron, had managed to contact his host family through facebook. Host families were allowed to pick us up anytime from 2:00-4:00, but most people were picked up before 2:45. Eventually, after a lot of nervous waiting I decided to use the restroom—all of us had avoided leaving the lobby area out of fear that our host families would be there upon our return. This turned out to be correct in my case. My host mom, Вера (Vera) hugged me and started rattling off a lot of things in Russian, NONE of which I understood. It was a struggle.

We drove back to her apartment (located in the “telecentru”) in a taxi and once she showed me around her apartment, I unpacked all my stuff, which felt really good. The apartment is small but still practical and it doesn’t feel crowded.

A very bad picture of my room.

Eventually I worked up the courage to say “I have a present for you” in Russian (I also pronounced it wrong) and gave her a Trader Joe’s bag filled with a bunch of random stuff: coffee from Starbucks (coffee is considered a delicacy); Belgian chocolates (thanks Dad!); plates with patterns from the U.S. flag on them; a magnet of Washington D.C.; a deck of cards with pictures of D.C. on them; a mug from Starbucks; and a postcard of Washington that my dad wrote to Вера in Russian (thanks and I low-key wish you were here to translate for me). I also showed her some pictures of my family, friends, house, and school.

We ate dinner soon after that—zucchini pancakes with a raspberry sauce that were AMAZING. She said a lot of things that I didn’t understand and I would try to answer her and then stop because I ran out of words, and then eventually I kind of gave up and lowered my standards. In the end, if she told me something I understood more than two words of, I would say да (yes) and just try to guess what she was saying. I figure that I will be lucky if I don’t accidentally sign up for a gang before I leave...

After dinner we went for a short walk, she showed me the bus stop, and we bought some cherries and eggs. I then took a shower: the shower head was not held in place, it was handheld, which created a bit of a challenge, but I’m sure I’ll learn how to manage in six weeks.

Only once I had packed my bag for school and was getting into bed did I realize...my bed faces the window, which has no curtains or way of blocking light, and sunrise is at about 5 A.M. 😕

The view from my window.

Wish me luck!