Week 1 Day 5
Already Friday! It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for almost a week!
In the morning, I got ready as usual and headed out to school with Elizabeth. For breakfast, I had a variety of porridge that my host mom said was каша (I think?), but it wasn’t like the one I had eaten the day before...it was good though, and tasted slightly of coconut.
At school, my host mom talked with the other host families for a little bit. The night before via group chat, some people in the group had made plans to go ice skating at an indoor rink and go to Tucano (a coffee shop) after class. I had not yet asked Bepa for permission to go, so I asked her before class and she gave her consent.
Our classes were similar to the other days, mostly learning vocabulary, some grammatical functions and how to properly pronounce everything.
After class, we all walked to a cafe called Rozmarin, which was only a few minutes’ walk from the university. They mostly had western/American-style food, so most people ended up with some type of sandwich or breakfast dish. Although it wasn’t *entirely* in line with the cultural immersion, the food was still pretty good. There were a few U.S. Air Force members who are currently studying Russian and joined us for lunch, which was also nice, especially hearing about their own experiences learning Russian.
Since Georgia’s 18th birthday was on Wednesday, we all got to eat cake afterwards, and Elliott made her wear a sparkly purple crown (he claimed it was a “program requirement”).
After that, Elliott informed us that we had half an hour of free time before we had to be back at the university to start our weekly group meeting. Several other people and I went to put money on our Moldovan phones at a machine that we had seen on our way to lunch. It was really easy and also insanely cheap (I think the rate is about 1 leu/minute...with the exchange rate, I could talk for almost seventeen minutes and only pay a dollar). When we were done, it gave us a little receipt telling us what our balance was (but it wasn’t very legible).
We got back in time for our meeting, where we mostly went over our excursion schedule and what to bring for our excursion the next day, as well as getting our lunch stipend and making sure everything was as expected with the host families.
Once the meeting was done, a big group of us (60% of the participants) walked down to the indoor ice skating rink, which took about fifteen minutes—although it felt much longer because of the 90 degree heat and the weight of our schoolbags. When we got there, the gate outside was closed, so we tried to talk to the person inside the guard house next to it...only to find out that the rink was closed until October. This was especially odd because on the website they had said that it was open at the moment?
Anyhow, all of us decided the best thing to do would be just to head straight to Tucano, and we eventually determined that it would be faster to walk straight there than to get on a trolley bus and have to switch. According to Саша (Alexander’s Russian nickname), it was only a ten minute walk...unfortunately, it also looked like there was about to be a huge thunderstorm.
We braved the walk, and even though it looked like we were going completely in the wrong direction, we made it there only as it was starting to drizzle, which was great.
Tucano is kind of like a Moldovan Starbucks, and we got a mix of lemonades, smoothies and coffees. They also had some food that looked really good, but I figured it would be best not to eat anything since I would probably have dinner when I got back home.
Since it was already past six o’clock at that point, Sara, Elizabeth and I thought it would be a good idea to figure out how to get home from where we were. It turns out that we were only a block or two away from the Central Park, so we walked in that direction along with Devin and Greg, who wanted to stop in at a book store on the Main Street.
By this time, the rain was already coming down at a good rate, so we ducked under a store front and pulled up EWay (an app for public transportation in Chisinau) to see which bus stop we should use to catch a bus going in the right direction. Unfortunately, none of us had much practice using the app, so we ended up misreading it.
We got on a #10 bus at a stop around the corner, and at first, since none of us had taken a #10 (we usually took the #24, however they both stopped by our houses), we just assumed that we were taking a different route. It turns out, we got on the #10 going in the wrong direction, so we had to ride the whole loop (and pay again) and wait for it to turn around so that we could get home. We called our host families to let them know what had happened, and once that was out of the way, we were able to enjoy the ride. Even though we technically got lost, we still got to see a lot of the city that we hadn’t before, which was really cool!
Once we arrived at the right bus stop, I walked part of the way home with Elizabeth and Galina (her host mom), until I had to cross the street by myself. Normally, a pedestrian will just wait for a car to pass and start walking, and you have to depend on the fact that once the next cars see you they will brake (usually only a foot or less away from you). However, there was a puddle next to the sidewalk that was about two feet wide, so if I did jump over it, I would land about a third of the way across the street, and cars might not have enough time to stop for me...eventually, I made it across safely, but it was still a little bit frightening!
At home, I started on some of my homework and then Bepa called me for dinner. We had boiled vegetables, some type of meatball-like thing (I don’t think it was made of meat, because as far as I can understand Vera is a vegetarian) that was strange but good, and more zucchini pancakes. After we ate, Bepa also let me finish making the rest of the pancakes, which was really fun!
I hadn’t been able to help with the cooking, probably partially due to bad communication on my part and the fact that the kitchen is really, really small.
After dinner, I just took a quick shower and read a little bit before going to bed. I couldn’t stay up too late because we had to be at the American Councils building in the city at 9:00 the next day for our excursion to some monasteries!
In the morning, I got ready as usual and headed out to school with Elizabeth. For breakfast, I had a variety of porridge that my host mom said was каша (I think?), but it wasn’t like the one I had eaten the day before...it was good though, and tasted slightly of coconut.
The mystery dish.
Our classes were similar to the other days, mostly learning vocabulary, some grammatical functions and how to properly pronounce everything.
After class, we all walked to a cafe called Rozmarin, which was only a few minutes’ walk from the university. They mostly had western/American-style food, so most people ended up with some type of sandwich or breakfast dish. Although it wasn’t *entirely* in line with the cultural immersion, the food was still pretty good. There were a few U.S. Air Force members who are currently studying Russian and joined us for lunch, which was also nice, especially hearing about their own experiences learning Russian.
Since Georgia’s 18th birthday was on Wednesday, we all got to eat cake afterwards, and Elliott made her wear a sparkly purple crown (he claimed it was a “program requirement”).
Georgia (and part of Devin’s right arm).
We got back in time for our meeting, where we mostly went over our excursion schedule and what to bring for our excursion the next day, as well as getting our lunch stipend and making sure everything was as expected with the host families.
Once the meeting was done, a big group of us (60% of the participants) walked down to the indoor ice skating rink, which took about fifteen minutes—although it felt much longer because of the 90 degree heat and the weight of our schoolbags. When we got there, the gate outside was closed, so we tried to talk to the person inside the guard house next to it...only to find out that the rink was closed until October. This was especially odd because on the website they had said that it was open at the moment?
Anyhow, all of us decided the best thing to do would be just to head straight to Tucano, and we eventually determined that it would be faster to walk straight there than to get on a trolley bus and have to switch. According to Саша (Alexander’s Russian nickname), it was only a ten minute walk...unfortunately, it also looked like there was about to be a huge thunderstorm.
We braved the walk, and even though it looked like we were going completely in the wrong direction, we made it there only as it was starting to drizzle, which was great.
Tucano is kind of like a Moldovan Starbucks, and we got a mix of lemonades, smoothies and coffees. They also had some food that looked really good, but I figured it would be best not to eat anything since I would probably have dinner when I got back home.
My lemon smoothie...which I only thought to take a picture of when it was almost done.
Since it was already past six o’clock at that point, Sara, Elizabeth and I thought it would be a good idea to figure out how to get home from where we were. It turns out that we were only a block or two away from the Central Park, so we walked in that direction along with Devin and Greg, who wanted to stop in at a book store on the Main Street.
By this time, the rain was already coming down at a good rate, so we ducked under a store front and pulled up EWay (an app for public transportation in Chisinau) to see which bus stop we should use to catch a bus going in the right direction. Unfortunately, none of us had much practice using the app, so we ended up misreading it.
We got on a #10 bus at a stop around the corner, and at first, since none of us had taken a #10 (we usually took the #24, however they both stopped by our houses), we just assumed that we were taking a different route. It turns out, we got on the #10 going in the wrong direction, so we had to ride the whole loop (and pay again) and wait for it to turn around so that we could get home. We called our host families to let them know what had happened, and once that was out of the way, we were able to enjoy the ride. Even though we technically got lost, we still got to see a lot of the city that we hadn’t before, which was really cool!
From left to right: Sara, Elizabeth and me, on the trolley bus, waiting for it to turn around.
At home, I started on some of my homework and then Bepa called me for dinner. We had boiled vegetables, some type of meatball-like thing (I don’t think it was made of meat, because as far as I can understand Vera is a vegetarian) that was strange but good, and more zucchini pancakes. After we ate, Bepa also let me finish making the rest of the pancakes, which was really fun!
I hadn’t been able to help with the cooking, probably partially due to bad communication on my part and the fact that the kitchen is really, really small.
Making the zucchini pancakes!
After dinner, I just took a quick shower and read a little bit before going to bed. I couldn’t stay up too late because we had to be at the American Councils building in the city at 9:00 the next day for our excursion to some monasteries!
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