Week 4 Day 3

Wednesday was probably one of my favorite days from this week.

We had class as usual, and then we got a takeout lunch from La Placinte to eat in the courtyard in the university, since we had to drive a good distance for our excursion that day.

The food came in these cute little boxes, kind of the equivalent of pizza delivery in the U.S. There were three kinds of Placinte: potato, meat (I think it was chicken, but I couldn’t really tell), and apple. These were also more cylindrical as opposed to the round ones we had had before, which was nice because it meant that we each just got our own box without having to share.

The boxes.

My apple, meat and partially eaten potato Placinte, 

since I didn’t think of taking a picture until after I started eating.

After we finished eating, we got into two different vans and drove about an hour to Dolna, a small town in the Moldovan countryside where Pushkin stayed at a friend’s estate for a summer. When we got there, we had a few minutes to look around the small gardens, which (of course) included a statue of Pushkin.

Pushkin!

There was also a nice view over the property, and also beyond, which was mostly just a lot of greenery.

Our view.

We had an (approximately) hour-long tour of the house, once again in Russian, which meant it was hard to understand at times, but it was also really interesting and our guide told us some pretty cool cross dressing /unrequited love/adultery stories. Like at the other museums, you had to pay to take pictures, so unfortunately, I didn’t get any of the inside.

After the tour, we had about half an hour to frolic in the fields (as one of us put it, I don’t quite remember who—sorry!). I walked around for a bit and then settled down by a large tree with several of the others and tried to make flower crowns (we failed pretty miserably).

Devin did however manage to accessorize his sock(?), so that was something:

(Credit to Cameron)

Left to right: Georgia, Sara, Melina, Cameron (lying on the ground), 

me, Maggie and Elizabeth. 

(Credit to Devin—I think?)

We got back on the busses and drove back another hour into Chisinau, and I walked over to the post office so I could mail some post cards, and then took the bus home so I could do my homework and relax for a bit before bed.