Week 4 Day 5

Friday!

In class, we had our grammar test as well as some graded oral work, and then we learned about the perfect vs. imperfect tenses.

As always, we went to Rozmarin for lunch before our group meeting. This week, I got a roasted vegetable/mozzarella sandwich and a piece of hummingbird cake (which I can best describe as an upgraded carrot cake).

My sandwich.
The “hummingbird” cake. 

We walked back to the university and managed to start our meeting about 15 minutes early, and we also finished much earlier than expected, at around 3:15 instead of 4:00, so a bunch of us took a bus to the center, and we walked over to the cafe we had gone to a few days before and got a start on our homework, since it was really hot so none of us wanted to walk around, but it felt too early to go home. I got myself a drink since I wasn’t feeling hungry, but some of the others got the crème brûlée again, which was (once again) pretty cool.

(I forget what it was called)
I got a better picture of it this time.

After about an hour, it got more cloudy, so a few of us (me, Melina, Greg, Devin and Randy) walked back to Stephan cel Mare street (the Main Street in Chisinau) and decided to go check out one of the outdoor markets to see if we could find some good gifts for friends and family.

On our way there, we ran into some Mormons who were standing on one of the corners. Devin struck up a conversation with them about where in the U.S. we’re from and how we’re liking Chisinau, and a bunch of other random (non-religious topics), and it was actually really enjoyable! After a bit, they decided to invite us to their “game night” at the building they use for their mission, which apparently they have every Friday at 7:00 (and they play volleyball in the park on Thursdays). They gave us a card with their phone numbers on it that was advertising English language classes to Russian and Romanian speakers.


We thanked them but ultimately decided that we would go next week with more people from our group, since it was short notice and we didn’t want to inconvenience our host families. After that, we browsed the market for a bit and I did find (and buy) some things, but I won’t say what in case the intended recipients are reading this...but there was a lot of matryoshka-themed merchandise.

Soon enough, the vendors started closing up, so we walked back in the direction of our bus stops and split up, but before we got on the bus I bought a bouquet of flowers for Vera, which I had been meaning to do for a while.

It was a productive day and I also managed to complete one of my goals (talking to Mormons!), so I felt like it was a fulfilling end to a somewhat stressful week!

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