Here it is, the picture I've been waiting for. With the exception of one of these people not holding a bottle of house wine this picture takes my cake as, "Moldova. In one picture." Also, Youtube "Moldova Music Accordion" to add to the senses overload.
I feel more and more integrated every day. My language is improving, I've met more people in Rezina I can call prietenii (friends) and I can hold a few opinions and observations I would like to share here. This picture was "liked" by a Moldovan friend of mine on the Facebook page of Flamingo Night Club in Chisinau, Moldova and I would like to "like" it here.
For starters, the women here are beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. And the luckiest thing they have going for them is that I don't think their metabolisms are effected by the oily, fatty diet here. No long hours in the gym for them, just hours in front of the mirror. Not fair. The men... Eh... To keep it brief they do not compare to the women (please reexamine picture above). It is fairly understandable why a dude volunteer would date someone here. From a young age pretty girls know how to do "pretty", walk long distances up hills both ways in high heels, cook, clean and become obsessively interested in finding a boyfriend to obsessively obsess about when they are not obsessing about their looks, clothes, whatever. I get this feeling the girls here are very competitive with one another and its too bad they don't get involved in sports/have the opportunities like American girls do to vent this competitiveness through instead.
But seriously. If I ever get bored I'm just going to set up a chair on the staircase of Rezina to watch and count the number of women who don't just walk around, they high heel around like its no big deal (the stairs would just add to my strange amusement/bewilderment). When I wear heels here I do the street walkin' and stair climbin' in my Tevas and switch over to my heels when I get to my destination as discretely as possible.
Its like in other cultures you see the obvious "bizarre" customs where people poke sticks in their noses and get a kick out of tattooing their faces up or make an effort to stretch out their ears or keep their feet tiny...That stuff is immediately noticeable. Here it is more subtle, definitely not so dramatic but if you showed up in a city center here, cracked open a few beers (that will run you between $.80-$1.50 USD per bottle) during a busy hour you will notice more women then not wearing some sort of high heel (torture contraption), a few short skirts, nice dresses and lots of beauties. Pretty freaky (literally).
Moving on... The clash of old and new Moldova... Traditional clothing and the modern. Generally the folky looking clothes in the picture are worn for special occasions and weddings (the people working at the reception halls wear stuff like this I believe) and to greet important people to Moldova (i.e. German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week). I am curious why they are wearing it at a night club but Moldova is a sort of "Anything Goes" kinda place (which this picture shows respectively). As an American I can't say we could even agree on something like that to wear in the States yet alone be willing to be caught dead in such an outfit. I would want to dress up as Pocahontas where it might be more correct in your opinion to dress up as John Smith or a baseball player or something. Regardless, it is neat to see it still being worn semi-frequently here instead of fading out fashion in these hip, modern times.
Next lets look at facial expressions. I would say they are open to interpretation of course as with everything I am doing with this picture but I am just about guaranteeing all of these people are in fact smiling and having a fabulous time, Moldovan style. Somewhere behind the deer in headlights look or whatever expression you want to consider the couple in this photo to be using is in fact a nice big smile you would see in the US for a photo op like this. I swear.. pinky swear. People just prefer a dead stare over a toothy smile here when they get their pictures taken. No shame in that, just not what we are used to.
Moldova is definitely a country in transition, its a great time to be here. Almost the entire country is wifi accessible but if you live in a village, expect to poop in a hole. Even if you don't live in a village. Expect to poop in a hole. Plenty of women dye their hair and have fake long nails to go with their natural beauty and high heels but you will find more people without a full set of teeth then with after the age of 40 and half of the schools without safe sanitation. You can buy a BMW or Mercedes for nothing compared to US prices and drive around like James Bond but will still be passing horse drawn carts on the "highway". People walk around talking on iPods and smart phones but curse you if you have more than one window open on the bus and blame the air current on their ailments. I could continue but I think you get the point.
Well I would say I've reached the 1000 word limit. Hope this is better insight to this goofy little country then prior blog posts and Google searches. If I come across another picture like this I will be sure to post again!
Happy Trails,
Kate
