Sweeping in the New Year with my new 2-1 Vacuubroom 9000. I swept it away for a rockin' $1.20.
It's by far the best thing I've bought so far this year besides the extension cord to avoid the outlet that melted. Because the outlet melted I unplugged my fridge. Because I unplugged my fridge I constructed a "fridge" on my balcony. Because I did this I will now save more money on car insurance. Just Kidding- I will however save some cha-ching from my really enormous and bountiful paycheck! Because I have now only one working wall outlet in my entire apartment I now run the new extension cord from one deluxe extension cord from my bedroom/dining room/???room to where I plug in my hot water heater. Because I now have a gap in my "bedroom's" door where the extension cord slips through to the hallway where the melted outlet for my water heater and fridge is,
I am
slowly
loosing
my
mind.
And also my heat.
Hence loosing my mind.
Did I tell you already that I haven't had more than one space heater for heating my apartment all winter?? I will be blogging from a neighbor's apartment if my endangered, coveted and prized outlet blows because once that blows... my Titanic heat source in the dead of winter goes down with it.
Don't worry ma' I've got it covered.
Happy Happy New Year!
Before I forget, I want to write down some things I have been really, really grateful and not so grateful for in my 2013.
Top 5 things Wonderfuls
1. I have stayed safe and healthy (minus some sanity lost) through an entire year of living on my own in Eastern Europe. If you out there still have stereotypes about how dangerous Eastern Europe is and think my life is from a movie like "Taken" or "Hostel" you are terribly mistaken and I hope I can woo you into a more positive outlook on this little, dirty, corrupt-yet-friendly former Soviet country of mine.
2. I have managed to help out the community I live in and help others, no matter how small and insignificant I may think they are. Whether it was selling jewelry at Gustar with a few teenagers to raise money for youth projects or spreading candy or cookie love from America and my parents' great care packages I hope people here look back and say I was a pretty cool chicka.
3. I am now living proof that Americans can learn a foreign language. Hoorayyyy for that! Even if it is a language used in less than 1% of the world's population. :/ I hope to be living proof that you can leave this country without an alcohol addiction or Cirrhosis of the liver. So far, so good.
4. I am blessed with an amazing team of supporters back in the states and really from around the world. I needed money donated? I got it. My partner's husband wants a decent trumpet? Ok, no problem. Its a great relief knowing I have people behind me and thinking of me. I am one lucky girl. I don't say that out loud enough.
5. I traveled to Romania (twice), Hungary, Austria and Italy. For next to nothing. How cool is that? Next up on my list for my first trip in 2014: The Republic of Georgia! Yes... Go ahead. Look it up. It's a really really cool country. NOT state.
Top 5 not so Wonderfuls
1. What I think and what my work partner thinks are 99.99% of the time are wickedly different. This is one of those flashy, obvious, in your face examples of the great differences between how Americans think and how people from the former Soviet Union think but man does it make my life and my work here hard. I also wish things would just work like volunteering, fundraising, thinking outside the box.... thinking creatively in general....
2. I witnessed corruption in the schools. Think that sounds bad just as it is? Wait until I tell you the story.
Once upon a time an oblivious girl came along and spoke English really really well. A teacher in her community reached out and asked if she could help tutor. She said, "Ok..." and away they went. One morning the teacher told her to meet in town. From there they went to an apartment the morning of oh, lets say the SAT's of Moldova or something really big and important for graduating high schoolers to get into university. The teacher was corresponding with more than one student via text message and even phone conversation to oh, lets say, WRITE THE ENTIRE TEST. The oblivious girl wanted to pull her hair out when she saw this. And still does when she thinks about the horrible teachers, Ministry of Education and the CORRUPTION that is consumed on a daily basis.
The end.
3. After I moved from my first host families house where I learned Romanian and hung out for two months straight I moved in with a grandmother and her grandchild, an 8 year old boy. This, unfortunately is a fine example of the "Absent generation" problem in Moldova- where parents jump ship and find jobs in Europe to "support" their children or family at home because they can't find work at home. This aside, I wasn't in love with them like I was with my first host family.
For starters, I don't know if it was a strategic trick or not but my host mom/grandmother would always tell me at the dinner table that I didn't speak Romanian well and that the last volunteer she knew spoke much better. I wanted to tell her she didn't know how to cook in return. Regular fits of crying and rage at the dinner table from the brat child, eating plain oatmeal or pasta noodles with butter one too many times, listening to toddlers sing on the radio (watch this to believe me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny6598xeurE) all while living in a three room plus kitchen apartment set me over the edge.
One day in December last year where she called me and insisted that I get home right away for dinner. Oh boy this sounds promising! Well I was late so I rushed home in a ice-shuffle-run like way to cut time I had spent doing whatever it was instead of walking home right away. Right as I turned the corner to enter the soviet bloc of mine, I ate shit. Total wipe-out. I clearly remember as I was standing up and brushing the hellish bits of Moldovan snow and ice off me I thought to myself, I hope this dinner is good! It will make up for this spill! What would you know.. As my luck would have it, I ended up eating a nice bowl... of.... oatmeal.
4. I wish I could be the perfect role model and tell you about all the work I have been doing recently but, if you haven't heard, Moldovans do f-all whenever there is a holiday around. From about the 23rd of December until about yesterday I followed suit and soaked in my last Christmastime in Moldova. Everything was pretty typical, I sang in a few choir concerts, ate a few hundred pounds of food, drank until my Russian improved and spent time with some of the best people I know here but man, I am starting to think there are wayyyy too many holidays. I like holidays, don't get me wrong. I'm not part Grinch in any means but you must understand just how it goes down here.
We've got Christmas X 2, New Year's X 2 (and the second one really is crap and pointless, no one wants to celebrate the New Year on the 14th of January), a bunch of Easter stuff, Women's day, city saint days (sometimes two depending on how many churches you have and how many saints they've got stuffed in them), random religious holidays that I don't really have a great conception of and lastly I'll call it the "Pick your saint day." This holiday is ongoing. It never ends. I would say its as bad as the tune, "This is the song that never ends."
Where in the states we have a gratifying birthday once a year to think about how cool we are and the same with anniversaries, they have multiple. They are so"cool", so (un)lucky. Let me explain why. In Moldova people don't go naming their kids after pieces of fruit, action heroes or Hollywood celebs. The celebrities they name their kids after are saints, old, old saints. Every time the saint has a day declared their own, anyone with that name or updated version of their name gets to have a day of their own too. Your name is Ion? Saint John's Day was a week ago. Your name is Mihai, Mihela, Mike, Michelle, Misa you get a party sometime in the fall. This makes a year round food-binge cycle where the celebrator invites friends and family to "honor" "their" saint and then the guests do so in return when its their day because lets face it, why name your kid something different that doesn't have his or her own saint day. That would be ludicrous!
The same goes with getting married. You have your anniversary date then you also (I would like to think pick out of a hat) select a saint that protects your marriage or family or whatever. I don't have so much grief with the marriage guardian and protector but the name thing drives me nuts. I feel its super unnecessary, adds one more day of egotistical, sometimes drunk pricks, a usually wasted day of work, and curbs creativity when selecting a name to give a baby. I can spit out 5 names, male or female if I don't remember someones name and probably be ok.
I apologize for this random rant. If this is clear as mud, please let me know and we can chat more on it! :)
5. Last but not least...
I am really not used to how impolite people are! People here are really, really hospitable but don't expect a thank you from adult or child for holding a door open or other small acts of kindness. Its more of a take and run sort of appreciation. I only know of my landlord who works at a local kindergarten that has taught her grandchildren how to say thank you after receiving a cookie, juice, whatever. This also is expressed through how they communicate with one another. In English or Romanian the way they say "no" or "what are you thinking" always comes off to me very harsh. Its something I don't take offense when it's directed towards me but it definitely took a few months in 2013 to get used to at work. I do however find it funny that you can professionally, delicately and formally say word for word to, "shut your mouth."
Next up in blogging.. I think I need to tell a few more stories that have happened lately and potentially point out how and to what things I have adapted to in the last year and some months here!!!
