Fall musings of a PCV

This is a photo of the largest Church in the center of Chisinau that I snapped last Friday (maybe my first photo ever in Chisinau?). I was sitting on a bench people watching and waiting for my friend, Mihaela, to arrive. Mihaela used to be the president of the Local Youth Council, but recently started her first year at the state university in Chisinau, where she’s majoring in accounting. Since I was in the big city, I decided it would be a good time to take out my new student out for a congratulatory treat. We are literally, one in the same! I took her to the French pastry shop, and told her to order whatever she wanted. She promptly skipped the pastry and went for the gelato—tiramisu to be exact. I knew I liked that girl....

What I thought would be a short afternoon rendezvous soon turned into a long-almost-late-to-the-next-engagement-kinda-day. I think I got a taste of what parents go through when dropping off the kid to freshman year [whoa!]. After the gelato, we hit up a few different book stands on the main street, scouting out a French-Romanian dictionary, bought a birthday gift for one of her three roommates, and then found ourselves looking at a map because apparently, freshman orientation in Moldova just isn’t like the overzealous hand-holding on American campuses, “Melissa,” Mihaela wimpered, “I don’t know where my dorm is!”

The rest of Friday and Saturday were filled with my own version of trick-or-treat through the Peace Corps Office: Mid-service medical exam, language exam, dental appointment, program manager chat, committee meetings, and …oh yea, a [American] football game!

I waited all week for this game. The crisp fall air has me suddenly yearning for the fight song [Go Cougs!], touchdowns, and wearing jeans again. 

But I guess others even took the chance to catch up on some other American hobbies thanks to a recent arrival of gag rags [Yup, that was more than enough time spent hearing about Chelsea Clinton’s nuptials!]

As fall is most definitely here and cliche change is in the air, it too is present in the Peace Corps Moldova community. This was my first round of weekend meetings with the new volunteers participating, and I think I have to quit calling them "new." It is going to be a ridiculously wild next couple of months--we're talking trainings, orientations, and meet 'n greets GALORE--but I'm really excited to be working with some of the recent additions to our teams. Fresh faces. Fresh ideas. But most of all, fresh enthusiasm. Wish us luck!