Chisinau Apartment

We’re finally in our new temporary apartment. The apartment is located on the 13th floor of one of those sweet-looking Soviet style bloc buildings. Even more sweet is that all the modern amenities from Soviet times are still in the apartment. I’ll give you a virtual tour right here on the blog! Let’s start with the elevator. Most of the time the light is not working in the hallway so you have to feel your way around for the button that calls the elevator. Either that or use a flashlight.

One of the two elevators will come and get you. It will either be the big elevator or the little elevator. You don’t get to pick. Both of the elevators seem equally unsafe and after you reach the 13th floor with your teeth and fists clenched, your arrival is signaled by a loud “POP!” from the button on the wall. We still haven’t gotten used to this. I think it shaves a couple months off our lifespan each time. The doors on the elevator squeek open and you are let out into the hallway. You go to our door and after you undo about 40 locks you get into the apartment.

The apartment isn’t exactly as modern as our last one but at least we have hot running water. Actually we only have hot water. To flush the toilet you have to put some water in a bucket and pour it into the toilet until its contents go away. Laundry is done in the bathroom by hand. This is my job. After Amanda’s battle blister from de-kerneling the corn I didn’t want to subject her to further war wounds as a result of washing laundry. Amanda pretty much takes care of all the other cleaning chores.

It almost seems that when the Soviet Union fell, the people who lived here just vacated the premises ASAP and didn’t have time to take their commie stuff with them. Our oven is all-original with “CCCP” written on it as are half the radios in the apartment. There are Soviet Kopeks (money) lying around all over the place. We even found some cans of calamari in the fridge with CCCP written on them. That means they’re at least 18 years old. Mmm. I wonder how much I can get for them on Ebay…

The best discovery that I made, in my opinion, is a book called “English for Everyone Part 2”. It offers a glimpse into state-controlled language learning in 1977. It teaches people how to speak with stuck-up London dwellers about crappy Soviet art and provides loyal Party members riveting stories about the horrible life that Negro New Yorkers have to live in the great “City of Contrasts”. At the end, the writer “can’t wait to get back to good old Moscow”. I think my favorite parts are the discussion questions. Here’s a sample: 1. Joint actions of the socialist community countries in the struggle for peace. 2. Further strengthening of friendship and co-operation among socialist countries. 3. The celebrations of the Great October Socialist Revolution and May Day in the Soviet Union. I know I can’t wait to discuss!

Back to the apartment, I have to say that this is probably the creepiest place I’ve ever lived in. If anyone ever starts a Chisinau “ghost tour” then the 13th floor of this building needs to be on the itinerary. I can probably make up a pretty good story about the owners of this place flinging themselves to their deaths out of the window, not being able to bear the ensuing chaos of the fall of the Soviet Union. But, with the exception of my (possibly) unmerited fear of an earthquake happening in the night, this feels like it’s a fairly safe place to be.

Our location is pretty good and although it’s in a part of town that we’re not familiar with, it does have almost everything that you could ask for. It’s got some good restaurants, including a McDonald’s down the street when we have those occasional McNugget cravings. There’s a memorial park right next door dedicated to the memory of the Moldovan men killed in the Afghanistan conflict. It’s weird knowing that our country was the one who supplied the guns who killed those guys. It adds to the creepiness factor I think. There is a wooded area behind the apartments where you can go have picnics, complete with a man-made mosquito lake. There is a Wal-Mart type “supermarket” down the road when we need something that is hard-to-get (no BBQ sauce though…ugh).

So now our time is spent helping out with English lessons at the American Counsels Language School although the lessons are finished for this these particular set of classes and everyone is getting ready to take tests. We are working out a new marketing idea with the director that may involve us going to businesses posing like American customers and speaking in English, only to give a flier at the end of our conversations offering lessons at the language school. I’m sure we’ll write about this later.

We have been exploring our possibilities of work in Romania when we go back for the second time around. I emailed some former Peace Corps Volunteers who have a tourism business in Transylvania. I am crossing my fingers that they can help us out somehow as this seems like the best possible work we could find. We also heard back from Berlitz, the company who gives English lessons in Romania. They want to interview us in Bucharest sometime. Once we figure out when we’re gonna be going through there again we will set up the interview. We will probably work in Bucharest or Timisoara which are big cities not located in Transylvania. But at least we will have work and an income.

So here’s our tentative schedule for the next couple months: June will be spent here in Chisinau working with the language school. In early July we will go to Brasov for a couple days and reserve rooms for people and a place for our party. Then we will go out to Serbia for a series of concerts from July 8-11. After this we will head out to Croatia for probably a week. Then it will be back to Bucharest or Brasov depending on what we need to do for the job interview and setting up for our party and getting married and all that. Then in August we will have our party and after that we’ll be on to bigger and better things! Wow!

Ok. We’ll write again soon.

Country Mouse and City Mouse

So... we spent a few days in Chisinau and then went back to the village for a little while. We really wanted the host family to let us help them with some work since Peace Corps isn't paying them anything for us to stay there anymore. I think they thought that we were joking.

The first day I was instructed to listen for the sheep to come home. Apparently all the sheep owners take turns herding them around for the day. There are probably 20 some-odd families who have sheep so two or three people from these families watch the sheep for the day and bring them home at night.

"How do I know when the sheep are home?" This was apparently a stupid question.

"You look outside the gate and if you see their heads at the gate then you let them in".

"Ok... Where do I put them when they come in?"

"You put them where the sheep live in the back of the house". Duh.

I had to get my host mom to help me with all of this and I don't think we were trusted to do things without having a chaperone from here on out. We tried to let them know that we needed things to do, that we were desperately bored and we need to learn things like gardening. Again, I feel like my request wasn't taken seriously.

Eventually we talked them into letting us help them de-kernel some corn. This can be a tough task. The corn is dried out from the year before and it can sometimes be stuck to the cob. You have to use another cob to lever the kernels off the corn cob one at a time or else your hands can get all jacked up.

Amanda was determined to fight through her hurt hands (after probably 10 cobs or so) and she wanted to show everyone that she was capable of doing work but she developed a blister. She was very brave and didn't even complain! Not until the evening anyway. She's still nursing her war wound.

Besides de-kerneling corn we didn't really get very far in our learning process. While my host mom was at work the turkeys got out along with one of the geese that the turkeys live with and we had to chase them around the garden back into their home. We bragged to my host mom about our feat but she just said thanks. We didn't try very hard to get involved after this.

We went back to the city (Chisinau) to speak to a group of Peace Corps volunteers who were getting ready to complete their service and we were able to do some networking with a few former volunteers who were on the same panel.

We were able to get a place to stay for the next week. Consequently the guy we're staying with is a "Couchsurfer". Dang it. Good thing we were doing all this awesome networking. On the other hand, it is a place to stay that is far, far away from sheep and escaped turkeys. After this week we plan to move in with a girl that one of the former Peace Corps volunteers knows named Olga. We met her and saw the apartment and it looks like a good deal.

We'll be staying in the "Riscani" region of Chisinau which is about a 20-minute bus ride from the center of town. The apartment is on the 13th floor in one of those awesomely ugly commie bloc buildings that is amazingly nice looking on the inside. In our free time we'll be volunteering at the "American Councils" language training center. When we volunteered for Peace Corps we worked with these guys on the aforementioned FLEX program.

So this is what we're up to now. I am trying to find someplace to do some grappling and maybe Jiu-Jitsu. As I understand Moldova is void of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu trainers so maybe I can get something going out here. Again. I bought some shorts in case the opportunity arises.

Back to the USSR

***Written on Tuesday, April 29th***

So we’re back in Chisinau again. Setting up two parties from here takes skill. More than skill. It takes finesse. I know that tomorrow we will lose all reliable internet access for at least a week because we have to grab our turtle shells (get it? Turtles wear their houses on their backs haha) and lug them down to the village. We’ve so far been staying at a very up-scale Couchsurfing host here in the city. We have running water, a washing machine and even wireless internet.

But tomorrow we will be leaving and going back to Burlacu. We should be there for a week and then afterwards we should have something here in Chisinau again. We talked with the director of the “FLEX” program (not the body-building magazine) and he said that he would be able to provide an apartment if we would be able to work for him part-time for a couple months. We worked for FLEX when we were PC volunteers. FLEX is set up to prepare CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States, i.e. former Soviet Union) kids for a trip to the States as exchange students so we will be needed to help facilitate cultural and language learning for them before they leave.

So it’s not work with a paycheck but at least it comes with an apartment. We are just waiting for him to give us the word. In the meantime we will be drinking wine and eating delicious food in the village with my host family and maybe even learning how to garden a little bit.

When we come back to Chisinau next Thursday we have a gig here to talk with an outgoing Peace Corps group about what to expect when they go back to the States. I don’t have any idea about what to tell them. Our experience differs a bit from the experience of others. We had steady jobs but decided to leave them for Moldova. Maybe they will think there’s something wrong with us.

Our trip out to Chisinau was not as tough as I thought. Amanda handled the move quite well and we had a BBQ with our best friends Alex and Simona before we left which made us both feel good. I lost my PSP along the way and am still kind of bitter about it but even that didn’t faze us that much. Just don’t ask about it please. At least I beat all of my games that I had with me. Ah well, I will find another one or something better than a PSP before long. Like a wife. Ugh… I just realized I’m gonna have a wife. Well at least it’s gonna be Amanda.

We have also been in contact with an agency that provides English language training in Romania. Unfortunately it is not in Brasov but it is in Romania. This will get our much-needed feet in the door. After this maybe we will find something better if we really don’t like working for these guys. We are still in the application process so we don’t know anything about what it pays or what exactly we’ll be doing. We’re pretty sure we’ll be in Timisoara which is the second largest city in Romania behind Bucharest. We have never been there and actually have not been that far west in the country so we don’t know anything about it except what we read on Wikipedia and hear from our friends (it was the first European city to have electronic street lights… that’s what’s up).

So this is where we stand right now. We will still be having our parties. We will still be able to meet folks at the airport and all that stuff. So don’t fret. It will all be good. We will be writing again soon don’t worry my few readers.