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.

A Change of Plans

This past Tuesday our landlord came through with our contract and we were finally ready to start turning documents into the immigration office. We got our passport-style pictures taken the day before and purchased the specific folders for our documents as we were instructed, and made copies of everything for our records. We were ready.

There are two men who work at the immigration office. The light-haired one is mildly helpful. The dark-haired one claims he’s the one who actually processes our paperwork, and thus usually gives us more specific information. On most accounts, they tend to give us different information and requirements depending on the day. We prefer to talk to the dark-haired one since we feel he might know more what he’s talking about.

On Tuesday, we got the dark-haired guy. I handed him my documents and he started to go through them. I can’t remember if we posted about the previous encounter at the immigration office, but they required an additional piece of paper stating exactly what our volunteering consisted of at the bear sanctuary. We went back to the bear sanctuary office and got this piece of paper and had it signed and stamped. Unfortunately, there was a line on this piece of paper stating that one of our qualifications must be that we had some kind of specific degree or certificate. The dark-haired guy spotted this line and told us that unless we actually had this degree, this was not valid. I asked him if we had to show him a piece of paper with a stamp on it to prove we had the degree, and he said yes. He then proceeded to tell us that another one of our documents was wrong and we also had to make a copy of a different page in our passport. I said, “Ok, we’ll go get this done and hopefully be back in an hour or so.” He replied, “Oh, I don’t think you’ll be back in an hour. But you can try.”

I pretty much wanted to cry right there. We were already one week overdue (which would have been ok, if all our documents had been straight), we already paid our money, our landlord went through the trouble of getting a lawyer to draw up a contract, and now we had to get three MORE things done – two of which required someone else’s involvement.

So I called the bear sanctuary and explained that we needed the wording changed on one document and we needed two copies, plus the original of their “business registration certificate” (for lack of a better term). Since we knew they wouldn’t be too keen on letting us take the original certificate, we offered to pay for a taxi for someone from the bear sanctuary to come to the immigration office and show it to them (that’s all they needed anyhow). Yes, they were willing to do this, however, they were bogged down with work on Tuesday, so it would have to be Wednesday. Fine, no problem. One more day wouldn’t hurt.

Wednesday morning I get a call from my contact at the bear sanctuary. She had spoken with the director of the organization and they decided that they would not provide us with the business registration certificate. Apparently, by providing the immigration office with this certificate, it made them more responsible (or something) for us and they were not willing to do this.

And this, my friends, is how one little piece of paper is the downfall of our visa hopes this time around.

Plan B. This week we’ll pack our stuff up and head out to Moldova for two and a half months. By the end of July, we’ll be able to return to Romania and have another 90 days to figure something out. We’ll be more prepared this time for what’s necessary. We’ll work diligently from Moldova to apply for jobs (any job) in Romania (preferably in Brasov, but perhaps elsewhere) so maybe we could even come back earlier. Regardless, we’ll be back in Brasov for the party (exact dates still pending) and hopefully have something more stable by that point!

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If any of you are familiar with the “Rocky” series than you know what happens during Rocky III. Rocky, for those of you who don’t know, fights Mr. T who is incredibly intimidating. Mr. T insults Rocky and he knocks guys out silly in the prelude to his fight with Rocky. Rocky is incredibly confident. He is the champ. Nobody can beat him. He has the best trainers, best diet and best place to train in the world. But he loses in his first fight with Mr. T.

This is kind of like our situation right now. This is the third time we have faced off with the dreaded Romanian bureaucratic process (hence my Rocky III reference). We come from the best country in the world, bar none (no offense to my Romanian and Moldovan readers). We had all the confidence that things would go our way. But things didn’t.

Rocky lacked heart before his fight with Mr. T. Mickey died in Rocky III. But I know that you guys know what happens in the end. But for those who don’t know I will tell you.

*WARNING* Spoiler alert from 1982.

After months of training, a questionable relationship with Apollo Creed (hey, it was 1982) and a much-needed pep-talk from his wife, Rocky came back and crushed Mr. T like there was no tomorrow. It wasn’t easy but he put his mind to it. Rocky was getting ready to retire but he decided that he couldn’t go out like a punk losing to Mr. T. He couldn’t let Mickey die and him not be on top. He couldn’t let his wife down. This is our situation.

I probably don’t have to remind you my dear reader(s) what Rocky did in Rocky IV. That’s right. He conquered Russia. Ok so now I’m mixing the two timelines up a bit but I have to do this in order to provide you with an awesome story.

And what an awesome story this is. Who does this stuff anyway? Not only did we get severely beat down by the commies (again, no offense my dear Romanians but you have to update your system) but we are going to come back for more. We ain’t no punks. Foo.

Since my story equates our situation to Rocky it is only appropriate to illustrate it with Rambo pictures. We weren’t allowed to bring our cameras to the festivities at the police station so we will have to use these pictures that we found online because it looked almost exactly like this. I assure you that this is pretty much an exact replica.

Visa: It's Everywhere You Want to be.

Sorry we haven’t posted in a little while. We’re kind of holding our breath now for a volunteer organization to give us a contract so that we will have all the necessary paperwork to remain in the country for at least a few months. We have been volunteering at a couple different places at this point. The first place is F.A.S.T.: this stands for something in Romanian, but basically they work with a large Roma (gypsy) population outside of the city.

These guys said that they couldn’t sign a contract with us because they are going through some organizational changes and don’t know if they can accommodate volunteers. This was very disappointing because we feel that they are a good organization and would have enjoyed working more with them.

So we started to volunteer at the bear rescue/sanctuary just outside of Brasov. When we talked with one of the coordinators, she said that they wouldn’t mind doing a contract and they do this sort of things with foreigners all the time. We like this organization as well and the people who work there. Most of the work is centered around feeding the 50+ bears they have there since they are big animals and they eat a lot. Hopefully in time we can get more involved with the organizational aspect because it seems like this is the area that they need the most help. When you click on the bear picture, you can see the bear sanctuary website - it's translated into English using Google translate, so the meaning can get lost in translation so to speak...

The way it looks right now, we have a best-case, and worst-case scenario, and even worst-case is not all that bad.

Best-case: We get the volunteer contract and subsequently the visa and we volunteer at the bear sanctuary. During this time we find work either legally with a company that can hire us in Romania or we find a job(s) online and continue working with the bear place on a volunteer basis.

Worst-case: We don’t get a visa and have to leave the country for a couple months. In this case we would probably go to Moldova and volunteer somewhere that can provide housing and food since we don’t have money coming out of our ears. We come back to Romania in late July and still are able to have our party in August. We will then have another 90 days to get a visa and this time we will be more prepared.

I know that just by looking at our blog it seems like we have just been sitting around and being tourists. This is not the case. Most of our time was spent in vain going through interviews and waiting for a response from one of many people who made it seem like it would be a sure-fire thing to be able to hire us until the Romanian Bureaucracy swiftly cut our hopes short. If it happens that we have to leave the country we will be more familiar with everything that’s available and also what they will need to do for us when we come back in July.

But please cross your fingers that we get the visa this time around. We don’t want to have to look for another apartment in July. We like this one and we don’t want to have to go back to Moldova until it’s time for setting up a party. Parties are better than being homeless in Eastern Europe.

Amidst all of this waiting, we made two more trips back to the friendly folks at the immigration office. Technically, our deadline for turning in all of our documents is April 7th – that would be this coming Wednesday – and understandably, we began to feel stressed out when we realized that we had just one week to gather everything up signed and stamped. So in the beginning of last week we visited the immigration office to get more information specifically about the volunteer contract and what should happen if we don’t have everything in on time.

Since Robert already took his turn talking to the immigration official, it was my turn. Friendly would not be the word I’d use to describe the official, however, he was civil. He referred me to section 195/2001 of the law which pertains to volunteering and said I could just search for it on the internet and get any details I need there. I proceeded to ask him the rest of my questions anyway, even though I’m pretty sure he was hoping to get rid of me with his first suggestion. I found out the following: there is no minimum number of volunteer hours needed, you can get a volunteer visa for a maximum of one year, and as long as you turn in your first document (among many) by the 60-day mark then you are not past the deadline. This was helpful.

We decided to try to collect as many of the documents as we could without the volunteer contract so we would be entirely prepared. Off we went to the doctor’s office to get a clean bill of health! Fearing this could take longer than a couple days with blood tests, etc, we wanted to get this out of the way first. Our friends helped us find a doctor with open appointment hours, and after waiting about fifteen minutes in an empty waiting room, we were invited into the doctor’s office. We handed her our passports, she asked “Are you healthy? Do you have any diseases or mental problems?,” we both answered “yes” and “no” respectively, she took our blood pressure, she signed and stamped our medical clearances and we were done! Who knew it could be so easy?

After she took my blood pressure she said that it was a little high. She said this was normal since I was a little fat. I suggested that it was because I drank a lot of coffee before I went to see her.

Next was our medical insurance. Our timing was off because we arrived at the state medical insurance office outside of “public hours.” This means the civil servants working there are far too busy chatting amongst themselves to be bothered with matters of serving the public. They were kind enough to provide us some information for our return trip, though. We were informed that in order to receive health insurance, one must first have a “CNP” which is a Romanian identity number. We could obtain one of these numbers by going to the police station (incidentally, the same location as the immigration office) and inquiring there.

Back to the police station we went! Upon explaining our situation to the front desk attendant at the police station, we were directed around the building back to the immigration office. And so we found ourselves in front of the immigration officer once again. It was a different man than I had spoken to a couple days earlier and although he was equally as civil as the first, he turned out to be much more helpful.

First, we asked him about the CNP number. He asked us if we already had a visa and proceeded to explain how the various types of visa will determine what we need to do for our medical insurance. We told him we would be volunteering. He then explained that there are many different types of volunteering (religious, humanitarian, etc) and that, too, would change our insurance requirements. Why this was not written on the “informative” website, I don’t know. We went on to ask him about the various tariffs that had to be paid for visa applications. He began to explain, “The tariff is 120 euro. You must pay this to the Takramama (or something like that).”

Us: So you can’t just bring cash and pay it here?
Immigration Officer: No. You must pay it to the Takramama and then bring us the receipt. But you must pay the Takramama in Romanian currency, not euro. You must take out euro, have it exchanged into Romanian currency and then pay the Takramama and then give us the receipts.
Us: Ummm…so let me make sure I understand this. I start with lei, then change it to euro – 120 to be exact. Then I take the 120 euro and change it back to lei, and save my receipt. Then I take the lei and pay it to a specific location (the Takramama) and save that receipt as well and give it to you along with the euro-to-lei exchange receipt…?
Immigration Officer: Yes.
Us: (Pause.) ***quizzical look***
Immigration Officer: I don’t know why this is.

Perhaps when said this aloud it sounded equally as ridiculous to him as it did to us.

Us: And what about the 230 lei that this sign here talks about? (*Note: This fee was mentioned nowhere online or anywhere else besides on a printed out sheet of paper taped on the Immigration Office door.)
Officer: That must be in lei and deposited at the CEC Bank into the account number printed on the sign.
Us: And then bring you the receipt…?
Officer: Yes. But the price varies depending on what kind of visa you get. So does the 120 euro tariff. Just bring me your volunteer contract when it is signed and I will tell you what to do after I see it.

And so out of all of that (and there was more…), we found out that…
1) the 60-day deadline is somewhat flexible (“Three or four days is ok. Just don’t let it be 24.”),
2) the visa might not cost us as much as we thought, and
3) we might have to visit the doctor again since her note apparently must read word-for-word that we do not pose a danger to Romanian society (the officer kindly wrote out what it needed to say on a sticky note for us).

Oh, and as of Thursday, everything is closed until Tuesday due to the Easter holidays. Who needs Easter egg hunts when you’ve got Visa scavenger hunts instead??

Parties

Ok, we’ve talked it out and have come up with some more concrete dates. I have yet to hear any feedback about dates so Amanda and I did some research and it seems that most universities get going again around the 25th of August. We did get some feedback on timing of the parties since lots of people will only be able to get a week or so off from work. We have set it up so that the parties will be within the same week so those who want to come to both Moldova and Brasov parties can do it in one week if they so choose. Here’s a tentative schedule of events that is a bit more detailed than the last one. The date range we have here is Monday, August 16th through Friday, August 27th; however, anyone who wants to come for more time on either side of the schedule is most welcome!

August 16: Arrive in Bucharest. There is not an international airport in Brasov so you can spend the night in Bucharest or take the train or bus (we recommend the train) to Brasov that night. Amanda and I or one of our “representatives” will meet you at the airport and take you wherever you need to go.

August 17: Get situated in Brasov. We’ll give a general tour of the city so that you can get oriented. Depending on when the majority of people get in, we may need to save this for the next day. We will have one scheduled meal together every day, otherwise you can be on your own. Brasov is a very English-speaking-friendly town so you will probably have no trouble doing whatever you want.

August 18: Castle tours-see some of Transylvania’s beautiful castles. Amanda and I will do some research so that we can give you the tours by ourselves if it’s possible (some of the nicer spots have obligatory tours that are included in the price).

August 19: More castles and palaces! We’ll probably head out to Sinaia to see Peles castle. This is also located in picturesque Transylvania. Depending on what the group is like, we may do some “real Dracula” stuff instead and see some places where Vlad the Impaler really lived and impaled some folks.

August 20: Bear sanctuary day- we’ll go out to the place that we’re currently volunteering at to see some bears. These guys were mostly rescued from zoos and circuses and are well taken care of out in Zarnesti, a town that is nearby. Right now there are more than 50 bears! Also, if you want to “adopt” a bear and then see it in real life when you get out here just let us know.

August 21: Free day. Do whatever you want (we’ll have suggestions) while Amanda and I get set up for the party the next day. This is also a good day to come in if you can only be out here for a week. Again, we can facilitate transportation once you get into the country.

August 22: Brasov party. You don’t have to dress up or anything. This will just be a good time for our friends and families to meet each other and have some food and drinks. We will probably ask some of you to bring some items with them so that we can have some good American food as well as some Romanian classics.

August 23: Recovery day. Recover during the day because we will be leaving for Chisinau, Moldova on either an overnight train or bus. Which one will depend on how many people we have. I think if we have more than 7 people going to Moldova with us then we will rent a bus/maxi-taxi because it will be cheaper and we can be more flexible. Either way we will be traveling overnight. We’ll probably be stopped at the border for 1-2 hours. Bring some sleeping pills. If you don't want to do the Moldova leg of the trip then this is probably the best day for flying back. Or just hang out in Romania for a while!

August 24: Chisinau day. We’ll go see some world-record-holding wineries or if you’re really adventurous we can take a small group to see Transnistria for the day. We’ll probably have time to shop around for some cheap, bootleg stuff in Chisinau before we get back on the bus and go to the village. You will go to your host family’s house. I know everyone very well so I will not set you up with a shady host family. They will be well-paid (by Moldovan standards) to take care of you. Unless there are a whole bunch of us you will also probably have a Romanian-English translator (i.e. us or one of our Romanian friends or former Peace Corps volunteer) there to facilitate.

August 25: Moldova party in Burlacu. This is the village that I spent 2 years in during Peace Corps. It is a friendly village and Amanda likes it there as well. We will have probably a more traditional Moldovan party with traditional food and probably a “taraf” (a musical group that will play traditional music). These parties tend to go into the wee hours of the morning so be prepared. You will probably be asked to join in traditional dances and get drunk. Traditionally of course. Stick with your host families and just go home with them when they go home.

August 26: Recovery day. Get recovered quickly because we will be on the bus/train back to Romania that evening. We will probably go straight to Bucharest so plan on buying your return ticket for the 27th of August. This is also Moldova’s independence day but unfortunately we will be in Romania for that.

August 27: Bucharest day and leaving for your flight. Those who have time can go and see some sights in Bucharest but we will mostly be facilitating trips to the airport. Those of you who want to stay longer are welcome. We will go back to Brasov that evening so you are welcome to come along. If you weren’t able to make it to see Brasov before the party you can see it now.


OK! So this is the tentative plan. If you want more details and FAQs, you can go to the "party info" link under "pages" on the left-hand side of the blog page.

New Developments

So we heard back from the American Hospitality Academy. They said that they wouldn’t be able to work through the mire of the Romanian bureaucracy and be able to legally employ us. This was somewhat disappointing but we can hardly say that it’s surprising. Time is kind of running out on our 90-day tourism stamp and we are investigating fully into other options. We suggested to AHA that they take us on as interns. We will keep you all posted of course.

Our gas got cut off the other day because we didn’t pay our bill. We didn’t exactly receive a bill, but because we didn’t pay it they cut it off on us. They don’t do it like they do in the US where they’ll give you a little while and notify you again, warning about the repercussions. They just stop it. Luckily we still had electricity and it wasn’t that cold out. Amanda went and paid the bill and they blamed the situation on the post office for not properly delivering us our mail.

We have both been getting over some nasty stomach bug for the past few days. I will spare you the details but I can say that we are recovering. And there was one more item of news… I can’t quite put my finger on it… hold on...

Oh yeah, we’re gonna get hitched.



So to all my relatives who had their money on me and not my little brother David, I’m sorry that I let you all down. But did you really all think that any of my brothers would ever do something before I did it first?

To my brothers and other male friends who may be reading, I’m sorry for selling out. You must understand that this move has a more practical application as well. Especially when it comes to visas and taxes. After almost 5 years of “dating” (living in sin/shacking up or whatever else people with better morals wish to call it) I figure that it was about time to make an honest woman out of my girlfriend.

To my female relatives and friends, it was a beautiful, beautiful thing and I will treasure it forever. Rest assured that this has absolutely no practical value whatsoever. I had to go where my heart told me to. Anything else that I missed, please let me know so that I can add it to my automated female-responding system. I’m not single anymore.

So probably what will happen is we’ll sign some papers behind locked doors somewhere far, far away from prying eyes (and jeering relatives) and will opt to have a few giant-sized parties instead of some nightmare-inducing ceremony (I’ve literally had nightmares on more than one occasion). We have brainstormed a very tentative plan but we need your feedback on this stuff:

As it looks right now we will probably have a party here in Transylvania (visa willing) late this summer before school starts since half the people I know are working around a school schedule. We’ll set up some sort of sponsorship program for our broke friends and family to come and see us without going further into debt. This sponsorship program will be funded by folks who aren’t able to come due to a career or babies but want to help out. If you don’t have a career or a baby then you have no excuse not to come (pets and your “counseling career” don’t count).

The second party will probably take place in Moldova in a village. This will be awesome because the wine (the best wine in the world) will be fresh and the weather should be just right and the girls will have graduated high school and will be looking for MRS degrees, as my Aunt Dana says. We will set up those who can come with places to stay with people we know. This party will take place right after the Brasov party so you won’t have to buy two tickets for yourself or some post-GenX slacker.

We will hammer out all of the details (we need your feedback for this) but if you can, plan to take 2 weeks for both parties or 1 week for one of them. The parties won’t last for a week of course but there is so much to see out here and who wants to get over jet lag just in time for more jet lag? You can even come to both of them in 1 week. Don’t worry we have plenty of fluent English-speaking Romanian friends that will help facilitate transport once you get into the country.

The last party will be in the States at some point. This will be for those who weren’t able to come out or who just love parties and can come to all three of them. Heck, we might have even more than one party in the States.

For those who were really looking forward to something more traditional I apologize but we decided that we would sacrifice expensive dresses, flowers, churches etc in favor of spending quality time with loved ones in a place that we talk way too much about (I know you guys love our “one time, in Moldova” stories). Besides, let’s be real, parties are the only good part of weddings anyway.

Here’s an extremely tentative sample itinerary for two weeks in Romania/Moldova:
Day 1: Jet-lag day! Depending on how you do on planes you will spend this day sleeping or staying up very late. We will go to a bar if you are in the latter group. We will try and get everyone in the same hotel/house. We’re looking into renting out a pension so we can have everyone in the same place together.
Day 2: Orientation of Brasov. See the city on a walking tour and get your bearings so that you can go out and see it for yourself when you want.
Day 3: Castle day. See some of the infamous Transylvanian castles.
Day 4: Nature day. Go hiking, get out of the city or just do what you want in the city.
Day 5: Party day. Romanians know how to party and since they will be helping to set most of this up, you can expect a good one.
Day 6: Recovery day. This explains itself.
Day 7: Travel day. We will get on the bus or train and head for Chisinau, Moldova
Day 8: Winery day/Transdnistria day. We’ll go to one or two of Moldova’s world-famous wineries (one of which has the largest underground collection in the world). OR we will set you up with someone to show you around a country that doesn’t exist!
Day 9: Village day. Travel to my old host village and get to know your host family (you also have the option to stay in Cahul, the regional center, if you are uncomfortable with this. But we wouldn’t do you wrong).
Day 10: Party day. You thought the Romanian parties rocked? Wait until you have a Moldovan party. They don’t stop.
Day 11: Recovery day. Also self-explanatory. And very necessary.
Day 12: Sports & games day. Go play soccer with the kids or basketball or something. Relax.
Day 13: Bucharest day. Since most of you will be leaving out of Bucharest we will see a little bit of the city before you leave. We’ll probably spend the night there.
Day 14: Go home. Thanks for coming.

AND NOW FOR AMANDA’S CONTRIBUTION:
I figured I should be sure to contribute to this post since it’s kind of a big deal. :) For those of you who want details, I’ll see how much I can get in here without being censured by Robert.

I have to admit, I went along with the Ice Hotel idea without whining or complaining mostly because Robert was so excited about it. Although I was pretty convinced it would be my own personal version of hell – cold outside and inside, beds made of ice, darknesss… - I was pleasantly surprised at how good of a job they did keeping it cozy. Another pleasant surprise (and definitely something that will improve my memory of the Ice Hotel) was Robert’s proposal – no, there was no getting down on one knee or public announcement, but he did manage to carry (and not lose!) the engagement ring all the way from America and throughout our two months away.

The ring actually was handed down to me from my grandmother on my dad’s side. It had belonged to my great-grandmother who immigrated from Lithuania during the pogroms in the early 1900s. Where or when or how she acquired it (they were not rich people), we don’t know. So Robert had to ask my mom for it before we left for Romania and then had to keep it secret from me for the following two months.

Unlike a lot of little girls, I never planned out my wedding or had a particular image of what it should be like. I believe a big party will do. :) As Robert mentioned above, we’re still brainstorming how exactly we want to celebrate, so if you have any thoughts or ideas, we’d love to hear them.