Springtime in Moldova

Hello out there!!!!!! I am one happy woman in Moldova. The cold weather is gently leaving, the sun has begun to shine, and I am not wearing all of the clothes I own at once! It truly is the little things that mean so much.

Students at the Russian school #3 in Cahul.

I also feel like I am getting the hang of my job, so that is making me happy. I have accepted that I will never be able to predict the way things work on the administrative level and I am just concentrating on teaching the intelligent and interesting students at the university in Cahul. I have also had the opportunity to go out to some of the "high schools" in town and talk to the younger kids and that has been a lot of fun as well. My students at the university have been out doing their student teaching, so many of them have been inviting me to come and speak to their classes. The little ones are so cute!!!!!! I am really enjoying the work I am doing here and think that the hardest part of adjusting to a new language, culture, etc. is behind me.

Below are some pictures of Milesti Mici, a huge vineyard right outside of Chisinau. It is unbelievable! You drive through these underground streets and on both sides of the street are alcoves filled with wine from different bottlings in different years. It is unlike anything I have ever seen. The streets stretch for miles and miles (OK, kilometers and kilometers!). I kept hoping the power would go out and I could get locked in all night! We actually went to celebrate Marlena's birthday, so it was a good time for all.

One of the underground roads of wine at the Milesti Mici vineyard. Now that is a lot of wine....

My favorite part of the tour... The tasting!!!!!

These are a series of pictures from our Valentine's day celebration in Cahul. The usual Cahulians (Liza and Michelle!) were there, but we had the pleasure of hosting Lynn, Crystal, Marlena and Kieran for the weekend as well. I made an Italian feast for everyone. We started out with Italian spring rolls, then moved on to truffle risotto, truffle stuffed chicken breasts in a champagne cream sauce, green beans with roasted garlic, and, finally, cheesecake with a chocolate sauce. We had an amazing amount of wine, laughed, sang and had a fantastic time. After we were a few bottles into the wine we drunk dialed Dean (a Lusk family tradition!) and he got to speak with all of the lovely ladies at the party. Dean, now you can match names with faces.

This is Michelle attempting to say "NO!" to one more glass of wine. Needless to say, she was not successful in this endeavor!

This is Lynn having a bit of cheesecake rapture!!!

I have no idea what the commotion was! I think maybe there was some fighting over the dishes.

From left to right, Marlena (seated), Crystal, Kieren, Lynn, Liza and Michelle (looking like a gangster in the background!)

It wouldn't be a party without a crazy picture of Liza. She hosted this crazy bunch of women and we spent all day long in her kitchen cooking and drinking wine. We love you Liza!

This was taken right before the party broke up. Liza appears to be on her knees praying in the background. She is either praying that she won't be hung over tomorrow or for us to leave, I am not sure which one!

I wish everyone a beautiful Spring and a happy Easter. We celebrate a very interesting Easter here on the 27th of April, then the first week of May is a special Easter of the Dead where everyone goes to the cemeteries and eats and drinks graveside. Should be interesting....

I thought I would show you a series of the more fun side of Moldova. I would love for you to think that it is only hard work here, but we do manage to have a lot of fun in between the hard work!

Our safety and security director makes sure that he knows where we are by playing the harmonica in smoky clubs for our enjoyment. Brilliant!!!
Just some Peace Corps volunteers having some fun in the club enjoying some down home blues.
One of our fabulous get togethers at the Placenta Bar. We have been hibernating for the cold months, but we had a little warmer spell, so we decided to see what was shaking where the wine is always flowing and the placenta (Dean, they are like southern fried pies!) is always warm.
Translations are a tricky thing. Maybe we should find out what smocking is... We could be doing it and not even know!!!!!
This was the night we kicked up our heels at the local disco! We danced until the night was long over and had a beautiful time!!!!!

Matt is a hoot! We were trying to have a serious meeting and he drew a Smedley moustache on his finger and never broke a smile!

One of my students (in the brown sweater) just got a scholarship to study for a year in Spain. She will be studying English at a university in Bilboa, Spain and I am thrilled for her and very proud that she is going!!!!!!! Good luck, Elena.

Quite a few of the members (yes, I do teach a few boys at the University of Cahul, but very few!) of Elena's class came out to wish her success and adventure in her studies in Spain. We ate some pizza, tried not to cry too much, and just hung out.

Next week I will share some pictures of Milisti mici, the underground wine roads outside of Chisinau. We went for a friends birthday and they were great!!!!! Stay warm and be patient, Spring is on the way!

Oh Christmas Tree....

I decided to start my vacation a little early with an evening in Chişinau before my flight took off for Germany. Marlena came in we had a great meal at our favorite restaurant (Jerafe) to kick things off.

Andi and Xandi met me at the airport with signs showing they were picking up “Special Agent Lusk” of Peace Corps. When we got to their house, it was absolutely gorgeous (even more so than usual!) starting with the first impression when you walk up the stairs. After a touch of Prosecco (or was it a few bottles?) we called it a night.

After a healthy breakfast (yes, folks… It’s true that Prosecco is the breakfast of champions!) we started the important things like trimming the tree and putting together a plan for the amazing dinner Andi and Xandi were planning for Christmas Eve.

Xandi promised me all kinds of things if I would just help Andi with the tree. (Evidently the arranging of the electric candles is the stuff that divorce is made of!) It actually wasn’t bad and the tree was beautiful when we were finished.

Just some random food prep pictures. (I really don’t know why Andi was stripping down to his boxers in the kitchen. It seemed to make sense at the time!) What, pray tell, was I doing while all of this exhausting work was going on?

Supervising!!!!!!!

OK, so we are up to the 23^rd and I conned Andi, Xandi and Flo into taking me to the Weinachtsmarkt for some shopping and most importantly GLUHWEIN!!!! It was cold, the company was great, and the wine was amazing.

Margie, can you believe that this is Flo? I can’t believe what a handsome grown up he has become. (And he is still a sweetheart and a good sport because he let me take a picture with the cookie around his neck!)

I wish I could take credit for any of the amazing dinner we had, but I have to state up front that I was happily playing soux chef on this occasion. Xandi and Andi were the maestro’s of the evening with one beautiful course after the other. We started with a Lachs mousse surrounded by cucumber and tied with a piece of chive. Even this fish-hater loved it!!!!

Andi makes a great waiter!!!!

On the left are Maria, Inez and Florian. On the right are Helmut and Omi.

Next up… Prawns on a bed of saffron risotto with sautéed root vegetables. Is your mouth watering yet?

As if this could get any better… The main plate was duck with a prune sauce, pumpkin sautéed with rosemary, fresh green beans and dates wrapped in proscuitto. I can’t say that I have eaten many better meals in my life!!!!!!

I didn’t manage to get a final picture of the dessert (maybe it was the corresponding wines that waylaid me?), but it was also amazing. It was a carrot/hazelnut cake with dark and white chocolate mousses. What a great night. Thanks Andi and Xandi!!!!!!!

The 26^th we loaded up Andi and Xandi’s skiing gear in the car and headed for Austria. Far left is the mod squad preparing to head down the “black” slope. The middle picture is my amazing view from the bar at the top of the mountain, and the far right is a shot of Andi and Xandi following my gondola down the mountain on their last trip down. It was beautiful!

New Year's Eve was a blast as well. We had all kinds of fabulous fondue with lots and lots of (OK, OK, I am getting a bit redundant here, I know!) Prosecco!!!!!! Mikey and his wife Anna were over and we danced the night away to hits from the 70's disco era. Suni, if you can guess who this next person is on the TV you win a cookie....

Mikey doing the booty dance!

Anna and Xandi just shaking their groove thing!!!!!

We had a blast and what a way to ring in the New Year!

Back in Moldova to celebrate with my family there. In Moldova they celebrate religious holidays according to the Gregorian category, so they have Old Christmas on the 7th of January and Old New Year's on the 14th of January. I got to celebrate everything twice and that just doesn't suck!

Dean, I think it is fair to say that Sandu and Nikolai loved the cardinal gear. Thanks so much for sending the box for them and thank you for my fabulous presents. You did good, baby!!!!!!!

Happy holidays to all of my friends and loved ones in the States and in Germany. May the New Year be all that you want it to be....

Jennifer