Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Spring That Never Was.

It snowed on Friday...but then it all melted.



So just to make sure we didn't get confused that it was spring, we got even more snow yesterday. 


Friday, March 22, 2013

Spring Has Forsaken Us

There is a myth in Moldova about a woman called Baba Dochia (Baba being the ubiquitous name for all women of a grandmotherly age). Baba Dochia, as the story goes, lived in a village with her goats and after having waited all winter for warmer weather she decided to head out in March for the mountains, anticipating that the weather would soon be warm and pleasant and her goats would have more time to grow strong eating the mountain grass. Unfortunately for her the weather grew worse instead of better and as she got to the mountains she soon perished from the cold and snow. The moral of the story being that Spring will come when it comes and not to get impatient when it doesn't come quick enough. Baba Dochia is also blamed anytime the weather turns cold and wintry after March 1st, the beginning of Spring, specifically if it snows. Long story short Baba Dochia paid us a belated and unwelcome visit today and I was not amused.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Return of Winter

The weather recently has been rather harsh. It keeps promising beautiful sun-filled days but as soon as you step outside you are smacked in the face with a bitter cold and fierce wind. I struggle to think of any time this winter that I have been this cold which is odd since according to the Moldovan calculations we are technically well into Spring. But I guess this won't be too big of a surprise to anyone on the east coast of America where they are pretty much getting the same strong wintry weather.

Aside from staying warm inside I am currently looking forward to my last home stretch of teaching English in Moldova. I only have ten weeks of school left in addition to a week long break for Easter and I will be done. But I am still trying to keep myself busy. We will be having English Week in about a month so I am trying to keep myself productive by working on that.

I've also heard more rumors that my village might get another volunteer once I leave this year. It would be a Health volunteer like we were suppose to get last summer. I hope everything works out this time it would be a lot easier to stay connected to Moldova and especially with the village I live in if there was another American taking my place after I leave.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Watch this video!

If you ever wanted to really feel like you were in Moldova without buying a plane ticket then all you have to do is watch this video. It was produced by a Moldovan news station as coverage of a Marțișorul celebration in a typical Moldovan village. I keep feeling like I should be doing a better job documenting my time in Moldova and especially making more videos of my experience so that I have something to look back onto when I am in America again. However, my video editing skills/filmography skills are very limited. Luckily for me I saw this special on the television and was able to find it on YouTube. Once again I want to mention that this video literally has everything I could ever mention about Moldova in a single video, and it is only 14 minutes so it's not a time waster either. The video is strictly in Romanian but you really don't need to understand what is being said to understand the video. In fact I think not understanding adds to the experience.


Friday, March 1, 2013

The Tyranny of Winter is Over!

Today marks the first day of spring in Moldova and the weather has changed dramatically to prove it. I wouldn't go so far as to call today a warm day but what it lacked in warmth it made up for in sunshine. So much so that every time I look outside I get the impression that not only has winter left for good but that we are well on our way to summer. After months of absolutely no sunshine the bright, clear sky has left everyone in a great mood. With all the gloom and dreariness of winter it can be easy to fall into depression or be otherwise affected in a negative way by the weather. What a difference a little sun can make.

It was quite a refreshing walk to school with the sun warming my face, although admittedly also chilled by the wind, enjoying the fact that the sun was already having the desired effect of cutting back on the amount of mud I had to deal with.

Arriving at school I was greeted by students wearing their best clothes to wish all the teachers a happy spring and giving them a marțișor, which is a traditional red and white trinket that everyone wears on the first day of March to celebrate the first day of spring. Coincidentally, today was also the last day of school before our Spring Break. The combination of the sunshine with the holiday celebrations and the promise of a vacation made today a great day and now with a week long vacation all I have to do is to sit and enjoy the weather.