American Vacation

I just got back to Moldova from a 2-week vacation visiting America. It’s kind of funny to say that I’m took a vacation to America; it makes it more real that America is not my home right now. But visiting home was just what I needed. It was an excellent way to unwind and catch up with my family back home.

As it turns out, visiting home did more than just let me eat all my favorite foods. Here are some of the things I realized while at home.

1. I miss American manners. That’s not to say that Moldovans don’t have manners; they do. It’s just I don’t know/recognize them as well. I’m sure I insult people or people think I’m rude all the time because I don’t practice Moldovan manners correctly. But I really miss American manners, such as waiting in line and holding doors open for each other.

2. I found out that I needed alone time a lot more than I thought. During my time with my family, I often found myself sneaking away to be alone. This was not true before I was living in Moldova. But I guess I’m used to so much alone time that I now get overwhelmed by many people.

3. While it is obvious that I miss the important things in life, such as my friends and family, while I was visiting home, I remembered all the superficial things I miss (washers and driers, American food, my shoes and jewelry). When I’m in Moldova, these things have not been available, so I normally don’t have a difficult time missing them. I thought I would have a much harder time living without these luxuries. But it’s nice to know that when I don’t frequently see all these things, I don’t think about them as much any more.

4. I miss driving. A lot.

5. I actually felt ready to come back to Moldova. It seemed like a good vacation time length. I was not home long enough to get bored or annoyed with anything. And while I was sad to leave the people I love, I was ready to come back to finish what I had started.

6. I am still just as lost about what to do in my future. I was hoping that my trip home would help me make a decision about what to do after this. But no. I don’t know what I want to do after this. However, I did conclude that I do not want to extend my time here for an additional year. My program director had been talking with me about staying an additional year, and I was considering it. But I now know that once I finish my second year, I will be ready for the next step in my life, whatever it may be.

7. And finally, I know that I will finish my final here year just fine. Coming home gave me the drive to push through this last year and the confidence to know I will finish it strong.

Okay, I need to go work off all the weight I gained from trying to fit in all the foods I missed during the last year into 2 weeks.

Summer Plans

So with school being out, I will have a different routine for the summer. I will be teaching session in Chișinău to the new volunteers to train them for partner teaching English in Moldova. It’s kind of crazy to think that I’m experienced enough to train others how to teach, even though that is kind of what I supposed to be doing with my partner teachers. But somehow it seems different with Americans. However, I’m really excited to be working with the trainees; they seem like a cool group of volunteers. I have my first session on Wednesday, so we’ll see how it goes.

Additionally, I will be helping my program manager with improving the EE program. I think she wants me to have a lot more responsibilities next summer, so she is asking me to be really involved this summer. I will be observing the session that I’m not helping to teach the trainees, and I will help create a manual (with another volunteer) of sessions for PCV to use the following summers.

In between the times I am in Chișinău, I will organize the materials I made for my English classes, and I hope to create additional resources and materials for next year. And I will be working on a work initiative I am active in, GLOW (Girls Leading Our World).

Overall, I will be quite busy I think. But no worries, I will get some vacation time. I will be visiting America for 2 weeks. And the trainings end early August, so I should get some down time before school starts. Overall, it will be a busy summer, but I’m looking forward to it.