Odessa and Iași

I was checking how many vacation days I have left and found that I had 9 days. And Peace Corps has several rules limiting my availability to use them. 1) No missing more than 3 days of school and 2) no traveling outside the country the last 3 months of service. Therefore, I have been doing these little long weekend trips before April 18 (three months before I leave Moldova). Kiev was the first of three. And I’ve just returned from my other two: Odessa, Ukraine and Iași, Romania. Both were beautiful places. And hopefully, these last little mini vacations will help me get through the last three months here.

My First Solo Abroad Trip: Destination Kiev

This was just what I needed: a daytrip vacation to Kiev, solo style. And the memories started right away.

I left my site right after my classes finished on Friday and headed to Chisinau. My first step was to find the bus station that sold the tickets I needed. I had never been to this station before, so I asked a friend how to get there. Even though it’s walking distance, she suggested that I take a rutiera since I didn’t know where it was. But it was a nice day, and I decided a walk would be nice. Silly Maggie.

I walked to where I thought it was, and didn’t see it. So of course I doubted myself and changed directions. And then I walked a ways and decided to go a different way. I stupidly decided to embrace this new direction and walked quite a bit. Eventually, I stop and asked someone for directions, and she basically told me to head back towards the direction I had originally been.

So I started back tracking, and I decided that I should just be safe and take the rutiera. I found one marked for the bus station and got on. After about 10 minutes, I questioned why someone would say this bus station was within walking distance. And another 10 minutes later, I saw a Chisinau sign, which marked the city’s boarder.

I now realized I missed the stop for the bus station. I figured the rutiera ran on a loop, so I would just wait and it would go back. After 10 minutes, it was clear we were no longer in Chisinau. So I asked the driver about the bus station. He said we passed it, and it would be awhile before we were back.

So he stopped the next rutiera he saw going in the opposite direction. I jumped off this one and hopped on the other, not before confirming with the new drive that he would pass the bus station. I then asked him to please let me know when we get to the stop for the bus station.

When we got to the bus station, the driver yelled nice and loud for me to hear, even though I was sitting right behind him. And low and behold, it was the first place I had tried and sort of looked at the very beginning; I just hadn’t walked quite far enough. So walked the extra 100 feet I should have gone, and I was finally able to buy my bus ticket. Phew. Step one was complete.

I took an overnight bus. Not the best night’s sleep, but it got me to Kiev Saturday morning so I would have all day to explore. The day started out cold and rainy/foggy, so my morning pictures weren’t great. Good news was the rain stopped by about 10am. The bad news was my pants, shoes, and socks were already soaked by then, leaving me rather cold for the rest of the day. Besides being cold and damp, I had good time explore the city. It was nice to do exactly what I wanted. At the end of the day, I took another overnight bus back to Moldova, getting back in cold and exhausted Sunday morning.

Despite its size, this trip was a big trip for me. It was the first time I had traveled by myself to another country. I was stepping way out of my comfort zone, and I mean way out of my comfort zone; like into another country (hehe). And I’m so proud of myself doing this because now I know I can travel someplace if I would like. And I can do it when it’s cold and rainy and still have a good time. This time, one day in Kiev; next trip, one week Africa? Probably not, but I’m no longer closed off to the idea.

Vacation

Well, it’s back to the real world for me. I just got back from an amazing two-week vacation with some awesome friends. We traveled in Portugal, Morocco, and Spain. It was wonderful, and it only made me want to travel more. And it made me start thinking more about what I want to do when I’m finished here; and more immediate, the trip I’m before returning to America. I’m planning on going to Greece with Sarah. After this vacation, I’m excited to start planning my Greece trip.

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.

Ready To Face Semester 2

So I just got back from a 10-day vacation that was wonderful. I traveled with five other volunteers to Istanbul. And it was beautiful!! This was a much needed and well-loved vacation. I was often noting how breathtaking Istanbul is. It is definitely a tourist spot, but I kind of liked that about Istanbul. I enjoyed visiting the museums and mosques, as well as just walking around aimlessly. This was just right to rejuvenate me and make me ready for the second semester.