Crăciun

Moldovan Christmas. In Moldova, they celebrate Christmas at the old date, on January 7. Some families celebrate on December 25, but very few. For me, December 25 was no different than any other Sunday. In fact, my host family wasn’t even home most of the day because they were working. I must admit, it made Christmas kind of depressing at first. But I was able to talk to everyone in my family later that day, which made it better.

Anyways, about Moldova Christmas. So I accidently missed it. It wasn’t until this morning that I realized I missed the celebration. Apparently, late at night on the January 6, Moldovans attend a midnight church service. I couldn’t understand if it started before midnight or at midnight, but the idea is that they are in church for the beginning of Christmas day. The service lasts about three hours, and everyone is standing the whole time. After the church service, everyone returns home and celebrates with a large masă. Many people are going to bed around 6am. I didn’t understand my host mom when she was inviting me, and I ended up sleeping through this whole celebration. Oops.

Presents are not usually exchanged on Christmas. Gift exchange usually happens at midnight on New Year’s Day. My tutor says this is because during Soviet times, the Soviet Union wanted to take focus away from Christmas, so they changed the traditions. In fact, the biggest holiday celebration is New Year’s. And I missed this celebration as well because I was traveling then. I was hoping to experience the holidays here.

So I’ve missed two holidays so far. But never fear; I have one more chance. Moldova also celebrates Old New Year on January 14. I am going to make sure to be present for this!

Silly American

Okay, so I deserve a good smack in the head. I realized something today that took too long to realize. So, I’m use to the fact of Moldovans not understanding me since I don’t speak their language. And somehow in my comprehension of this fact, I began to assume Moldovans don’t understand. If that’s too confusing to understand, let me explain what happen…

If I am paying $11 for something and I have a $1 bill and a $20 bill, I give $21 to get a $10 bill back. Well, I have wanted to do that type of thing when making purchases here in Moldova, but I haven’t because I thought they wouldn’t understand and would give me weird looks. But when I was riding the rutiera and I owed 6 lei, I realized that just because I can’t speak their language and Moldovans don’t understand my language doesn’t mean they don’t understand math. So I gave the driver a 10 and 1 lei bill, and he gave me back a 5 lei bill without thinking twice.

I could just kick myself. I had unknowingly been thinking that since they don’t understand me, they didn’t understand simple math or something. I might as well had been thinking they were dumb. Growth opportunity one…check. Now to continue to get rid of more of my stupid ways of thinking. Good thing I have 2 years ahead of me!