6am run in Chisinau

I have received conflicting instructions on what to do as a female if I choose to run, ranging from never run to it's ok to run alone, to only run at night. I decided to stick to the middle ground on this one because I'm looking forward to having a healthy routine while I'm here.

Let's start at the beginning:

I wake up. Look at my clock: it's still dark outside, so I think, "Man! It takes a long time to get sunny!" I then see that it's 6:15, so I decide since I'm up 15 mins earlier than I need to, I might as well go for a quick jog. I then get dressed and all ready to go, and then I look at my clock again. 2:15. I've been asleep for ONE hour. Oh boy. So I went back to sleep.

Then I woke back up at 6am and started the routine all over again (this time it was sunny outside).

I went outside: no one was on the streets. Great! That's a huge difference to how it was yesterday when we were walking to class at 9am and there were people everywhere! I get a couple blocks up and see 6 officers walking. They all stop and stare at me as I run past. So I turn the corner, then another one, and a taxi cab slows down as if he thought I was running from something and needed a ride (for safety?). I then keep going, run past an older woman, say hello (in Romanian!), and eventually turn around.

What did I learn from this?

No one runs here. Especially not women. But it's ok, and when I learn to say "It's for my health" in Romanian I will be just fine!

Now I'm off to get breakfast, then having a full day of class, then this evening all of the groups are breaking up and going to meet our host families who will host us for the remainder of the summer!

I love it here!!