I think these last two weeks have passed faster than any other two weeks since I first came to Moldova. You see, my dad was here... experiencing life as I experience it (without the whole "school" and "winter" parts). Anyways, we have stories to tell that are going to remain with us for our entire lives. Stories, photos, and videos (yes, VIDEOS!!) will come later (I really do promise), but in the meantime I will be spending the next few nights here:
... teaching photography to Moldovan kids!! I'm so excited about this, you have no idea. No, really, you don't. :)
This evening I went swimming in the chlorinated pool. That. felt. awesome. AND I helped a girl learn to dive! Who woulda thunk it...?
You know how I was saying just saying I wish an opportunity would just fall into my lap? Well, it kind of did. And I'm super excited about it but I'm not going to say anything more about that because I'm not ready to yet.
However, in the process of writing a cover letter (which I have never had to do before and if you never have either, trust me when I say it is much harder than it looks especially if you like to talk as much as I do), I remembered a blog post I had made just before coming to Moldova. I knew I had backtracked 27 months and highlighted the things I found to be important when thinking about the 27 months that were to come (major decisions regarding my education, traveling, jobs, and relationships). What I'd forgotten about, though, was the summary at the end of it... my thoughts on what had happened and my fears for the future. It's interesting how history has a funny habit of repeating itself. I wish I could just give them the link to the blog post and say: read this. It says a lot about me and my growth and my experiences... but also hire me now, and then look forward to reading the post I will make in one year.
Ahhhh. With that off my chest, I'm back to writing. And rewriting. And rewriting again because I really want this job (and trust me when I say you want me to have it, too, wherever in the world you may be).
(sidenote: This video was made in 1998... that's the year my mom died. Do I read too much into things?)
My dad got a taste of Moldovan life today. After killing the pig this morning we had wine at 9:30am with a quick brunch before the day-long process of processing the meat began for my host family (and we slept... his excuse is jet lag... mine is currently undetermined). We then went for a walk and got caught in a light rain, and came home for a light dinner of fresh pork and before heading to the bar because I wanted to show him what the disco is like. Three hours later we arrived home, full on wine from dinner, cognac from visiting a friend, and beer from the bar. So much for a quick stop- but we really enjoyed sitting with the locals and I think they enjoyed practicing their English (and talking about the Beatles). :)
Stayed in another apartment and this time picked up 41 new mosquito bites... which resulted in a sleepless night. The odd thing is that there isn't a mosquito problem when I'm in my village- in fact, I don't notice them at all. Maybe I'm only sweet when I'm in Chisinau. So last night I stayed in a different apartment that had a fan and I bought a plug-in RAID mosquito repellant thing. While I had trouble sleeping (too excited for dad to get here!!!!!!!!), I don't think I picked up any new bites.