Here is a list of recent highlights
*Conversations with neighbors:
- On our way home from fetching the cow with my sister (Dumitriţa), we passed our neighbors, gave the customary "Buna Seara" (good evening) - which is required since the two women were older than us - and continued on our way. After corralling our cow into place using fallen corn stalks (read: quick slaps from my sister, effective, and slowly increased pressure from me, ineffective) the neighbor women called down to me, "Domnişoară Kim, Veniţi aici va rog" So I walked back over and they asked I would start an english class during the evenings for the adults of the community, because their son had learned so much from me already and said English was his favorite class!! AWESOME! He is in the 2nd grade, and is adorable. I told the women that if people from the community wanted I would definitely start a class for them too.
*Watermelon talk:
- When I first arrived to Moldova it was cucumber season. I didn't have the language skills, or the foresight quite yet to fully understand what that would mean. All I understood was that I was eating two length-sliced cucumbers with breakfast, between 4 and 6 whole cucumbers (eating it like a banana, but without the peel or monkey noises) for lunch, and 3 to 4 with dinner (cutting style depended on the cook for the evening). After 30 consecutive days of 10+ cucumbers, I started to grow tired of the vegetable. What I did not understand was that after cucumber season, which only lasted 2 or 3 months, I would not see another for a year - other than in pickled form. I know understand why my family and I ate so many cucumbers in such a short amount of time, simply, it doesn't last. Now that I sit here cucumberless, I know I took it for granted and next year will eat cucumbers until my toe-nails turn green.
- Cucumber season has passed, but it has given way to something so spectacular that I promised myself I would not let another season go for granted. It is watermelon season. I have eaten more watermelon in the last month than my entire life combined. Maybe I was too cheap in the states, but I always thought watermelon was too expensive - unless you get the kind already sliced with various other fruits - and hence only really associate it with the 4th of July..... or not that this is the time or place, certain river rafting trips. When asked if we have watermelon in America I said yes, but that I thought it was too expensive and therefore rarely bought it myself. They took this as -rightfully so - a source of pride that they are literally brimming with watermelons right now. My family of 4 averages 1.5 large watermelons eaten per day, usually with dinner....or as a chaser for my father's homemade vodka. They even decided it would be worth bringing me along to the "harbujarea." They told me to bring my camera so they could take pictures of me with a pile of hundreds of watermelon to send back America. We drove in a friends' soviet era LADA, trailer-in-tow to a village settle by Ukrainians, a little ways from mine. After, what I would consider four-wheeling, for 15 or 20 minutes we reached the giant guard dog for the watermelon farm. A very attractive young Ukrainian/Moldovan man helped us select our watermelons, and after lots of Russian that I did not understand and taste-testing 2 whole melons of each variety, we paid roughly 120 Lei ($12) for 150 kilograms (330 lbs) worth of green watermelons, white watermelons, and yellow melons - which are my favorite, kind of like a cantaloupe but a bring yellow shell without the pocks and a lighter colored, softer and sweeter fruit part. So we will be eating as well as conserving - and yes that means pickling - all 330 pounds of our watermelon. I'm not sure how the pickled watermelon will taste, but apparently everyone in my family is really looking forward to it.
*Let there be light
- Unlike the veceu (outhouse) at my old house (yes the one where that poor chicken met its fate....), my new one is a solid structure, not made of wood where light naturally comes in. The door is solid, the walls are solid, the ceiling is solid. This means, you must memorize where exactly to stand, and cross your fingers before entering and shutting the door. Leave the door open then right? Not unless you want various animal guests as company - the chickens, ducks, the cute little cat that follows me everywhere. Recently, and probably the highlight most shimmering in my eyes, my Tata has installed a light! Day, night, afternoon....shut that door and I can see. I even know where the toilet paper is....right above my head, who'd a known?
