I applied for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant position in Poland last fall. I was pretty bummed when I found out in April that I was an alternate and pretty much forgot all about it during the ensuing months. I had just gotten off work at MariSol Federal Credit Union one day in late June when I checked my cellphone and saw a mysterious area code. I decided to actually check my messages and was pretty thrilled when I found out that one of them was from Fulbright. I called bright and early the next morning. Rachel from Fulbright asked me if I was interested in teaching in...Moldova.
Now, up until this point, Moldova was to me the one former Soviet Socialist Republic that I always forgot when I was trying to remember all the Soviet Socialist Republics. (As the proud bearer of a Russian and East European Studies Certificate, this is something I do fairly often.) So, I asked her if I could give her a call back after thinking about it. I promptly did some Googling and dug out Mary Beth's copy of Lonely Planet Romania & Moldova. After discovering that Moldova was one of the world's largest wine exporters, I was in. I called Rachel back after an hour and told her that I was ready to go to Moldova.
At the time, I assumed that I would be heading for the capital of Moldova, Chisinau, but the U.S. government had other plans. Apparently, someone in USG has heard of Rawlsian justice, because their policy is to send English teachers to the places that historically have the lowest English teaching capacity—the provinces. Rachel told me that I would be going to Comrat, which is the capital of the autonomous region of Gagauzia in the south of Moldova.
Fast forward to September 1st, when I got on a plane at Sky Harbor. After 17 hours of travel time, I arrived at the airport in Chisinau (Kish-i-NOW) on September 2nd. And thus began my "Adventures in Bessarabia." (Like how I tied that in there?)
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