Updates!

1. Wine is fun.

Last weekend was Chisinau’s annual wine festival! Because the Soviet Union loved specializing industry by republic, Moldova was designated as the main wine producer for the entire USSR. In Gagauzia, this is particularly true. (If I had a lei for every grape arbor I saw walking around the city, I would be one rich Moldovan.) It seems like everyone makes homemade wine. Bottles of wine in the stores usually cost between two and three dollars, so it’s pretty cheap! At any rate, since the fall of the USSR, a lot of their distribution networks were disrupted, but they still provide a lot of wine to former Soviet countries.

I headed into Chisinau last Friday with Stephanie, the other English Teaching Assistant. We initially had major problems securing an apartment to rent, which caused us to rue the day we’d decided to even try to visit the wine festival. During our troubles, we got a brief introduction to the world of Peace Corps in Moldova. They have a headquarters in Chisinau with showers, computers, U.S. military television, and a whole room full of English books. It’s pretty awesome.

Anyways, things got a whole lot better when Amy, one of the Fulbright researchers here, called us and invited us to stay with her and Brian (another Fulbrighter). We crashed at Brian’s amazing Moldovan pad, which has three nice, big rooms and a kitchen with a breakfast nook! It was awesome, mostly because we could relax and just be American for a while.

After a couple of hours of relaxing, we went to the wine festival. It was outdoors, in this exposition area in a nice park. All of the leaves were changing, which was particularly pretty. Along the roads in the park were elaborate stands set up by every wine company in the country. Best of all, the wine was twenty cents a glass! Amazing. Unfortunately, a lot of Moldovan wine is very vinegary, so there was a glass or two that went into the bushes. We had shish kebab for lunch and cherry pastries for desert. There was folk music and dancing. The longer the day went on the more intoxicated dancing there was for us to watch!

After dinner, we went café- and bar-hopping, which was a lot of fine. Comrat has almost no nightlife, so it was fun to just have a beer in a bar. The bars we visited were pretty cool and I hope to explore more of them soon!

The next day, Amy moved into her apartment and Stephanie and I accompanied her. We walked down to the wine festival for another round of drinking, which was quite worth it. We sat down at a stand that had snacks, hoping to buy something to munch on while we drank our wine. Awesomely, they started giving us all of their “young” (not totally fermented) wine--for free! The young wine is like semi-sweet, slightly alcoholic grape juice. It is almost bubbly and basically tastes like something out of Harry Potter. We polished off a pitcher or two, and then realized we were running quite late to a meeting, which necessitated some unpleasant speed-walking while tipsy.

All in all, we had a great time. Chisinau went up several notches in my estimation...but it’s still not as awesome as Odessa.

2. I have a sinus infection.

I hate being sick in foreign countries because there’s this whole incomprehensible culture of sickness everywhere you go. In the U.S., when you are somewhat sick (allergies, cold, etc.), you are usually expected to tough it out and show up for work/school/whatever. You can expect some sympathy, but not much. Basically, you haul around Kleenexes for a week and make the best of it.

In Moldova, when you are sick, there’s a whole other set of rules. You are actually allowed, even expected, to stay home when you are sick. You should not show visible signs of sickness in public. This disturbs people and will prompt them to insist that you go home. Being sick in public will also elicit great amounts of advice on various home remedies. The most popular remedies for colds: lemons and honey. Also, you are not allowed to eat things from the refrigerator if you are sick.

There is a nice side of people fretting over you constantly, however. Anna, the girl who works in the American Center, insisted on going with me to the pharmacy to find some medicine. Although the medicine I purchased was of dubious value, having someone accompany me to the pharmacy made me feel loved. :) Thanks to a large supply of American Mucinex, my sinus infection seems to be manageable right now, although my treatment of it is being hindered by the problem below.

3. Our water is scary.

The water in our city has been turned off since Monday. Apparently, there was some filtering/sanitation procedure that had to be done, which meant no water.

I am always confused about what to do when there is no water. Each family has secret stores of bottles of water that they save up for these occasions, but I never seem to know where they are. Also: can you drink the water in these bottles? If I use it to brush my teeth, will I die of giardia? If I wash my face with it, will I be considered a “bottled-water-hog”? Very perplexing. My solution so far is to use limited quantities of the bottled water and then buy some of my own for brushing my teeth. I think the people I live with don’t understand how bizarre this is for me. I’m not sure if they appreciate that this NEVER happens in America.

Yesterday, the water returned! Unfortunately, it is extremely, extremely chlorinated. Our bathtub is full of this water right now, and it is aqua-colored and has some chemical floating at the top. I’m afraid to do anything with this water but wash my hands and flush the toilet, but this is a big improvement over yesterday. I am hoping normal water will return soon.

Days since Erin has taken a shower: 4. Let’s hope this number doesn’t get too much higher.