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Published: August 16th 2010
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Our first meal somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean I am typing this from our very own living room...yes, we have internet at home! It's about 10:00 am. Nick and I stayed up all day yesterday after arriving. At first it wasn't too hard because we were so busy and excited to be here, but by dinner time we were fighting to keep our eyes open! We slept well our first night in our apartment and slept in until about 9:00 in the morning.
A little about our first day in Chisinau...
As we flew into Chisinau the landscape was absolutely beautiful, rolling green hills and farmland. The vineyards butt right up to the runway, so you don't get the feeling you are flying into a city, just somewhere in the countryside.
We had no trouble going through customs into Moldova. The customs agents were a lot less scary than the agents in Germany, who scrutinized our passports and whispered to each other when we came through. The agents in Moldova simply said "Welcome"! Our luggage came through right away, and it was all grouped together. I think we spent a total of 30 minutes in the Chisinau airport and 25 of them where waiting in the immigration
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Nick waiting at the Munich airport for the last leg of our journey. Next stop...Chisinau, Moldova! line.
Dr. Sandy Smith (our director) and Ion (Office Manager), pronounced Ejuan but a little shorter, were there to meet us with a warm welcome. They recognized us right away and gave us big hugs. We somehow crammed our 6 pieces of luggage into Dr. Smith's Honda Civic Hybrid. We traveled through the city to our apartment, which was about a 20 minute drive. They drive on the same side of the car and road as in the States, so it doesn't seem too foreign. There were still people working and cleaning in our apartment, so we were just able to drop off our luggage, and then headed to Dr. Smith's house to allow the crew to finish working. Apparently they are remodeling our kitchen and we are getting nice granite counter tops! At the moment we have no kitchen sink, so it is a bit like the Shinfeld episode when Kramer was making salads in the shower. We have been washing produce and dishes in our bathtub!
We spent the afternoon with Dr. Smith as we toured the new school and a little bit of our neighborhood. We live only a few blocks from school in an
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Very small, but efficient airport in Chisinau. It took about 30 minutes to get us and our 6 pieces of luggage through customs. area called Buiucani and it will be an easy walk. The neighborhood is a unique mixture of brand new apartment buildings and old deserted buildings that are falling apart. You see paradoxes of wealth and poverty everywhere.
The school is still under construction, but most of the classrooms are ready. Nick and I each have our own classrooms and they are on the same floor. The school is a three story building with about 9 classes (one in each grade and then one for all combined middle & high school students). There will be about 68 students total. Some interesting things I noticed...The cafeteria is a small room in the basement that is carpeted. They have a bin of shoes for "shoe changing" This is a customary practice meant for sanitary purposes (keeps germs out of the school). There is no air conditioning in the school, and the temperature has been in the 90s. The playgrounds and soccer field are still under construction, but I guess we have to trust that they will be ready by the time school starts. It seems like there is still a lot to be done, but we are figuring out that everything happens on
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So excited to finally be here!! a more relaxed time frame here. You just learn to relax and roll with it!
After visiting the school, Dr. Smith invited us to go swimming at her house and then we took our first trip to a grocery store. That was an adventure! There are many vendors selling fresh produce along the streets, but it is also available at a regular grocery store. She showed us how to pick out produce, coffee, and milk. EVERYTHING is labeled in Russian and Romanian so I almost bought sour cream thinking it was milk. Everything comes in pouches and boxes! The milk we bought is in a box and not refrigerated. I tasted it this morning and it tastes pretty much like milk! They also have an amazing bakery and deli with lots of meats and cheeses. They have huge boxes of frozen items like seafood and potato wedges that you can scoop out and buy in bulk.
We had dinner with two other teachers, a married couple with two young daughters, who are staying with Dr. Smith because their apartment is not ready yet. They moved here from China and have been teaching abroad in different countries for 6
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Our apartment building...ours is the at the very top right. years. It was great to talk to a couple who has been doing this for so long and interesting to hear about their experiences. They said this is the least "Westernized" country they have lived in in terms of people who speak English and "Western Friendly" shopping facilities. They were hoping to find a "Western" grocery store where they could find food items imported from the US. I was thinking "why would you want to do that!?" The groceries stores here are so fun and it's such an adventure trying to guess and pick out what you want! 😊
After dinner we came back to our apartment, where we were finally able to snoop around. The owners have taken good care of us! They left lots of dishes, towels, sheets, etc (Many of you know I was quite worried about the bedding situation) Almost everything we need to live is here and we are still blown away by how NICE our apartment is!! It is like something straight out of an IKEA catalog (literally, all their stuff is from IKEA Grama!) There is heat and air conditioning, a super comfy king size bed, full kitchen, dish washer, washing machine,
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The half finished sign on the front of our building. Incomplete construction jobs seem to be very common here. drying rack on the balcony (drying clothes my be tricky come winter time), an enormous bathtub, towel warmer in the bathroom, and they even left all their houseplants and fresh cut flowers for us. It seems like they took great care in making sure that we had a very nice place to live. From what I understand, these are luxurious living conditions compared to the general population. It is also common to employ a local to clean your apartment once a week. It is a way to support their economy and give locals jobs. I am still coming to terms with this and not sure if I can do it, but we were assured that it is not rude if you choose not to.
Well, that's plenty of news for now! Nick made us a little coffee and cheese toast for breakfast and we are ready to go explore our neighborhood. Dr. Smith is having a pool party at her house tonight and has invited all the new teachers and other staff to meet each other. We are supposed to bring a food item to share, so we need to go figure that out. Part of me wants to
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Another view of our building. We are in the top right corner. make something awesome and impress everyone and part of me would rather spend the day exploring and pick up something easy....lol! We will probably take the easy way out. 😊
Lots of love to everyone!! XOXOXOX Keep in touch, we love getting news from home 😊
Kelsey & Nick
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Joan Hazelgrove
non-member comment
Glad to hear of your arrival!
Sounds like a much better place than I had imagined. Glad you are living in such a nice apartment. I agree with your comment about using the native grocery store; might as well immerse yourself in the culture as you will learn a lot more and have richer experiences. It will be interesting to hear about the school and how it is different from the USA. Take care, Joan