Home Sweet Home

Well the past three days have definitely been interesting as I thought they would. It's been a bizarre polarity of emotions and stress levels since I took off from Atlanta. Almost the entire time I was in the Rome airport I felt like total garbage. Probably a mixture of the lack of sleep on the plane, nervousness, anticipation, fear, and who knows what else. Needless to say the six hours I spent in Rome were some of the most stressful times of my life. It didn't make it any better that the Rome airport is one of the worst airports I have ever seen. I really didn't expect to see pigions flying around in the rafters of the main lobby, but that's just me.

Things changed once I got into Moldova, however. After waiting for about twenty minutes at the passport line, I grabbed my bags and met Sylvia and her friends who were waiting for me. From there we hopped into an old BMW 3 series and were off to the apartment.

The apartment is pretty damn cool. It's just beyond the Gates of Chisinau in the Botanica district of the city. It looks like it was built sometimes in the 1960s or 70s and, in keeping with the architecture of the city, looks like total shit on the outside. I must be honest; I did not have high hopes for the place when we first entered. The interior of the building looked like a stereotypical beat up, run down Soviet block apartment: the lights were dim, the smell was "unique," the floor of the elevator bowed downwards when we got on, etc. However, upon entering our apartment, my mind was completely changed. It is a very nice, well heated, well insulated place which, anywhere else west of here, would I'm sure cost a pretty penny. The balcony which is connected to the kitchen is also pretty sweet as well. Since we're on the 13th floor, from the balcony you can see almost the entire city. I feel as if I am going to like this place.

Once we got to the apartment, a bunch of Sylvia's friends came over and we, of course, had some wine and a few beers and I got to experience the joy of Moldovan food once again. I have no idea what this one thing was but it was similar to flavored croutons and came with some sort of dipping sauce. I'm sure I don't really want to know what they really are but I chowed down on those for a while, they go great with a Baltika 7.

That pretty much sums up my time so far. Didn't do much of anything yesterday, just caught up on sleep and watched a movie or two. Today I got my new phone number with Moldcell (which is 79389359) and got a few things for the apartment. If you want to send me a text message you can do it by going to: http://www.moldcell.md/eng/sendSms/ clicking on the +373 793 option, then fill in the rest of my phone number. Until next time good friends of mine I wish you прощается and bun (goodbye).

By the by: The award for the worst movie title for a good movie goes to Lucky Number Sleven