On Newpapers and Transportation

I've checked every hotel, every Moldpresa, anywhere that might have something resembling a newspaper and so far the only English language "paper" I've found here has been the Tiraspol Times (the official newspaper for Transnistria). Trust me, I'd get more unbiased opinions from watching Fox News and listening to Rush Limbaugh than I would from reading the Triaspol Times. But finally, thanks to a website I found called http://www.englishmoldova.com/ I found a place to get a newspaper. Not only did they have all of yesterday's daily newpapers from the states, but they also had something I never dreamed of finding in Moldova: The Economist. It was expensive even by American standards (113 lei), which means it's outrageously expensive by Moldovan standards, but I had to grab a copy.

Speaking of the Tiraspol Times, thanks to the recent declaration of independence made by Kosovo on Sunday, Transnistria is trying (and failing miserably) to follow suit. Check it out: http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/news/transdniestria_seeks_recognition_of_its_de_facto_independence.html

In other news, I've stopped taking the trolleybus to school. For those unfortunate few who have never been to Moldova, a trolleybus is a bus which is rigged up to an overhead electric cable and runs designated routes all over the city. Most of these busses look and sound as if they were built in early 1970s and seem as if nothing has been done to them since. In other words: they're big, bulky, and incredibly slow. They are quite prone to failure, as the "horns" (as Irina describes them) often become dislodged from the wires, forcing the driver to get out and reconnect them in the middle of a busy street. Also, they get incredibly packed during rush hour, I've had to stand on the steps up into the trolleybus on more than one occasion. The upside is: they cost about 9 cents to ride.

Instead of riding the trolleybus, I'm taking the marginally more expensive, and much more fun, rutiera. A ruteria is basically a giant van that seats about 12 and has standing room in the middle. They're probably only designed to fit about 12 - 15 , but there's usually around 17-18 people per rutiera, even more during rush hour. Like the trolleybus, they run designated routes around the city, but unlike the trolleybus, there are no designated stops for rutieras. You have to flag the particular rutiera down as it approaches like you would a taxi, get on, pay the driver your three lei, and watch as he barrels down the streets of Chisinau at a speed which seems to approach the speed of sound. All of this occurs while the driver talks on his cell phone, smokes, counts money, and listens to the latest selection of Moldovan/Russian hip-hop or dance music. When you want to get off you squeeze your way through to the front and tell the driver where you would like to get off. All in all, a much more interesting and quicker way to get around the city.

While I never could, and never would want to, describe life here as routine, things are settling down. I'm learning more than I thought possible about two languages which I spoke nothing of four weeks ago, I talk about getting on the rutiera like it's no big deal, I walk around the city and actually know where the hell I'm going. I really feel as if I'm connected to this place, or at least as connected as a foreigner who's been here four weeks can feel. I thoroughly await the next four months and the experiences they will bring.

Listening to Jazz in Moldova

I almost got hit by a car today. Let me rephrase. I almost got hit by a car today, while walking on the sidewalk. Narrowly avoiding being struck by automobiles has become an almost daily occurrence since I've been here. Thanks to a lack of urban planning and the relatively recent explosion of autos into the country, there's a severe deficiency of parking in the city of Chisinau. As a solution, everyone who owns a car simply parks on the sidewalk. It makes for a very interesting commute to school when I have class, as I must dodge the cars pulling in or pulling out or squeeze through the cars that have already parked. But today: I was merely walking to school like every Thursday/Friday and I look up and this car whizzes right by me. It was the first time I've had to step into the road to avoid being hit. Ah the fun games in this city never cease.

I'm shocked at how much Romanian I've picked up passively since I've been here. I can already count to 100 and not once have I actually sat down to study it. My Russian's improving as well, which leads to some humorous situations when dealing with people who don't speak English. Sometimes I'll know a phrase in Romanian and use that at one point during a conversation, then during the same conversation I'll know the Russian phrase and use that. But mostly my conversations still consist of confused pointing, smiling, nodding, and the occasional thumbs up. Another fun situation is when I come into contact with someone who does speak English. I will say something in incredibly fractured Russian/Romanian, they will respond in English, and I, refusing to give into the temptation of speaking English, usually respond in more fractured Russian/Romanian. It leads to thoroughly confused looks on both parties faces.

The culture shock I spoke of a few days ago has, for the most part, gone by the wayside. I'm sure it will strike again, but I think now that I actually have things do (and believe me, I've got a lot of them) it should be easier to handle next time. I've got to put some grant proposals together for Clipa, study up on the Balkans, learn ten billion Russian words, and figure out just what in the hell I'm going to talk about to the Moldovan students. Sylvia's in Romania for the weekend, which means I'm probably going to spend a good amount of time with the Peace Corps volunteers this weekend. They tend to come into the city on the weekends. I've decided not to go to Ukraine this weekend, I need to improve my Russian a bit more before I venture alone into a Russian speaking country. Maybe in a few more weeks. Also, I really don't want to go through Transnistria alone speaking minimal Russian.

That's it for now dear readers, keep fighting the good fight over there and I'll do the same here.

By the by: listen to Medeski Martin and Wood, and watch L.A. Confidential

Cat Food and Breakfast Cereal

Dear friends of mine I apologise for not updating this in such a long time but I've been going through the mother of all culture shocks for the past few days. It seems to have died down a bit yesterday and today, but man, it was bad. I suppose it was a mixture of the weather, the language barrier, and the schedule I've had recently. Whatever though. Life goes on. If I wanted it easy I could have gone to England or Australia.

Quite a lot has happened since I last updated. I had my first classes which went fine but let me tell you: Russian is an incredibly difficult language to learn. I felt like I was five years old trying to pronounce the days of the week. Multilateral Diplomacy in the Balkans seems both interesting and relavant considering where I am and what's gone on there. It's going to be fun where that class goes after a few weeks.

Plans are in the works for a trip to either Kiev or Odesa in one of the upcoming weekends. There are several buses that leave the city daily for both locales. I've just got to keep up with the Russian before I leave. Odesa's about five hours by bus and Kiev's about 12. So if I leave for Kiev I'll probably have to leave right after class on friday and get back sometime on monday. I'll update you all as the information becomes available.

There's also a chance I'll be heading into Russia at some point soon. I have to figure out when exactly spring break is over here, but I think that would be a prime time to head to Moscow and St. Petersburg. The only problem with Russia is that there is so much red tape associated with heading in there I have to start planning to get a visa pretty soon (it takes about 3 weeks to month to get a visa into Russia). It also helps that Air Moldova has relatively cheap fares to Moscow. It'd be much cheaper to take the train or the bus, but flying not only saves me time (the bus takes 32 hours versus 3 by plane), but I'll also avoid Transnistria. Don't get me wrong, I do want to go to Tiraspol, but now's not the best time.

That's about all I got for now friends. Until next time, take it easy.

By the by: listen to Air

Faulkner

My mother is a fish.

School Days Fool Days

I had my official orientation with IRIM yesterday and learned exactly what kind of madness I've put myself into. The dean of the International Relations department didn't speak any English but he still gave his speech, completely in Romanian, and paused every few seconds to have one of my professors translate for me. It was an interesting situation. My professors seem cool, I'm going to have a modulated course in International Affairs, which means that I'll have three professors each specialising in their own field over the course of the semester. I didn't get a chance to meet my final IAF professor, as he couldn't make it yesterday, but it would have been nice to meet the guy who's going to be teaching me the intricacies of post Soviet CIS policy and relations entirely in Russian. But oh well, I'll meet him later on I'm sure.

As for my Russian class, ouch, that's about all I can say. The syllabi for my two IAF classes ranged from one to four pages. My Russian Syllibus is around 12 pages long. I'll be meeting with my professor for three hours on Fridays. I really wish I had my syllabus in front of me so you could see the amount of material we're going to be covering next week. Needless to say, I'm gonna be pretty busy while I'm here.

Sylvia and I met up with Victor yesterday for lunch. He had done an internship with the Parliament and was kind enough to point out which of my professors were with the Communist Party (the ruling party in Moldova). IRIM's a state run school, so I know at least two of my professors work with one of the various ministries up the street. It'll be interesting to see if their affiliation with the party will affect how they teach or how they deal with certain issues.

That's about all the news that's fit to print and all the muck that's fit to rake. Take it easy dear friends of mine, and enjoy the warm weather.

By the by: watch Squidbillies and listen to Tool