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.