So many new things have happened since I my last update! Overall I’ve been doing great and yes I still am in Molodva (I’ve had a few questions about that since I haven’t written in so long)!!! The biggest change has been moving to my new apartment. It was so nice for the first time in my life to be able to move in one afternoon with minimal help since I didn’t have very much stuff to move. I actually have too much storage room and not enough stuff to fill all of it! I certainly wish that I could be able to always live like this, having only the essentials that I need to live but I think that its so hard to not buy and accumulate stuff when we have the money to buy almost anything we want and the inabilities to get rid of it when we don’t need it anymore!

So anyway the new living situation has been awesome. I loved my living-with-Moldovans experience but it was really hard to be myself there and do what I wanted. (This is my new roommate Shauna, we had just gotten back from getting new haircuts...its totally inexpensive to get a haircut here but its really hard to communicate what we wanted with our limited Romanian vocabularies) My new apartment is really big and I have definitely enjoyed being able to cook for myself and experiment with new types of food….its not always easy to find ingredients here for American recipes so its been quite the challenge trying to find substitutes. Just going to the grocery stores here can be an adventure! You never quite know what you are buying until you try it out here. The other day I tried to buy rolls for hamburgers but they ended up having a big glob of caramel in the middle when I cut them open! Not really the type of sauce you want for your hamburger. The best thing about the food situation here is how cheap it is to go out to eat when cooking gets too rough. Most of the restaurants here have decent prices and some of them are even down-right cheap for good quality food. Just last night I had a great meal that I paid less than four dollars for….certainly not starving here by any means! Traditional Moldovan food is really good for the most part….they eat a lot of soup, meat-filled crepes, sausage, chicken and beef plus a lot of different types of fruits and vegetables since Moldova grows lots of fruits and vegetables. Its pretty rare to see a young person who is overweight here but a lot of the older people are not skinny at all. I think that it is very unacceptable to be overweight is you are young but not a problem once you reach a certain age. Another interesting thing is how open and honest they are about weight issues…they are not afraid at all to say that they think someone weighs too much. It certainly catches me off guard because in America we are very sensitive about certain issues and would never tell anyone the honest truth about their appearances. Here with almost all things people are very honest and not afraid to insert their opinions about things. I had about ten people tell me in the past month since its been getting colder to buy some boots and stop wearing the shoes that I have been wearing. I just don’t think anyone would ever say that to me in America. Its been hard getting over other people being so critical of me about certain things but I’m realizing that its just how it is here and is their way of showing concern. I think I would rather be lied to then hear brutal truth sometimes!

I just finished up a book that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to know more about Moldovan culture and be entertained at the same time. The book is called Playing the Moldovans at Tennis and is the true story of this English guy who goes to Moldova to win a bet that he made with his friend. It’s really funny and a quick read and certainly a good representation of how Moldova is in many aspects. The book was written seven years ago and since then the economy has come pretty far so picture that he paints of Moldova in the book is definitely bleaker than it is now. Just be warned that if you decide to read it there is a little bit of bad language in it, though certainly not anything you wouldn’t hear in the movies.

A month or so ago I got the chance to go to a cave monastery North of the city. It had been built in the sixteen hundreds and was positioned basically on the edge of a cliff. It was very interesting to see how Orthodox monks lived hundreds of years ago to escape religious persecution and to live lives of discomfort in obedience to God. The church inside the monastery is still in operation and so there were people in there worshipping while we were there. I also had the opportunity to go to the big Orthodox church here in Chisinau a few weeks ago for a Sunday morning service. Its really interesting to me how their services and most of the rituals that they go through are exactly the same way that many early Christians worshiped God. The Orthodox services are so different than how most Evangelical/Protestant Christians worship but still both are part of the religion of Christianity. It was still hard for me to believe that I was in a Christian church when I was there since it is so much more formal than I’m used to and there are so many rituals that I didn’t understand. (this is a monk at Old Orhei, the cave monastery)

The weather’s been about the same as I think it would be in Idaho if I was there now except that it hasn’t snowed at all yet. I’ve been hearing from so many people that it gets really cold here during the winter but so far it hasn’t been bad at all. I keep trying to tell people that I’m from Idaho and not Florida so I understand a little bit about cold weather and snow but still everyone insists that I must be cold in what I wear that I must buy more clothes to stay warm. Its pretty funny how excited people are to hear that I’m from America until they ask what state I’m from. When I say Idaho they all go “No, what state?” and of course I tell them “Idaho, I-da-ho, it’s a state” and then they say “Where is it?” “Well,” I say, “its by Washington and Oregon and Montana” Still a lot of confused looks and then I shake my head and say “Its somewhat close to California” and then a light goes on and they get all happy again and start asking me questions about California until I tell them that Idaho is nothing like California for the most part. The winter outfits here are really funny at times…there are lots of long coats with trimmings of fur and those tall Russian fur hats and everyone wears tall snow boots. (these hats are so cool but they serious cost around $100 each!) The whole country is definitely ready for blizzard winter. I’m not sure if this means that the weather is going to get really cold eventually or that everyone is just paranoid about being cold. There’s an irrational fear of drafts here…some people are seriously convinced that a draft can cause paralysis of the body. I’m not really sure why but a lot of the older people are very scared of drafts and bundle up even in the middle of summer.

My Thanksgiving was just about as great as it could have been. I’m very blessed with the American friends that I have here who are just as excited to celebrate American holidays as I am. It was really fun being able to cook some of the meal and actually be a part of the preparations for the day. It was nice because a lot of the ingredients came from America from missionary teams that had come through so there wasn’t part of the traditional meal that was missing. I made my first pumpkin pie and was really glad it turned out alright since I was using the only can of pumpkin that we had! I’ve heard that you can buy pumpkins here but I haven’t seen them anywhere. My mom had sent me a kit of American styled origami that had a turkey in it so part of the day was spent trying to make a turkey. Luckily I managed to figure it out! We also were able to watch a downloaded football game so it definitely felt like Thanksgiving in all ways. Christmas is very different here than it is in America. First off since most of the population claims their religion as Christian Orthodox, the official day of Christmas is on January 7^th according to the Orthodox calendar. So basically most of the Protestant Christians celebrate Christmas on the 25th but then get the 7^th off again for the Orthodox Christmas. New Years eve is also a really big deal here, I think much more of a holiday than Christmas is. I’ve seen Christmas decorations in a lot of the stores and I think that some people set up trees if they can afford one. I know that there will be a big tree set up somewhere in the city eventually so at least I know that I won’t be without some Christmas here. I didn’t realize just how crazy Americans are about Christmas and giving presents until I came here and started telling people how we celebrate Christmas. They were just amazed when I told them about the amount of presents that we give each other. I’m really glad that I’m going to have the chance to see what Christmas is like here and take a break from crazy American Christmas for a year. I’m sure I’ll appreciate it a lot more when I come home.

Last week my friends surprised me with a birthday party since they are all going to be gone for Christmas when my birthday rolls around. It was quite the surprise since my b-day won’t be for another month! We also went bowling which was fun since none of us have been for a while. I’m certainly blessed with great friends here! They even bought me a sparkly wig for the event!

Thanks to all you that send me updates of what’s going on. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and that your holidays will be great if I don't hear from ya!