Training

I’m back in Copceac after a week in the big city for a PC language
and technical training. Though I had a productive week and took
plenty of long, hot showers, which I will miss at my site, it’s good
to be home.

One reason I welcome my return is that I can now walk without fear of
falling. Though only a 3-hour bus ride north of Copceac, Chisinau
has snow and ice that never melts while my village has none. PC
issues yak-traks to all PCVs, and even warned us to bring them for
training. Well I’m an idiot and decided not to heed their advice
because they’re completely unnecessary down South. Mistake. I fell
a couple times during the week on the slippery sidewalks while my yak-
traked friends walked by as sure-footed as sherpas.

Our days went from 8:30 to 5:30 each day, 4 hours of language each
morning and then some kind of technical training after lunch. I
really got a lot out of the language classes and have a lot of
studying to do on my own. The interesting (i.e. really difficult)
thing about Russian is that the endings of verbs, nouns, and
adjectives change based on the gender of the object and how it is
used in a sentence – as the subject, direct object, indirect object,
object of a preposition, to show ownership, or as the instrument of
an action.

For example, in English we would say:
Jane bought this red sweater with Steven at the big store.

In Russian the sentence would have endings that change where I’ve
marked below:
Jane bought** this** red** sweater** with Steven** at the big** store.**

Now, if we changed around the sentence to have Steven purchase the
sweaters instead of Jane, or if Steven and Jane bought the sweaters
together, then the word “bought” would change to reflect the fact
that Steven is a man or that Steven and Jane are a plural subject.
If someone bought “this red fish” instead of “this red sweater,” then
the words “this” and “red” would change because fish is a feminine
word and sweater is a masculine word – AND, because fish are animate
objects and sweaters are inanimate, you’d change the endings on
“this” and “red” and “fish” again. So there’s a lot to think about
and could drive one to decide never to bother with Jane or Steven or
their stupid fish or ugly sweater.

To kickback after long days of learning, I sampled the culinary
offerings of Chisinau, and am pleased to report that I found another
Middle Eastern restaurant called “Aleppo.” Now anyone worth his salt
can tell you that the best food in the Middle East is supposed to
come from Aleppo, Syria and I have to say based on my five trips to
this small establishment in four days that should the owners actually
originate from that city, there is good cause for Aleppo’s
reputation. The hummus was excellent, shish-tauk better, and the
lebneh was the best I’ve ever had. And on top of it all, the place
is cheap. I ate like a king (of shish kebab) for about $4 per meal.
I will definitely be going back on any trip to the capital.

One night my friend Adam, who lives in Chisinau, organized an
excursion to a sauna. Nine of us were able to make the trip, and I
emerged several hours later very relaxed. There was a very cold
pool, a warm pool, and an extremely hot sauna.

Other news worth mentioning quickly:
- I received Hal’s care package. Thanks for the deodorant.

- Had lunch with a local who may give us a grant to redo our
Cultural Center.

- Going to start studying for the Foreign Service exam and the
GMATs. Can’t hurt to at least take the tests.

- Purchased a crocheting needle and yarn and fellow PCV Jason
gave me a few lessons. Scarf City here we come!