18 Feb 2009, Posted by jessie in the category,
Numerous people have asked what a ‘typical’ weekday is like for us at the moment. The first point we need to make clear is that one of the most useful Romanian phrases we’ve learnt so far is ‘Videm paolock (We’ll see when we get there!)’. So while the following will give you a bit of an idea, our next day could be remarkably different as we never quite know what is around the next corner!
We wake up today feeling somewhat tired – almost ready for another night’s sleep really. Woke up several times during the night from the baby crying and our ‘anti-posturpedic’ bed, but despite the tiredness, we’re ready to take on another day full of surprises and new challenges. Last night our dreams were made up of a concoction of Australian and Romanian culture, and we used a hand full of our Romanian vocabulary that had been floating around in our heads from the previous day.
We immediately attend to our morning chores, firstly transforming our bedroom back into the family’s living room, followed by a nice strong black coffee and last night’s leftovers for breaky. It’s a great experience living with a Moldovan family and it provides a real insight into Moldovan life – especially when you have a 1-year-old and 6-year-old roaming around the house. We boil a big pot of water on the stove, and use an old sheep’s cheese container to throw water over our heads to wash ourselves – a process which we undertake 2 times a week..we try and wash ourselves thoroughly!
It’s nice to take the short stroll from our temporary apartment to the bus stop. With the morning’s strong black coffee sinking in and the briskness of the morning air on our faces we are finally completing the process of waking up. Vadul Lui Voda is a lovely little town, but it’s said to be very touristy in the summer – we soak up the peace and quite while we’re here. We’re not really sure how long we’ll have to wait for the bus, so we get there with plenty of time up our sleeve. It’s 7:30 am as we wait for the next Rotiera, which we wave down as it approaches 20 minutes later. It’s one system we’re really learning to appreciate in Moldova – the buses will stop anywhere on the side of the road, as long as we’re on their route. On the down side, it’s not uncommon for these 12 seater mini buses to be filled to the max – sometimes up to 24 people!
After a 30 minute bus ride, taking in the beautiful scenery composed of soft rolling hills stretched out with bare vineyards as far as the eye can see, we jump off the bus and are immediately greeted with the busy and bustling markets in Chisinau. The sky, along with the many buildings, are grey and gloomy at this time of the year, but we soak in the brightness of market stalls which liven the atmosphere. We stop by at our favorite stall where we grab our daily fresh sultana muffin and spurt out the few Romanian words we know. The fresh smell of vegetables, along with a typical market scent which can only be experienced to understand, reminds us that we’re not in our own country. We dodge a few carts and plow our way through the busy and bustling markets to out next stop.
After catching a second bus to the office, our 1 1/2 hour trip to work is nearly complete. Not every morning begins with a team devotion, but it’s nice to begin the working day this way. On completion of the devotion, we wait until our language teacher is ready and get stuck into an intense language lesson, which lasts for 1 1/2 hours each. Vocab, grammar, reading, speaking…you name it, we study the works, and by the end of the lesson we’re exhausted.
As we wander into the office kitchen to prepare lunch, we have a quick chat with a couple of team members and laugh about funny events from the previous day. There is always some new adventure to talk about at the moment so it certainly provides us with topics for conversation.
The afternoon will be filled with Romanian homework, practice and completing odd jobs (such as sorting out visa issues, working out money for our budget, catching up with the personal department etc.) so we grab another coffee for an added afternoon boost.
Before we know it, it’s time to repeat the morning’s travel ritual, which will see us back with our host family by about 6.30pm. After a game of cards with the 6-year-old and the Taboo/Charades equivalent of trying to explain what each of us did during the day, a meal of fish, bread and soup is ready to keep us going until tomorrow.
By 10pm we are well and truly ready to get to bed, so we start transforming the lounge back into our bedroom before getting to bed by about 10.30pm.
Another day has passed …
Numerous people have asked what a ‘typical’ weekday is like for us at the moment. The first point we need to make clear is that one of the most useful Romanian phrases we’ve learnt so far is ‘Videm paolock (We’ll see when we get there!)’. So while the following will give you a bit of an idea, our next day could be remarkably different as we never quite know what is around the next corner!
…………………………………………………
We wake up today feeling somewhat tired – almost ready for another night’s sleep really. Woke up several times during the night from the baby crying and our ‘anti-posturpedic’ bed, but despite the tiredness, we’re ready to take on another day full of surprises and new challenges. Last night our dreams were made up of a concoction of Australian and Romanian culture, and we used a hand full of our Romanian vocabulary that had been floating around in our heads from the previous day.
We immediately attend to our morning chores, firstly transforming our bedroom back into the family’s living room, followed by a nice strong black coffee and last night’s leftovers for breaky. It’s a great experience living with a Moldovan family and it provides a real insight into Moldovan life – especially when you have a 1-year-old and 6-year-old roaming around the house. We boil a big pot of water on the stove, and use an old sheep’s cheese container to throw water over our heads to wash ourselves – a process which we undertake 2 times a week..we try and wash ourselves thoroughly!
It’s nice to take the short stroll from our temporary apartment to the bus stop. With the morning’s strong black coffee sinking in and the briskness of the morning air on our faces we are finally completing the process of waking up. Vadul Lui Voda is a lovely little town, but it’s said to be very touristy in the summer – we soak up the peace and quite while we’re here. We’re not really sure how long we’ll have to wait for the bus, so we get there with plenty of time up our sleeve. It’s 7:30 am as we wait for the next Rotiera, which we wave down as it approaches 20 minutes later. It’s one system we’re really learning to appreciate in Moldova – the buses will stop anywhere on the side of the road, as long as we’re on their route. On the down side, it’s not uncommon for these 12 seater mini buses to be filled to the max – sometimes up to 24 people!
After a 30 minute bus ride, taking in the beautiful scenery composed of soft rolling hills stretched out with bare vineyards as far as the eye can see, we jump off the bus and are immediately greeted with the busy and bustling markets in Chisinau. The sky, along with the many buildings, are grey and gloomy at this time of the year, but we soak in the brightness of market stalls which liven the atmosphere. We stop by at our favorite stall where we grab our daily fresh sultana muffin and spurt out the few Romanian words we know. The fresh smell of vegetables, along with a typical market scent which can only be experienced to understand, reminds us that we’re not in our own country. We dodge a few carts and plow our way through the busy and bustling markets to out next stop.
After catching a second bus to the office, our 1 1/2 hour trip to work is nearly complete. Not every morning begins with a team devotion, but it’s nice to begin the working day this way. On completion of the devotion, we wait until our language teacher is ready and get stuck into an intense language lesson, which lasts for 1 1/2 hours each. Vocab, grammar, reading, speaking…you name it, we study the works, and by the end of the lesson we’re exhausted.
As we wander into the office kitchen to prepare lunch, we have a quick chat with a couple of team members and laugh about funny events from the previous day. There is always some new adventure to talk about at the moment so it certainly provides us with topics for conversation.
The afternoon will be filled with Romanian homework, practice and completing odd jobs (such as sorting out visa issues, working out money for our budget, catching up with the personal department etc.) so we grab another coffee for an added afternoon boost.
Before we know it, it’s time to repeat the morning’s travel ritual, which will see us back with our host family by about 6.30pm. After a game of cards with the 6-year-old and the Taboo/Charades equivalent of trying to explain what each of us did during the day, a meal of fish, bread and soup is ready to keep us going until tomorrow.
By 10pm we are well and truly ready to get to bed, so we start transforming the lounge back into our bedroom before getting to bed by about 10.30pm.
Another day has pNumerous people have asked what a ‘typical’ weekday is like for us at the moment. The first point we need to make clear is that one of the most useful Romanian phrases we’ve learnt so far is ‘Videm paolock (We’ll see when we get there!)’. So while the following will give you a bit of an idea, our next day could be remarkably different as we never quite know what is around the next corner!
…………………………………………………
We wake up today feeling somewhat tired – almost ready for another night’s sleep really. Woke up several times during the night from the baby crying and our ‘anti-posturpedic’ bed, but despite the tiredness, we’re ready to take on another day full of surprises and new challenges. Last night our dreams were made up of a concoction of Australian and Romanian culture, and we used a hand full of our Romanian vocabulary that had been floating around in our heads from the previous day.
We immediately attend to our morning chores, firstly transforming our bedroom back into the family’s living room, followed by a nice strong black coffee and last night’s leftovers for breaky. It’s a great experience living with a Moldovan family and it provides a real insight into Moldovan life – especially when you have a 1-year-old and 6-year-old roaming around the house. We boil a big pot of water on the stove, and use an old sheep’s cheese container to throw water over our heads to wash ourselves – a process which we undertake 2 times a week..we try and wash ourselves thoroughly!
It’s nice to take the short stroll from our temporary apartment to the bus stop. With the morning’s strong black coffee sinking in and the briskness of the morning air on our faces we are finally completing the process of waking up. Vadul Lui Voda is a lovely little town, but it’s said to be very touristy in the summer – we soak up the peace and quite while we’re here. We’re not really sure how long we’ll have to wait for the bus, so we get there with plenty of time up our sleeve. It’s 7:30 am as we wait for the next Rotiera, which we wave down as it approaches 20 minutes later. It’s one system we’re really learning to appreciate in Moldova – the buses will stop anywhere on the side of the road, as long as we’re on their route. On the down side, it’s not uncommon for these 12 seater mini buses to be filled to the max – sometimes up to 24 people!
After a 30 minute bus ride, taking in the beautiful scenery composed of soft rolling hills stretched out with bare vineyards as far as the eye can see, we jump off the bus and are immediately greeted with the busy and bustling markets in Chisinau. The sky, along with the many buildings, are grey and gloomy at this time of the year, but we soak in the brightness of market stalls which liven the atmosphere. We stop by at our favorite stall where we grab our daily fresh sultana muffin and spurt out the few Romanian words we know. The fresh smell of vegetables, along with a typical market scent which can only be experienced to understand, reminds us that we’re not in our own country. We dodge a few carts and plow our way through the busy and bustling markets to out next stop.
After catching a second bus to the office, our 1 1/2 hour trip to work is nearly complete. Not every morning begins with a team devotion, but it’s nice to begin the working day this way. On completion of the devotion, we wait until our language teacher is ready and get stuck into an intense language lesson, which lasts for 1 1/2 hours each. Vocab, grammar, reading, speaking…you name it, we study the works, and by the end of the lesson we’re exhausted.
As we wander into the office kitchen to prepare lunch, we have a quick chat with a couple of team members and laugh about funny events from the previous day. There is always some new adventure to talk about at the moment so it certainly provides us with topics for conversation.
The afternoon will be filled with Romanian homework, practice and completing odd jobs (such as sorting out visa issues, working out money for our budget, catching up with the personal department etc.) so we grab another coffee for an added afternoon boost.
Before we know it, it’s time to repeat the morning’s travel ritual, which will see us back with our host family by about 6.30pm. After a game of cards with the 6-year-old and the Taboo/Charades equivalent of trying to explain what each of us did during the day, a meal of fish, bread and soup is ready to keep us going until tomorrow.
By 10pm we are well and truly ready to get to bed, so we start transforming the lounge back into our bedroom before getting to bed by about 10.30pm.
Another day has passed …
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