Putting Moldova on the Map : Where did all the time go

I feel as though after the 4th of July the summer just flies and it's August before you know it.
This morning I opened my notebook to plan out my last two weeks abroad and was shocked to find that I'm functionally in Chisinau for only a little for in a week because of our trip to the Romanian mountains that our fabulous host family is bringing us on. Including today, I only have five days left working at Hospice Angelus. I really can't believe it's almost over, but at the same time two weeks in a quarter of what I'm now realizing to be such a short eight week adventure. Leaving will definitely be bittersweet because of all the connections I've made here and places I've seen, but at the same time I am so looking forward to hugging my parents, sitting on my porch, and seeing my friends. This entire experience has definitely made me want to make the most of each day, even the bad ones.

This Monday started as another typical Monday, I woke up today still so full from everything I had eaten this weekend (so much food at our countryside barbecue, I thought I would never be hungry again). This morning there were also way less people on the Trolly bus than usual (I had room to not only move, but sit!) and it wasn't sweltering (I actually wore a sweater!), so that was a huge win for Moldova today.
Work was work. I'm making a bank of trivia questions for the next quiz night, you would not believe the amount of random fun facts I now know. I bet you don't know which country leads the world in per capita beer consumption?! (It's the Czech Republic, if you were curious). Today I will spend my day updating the questions, as well as the Twitter and LinkedIn, maybe proofread things in English if I'm lucky.
I meant to stick this in the other blog, but a lot of the internships here have us Lehigh kids look over different things that they publish. Karina had the most hilarious edit the other day that had data showing a certain percentage of the children in her program where "Headless", yep that sounds about right.

NAILED IT.

Most of my edits, aren't that big, just slight mis-spellings or awkward working.

After work, I took the trolly bus (One I hadn't taken before AND all by myself.. TWO POINTS FOR TEAM WESCOTT) to the lyceum to mentor again at the FLEX program. These kids are so impressive and so eager to share. We are helping them with their presentations on their home country, so now I know a little bit about Georgia and definitely adding it to places I need to visit. From what I understand Georgia has a pretty traditional culture, but they are making lots of strides to bring a sense of modernism to the country; Marina's slides shows a lot of traditional dress but also extremely modern building.

When we had finished volunteering Ana and Irka picked us up and we headed to Irka's house for dinner (which was amazing). We ate in the gorgeous garden that surrounds Irka's picturesque home, and Irka's mom had prepared homemade pasta, fish, chicken, and salad, and of course I ate too much of all of it. When in Moldova right? I love hanging out with Ana and Irka though, they make me want to stay in Moldova longer and be friends with them forever. Really, they are so cool. I guess they like hanging out with us too because we've already planned another dinner and movie night.The two were also saying how their friends were getting jealous that they were hanging out with us Americans so much... so I guess we are pretty cool.

Also, Irka reads the blog now too and wanted to clarify that she is actually 29 and didn't get married off at the age of 15 ("We aren't that weird in Moldova"). Even though they're both a little older than Mikayla and I, it feels as though we are all much closer in age. So we chatted for hours in Irka's garden about literally everything... From Ana growing up in a million different houses about Chisinau (her parents were always moving because her dad worked in produce export and money comes and goes in the business. Also sidetone, but Ana was telling us how her all about her father studied history to be a teacher, but here in Moldova but teachers and doctors make minimum salaries, so many Moldovans often just start their own business, as Ana's father did. )... to Irka's French lessons (she's in a class with all high schoolers who think she's super fabulous. I can totally picture them all idolizing her). We were all so silly, I hadn't laughed that hard in so long... at one point Irka spat out her drink when I was telling her how I was silently freaking the fluff out when we had tried to drive to Transnistria because that was LITERALLY the ONLY place that my neighbor who does work in Moldova told me not to go or else they won't let me leave.

They were also cracking up about all my stories of the disaster that was living with Francesca, and how every time I spoke Romanian, my pronunciation was so wrong that I was saying insults rather than simply phrases... oops. Irka and Ana also were amazed when we described Lehigh and sororities... Irka: "Wow it sound like your lives are out of a movie, up until now it was like we were all from the same world". We really do come from different worlds though, so vastly different in our childhoods and backgrounds, yet we still get along so well.

It was a very silly night, and we left Irkas very full, sleepy, happy, and bittersweet... how is it that we've made such good friends with only two weeks left abroad and functionally a week left in Chisinau?