Anul Nou (New Year) / Crăciun (Christmas)

I finally made it to Bălți (the 2nd biggest city behind Chișinău)! Here is the center.

The Mayor's office.

Then I went to Soroca for New Year's.

The Mayor's office.

At midnight we danced the hora (with everyone else), but didn't stay out too long cuz it was coooooooooooold!!

Christmas in Moldova!

On Christmas Eve, some fellow PCVs and i rented an apt. and made a "traditional" Christmas meal with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (Rosie's mom sent from 'Merica), dressing (also sent from the Homeland), and rotisserie chicken. It was delicious! 

Me, Nate, & Rosie.

Nate, Rosie, and Scott.

The next day, on actual Christmas, we had more people over and made Mexican food. 4 people got stuck in the elevator for an hour with half the food! We had to call the apt. lady who called the repair guy who came and fixed it.

While we were waiting for the rest of the food, we ate guac & chips (avocados are expensive here, so it was a nice treat)!

Nate took the above photo, but i didn't want to leave him out! He's trying to make my hair into a fro (as can be seen in the 1st photo), but i had washed it that day, so no fro, yo. I was pushing him away cuz my hair only stays clean for like 12 hrs and i didn't want him messing it up!...Get back to your hookah and leave me alone! ;op

Maratonul de Crăciun (Christmas Marathon...really, only a 3k)

There was a 3k "fun run" in Chișinău to kick off the Christmas season. You were supposed to come in costume, so, as the good PCVs we are, we did! We dressed up as Santa and his reindeer. We ended up with exactly the perfect amount of people we needed for Santa and all 9 reindeer (including Rudolph). It was sooooooooo fun! We actually tethered ourselves together and sang carols the whole way! :oD

Top-to-bottom, left-to-right: Cat, Sandra, Jessica, me, SHam, Chelsea, Miki, Olivia, Kirsten, Sarah, and Rochelle...a mixture of M29s and M30s...YAY!

Yes, those are leopard print leggings (my host dad bought them for me for my birthday last year, and i finally found the perfect occasion to wear them!) i'm wearing with a furry top (that i got from China) and black rubber boots (my hooves...duh)...i was reindeer committed! 

Don't know who the dude on the far right is...?

We were given these FedEx boxes at the beginning of the race to pick up free gifts along the way. At the end, we were given covrigi (pretzels) on strings as "medals"...pretty dang cute. ;o]

Before the race started we were given Santa hats (which we obviously couldn't wear with our antlers) and hot tea! YUM!

We named ourselves each of the reindeer...i was Vixen. ;op

We even got a diploma for finishing the race! Moldovans love their diplomas!

Here's all the goodies we picked up along the way in our FedEx boxes! - ice cream cone bubbles (for the kids), tea, free McDonald's coffee, notepad, pen, pencil, apple, gingerbread cookies, a toy horse, sparklers, and discounts for various places, including FedEx, of course.

Christmas in Chișinău!

From top to bottom, left to right: John, me, Rosemary, Nate.

Me & Rosie

The day after Christmas dinner at the "Embassy House"... notice: NO SWEET POTATOS!!! Moldovans have never even heard of them!!! 😢

Rosie petting Matty at the "Embassy House".

Distracție Crăciun! (Christmas fun!)

Îngeri de Crăciun! (Christmas angels!) My partner teacher, Natalia, made the one on the right and two of my students made the other 2!!

I decided to hang them up in the window...i bet when classes start again in ianuarie (January), more kids will make them so we can hang them up in the other 2 windows!

And, as you can see...NO ZĂPADĂ (snow)!!! It's 23 de decembrie and there's NO ZĂPADĂ! I feel jipped! I thought for sure when we had our 1st snow on 24 de octombrie, that we were in for a cold SNOWY iarnă...i was wrong. :o[ It's currently 11'C (52'F)! My partner teacher told me this is primăvară (Spring) weather!

In Moldova, vacanță de iarnă (winter vacation) doesn't start until Christmas day...meaning there are classes through Christmas Eve. Christmas this year is on joi (Thursday), so i only have 3 of my 5 classes - on marți și miercuri (Tuesday and Wednesday). So instead of having a boring lecture, we made Christmas cards! This is my 5th grade class...well, like half of them. :o]

Lumini de Crăciun (Christmas lights)...Moldovan style

Today my partner teacher told me to go to the Primăria (Mayor's Office) at 5pm for the "foarte frumos" ("very beautiful") lighting and decorations...so i went...and this is what i saw:

I was expecting a lot of people gathered around with a possible speech from the Mayor...not so much...no one else was there (not even my partner who told me to go) and what you see in the photo is the whole shabang! Kinda funny. ;op ...O ya, and my partner told me to bring my camera, so i did! :oD

Had to add my gloved peace sign bunny ears for the occasion! ...and ya, it's this dark at 5pm...it's actually dark by 4pm, and it's only getting darker earlier...