Today I finalized my plans for Christmas break and I'm going to Germany to visit with Johanna! I'm so so excited! I had wanted to possibly visit Aneri in London as well, but PC unfortunately will not let me leave my site until Christmas day... (terrible rule)... even though we don't have to teach/work on the 23rd, 24th, or 25th. The rule makes it difficult for anyone wanting to spend Christmas day outside of Moldova. Even more difficult if you want to plan dual trips--Christmas in one country, for example, and new year in another. I'll fly from Chisinau to Munich... from the 26th to the 5th of Jan.

Emily Wilant--Thank you SO much for the package you mailed me!!! Magazine, Skittles, post-its, and ziploc bags (they are precious) are always needed :). You are great!

Interesting thing I forgot to mention about my school in Moldova: School isn't cancelled for snow, but it is cancelled for harvest. the other week I showed up for class and the school director (principal) called a meeting for all of the teachers. He seemed angry and I didn't really understand what was going on and then someone explained to me that classes were cancelled for the day so we could all go to the fields to pick onions. There have been lots of floods here so we had to hurry home to change clothes and then ride on the back of military trucks to the fields where we spent the day. All of the students were told to go and work and I was supposed to supervise to make sure they didn't play too much with the onions. (Onion = Ceapa... "Chee-Ah-Pa").

Dinner time. I had Mexican food last night for dinner. And a HOT SHOWER! I LOVE Chisinau.