If anyone has book recommendations, let me know. I finally finished Love in the Time of Cholera (didn't really get into it) and am now reading News of a Kidnapping by the same author. I would very much like to read Obama's Dreams From My Father. Has anyone read that? I'm sure it's floating around the PC library somewhere. We have many holidays for the saints and today was one of them. Celebratoare known as "Hram". Each village in Moldova has a (assigned?) saint that they celebrate once per year. Sort of like a birthday party. Our school director cancelled class today and my nurse partner did not work at the medical center. We had traditional Moldovan music at our Casa de Cultura (the house of culture / theater where we have concerts and things) and everyone at lots of food. I had lunch with my host family. I absolutely love sarmale:


Boiled rice with parsley and other vegetables wrapped in cabbage or grape leaves. This time of year, cabbage.
Served with, of course, smantana (similar to sour cream):

After eating with my family, Viorica invited me to eat more at her house. We ate together, talked about marriage, exchanged a few English and Russian phrases, and then watched Indian music videos. She loves Bollywood tv.

"Hai la masa!" (Let's! Table covered with food!)--I like my English translation.

I love how the word "hai" (pronounced as a short, terse "hi!") is used... for everything. It's like saying "let's go". Or "let's do this". Or "come on". People say "Hai. La revedere (goodbye). Pa (bye). Hai hai" when they're trying to say goodbye to someone on the phone and it cracks me up. You can use the word hai by itself or before a verb. Hai mergem: Let's go. Hai se mincam: Let's eat. Hai se dormim: Let's sleep. And so on. I've started overusing it for my own amusement.

Tomorrow in Chisinau I'll be celebrating 90 days at site with the other volunteers in my group. It's crazy how fast time is going! I've completed nearly 6 months, or 1/4 of my service in Moldova, yet I don't feel like I've been gone from home very long. I still have many days left in Pepeni, but all things do pass and it's a bittersweet realization.