Whenever the internet (or anything, really) doesn't work anymore, I've found a great way to adapt: "Don't expect anything to ever be fixed". Or "learned helplessness" for short. Maybe not the healthiest mentality longterm, but shortterm works like a charm... or just helps me integrate into the post-Soviet culture.

Cultural misunderstandings over weekend (some of them are funny):

After walking in the door and greeting Suzanne's hostmother this weekend, she told me matter-of-factly (and then again maybe an hour later):
"Melissa, you have to speak more Romanian. You need to practice more. Suzanne speaks really well. Maybe practice more with your host sister. I help Suzanne every night."
When one of your largest everyday struggle is learning Romanian, it's nice to receive positive, uplifting words from people you don't really know.

Dialog between Suzanne and her mother:
Mom: "Melissa is fine. But Suzanne, you have to lose 2 kilos (5 lbs). Have to."

Suzanne's mother also later went on about how adoption is bad because we're meant to have our own babies. Mother's can't love their adopted children as much as they would love their own. It's not natural and women only do it if they are not able to give birth to children of their own. It's selfish. Also, the obvious, "we have to repopulate the earth so we don't run out of people". It might happen soon.
Background note: Suzanne is 27 years old, has a degree in women's studies, and previously worked in NYC. Her sister is adopted. Suzanne handles living with this lady very well. The first time the lady told her how she felt about Suzanne's sister being adopted, Suzanne called me crying and didn't know how she would handle staying in the house. We've come to see that the lady loves Suzanne to death and would never say anything to purposefully hurt her... it's just how she feels and she says how she feels. She likes me too, and asks about me all the time, but if she thinks I don't speak well, or that I'm overweight or whatever else, she'll let me know.
Suzanne later put on two different colored socks...one white, one black, to drive the poor woman crazy.
Dialog:
"Suzanne! Change your socks... why are they like that?"
"Don't know. I just kind of like it."
"You should change them. One is black, one is white"
"Why should I change them? What's wrong with it?"
"I don't like it. It's just not... normal, Suzanne. Understand?"
"But why isn't it normal?"
Simply because.

And so on.

Suzanne's host mother is a rather average, middle-aged Moldovan woman. She lives in a very nice house and her children both worked with the Moldovan military and now are married with kids and have well paying jobs with the navy in the north of Moldova.

We just laugh now with people when we have these conversations with people in our villages because no one ever thinks we're laughing at them or because the situation is bizarre for us. And sarcasim doesn't exist in Moldova so we can be sarcastic and it makes no sense, no matter how extreme. These conversations are not that different from conversations I have on a normal, daily basis with people in my village. The more I understand Romanian... the more I realize and experience culture shock from the differences between how I think as an American and how many Moldovans think. Suzanne had taught/lived in Moscow a couple of years ago, but not long enough to speak Russian as well as she speaks Romanian. I had travelled around western Europe, but the lifestyles and beliefs seem now, looking back, almost identical with American culture. Suzanne and I both agreed that we had no idea what culture really was until we came to Moldova. We also never realized how different people could be. We're very much the same in our wants and needs, but people in the world have such different ways of doing things. It blows my mind everyday.

I also met one of Suzanne's friends in her village. This lady speaks English rather well and after meeting her I tried to ask her more questions about herself:
So, what are you into? What kinds of stuff do you like to do?
After asking these questions it became obvious that they're not really culturally appropriate and that she was super uncomfortable with me. She acted taken aback and said that I asked her questions about herself "too fast". That I'm intrusive. I wouldn't describe myself as being the most smooth or socially apt person I know, but I have no social skills in this new culture. It's very difficult to make friends because I've been conditioned to make friends in different ways than what is the normal or accepted in Moldova.

Other situation this weekend:
I met with our PC doctor, a middle aged, friendly Moldovan woman and we shared coffee and conversation. I tried to initiate what to me was polite conversation:
"So, how do you like your work with Peace Corps?"
[Slightly angry] "Why would you ask me if I like my job? If I didn't like my job, do you think I would be working here? Do you think that I don't have other job options??"

Oops again. I've been here 6 months but I still don't know how to fit in. Speaking the language is a good step, but there are so many facets of a culture that transcend the language. I'm constantly learning.