Stream

Friday

There was a reason I thought I should write this blog post, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it is.

But updates are important right? So what, I wonder, should I write about?

Well, off the top of my head, I got a cell phone. My integration into Moldovan society is somewhat more complete, and hey, if anyone at home wants to call me, it's free for me! I would recommend buying a calling card or something, and then dialing the following number:

011 373 69 750462


I can get text messages, too! Directions for free web text:

Go to www.orange.md

click on the box on the right hand side with a picture of an envelope, that says Orange Text and „expediaza web sms” (send web sms)

It will take you to another web page that says Web SMS at the top. Follow the directions:

De la—type in your name instead of „websms”
Catre—leave the opening as +37369 and then type in 750462 (the rest of Rian’s number)
Mesajul—type your message
Introduceti—type the 5-digit code that you see in the blank box.
Click „trimite sms” to send your text.

It's free for me to send you texts, so if you remind me of your phone numbers, I will totally holler at you once in a while.

It would be great if you send me your phone number IN A TEXT MESSAGE, because you know how often it is that I get to the internet. I'm not saying, i'm just saying.



This Saturday it will be one month since I left home, and three weeks since I've been at my home stay, which means I am no longer on "lock down." This is very important, because it means that I am, basically, free to travel about the country. Which means I can go to Chisanau or wherever, whenever, and use the internet to my hearts content.

Le sigh.

Still, with the pace that we're at, don't expect that drastic of a change.

My phone, by the way, has a flashlight at the top. I would like to recognize Nokia for their brilliance in this design, because there's been a few people who have probably thought me intoxicated because I have trouble walking home on twisty, unpaved streets without the benefit of, oh, street lights or really, strong houselights of any kind.

The lack of light pollution does make the stars something else though. I can count on one hand the number of airplanes I've seen since I've been here, but I've seen numerous satellites flying across the sky. The closest thing I've seen to this was in... oh Attila, was it in Montana that we saw that falling star?

It is, by the way, 8pm here. Thus, 1pm central time. A 7 hour difference, in case anyone was wondering, or thinking of calling me.

I'm actually already in bed, if I want to be honest with everyone. I'm freaking tired, and I've memorized a craduca load of words in the past two hours.

My host dad calls me the computer.

I may not be able to speak the language, but I can sure point to things and say: porumb! That means corn. You pronounce the b, so it's fun to say.

Some of my friends are living in Porumbeni right now, which literally means Corntown. I wonder how old their town is, and how they got their name. Obviously, corn is a New World vegetable, but I suppose it could have immigrated here any time during the 1600s. After all, the tomato certainly did get co-opted by the Italians.

Did you know that many Early Americans considered tomatoes a dangerous fruit? Or vegetable, whatever you want to call it? They thought it drove people mad, or made them lovesick - which is kind of the same thing if you think about it.

There is someone in my Peace Corps training group who is driving me crazy, and I don't know what to do about it. We see each other waaaaay too often, and it's too early to be this annoyed with someone. I've been unable to figure how to peacefully resolve this potential conflict.

I think my language instructor is pregnant. I have no obvious reason for this suspicion, and I've told no one of my thoughts. But I want to make the claim in public, so in case I'm right I can point to it and go HA! I am psychic!

of course, in case I'm wrong, I can always edit this post. Ah, blogging.

Well now, I've just spent 20 minutes doing stream of consciousness thought, not sure how it will fly. I do have a lot on my mind . I've dreamt of kissing three different guys in the past few days, and I'm really curious as to what's going on with that. I also have visions of verb conjugations dancing in my head. I think I prefer the sugar plum fairies.