My first days, impressions, experiences

I arrived here, to my new home, Thursday afternoon. It has been an exhausting first week. No more English, no more Americans. It is tiring speaking Romanian and listening to it all day everyday, but let me tell you, I have improved so much in a few days. It is almost unbelievable how much better I can hear Romanian now than I could four days ago. So when I arrived I expected to be met by my new host mom who I met on my site visit, nope! She just left to work in Italy for two months. So it is me, my host brother, and my host dad(who was working in Moscow when I first visited). I was a little hesitant at first but host dad has turned out to be an amazing language tutor. He works with me very hard to make sure I understand and am speaking correctly. However, I just found out that he is leaving Sunday for Moscow for two months. What!?! Who am I supposed to live with? I asked him if I could still live there and he said yes that host aunt is going to come by and cook for me and host brother. Um, alright. Luckily she is very nice. Site is great though. I go to work every afternoon for about two hours and then return home to relax. I have so much free time! It is ridiculous. Though I can't get off my training schedule and still wake up at 7am every morning. I have decided to start running everyday to take up time and to stay in shape. The village is fun though. I have been meeting lots of people. It is very small with 2700 people. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk to work on unpaved roads with tons of ducks, geese, and turkeys everywhere. I love all the animals running around. My house is very warm, almost too warm at night, which is not the case for many volunteers. I am a very spoiled Peace Corps volunteer. I have hot running water(in a shower form), an indoor toilet, heat, and I am 15 minutes outside a big city. It is very different from those volunteers located in bushwack Africa. I think I have lots of work ahead of me. The kindergarten, school, mayors office, and my NGO all has projects they want me to do. I will be keeping busy. The great thing about my village is the lack of light in the nights. I can see so many stars and it is nice and dark when I sleep. However, I have made the mistake three times now of leaving work a little too late and having to walk home in the dark. Once I get off the main road I have to slowly creep home praying not to step in mud, cowpies, or holes. It is kind of an adventure, though hopefully next time I will remember my headlamp-which many Moldovans find very funny. Host dad laughs at me when he sees me wearing it on my head. Stay turned for more on my activities...