My swimming pool adventures in Moldova

Not exercising for a week makes me very stir crazy and kind of depresses me a bit. With all this snow lately I haven’t wanted to run because it is way to cold and I don’t feel like running in my Yak Tracks. So I have decided to go to the public pool in Bălţi more often than the one time a weeks I was going before. I am curious what you think of when I say a public pool in Moldova. Do you worry about my health and picture skin infections galore? Well amazingly the pool is very clean, very chlorinated. And the process of getting into the pool is an interesting one.

First of all, living in Bălţi can be difficult at times because it is a mostly Russian speaking city and many times I run into people who don’t know a lick of Romanian. This happens at the pool. Luckily my tutor had told me ahead of time what to do and bring. First you have to go into the nurse and show her your stomach and palms. Why? Who knows. You also have to show you’re your soap and, what I didn’t know, was a sponge. Unfortunately I forgot the sponge but didn’t know it because I had no idea what in the world she was saying. And of course when someone doesn’t understand what you are saying you speak louder because of course by the time you get to yelling volume they will finally understand. Why is this? Why do we all do it? Again, who knows. So after the woman yelled at me someone came to my rescue and explained to me in Romanian. Once you are cleared by the nurse she and she has decided your stomach looks ok she hands you a piece of paper to take to the ticket window. You hand the woman there 12 lei (about $1) and the piece of paper. She then hands you a different piece of paper so you can check your coat, bags, and shoes. You are not allowed to wear your street shoes into the locker room and must bring a pair of indoor shoes to wear around the locker room and pool. It is quite a complicated process that involves a lot of Moldovans pushing and shoving.

SO once you finally get into the pool area you are lucky if you can find a lane that doesn’t have people just hanging out in the middle. Many times I can’t swim laps in straight lines because I am constantly dodging people. Sometimes the swim coaches are good about telling people to move out of the way but sometimes I do run into people while do the backstroke. What is funny though and amuses me every time is the way people react to my tattoos. It is not normal for people to have tattoos in Moldova, especially females with big stars on the back of their leg. All the girls that notice my tattoos open stare and point, it is hilarious how obvious they are about it. I can’t wait until summer when I wear tank tops and skirts everyday that show them off to everyone, I wonder what the reaction will be then.