The Gathering

This last Fridy, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), all of whom served in Moldova. It was terrific to hear so many viewpoints and to see how much joy and excitement they all had for their time in service and the fondness they all had for Moldova. 

Many thanks to Erin for setting up the gathering. I understand that this is a rarety for future PCVs, but it was unbelievably cool to meet such nice people who clearly enjoy life and each other's company.

While I appear to be slightly ahead of the curve in terms of my language acquisition and fact gathering on Moldova, the single clearest message I received was that the Peace Corps would take good care of all of the volunteers and that language acquisition and home placement are the top priority and will be handled very professionally. The repeating message that I heard was that I should be spending this time before heading over seas with friends and family. I should be enjoying cheeseburgers and all the foods I love to eat, because soon they would not be available to me.

Nonetheless, I love learning languages so much that I'll continue to do my best to learn Romanian. I also splurged and bought a 4cd set on beginning Russian that I will start in April. Right now my cap [kahp] head feels plin [pleen] full, but it really is gol [goal] empty. I have soooo much to learn, and learning is what turns me on.

Many thanks to Beryl, Gregg, Melissa and Eden for coming out to chat with me. They all reaffirmed that this is going to be a terrific adventure and that it will be life changing. Beryl told a heart-warming story about how she had difficulty learnign the language when she was going through Pre-service Training (PST), and that her host mother just lost her mother before Beryl arrived in Moldova. Using only the human language of comfort and compassion, she was able to help her host mother get through her loss, and Beryl left all the richer for her stay with her host family.

Another unexpected treat for the evening was that I got to meet another volunteer who will be heading to Moldova in June with me. His name is Carl, and we compared notes as to why we were joining and what we were doing to get ready. Like me, Carl is an older volunteer, so I have to admit to a feeling of relief that I wouldn't be the only volunteer in Moldova who wasn't in his early 20s. :o) Evidently it is very rare for PCVs to meet anyone going to the same country before they go. I'm hoping to have some coffee with Carl before we leave to chat more about our goals.

All in all, this was a terrific evening and it left me even more excited to start on my new adventure.

A Long Walk

In order to get some solid study time, I headed to the beach for the week. Yesterday was overcast, but there was a smell of Spring in the air and the air was mild and there was no rain, so I started from the Oysterville Beach Access and walked along the beach. The next thing I knew I was in Ocean Park. I believe that is a 4-mile hike one way.

Luckily, my iphone was working on the beach, giving me access to my useful Romanian translation ap, so I was able to work on my Romanian as I strolled.

It occurred to me that my online language classes have me learning all sorts of nouns from potato (cartof) - pronounced [kar-toff] to hangar (hangar) - pronounced [hahn-gahr], but in all of this learning, I haven't found the word "friend." So, I looked it up on my useful Romanian translation ap. The word is (prieten) - [pre-eh-ten]. So now, I can say, "Fericit Ziua Valentine, prietenii mei." [Fair-ee-cheet zee-wah, pre-eh-ten-ee may.] Happy Valentine's Day, my friends.

There are sooo many cognates to English, Spanish and French that I'm finding my way into the language pretty quickly. The difficulty will be understanding the spoken language once I land in Moldova.

I was also able to enjoy some incredible beauty, and my friend the hawk came to visit and accompany me on my hike, along with a young eagle. Check out the pics:




This might actually be a falcon, but she seems larger to me.



You can tell this is a young eagle, because he hasn't donned his white headdress yet.

Some Recent Winter Pics

Frosty Winter Pond

As part of my learning curve, I'm attempting to add some photos I took to the blog. These were taken in Ocean Park, WA and in Oysterville, WA. Let me know what you think.




Wind Blown Buoy Tree



Stunning Sunset - This is what I saw.



Driftwood Chimera



A New Direction

I'm beginning this blog with a number of changes in my life: namely that I've been accepted into the Peace Corps and invited to serve in Moldova. For those of you who don't know me, this will seem like I'm jumping off a cliff and being extremely radical. For those who do know me, I think you'll see that I am heading down a path that I've been creating for quite some time.

A little background:

I am the second child of five born in Idaho to two terrific parents. Dad was career Navy, so I traveled most of my childhood and lived in such exotic locales as Japan, Brooklyn, San Diego and Nortonville, KS. For the last twenty-something years I've lived in Washington State.

While living in Japan, I was young and hopelessly naive, so the world was filled with magic. I remember stepping around the outside of our house to find two teenagers writing graffitti on the side of the building. Being caught in the act, they looked really guilty and I asked them what they were doing. They sized me up, decided I wasn't a threat, and said, "We're writing with our Magic Markers." It is quintessentially me that I didn't ask "Why are you doing that," but instead asked, "Why is it magic?" Their response has haunted me (in a good way) the rest of my life and created much of who I am today. They said, "Because we gathered up a little of everything in whole world, put it in a big pot and stirred it together. What came out was a Magic Marker." Ever since, I've been fascinated with the connectivity of actions, people, ideas and the world at large. The universe is a very large pot to stir.

Early on, I was encouraged (within reason) to stretch my imagination to what was possible. Mom (a gifted interior designer) was always stretching our imaginations, showing us creative ways of looking at the world, encouraging us to develop our artistic sides. The most important message we received was, "you can do anything you set your mind to do." Another of my favorite "Momisms" is, "'Can't' died in a poorhouse."

Fast-forwarding to the future, I've had a varied career path, that included teaching English while working on my Master's Degree at the University of Kansas, editing several publications for an Automotive Aftermarket Association, working in marketing for the now defunct GTE, co-owned two small businesses, and just left a ten-year stint in the pet industry. All these different careers left me with a taste to know how more things connect. They also, hopefully, gave me experiences that I can apply in all situations in the future.

So, I decided to pursue another life goal: The Peace Corps. Now, I'm going to be teaching English in Eastern Europe to High School Students in Moldova: something I never dreamed possible so many years ago.

What will follow in subsequent blogs will be my efforts to get ready, and my adventures, musings and photos of my service. Hopefully, you will enjoy some of the ride along the way.

Here we go...