Chișinau

One of the reasons I count myself so blessed here in Moldova is that I have been assigned for the next two years to essentially a suburb of the capital city - Chișinau. (pronounced quiche-i-now) While the city boasts a population of above 750,000, in fact with emigration the problem that it is, many estimates put the population between 500,000 and 550K. But it is a true city in every respect, and it also represents Moldova with a lot of Soviet era architecture, memorials and parks.

Ștephan cel mare

Near Ștephan Cel Mare (Stephen The Great) Blvd., you can find the Piața Centrală -- a true symbol of Moldovan culture and enterprise, with literally thousands of stalls in an outdoor-market format, as well as very modern restaurants, hip clothing places, home design centers and just about any kind of technology you could want.

There are parts of this city in which I find myself wondering if I'm just visiting another city in the U.S., especially when standing outside one of the three McDonald's franchises in the city, or outside one of the countless and ever-popular pizza joints. Toucano Coffee house boasts some fantastic teas and coffees that are every bit as good as Starbucks if not better, and most of the workers speak English very well. My favorite pizza place is Pizza Mania because I know the owners (one of whom lives in Ialoveni), and his son lived in Missouri for three years, so they make pizza very well. It's fun to even watch it being made.

Because I am so close, unlike many other volunteers, I can easily make the trip into Chișinau every Saturday for church and usually a meeting with some other volunteers. I especially enjoy hanging out with James Tiger, another gung-ho English Education volunteer, and the only other mid-career volunteer my age. We have some fairly in-depth discussions regarding religion, politics, and teaching English.

I've thoroughly enjoyed a number of parks, gone to several concerts and done some necessary shopping. And many of the restaurants outshine those I visited in London. 

I will leave you with some architecture I took this weekend. It may seem a bit gray, but some that is because it gets dark here pretty early now that it's November.