As I’ve mentioned, I’m sharing a photo and a look back on my favorite memories in moments in Moldova for each of my last 100 days here. I’m counting down, so here are days 85-81. See all of my “Last 100 Days” posts here.
Day 85: To wrap up everything we learned during Pre-Service Training, our last two weeks were “Practice School”. We taught real lessons to real students and received feedback. The second week, one of our partners from the schools we were placed in across the country came and taught with us. It was nice to start working with our partners and exciting to finally put everything we had learned to use. (August 2016)Day 84: After practice school, we had a couple of final sessions, and then we were sent off to our permanent sites. During our last Romanian lesson, we talked about the things we would leave behind in Costesti and the things we would take with us. On our last day, we boarded several vans with all of our luggage and headed to the capital, where our host families picked us up and took us to our new homes. It was a bittersweet day. (August 2016)Day 83: After arriving at my permanent site, I had to learn how to bucket bathe, as my host family was building a new indoor bathroom. It was a new experience, but I got the hang of it fairly quickly! (August 2016)Day 82: When I moved to my site, my 6-year-old host niece was visiting my host parents for a couple of weeks. She quickly became my best friend and helped me quickly learn Romanian. We played together, colored together, and even worked in the garden together! She lives several hours away, but we get to talk on the phone every once in a while and visits during school breaks. (August 2016)Day 81: During one of my first weeks in my village, I got to experience my first gorgeous Festelita sunset, over the thatched roof of our neighbor’s house. (August 2016)
The Oke Den 