Some new pictures

After spending the weekend near the Chisinau I had a few minutes to add a post to the site , but not much time to write before my bus comes. So, here are some pictures of life in my new village.

Some of the grapes outside our house. While grapes and wine are common in Moldova, they are relatively uncommon in my village. We have 5 varieties, and probably more grapes than anyone in the region. The really weird thing is that they actually taste like "Grape" flavored stuff (popsicles, cough syrup), except that they actually taste good. The grapes in the US don't taste like this. We have the common variety of white grapes you see in the store in the US, but they are less typical, and the others species tend to be sweeter and more robust.

Our new German Shepard puppy that is currently being trained to be our guardian. Three months old and ridiculously cute. He has a habit of chasing the chickens though, and eating the eggs before we can collect them.

My host mother is a Romanian language and literature teacher, as well as a fairly decent artist. This painting is on the back wall of her classroom, and is a copy of a famous painting of the Romanian poet Mehei Eminescu. He is somewhat revered here.....Like a god. I have yet to really get into his work, as I still have the vocab of a 6 year old.

Group work in my classroom with the 7th grade class. Yes I actually do have my own class, though it is a rival for most college dorm rooms as far as space goes. I guess I really can't complain though, since in do have my own room at school. As you can see, there is not a large difference in clothing for students, though track suits seem to be the all time frontrunner in favored apparel.