Fericit Craciun!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Hope everyone is having a great day. We
here in Moldova, or at least in this specific village, are enjoying a
white Christmas, with snow still falling when we awoke.
I am hanging out with the in another village for the holiday, making the
delightful eight hour bus ride yesterday. There is an old Moldovan
adage, "How many people can you fit in a rutiera
(minibus/transport)---at least one more". Not only does this philosophy
make American college students and their telephone booth packing antics
pale in comparison, it even makes the Japanese and their white gloved
train porters seem somewhat wussy. Luckily for me though, my final two
hours of transit, spent standing on a bus, was easily the nadir of my
experience, and everything has been on the up and up since then. Upon
arrival I was greeted by my friend's host family, and whisked me off to
the Russian Baptist church. There was a kids concert there, and though
I recognized some of the tunes, my knowledge of Ruski (which includes
the words hello and cheese) was not really sufficient to understand the
Russian perspective on the birth of Christ. That experience was capped
off by an invitation to sing in English in front of 300 villagers I had
never met. Hopefully their ears survived the experience.
We then bolted home and prepped "Americanski" sugar cookies for the
kids, and started laying out Christmas eve dinner (Hawaiian pizza,
potato salad, strawberry juice, and cake---not my plan, but it worked).
After eating, we hung out with friends from the village, and had an
interesting time negotiating through three languages. My friend is one
of the few Russian speakers in Peace Corps, and thus when she is talking
with Moldovans I don't understand a thing and vice versa. It makes for
an interesting evening, and very complicated dinner conversation. The
evening was punctuated by two visits by carol singers, which fortunately
is still a large tradition in Moldova. Again, I didn't understand a
word, but it was fun to stand out on the frigid steps, handing out sugar
cookies and listening to the kids sing before bolting back inside to
warm up by the fire. We fell asleep watching movies and awoke to snow,
not too shabby if you ask me.
December 25th isn't really that big of holiday in Moldova, partially due
to the fact that this was a communist state for a long time, and part
also because many Moldovans still recognize the orthodox calendar, with
Christmas on January 7th, and New Years on January 13th. Those that do
use the new calendar typically celebrate what we know as Christmas on
the 31st. Anul Nou is when Mos Craciun (old man Christmas) comes, and
when families exchange gifts. With religion banned when the communists
took over, they simply shifted it all over six days and cut out
everything about Jesus. Thus, it was probably quite strange for
everyone to open presents and hang out around a Christmas tree. It was
all taken in stride though, and a good old American Christmas was had by
all.
The rest of today was spent lounging and visiting friends in the
village, after which we had a giant snowball fight with all the kids. I
am still hanging out in my snow pants now, as I have been banned from
removing them by the kids on the vague chance that we will head out for
another round.
All in all, I'd have to say that it has been a pretty good Christmas. I
definitely miss all of the friends and family back home, but my
surrogate families ain't too shabby. However you celebrate this time of
year, I hope you are with people you love, and had a great and peaceful day.