So a warning to the parents out there with their youngins away from home, this entry is a bit bittersweet.
For the past month or so, I have been on the run every weekend, either for the basketball tourney, or for a business jaunt into Chisinau. Today I stayed in bed reading until almost 9 though, and then got up to go play in the kitchen. Split Screen Sadness by John Mayer was on repeat as I made breakfast for my host family this morning. Granted, he isn’t Lennon, but even less deified artists can sometimes hit on the perfect words for the moment. I’m a sucker for song lyrics. I don’t know how I can be so blasé about poetry in general, but hang on ever word in a good song
A little back-story before I give you the lyrics that kept my brain mulling things over all morning. My family has a great tradition of keeping track of each other in little ways. I always liked how the homepage on my parent’s computer popped up with the weather reports for the various locations of their far-flung boys. No matter where they were. My location of course constantly changing up and down the Atlantic seaboard.
Before leaving I gave them a CD with this song, and the following lyrics “I check the weather wherever you are, cause I want to know if you can see the stars tonight”.....
While I never really had the access to the internet that would permit checking up on everyone, many a night in the woods or standing on a ship, I would look up and wonder if my family and the many friends I have been so fortunate to spend time with could see the same wash of iridescent pinpricks that I was marveling at.
Maybe there is something about the stars, and the ability of their light to touch so many. I remember being constantly frustrated in college by the street lighting, and not being able to see the heavens. Perhaps the reason for my irritation was that my connection had been severed. That may be a bit to mystic a thought for most folks, but as reality is really just our own interpretation of the world around us, I like to think that this connection exists.
So, to all my friends and family, from the Pacific Northwest, to the Midwest, to the Florida Keys and on up the whole Atlantic coast, I miss every darn one of you, and I can’t wait to see you in a year and a half (or sooner should you be flying to Europe any time soon). I know I am horrible at keeping up with folks, but if you haven’t heard from me in a while that doesn’t mean you are forgotten, or any less important in my life’s history.
If need be, check out the first stars of twilight back in the states. They are the ones that are slipping towards the horizon here whenever I take the early morning bus into the capitol, or head out for my run a dawn.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Fish roe crusted peanuts!!!
Yes, you read that right, I noshed on these delectable tidbits the other day walking to basketball practice. You would assume that so haughty a gastronomic endeavor as this would be a specialty item at an expensive store in the capitol city center. Nope, the local market in the middle of my village. The same place that really only stocks TP, Mayo, Chocolate, carbonated beverages, and alcohol. The cost was only about 40 cents too, what a bargain!
I didn't really pay attention to the packaging , not that the Russian letters emblazoned in yellow would have really helped me make the split second decision between the nuts or a sack of slightly sweet cookies that have been sitting in an open box for the past.....Who knows how long.
I have been studying the Russian alphabet for the past couple of weeks, so after I inspected the strangely coated yellow gobs in the packet, I figured I would at least give reading the label a try. I thought I understood, and the taste confirmed it, they really were the delicacy they claimed to be. Good thing I like fish eggs.
I spoke in my last entry about the things that I am thankful for, and I take this concept up again for a moment this week. I am thankful for my education...and for my experiences.
They say that education is the progressive discovery of your own ignorance. I wholeheartedly agree, and put forth that life experience is the best form of education. I won't insult the numerous tombs of knowledge that I have perused in my relatively short life, but nothing like experience can really open your mind.
I never had an appreciation for being illiterate until I came here. There were times that had been exposed to foreign language, but normally it was only a fleeting encounter, and had relatively little bearing on my life. Now though, as I go grocery shopping, and search for the necessities of life, I am constantly confronted with strange tongues. Shopping here has a much more international flavor, with products coming from almost every country in Europe. Thus the sugar comes from Germany, the baking powder from Poland, and a lot of other stuff from Russia. There are labels below the products from time to time, but a lot of times they are in Russian.
Not only are the words unrecognizable, but the letters themselves are as well. You can typically decipher something that is written in German, French, Spanish...etc. Russian though is another animal, with random weird (to me) symbols, mixed with familiar symbols that don't mean the same thing as they do in Latin script. One symbol is actually described as a "martian spaceship landing". Thus it is quite a humbling experience to be an educated (moderately) person, and not have a clue what flavor the bag of chips are on the shelf. Pictures don't always describe what is actually in the package.
Equally humbling is having to get a translator when I do computer repairs, because I can't understand Cyrillic error messages. Thus this (socalled) comp whiz can't fix a darn thing without a 12 year old at my side.
Thus, through experience, I have gained a minor glimpse into the life of an illiterate adult. Something I feel I would not have understood without living abroad. I also feel I understand a bit more of how difficult a situation this can be. After a week or so of studying the alphabet, I still make a multitude of errors, and I am moderately bilingual. Imagine how it would be for someone who has never read in their entire life.
Thus thanks again for everyone who has participated in my education. Multumita tie (thanks to you)...parents, grandparents, brothers, family, friends, teachers, coworkers, students, authors, museum curators, musicians, filmmakers, random strangers....and anyone else I may have failed to mention.
Mergeti in paci.
I didn't really pay attention to the packaging , not that the Russian letters emblazoned in yellow would have really helped me make the split second decision between the nuts or a sack of slightly sweet cookies that have been sitting in an open box for the past.....Who knows how long.
I have been studying the Russian alphabet for the past couple of weeks, so after I inspected the strangely coated yellow gobs in the packet, I figured I would at least give reading the label a try. I thought I understood, and the taste confirmed it, they really were the delicacy they claimed to be. Good thing I like fish eggs.
I spoke in my last entry about the things that I am thankful for, and I take this concept up again for a moment this week. I am thankful for my education...and for my experiences.
They say that education is the progressive discovery of your own ignorance. I wholeheartedly agree, and put forth that life experience is the best form of education. I won't insult the numerous tombs of knowledge that I have perused in my relatively short life, but nothing like experience can really open your mind.
I never had an appreciation for being illiterate until I came here. There were times that had been exposed to foreign language, but normally it was only a fleeting encounter, and had relatively little bearing on my life. Now though, as I go grocery shopping, and search for the necessities of life, I am constantly confronted with strange tongues. Shopping here has a much more international flavor, with products coming from almost every country in Europe. Thus the sugar comes from Germany, the baking powder from Poland, and a lot of other stuff from Russia. There are labels below the products from time to time, but a lot of times they are in Russian.
Not only are the words unrecognizable, but the letters themselves are as well. You can typically decipher something that is written in German, French, Spanish...etc. Russian though is another animal, with random weird (to me) symbols, mixed with familiar symbols that don't mean the same thing as they do in Latin script. One symbol is actually described as a "martian spaceship landing". Thus it is quite a humbling experience to be an educated (moderately) person, and not have a clue what flavor the bag of chips are on the shelf. Pictures don't always describe what is actually in the package.
Equally humbling is having to get a translator when I do computer repairs, because I can't understand Cyrillic error messages. Thus this (socalled) comp whiz can't fix a darn thing without a 12 year old at my side.
Thus, through experience, I have gained a minor glimpse into the life of an illiterate adult. Something I feel I would not have understood without living abroad. I also feel I understand a bit more of how difficult a situation this can be. After a week or so of studying the alphabet, I still make a multitude of errors, and I am moderately bilingual. Imagine how it would be for someone who has never read in their entire life.
Thus thanks again for everyone who has participated in my education. Multumita tie (thanks to you)...parents, grandparents, brothers, family, friends, teachers, coworkers, students, authors, museum curators, musicians, filmmakers, random strangers....and anyone else I may have failed to mention.
Mergeti in paci.
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