Luckily this whole summer has been that something. I have been able to try new things. I was able to work with some great volunteers to help make PST something new and hopefully improved. That is one of the great things about Moldova and the Peace Corps here, it is based on a lot of volunteer involvement in the program. Sure things don't always just happen because a volunteer said I want to change something but we have a voice and that counts for a lot.
PST was and was not a lot of work. It was definitely not as stressful as when I was a trainee (imagine that) and not as much work. In some ways PST was like a mini-vacation. It was a different setting and a different work schedule. It lead to some great discussions about teaching and teaching in Moldova specifically. I am almost always up for a good, in-depth discussion about teaching and the ins and outs of teaching. So in many ways PST was a good way for me to get my nerd on. Oh the treasured days of yesteryear in graduate classes where the best part of the class was the fact that we spent the whole thing in discussion! It is great to be able to have these discussions with the trainees, especially since a lot of them have education backgrounds and enjoy these discussion as much as I do.
I also got to show a friend of mine how great Moldova and Moldovans can be. My friend, as part of her summer Europe travels, decided she would come visit me (with much excited prompting by yours truly). I was able to introduce her to my host family, show her a little of Chisinau, and take a whirlwind trip to Odessa. Other than an unfortunate food poisoning episode I think that I showed her the best there is to see, the people. My host family was so happy to have an American guest and get to know another American. On both sides I heard nothing but great comments "Your friend is so nice!" "Your host family is great!" and more. It is funny to see how other people, seeing Moldova and meeting Moldovans for the first time view the whole thing. I wish more people would visit me (wink wink hint hint).
Having people visit, I feel, is one of the ways that can really help with home sickness. I felt the same way in Chile, unfortunately just as I was beginning to feel great again I had to leave, this time I get to use that feeling to help me keep going.
I also got to visit home. Doesn't that sound weird? Visit home? But that is what it was, I knew that it was home, I was comfortable there and my family was there but it was just a visit. And while I was so comfortable there it was surreal how people just put me back in a slot. This is the Carolyn slot, we've been saving it for you, here you go. But the Carolyn that went back was not the Carolyn that left. I don't know if others noticed it, but I certainly did. It was big things and little, extremely odd things. Big things, like feeling so different about energy use and where my foods comes from. Little things, like what on earth do I do with the toilet paper now? Oh that's right I flush it, weird. Of course everyone else thought that the last statement was a little too much information, but I knew that if I had been with a group of volunteers they would have said "yeah, I had to think about that too!" It reminded me of a commercial I saw (on youtube, cause I don't have American TV) that was a recruitment commercial for the Peace Corps. It was a guy who was always talking about his time in the Peace Corps. You can tell that the people around him are just sort of listening, like yeah, yeah, that is fascinating but as I was watching I was thinking, yeah, that has happened to me. We become more defined by this experience and we want to share it, but not everyone wants to see the whole picture, they want the 15 second sound bite.
Other than that my time home was fantastic! I ate all sorts of wonderful food such as gorditas, thai curry, spring rolls, steak, and on and on and on. I do really like the food in Moldova, it is fresh and usually very good but I miss the variety. Oh the variety. I also got to drive for the first time in over a year. That was equally awesome. I had the windows down, the music up and I revealed in that current. I spent some time sitting on cold things and drank only cold drinks. It is the simple things in life.
The best part of the whole visit was the time I got to spend with friends and family. I found out that one of my friends is expecting a baby. I couldn't believe it! How could that happen! I'm just... well in my mid-twenties! It was like a shock, I am, in some ways, an adult! My friends will be getting married and having kids and the whole nine yards. A shock yes, but not a bad shock. I got to spend time having crazy discussions with a good friend of mine and just talk about silly things with other friends. I also got a lot of free lunches, yah for being the visitor!
I finally met my niece, Sofia. Of course I had seen pictures and joked that she had a funny square head in all of them but the reality was so different. Here is a tiny, new person. Looking at the world for the first time and only just beginning to understand bits and pieces of it. Someones voice, the new smells and sights, being able to start flipping herself over. She loves to sleep on people too, to just snuggle right in. What an incredible feeling. I spent several hours just sitting in a chair holding her right next to my heart and feeling her breathe. This new, tiny person is now a big part of my heart.
Now I am back. I have new ideas, new thoughts, more energy (except for this stupid cold) and I am ready to go. I have been spending the last couple of days and plan to spend the rest of the time before school starts, getting ready for the new school year. Watch out kids! You will be learning and evolving and becoming better people whether you are ready or not! Hopefully this summer high (as I have taken to calling it) will keep going to the end.
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