Mi-e dor de casa

As of December 8th I have surpassed the half-year mark for being in Peace Corps. The last thing I remember from home was leaving my family at the small security check-in at the Baton Rouge airport, trying to read a book but couldn’t concentrate, and so I resorted to pacing up and down the only two terminals because I couldn’t control my nerves while blaring “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi and “Leather So Soft” by Lil’ Wayne. Looking back, I had absolutely NO IDEA what I was getting myself into, and as much as people said not to form any expectations before starting my service, I did (I think this is a human tendency that I can’t be faulted for, except I do have a vivid imagination). I have commented on this topic before in other blog posts, but I have decided to revise my opinion about the passing of time. Many of my fellow volunteers in my group will remark how quickly the first six months have passed, and I can see where they are coming from, but my official stance on this matter is that it feels a lot longer, at least a year.

I was on the phone the other day with my friend Michael from back home and he asked me “So how long have you been there? A year?” At first I was kind of shocked that he didn’t remember that I only left in June, but then when I started thinking about it, a lot of crazy shit has happened between now and then that I wouldn’t have imagined being able to squeeze into six months. I’ve learned (well still in the process) a new language that I had never heard before except from the gypsy in the movie Children of Men and from a couple mumblings from the movie Borat, where the beginning of the movie was filmed in Romania and you can hear one of the guys saying “Imi pare rau Borat!”- I’m sorry Borat!. I have also lived with three different host families, made some great friendships, sat at many endless masas, fell through an outhouse, slaughtered several animals for a meal, danced in countless hora circles, lost a couple billion brain cells due to vin de casa (Moldovan house wine), read a plethora of books, watched more than a lifetime’s worth of movies (My latest conquest was The Godfather trilogy all in one day, I highly recommend this if you have the time), hitchhiked most of the country, harvested tons (literally) of fruits and vegetables by hand, and last but not least, have made a fool out of myself 4,623,899 times and counting.

The time passing slowly does not mean that I haven’t enjoyed myself. I would like to reiterate that I really like what I am doing here and I love this country and it’s people. However complacent I am with my life here, I do get a kink in my stomach when I start thinking about home and the people and things I miss. I guess it would be out of fashion if I didn’t make a list of these for you, so here it goes, just remember that this is in no particular order:

* Gas station chicken salad sandwiches.
* Amstel Light
* Driving my car
* The LSU lakes and the calming effect they had over me
* Fishing
* Reliable technology
* School
* Football games
* Late nights at Louie’s
* Cranking down the AC at night
* The ability to choose what I want to eat and when to eat it
* The exuberant amount of food choices there are
* Whole Foods
* Hot showers with steady water pressure
* Not killing animals that I eat
* A wardrobe that included more than the same six shirts and two pairs of pants
* Riding my bicycle
* Good coffee
* Road trips
* Spontaneous trips to the gas station, WalMart, the movies, and Counter Culture
* Sarcasm
and of course, hands down without a doubt, My friends and family.

Wow, remind me not to do that again. I’ve been staring at the wall for a good fifteen minutes now thinking about people from home and how much I would like to be with them right now. Moving on….I’m co-hosting a party this weekend and when I told my host mother that there will be 20 to 25 PCVs in the village, she almost fell out of her chair laughing. I couldn’t help but join her because we turn some heads when there are two of us much less a herd walking down the street. I can’t wait to see people and get to hang out. December has been shaping up to be a really good month. I’ve got the party this weekend, going to see my friends at Vince’s new apartment in his village next weekend, and then it’s Christmas after that and I’m off to Turkey for a trip that I have been anticipating since I’ve gotten here. No new pictures to post, sorry folks the mundane landscape has gotten pretty drab and not very exciting to take pictures of. I should be able to get some good ones this weekend. Păce.