And...

I almost forgot to mention that i have been teaching English to a 5th grade class here in Moldova. I absolutely love it. Eventhough English is not my subject I feel pretty good about teaching it. The students are precious. They are a little different from American students, but your usual 5th graders. Every student carries white out and a ruler. They are very specific about things being correct and frumos (beautiful). I'm very impressed with them. They call me Mr. Caleb. :) Tomorrow we have our last day and then I begin teaching the 9th grade for a week. If anyone gets a wild hair and wants to send some school supplies get in touch with me. ;) We can make it happen.
Peace and Love
Caleb

Some things

A few cools things that I enjoy about Moldova. In the mornings I wake up to the sound of a rooster. Then I walk downstairs where my mama gazda is preparing oatmeal for me and brewing some fresh hot tea. On my way to school I pass a goat that usually says greets me with a long baaaaahh. Sometimes I stop by the magazine on the corner (small store) and say buna dimeneatsa (good morning) to Doamna Zina and to buy a Snickers. Then I continue to school passing children and people. When I go home for lunch (Prinz) my mama gazda always has something fresh and yummy to eat. My meal consists of fresh parsley from the garden, some potatoes, chicken from the chicken coop, and of course fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden. I also get to snack on our apple, cherry, sour cherry, and plum trees. Moldova rocks. It is big sky country and the stars are so bright. I had the chance to do some romanian/English karaoke the other night with my family. I sang Fuga Fuga and crazy by aerosmith. Funny stuff. My family is so tight here. They all hang out together and play games, etc. Im place ( i like it) :) I miss you all. Please keep reading the blog and commenting. It makes me smile. :) Peace and Love,
Caleb

Sunflowers

The sunflowers are amazing in Moldova, there are fields and fields of nothing but huge, wonderful sunflowers. I think the sunflowers are close to the top of my list of what I love about Moldova!
This past weekend I went to Caleb's village, we spend most of Saturday just relaxing and on Sunday we went to a "masa" (a party) for Caleb's host sister's birthday. We started out having the masa at the lake but after the down pour of rain we relocated to Caleb's sister's house. Moldovans love their masa's....there is always a ton of family, including several children running around, and a massive amount of food that is prepared. It is fun and I think something that definitely needs to be experienced if you want to know about Moldovan culture.
The next few weeks Caleb and I will be teaching in practice school to children in our villages. On August 20th we will finally swear in as official peace corps volunteers and we will move together to our permanent site! We can't wait!
We miss you all!
- Brynn

July 17th

Hello all!
Last week, Caleb and I found out about our permanent site. It is a city located on the western side of Moldova, right on the Romanian border. We will both be teaching in high schools there and I will also be working in the medical college. This past weekend we took a trip together to visit our city and we met different host families. We met one family we really enjoyed and on August 20th we will be moving in with them for 6 months. Afterwards, we will hopefully find housing on our own. We will be living with a mother and two small children. It is a beautiful house in a really nice neighborhood, they have a large garden and chickens. We can't wait to be there and to be living together again.
We are still in language classes and next week we will both start our practice teaching sessions. Caleb is going to travel to my village to stay with me on Saturday night! We can't believe we have been here for over a month now!
We think of you all often! Please continue to pray for us!
- Brynn

July 14th

Greetings,
As usual, We miss everyone. This weekend Brynn and I visited our future schools and host family. Our city is perfect for us. We are in good health and still truckin. Thanks to everyone for the packages, prayers, and kind words. Peace and Love
Caleb

Happy 4th of July!

Hello all! Happy 4th of July! We miss you all and wish we could be there to celebrate. In particular we wish we could be on the farm (Caleb's family) to shoot off fireworks and eat homemade ice cream! The Peace Corps is having a celebration tomorrow in Moldova for the 4th, but we are skipping it to spend some time together. I am going to go to Caleb's village tomorrow and will stay until Sunday. Things are well. Just really busy with language learning and learning how to teach classes. Today I taught my first trial class to my classmates on environmental awareness and littering. The next class I will teach will be in Romanian! I am really nervous, the language is coming, but it is soo much to learn in only 10 weeks!
I am still enjoying my host family and feel more and more at home here each week. Just like Caleb said, they treat me as if I am their daughter! The food is good! I am going to talk a little bit about the food (my dad made a special request)...On a normal day for breakfast I eat terchi, which is kind of like an oatmeal/wheat mix with milk. They serve french bread with every meal and lots of butter. For lunch I might eat soup with veggies and either chicken or pork. For dinner it might be potatoes and a salad made of cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onion or it might be rice with chicken. I have eaten hot dogs here, pasta with butter and sugar (for breakfast!), cheese...everything is very fresh. Most of the families here raise their own chickens, rabbits, and turkeys! They don't eat a lot of spicy foods here. There are several magazines (small stores, kind of like gas station market) and they have ice cream and candy bars. They have lays potato chips here, which I think are not as greasy and really tasty. If you have any questions, ask away!
Miss you all,
B