Election Weekend

Today I got to serve as one of the official election monitors in Chisinau. I visited 6 polling stations with a couple of embassy employees and one of the Fulbright scholars. It was a beautiful day and the turnout was surprisingly large. One of the nicest things we saw was when the president of one of the polling stations announced that it was this young man's first time voting and everyone in the room clapped for him. Several of the people we talked to said that they had seen more people come out to vote today than ever before, and we were visiting the stations early in the day; from about 10 to 2. One of the presidents complained that they were so busy in the morning that they didn't even have time for tea. It was a good kind of busy though because the election is super important and we've all be worried that there wouldn't be a good turnout. Most of the Moldovans I had talked to up to this point had said that they didn't know who they would vote for because they can't see any of the 19 parties (yes, that many) on the ballot having any real promise for helping this poor country move forward. It'll be really interesting to see what happens and what kind of coalition is formed, since it is pretty much impossible that any party will win a majority of the vote.

Yesterday was a fun day as well. I got together with some Americans, Moldovans, and one British girl to enjoy an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. One of the Americans made amazing pecan and apple pies, green bean casserole, carrot soufle, biscuits, and some other stuff. We brought over 2 of the biggest turkey legs I have ever seen, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and some desserts. It was pretty incredible. I didn't do anything on the actual Thanksgiving day so it was nice to get together and have the real deal and not just skip an important American tradition.

Backing up even more, Friday was my host sister Mihaela's birthday so my family also made a ton of incredible food for that and just a few minutes ago we finished the delicious cake they bought. A few relatives/family friends came over, and one guy brought a violin so I got to play for everyone. My boss's 3-year-old daughter was there and she had a really good time dancing around while I played. She kept ordering me to play more and explaining what she wanted in Romanian so I did the best I could with what I could comprehend. I understood her a lot better this time than last time though. When she first got here she kept asking me what my name was and where my dad is. I'd answer her, then she would ask the same thing again about 10 minutes later. I guess she really wanted to know.