May 2011
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LOOKING BACK
I was organizing my computer files the other day when I came across the site history report that I had to prepare before leaving Moldova. Basically, these site history reports are used by Peace Corps staff in deciding whether to continue placing volunteers in a given community and with a given partner or host family.
Clearly, a site history report will reflect the opinions of whomever wrote it,...
April 2011
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A BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH MOLDOVANS, SKYPE EDITION
Moldovan: And how is your health?
American: Good, and yours?
M: I'm great, but your [host] brother here has been bothered by his back lately.
A: How did he hurt his back, carrying a girl?
M: Ha! More likely he hurt it lifting a glass of wine.
January 2011
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A JOKE
A Russian, a Ukrainian and a Belarussian all sit on a chair with a nail pointed up. The Russian yells, then picks up the nail and tosses it away. The Ukrainian says “ah a nail!” and puts it into is pocket because it might be useful later. The Belarussian just sits down right on top of it and stays there because he thinks that is the way the things are supposed to be.
November 2010
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IF WWI WERE A BAR FIGHT
From the Economist’s Eastern Approaches blog:
Germany, Austria and Italy are standing together in the middle of a pub when Serbia bumps into Austria and spills Austria’s pint. Austria demands Serbia buy it a complete new suit because there are splashes on its trouser leg. Germany expresses its support for Austria’s point of view. Britain recommends that everyone calm down a...
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IN WHICH I DISCOVER THE WRONG KIND OF ATTENTION...
If I never came out and said it, it should have been obvious from my Brief Interviews with Moldovans series of posts that I got a lot of attention from Moldovan girls during my sixteen months there. (Moldoveanca means ‘female Moldovan,’ if that wasn’t already clear from the content of the dialogues.) It started on the first day of school last year, after I gave a short speech in...
October 2010
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REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK REARS ITS HIPSTER HEAD
Recently, I wrote that in my experience so far, Peace Corps’ warnings about ‘reverse culture shock’ have been overstated. I still think that’s true, but wanted to relate the following:
It comes as no surprise that, as an unemployed former Peace Corps volunteer who, after five weeks, is still sleeping on his friend’s sectional, I am one of the most poorly dressed...
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HOMECOMING
It’s now been about two and a half weeks since I returned to the States. Peace Corps, from the beginning, makes a big show of warning returning volunteers about the dangers of ‘reverse culture shock,’ but I’m not really surprised to find that those warnings seemed overblown. Either reverse culture shock has passed me by, or I’m in for a delayed freak-out in the coming...
September 2010
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ALL GOOD THINGS . . .
So I apologize that I’ve been MIA for the last two weeks, but for reasons I won’t explain here, I’ve had to end my Peace Corps service early and move to Washington, DC. I left on Wednesday, and it was really hard to leave all the Moldovans I care so much about; though I am confident that I’ve done what will be best for me and the people I care about in the end.
I will...
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A BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH MOLDOVANS
Moldoveanca: Are you married? Do you have children?
American: No wife, no kids.
M: Why aren't you married?
A: I haven't found a girl I like enough yet.
M: After a year in Moldova you couldn't find a girl?
A: Well...no. I guess not.
M: All the foreigners who come to my village always leave with a Moldoveanca because we are beautiful and we have good hearts. If you haven't found one, you haven't been trying.
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August 2010
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I HAVE A DREAM . . .
… to one day travel to a country where the radio DJs are ignorant of Nickelback.
I’m beginning to believe that my dream is a hopeless one.
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SARAJEVO . . .
… might be the only city in the world where the following can all happen simultaneously:
I can drink a beer and eat cevapi during Ramadan and across the square from a mosque;
The muezzin echoes across the city from minarets while said beer is being drunk and said cevapi is being eaten;
A girl walks out of a movie theater next door — presumably, from having seen Salt with Angelina...
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“One day twenty people was wait outside this tunnel. Then, a Serbian bomb come...”
– Jasmina, on one of her four trips through the tunnel connecting besieged Sarajevo with free Bosnian territory.
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“I was begin university in 1991 in Sarajevo. The war was begin in summer 1992. I...”
– Jasmina, proprietor of the guest-house where I’m staying in Sarajevo, on her war experience.
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ON BOSNIAN HISTORY
From Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:
There is a kind of human being, terrifying above all others, who resists by yielding. Let it be supposed that it is a woman. A man is pleased by her, he makes advances to her, he finds that no woman was ever more compliant. He marvels at the way she allows him to take possession of her and perhaps despises her for it. The suddenly he finds that his whole life has...
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highexpectationsalive-deactivat asked: Your pictures are so great, and really artistic! Do you take them yourself?
Also, love the quotes and stories from people in the cities you meet. It really makes the places you travel to seem real and relatable and incredibly fascinating
Also, love the quotes and stories from people in the cities you meet. It really makes the places you travel to seem real and relatable and incredibly fascinating
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“I hate the corpses of empires, they stink as nothing else. They stink so badly...”
– Rebecca West, in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, on the decay of the Austrian Empire and Ottoman Empire in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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A BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH A MONTENEGRIN
Montenegrin: A lighter? You have?
American: No, sorry.
M: You not smoking?
A: Nope.
M: Good. Smoking, it is verrrry . . . shit. Yes, it is very shit.
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“I was just a boy in 1999. I remember the day after the Americans — sorry,...”
– A Serb I met who taught himself English by watching American action movies and listening to U2.
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corseteffect asked: I love love love your blog! The Belgrade photos are unbelievably realistic and amazing. Thank you for showing the soul of my town as it really is.
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“You see, my mother-in-law she is the widow of a Lutheran pastor, and I know well...”
– From a story told by an Orthodox Serb in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, a travelogue written by Rebecca West during the mid-1930’s about her journeys through Yugoslavia. Some things never change: I’ve had this exact same conversation with Moldovans at least ten times.
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THINGS THAT I WOULD NEVER DO IN AMERICA THAT I'M...
go shirtless for 4 days straight
go to two proms at the age of 26
hitchhike because I’m too cheap to pay for a thirty cent bus fare
carry toilet paper with me when I leave the house
consider sbarro at the mall ‘gourmet’ pizza because it doesn’t have mayo or corn on it
wear a shirt with cutoff sleeves in public
drink wine, vodka, and beer all in one night
go on a...
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HIDDEN TREASURES OF MOLDOVA →
This link is a little confusing, but click on ‘full screen’ for a slide show. You can click anywhere on the image thereafter to zoom in and read the text. The photos are the finalists from a youth photography contest sponsored by The World Bank.
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Anonymous asked: This camp looks great! How did you go about planning it, finding participants and counselors, writing the curriculum, etc.? I'm sure it was a ton of work.
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