Due to holidays and illness, I fell out of the habit of posting. I'm jumping back in by translating two pieces from the Moldovan Romanian-language news website Diez.md. A friend shared these with me and I found them both amusing and that they provide little insights into some aspects of daily life. În Moldova există două tipuri de oameni (I): Tu din care faci parte? - There are Two Kinds of People in Moldova: Which One are You? ”We often run into situations in Moldova where people do one of two things. The #diez team has identified several ways to categorize people. If you know others, write them in the comments. 1. People who applaud when the plane lands and people who don't. [It is not unusual to hear people applauding when a plane lands, which was common a long time ago in most countries.] 2. People who say "Christ has risen!" and people who say "hello!" [According to Orthodox Christian tradition, for the 40 days after Easter we should great each other with "Christ has risen!" "Indeed he has!" instead of hello, good morning/afternoon/evening, etc.] 3. People who pay immediately when they enter a microbus and people who pay after they sit down. [We can pay immediately upon entering, or pass money up through the passengers to the driver (who then sends our change back, again through the passengers), or wait and pay upon exit. I try to copy whatever the person who got on before me did] 4. People who have Romanian citizenship and people who don't. [Many Moldovans have dual citizenship in Romania, which opens up many travel, study, and work opportunities.] 5. People who tag others in holiday pictures on social media and people who untag themselves. [A common way to share holiday greetings is to post a picture with holiday wishes on Facebook or Odoklasniki and tag everyone you are "saying" these holiday wishes to.] 6. People who organize events and people who eat the snacks during the coffeebreak at events. 7. People who buy tickets to events and people who call friends looking for free invites/tickets to events. 8. People who have balconies and people who build their own. [Hopefully the picture from the article explains this... A lot of apartments come with balconies and sometimes people figure out ways to add balconies to apartments that don't have them...] 9. People who stay in Chișinău for holidays and people who don't. [It is traditional for many holidays to go to family, to go to where one's parents and/or grandparents live.]
10. People who go to the city center in Chișinău for concerts and people who avoid these concerts. [There are a variety of events in downtown Chișinău - concerts, festivals, sporting events, and more. These can be exciting and they're nearly always crowded!]
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Rebecca LehmanHealth Education volunteer serving at Boris Dînga Middle & High School in Criuleni, Moldova. Archives
May 2017
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