So finally sitting down to talk about the move to Moldova. It's been over a month since I came here. So unfortunately some first impressions may not be so fresh, but oh well. I gotta get the ball rolling. Moldova has become the 26th country I've seen and the 6th place I've lived. It's the little orange country nestled in between the purple countries of Ukraine and Romania. This cool app shows purple countries as places I want to go, orange for regions lived in, and green for traveled to. Some countries you can even specify the province/state you've visited within a country.
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"The Gates of Chisinau" as we come
into the city |
Anyway, Moldova is a really small place and takes a couple hours max to get from one part of the country to the other. When the weather gets better, I hope to see more of it, and then go to some other countries as well.
After the first few weeks of living here, it was easy to get into a routine. The only drawback about work is that it's 6 days a week, however it does make the days fly by that much quicker. I meet each class 3 times a week for 2 hours. Despite the heavy workload, the students are some of the best I've had out of all the places I've been. They are adults and teenagers in upper intermediate classes so their English should be good anyway, but also I've been impressed with how they always try to use the new vocabulary instead of playing it safe like students I've had in other countries. It reminds me of teaching in Austria, so I think it's a European thing.
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| Mini Arc de Triumph |
My students love to ask why I would want to come to Moldova. Moldova is often cited as the poorest country in Europe and the least traveled to by tourists. Some teachers I talked to before moving here described the capital of Chisinau as more of a large town than a city. But I think it's been a fun adventure so far. For such a small country, it's a really interesting place to see the legacy of the Soviet Union. Apparently, during the Cold War, a lot of Russian families were forced to move to Moldova, and around the former Soviet states I'm sure, so the next generation of these families still maintains their identity as more pro-Russian. I think for the most part, this isn't really an issue. Most people understand both Russian and Romanian and choose one to speak in. It's pretty crazy to hear people speaking in one language and others reply in the other. However, I believe there are some people who insist that Russian should not be spoken in Moldova. And even though Moldovan is widely referred to as Romanian in other countries, some Moldovans insist that it should not be called Romanian. I'm curious to know more about the history between Moldova and Romania as they were apparently united at one time before the Soviet Union. A lot of Moldovans can even get Romanian passports in order to work in EU countries.
Anyway, there's a lot to cover about Moldova, so I think it would be better to devote future specific articles about each of them.
So finally sitting down to talk about the move to Moldova. It's been over a month since I came here. So unfortunately some first impressions may not be so fresh, but oh well. I gotta get the ball rolling. Moldova has become the 26th country I've seen and the 6th place I've lived. It's the little orange country nestled in between the purple countries of Ukraine and Romania. This cool app shows purple countries as places I want to go, orange for regions lived in, and green for traveled to. Some countries you can even specify the province/state you've visited within a country.
After the first few weeks of living here, it was easy to get into a routine. The only drawback about work is that it's 6 days a week, however it does make the days fly by that much quicker. I meet each class 3 times a week for 2 hours. Despite the heavy workload, the students are some of the best I've had out of all the places I've been. They are adults and teenagers in upper intermediate classes so their English should be good anyway, but also I've been impressed with how they always try to use the new vocabulary instead of playing it safe like students I've had in other countries. It reminds me of teaching in Austria, so I think it's a European thing.
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