The Grand Tour

The grand tour of Nisporeni (my new site) happened about a week ago. I have been living in Nisporeni for almost a month now, but have only really seen the main road that I walk each day to and from work. I was excited to get to see more of my new home.

My partner, Vlad, picked me up at my house at around 8:30pm to take me on my 'official tour'. He drives a common car in Moldova. I don't know the exact name, but it reminds me of a cross between a truck and a van. I guess it is kind of like a mail delivery vehicle in the US. Anyways, by 8:30pm the sun had long since fallen from the horizon, and with the cold nights of winter quickly approaching I was thankful he had the heat on full blast when I hopped into the passenger seat.

We zoomed off down the street, Vlad pointing out buildings of importance as I tried my best to take everything in. We passed factory after factory, Vlad explaining that all of these buildings had once been in working condition during the soviet era, but were now closed. Most of the buildings he was pointing out had been the pillars of industry and production for the region, during their prime they created jobs and exports that gave Moldova a name for itself in agricultural production in all of the Soviet Union. It was hard to believe that these run down old buildings were once the churning cog of the economy. It was hard to see the decay of what was clearly once a prosperous economic town.

Luckily for me Vlad speaks English well, and so he and I regularly have conversations in Romanian, English and sometimes both. I can't lie, I still get a kick out of the fact that we can talk in two different languages. I will ask him a question in English, he will respond in Romanian, it's entertaining ...probably not to him, but I get a weird enjoyment out of it.

I also have run into a weird phenomenon, I seem to be losing my English. I should preface this with the fact that I, in no way, have good enough Romanian to be losing any vocabulary from my native language (even that, 'native language', I had to ask for help to remember the name of). It's not usually a problem, when I am speaking with other Americans, they generally get the main idea. It becomes a problem when I am speaking with my partner and he asks me what a word is in English after we are talking about it in Romanian. My mind blanks, I know the Romanian, it makes sense, I can't remember the English. Usually I am able to say, 'It's ok, I understand', but, on the rare occasion when he says 'No, I want to know what it is in English' I sit there fumbling for the word. This happened twice on the tour. The first time we were talking about 'fabricat', Vlad asked me what the translation was, it took me way too many minutes to finally come to the word...'factory'. Anyone might find this funny, I find this utterly pathetic. Here I am, barely able to communicate coherently in Romania and I am beginning to forget basic English. Let's hope this is a temporary problem.  

The tour continued and we stopped over in one of the adjoining villages to pick up Vlad's friend. They were planning to go out to the disco after my tour. Vlad and his friend enjoyed giving me a comedic perspective of their home. We passed the locals mayors office and Vlad's friend chirped up in his rough English that we were passing the 'White House'. We all laughed and Vlad corrected him saying 'No, this is the mayors office'. Vlad's friend didn't miss a beat and replied 'No, look it's Obama's car'. He was pointing to a giant antique-looking tractor, saying 'It's a special car for our roads'. We all laughed as we bumped and rattled down the street.

A few minutes later, after politely declining their invitations to join them at the disco, I was back home. A tad car sick, but filled with significantly more information about the community I live in. And hey, now I know where the White House is!