Tuesday, January 02, 2007

From 10 to -10, the swings of a day…the swings of a year!

Hello all, from my semi-warm office in the heart of Chisinau. This installment of See-Jays-World has great potential in my mind; whether or not the same eloquence is painted on the computer screen in front of you is a different story. Today is freaking cold. I mean really freaking cold. (it is x-mas day). Yesterday it was beautiful 9 degrees, and today it has plummeted to around -10, and freezing/snowing/hailing. However they expect it to warm up again soon!

This time last year I was sitting in the comforts of my Florida home (or maybe Charlie’s apt) hanging out and doing a lot of nothing. Knowing that I need to keep my mind busy and off the fact that I am not home for Christmas for the first time in 24 years, I decided to spread a little x-mas cheer in my house here in Chisinau. I cooked a huge turkey, made stuffing, the works. Myself and 7 other people (my family, Russian tutor, moldovan friends and a few volunteers) shared a real x-mas meal that evening. It was so nice, we drank in the x-mas cheer, and just had a good ass time. It has also come to my conclusion that Moldovan’s freakin love...I mean LOVE stuffing! So much in fact that the morning after we ran out, the first thing that happened when I came out of my room was…CAN WE MAKE MORE STUFFING??? (that was 5 days after christmas, of wich twice a day for 5 days we ate turkey and stuffing)

OK now it is time for the swings.

Xmas 06 –home for the holidays kickin it with my fam and friends. After that delicious meal my friends and I spent time behind a dumpster at dennys where this took place! (pic to come, too big)

Xmas 07- undercooked turkey, a lot of cognac, Russian/Romanian/English/ scherades.

Xmas 06 – presents, darts, all in all - carefree

Xmas 07 – cooking, haggling in Russian for a cheaper price on carrots, hoping my package came

Xmas 06 – missing Chicago and my friends and family there

Xmas 07 – missing America and my friends and family there

Moving on to New Years. This was an interesting experience to say the least. I have not had an issue with my plans for new years for a very long time. However, my mom here did not like the idea that I was gonna go out on the town by myself. (even though there were gonna be 10 other volunteers with us, if not more)! So it was a fight from the start, but I won it eventually! Me and a few volunteers decided to get a hotel (or a block of 4 rooms...a whole wing of a floor) at a local hotel and just rock it out new years style. Seeing as I didn’t have one Ms. HODGES in association with mike and Nicole (miss you all so much) to tell me what I was doing on New Years, I had to figure it out for myself. The night started out innocent enough, pizza, beer, martini’s, etc. Then we went on our run to the store…cognac, champagne, wine, beer, midgets, Shetland ponies, we bought it all! Then we headed back to the hotel to start taking care of business. We knew the Russian New Year was at 11, and ours at 12…so we had a few hours of celebration before we took it to the streets! The hotel was normal enough, with a few random partiers who spoke no English stopping by b/c they heard quite a gathering going on in our wing… After that we headed for the streets cognac and champagne in hand. And the rest is about to begin.

The city is set up with a central square and park in the middle of it. The square was where the stage and beer tents were set up, and all the droves of people were crammed for the new years celebration. It was quite a good time, and as the arch behind us chimed 11 pm we popped the first of our bottles of champagne and started dancing around. Everyone followed in suit and fireworks from everywhere started to go off (the stuff you can buy in South Carolina). Then the HORA (local dance) began and we all started twirling in circles dancing with whoever was near. IN the midst of this blur of colors, sounds, and emotions a fellow volunteer took a devastating tumble nearly bringing the entire hora circle with her. The night pretty much continued on from there ending with a beautiful fireworks display, a friend of mine falling out of a tree, two beds in the hotel breaking, making more Moldovan friends then ever though possible, and sleeping what seemed like 10 to a bed.

OK now it is time for the swings.

New Years 06 – bar with Mike, Nicole, and Hodges

New Years 07 – center square Chisinau wondering where Mike, Nicole, and Hodges were

New Years 06 – Drinking Gin and Tonics wearing a shirt and tie

New Years 07 – drinking champagne and cognac wondering what my neighbor just said to me

New Years 06 – ending the night (as usual) dance party USA at Hodges’

New Years 07 – starting and ending the night dance party Moldova at…Moldova

New Years Day 06 – Jaeger bombs, back of a cab w/ Hodges, 35+ bar

New Years Day 07 – laying in bed reflecting on what a difference a day... and a year can be.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I miss all of you very dearly, and know I will see you again soon.

2 Comments:

At 3:48 PM, Blogger Doug Buckmaster said...

Sounds like a kick ass New Year's to me! We ended up at Redmond's this year. Needless to say, you were missed. Keep living the dream Chaz.

 
At 7:01 AM, Blogger Marco said...

You destroy my New Years. I spent two hours looking for my girlfriend's dog and then watching the fireworks in the middle of the street in the back of a neighborhood that I had never been in before. We did get to spend some time at a diner soaking in the revelrie and the remainders of the evening. But all in all, an entirely sober New Years. Wild.

Keep on rockin in the free world.

 

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