I was on television yesterday. Moldovan television. My organisation organised a flash-mob, along with Amnesty International volunteers, to raise awareness of violence against women. We had to freeze for a few minutes in various violent poses, either as victims or perpetrators. My hosting coordinator said that last night, she saw us on television – on Pro-TV, a channel that has a reputation for being a communist mouthpiece. Not sure if it’s a good or bad thing.

I was going to remark upon a few other observations I’ve noticed – for example the fact that Orange, the mobile phone company, seems to own everything here, along with various members of the Communist Party, like Vladimir Voronin’s son, who owns the Andy’s Pizza chain. So *that’s* why it is still open …

But anyway, everything seems to be sponsored by Orange, like clocks on streets, or even parks etc – they seem to be doing the same sort of job as the government would do in the UK, in the upkeep of the city. Oy vey …

We were given these “migration cards” similar to what zou would get if zou were going to a countrz outside the Europena union (although oddly not Moldoca). These could be filled in in either Russian or English. They have realy “formalised” the whole thing and are trzing to behave like a proper country. Which in many ways they are – in a later post I will try and put down my thgoughts of what I think of the political situation there.

We arrived at the notorious “border control” and were quite scared because of all the stories about the Transnistrian border guards and the way that they can behave. We stopped at Bendery, which is the major crossing point for the majority of people and thus the “best” place to cross. The border guards behaved very professionally in my view. However, had there been fewer people ß the passport control office was literally chocka ß the situation would have been very different. We were not made to pay anything and got through without anz problems.

Tiraspol was strange. I thought that the buildings and architecture were nicer than Chisinau. It was a lot less dirty and chaotic, and it seemed as though the Transnistrians cared a lot more about the city. Some familiar shops were there. There are two Andy*’s Pizzas in Tiraspol, which is a pizza chain which is found all over Moldova and tastes absolutely gross. Me and my friend went there for lunch and to be honest every time I go there I wish I went somewhere else.

Tiraspol is nice, it looks nicer, it is on a river which makes a difference but nonetheless there are some very strange things about it.

1) Its size. It is very small, a lot smaller than i was expecting. The city centre is no larger than somewhere like Slough.
2) I thought it was a very sad place. There were not many people on the street, and we went to this square behind the statue of their national hero Suvorov and there were loads of old people with random clothes and other things laid on the market, selling anything they had. Because Transnistria is not recognised by the rest of the world, despite the fact that it is (or at least used to be) richer than the rest of Moldova, it is hard for people to live there.
3) They have some strange “national monuments” there. For example, on the main street there is a tank which was used during the 1992 war with Moldova. We walked past and saw lots of wedding parties and couples getting married there. In Bendery there was another tank and people did the same stuff.
3) They have different money and this should not be that unusual given that it is basically a different country. But no other country, including Moldova, would recognise this money or exchange it. However, despite this, it is actually a stronger currency than the Moldovan Lei. One transnistrian rouble is worth a lot more than one lei.

When I got back I was glad to be in Chisinau again. Transnistrian roads are nicer and a lot about Transnistria is a lot more ordererd and seems to function better than Moldova although this maz just be on the surface. I would like to go to Tiraspol during the week or for a longer period and see some of the museums there and maybe go to a bar, but I was glad to get back to Chisinau yesterdazy.

Today, me and my flatmate Lies went to this “health expo” thing that she#s been helping with. However it was more like a cult/scientology-type thing and tomorrow I will write more about it, because it was a bit crazy and I dont think I can quite do it justice now because mz friend probablz wants his computer back.

I also on MOndaz went to a plaz in a bar called “My Mother’s Pussy”. That was interesting, and I understood more romanian than I expected. I’d like to write about that more tomorrow because that was also verz strange but I will saz that at the end of the play, which is like a monologue about this womanäs life in the Soviet UNion, she stripped off naked and performed pressups. It wasnät that kind of “performance” it was artistic!! But yeah anyway …

Still, I’ve had some good news re: my accommodation and can confirm that I’ll be moving in to a flat in Riscani, on the other side of Chisinau, in two weeks time I’ve been out a lot of times this week and had a really great night last night.
Yesterday me and Ingrid, a girl from Holland, went to a Jewish cemetery not far from my house. I had been getting “cabin fever” and to be honest at some stage really need to get out of Chisinau, which unfortunatley I have not managed this weekend. It was a massive cemetery – I think I have said before that Jews used to make up the majority of Chisinau’s population, before the holocaust. It was a very interesting and for me very moving place, and I think it meant a lot to me to go there. It was sad seeing all the old graves from hundreds of years ago.

There was also an old synagogue in the middle of the cemetery that had obviously been destroyed during either the holocaust or had gone into disuse during the Soviet Union, and a big monument type thing with the ten Commandments on – in Hebrew, which still looked quite well looked after. Many of the graves were very well kept, with fences and decorations around them, and some had pictures and plastic flowers by them – as far as I always heard, this wasn’t allowed in Judaism so maybe they have somewhat different traditions here?

I had very mixed feelings going there because I felt quite connected to the people and to Judaism in a way I haven’t for a long long time.

Unfortunately in Moldova, like elsewhere in the former USSR, the last few years since the collapse of Communism have seen a resurgence of the far right and the old synagogue as well as some of the graves had graffiti on them and some of the stones were knocked over.
I have decided that at some stage I will go to the Jewish centre in the centre of the city – I keep meaning to go, but keep having other things to do! It was great that it was so warm otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to go – it was almost hot which is surprising in November.

After that, we went to a park in Buiucani – which was absolutely huge. There is quite a lot of “countryside” here I think – and we even saw two people going over a bridge with a flock of goats, despite the fact that it was the middle of the capital city.

Today, I tried to go to Cricova – I went to the Central Market and the bus station by there, which is absolutely chaotic. Unfortunately I think the last buses go back to Chisinau at either 6 or 3, but often 3 and it would have taken me an hour to get there and back. Maybe I’ll go next weekend or something, because it’s somewhere I’d really like to go – I’ve heard the vineyards there are very beautiful.

It was incredibly weird. The dictionary was advertised as “THE BEST DICTIONARY EVER”. something that the organisers of the event did not want us to forget as they kept on repeating this throughout the night.

This greek woman gave a sort of “interactive speech” on how to use a dictionary and came out with some really crazy stuff, like “the dictionary is your friend, you shoudl treat it as though it is a human being. You should walk through it” (walking through a human being is a pretty gross thoguht, but anyway). It was a sort of guide for teachers as to how to use the dictionary.

However, there is one problem with all of this. The dictionary – surprisingly for the oxford university press, which is a reputable publishing company in my opinion – only allows you to look up English words and the definitions in Romanian. And not the other way round, which means that it is of little use to be honest. Hardly “the best dictionary ever”. Good god.

I’ve not been feeling very good lately. I miss the UK and there is some other stuff which I don’t really want to write about in case someone reads it. Sufficed to say that I am really sick of being shouted at in Russian for really stupid things like not wearing slippers even when it is warm.

I never realised how much until now.

I miss Marmite and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate.

I miss going to Asian shops in Reading and those weird sweets they sell.

I miss going to a shop and actually being able to pay for your purchases with a card rather than cash.

I miss fucking Subway and Chicken Base ffs.

That is all.

Unfortunately I’m not well so although I was meant to be going to a training today I chose to stay at home and dose up on paracetamol. I have however purchased two pairs of nice thermal trousers

I had a really nice evening last night, we went to this restaurant called “Bierplatz” which is … well. It’s like a parody of a German-themed theme park, complete with accordion players wearing lederhosen. It was a bit bizarre to put it mildly, especially since I’ve been told by a few people that it’s a “cool” place to go …

This week, Clowns without Borders came and put on a show at the refugee centre where I work, and at the reception centre (in a field outside the reception centre). The first time I didn’t really think much of it but the second performance they did was actually very good, even though I don’t usually like circus stuff with clowns (I prefer acrobatics, trapeze artists etc). They were really nice people, too, and there’s a possibility that next weekend they’ll do a circus skills workshop. I knew a few people into that sort of thing at uni and I always wanted to get into it but never really had the time, etc, and I wasn’t really very good.

I’ve also managed to somehow come down a clothes size, even though the food I’ve been eating seems to be very fattening. It’s probably the amount of walking I’ve been doing …

The whole of the main street was closed for a carnival type thing with loads of stalls, markets and music, and perfomances from the various parts of Chisinau, as well as an open air concert later on. If it reminded me of anything it reminded me of the Notting Hill Carnival or of protests I’ve been on. Chisinau is great as there is always stuff going on, usually for free

Last night there was a terrorist attack here, apparently one guy with a grenade. It must have been just after me and my flatmate left as as we were walking past I saw police and loads of cars, and something must have happened. The concert was cancelled thirty minutes afterwards. Apparently 40 people have been injured, by a grenade or something

I’ve only just found out about this now from a friend, it’s fucking horrible

I wasnţ expecting to like the music, especiallx because in my opinion the German band who had been invited to play by the embassy left something to be desired.

But Zdob şi Zdub are really really talented and Id happily buzy their CDs, theyre one of the best bands I’ve heard in a long time. They don’t just play one genre of music, they play loads of different styles, rock, electro, folk, ska etc, and some rapping(!!) and they put on a really great live performance. Sometimes bands aren’t so good live but this didn’t seem to happen here.

Moldovans certainly know how to party …

Yesterday I taught more English classes, this time to a husband and wife who go to the Charity Centre. It was quite funny because I was tryign to talk about the importance of using good grammar in really, really bad Romanian …

This has caused quite a few protests, and also because in Moldova, pensioners used to go free on public transport, like they do in the UK. Now they can’t – although they can today apparently, because today is “national pensioners’ day” or something. It’s meant that the trolleybuses are going really strange directions, and ending up in a different place to where you expect them to stop. The old people on the protests are carrying signs saying stuff like, “Stop the genocide of pensioners!”

Today I was on the bus and I was given a fine for absolutely no reason at all even though i’d already paid, as were several other people, and I got off feeling quite confused! To be honest I think it’s because people are unhappy about this price thing, it’s getting cold (and the government have also put up the prices for heating one’s home, etc) and they want to flex their muscles a bit and show that they mean business. Not especially good …