Our Chisinau Home

Arriving at our apartment I thought we were going to be living in a apartment that would definitely take some getting use to. The building from the outside is unpainted, the stair case dark and dusty....this is where Mark got us an apartment? Well, the outside of the building and the stair case were not at all what was behind the steel double bolted door entrance to our apartment. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that what I had used to form my opinion on what our apartment might be like was totally wrong. I found out later that nobody really owns the maintenance of the outside or the staircase of the building. The only thing people are concerned with is their own apartment. In the week that I have been here the light bulb in the staircase has burned out and was obviously not going to be replaced unless we did it. Mark bought a bunch of light bulbs and replaced it, so now everyone is using the light again. That is how it works here. Anyway attached are some pictures of our Moldovan home. On Saturday we visited another Fulbright Professor and their wife who had a pizza making dinner at their apartment. I had not seen any other apartments yet, but once I saw their place I understood why somebody referred jokingly to our apartment as the Penthouse. Our place is located right downtown in the middle of the city. A great place to be since walking is our main from of getting around. Mark did manage to get two bikes, so we have also biked around the city but so far I have only seen 3 other bikers. Biking is not a common way for people to get around, and roads are not set-up for it. While I am getting more used to it now I still feel that I am getting some disapproving looks while biking around. Maybe that's because I don't fit the typical dress code. In my next post I’ll talk more about what women wear.