My last day of Peace Corps Moldova is October 19th. Believe me, I am counting down the days. It is two months exactly today. I want to enjoy the few remaining weeks I have here but it is hard not to obsess about the next stage of my life: will I get a job right away? What job? Where? How will things be with my girlfriend? My friends? My family? Have I changed? What has changed in the States in the last two years? The best time to be in Moldova is in the summer. People are happier. It is green. There are fruits and vegetables everywhere. In fact, I can go out in my garden and pick fresh apples, plums, tomatoes, and peppers whenever I want. But my mind is preoccupied with leaving. Through out my life one my problems is that I can never focus on the “now” and instead always focus on the “next.”

I did recently take a day trip to Iasi. Iasi is capital city of Moldavia (not Moldova), the third largest city in all of Romania and is conveniently located just about 22 kilometers from the Moldovan border. I’d like to say that I went with the goal to see museums, the park where Mihai Eminescu wrote, and the many monuments which dot the city. Sadly, the primary reason for the trip was to eat at the Pizza Hut located in the new Moldovan Mall. Ohhhh, and the 5 hours that I waited at customs was worth my delicious Supreme Pan Pizza with garlic bread. I devoured it. The trip was ridiculous. I left from the Moldovan regional city of Falesti. Falesti to Iasi is only about 45 kilometers. But due to the shitty bus and mired customs officers, a trip that should take no more than two hours took over four hours. Not only did we arrive late, around one, but the return bus left at 3. So, it was a pleasant two hours in Iasi.

The bus that I took was a Balti – Iasi bus which stops to pick up passengers in Falesti on its journey. When it arrived in Falesti it was already packed. But I still got on with a mob of other passengers. I felt for sure the bus was going to tip over on some of the curves. I can’t believe Romanian border guards let these Moldovan buses through. What they must think when they see these clowns pull up to customs in buses built before 1950 with 40 passengers over the maximum occupancy.