Since Moldova doesn’t celebrate Christmas until January7 today is just a normal day for most people. For volunteers, we get to celebrate Christmas twice! Today I went to a larger town about 30 minutes away for dinner on speaking English.
The menu was the most random assortment of food, none of which are traditional Christmas foods because the two people doing most of the prep kept a list of food cravings over the last several weeks.. It was really good through. The Moldovan food I’ve had is good but lacks the zing of the American cuisine. Most of our food was international I think we had American, Mexican, Japanese, and Molodan foods represented. My favorite was the brownies, with ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream. MmmIt wasn’t a White Christmas but is we did have a couple of snow showers which forced us to run outside and verify it really was snowing and take advantage of the brief opportunity to have a snowball fight.
After dinner and cleaning the massive amount of dirty dishes we all watched Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation which mom sent over. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch the whole thing as the last ruteara of the day leaves at 6:30.
All in all it was a good Christmas but I miss all my friends and family. I hope this Christmas has been good you. Time to call home and disrupt dinner…
I’ve uploaded some pictures from this month and Christmas at: http://picasaweb.google.com/elenbaum/2006December
PS. If you got a call from a strange number yesterday and a mumbled voicemail message it was probably from me. If you didn’t sorry, I either didn’t have your number or didn’t think you important enough to call on Christmas Eve… 
Sorry
On an unrelated note, check out the website of my friend Mark Rogers at http://fallingfifth.com/
December 25th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Merry CHRISTmas! I am sending you an e-mail, but from a yahoo account this time. I wanted to write too long of one for here!
December 25th, 2006 at 9:26 pm
Merry Christmas! I love the pictures! What’s Molodan food?
It sounds like you enjoyed your Christmas. I’m glad!
December 25th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Merry Christmas Ryan!
I’m glad to hear that you’re doing well, and I’m sorry I missed your call yesterday. I hope both of your Christmases are good!
December 31st, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Thanks for the Christmas text message!! We were at my parents in the UP and coverage there is sketchy at times. I tried to log on to IM to write back but it was down (or inaccessible through AIM Express). We miss you too! As for your favorite food mentioned above, you are TRULY a long lost brother because that’s one of my favorite desserts too!!! Love ya, Vicki (& Cal)
January 1st, 2007 at 11:34 am
HAPPY NEW YEAR Ryan,
May your road always be down hill and the wind always at your back! (from your Scot-Irish side. May all your sausages be dipped in Dusseldorf mustard and remember the years are smarter than the days!~ (from your German side)
Can you believe that we had rain, thunder and lighting on New Years Eve? My dog Pal was getting hollered at by your grandmother as he wanted to be in the basement at that time. We love you and hope your New Year meets all your expectations.
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:58 pm
so that was you that called with happy christmas wishes…i couldn’t quite hear the message…but saw that i missed a call from “unavailable”…thanks and happy christmas and merry new year to you too! hope God continues to bless and grow and encourage you in all you do. blessings, Faith
ps. i’m now unemployed…I’m calling it officially on sabbatical!
yay!
July 18th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
SOG knives…
Interesting ideas… I wonder how the Hollywood media would portray this?…