– My friend Sasha and I are heading to Odessa, Ukraine for April Fool’s Day weekend. He says the celebration attracts a ton of foreigners so it should be one crazy time over there. We plan to stay with a Couchsurfing host. What I am imagining now is that I would speak to the host in English, Sasha would speak to him in Russian, and Sasha and I would speak to each other in Romanian. Kind of nuts but it works. Overall, it will be nice to get a small break in April and see another metropolitan city in Eastern Europe.

– Sasha and I had some beers tonight and he told me that he found 5 potential employers abroad: occupied in the U.S., England, Israel, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates. Many Moldovans work abroad to earn more money but the positions are not necessarily desirable. Sasha, for example, has a plan to work abroad for the majority of every year and then bring his earnings back to Leova to start a fitness club. Although as Peace Corps volunteers our goal is to keep the talent in country, it seems only right to let Sasha follow his passion to work and live abroad while bringing some of the remittances with him back to Moldova to help grow the local economy.

– Our friend from basketball Slon (Russian name for Elephant) recently was interviewed and accepted to work in New York this summer as a line cook at the Hard Rock Cafe near Niagara Falls. It is his birthday this weekend, so a celebration for two reasons is in order.

– I found a new barber in town that I really like. She is good at her job, nice, and has a good sense of humor. However, in the business incubator we have a salon which I used to go to. Today, I had an awkward moment where I had to explain to my former stylist why I had not come to her for haircuts lately. I just said that with the ankle injury I received haircuts from my neighbor, which is true, but honestly speaking I do not want to return. I do not know if this is good for business or our working relationship but I just prefer the other service provider. I am sorry.

– Drank two Baltika 7’s. I think it is a Russian brand of blonde beer. It is horrible. I would rather drink rain water from a rusty gutter.