– Sign, sealed, delivered. Best bud Christian all in for Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria this summer. It is going to be an amazing trip as he will join my cousin Brigid and I. We plan on doing a lot of Couchsurfing, visiting old friends, canyoning, checking out the Alps, camping at the Openair Frauenfeld concert, and just getting in a ton of trouble abroad. We have lots of flights to book and couches to confirm but we are taking it down step-by-step. I will be ordering concert tickets tomorrow through Skype with my cousin. 199 francs for 3 days of music and a camping pass.

– Had my community project approved by my partner today as he finished reviewing our Romanian version. We also received all of the signatures from our business owners. Furthermore, I received a list of potential entrepreneurs from Entrepreneurship Director Eugen Lupu at the Consiliul Raional which cements our case for the need of the IT project in our community. With a ton of other documents to be attached to the submittal we will proceed tomorrow by transferring everything to the director of the Small Project Assistance Committee tomorrow morning. I hope we win this grant. It will go a long way in improving the IT and business skills of small business owners in Leova.

– After looking at this picture I am adding USA patterned leather jacket and rainbow striped denim pants to my fashion wish list.

– Came to the realization that I need to live in a big urban city when my service is over and thereafter. I am not accustomed to living in cities smaller than 70,000 people. It is nice to be acknowledged by the majority of people in town, but it is overwhelming. It reminded me of my first two years at college. We had 4,000 students on campus and I struggled with it. I like to have my privacy, to enjoy the pace, traffic, and noise of a larger city, and to be around like-minded individuals even if we do not share a common language. I love small business development and working with entrepreneurs, foreign languages, and being on the move… so hopefully I can wrap it all into one career and setting when my service is completed. For the time being, I am going to enjoy the ride and learn as much about Moldova, its people, languages, and lifestyle as possible. I would not trade this experience for the world, I just do not have the endurance to live like this forever.

– I bought Intenso Coffee at the supermarket. It was not very Intenso. It was more Drabo or Blando. No wonder a large can of instant grounds cost 82 lei ($6.80), 20 lei cheaper than the competitor. I should have went with Nescafe Gold, although real grounds would truly hit the spot.

– UPDATE: The dog corpse on the side of the road is still lying there. Will someone please scoop him up? Do not make me carry a shovel to work tomorrow.

– The weather is starting to turn here in Moldova. I could not see my breath this afternoon while walking to and from work which is an encouraging sign. February almost being finished satisfies me. The temperature reminded me of morning baseball practices in high school before the season started. We used to get to the field at 6am to play catch on the wet grass. We dreaded it then but being reminded of it today made me really miss the game. I wanted to grab a glove and start long tossing. Fortunately, at the Peace Corps headquarters there is equipment we can rent so hopefully I can get my hands on it and get some of my local friends interested in learning the basics.

– One of the owners gave me a potato stuffed placinta today for helping her out at work. It was outstanding, a flaky pastry stuffed with diced potatoes and pepper. Something so simple, yet so good.

– Spoke with my Dad on Skype tonight. He was home from work when I called him but he did not respond. Instead he ended up surprising me with a video call. It is nice that I can always keep him close. It makes life so much better knowing that I have access to him like I do.