Food and Wine in Moldova

I have just returned from eating dinner at Acasa la Mama, a wonderful Moldovan restaurant right across the street from my apartment block. I have eaten there several times and been delighted each time. The waiters are friendly and very attentive, and the atmosphere includes a mixture of Moldovan folkloric music and Moldovan pop. I always return to the apartment with a good feeling from Acasa la Mama, which means something like, "at home at mom's house." After a disastrous home cooking event this week that included some rotten frozen vegetables (I should have know better.....) I was extra happy with "mom's" cooking.

One aspect of Moldovan food is variety and experimentation. In the many times I have eaten with my good friends here in Chisinau, the food has always been slightly different and special. From sweet cherries, pears, and apples in jars taken from a plot belonging to the family about twenty kilometers away, to many fish dishes, each is different.

At "Acasa la Mama" I can order the same dish but get it prepared differently each time. Tonight I had a fresh salad made with peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, oil and vinegar, and goat cheese, much like a Shop salad from Bulgaria. Then I had fasoli with grilled onions (amazing), and finally a pot of "stew" with beef and (tonight) mushrooms and sauce.

In addition to being an excellent nai teacher and Romanian language coach, my music teacher has begun to teach me about Moldovan wines. They are among the best in the world, and quite famous in Europe and Asia. Yesterday after my nai lesson he served me wine from the northern part of Moldova (Bucovina), a dry and strong red wine. Today he served me a sweeter red wine from the central part of the country, near here. Each time he has brought the wine in a two liter pop bottle, indicating that it was home made. Fantastic!

Food is important in Moldova and I am certainly happy to be able to enjoy it. I think the most unusual food I have encountered was the seasonal smoked plums that can be eaten by themselves or cooked into various dishes.

traveling like a Moldovan

In Chisinau, Moldovans tend to carry light and simple briefcases with them. I tend to carry big bags with lots of flutes and books in them, but decided to try the small briefcase idea. It makes perfect sense for traveling on the minibuses that go all over the city. Basically, during busy times (almost all the time), the vehicle just keeps picking up passengers until everyone is packed as tightly as possible all the way back - and then it picks up some more! This makes it very difficult when I am carrying a big heavy bag.

I bought a small bag at the grocery store and have enjoyed using it a lot. Of course, my problem is that I must carry the nai (big panflute) with me most of the time. the longest tube is 17 inches and the instrument is about 20 inches across the other way, so I have some enormous bags for carrying it which I tend to load up with other stuff (dictionaries, books, etc.) so I have not really made much progress.

Realizing that a lot of life in Chisinau, like in any city, is a matter of style, I have decided to get someone to make one of these really cool form fitted bags for the nai. They are shaped like the panflute itself and I hope will make not only a great style statement for me, but also make carrying and traveling easier. I will let you know!

Great Music at AMTAP

I am really enjoying the Academy of Music, Theatre, and Fine Arts in Chisinau. It is my Fulbright host institution and I spend quite a bit of each day there. They have arranged for me to check out a room for practicing any time, even on weekends. It is a lively place, filled with sounds of practicing on all the musical instruments I know from American schools plus nai (panflute), accordion (lots of them - and they are great!), cimbalom, cobza, and others. Plus everyone likes scales that are outside of the scales I have always practiced for jazz and classical music.

I will give a presentation for the Academy of Sciences of Moldova on Thursday of this week. I have prepared a 30 minute presentation on gamelan in Bali and Wyoming, with a focus on the Balinese concepts of desa (place) - kala (time) - patra (circumstance). I am looking forward to it!

It is very humid today (raining) and I find that I am not able to play fast because my lip sticks to the nai! I cannot play very fast anyway, but I must ask my teacher how to keep speedy on these wet days!

A haircut and the neighbors

Some of you have been wondering about how my neighbors are taking the nai practice in my apartment. I have been very careful to be respectful and not practice too late, and I put myself in a back room where the sound should not carry too far. But on Saturday and very nice man with a small dog came to the apartment and told me in Russian that he would like to take a nap and that the flute was disturbing him. Frankly, the high notes were disturbing me too, so it was kind of nice to take a break and try to think of other places to practice. Musicians get used to finding out of the way places, and I remember very well practicing in the parking garage of the Denver Performing Arts Center when I was in the Colorado Ballet Orchestra, and janitor's closets in the schools where I taught in Melbourne.

Yesterday and today I was at the Academy of Music early to practice. Yesterday I found an empty classroom, but today I used the janitor's closet. Ah well, the life of a musician. Fortunately I am getting better every day and someday the high notes might even sound good!

I have been wanting to get a haircut here in Moldova, but was not sure where to go. It turns out that there is a barbershop right next to my neighborhood Alimentara (small grocery store). It has a big sign that says, "Frizerie." In my jet lagged days I somehow thought maybe it was a big freezer, and then later as I was trying to memorize a lot of new Romanian vocabulary I thought maybe it was a place where they train shop assistants.

In any case, it turned out to be a barbershop (also a new vocabulary word) and I went in on Friday and got an excellent Moldovan haircut.

Christmas songs in Moldova

Today I had the amazing experience of attending a class dedicated to discussing 'colinde,' the beautiful melodies of carols sung at Christmas time in Moldova. Moldova holds a special place in combining melodies and forms from Ukraine with Romanian words, primarily in the eastern region around the Nistru River; religious songs mostly from Orthodox Christianity with ancient epics about nature and famous characters, and melodies shaped by the modal sounds of many influences. The class was a wonderful time of singing with four Moldovans, and looking at various forms of script used to write the words and melodies.

The special form of notation using shapes is not specific like the shaped note singing of North America, but is relative pitches moving from a starting note with the notation indicating intervals and directions. It looks much more fluid than the shaped notes of Primitive Baptist hymnals. (sorry about all the music talk..... but I think it is pretty cool!)

The text we used was written in Romanian using Cyrillic lettering. This form was used for most academic writing during the Soviet era. I was so surprised the first time I began reading - expecting Russian words - but found that it was Romanian!!! It actually flows very well and for me it is really fun.

I will have had four nai lessons in five days! I am working hard, feeling very clumsy, but loving every minute of it! I do hope my neighbors love it too.......

Thanks for all of your emails! I am so glad people are reading the blog!!

Nai lessons

I have started my nai lessons with Professor Negura. He is an excellent teacher and I am really enjoying practicing and studying with him. I have already had two lessons and will have another one tomorrow. He has had me practicing all in "first position" (G major) so far and I am much more relaxed than when I was trying to make my own way. What a joy for me to study with such a distinguished teacher.

I am also really enjoying studying at the Academy of Music. I am taking classes with two excellent professors. They are different levels and different topics related to Moldovan music. Everything is in Romanian language and I am keeping up pretty well. I do think my notes probably end up a lot different from the notes taken by the other students (maybe some different information......) so I check with them sometimes.

It has been raining and cold, but the city is very interesting and I really enjoy walking around. I have become quite interested in attending some more orthodox churches to hear the music. I also plan to attend the Roman Catholic church downtown to hear their choir.

I have a presentation on Balinese gamelan coming up for the Academy of Sciences. My colleague from the Academy has offered to translate for me, which I think means she will translate the transcipt (I already wrote it and sent it to her) and then coach me on pronounciation (I may need a lot of coaching.....). I gave a presentaion on Irish flute for a class yesterday and they seemed very interested.

I will attend two concerts this week at the Sala cu Orgel including one by their resident orchestra. This is the most interesting to me!

Maybe dinner tonight at "acasa la mama".....

Concerts and Soap Operas

Friday night I attended a concert at the wonderful Sala cu Orgel (Organ Hall) in the center of Chisinau. The orchestra was a chamber orchestra from Munich, Germany. It had four first violins, four second violins, two violas, one cello, and one bass, augmented with one flute, one oboe, one horn, one bassoon, one trumpet, and one piano. The players were very young, probably all under or around thirty years of age. The stage is the perfect size for such an ensemble. The concert featured an excellent violin soloist and a concerto for trombone by a Chisinau composer.

The hall is beautiful. I found it quite stunning. The colors are white, blue, and a mauve sort of orange at the front. There are ten large pillars floor to ceiling, ten windows with beautiful blue and white curtains, ten small chandeliers and one huge one in the middle (all glass – many small pieces). The ceiling has gold trim on white, set off by the light blue walls and glass fixtures. The sound was perfect for the orchestra. I look forward to many performances in that hall during the year. It looks as though it the seats could be cleared to make it a perfect space for dancing. Two concerts next week!

Then I came back to the apartment to watch American soap operas with Romanian subtitles. I have known several people from Romania and Moldova who spoke good English and claim to have learned it mostly from watching soap operas with subtitles. At home in Wyoming I hardly every watch TV, so this was an adventure for me.

The special Moldovan twist is that many American movies on TV have actors speaking English (watch their lips…) with Russian overdubbed on the sound track and Romanian subtitles. So once again I get the full Moldovan language treatment! I think I learned to say some things we may not get around to in our language classes….

Last night I played cards with some friends. It was a game called "Who's the fool?" or something like that. Quite a good game, but I was definitely the fool. It made me realize how hard it is to learn new games with a new basic language base! The queens are "dama," the kings are "kronor," the jacks are "valet," and the ace is something I cannot remember - all in Cyrillic!

Chisinau city day!

Yesterday was the official Chisinau city day. What a big celebration! The city closed off almost a mile of Stefan cel Mare boulevard to allow people to set up stall and stages for performances, displays, and stands for selling things. I walked the whole length of it twice. In the big central plaza a huge stage was erected and a hot air balloon was inflated at bout 5 p.m. to prepare for the big ceremonies.

The stands were being set up the day before. Some were made completely of willows and gave a very nice smell to the area. Food was cooking everywhere and items ranging from clothing, crafts, shoes, and books to cell phones and garden tractors. I had to really enjoy the mechanical bull set up for rides near the statues of Pushkin and Stefan cel Mare. It seemed like almost everyone attended. My neighborhoos was suddenly deserted as people made their way up to the festival.

I really enjoy the way many Moldovans take time to talk with me, even when they know I cannot understand everthing they are saying. It is as though the act of conversation as a social event is more important than what is said.

We had another great Romanian class this morning. The class is lively and the students are very bright. It is hard to keep up with the other students!

This weekend I will see what is happening around town. I am spending a lot of time studying, practicing, and working on my own so I will need to get out a bit.

shopping and musical instruments!

Yesterday I experienced Moldovan shopping at its best. I depended on our good friend who is an expert. She asked if wanted to go the Malldova or the Bazaar (market). Of course I chose the market! Within an hour we had ridden the minibus to the market, gone to the ATM, and made excellent purchase so I can now look more like a real Moldovan. Pretty classy stuff and I really enjoyed watching my friend lead us around the market. It is quite extensive and has all kinds of good (and not so good) things to purchase. There are informal food markets in many places around the city, including a small alleyway near my apartment. I must try it out.

Then this morning I met with an excellent Moldovan ethnomusicologist. She soon realized that I have an intense interest in musical instruments of all kinds so she put on her coat and led me through the streets of busy Chisinau to another building of the Academy which is dedicated to "Arts Plastice." There she left me with a collector and player of a very wide variety of instruments - drums, mouth harps, flutes, trumpets (some ten feet long), bagpipes, and amazing string instruments. We had a great time together and even played some music on cobza (lute like instrument) and nineteenth century flute. We barely got started on the instruments so we will meet again. I plan to photograph and record a lot of instruments and hope to be some help notating music from old recordings. There are 16,000 recordings of Moldovan music made since 1964.

Tomorrow is "city day" in Chisinau, a day off with lots of public entertainment and action in the city.

Classes!!

I had a very interesting weekend with a trip in the rain and wind and cold to the annual wine festival, a wonderful visit with my friends, and a concert on Sunday night. I am learning to live in Moldova.

I now have a Moldovan cell phone and number. Quite exciting! It is one of those sweet little Nokia's favored by my son Colin. Now I know why he likes his so much.

Yesterday was a stunning day. Many thanks to my wonderful colleague from the Academy of Music, I now have access to the national library and will hopefully have access to the library at the Academy of Science soon. These are important for me as I learn more and more Romanian and can access journals, books, recordings, etc. I met the most respected Moldovan scholar of folk music in his office at the Academy of Sciences and he gave me two hours of his time to answer questions and tell me all about Lautarii and naiists in Moldova. I have read his articles and was thrilled to be able to meet him and ask him questions directly.

Today started with muesli and yogurt (I know now that yogurt is called Bioaurt at the local Fidesco shop) and of course amazing instant coffee. The weather has turned nice so I enjoyed my walk to Romanian class. Then I had the pleasure of attending two classes at the Academy on folk music and traditions. The professor talked about wedding traditions and then in the second class she played lots of great recordings and had the students help me with my Romanian translations.

People in Moldova have already been so wonderfully generous with me! Every day is something new for me living in the city, but the real highlight is always the great experiences of being with people. I am hoping to be in touch with my nai (panflute) teacher soon so I can get a lesson this week. Everyone says he is the greatest! Then I am planning to attend a concert at the Roman Catholic church downtown. I features choral groups from Russia, Beloruss, Moldova, and other eastern places.

More R&R

This morning I attended my first class at the Casa de limbii romane, a local language school here in Chisinau. I am taking Romanian for the 2010-2011 school year. Today I have not worked with any English speakers at all (not even at the language school) and have enjoyed conducting every conversation in Romanian.

The class was excellent! It consists of 13 native Russian speakers and me, so it is conducted entirely in Russian and Romanian. Many thanks to my fine Russian teacher at the University of Wyoming, I was able to keep up and the teacher even placed me with the more advanced group even though I have missed some classes already. The Romanian class teacher is excellent and the materials look great. I will have class every Tuesday and Friday from 9 - 10:30 a.m. and plan to work hard to get good and keep up with the class! The students are excellent as well and seem very motivated to learn Romanian.

My welcome at the Academy of Music has been warm. I worked in the library today for about an hour and enjoyed being surrounded by the sounds of so many instruments, including accordions and trumpets practicing in the halls! The Academy is a great place and really inspiring to me. And now I must go practice the nai so I can make some progress myself!

This weekend I plan to find the Irish pub and see about some tunes!

I am in Moldova!

I Love Moldova! I arrived last Monday at about noon and it has been non-stop swimming in Russian and Romanian ever since! I enjoyed three days of staying with my good friends and speaking and learning lots of good Russian. Then I moved to my apartment where my new landlady said, "You must learn Romanian" and gave me the contact info for Casa de Limbii Romana. I had to immediately buy groceries in Romanian and woke early to make lists of words and things I wanted to say in Romanian. Then my new landlord arrived to fix something and spoke only Russian with me. I find it hard to switch....... But fun!

I have met with a wonderful professor at the Academy of Music. She has helped me to organize some classes to attend and some special classes to offer while I am here. She will make it possible for me to borrow books at the library (the numbers cycle around and I ended up with library borrowing number 1). It seems like an excellent library, but all the books are in Romanian and Russian. So I must practice!

I will go now to the Embassy to deliver the correct (hopefully) type of photo for the visa. They must have a 3X4 cm non-glossy photo. AFter getting two sets in Laramie I found I needed to do it all again here. I actually had a hilarious time getting the photo taken, then having them crop my hair which seems to want to stick straight up in this climate, then realizing that the photo was too glossy, running into Vera who had to come to the second photo session to advise us all on various aspects of my appearance, then I bought a comb, then they cropped my hair again electronically, and then printed on the wrong type of paper again....

I hope you are all well! Thanks for reading my blog!

R & R

Most people in Chisinau speak both Russian and Romanian. I have studied Romanian on my own for about three years now (off and on), and I have taken two full semesters of Russian at the University of Wyoming. When I was in Chisinau during the summer of 2009 I found it difficult sometimes to even tell which language was being used until a key word was spoken (i or si).

I am looking forward to hearing and learning both languages to a much greater extent in the months ahead.