Christmas Caroling

On the Orthodox Christmas (January 7) the American friends I am staying with invited me to join them in traveling 2 hours west from Chisinau, by bus, to a town called Ungheni which is located right on the border of Moldova and Romania. There we joined a local church youth group in going door to door singing Christmas carols in Romanian! We got around the town in a big Ford van. It was rather fun, and we were caroling from 8pm-12am or so. Here is a taste of what I experienced!

Here are my new American friends. Jessie (left), and Sarah (right)

We were allowed into people's homes!

Sometimes we simply stood in the stairwells.

Here we are preparing our really late dinner.

This is our caroling group, complete with an accordion, drum, and tamborine.

After caroling for hours, we all headed back to the church and had a small feast of pizza, sandwiches, pop, and sweets. We then played a bunch of games and then took everyone home in this beast Ford E-350 imported from California! The white van still had the California plates on it! Check it out...

Our stylin' ride straight from Cali! :) Gas guzzler...

The next day we (me and the Americans with our Moldavian translator friend Igor) headed back to Chisinau on the bus, and that's where I am now. Today I will head out to the market with my friends here, and hopefully get in contact with a travel agent in order to book a flight to Germany! 

Thanks again everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. I am having a very good time here, despite my situation. I'll keep you all posted as things happen!