Six Good Things Sunday #5
Empty City
Most Chisinau residents always seem to abandon ship on the long weekends, especially on Orthodox Christian holidays. I was born and raised here and have nowhere to go, so I stay and get to enjoy the peace and quiet of an empty city. You don’t know what you lack until it hits you.
Flowers
My friend has been blessing me with fresh flowers for the last couple of weeks. I love having a bouquet in the kitchen, and maybe a small one on my vanity too.
TBR Pile
Every reader knows that TBR piles have a tendency to turn into TBR mountains, and mine is no exception. With my current reading speed I might have just planned out my reading list for the next five years or so.
Duolingo Romanian
I reached level 7! This is a ridiculous non-achievement, if I am honest, but hey! I’m finally getting the hang of articles in Romanian. See, I understand the language. My listening comprehension of a calm conversation without an overbearing use of shortenings and slang is fine, I read books of what I suppose can be classified as ‘advanced’ level of reading, and my passive vocabulary is big, if a bit unbalanced. (For example, I understand an article about economy way better than I understand a romance novel.) But when I need to write or, heaven forbid, speak, my brain just freezes. Over the years I’ve lost the psychological barrier, and came to realise that the only reason I can’t actually speak the language is the absence of a solid grammar base. I was never given it at school, and I never actively pursued it on my own. Duo is helping me with that. Once I reach a certain level, I am going to pick up a textbook, just like I did with Spanish. I hope Duo releases the mobile version of the course soon.
Two Long Weekends
… in a row. Unheard of.
Current Read
Two book-related good things in one post? Is it a cheat? … Nah. Today is World Book Day! My current read is Thank You, Jeeves! by Wodehouse, my first book of his. Light-hearted and funny, though I do have a feeling that stand-alone short stories read better than this novel. Eventually we’ll see.
And the not good at all, but eerily beautiful in parts:
Snowpocalypse
I am not going to wax poetic about the April snow that halted the regular life in most parts of the country. I am not an idiot. It was a crisis, it was a catastrophe, and the aftermath will be felt for a while after. But I’m as happy as a dog when I see snow. It’s, I don’t know, like a basic instinct for me. I had to go to work on foot, and the usual ‘a little under an hour’ trip took me two hours. I was not frozen – the temperatures never went below zero – but I was wet, I was cold, I was in constant danger of either being hit by cars or falling trees, I kept thinking of the dead crops, and yet another economy blast this country is going to go through because of it.
YetΒ I would still stop and admire the eerie ‘winter wonderland’ beautyΒ of it all. Very The Day After Tomorrow. (Don’t watch that movie if you haven’t yet, it’s shit.)
You can see more photos of the April snow in Moldova on my other blog, Inner Moldova. I’ve published part one, and part two is coming tomorrow. Keep your eyes open for that, if you’d like.
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