Trip #4 Story

It's been about 10 months since this last trip to Moldova, and still no story written about it. I don't think I sent too many emails about the trip to anyone back home, because, it seemed most things about Moldova had already been said.

But, I'll write a little bit from what I remember . .

Preparing for this trip made me a bit anxious. Not in the travel arrangements, which I've done 3 times before, but in other aspects. Because, you see, on this trip I planned to marry my wonderful fiancee Dorina. We were waiting until I became a U.S. citizen, and once I knew when that would be, I had to quickly arrange the visa and travel arrangements, as well as get all my paperwork for marriage in order.

Luckily everything worked out well. Radu, from the Moldova travel web site, recommended me a good travel agent who got me a great airfare to Moldova. But, we ended up booking the flight using a travel agent in Moldova, using Dorina's brothers money. It was the same price, but otherwise I'm not exactly sure why we did things like that, we just did.

Previously, all of my tickets had cost $1,500, because I kept getting screwed over by traveling during holiday seasons, and booking tickets quite late because of my works refusal to give me a quick decision about my vacation time.

Anyway, so as I said, it all worked out well. I became a US Citizen, sent away for my US passport the same day, and enclosed extra money for the passport agency that I used to get my Moldovan visa at the same time. Slightly easier with a US passport, because I didn't have to have an invitation.

So, off I flew. I had to change planes in Paris, and almost got on the wrong plane twice because of the lack of any kind of signage, and generally unhelpful airport employees. I almost got a plane to Georgia (but didn't, because I reasoned that there were too many people getting on for Moldova, plus, they did all look slightly too dark to all be Moldovan's), and then I almost got on one to Vienna. Luckily they had an electronic ticket checker, to make sure that I didn't.

Upon arriving in Moldova, everything was fairly routine, except for the passport control officer, who actually smiled at me and engaged in a short conversation. That has never happened before.

The rest of the trip was pretty much us dealing with documents, preparing for our wedding, and then dealing with more documents, trying to change Dorina's name, apply for her new passport, and dealing with the American embassy, trying to get her an immigrant visa for the US.

At the time, all of this was a tremendous pain in the ass. There was very little information about all of these processes, and no one we asked in the various offices seemed to know much more, or else would send us off in strange directions, or give us information and then change there minds about it the next time we saw them.

However, overall, looking back, the entire process was much easier than we had anticipated. We spent quite a lot of time doing much more than was needed, either because of our own paranoia, suggestions from officials, or outdated information we found on the web. There was almost no need to bribe any officials, and in fact, when one form was delayed by one day, we did try to bribe one guy, but it turned out he really did have a reason for delaying us for one day, and so we just had to wait the extra day.

I got everything accomplished within my three week vacation. Including getting married, and doing all the various forms with Dorina, and with the US Embassy. However - we did plan carefully in the first place - the US embassy is only open on Wednesdays between 2-4pm, so I made sure I arrived on a Monday, and not a Thursday, for example, which would have necessitated us waiting almost an entire week if I had. The Embassy is really not very flexible there.

Dorina had to remain behind an additional couple of weeks once I left, to get a security check done on her by the Americans, travel to Romania for a medical exam, and have the final visa interview and get the actual visa to come to the USA.

I was very happy to see our neighbors while I was there, but we didn't have so much time to talk with them, unfortunately. Dorina was not really in a translating mood either, unfortunately. We did manage to get drunk a few times still, though.

We did the usual things we did on other trips, too. We looked through the markets, went to cafe's and shops downtown, went to a few discos. These types of things are normal tourist things. They are very pleasant. The other side of life, dealing with Moldovan officials and paperwork, well, that is definitely harder, at when you are actually doing it, a pain in the ass, but in hindsight, not so impossible.

I REALLY wish that I'd known the languages spoken in Moldova. At the time, it didn't seem so necessary. But when I got back from Moldova, I enrolled in Russian classes, and so far have completed two semesters of it. I can't speak very much at all, but I am just thinking of how much more I could have done in Moldova while I was there if I knew even what little I do now.

So, I hope to complete another year or two of Russian, perhaps more, and hopefully I can get back to Moldova again in a year or two, and see what happens.

Understanding people, and being able to talk to them, I imagine I will either like Moldova even more, or start to understand some bad things about it! We'll see how it goes.

But I'm thinking of the possibilities already - being able to go out with the neighbor's and get quite drunk without bothering Dorina, being able to ask the landlords for things (they won't be OUR landlords anymore, because I'm sure they have rented their apartment to other people by now, but I can still visit them), and even being able to talk to Dorina's mum and brother, as well as demanding that Dorina's church group speak Russian rather than Romanian at their sharing meetings. Tee hee! I know they hate it when people do that, so I think it would be rather funny for a foreigner to do it too. Poor Romanian language.

I might even be able to get a job of some sort in Moldova, should the situation ever warrant such a thing. We'll see how it goes.

Coming back to the US from this trip, was the same as before. I get here, everything is efficient and works properly, like - REALLY efficient, there are fast food places all over the place and finding a nonfattening food is very difficult. Huge people waddle around talking on cell phones. Ahhh. America. I get home, and I'm again pleased to see my washing machine, and love the fast speed of our internet, but the next day, with clothes cleaned, I'm completely bored again.

Ten months later, and I still think the same things I have after my previous trips to Moldova. I'm afraid that Moldova will become overly commercialized, expensive, and unlivable. Life in the US continues to be boring, but for some reason, I'm still here, strangely rooted to the spot for the time being. I still like the creature comforts offered by living here, even though it seems to be the main reason things are boring, and why Moldova seems interesting. A strange dilemma which I still have not been able to work out. Haven't really had that much time to think about it I suppose, because I'm always watching TV or playing on the computer to fill in the time . . . !

And, my new wife, I think she feels the same. She has a car in the US, which she thinks she'd never be able to have in Moldova. She is enjoying going to university, and has a job which pays her enough to buy comfortable clothes and for us to eat our several times a week. But for her too, it's a bit boring. People don't smile as much over here. They are too busy working. It seems they are afraid to have fun. Everything is comfortable and all our needs provided for.

I think, in an ideal world, everyone would have replicators, like on Star Trek, capable of producing any food, drink, clothing, or trinket you want. Then, everyone just works for a little extra money to afford housing, entertainment, and transport.

In this case, we'd definitely prefer to live in Moldova. There simply wouldn't be any need to live in the US anymore. There wouldn't be any benefit anymore. The culture and atmosphere of Moldova would be too enticing for us to remain here.

(Of course, who knows what other complexities and changes would be introduced if replicators were available - but if everything else were to remain as it is).

So, many interesting ideas are brought up by my visiting Moldova. One advantage of living in the US, of course, is that it is possible, with enough work, and education, to earn a lot of money, which can be used for all kinds of interesting things, one of which could be for helping Moldovan's.

But helping them to do what, is the question. Helping them to become so efficient at producing food that it becomes tasteless as is found in the US? Is that a benefit or not?!

Helping them to become a richer country, so that they can hide inside with their air conditioned and heated apartments watching American TV all day, and avoid their neighbors? Hmmm.

These are the things I really don't want to see happen to Moldova. But, on the other hand, if Moldovan's had the money, I think that like anyone else in the world, this is pretty much what they would do - just like Americans.

One thing I have noticed in Australia, where people do have enough to eat, enough to drink, and can usually find jobs, is that the majority of their activities seem spurred on because there isn't much else to do. For example, my mum goes garage sale shopping for odds and ends, and sometimes creates unusual art. My friend works on his car every weekend, tuning, fixing, etc.

In the US, everything is so easy, and people have enough money to just buy art, or pay someone to fix their car, and there is so much on TV, or so much to do on a computer, that other things seem to fall by the wayside.

This doesn't seem so good to me, but really, if Australians also had enough money, and as many TV channels as the US, why would they bother to keep doing what they currently do? There would be no need. They would become like Americans.

And so, Moldova is at an even earlier stage of development, it seems, excepting of course the high-end range of things, businessmen, etc.

Moldova is so interesting to visit because it lacks the things that we like in western countries - the very things which make life uninteresting here. Yet, as interesting as Moldova can be, we don't want to give up our stuff and move there and live without it all.

And, we often feel the need to help Moldova to become like our countries. And if that happens, then there would be no need to go there anymore . . ?!

Only time will tell, I suppose.

Another odd thought - if a replicator were ever invented, it will probably be invented in the US, where people have been working 20 hours a day for the last 20 years, ignoring their family and friends in the pursuit of fame and wealth - and also, because they happen to want a really cool replicator. Probably, such a device would not be invented in Moldova. Hmmm.

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