All Has Fallen for Today

The last two weeks have been pretty interesting.  The whole country has been in focused attention preparing for today – the elections.  The past two weeks have been non-stop political programming and propaganda.  Here in town, I have been to three street concerts that were essentially advertisements for each party.  These were nothing simple.  Professionally constructed stages, lighting and sound technology were procured for each party’s celebration.  Each party has their loyal artists who performed at each celebration and they were nothing short of fantastic.  I suppose it wasn’t the safest place for me to be because these elections were pretty charged but I generally stayed at a safe distance.  This past Friday’s celebration ended with a 5-minute display of fireworks (focul de artificii) which in their own right would rival what I’ve seen from Disneyland.  They were pretty extensive.

Furthermore, the weather has been steadily declining, in my opinion.  The daily highs and lows are getting lower and lower.  This past Friday, the same Friday as the concert here in Soroca, was a cold morning.  On my morning visit to the restroom, I checked the thermometer and it read -3°C.  I went to check if it was correct.  It was.  The water bucket for the ducks was frozen over.  Poor duckies.  I took my shower and went on with my day as usual.  It was freezing cold, but not a real big problem, however, I didn’t know how I would handle the future to come – like during first period.  At 8:50, 20 minutes into our first period, it snowed.  Heavily.  I had my head down in my notebook from where I was following my day’s lesson plan and my partner, Stela, said, “Raymond, Congratulations!”  I did not really let that affect me too much as I was focused on what I was doing, and upon noticing that I made no substantial gesture of acknowledgement, she said it again and told me to look outside and wow!  It was snowing so hard.  I ran to the window and just stood there.  Everything was slowly turning snowcapped.  The flakes (fulgi) were one inch in diameter.  They were large and complex.  At the break, I went outside to see all the children running and slipping around, gathering the first year’s ammo for the snowball fights to ensue, eating falling snow or just simply standing there while it all fell around them.  It was a real sight to see and, unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera.  I really regretted that, but my class assured me that I would have many more opportunities to take pictures.  I just wish that I really had it for my first snow fall – ever.  I have never really seen snow fall that big and definitely haven’t experienced it for the first snow of the year.  It was really pretty and spectacular.  I hope it snows tomorrow.  We’ll see.

P.S.  Luckily I slept in and my host father was very considerate of my sleep because I was scheduled to make a duck head fall for dinner.  Needless to say, there’s no blood on my hands. 
P.P.S.  The heads are still on the chopping block as peaceful as ever.