1/19 Last night we had an official reception hosted by the Public Affairs section head for the U.S. Embassy. Aleisha Woodward had about 30 people to her home to welcome us (the three new Fulbright scholars) to Chisinau. As she termed it, "I want you to meet cool young Moldovans and some heads of NGOs that may be useful to you." I made a number of good contacts including the head of the American Studies program at Moldova State University and also the vice-chair of the service-learning program at Moldova State. I am excited to better understand how service-learning is conducted here and hopefully can make some contacts that will have benefit for me at Mercer. Part of the goal of the Fulbright program is to expose you to as many local as possible--so we will be conducting workshops, giving lectures, participating in panels across the city (in in our case across the country). When I left the States, I was honestly wondering if I would have enough to do but now, after just one week, I am wondering if I will be able to everything that I want to do while I am here.

I also had coffee with a fellow who lived in the states for five years and is now at university here in Chisinau. We talked about how government and politics work in Moldova as well as the university system where there are over 30 universities in Chisinau alone (do remember that before the fall of the Soviet Union, the literacy rate here exceeded 99%).

One of the hallmarks of Moldova seems to be hospitality--folks go very much out of their way for you. Perhaps this is because relatively few foreigners come here--only about 70,000 per year. I am still meeting my contacts at the universities and trying to figure out the systems but everyone has been very helpful. This certainly has been the case of the staff at the embassy--they have been so helpful in getting us get settled and making local contacts. The warmth of the people here is a wonderful contrast to the cold of the icy sidewalks!

P.S. It was snowing when I woke up and has been all morning. The temperature right now is 25 and it will be much colder for the next few days on Monday the high will be 8 degrees F. And I am not even going to start talking about the lows!

From left to right:

	Irina Colin of the embassy--who set up our university contacts and worked on our initial applications
	Dan Fellner of Arizona State University Journalism School
	Aliesha Woodward, the Public Affairs Section Chief
	Fern Greenwell, an independent scholar specializing in demographics and sociology
	me
	Ruxanda Negru of the embassy--who met us at the airport and arranged housing, official registration, and a LOT of other things

Links to all of my on-line ramblings and other useful information.	The Moldova Blog:
	*Adventures of an American in Chisinau*