From Vienna to Moldova

I have made it safe and sound to Moldova. I have to say my new favorite thing to do in Europe is take overnight trains. I love the rocking motion. I took two in a row. The first one from Vienna to Bucharest was really nice, I had a little room that was meant to be for four people all to myself. The only annoying part was we went through something like four border checks, so I got woken up a lot in the night.
I spent the day in Bucharest, which is a tad bit sketchy. You really have the feeling that everything and everyone are somewhat corrupt. It will be interesting to see how the fact that Romania is now part of the EU will affect this.
But the best part about my stay in Bucharest was that I ended up in this 80 year old woman's apartment eating tons of food and drinking coffee while she chain-smoked and watched Mexican soap-operas with subtitles. An American girl I met on the train was meeting a friend of hers who was staying with his grand-mother in Bucharest. So they invited me over for a few hours.

Then I was off to catch my second overnight train in a row.

This one was amazing, it felt like I was sruck in an episode of the Twilight Zone, if the Twilight Zone shows were filmed in the former Soviet Union. The train really hadn't been updated in years and years. Old curtains, old bedding. It was great. And I shared my room with a Moldovan soldier who told me lots of great stories.
We also stopped at the Moldovan border for a really long time because they had to change every single wheel on the train. Apparently the Soviet rail system is incompatible with any other to keep people inside the country inside, and outsiders out. I slept through all of this though..
I got picked up from the train station and taken to the family I am staying with.
The woman hugged me three times before I left for the day and told me that we are going to be great firends. She also told me she will cry when I leave. So it was a little intense but she's very sweet. She really is going out of her way to make sure I'm ok, which makes me feel sort of guilty.

I've only been here a few days but this is the first day I've spent by myself. I start my volunteer work at the newspaper tomorrow, which I'm excited about. The whole thing is run by four women, who seem tough-as-nails. I met them on Friday and they all have been arrested at one point or another for reporting on human rights abuses and being places they shouldn't be, according to the government.

I think I am getting quite good at charades. Today I went into a pharmacy and mimed that I needed an inhaler for the childhood asthma that seems to be returning. I've been waking up in the middle of the night wheezing.