Hello 2025

What a year it’s been! From tropical, lush, and green Burundi to the ex-soviet block and cobblestone streets of Moldova. The two countries could not be more different.

Culturally and linguistically so much is different about these two locations. Burundi was small town, slow pace of life, Francophone Africa. People were warm, friendly, and would always begin a conversation by asking how your family was doing. Moldova is primarily Russian and Romanian speaking, and the people are stoic and reserved at their baseline. Years of Soviet rule and communism can be seen in all aspects of life. There is no coloring outside the lines here, people are rule followers. However, behind the hard shell exterior I have found Moldovans to be kind, welcoming and eager to share their culture with outsiders. It just takes a bit of time to crack that shell so to speak :)

V and I are still taking our embassy sponsored Romanian classes. I don’t know how proficient I will become in the local language, but it’s nice to learn some basics to get around town. Romanian is a latin based romance language, with some similarities to Spanish.

Buna Ziua! - When in doubt this is our go to greeting. It’s hello, good afternoon and good day all rolled into one.

Noroc! - honestly not sure if this is Romanian or Russian but widely used greeting and way to say Thank you, good luck, cheers, and can be used as a general greeting also.

Unde este baia? Where is the bathroom? As you can see pretty similar to Spanish.

So how is life going so far? Nearly every morning, Chotu demands to move somewhere where he doesn’t need to wear a jacket (we feel ya).

This week as we were eating breakfast he looked at me, and said “Mom the mango’s were better in Burundi, but the watermelon is better in Moldova”. And that pretty much sums up how it has been- remembering what we loved in our last home while making space to love things in our new one.

We already had our first visitor, when my mom came for 4 weeks to spend Christmas with us. We took a roadtrip to Romania for one week, and were able to experience the typical European Christmas markets (I’ll do another post on this).

Christmas in Moldova

Moldova celebrates Christmas much as we do in the U.S. with Christmas trees, gifts, Santa, and since 90% of the population is orthodox christian- there is a large religious component. Christmas caroling is big here, and we had a ton of carolers on the 25th as well as on Orthodox Christmas. While Christmas is increasingly being celebrated on December 25th, traditionally their Christmas is January 7th and 8th. Let me tell you, this makes for a long Christmas season. It’s already mid January and decorations and Christmas songs are STILL ubiquitous. Going on 2 months of Mariah Carey’s “All i want for Christmas” ….

Looking back

2024 was a good one, and took us to so many fabulous locations. Burundi, South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania & Zanzibar, India, Australia, Moldova, Romania, Georgia, Belgium, DC, Portland, Vegas and San Francisco.

Looking ahead

We get 2 R&R’s in Moldova, and plan to take our first one in the spring. We will also have a ton of visitors this summer, and I’m super excited to show our friends and family our new home town.

Works stuff

Work wise, not much is different for me. MED usually has yearly in person continuing education conferences so we can keep up with the CEU’s needed to maintain our licensure. Last year the conference was at ACEP in Vegas, and the year before that it was in Orlando. I enjoyed Orlando the most because it was a MED only conference meaning it was all department of state medical personnel. I had a great time meeting people from embassy health units around the globe. In Vegas we attended the emergency medicine conference ACEP, so it was a huge conference and not solely DOS personnel. A bit more impersonal, but I was able to hang out with some of my closest friends (my closest friends remain those that I was with in A-100/SOAR class with and a few other medical providers that I have met regionally). This year MED is trying something new- we will all get a flat rate (to include conference fees, flight, and per diem) and can got to a CME of our own choosing. There are a ton of primary care conferences throughout Europe, so I will likely go that route. MED sponsored conferences are usually in the U.S. and honestly I’m happy to not have to make the long flight back to America, and stay local for a change. I’m hoping that next year we move back to a MED only type of style conference, as it is really great to meet up with colleagues.

Ready for 2025, and all the adventures on our horizon.

and now just a random song I heard in a Yandex (local uber) and was feeling. Link below!