The following are strictly personal views/observations and in no way reflect the views of the Peace Corp nor the federal government of the United States.

Thursday was swearing in, thus I am now officially a Peace Corp volunteer. The most interesting part of the entire event was the reception. Because the reception, was an interesting look into Moldovan buffet dining. Apparently here they do not form a Q and move down the line selecting items from trays which they care to dine on. The chosen method here is to position oneselves in front of one area of the spread and dine on everything within arms reach. Once in position there is not moving from that spot before satiation.
To move into a Moldovan’s selected area of table is similar to a dog moving into territory which has been urinated on and thus marked by another dog. In other words, the consequences are dire. I watched as one volunteer attempted to sandwich between two sizeable Moldovan women who had marked their territory on the buffet, the result was that they used their size against him and removed him from the table region. However, during this rebuffing he did manage to spill an entire glass of red wine on the sizable rear end of one woman. Despite the large, obvious stain on her rump she was unphased and continued to consume, at an astonishing rate of speed, all that was before her.
During the reception I was witness to the descent of approximatively 100 Moldovans and 50 Peace Corp volunteers, all with the sensibilities of locusts, on a buffet that consisted of 15 tables crammed with food, 50 bottles of wine, and 50 bottles of water. The area was cleared of all potable liquids and all consumable foods within a time frame of 20 minutes. God himself couldn’t have summoned a scourge as fearsome as this pack.