Rus i romanès

Una de les meves virtuts (i a vegades pot ser un problema) és que no em fa vergonya parlar idiomes. Hi ha gent que li fa vergonya parlar un idioma diferent, perquè té por d'equivocar-se. Jo tinc la gran sort de no tenir gaire manies en aquest aspecte, i prefereixo parlar malament deu llengües, que parlar-ne dues i bé. Així que quan un desconegut vol iniciar una conversa en la llengua que sigui, mai dic que "no l'entenc", si no que faig com si l'entengués i a veure què entenc

Avui estava asseguda al Flatspace, bevent un te amb poma, i he vist com de lluny s'acostava un senyor, la pell molt arrugada i la roba desmanegada. Jo pensava que passaria de llarg, però no, ha començat a parlar en rus, gairebé no l'entenia però ell ha preguntat el de sempre: qui som, què fem allà... i després li he ofert un te. M'ha dit que no, que ell te de fruites i coses així no en beu, només te verd normal. Després li he ofert una galeta (galeta artiach, perquè us la imagineu) i ha dit que sí. N'hi he posat quatre en un plat de plàstic, però ell només n'ha menjat mitja. M'ha dit unes quantes vegades que té una casa molt bonica al centre, al costat de l'hotel Diplomat, i que ara que s'havia quedat sol, podia anar a viure amb ell. Això m'ho ha repetit unes quantes vegades, i m'ha donat les gràcies pel te i les galetes unes trenta vegades. També m'ha preguntat quan podia venir a visitar-nos, que ens portaria flors, i llavors podríem anar a casa seva a visitar-lo. Tot això ho deia amb una boca que tenia unes dents de baix molt llargues, al costat de tres o quatre dents d'or. M'ha explicat que venia de Rússia, que feia 48 anys que vivia a Moldàvia, però quins farts que s'ha fet d'insultar els moldaus.. M'ha dit que aviat marxa a Rússia, que si mai vaig a Moscou que el visiti. Es veu que va estudiar a la MGU i li he dit que jo també. Alguna cosa relacionada amb alguna cosa atòmica. Ja he dit que em costava molt entendre'l. Ha donat les gràcies unes quantes vegades més (en total deu haver estat assegut amb nosaltres una mitja hora) i al final ha marxat

No havia passat ni una hora, que s'ha acostat una senyora de 65 anys per preguntar-nos què era allò. Ella parlava en romanès i jo li he intentat explicar que era d'una organització per joves, i per joves en romanès es diu "pentru tinerete" i aquesta cosa la sé dir, perquè l'he dit ja força vegades. Ella no ho ha acabat d'entendre i m'ha preguntat què érem, si érem un grup de música, si ballàvem, si cantàvem o què fèiem. Jo li he tornat a repetir i m'ha dit si la podíem ajudar, si podia cantar ella al nostre espai, perquè ella era una cantant amb molt de talent però que no ho havia pogut mostrar mai. Jo li he dit que em sabia greu, però que només treballàvem amb gent jove, i m'ha sabut greu dir-li, però no s'ho ha pres malament del tot. Al final ha semblat entendre-ho i se n'ha anat. Però al cap de quinze minuts ha tornat i m'ha fet seure al seu costat. M'ha dit que s'ho havia estat pensant i que, ja que es podia donar el cas que donéssim diners a un jove sense talent, per què no donar-li a ella, que tot i que no era jove, sí que tenia talent. Li he tornat a explicar que l'organització treballava amb gent jove, però no m'ha fet cas. M'ha dit que igualment la podíem ajudar, que si volia em podia cantar una cançó i que veuria que tenia molt de talent. Li he dit que no feia falta, que ja m'ho creia que ho feia molt bé, però que la meva organització és per gent jove. Com que insistia, li he acabat dient que rebíem els diners de la unió europea, que els diners que ens donaven eren només per gent fins a trenta anys. Ha semblat que es calmava i m'ha explicat que treballa al mercat central venent herbes medicinals, que a vegades canta allà però que no ha tingut èxit... però no s'havia calmat. M'ha dit si li podia donar el mail de la meva organització (la unió europea) o si els hi podia escriure per fer-los entendre que, tot i que ja no era jove, tenia molt de talent i seria una llàstima que tot el seu talent es perdés només pel fet de ser d'un país com Moldàvia. Finalment li he acabat dient que sí, que els hi enviaria un mail preguntant, però que no es fes il·lusions. M'he apuntat en un paper el que els hi havia d'escriure: canta qualsevol tipus de música, clàssica, folclòrica. Liudmila. M'ha dit que si la podia ajudar m'estaria agraïda tota la vida. També m'ha preguntat quin dia tornaríem a ser allà (suposo que amb algun representant de la unió europea) per poder venir-nos a cantar. I al final també ha marxat

No rieu, no rieu

One of my virtues (and sometimes can be a problem) is that i'm not ashamed of speaking languages. There is people ashamed of speaking a different language, because is afraid of making mistakes. I'm very lucky because i don't have a lot of manias (manias???) in this aspect, and i prefer to speak wrong ten languages, than two very well. So when a stranger wants to start a conversation with me in whatever language, i never say "i don't understand" and i keep doing as i'm understanding to see what i can understand

Today i was sitting at Flatspace, drinking an apple tea, and i saw how a man was approaching to us, with wrinkled skin and clothes. I thought he won't stop, but of course, he started to talk russian, it was very difficult to understand him, but he asked the same as always: who we are, why are we here,... and then i offered him a tea. He said no, that he doesn't like fruit tea, he doesn't drink this kind of stuff, just plain green tea. Then i offered him a cookie and he said that ok. I put four in a plastic dish, but he just ate half of a cookie. He explained me a few times that he has a beautiful house in the center, next to the Diplomat Hotel, and now that he is alone, i could come to go to live with him. He repeated this a few times, and thanked for the tea and the cookies around thirty times. He also asked when he can come to visit us, that he will bring us flowers, and then we can go to his house to visit him. He was saying all this with a mouth with veeery long low teeth and some gold teeth too. He told me that he came from Russia, that he has been living 48 years in Moldova, but he was insulting soooo much the moldavians... He told me that he will go back soon to Russia and that if i ever go to Moscow i can visit him. He explained me also that he was studying at MGU and i explained him that i also was studying there. Something related with something atomic. I already said that it was very difficult to understand him. He thanked a few times more (in totally, he was there sitting with us around half an hour) and finally left

Less than an hour later, a woman in her 65 approached also to us to ask what was that. She was speaking romanian and i tried to explain her that it was an organization for young people, and for young people in romanian is "pentru tinerete" and this thing i know how to say, because i already said a lot of times. She didn't understand it so well and asked what we were, if we were a music group, if we were dancing, singing or what we were doing. I repeated her the same thing and she asked me if we can help her, if she can sing to our space, because she was a singer with a lot of talent but she hadn't had yet the chance to show it. I said her that i was very sorry, but we were just working with young people, and i was sorry to have to remark this "tinerete", but she wasn't so angry about that. Finally it seemed that she understood and she left. But fifteen minutes later she returned and asked me to sit next to her. She said me that she has been thinking about that and, as far it can be the case that we give money to a young person without talent, why not to give it to her, that although wasn't young anymore, had a lot of talent. I told her again that the organization works only with young people, but she ignored me. She said me that we can help her anyway, that if i want, she could sing me a song so i could see that she has a lot of talent. I said her that it wasn't necessary, that i belived her, but my organization is for young people. As she was insisting, i finally said that we were receiving money from the european union, and that they were giving us money just for people up to thirty years. I thought she calmed down then, she told me that she was working in the central market and that she sold medicinal herbs, that from time to time she sings there but she hasn't had exit so far... but she wasn't calm down. She asked me for the mail of my organization (the european union) or if i could write them to make them understand that, although she wasn't young, she had a lot of talent and it will be a pity to lose all her talent just because she is from a country such as Moldova. Finally i said her that ok, that i will send them a mail just asking, but that i couldn't promise anything. I wrote in a paper what i have to say to them: she sings any kind of music, clasic, folk. Liudmila. She said that if i can help her, she will be grateful all her life. She also asked me which day we will we there again (i guess with some representant of the european union) so she can come to sing for us. And finally she also left

Don't laugh, don't

Escrit del dijous

Al banc on sec, davant de la torre amb la campana, davant la catedral, no hi ha cagarades de colom, tot i que a tot volt n'hi ha, i també moltes plomes. Just quan penso "quina sort que al banc no es caguin", també penso que potser les cagarades són damunt de les persones que s'han assegut al banc, i no pas al banc

Aquest matí he anat a la universitat, a la facultat de lletres, a la classe Història de la literatura romanesa del segle XIX. Quan ha entrat la professora tots els alumnes (les alumnes, més aviat) s'han aixecat un parell de segons. També li han anat a buscar un te, li han donat unes carpetes amb els noms dels assistents... això del te no m'ha sorprès, el que no m'esperava era que s'aixequessin. Jo no sabia què fer, perquè ho he trobat molt d'anar a missa, i com que seia força enrere, prop de la finestra, m'he quedat asseguda. He après coses d'un parell d'autors, escriptors romàntics, però no sé exactament qui eren, perquè em costa molt entendre els cognoms. Tot i que conec els més famosos perquè són també els noms dels carrers de Chisinau

Després he baixat carrer Puixkin avall, perquè eren les onze i tenia gana. He menjat puré de patates barrejat amb remolatxa barrejada amb maionesa. Em fa molt feliç menjar com si dinés a les onze del matí. M'ha costat 9'5 lei. Després he anat a buscar un cafè per emportar i m'he n'ha costat 12. M'he assegut al banc a prendre-me'l, i pel camí m'he creuat una iaia que cridava que la deixessin estar, i que merda, i que era lliure

A les escales de la facultat m'he creuat amb un senyor amb ulleres que feia pinta d'important, que deu ser alguna cosa de cultura, o alguna cosa de l'ambaixada romanesa, perquè va venir un dia que fèiem una conferència d'un arquitecte romanès, i que em va caure malament pels seus aires de semblar important. Avui me l'he creuat i ens hem mirat i m'ha reconegut i ha aixecat les celles. Crec que li ha sonat la meva cara d'haver-la vist en un context molt diferent (una conferència amb quinze persones d'un arquitecte romanès) i no esperava veure-la aquí (les escales de la facultat de lletres, dos mesos després)

Però com ja he dit en altres ocasions, la meva vida aquí és, entre altres coses, una combinació de trobades inesperades i situacions curioses. I com més temps visc aquí, com més em barrejo i això que en diuen, com més m'integro, més trobades i més situacions visc

On the bench where i'm sitting, in front of the tower with the bell, in front of the cathedral, there's no pigeon's shits, although is full of them all around, and also feathers. When i'm thinking "i'm so lucky that they are not shitting on this bench" i also think that maybe all the shits are on the people that have sit on the bench, and not on the bench

This morning i went to the university, to the Faculty of Letters, attending the class History of romanian literature of XIX century. When the professor entered, all the students stood up for a couple of seconds. They also brought her a tea... this thing with the tea didn't surprise me, what i didn't expect was this thing of standing up. I didn't know what to do, i felt like i was in a mass, and because i was sitting far from the professor, close to the window, i stayed in my chair. I learnt things about a couple of authors, romantic writers, but i don't know exactly how are they call, because is very hard to understand surnames. But i know the famous ones, because they are also the names of the street's of Chisinau

After this, i walked down Pushkin's street, because it was eleven and i was hungry. I ate mashed potatoes with beetroot with mayonnaise. I'm very happy if i can have breakfast as it was a lunch. It cost 9'5 lei. After that i went for a take away coffee and it cost me 12 lei. I sat on the bench and on the way there i saw an old woman shouting that they have to live her alone, that shit, that she is free

At the stairs of the faculty, i saw a man that was ... (the catalan version is always more completed, because in one point, i feel lazy to continue with the translation... in conclusion, i saw this man that was in some conference in museum zemstvei, that looks like he is important, and he recognized me, or at least thought that my face was familiar, and he was as surprised as i was to find him there)

But as i had said in other occasions, my life here is a mix of unexpected encounters and curious situations. And, because i'm living here more and more time, and i'm knowing more and more people, i'm also living more encounters and situations

I ja porto més de dos mesos aquí

Avui ha estat un dia complet. Al matí m’ha despertat l’Andrei, que em trucava cinc minuts abans que sonés el despertador. Després he fet els meus exercicis, m’he dutxat, he esmorzat, he escrit i llegit un parell de mails, m’he rentat les dents i he anat cap al centre

A les onze era a l’estàtua d’Stefan Cel Mare i al cap d’una estona i tres o quatre trucades (crec que, senzillament, li fa il·lusió parlar pel mòbil, ara que en té) ha arribat l’Andrei. T’agrada el cafè? Sí, sí. Doncs anem! I primer m’ha portat a veure l’església catòlica, hem entrat a dins i ha resat uns segons, després em portava a un bar a fer un cafè, un bar on havia treballat fa uns mesos, durant quatre anys, però abans ens hem aturat a una casa petita, una mica més a baix d’Stefan cel mare, abans d’arribar a Albisoara. M’ha dit: vine, que et donaré raïms! I m’ha fet entrar al jardí de la casa petita, s’ha enfilat per agafar uns quants raïms i després ha picat a la porta. BOBA! BOBA! I ha sortit el tal Boba rascant-se la panxa i m’han fet passar. Vols pelmeni? No, no, gràcies... Però m’han fet seure en un banquet petit petit i en Boba i un altre noi a qui li diuen Panda (i que ve del nord més nord de Rússia) s’han assegut al llit, i dos tamborets amb un paper damunt eren la taula, així que han repartit els pelmeni i l’amanida entre tres i m’han donat un tros de pa, però no m’han donat vodka perquè sóc una noia, i les noies no bevem. Han rigut i m’han dit que pronuncio molt bé el rus, sobretot el “da”, i que què hi faig aquí, venint de Barcelona i parlant rus. Després hem anat al bar on treballava l’Andrei i jo bevia cafè a la terrasseta mentre ell ajudava a la propietaria a col·locar taules. Els bars d’aquí, a no sé que siguin més al centre, són diferents al que us imagineu, sobretot si no heu viatjat per aquí. No són entretinguts com els nostres, on sempre hi ha coses per mirar a la paret o a darrera la barra. Són bars, punt, hi vas per beure i, potser, per menjar alguna cosa

Després li he dit a l’Andrei que havia de marxar, però abans m’ha fet anar a saludar a l’home de la botigueta que arregla sabates. L’home m’ha explicat que tenia un germà treballant a Pamplona i que quan ell tingués el passaport romanès també volia anar a Barcelona. M’ha dit que si se m’espatllaven les sabates que anés allà, que me les arreglaria, i s’ha apuntat el meu número en una agenda. Jo he pensat com va això, si no hauria estat més lògic que ell em donés el seu número, però tan se val, aquí la nostra lògica no funciona

Després del sabater he anat al parc del llac, a dinar amb la Cathy. Pel camí m’he posat els raïms al bolso, i al cap d’una estona tot estava tacat, així que he acabat d’arribar al parc amb els raïms a la mà. He mirat com la Cathy dinava i després he marxat perquè havia quedat per dinar un kebab. Ni tan sols em venia de gust, menjar kebab, però ja ho havia dit, així que he anat fins on vivia abans per anar a menjar a l’starkebab. Pel camí m’he trobat a la Veronica, que just ahir va començar la universitat i que estava molt contenta. Amb ella anaven dues noies alemanyes que van arribar ahir i encara estaven espantades per tot, i una noia de Chisinau enamorada d’espanya

A les tres de la tarda he menjat un kebab amb la Bianca, amb patates fregides a dins, i el noi ens ha donat dos caramels. Aquí encara no ho he vist fer, però a Bòsnia i a Ucraïna sí, que quan no tenen prous monedes per tornar el canvi et donen caramels, que representa que valdrien el mateix que aquest canvi (les monedes no solen gaire valdre res i és més el detall que el preu), i a mi sempre em fa somriure rebre caramels, i avui no ha estat pel canvi, però m’ha fet contenta rebre caramels amb el kebab

Havent dinat he anat a casa a estirar-me una estona i entre els llibres del meu menjador-habitació hi he trobat un llibre de contes de Platonov i això m’ha posat tant o més contenta que els caramels

Llavors hem anat al centre de nou amb la Helen, perquè volia fer una entrevista a una advocada russa que treballa a una associació que intenta prevenir el tràfic humà a Moldàvia, i com que l’advocada parlava poc anglès i poc francès, jo hi he anat a fer d’intèrpret (el preu que ha hagut de pagar la Helen per la meva feina és una pizza i una cervesa, surto prou barata). He après moltes coses, com per exemple que pel que fa aquest tema, la col·laboració amb Turquia, Rússia i els Emirats Àrabs és molt dolenta, perquè tant els hi fa, i en canvi amb Ucraïna és molt bona. També he après que el perfil de traficant sexual és de noia, normalment de l’edat de la víctima, normalment entre el cercle de coneguts i amistats de la víctima. En canvi el perfil de traficant laboral (com es diria, això..) tan pot ser home com dona, que normalment van amb la història que tenen una empresa on guanyaran molts diners i.. ah sorpresa, no era veritat. També he après que sovint les víctimes no declaren, perquè són coaccionades físicament pels traficants o perquè els hi paguen diners

Després d’aprendre tantes coses, hem tornat a casa i quan estava escrivint sobre el sabater, m’ha trucat un número desconegut. He pensat: no pot ser, el sabater!! Però no era el sabater, si no la Nika, que volia canviar la projecció del documental de la Pina Bausch i fer-la el divendres enlloc de dissabte i que si podíem començar a fer la publicitat avui. He dit que no, però demà si que ho faré

Així que ara descanso del meu dia complet i penso que potser l’acabaré de fer rodó llegint-me un altre conte de Platonov i menjant una mica de sopa

Today has been a good day. In the morning, Andrey woke me up, because he was calling me five minutes before the alarm clock rang. After my exercises, i took a shower, had a breakfast, wrote and read a couple of mails, cleaned my teeth and went to the center

At 11 i was next to the statue of Stefan cel Mare, and after a while and three or four calls (i think that he just like to speak by mobile, now that he has one) Andrey arrived. Do you like coffee? Yes, yes. Then let’s go! And first we went to visit a catholic church, we entered inside and he prayed a few seconds, then he was taking me to a bar to drink coffee, a bar where he used to work until a few months ago, during four years, but before we stopped in front of a little house, somewhere between Stefan cel mare and Albisoara. He told me: come, i will give you grapes! And i had to enter to the garden of the small house, he climbed to take some grapes and then he knocked the door. BOBA! BOBA! And Boba came out scratching his belly and I was forced to enter. Do you want pelmeni? No, no, thank you... But i had to sit in a very very tiny chair and Boba and another boy called “Panda” (and that comes from the northest of the north of Russia) sit on the bed, and two chairs with a paper on them were our table, and they split the pelmeni and the salad in three and gave me an slice of bread, but they didn’t give me vodka, because i’m a girl, and the girls don’t drink. They make fun of me and said that i pronounce russian very well, specially “da”, and what am i doing here, if i come from Barcelona and speaking russian. Then we went with Andrey to the bar where he used to work and i was drinking coffee in the terrace and he was helping the owner to distribute the tables. Here the bars, if they are not in the center, are different of how you imagine them, specially if you haven’t travel around here. They are not so “entretained” as ours, where there’s always something to look at, on the walls or behind the bar. They are bars, you go there to drink, and maybe, to eat something

After this i told Andrey that i had to leave, but before i had to go to say hello to the man that fixes shoes. The man explained me that he has a brother working in Pamplona and that when he will have the romanian passport he also wants to go to Barcelona. He told me that if i had to fix my shoes, i should go there, that he will fix them, and he wrote my phone in an agenda. I thought how this can be, if it won’t be more logic that i write down his mobile, but doesn’t matter, here our logic doesn’t work

After the shoemaker i went to the park with the lake to have lunch with Cathy. On my way there i put the grapes inside my bag and after a while everything was dirty, so i arrived at the park with the grapes on my hand. I watched how Cathy was eating and then i left because i had an appointment to eat a kebab. I didn’t even want a kebab, but i already said, so i went until where i used to live to eat at starkebab. On the way i met Veronica, that started university yesterday and that was very happy. With here went two german girls that arrived yesterday and that were still scared and a girl from Chisinau that was in love with spain

At three i ate a kebab with Bianca, with chips inside, and the boy that was making kebabs gave us two candies. I haven’t seen it here yet, but i have seen it in Bosnia and Ukraine, that when they don’t have enough coins to return you your change they give you candies for the same value of your change (the coins don’t have any value here, and is more the detail than the price) and to receive candies always makes me smile, and today it wasn’t because of the change, but i was happy to receive some candies with the kebab

After lunch, i went home to lie down a little bit and i found, in my livingroom-room a book with stories from Platonov and this made me even more happy than the candies

Then we went to the center again with Helen, because she wanted to interview a russian lawyer that works in an organization that tries to prevent human traffic in Moldova, and because the lawyer speaks a very poor english and french, i went there to do the interpretation (the price that Helen had to pay was a pizza and a beer, i’m quite cheap). I learned a lot of things, like for example, that in this topic, the collaboration with Turkey, Russia and Emirates is very bad, because they don’t care, but is very good with Ukraine. That the profile of sexual trafficant is usually a girl, usually from the same age of the victim, usually an acquittance of the victim. On the other side, the profile of labour trafficant can be a man or a woman, that usually goes with the story that they have a good business, where you can do good money.. and surprise, is not true. I also learned that usually the victims don’t declare, because they are phisically intimidated or because they are paid.

After learning so many things, we went home and when i was writting about the shoemaker, an unknow number called me. I though: no way, the shoemaker! But it wasn’t him, but Nika, that wanted to change the screening of Pina Bausch’s documentary and do it on friday instead of saturday and if we can start today with the publicity. I said no, but that i will do tomorrow

So now i rest of my complet day and think that i might finish it by reading another Platonov’s story and eating some soup

Sota l’ombra de Lenin / Under Lenin’s shadow

Aquests dies estan de visita a Chisinau l’Estel i en Sergi, i com que sé que tenien més ganes de veure Tiraspol que Chisinau, aquest matí hem agafat un minibus i hem anat cap allà, cap a la perillosa Transnístria. El paisatge moldau és bonic, ondulat i d’un verd i d’un groc suau.

Poc abans d’arribar a la frontera, l’Estel m’ha dit “aviam que no ens facin pagar res” i jo li he dit “tranquil·la, que a mi mai no em passa res”. I no és que no em passi mai res, però no, estava convençuda que a la frontera no ens passaria res, perquè mai no em passen aquest tipus de coses. Així que hem arribat a la frontera, ens han fet baixar, hem ensenyat el passaport al policia d’una caseta petita, i mentre esperava que els altres del grup passessin pel policia, he parlat amb una parella russa de Chisinau que se n’anava a passar les vacances a Odessa. Han estat molt amables i m’han explicat que Tiraspol no és gaire bonic, però que és un exemple de ciutat socialista, que és molt llarga i que va recorrent el riu. També m’han dit que l’últim minibus de tornada surt a les 18.45, però que millor agafar-lo cap a les 18.00 perquè un cop es comença a fer fosc ja no és segur que en surti cap més

Al cap d’una estona (d’uns quants tancs aturats, unes quantes escultures, i edificis d’aquests que per aquí n’hi ha tants), hem arribat a l’estació de trens de Tiraspol

Hem voltat pel carrer principal, hem vist un monument a això, un monument a allò, un monument a aquest i a aquest altre, i una estàtua molt grossa d’en Lenin. També hem vist el riu, edificis grossos, i la veritat és que no crec que hi hagi gaire res més, a Tiraspol

El que sí que hi ha són uns quants soldats, moltes falç amb martell i, almenys avui, molts, molts casaments. Si dic que avui ens hem creuat amb una desena de limusines i una trentena de casaments de parelles diferents no estaré exagerant. Potser ho fa que demà és el dia de la Independència i volen poder dir que es van casar el dia abans? Potser és que casar-se l’1 de setembre és una data fàcil de recordar? En qualsevol cas hem vist moltes núvies, i molts nens amb camises blanques i pantalons negres i nenes i noietes vestides com minyones de pel·lícula porno amb flors de roba blanques enormes al cap

Després de voltar hem anat a buscar el minibus de tornada. A l’Estel i en Sergi només els hi quedaven 61 rubles, i la tornada costava 68. Així que el conductor ha engrapat els 61 rubles i els ha barrejat amb la resta. Li he intentat explicar: els diners que falten te’ls pagaran amb leis moldaus. I ell ha dit: sí, però quants diners m’han donat? 61. Doncs falten 7 rubles! Però se’ls hi han acabat els rubles, volen pagar la diferència amb leis! Ah, val! 7 leis! No, no pot ser! Sí, tens raó, 8 leis. Hem pujat al minibus i ha arrencat al cap d’una estona. Quan portàvem cinc minuts de conversa, una senyora s’ha girat i ens ha preguntat si érem espanyols. Psí, bé, per què? Es veu que era professora d’espanyol (parlàvem en català i s’ha pensat que parlàvem en espanyol, així que no sé..) i que tenia un dubte: Per què els apartaments interiors a espanya no tenen finestres?

M’ha costat entendre perquè aquesta senyora tenia aquest dubte i no entenia el concepte “pati de llums”. Aquí no n’hi ha, de patis de llums. Hi ha prou espai perquè els edificis siguin allargats i separats els uns dels altres i de fet, tots els pisos donin al carrer, tots siguin exteriors. Així que al final m’he imaginat que, per aquesta senyora, un edifici “interior” era un edifici posat a dins d’un altre edifici, com unes nines russes, i que clar, no podien tenir finestres

These days, Estel and Sergi are visiting Chisinau, and as i know that they wanted more to visit Tiraspol than Chisinau, this morning we took a minibus and went there, to the dangerous Transnistria. The moldavian landscape is beautiful, wavy and painted with a soft yellow and green

Just before the border, Estel said to me “let’s hope we won’t have to pay” and i said to her “don’t worry, never happens anything to me”. And is not true, that anything never happens to me, but no, i was convinced that nothing will happen to us in the border, because this kind of stuff never happens to me. So we arrived to the border, we had to go out from the bus, we showed our passport to the police in a small house and while i was waiting for the rest of the group to pass the control, i spoke with a russian couple from Chisinau that was going to Odessa for holidays. They were very kind and they explained that Tiraspol is not very beautiful, but is an example of socialist city, that is very long and it goes along the river. They also explained that the last minibus to go back home leaves at 18.45, but that is better to take it at 18.00 because when it starts to be dark nothing is for sure anymore

After a while (after some parked tanks, some sculptures and these buildings that here are so usual), we arrived to the Tiraspol’s train station

We walked around the main street, we saw a monument of this, a monument of that, a monument to this, a monument to that, and a very big Lenin’s statue. We also saw the river, big buildings, and i really don’t think there’s a lot more to see in Tiraspol

Well, there are also some soldiers, a lot of communist symbols and, at least today, a lot, a lot of weddings. If i say that today we saw around 10 limousines and like 30 weddings, i won’t be exaggerating. Maybe it was because tomorrow is Independence day and they want to say that they got married the day before? Maybe because getting married at the 1st September is an easy date to remember? Anyway, we saw a lot of brides, and a lot of boys with white shirts and black trousers and girls dressed like porno french maids with cloth big white flowers on their heads

After walking around, we went to take the minibus to go home. Estel and Sergi just had 61 rubles, and the returning was 68. So the driver took the 61 rubles and mixed them with the rest. I tried to explain: the rest of the money they will pay on moldavian leis. And he said: yes, but how much did they give? 61. So they still need to pay 7 rubles. But they don’t have more rubles, they want to pay the rest with leis! Ah, ok! 7 leis! No, it can not be! Yes, you are right, 8 leis. We went into the minibus and it started. After five minutes of conversation, a woman asked us if we were spanish. Psyea, well, why? She was an spanish teacher (we were talking in catalan and she thought it was spanish, so i don’t know..) and she had a doubt: Why the “interior” flats in spanish don’t have windows?

It was difficult to understand why this woman has this doubt, but whatever, i feel difficult to explain it also in english, so try to understand the catalan version

:)