Monday, September 19, 2011

156. Professional Day

I had just gotten back to the house from a weekend in Chisinau and sat down with my host mother to eat a late lunch.  She then informed me that it was ‘Professional Day’ which is a day to relax with your coworkers, thank your boss and for your boss to thank you for your work.  She said that my host dad, his coworkers, his boss and his colleagues from another village are having a cookout by the lake.  She said if I wanted to go, I could.


While I was a little tired from the weekend away from home, I figured that I needed to experience this event.  Plus I knew the food would be good and I enjoy hanging out with my host dad’s coworkers.  So I finished my lunch and let my host dad I was on my way.


Like any event Moldovans put on, there was a huge amount of food.  Grilled pork, placinta (thin bread flat and round with cheese, potatoes, cabbage, or other foods inside), watermelon, grilled chicken, cucumber and tomatoes salad, brinza (traditional homemade cheese) and many other good foods.  There were seven men that worked for the gas company at the event with their children and wives.  Each of the seven men brought a drink to share.  My host dad brought our homemade liquor, another brought homemade Champaign, and the rest brought homemade wine.  Throughout the afternoon and evening the group sat down to the table on three different occasions to eat, usually when a new dish came off the grill.


The one thing that I noticed that is a major cultural difference between what I am use to and the Moldavians at the event, after the final meal the women were cleaning up and the guys took some food to snack on and brought out some more wine.  They then said, let’s dance and one guy turned up the music and all of the men age 35 to 62 started dancing.  It was defiantly something I was not use to.  But eventually the women came out to dance with their husbands.


Overall it was a very fun event.  I enjoyed the discussions and tasting the different people’s wines.  I hope that in the future, the company I work for/run will have some fun event like this for ‘Professional Day’.

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