Categories: phd
Tags: interview, facebook, Moldova, fieldwork
Date: 13 September 2007 12:06:07
I got asked this today, and then before I could reply the person who asked me said "And don't say anything about the nice people!" I have to admit I laughed, because "The people are lovely" is the stock answer by most Westerners (including me) to that question, probably because it sounds kinder than "Your country's a bit crap really".
It did get me thinking though. And I realised for the first time that the other reason why I tend to reply "The people are lovely" to that question (which you get asked An Awful Lot as a westerner here; men also get asked what they think about Moldovan women, but women never get asked what they think about Moldovan men) is because the honest really truthful answer is "I don't know". This is my 5th time here, in 11 years, and this time I've been here nearly 2 months already. And I still, truly, don't know - or maybe more accurately can't articulate - what I think about it.
Well, except that it's Bonkers, obviously.
[In other news, is anyone else having trouble logging into facebook?]