Hello!

So this is officially my LAST journal entry! Surprise! I am back in Kansas! For good. Yes, really. (Well, at least until Thursday.)

The Peace Corps was wonderful. I loved the country, the people, my job, the language, all of it. But, my life had been pretty crazy in the months before I left. I applied to the Peace Corps in September, started dating Klint in October, a short time later we got engaged, and a week after that I was in Bulgaria. My life seemed to be happening so quickly! I spent the last month in Bulgaria trying to figure out exactly how to balance these new priorities I had in my life. Serving in the Peace Corps had been something I wanted to do all through college. But, after I met someone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, it sort of stopped making sense to me to be experiencing this without him.

It was a difficult decision to make. Like I said, I loved being there. Even more, I knew had made a commitment to the Peace Corps and there was a school that was looking forward to having a volunteer. But, I had been there long enough to know that I wasn’t going to be able to maintain the same relationship with my fiance from the other side of the world for 27 months. I knew that my heart couldn’t completely be in both places at the same time. I had to ask myself what the least selfish decision would be in this situation, because it seemed that no matter what I did, I would be letting someone down. Looking at it from that perspective, I knew that the right decision was to come back and be with Klint.

I was so grateful to the Peace Corps staff for being so understanding. They told me that they were glad that I was going home for such a happy reason! My language trainer came to me and told me she thought I was making the right decision, which was comforting to hear after making a tough decision. They only further strengthened one of the things that made it hard to leave in the first place – that the Peace Corps is an amazing organization full of wonderful people.

So here I am! I got back into town on Thursday night, much to the surprise of all of my family! Klint of course knew that I was on my way back, but I decided to have a little fun with my family and not tell them ahead of time. Becky picked me up at the airport, and we first stopped in Lawrence to say hi to my sister and Steve. I think they were more confused than anything. We got to my parents house about 11 pm, and it was great to see the look on their face! My dad’s jaw dropped and he just stared at me for a while. I couldn’t get him to say anything for a while! I’ve actually had a lot of fun the past couple days seeing people’s reactions!

So, this week I am headed out to North Carolina to look for an apartment and a job. But, I will certainly be back and forth because we now have a wedding to plan. Since Klint’s schedule with school is so tight, we really can’t plan anything for next year without taking a risk of him not being able to come (minor detail). We don’t really want to wait, because we will be moving when Klint is assigned to a team next summer, and we need to be married by then for all sorts of housing and financial purposes. So, we are trying to figure something out for either the Saturday after Thanksgiving or the Friday before Christmas. I know everyone will hate me for scheduling ANOTHER thing to make that time even more stressful, but we are low on options, especially trying to book things on such short notice. Hopefully you all will come!

So, that’s it for me. I can’t say enough good things about the Peace Corps, but now that I am back, I know that I definitely have made the right decision. Klint and I think that maybe one day we might go back and do the Peace Corps together – and actually stay for 27 months this time! And as for Bulgaria...I am really thankful that my host family has a family friend that speaks English, because body language and gestures don’t translate very well on the phone or in letters. I hope to keep in touch with all of them as they were so great to me. Maybe I’ll continue studying Bulgarian on my own??? That would take some motivation. I really do like learning languages, though, so it’s a possibility! We might actually get back there sooner that I thought, though, as Klint might end up on a team stationed in Europe. I told my host family that I would bring Klint over to meet them if we ever get the chance. We will see!

Thanks for reading my journal, everyone – I hope you forgive me for cutting it short! I have my old cell phone back with the same number, so give me a call sometime! I hope to see you all soon!

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

This week was one of the most important ones so far for us as volunteers…we found out our permanent placement – where we will spend the rest of our time in the Peace Corps –yesterday. The Peace Corps currently has about 150 volunteers all over the country – some are English teachers while others work in community development or youth development. Our new group of 50 volunteers will replace the teachers that finish their service this summer. So, I have been assigned to the school in Gorna Malina, which is just about a half an hour outside of Sofia, the capital. I don’t think I could have asked for a better placement. I requested to be in a small town (most primary teachers are in small towns, anyway) – and that is just what I got…Gorna Malina has only about 1500 people. The school includes grades 1-12 and there are only 331 students and about 30 teachers. I have heard that volunteers tend to do well in small towns because everyone in the community knows them and welcomes them – I guess in bigger cities this is a bit more difficult to do. I think it is a perfect placement for me; a small community but very close to the city.

We were back in Pazardjik Monday and Tuesday for more training, and yesterday our counterparts – the English teachers from our new schools with whom we will be working – met us there as well. This morning we all traveled with our counterparts to visit our new site for a few days. Our school director came to pick us up, and we had about a two hour drive back to Gorna Malina. It was a beautiful drive, as the mountains run all along Western Bulgaria. We were lucky to have such a short drive – some of the other volunteers who were farther away and were taking buses and trains had 10 trips ahead of them. But I suppose no one could really complain, because I am sure there was much to look forward to. There is one volunteer who will be living right on the coast of the Black Sea and several others living right in the mountains – one is actually living in a ski resort town, another in a spa town! Bulgaria seems to have everything you could want! My school director has offered to take me hiking in the mountains this summer with his family. As we drove by Sofia, we could see one of the big snow capped mountains and it got me very excited for ski season!

Today was again another long day of touring, meeting people, and, of course, eating. The school is very nice. It seems to be in much better condition than the school in Kaloyanovo. There is a beautiful courtyard outside as well as a fairly large stadium. They have a gym with a volleyball net, basketball goals, and soccer goals, and a computer lab. They want me to help out with some computer classes this summer – hopefully they are meaning elementary computer classes, because I am not sure I can offer much more than that!

My counterpart, Kirilka, has a wonderful classroom. The more I get to know her, the more I really like her. She is in her early forties, is divorced, and lives in Elin Pelin, a town of about 8,000?? just outside of Gorna Malina. She lives with her sister, who is a doctor, and their parents. Her father was also a teacher – he taught history – and her mother was a pediatrician. Kirilka actually studied physics in college, and worked for 4 years in St. Petersburg, Russia. I guess that when she returned to Bulgaria she couldn’t find work, so at 27 she went back to school to learn English and become a teacher. I had dinner with the four of them tonight, along with Kirilka’s cousin and his wife, who is also a doctor (and is sooo excited to practice her English with me, which I of course am happy to do!). One of the first things we did was look at their fairly extensive library, although all of their books were in either Bulgarian or Russian. Kirilka was so thoughtful and had found a few books in English to give me as a gift – anything printed in English is like gold to me right now! – so I am going to start first on Robinson Crusoe. I told her that I hope to be borrowing from her Bulgarian library someday soon!

Her family was full of gifts for me tonight. Her mom and her sister both are avid knitters, so tonight her mom took my measurements so she could knit me a sweater. Apparently she likes to knit while she is watching Bold and the Beautiful at night  (For whatever reason that show seems to be pretty popular here – Ridge Forrester was one of the first people that my host sister Maria asked me about after I arrived in Kaloyanovo. I guess my mom isn’t the only one with the guilty pleasure of watching cheesy soap operas! But these horribly cheesy soap operas are a good example of exactly what Bulgarian music videos are like. They are so horrible I can hardly stand to watch them! I couldn’t believe how risqué (sp?) they are, along with everything in the media – but that’s a whole different story!) Anyway, she got out her books to have me pick something out, but her sister then insisted I come upstairs to just look at hers to decide what I would like. She probably had 30 sweaters that she had knitted herself, so they kept having me try them on, and when all was said and done, I left with two new sweaters and one on the way.

Tuesday, May 23, 2005

The rest of my stay in Gorna Malina continued with lots of introductions, including more of the students. Kirilka has students of nearly every grade between 3rd and 12th (the Minister of Education just moved back the start date for learning a language to 3rd grade, I think?? I think that is so unfortunate for students in the States that we don’t require a second language at a younger age as they do in so many other places. There is so much that goes along with studying a language – understanding and accepting different cultures, exploring the world, etc., etc. Maybe someday!). I was so impressed at how much the students knew and how eager they were to learn. On Friday she had me teach her 3rd grade class, and it was so encouraging to actually have conversations with them, even in their first year of study! Kirilka seems to be a very effective teacher, and her students clearly respect her very much. I think that I could learn a lot from her. Her written English is very good, but she has very little practice using it with a native speaker (we have a little bit of difficulty communicating), so I think that having a volunteer around will be really beneficial for her, too.

Thursday Kirilka took me to Sofia to do some sightseeing. Sofia is such a beautiful city. I had only seen Sofia from a distance as we were leaving the airport, and while the mountains in the background were very picturesque, my impression of the city from afar wasn’t all that great. Since Sofia kind of sets in a valley, the air pollution can be heavy at times. On the outskirts, the tall buildings that draw your attention are the old communist bloc housing, which are all simple, uniform structures that are in pretty bad shape. Once I got into the city center, though, my opinion of the city changed completely. She took me around Sofia University, where she studied, which is situated near many government buildings. In the center there is a national library, various embassies, the Parliament, and the Aleksander Nemski (not sure of that spelling??) Orthodox Church. It is beautiful. It seems that I am using that word a lot lately, but I think Sofia is very deserving of such a description! I finally took some pictures – so maybe someday soon I will figure out how to post them here.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Today I walked to school with a herd of goats – about 20 of them, actually. I know I grew up surrounded by farms and animals, but I was still so entertained by this that it just made my day. I guess it is still amusing to see how the animals share the roads and sidewalks with everyone else.

Speaking of sharing the roads…I very quickly became acquainted with the very non-pedestrian friendly roads here in Bulgaria. Bulgarian drivers are absolutely mad. I had read somewhere that putting on your seatbelt in someone else’s car might actually offend the driver, implying that he or she is a bad driver. ???? The first time I got in the car with Maria, I habitually reached for my seatbelt, and before I could even get it halfway pulled down, she said “ne, ne, ne, Kaloyanovo, ne”. I figured she had a point – what few streets Kaloyanovo does have are in pretty bad condition and with all of the potholes and random people/animals/whatever else in the road, one can’t gain much speed anyway. But every time since then, I habitually reach for my seat belt, and every time she protests. Last night I went on some errands with her in a different town, and as we got on the highway I went ahead and put it on, and she just looked over, sighed, and said “okay”. Maybe I did offend her??? I have found it interesting (but mainly just frightening) that Bulgarians are fond of creating a “third lane” on two lane highways; that is a lane right down the middle, straddling the center line. I suppose it is a more efficient way to pass – you avoid going back and forth – so why not? I am curious what happens when a driver in the oncoming traffic has the same idea…whoever gets there first wins? I am not sure.

Maybe I shouldn’t be sharing stories like these? I am afraid I might give mom a heart attack. Don’t worry, though, no one in my family drives like that, I promise!

My language teacher, Margarita, came to visit our house tonight to check on things like the boiler and fuses, so it was nice to have a translator for a brief period. We sat down to have tea, and Tsetsa and Margarita began chatting, and with the few words I do know, I could tell they were discussing Americans, the Peace Corps, etc. Margarita turned to me and said, “Tsetsa doesn’t understand why the Americans are here.” This was a question I had dreaded since I arrived here. I figured that at some point, I would have to face someone who viewed the Peace Corps as just a way of Americans imposing values, cultures, beliefs, etc. on these poor, small countries. I took a deep breath and thought for a moment about exactly how I would respond to this, explaining why I wanted to teach English without confirming exactly what they were thinking. But Margarita continued, “Tsetsa says that to her, America is a magical place, like a fairytale. She doesn’t understand why you would want to leave.” I was nearly speechless, because I don’t think I had ever thought of my home as a fairytale. But, I guess at that moment, it helped make real one thing I had hoped to learn in the Peace Corps. I tried to explain this to Margarita – that maybe we don’t realize what we do have until you have a different perspective on it. Even more so, in Kaloyanovo, where things are slow paced and life is simple (I like to compare it to Wamego – sigh ), their happiness is having a four hour dinner with lots people and plenty of Rakia (the homemade whisky that every Bulgarian has in their home – they have finally given up on getting me to drink it!) and even having a Wal-Mart down the street to sell them a gazillion different things can’t make it any better (not to say I don’t shop at Wal-Mart too!).

While I am thinking about it, I realized I hadn’t shared one of the most bizarre things I have come across in Bulgaria so far: the showers. The bathrooms do not have bathtubs, shower stalls, or even shower curtains. There is shower head on the wall and a drain in the floor. So, everything gets wet. The toilet paper has a plastic cover, so I guess everything else you don’t worry about, because it will all dry. It was a strange thing to get used to!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Again, I have been neglecting my journal, I know. They had warned us that these first 11 weeks would be pretty crazy, and, yep, they are. They are cramming all of the language training, teacher training, and teaching practice in that they can. When I do have any down time, it seems that Maria is right there to fill it – which is wonderful, because I enjoy her and her friends/family so much; I just hope I don’t wear down! I have decided I must be the kid sister Maria never had, because she takes me everywhere with her. She doesn’t speak a word of English (okay, she knows shopping and house – but that doesn’t get us too far!), but she knows exactly which Bulgarian words I know, and using those (very few) words, the dictionary that never leaves my side, and lots of body language, we can communicate beautifully (which is a relative term, but we’ll just say I am certainly open for improvement!).

Thursday the elementary school cancelled classes in order to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the schools founding. They had all sorts of activities in each classroom for the students to compete in – different art projects, beautiful food dish preparation, a pet show, hair styling, flower arrangements, cake decorating, etc. The English teacher, Katia, took us to see the cakes, and there were about 5 or 6 beautiful cakes sitting out to be judged. The students and teachers were all gathered around to see them, and when we came in, they insisted we tell them which we liked best, sat us down, and made us be the first to try the cake. I feel like sometimes they treat us like royalty.

The first time we came to the school to observe Katia’s classes, she told us that the school director wanted to meet us. Katia had us sit in the teacher’s lounge, where we got to meet all of the teachers and the director, Tanya. They had brought out the traditional welcoming bread – a big loaf of bread that is dipped in plate of salt, red pepper, and thyme (I think) presented as the stripes of the Bulgarian flag (white, green, and red). We had also done this when we arrived in Strelcha, but they wanted us to know that they only do this at Christmas or for very special visitors, so it was a wonderful gesture to let us know we were welcomed.

The students have also been welcoming, but maybe show it a little differently. It seems that wherever we go, there is a swarm of 10 or so students close behind. Now when I see them on the street, they recognize me and say “Hello!” or maybe even “How are you?” from the brave ones. Today I actually heard “Hello, Gina!”. Gina is one of the other volunteers here , so at least I know they are paying attention to something! I know that we are the first volunteers to be here in Kaloyanovo, and I am glad that they are excited to have us.

Friday class was also cancelled, this time for St. George’s Day. St. George was a famous dragon fighter, and is known as the patron saint of the Army. So, it is also known as Army Day, and I guess is a pretty big holiday here. Most people were off work, but we still had class, so Maria picked me up from class at 12:30 to go to our holiday dinner. Traditionally, every family sacrifices a lamb, a sort of offering of the first fruit of the season (I think?). Today, they still eat lamb on the holiday, and a neighborhood will cook it together. It looked to me that there are ovens of some sort built into the walls outside the houses. Everyone from the neighborhood brings their lamb to cook there, and they all stand around and hang out while its cooking. So, after class, we went and picked up Rangil and the lamb, and took it back to Rangil/Maria/Rangil’s parents’ house for lunch. Rangil’s sister (I still cannot remember her name!) and her husband Toni came, as well as some others, and again there was so much food I was just about miserable. But it was good!

We left from there (after about 5 hours!) to go to the 17th birthday party of Maria’s cousin. They had the party in a little lodge/restaurant/discotheque up in the mountains, and it was beautiful. Again, I found someone that spoke English (!), Maggie, so she got to do a little translating for me. Her boyfriend is in the Bulgarian military, and so we started chatting a little (as much as one can with limited translation) about that, and he informed me that in June his base is going to start preparing for the American troops to move in this August. I asked him how he felt about that, and he just simply said that it didn’t really matter what he felt, because they were coming either way. I tried to tell him a little bit about what Klint does, and he was very interested and wants to meet him, so I guess Klint is already starting to make some friends here, too .

My host parents’ son, Robert has been in London with his girlfriend, Ginka, for the past two years, and she just got into town last week, so I got to meet her on Saturday. Although he doesn’t speak English, hers is nearly flawless, but she came back home for at least a few months, maybe permanently, to help her parents with a new building supply store they just opened. Ginka, Maria, and I went to Plovdiv, the second largest city in the country, to meet up with Maria’s sister-in-law and to do some shopping. Although it was rainy, windy, and cold (unusual for this time of year), what we did manage to see of the city was very pretty and reminded me of cities you might see in western Europe. It was an interesting experience, though. I think I can safely say that I am probably in one of the few Peace Corps countries in which your weekend activities include shopping for designer clothes. That is just what we were doing on Saturday – looking at things I can’t afford at home. I am not entirely sure what to make of things like this. I had heard when I first arrived in Chicago that Peace Corps Bulgaria is also known as the “Posh Corps”, as many volunteers live in apartments nicer than their homes in the states. Bulgaria certainly has a lot of progress to be made, but it seems that everyone around me is living a very comfortable life. I am interested if this is just the disparity between rich and poor??? It makes for an interesting Peace Corps experience. So much to take in right now…

Sunday I got to go to my first ever Bulgarian wedding. It was a Catholic wedding, and it was the first time I got to visit Kaloyanovo’s brand new church – I think it is only a year or two old. The church was fairly modern in style, and the wedding was much the same as a Catholic wedding at home – except that they don’t have the huge wedding party, just two witnesses wearing regular clothes. At the end of the ceremony, everyone came outside to the street where there was a saxophone, accordion, and drum playing traditional Bulgarian music. The bride and groom and their families formed a line/horseshoe around the musicians, holding hands, and danced their traditional step dances (like the ones we had learned in Strelcha and saw performed by the children’s group). It was a neat tradition. I found it amusing that one of the ice cream ladies in town (who has a little cart selling ice cream cones for 50 stotinki) set up shop right there in the middle of the crowd. I guess it was a good spot for business.

Monday all 50 of us trainees met at our first “HUB” meeting in Pazardjik for an exhausting two days. This was where they really crammed in the meetings and training. We spent the night there, and although many of the guide books said to stay away from Pazardjik unless you want to get robbed (pickpocket here, as in the rest of Europe, are highly skilled professionals), the area around our hotel and meeting site was wonderful. There were blocks lined with shops and outdoor cafes, and there was a little city center with some different performances in the square – singing and dancing and whatnot. It was nice to be in a city for a change where there was so much going on!

So, finally, I am catching up on my journal entries! That leaves me with today…today was my first day teaching my own class, and I survived! I had the eighth grade, which I think could potentially be pretty dangerous with the attitudes and hormones and whatnot, but I thought that it went really well. I actually kind of enjoyed it. I don’t know why I was surprised by that, but I was, and I am looking forward to my 6th grade class tomorrow. As the weeks go by, we build up and teach more and more classes each week. Next week, though, we go back to Pazardjik, where we will find out our permanent placements. It seems so early – but we won’t actually be moving there until July. The Bulgarian teacher of English from our site, who will be our counterpart during the length of our service, will meet us in Pazardjik. We will travel back to our site with them and stay there for several days, meeting everyone, seeing the school, and teaching some. I am looking forward to next week very much.

I wanted to post my address and phone number, in case anyone was interested, and in case anyone had the wrong one. My address until July:

AMANDA JOHNSON (all caps or underlined)

P.O. Box 178

Central Post Office

Pazardjik, 4400

Bulgaria

If you send packages (not hinting), don’t declare that the items inside are worth over $50, because I will have to go get it in Sofia and pay a fee on it. No one should probably be sending anything of that much value anyway! You should also write “items for personal use, no commercial value” on any packages. Packages will take 3 wks. – 2 months to arrive, letters much more quickly. I think if you specify Airmail it will be much quicker. This will be my address until I move in July. I will still get the mail sent to this address after I move, but I will have to go pick it up. So, when that time comes, I will post my new address.

The whole phone thing can be tricky. Like I said, Maria gave me a cell phone to use while I am staying with her, but the batteries don’t really last longer than one or two conversations and I share the charger with her husband, so half the time, the phone is either dead or at Maria’s house charging. But, I will have this number until July:

From the states dial: 011359 887 486 401

My host family has a phone, but this can also be tricky, as sometimes it is hard to get through, and if you are lucky enough to get through, it can be a bit confusing when two people on opposite ends of the line are speaking different languages. Anyway, if you want it:

011359 3123 3191

Okay, so this can be pretty complicated, but actually calling from Bulgaria to the US is about 10 times more complicated, but I will spare you the details. It can be frustrating, though, and really expensive!

FYI, Bulgaria is 7 hours ahead of New York, 8 ahead of KS. And on that note, I really should go to bed – I have to wake up at 6 to be able to talk to Klint – long distance relationships with such a time difference can be complicated, so I guess we are learning flexibility! He is super busy, too, but he has been wonderful with all of this nonsense. Lucky me, I get to marry him!

One last thing…I wanted to apologize (in some cases ahead of time) for my delay in sending emails. I am very lucky to have internet in my town, and the internet club is actually right by my school (I guess in a small town everything is near each other), so its very easy to stop there, I just haven’t had much time, and when I do, I barely get through my inbox. Its difficult with the host family (on top of not being able to really tell them my schedule or anything), I still kind of feel like a teenager or even child in some respects, and I don’t ever want to be late for dinner or have them wonder where I am or anything, so I wouldn’t really spend too much time there anyway. I might get internet in my home after I move, but it all depends on where I am assigned…some towns don’t have internet at all. That will be a learning experience!

Okay, I finally got my computer running again (see below!), so here is my actual first entry and some other stuff, too.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

My first journal from Bulgaria! Things have been crazy busy, so I am already behind on my first journal. I am not starting this blog thing off very well. Anyway, yes, things have been really busy. I got to Chicago on Friday for our staging – just a couple days of in country training. The first person I met when I got to the hotel was another volunteer who was also from Kansas – Leota or something?? – I definitely didn’t expect there to be three of us from Kansas (there is another girl here from Coffeyville). Unfortunately, they sent the first girl home that same day because she wasn’t medically cleared, which was really too bad.

Anyway, on a more positive note, I have got to meet the other 50 volunteers that are here, and they really make it so much fun to be here. Most are in their 20s, although there are a few older than that.

So, we spent the weekend in Chicago having meetings and stuff, and flew out of O’Hare on Sunday afternoon. It took us forever, but we finally got into Sofia sometime Monday afternoon. We were sooo jet lagged, and I was trying so hard to stay awake on the bus on our way out of town to see the sights, but it didn’t happen. What I did see of the countryside was wonderful – beautiful mountains, herds of sheep, etc. Hopefully next time I will stay awake to see some of it! I guess I have two years.

We got into Strelcha in the center of the country on Monday night. We are staying at this sort of recreation center, with dorms, a cafeteria, and the “Big Hall”. Its actually situated on a big hill above the town, so it has a gorgeous view of all of the red roof tops and the other hills/mountains behind the city. Its bizarre how quiet the city is. We have gone walking in town a couple nights and just walked through the streets – there doesn’t seem to be too much of a business section of any sort, so I am not sure what the people do here. There are a few cafes and shops, so we went in tonight to buy some chocolate on our very very limited Bulgarian (we have about 20 words now!). There were some little Bulgarian girls that had been following us around and giggling for some time and kept saying “hello”. We went into a store to buys some candy and they all surrounded me in this great anticipation to see what the American girl was buying. I guess it was probably amusing to watch me shop using only hand gestures…

Friday, April 29, 2005

Picking up where I left off…Strelcha was an interesting place. It looked like the traditional old European city, but all of the buildings were nearly crumbling, as were the streets. The streets were always filled with random cows, goats, horse drawn-carts and the lovely animal poo to go along. Neat. One big difference I have noticed from other Western European cities is that the people here that know English are actually excited to use it when we come around. In the places we have been so far, children surround us and ask us all of the questions they have been learning in school; “Whats your name?” “How old are you?” It makes me excited that I get to be teaching them if they are going to be so excited to learn.  As we were walking towards some teenage boys last night in Strelcha, we could hear them whispering, trying to figure out exactly how to say “How are you?”

Yesterday we found out our placement for our training for the next 11 weeks. I am in a group of 3 other volunteers – all of us primary teachers, and we are all living with different families in Kaloyanovo, a village of about 3000. We will meet with our language instructor for 3-4 hours a day, and then I think we will have a couple hours each day devoted to teacher training – teaching a little bit in the schools here in town. All 50 of us volunteers are in different small towns centered around Pazardjik, and we will meet there every other week or so for more training.

Last night was our last night in Strelcha, so the Peace Corps invited this children’s dancing group to come perform traditional Bulgarian dances in their traditional clothing. They eventually got most the volunteers out dancing, although I don’t really think that most of us were doing it correctly most of the time – basically just a lot of hopping on our part. Anyway, it was a good time.

So, today was the big day of the week…we got back on the bus to go to Pazardjik to meet our host families. I was very very excited to go start doing what we came to do, but I was really dreading the inevitable awkwardness that would come for my severe lack of Bulgarian vocabulary. My host parents came to pick me up in their little VW Golf, and I was pretty embarrassed at the amount of luggage I had. We could barely fit us all in the car. Why did I think I needed all of this stuff??

So, difficulty #1: I cannot pronounce my host mother’s name to save my life. Her name is Tsetsa (see, its hard, right?), and I feel awful that I have to struggle through it every time. Luckily, her husband’s name is Petar and their children’s names are Maria and Roberto – those I can do. We made the drive back to Kaloyanovo and I got to see more beautiful countryside – lots of mountains in the distance. I found my new city to be quite a bit like Strelcha – old and beautiful but so run down. The Peace Corps didn’t really tell us too much about our families, so I didn’t really know what to expect. When we got to the house, they took me into what looked to be a very large attached garage type thing. I saw a few people inside, so I was assuming I was going in to be introduced to them. Once I got inside, I saw that it was a whole factory! There were about 15 to 20 women lined up, sitting at sewing machines. I have no idea what any of them were saying, but they were all smiling and seemed very welcoming – the best I can do right now! From what I can gather, the little shop makes wallets??? I have to check back on that one…

So, Tsetsa took me inside to show me my floor – yes, my own floor. I am overwhelmed. The house is two stories, and since both of the children are grown, Tsetsa and Petar only occupy the first floor. So, I have the top floor with two large bedrooms, a bathroom, a dining room, a kitchen (with a sink only, more of a bar, I guess), and a living room with a TV. All the rooms are completely furnished with modern everything. I still don’t really know what to make of it. Sometimes I wonder how I get so lucky with everything???

Their daughter Maria was my tour guide tonight. She is 27 and just got married last May to Rangil?? I am still trying to figure out names. They live in town with his family, which I guess is the norm in the smaller towns. She took me all over town – to the store, to her aunt’s house, then to her house. We went and got our groceries for our dinner, then went back to her house for stuff for the salad from her backyard garden, which is right in the middle of all the animal pens. They have a cow, a pig, I think maybe a goat – and they live in town. This would explain why these animals are always walking through the streets.

Monday, May 02, 2005

My computer was non-functioning over the weekend…the converter was broken, but luckily for me, a family friend is a computer tech person, and actually made a converter for me. Now my laptop has a cord that just plugs right into the wall! Exciting! This guy is the wireless internet provider for Kaloyanovo, and Petar told me he is working it out with him to get wireless internet in the house for me. They are so good to me.

This weekend was sooo busy. Tsetsa seemed to want to take me everywhere to introduce me to all of her friends, so I would go along, repeat word for word exactly what she would tell me to, and then smile as everyone would laugh at whatever it is that I said (maybe is was just how silly I sounded when I said it???). Who knows what she is having me say! I think served as entertainment for many people this weekend!

Saturday was a little rough, because I really just wanted to talk to Klint or my parents, but had no way of calling home. The whole calling situation is a bit complicated and super expensive, but Rangil let me use his cell phone to get through to the states ($$$!! Yikes). Like I said, my host family has been so good to me – Maria gave me a cell phone to use while I am here. Although they work differently than at home – I have to buy a voucher to put minutes on the phone in order to call out, but can receive calls for free – it was such a generous thing to and it saves me lots of $$. I finally got to talk to Klint, and even though it probably cost him $30 for our 15 minute conversation (its more expensive to call cell phones), it made my day.

Maria took me out Saturday night to a restaurant/bar to meet her husband and about 10 or so of her friends, and I finally had my first experience with the Turkish toilets I had heard so much about. The Turkish toilets are basically just wholes in the ground – not that big of deal, just something I had never seen before, at least in a public restroom. At first I was confused and thought maybe I had walked into the men’s restroom, but then I realized what they were, became even more confused when I thought about how one maneuvers around them, and I turned right back around and walked out. Of course, when I got back to the table, everyone noticed how quickly I had returned, and asked if everything was okay. I tried to play it off, but one girl figured out that I had just been scared of the toilet, and everyone started laughing (I am getting used to being laughed at – usually I have no idea what for, but I am assuming its all in good fun???). So, with the help of my Bulgarian-English dictionary (it goes everywhere with me – yes, even to the bar), I told them that I had never seen a toilet like that, I was very confused, and no, I didn’t need anyone to show me how to use it. So I sucked it up and went and faced the Turkish toilet. Cultural immersion!

Sunday and today were important days in Bulgaria – they are the days when the Orthodox Church celebrates Easter. My family had already celebrated Easter according to the Catholic Church, but we still dyed Easter Eggs and delivered them to neighbors and passed them out to kids we saw in the street.

Maria took me to lunch at her house where her mother-in-law was cooking an Easter meal (they are not Catholic). It was a gorgeous day, and we had lunch in their courtyard outside. All of the houses here are surrounded by high cement walls, and they have a courtyard inside the walls where they apparently spend a lot of time. They all have dining tables, a mini kitchenette, maybe a fireplace, maybe a bathroom, etc. in the courtyard. (I guess, though, these are just the houses I have seen, which to me seem very very nice by any standard. Maria’s home is very modern, with hard wood floors, all stainless steel appliances in her kitchen and bright red cabinets. I never expected all this from the Peace Corps!) We had all sorts of great food – first we had a salad plate with different salads and vegetables. I had just eaten breakfast, so I wasn’t all that hungry, but I thought that maybe we were just having salad. I really had no idea. I was wrong. Luckily for me, there was a young girl there, about 18, who had studied English for some time, so they sat her next to me so she could translate for me. It was so nice to know what was going on for a change! She informed me, though, that in order to get the next plate (?!) I had to finish the salad first. Great. I painfully managed to get that down in order to be polite when Rangil’s mother brought out the main dish, which the girl (like I said, I am still working on the names of everyone!) translated as “baby of cow”??? I guess maybe we were having veal?? It looked like lamb to me, but what do I know. I ate what I could, and learned throughout the day that these people do not take no for an answer. I was miserably full.

Klint finally got through to the land line last night, so I actually got to have a decent conversation with him without having to worry about him blowing his rent money on a phone bill. While we were talking, Tsetsa hollered to come downstairs, and with the phone to my ear, she grabbed each of my arms, one by one, and put a vest on me, then a bigger coat - her way of telling me that we are going somewhere. Okay! We have definitely learned to improvise in the absence of verbal communication skills. She told me to get my laptop (“laptop” is universal apparently), but it was already 10pm, so I was a bit confused. Petar, Tsetsa, and I were off to yet another Easter dinner! Their friends were barbequing in their little courtyard, so we had dinner with several people there, including the internet guy (which is why I had to bring the laptop).

So, it was a great weekend, and I am slowly slowly picking up Bulgarian. Being surrounded by it 24/7 forces you to learn at least a little bit! I had heard a lot about the “fishbowl effect” that a lot of Peace Corps volunteers experience, even here in Bulgaria, and found that to be the case here. I don’t think many foreigners, particularly Americans, visit Kaloyanovo much (I am pretty sure of that, actually), and they definitely don’t come here to live. Even at the dinners with friends of my host family, there were always eyes on me, and even though I don’t understand Bulgarian, it seemed as though the majority of the time, the conversation included something about America, Peace Corps, or things about my life back home. I don’t really know what the Bulgarians think about the Peace Corps being here – I guess I haven’t been here long enough to pick up on it - but I am anxious to get to a point where I can actually understand what it is they are saying and their opinion on the matter.

Until then…we had our first Bulgarian class today. I have been telling all the Bulgarians that I will be able to understand them after 10 more days of studying (actually, I originally said after a month of studying, but Tsetsa decided that number should be 10 days instead. Sure!) - I am hoping it is at least a little bit accurate!

If you want to check out my little village (it reminds me a lot of Wamego - my host family is always to waving to everyone because they all know everyone in town), go to http://kaloianovo.search.bg.

I am here! I had about two pages worth of journal entries saved on my laptop, waiting until I had internet access to post them, and of course this morning the converter broke and my battery is dead, so I can't get to them! So, I will post them later, but until then...things are great here in Bulgaria! We had meetings all week in Strelcha, and we finally met our host families yesterday afternoon. Our group of 50 split up into small groups of 4-5, so I am now in the town of Koloyanovo with three other volunteers - one of them just happens to be Tia, the friend of a friend that also went to KU! Who would have thought! She is from Coffeyville and was a friend of Abby, a friend from my study abroad trip in Spain, and we know a bunch of the same people from home. Weird. We will be doing our language training and teacher training here until July 8, when we get sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers and get our permanent placement.

Anyway, my family is a middle aged couple, Petar and Tsetsa. They have a 24 year old son living in England and a 27 year old daughter, Maria, who is 27, married, and also lives here in Koloyanovo. She has been my tour guide since I got here last night and is great. None of them speak English, but there is one guy who works for them who speaks English pretty well, so when he is here he helps out a LOT! Maria took me all over last night, introducing me to everyone, and everyone wanted to feed me. We had coffee with Maria's aunt, Milka, and Milka's mother and 2 small children, then we went to Maria's house (she lives with her inlaws) and they insisted on giving me vodka and pepsi and brought out practically all the food she had in her kitchen. The town is very small and Maria knows everyone we pass, which is nice - it reminds me of home! Koloyanovo is unique for Bulgaria because over 30% of the town is Catholic, including my family. I think that as a whole, something like 90% of Bulgarians are some sort of Orthodox???, so I feel really lucky to be placed here. I am excited to get to actually share their religion with them.

My family is wonderful. I cannot explain how fortunate I feel to be placed here. They are great to me. They have a beautiful house, and I have the entire top floor to myself - 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room with a tv and satellite, a dining room, and bar area. Petar is also going to talk to the internet guy and see about getting internet in the house for me since I brought my laptop. I am overwhelmed. I don't know how I am always so fortunate, but someone is looking out for me.

The internet club is right next to the school where I will meet my group and our language trainer everyday, so even if we can't find a computer (they are going to look for one in Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, which is where the English speaker lives, for a new one), I should have regular internet access. It is only 1 lev ($1 = 1.50 lev) per hour for the internet.

My family is taking me out to eat today, so it should be another interesting experience with me an my dictionary right at my side! Its pretty frustrating not to have any language skills whatsoever, but hopefully we will be learning quickly. Body language is the biggest help, but it can be a problem since their head movements for yes and no are opposite ours. AHHH!