I have requested people around the world to send my students postcards, first so they can practice their English, second so they can see cities outside of Bulgaria.  The project has kind of taken on a life of its own, so I’m moving Postcard Project info here. Update for yesterday: I received cards from Las Vegas, [...]

My friend Lisa recently asked if it’s true that the Jewish community in Bulgaria was not turned over to the Nazis during World War II. This is a true story. Bulgaria was, by the way, a Nazi ally. Mischa Glenny, in his book The Balkans states that this is not entirely due to altruism and [...]

Major thanks to my friend Jeff for hosting these on his Flickr account.  Welcome to Pavel Banya!  We hope you enjoy your stay. A Mercedes passes a horse-drawn cart.  Welcome to Bulgaria! The sunflower field outside of town.  Those are the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina) in the background. Next time…maybe some actual pictures of PB! [...]

Hi! I’ll write more when the software starts behaving nicely. (I wrote this WHOLE LONG POST and it all disappeared. Argh!)

I went to Plovdiv last week.  Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria, and it’s about an hour and a half from Pavel Banya by bus.  It is nice.  Almost makes me jealous of the volunteers there, but I really do like my little town.  Anyway, you know what you can get in Plovdiv? 1. [...]

I like cheese. A lot. Especially nice sharp cheddar, and brie.  Oh, and this white cheddar with cranberries purchased at the CHEESE CASTLE of Kenosha, Wisconsin, can’t go wrong with that stuff.  I must stop here, before I start crying. There are two kinds of cheese available in Bulgaria.  TWO.  Cirene and kashkaval.  Cirene is pretty much identical [...]

Volunteers do not end up in their sites by accidents.  Peace Corps asks us what kind of place we want to live, and then they try to match us as best they can to the available sites who have requested a volunteer.  My requests were: I wanted my own classroom (it’s common for teachers to [...]

I made it to Pavel Banya on Friday.  I am really pleased with my site - it’s small, but so cute and busy. When I was here in May, my apartment was so not ready to be lived in.  It didn’t have running water, for heaven’s sake.  Now, the bathroom works. The kitchen?  Not so much.  No [...]

Communist architechture has something of a bad reputation. And you know why? Because it SUCKS. Right now I am in Dupnitsa. Dupnitsa is in such a pretty location. There are mountains all around the town, and some even still have some snow, even though it’s painfully hot down here. It’s so jarring to [...]