So it's been over two years years since I've been back in States. I've obviously stopped posting here... and probably would never have posted again if I weren't holed up in our local library fighting distraction and trying to get some studying done for the NCLEX that I'll be taking on the 25th. Clearly I'm losing the battle of me vs distraction.

So here's some updates. Finished up nursing school in December and am working as a nurse on the fantastic oncology floor where I did my preceptorship. Vangel continues to work and go to school for culinary arts. We have a small apartment, three computers but no television, and plan on going back to the BG for a much needed visit sometime this summer.

Let's see if I can find any picture to post since I don't think I'll be able pull my focus back to NCLEX studying for at least another 15 minutes.

Grandma's 90th birthday celebration.

Drive-in movie waiting for the sun to set.

Beginning of spring in Michigan

Lake Michigan

And now I believe I've wasted a sufficient amount of time posting to a blog that nobody reads. Time to get back to studying.

so while I'm sure that nobody reads this anymore i felt the urge to update.

been back in the states almost 7 months now. crazy. time flies here, time flies there.

vangel and i are both working and going to school.

vangel more working than schooling, me more schooling than working.

things are good. life is good. it's still nice to be home. i miss bulgaria but oddly a whole lot less than i expected i would. maybe that's just my defense mechanism. or maybe i appreciate a conveniently close washing machine and structured environment with clear and defined expectations more than i ever knew.

either way it's nice here.

spring has come and just like in the balkans it's gorgeous. in a different, yet equally beautiful way.

so with that, чао за сега.

but before i go, here you are, like always, the pictures:

amazing.

we had planned to travel around italy. and I'm sure it would have been wonderful if we had, but we so fell in love with rome that we ended up staying there the whole time.

next trip to italy we'll see more of it.

but this time was just perfect.

picnics at night by the colosseum, picnics during the day by the vatican, picnics next to the trevi fountain, picnics at a park overlooking all of rome (do you see a pattern here? by the way, if you are traveling on a budget picnics are the way to go. you get the best views for the best prices)

and when we weren't picnicking we were eating pizza and gelato. 10 of the best days of my life. (just so you know the pic of the pizza isn't mine, we forgot to take a picture of the pizza places, but that gives you the idea because they all looked the same and were all delicious. i'll never settle for pizza hut again...not that i really ever did in the first place...)

so happy to be back in the states. for so many reasons. vangel and i are loving it.

not sure if i'll still update this blog anymore.

we'll see.

anyway, here are a couple pics from our low-key wedding (actually, technically more of an "after signing the marriage documents" party) back in may.

and i'll try to get the pictures from rome up as soon as i can.

so these are patrick's photos from sofia, but i like them too.

So with 20ish days left here we're trying to get things in order before we head out.

One of the most important things being this little tiny piece of paper. After months of paperwork, trips to Sofia, and money spent we finally have it:

We also just bought our plane tickets to Rome. Not quite sure how long we'll be staying there. The main purpose of our trip is to visit Vangel's mom who is working somewhere in the south of Italy. We'll see, it might be a couple days, it might be a couple weeks. But we will definitely be back in the States before November.

Also, the kids are back in school. Which means all the older kids who went to Greece for the summer to be with their parents are back in town and back at the museum.

And while I'm here and typing, might as well put up some more pictures.

Here is a picture of the city of Sliven as seen from the blue rocks of Karandila.

A couple weeks ago when I just needed to get out of town for a bit I took a day trip there.

And then last week we headed over to Turnovo and hiked to the transfiguration monastery. There was also quite a bit of homemade wine and picnicking involved. Great hike, great monastery, great day.

And then here is a picture from last months BBQ at Dancho's house. Dancho, by the way, is one of my adult English students. He also makes the best wine and rakia in Zlataritsa.

OK, well I guess I'll stop here before everybody gets bored.

See ya soon!

we just got back yesterday.

went to sofia. again.

vangel had his "interview" (which by the way, was nothing compared to his first interview at the embassy back in november when it wasn't even for a visa, but just to marry me)

but everything went great.

we just have to translate a few more documents, send them in, and a few days after that they should be sending out the visa.

then we went to kraynitsi to hang out with my host family. it was great because

1) vangel was able to meet everyone and

2) daniela, my language trainer from two years ago is back in kraynisti as the trainer for a new group of trainees.

after kraynitsi, we left on an overnight train to the sea. we only spent a couple days there but i fell in love with bulgaria's north black sea coast.

it was absolutely beautiful. we went to the marine reserve of kaliakra, saw wild dolphins swimming and also to the town of balchik which was beautiful because unlike the other tacky touristy towns on the black sea this one was much more relaxed. yes, it had it's touristy side, but it was at least much less tacky. it had a cute downtown area, a great beach with clear water, and instead of the main tourists being british, here they were romanian or russian. all the signs on the restaurants were in both bulgarian and romanian instead of bulgarian and english.

which was definitely a change from turnovo and the other towns in bulgaria. not that i have anything against british, americans, or english speakers in general, it's just nice to find out that bulgaria attracts a more diverse group of tourists.

Lately i've been taking the camera to my summer program.

Life skills, sports, gardening, english, team building.

All that fun stuff.

So with the help of the school here, I wrote a PCPP project.

It was accepted and is now posted on the Peace Corps website.

So if you, or anyone you know, is looking to donate to a great cause, please look here.

It's tax deductible....

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=313-107

even if you can't donate, at least check it out.

thank you thank you thank you!

last week vangel and i went to sofia to file his I-130 petition.

which puts us one step closer to the states.

then we went to musala and took a nap on the highest summit in the balkans.

so vangel and i were on tv.

along with a couple other volunteers as well.

you might not understand the language, but you can get the idea :-)

http://www.btv.bg/videos/broadcast_video.pcgi

you will have to search...but it says

корпусът на мира

29.06.2008

oh, and if you didn't know, vangel and i got married.

may 3rd.

i still don't have any pictures because i was too busy, well, getting married, to take any.

i'm waiting for people to send me theirs.

and by the way, it was definitely the best day of my life.

vangel, the wedding, and everything that will be our lives, is exactly what i never knew i always wanted.

so i know i seem to be perseverating on this sorrel that grows out of control everywhere. it just is crazy to me that you can just go and pick things to eat. for free. anywhere.

that being said, we decided to do a "cooking week" at the museum. with most ingredients picked right from the museum yard. other non-pickable materials were supplied by the kids themselves. i only provided the pot and hot plate (which was given to me by the municipality when i first moved in and didn't have an oven)

and vangel taught the kids how to cook.

it was a good week.

ok so i've figured out it is definitly sorrel.

and i've made a delicious cream of potato soup with sorrel for dinner tonight.

but this sorrel i picked from the museum today with the kids as we were cleaning up the yard.

ok, to be honest the kids actually picked it.

not to eat, just to get it out of the way.

yeah, i eat weeds.

and they're good too.

so yesterday vangel and i took the kids on the weekly sunday hike.

we headed out to the lake in town.

the weather was perfect and although the group was kind of small (just 11 kids) we all had good time.

then on the way back he decided to stop at his parents house to get some "lapad" to make soup from.

so we go in, and instead of heading to the garden he goes off to the sides and starts picking what i could only assume were random weed growths around the yard.

although suspicious, i figured he knew what he was doing since his baba had been making soup and meals out off this weed looking thing forever and nobody has died yet.

anyway, so today before he went to work he made the soup.

after it cooked for awhile the stuff that used to look like a weed to me started to look a little more familiar.

i went to google and yep, it wasn't a weed at all.

but something much more familiar. like spinach but not quite. maybe sorrel.

apparently they grow wild here. maybe they do back at home too. i wouldn't know as growing up we weren't exactly allowed to eat random plants growing around the yard and i have only seen these greens maybe once or twice in my life and they had already been cooked at that point.

anyway, i'm excited now. healthy meals for free. just walk around town and pick.

my next plan is to pick some dandelion greens for a salad. i love spring.

comments heard tonight as i visited vangel at his work.

spoken by the same intoxicated man, but you can take these quotes and apply them to numerous other people and situations as it happens quite frequently.

man- "so you are dating vangel huh?"

me- "yes"

man, under his breath- "boy did good for himself. she is pretty. white. not like his father and that black gypsy."

and later

so after declining the offer about twenty times of this 50 year old man to sit next to him, each time explaining that i wanted to sit at the bar so that i could talk to my boyfriend he decides that it is not actually my wish but states "the gypsy won't let her move"

and later

man- "i'm macedonian, not bulgarian! don't you ever forget it!

vangel, you are macedonian too. don't you forget it either. nevermind that your mother is a dirty gypsy."

welcome back to bulgaria.

mom,

i'll figure out a way to get the rest of the pictures to you.

it was absolutely fantastic.

we're going to Austria next week.

valentines day special.

buy one get one free.

plane tickets.

went to Veliko Turnovo to wander around on saturday. it was fantastic. and we found spring.

so you can see them in motion.

the kids horo dancing to kucheck music.

a traditional bulgarian dance to traditionally roma music.

an everyday favorite.

15 leva at jenski pazar in sofia.

definitely worth it.

although i'm not so sure about the educational value of such an item.

wait, no...it fosters creativity and thinking outside the (gender) box.

so, there ya go.

it's been some time since i last said anything here.

things are going good.

really good actually.

the after school museum program is going really really well and that makes me really really happy.

because it is what i do everyday. i mean i do other things too, but...ok, let me rephrase that. it is my favorite thing that i do everyday.

i tell the kids 3:00, they get there at 2:50 and are waiting for me to unlock the door.

3-7 at the museum.

we play games, dance horo, dance kuchek, make crafts, i even have them doing leadership/team building activities i find on the Internet cause...well, why not. it's something to do.

and maybe it even helps in building teams and making leaders... who knows. can't hurt, right?

we have speed tournaments (the card game), play charades, girls put on mustaches and boys dress up in wigs.

anyway, without further rambling on my part, i'll continue with your very exclusive photo glimpse of a normal day at my museum/youth center in zlataritsa.

so it snowed this weekend.

for like a second.

other than that... not too much going on here in Zlataritsa. (notwithstanding the always present apartment/water heater/electricity problems, of which 3 were addressed by the maintenance people today alone)

as far as work goes, we are having a late Halloween party next week at the children's center in town.

i figure, it is an american holiday. i am the american. hence, i get to decide the date of which Halloween is celebrated. and i think next week is the perfect time for some candy and games.

and why not? it's not like i have anyone telling me what to do, nor am given any goal or direction from a source other than my own capricious whims as to what constitutes my job here. which means, essentially, that i highly doubt there will be any objection to the observance of Samhain on the non-official and belated date of November 29th.

we will be bobbing for apples.

and having mummy wrapping contests.

and bowling with a homemade bowling alley made of sandfilled plastic pop bottles.

and watching a scary movie on the new tv/speaker/dvd paid for (along with many other things) by the generocity of the south eastern michigan returned peace corps volunteers (SEMIRPCV).

it should be fun.

it is also one more opportunity to take more pictures.

which i love to do.

because one day i will look back at all of my pictures and my life will somehow make sense.

because, otherwise, why do i do it?

and by it, i mean both taking pictures and, you know, everything.