Words of the week:

котка (kotka) - cat

заека (zaeka) - rabbit

Well, I went from a flood of blogs and writing every week to not writing for two months... or has it been three? A lot has happened I'm sure, but it doesn't really seem like it to me. I've tried to travel a lot, but I don't think a single trip I've planned has worked out. Three times I tried to visit a waterfall near Lovech, once I tried to go on a canoe trip, once to the Black Sea, once on a camping trip with friends, and I had hoped to go to Croatia in September with some other friends, but I can't seem to get any specifics to plan the trip. Well, in two weeks I will finally be able to go on one trip. I'll be going back to Romania with some youth volunteers that I work with for a week long program. The topic will be using the media to fight discrimination. It should be interesting, and it's a great opportunity for my kids to travel and meet people from other countries. I'm hoping that they really like it, and I'm sure I will, too. But really I'd like to travel for vacation some time and see parts of Bulgaria I've never seen. Hopefully I'll be able to do more of that at the end of the summer. We'll see.

Well, since I haven't been able to travel, I've been finding other interesting things to do here in Lovech. This last week I took part in a big theatrical production that was pretty interesting. There's a castle ruins in my town, and the municipality has created a stage up there. They then invited a lot of different groups in Lovech (including the youth volunteers I work with) to participate in big event that re-creates Bulgaria in the first century. We didn't use just the stage for this production, but the whole castle. There were war battles and soldiers on horseback, soldiers invading the castle by climbing the walls, the crowning of a new king, traditional dancing, and fireworks at the end. I played the role of a Bulgarian village woman. Luckily, I had no lines to say. There were about 100 of us who were just doing things that village people do. It was a lot of fun with the grandmas knitting and the little kids running around, and I with my volunteer friends helped to cook and then we did each other's hair and hooted at and talked about the young soldiers walking by. Our scene was about 5 minutes.

At the rehearsals we had a lot of down time, so we took some really amazing pictures of each other at the castle (it may be one of my favorite places in Lovech because it's beautiful there, though the two parks in Lovech are beautiful, too). And we met a lot of other people. The grandmas were all really cute and thought I was Bulgarian and were trying to marry me off to their grandchildren.

We also got some really great pictures while we were all in costume, and we really looked like a village of traditional Bulgarians. We had so much fun taking pictures! And at the end, the community loved the production so much and there were so many people that some had to be turned away, so the municipality decided to have the production one more time this Thursday. It should be fun!

In other news, I should tell you all that I have adopted a cat! Her name's Zaeka, which means rabbit in Bulgarian. She's small and loves to cuddle, which suits me perfectly. I love sitting with her and petting her while I read. Playing with cats is much different from playing with dogs, though. I'm having to learn how to play with a cat. I get the feeling that I'm an unsatisfactory play mate... she seems to get bored really quickly and prefers to play with and eat my hand more than the toys. But she's learning that my hand is not a toy, and otherwise, she still loves to cuddle. If any of you cat people have any suggestions about how to play with a cat and how to help her not be bored, let me know!

Word of the week: Христос Воскресе (Christos Voskresay) - Christ is resurected

Last week was my first time outside of Bulgaria for 8 months. The European Union funds international youth projects, and an NGO in Romania is hosting such a project on how to fight discrimination in the media. I went there for a two-day meeting to prepare for the project that will be in July, and I'll take two Bulgarian kids from my organisation with me then. There were people from 8 different countries there, with me representing Bulgaria. All of these international projects are in English, and everyone was impressed with how well I spoke the language :-) But then the organizer told them I was an American and everyone became impressed with how well I speak Bulgarian :-) I had a really good time. We talked about the meeting in July, and we visited some newspaper offices and a TV new-station office. Then we went sight-seeing and took lots of pictures. We had a barbeque and a ping-pong tournament (which I won!) and basically had a lot of fun enjoying each other's company. I'm very excited about taking my volunteers in the summer; I think this will be an incredible experience for them.

This last weekend was Easter, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with lots of friends. I was hoping to visit my Bulgarian family for the holiday, but I didn't plan for it enough in advance and was unable to. But I had a lot of friends in Lovech who invited me to do different things with them, so I was out all day Saturday and Sunday. I went walking with friends on Saturday, and Saturday night we went to church at 11:00 to prepare for the midnight celebration. For Easter, people dye eggs, and the first one they always dye red. This red one they bring to church on Saturday night and give it to God (I didn't dye eggs, though, so I didn't bring any). I bought a candle, though, with everyone else, and we all lit them at midnight and walked around the church three times. There were hundred of people, though, in this tiny church, so it took forever to do this. Then we all went home. I'm not exactly sure if there's any spiritual significance to this practice (I assume there is), but I don't know it.

On Sunday I went to a nearby monastery with some friends. We lit candles again, and then we all went out for beers and french fries. I had my first beer, and it wasn't bad. My tastes are definately changing in Bulgaria, though I still prefer juice or water. While we were relaxing, we broke our eggs. This is a Bulgarian tradition where everyone takes an egg and bangs it on everyone else's eggs. If your egg doesn't break, you have good luck. Generally, I have good luck with all of the Bulgarian traditions, but with this one, all of my eggs broke on the first try. Oh well. I guess it's good to share the luck.

I also went on a really great 4 hour hike with a group of volunteer friends later that day. I saw parts of Lovech that I've never seen before, and it was beautiful. I definately plan to go hiking there more often. But probably the best part of this hike was that I was able to actively participate in all of the conversations... yeah!!!!! I still have a lot to learn of the language, but it's coming along!

wod of the week: свиквам (svikvam) - to get used to something

Well, it's becoming more and more difficult to think about interesting things to write about. I guess life is becoming routine for me. It's nice to feel settled here and comfortable with everything. It's nice that Lovech is starting to feel like home. Now that it's home, though, I think I want to start seeing more of Bulgaria on the weekends. There's so many places and things that I want to see, so hopefully you'll be hearing more about those in the future.

The most exciting thing for me this week was that I started taking a more active role with the volunteers at work. I led a good portion of one of the meetings with them, which was sooo nice. I talked with them about a grant proposal that I'm writing to renovate our basement and make it into a volunteer club, and we talked about their ideas on various aspects of the project. It was so exciting to be able to lead a discussion with them and to understand them and be understood. It wasn't perfect, and I still need help from the youth leader, Olga (pronounced Olya), but I'm super excited.

The other nice thing about this week was taking a trip to the capital, Sophia, and seeing a lot of PC friends. I went for a minority committtee meeting, which was pretty interesting too. I intended simply to get information about the committee and what it's doing, but I somehow find myself now involved in one of their projects. They're putting together a resource kit for PC volunteers with activities and information related to minority issues in Bulgaria, and I'm helping gather information. It'll be interesting, and maybe I'll be able to use some of it with my group of youth volunteers. We'll see.

word of the week: приятелки (priyatelki) - friends

This last week I turned 23, and now I can say I finally feel like an adult. A lot has happened since I've come to Bulgaria, and I guess that becoming an adult is a logical result of all of it. But don't worry, I still have my sweet, innocent charms! And I am still mistaken as one of the youth volunteers when I'm with them... I guess I still have a ways to go before I can look like an adult :-)

Throughout the day on my birthday, people kept taking me aside to give me presents, which was a really nice break from the seminar. Nelly gave me a beautiful red shirt that really looks good on me (shown in the picture with a PC fiend of mine), some perfume, and a big, wonderful, red flower all of which were from everyone in the office. Another friend gave me a potted rose plant, another a bottle of wine, and another a candle that smells like roasted marshmellows. I think it's funny that you can get candles that smell like marshmellows in Bulgaria, but you can't actually get marshmellows. oh well.

The party was good, and everyone loved the rice-krispie treats and smores. We volunteers had a good time teaching our language trainers the names of these treats. We had to break them down into syllables like they did with us when we learned Bulgarian, and it was pretty funny to reverse the roles.

The seminar itself was pretty good, too. It was on how to write projects, and a lot of the activities we did I think would be really good to do with the youth volunteers at my organization. They have a lot of really great project ideas, but then they just wait to be told what to do to make them become a reality. We're hoping to do a training series with them on what a volunteer is (the concept of volunteerism is relatively new in Bulgaria), and I think it'd be good to include some of the things from the seminar. We now have a new youth worker at my organization, and I'm really excited about working with her on this.

This Saturday, I went with Sonya and some friends to see an exhibit of wax figures. The figures were life size, and there were a lot... Harry Potter and his friends were there, Stalin, Hitler, Roosevelt, Churchill, some American singers, Bulgarian national heroes, Shrek and his friends (on the left), and more. We took a bunch of really funny pictures.

Well, that's all for this week. Till next week!

Word of the week: рожден ден (rojden den) - birthday

Sonya took us all out to a cafe for her birthday

Well, February and March have been the months of birthdays. Nelly had one a couple weeks ago, Sonya and Galya (another coworker) had theirs this last week, and mine's on Monday. For each birthday, someone (or two people) go shopping to buy a present from all of us. It's been fun going shopping with one person to buy a gift for someone and then turning around and buying that person a gift too. Bulgarians celebrate their birthdays by bringing a cake, chocolates, juice, rakia, and all kinds of good things eat for all of their freinds to enjoy. However, having so many birthdays has been a bit overwhelming. We've begun giving ridiculously small amounts of rakia just for the tradition of giving the toast. Actually, I don't think we even drank rakia at Sonya's birthday. (I toast to your health anyway, Sonya!)And I don't think I could eat another slice of cake.

I'm not going to have cake at my party. Actually, Abe and Anica sent me some rice krispies and marshmellows for my birthday and I just made rice kripie treates for my party. But I'm not going to be in Lovech to celebrate tomorrow with my coworkers. Peace Corps has a mandatory workshop that all volunteers in my group and our counterparts have to go to, and I'm travelling today to be there tomorrow... yuk! But I'll be with all my volunteer friends, and one of them is organizing a party for me! It should be a lot of fun, though very different from the parties at the office. It's more of an American tradition for friends to organize birthday parties instead of the birthday person organizing it. And we'll be eating the very American rice krispie treats and making smores. But I also hope to buy some rakia and chocolates to add a bit of Bulgarian tradition to it. I really love how my Bulgarian and American friends are going to be celebrating with me and creating an interesting blend of cultural traditions.

Besides the birthdays, this was a big celebration week in Bulgaria. On the first of March we celebrated Baba Marta, and I think I got a little over ten martinitsi! We took the youth volunteers at our organization to give out martinitsi that we had made to people working in the municipal building, and then we went to a home for children with disabilities. This was really interesting because I don't think any of the kids or my coworkers had been to a place like this before. It was good, though. The volunteers gave them martinitsi and we all ate cake (I had to force myself - so much cake in two weeks!) One of the volunteers played on the piano and people sang fun songs (picture to the right). The children from the home showed the volunteers the computers and the things they like to do with them. I was even able to talk a little with one of the people living there... woo hoo! I took a ton of pictures of everybody, and they turned out pretty well.

Words of the week:

Прошка

Сирни Заговезни (Sirni Zagovezni) - the last Sunday before Lent

Last Sunday, I spent the day at Nelly's house with her and her family to celebrate a holiday called Proshka, or forgiveness. However, this word is very similar to the word prashka, which means thong. I confused these words, and it made for an interesting week.

Anyway, we all had a wonderful time celebrating and eating lots of food and talking. I usually go to band practice on Sundays at 4, but I was having such a good time that I didn't go. Goshko, Nelly's youngest son, was very excited about playing a special game with a sweet called halva. A small piece of halva was tied to a string and usually this string is tied to a fan so that it will make the halva swing around. But there's no fan in Nelly's apartment, so instead Nelly and Mitko (Nelly's husband) took turns swinging the halva. While it was swinging, the children and I attempted to catch it with our teeth. It's a pretty funny game, as you can imagine!

Sonya mentioned this holiday before when Heather asked if Bulgarians had a holiday like Thanksgiving. Well, there's a lot of similarities between this and Thanksgiving. However, this holiday isn't so much for people to say thank you, but rather for children to ask for forgiveness from their parents. I didn't notice Nelly's children ask for forgiveness, though, but figured maybe they did it when I wasn't there. I thought I'd inquire more about this, so I asked some children that I met with on Friday whether they celebrated Prаshka (which, remember, means thong) and if they asked their parents for forgiveness. Well, the kids were really good and didn't laugh at my mistake, but they all said they forgot to ask their parents for forgiveness. So, I would say that Sirni Zagovezni is like Thanksgiving in that your supposed to think about and say something meaningful, but really it's just a fun time to get together, eat really good food (but not turkey), and watch a really good game (but not football).

Sirni Zagovezni is also the last day before Lent. I was a little surprised about this because we celebrate Lent starting on Ash Wednesday. So I told them about how people in American protestant churches celebrate Lent, and I told them about Fat Tuesday, too. However, my Bulgarian friends are like me in that they know about the 40 day fast of Lent, but we don't really actually fast.

Words of the week:

баба (baba) - grandmother

мартиници (martinitsi) - things made out of red and white string to celebrate the first of March and the coming of spring.

Dancing - Always

This week wasn't nearly as exciting as last week, but at least it ended with dancing. I now know five horos, but I only know the names of the first two. I'll have to pay more attention when the teacher is talking. I tend not to listen because I assume I won't understand, but I want to learn the names. This week's lesson was particularly exhausting for me. I ended up dropping out of the last dance two minutes before it ended because I was so tired that I kept making mistakes and couldn't get it right. I'm so glad to have something so athletic to do. I've befriended one of the ladies who works there, and she seems to think that I dance pretty well. Last night she asked how long I'm going to be staying in Bulgaria and said that after two years I could go back to Boston and start my own Bulgarian Horo school. So, Emily, you get free lessons at my school when I come back :-)

Valentine's Day

So, Valentine's Day was this week, and the youth volunteers had their competition on the theme of Valentine's Day, the Day of Lovers, and Safe Sexual Practices. A lot of volunteers wrote essays and they all read them out loud, though I have no idea what they were about. It was good, though, and the three best essays got prizes. The organizers of this competition also read a little about the history of Valentines Day and I think they also talked a little about safe sexual practices. I was excited about this because it got people focused on the poster I made about contraception and reading the things I took so long to write. I celebrated inside about the success of my humorous endeavor.

The youth volunteers have also been making valentines that we gave out to people in the municipal building, the police department, and other places. Then we all went out to a cafe and talked and had fun. I really enjoyed being with the youth and taking their pictures at these events. They're a really great group of kids.

Martinitsi

In addition to making valentines, the volunteers have also been making martinitsi, which are essentially bracelets or little figurines or anything made out of red and white string. I knew that this was to celebrate a holiday, but I couldn't remember exactly what holiday it was and how the martinitsi were used. So I asked Nelly, and she explained that this was to celebrate a holiday on the first of March in which everyone exchanges martinitsi and wears them until they see one of two birds (I forget which birds). When they see one of these birds (the first sign of spring), they hang the martinitsi on a tree or put it under a stone. If you put it under a stone and you see an anthill there, then you will have good luck for the rest of the year. There is also a symbolic figure related to this holiday called baba Mart (grandmother March). I forget exactly what she does, but I think there is a story in which she gives martinitsi to everyone as signs of spring and I think that she is the one who brings this season to the land.

Traditional Babas

Talking about baba Mart led to thinking about all the various babas in Bulgaria's traditions. There's baba Zima (grandmother winter) from Christmas time who helps father Christmas pass out presents. She also has a white dress and in the winter she cleans her dress by shaking it out. When she does this, white flakes fall from it to the earth and that's how the first snow comes. She hasn't cleaned her dress yet in Bulgaria this winter, though, and I'm really doubting that she will. Then there's also baba Yaga, the scary baba who is a witch and flies on a broomstick. There's a story about how she lives in a house made of candy and sweets. Children are attracted to this house to eat the sweats, but then baba Yaga comes out and eats the children! I think there's at least one more traditional Bulgarian baba, but I can't remember who she is.

The Real Babas

In real life, though, the babas (grandmothers) can often be found sitting on benches in the center of town, talking and watching the people go by. Peace Corps volunteers have coined these benches the "baba benches." This name is a bit misleading, though, because the dyados (grandfathers) also come out and sit on the benches. I think it's fun that the babas and dyados have such a visible part in the culture. The babas are known by Peace Corps volunteers as a great source of the sought after home-made slippers that are super warm and comfortable and great for the winter. During pre-service-training, Peace Corps volunteers are told to make friends with the babas because they are so generous and willing to help, providing amazing home-made cooking and other things like these slippers. I can't say that I know too many babas, but I have received a pair of the slippers from a baba in Kraynitsi, my training site.

Our Project

To digress a bit from Valentines Day and the babas, this week was also the start of this big project that I keep saying my organisation has received funding for. The project is to help teach the youth of Lovech about the court system. We will be inviting students who are interested in pursuing careers in the judicial system to participate in a series of training sessions in which they will learn about the way the court system works in Bulgaria, the way the regional and national court systems interact, basic civil rights and how to apply them, ecological legislation that's been passed in Bulgaria and more. As part of the training, we'll take the students on field trips to the Lovech court house to view a court session and talk with people who work there. At the end of the training sessions the students will perform a mock-trial in the court house that will be open to public viewing. We're also opening the project up to all the schools in Lovech, inviting each of them to bring their students on a field trip to the court house. The court will be open for one week to take the students on a tour and talk with them about the work that goes on there.

This week we had the first meeting with our partners to introduce the project and talk about how to begin implementing it. There were about 40 people there, including school directors and students and I'm not sure who else. We had them break into three small groups to give ideas about various topics regarding the implementation of the project. I couldn't tell you much about how the meeting went, but Sonya says that lots of new and good ideas were presented, and to me that indicates a successful meeting.

I was the official photographer for the event. Actual, I'm the official photographer for all of our events. I bought my first camera before coming to Bulgaria, and I'm really glad I did. But now I sure could use a photography course. I'm finding that I really like to take pictures, but I don't really know anything about taking particularly good ones. Maybe I'll look into it when I come back to America.

In the meantime, tomorrow I will continue to take pictures as best I can while we celebrate this Bulgarian "Thanksgiving" holiday. I don't know much about it yet, and I forget what it's called, but Nelly invited me to her house tomorrow to celebrate with her family and friends. I'll tell you more about next week!

Word of the week:

средство против забремениаване (sredstvo protiv zabremeniavane) - contraceptive

well, ok, it's three words, but together they mean one English word

Playing hooky

Well, if last week was a complaining session, this week was great! It was pretty busy, which I enjoyed. It started off with Sonya emailing me on Saturday and telling me that Nelly's Birthday is on Tuesday. We decided to go shopping together to find a birthday present that would be from everybody in the office. Unfortunately, the only time we had to go shopping was Monday afternoon after Sonya finished teaching school. This presented me with two problems. First, what do I tell Nelly when I leave the office so she doesn't get suspicious. "Uh, Nelly, Sonya and I are going... out. I'll be back soon." Not very convincing. I ended up not saying anything and left while Nelly was on the phone. The second problem was that I teach an English lesson at 4:00 on Mondays for my coworkers (including Nelly), so I told Sonya that we had to be fast. Well, we went shopping and had found and bought everything within a half an hour and finished right at 4:00. But then Sonya grabbed me by the arm and took me out to look for flowers for the party and go to a cafe for coffee. (yeah, I'm a coffee drinker now!) It was so funny! I felt like a school girl playing hooky, and I never played hooky in school.

Well, I showed up at work a little later than 4:30. I had no idea what to say when I came in and saw everyone sitting in the office waiting for me. They were all silent and looking at me. I should mention here that Nelly's my friend, but she's also the boss, so this silence when I entered made me a little nervous. I expected her to be inquisitive and maybe give me a little chastisement, but instead... silence. So, I said (in Bulgarian) well, let's get started. And that was it, everything went back to normal and we had a pretty good lesson I think.

Making the cake

So on Monday night I bought candles (I won't say how many :-) and made a chocolate cake. I also tried to make frosting, but it didn't work. I don't know why, and I was thinking how awful it would be to have a cake without frosting. So I called mom to fix everything, like moms are supposed to, but her advice didn't work. So I tried to make it again from the start with fresh ingredients. Again it didn't work. :-( So I threw some confection sugar on top of the cake and hoped that the sugar with the candles would be enough. To my delight, the next morning everyone loved the cake! They liked it so much they all wanted the recipe, so I went home and tried to write it in Bulgarian and later I took it to my tutor for editing.

The celebration

Anyway, back to the party. Usually, we begin the day with sitting at our computers, drinking coffee, and talking for a while. On Nelly's birthday, though, we all sat together in the larger room (where there's tables to sit around) and watched her open her present (which was a bracelet) and blow out the candles. Nelly had brought a ton of food and goodies for us to eat, too, so we sat and ate and talked for quite a while. We finally did go back to the other room and sit at our computers to work. But shortly after lunch, two more of our coworkers came and we went back in the larger room and had more cake and food, and this time we opened the rakia too! (We didn't really drink much, though. It was more just for the tradition of having rakia at celebrations I think.) And then we stayed there for the rest of the day and talked. I really like how Bulgarians tend to be much more relaxed about taking time out from work to celebrate and relax.

Taking a walk

Speaking about taking time out from work, Nelly, Ani (a coworker), and I went for a little walk on Wednesday. Sometimes our office is really, really cold, even when it's warm outside. So we go for a walk to be outside (where it's often warmer) and to warm up through the little exertion of the excursion. Well, the highest point in Lovech is near the TV tower, and you can see the whole city of Lovech from there and farther. It's beautiful up there, I love it. So, I decided to see if I could get my companions to hike up there for our walk. Nelly, at first, was resistent because she figured she wasn't wearing the right clothes to go up there. But she finally gave in. On our way up there, she kept talking about the different plants and telling me what they are and what they're good for - making tea or using as a spice. (It's February, but the plants are starting to bud and flowers are coming out - it's insane!). Walking with her reminded me of how my brother, Abe, always does the same thing when I go hiking with him. But some of the plants and flowers are really different. I think Abe and Nelly would have a good time going on hikes together and talking about the plants. As it is, I enjoyed it very well myself.

Well, Nelly was right about not wearing the right clothes for the hike. We had to do a little rock climbing to get to the tower. It wasn't hard, but it was actual climbing, and sitting and crawling. It was great watching them climb! I had been up to the tower before, so I knew the way, and when I started up the rocks, Nelly started laughing. But she's a good sport and followed anyway. I wish I had brought my camera! Oh well. When we got to the top, we all looked out over the city and Nelly and Ani started pointing out where everything is. It was a lot of fun, and I felt particularly content with life.

Contraception

Eventually, though, we had to return to the office and go back to work. A large part of my work this week has focused around a competition in which the youth volunteers at our organisation have been invited to participate. The theme of the contest is Valentines Day, the day of lovers, and safe sexual practices. I'm not sure what the day of lovers is, but I think it's self explanatory enough. For the competition, the volunteers can write an essay, make a painting, and/or create a collage.

Sonya suggested that I participate in this competition too, to give me more practice writing in the Bulgarian language. Being a Peace Corps volunteer, and being 22, has put me in an interesting position within our organisation. I'm not really one of the youth volunteers, but I'm within their age range (11 - 24), and I am a volunteer, so it's generally acceptable for me to participate in their competitions and events. However, I also hold a more administrative role and I am supposed to be a leader with them too. I do hold the power to give or deny permission to use office supplies and monitor behaviour, but the language barrier makes it a little difficult for me to lead a meeting with them still. I hope to do more with them in the future.

In the meantime, I thought this competition would be a good opportunity to create a visual educational device. I decided to create a poster about various types of contraception, their effectiveness, and how they're used. Well, trying to translate this made for interesting office conversation. After a lot of laughing and an explanation of what I was trying to do, I asked about what kids already know and if they have sex ed in the schools. Apparently they don't, and talking about sex seems to be taboo. But my coworkers seem to be supportive of the idea that that needs to change. They all helped me try to translate things, but it was hard because they didn't know about several of the forms of contraception I wanted to include and so they didn't know how to translate them either. A doctor who specializes in sexual reproduction came to the office and I asked him for help too. Then I went to my tutor and she had a book about this stuff which was super helpful. I finally finished it on Friday and it looks really good. It doesn't actually hold that much information, but I hope the kids actually read it and find it interesting.

I feel like, though, you really have to talk about this stuff to make it effective. Our volunteers have already had an educational session with the afore mentioned doctor about AIDS and have talked a little about sex from that. I think it would be so great to expand on this and have educational sessions about STD's in general and contraception. Maybe in the future sometime I can work more towards this. We'll see. One step at a time, I suppose.

Billas

Anyway, I'm going to completely change the subject now. This week, a really big grocery store just opened up in Lovech. It's a chain store called Billas, and it's huge! Well, huge for Bulgaria. It really only has about two aisles of food, one aisles of dog food and that kind of stuff, and another aisles of cleaning supplies and stuff. I went with Nelly and her family to go shopping there on opening day. I forgot what it was like to shop in stores that are big enough for shopping carts and that have aisles. It was a bit overwhelming, actually. I'm so used to the small stores and limited selections. But I got super excited when I saw they had salad dressings and barbecue sauces and mozzarella and parmigiana cheese! Oh, it was so great. They still don't have boxed stuffing, but I can get by. The store was insanely crowded, though. We spent about 20 minutes shopping and and hour waiting in line. The lines wound through the aisles all the way to the back, and when we finally got out, we saw security guards standing at the doors preventing people from entering until the lines died down. There were so many people waiting just to enter the store!

Well, more happened this week. A meeting with the mayor, no dancing on Friday :-( , interviews with applicants who are applying to work at our organisation, an event supporting the nurses in Lybia, I could go on and on. But I think this is enough for one week. Chow for now!

Wow, so, this was a really emotional week for me. It started off with a small thing of me trying to cook Bulgarian food during the weekend. Most of the time I just cook American food because I'm used to it and Peace Corps provided us with a great recipe book with recipes from previous volunteers that includes mostly American food. There's lots of good soups and casserol recipes in there. But I wanted to learn how to cook Bulgarian food for three reasons: 1) because it's part of the cultural experience 2) I like Bulgarian food and 3) so that I can host my coworkers over and serve food that they are used to and will like. Unfortunately I've never been able to successfully cook something Bulgarian. On Sunday I tried to cook sarmi and stuffed peppers, which I've eaten before and know that I like. I bought a whole head of cabbage to make them, and so I made a ton of sarmi, but they tasted awful. I ended up going out to eat every day this week because of it. I think this officially ends my attempts at cooking Bulgarian food.

Then, on Monday, a member of our staff left us. This was really sad, and now the dynamics in the office have changed a bit. Mostly this means that it's a lot quieter now because it's just Nelly and me during the day, and I don't talk much because I'm an introvert and because I still don't know the language that well. :-) (I like to blame everything on the language and the culture differences whether or not the blame is accurately placed there. It's a good coping strategy because it helps take the pressure off of me... and it's also often true.) The person who left was our youth leader and accountant, so now we're lacking a person to fill these two roles and we just won this big grant and there's so much work for all of us. Hopefully we'll find someone to replace her soon. Actually, we just had an interview with someone on Friday for the position, but I didn't understand what our final decision was or if we even made one. Talking about the language barrier segues nicely into my next frustration.

So, Nelly and I recently went to a big seminar that all volunteers in my group had to go to. The last day was just for volunteers and it was a language session day. I took the language proficeincy interview (LPI) during this time to see how my Bulgarian is progressing. I think I did all right... I found out on Monday that I received a score of intermediate-mid, which is one level higher than I was three months ago. However, I was receiving so much encouragement from everyone, and my lpi interviewer, after the test, said that I may be in the intermediate-high to advanced-low range, so I was beginning to hope for a little higher. But I'm content with my score. What I'm frustrated with is that I am so close to understanding conversations, but I'm still just not there yet. I understand the general idea most of the time, but just not exactly what they're saying. And when I ask for clarification I still don't get it because I still lack the vocabulary. I really want to get to the point where I can converse with people naturally. I think it's obtainable, but it's just going to take time.

I think the language frustration led to me being particularly homesick. On Wednesday, everyone in the office was working on a project together that was particularly difficult for them, and they were all super frustrated (they're applying for some type of license to work with at-risk-youth). But they were breaking the tension by making jokes out of their frustration and laughing to the point of crying (which then made me laugh). But it also frustrated me that I couldn't participate with them in it (due to the language barrier), and it reminded me of working with college friends on projects and doing similar things with them... and made me miss my American friends a ton.

So, on Wednesday it all got to me and I called mom through skype to complain and ask her to make it all better the way mothers do. So we talked for a good long while and she sent me a ton of good recipes for normal American food that I can make with ingredients that can be found in Bulgaria (thanks mom! :-)

Then, on Thursday, I had a really good day. I went to a tutor session and it went super well. We went over something I had written for my Bulgarian blog (I'm starting a blog in Bulgarian about American culture for some kids at a local school) and I was impressed with how well I did. I've had writing assignments before, and there was a large and obvious improvement from my last assignment to this one. Later on Thursday, we had a meeting with the volunteers and someone from a local organisation about a competition they were inviting us to participate in. And then we all made martinitsi, which are essentially bracelets made out of white and red yarn, sort of like friendship bracelets. Everyone uses them as part of a spring celebration (I'm not quite sure how they're used yet). We're making them to sell as a sort of fundraiser I think. I'm not sure what the funds will go to. But, the point is, I had a good time making martinitsi with the volunteers and listening to them banter. And then, on Friday, Sonya and Nelly came with us to the dancing lesson, and it was sooo much fun! I love dancing the horo!

So it's not always easy here, but then, it's not always easy in America either. Sometimes it seems there's so much different between the two countries, but I'm still always amazed at the similarities too. Everyone has their good and bad days. People find ways to laugh to make things easier. Kids like to be loud and girls like to make bracelets out of yarn while the boys like to sit back and watch. And, of course, everyone likes to dance!

Good news! My organisation received funding for a big project that we're really excited about. We got $7,000! Unfortunately, we asked for a little over $9,000 and have to make some big cuts in the activities we want to do. The project is one of the very first assignments they gave me to work on when I came here. The director of the agency (Nelly) wrote the grant in Bulgarian, and a coworker, Sonya, translated it into English. I edited. This was about a 30 page grant that took me quite a long time to edit because I really just didn't understand what they wanted to say and exactly what the activities were. But, I had to work fast-pace because the deadline didn't leave much time. After a couple of weeks of trying to edit and talking at length with Sonya and Nelly, two days before the project was due, I finally had a huge breakthrough and understood everything they wanted to do in the project. I made a bunch of last minute fairly large changes to make the grant clear to the reader, and off it went. And we got the money! Yeaaaaah! So we're celebrating in the office with some rakia and chocolates and working on cutting back the budget. (I think I may have some work to do when they make decisions about what to cut and get to the English part of things).

Anyway, I had a really wonderful Christmas and New Years, and I wanted to tell you all about it. Leading up to Christmas, I had made presents for my coworkers, wrapped them in newspaper, and laid them under the tree in our office. I made them wait to open them, though, until our last day together. It was interesting, because I guess Bulgarians don't usually make people wait for their gifts. Sonya didn't like having to wait for hers, it was pretty funny. Anyway, everyone finally opened them on Friday, and they really liked them. (The gifts were a framed picture for each of them). Then they surprised me with a gift for me, a beautiful silver necklace and a matching bracelet. It was wonderful! Then Sonya gave me a gift and said I had to wait till Christmas to open it... she was getting me back good!

I spent Christmas with my family in Kraynitsi and it was really nice to see them after two months away. I was able to understand a lot more and talk a lot more, which was super. On the 23rd, I helped Danche, my mom, cook for the big day. The big day in Bulgaria, though, is Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve you spend the day at home with your family and enjoy everyone's company. And you don't eat meat. My father, Stoicho, didn't like that part of the holidays, but I sure did. Danche and I made some absolutely incredible Bulgarian dishes, including sarmi, peppers stuffed with rice, baklava, banitsa, and tons more. (you can see the spread, or what was left after dinner in the first picture.) It was sooo good. We also made luck pitka. Pitka is a bread, and before we put it in the oven, we put buttons, a coin, and a toothpick in different places and marked where we put them by crunching the dough over the places. Each of the things we put inside represented a different kind of luck. Before we started dinner, Stoicho and Danche broke the whole loaf way over their heads. Then Stoicho gave a piece first to Christ and then to everyone around the table. We all pulled out our luck to see what we would have luck for in the new year. I had the toothpick, so I'll have luck with my "house" or apartment. My sister, Thereza, got the coin so she'll have luck with money. I think Christ got luck with the garage (I'm not exactly sure how that will be useful to him, but maybe he appreciates it.)

Anyway, on Christmas day I gave my family the present I had made for them. The first thing out of Stoicho and Danche's mouths when I said I had a present for them was "why?" It was funny, but I guess in Bulgaria children don't get gifts for their parents, only parents for the children. But, being American, I had bought a photo album for my family and filled it with pictures of us, which they really liked.

Then, late Christmas evening, all of the volunteers who lived in Kraynitsi during training went na gosti at another volunteer's house. It was a lot of fun, and we all received some homemade slippers from the host mother of that house.

For New Year's, I went na gosti with Nelly. I really love her and her family, and I had a really good time with them. At about 10:00 we went to the town square for a chalga concert (that's popular Bulgarian music). We all wore ribbons supporting the nurses in Lybia (as you can see in the picture of Nelly's family), and we danced and had a good time. Around 11:30, the songs ended and we had a little celebration about entering the European Union, the president talked on TV, we counted down, and then the party started. We drank champaign that Nelly and her husband had brought, watched some fireworks, and then the traditional Bulgarian music started and everyone danced the horo. It was so amazing to see so many people holding hands and dancing together! It was a lot of fun. We left a couple hours early, though, around 1:30. Nelly's youngest son got tired at this point, so we looked for a taxi, and luckily found one and went home.

So, I was walking home with Sonya, and we stopped to buy some bread. And inside the grocery store, I saw something strange to me, and I was going to just pass by, but I asked Sonya what it was and she said it was khavla! So, here's a picture of it, but it's really hard to describe what it's like. Its consistency reminds me of fudge almost, maybe a little more crumbly. When I first put a piece in my mouth, it reminds me of hazelnuts, and a little bit of chocolate. It's a sweet desert, and I like it. Sonya mentioned about a tradition they have with this food during a special holiday, Proshka (I don't really know much about this holiday yet. I'll let you know more about it when I know more). Apparently, they take white khavla and cut it into pieces, maybe large fudge size pieces. Then they tie a string onto each piece and hang them from the ceiling. Then somehow they get all the pieces swinging and the children try to catch the pieces with their mouths. It'll be a lot of fun seeing this in action. Bulgarians celebrate a lot of holidays, and each town has their own town holiday. And each holiday has it's own interesting traditions, and I'm looking forward to experiencing them all.

So, it's Christmas time here, as it is there, and the town is getting all decorated for the season. It's already dark by the time I leave work, and as I walk through the center to my home, I love looking at all the lights hung up on the trees and on the municipale building and everywhere. I've also noticed that new stores are being put up in little temporary shelters and tents. They're filled with all kinds of things; toys, clothes, food, fake Christmas trees and decorations, and everything.

My impression so far, is that Bulgarians celebrate Christmas very similarly to Americans. Most of the differences are subtle. Like in America, most Bulgarians buy trees, real or fake, and decorate them. However, I think the presents beneath the tree are fewer than most Americans. The stores in Bulgaria are generally all really small, like the size of little boutique stores. Even the big grocery store isn't much bigger than a boutique store. And even though there are more stores specially set up for Christmas, Bulgarians just don't buy as much as Americans, probably because they don't have the funds that we do. So I want to say Christmas is less comercialised here because of that. But on the other hand, I've not met many very religious Bulgarians, and I haven't seen any manger scenes or anything. So I don't get the feeling that it's a very religious holiday for them either. I think it's really just a time to celebrate and be with family, which is something I really enjoy. I'm really looking forward to visiting my host family in Kraynitsi for Christmas. The volunteer who lived with them before I did, Alison, will be there too, and lots of volunteers who lived in Kraynitsi will go back to be with their families. It should be a good time.

The Christmas characters that Bulgarians know are a little different than our traditional Rudolph, Frosty, and Jack Frost. They have a Santa, who they call Grandfather Christmas, and he has help from the traditional elves to make toys and reindeer fly his sleigh. Then they have a person whose name translates as Snow White, but she's not the Disney movie Snow White. She's Grandfather Christmas' neice. She's really pretty, dresses all in white, and I think she helps Santa pass out presents. In addition to Snow White, they have Grandmother Winter, who is not Grandfather Christmas' wife. I'm not sure who she is, but I think she helps give gifts to children too. I should mention at this point that my understanding of traditional Bulgarian Christmas characters is gathered from performing a Christmas play with the youth volunteers for the children at the orphanages. I didn't quite understand everything in the play, but I tried to ask a lot of questions. The volunteers wanted me to be in this play too, but they wanted me to speak English... I think because they thought it would be easier for me. It was fun, and the kids at the orphanage really seemed to enjoy it. Pictures from it can be seen above with Grandfather Christmas and Snow White featured in one.

The thing that I miss the most about Christmas in America is the Christmas music. They just don't play it much here. The only Christmas songs I've heard on the radio is the one that goes "Last Christmas I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it away" and a Bulgarian song whose meaning I don't really know. But I have a Christmas music collection on my computer, and I listen to that all the time when I come home.

Well, that's all I know about Christmas so far. Next year Maybe I'll have some more information when I understand things better. In the meantime, I hope this Christmas is very merry for all of you, and have a happy New Year too!

I shared my blog with some Bulgarian friends, and after reading it, one of them corrected me about some comments I made in a previous post. So I wanted to make sure that I clarified some things based on her comments. Going na gosti (or on a visit to someone's house) is an important Bulgarian tradition that I particularly enjoy. And when going na gosti, it is important to bring something as a gift. It can be a plant, or a watermelon, a picture, sweets from the store, or something that you baked, or just about anything. My friends and I in Kraynitsi always brought wine and rakia because it was easily available and that's what we liked to drink. So it's not like people expect you to bring rakia every time and get drunk on it or anything. Far from that, it's just a time to enjoy the company of good friends. So in case any of you were misled by the way I described things earlier, hopefully this clarifies things. It's good to have Bulgarians read what I write to make sure that I understand things correctly. And I think it's interesting and humorous for them to see an outsiders take on things. One of my Bulgarian friends said that she thought my blog was really funny, and I'm glad she thought so. It's also interesting to have Bulgarians read my blog because I don't generally write correct English, I write like I talk. When I talk with Bulgarians in English I usually have to think pretty hard about what would be the correct way of saying something without using any strange idioims or anything. It's been interesting learning a new language as well as talking with people who are at different levels of learning English. And soon I'll be teaching English to my coworkers. This is going to be interesting. I'll keep you posted on how that progresses. Anyway, the pictures I posted here are all from a visit to the zoo I went on with some kids from an orphanage. I work with Ecomission, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that basically does all kinds of philanthropic work. They generally focus on doing environmental things and working with youth. They write a ton of grant proprosals to get funding for all kinds of projects that they come up with. They have a whole lot of really great project ideas, and they've already done a lot of really great projects. Right now we're in the middle of a project working with an orphanage to provide opportunities to youth there to learn more about the environment. There's like five different topics; water, animals, fire, and two others, I don't remember what. The kids watch a film on each one and have a discussion about it. Then they go on a trip somewhere representing each topic. The pictures here are at the zoo and go with the animal topic. Ecomission also has a bunch of youth volunteers from ages 15 to 24 or so. They help out a lot with implementing the projects that Ecomission gets funds for, and they're a bunch of really great people. They went to the zoo with us too, and we had a good time. It was a really beautiful fall day that day. I'm always amazed at how beautiful Bulgaria is. I know some of this information about my work may be a repeat, but after talking with my family, I'm not sure I described it well, so here's another way of describing it, perhaps another clarification. Anyway, that's all for now. Until next post!

So, usually I make a couple of big meals, like a casseral or something, on the weekends and that will last me for the whole week. Unfortunately, I tried to improvise with one of the recipes by substituting mixed vegetables like carrots, corn, and peas for leafy green vegetables, and the result was disastrous. I had to throw it away. So last night I ran out of the other casserol that I had made, and tonight I had to do something. I don't really have time to cook when I get home, and I'm usually so tired. But I had a thing of milk that I didn't know what to do with, and then I had the ingenious idea of buying some cereal! It was so great. So I went to the store knowing that Bulgarians don't really eat cereal but hoping that I live in a big enough town that they sell some in the stores. (I tend to find things that my coworkers don't even realize is available in Lovech, like peanut butter and cream cheese. When I went on the field trip with Sonya and her second grade class, I had made myself a PBJ for lunch but nobody knew what peantut butter was. And all the other kids had sandwiches with things that we don't have in America. It was so wierd.) Anyway, I lucked out and the store near me did sell some cereal. So my options were corn flakes, honey-nut cheerios, or several brands of cocoa puffs. Honey nut cheerios it was, and it was great. I ate my cheerios while listening to American music from my computer and it was so nice. I mean, I really love Bulgaria a lot - the people are awesome, the land is beautiful, and the culture is so rich - but sometimes it's just so nice to have an "American fix." And tonight, cereal and music was just right. It would have been better if it had been General Mills cheerios (this brand was Nestly), but that's just not available here. If any of you are thinking of sending me anything, some cheerios, kix, rice chex, or rice krispies would be awesome. Anyway ,these pictures are all of the trainees that I was with during pre-service training (pst). Those were good, good times. One picture is of me doing two things that I found I really, really like in Bulgaria: drinking wine and playing belot, a Bulgarian card game. Another picture is of two other volunteers, Ryan and Tracy, and I in the backseat of our language trainer, Daniel's, car. She had a tiny car, and it was a tight fit, but we made it work on several occasions. We tried not to have Ryan in the back, though, cause he just didn't fit easily. And the other picture is of us eating the dinner of traditional Bulgarian dishes that we made together for one of our assignments. It was a little crazy making it, but it ended up tasting really good, and then we drank wine and played belot afterward. Good times.

So, I had a pretty interesting weekend last weekend. It all started on Thursday night when I realized that the radiator in my bedroom wasn't working and I was freezing. I figured the next night I would sleep in my living room where I have another radiator until I could get this one fixed. Well, then I had a pretty good day going on an excursion to a nearby monastery and some museums with Sonya, a coworker (the one in red in the picture), and her second grade class. It was really cold and snowy, but I had a good time learning about Bulgarian culture. I'm really glad Sonya speaks English because, well because she's a pretty awesome person, but also because she told me some really interesting stories from Bulgarian legends that were depicted in the wood sculptures. Anyway, we had a good time going together, and I told her about my radiator that doesn't work. Well, when I got home that evening I discovered that my other radiator didn't work either and my boiler wasn't working. So no heat and no hot water. It was a crazy cold night. The next morning, Nelly, another coworker (the one in the picture on the left), and her family took me to Pleven, a bigger city with bigger, less expensive stores. Nelly's husband, Mitko, was really great and helped me figure out what the problem was with my heat and water. Apparently, I had both heaters going, the water boiler, and my oven at the same time and you're not supposed to do that in Bulgaria. Ooops! So my fuses blew and I bought some new ones while we were out. I also considered getting a space heater, but decided not to since Peace Corps says we can't have one. Instead, I bought a new, small, portable radiator, and it's awesome. It works better than either of the radiators I have, and is not as likely to blow a fuse because it's new. So now I have heat and hot water and know to use only one or maybe two things at a time between the radiator, water boiler, and oven. And I also know to only use the heat at night and unplug it during the day because it's more expensive during the day. Things are different in Bulgaria, and I think it's going to be a cold winter. But you can get used to anything, right?

We spent a lot of time as a family outside working to prepare food for winter. Danche is working with peppers, and Tereza is working with tomatoes. We made tomatoe sauce and another tomatoe food for winter that I really like called lutinitsa. In this picture, Stoicho is drinking rakia, a very popular alcohol in Bulgaria, with our family parrot, Andy. This parrot was a great conversation piece in our family. He talks a lot, and one of his favorite things to whistle is the theme song to one of the soccer teams in Bulgaria, Sesika. However, most people in this region like another team, Levski, so it makes watching soccer between these teams interesting. Andy's had many death threats.

Below is my Bulgarian family and the woman on the left is my language trainer, Daniela. She's awesome, and so's my family. My host father is Stoicho, mother is Danche, and sister is Tereza. I have another sister who's married and has a ten month old baby, but they live in another village and weren't with us this night. The other volunteers in my group and I treated our families out to dinner in the only restaurant in the town a couple days before we left. And this is it. We had a good time. We spent a few hours there, talking, drinking wine, and dancing the Horo, a traditional Bulgarian dance of which there are several kinds. In the picture on the right we're dancing the easiest one. For all Horos, everyone holds hands and dances the same steps in a really long line (usually this is done at weddings and big celebrations with hundreds of people in the line). I only know how to do one horo, but I hope to learn more during my years here. The steps get really complicated, but my coworkers assure me that they can teach me. I just need some opportunities to practice.

So, yesterday was the swearing-in ceremony, and now I'm officially a volunteer. The ceremony was nice, and there was a reception afterward too. It all seemed really short and then we were off to our permanent sights. I think I was the first volunteer to leave because my counterpart was waiting for me really early at the PC office. It was really exciting to see her and then to see the rest of my coworkers when I got to my apartment in Lovetch. They had prepared dinner at my apartment and we ate and talked and they introduced me to my neighbors and helped me figure out how everything in my apartment worked. It was really nice and then they left.

First thing I noticed when they left was that I had nothing in the apartment. So I went down to the shop below my building and bought some toilet paper, dish soap, and water. When I got back to the apartment I realized that I needed breakfast for tomorrow, so I went back and bought some bread and butter and yogurt. My host parents had given me a lot of home-made jelly, so I didn't need to buy that. My family also gave me some thyme, and they wanted to give me a bottle of rakia (Bulgarian alcohol) and some cakes (a Bulgarian snack), but I convinced them I didn't have enough room. It reminded me of my own mother (Love you mom!!). I was actually really surprised at how easily I was able to fit everything into my luggage, especially since PC gave us so much extra stuff - text books, medical kit, etc. I probably could have fit that bottle of rakia if I had tried. But that's ok because my counterparts provided me with one when I got to my apartment anyway. Rakia is a big thing here. If you need to buy a gift for someone, you usually can't go wrong with buying them a bottle of rakia. Anyway, after I put the food away, I decided that I wanted to clean the kitchen because it's so filthy. So, I went to the store a third time and bought some cleaning supplies. The store lady must have thought I was crazy coming so often. I had thought about explaining to her why, but each time there were lots of other people (which is weird for Bulgaria - at least I think so) and I didn't want to make them wait while I tried to blunder my way through a short conversation. So I just made my third purchase and then spent three hours cleaning with the music blasting. The kitchen is about half done now, but because I had been up so late last night hanging out for the last time with my volunteer friends, I was tired and stopped and went to bed. So that was my day yesterday; my first day as a volunteer in Lovetch. Today was my first day at work and involved a lot of filling out paperwork for the apartment and Bulgarian id and so on. Not very interesting, so that's it for now.

So, now that I have this up, it sort of feels like my journal. I've been keeping a journal since I've been here and it's almost all used up. Mom, you could send another one (I have a bunch in my bookshelf in the closet) if you want to. Anyway, I write in my journal every day, so I might start doing that here (maybe not quite every day).

So, we painted the school fence yesterday, and it was amazing. I think about 50 people showed up to help paint, and in a community of 1500, that's a lot. We had a lot of kids, and they were all laughing and having a good time. So, the project we had been working on for the last two months was a huge success, and that feels really good.

On Wednesday, my Kraynitsi group went to Sophia to visit the PC office there and to explore the capital. We had a lot of fun shopping and shopping, and eating. We ate at a restaraunt that served the best food I've had in Bulgaria. It was grilled chicken with a special sauce on top of lettuce (which I haven't had since coming to bulgaria) and mushrooms and warm pita bread. It actually didn't taste Bulgarian at all, but it was oh so good.

Sophia reminded me so much of Boston because it was a real city with lots and lots of buildings and people packed close together, lots of public transportation (subways, buses, trams, trolleys, and taxis) lots fo cars, stores, and restaurants with ethnic foods like Lebanese and Indian and stuff. And it even had a mall! The mall didn't have any benches to sit on placed throughout it, but it was big and American enough.

While in Sophia I bought my host mother a candle for her birthday. She absolutely loved it when I gave it to her and she thaked me in the Bulgarian way with a kiss to each cheek. I really feel like a part of the family now, and it's hard to leave them now, especially when I'm starting to be able to hold real conversations with them. But I'm coming back for Christmas and so is the volunteer who lived with them last time. That'll be a lot of fun, adn the other trainees in Kraynitsi will come back to their families for Christmas too.

Last night we celebrated my language trainer's birthday too. In Bulgaria, people buy a box of chocolates and give the people they know (coworkers and friends) a chocolate for their birthday. Daniela went through three boxes yesterday. We had a good time last night eating, talking, and playing belot. I left early, though (12:30), because I was tired. I feel like such an old lady sometimes, but I was up at 8:30 this morning and left everyone a text message asking if they were awake yet.

Well, I had hoped to get some pictures up today, but the guy working at the internet club doesn't know how to hook up internet to my computer and I don't know where the internet cable is. Oh well. I'll get them up sometime.

Things are moving really quickly now for us PC trainees in Bulgaria. In another two weeks I'll be moving to Lovetch where I'll be for the next two years. I'm so excited and nervous! It's a lot like I felt when I was in America waiting to come here. But right now I'm still in Kraynitsi and things are as usual. We're having language lessons and finishing up our project to paint the fence around the school with youth and community members. We were supposed to paint on Saturday, but it rained, so we're going to do it Thursday, Friday and Saturday instead.

Things have been pretty stressful here as we get to the end of pre-service training. We've had so much to do in such little time, and on top of it all I got sick last week. I also got pretty homesick this weekend, and I cried for the first time on Saturday. It was bound to happen sometime. I fell asleep listening to the music on my computer, and when I woke up I felt so much better. I didn't feel so sick and I wasn't as exhausted as I'd been for a while. I had so much energy and the whole day before me that I decided to make my family dinner.

My host mother, Danche, was really excited about this because she had been wanting me to make some American food since I got here. I decided to make stroganoff, and Danche wanted to watch me cook it so she would be able to make it too. Every step I took, Danche had suggestions to make it better. She decided to boil the meat instead of frying it, and when I added the spices, she added a lot more (Bulgarians generally like things REALLY salty so she added more of that as well as other things too). Then she didn't unerstand why I had put it in the oven. It was supposed to be in there for two hours, but an hour and a half in she decided she'd rather finish it on the stove top. When I started to add the flour she asked why, but I didn't know the word for "thicken" to tell her it was to thicken the gravy. She reluctantly allowed me to add some. Just before we were about to serve it, I added some yogurt (which is a lot like sour cream here) and she was pretty dissapointed about that. She said that I should have let people add it themselves to their own portions. Oh well... now I know. It was so funny, and I was laughing so much at each step of the process. My host mother's a great cook, so I deffered to her on most things. And I did make the kitchen pretty smokey because Danche had turned it on and I figured she knew what setting would keep the oven at a reasonable temperature. Instead, it was turned to the highest setting, so after that I monitored the temperature better.

Cooking in Bulgaria is definately quite different in Bulgaria. Most Bulgarain women know how to make many of the same dishes, but they are made quite differently from home to home. And the stove is sort of different too. Some people have wood burning stoves which they use not only to cook but to keep the house warm during the winter. My group in Kraynitsi cooked on a wood burning stove for our community skills assignment, and that was quite an adventure too.

So I'll end this by saying that I'm feeling much better now, and I'm enjoying myself again. I am sad about moving and leaving my friends and Bulgarian family because I've gotten pretty close to them. But at the same time, there are a lot of opportunities and things to look forward to in Lovetch. My coworkers were pretty amazing when I visited them, so it's comforting to know that they will be there when I move.

So, I'm totally coppying another PC friend and doing this. I can't wait to get some pictures up, hopefully soon. I have a ton, and I think they're the best way I have right now of giving you guys an idea of what it's like to be here. I had my first feelings of homesickness this weekend, and I thought about all of you in America a lot. But I'm really enjoying myself here too, so it's all good.

This last week I went with three other trainees to visit a current PCV, Anna, in Varbitsa. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and doing a lot of nothing. It rained one day, so we had a party inside and listened to American music, ate food that we choose and made for ourselves, played chess, read American magazines (Newsweek), and talked a lot. It felt a lot like college, and it was nice to have a break from Bulgarian suff.

It was the town's holiday, so we did go see a concert and some fireworks and we saw the fair being set up, but we didn't actually go to it. We met three Bulgarian teenage girls who were friends with Anna and spent some time with them. We gave an English language lesson to one of them, and later we went na gosti at one of their houses. We made baked ziti, garlic bread, and brownies and brought some ice cream. Each of them made different kinds of bread too, so we had a ton of bread. But it was all good and we laughed a lot and had a good time. The girls interviewed each of us with a 40 question questinaire that Anna translated for us and we wrote the answers down. Anna's going to translate our answers - she's great.

After about 11 hours of traveling (we left Varbitsa at 7:30 am and got back to Kraynitsi at about 6:00) my host family was waiting for me to have a na gosti. I love na gosti, and it was great to have such a warm reception. It's also exciting because each time we do it I'm able to understand more and contribute more to the conversation. Then the trainees in Kraynitsi and I went out to the cafe and hung out for a while. It was a really busy place because it's about the only place to hang out in a small town like Kraynitsi, and we saw and talked to some people we know.

Anyway, I could go on forever, but perhaps that's enough for one blog.