Last weekend I had my Close of Service conference (COS). This is Peace Corps speak for “you’re outta here in three months so let’s get together, have some seminars, eat some bomb desserts and get emotional.”
More or less that is what happened.
It was definitely the best Peace Corps conference. Somewhat surreal, but not that big [...]
Please login first to post comments.
Albania!
Wait, Macedonia and Albania!!
Yes, I did in fact go to Albania. I didn’t know what to expect really, but I think the following pictures will show that it is a glorious place.
First, to get to Albania, I had to bus it through Mother Macedonia. This involved a stop for a few hours at the famous [...]
Last summer was dry – bone dry. I swear I didn’t see rain for months. Almost everyday was hot enough to warrant a siesta and by August there were arguments everyday in Vlahi over the irrigation canal.
This year could almost not be more different – at least of late. At the moment it is raining [...]
After a few epic days in Sarajevo, Rajun and I carried on to Mostar, which, if you know any balkan languages, you might guess is famous for an old bridge (Most=bridge, star=old). A bridge like this:
The city was gorgeous, but the paradox of war damage was just as present here. Indeed, the old bridge isn’t [...]
I just got back from Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the best. What follows is an attempt to explain the trip through a hearty amount of pictures.
First stop, Nis, Serbia. We took a train from Sofia to Nis then bummed around till an overnight bus to Sarajevo, Bosnia. Nis was okay, but I really do [...]
A taste of things to come: my rainwater collection and irrigation project is finally coming together (literally). I’ll post more later, but that is me testing the first flush system and downspout to the reservoir that we put together.
Props to USAID (American taxpayers) for financing my hippy dreams.
At the end of May a cluster of 60+ eager Americans arrived in Bulgaria as the triumphant 25th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to grace this fair land. While usually there are two groups coming per year (English teachers and youth/community development – like me) and respectively two trainings, this year they opted for one [...]
This was a marsh just outside Malko Turnovo – we saw around 40 black storks, which was impressive since until that moment I had no idea there was even one black stork in the whole world.
The Irish folklore group. The costumes and celebrations had something to do with the sun. They later jumped over a [...]
I’ve been all over the place lately doing all kinds of rocking things. As a result, I haven’t been blogging too much.
First, in the last post I mentioned that I’d be at Vlahi for 2 weeks to help host a big group from Switzerland. Well, the Swiss Missed. Turns out when you travel by train [...]
I will be in Vlahi or traveling for most the next two weeks. We have a group coming from Switzerland I have to help coordinate the madness.
So, no updates for a while.
In Istanbul, they sell these cool tshirts that are just like the flag of Turkey.
Today, in Sofia, I saw a young girl wearing one of these. My first thought was, “that person must be a tourist”.
Approximately 5 seconds later, some young Bulgarian guy yelled something unpleasant about this girl’s mother in Bulgarian…. because of the [...]
News item today courtesy of novinite.com:
2 BUSTED IN BULGARIA’S PERNIK OVER HUMAN TRAFFICKING
A 21-year-old resident of the town of Petrich and a 19-year-old from the village of Parvomay have been arrested in the city of Pernik over an attempt to traffick foreign citizens.
The two were detained overnight in the Pernik [...]
That’s a bottle rakia. It’s a company bottle, but it is filled with homemade rakia (I should hope to never have store bought rakia in my possession).
Anyway, this homemade grape brandy packs a punch and it is often said in Bulgaria that it will cure many an illness. For Americans with tremendous faith in Western [...]
In this case, a picture is worth 762 words. It’s hard to see, but if you look close you can see that yours truly is riding shotgun in that truck. What you can’t see is the baby goats I was keeping at bay on the floor of the truck. I am so happy this was [...]
Spring is here and I am expecting guests in the near future, so I decided to clean my apartment. I figured it would help to have a non-gross mop, so I went to one of Kresna’s many fine stores with random housewares looking for a mop.
The first one I saw cost 2.50 BGN (that’s two [...]
I give you, the new logo for the Vlahi Nature School:
Oddly enough, Vlahi is not in the name (work in progress I guess).
Anyway, what this logo symbolizes is something that has been (somewhat agonizingly) taking shape over the past year: the transition of the Vlahi eco-center from a project to an independent NGO.
I’ve said many [...]
There once was an epic battle for glory between the Pirin mountains and the Rhodope mountains in Bulgaria. As a proud resident of Pirin Macedonia, I was one of the fiercest defenders of Pirin and the associated god Perun. Well, after an epic May break around the Rhodopes, I am conceding defeat. The Rhodopes win, [...]
Or: Adventures in Russian Forestry Trucks, vol. 2!
Last Sunday, after a sun-burning weekend in Vlahi, I was searching for a ride down to Kresna. Sure, I could have walked, but recently it has been ridiculously hot and sunny, which makes me lazy. While a lot of people were actually in Vlahi, not many were leaving [...]
Happy Earth Day.
As someone who reads entirely too much about climate change, I can tell you there are all kinds of comparisons to World War II. Mostly related to the scale of the effort we need to undertake to fully address climate change. Anyway, when reading Climate Progress there was an article about how [...]
I went to Serbia last weekend. For work. It was excellent.
I traveled on a train:
The train had an engine car, a sleeping car and a passenger car. That’s it. Three cars for an international train. I guess the demand is not what you would call overwhelming. While taking a picture of the graffiti and the [...]
Today, something like 30 people from all over the world came to Vlahi. Why?
Because Vlahi is awesome. Oh, and they were all employed or affiliated with the Global Environment Facility, which is a collaboration of the United Nations and the World Bank. It funds environmental projects in developing countries, and, believe it or not, funded [...]
Once the wine had finished, he re-inflated the wine bag to use as a pillow on which to rest his weary head. It held at least until the next day.
(Sometimes, life in southern Europe feels like Hemingway was writing it.)
The scene: Thomas is in the office of “European Integration and Work with Projects” in the Municipality of Kresna, Blagoevgrad Region, Republic of Bulgaria, Continent Europe.
A head of the Municipal council bursts in…
“Hi! Can you help me? It is with English. I don’t want Pesho (colleague) to understand that’s why I…” He said with a [...]
How to chase away evil spirits:
How to be the most beautiful village:
How to wail:
How to see the rest:
Shiroka Luka Kukeri 2009
I’m a bum about blogging these days. I have been doing some things, just not writing about them really. To be honest though, since it is winter I spend a lot of time indoors reading the library of books that I brought from home.
I went to visit a buddy in Northwest Bulgaria. This involved an [...]
Dig this: Greek farmers have been blocking the border between Bulgarian and Greece for 9 days! Apparently they are demanding greater subsidies. I am astounded that a protest which is completely blocking border traffic has been able to go on this long between two European Union countries. You’d think someone would step in. Crazy.
If the [...]
In case you didn’t hear, I officially have a new boss:
Barack Obama.
So, my old radiator had basically become dependent on me hitting it to turn on. This led to it pretty much not working at all. I’m guessing that my abuse broke it.
Anyway, without a functional radiator, my apartment was freezing. Luckily, on what was the coldest day of the year, my repairman guy got me [...]
Today it was freezing out. While in a store getting lentil soup supplies, I had the following conversation in Bulgarian.
me: How are you today?
shopkeep: good
me: for me it’s cold
shopkeep: that’s because you go outside.
….
Glorious messages from our Fearless Leader.
From Drop Box
If you can’t read that, all you need to know is that our soon to be ex-President refers to Peace Corps Volunteers as “foot soldiers in the armies of compassion”.
Astounding.
My day has been made.
First, Happy New Year. Chestita Nova Godina. Etc.
Warning: this post might be lame, self-absorbed and not entirely relevant to anything but my preferred reading.
I mentioned in the last post that I brought a good amount of books back from home. Tonight, while reading one of those books, it occurred to me that very little fiction [...]
and by the future, I mean the time zone in Bulgaria which is 7 hours ahead of the USofA. The trip back was kind of long, but I still say that it is amazing humans invented the whole airplanes thing.
My trip home was glorious. It felt like a dream. I spent time with practically everybody, [...]
The gun shots that sounded off early in the morning should have given me a clue.
But, my focus this Saturday morning was not the sounds disturbing my efforts to sleep in, but to wake up in time to get banitsa.
At 9:30 I jumped out of bed and told myself, “there’s still time”. I threw on [...]
It being colder inside my apartment than outside! This was proven today when I saw my breath in my kitchen and then went outside and could no longer see my breath.
Opa!
Also, way more frequent blogging!
I am missing my summer as a gardener.
As I continue to stumble through the Bulgarian language with just enough confidence to not study any more, I often make myself feel better by thinking about “the good ol’ days” when I first got here.
Learning a language while in the country in a place where your native tongue is rarely found leads to plenty [...]
New Hobbies and Past times!
1) Hitting my radiator so that it will kick back on
2) Watching way too many episodes of The Office on the internet
3) Wondering how I passed “the dark hours” (aka 17:00 till I go to bed) last winter.
4) Wearing more layers in my apartment than I used to wear ice fishing
Opa!
[...]
A couple posts below you will see my promotion of the event we organized for the 5th of December - International Volunteer Day. Well, all in all the event turned out great.
Of course, as is the rule when organizing events, things were kind of crazy right up until the last minute, but it all worked [...]
It was Sunday morning and I got up late to try and do what I like to do on Sundays: buy banitsa. Since I didn’t stumble out of bed till almost 11:00 I knew my chances were slim.
While walking down the road, my main man Ivan told me to come over. He said something to [...]
In Bulgarian, the command form of “give” (like “give me that”) is “Дай” which is pronounced like “Die” in English.
Hilarity ensures for the native English speaker when somebody wants something so badly from someone else that they start yelling what sounds like “DIE! DIE! DIE!”
Opa!
December 5th is International Volunteer Day and since the NGO I work for focuses on international volunteer exchanges, we will be celebrating. We are hosting an event with live music, presentations and other fun in Sofia on Friday December 5th. Here is the awesome poster that was made for the event:
So, you know, if you’ll [...]
On a short walk in Sofia today I encountered 2 intensely stocked fishing supply stores. One even had like big nets and fancy scuba gear. They even had a speargun!
The only possible explanation is pirates. I’m wondering if I can use the speargun for good by teaching the youths of Kresna how to form underwater [...]
From Bulgaria
From Bulgaria
Yup. Living in my kitchen. Again. On the bright side, I finally decorated kinda.
Will this Bulgarian winter be easier than the last? Stay tuned to find out.
How many entries are we showing above?
For now, we are showing up to 50 entries on each page. Entries that
are too short are filtered out. For more entries, please use
archives.
|
Connect to Peace Corps Journals
About the Journal
Contact Us
Disclaimer:
| |
| Copyright (c) 2010 |
