There is a song off Morrissey's "You Are The Quarry" called "I Have Forgiven Jesus." The song contains the following verse:

"Monday - humiliation

Tuesday - suffocation

Wednesday - condescension

Thursday - is pathetic

By Friday life has killed me"

Two thoughts:

1) I've had weeks like this.

2) I do not recommend listening to Morrissey during a Bulgarian winter.

This week is the final week of the first semester. One of my goals for the next (and also last!) semester is not to lose another 60+ essays that my students wrote, which is what I did this past weekend. All I know is that there is a folder full of essays about the environment written in English by my 11th graders somewhere between Sliven-Pernik. Well, hopefully I'll win some popularity points with the kids :-/

The majority of Peace Corps trainees arrive in country with the idea that their presence is going to change a lot of lives. That once they get to site there will be dozens of people ready and willing to work with them. I'm sure this holds true for a lot of volunteers in a lot of countries. Unfortunately, though, it's not the case for every volunteer. There comes a point in your service when you start questioning your usefulness. "Do people want me here?", "Am I making that much of a difference?" Volunteers decide to leave for various reasons: lack of work, family illness, etc. My group, for example, has lost 14/39 people. This might seem like a big number for Peace Corps Bulgaria, but I think it's on average with Peace Corps worldwide. It's always difficult when you hear your group has lost a volunteer. We all try to be there for one another, since we all know how rough living/working here can be. However, not everyone makes it to the finish line. Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to two friends/volunteers who decided that their presence is needed much more in the States.

Shantay / "Shaun"

Shantay and I first met each other in D.C., where our group's staging event was held before coming to Bulgaria. We got to know each other better after being placed in the same training site, Kyustendil. I don't think either of us knows why we hit it off so well. We just did. Shaun and I got placed on opposite sides of the country after PST. Despite the distance, we managed to talk at least once a week to share war stories, rant, gossip, etc. Bulgaria, like every other country, has its fair share of jerks. People who can't get over the fact that there are different races in this world. I won't go into detail, but Shaun had to deal with a lot of drama during her time here. The last time I saw Shaun was two weeks before she left, at our mid-service conference in July. I knew she would be leaving, so we hung out as much as possible-sharing a room, playing "apples-to-apples" after our sessions, etc. After our MSC, Shaun and I stayed a few more days to do training sessions with the new group. We said our goodbyes as we hugged each other in the hallway of the hotel we were staying at. We wished each other good luck, then I was off to travel back to my site.

Shaun and I in Athens, December 2008

Good times with Shaun:

-Our a cappella version of Madonna's "Material Girl" to our 10th graders.

-Fortune Teller!

-Roommates (In-Service Training, Mid-Service Training)

-Athens, Greece: Black Egyptians, boiled eggs, fat-shrinking body suits.

-THE text message ;-)

Andrea / "Dre"

Andrea and I started talking before we even left for Peace Corps. I believe we met on the "Peace Corps Bulgaria" Facebook group, but I'm not certain. I remember exchanging a few emails with her before we headed out, discussing packing, expectations, etc. I gave her the arrival time of my flight into Reagan National, and she met me at the baggage claim area. We then took a taxi to our hotel. Since Dre and I were in different TEFL programs, we weren't placed in the same training site. Our only contact during PST was at our HUB sessions in Dupnitsa. Dre was originally placed in a village in North-Central Bulgaria, where she lived in an entire apartment complex by herself! Thankfully, she was moved to a better site and in a bloc where she wasn't the only tenant. We started hanging out more last February, when I went to visit her at her new site. Since that time, I think we saw each other at least once a month. What looks like a direct shot across the map and no longer than a 1 1/2 hour car ride, took around 7 hours, 3 trains, and a bus to get from my site to hers. Like Shaun, I knew in advance that Dre was leaving, so I made plans last weekend to go and see her before she left. We hung out with some other volunteers, played poop smoothies, and enjoyed one last trip together to Potato King, one of our favorite restaurants in Sofia. We said our goodbyes at the Sofia bus station, hugged, then got on our buses back to site.

Dre and I in Sofia, January 2010.

Good times with Dre:

-Skype chats

-Angry Lady Cafe

-Bowling

-HUB for the newbies

-4th of July

-Madonna concert

-Halloween

I remember when I was a high school student and thinking how weird it was to see teachers outside of school, as if they should stop existing after 3 pm on weekdays. I'm sure my students feel that way about their teachers, including me. What sort of conversation can you have with a teacher, especially when you're 17, that's not related to your class? Unfortunately for one of my students, she had to suffer through one of those awkward teacher/student encounters today.

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about Nelli, the lady I tutor English to. Before today, Nelli and I hadn't seen each other since mid-December, so I wanted to stop by her work after school today to say hello. She works as a cosmetologist, so she does everything from waxing, plucking, coloring, you name it. I arrived around noon to find her working on a customer. I wanted to at least stop in for a minute and say hello. However, when I got inside she demanded I stay and sit down. As I went to sit down, I noticed a girl on the other side of the table wearing this white facial mask thingy. I didn't think anything of it and started talking to Nelli about my holiday, etc. When it was the girl's turn to get worked on, Nelli told her my name and that I'm her English teacher. The girl told Nelli that I'm also her English teacher. I just looked at this girl with the most confused look possible while thinking, "Who is this?" Even after Nelli removed the mask I couldn't figure out who the student was. The girl then got cream rubbed on her face, which apparently had to sit for some time, so Nelli came over to me and we started smoking and sharing stories. After about 20 minutes the girl's appointment was over and she got ready to leave. It was then I realized it was a student of mine from my 11v class.

I told the student I was sorry if my presence made her feel awkward. I know I felt uncomfortable being there, speaking Bulgarian in front of a student who's rather fluent in English. I'm sure she was dying inside hearing me speak broken Bulgarian to Nelli. As she walked away from the shop, I saw her call someone on her cell phone. I imagine the conversation went something like: "OMG you're not going to believe who watched me get a facial..." or worse "Hey, I saw Mr. at the cosmetology shop and he's going to get his ass crack waxed."

Some of last year's music which helped get me through the year.

1. Neko Case - "Middle Cyclone"

2. Fever Ray - "Fever Ray"

3. Peaches - "I Feel Cream"

4. Bat For Lashes - "Two Suns"

5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "It's Blitz!"

6. A.C. Newman - "Get Guilty"

7 Glass Candy - "Deep Gems: A Collection of Singles, B Sides, and Rarities"

8. Camera Obscura - "My Maudlin Career"

9. Placebo - "Battle For The Sun"

10. PJ Harvey & John Parish - "A Man A Woman Walked By"

So the new year hasn't gotten off to the start I'd hoped for. The first week back at school I had a student throw a snowball at me in class. This week my counterpart's father passed away, then my entire 9th grade class kept asking me if I have sex. When I said "no" and tried to move on, some of the students got on top of their desks and started shouting "Matt has sex! Matt has sex!" I'm sure most of you can imagine the amount of fear and anger and whatever else came over me. On Thursday I have no classes, except the director at my one school (the school where all these incidences took place) decided to schedule the English course for teachers on this day. I showed up today with the E.U. volunteer at the school, only to have no teachers come to our class. There's some other stuff, of course, but you get the general idea of how things are going at the moment. I have 5 1/2 months left in my service, but I'm about 98.9% mentally checked out. Therefore, I decided to do some math to figure out how much time I have left teaching here.

COS date: 6/23/2010 = 159 days from today

Weekends = 44 days

COS conference = 3 days

Spring break = 6 weekdays

Teaching days left = 106 days

This number is actually less if you have a day off during the week. Plus, I didn't include Bulgarian holidays since we usually have to make those up on a Saturday (some holiday, eh!) So things are a little more bearable knowing I have only 100 or so teaching days left.

Today is my 28th birthday.

It seems like the older I get, the more I start to compare myself to what others have done by my age. At 28, my parents were already married, had careers, and mother and father to three kids. My sister had been in her career for 5 years and had purchased a house. My brother, on the other hand, is a different story. But whatever.

I have about 5 1/2 months left in Bulgaria, so my friends and colleagues have started to ask me "What will you do when you go back?" I have no idea, to be honest. All I know is that I will go back to Cleveland and live with either my parents or my sister. I have no desire to go back to school. I have no desire to teach after this. What I want is to start a career, earn a living, get some sort of marketable skill. I would like to live/work abroad again, of course. But who wouldn't?

Anyways, I had a little birthday celebration on Saturday. I went out with a few of my friends for dinner, followed by two games of bowling. My one friend bought me a winter hat (I lost the only one I brought in Macedonia), and my other friends gave me a jar of pickles (ate them all) and a set of Buckaroo Stoneware plates by Cowboy Living. I felt spoiled. This morning we went to Billa Cafe, where I was treated with a cake and birthday candles. All in all it was a good weekend.

My second and final Christmas break in Bulgaria has come and gone. My last day of teaching before the break was the 23rd. I taught at the Language school and played Christmas music and games with my students. My second class of the day, 11g, gave me a snow globe as a Christmas present. I've never been one to handle these types of situations very well. So the only words I could get out after being presented with the gift were "Uh, Thanks guys!", as my face turned from white-red-purple due to nerves and embarrassment.

I spent the evening of the 23rd with some friends in a nearby town, where a fellow volunteer had organized a school play. His students performed "A Christmas Carol" two nights in a row.

I also spent Christmas Eve with this volunteer and some of his friends. We had two "na gosti" invitations that day, which meant we consumed more food than any human should ever eat in one day. Now, this might've sounded like a terrible experience, but the food was so damn good that it was difficult not to eat more. I will surely miss Bulgarian holiday meals when I leave here. I've never seen a Christmas meal like these in the States.

Christmas day I spent by myself, preparing for my trip and skyping my family in the States.

On the 26th I traveled to neighboring Macedonia with 3 other volunteers in my group. I've been in contact with a PCV in Macedonia for a while, and she was willing to host us while we were there. She even hooked us up with places to stay in other sites we visited. Our first destination was Ohrid, where we stayed in a hostel with only 2 other guests and the owner. It was awesome having this huge hostel almost to ourselves.

The beautiful Lake Ohrid

The Church of Saint John at Kaneo in Ohrid.

We spent 2 nights in Ohrid before traveling to Krusevo, where we met up with the volunteer I've been in contact with.

Welcome!

Macedonian pop icon Toshe, who was killed in a car accident in 2007. He was from Krusevo and this is just one of many shrines to him.

We spent one night in Krusevo before traveling to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. We again stayed with a PCV who was kind enough to host us for a night.

Skopje's Christmas tree.

This is a house/museum dedicated to Mother Theresa, who was born in what is today Skopje.

Kale Fortress.

We rang in the new year in a city near Skopje with a group of PCVs in Macedonia. On New Year's day we traveled back to Bulgaria.

So the B23 volunteer group is whipping out PCPP projects left and right! Yep, there is another one you can donate to. Theresa needs help funding an English Language Lab at her school. Since we all know how important learning + the English language is, please consider donating any amount to her project.

I know some of you reading this blog didn't donate to my PCPP project, so please right that wrong by donating to Theresa's and/or Jason's project.

:)

'Tis the season for giving, so please consider donating to a friend and fellow volunteer's Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) project. Please click HERE to find out more about his project and how to donate.

As someone who's been through the PCPP process, I know how important it is to get the word out. So for those of you reading this, if you know someone who might be interested in donating to the project, please forward the link above to that person.

:)

Students cheating is something every TEFL volunteer in Bulgaria has to deal with. It's not that cheating is accepted here, there's just nothing in place to stop it. This is something I deal with constantly at my Roma school, especially on test days. At the language school, however, it wasn't something I had to deal with until today.

A few weeks ago I told my students they had to write their second essay. I allowed them to choose between three topics: cell phones, obesity, and a legal drinking age. Since I only see these kids twice a week, I told them the essays would be due the following week, the week school ended up being canceled. I missed the following Monday because I was in Plovdiv for the new group's IST. Then a lot of the students forgot to bring their essays that Wednesday because they thought I wouldn't be there. Well, I finally got most of their essays last week, so I told them I would grade them over the weekend and hand them back this week.

The majority wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of cell phones, which is not surprising since they all have one. The general consensus is that cell phones are good because of the constant connection, but bad because they cause "cancer of the brain". So after reading about 30 of these, I came across one essay with the sentence, "Since a cellular telephone is really a two way radio, you can start tracking cell phone history back to 1876 with the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell." Yea, I'm sure you can visualize the red flag popping up in my head. I decided to google search this sentence and found this. It's the entire first paragraph of her essay.

I arrived at school this morning thinking I would have to talk to this student about her essay, but she was absent. However, I did tell my other students I know when they're cheating. That if one essay is so different than the others, then it probably wasn't written by them. I didn't tell them someone cheated, but I'm sure they figured it out on their own.

You might be wondering what I'm going to do about this essay. Well, the English teacher I talked to told me to give the student a 2 (F in Bulgaria). I should, considering she had more than enough time to think about the essay topic and write down her opinions, like everyone else. But the forgiver in me has decided to give her a second chance. Since this student is participating in the pen pal exchange, I have her email address. I sent her an email after I got home from school, saying I know she copied and if she doesn't want an F, she better give me a new essay on Monday. I haven't heard back from her, not sure if I will. I guess I will find out on Monday if she decided to take advantage of my offer.

Tonight's Thanksgiving dinner with my students was a success. I made deviled eggs, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Thank you to the students (or their moms) who made the mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc.

Let's eat!

With my 11d class

MP, Sliven's honorary citizen, even came!

This gathering will be my only Thanksgiving celebration this year. On Saturday, I will be attending the wedding of a former volunteer. Since I haven't been to a Bulgarian wedding, I thought I better take advantage of this opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving to all in the States and the volunteers in Bulgaria.

I've been planning a Thanksgiving dinner with my 11th graders since the beginning of the month. My original plan was to have students from all three of my parallels (11d, 11g, 11v) attend. Last year, the former volunteer at the school picked his favorite class to have the party with. Since I've been teaching at the school for only two months, twice a week, I can't say I have a favorite class/parallel. Thus I thought it would be wise to include students from each parallel. This plan ended up backfiring on me.

Two weeks ago, I informed my students about the Thanksgiving party I planned to have at the end of the month. I passed around a sheet of paper and told the students to write their names down if they would like to come. I said I couldn't invite everyone because there just wouldn't be enough room. Despite informing them of this, I had no less than 10 students in each class who were interested. The following week we had no classes because the government closed all the schools due to the swine flu outbreak. Then I spent this past Monday in Plovdiv, where I had to give a presentation during the B25's In-Service Training (IST) conference. On Wednesday, I saw my students for the first time in two weeks and had to remind them about the party and how everyone couldn't come. I passed the sign-up sheet around again and asked them to circle their name if they wanted to cook/bake/bring something. When I got the list back during my second class of the day, 11g, I noticed all their names (17 of them) were now crossed out, except for one. I asked the students why they had crossed out their names, and one girl said if the whole class can't come, then none of us want to come. I said, "So Alex is the only student that still wants to come?" Alex heard this, came up, took the list out of my hand, and crossed out her name too. I actually left the class feeling sad more than anything else.

When I got home from school that day, I had to sit down and figure out what I was going to do with the students in my other two classes who were still interested in coming. The number with only these two classes was still too big. I feared picking and choosing students from each class, since I didn't want to risk not choosing someone's best friend. Eventually, I had to pick one class over the other so as not to upset all the students and have no one show up. I picked 11d, because they seemed more enthusiastic about the party and had the more varied food choices. I informed my students about the decision in an email, since I don't have class with them again until Monday. I expected some blowback, but the responses have been understanding.

I guess I just didn't understand how loyal the students are to each other in their respective parallels. In Bulgaria, for those of you who don't know, students are placed in a parallel when they enter the 8th grade. Their test scores determine who gets placed where and what their first foreign language can be. That's how I understand it. Each parallel has around 25 students, and these 25 students will be together for the next 5 years/till graduation! There is no parallel mixing, so my 11d students don't have any classes with students in 11v, for example. This is obviously very different than what we have in America, where there's always a different mix of students in all the classes. The students here don't seem to mind it, even when their class is extremely lopsided, like the 9th grade class I subbed for that has 22 girls and 4 boys.

The ugly:

Having to ask the Peace Corps driver twice to pull over so I could vomit. (I'm not sure if this is due to drinking coffee on an empty stomach, potentially having the flu, not being used to riding in a car anymore, or all the above.)

The bad:

Teaching 4 hours today on what is normally a day off for me, starting at 7:30 am.

Teaching at least 9 hours tomorrow since another English teacher is out sick.

The good:

Someone donated $500 to my PCPP project, which means I need to raise only another $93!

Halloween came early for my students this year. Yesterday, I passed out candy to my kids at the Roma school. Today, I passed out candy to my kids at the Language school. I remembered to bring my camera today to capture some happy moments.

I got to school around 4 pm to get ready for my class at 4:10. While I was walking to the teachers' lounge, I ran into the director, who told me classes were only 30 minutes today. No one called to tell me about the schedule change. Therefore, I missed my first class of the day. The students in this class refused to go to gym class, so we had a combined class with another group of 11th graders. I gave the students their essays and the bags of candy, took some pictures, told some stories, then class was over.

I spent about 90 minutes stuffing 80 of these bags with candy.

11v

11d

Blurry picture of my 11g class.

I must thank my mom and dad for sending me the candy and the Halloween bags and Andrea for giving me the cool spider web table cloth seen in the first picture.

Today, I gave each table (2 students per table) an index card with a specific topic and two related questions written down. One topic was "war", and the two questions were: "Would you fight in a war to save your country?" and "Does war ever do any good?" The two students with the index card volunteered to share their opinions. Afterward, I asked the class if anyone else had an opinion. Here is how part of it went down.

Me: If a September 11-style terrorist attack happened in Bulgaria, would you fight for your country if called on?

Student: It wasn't terrorists.

Me: What do you mean?

Student: There is evidence that your government was involved in the attacks.

Me: [nervous laughter] Oh ok. A conspiracy theorist, eh?!? [changes topic]

I was surprised to hear this from the girl who said it. I have no idea what "evidence" she is referring to, but I am sure it is something I have heard, read numerous times and that has been debunked just as many times. Who knows, though, perhaps this 17-year-old Bulgarian girl knows something we do not? I doubt it.

Anyway, this exchange today reminded me a little of this incident on Real Time with Bill Maher 2 years ago.

If I have a talent for anything, it is saying the most perfectly wrongest thing at the most perfectly wrongest time.

I got to school today around 4 pm to start teaching my first class of the day, 11g. When I entered the classroom, I noticed that less than half the students were there. I didn't think much of it because it was still the break. However, the only male student in the classroom at the time, Svetomir, came up to me and said that there would only be 10 or 11 students in class today. I was surprised to hear this, but thought a lot of the kids had just decided to skip for no apparent reason.

I was talking to Svetomir when another male student approached me to hand in his (late) essay. He asked if he could read it to the class. I told him no because I had planned a lesson for today. After I said this, I looked around the room and saw the girls slouched in their seats and wearing sad faces. I said, "Wow. All of you look dead today!" Right after I said this, Svetomir told me there had been an accident earlier in the day. After a brief moment of confusion, I asked what had happened. He proceeded to tell me that Sylvia (girl in 11g) found out this morning her mom had died in a car accident. Now I understood why hardly anyone was there, and why everyone looked down and out. I, of course, realized what I had just said and felt like tossing myself out the window. Svetomir and two other students told me not to worry about the comment because I had no prior knowledge of the crash. I still felt like shit. I asked the class if they wanted to talk about what had happened, but they said no.

I sat down after gathering my thoughts and decided to cancel the lesson. Thankfully, Svetomir and another male student sat in the front with me to have a conversation. I felt like there was some mutual feeling between the males in the room about the whole accident. None of us knew what to say, and none of us felt like crying or hugging. The three of us talked about Sylvia, the US, etc., just to pass the time. At one point I pulled out 40 index cards with Bulgarian verbs written on them. I told the two boys that I was studying these, so they quizzed me. I turned it around and started quizzing them, seeing if they knew the English verbs. This, for some reason, started to interest the girls who were crying earlier in the class. They started answering, and my pronunciation of some of the verbs made them laugh. This lasted til the end of the class, and by that time, the mood had completely changed.

I still had to teach two other 11th grade classes, but neither of them seemed fazed by what had happened. I decided to cancel the lesson in those classes too, since all the parallels are on the same topic and I do not want one being ahead or behind the others. I had to think of a bunch of questions to ask them to make use of the 40 minutes we had together, so we discussed German, the movie 'Clerks', and a bunch of other stuff I cannot remember at the moment. Needless to say, it was an interesting day.

About Sylvia. This could not have happened to a nicer, sweeter person. She always sits in the front row, answers almost every question, or has a comment about every topic. On top of that, she just strikes me as someone who does not have an ounce of hate in her. I found out from Svetomir that her parents got divorced this past year, and that Sylvia has been living with her grandparents for some time. I cannot even begin to imagine what she must be going through. I can only hope that her friends and family will be able to provide her enough support during this time.

I know the horse has been beaten, run over, and its guts smeared all over the road

but

Here is some of what I had to deal with today, and why I'm advocating for the removal of Tuesday and Friday from the work week.

Before Class

It started raining 5 minutes into my 30 minute walk to school, which made me cold, wet, and hating life.

10th grade, 3rd period (40 minutes)

-One student coming into my 10th grade class 3 times to try and beat up another student.

-A male student tormenting a female student and a new student by stealing their stuff, destroying their clothes, and removing their chairs from underneath them. This same boy tried to pick a fight with my 58-year-old female counterpart after she scolded him for throwing around the student book.

-General lack of interest in anything related to English

4th and 5th period break

-I left school to unwind a little after holding off 4 fights and numerous other distractions. It was pouring down rain and the storm drains could not handle it, so I eventually had to step in a big puddle and get my socks wet. I sought refuge in a cosmetics shop, where I was forced to watch a Turkish chick flick dubbed in Bulgarian with 3 Bulgarian woman. At least I got to smoke there.

9th grade, 6th period (40 minutes)

-Students screaming and yelling about failing or barely passing the test last week, even though NO ONE could conjugate "to be".

-10th graders hanging out in the classroom and causing disruptions since their classroom door was locked.

-One student stealing the class attendance and grade book, only to give it back after faking like he was going to hand it to my counterpart a few times.

-Two students knocking two wooden squares together, which created the loudest effing noise in the history of loudest effing noises.

-A female student thrusting her hips back and forth while calling my name. This same student also gave me a blank copy of the test with her lipstick kiss print on it.

-General lack of interest in anything related to English.

My counterpart and I left the class defeated, hating life, and knowing there is nothing we can do to punish these students.

After Class

-I finished the day by eating pizza at Zlatna Belka with two of my favorite volunteers, Sarah and Matt. I

Last week, a few of my 11th graders found my Facebook profile and sent me a friend request. I approved their requests (with obvious restrictions) and told them to join Peace Corps Bulgaria A-TIP group or risk getting "defriended". They joined. Besides writing "Hi!" on their walls, I have not communicated anymore with these students on FB. It is important that I maintain a professional/teacher-student relationship with them, so any future FB contact will be limited to school or Peace Corps-related issues.

I noticed that one of my student "friends" is a habitual quiz taker. Unfortunately for me, I do not get to read anything about a sad duckling in Farmville or what bank he just cased in Mafia Wars. Instead, I get to see the results of his sex quizzes. Since I approved his friend request yesterday (!), these are the quizzes he has taken:

"Who loves you"

"Next sex"

"Oracle of the sexual positions"

"Your next love"

"Famous lover of the day"

"Today's sex partner"

"Lover of the day"

"Date of the day"

"How much do you want sex at the moment?"

It is obvious I need to talk to his mother. Or use these quizzes against him if he starts acting up in class. :)

I have always considered myself to be a social smoker in the US. If alcohol was involved, I needed cigarettes. If I was going to be around a group of smokers, I needed cigarettes. I carried this habit here, except smoking is much more prevalent in Bulgaria than in the US. In Bulgaria, you can smoke in restaurants, bars, the teachers room, etc. Therefore, a lot of us have started smoking more or picked up the habit since arriving in-country. For some of us, it helps us get through a 5 hour na gosti (dinner party), or helps us relax after teaching English for hours to a bunch of rowdy students. Smoking is also a better option than, say, bleaching your eyes and brain. Like everywhere else, I imagine, smoking is an expensive habit, especially if you are poor, a volunteer, or both. In Bulgaria, however, it is looking like the habit will become much more expensive next year.

Bulgaria Smokers to Pay Drastically More For Cigarettes in 2010

"A pack of the most common Bulgarian cigarettes, Victory, will cost at least BGN 1,5, if the excise rise affects the price formation. In this way, a pack of Victory will cost nearly BGN 5."

Bulgaria PM Says Yes to Higher Cigarette Tax

""Europe gave up smoking, the United States gave up smoking, we will have to give up smoking as well," Boyko Borisov commented on Friday."

I finally got around to completing and submitting my PCPP project. If you are interested in reading about it and/or donating, please click here.

Also, feel free to refer me to any website that could improve my proof-reading skills and why summarizing stuff after 12 a.m. is a bad idea.

I need a cigarette.

So I found out that my Roma school is getting another volunteer next week. This one will be female and from the Czech Republic. I have no idea, though, what her job will be. I first heard that she will work with our special ed students for 9 months. Then I heard she will team-teach English for 3-4 months (bless her heart!) If she will teach English, I hope we can work together on some after-school activities. Regardless, I am anxious to meet her.

Speaking of volunteers, the best site mates in the history of best site mates, Stacie and Jason, departed Bulgaria's windy city this morning. We celebrated their close of service yesterday by enjoying one last meal at Gyros Olympion, our favorite döner place. Good luck to both!

Me, Jason, and Stacie in Zheravna, December '08

I am fortunate that I have the opportunity to work at the language school this year. It gives me the opportunity to work with students who speak English and seem interested in an education. When I met my counterpart last week, she told me my responsibilities would be speaking activities and essays. She would be in charge of dictations, grammar, and tests. I am more than happy with this arrangement. She also made it clear that I do not have to follow the speaking activities in the book. If I wanted to, I could talk about an article I read or something I saw on TV. I decided to take advantage of this today to talk about school uniforms/dress code, since the speaking activity in the book asked "Why can't you tickle yourself?"

I figured a discussion on school uniforms/dress code would be interesting since most students seem to have an opinion on the subject, favorable or not. I was also curious to find out their thoughts because the math school, which shares the same building as the language school, has a school uniform, while my school does not. I gave the students 5 minutes to create a pro/con list on the subject, and then they shared their opinions. They came up with a lot of what we often hear in the States: peer pressure, cost effectiveness, comfort, etc. They were even able to defend their positions rather well when challenged by another student. The majority opinion favored some sort of dress code over an actual uniform, which I guess is not shocking except that most schools here do not even have a dress code. So I was glad to hear a lot of students would be willing to compromise.

There was a somewhat awkward moment for me during my last class. The students were interested in hearing about dress code policies in the US, so I mentioned that a lot of schools ban certain logos/brands for safety reasons (associated with gangs and whatnot), and that clothes must fit right and be at an appropriate length. I said that most schools when I was a student would not allow females to wear tops with exposed shoulders. Of course after I said this, I noticed a girl to my right wearing the exact type of top I just described grab her sweater vest to cover up. I felt terrible thinking I might have embarrassed her.

At the end of class I asked the students what topics they would like to talk about this year. Most do not want to talk about politics because they find it boring and the previous volunteer talked about it a lot. One class wants to talk about US colleges and universities, while another wants to talk about differences between the US and Bulgaria. I did tell them that we would be having a discussion on school disciplinary actions in the US, since there are no forms of discipline in the school system here. So I am anxious to hear what their thoughts are on that topic. ;-)

I went to my two schools today to find out what my teaching schedule will be. This is what it looks like at the moment, but things will change during the semester.

Monday: @ Language School

3rd period - 11d

4th period - 11v

5th period - 11g

Tuesday: @ COY Hadji Mina Pashov

2nd period - 9a

3rd period - 10a

Wednesday: @ Language School

3rd period - 11v

5th period - 11g

6th period - 11d

Thursday: Free!

Friday: @ COY Hadji Mina Pashov

1st period - 9a

2nd period - 10a

I will teach 9th and 10th grade at COY Hadji Mina Pashov and 11th grade at the Language School. At the moment all of my classes will start on or after 1 pm. This will change, though, once the remodeling is done at COY HMP, then we will go back to teaching all of our classes in the morning. At the Language School, however, the school always operates on two shifts. 9th and 11th grade will start in the afternoon, while 10th and 12th grade will start in the morning. This will flip once or twice, I believe, during the school year, so I will eventually teach there in the morning as well.

The schedule is lighter than I had anticipated. This is probably for the better, since both schools want me to do activities with the students outside of class.

I upset my tutor's husband tonight. Here's what happened...

I have tutoring with Katya between 5-7 pm every Tuesday and Thursday. Despite the cold, wet weather, I decided to walk the 20 minutes it takes to get there and study some Bulgarian. We are half way through our session when her husband, Pavel, showed up. Now, Pavel and I get along just fine, even if he can be super high-strung and obnoxious. Well, Katya had to run out and buy cigarettes (we take a smoke break after an hour of studying. Healthy!), so she told Pavel to stay and talk to me. He sat down and started asking me questions about the bag of fruit Katya gave me. "Where did they come from?" "Who gave them to you?" I answered these questions, but then he wanted me to tell him the name of Katya's mother, since she had grown the fruit in her garden. I had no idea. He then asked me what Katya's last name is. I know it, but it takes me a while to say it because it's sometimes difficult for me to pronounce. This seemed to annoy him. Things started to get fuzzy after this. He started yelling at me for something and then calmed down. He asked me another question, and I responded by saying my counterpart's name. This pissed him off. I didn't understand the whole question and he started shouting again. My tutor finally returned, so he started yelling at her about how I don't know anyone's name and that I will go back to America and tell everyone I studied Bulgarian with my counterpart and not Katya. He then shook his hand at us and stormed off.

What happened, right? Well, Katya told me Pavel was offended that I did not know the name of her mother or his last name. You see, I thought his last name was the masculine form of her last name. It's not. She goes by her maiden name. He was also upset that I answered my counterpart's name for some question I didn't fully understand. I guess it's a big deal to know everyone's name here, even if you have no relation to them. So, I thought I would educate you all a little on how Bulgarians get their names, because there is a tradition behind it. This is how I understood it.

Father: Pavel Georgiev Pavlov

Mother: Katya Ivanova Karavelova-Pavlova (Katya doesn't use Pavlova in her name, though)

Son: Georgi Pavlov Pavlov

Daughter: Polina Pavlova Pavlova

So, the son's first name is close to his father's middle name (Georgiev - Georgi). Both the son and daughter's middle name is close to the father's first name (Pavel - Pavlov and Pavlova). Katya told me her mother's name is Penka. Since Katya doesn't like this name, she decided to call her daughter Polina. She said if you do not like the name, you can pick one that starts with the same letter. In this case the letter "P."

During communism, if a child's father had abandoned the mother before she gave birth, the child had to take a form of the mother's first name, ending in "-in", as its middle name. For example:

Mother: Donka Petkova Stefanova

Son: Ivan Donkin Stefanov

This would turn out to be rather traumatizing for the kids when they attended school, since all the teachers and students would know they didn't have fathers. Today, however, most single mothers use a form of their middle or last name for their child.

Katya asked me how we (Americans) get our names. She understood that there is a family name. She had a hard time understanding our middle names, though. I explained to her that there is no tradition behind our middle names, and that some people have no middle name. I remember when my counterpart and I went to get my internet set up last summer, and I had to tell her that Joseph, my middle name, has nothing to do with my father. She didn't understand, so my internet bill is addressed to "Matthew Joseph".

I will be teaching at two schools this year: COY Hadji Mina Pashov (my current school) and Zahari Stoyanov Language School.

Today I was contacted by a member of the TEFL program staff, asking me if I would be interested in teaching some classes at the Language School (LS) this year. The school director there contacted the program staff about the offer, and they in turn contacted me. I was told it would be all right if I wanted to teach there, but that I would have to speak with the director myself. Now, I knew about this offer since June, when my counterpart told me the LS director had contacted our director. In fact, my director even mentioned the conversation while we were talking about a project we're working on. I told him I would think about it, but then I went on vacation with my dad, so I hadn't given it much thought. Today I thought I should at least go and talk to the LS director. He seemed excited that I was willing to work there this year. He even contacted my director (they're BFFs) about arranging a meeting and working out some proper teaching schedule for me, since neither school has created their program for the upcoming year. So, that's pretty much all I know so far. I'm supposed to go back to the LS on the 14th to find out my schedule there. In the meantime I will continue going back to my current school.

I am excited about teaching at both schools. When I thought about it over the summer, though, I was a little hesitant to take the offer, since dealing with the politics and such at one organization seemed enough for me. But the hesitations were laid to rest when the LS director started calling everyone, and is willing to compromise on a teaching schedule. Also, I will get to work with a totally different group of kids, so I'm looking forward to getting to know them and teach them. Looks like I will have a busy 9 months, and for that I'm glad.

Banko is the cat I adopted back in July. He used to live with another volunteer until that volunteer returned to the States. Banko's hobbies include sleeping, eating cat food or the food I leave out for myself, tipping over my garbage can and raiding its contents, chasing shadows, and hanging out on the neighbor's balcony. He is quite the stinker.

COY Hadji Mina Pashov is getting a face lift. The work started after the school year ended on June 30th.

June 2009

September 2009

The back of the school is still under construction

Once the remodeling is finished on the outside, they will start working on the inside. So when the school year starts on the 15th all classes will be held in one wing of the school, while the other is being worked on. After that wing is completed, we will then switch sides so construction can begin on the last wing. I'm not sure what exactly will be done on the inside or how long it will take to complete, but I'm excited to see the end result. The student population is almost 100% Roma, so I'm pleased to see the school is receiving the attention it deserves from the municipality.

My dad came to visit me from the 14th-28th. It was nice seeing him after 16 months. During his stay, we traveled to Plovdiv, Istanbul, Sliven, and Sofia. We were going to visit Veliko Turnovo but I became sick, so we decided to spend a few more days at my site. Anyway, here are some pics from the travels.

In Plovdiv:

In Istanbul:

I finally got to see Madonna in concert. In Bulgaria. As a Peace Corps volunteer. I surely didn't think this would take place when I was applying to join the Corps. But since the opportunity presented itself, I had to buy tickets and go see her live.

Dre and I arrived at Levski stadium around 7:30 pm and were immediately annoyed by the lack of crowd control. There seemed to be a line that wasn't moving, so we decided to follow a bunch of other people and entered the stadium grounds as one huge cluster. After we got through security things were fine. I actually have to give props to the staff at the stadium. Everything inside seemed to be in order. There were Red Cross staff all around to assist people with fatigue or whatever, plenty of toilets inside the stadium so people wouldn't have to leave during the show, and many concession stands. The security personnel were even friendly. They actually opened the gates so that those sitting in the stands could go on the floor to stand for the show and/or use the facilities down there. I can't imagine that happening in the States. Therefore, I give an A for the Levski staff.

The show itself was amazing. It was around 10 pm when I decided to try and find some chips for Dre and me, since we were starving. I'm walking all around the floor, asking people who had chips where they bought them. I finally got an answer and was walking over to the one coke stand when the stadium lights shut off. The crowd went wild and I hurried to buy the food. I got back to the seat just after Madonna started singing. The crowd had a lot of energy, which helped since the crowd can really make or break a show, especially for those who are real fans. All in all is was a great experience.

Setlist (from wikipedia):

"The Sweet Machine" (Video Introduction) "Candy Shop""Beat Goes On""Human Nature" "Vogue""Die Another Day" (Video Interlude)"Into the Groove" "Holiday""Dress You Up" "She's Not Me""Music" "Rain" (Video Interlude)"Devil Wouldn't Recognize You""Spanish Lesson""Miles Away""La Isla Bonita" "Doli Doli" (Kolpakov Trio solo) (Dance Interlude)"You Must Love Me""Get Stupid" (Video Interlude)"4 Minutes""Like a Prayer" "Frozen" "Ray of Light""Give It 2 Me"The show ended around midnight.

Of course no Madonna concert would be without controversy. The show before Sofia took place in Bucharest, Romania (Bulgaria's northern neighbor.) During one part of the show Madonna invited out these gypsy dancers to perform. Madonna then made a statement about the discrimination against gypsies in Eastern Europe. The crowd did not appreciate this and started booing her. In Sofia, I don't remember seeing these dancers, but there was a video montage of gypsy kids dancing, etc. There was no reaction to these images being played in Sofia. At least I didn't hear anything. I was curious to find out more about the incident in Romania, since all I've heard has come from news reports online. I found this review on a Madonna message board. The poster is responding to someone who wanted to know what all the fuss was about:

"There were several factors. First of all, the "venue" (a sort of a park with dry grass and dust - there were clouds of dust above the crowd at all times) was shitastic. You couldn't move at all, you couldn't really go to the toilet and get back where you were, there weren't enough toilets, there weren't enough drinks stands etc. By the time the show started (kind of late, too), everyone was really pissed off.

One of the major problems was also the fact that everyone in town was curious to see Madonna, so plenty of people came to the show (70,000 people, actually), although they were not even remotely fans. The tickets were much cheaper than in the rest of the continent, so pretty much anyone could afford them (mine, the second best version, but still quite close to the stage, were about 40 euros - basically free for Madonna standards). Plenty of people had no experience whatsoever with large, outdoor, GA, basically festival-type shows, so standing for hours in a crowd waiting for the artist was unexpected and annoying. Those who had a remote knowledge of her music expected the live songs to sound like the album versions and didn't appreciate the reworkings.

The musical part of the gypsy moment was appreciated and enjoyed by the crowd. During it, though, she mentioned that she heard that gypsies were being discriminated in Eastern Europe, and how we all should love each other etc. This struck a major chord with the local population - yes, gypsies are generally reviled here, but there is a social context for the whole thing (basically, the contempt is not based on ethnicity, but on behavior). I cheered when she said all that, since the message was generally positive, but most of the audience interpreted the moment as an uninformed scold and booed her copiously.

After that, she tried quite hard to engage the audience. During Give It To Me, she got off the catwalk thingie and went to the audience with her mic and had them sing. She behaved like a consummate professional. I walked a away from the concert with a lot of respect for her.

The experience was in a way disappointing, but it had nothing to do with Madonna. I was saddened and embarrassed to see my fellow countrymen behaving in such an ignorant and hostile manner..."

Summertime in Bulgaria means death for a lot of (TEFL) volunteer's work, project ideas. My summer English class never started because the one teacher who signed up decided he didn't want to attend after all. I can't say I'm surprised that more teachers weren't interested in the class. It was a long school year so who wants to come to school during the summer and study a foreign language? Plus, I live in a big, developed city here in Bulgaria, so there's more to do besides hanging out with the American volunteer. In August, a lot of Bulgarian businesses close for the month because everyone is at seaside.

What exactly am I doing? Well, I do have some work. On Monday and Wednesday I tutor this older woman in English for two hours per session. I've been teaching her since May, and she's really motivated, which makes my life easier. Thanks Nelli! On Tuesday and Thursday I have my Bulgarian tutoring, so I'm at least out of the apartment for a few hours on those days. I also play cards with some kids in my bloc once or twice a week. It's not a lot, but at least I'm not festering inside all day, every day.

What I'm looking forward to the most is my dad coming on the 14th. I haven't seen any family members since I left home 16 months ago. I will meet him at the airport in Sofia, then we will travel to Plovdiv, Istanbul, Sliven, Veliko Turnovo, then back to Sofia. On the 29th I'm going to the Madonna concert in Sofia. You read that right. I can't help but wonder how many Peace Corps volunteers can say they've been to a Madonna concert AS a PCV? I'm thinking none. I will be going with Dre, who is also an Ohoian/volunteer/Madonna enthusiast. Also, I hope Dre will be rockin' Levski stadium with some awesome Madonna-inspired Aquanet hairspray hairdo. If so, I'll wear a cone-shaped bra.

I just realized that I'm officially out of the military. My last day in the Inactive Ready Reserves (IRR) was August 1st, 2009. This means the Air Force/Air National Guard can no longer call me back, not that I was ever worried they would. I worked in a non-critical career field, so I knew the likelihood of getting called back was next to none. Plus, I was in the Air National Guard for Pete's sake. If they had to call me back, then I knew we must be in trouble.

I applied to join the Peace Corps in April 2007, almost a month after I returned from my deployment, and about 10 months before I finished my active Guard service. I remember walking into my commander's office and telling her what my future plans were: not reenlisting, joining the Peace Corps. She was very supportive, as were all my colleagues. Since I would still be in the IRR when I left for the Peace Corps, my commander had to type up a letter stating that I could be called back in case of a national emergency. That was pretty much all that needed to be done to get the application process going. I received my invitation in November, left the Guard in February '08, arrived in Bulgaria two months later.

It is funny that I can look back now and say "where did the time go?", because I never felt like the time was blowing by. And despite all the drama and stuff that pissed me off, I've only been able to think about the good times. I sort of feel the same way about my first year of teaching in Bulgaria. This past school year felt like it lasted about a lifetime. June alone seemed to last forever and a year. But now that it's summer and I don't have to teach my kids everyday, deal with their drama and/or school politics, I think, "Geez, last year wasn't that bad." Of course, I still have a year of teaching in front of me, a year that will surely bring about a whole new set of challenges (and some old ones). But I know when next summer rolls around I will be saying, "where did the time go?", regardless of what I might post between now and then. ;-)

It seems like every volunteer here has had a problem controlling the ice build-up in their freezer. I've had this problem a few times, and I've always had to turn the fridge off for a few hours to let the ice melt. Well, the picture on the left shows what my freezer looked like when I left my site on the 3rd.

When I returned to site a week later, I opened my fridge to find the freezer had completely frozen over.

Now where am I supposed to put my oven pizzas? >:(

I have never seen so much ice in my freezer before. I should probably just turn the damn fridge off and let the ice melt that way, like I've done before. The problem is that it takes too long, and I have food in the fridge that needs to stay cool. What to do? Well, I think I will try using an appliance given to me by my former site mate to expedite the ice melting process. What is it, you ask?

Yep, a blow dryer. I have no need for a blow dryer, since I don't let my hair grow long. But since I have this gadget, I might as well try it out on the iceberg in my freezer. Let's see what happens...

Mwhahahahaha!

Well, I got some of the ice removed with the help of the blow dryer. I had to turn the fridge off to let the rest of the ice melt that way, because standing in front of a fridge with a blow dryer isn't as exciting as I originally thought. Boo! I'm hoping that after a while I can just chip away the rest and turn the fridge back on :)

Since May I have been tutoring English to an older woman in town named Nelli. She is a friend of my Bulgarian tutor and is also my counterpart's husband's cousin. I was approached by my tutor in late April about teaching English to Nelli. I was hesitant to agree up front, since I was not sure if this lady would be a serious student or not. I have talked to a lot of people here who want to speak English but don't want to put in any effort. Therefore, I agreed to meet this lady and would decide from there.

It's been two months and this lady is awesome. Every Monday and Wednesday I look forward to seeing Nelli, talking to her, and teaching English. Even though she calls herself a "bad student", she already knows a lot more than my kids at school do. Why? She's dedicated and she puts in the work. She knows the alphabet. She knows "e" is "e" and "i" is "i". She knows to say "six" for "six" and not "sex." She can count to a hundred, say where she's from, how many relatives she has and their ages, etc. All this after only two lessons a week for two months.

At our lesson today she started by saying how sorry she was about Michael Jackson. She said this in very loud and clear Bulgarian, like I had known Michael and she wanted me to know how sorry she felt for my loss. I had to laugh because it sounded so genuine. She then told me she was a big fan of his, so we talked about him for a bit before beginning our lesson.

I noticed in the book we use that we will be going over shapes and colors soon. I'm excited about colors because I recently rediscovered a song I have on my iPod from one of my favorite bands, Glass Candy, who sing a song called "Digital Versicolor." It's the closing track off their B/E/A/T/B/O/X/ CD and the lyrics go through the colors: "This is red, red, red, red, red. This is blue, blue, blue blue. This is yellow. This is yellow...." Since I like to incorporate different tools in my lessons, I thought this song might be a good way to go over colors. And since I know she appreciates Michael Jackson, I hope I can introduce her to some disco band from Portland, Oregon. We shall see.

A survey started by another vol...

Diminutive of your name: Not sure

Favorite Bulgarian word: Kak

Strangest thing ever seen in your bathroom: My boiler

Best duner place you’ve discovered: The Greek doener place in Sliven

Craziest thing that’s ever happened in class: My students paid attention

Favorite Bulgarian beer: Zagorka

Favorite Bulgarian town/city/village: Sliven (well, it has everything I need)

Ever ridden on a donkey cart?: No. And I don't plan to.

Best thing you have purchased in Bulgaria: Washing machine.

New hobby/pastime you have discovered since being here: Blogging, I guess.

Favorite type of rakia: BBQ flavored (I try to avoid rakia)

You are granted power to rid Bulgaria of one type of pest that constantly tortures you. What do you choose?: Besides Yanko, a student in my 10th grade class? Probably fleas.

Best English t-shirt you’ve ever seen: "I only sleep with pretty girls."

Which do you hate more–dumpy pants or clear bra straps?: Dumpy pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bras at least don't make you look stubby and fat.

Favorite Bulgarian salad: Selska!

First thing you think of when you wake up on a school day: "What are we going over today?"

Last thing you cooked: Meat. Just meat.

Do you like chalga?: No!

Would you rather spend a week without water or power?: Water. If I have no power, then I have no hot water, so there's no point in having just cold water, IMO.

If you could choose one amenity to have, which would it be–washing machine or air conditioning?: Washing machine! Thank God I have one. My little fan is enough to keep me cool.

You have a free day–no classes, no engagements of any sort. How do you spend it?: At home, thinking I should probably complete that PC survey, questionnaire that was due weeks ago.

1. The Black Sea isn't black

2. I'm not a farmer

I finally made it to the Black Sea this past weekend.

I got in touch with the volunteer in Yambol last week to see if she'd want to get together one last time before she goes home. She asked me if I would want to go to the sea on Saturday. I said sure. So on Saturday morning we traveled to Burgas with another volunteer to go to the beach and relax for a few hours.

We got to the beach around noon, slurpies in hand, to find a bunch of buff studs and über-hot chicks sprawled out all over the place. It was a little intimidating to see, as we're not the most tan, fit volunteers in the group. We walked down a ways and settled in an area that was not so occupied with beach gods and goddesses. It took me a while before I got the courage to take off my shirt and expose my pasty white chest to everyone. I applied some sun block and decided to head into the sea for a while.

The water was pretty warm and choppy, which made being in the sea a lot more fun. The only problem was the lifeguards, who would blow their whistles whenever they saw the tiniest of waves approaching. I guess they thought we would be sucked into the sea and lost forever? But what fun is going to the beach if the water is too calm? If I want to be in water like that, I would fill up a bucket and sit in it. Anyway, I lay on my towel until the water calmed down enough to go back in.

We were on the beach for about 4 hours when we decided to head into town and explore a little. It was during this time that I started to feel the burn. I lifted up my shirt at one point and saw the bright red line around my waist. Ouch. I lifted up my shirt some more to see my entire front side was red as a Bulgarian tomato! Not only that, but my feet were burned too. I don't know if there's a more painful place to get sunburned than on your feet, lower legs, because you constantly have to move them.

We got back to Yambol around 10 pm, took a taxi to Janel's apartment, and there I took a cold shower to help with the burn. On Sunday morning, I went to a pharmacy to get some aloe vera to soothe the pain. I thought about explaining the situation to the pharmacist, but decided lifting my shirt up would suffice. This lady's jaw almost dropped to the floor when she saw my red skin. She decided to give me this foam spray called "Pan the Nol." I have to shake it, spray it, then rub it in. Later in the day I ate lunch with the two volunteers and then headed back to Sliven to recuperate.

Last night I had the hardest time falling asleep. Since I got burned on my stomach, I have to sleep on my back. It's almost impossible for me to fall asleep on my back, but it's too painful for me to lie on my stomach. Because I don't know how to tan properly, both my sides are still white as ghosts, so I managed to fall asleep on my side at some point during the night. At around 3 am, though, I woke up in total agony. I had rolled onto my stomach and woke up with the feeling I was on a hot grill. I jumped out of bed and tried running to the bathroom to splash some water all over my body. The problem is my ankles are burned too, so I thought I was going to collapse from the pain. After blowing some air on my feet, I managed to grab a dish towel from the kitchen, soaked it in the bathroom sink, went back to bed, and placed the wet towel on my stomach and chest, then on my feet. Thankfully, it put me back to sleep for a few more hours.

This morning at school I was asked by my colleagues how the beach was. I told them I had a lot of fun but that I got sunburned. I then showed them a little bit of my stomach. One teacher actually told me I need to get a Bulgarian girl to massage my stomach to make me feel better. Yeah, because having someone touch your sunburnt skin is going to make you feel a lot better. I told her I bought some cream and that I will be fine.

I don't think I'll be sunbathing for a while. If I do, I will make sure to apply sun block every freaking 10 minutes to protect my pasty white skin from the evil sun rays. I sure as hell do not want to have to go through this pain again. Ouch.

I remember hearing about the Peace Corps for the first time while I was in high school. My geography teacher, Sister Marie (yes, I went to a catholic school), told us about a former student of hers who served as a volunteer in Tunisia. Even though I found what she said interesting, the idea of living abroad in a developing country for two years wasn't something that excited me at the time. It wasn't until I was in college that the idea of working abroad started to appeal to me.

I was fortunate enough to have spent my junior year of college in Germany. I had traveled to Europe a few times before, but those trips paled in comparison to what I experienced during my study abroad. Living in a foreign country allows you to learn the language, the culture, the customs more so than a week long vacation spent sleeping in a hotel and eating at the American fast food establishments. The experience was such a positive one that when I returned to school my senior year, I started looking into joining the Peace Corps.

Since I still had a few years left to serve in the National Guard, I had a lot of time to research the Peace Corps as much as possible. It seemed like I read every blog, yahoo! group posting, etc. 10x over. It was during this mad search for information that I stumbled upon this website, a website dedicated to those who have died while serving as volunteers in the Peace Corps.

I had forgotten about this website until I heard about the recent death of a volunteer in Africa. It got me wondering why there isn't some official memorial to the fallen volunteers in D.C., like a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall type of thing. I mean, we're serving our country too, right? The more I thought about it, though, the clearer it became. The fact is people don't associate the Peace Corps with death. A person who enlists in the military surely thinks about war and its consequences. I did. But what consumes the minds of a lot of Peace Corps applicants is bringing world peace, ending hunger, that kind of stuff, not being hacked to death by a machete or eaten by a shark. So perhaps for recruitment purposes, a physical memorial hasn't been built? I don't know. Personally, I think one should be built, considering there are 274 people who decided to leave home for 2+ years to do the best they could but ended up not having the chance to complete their service. Therefore, I think we owe it to them-and their families-to have an actual memorial erected.

(I can't help but worry a little that I might be scaring away a few would-be applicants by having posted this website here. Therefore, I feel obligated to mention that Peace Corps does have a lot of safety and security measures in place to protect volunteers, which you will find out once you arrive in-country ;-))

My 9 pm curfew is officially over! You might be wondering why I was under such a curfew, right? Well, someone decided to install a lock on the entrance to my bloc without giving me a key. I found this out, of course, after returning home one night and not being able to get inside.

Earlier in the month I noticed a sign on the door that read: "The door will be locked at 9 pm." I thought it was referring to our magazine (store) now closing an hour earlier, which it has been. Plus, no one had informed me about a lock being installed on the door or that I would need a key. Therefore, I just kept going about my business as usual, thinking nothing of this sign on the door.

Well, one night my old site mate, Josh, and I decided to go bowling one last time before he left. We met up for dinner and then took a taxi to the bowling alley. We played a few games and decided to call it quits around 10:30 pm. I called us a taxi and was dropped off first. I noticed right away that the door to the bloc was shut, which I found strange as it was always left wide open before. So I walked up, turned the handle, and pulled as hard as I could. I did this twice, but the door wouldn't open. I was officially locked out. I called Josh and told him this. He told me to wait a few minutes to see if anyone would try entering or leaving. If not, I could crash at his place. I was waiting about 25 minutes when some drunk guy showed up. I told him I didn't have a key to get in and that I was waiting for someone to come or go. He pulled out his cellphone and called someone inside the bloc. Before this person could come down and let us in, someone else had shown up and let us in. I think I was outside for about 40 minutes.

The next day I started asking people where I could get a key. I was told some guy named Stefan could give me one. I also heard there is someone on the 5th or 7th floor who could give me one. The one thing I heard from everyone I asked was that it would cost 3 leva to get the key. Fine. I just wanted a key. So I was sitting in my apartment one afternoon when I heard the voice of the lady who comes around every month to collect the maintenance fee. I threw on some clothes, ran out without shutting my doors, and followed her voice upstairs. I caught up to her and told her I needed a key. She asked me how many I wanted. I said one. I had been waiting around for a few days when I ran into her while I was returning from school. She told me she had a key made for me and she'd bring it down to my apartment. She eventually did come down and gave me my key, the key that will now allow me to stay outside past 9 pm. Woohoo!

The past few days were spent traveling around the west side of Bulgaria, visiting friends, attending a party, saying good-byes, and greeting the new volunteers.

I left Sliven on Friday morning to visit a friend and fellow B23 in her village near Sofia. It's always a chill atmosphere when I visit vols and this one was no different. The time was spent mostly at cafes, eating, drinking, smoking, people watching-a few of my favorite pastimes. Skip-bo was played. Peaches was listened to.

I traveled to Sofia to meet another friend and TEFL vol who would be traveling with me to Beli Iskar to attend the good-bye party for the B21s/birthday celebrations for the vols with b-days in May. The party was called 'Coming to America', so everyone was supposed to wear something that relates to America. For example, there were a lot of Rosie Riveters, an American Gladiator, Red Necks. I was going to be Lady Gaga, but the people who own the wig shop in Sliven closed it to go to the Black Sea. Damn. I ended up wearing red, white and blue. I thought there was a pretty good B23 turn out, a lot of them I hadn't seen since our In-Service Training back in November.

I left Beli Iskar on Sunday to travel to Vratsa, where I would be doing a HUB session for the B25s. I arrived early Sunday evening with the other vols I would be doing the session with. The PC put us up in a hotel that's located on top of a mountain, or one not so conveniently located. The cab fare was around 12 leva, so packing the taxi with as many vols as possible was necessary to save some money. My HUB session was early Monday afternoon. I've never been a fan of public speaking, especially when the group is large and the topic a personal one, but I thought the session went well. I got them to laugh a few times, which helped put me at ease. The PC staff kept telling us how grateful they were for us doing the session, which made all the stress and jitters worth it in the end. I ended up going out to lunch with some of the newbies and asked them about their experiences so far, telling them what I could to get them from through PST.

The new group has it pretty rough. Since they arrived over a month later than my group did, their PST is shorter and therefore they have to work on Saturdays. We're talking 6 days of language training, technical training, host family expectations, etc. They all seem very tired and frustrated, so I tried giving them some words of encouragement to keep them going. They will find out their site placements on June 18th, so I'm hoping to get a new site/region mate.

Things are beginning to wind down at work. The 1st-4th grade finished their school year at the end of the May, so the school is a lot emptier and quieter. June 30th is the last day for us secondary TEFL vols, and I think most of us are counting down the days. It's been a hell of a year for all of us, so we're all looking forward to the summer to relax a little. I will be doing an English course for the teachers at my school. My dad is coming to visit me from August 14th-28th, so I'll be traveling around Bulgaria and Turkey during that time.

My counterpart never fails to deliver the goods. Here's what was said today:

Counterpart: Matt, did you hear about that airplane?

Me: The Air France flight?

Counterpart: Yes, very famous airplane.

Me: I heard they are having trouble finding it.

Counterpart: Yes, I think it crashed in the Bermuda Triangle. A lot of things have disappeared there.

Me: Oh.

Counterpart: Me, I'm not afraid to fly. Quick death.

One thing I'm proud of is that I've never given up this year, even when my kids were acting like they were 2 hairs away from being wild monkeys. I think I speak for most TEFL volunteers when I say there have been many, many days where storming out of class, running home, and crying in our pillows seemed the easiest thing to do. Despite all the drama, and there has been lots of it, I stuck it out and tried to teach through all the chaos. Even though I've seen and heard enough nonsense this year from students and colleagues alike, I still manage to be surprised by things I hear from them.

I had to be at school today by 8 am to teach 9a, the same class that took the test last Thursday (read post below.) There were two students present at the start of class, so I went ahead and started the lesson (I sometimes wait for more students to show up, but I figured no one else would.) The exercise was going well when two other kids showed up. They took their seats and, surprisingly, started to pay attention. With 10 minutes left of class this girl, Diana, showed up, armed with a sugar-filled juice box in one hand and an artery-clogging, heart attack-inducing Bulgarian breakfast burger in the other (remember, now, this is 8:30 am!) She sat down and started talking to the boy sitting next to her. I had already started going over the simple past of "to be" (because 8 months of teaching these kids has only gotten me this far) when she walked in. A few minutes had passed so I asked her to come up and write an answer on the board. Now, just when I thought I had heard all there is to be heard, she said, "I can't. My throat hurts." I told her that wasn't an excuse and that she was capable of coming up and writing out a sentence. She then turned to my counterpart, who was sitting up front and taking attendance, and told her what she told me about her throat. My counterpart then called on another student to come up and answer what I wanted Diana to answer.

This is the nonsense that gets to me. The fact that the kids can do what they want to do and get away with it. All I asked for was for her to come up and write something on the board. If I wanted to be a prick about her sore throat (I'm sure she doesn't have one), I would've asked her to sing the answer. This upset me to the point where I sat down, took out a book and started reading it. If my counterpart is not going to back me up, then what's the point of me even trying? When class was over, my counterpart actually had the nerve to say to me in Bulgarian "great day" in regards to the class. Ugh. I'm trying to hang in there to the end (June 30th), but my students and counterpart are making it rough. C'mon summer vacation!

I've been doing this teaching gig now for almost an entire school year, and I can say with certainty that I despise test days more as a teacher than I ever did as a student. Eight months of hearing "I don't understand", "What does this mean?", "Is this answer right?", "How do you spell...?" from students who rarely show up and/or pay attention gets tiresome, especially when these questions are being asked for the first time on a test day.

Today, I went to my 9a class well aware of the fact that they would be taking their "class test." This is some generic end of the year exam we give to be their final grade in the dnevnik (attendance, grade book.) My counterpart showed me the test (2 versions) before class started. It covered exactly what we had gone over with the students for weeks: present simple tense, simple past tense, conjunctions, directions, unit vocab. I actually thought this was going to be pretty easy for them. It wasn't. For example, the second part of the exam had 10 verbs listed that needed their simple past form. One student asked me what he needed to do. I pointed to the directions, which were written in English, and even explained to him in Bulgarian what he had to do. He goes to the verb "to give", so I'm expecting him to write "gave", or at least something close to that. What does he write? "past." He just wrote down the word I was pointing to in the directions. When my explanations, clarifications weren't adequate enough, the students just turned to each other to get the answers. Cheating here is like nothing you have seen in the US, I can guarantee. Hiding a cheat sheet up your sleeve isn't necessary when you get out of your seat, walk across the room, and ask the smart kid to give you the answer. I'm pretty sure cheating isn't allowed in the Bulgarian education system, it's just that there is no punishment for doing it.

Anyway, the class period ended with no one completing the entire one page test. I can tell you most of the answers they did write were from what the other equally clueless students told them. You might be thinking, "Wow, there will be a lot of failures!?" Well, actually, no. My counterpart will see to it that almost everyone passes. Why? Because her hours were already cut in half this year from last year, which means less pay. Schools here receive funding based on the number of students enrolled. This means some teachers will pass failing students along, just so they don't have to take a pay cut (or lose their jobs) next school year. Great system, eh?!

The 13th International Children's Folklore Dance Festival (Friendship Without Borders) was held this past weekend in Sliven. 12 countries from Europe and Asia sent teams to participate this year: Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Armenia, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, Macedonia, and Albania. Each country/group was assigned a host school in Sliven. My school was the host for the team from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Gonka, the Russian teacher at my school, was assigned to be the school representative. The English teachers (myself included) were required to escort the team and translate when needed. I was a little nervous about this, since I don't consider my Bulgarian to be very good. Thankfully, my worries were laid to rest after finding out Croatian and Bulgarian share a lot of words, so my translating was minimal.

Kukeri?

Our guests

Isn't she a cutie?

Serbia entering the town square

Kids from my school :)

Kids from Armenia

Romania

Russia Albania

UkraineIt was a lot of fun hanging out with the Bosnians and watching the other countries compete too. But to be honest, I wouldn't feel sad if I didn't see another folklore dance festival for a while. The programs were really long every day, about 12 hours. Add the long hours to the hot weather and you have a bunch of cranky people after a few days ;-)

I had some guests stay with me a few weeks ago while we were on May break. As we were listening to music one night, Sarah McLachlan's "Possession" came on. I mentioned that this song was written about a stalker McLachlan had who would frequently write letters to her. In fact, this guy actually sued her, claiming she had used what he wrote to her in the song. The case never went to trial because the man committed suicide. When I told them this, it seemed to ruin the song for them. I would never have guessed the song was from the point of view of a stalker, until I read about it. I was also surprised to find the meaning, inspiration behind some other songs I enjoy:

"I Don't Like Mondays" by The Boomtown Rats

-I remember hearing this song a lot when I was growing up and thinking it had something to do with the work week starting. I never really paid attention to the full lyrics. It wasn't until Tori Amos released a cover version that I found out this song was inspired by a shooting spree at a school. 16-year-old Brenda Spencer used her rifle to kill 2 people and injure numerous others at an Elementary school across the street from her house. When asked why she had committed the crime, she replied, "I don't like Mondays..."

"The silicon chip inside her head

Gets switched to overload

And nobody's gonna go to school today

She gonna make them stay at home

Daddy doesn't understand it

He always said she was good as gold...

And the playing's stopped in the playground now

She wants to play with her toys a while

And school's out early and soon we'll be learning

And the lesson today is how to die..."

"(Antichrist Television Blues)" by Arcade Fire

-If you read over the lyrics, you can guess that the song is about someone selling out their child(ren). Although it's never been officially confirmed, many believe this song was influenced by Joe Simpson, the father of Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, who went from being a Baptist preacher to managing his daughters' careers. Some say the band still refers to the song as "Joe Simpson" and not its published name.

"...Dear God, I'm a good Christian man

I'm your boy, I know you understand

That you got to work hard and you got to get paid

The girl's thirteen, but she don't act her age

She can sing like a bird in cage

Oh Lord, if you could see her when she's up on that stage...

...Dear God, would you send me a child?

Oh God, would you send me a child?

Because I want to put it up on the TV screen

So the world can see what your true word means

Lord, won't you send me a sign?

Because I just got to know if I'm wasting my time..."

"Star Witness" by Neko Case

-Neko mentions in an interview with Pitchfork Media that part of this song was inspired by a shooting she had witnessed in Chicago.

"GO ON, GO ON SCREAM AND CRY

YOU'RE MILES FROM WHERE ANYONE WILL FIND YOU

THIS IS NOTHING NEW, NO TELEVISION CREW

THEY DON'T EVEN PUT ON THE SIRENS

MY NIGHTGOWN SWEEPS THE PAVEMENT, PLEASE

DON'T LET HIM DIE"

"Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega

-One of my favorite singer-songwriters (my blog title is a line from one of her songs), Suzanne originally recorded this song a cappella for her '87 release Solitude Standing. The song became a hit in '90, when a two record producers called DNA remixed it with a beat. Tom's diner actually refers to Tom's restaurant in NYC, a place Suzanne frequented a lot, and made famous by Seinfeld as the exterior shot of Monk's Cafe. Here is what Suzanne had to say about the song's influence: "...and it was really written from the point of view of my friend Brian, who is a photographer, and had made a comment to me one day that he felt that as a photographer, he saw his whole life through a pane of glass, and always felt like he was the witness to a lot of things, but was never really involved in them. So I was sitting at Tom's Restaurant one morning, and suddenly I guess I got this weird feeling, it came over me, and I thought, 'well, if I were Brian today, how would I be perceiving these different things? And in a way it was supposed to be slightly humorous, and not entirely to be taken totally seriously. And also I thought of it from a male point of view. I'd originally heard it with piano in back, but I don't play piano, so it's a cappella."

Check out this site

...so keep your windows closed.

My students have been unusually well-behaved since the end of May break and I was having trouble figuring out why. At first I thought they had finally discovered the wonders of an education. No. Then I thought maybe they were expecting some sort of treat from me, like American candy. No. Today, I finally figured out what has been making them sit and be quiet: the heat.

When I first came to Sliven a year ago for my site visit, I was surprised to see what my school had to offer: two computer labs, a weight room, library, dance hall/studio, and even a climbing wall. Since my school is not a language or a math school and is made up mostly of Roma, I was not sure how well-funded the place would be. I was also happy to see the school had new windows. I was a little confused, though, when I walked into a classroom and saw all the window handles had been removed. I asked my counterpart about this and she told me they had been removed to prevent the kids from opening them, jumping and/or throwing things out. I can say for certain now that the decision to remove them was a good idea, seeing how lawless the students can be sometimes.

Now that we are heading into summer, the weather is starting to get warmer and so are the classrooms. Most of my English classes are taught in the Russian language room (why? I don't know.) Since I teach all my classes in the morning, my students and I get to sit in this room while the sun is rising, which makes it extra toasty. So for the past two days my kids have been talking about how hot it has been. I have told them that I can't find the handle to the window (the truth) and that we will have to suffer. I can only assume that the heat inside the room is making the kids a little more lethargic, which I'm fine with. I would rather stand and sweat for 45 minutes if it means I can get through what I need to get through, without having to raise my voice to get them to sit down, turn off/down their music, etc. Now I am thinking the windows need to stay shut for the rest of the school year ;-)

This is my bloc, not Jenny'sThe next two pictures were taken on the ground floor of my apartment bloc. I get to look at this fine art while waiting for the elevator. It took me a while to figure out what the "R.A.T.M." stood for until it finally dawned on me one day: Rage Against The Machine. I guess those words were too hard to spell for the artist?

Here is the other masterpiece.

Here is my elevator door. Do you think it looks scary? Well, you should ride in it and then decide which is scarier: the inside or the outside.

Here are the mailboxes, or why I get my mail sent to my school.

:)

I will be the first to admit that I have a terrible diet. I love junk food, oven pizzas, pasta, coca-cola, and all the other things that nutritionists tell you to avoid. I also love to eat out. I have already started thinking about where I want to eat out once I get back to the US in 14 months. I do eat out a lot in Bulgaria, too. I guess I am fortunate enough to live in a site that offers a lot of eating out options: Chinese, Bulgarian, pizza, döners, etc. In fact, my one site mate recently introduced me to the best döner place in Bulgaria. Yes, THE BEST! Now, despite my love for eating out, I've never worked at a restaurant. I have always assumed that I would make a lousy waiter, so I never bothered becoming one. Therefore, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to what goes on in the kitchen of my favorite restaurants. I honesty have no idea if someone is coughing, sneezing, burping, poking and/or licking my food, and I would like it to remain that way. Plus, I have never actually seen this done to anyone's food before, which makes what I (and 7 other volunteers) saw last night a little worrying, yet hilarious at the same time.

Emily, the volunteer in Targovishte, had organized a volleyball fundraiser tournament to help improve her school's science lab and wanted other volunteers to participate. The tournament was scheduled to start at 5:30 on Saturday, so all the participating volunteers (9) had shown up at Emily's by 3:30. After changing into our playing clothes, we all headed over to the school to start practicing for the match. It wasn't long before we realized that the majority of us suck at volleyball. We had no idea how to serve, construct a point, etc. We were a little nervous about the game since we would be playing high school boys who actually play volleyball. In the end, we didn't win very many games. In fact, whenever it was Americans-vs-Bulgarians we got routed. Later on we mixed up the teams so the play was a little more even. Despite the lopsided results, we all had a lot of fun and more money than expected was raised.

Volunteers at the far end of the court

We headed back to Emily's apartment to change into our normal clothes and talk about where we were going to eat for dinner. We decided to stay close by and settled on this traditional Bulgarian restaurant. The waiter escorted us upstairs and sat us at a table large enough for the 7 of us (3 volunteers went back to their sites after the tournament.) We all ordered our drinks and food and were just talking to pass the time. One-by-one we all got out dishes, except Brent. At one point Emily asked the waiter where Brent's dish was and he replied, "5 minutes." The waiter finally brought what we thought was Brent's dish. So Brent starts dishing out this food onto another plate. He took the egg that was on top and some of the meat around it. A few minutes later the waiter came back and started apologizing because he gave Brent the wrong dish. The waiter then took the dish and, instead of taking it downstairs to the kitchen, walked over to the next room and placed the dish in front of this man! There was an open window to the room next to ours, so we saw this take place. None of us could believe what we just saw. We kept looking over there from time to time to see if this man was eating the food. He was. We also never heard him complain about the missing egg and some pieces of meat. The waiter ended up bringing Brent's real dish, which looked puny compared to what he had been given before. The waiter also offered Brent some money back for the mix up, but he declined.

Here's Brent and the dish he originally received, with some of it already dished out onto the plate in front of him.

Here's what he actually ordered

Dinner was followed by Catch Phrase and random discussions on music, work, and ghosts.

Emily's turn at Catch Phrase

Good night!

In a span of four days I've managed to lose my Bulgarian debit card AND "flood" the bathroom of the person living below me. What a week, eh?!

This past weekend was Easter weekend in Bulgaria. Since I didn't receive any na gosti invitations and my host family lives too far away, I decided to invite the volunteer in Yambol to come spend the weekend with me. My one site mate was also staying in town, so we decided to make massive hamburgers and pound mason jars filled with Zagorka, our favorite beer.

After consuming burgers, beer, and "fat girl" dip, we decided to head to the bowling alley to show off our mad bowling "skillz". Because we love to bowl and order beer after beer, we ended up staying 3 hours and racking up a 91 leva bill. We just barely had enough money to pay the tab and take a taxi home.

The following day was Easter Sunday. My site mate was having lunch with his counterpart, so the Yambol volunteer and I decided to head to a restaurant for our Easter meal. I went to the ATM to check my account balance before going to eat, and this would turn out to be the last time I saw my debit card. We ate lunch and walked around Sliven for a bit before the vol. headed back to Yambol. I did show her some of Sliven's finest: the caged monkey and the dinosaur.

We had off school on Monday, so I spent the day recuperation from the weekend. I had decided on Monday night that I would go grocery shopping after school on Tuesday. I got to the ATM, pulled out my wallet, opened it and saw that I didn't have my debit card. I wasn't too concerned because I thought I might have left it at home. My site mate just happened to be with me, so he lent me money to buy some food. I got home and looked all over the place for the card, but nothing! On Wednesday I went to the bank with my counterpart to see if the card was there, thinking I might have left it in the machine on Sunday when I went to check my account balance. The bank didn't have it. We then went to the restaurant I ate at after using the ATM, and they didn't have it, either. Now I was sure I lost it. I contacted Peace Corps in Sofia and they told me they would contact the bank to block my card. In the meantime I have to go inside the bank and withdraw money using a number PC gave me. I planned on going to the bank after school today to withdraw whatever money I have left in there, when the acting school director pulled me out of my first class to inform me of the water leak.

I was in the middle of teaching the simple past form of verbs to my 9th graders when there was a knock on the classroom door. My counterpart, who I team-teach with, went outside and came back in a few seconds later, telling me the acting director (the actual school director is in Turkey) wanted to talk to me. I've always been intimidated my authority, so I immediately started to think I did something wrong and I was going to be reprimanded or something. She told me the municipality contacted her about a water leak in my apartment, which is leaking down into the apartment below. I started freaking out that there was major water damage, and that the man living below was going to kill me and then consume me. I told the director that I would deal with it and then went back into the classroom, which had descended into anarchy after I stepped out. I managed to finish the class by shouting over all the loud chalga music coming from my students' cellphones. My counterpart told me to leave, which meant I wouldn't have to teach the 10th graders today, and to call her once the problem was fixed.

I took a taxi from school to my apartment since I live 30 minutes away by foot. I ran up to the 4th floor, where I live, to see what the hell was going on in my bathroom. The little leak that I noticed last night under the cold water nozzle in my shower had now become a pretty substantial one, and it was leaking down the wall into the apartment below. I walked down to the 3rd floor and rang the doorbell. An older man answered the door and, in my best Bulgarian, I tried explaining what was going on upstairs, to which he replied in English, "No problem! no problem!" Turns out this gentleman, whose name is Boris, lived in Chicago for 9 years and became a U.S. citizen. He returned to Bulgaria in 2006. He proceeded to tell me that these leaks are very common in Bulgaria, and that there were only drips coming into his bathroom. Phew! If him speaking English wasn't sweet enough, he also works for the water company and is a repairman, so he came upstairs to fix my shower nozzle. I talked to him during the repair and found out that his daughter and wife still live in Chicago, but his oldest daughter never went to the States because she we too old to fall under the family visa. After he fixed the leak, he invited me down to his apartment for drinks. We sat and chatted for 2 hours about my work, his time in the US, etc. So, what started out as a potentially devastating situation, turned out to be a minor one and I made a friend in the process. He told me if I ever needed help with anything to come to him, because he knows how difficult it is to live in a foreign country. I seriously wanted to kiss this man.

So, just another week in Bulgaria.

I'm pleased to say that things seem to be on the upswing here. It's currently spring break for us TEFL volunteers, so we're all trying to relax for as long as possible before heading back to classes and finishing up the school year. I know some volunteers are traveling outside Bulgaria, while some are traveling within the country. I, on the other hand, have decided to stay put in Sliven. It's not that wouldn't have liked to travel, but money and future travel plans have required me to spend these 12 days at site.

I think it's safe to say that Spring has finally arrived, too! The weather has been pretty warm the past few days, which means Sliven is back from the dead. It's nice seeing people outside at the cafes, flowers blooming, etc. I'm just glad I can look at my windows and see more than gray skies and bloc apartments to match. I can now look forward to spending some time sitting in the park, eating outside and enjoying leisurely walks around town.

In other news...

I recently passed two significant dates in my Peace Corps service: April 4th and April 7th. April 4th marked the one year anniversary of my departure from Cleveland, and April 7th marked my one year anniversary in Bulgaria. How the time flies, right?! Well, it's been an interesting year, to say the least. I'm not going to focus too much on the past or any negatives, because I feel the situation at school is improving with the new director and others wanting to work with me. In fact, I'm going to start working on a project after spring break. I hope to have some updates on that in the near future.

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy these last few days of break and head back to school feeling a little rejuvenated.

From the album "Whatever"

Well, today a friend told me this sorry tale

as he stood there trembling and turning pale

he said each day's harder to get on the scale

sort of like Jacob Marley's chain.

But it's not like life's such a vale of tears

it's just full of thoughts that act as souvenirs

for those tiny blunders made in yesteryear

that comprise Jacob Marley's chain.

Well, I had a little metaphor to state my case

it encompassed the condition of the human race

but to my dismay, it left without a trace

except for the sound of Jacob Marley's chain.

Now there is no story left to tell

so I think I'd rather just go on to Hell

where there's a snowball's chance that the personnel

might help to carry Jacob Marley's chain.

help to carry Jacob Marley's chain.

carry Jacob Marley's chain.

I gave Sliven some major cool points after finding out a bowling alley was built not too far from where I live. I heard about the place a few weeks ago from another volunteer in my site. We contacted the other vols in town and decided we had to check out this bowling alley.

We were a little skeptical about this place, to say the least. We kept joking that it would probably be some bootleg version of bowling, but not the real thing. So after dinner one night we all piled in a friend's car and drove to the alley. As we drove up we saw the sign (pictured above) and thought it looked promising. We entered and discovered that it looks just like a real bowling alley!

This bowling alley only has 4 lanes, but it looks like any modern bowling alley I've been to in the States. The only thing missing is that trucker atmosphere. You won't find burger baskets in this bowling alley, only alcoholic beverages. It's definitely a pretty swanky place.

On Friday we went bowling again with a volunteer who lives in a nearby village. My one site mate found this whiteboard near us that had the score 135 written on it. We thought this might have been the highest scored game of the day, so when I bowled a 154 we thought my score should be placed there. My site mate told the female employee I beat the score, but she replied that the score on the whiteboard is for the league only! We were like, "wait, there's a bowling league in Sliven?! How cool is that?!" I'm a little surprised that the highest score, though, was only 135. The other vols and I were joking that we have to join this league/tournament and show these Bulgarians how to bowl ;-)