It’s winter in Bulgaria. The stray dogs who make it have to be morbidly obese. Stay tuned, for an essay about Camcheto and my new project:
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Happy International Volunteer Day! This is why we do what we do.
Today I taught in Ж_________ for two hours after school. No one threw fireworks at us and even the most vicious or painfully shy kids repeated “A is for apple.” I teach two groups, one right after another, the exact … Continue reading →
“Are you making another scarf?” Aunt Toni asked. She’s the server at The Cafe on the Corner. I was recently promoted from Preferred Customer to Customer Who Sits at Auntie Toni’s Table. My friendship with Toni was sealed when I … Continue reading →
On Wednesdays, I have the privilege of teaching 11A for both 4th and 6th period. For the second year now they are promising to be my best class: cooperative, interested in English, and close to each other. Even with the … Continue reading →
Nenko was the last one to slip into class before I locked the door. This year, I explained, I’m resorting to a sort of nuclear option to fighting tardiness. When class starts, I lock the door, and anyone on the … Continue reading →
Dr Radi is a short man of fifty-four with an excellent patio. We met at the mayor’s name day party, and since I run by his house regularly, I was obliged to share a few meals of homemade wine and … Continue reading →
Now THAT's a tomato....but we had our first cauliflower and M
artyn made this wonderful, simple curried wok dish with yogurt.
Soo tasty! I bought it from the store across the street. I hope you're doing well, Natalie. Summer just isn't the same without you!
That's one snappy tomato. Tomorrow will be our third day above 80 degrees. Alas we have no tomatoes.
It's huge! Did you grow it yourself, get it from one of your many friends, or purchase it from the pazzar? Hope it was tasty!
Love and good vibes
It’s been a good summer. More writing to come. In the meantime, here’s a really big tomato.
I meant from the blog, and in the essay I make some allusions to it. Most of my students are Turkish and Romi. Thanks for sharing such a nice story!
You mean I might have noticed that from your blog? Or maybe you are confusing me with someone else.
The last few months I commute to work and there are students in my bus also: Monday mornings and Friday at 5pm (they live in a hostel). The way they behave makes me very pessimistic about Bulgaria's future, by the way they are all Turks except one. But today one of them gave her seat to an old man and it is so unusual that it cheered me up. :)
This made me laugh a lot! And you might have noticed that many of my best students are Turks. :)
"...Bulgaria’s best days must be ahead. " Amen. I wish I could believe that.
About "Българска работа": a Bulgarian friend of mine used to say that the only good thing a Bulgarian can make are children, because then he doesn't use his hands. Congratulations for the essay! : )
A little story from 10th grade: During their final test, my co-teacher said to a student, “Ivelina, you’re pregnant aren’t you?” “Yeah, since when did you know?” Ivelina responded without looking up from her test. “You should start running at … Continue reading →
This is the essay I wrote for Peace Corps Bulgaria’s annual essay contest. My mom discovered I won the contest while dutifully stalking me on Facebook and asked me to post the essay here. Thank you very much to those … Continue reading →
I got to school and was handed a plastic cup full of vodka. Apparently it was someone’s birthday. “No, thanks, I’m about to go teach,” I said. “Even better!” The Bulgarian teacher responded and topped off my vodka with a … Continue reading →
I like all of my coworkers but one. He’s one of the four male teachers in the school and he teaches Russian. He likes to ask me, and all the female teachers, very deliberate, personal questions. When I answer his … Continue reading →
Last Saturday, I stepped up to the counter of my corner store with a package of philo dough, a can of Coke and a stick of butter, and the cashier guessed immediately what I was up to: “Are you going … Continue reading →
By the time the train stopped, I’d been standing in front of the door for six minutes. It was the Sunday fast train to Varna, after a long weekend, and the seven-hour ride had been hot and crowded. At last … Continue reading →
Today is St. Trifon Day in Bulgaria. It’s just like Valentine’s Day, except women aren’t allowed, and instead of flowers and candy, there’s fireworks and meat.
The volunteer who lived here before me is named Cassie. Before she left, she gave me her card which enables her to buy train tickets at half price. “Maybe there’s no rule against using someone else’s card,” I told myself, … Continue reading →
My school occupies the back half of a grammar school, the basement and third floors only. The teachers at the grammar school lock their nice warm bathroom on the third floor, so we dash down to the unheated basement every … Continue reading →
“I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have … Continue reading →
Happy Holidays from Genie and Ferhundey: Headed to Vonka’s site to spend Christmas with her and her mom. All my love to everyone reading, especially the ones across the pond. <3 h
Winter on the outside… …winter on the inside. The title translates to “Is it cold?” Bulgarians love asking this question. At first I thought they were being sarcastic so I answered with a deadpan, “Не, топло е,” but no … Continue reading →
“Arright, here’s the deal. I don’t feel like doing any work today.” It’s amazing how much noise a handful of teenagers can make. “But I didn’t say you wouldn’t do any work. You can ask me whatever questions you want, … Continue reading →
I love to write but not tonight. Here are a few new photos. My friends took me on one of the trails outside of town, unmaintained but surprisingly well-marked. We were looking for a monastery which we didn’t find. We … Continue reading →
An entire page of our language training textbook is devoted to train safety. Trains are the cheapest, slowest, and most reliable way to travel here. Students and pensioners travel for even less and comprise a large portion of the passengers. … Continue reading →
Getting copies of your keys made. This errand is unthinkably mundane whenever it befalls you. Yet, by their mid-twenties, most people have done it so few times that they don’t know where to go or how to go about it. Add to that living in a foreign country, where you never know where to go [...]
These are some things people might give you if you go over to their houses for dinner: Eggs, sweet peppers, honey, домашна ракия (homemade alcohol), hot peppers, eggs, kittens, preserves, hazelnuts, walnuts, apples, and more eggs.
Teenagers are thoughtless, and when they’re better at something than an adult they can be mercenary. They’ve been studying English for years and most of them can barely manage “Hello,” yet they fail to appreciate my labored and hastily acquired Bulgarian. They stare, they laugh. Some of them correct my mistakes or pretend they don’t [...]
Petko’s internet cafe has been shut down. As I said, this is not the first time it’s happened. However, when my friend Natalie and I ran into him and he gave us the news, there was a wistful finality in his voice that we hadn’t heard before. I have no doubt that Petko will remain [...]
My favorite place to eat is on the south edge of town, in a quiet, leafy strip of block apartments and service garages. When I sat down there this morning a groggy voice called my name. It was Petko, inviting me to join him and his pale friend at their table. Petko is a small [...]
There’s a new button in the right column. Click if you’d like to subscribe to receive new posts via email. <3h
Last Friday my internet died. It dies intermittently, and I usually take it as a sign that I should go to bed or go outside and meet some Bulgarians. When I come back it’s either revived or it isn’t, whatever. But on Friday I needed to look at train schedules, and some other important things, [...]
Yesterday my counterpart, Nataliya, took me to her parents’ house in a nearby village to preserve some of the surplus veggies from their garden by making lyutenitza. Here are some photos. Once school starts I will probably do some things that don’t involve the preparation and consumption of food.
It’s peach season. Every booth at the market has crates and crates of peaches. They are sorted and priced accordingly, from tart, firm ones for preserving, and drippy bruised ones for distilling into rakia. The ones that look best for eating right now are sold by a skinny teenager who doesn’t enunciate very clearly. I [...]
In front of the house sat my host, Nora, her neighbor Vika, a nice neighbor whose name I can never remember, and a sleepy woman I didn’t recognize holding a bag of sunflower seeds. Nora made space for me on the bench. On the ground sat Vika. She was barefoot, using her slippers as a [...]
I try not to be a tourist in Bulgaria, which means I often take Bulgaria for granted. I don’t take very many pictures, and I usually approach life with the preoccupied weariness of someone who lives here, even though my comprehension of what’s going on around me is still infantile. Like every Peace Corps trainee, [...]
My future hometown is in a long, narrow valley flanked by cliffs on either side. It’s very dramatic. On the east ridge is the ruins of a fortress that shows evidence of Turkish, Bulgarian, Soviet and modern traffic. Krasi, my supervisor and very gracious tour guide, hiked up there with me yesterday. We identified our [...]
I had a wonderful birthday yesterday, completed by all the love I received from across the ocean via phone, internet and post. Thanks to everyone. I got some great presents, but maybe the best one is from the US government: a two-year paid vacation in a lovely town less than an hour from the beautiful [...]
A couple days ago on the news there was a story about a vending machine that dispenses milk. You bring your own receptacle, put some money in, and milk comes out. At the bottom of the screen it said “nyamesh krava, no piesh mlyako.” Which means, “you don’t have a cow, but you drink milk.” They [...]
As we Peace Corps trainees begin our education, 12th graders all over Bulgaria are completing theirs. The graduates of Iskar celebrated on Saturday night. I remember reading somewhere about a small-town American high school prom, where each couple made a red-carpet entrance, flanked by parents and relatives taking pictures. It was designed to make the [...]
I live in Iskar. Iskar is a town of less than 4,000 people in northern Bulgaria, also known as Pelovo. The town was formerly named after Pelo Pelov, a local communist of note. According to this website, the president of Bulgaria changed the name in the late nineties. Iskar is the name of the nearby [...]
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