It's almost September!

It's hard to believe it will be September in just 2 days. September 1st is also the first day of work for teachers here in Bulgaria for the new school year. I have to be at work at 8:00 and there is a meeting for all the staff at my school. It should be interesting as it will be my first glimpse into the upcoming school year. I think my counterpart and I have my schedule worked out for what classes I will be teaching however I have no idea when those classes will take place along with quite a few other pieces of logisitical information. Since I can't quite give any of you any other information about the school year, I'll give you what's been happening since my last post.

My summer English classes ended well. We played Bingo and memory the last day which the kids really seemed to enjoy. After classes were done I received a package from my parents! Thank you again!

Then came the weeklong training academy in Blagoevgrad for all the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) volunteers. I began traveling Saturday, August 21st and stayed overnight with another volunteer. I then traveled with her to Blagoevgrad Sunday and we began the training at 3 pm Sunday afternoon. We started with some logistics and then began lesson planning for our classes Monday morning. Our week consisted of teaching in the mornings and then attending sessions in the afternoons. I taught the same group of 2nd/3rd grade kids all week with two other volunteers. Here's a glimpse:

Monday - Friday

7:30 Breakfast
8:30 Bus to School
9:00 - 9:40 I taught
9:50 - 10:30 Deanna taught
10:40 - 11:20 Caran taught
11:30 - 12:10 We all taught (stations usually)
12:30 Bus to the Hotel
1:00 Lunch
2:00 Debrief of the morning session
3:00 Session or sessions related to teaching (management, songs, games, vocab, etc..)
4:30 Lesson planning
7:00 Dinner
Free Time (hotel, cafe, restaurant, movie, something or another)

Friday I was also able to visit Rila Monastery which was beautiful and Saturday was HIV/AIDS training all day. It was a busy week but it was well worth the time not only for the training that took place but for the ability to be with the other TEFL and COD volunteers here in Bulgaria. It was great to get to know some of the volunteers better and hang out with friends from training as well.

Sunday I traveled back to my site of Sliven and on the way stopped in Plovdiv to have McDonald's and a movie with some other volunteers. I'd have to say the McDonald's was delicious and what better way to get a piece of home. Anyways, though the trip home turned into a long day I got back before dark. Once I was back I got my cat back from my neighbor. Yes, my neighbor ended up watching my cat instead of my counterpart as my cat would not quit meowing in my apartment. She lost her voice and her meows sound quite terrible. Now I know to bring her to someone else instead of having someone come to my place to check on her. She's great though and now I know my neighbor likes cats and is glad to help out. One more plus to my apartment building!

What else? I got to skype with a few people from home today which was great! I'm hoping my computer arrives by Friday since I'll already be in Sofia (the capital). Plus, I can upload my mass of photos and share a few with you all.

Until next time, love from Bulgaria!

My Apartment

It's Saturday night in Sliven and my computer is working so I thought I would put up a brief post about my apartment and the happenings of this week. I taught the same summer English classes again this week. We reviewed what they had already learned and worked on:

Animal vocab including "lives on a farm" vs. "lives in the wild"
What do you like to do?
Sports
Bulgarian flag and USA flag comparison

Here are a few photos of the students and their flag drawings (all of the students are between 8 and 12):

Before I move on to some photos of my apartment, I had to include a photo of my cat.

Here is Popitsa:

And, here is some fruit I bought this week, it was delicious.

I am living in an apartment building in Sliven. My apartment is a communist style block apartment building and has about 10 floors. I live in a one room apartment and thank goodness I'm not on the highest level. It has been working fairly well thus far (even though it is quite hot right now). Anyways, below are a variety of photos of my place. Enjoy!

Here is a view of the futbol yard where boys come play almost every night.

Money well spent (vaccuum) :

My lock, from the inside:

My main living space, the "couch" closest to you is also my bed.

Here is a view back toward the door to my living space. You now have a better view of my bed/couch and my storage space.

Here is the entrance into my apartment, from the kitchen:

My Bathroom:

My toilet, the tube to the left you can see goes to my shower. The way my bathroom is set up everything just gets wet and I stand on the other side of the toilet to bathe.

Here is how you flush the toilet:

A look into my kitchen: Here is my kitchen table, it's actually a school desk:

Here is the main part of my kitchen. Thank goodness I have a washing machine!

Here is the other part of my kitchen. The stove/oven and the refrigerator..

My fridge:

Why freezers are called ice boxes (mine obviously doesn't work very well):

Popitsa, watching the laundry:

Please do not hesitate to comment and/or ask questions about my blog or my time here in Bulgaria. I will try my best to find an answer. Sorry things weren't very descriptive, I was simply trying to get some photos up for all of you who have asked.

Settling In

Well, I'm slowly but surely settling in to life in Sliven. On Monday I began teaching summer English classes at my school with three different groups of students for an hours each. They are all beginners though at slighty different levels and ages. It has been going well as I'm working on simple questions and dilaogues. After a week, 80% of the kids know at least one answer to the questions:

How are you?
What's your name?
Where are you from?
Where do you live?
What country are you from?
What continent are you from?
What do you like to eat?
Do you like to eat _______?

We work on these things along with some new vocab each day. This week we stuck to colors, numbers, and foods. Hopefully next week we will work on animals, family, and directions along with reviewing this week. Some of the games with the language are well recieved which has been fun.

Besides teaching this week I went with a fellow teacher to get things in line for my lichna carta (ID card) which should be ready in about a month. It's interesting, there is no smiling allowed for ID cards here. The policeman just laughed when I sat down and smiled for the photo. I didn't understand what he was saying so the teacher I was with told me I can't smile. Oh well, it's over with now, cutural differences are always interesting. I also signed up for interent which should be in my apartment on Tuesday! woo hoo! I can't wait as right now I'm using the school internet which isn't optimal time to skype with some of you back in MN!

It looks like I'll be sticking to reading and crafts at home. I made a collage the other night which made my apartment feel much more homey. All my walls are greyish white so I'll slowly but adding some interest to them with some art hopefully!

Other than that, it's been very hot here making me sweat all day and drink a lot more water throughout the day. The 30 minute walk to school and 30 minute walk home just adds to the temperature outside. I'm not complaining though because it's good exercise. I'm definitely getting a lot of walking in, especially when I go downtown which is another 30 minute walk. I even notice the heat with my new cat, Popitsa who is just laying around quite a bit. Here are some photos of her, she is named after my PST city:

I did meet two of my neighbors in my apartment building. Both through the previous volunteer who was living in my apartment who is now back in the states. There is an older man below my aparment and a 14 year old boy a couple floors down who are both very nice and said they would help me with anything (they can both speak some English).

Hope everyone back home is having a great summer and all the PCVs here are having a good time in their permanent sites!

Here is the view from my apartment at sunrise:

And here's me:

Finally, here is a quote I felt was worth passing on:

"We should follow the example of nature, as in nature every form of life is obliged to live by exploiting others, but no species consumes to the point that another species becomes extinct. So each creature's existence is made possible by others; that means there is a real balance, real rules: To be able to live, you have to make it possible for others to live. Do you want to live? Then you must help others live, because if they didn't exist, you wouldn't exist either."

-Hayrettin from the book 6 billion others (www.6billionothers.org)