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)