Is it really December?

I can hardly believe I've been out of Minnesota for over 200 days and living in Sliven for over 4 months. I know it's been a few weeks since my last post but there have been quite a few "firsts".

For instance, this is the first year I have ever worked on Thanksgiving. It actually worked out well since Thursday is the day I have all four of my groups of students. For the 12th graders (and 11th graders) I did a lesson on Thanksgiving and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I talked about what Americans do on Thanksgiving and then we watched part of the parade and talked about it. It was a good day and some of the students actually talked. With my 5th and 6th grade classes I had a reading typed up about Thanksgiving that we read and translated. Then I asked the students what they were thankful for and after they knew and wrote it down on a leaf and were able to add their leaves to the tree I had put up in the classroom. The activity went well and I think most of the kids enjoyed themselves. On Thursday I also handed out small coloring sheets and the students were to complete them for Friday. On Friday we put them all up and the students voted on the best one. The winner won a quarter and a candy. Here are a few photos from the day:

The fifth graders working on their leaves:

I just loved this leaf. It was written by one of the most advanced sixth grade boys:

Colorings:

Another first came the night of Thanksgiving when the teachers from my teacher English class asked me out for beer and food at a nearby restaurant. They found out it was a holiday for me and they were like "why are we in class? we need to go out and celebrate". It was a great time because I was able to use my Bulgarian and they were able to try out their English in a relaxed setting. This was honestly the first time I have been invited out to hang out with a group of colleagues and I have actually enjoyed myself. Other than that I have only ever spend time one-on-one with a colleague. The night got even better because I was able to skype with family back home for a few hours while they were all together for Thanksgiving. I miss you and think of you often!

Some of you are even part of my classroom display:

This was also the first Thanksgiving I have not eaten dinner with my family but with friends. I was fortunate enough to be part of a great group of volunteers and celebrate Thanksgiving dinner with them in a nearby village. We spent all day Saturday with kids at the boarding school in town. By boarding school I do not mean a private school but a school where kids stay there and they are there because of a crime they committed or for bad discipline at their old school. Boys and girls aged 11-17 live there. Our dinner was fantastic, my contribution was a creamy pumpkin soup which I greatly enjoyed (made from a MN mix my mom sent in a package and spiced up with local vegetables and spices).

Here are a few photos from that day:

Woo hoo, it's Thanksgiving!

Meeting for a drink:

Food!

 A great game I learned to play at the Boarding school (rules follow):

One of the boys at the boarding school:

Reading about Thanksgiving:

The game again:

Me and one of the boys from the boarding school:

For the game I learned, it is a two person game where two people (x) stand on either side of a line and hold right hands (this means they are facing opposite directions). The object is for one of the people to lose their balance and step outside the lines in front and behind them. Each player can only use their right hand to force the other person off balance. It's extremely fun! Here is a layout of the game:

__________________________I_______________________

      I

(x)                  I            (x)

___________________________I________________________

      I

And for the final "firsts", I went to IST in Plovdiv. That's In-service training for all of you. My counterpart and I presented about team teaching (first), I stayed in a beautiful hotel (first), watched the new Harry Potter (first), had hummus at an Arabic restaurant (I love hummus and this was the first time in Bulgaria), and are you ready for this...........................I took a hot bath while drinking a Dr. Pepper and watching Dexter! Amazing night. Anyway, I'll leave you with a few IST photos and please feel free to comment on my blog and ask me any questions about Bulgaria!

The hotel was decorated beautifully:

And it had great mosaics all over the place:

Oh, and I have another cat, the new one is Tumnina and the one I had is Popitsa. They're great.

Peace, love, literacy, and reckless curiosity.