Easter Break = Relaxation

Hmmm...so what's been happening since my last blog post? Well...

We had a shortened week of school (Monday-Thursday) due to Easter. Which meant two things:

A. The week flew by.

B. Four day weekend!

Yes, I also have tomorrow off of school due to Easter being today (which is part of the reason I am still awake and posting so late). The long weekend meant I took up the opportunity to travel to Sofia to spend some time with other volunteers. I left early Friday morning and got back to Sliven this evening. The trip to Sofia was great, what started out as a knitting weekend with the opportunity to learn some new skills turned into much more. Friday I got into Sofia around noon and went out for lunch with a group of volunteers at a delicious vegetarian restaurant. We then did a little shopping, had coffee, and went back to the hostel to have a little break before going out again for dinner. 

On our walk we noticed many vendors selling flowers for people to bring to church or bring home to celebrate Easter. 

Before heading to dinner we stopped by the "Buddy Bears" art exhibit that is currently in Sofia. This is a traveling art exhibit and you can find more information here. A few of my favorite bears were:

 

The American Bear, definitely iconic.

 Then we went to a fabulous Russian restaurant to celebrate another volunteer's birthday, you know who you are and happy birthday once again! I had never been to a Russian restaurant and greatly enjoyed it. There was also live music which was a bit loud yet enjoyable. I even got to enjoy a dance. After the restaurant we went to a bar before heading back to the hostel (of which the vodka was not nearly as delicious as the Russian restaurant).

Saturday morning started with breakfast at the hostel followed by some knitting and then it was off to lunch at another delicious vegetarian restaurant / tea house. We sat upstairs in the restaurant which meant shoes were off and we were on beanbags or pillows which was a nice change of pace. Plus, the place smelled deliciously of tea and incense. After lunch we went back to the hostel where I learned how to cable stitch thanks to another amazing volunteer, Huelo! If you don't know what that means because you don't knit, don't worry, just know it's a very exciting thing to know. I also got to dye an egg for Easter as the staff brought in everything necessary. Here in Bulgaria, after the eggs are dyed the tradition is to hit eggs with another person and whoever's egg doesn't break is said to have health and happiness throughout the year. We knitted for the afternoon and then ate dinner at the hostel.

After dinner, we went out for ice cream/gelato followed by beer and Bulgarian dancing. They even brought us Easter eggs when we got the check. 

Then we headed to the huge cathedral in Sofia for what was thought to be a candlelit midnight mass. However after it was turning out to be a huge media frenzy with not a lot going on, we headed back to the hostel. 

Then today we had breakfast at the hostel and since I didn't have to leave until about 4:00 pm I was able to enjoy a nice walk, coffee, a little shopping, and some Subway. 

Through my sunglasses:

"Even mother nature loves maroon and gold."

Plus, we ran into the sweetest street cat and her kitten. They are obviously given food and water from the local business owners or residents of the apartment building and are doing well.

The train ride was pretty uneventful with me listening to my ipod and knitting the whole way back to Sliven (it's about 4 1/2 hours on the fast train). Basically, it was great to be with some volunteers I rarely get to see and have a nice break away from Sliven. I enjoyed being at the hostel and it truly felt like a mini-vacation. Time away to relax was AMAZING. This is how much we enjoyed ourselves:

Peace, love, literacy, and reckless curiosity.

Regional Spelling Bee

Today marked the second level of the Bulgarian National English Spelling Bee. It was regionals and my school was the host for our area of the country. There were 15 spellers from cities near Sliven who came to compete. The Bee went very well with only minor complications. In two incidences, questions were raised about whether or not the speller was correct. Another time a judge read one of the words wrong however this was immediately corrected and lightened the competition up a bit, prosperous versus preposterous. Otherwise, most of the kids seemed happy to be there and all of them got certificates and MP3 players for making it to this round (pretty awesome prizes in my opinion). The top three students moving forward to nationals are from Sliven! They are not my students but they are from the 3rd school here in Sliven. Congrats to the winners and I wish them the best of luck in Sofia at the national level of the competition.

On a side note, an extremely nice and polite boy began talking to me when I went to the train station today with the volunteer who came to town yesterday in order to judge the Spelling Bee. The other volunteer bought their ticket and the boy ended up walking with me to the supermarket. I let him pick out a piece of fruit and an ice cream treat which made him extremely happy and my walk much more pleasurable. Now at least I know the name of one of the MANY children who hang out near my apartment building. I do not teach in my neighborhood and therefore know very few kids who live near me. Plus, he didn't speak any English except "hello", "goodbye", "yes" and "no so I had him tell me "thank you" after I gave him his treat. This is something I rarely do and definitely could not do for all the kids in my neighborhood or I'd be broke but it was a nice addition to my day. Now it's time for some relaxation before another week of school begins.

Peace, love, literacy, and reckless curiosity.

Ten Things I Know Right Now

1. Spring Break when by all TOO quickly. It feels like the break was just getting started and now I have to teach again tomorrow, goodness.
2. I greatly enjoyed visiting my host family for a few days this break back in Popitsa. They prove that you don't need to speak the same language to show that you care.
3. It's definitely spring. The apple trees are in blossom, a saw a few butterflies the other day, and baby animals are all over the village (see photos below).
4. Today marks 11 months since I left Minnesota. Wow, time has flown by.
5. The B27s are an all around great group of volunteers. Seeing more of them this past weekend in their training sites proved it. Again, welcome to the PC family and I wish you the best of luck!
6. I have a wonderful neighbor here in Sliven who is willing to watch my cats whenever so I can go out of town and not worry about them.
7. If you didn't already look at the photos below, I now have an affection for cows and the life of a small farm.
8. I have a new found appreciation for the train workers after my trip back to Sliven. One of the ticket takers not only gave me all the exact times for my three trains I took today but made sure I got onto the second train alright once he found out I wasn't Bulgarian, all of this without any asking on my behalf. I mean I've used trains enough that I'm pretty comfortable with traveling here but he was extremely thoughtful and courteous. Plus, he smiled while he worked.
9. I love my family and friends back home and can't wait to see some of you this July when I visit! Skype and email just aren't the same as being with people in person.
10. I'm happy to be a currently serving Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria!

Photos from visiting my host family:

Peace, love, literacy, and reckless curiosity.

Happy April!

I can hardly believe I've been here in Bulgaria for almost 11 months. The time has flown by. It's already spring and today on my walk back from the center I saw two beautiful butterflies and quite a few dandelions. No matter how many people say they are weeds I will always love them, they just compliment the grass so well. 

Let's see....since the last time I blogged there has been quite a bit going on. First of all, I was able to be a part of welcoming the new group of volunteers - the B27s to Bulgaria Wednesday, March 30th at the airport. It was fun seeing them with all of their baggage and matching real people to those I had already "met" via facebook. Here's a photo of them at the airport:

It was so nice seeing a group of 40 volunteers as I came to Bulgaria with a group of 87 and I still don't really know all the people I came here with. After the airport I headed up to Panichishte (in the mountains, south of Sofia) where the B27s were going to have orientation with Peace Corps Staff. I was able to stay with them until Saturday to help out with two training sessions and to just be there to hang out. Again, it was nice to experience orientation week again but not be on the trainee side of things. They seem like an amazing group of volunteers and I look forward to getting to know them better. I wish them all the best during their PST (pre-service training) and hope they take time to enjoy the little things that only living with a host family can provide. I love my host family as if I've known them my entire life, I will actually be visiting them this weekend. They have a new volunteer at their host so I will be interested to hear her initial impression of all of them.

It is currently spring break here in Bulgaria (for everyone but the 12th graders) which means I am filling out the Peace Corps reports I need to complete and planning for my summer activities. This summer I plan on doing several week-long English classes focused on Spelling. My students who participated in the Spelling Bee seemed to greatly enjoy it so I figure I'll give them a bit more practice for next year and focus on reading/spelling tricks to help them out a bit. Since I'm visiting the US of A in July (woo hoo), I'm really planning for the end of June and August as school will start back up again in September. But enough about future plans as today has been a great day. Today a volunteer who lives near me came into Sliven and we went out for coffee. lunch, dessert, and we did a little shopping. It was nice to hang out and she brought me some delicious home-made gifts. It is a beautiful day and it was nice to be outside and enjoy the sunshine. It's very apparent by my skin that it's been wintertime, time to get a bit less pale.

What else to share? I guess not a lot except for the photos I took while up in the mountains (not that a photo can truly encompass the beauty). 

These small, purple spring flowers were everywhere:

The view:

A close-up of the flowers and some sort of old machine:

    

Some of the hotel dogs:

 Peace, love, literacy, and reckless curiosity.