World Peace Day

I was watching videos on TED.org when I came across one by Jeremy Gilley titled "One day of peace". I enjoyed listening to his talk and afterwards immediately began reading more about this particular day. There has been an International Day of Peace in existence since September of 1982 thanks to the United Nations; however, the day being September 21st was decided in 2002 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. By 2012 there is the hope that we will have a global truce and everyone in the world can observe a day of peace. I believe this is a fantastic way to help make our world a more peaceful place. Mark the day on your calendar (it's less than a month away) and decide what you will do to be more peaceful. There are some great websites if you're looking for suggestions, maybe you want to do something in your workplace, in your classroom, or your neighborhood, there are plenty of ways to help initiate positive change and promote Peace. Please check out the websites linked below and remember to celebrate World Peace Day on September 21st!

Peace One Day
International Peace Day

And, some photos from my last day of summer English classes:

Bingo Prizes

Showing off some of their Bingo Prizes

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

How To Videos

Today in English class we made How To videos. Both videos are about how to make different popular summer foods here in Bulgaria. I've included the scripts below each video in case they are at all difficult to understand. Enjoy and let me know what you think if you make them yourself!

How to Make Shopska Salad

Malomir: Shopska Salad is the most popular salad in Bulgaria.

Marion: To make this salad for four people, you will need 8 tomatoes, 3 cucumbers, 1 onion, 500 grams white cheese (feta), 8 olives, 1 tablespoon salt, 1/3 cup vinegar, ¼ cup oil.

Mihaela: First chop the tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion into medium pieces.

Nelly: Mix the vegetables in a large container.

Tzvetomir: Pour the vinegar, oil, and salt into the mixture.

Malomir: Grate the cheese onto the mixture.

Marion: Put the olives on top.

All: Serve and enjoy!

How to Make Tarator*

Malomir: Tarator is a popular summer soup. It’s served cold.

Marion: You will need 2 cups plain yogurt, 2 or 3 cucumbers, 2 cups (cold) water, 1 tablespoon salt, ½ tablespoon oil, ¼ tablespoon dill, 1 clove garlic

Mihaela: Grate the cucumbers.

Nelly: Mix the cucumbers with the yogurt in a large container.

Tzvetomir: Pour the water into the mixture. Chop the garlic into small pieces.

Mihaela: Pour the salt, oil, and dill into the mixture.

All: Stir, serve, and enjoy!

*Some people add crushed walnuts to this soup as well.

And in photos:

Take some time to enjoy your locally grown summer produce!

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Photo Shoot :)

Today started with the beginning of my 3rd week of summer classes. We talked about food today along with writing sentences and hitting a few grammar issues. Then we wrote up a few recipes and played Bingo. Tomorrow I will be meeting them at Billa (a grocery store) to purchase the food needed to make the dishes and we will hopefully be filming how-to videos to send back to the US. I'm hoping it goes well!

Best of all though I was able to hang out with a girl from my neighborhood. We went and had coffee, walked around, took a LOT of photos, walked some more, had a snack, and took some more photos. By a lot of photos I will admit that upon uploading I realized just how many. The two of us, yes just two people, took 352 photos. After I made the initial edit of simply taking out everything blurry or just not something I want to keep it came down to 259. Now it's time to send the album to my neighbor to let her browse and take what she likes. I'm glad we both had a good time. Plus, my neighbor got some great shots. It was nice to be out in the evening and meet some of her friends (she's in high school). We also got a lot of great photos out of it. Here are some of the best:

This kid happened to run by while we were in the park grinning from ear to ear. 

All my love from Bulgaria!

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Teaching Workshop

I've had a pretty relaxing Sunday filled with a lot of online TV, a documentary, making some themed memory games for vocab review, and a bit of food. It's been in the high 80s (Fahrenheit that is) but has been feeling like the 90s to me lately. Needless to say my little fan has been getting quite the workout.

Last Friday I was able to attend a teaching workshop in the city of Karnobat (about 45 minutes by bus away from me) with 3 of the teachers from my school. Lynn Lynch, a Peace Corps Volunteer who will be leaving in September, put on the workshop to share games, strategies, and idea for teaching English to elementary students. It was a great day of sharing and my teachers really enjoyed it. It's always nice to get new idea and share resources. It made me get excited for the new school year and ready to start making things. Which I have been doing of and on today. There were three Peace Corps Volunteers besides myself at the workshop along with about 10 Bulgarian teachers. I brought along some yummy dips and crackers to have another volunteer's place after the workshop had finished since I stayed there that night. Here are a few photos to sum up our day:

This week is my last for summer English Classes and I'm hopefully going to get the kids to make some fun how-to videos of a few popular Bulgarian summer foods. We'll see how it goes. Tomorrow is going to be a big review of vocabulary day along with spelling activities. All the kids for this week have finished 5th grade so we'll see how ready they are for 6th grade English.

Finally...

Thank you to my United States followers for hitting over 4,000 views!

Thank you to my Bulgarian followers for hitting over 3,200 views!

I wanted to send a big shout-out to Kara DeCook and Peter Brandt who got married this weekend. I wish you both the very best and am sure you'll have a great life together. Congratulations!

I hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Feels Good to Be Productive

I'm sitting here drinking a delicious iced mocha. Yes, you read this correctly. I finally figured out the perfect combination for a yummy summer drink. Coffee + chocolate soy milk + ice = iced mocha. That's definitely one of the benefits of living in a big city here in Bulgaria.

I wanted to post a new entry because I've had a productive and enjoyable day thus far. I had classes this morning with some of my students and we focused on the topic of food. They had a warm-up of writing down any English word for each letter of the English alphabet. Then they all wrote as many words as they could related to the subject of food. After that I made 4 columns on the board and we organized all of their words into "Fruits and Vegetables", "Drinks", "Meats", and "Other". Then we had a break and afterward the students told me which foods were healthy and which were unhealthy from the lists to further organize them. Then they wrote sentences using "I like" or "I dislike" and finally I hit a bit of grammar by throwing in and vs. but. Finally all the students were able to make tables and draw different foods based on their own preferences.

After class I headed down to the teachers room where a few people were having chocolates, soda, and coffee in celebration of the name day of Maria and also the Assumption of Mary. After that a local policeman stopped by my school just to chat with me to make sure I wasn't having any problems and things were going well for me here in Sliven. I then got a ride to the center of town with him and went to the police station to check if my new ID card was ready, it wasn't but that's okay because it isn't supposed to be ready until next week. Then I headed to the market where I bought some beautiful nectarines, eggplants, and tomatoes.

Afterward I headed to Billa (grocery store) to get a few more things and finally was back at my apartment. After I dropped off my groceries I headed to the post office in my neighborhood where I mailed three letters and also bought some stamps to use with students back in the United States. I came back here and starting making lunch only to be surprised by my lovely neighbor with a huge tomato, two cucumbers, and fresh goat cheese from her village. It was very sweet of her and I used some of it to make this delicious lunch:

Now I'm working on some things for my classes tomorrow. Tomorrow's theme is going to be animals. To see more photos from my summer classes go to "Summer Classes 2011" under the Links section of my blog.

Have a wonderful day!

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

So far, so good :)

Today has been pretty great so I figure I'd blog. After getting up and doing a few things I watched the finale of So You Think You Can Dance. I've loved this season of the show and thought all the final four contestants very much deserved their place. Also, I just can't get enough of Sonya Tayeh's choreography and must congratulate Melanie on winning and Sasha on being the runner up. After some food, knitting, and a little TV it was time to head to the post office. I mailed three letters and the woman working complimented my Bulgarian which made the day even better. Then I headed to the grocery store and along the way saw our school's art teacher at the bus station and chatted with her a little bit. She is a very kind and considerate woman and was waiting to head to her village. At the grocery store I got everything I needed and then took a taxi back to my apartment due to the heavy cat litter I had bought and not wanting to walk home with three bags of things.

Now I'm back at my place about to make some lunch and watch this week's Project Runway. I'm thinking it's a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich type of day. After that I plan on working on my plans for next week's summer English classes and getting my things ready to go visit another volunteer tomorrow who lives near me for the night. I'm hoping the weather stays nice so we can enjoy the pool and just hang out. Gotta love summertime :)

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

All Before Noon*

As I sit down to write this post it is almost noon yet it feels much later since I had a bit of a busy morning. After I was ready to go I had some water and a nectarine and was out the door.

I took a bus to school so I wouldn’t be dripping with sweat once I got there and had English with a few kids who are finished with 3^rd grade from 9:00 – 11:00. Well we were meant to go until 11:00 however we got done at about 10:45. The kids did a Hidden Picture puzzle from highlights and all their vocabulary for the day was the list of items they needed to look for. We then made nametags, went through the word list, they wrote, they repeated, and then we went through the alphabet and played Alphabet Bingo. We also alphabetized all their vocabulary words for the day on a piece of paper so we can keep a running list of all new words for the week.

Then I left school for the post office where I paid my electricity and water bills for the last 2 months. My school actually pays for these things but I have to go pay and then I am reimbursed. After the post office, I walked to the smaller Billa (grocery store) in my school’s neighborhood in search for some Oreo Ice Cream. I broke down and bought some last week and after it was finished I was craving it, at least it’s on sale. Well, I got a few other items and it turns out that store was out of the Oreo Ice Cream. Not to fail though, there is a bigger Billa in town. Yes, you are reading correctly, I took another bus to head toward the center to the larger grocery store just to get the ice cream I wanted. There were only 2 containers left so I bought them both. I call that a score for the day. Plus I got some ciabatta bread and a few other items. I currently have a cheese, tomato, and onion sandwich grilling and am excited to have some rest time.

This afternoon is going to consist of lunch, cleaning my apartment, watching some online TV, and planning for tomorrow’s English class. Oh, and my cats are doing very well today, it’s almost as if they didn’t just have surgery Friday. Tumnina is chasing her ball around and Popitsa is taking a nap. I hope you’re all having a beautiful Monday!

*This would have been posted around noon on Monday however my internet didn’t work and finally is back working again today. And therefore I did not watch any television online but took a nap.

Since this is already a post from the past I thought I’d catch you up to speed.

Tuesday, I ended up calling my internet provider since it still wasn’t working and found out that the soonest a technician could be at my place was Thursday. Major bummer L however it did force me to catch up on my reading since I don’t really have any other forms of entertainment. I stream TV and movies instead of downloading so I really had nothing to fall back on. Therefore I’m writing this in a word document and waiting to post until I can be online. I’ll also let you know that since I have a pay as you go plan for my phone I had to run to the store to fill it back up with money in the process of calling the helpline for my internet. On the plus side, when I was walking back to my building I went past a group of boys playing football in their underwear, yes it’s very hot out and it was a funny sight to see. I’m sure they were having a wonderful time. I also enjoyed some of my Oreo ice cream.

Wednesday, was my regional meeting for Peace Corps which was held right here in Sliven. We have never had one of these in all my time here however with the new group of volunteers who went to site in June it was great to catch up and see how people are doing. I felt the meeting was successful as policies were clarified and we were able to share our opinions about or service thus far. Plus, several of us hung out afterward and were able to get to know one another that much more.

Finally, my classes this week went extremely well with a small group of kids at each session. We worked on words, spelling, and having fun. Bingo was a huge hit as well as the Highlights “Hidden Picture Puzzles” for the week. 

Overall it was a good week and a successful time spent here in Bulgaria. Plus, now my internet is working again thanks to the Vivacom technicians and I’ll be able to skype my wonderful mom and dad, get to some emails, catch up on some online TV, and maybe do a little knitting on this dreary day. Thanks to my thoughtful neighbor bringing me some tomatoes and peppers from her village garden I had a wonderful lunch. I just finished a wonderful toasted sandwich of tomatoes, green peppers, onions, garlic, and cream cheese.

All my love.

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

The End of My Every 28 Day Annoyance

Today my cats got spayed, woo hoo! This means that now my cats will not go into heat every 28 days and be a pure annoyance but will have more even keeled personalities (well hopefully at least). Plus, I can now say I am not contributing but helping to minimize the crazy amount of street cats in this country. 

They're pretty exhausted looking cats but I'm sure they'll recover in a few days. I have them locked in my bathroom to try and force them to just relax and not try to move around a whole lot. The vet I took them to was very professional and spoke exceptional English. He's even got a website for his practice: Privet. I would definitely recommend him. Also, the vet tech said my cats were very well behaved so I'm happy about that. Now i'm hoping for a relaxing evening here at my place and that my cats aren't in too much pain. The funny thing is that my family's dog back in Minnesota, LeBron, also had surgery today though his was to fix a cracked tooth. Still, I hope things go well for his surgery and it's all good news with the pets in my family. 

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Volunteer Assistance

This week I was able to assist another volunteer at her 2 day camp in a village near Varna. For all of you wondering where Varna is, please click HERE. This is National Sea Week and so all the activities were focused on the environment.

The first day was focused on the Black Sea and pollution. The hands-on activity involved the kids each receiving a feather they were able to dip in regular water, then water with oil, and then they cleaned their feathers with dish soap and water. After the activity we watched "Ghost Ships of the Black Sea" by National Geographic. We also ended up playing football (soccer for all you Americans reading this) in the late afternoon with a few of the kids. It was fun and really made me miss playing football on grass, for fun. While I enjoy playing, I don't really enjoy playing on concrete which seems to be most common for pick-up games here in Sliven. Also, I like a little bit of competition but would rather just play for fun, once it gets really competitive, I tend to get less interested.

 

The second day was focused on waves and the hands-on activity was making a sea in a bottle. The kids seemed to greatly enjoy it and then we all watched "Shallow Seas" from the Planet Earth series. There was also a raffle that day in which one kid one a kite and playing cards just for attending which he seemed to enjoy outside (everyone else received stickers). It was great being able to help out another volunteer and learn some more ways to teach kids about our environment.

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.