It's gonna be emotional...in 2 months that is.

A strange set of a emotions have started to set in as I’m realizing just how close I am to finishing my service here in Bulgaria. My COS (close of service) is two months from tomorrow. I’m extremely satisfied with my site and am glad for all the wonderful students and teachers I’ve been able to work with. I’ve been so busy with getting projects done and completing things for the teaching workshops I’m facilitating that I haven’t really taken the time to truly think about how I feel. While I’m excited to go back to the states, see my family and friends, and start graduate school, I’m also sad to be leaving the life I’ve known for the last two years. Plus, while I may travel back to Bulgaria to visit sometime in the future, I have no idea right now if that will actually happen. It will be hard to say goodbye to so many people who have become part of my life. Everyone at my school gives me such great feedback and the students are so kind (usually) that I’m guessing the end of the school year (end of May) will involve quite a bit of tears.

While I agree that service is what you put into it, my experiences here in Bulgaria have succeeded anything I imagined when I first set foot in country. I’ve had my ups and downs but there has been much more good than bad and many more positive experiences than negative ones. I’m truly happy and am trying to enjoying every day I’ve got left J

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

EFL Enrichment Workshop Sliven

Today was the first of the five EFL Enrichment Workshops I am facilitating which happened right here in Sliven! I was very excited to finally get to see all of my work go into action. Everything went very well and I got a lot of great feedback. I only hope I get full attendance for the other workshops as I do believe it is helpful, useful information for any 2nd-6th EFL teacher here in Bulgaria.

Thanks again to everyone who donated to my PCPP as those are the funds paying for the materials and books the teachers received. The next four workshops will happen by the end of May and I'll make sure to post about each of them and give more statistics and information once I've received feedback from all participants. For now, I will mention that 13 Bulgarian teachers attended today and in total they teach over 1000 students. That's an awesome impact the teaching of English here in Bulgaria and it's only the first workshop :)

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

It's Spring Break :)

Well it's officially spring break for me and I'm having a nice time staying here in Sliven and getting things done. A few things on my to-do list include:

-Finish purchasing materials and making teaching resources for my upcoming EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Enrichment Workshops
-Write a few cover letters and revise my resume for a few teaching/project assistant positions at Madison for my move in August
-Spring clean my apartment and get the walls ready for paint :)

My week before break ended well with a few Easter related activities in English class. One of the teachers I work with was ill so it was just me for two of the sections. Though their class teachers were a bit worried about the students' behavior with only me around things went very well. One of the students who is very good at initiating problems was actually on his best behavior, it was nice to see. Plus, the kids were so excited I didn't give them any homework and we all played Bingo Friday. In my Friday after school group we played hangman and drew some Easter and Spring themed pictures. Here's a few photos:

Easter is not today here in Bulgaria as we follow the Orthodox calendar, therefore we are off of school until April 16th. April 17th is the first day back and also my first EFL Enrichment workshop! Lots to do but it's a good kind of busy that I'm definitely enjoying :)

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Surprisingly Satisfying Day

I just wanted to put up a quick post since today was surprisingly satisfying. The first 2 sections of 3rd grade went as planned however surprise to me the teacher I usually teach with fir the second 2 sections was ill. The Director of the elementary portion of our school had talked with the teachers that they wouldn't have English however I was unaware of this. After the 1st classroom teacher checked she said it was fine for us to have English so even though we started a bit late things went okay. Generally the kids don't listen or follow directions as quickly with just me in the room because they know I'm not going to yell at them but things were good. However the surprise came with my last section. The class was more calm than normal and were very good listeners and also got everything done. I had to stop and just stare at them once they started working on the Easter related activity I had planned because it was going so smoothly. Needless to say, I look forward to Friday as I'm going to try to start class the same way as today since it worked so well.

After school the day continued to go well as four boys from the 6th grade came to help me with some activities I needed to get done for the upcoming teacher workshops I will be facilitating. We just hung out coloring, writing, and putting things together for almost 2 hours and the time seemed to fly by. I love kids willing to help out with nothing but satisfaction in return :)

I hope you're all having a wonderful day! I'll post photos this weekend when our Easter crafts are complete :)

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.