"I am not a tomato."

Today was our first day of formal Bulgarian language training since our arrival in Byala Slatina. We worked with making positive and negative statements using the different forms of the verb "to be". I felt like I was back in Spanish 1 again. Anyway, we began by saying things that we were and then we moved on to saying things that we weren't. Now, I feel like I need to tell you that our vocabulary is extremely limited. We're mostly familiar with numbers, greetings, and food. An occassional word that we've heard our host families say to us a lot is sprinkled in there too. By the time we had gotten around to Vinny, all of our vocabulary that was relevant was running low, so he decided to inform us that he was not, in fact, a tomato. It was pretty hilarious. Thus, the title of this entry was born. I think that was the most I've laughed since we got to our town.

Yesterday was our first day off and it was great! I finally got to sleep in (which hadn't happened since I started on this journey) and by the time I got up and ready for the day, it was almost lunchtime. I had lunch with Nadka and Hristo, which was some kind of brothy soup with some sausage in it. I told them that I liked sausge once and I don't think we've had a meal where there has been a lack of sausage. At first glance at everyone's plate, one would think that we all had an even share of food. I thouht I was lucky because my host family wasn't force feeding me, like the other trainees. But I took a closer look and noticed that my bowl was significantly larger than the bowls that they were eating out of. Very sneaky Nikolovos, but I caught on to your game.

After lunch, I headed to the Center to meet with the rest of the group so that we could go over the schedule for the rest of the week. I'm also pretty sure that none of us were ready to spend an entire day with our host families knowing as little Bulgarian as we did/do. We got there and made some executive decisions and then we decided to practice some Bulgarian. We play a game with a ball and when the ball is thrown to you, you have to say something in Bulgarian. It's only numbers, foods, and greetings so far, though. I am proud to say that we can all successfully count to one hundred in Bulgarian! After we had worn out the extent of our Bulgarian, a volunteer (Rob) who has his permanent site in Byala Slatina came by and took us all out for coffee and so that we could give him the third degree about everything.

We ended up staying at the cafe for over an hour and Rob had some really good things to say. He was much more positive than the last volunteer that I talked to. He did say that stuff got hard, but that the Peace Corps support system was amazing and that everyone was so helpful. He also made it clear how excited he was that we were there and that he would be around if we ever needed anything. He teaches Secondary School and the school year is coming to an end so he's glad to have things to do now that we're around. Talking to Rob definitely put me at ease and he really made us all feel like there was no need to put ourselves under so much pressure. The language will come and you will learn as you go what works and what doesn't work while you're teaching.

After coffee with Rob, everyone went to their separate houses for the night. We had pizza and I have no idea what was on it (I'm sure sausage was in there somewhere) but it was delicious. I tried to help clear the table and Hristo told me "Neh, neh neh", so I stopped and just sat and watched TV. Nadka and I both had our dictionaries (rechnick) out and kind of sort of had a conversation. I tried to say some Bulgarian and she tried to say some English. All in all I think it went pretty well. They still laugh at me a lot because it's pretty obvious that I generally have no idea what they're talking about.

Today I met Kevin, Vinny and Tanya at the Center and we walked to the Technical School that we'll be doing our practicum at. Tanya just dropped us off with Georgi, who is our Bulgarian counterpart, and then went to take the other girls to their school. Georgi gave us the lowdown on his students and basically said that we don't have to stick to the curriculum as long as we made it relevant so that they would see the need to study. Makes sense to me. After our briefing, we observed one of Georgi's English classes. I was amazed by two things: 1) how well-behaved all of the students were. They stood up when Georgi walked into the classroom and were basically quiet during the lesson. They also participated a lot, which was encouraging. 2)how much Bulgarian Georgi spoke while he was teaching. We're all under the impression that when we teach our classes, we'll be teaching mostly in English, but Georgi was teaching mostly in Bulgarian. I guess it's different if it's your native tongue, but it just took us by surprise. After Georgi's class, we were asked to observe a Microeconomics class...that was taught completely in Bulgarian. It was like Chinese water torture. I don't understand microeconomics in English...I stand a chance in that situation.

After the longest 40 minutes of our lives, we went and ate at the pizzeria from the day before. Nadka had packed me a lunch because I live so far from the Center. I had leftover pizza, so I was just as happy. Lunch went by quickly and we had to be back at the Center to meet everyone else for three hours of Bulgarian. These lessons are bittersweet because I'm excited to learn the language so that I can communicate, but it's such a difficult language that it's sometimes hard to get excited about it. Tanya is a good teacher, though and she does what she can to make things more interseting and easier for us.

I stayed and studied at the Center for about another hour with Rachel. Around 5:45, I began my trek home. It's a nice walk and I can go over everything that happened that day, or think about people from home that I miss. It's also nice because it's still pretty cold here, so the walk warms me up. I got back home and got on the computer to see if I had any activity and to do a little bit more Bulgarian. I was glad to talk to some people from home and a trainee in another satellite. I was in the middle of some nice conversations when Hristo knocked on my bedroom window and motioned for me to come outside and to be quiet. I went out wearing the dress I had worn to school, a sweater, a scarf and my flats...and he had me mow the grass. I figured it was the least I could do, so I did what he said (sorry Dad!). I think it was obvious that I had never done this before. It was only a few minutes before Nadka came out and scolded Hristo for this and I was pardoned to go back to my conversations. Some things are universal. Soon after we had dinner (another form of sausage was involved) and we watched TV. There's some telenovela thing that is dubbed in Bulgarian that they love to watch. I'll admit, it's quite entertaining although I'm not too clear on what's going on.

Tomorrow we go back for more observing at the school, a lunch with one of the Peace Corps Bulgaria Senior Staff members, and more Bulgarian. Everyone says the language will come, the language will come...I would like for it to come now, please.