"Is there a problem with your face?"

These are the lovely and caring words that my host mother asked me during lunch yesterday when I arrived at the table with no make-up on. I was just sitting there, innocently eating my block of fried cheese (kashkavahl pene) and she looks at me with a concerned expression on her face and gentlly asks "Is there a problem with your face?" and touches her own cheek. After giving her a look that I'm pretty sure is disrespectful in every culture, I informed her that I just hadn't had the time to apply my make-up yet. I accomplished this by miming the application of make-up to my face and then again sliding my hand infront of my face and saying "neh", which means "no". She got the picture and then tried to make up for it by telling me that my hair looked nice, completely unaware of the fact that she had destroyed my international self-esteem.

The weekend and time off were much needed to everyone in our group. Saturday, I got to sleep in. By the time I woke up and got ready for the day, it was time for lunch. We had chicken noodle soup...but it was definitely not Cambell's. It was delicious either way. For dessert we had that creme caramel stuff again. Amazing. After lunch I went to the Center to meet with Jackie, Rachel and Kevin for a walk. Kevin was feeling better, but he still wasn't 100% so we didn't go as far as we would have liked to. Vinny didn't come because his entire family was out of town so he had the house to himself, which meant that he would be sleeping all day. We ended up meeting Mary on the walk because she was out with her host sister who is eight-years-old and speaks better English than we do Bulgarian. She told us how our town got the name "Byala Slatina". It's a nice story about a man who fell in love with a girl named Slati and wherever she walked, little white flowers would bloom and everyone called them "slatini". The word for "white" in Bulgarian is "byala" so they put the two together and the town was named Byala Slatina (slatina is the singular form of slatini).

After our little walk, we decided to enjoy the Bulgarian passtime of drinking coffee at a cafe. We settled under a huge umbrella on the main street downtown. We each ordered our drinks and were having a good conversation when it started raining. We didn't think anything of it because we were safe under the umbrella and it wasn't raining hard. Then it started raining harder...and thundering. The rain started closing in on us. We were still determined to stick it out under that umbrella though. Then some random girl comes walking up to our table and says "Well, I found the Americans." Shocked that someone knew English, we all turned to find a previous volunteer standing at our table. We told her to join us and asked how she knew we were American. She told us that we were the only ones left sitting outside in the rain. Everyone else had gone inside. We looked around to discover that she was absolutely correct.

She suggested that we move inside and we agreed. Once we were seated in the smokey cafe, we did introductions. Her name was Krista and her permanent site had been in Byala Slatina a couple of years ago and she was just coming back to visit. Now she lives in Sofia and is a teacher at a private school where she teaches English and Biology. She told us about her Peace Corps days and how things would slow down after PST was over. We asked her to tell us her worst horror story about teaching with the Peace Corps and she told us about this one time where a student almost threw a chair at her. Our general response was: "Oh, but he didn't throw it? Oh, that's not bad then." American public schools have take their toll. It wasn't long before some of her friends who had been volunteers with her came and joined us. They told us about their experiences as well. It was cool to see that people loved it so much that they didn't leave. One girl had actually married a Bulgarian so she lived here because of him. Don't worry, I'm not planning on marrying a Bulgarian.

We had been sitting in the cafe for a couple of hours and we were starting to get hungry so they told us about this thing that's kind of like Bulgarian fast food. It's easy to get and it's cheap. It's called a "dooner" and it's the closest thing to home we're probably gonna get for a while. It's meat, cheese, french fries, cucumbers, and lettuce all wrapped up in a tortilla thing and topped with some kind of white sauce and wannabe ketchup. I also like to refer to it as "Type Two Diabetes" but it's delicious. After we stuffed our faces, we went our separate ways to our houses. I walked with Jackie because her house is on my way across town. Her family runs a store (magazine) in the front of their house and I wanted to buy a vafla (kind of life those waifer things you used to eat when you were a kid, covered in chocolate). I used my best Bulgarian to ask for one and I got ready to pay for it and Jackie's host mom gave it to me for free and then forced me to sit down and stay for a couple of hours. She pulled up a table on the side of the store and asked if I would like something to drink. I said "yes" because it was true and then she poured me this pineapple soda stuff that was the worst thing that's ever happened to me. But I smiled my way through my first sip. As soon as she walked away, I poured a little bit out to make it look like I was enjoying it. It was nice hanging out with Jackie, though. She's probably the person in the group that is the most like me. Soon, though, I had poured out all of my pineapple soda and it was time for me to return to my own host home.

I made my trek across town and finally arrived at my gate where I proceeded to fail at being able to open the gate with the key. I looked around in paranoia. I'm sure it looked like I was trying to break in to their garden. Luckily, Nadka was crossing the street to my aide. She simply turned the key to the right and, like magic, the gate was unlocked. I swear I had just done that and nothing happened. But she told me nevermind and motioned for me to follow her somewhere. It turns out we were going to her neighbor's house who is a doctor. We entered through the gate and went to a sitting area outside in the garden. Nadka told me that she had a small problem and although I wanted badly to ask what the problem was, I refrained. Mostly because I don't know how to ask that, but also because if I did know how to ask, there's a 99.99% chance that I would have no idea what she was saying when she answered me. So I left it a mystery. The doctor came back out from the house and I was surprised that it was a woman. She introduced herself to me and I have no idea what her name is. I think it begins with a "P". While Dr. P had been inside, Nadka was messing with the blood pressure thing. She took the air pump and kept pumping air into the arm band. When Dr. P came out she looked at the pumped up arm band with a look of question on her face. I had to hold back laughter because Nadka didn't own up to pumping it up. Soon after the impromptu examination, another woman bicycled into the yard. Her name was Zara (it was easy enough) and she spoke a very little bit of English. The three of them reminded me of being at home with my mom and her friends. No one could complete a thought without another one chiming in. They were just funny to watch and listen to. It was then that I noticed the epic hairdo that Dr. P was sporting. A bump more epic than Snookie could ever wish to achieve AND it was natural. No Bump It, my friends. There was no way for me to sneak a picture, so I'm afraid you'll just have to imagine it, but yes, it WAS as grande as you're imagining it.

After some time with the girls, we went home and dinner was on the table. There was some conversation, but it was minute. I'm pretty sure that Hristo thinks that I have some kind of disorder. He keeps looking at me like "Oh, it's ok that you can't get it right, we know you're special." Eh, I get through the meals the best I can. After dinner, I was so glad to catch Leslie on Skype and talk to her for a while. Actually, I talked to her until Nadka and Hristo went to bed and cut off the Internet. Then, I too, went to sleep.

Sunday I slept in as well. I woke up and talked to Leanna on Skype until it was time for lunch. Consequently, I didn't have time to prepare myself adequately enough for the meal. This is when Nadka questioned my facial issues. After lunch I retreated into my room where I did some reading for the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Cluster tomorrow. This is where we go over technical things to make sure we know what we're doing when we really start teaching. I was soon bored with reading and decided to watch the classic movie "Casablanca". There's nothing like Humphrey Bogart on a rainy Sunday. However, I layed down to watch it and I passed out before Ilsa even waltzed onto the screen. I awoke to do some more work and then it was dinner time. By this time I had put on make-up so we wouldn't have a repeat incident.

For dinner we had "mehkitza" which is basically just fried dough that you can do a number of things to. You can add just sugar, or honey, or cheese, or anything really. The favorite around here ended up being a toss up between honey and cheese. This also ended up being my breakfast this morning. After dinner, I went to play with the new puppy for while. I decided to name him Dexter because nobody has told me any other name to call him. After this, I talked to Leanna again and then my parents. It was nice and I know it puts them at ease to see me and talk to me.

Today was a national holiday to celebrate the Cyrillic alphabet. Two Bulgarians created it and schools are out all over the nation. There was a concert at the Center that we got to watch with Bulgarian dress and dancing. One of the students from my class was in it and she was very excited that we were there. She kept looking back and waving at us. It was cute. Even though today was a Bulgarian holiday, it was not a Peace Corps holiday, so we still had three hours of Bulgarian language. It wasn't bad because the sessions were broken up by the concert and lunch. We also had our community walk after the lessons so that we could make a map of our town. It was nice to be with the group and Tanya without it having to be a lesson.

When I got back to my house, it wasn't long before dinner was ready. It was a traditional Bulgarian dinner to celebrate. We had chicken (pillay), potatoes (kartophy), salad (salada) and, of course, rakia. Rakia is the Bulgarian national drink. It looks like vodka, tastes like tequilla and smells like rubbing alcohol. It's the kind of drink that you can have a glass (and by glass I mean a double shot that you sip slowly because otherwise it'll kill you) at dinner and burp the next day and still taste it burning in your throat. Yea, it's that serious. But in the spirit of the holiday, I had a glass. I don't think this drink will be something that I drink regularly. Now I have to do some more reading and get ready for our Cluster tomorrow. It'll be good to see some of the Trainees from the other sites. I'm pretty excited about it...and it means no Bulgarian! Dob'r vecher (good evening!)!