This is the question that I accidentally asked when we had a substitute language instructor last week (I also forgot to mention it in my last post). Vladi was having all of us ask questions about him and his family and everything. He just wanted to get us comfortable with talking and asking questions. So we would ask whatever questions we could think of and he would answer all of them. My intention was to ask him how many sisters he had (kolko ima sestri?), but I ended up asking him how much they cost (kolko struva sestri?)...it was awkward.
This past week has been another incredibly busy week. We've had to teach every day, which is really not a problem because Vinny, Kevin and I team-teach one class. So every morning we start with some teaching. I really can't put into words just how amazing our eighth grade students are. They are all so smart and their English is better than some of the native speakers that I've heard. They're all eager to learn and don't complain when we give them assignments. There's one kid especially, whose name is Radi, who is literally a genius. He always knows what we're talking about and helps us explain it to the other kids (and he's nice about it). His sentences are more complex than some of the sentences that I've heard Americans make. It's kids like him that make me really happy about teaching. However, we know that we're being completely spoiled with this class. We were telling Rob about them and he told us that there was basically no way that we would end up with students like them at our permanant sites. I guess we'll just enjoy it while we can.
After teaching, we usually have a break where the three of us eat some lunch and go over some Bulgarian. I just want to say that our entire group are professionals at ordering food from a cafe or resteraunt. You would think that we were fluent. Anyway, around 1 o'clock every day we head over to the Center (chitalishte) and have three long hours of Bulgarian. We usually break it up into two hour-and-a-half blocks. The first hour and a half isn't bad. Everyone is focused (for the most part) and it's not too hot. The second hour and a half, however, is usually a hot mess. It's during the hottest part of the day and our room has no windows that can open. All we have is a little ocillating fan that can only do so much. It just started getting really hot this week, but it took no time at all getting into the upper 90s. I can tell you one thing, I will never take air conditioning for granted again. There's only one place in town that has air conditioning...and there are half naked ladies all over the walls. Needless to say, mostly we just sit around and sweat all day. Anyway, we get to the point in the second hour and a half where everything is hysterically funny. We'll end up laughing at nothing for about ten minutes straight. And Tanya is a saint because she puts up with all of us when we get like that.
Monday, we had our site placement interviews. Some people were nervous about them, but I felt (and still do feel) like they already know where they're going to place us before we have these interviews. To me, it seems like they're just a formality, but it's one that I appreciate. They did ask us to go into more detail about the kinds of people that we would like to work with or the types of projects that we would like to start. I told them that I was interested in working with minorities and that I would like to start some sort of creative writing club. However, based on those two things alone, I have no idea where I'll be sent...but I'll find out Thursday!
Tuesday we had a meeting with Phil, from the Senior Staff, about resiliancy. I actually found it to be quite destressing itself. We talked about some things that stressed us out and ways to deal with stress. For example, when I got stressed back home, I would go for a nice, long drive. Here I'm not allowed to drive, so what can I do? I can go for a walk. Luckily, I live about 20 minutes away from the Center so I get to destress every day when I walk home. It was nice and Phil did throw some good ideas our way and stuff for us to remember when we get to our permanant sites. Then, at the end, he snaked his way into getting us to do an icebreaker for the next HUB. We all hate icebreakers, but Phil knows that no one can say "no" to him because he's the man in charge. Sneaky Phil, very sneaky.
Wednesday we had a meeting with the Medical Staff to talk about...medical things. They pretty much just told us what was in our Medical Kits and how to use it. They told us not to get pregnant (but if we do, they'll take care of us for the first three months and then we get med-evacked out) and they told us it was ok to drink the water. I feel like they could've just shot me an email. I guess it is nice that they come visit, though. It shows that they care more than an email would.
Thursday and Friday we had to be at the school at 7:30am because of Kevin's big mouth. I was not a happy camper, but I made it through. It was also kind of nice to have a long break before Bulgarian too. Friday, after Bulgarian, we went to our usual spot for our weekly dinner and drinks. Another volunteer who trained in Byala Slatina was here visiting. His name is Raff and he was cool. He was really positive about everything and he got me excited to go to my permanant site. His Bulgarian is really good too. This gives me hope that mine will improve. After dinner, some of us moved to the cafe where they had set up a big screen TV outstide and watched the World Cup games. Rob and Vladi came, but they sat inside because language trainers can't drink with trainees. It was fun, though and Rob walked me home again. He told me that one of his seniors that just graduated was asking him about me. Awkward. What's more awkward is that, apparently, he was sitting at the table with us for some of the night. He never introduced himself. Now Jackie makes fun of me and says that I have a boyfriend. It's OK, though, because she has one too. And her's doesn't speak any English.
Yesterday, Kevin and Vinny had invited our whole class to come to the Center and play American football. We also invited the group from Boravan (a village, like, 10 minutes away) and some other students (including my new boyfriend) came too. It was actually a really good turn out and it was probably one of the cutest things I think I've ever seen. I'll post some pictures in a little while. We were pleasantly surprised that Kevin's competetive side didn't come out when his team started losing. Some of the students were actually really really good! And I think everyone had a good time. Afterwards, I went with the Boravan group, my new boyfriend and Niki (another one of Rob's seniors) to a cafe to learn how to play a popular Bulgarian card game...the name of which, I don't remember. From what I can gather from all of the rules and the changing cards of power, it's very similar to Spades. We played it for a little while and I think it'll be a game that I'll be pretty good at. It was fun, except for the part when my new boyfriend asked me to go to the disco with him later that night. I told him that I would be watching the World Cup, but he assured me that we wouldn't go until after the game. I told him I didn't think we were allowed to go. Bullet dodged.
After the game, I went back to the Center and hung out with Jackie until we went out for some drinks and some REAL futbol. Jackie and I got to the resteraunt before everyone else, so we ordered. There were these two drunk old men sitting at the table behind us. At one point, they started talking to us. We told them that we didn't know Bulgarian and that we were American, however, they continued to talk to us. The waitress came over to take some of the attention away from us and motioned for us to not talk to them. We took her lead and just stopped responding. It was all good until they were leaving. They came over to our table and started saying something in Drunk Bulgarian and then one of the men pinched Jackie's cheek! I pretty much could not contain myself and I guess the other guy took that as a sign that I wanted the same treatment, so he pinched my cheek as well. What makes this story even worse is that there was a table of teenage Bulgarians just watching the whole time and laughing so hard they were almost crying. We were extatic when other Americans started to show up. We met up with the rest of our group (sans Vinny) and watched America tie with England. I made a bet with Niki that if America won, he had to buy me a beer and if England won, I had to buy him a beer. Luckily, we both got to keep our leva that night.
This up coming week should be good because on Thursday we are going to Vratsa for our HUB and to find out where our permanant sites are! We spend the weekend meeting our counterparts and then on Sunday, we go and visit our permanant sites. The only scary part is...well, everything is pretty scary, but we have to find our way back to our satellite sits BY OURSELVES! This will be interesting!
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