So, one of the things that I've noticed about living on your own is that you have to do everything yourself. I have to cook for myself, do my own laundry, clean everything by myself and kill every single bug that I find in my apartment by myself. It's exhausting! As of right now, I'm not very good at most of the things on this list. I am, however, insanely talented at killing bugs. I owe this, in large part, to Leslie Dent, who is my best friend and my college roommate. She had a rather irrational fear of all things with more than four legs. Whenever a bug would come into our room, Leslie would screech and then repeat "EVAN! KILL IT!" until I had successfully squashed the life out of the little guy. We were both usually never satisfied until it had received at least three whacks of a shoe, magazine, book, clock (or whatever just happened to by lying around). Because of this training, I have been rather successful at keeping my apartment bug free. Every now and then one slips out from between my fingers (not literally, though, because that would be gross) but overall, I would say that my apartment is one with not a lot of bugs. I even killed one on my white walls and left the mess there as a warning to all bugs who enter: This is the fate you will have. So, thank you, Leslie for giving me the ability to be the Master of all the bugs. Maybe within the next two years, I'll figure out how to do all of that other "living on your own stuff."
This last week, I feel has been pretty productive. I started tutoring a small group of kids (that has somehow managed to get smaller and smaller by the day) of all ages in the mornings. We meet at a cafe and then we walk to the school for a rousing hour of English learning! Originally, the session was supposed to last for about two hours; it didn't take me long to realize that two hours was entirely too long for, both, the kids and myself. The ages varied from preschool to a girl going into the eighth grade. Their skill levels were equally as varied. Some of them know a decent amount of English so that direction giving and explinations are understood. But, the smaller kids have absolutely no idea what is going on. I try to incorporate some games so that they'll have fun too, but I think the older kids think that the games are stupid and they ask me questions about grammar and stuff. Which reminds me, I need to look up a bunch of grammar stuff on the Internet before our session tomorrow. By now most of the smaller kids have stopped coming. Only one boy, named Bobby, remains. I hope he can stick it out. Rory came and taught one day for me and did a great job. I think it will definitely be easier once my Bulgarian gets better.
Today is my first day of Bulgarian tutoring with Rory's girlfriend, Cveti (Svety). She tutored him and she's really the only one around who knows enough English to be a suitable tutor. I was originally going to have two tutors. One of them was going to be the Bulgarian Language teacher at my school. Which would have probably been pretty cool, except that she doesn't speak any English. Problem. The second was going to the my Counterpart, Polya, who is another English teacher at my school. She speaks English but isn't confident with it and I'm not confident with my Bulgarian all the time. Problem. So, it came to be concluded that Cveti would be my tutor and soon I will be fluent. Problem solved.
Last Friday I went to some beautiful waterfalls with a Bulgarian family. The woman's name is Betty and she works at the cafe that I always go to. She, her husband, Kracimiere (Kraci for short) and their daughter, Dani have pretty much adopted Rory, Cveti, and myself. Friday was Dani's 14th birthday and they were going to these waterfalls and then to go to Pleven to go see the fourth and final installment of the "Shrek" saga. Betty was nice enough to offer me and invitation, so I was nice enough to accept. These waterfalls were about two hours away and another couple were coming with us. I sat in the front seat (which was kind of awkward), Dani had her iPod in, and there was little conversation. It was in the morning, though, so I didn't mind the silence. When we got to the waterfalls and got out of the car, I was almost knocked over by the overwhelmingness of the heat. I was not prepared and had worn skinny jeans and my [fabulous] lime green Pumas. I could only hope that it would be cooler closer to the water. We bought our tickets and began to make our way up the trail. It started out simple enough with a little creek thing and some rapids. I was forced into taking a picture with an unsuspecting Bulgarian family. Betty wanted me to get close to the water for the picture, but there was a family there. I tried to get as close as I could without them thinking that I was trying to join their family. The picture is awkward. The pictures from the falls are also all on Facebook, if you're interested.
We proceeded upward and it became obvious that these waters were open for anyone to just get on in. I wished that someone would have told me that so that I wouldn't have worn the skinny jean and [fabulous] tennis shoes. Just looking at the water and not being able to get in was like torture. Betty didn't hesitate and was walking all up in the falls. The woman from the other couple joined her and I was sad. The further up we hiked, the more epic the falls became. It was truly a beautiful place. If I can ever remember the name and you come visit me, we can go there. Be sure to wear clothes that will allow you to get in the water. At one point, though, there was a set of stairs that we had to climb. These stairs, though, they might as well have been a ladder, they were almost completely vertical. Some of the boards were a little loose. It was kind of insane. After we explored all of the falls and hiked up to see where the stream began, we had some lunch. It was so hot and I was so tired from the hike that the last thing I wanted to do was eat. I just wanted to drink water and only that. There was a little restauraunt in the park thing, so we ate there. I ordered a salad and Betty told me that that wasn't enough food. I ordered a salad and some french fries and Betty said that I needed to try this bread thing with some kind of spice and cyrene on it. I ordered a salad, french fries and that bread thing. Betty said that I needed to have some chicken because she knows how much I like eating chicken. I ordered a salad, french fries, that bread thing and chicken nuggets. Then I needed two cokes and a bottle of water to wash it down. I assumed that everyone else had ordered similar portions of food. I was wrong. Everyone else had somehow managed to only order what they were able to eat. I looked at my four plates of food and my heart dropped. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to eat all of this. I tried my best, but alas, I failed. I split my chicken nuggest with everyone at the table (except Dani because she's a vegetarian), put a dent in my french fries, ate a couple bites of the bread thing, and finished almost all of my salad. I think Betty was disappointed. I'm sorry Betty. I just couldn't do it. My stomach would have exploded and that would not have been pretty.
After lunch, we headed to Pleven to see "Shrek"...in Bulgarian. Did I mention that before? Because it's a kid's movie, it was dubbed in Bulgarian and it didn't have subtitles. "Shrek" is still pretty funny even in another language that you can barely understand. The movie was also in 3D, which made it even more...special. Dani liked it, though, and that's really all that matters since it was her birthday. All in all, I'd say it was a good day.
Saturday evening, I got my washing machine and got it all hooked up and everything. It was one of the most exciting things that's happened to me since I've been in Koynare. I spent all of Sunday resting my mind from all of the Bulgarian that had been spoken to me on Friday and Saturday and doing all of laundry that I hadn't been able to do since I got to Koynare. I'm telling you, that machine came just in time because I was running out of clothes (which is kind of a feat for me).
Now I'm off to become fluent in Bulgarian! Wish me luck!
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