My Blog Has Been A Victim...

...of neglect. I know it and I apologize. The fact of the matter is, I'm lazy. There's really no other reason. This has been the problem with me having journals throughout my entire life. I begin with such zeal and commitment and then once it's been going on for a few months, I just lose interest. To be honest, I was kind of surprised that I went as long as I did before I began to stray. But, due to the amount of encouragement (or heckling, whichever you'd like to call it) I have decided to be better about keeping up with my postings. I'll start including the little stories that happen so that all of my posts aren't eight pages long. From this point on, I'll be a better blogger.

Now, time to play catchup. OK, so since our Christmas/New Year's break some things have happened (as they tend to do over a two month period). School started back up and I returned with a new since of excitement and my students...did not. I have recently come up with a new grading system that I'm pretty excited about. It allows for the students to have more grades, but it also holds them accountable for more things. I put the fear of God in my 8a class when they looked in my notebook and saw failing grades by almost all of their names. I explained how it worked and they relaxed a bit, but now I'm hoping for better participation and actually completing assignments. I'll keep you updated on that.

In other school related news, I have a new tutor. My old tutor is in university in Sofia, so that made things more difficult to meet or have sessions over Skype. It's much easier having someone here in town. His name is Plamin and he's the Bulgarian Language teacher at my school. Oh, did I mention that he doesn't speak a word of English? Because he doesn't. This makes explaining things a little more difficult. However, it is also really exciting for me when he explains the meaning of a Bulgarian word IN Bulgarian and I understand it. We also have our sessions in the Teachers' Room in the school and often other teachers are in there during our sessions. At first, I was nervous because well, who wouldn't be? But, after a few sessions, I noticed that those teachers would talk to me more because they realized that I actually CAN speak Bulgarian. Once other teachers saw this, they began talking to me more often. It's nice to go to the school now and actually have conversations that go further than just "Hello, how are you?" (zdravae, kak si?). I also got my very own drawer in the Teachers' Room! Now, this might not sound like a big deal to those of you who have all the drawers you want at any given hour of the day, but I will have you know that storage is a HUGE deal to me here. I lack storage space, both, in my apartment and in the school. We got a new set of cabinets with more drawers than the last ones and so I was presented with one. My name is on it and everything. Of course, after I came back the next day it was filled with Plamin's things on top of my own...but the point is: I have a drawer just like the other teachers.

In Peace Corps news, I went to Sofia and attended a banquet in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps. The senior staff was there, as well as the very first Peace Corps Bulgaria staff, other volunteers, Bulgarian staff, new reporters and the American Ambassador. It was a nice event, though it didn't last very long. I can say that I hung out with the American Ambassador for Bulgaria and that's something that not everyone can say. Also as the school year is winding down, I must come up with something to occupy my time with over the summer. Now, what I'm thinking is...I have no idea. Rory said something about doing some kind of thing where we organize games at the stadium. But, if we do that, it needs to be before it gets too hot or else no one will show up. Other than that, I have no idea. If you guys have any ideas, feel free to post them and I'll be sure to give you credit in the name. :)

Something else you may be interested in is my recent trip to Greece. I went with Kerri and Adrienne and we went to Athens and Santorini. Let me begin by saying, if you ever decide to travel from Bulgaria to Greece, I suggest you DO NOT take a bus. We made this mistake. It was supposed to be an eleven hour bus ride from Sofia, Bulgaria to Athens, Greece...FOURTEEN hours later, we're still on the bus stuck in traffic. If trains are available, I suggest those...with sleeper cars. We got to Athens and got situated in our hostel (Athens Backpackers), which was awesome! We were right in the tourist center of the city and could see the Acropolis from our street. Amazing. We walked around for a little bit and then we went back and rested up before our night of unintentional partying. We had a nice, relaxing dinner at a little corner restauraunt and then decided to go to the sports bar that was owned by the hostel. Two words: Karaoke Night. We walked in and were greeted by Americans, Aussies and good drinks. We met some cool people and ended up heading over to a tiki bar until we finally headed back to the hostel. The next morning, we were woken up by the sound of the other girls in our room asking us if all of our stuff was still there. After checking around, we all said that it was and they told us that one of the girls had her purse stolen. She had locked it in her suitcase and it had been CUT out. The suspect (who we believe is still in question) was another girl in our room who was mysteriously missing that morning and never came back. Weird. Luckily, all of our stuff remained with us. That day was just spent wandering around the city and doing some light shopping. Our final day in Athens, we made it our mission to go see the Acropolis, however, because it was still "winter season", it closed at 2:30 (who does that?!) so we missed it. After a rather long, exhausting and ridiculous journey to a travel agency, we decided that after Santorini we would come back for another night in Athens and see the friggin' Acropolis. We may actually be the worst tourists ever.

The next day, we got up bright and early to catch a ferry to Santorini. We were under the impression that it would only be five hours...EIGHT hours later, we arrive. After the tossing of the ferry, I wanted to kiss the ground of the port, but I didn't because it was really gross. We hopped in a taxi and went all the way across the island to Perissa Beach, where our hostel (Stelio's Place) was. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. It had the prices of a hostel but it looked like a resort and it was right on the beach! It was perfect. There was a little restauraunt/bar that we ate at every night because it was our only option since it wasn't tourist season. It was nice, though, because we were basically the only people there we got things for free. Our first full day on the island we rented a car (because in a non-Peace Corps country we're allowed to drive) and drove to Fira, which is the capitol of the island, and Oia (pronounced like "ee-ya"), which is another bigger city. Both were pretty, but Oia was simply amazing. It looked like all of those postcards you've seen of Greece with the little houses with white walls and blue doors and rooftops. Yea, they're real. The next day, the sun was out and gorgeous, so we layed on the black sand beach for a while and got our sun on. After soaking up some sun, we took a little drive to Red Beach which is pretty much just what it sounds like. The beach is made of red volcanic rock, instead of black volcanic rock. The reflections of the blue sea and the red rock made for some amazing pictures (please see my Facebook page for these photos).

The next day we woke up early to catch our ferry back to Athens and at least this time we were prepared for the eight hours. The trip back wasn't nearly as bad as the trip there. We were inside in a nice seating area with comfortable chairs and a snack bar. We went back to the same hostel in Athens and had a nice, relaxing dinner. Our last day in Greece and we finally made it to the Acropolis! It was so awesome to be around one of the oldest structures on the planet. I wish there would've been more plaques around to tell more about it (or I wish that I had done more research before I went there), but that's my only complaint. That evening, we boarded a bus for another fourteen hour bus ride back to Bulgaria. Aside from our poor planning, the trip was absolutely amazing and I hope I'll get to go back to Santorini and live there forever because it's gorgeous...and WARM!

Well, that's pretty much what's been happening lately. Those are the main points, anyway. Look again soon for new stories. Don't give up on me. I'm sure my students will do something worth writing about!

Winter Wonderland?

So, dreaming of a white Christmas has never really been something that I've done. Growing up in North Carolina, I've become more than comfortable with our mild winters and not-so-white Christmases. Here in Bulgaria, however, I was not surprised when it started snowing around the middle of Decemeber. I was surprised to see how excited all of my students still got when they saw the snow. I couldn't understand it. This happens every year. It's no big surprise when it snows here. I went with it anyway and turned a few class periods into snowball throwing lessons. I'll admit it, the first day or so was fun. But then, the snow didn't melt away like it does back home. It stayed...and stayed...and stayed. In fact, it turned into ice and then more snow fell on top of it. The short walk to school became quite treacherous with all of the ice and it was a personal best if I could make it to school without slipping. I still haven't fallen (knock on wood) and I'm pretty proud of that. Anyway, once I realized that this snow wasn't going anywhere anytime soon I began to come to the conclusion that for the first time in my life I was going to have a white Christmas...whether I wanted one or not.

Before my Christmas break could officially begin, I had two holiday parties to attend: my 8a class party and the faculty party. The 8a party was first and I went down the cafe with Denny (Betty's daughter) and we had some food and there were presents. One of the students dressed up as Santa or "Diyado Kolada" (Grandfather Christmas) and gave everyone presents. I even got a poinsetta from the class. It was cute and the kids really enjoyed it. After that party I walked over to the "Mehana" where the teachers' party was being held. I walked in right in the middle of a horro and had to fight to not be dragged into it. One of the male teachers had told me that I was to be his date for the night because his wife was in Sofia. I agreed and he turned out to be a great date. He gave me a plastic flower and made sure that I never saw the bottom of my glass. He also had all kinds of things that he kept pulling out of his pockets for the occassion: balloons, string, more flowers, confetti and some kind of toy that had a strobe light that he would shine on the dancefloor. There was a raffle, dinner, drinks and dancing. It was a great time. I got to show off my horroing skills and the teachers were pretty impressed. During the non-horro songs, I became instantly aware that everyone was watching me to see how the American danced. Part of me wanted to just go wild and start doing absolutely ridiculous dance moves, but I decided to play it low. I didn't want to embarrass anyone.

The next big stop was Hannah's Holiday House for Christmas. There were about fifteen people there and we had a Secret Santa and a potluck dinner. It was great. Most of the day was spent making the food with a few breaks to talk to families on Skype. We walked to the Sea and it was nice and the weather was surprisingly warm. We were joined by two Peace Corps Morocco Volunteers. They wanted to be in a country that actually recognized Christmas and Bulgaria just happened to fall into that category. I'm sure it helped that it was another Peace Corps country as well. Everything went over without a hitch and the next day, the crowd dispersed.

My next stop was Sofia the night before our flight to Italy! Our group: Adrienne, Lexi, Hannah, Matt and myself all met at Hostel Mostel and decided to have one last night of fun in Sofia beforew we flew out the next day. One of the Moroccan Volunteers was there too and we couldn't let him have his last night in Bulgaria alone. The next morning we all drowsily made our way to the Sofia Airport and got ready for our flight. True to Bulgarian form, our flight was delayed by almost an hour. We waited and waited and waited until finally it was our turn to board the bus that would take us to the plane (that we could see from the gate). After some mild issues with my boarding pass, our group made it onto the plane. Luck dealt us a good hand and we got to sit in the Emergency Exit rows because we could speak English. This meant that we got extra leg room and that we didn't have to share the row with anyone else because they're reserved seats.

After a very short flight/nap we landed in Forli, Italy. We had to take a train to Bologna, where we wandered around trying to find our bus stop to our hostel and then places to eat. We ended up eating at the first place we saw and it was the most amazing thing ever. After inhaling our food, we found our bus stop and got on board for the hostel, which was located right outside of town. The hostel was really cool because it used to be a school and it's still a cool was to use that building. Everything was very clean and the people who worked there were very nice and helpful. Once we got to the hostel and got checked in we went to our room and unpacked a little (there were little closets). We were all pretty beat, so we decided to call it an early night. We didn't know quite how early it was, though, until we were all in bed and someone asked what time it was...8:00pm. We all busted out laughing. I have never in my life gone to bed at such an early hour, but we were all exhausted so we were more than OK with it that night.

The next day was New Year's Eve. We met an Australian guy at the bus stop who was traveling alone and we invited him to join us for the day/evening. We got into town and we were distracted by a huge street market. They had everything you could ever want in that market. The boys got seperated from us, but we managed to get along fine without them. After making sure that we looked at everything in the market, we went off to make a reservation at a resteraunt near the Square where the celebration would take place. We walked through the Square and saw a giant frog, the size of a building, wearing a crown and knew that in less than twelve hours he would be engulfed in flames and helping us welcome in 2011. We found the boys again and, after walking around some more, we decided to go back to the hostel to rest up for the evening. After our nap, we got ready and headed back out for the night. We ate at an amazing resteraunt and then we headed to a bar to wait until it was closer to midnight to go back to the Square. At about 11:30, we headed back towards the frog and, somehow, managed to get front row seats for his burning. The countdown was on and right at midnight the frog's crown started sparking and fireworks were going off overhead. Before you knew it, the whole frog was just one big ball of flames. It was pretty epic. The rest of the night just turned into one big struggle to get back to the hostel. We finally made it with the help of a very nice man named Giovanney (Lexi told him that she would name her first born child after him...I told him that I would name my dog after him).

The next day we all took it easy and just went into town to walk around a bit. We did more of the stuff on the map that the hostel had given us. We saw a lot of churches and older things like that. One of the churches was getting ready to have a service when we got there so Hannah and I stayed for it. I figured there was nothing wrong with starting the New Year off with a little Jesus. Although the service was entirely in Italian, it was still refreshing and I enjoyed it. It was interesting because it was a Catholic church and I'd never been to a Catholice service before. After the service, we met back up with the rest of the group and we decided that we would head back to the hostel and eat in. There was one pizza place that delivered to the hostel and that was the plan. I would like to take this time to mention that all of us ate pizza every single day we were there, and often times more than once a day. Italy has the best food that I've ever tasted. I'm pretty sure I gained 10lbs...and I don't even care.

Our plan for the next day was to go to Florence because everything in Bologna was supposed to be closed since it was Sunday. Our plan was foiled, however, when we went to the train station and there were literally no more tickets to Florence for that day. But, being the flexible, easy-going people that we are, we just waited in line and bought our tickets for the next day. No problem. We spent the day trying to find the University buildings and being discouraged because they were all closed since it was a break. We decided it would be another day at the hostel. We justified all of our time at the hostel by reminding ourselves that, although we were in Italy, we were also on vacation and resting is the most important thing to do on a vacation. That night we met some nice Italian boys who thought they wanted to play some American drinking games. They were good sports, but by the end of it, you could tell they weren't used to drinking wine quite like that.

Florence was on the agenda for the next day and it was gorgeous! We took a train that was overcrowded and overheated about an hour to Florence where we found ourselves in one of the most beautiful cities ever. We walked around and looked at anything and everything. We saw that Statue of David (which, we later found out wasn't actually the real Statue of David ssshhhh...) and we climbed to the top of the Duomo. You got to go up inside the Duomo and see the paintings on the ceiling up close and personal. It was incredible. Then, after you climbed 4r935720571208305823 steps and you've seen your life flash before your eyes and your lungs are about to collapse and you think you're going crazy because the staircase walls keep closing in on you, you get to the top. You step outside and you can see the entire city of Florence at sunset and then you realize that all those stairs were totally worth it. That sight was one of the most beautiful things that I've ever seen. After we all took in the sight and caught our breath, we headed back down (which was a much easier journey) and got some food and did some shopping. We got back to Bologna and had a nice meal because it was our last dinner. Then we went to a bar that Lexi, Matt and Adrienne had gone to while Hannah and I were at the church and we had our final Italian drinks.

The next day we checked out of the hostel and made our way back to Forli and got on the plane back to Bulgaria. We were greeted by a fresh blanket of snow and plummeting temperatures. The vacation is definitely over, but it's nice to be back and I feel rejuvinated to take on a whole new semester of craziness.