Rainy Days

I wrote this post awhile ago but haven't had time to post it until now. So if I have time this might be a double edition. Oh, and if you don't like stream-of-conscious then i suggest you skip to the second part.
5-21
I keep my head down as I walk so that I can see the puddles. Although my shoes are soaked and squishy my jeans have started to dry. Running through the pouring rain for an Italian meal may not have been our best idea, but it certainly was one of our tastiest. Even now, two hours later back in Bobov Dol, still soaking wet and chilled to the core I think it was worth it.
jump over the river that has overtaken half the street
well at least I only got one foot wet, the other has stopped squishing finally and is now just damp
I can smell the cigarette of the man walking 15 meters in front of me. It's amazing how inescapable that smell is. Even in the open air it haunts you. As I start walking up the steps i notice two other girls that were on the bus with me. We seem to have all taken different routes to end up at the same steps.
so much like life
Our paths converge for an awkward second and we don't speak or look up. Then I am past one girl and the other passes me. The moment is over along with the awkward pause.
two blocks, turn left
up the stairs, up more stairs
turn left, one block, turn right
up the stairs, again
get the keys out...wait it's unlocked. she's home
Thank goodness today I'm not assaulted at the door. She yells from the kitchen and laughs. I respond in Bulgarian, there is no English spoken here,
"Yes, there was lots of rain today."
and think about my wet shoes and jeans. I hope she doesn't notice them. She doesn't.
"No, thank you I already ate dinner. I thought we talked about that yesterday."
"Oh, ok. No, I don't want dinner."
Any phrase that includes me not wanting food never seems to translate. After lots of pointing and motioning she gives up trying to feed me a second dinner.
My room always looks a mess. I clean it everyday and yet there is just too much stuff for one small room. More papers today, more handouts we were given, more notes, one less book lent to a friend, a pair of wet jeans, wet socks and shoes. Sort. Stack. Sort. Find space. Organize ...somehow.
Are those flees? I think I can feel them. I thought they were gone. Are there bites? No, only my imagination. Still I spray more to kill them if they are there or not.
My feet have finally dried and the chill is starting to fade from my legs. Don't itch the old flee bites, don't itch. Think about something else... don't itch. Ack! Stop itching.

Second Post: Now for Today
Today was Alphabet day. I know this makes no sense to anyone who is not Bulgarian so I'll do a little explaining. Cyril and Methodie were brothers and they invented the Cyrillic Alpahbet (notice only one of them is the namesake). Bulgarians are very proud of their alphabet because from what i understand it was one of the first in the area. So May 24th every year they celebrate these brothers that created the alphabet. Those are the basics.
Our school (and the other school in the town) put on an event with speaking and singing. So of course we all went. As the assistant mayor spoke I thought perhaps I was mistaken at what i heard. But no, oh no, I was not mistaken. then the mayor got up and I thought, perhaps everyone will maintain a quieter volume for this woman, the mayor, who is old enough to be their grandmother. But no, oh no. I have never sat through so much talking and disrespect in my whole life. Well I did stand through something worse when one of my students decided to jump out of the window of our classroom while I was teaching. Unfortunately we were only on the first floor. But I thought maybe, in a different setting where respect is commanded and expected these kids will demonstrate some amount of restrain. But no, not even a little. They were yelling to each other, getting up and down, talking incessantly at a normal level and when you combine 400 or 500 kids talking at a normal level all in one room it turns into a roar then add the speaker and sound system. Let's just say I ended up with a headache.
Tonight we'll be going to the teacher's celebration which should be much, much better.
Just as a side note:
As I type this I'm sitting next to a boy around 4 years old playing Miami Vice or whatever that video game is where you drive around in a car and run over people. He's the cutest kid. But now i can see exactly why they all acted as they did today.

Bravo Bulgaria

Well I'm in Byala Slatina and I love it. I wrote a huge post on my laptop, but don't have access to wireless right now so I'll just give a little blurb for now.
At first I was skeptical. The outskirts of town are not very impressive, but the center of town is beautiful and has lots of cafes to sit outside and drink coffee at. It's just the right size, not small enough that everyone knows each other but not so big that you feel lost or like 'just another person in the mix'. The teachers at my school are simply wonderful. They've been amazing, and I don't feel like I can begin to cover how great they all have been and how at home they've made me feel. Every single one of them is kind, welcoming, eager to get to know me, friendly, helpful, and nice. The eleventh grade students took me out to coffee today and talked to me the whole time. I was amazed at how good their English was. I couldn't ask for a better school and town or have picked a more perfect fit for me if I choose it myself. As far as PC assignments go I know I lucked out. I really hope everyone else in my Training Class feels the same way though. :-) I'm so freaking excited about getting here in a month and a half. Now I feel like I have incentive to learn Bulgarian. I want to be able to learn about the people here as much as they want to learn about me. It's amazing. I'm in shock.

I found out where I’m going to be for the next 2 years the other day. It’s a medium sized town in the north center of Bulgaria. The name of the town is Byala Slatina. I’ll be working at an agriculture specialty school. I’m so excited to see it. There’s another volunteer from my group that’s going to be living in the same town as me. Her name is Sehee. She’s really fun and I’m really excited about her being close to me! I’m going to live on the campus of the school in a boarding house. The school has a fitness center, a summer swimming pool, a garden patch, and a hotel/boarding house. They seem super friendly and I can’t wait to meet all the English teachers and the staff.

I’m loving it right now. I’ve spent the past two days with all the volunteers in sessions but also hanging out. It’s amazing how quickly you can make close friends. I feel like I’ve known these people forever. They are so supportive and we all understand what each other is going through. It’s incredible how much you can bond through common experiences. I feel like I don’t know the Volunteers at all, and yet I know them so well and can talk to any of them and hang out with any of them. It's really nice to hang out with these amazing people. We all are so different, but have the same empathetic spirit and desire to do something good. I'm so fortunate to know them.

The language is so challenging. I'm going to have to learn much, much more before I go to my site permanently.

Oh the tiredness...

Today marks the end of my 4th week in Bulgaria. I can't believe it. It seems like I've been here for at least 3 months already, although my language skills show that I haven't. I think when you're in a new culture it takes at least twice as long to process and get through anything. I've been given just enough assignments to fill each day, don't speak the language of most of the people around me, and learn (or try to) lots of new language everyday add that all together and you get one tired Krista. Today in Bulgarian language classes I actually nodded off. I couldn't believe it. We also had our first observation while teaching today which was stressful. I'm going to blame the nodding off on stress. Yup, it was the stress. I think my language trainer just laughed at me because of it. They decide on our sites tomorrow and we'll find out where we'll be for the next two years on Monday. Then we'll go visit for a week. I can't believe training is half over with. I feel like I have so much more to learn.

Well done

Today I had coffee with one of my students. She is really nice and speaks very, very, very little English. So that was challenging, but we ended up talking about what sports we like, our brothers and sisters, and I said that when my Bulgarian is better we should do it again. She's a 7th grader and she asked me to coffee. It made my day. The 7th grade is my favorite class. There are 28 of them and it's the biggest class by far. They are only supposed to have 25 in language classes, but 2 people came in mid-semester and they didn't want to have to split the class. They are completely out of control half the time (or what we would call out of control in the states) and loud and always seeking attention. But I love them because they respond; they are interactive; if you give them positive attention they respond positively everytime. They may be loud, noisy, and rowdy but they aren't disrespectful (unless they're testing your boundaries) and they give you immediate results. Teaching is going well but I have alot to learn. There is a volunteer at our school, Andy, and he is completely helpful. It's really nice to have him there and see what he's done that's worked and what hasn't. We went out of our little country town this past week for 2 days and as we were riding the bus back I was thinking how nice it would be to get back. Then I saw our town and sighed and smiled. It was a nice realization that this does feel like home in a way, and that it feels nice to come back here after being away for a few days. There are other volunteers in smaller towns and some in bigger, some with better schools, all with more behaved students.

This next week we will interview for our permanent sites...it's kinda nerve racking. We have so much to do this week and next. We are pretty much chocked full to the gills with things to do for all of training. It makes learning the language much tougher. But it's coming. I've gotta go eat until I feel like you could roll me to bed and hear from my host mom how little i ate. I think this is the only country where you can eat enough for 5 people and then have the person feeding complain that you never eat anything. Alas I am well fed.