Toneventures in Libblogia: the cummulative effects of limited access to Lime Tostidos

Outbound for Liberia

2009-05-14T22:40:00.003Z

Preparing for my long-awaited departure for Liberia, two pieces of advice have guided my thoughts. My first day in Bulgaria, our Country Director recommended that we "leave all our expectations at the door." If anything could have defined my Peace Corps experience, that was it. The idea that we could somehow be prepared to understand the challenges and rewards that each of our unique skill sets would bring to the communities we lived in was premature. It would take us months to realize that more-so than any language barrier, "success" was impeded by our belief that what worked in American communities would work in Bulgaria. Only when we abandoned our ideas about how to cut and paste American examples onto the current community were we able to help Bulgaria address its development needs in a way that was more inclusive and more sustainable.

I know that no matter what I do today or how many books I've read about Liberia, when I step off the plane in Monrovia, I will be stunned. For me, the only way to proceed is to simply accept that, and to be ready to adapt.

The second piece of advice was to bring rain boots. While some people may bless the rain down in Africa, hopefully these boots will keep me from cursing it!

malko na balgarski...

2007-10-18T16:31:00.000Z

Veche zapochnah da broq neshtata koito shte mi lipsvat. Obache, nqkaksi ne moga da gi izbroq. Milosta, Lubeznosta… kak se broi tokova neshta?

Chustvam se tolkova kasmetliva che po vreme na tiq 2 godnini se zapoznah s mnogo hubavi, inteligentni i mili hora. Ponqkoga, imam chustvato, che nikoga prez jivota si, ne sam bila povecha obichena ot sega. Otvaraiki rutseto, bulgarite v Pernik sa mi prieli kato chast ot semestvoto si. Osobono kato mislq za samestvoto na moqta sutrudnichka, razbiram koklo veliko neshto e da vzimash nqkoi kato dopulnitelen chlen na samestvoto si. Nadiavam se i na tqh da razbirat kakvo sa napravili za mene. Dumite ne mi stigat… me moga da obisnq do kakva stepen sam blagodarna. Sled tiq 2 godini, taka se chustvam kato u doma ci, che na mene mi a muchno da si hodq.

Istinata e, che sam si izjiviala bezbroini ujasni neshta- nai-veche tova ojesh e na blogodarenie na Korpusa i lipsvaneto na jelanie da razbirat kavo stane (osobono kato tova neshto predstavlqva neshto “neconfortno” da napraviat.). Znam kakvo e da se usetish opasnosta u doma si. Izjiviqh mnenieto ot drugi che sam mursaliva i che ne iskam da se opravq neshtata sama. Chesto se chustvah samotena, bez nadejda, oburkana i poburkana. Borih se za neshtata koito na drugite ne im se struvashe da napravq- imam predvid che vqrvam che vseki idin ot nas trabva da ima shans na ranvo da usepqm, osobono horata ot multincva.

Osven tova, kakvo nosq v sebe si? Poraznah- povecheto otkolkto po-malko. Pokajah na sebe se che moje i izik da naucha. Prikarvah vremeto i migove kakto tribva- kakto idvat, ne kato sustezanie- koi kolkoto moje. Razbiram, che chuvek naistina moje da vuzdeistva ha rezultatite na nashiq jivot, ili puk da okazva vlianie na nqkukvo promiqna kum dobro. Naistina, tolko mnogo neshta moje da napravim koito pomagat na horata…. Da stanesh obiknoven dobrovolets i da uchasvash vuv pochistvane v kvartalniq park…

chao Bulgaria! Vinigi shte se gordq s Vas!

Where they don't speak Bulgarian

2007-10-06T21:26:00.000Z

I had no idea what stop we needed to get off at. Those are the kind of adventures I participate in as of late- deciding that I have a pretty good idea where a bus might take me, though harboring the thought that in actuality, I'm not so sure... But to be more correct, its not that we didn't know where to get off, its that we weren't even really sure what we were heading into. Finally we spotted the Red, White and Blue and jumped out of our seats, pushing by the locals to get to the door before the driver speed away. The Russian Embassy. Part I.

On September 17th, it was freezing. Only a month before we had been running for the shade and substituting practically every meal for cold liquids and ice cream, but today was decidedly gray. And cold. Did I mention cold? Christin and I had a small list or errands to run before braving the consular's office of the Russian Embassy in pursuit of visas. After reading practically every webpage dealing with Russia and Russian visas, we were skeptical that Russia would be ebullient to grant the likes of us- young "good-willed" volunteers, fluent in a cousin language, educated in a former strong-hold of the USSR - tourist visas to the Motherland. None the less, we decided to brave the bureaucracy. We'd contacted travel agencies, hotels, hostels, private companies in search of the two coveted documents in the process; an official invitation (required for all foreigners) and a hotel voucher to confirm our stay. Now it was go-day. After finishing up our errands, we took a break for lunch. At 12:45 sharp, we made our way to the consular's department.

It was with shock and desperation that I began piecing together the sign infront of the embassy's consulate entrance. Working hours- 9am-12pm, M-F except for every 3rd to last wednesday of the month...WHAT??!?! We both immediately began grumbling about the lost time and money involved in getting to this step, and I personally began replaying moments from earlier in the day- if I hadn't helped that poor, lost Canadian dude, we would have caught an earlier bus, if we had simply run by the consulate to see what the hours of operation were, we surely would have been accepted...etc etc. We commiserated and agreed to meet up the next, just this time, a bit earlier.

One would think that Bulgarian is spoken in the Russian embassy in Sofia. But as with every endeavor into bureaucracy, thinking seems to get you nowhere. We stuggled at the first window, baffled by the fact that neither our American passports nor our pleas for the conversation to occur in Bulgarian were considered. Luckily the guy behind us was more than willing to translate the Russian into Bulgarian, and in a short while, we realized that I had no proof of health insurance. Christin advanced to line #2 as I made a detour to the German Embassy where a friendly lady issued me aan ffordable travel/medical insurance policy for up to 10,000 EURO. Back at the Russian embassy, I was greeted with more Russian. Then a quick interview and a large sum of money ($150 for I week in Russia!) were exchanged and we were dismissed.

Guess what language they spoke when I returned to pick up my American passport?

Russian lessons, anyone?

filosofstvane...thoughts on conformity

2007-10-06T21:01:00.000Z

I love capital cities. The mixture of expats, diplomats, and nationals who are desperately fleeing from the past, and those who stubbornly refuse to admit that, like time, tradition all too easily passes into the world of things ephemerally treasured.

The interminable question seems to be; change or tradition, or perhaps, conformity versus individualism? But here is my question- need we live our lives based on the philosophical stipulations set down by long-since deceased old white dudes?

Here are some recent conversation topics that I've had in the last two weeks that have brought me to this post.
*Country music- is the old stuff as good as the new, and more importantly, is the new stuff really even country?
*Architecture- areas of downtown Sofia are obviously influenced by Vienna-educated Bulgarians
*Success- Why is an individual's redefinition of the standard of success cause to incite hostility in others?

When we choose a different path in life, some people seem to see that as a challenge to their chosen path- as if our declaration of what’s good and right for us is inherently a denunciation of theirs. Ever so more is this true if the offended party is living a typical and successful life. So what is it about the average person that they feel a need to be so possessive about an experience that is really more about the collective – society’s goals- to the extent that those who deviate, either “above” or “below” the mainstream, are seen as a threat?

Conformity allows society to run smoothly. Without conformity, there would likely be political and social chaos. Conformity means that Coca-Cola can more easily observe the average 14 year old American and determine what kind of product to release. After all, isn't it nice to go to the store and realize that you like all the stuff that's available? (I assure you, its much better than going in and realizing that half the products scare you into hunger...)

Idividuality, on the other hand, is the thing that bring us new ideas. Sure, conformity is the thing that makes them happen (acknowledgement of employee-employer responsibility, free markets, mass-media campaigns, etc), but without the innovative person who is willing to deviate from the norm, where would the new ideas come from?

Everyone is glad that Steve Jobs gave us the iPod, yet Cat Stevens can't come back to America. Go figure.

episodic moments

2007-09-04T18:37:00.000Z

As grape season flourishes here in the "Shopska" region of Bulgaria, I'm reminded of my first Bulgarian autumn. Two years ago I found myself living in a part of the country where people are immensely caring and warmer than their compatriots (so I'm told...). Everyday I woke up to a full breakfast - tea, coffee, milk, toast, homemade jellies, fresh fruit, and who knows what all else - and I scurried off to language class with Courtney, Erica, Alex and Anna, where conversation inevitably turned to commentary about fleas or the best pretzels, or why in the world Anna preferred nescafe when a perfectly good cup of turkish style coffee was the exact same price...

But when I think about that fall, I think about my wonderful and loving host family, and all the things they tried to explain to me, all the situations I couldn't yet comprehend, and the hilarity that ensued once we realized that I'd confused the words for "more" and "stop" at the dinner table! I think I often baffled them; spitting out the grape and watermelon seeds, not drinking 3 cups of coffee a day, and taking an interest in the small-time agriculture/harvesting that many families participate in.

Gathering grapes in the family vineyard is a memory that I'll never forget. It must have been 90 degrees, the air thick with a rarely experienced humidity, and the whole family was off to pick grapes. When my first pleas to assist the family were ignored, I had to utilize my entire vocabulary to convince them that I was truly interested! After a quick lesson from our next-door neighbor Mira I became a sanctioned grape cutter, and with the most dangerous looking pair of shears I've ever held in my life, I began happily snipping away. There were a few incidents with bees, but all in all, I think it was some of the only manual labor I've ever enjoyed. I think about it each year, and I wish I knew what week was grape gathering week, because I'd drop everything to go down and help once more!

--
I've got nearly 6 weeks left as a volunteer here, which means its time to start making plans and securing plane tickets!! My friend Christin convinced me into a trip to Russia, so I've been spending the last few days trying to get the travel visa in order. In the meantime, I've stumbled upon some very interesting sites!

you've heard of volunteering, nannying, eco-tourism, etc...but now...MISERY TOURISM!

offered, as far as I know, only within the freezing depths of Russia, misery tourism offers something that the well seasoned traveler has yet to experience; the realization that life outside the affluent is complete disparity. http://www.unclepasha.com/travel_russia_misery/misery_tourism.htm
check it out for yourselves!

--

Lately I've started reading blogs of other Americans who live in Bulgaria, and I fear that most of this time, I've been depriving any of you readers out there of a clear picture of Bulgaria. So many of these blogs are filled with pictures from everyday life, products that you can buy, or simple anecdotes that by now, seem normal. In my last few days, I'll see if I can't remedy that on some level....

A meme from Andrea

2007-08-27T19:14:00.000Z

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Tractor driver
2. Bartender at a nascar bar
3. Political Organizer
4. Research assistant

Four countries I have been to:
1. Taiwan
2. Austria
3. Macedonia
4. Italy

Four places I’d rather be right now
1. Anywhere in America, waiting to see the lunar eclipse
2. Inaguration Day, Jan. 2029 (see me? I'm on the left!)
3. A nice fancy gym with lots of unoccupied elipticals
4. Rockefeller Center, christmas morning

Four foods I like to eat:
1. Lime tostidos!
2. Lettuce wraps from PF Changs
3. anything from Subway
4. rice and meat stuffed peppers

Four people that I would like to tag:
1.Alfred
2. Apryl
3. Koubi
4. Alex

Flexing my vocab muscles

2007-08-18T10:10:00.000Z

There was a time in my life when I believed that swearing was unnecessary. I was of the opinion that my lexicon had been enriched by a multitude of institutions and that surely I could think of a more intelligent way to express myself, and if I couldn't, well, I was just a result of poorly allocated governmental funds... Bearing in mind the rather high opinion I had of my linguistic ability, I smugly sifted through the pages of a discarded GRE book left in the Peace Corps office. In only took a minute for that smug expression to slide off my face, replaced by a look of disbelief. In that moment, the library echoed with a string of obscenities that more than compensated for all those bygone years...

Much like a fresh-faced 18 year-old, newly graduated from highschool, or the 20 something clutching the much-sought-after diploma, I've found the end of my Peace Corps experience to be surrounded by an unending and familiar refrain; "Wow! So, what are you doing to now?" Anticlimactially, I responded as honestly as I could, expressing frightening uncertainty about my future. Finally, however, I resigned myself to the fact that just choosing an option would abate the questioning from others, and on a superficial level, from myself. The choice: GRE preparation!

After some investigating, I realized that quite a few PCVs had found time during their service to take standardized tests such as the GMAT, GRE or LSAT, and that some of the testing schedules were as readily available as there are in the US! Step two was to find some good study materials and a study partner who would be more adamant in study behavior than myself. (As a college student I was notorious for taking test after reading through my notes once or turning in papers that were still warm from the printer. I once handed in a paper with math problems written on the opposite side, much to the amusement of my roommates who later hung it on the fridge.) My parents brought me a GRE book from the states, and I found a study partner after my friend Mladen told me that he wanted to study in the US.

Now, let's return to the vocab. Americans, evidently, use significantly fewer words in their daily lives than the average Bulgarian. Maybe we're lazy, or maybe we use more slang, but whatever it is, its been a great source of joy in my workplace. "How is it possible that you don't know all the English words?!?" they asked me. I tried to explain that a lot of these words are only used in literature (some aren't even used at all, I'd wager!) and aren't part of everyday speech. After another round of chiding, I pointed out that the word "ambidextrous" was conspicuously missing from the Bulgarian language...this was the closest I could come to redemption. My pride wilted once again after my first study session with Mladen. Not only had he studied about twice as many lists as I had, he also had a disturbing knack for giving pin-point definitions to the words that challenged me the most!!!! Further investigation revealed that a disproportionate amount of the words are exactly the same in Bulgarian. We (I) then decided that you have to be Bulgarian to get a good score on the GRE verbal...

---

The newest crop of PC volunteers (officially "trainees" and not "volunteers" until they earn their wings) arrived in country last week. I was asked to be a resource volunteer, which means that I will help during the training session to transfer skills and knowledge that we've picked up during our two years here. A few days before our first official meeting with the newbies, currently volunteers were warned that a new dress code was in place for incoming volunteers, and we were "strongly encouraged" to adhere to it as well. Normally, I like rules. I'm kinda into them. I think they make society run more smoothly. This time, however, I had a bit of a beef with PC. They asked that and PCVs who had visible facial piercings remove them before interacting with the new kids. The policy actually alluded to the idea that volunteers who were not in compliance with this policy (whether when interacting with the new people or working in their own cities) we not effective volunteers. Naturally, I got kinda fiesty and wrote some emails about the flawed policy implementation (you could, for example, have a purple mohawak, and that was acceptable) and received several phone calls, and finally PC stepped down! It was a pretty exciting moment though, and this is a highly abridged version of the event.

--

I never wrote about Spain! Spain was a pretty good time and I got to swim in the Mediterranean sea, meet up with a friend, go to clubs til 6am, eat some crazy food, see some awesome buildings, and survive 5 hours waiting for a train! I also saw a train dining car for the first time in my life, ran into a former PCV from Pernik, reveled in the availability of licorice, and saw an amazing classical guitar concert!! All in all, a pretty good time! :)

Italy and Spain

2007-07-26T12:39:00.000Z

I went to Italy and Spain!!!

I think that my dreams to go to Italy started sometime around the age of 14, which means it only took 10 years for them to become reality! Then, the idea of traveling to Spain emerged this spring, and, well...whaddya know I went there too! With a track record like that, I think I should start focusing my dreams on even bigger targets, say, the return of Tab soda, Gore '08 or self-charging iPods (imagine!!)... Or wait! What if the Spice Girls got back togOH! yeah. sorry about that one guys...

I’m going to try and do this blog in a style unlike that of one I’ve done before. I religiously kept a travel journal in Italy (though in Spain I was a bit more like a Christmas-and-Easter-Catholic), and I intend to use this to describe most of my experiences in these countries. Before I start that however, I’ll throw in a few more details;
*I’ve now seen the Mediterranean from both sides! (Swam in one, tanned on both!)
*I bought tickets to Rome on a whim (even more so for Spain) and had less than 2 weeks to plan both trips
*I took my first ever solo vacation
*Gelato in Italy should not only be enjoyed daily, it should be EXPERIENCED
*Couch Surfing is the 2nd most important website in the world (following weather.com)
*Hiking and biking should be included in absolutely every vacation between Mar-Oct
*I pledged to drink only wine in Italy when given a choice- good thing too, because a coke was 4-5 euro!
*These entries sometimes begin and trail off unexpectedly…it usually means food was coming!

2:06pm- finally, lunch! After seeing Michelangelo’s Basilica in honor of Mary and the angels, Trevi Fountain, and various things whose names I’ll never know, I’m ready to taste my first “Italian” meal! Cannelloni, caprese and red wine sound about right! So far, no one would really notice that I’m faring this trip alone; the city is over-run with tourists, many of them American (damn Americans…)! Typical of any major tourist-attracting city, the streets are lined with fake Gucci, Louis Vuintton, Prada, etc – and typical of myself, I want them all! Aahhh… my first sip of real Italian wine in perhaps two years – yet somehow, I still feel we can re-kindle this friendship. I’m willing to turn the other cheek and start afresh…
Being Sunday, the Vatican was closed. Through dumb luck however, I stumbled across Michelangelo’s Basilica, which was actually his last major work. He completed it when he was 86! Mass had just begun in Italian….

--
July 2nd - St. Peter’s Basilica
My amazement with houses of worship continues- to think that someone was so supremely moved by their love and devotion to a religion that they built such a marvelous structure. Perhaps this is why I continue to be enthralled; I’m hoping that one day upon entering that I too can become so passionately penitent.

--
More stumbling-upons. Another church discovered by accident. By no means are they unknown to the public, but as an ill-prepared traveler I am in a constant state of surprise and astonishment. I guess the saying that bliss is enjoyed only by the dimwitted and the ignorant is true in yet one more instance.
--
A tablecloth, all by its little self, may have enough power to determine your dining decision. No table-cloth? Affordability, no-fuss, simple fare. But the opposite could indicate class, attract foodies from afar, or cause you to turn away in disappointment; your last few euros jingling faintly in your pocket.
--
Rome is lacking cats. I do hope other Italian cities can compensate for this great travesty. Life is more authentic with cats in it.
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2nd class, non-smoking. Maybe in Bulgaria this is my social status. It Italy, its my travel preference. 5 hours on a train, here we go!
--
Long train rides are not enjoyable unless you are expected at the end.

--
Lying on cascading tiers of rock at first seemed unthinkable, but I soon remembered that I was staying in a village and all-in-all, rock sun-bathing was an especially exotic prospect. Before other newly arrived tourists came to my point of mind, however, from afar they heralded me as a native, snapping photos of my assimilated self.
--
A little too much cliff tanning, I find, can lead not only to extreme thirst but also sunburn. The former is more easily remedied, especially by knowing shop-keepers who take it upon themselves to replace your selection of sparkling water with still. How did they know I grabbed the wrong bottle on accident? So maybe after all there is a label I live up to- Mineral Water Drinker. It could be worse.
--
Riomaggiore- July 3rd, excerpts from Daemon, Riomaggiore local
“Remember…you are the hero of yourself.”
“no body wins unless everybody wins”
“A cat has 7 lives”
“Every cloud has a silver lining, every dog has its day”
--
“Code of the Trail”
Between the 5 sea-side villages of Cinque Terre are a set of trails which wrap around each cove and connects each village to its nearest adjoining neighbor. To end in Riomaggiore, my village, I took a train to Monterosso and hiked back. The entire journey was an uninterrupted expression by nature- such beauty to exist in one small place is nothing short of marvelous. Each view was increasingly more beautiful and awe-inspiring than the last. I started out early so as to avoid most of the crowd. I was rewarded with unrestricted use of the first length of my trip which lasted nearly 2 hours. Early on, the people I passed shared a greeting with me- good morning or “Buongiorno” and it held parallel with something I learned in Bulgaria; there is some hiker’s code- apparently international- that says “Thou shall acknowledge fellow lovers of nature and make the neighbor feel as a friend.” This is a lesson the tourist-hiker must learn- the lack of it is telling.
--
Is it actually possible that each glass of wine I order becomes progressively more accomplished in its flavor? Is it dumb luck, or do things just happen this way in Italy- increase and increase? Of course anything like a Sangiovese blend, like the glass I enjoyed midway through the hike, will be excellent- it’s the following, refrigerated red table wine that truly illustrates my curiosity. And dare I say that said Sangiovese blend was dramatically enhanced by a pairing with anchovies on local bread- I do, I dare!
--
Today alone was quite a positive experience. Tackling the hike, wine-bar hopping, order-in pesto pasta, watching waves crash into the marina… Although its scary to admit, more than several times today I found myself thinking or carrying out imaginary conversations in Bulgarian. I also spoke to a shop-keeper in Bulgarian. Maybe it’s been too much time alone!
--
Okay so traditional traveling, or at least my interpretation of it, is not something I’m interested in. Or maybe its just not for me as an “alone” thing. I can handle about 80% of the silence, but sometimes you crave a companion. Maybe it’s that I don’t have a true appreciation for the things I’m seeing and experiencing. They should be the point and the driving force behind the travels. Instead I find myself wanting more. Today is day 5 of 7… maybe there is a barrier to entry, maybe I’m just on a plateau. Then again, maybe it’s not so hard to just put yourself out there and meet people… its getting colder and I’m tired, while the Irish pub across the street is hiring…
--
I have found a wonderful spot in Florence – Piazza Spirito. It’s a huge, plain church with a wide open square and cafes that encircle a fountain. I like it immensely.
Other things I enjoy- a glass of house wine is less than a coke…then again, the glass costs more than an entire bottle of Bulgarian wine…
--
The Uffizi in and of itself was quite a work of art. Al Frescos adorning the passageways. This is the oldest art gallery in the world and it houses some pretty spectacular paintings. I was unfamiliar with the most famous one, “The Birth of Venus,” but it was lovely and I bought a postcard to prove it! I waited 2 ½ hours to get in and spent about 1 ½ hours in the exhibit. My only regret is having not studied art before coming, as such greatness was a bit wasted on me.

this is the end of Italy! I couchsurfed, took a bike tour of Tuscany, and met wondeful people and will go back to Italy any chance I get! I'll update Spain some other time...I'm too tired now!

more photos- http://community.webshots.com/user/cafejunkie05

Bulgarian Medics are FREE!!

2007-07-24T20:26:00.001Z

In case you aren't watching bTV or CNN, I'm just passing out the update that, after 8 years, the Bulgarian medics are free! They had been sentenced to death, then a retrial emerged with the same results. THEN they were gratned life in prison, and finally were sent to Bulgaria to serve out their imprisonment. Upon their arrival, President Georgi Purvanov immediately pardoned them.

At this time, it is unclear who the financial benefactors were, as both the EU and France claim to have not contributed financially to the cause. I'm including a few links in case you'd like to read more about it!

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22129328-663,00.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184766052915&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070724libya-releasejul24,1,7938158.story

Back in the BG!

2007-07-21T20:23:00.000Z

After 18 days away from my city in Pernik, I’ve got quite a lot of things to write about! First and foremost, I love trains!

I realize that I haven’t talked much about the “work” I’ve been doing here in Pernik, so here is a round-up of info on that topic.

One of the main priorities of the PC Bulgaria post is to educate communities on the realities and dangers of human trafficking. Human trafficking can range from forced sex-slavery, the trade of human organs, forced-labor, baby smuggling, etc. Eastern Europeans are particularly susceptible to becoming victims, as many of them are looking immigrate to another country for work or education. A common method by which victims are trafficked is by responding to a fake job advertisement for employment in Western Europe. Often without checking into the validity of the sending company, a young person signs up, hands over their documents, and quickly find himself a victim once they arrive in the Promised Land. As a North American, this topic is something you most likely have not heard of, unless you keep up with current world events and trends. I know I had never heard of this until I joined Peace Corps! With some local partners, a group of committed PCVs organized a traveling film festival which showed two Bulgarian films on the topic, and a film produced by MTV’s “Exit” campaign. Pernik was the first stop on the tour, so I convinced my coworkers that we should host the event. We organized the space, advertised, invited locally relevant NGOs and the city youth council, and prepared a set of discussion questions. Turn out was pretty low, but I think the people who attended found the festival entertaining and informational. Despite the low turn out, I had a reason to personally feel successful. One of the ideas of Peace Corps is that volunteers bring their previous knowledge and know-how to their organization, and transfer the skills they acquired in their normal lives to their Peace Corps lives. Well, with only 100 days left of service, I felt like I finally used one of my “skills” in order to make this event a success. When turn-out seemed bleak, Alden (a fellow PCV) and I hit the streets of Pernik armed with pamphlets on anti-trafficking and began canvassing ever youngster between the ages of 12 and 20. Thanks to my days as a canvasser in the streets of Manhattan, I immediately fell into a comfort zone, and all the tactics I had mastered back then came flooding back…it was really rewarding to see nearly 80% of the people I canvassed at the film!

If you’d like to learn more about trafficking, please check out these sites for an introduction.

http://www.humantrafficking.org/
http://www.animusassociation.org/en/index.html Bulgarian NGO that works with victims of trafficking
http://217.69.40.171/english/ mtv exit campaign

While I was on vacation, another great thing happened. An opportunity to use the mutli-media equipment we won through a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) presented itself, and my coworkers set things up all by themselves! This may seem like something small, but its nice to know that they were paying attention when I showed them how to use the equipment, and its even nicer to know that they will continue to use it even after the project is complete! Aahh, success!

Sometimes communities in Bulgaria need only very small amounts of money coupled with truly grassroots ideas to see significant improvements. The PC “At-Risk Youth Fund” acknowledges exactly that idea, and funds projects up to 500 BGN (roughly $360). These projects have ranged from improving outdoor basketball courts, supplies for youth camps, shoes for youth, trafficking seminars, etc. Peace Corps Washington does not supply funding for this committee, so it’s up to PCVs to fundraise for the fund. Myself and Boudreaux, a volunteer in Sofia, decided that we would organize a charity 5km run/walk in Sofia exactly for this cause. We are currently in the process of securing the space, measuring the course, securing donors (Runners World has already provided some support), advertising the event, and recruiting runners! The event is scheduled for the 10th of September, so if you somehow find yourself in Bulgaria in early September, please come run! Its only 10 BGN to enter, and you get to help orphans and other kids! Stayed tuned to this blog for more information. J

And finally…the big job hunt has begun! I spent nearly the entire afternoon scouring for jobs in several worthy metro areas. So far I’ve marked about 20 positions that seem interesting, ranging from event planning for Carnegie Hall to tutoring kids in Harlem. Time to update that resume and pump out some cover letters!

118 Days!

2007-06-23T09:38:00.000Z

118 Days!!! this is the remaining duration of my Peace Corps experience... This week we had the duty of supplying PC with a definate date and I chose that one. We have an "official" close-of-service (COS) date, but there is a 30 day window on either side of that date when we can terminate our service. My date, October 19th, falls just a week after the proposed PC date.

After my COS, I plan on taking a weeklong trip to Germany and Prague. If I have time (read: money) I'd also like to see Cracow and Bosnia (and of course Russia...oh Russia...). In the meantime, I'm going to ITALY next week!! I'm pretty pumped! oh yeah, Mom and Dad...I'm going to Italy...so don't panic if I don't answer the phone :)

Two other bits of news;
The conductor of the Pernik string orchestra was invited to conduct in Toronto this November!
In PC Georgia, PCVs can't have bikes because its "too dangerous."

write me comments!!! they make me feel important!!

Parental Visit

2007-06-17T19:33:00.000Z

My parents just came to visit me in the BG, and you can check out all the photos right here! http://community.webshots.com/user/cafejunkie05

On June 1st, I woke up extra early to get in a quick run, chat with my coworkers, do a semi-final rehearsal with the orchestra and get my booty to the airport to meet my parents!! It had been nearly a year since we'd seen each other last, and I was excited that they were bringing me stuff from America!!! ohhhh, I mean, I was excited to see THEM! :) After a brief haggling session with the taxi drivers, we went to check our things into the train station's baggage area. The ride to the train station seemed pretty normal to me, but I think my dad was sitting on pins and needles as the car swerved, scooted and skimmed by surrounding vehicles. This would not be the only trip where my dad would question the driver's competency.

Back in Pernik, I did the unthinkable and prepared a meal for my parents. No foreigner has truely arrived in Bulgaria until he's tasted shopska salata, so we dropped our bags in my depressingly empty apartment and headed to the local market place for some Bulgarian tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and cheese. My dad had quite a good time noting the measuring devices, the variety of products and the cats; my mom wanted one of the baba bags woven out of plastic (also famous in US China towns). So after a good dinner of stuffed peppers, shopska and zagorka, everyone went to sleep! My parents had traveled roughly 24 hours to get here, and some rest was in order.

The first weekend was spent in Bulgaria, and we mostly looked around Pernik. We went to my favorite cafes, where I tried to train them in the art of "doing nothing," a skill that I have more than mastered in the past two years. :) We went to the Thracian fortress near my apartment and listened to updates from my dad on what grasses Bulgaria and America have in common (more than you'd think!). My great friend Ogi, who is an investigator for the local police in a nearby town, and her family had a free afternoon, so we had lunch. Her family has taken such great care of me during my time here, that I had to introduce my family to hers! Ogi and I did an admirable job translating for a table full of excited parents, though mostly I think people were just happy to have finally met one another. After lunch we packed our bags for ISTANBUL!!!!

We spent about 4 days in Istanbul, and we did a variety of things ranging from; Turkish baths, sight-seeing, museum hopping, boat cruises, and carpet shopping (I bought a little one!). For Westerners, there is no place imaginable which compares to Istanbul. The second you walk off the train, there is something in the air that tells you something is different. For me, its not just the meeting of the continents, the fact that its a Muslim country, or the historical aspect of this marvelous city- its something more, something that I can never quite put my finger on. You should go see it for yourself! :) My favorite part of Istanbul is seeing all the different mosques. I have some unnatural obsession with houses of worship. There were tons of tourists in the city, but we still found plenty of great places and we were never inconvenienced by long lines or other crazy things. We saw a belly-dancing show, ate lots of duners, had some turkish delight, drank our fair share of tea, bargained our butts off, and I even got to use my Bulgarian with a few of the vendors. I think the parentals were thoroughly impressed :)

After Istanbul, we had the TRUE vacation...the Bulgarian Black Sea!!! I could probably live on the sea. year round, in a bathing suit, during a snow storm. We went to the cities of Burgas, Sozopol, and a little detour to the town of Primorie. Primorie was unplanned. I almost lost my father. I should read signs more often. Anyway, SOZOPOL was fantastic! We played in the water, ate SHARK, saw old Bulgarian houses, met local artists, and saw a Bulgarian folklore performance. We were on the seaside for a very short period of time, but in 2 days i was able to relax relax relax.

By the time we got back to Sofia/Pernik, Mr. GWB was invading Sofia. After the G8 summit, gwb took a little trip around our part of the world. All the peace corps volunteers were invited, but I politely refused. You know that old saying "if you can't something nice, don't say nothin at all?" Well, I couldn't trust myself and decided it would be better if I just abstained from the event. GWB continued to be a pest in my life, however, as we had to deal with monument closures, road closures, and no public transportation. So we decided to head back to Pernik and get ready for their last 4 days in the BG.

I had been cooking up a surprise for my parents since early May, and there was still a bit more work to do. The conductor of the Pernik string orchestra "Orpheus" had asked me to perform with them for their final concert of the season, and it just happened to coincide with my parent's trip!!! i wanted to surprise them though, and when I went to my last few rehearsals, I just made up some story about "having lots of work!" I'm so sneaky. Needless to say, they were thoroughly surprised to see my walk up on stage and sing a few American songs and a Bulgarian folk song! After the concert, the local TV news interviewed them. My parents were baffled that the reporters wanted to talk to them, but were more than happy to gush about their experience in Bulgaria thus far.

Perhaps one of the most fun things we did was a work party. At my job, we celebrate everything. Good weather, birthdays, name days, successful events, fridays, whatever- we celebrate it! My parents had brought some Jack Daniels and chips with salsa, and it was a big hit. I was so impressed with my coworkers too, who despite vocabularies of 200-300 words, some how managed to have my parents' attention for the full 3 hours!

After 13 days, I had to say goodbye to Mom and Dad, but it was a good trip! My parents were crazy enough to give up their seats on the final leg of their trip, and in exchange won free tickets to anywhere in the USA (except Hawaii of course)!!!! I'm glad that they now HAVE to take another vacation!

please stay tuned for youtubes of my performance with Orpheus. Also, if you actually know how to make youtubes, please let me know!! I'm allergic to technology!

American politics, Cindy's bday

2007-05-31T21:07:00.000Z

I keep forgetting to update!

Last weekend I spent a lovely, lovely time in Veles, Macedonia!!! (or, the MAK, as we like to call it) My friend Cindy from Vanderbilt was celebrating her 23rd birthday, and rumors of a ridiculously good time and a welcoming balcony beckoned…

Actually, Cindy’s birthday is something of an International holiday. May 24th marks the creation of the Cyrillic Alphabet by the brothers Kiril and Methodi, so many of the Cyrillic-using countries celebrate the occasion. The added bonus was of course…free holiday days!!! Whew! I took the opportunity to head to the MAK and see some of my favorite Balkanized Americans!

The first night I arrived, Cindy was throwing a party for all her friends and coworkers in Veles. She has two wonderful, amazing sitemates – Simonche and Stefi- who helped cook, clean, bake and plan the party. It was a full house (balcony) and after dinner the party turned into a Macedonian song-fest! Her landlords came over to help celebrate (actually, they live below her) and it turns out the guy is pretty talented and knows like, every Macedonian song written- EVER. A typical Bulgarian “Na gosti” doesn’t typically include three guitars and 20 people singing, so I was pretty impressed! Finally around 2am, the guests left and we got to sleep!

The rest of the trip was filled with group runs, sing-a-longs (in English), eating “pita,” getting awesome highlights (for $15…), and another party with MAK PCVs. A party at which I was crowned beer pong champion of Macedonia!!!!! Okay, so I crowned myself, but Simon and I did win! I miss the Veles crew a ton, and I’m pretty convinced that they are 3 of the coolest PCVs I’ve come to know.

I JUST read that the Bush administration, in preparation for upcoming G8 talks, has changed its stance on global warming! They now think its important to focus on the environment and the cut down on the emission of all sorts of harmful stuff (well, maybe not all sorts…)!!! I am shocked and pleased.

In other US political news, a few weeks ago a handful of Congressmen and Congresswomen undertook a challenge to live life like an average person who receives food stamps. For one week, they had $3 a day to nourish themselves. One of the things they all seemed to say was that you could buy more junk food calories per dollar than you could healthy calories. If you had a tiny bit of money and a whole family to feed, how are you supposed to stay full AND get nutrients? You know, assuming that Doritos and little Debbie snack cakes don’t fit so well into the food pyramid… These legislators were criticized by many because, in fact, they didn’t accurately recreate the budget of a food stamp recipient. Food stamps are meant to supplement a citizen’s budget, not make up the entirety of it. I agree that it wasn’t a “real” situation, but I truly admire these politicians for finding an issue that is important to them, and finding a new and creative way to reach people’s minds. I would guess that most people are unaware of the amount of aid a welfare recipient receives, so hopefully this demonstration paints a clearer and more accurate picture. I wish these guys were my representatives!!!

Work is going tediously slow, but that means I’ve had a chance to read a few books! I recently read Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” Judy Bloom’s “Summer Sisters,” and am nearly finished with Hemmingway’s “The Sun also Rises.” I’m taking book requests!!!

My parents just called me from the Minneapolis Airport, and they were getting ready to board! I will see them in 13 hours in Sofia!!!!!! I’m pretty excited!

Plamen Putov

2007-05-17T18:20:00.000Z

For those of you obsessed with American Idol, you might be interested to know that Bulgaria also has its own version called "Music Idol." The first season is currently airing. Unfortunately I don't have a TV, so I've been missing the show. BUT BUT thanks to www.vbox7.com, Bulgaria's answer to youtube, I've been able to catch highlights from the show!

Plamen Putov...this boy mostly sings English songs and is AMAZING!!! like, if he wasn' 17, I would probably be in love with him...

http://www.vbox7.com/play:f7094ead not sure what this song is called, but you'll know it!

http://www.vbox7.com/play:b59d716a performing "Stand By Me"

so, let's mention again that he's 17!! I don't think he studies voice or anything, but he is amazing!!! I don't think I've heard him sing a wrong note yet!!

of course, the sad news is that he got kicked off the show :( The remaining boys aren't nearly as good (Theodor, for example, frequently misses pitch) and the girls are okay. One of the girls, Nevina (I think...) is 15 and is also pretty good!

Enjoy!

50 Godishninata na Dvorets na Kulturata!!

2007-05-13T18:55:00.000Z

Happy Anniversary to my workplace, the Palace of Culture!! On May 11th, 1957 Bulgaria welcomed the first Palace of Culture (or as I like to call it, the POC) right here in Pernik. To help celebrate our holiday, we had a huge party! Before the party we held a concert that included all the musical and artistic groups which are part of the complex. Here they are!

In front of the building, the current folk dancers perform one of many, many dances. Later on, "alumni" of the dancing group join the stage so that there are as many as 120 dancers!

One of the biggest crowd pleasers was the "sport dancing" group. Dancing to "Grease Lightning" from the famed movie "Grease," these dancers showed a great deal of professionalism.

Kiril (playing the accordian) is one of the nicest guys in our building. He is always so thankful for the smallest things. He's also an amazing singer, but tonight gave the priviledges to a former soloist from the POC's professional folk orchestra, "Graovska Mladost" (www.myspace.com/graovskamladost)

The less famous but equally entertaining wind orchestra played "The song for the Palace" and another piece which the director wrote himself. Off to the side, girls dressed in the style of cheerleaders are dancing with hand-made pom-poms. The conductor of this orchestra is 75 years old, and can quote 100s of recipies from memory, can tell you about the origin of the sandwich, and also claims to be my grandfather...

Its me with my coworkers! So while we aren't exactly part of "musical or artistic" acts, we did put together the whole night!! And by "we," I mean "they!!" All I did was take pictures. :)

Here we are inside at the party! On the left I am with my counterpart, Desi, and are often crazy coworker Sasho. Seriously, sometimes he calls me a rabbit and asks if i want a carrot! On the right is Ventzi who leads the folk orchestra. He has a bazillion friends all over the Balkans and in North America. He keeps promising me that he'll take me on one of their tours!

The End!

Vienna, vruski, etc

2007-05-06T21:25:00.000Z

Let’s start out with an apology for the length of this update!!! I’ll try to keep the ridiculously boring details to a minimum and the action (action!) to a maximum. See, didn’t that parenthetical aside liven things up? I thought so too.

Today’s theme is: “When you start making friends, its amazing how much smaller the world becomes.” Michael Pepa, Sofia train station

I’ll never forget Randy’s story about “vruski” during our pre-service training. We’d barely been in Bulgaria a week when Randy took a trip with his host family to the local bazaar to replace some broken shoe strings, or, “vruski.” Ever adept at learning Bulgarian, he filed the word away for future use. Future use turned out to be the next day in language class. The language trainer told the Volunteers that “vruski” might possibly be the most important word we volunteers would learn. “Shoelaces?” thought Randy, “what’s so important about those? And more importantly, what sort of society places THIS MUCH value on shoe strings?!?” As it turns out, this word also means connections.

All across the Balkans, locals chalk up success, failure, and opportunities to these imminent vruski. Did your rival land an awesome job? Vruski. Is your cousin’s wife really working at [insert prestigious institution here]?! Can she hook me up? Vruski. Want to pass your university exam? Vruski. Vruski. Vruski. You get the idea here. A conversation with nearly any local, young or old, often touches on this topic. Most definitely, they believe, this is what’s ruining the country. No one’s got a chance at success with out the Vru... okay, okay, you got the point.

But when I stop to think about it, is American drastically different? Perhaps so, although it could be that I’m horribly underestimating the affect of the “connections market” here in Bulgaria. However, just a few days ago Lincoln and I received a visit from a Peace Corps DC-aucrat, and it reaffirmed my belief that the US job market is full of its fair share of vruski. When I jokingly mentioned that, in order to prepare for grad school in ’08 while still making a little cash, my future plans included a gig at Subway (oh man, what I would do for a turkey on honey oat with some peppers, black olives, tomatoes….ahhh), DC dude was quick to offer an alternate plan of action. “Why not shoot an email out to the Returned PCV network? I’m sure someone there could help you find a short term job.” Or, how many times do we hear about people be hired for jobs before the position is even advertised. Aren’t “connections” just a really low-brow way of saying “networking”?

Okay, this was NOT the point of the blog.

I just got back from Vienna!!!!!! Though my original plans entailed running 13.1 miles in-between a few days of sightseeing, laziness during the month of February fated my trip into one of touristy pleasure. We’d researched hostels and the like, but in an effort to be both super thrifty and travel in a new way, Emily and I signed up for couchsurfing.com and began roaming the site for Viennese hosts. Emily found a fun girl named Sue who seemed willing to host us, so mission number one after landing in Vienna was to find her street! This was done easier than expected, but with no thanks to the 1-hr German lesson I’d received months earlier. Thankfully, Austrians are very friendly! Sue provided us with more information that we could possibly read in a week, let alone use! She helped us determine our route to the marathon registration hall and the pancake feed which followed. Walking into that registration hall was…fantastic. Booths, sponsors, runners, kids, anticipation and excitement filled the walkways and the air. Since there were 26,000 runners signed up for the marathon and the halfsie, the runner’s high filled the expo like a pre-euphoria for all those who’d put in hard months of training to get to this day. And for someone like me who’d passed the chance by, it was a reminder that doing is much, much better than just watching. To make myself feel a little better, I grabbed a few fliers for fall marathons in Europe.

The pancake feed was in the city’s municipal building, which was flat out gorgeous. Even though we were sitting on rolled up carpet and stuffing pancakes in our faces, there was no dodging the lavish light fixtures or the roof which soared on and on. It’s one of those places where you can start to imagine, more realistically than before, what it must have been like to be part of Viennese high life in the 18th-19th centuries. After listening to opening remarks in German, we high-tailed it to check out a few more sights before the sun went down. Across from the municipality is the Burgass theatre, which again, is stunning. We stared at it for at least an hour while wondering what it could possibly be! I think it was two days later when we realized the front cover of one of Sue’s travel books was none other than this very theatre. We’re so astute.

Sunday meant race day!! We took the metro to the start, and I hung out with Emily until the gun went off. The plan was for us to meet up at some statue between two buildings we’d never seen, and I hoped really hard that I’d see this girl again within the next three hours! I took the metro back to the center, and with two hours on my hands started walking around. I soon happened upon the finishing area, and the jumbo-tron screen featuring the race’s leaders soon drew me in. I scored a spot on the fence 50 meters from the finish line, and waiting nearly 90 minutes to see the winners of the full and the half, and then Emily! We met up, drank some powerade, and then had tasty tasty falafel. Since Emily wasn’t tired and there was plenty of daylight (it was about noon), we went to see the Shournburn Palace. For me, the highlight of the palace was the labyrinth. We were unable to find our way out, but thanks to some kids, we saved ourselves from complete and utter embarrassment.

The next few days consisted of; starbucks, sushi, modern music concerts, delicious, delicious Austrian beer, hanging out, and an Irish pub run by Asians who played Country music. On our last day, we took a bike tour of the city, which in my mind was peeeerfect. It wasn’t much of a workout, but it was fun to see the city and all the buildings we’d missed. I was blown away by the city’s infrastructure and how bike-friendly the entire place seemed to be! Bikers have their own lanes and their own green lights at crosswalks!! I would recommend couchsurfing to everyone…we had so much more fun hanging out that I barely even felt like a tourist!

A week before I went to Vienna, I had a chance to brush up on my English with some fellow North Americans! Two very talented musicians, Lynn Kuo (http://www.lynnkuo.com/) and Rachel Mercer (www.myspace.com/rachelmercermusic) arrived in Pernik to begin rehearsing with our Chamber Orchestra “Orpheus.” Their stop in Bulgaria was the kick-off to a month-long tour of Europe where they would be showcasing modern Canadian composers. I was lucky enough to catch them not only in Bulgaria, but in Vienna as well! The ladies were later joined by composer Michael Pepa (Canadian) and Beverly Grigsby (American). For about 5 days, I played the role of; schedule holder, airport fetcher, translator, dining companion, direction giver, and reservation maker. Most of our guests were from Toronto, and I hope someday to visit them too! Lynn and Rachel are not only fabulous musicians, but have fantastic personalities. Our time together flew by more as if we were old friends rather than people haphazardly thrown together by way of a common language. As we said goodbye to our guests as they boarded the overnight train for Belgrad, I was truly sorry to see them go.

60 years since Robinson became a Dodger

2007-04-15T10:14:00.000Z

Today I'm reminded of a Minnesota folk singer, Mason Jennings, who once said "...some one's been there long before ya."

60 years ago today, Jackie Robinson walked into Americans' lives as a Brooklyn Dodger. During a time when America was still stricken with the diseased mindset of segregation, nearly all of his teammates shunned and heckled Robinson, all that is, except one. Pee Wee Reese, the then Dodgers team captain, supported Jackie from the very beginning. "You can hate a man for many reasons, color is not one of them," he said.

this post is not about Mason Jennings, or Jackie Robinson, but more about the Pee Wee Reeses of the world. While America was busy separating "us" from "them," Reese choose to believe that there was no "them" to discern from "us." Instead of seeing Robinson as an African American who happened to play ball, he instead saw him as a fellow athlete. I often wonder where people like Reese come from. Growing up in a society that shuns one thing or another, there is always someone who rises above the ignorance and does what he believes is right- something contrary to everything he's been raised to believe.

When we, as volunteers, find ourselves fearing that certain minority groups will never become integrated into mainstream society or that there is no foreseen end to rampant discrimination, its then that we must remember Mason Jennings' words. And its then that we must especially remember people like Pee Wee Reese. Because as long as there has been injustice, there has been someone else willing to stand up for what's right. I personally find a lot of hope in that.

Religion in Bulgaria?

2007-04-01T18:07:00.000Z

Across many Western Christian countries, today marks "Palm Sunday" or "Passion Sunday." This is the first day of "holy week" which typically ends with a vigil on Saturday and exclamations of "He is risen!" on Sunday. Today I attended my first "Palm Sunday" service outside of the US, and it was a bit different.

First off, this year marks the rare occasion when the Eastern Orthodox and Christian calendars align for the Celebration of Easter. eerr, wait a moment. actually, every THREE years, these two calendars align with each other. This news would be surprising both to Americans and Bulgarians- the former probably have no idea that Easter is celebrated at different times in different religions, and the latter is fond of mentioning how peculiar it is that this year we will celebrate on the same day- both equally unaware of one another.

I normally would have been in Pernik on a Sunday afternoon, practicing with my choir that specializes in old religious music (though, sometimes the occasional italian love song makes its way into the repertoire), but on account of the "holiday," rehearsal was canceled. I found this odd, especially since I was pretty sure not a single person in the choir regularly attends church, and that as a group with a repertoire like ours...hmm... you fill in that puzzle!

As I wondered around Sofia before Mass, I noticed that many people were carrying some type of leafy twig which bore absolutely no resemblance to the palms they freely hand out at St. Charles each year. Recalling that the average Bulgarian attends church enough to make even the "Christmas and Easter Catholics" feel pious, I was pleased to see so many people had attended church. Moments later, I realized how wrong I was. On many a street corner, next the the bunny and easter egg adored table cloths, you could buy your very own palm-y branch... I was a bit appalled to see this Christian tradition commercialized (totally different than Christmas cards, I swear!), and I think the height of that came when I saw people adorning their heads with palms that had been worked into rings. because for half a euro, you too can be King of the Jews...

---
In other religious news, I was accepted to the American Research Institute in Sofia's program for the Spring of 2007! If I decide to accept this invitation, I'll be studying Bulgarian history, and the interesting role religion has played in their history. Sofia is an amazing city where, in the very center of city you can see the Catholic cathedral, the Synagogue (largest in Europe), a Mosque and an Orthodox church...all of them within 500m of one another!

--
last weekend, one of my favorite people in the entire world came to visit me in Bulgaria!!! Cindy, one of my friends from Vandy, is a PCV in Macedonia, and lives about 5 hours away from my town here in Bulgaria. I think I've mentioned this irony before- what are the odds of two people joining the Peace Corps, and then living closer together during these two years than they would in the US?!?! Well, she and several of her friends made a trip to the BG to; a)take a vaca, b)hang out with me! c)play in a soccer tourney, and d)hang out with me! I had such a great time showing them around Pernik, Sofia, middle-of-no-where Bulgaria and confusing the heck out of them when I shook my head up and down for "no" and side to side for "yes." The Macedonian language and Bulgarian language are very similar, so it was fun for them to listen to me speak with my coworkers and friends, AND they could interact as well. Anyway, it was the BEST of times and I can't wait until I see all of them again!

In terms of work, a few interesting things have been happening as well. We began working harder on the project we won from the "US Agency for International Development" two weeks ago, and one of the things we've done is videotape concerts. my coworkers also completed a one week course on using powerpoint, so they'll soon be making materials for art and music teachers to use in the classroom. Very cool!

well this is my update for now! Send me emails, letters or give me a call!! :)

who needs novocaine?

2007-03-19T18:59:00.000Z

Yes, I full-heartedly ask you..."who needs novocaine?" NOT ME!!!! is the resounding answer in Bulgaria tonight. Today I had to get three cavities filled in Sofia, and our dentist is notorious for doing one and sending you out the door. However, today, he and i struck a little bargain. If I agreed to abstain from novocaine, he would do all three in one sitting!!! its like, the JACKPOT...until of course, you realize this actually means no novocaine. "Dr. Dean" also told me that if at any point I felt I was in too much pain, I could just squeak and he'd stop drilling in order to dope me up with some drugage. That seemed fair enough to me, so I was like "Let's do it Dr. Dean!" Anyone have an idea where this is going? Well, things went pretty good and I was feeling like a rock star until....oowwwwww!!! nerve, nerve, nerve!! When I made my pathetic attempt to alert our darling doctor, he simply replied "Well, I'm almost done now, so just hang in there. you're so brave." hahaha. I'm so brave? what am I, a 4 year-old? Anyway, some people learn from history, but I am apparently not one of them! this process happened again with the next tooth- wincing, squeaking and commentary on my bravery... BUT, when it was all over, I got to return to work and proudly proclaim that I, like every other Bulgarian, was able to handle a visit the the dentist without novocaine!

So while I continue journaling my "painful" experiences in Bulgarian, let me bring you to the next installment...teaching English!! a few months ago, I made contact with one of the local private language schools. These private schools are, on some level, a form of tutoring. You go to normal school, and in your free time, you attend these classes a la "extra-curricular activities." This typically means that the students are highly motivated because they have selected this activity and its FAR from free. The teachers at this school approached me to see if I'd be interested in teaching a few of their classes. This was not a long term commitment, but something I could do when I had free time, when the teachers were overloaded, etc. The first weekend in March, I decided to attempt this "teaching English thing" with high level speakers. I. was. petrified.

I was panicked about WHAT on EARTH I would do with them. Make word lists? play games? read outloud from newsweek?? This may seem strange (if not irrational) to all of you!! After all, wasn't this an ENGLISH class that I was about to lead? I prepared a topic on the American educational system (compare and contrast with the Bulgarian model), and a short debate on the meaning of the word "freedom." The day that I taught class marked the official Independence from the Turks day in Bulgaria, so I thought it would be a nice effort on my part. The beginning was a bit like pulling teeth, but by the end the kids were talking and even doing some of the things I'd asked! Then the teachers asked me to use the same lesson the next day with a new group of students, and I agreed. The second day went much better and was borderline fun! For me, the real highlight came during the "questions and comments" section of the lesson. One of the girls asked me if high school students segregate themselves in America, if sororities were real, was it advisable to join one, had i joined one, etc. As it turned out, she had a favorite film, "Mean Girls!!!!" I also love this movie, so if this student wasn't 14 years old, we would probably be best friends...

okay, that was just a quick update! My friend Cindy from Vandy is coming this weekend! she is a PCV in macedonia and only live about 8 hours (max, with layovers) away! If we were in America, we'd certainly live further apart, so what are they odds that we'd live close together as PCVs?????

Empowering or Embarrassing? Int’l Women’s day ...

2007-03-07T18:32:00.000Z

Tomorrow on March 8th, I will be celebrating not the fact that I am a woman, but that I am a smart, capable human being who is committed to efforts to empower women around the globe.

But my plate will be a bit full, as I’ll also be fighting indifference and a bit of ignorance. This “holiday” is a chance for all of humanity to celebrate the accomplishments of women throughout history, to be thankful for their accomplishments, and to empower a new generation of “world citizens” to believe in a society where “all (wo)men are equal.”

And even though I am thankful, I’m not satisfied. As long as I live in a country where I at times feel like a second-class citizen, I am not satisfied. As long as I know that I live in a country where equal work doesn’t mean equal pay, I am not satisfied. As long as I know there are women in the world who are denied education, who are denied reproductive education and choices, who live in abject poverty- as long as I know that women subsist in these conditions, I am not satisfied.

I am not satisfied because the fight is not over. While we Americans fuss about our busy schedules and homes with two working parents, we forget that not every woman has the luxury to jet away to her executive job, dropping the kids off at day-care (2 year waiting list!) on the way. Somewhere along the way, I think the idea of equality was replaced with the idea of “good enough.” So what if my university degree yields a lower salary than the exact degree held by a male peer, I can still get an education, can’t I? Or, True, very few women hold political office, but we get to vote, don’t we? It seems to me that we’ve become so accustomed to “good enough” that we’ve forgotten the passion with which many good men and women fought for our rights, freedom, and so-called equality today. But I digress…

The history of this holiday is amazing. It’s truly a story of women rising up together to change public policy- to show their strength and prove to labor organizations that they no longer would accept being underpaid and overworked!! (grrrrr!) I am, however, saddened that this holiday instead is used as an excuse for presents, flowers and time off of work to drink and party. This is the indifference and ignorance that I was speaking of earlier. If we believe in the power of people working together for social change, if we believe that women around the world have yet to achieve equality (but that they deserve it), if we believe that everyone’s quality of life will be raised once women receive education and are able to freely make their own reproductive choices, then I believe we own it to ourselves to CELEBRATE in the name of the accomplishments which we’ve attained thus far, and in the name of those which we *will* achieve.

Every day is a day in which we should strive towards equality. Every day is an opportunity to empower a child or make a difference in someone’s life. Every day is International Women’s Day.

Tomorrow on March 8th, I will be celebrating not the fact that I am a woman, but that I am a smart, capable human being who is committed to efforts to empower women around the globe. Yes, tomorrow I’ll celebrate humanity, its fighters, its successes- and I’ll also celebrate that I’m in this fight to the finish.

assorted pieces of news

2007-03-03T19:01:00.000Z

I think my favorite Bulgarian holiday is March 1st, "Baba Marta." There are about a zillion variations on the fable behind the story, but the important thing to know is; it involves spring, storks, and the colors of red and white. I'm sure some clever volunteer will blog about this holiday, and I'll post a link to it later on.

so why do I like it?

because Baba Marta is the ultimate gift-giver's paradise!!!! the week following March 1st, the streets and main shopping areas are lined, and I mean LINED, with individuals selling "martinitzi." Martinitzis take the form for bracelets, cloth broaches for your jacket, necklaces, and rings/trinkets- the important part is the red/white combination of yarn. Some bracelets have colorful stones or beads (the turkish eye or a heart are popular) or are embroidered with your name, zodiac sign, or favorite football team. These martinitzi are exchanged between friends, family, peers, and coworkers in preparation for the welcoming on spring, so the more people you know, the more martinitzi you get and receive!!!! and at the low low price of 30 stotinki (about $0.20), you can buy to your heart's desire! They are so cool because individuals create the designs and think up new ideas and you can truly find a unique bracelet. Okay, I will try and take some pictures so that this makes more sense...but seriously, I love this holiday!

Right now at work we are collecting offers for our tech equipment that we'll buy for our USAID grant. It has been a bit frustrating because we have very specific price ranges for each item we buy, and not all the companies we are working with understand that! For example, we say "okay 1500 BGN for a laptop is our max" and we get offered one for 1900. hahahah. we are getting excited about designing our website, and we're planning our first power-point presentation led activity. On March 8th, the world apparently celebrates "International Women's Day" (minus America! I'd never heard of this before last year), so we are creating a presentation on women in Bulgarian history. Our presentation won't be until the end of the month, but it will be really cool because someone from the embassy will be here and will present a similar powerpoint on women in American history! I hope it turns out cool.

Speaking of women in American history, Ann Coulter continues to pollute every accomplishment ever achieved by women. This woman says the most extraordinary things I've ever heard and is perhaps one of the most intolerance people I have ever interacted with. She recently hinted that John Edwards was a "faggot" at the Conservative Policitical Action Conference. And okay, I agree that everyone has a right to their opinion, but what is that about? If John Edwards is in fact a "faggot," does this somehow affect his ability to be President? Last time I checked, that's a big resounding NO! So then what's the point of mentioning it? I know that sometimes it seems like we "liberals" are pushing society into a highly "PC-ed" language, but I'm forever in favor of decreasing the amount of hate speech in public, in private, and in the media. Anyone with me on that?

Vday, aunt clara

2007-02-18T18:55:00.000Z

About 2 weeks ago Desi, my counterpart, took me "na gosti" (visiting, or in Midwestern perhaps 'to go calling') to her aunt Clara's house. Clara lives about 100m from me in a neighboring apartment building, and had been asking to meet me for quite some time now. So Desi and I went to Clara's for lunch, and its been friendship ever since. Clara just had her 72nd birthday this weekend, but you would never guess her age! This woman is so "v chas," literally "in the know" that its hard to believe she's a grandma. She writes in a journal about world affairs, knows what a laptop is, and makes some mean homemade soup! In addition to the lunch she prepared for Desi and I, she's also made me two FULL meals...this includes fresh baked bread, cookies, soups, pies, stuffed grape leaves, you name it! Since she lives so near to me, she also keeps tabs on my well-being because she can see if lights are on or off in my apartment. She had a million questions about our cattle business, whether we sell the cows, how often they give birth, what we do the milk, etc...and she was absolutely DELIGHTED to see a picture of calves at branding. Its truly amazing to see someone soo intrigued by life by the time they've reached her age.

This week we of course celebrated Valentine's day. Valentine's day is considered a "Catholic holiday" in Bulgaria, and only in the last few years have they begun to recognize it as a fun and worthwhile holiday. In the US where one might stress over dinner reservations, the perfect card, a well-selected gift and who knows what all else (!), in Bulgaria its perfectly acceptable to give a card and some stuffed heart-shaped thing to your loved one... But what if you aren't in a relationship? Have no fear! it just so happens that the Bulgarian holiday for wine-makers coincides with our Valentine's day! So if you've got no one to love, there's always a bottle of wine to help keep the cool nights warmer. My parents had thoughtfully sent me a box of Valentine Day's candies, cards and stickers, so I was able to show my coworkers how Feb 14th might be celebrated in the workplace in the States. I had a ton of fun being the center of attention while i described the red and pink "mail boxes" smattered with hearts and lace which we made in elementary school, the art of selecting the perfect valentine for that special someone, and the cunning needed to drop the correct combination of "conversation hearts" into your friends valentine. During our party then, of course the key candy was the bag of "conversation hearts," which were used to create witty little phrases. I was amused how my coworkers ate these candies though; whereas I would grab a handful and snack away on my favorite Valentine's candies, they would tentatively reach into the bag and pull out just one- one which would be a bit of luck for the future. In the same way that we prize our fortune at the Chinese restaurant, my coworkers held some hope that their chosen messages would become reality. The actual Valentines were also a big hit too! the little heart stickers used to seal the Valentines now adorn nearly every phone in our workspace (including mine!). I brought a few blank cards into work, and my coworkers delightedly filled them out for their children or boyfriends. Of course, we also drank a bit of wine!! :) This was definitely my favorite valentine's day to date!

A few weekends ago I went to the city of Dimitrovgrad to see my good friend Ethan, and also to work with a handful of PCVs on a "activity kit" which focuses on accepting others and diversity. We had some truly productive moments, and were kept on our toes by one of the newest members who was really anxious to get at the philosophy behind the project. We're hoping to have an "open" general meeting in the next few weeks so that this project can fly. Dimitrovgrad was pretty fun, and after a long day of meetings, we went to a neighboring town and met up with more PCVs there.

Half marathon training starts tomorrow, so I better get going! please feel free to leave a comment here on my blog! I'd love to hear how you're doin!!

nutrition in bulgaria

2007-01-31T18:22:00.000Z

"What do you mean Americans like to eat sandwiches?" commented my host mom while cooking chicken in a vat of oil, "That's not very healthy!"

Somewhere along the way, many Bulgarians have not been properly introduced to the ideas of fitness and nutrition. Sick? its because the door was cracked open at lunch. Coughing? its NOT because of your pack-a-day habit. Fat? Only tea and fruit for the next 14 days.

As I fondly recall my early morning runs in late summer, I can clearly picture the other people in the park. First, they would stare at me as though my head was on fire. Next, they'd form a fan club to cheer me on with each lap. But in the end, my head freshly afire, they would yell at me to cease running and take a breather. Okay, yes this was marathon training and sometimes the running seemed a bit excessive to the average onlooker...but morning runs in the park rarely accounted for more than 15 minutes of my run! What person in their right mind would exercise for 15 minutes, and then go home?

I was speaking with another PCV about his idea to create a "fitness" room at his orphanage. While he's advocating the purchase of free weights and other such things, his coworkers would really prefer a bike. When the PCV mentions that 20 minutes would be needed for each child to get a workout, his coworkers explain that 3 minutes on the highest setting replace the other 17 minutes...

i just keep coming back to the sandwich. In a country where people eat 2-3 pieces of bread with each meal, put mayonnaise on their pizza, and douse garden fresh vegetables with oil...how on earth could a sandwich be bad???

okay, enough on that subject. I recently joined another choir in pernik, and this one promises to be more fun. The director works in sofia at the Musical Theater theater...one of his favorite songs is "Memory" from Cats, and he loves to make reference to Cabaret whenever possible. Clearly this is my kinda guy! My sitemate Jim also joined the choir, which makes it more fun. Now I have 5 scheduled rehearsals a week!!! I am also going to start working with a private english school in Pernik. They've offered to compensate for this (PCVs can't make money, so the pay would go directly to my organization) which I hope to use to create more youth projects.

I'm still suffering from plantar fascities, but I'm hoping it will pass in the next couple of months. I've got a half marathon to run in vienna, afterall!!

the only other news is that it still isn't too cold in bulgaria. today was high 30s and it might finally snow this weekend. okay all...stay warm and I'll try to find a cool topic to write about next time!

Holidays, MySpace, etc

2007-01-09T20:18:00.000Z

Za mnogo godini!!!! Neka neshtat na koito se mechtiesh da stanat!! In other words, here's to hoping that your wishes for the new year come true!

My resolution? To spend more time on MySpace.com!! No, seriously! As media takes new forms and pushes boundaries, I decided its only fair to drag my organization from one side of the borders to the other. At the palace of culture, our most outstanding asset is the talent of our orchestras. So, we're embracing the 21st century,reaching out to new communities, and creating myspace accounts! Please check out my first victim, the folk music orchestra. Make them your friends!!!!!! this is not a request, its a demand!

http://www.myspace.com/graovskamladost

My holidays were wonderful! I spent Christmas eve with my counterpart, Desi, and her family. Desi and her mother had prepared a HUGE meal, which of course was meatless. Orthodox Christians celebrate the night before the birth of Christ a little bit differently than we do, and it always shocks Bulgarians when I tell them my family always enjoys a bit of ham and turkey on the 24th! Among the many things you find on the table include; honey, beans, rice&spice stuffed peppers and cabbage leaves, walnuts, rakia (of course!), banitsa with pumpkin, bread w/o eggs or milk, a sweet soup made from re-hydrated fruits, and a special bread called "pitka s kusmeti"- or- bread with luck(s).
Before the meal begins, the oldest person at the table breaks the lucky bread into several pieces. The first piece is for God, the next piece is for Mary/Jesus, and then the rest is distributed among the family members and guests. Then, after many years of your mom telling you to sit up straight and stop playing with your food...you start digging through your piece of bread!!! inside are a variety of lucky pieces- little twigs, coins, buttons, fruits. Whatever you find in your bread determines your fate for the year. This year I found the piece of fruit.

Christmas Day was spent with the lovely Andrea and Boudreaux in Sofia! We watched Jimmy Stewart remind us that life is indeed a bit wonderful afterall, ate some home-made mexican, shared our families' traditions on Christmas, and wore fantastic jingly reindeer antleers. This was a great day for sure!

New years was in LONDON!!! Every employer gives their employees some time of christmas bonus...our was "free" vacation days to travel about! With our three extra days, I made a trip with my fearless companions Emily & Christin to see what the Brits are all about. We had fantastic weather, great food (oh the indian food...), stayed in an awesome location, rang in the new year and even saw Carmen at the Royal Opera!!!

Of course, one of the most important thing in London to see in Big Ben!!!!! When Emily and I were waiting at Customs in the Luton airport, the dude asked us what we were doing in London. "Seeing Big Ben!" I blurted out. Hey, it was about 8am our time and we'd been up since midnight dealing with crazy neighboors. Anyway, Big Ben will never fail to remind me of the time Pictionary was banned as a Schneider family game. How the heck Lee, at the age of like 8, knew about Big Ben, I'll never know! This picture is for you Lee!!

we spent New Years a bit closer to Big Ben, and the fireworks were amazing! check out my photo link at the end of this post to get a glimpse!

We also went to a multitude of parks and awed at things such as Brits out for jogs, horse trots, inter-racial couples, etc. London seemed like a deam come true! on our first day we saw buckingham palace which was a bit underwhelming. Infact, we debated a bit before decided the big grey building was, infact, the palace! Emily 1, Toni 0.

The museums in London are also worth seeing. We went to the imperial war museum, the tate modern art museum and the British history museum. All of them were free, and each of the fantastic. I highly recommend them.

The most frustrating part of our trip was that none of the Brits understood me! I was asked to repeat myself MORE times in England than I ever have been in Bulgaria while speaking Bulgarian! I swear! haha.

OH the Tube! The Tube was great and amazing and sooo user-friendly. i am a bit obsessed.

I'll leave you with a picture of me at tower bridge in london...think of it as a teaser for the pictures link that will follow!!

http://community.webshots.com/user/cafejunkie05

Don't cross the Christians!

2006-12-14T19:28:00.000Z

At the University of Georgia, a group of Christians are taking on an anti-discrimination policy that they feel doesn't apply to them. This Christina group, Brothers Under Christ (BYX) has fraternities on several campuses around the nation, Vanderbilt being one of them.

I have several good friends who were either founding members of this frat on Vandy's campus or were devout BYX members. Now, I'm an accepting person, so I will just say that I appreciate and understand the "need" or "want" for a Christian fraternity, but at the same time, I do not necessarily agree with everything they do.

Anyway, BYX is/was hoping to register their fraternity as a student organization, but they didn't want to comply to the non-discrimination policy which states that student organizations are not allowed to discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, veteran status, etc...you know the list. This fraternity requires its members to make a pledge that they are Christians.

http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3938 this is a press release from the alliance defense fund. They are representing the plaintiff, BYX. its got the basic info on the case's grounds.

There are several other religious organizations on campus, and at this time, its unclear how many of them do or do not comply with the University's non-discrimination policy. At least one religious group (Baha'i Faith) requires that officers of the group are members of a particular religion.

BYX states that their freedom to exercise religion is restricted by the University. I see this as a bunch of crap, because really, it seems like BYX is the one doing the restricting. The University has not told BYX that they cannot freely exercise their christian beliefs, but rather, has said that BYX cannot keep people out of their frat simply because they do not practice the same religion. Now, isn't excluding people rather un-Christian-like?

I would really hope that the University wins this one, but it seems that there is a bit of inconsistency which the implementation of the policy at hand. It could be that this (Baha'i's status as a student org) slipped under the radar as head of student activities have changed, but perhaps someone at the U really doesn't like BYX itself and is attempting to unfairly implement university policy. You really can't say,but it will be interesting to see the results.

I, as a Catholic, support Christianity. What I do not support is Christianity's obsession with victimization and belief that one's "Christian-ness" is reason in and of itself to bend the wonderful laws of our country which protect our freedoms, liberties, and rights.

okay, maybe that was a little strong, but give me a break! I had a bad day...

thanks to Dillon Barker and his blog for the info and the links to relevant court documents and news articles!

EDIT- the U decided to grant BYX student organization status.

Music makes meeting

2006-12-08T21:30:00.000Z

Music makes meeting is the theme of the Pernik chamer orchestra's 2006/2007 concert season. Never has this been more true than last night. After listening to a wide variety of piano duets, solos, and a string piece, the musicacns and Palace of Culture staff found ourselves enjoying a local dish "Kaverma" and speaking in a variety of different langauges.

The two piano players, as husband and wife, were guest artists from Vienna, and of course spoke both English and German. The wife was originally from Taipei, Taiwan- so throw another language into the fire! Sitting to my left were two English brothers. The elder brother had composed a set of tangos for the Chamber orchestra, and he had flown down espeically for the opening of these pieces. We marveled that in a "small" town in Bulgaria, one dinner table could be filled with people from 3 continents, more than 5 countries- and yet be able to communicate with one another. This was truly a satisfactory moment for me, and I was pleased that the theme of the concert season was physically manifested.

This, however, was not my only encounter with foreigners this week! On wednesday, my old NGO's presdient's wife (you still with me?) searched me out at work. One of the other Roma NGOs had won a project, and some french girl was coming to orchestrate the details. The french girl, as luck would have it, spoke english. When we met the girl at the bus station, it became clear that she had no affiliation with any project giving of any kind. She was actually a freelance jouranalist who was interested in the state of Roma in Bulgaria, and particularly in the projects the Bulgarian goverment and NGOs are carrying out. She had lots of interesting questions to ask, and it was also a good chance for me to challenge my Bulgarian skills. (although this time around, I think the bulgarian lang won out..if I were keeping score though, I'd say its a tied ballgame). It was also a good opportunity to get answers to questions I'd had during my acquaintence with these NGOs. Virginia (the french girl) asked some questions that I'd been wanting to ask for quite some time now!

now, i typically only say good things about bulgaria, but I am going to leave you with something that caused me to be less than impressed with some of the people I know, or perhaps, something that speaks about a more widespread phenomenon here. This french girl arrived ahead of schedule, which was unpreventable for our standpoint. I went with this woman Vikki to meet Virgina, because being the english speaker, I was very valuable. Vikki was anxious to hear about the terms and conditions of this project she thought she had recieved from the NGO she assumed Virginia was association with. So of course this girl was waiting for us when we arrived, and the first thing Vikki wanted me to translate was "Sorry I'm late. i was waiting for Toni to arrive." WHAT? you have got to be kidding me! i was so offened that Vikki was attempting to use me as a scapegoat, and not only that, but that she thought i was dumb enough to believe a lie about myself!!! I was infurtiated that this woman was somehow miscaculating the vital role I held in this meeting-no english translator, no money for your project. It seems like these finacial terms should be enough for a person to take responsibility for themselves and NOT INSULT THE TRANSLATOR. Then, when it became clear that Vikki was not to receive any money from this girl or her"NGO," both of us became discardable. Never mind that this girl had come all the way from france to write an article about bulgaria OR that she made a speical trip to pernik to speak with Vikki- this, compared to what she wanted, was dismissable and was a waste of her time. when the interview was over, the reporter wanted to take pictures of the Roma neighborhood for the article, and Vikki (unemployed with no kids to feed), claimed that she was too busy to take this girl to the neighborhood. I have listend to this woman complain about myriad things- from people not caring to NGOs not giving money, etc, and finally the day comes that someone cares. Someone shows up to her doorstep, genuinly interested in her work, in the Roma, and this woman is too self-righteous to giver her the respect she deserved.

this was disgusting.

SPA!

2006-12-07T22:42:00.001Z

We got our SPA!!!!!!!!

more later.

Roma Journalism pt 2! (and tday)

2006-11-27T18:29:00.000Z

Thanksgiving number two has officially been celebrated in Bulgaria, and it was a billion times better than last year! Besides clearly being more fun, its nice to have had another year away from home to realize the things you are thankful for in your life. Now, I don't mean that I'm neccessarily missing things while I'm in Bulgaria- what I really mean is that I find more and more reasons everyday to be thankful...thankful for the opportunities i've been met with, the people i've encountered, the experience i'm gaining...

Thanksgiving day was celebrated at the PC country director's residence in a swanky residence in sofia. The food was great, the company possibly better (afterall, as long as there's an A and a B there, i'm pretty much sold!), the timing just right. I commend the volunteers that took thanksgiving day as an opportunity to share our traditions with their Bulgarian counterparts, but i was quite pleased to have had a very "american" moment. During the weekend, while most other volunteers were cooking their own turkeys, baking pies, and enjoying local spirits, I was taking part in the last of 2 journalism trainings for Roma students in Bulgaria!

This training took place in Pernik, and I couldn't have been more pleased! When I first began discussing this possibility with the organizers, namely Dezzy, it was hard to believe that a little bit of hardwork was finally paying off in the form of karma. The other thing that was hard to believe was that my former NGO, "O Romano Drom" was to be the official local partner. While I assumed I'd never work with these people again, I saw an opportunity for local youth and I ran with it. I think the organizers were generally pleased with how things worked out, and I think there were moments of glory for some of the participants.

The training started on friday, and about an hour before the official start time, I found out that I'd be responsible for leading one of the groups. I was expecting the worst. Being a group leader wasn't the part i was so concerned about, but as my "journalism" experience was quite limited and since I wasn't sure what my vocabulary would be like on this topic. In the beginning, my group wasn't quite sure what to think. i would say a few words to them, try to get them started, and all I got was blank stares, silence, and more silence. Finally one of them said "Ne vi razbrahme," or "we didn't understand you!" perfect! my predictions were already coming true and 5 minutes had barely begun to tick away. BUT luck was on my side because one of the girls, Eli, used to hang out with me and was familiar with my fashion of butchering bulgarian, so she helped out by repeating my mangled sentences (which hadn't sounded so bad to me...) to the rest of the group. Soon, we were on a roll and hit the streets to interview the locals! The interviews were during the evening hours so it was tough to get people to stop (and I empathized with them as I recalled my days as a canvasser for the infamous "Campaign: good v evil 2004"- (perhaps better known as kerry v bush)) but the kids did a great job. The next day they finished the interviews and began to write an article. Their topic had originally been about peoples' goals in life, but had actually turned a bit more into goals and life in relation to Bulgaria's EU accession in 2007. I made them write the entire story themselves, and they did pretty good! By the end of the training, I think I even made a few friends. One of the girls even gave me a little present and said she hoped we'd see eachother again! (total peace corps feel-good moment!)

Aside from the participants, the organizers were also awesome people. In the last blog, I mentioned a few of these people. Dezzy, Vic, Mladen and Krisi were all in Vidin and in Pernik. it was a lot of fun to get to know these outgoing, goal-oriented people who humored my sarcasm and my relentless insistence that downloading films is terribly unethical! Krisi is a student in Blagoevgrad, where my good friend Mary is living as a PCV. Vic and Mladen are both students at sofia university and appreciate music in their own ways- Vic plays keyboard and Mladen is a DJ. Dezzy, of course, was the organizer who made these trainings possible and I will forever be impressed by her organizational capacity, her energy, and sense of humor.

oh yeah, and in the end we make chocolate chip cookies! The first ones turned out great, but after that i kept forgetting to take them out on time...but everyone seemed happy enough anyway!

okay, back to my world of ficticiously studying bulgarian!

SPA & Roma Journalism

2006-11-21T22:03:00.000Z

Hello my dear bored readers!

I have spent the last week or so at a productivity level higher than almost any during my actual year of service here in Bulgaria, so let me catch you up!

At the Palace of Culture, my primary assignment, we finished our first grant proposal that we actually collaborated on! The funding is courtesy of the United States Agency for International Development via Peace Corps' "Small Projects Assistance (SPA)." With a limit of $5k and a community contribution of 25%, I'd been prodding my coworkers since august for good project ideas- after all, who can say no to free money!!! (By the way, for a more complete explanation of my life as a grant writer, or more info on SPA, check out the end of this post. The brainy Andrea Enright posted about this during the summer and did it so well that I thought I'd just steal! Thanks A!)

After months of dead ends on project ideas (let's made a football field for youth! let's go to the Czech republic to teach people about our culture! yeah...$5k, not $500k!) we finally took a look at our resources and deficiencies and decided to write a project to create and educate a younger audience for cultural and musical activities in Pernik, and specifically at the Palace of Culture. The POC organizes over 300 events a year, and outside of concerts, few of them are appealing to the youth population. Utilizing multi-media and the internet, we hope to draw a new base of supporters and expand the reach of our educational programs. One of the cooler ideas we have is to videotape the solfege classes (musical theory-ear training stuff) and put them on our website...this way youth could practice at home, and youth who can't afford to pay the class fees could actual learn for free! We would also like to create an educational film about musical instruments and then bringing it to several of the surrounding schools. Anyway, it took a long time to finish this project, but I think our hard work will pay off! That is, I think/hope they'll give us the money!

Last weekend, I traveled to a town in Bulgaria that few people willingly travel to (or so I'd heard...), Vidin. This town is in the far north-west corner of Bulgaria and it boarders the Danube river. I was invited to help facilitate a journalism training for Roma youth, which was organized by the Bulgarian national debate association and a local Roma NGO. The other facilitators were AMAZing people! 4 of the 6 were younger than 21, and all of them spoke heartbreakingly perfect English. (I say heartbreakingly because some days I think my Bulgarian is really top notch, and then I meet Bulgarians who speak better English than I do! eep!) They were all participants in a program called SEELYI, which stands for "south Eastern Europe youth leadership institute," that prepares high-achieving English speakers to be leaders amongst their peers. This program is sponsored by the US Embassy. On of the facilitators works as in media as a host of a popular morning radio show in Sofia, and he kicked off the training by talking to the youth about the importance of the voices of "ordinary people." I was thoroughly impressed by the whole team, to say the least.

The kids themselves were quite well behaved! They were between the ages of 14-16, and did their best to stay on task, though at times some of the tasks (such as editing audio clips) didn't allow for the entire group to be involved. The first day, the kids decided on topics, split into groups, and then began forming questions that they would use during interviews with residents of Vidin. This went really well and enabled them to immediately start interviewing people on the second day. After we interviewed in the morning, the story writing process began. This went very well, and in my group, one boy was especially interested and helpful! Then everything had to be translated into English and then recorded as a “radio broadcast” story by one of the youth. This was hard because most of the participants didn’t know English and were nervous! At the end of the 2 ½ day training, we had 3 wonderful stories, imagined, created and finished by the participants!

It was also interesting for me to observe the facilitators. As far as I know, none of them had ever worked with minorities in their lives. This training had been organized in several other cities around Bulgaria, but always with English-speaking (and thus, typically high-achieving) students. They very nature of the participants in Vidin was strikingly different from these other trainings, that I think the facilitators got a little upset and discouraged from time to time. When there wasn’t a specific task at hand, and when no one seemed to be paying attention to the participants, they would wander off to a café for a snack, play on the internet, etc. The organizers saw this as lack of desire and laziness on the part of the participants, while the youth – I’m sure – felt as if they weren’t included in all aspects, so made decisions about how to spend their time. It was interesting though, as someone outside of either group, to observe what was going on, why some things worked and some didn’t, etc. I have to say that Peace Corps does a great job getting a few “best practices” into our heads. One thing that’s really valuable when you are working with large groups is to make sure that everyone has a role or responsibility, and more importantly, that everyone feels as if they have ownership of the activity. My overall impression of this training is quite good, and I’m pleased to say that this Friday, the same team is traveling to Pernik to train OUR kids! I’m pretty pumped, and I’m sure I’ll write about it soon!

Other than that, happy thanksgiving everyone! I know that we all have something to be thankful for, and we’re pretty lucky to be that way.

Also- farewell to Lydia and Smooth! Good luck in the twin cities!!

-----------
from Andrea Enright

I am working on a Small Project Assistance (SPA) grant for Traditzia. SPA grants are worth $5,000 and they are funded by Peace Corps, which receives its money from United States Agency for International Development (USAID). For many reasons, SPA serves as a terrific training ground for learning to write grant proposals. 1) There is a comprehensive handbook full of details, frequently asked questions, guidelines, checklists, forms and schedules to help you work out the details. It’s a kind of grant-writing starter kit. 2) SPA is very picky. Details such as “all documents must be in twelve point Times New Roman font” and “budget for outside labor must not exceed $500” and “25 % of all funds must be contributed by the applying organizations (15% in-kind and 10% cash)” are perfect to prepare for the more complicated grant apps in our future. 3) We can submit our proposal early to a SPA committee made up of volunteers who will coach us to fill in blanks we’ve forgotten and clarify confusing statements, therefore enhancing our shot at winning the grant.
Most ideally, a SPA project should include a transfer of skills, fulfillment of a community need and sustainability, so the project can live beyond our service. It is a grass-roots grant, created specifically for Peace Corps projects. Past SPA-funded projects have included a leadership skills camp for adolescent girls, a customer service training program for NGO employees, English classes for employment seekers and a solar water heater for an elderly social home.
For those not living or working in the public sector, a grant application, as those of you in the private sector can only imagine, since you’re basically asking for free money!!! goes like this: Through a series of questions, forms, statements and ideas, (most of which all ask you to say the same thing in a slightly different way) you prove to the donor that you are a legitimate organization that is suited to tackle this project, that you will handle their money responsibly, that you will spend it reasonably and that your project will fulfill a justifiable community need.

quick stories

2006-11-16T20:21:00.000Z

I'm getting ready to run out the door to a roma youth conference in Vidin, Bulgaria, but before i do, I just wanted to share something quick with y'all.

When i got back from athens, I had quite a bit of "lost time" to make up for with my coworkers. I swear we spent 2 days doing nothing but chatting. (okay, so that's actually normal...) anyway, one of the stories had to do with pears. I LOVE pears. I mean, oh man they're good! Sadly this year in Bulgaria, the pear season was really short, and I didn't get to eat many pears. I had asked my coworkers if I'd simply missed the season or if it hadn't come yet, but no dice...just a bad pear year.

when I was in athens, Ivan's (coworker who is like, 50) monther had called my counterpart to tell the american (that's me!) that there were pears in the local outdoor fruit market! I felt very flattered that this guy's mother had thought of me! I've never met the woman, but she knew I liked pears. :) this is one of those moments that gets you through the rough days :)

I think these posts get worse and worse. but blame keith! he's the one who encourages me!!

website from work

2006-11-09T20:31:00.000Z

One of the groups I work with is the Pernik chamber orchestra. Here is their website!

http://www.orpheusbg.com/main_frame.htm

the "music makes meeting" is something I translated. reading the 1st paragraph would not give you the indication that I'm a native english speaker, but what the heck...no one told me this letter would be published!

I am a marathoner! I am 24!

2006-11-08T17:47:00.000Z

I did it! i completed the 24th annual Athens Classic Marathon!!

This was flat out amazing. Aside from the personal joy and pride from completing a marathon, I was able to appreciate team comrade-y in a way I'd never experienced before. Fifteen of us started the race, and fifteen of us cheer each other on as we ran into the stadium towards the finish line. and as we wobbled from the finish to "team camp," everyone was congratulated with an earnest respect that I'd never witnessed before. Gone was the competitiveness that should have existed between us, and instead there was nothing but heartfelt respect. Even though there was no team medal to be sought after, no public acknowledgements or point system, I felt so proud to have been a part of this amazing team. Someone nearly qualified for the boston marathon, someone finished well after 5 hours...but it didn't matter because we ALL RAN the athens marathon!

I was not the fastest runner in our group, and I was one of the few who performed below expectations (based on training). However, I am pretty sure I had THE MOST FUN out of our entire group! granted, this was not 42.2 km of pure joy...it was often good times with a hearty dash of sheer, searing pain! Despite the fact that I trained in the shoes I marathoned in, by 10km I had developed massive, massive blisters on both arches of my feet! This was completely unexpected and certainly unwelcome to say the least! A few times I took little walk breaks to see if it helped, but once I realized the pain didn't subside, i jumped back into running. From km 1 until about 10/11km, I ran with my friend Anna. We wound up splitting ways, and in the next 7 km I caught up with a few other volunteers and did my best to stay steady with neighboring volunteers. Between 20-30km, I thought i was going to die. We faced our first hills and met an unexpected headwind. So what made this race fun? along the way, I started to recognize runners who were steadily running at a pace similar to mine. occasionally people would toss about a friendly comment, ask a question, or give out a shout of support. for the first 20km, i entertained myself by gazing at the scenery. For the last 22km, I made friends with runners around me! There was a greek soldier who was convinced he would never run a marathoner again, a group of texans who seemed pretty happy to be alive, and a girl from ohio who had just gotten engaged 3 days before the marathon! By the time I made it to the finish line, I was ready to be done but still managed to smile as a strode past 'team camp' and on towards to finish line.

another great thing that happened while in athens was meeting up with 5 PCVs from Armenia! As luck would have it, they stayed in the same hostel that we rented our apartments from! These guys were a ton of fun, and it was a delight to see another group of PCVs come together and support each other the way that we had. and in a strange twist of fate, it turned out that one of these boys, dagen valentine, had went to my highschool in america!!!! his best friend was jeff baker, and his father had been my sister's math teacher...and here we were at the Acropolis in athens, meeting as marathoning PCVs... this was completely strange!

athens itself was pretty fun! the metro system there is fantastic, and within a day I felt completely empowered to go anywhere with only my subway map to guide me! i saw the 2004 olympic village, the acropolis, temple of zeus, the archeological museum, old market squares, churches, parliament, a hand-made sandal shop...starbucks! Our apartments were in Plaka, and we were a 3 minute walk from the metro, and a 7 minute walk from the acropolis. Those of you who havne't spent considerable time in Nashville wouldn't know this, but diagonal from vandy's campus is a replica of the Parthenon! needless to say, i was SOOOOO HAPPY to see the real one both as an artifact of ancient history, and as a small reminder of friends back home! this place is amazing, and my obsession with the Parthenon shows up in your gifts and my photos!

Athens is such a modern city, that we were able to pretend it was america from time to time. after the marathon, 15 smelly volunteers, 4 hardcore fans, and an ultramarathoner from london (this kid has done 18 marathons in 18 months...) drug ourselves to the hardrock cafe athens! here we splurged on nachos, margaritas, burgers, and fries with heinz ketchup! it was like a dream come true for some of us!! other american-like moments included visiting the local starbucks ( I abstained!), downing smoothies, and even shopping in an american-style mall AND watching a current movie...in english! all of these indulgences were fantastic!

finally on tuesday, I boarded an overnight train back to sofia. The train was full of greek people, and ironically, only the ladies in my compartment spoke bulgarian! both of them were bulgarians who live and work in athens, while most of their family members live in buglaria. after 5 days of not speaking bulgarian, this was a fun little crash course! Sometimes, however, these ladies would forget that i didn't speak greek, and they would converse with me in some combination of greek and bulgarian! talk about confusing...

all and all, greece was great! i had a nice little trip for my birthday, accomplished one of my major life goals, was enraptured by the foundation of democracy, indulged in a little bit of america, and found myself perfectly ready to head back to bulgaria...

stay tuned for pictures!

suprises in bulgaria

2006-10-26T16:24:00.000Z

The theme of this blog is; unexpected friendships, ridiculously funny stories, and the hipster factor of Sofia.

Today I took a little break at work to read the newest copy of Newsweek’s international edition. Newsweek distributes this free to all Peace Corps volunteers. We're really lucky to have some connection to the outside world, especially at the low low price of free. I sometimes don't have the greatest things to say about Peace Corps as an organization, and I generally hate corporate sponsorship or advertising...but this time PC got it right!!!! Anyway, I was reading some article about North Korea and there was a moment in the article where the author mentions how wide spread a feeling is by mentioning two far-flung cities. I read the sentence "...from Tokyo to Sofia..." and then I backtracked. I kept staring at the word "Sofia," trying desperately to understand why this word looked so foreign and familiar all at the same time. That's when I realized it was about the first time I'd read "Sofia" in English in a print article! haha. So, now that Sofia is posh enough to be mentioned without reference to its country, I've decided we're a city of hipsters. Back off (!) kids from Hendersonville, TN!!! I call Sofia for my own!! I found it first and I wanna be a hipster of Europe!

so this blog won't be serious at all, in case you haven't noticed...

A lesson I've learned on my way here in Bulgaria is that, as a young female foreigner, any time someone asks me, "Toni, do you know what x is?" the best answer is always "I don't care." Some days, I'm not always able to exercise that discretion, and I hear quite a variety of "interesting" stories. Yesterday, my coworker Sasho asked this very question.

"Toni, do you know what a 'Russian 3' is?"

Now, I knew better than to pursue this question, but I was kinda bored and went with it. Sasho began my telling me a story about life under socialism, and that during this time, pants and jeans were very scarce. To this day, wearing jeans in Bulgarian society often signifies that you are wealthier than others. Then he continued"

"A Russian 3 is when two people have sex and the third person guards your pants!"

here's the moment of seriousness in the ol blog...

Bulgaria recently had primary elections for president. The two candidates who will face each other on Sunday are from perhaps the two most polar ends of the spectrum. The incumbent, Purvanov (a pernik citizen) is a big time socialist, and in his youth he was some type of leader for the communist party in Bulgaria. The other candidate, Sederov, is something beyond a nationalist. A large part of his party's platform advocates the removal of elements of turkey and Turkish lifestyles from the Bulgarian society. We’re not really allowed to make political commentary, so I have to stop there with the description of Sederov. (If you want to know more, send me an email!)

Well, many Bulgarians are not happy with the choices, and have come to a dilemma of sorts. People don't want to vote for Sederov because they don't agree with his party's platform, but at the same time, they aren't happy with Purvanov. In America, lots of people would probably choose not to vote, or do a "lesser of the two evils" type vote (note: see election 2004. Kerry v. bush). Since democracy is so new, lots of people realize how lucky they are to have the right to vote. However, some people are so disappointed with both candidates that they are deciding between not voting, or voting for the non-incumbent just to show that they aren't happy with Purvanov. Purvanov is expected to win by quite a landslide, but you see a dissatisfaction here that isn't entirely different than our election in 2004. The difference is that we had a choice between two middle of the road candidates and here, it is between two extremists. Anyway, it’s actually really affected some of my coworkers' ability to come to work and function, and for others it’s a constant source of concern. In a country that is often full of apathy and pessimism, there is something heartening about seeing people so passionate about democracy.

My 1st Vandy Homecoming

2006-10-22T16:07:00.001Z

Friday evening, when you were restlessly sleeping in anticipation of Vandy vs. South Carolina, I was restlessly tossing too.

while some of you were anxiously anticipating every move made by those courageous 'dores, I was fighting off a terrible chill whilst trying to get comfy on a steel bench in macedonia.

macedonia?!?

I missed my first homecoming last year, and with the prospect of missing NEXT year's homecoming as well, there was NO WAY I was going to miss this one! So I packed my bags for the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia to see the fabulous Cindy Wasserman! In order to make this trip even more exciting, David Marbury was also part of this little band of VUCCers looking for a fellow choirite with whom to share our love of the 'dores.

after a great few days in Bulgaria, David and I packed our backpacks, grabbed our passports, and headed to Sofia to catch a midnight bus to Skopje, the captial city of Macedonia. Though I'd only travled to macedonia once, a quick perusal of bus schedules seemed to indicate that our 6am arrival in Skopje would give us plenty of time to catch a bus to Cindy's city, get a place in a hotel, and spend a few hours with Cindy before returning to Bulgaria the next day. I had no clear idea of how long a bus ride to her city, Negotino, would take...but I was confidant that my lingustical skillz and our die-hard love for Cindy would get the job done!

so how exactly did I wind up shivering to death on a metal bench in skopje? was it a communication breakdown? did David lose his passport? did we forget Cindy's phone number? Did we get kicked out of our bus at customs? NO!!!!! whew...wouldn't that have been scary?

So after several hours of (im)patiently waiting for our bus to skopje, David and I were looking forward to our 6 hour bus snooze fest to macedonia. 12am came and went...we were starting to get worried when a tiny little red "marshrutka" pulled up to our bus sector. Judging by the number of people waiting in the bus station and the number of buses at the station, we made a quick judgement call and RAN to the little minibus. We were able to secure two cramped spots in the back of this little over-sold van. There was so little room that the entire "walkway" of the bus was covered in bags and suitcases...we were SO thankful that our little backpacks fit above our seats, and that we weren't going to stand for the next 6 hours.

Now a big downside of these little buses is that you feel EVERY bump in the road. This particular road was so bad that most of the passengers were flying out of their seats every minute of so. sleep had clearly been ruled out at this point... a quick 3 1/2 hours, I reckognized the skopje bus station. WHAT?! our 6 hour trip had suddenly ended 2 1/3 hours earlier...meaning that our bus to cindy's town wasn't leaving for 5 hours and that the only open building in the city was this very bus station!!! So after a few mintues of trying to convince david that this trip had, in fact, been a good idea, I slowly gave into the fate that the only sleep i'd get in the next 20 hours was on the steely cold benches within the bus station. I spent the next 5 hours either camped out on this bench with my hood pulled tight around my face, in the smokers room (theere was a heater!), or roaming around the top floor (until the employees yelled at us and made us go back downstairs) until it was time for our bus.

okay, this blog is ridiculous. Long story short, I got to see two of my favorite vandy grads, and we were able to celebrate our "first" homecoming (abroad) together! Cindy is doing amazing in macedonia...everyone from macedonians to fellow PCVs love and adore her. (of course!) Her Macedonian skills are BEYOND amazing for 4 weeks...she actually speaks macedonian better than lots of volunteers from my group speak Bulgarian...after 4 weeks people! This quick trip was incredibly refreshing to me, as its always amazing to be surrounded by people who know you so well, and with whom you've shared amazing moments in your life. i am so thankful that david was able to come and visit, and that we made our crazy trip to macedonia. I love my friends!!!! GO 'DORES!

little dreams and big dreamers

2006-10-15T08:18:00.000Z

I've never been very good at remembering my dreams. And with the exception of recurring dreams and those others which i've recently dreamed, within the last week I've found my dreaming patterns to be quite opposite! Last night I had a dream that I found atleast 4 delightfully furry cats! The night before, I dreamt that I had found a 'KMart' in Bulgaria- at which point I ran in to buy PowerBars and instant brown rice. ???? If its true that your dreams are trying to tell you something from your inner concious...then how funny is it that my biggest wants are brown rice, cats, and powerbars!? food for thought...

this post will continue as more of a brag than an update;

The Vanderbilt Commodores UPSET #16 Georgia last night in last-play field goal. This victory ended some 11 years of losses to the Bulldogs....go 'Dores!

In other Vanderbilt news, we're nearly a top 50 university...internationally!! I recently agreed to do alumni interviewing for Vandy here in Bulgaria, and I was shocked at how high the admissions standards are today. Mom & Dad- good think i was born in 1982 and not 1986/7! I never wouldn't have made it to college! haha. But anyway, its nice to see Vanderbilt getting some of the respect it deserves. As one of the few top 20 universities in the states which has never heard alligations of professors handing out top marks (our current chancellor is said to have left Brown in part because he thought professors gave too many high marks), its sometimes hard to fight your way to the top, but we're getting there!

as a dabbler in Economics and social policy, I've always been nothing but facsinated, intrigued and flat out in love with the Grameen Bank. This weekend, an esteemed Vandy alum -whose believe in giving even the poorest people a chance at living a decent life- was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Yunus has flat out changed the lives of millions of impoverished people through the micro-credit lending system of the Grameen bank. Is this kind of belief and this kind of daring that makes me want to keep giving to society in any way that I can. This is not a success story of several people or of one man, it is the success of more than 6.5 million people- and counting. In Spring 2005, Dr. Yunus spoke at Vanderbilt and it was an amazing experience for me. I still sharply remember the day, where I was sitting in Wilson 101...

speaking about his idea, he says;

"So I made a list of people who needed just a little bit of money. And when the list was complete, there were 42 names. The total amount of money they needed was $27. I was shocked. Here we were talking about economic development, about investing billions of dollars in various programmes, and I could see it was not billions of dollars people needed right away. They needed a tiny amount of money. That was in 1976."

okay, so i was going to brag a lot about other stupid stuff, but i am just so impressed and ecouraged by someone like Dr. Yunas that with that last quote in mind I say, "here's to the ones who challenge the status quo."

http://www.grameen-info.org/

running running!

2006-10-01T13:11:00.000Z

Hi Everyone!

As I am writing this post, there are 34 days, 16 hours, and some amount of minutes until the start of the Athens marathon! I can't believe its getting so close, and infact, some days I just want the marathon to happen tomorrow! today I ran 18 miles, and I'm pretty proud of that! I had to take a few breaks for water and re-fueling (after all, that was about 1800 calories I burned!), but I generally feel prepared to do all of this!

I recently met a PC trainee (someone who will become a volunteer after successfully completing the 3 month training) who has ran several marathons, and he loaned me this book by an "ultramarathoner," Dean Karnazes. This book is interesting, and its amazing the things he's done! he's run 100 mile races through mountainous terrain in less than 24 hours, won the 130ish mile ultramarathon through death valley, run 262 miles straight without stopping or sleeping, and run a marathon in the south pole! this dude is amazing! he's currently trying to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days...

So this got me to thinking about the sport, and of course I wikipedia-ed it. Turns out that there is a woman named Rosie Swale-Pope who is RUNNING around the WORLD! not only that, but she runs while carrying a little cart behind her...much like the ones bikes carry! http://www.rosiearoundtheworld.co.uk/ she was born in 1946, so she's older than both my parents and doing this insane thing!

Another woman, Pam Reed, ran the same ultramarathon as Karnazes through death valley...and she won it twice! one time, she beat her nearest competitor by FIVE HOURS! she wrote a book called "the extra mile," and currently orchestrates the Tuson Marathon.

so though I have found my 18 miles to be somewhat of a success...its been both humbling and amazing to read about the trials, struggles, and accopmlishments of these super athletes!

Not PC related at all!

2006-09-28T06:08:00.000Z

http://www.holylemon.com/GuitarSkills.html

wow, this guy's got mad skills on the guitar!

We made it!

2006-09-26T16:43:00.000Z

YYYEeeeaaaaa!!! Bulgaria is set to join the EU on Jan 1st, 2007!!! okay, romania too...but BULGARIA! today, in lieu of english class, my coworkers huddled around the director's TV to hear the reports from the European Parliment. In my heart, I sort of expected to hear "Sorry BG, Romania, but you're not gonna make it this year. better luck next time!" so it was a pleasant surprise to hear that 2007 is in fact, the date. Bulgaria and Romania began their EU accession application proceedure back in 1995/6, and talks formally started in 2000. This, needless to say, has been a long time to wait for accession espeically when you consider that a lot of their "expectation" may or maynot be met. As all this time has elapsed, many Bulgarians have become uninterested in the EU, and many have also become extremely pessimistic towards Europe and everything that comes with it. A commen complaint I hear is that "only poor countries want to join the EU," and those critics want bulgaria to be self-sustaining entity. I think some of these people are also concerned that the cultural integrity of Bulgaria will also diminish with the distraction of Europe's boarders be more permiable. my old boss used to say that the second bulgaria joined the EU- "kaput!" no more bulgaria because all the bulgarians would leave.

on a similar theme of "we made it," my women's choir recorded its first CD last weekend! For months we tried to find "ydobni" (comfortable/convinient) dates for the whole group, and the middle of september finally worked for everyone. After months of talking about this recording and the studio we were going to use, I was started to get really impressed by bulgaria's level of technology, and even more impressed that my ugly miner's town had this stuff! When we arrived at our studio, i was suprised to instead be walking into a lecture hall built in the early 1900s. The acoustics were great, and the decor something to keep me fascinated during breaks. This particular building is the "mining administration building," though in name only as the mines have been closed for years. inside is also a museum, a brank of the national bank, and of course, an automatic coffee machine. well after about 4 hours of verbal abuse from our director, we finished up and we're currently awaiting the finished product! and if you ever wondered what it sounds like when an american sings a solo in russian with her bulgarian choir...then this CD is not to be missed!

On sunday, I headed into to sofia to attend mass and to meet a friend who was arriving from Athens. I ran to catch my train, and sat in the compartment which appeared to have the least threatening environment; non-smoking old people. about 10 minutes into the trip, the old people - who weren't aquaintences- began chatting. it soon came out that the oldest guy was on his way home from a folk music festival in Macedonia, where he had been a participant. The rest of our trip was then filled with Macedonian folk songs sung by this 80 year old man with the voice of someone perhaps twice his age. It was really quite pleasant, and I was pleased to have such an unusual occurrance that was also a positive one! a typical "unexpected" event on bulgarian public transportation usually means you get grossed out or annoyed, so this was a great change! before we all got off the train in sofia, the man gave us autographed pictures of himself. totally sweet.

okay, this is my update for now!

Back to Bulgaria

2006-09-13T19:21:00.000Z

NERVE-WRACKING: adj- translating from bulgarian to english to romanian to english, and back to bulgarian. infront of regional television crew. live. eep.

let's say that today was humbling. one of the cool perks of my new job is that performers from different countries come as soloists or entire ensembles to play in our facility. Sometimes they are bulgarians who've migrated, and more recently, the performers are plain ol' foriegners who speak english. Today, a classical quartet from Romainia played a program as part of a three-city tour in bulgaria. An hour beforehand, the local media held a press conference with yours truly as a translator. Inter nerve-wracking, stage left. I think i made up a LOT of words and messed up a lot of names...but the important thing is that the Romanians didn't even notice that English was my first langauge, versus Bulgarian... (but wait, what does that say for my english? whoops...)

but as my heading says...I'm back to Bulgaria!! I spent an entire week in the fabulous republic of macedonia, our neighboor to the west. Thanks to two other volunteers, i was invited to participate in a youth worker's training course as part of the European Commission's effort to educate youth and youth workers. This particular course was on the topics of Citizenship, Globalism, and Consumerism. Guess why I wanted to go...

anyway, I was pretty pumped to go see Macedonia for myself. As far back as i can remember (read: understand what people are saying), most Bulgarians have had some type of story for me about how macedonia is the same country as bulgaria, that the langauge is simply a dialect of bulgarian, etc etc. Well, i'm not going to make any huge revalations about this age-old conflict, but I can say with assurance: macedonia is cleaner, the boys are cuter, and people actually speak english! oh yeah, they've also got great ice cream!

okay, this entry is actually pointless. appologies!

Rila's 7 Lakes

2006-08-27T17:31:00.000Z

Hiking in Bulgaria is something that I don't do enough!

this friday, myself, Carin and Ethan set out on a hike to the Rila Mountains' "7 Lakes" in the southwest area of Bulgaria. Our goal: hike to the lakes, hike around the lakes, and on the second day, hike to the Rila Monastery.

On Friday, we happened across this little white shuttle (marshrutka) that took us to our starting point, a "chalet" ('hija' in Bulgarian) called "pinoerska." from there, we started a VERY steep hike. After 30 minutes or so, I thought we were on the brink of death! Thankfully we took a few breaks and then the trail got a bit easier. After about 3 hours of hiking, we came to the first of two hijas near the 7 lakes called "Rila lakes," where we met Ethan's Bulgarian friend Milen. After a quick 40 minute hike, we arrived at our hija, "the seven lakes."

some of you may recall that I made this hike last October with a large group of PCVs. Last time, we stayed in the first hija. THIS time, however, the hija was full, and we our trek to the 2nd hija was one in search of a warm place to sleep. The 2nd hija is much older and lives up to the second meaning of "hija" in Bulgaria- meaning it was more like a hut than a chalet! Our bathrooms were outside, the only running water was a little stream, and our beds were a shout-out to Snow White and the 7 dwarfs! Our room was just big enough to house the largest bunkbeds I have ever seen in my life! the bottom row had 7 pillows and 14 blankets, and the top row was identical. The interesting thing was that each row of beds was CONNECTED...when I saw the room, I laughed and laughed. Sadly, we didn't get a picture... This one of the wackiest things I've ever seen!

After settling into our room, we went to explore the 7 lakes. The hike was MUCH easier given that Milen served as our map and that our heavy bags were saving our bed spaces back at the hija! We scaled flat rock surfaces, maneuvered around horse/donkey poo, and were generally in awe of the landscape. We sat down for a rest at the "Kidney" lake for a quick stretch and to listen to Milen play the Bulgarian folk flute as it hauntingly echoed off the mountain cliffs. By the time we started descending the mountains for our hija around 5:30, it was so cold that we had to hustle to stay warm!

The next day, we woke up early in expectation of our 7 hour hike to the Rila monastery. This hike has become a favorite of PCVs, and as Carin hadn't yet seen the monestary, we were quite excited! our excitment was slightly decreased, however, when we realized a storm was brewing on the ridge leading to the monastery; our trip was post-poned for a later date when the chances of being struck by lightning were decreased. We decided to hike back to our destination point and grab a bus to the monastery, and had a pleasant descent. We had some extra time, so we hunted for wild blueberries and raspberries and gave inspiring advice to our fellow hikers who were on their way UP to the lakes. We knew that the hike had been harder than we'd given ourselves credit for when one man shouted to his group, "as long as there are living people coming down, we're going to be alright!" I had myself a nice chuckle and enjoyed the crisp morning air and the fact that we'd soon be at hija "pinoerska," sipping hot chocolate.

so here's a picture of one of the lakes, and one of our group and a second lake! Please check out my webshots for more pictures!

Rila monastery

2006-08-15T19:05:00.000Z

Rila Monastery!

Beautiful al fresca-ness on domes and archways

Me posing in an archway, of course!

Check out the webshots in a few days! http://community.webshots.com/user/cafejunkie05

Rila monastery

2006-08-15T18:43:00.000Z

For months upon months, I've wanted to travel to the famous Bulgarian Rila monastery. This monastery was built around 860 AD, and attracts more tourists than any other destination in bulgaria. Dubbed the "bethlehem of bulgaria," this monastery is well-known for its beauty, set off by the terrific landscape of the Rila Mountains in Southwest Bulgaria. Finally, finally this sunday, I was able to drag my friend Christin to the Monastery for good times, full buses, and loads of pictures.

getting to the monastery is a bit of a "challenge." There are three public-transportation buses every day from a small village bearing the same name as the Monastery. In order to get to the Village of Rila, almost everyone has to start in Sofia, and may or may not take detours, side-trips, and encounter long "layovers." many tour services offer direct buses from sofia to the monastery, but they range from $25 to 65 euro! So based on a hot tip from another volunteer, I practically begged Christin to take the public transportation route, promising her more adventure, as sense of can-do, and a few more leva in our pockets! We left Pernik at 8:20 in order to get on the 10am bus to Rila town. Once we arrived there, we had to wait 40 minutes or so for the 2nd daily bus to the monastery. Once you make it to the monastery, you have about 2.5 hours until a direct bus will take you all the way back to sofia! Well, we got so caught up in the beauty of the place, that when we went to board the bus at 2:45 (for a 3pm departure) the bus was SO FULL that there was standing room only, with people squished from the back to the front door. We decided to leave the crowds behind- 3 hours on a packed bus to sofia did NOT sound like our idea of a relaxing ride! we were lucky enough to catch a bus 2 hours later which took us to the town of dunpitsa, and from there we were able to go to a town near Pernik, and after 6 buses and 12 hours, we made it back to my apartment!

here are a few pictures. look for the link to my webshots in a few days!

4estita годишнина!

2006-08-15T18:05:00.000Z

happy one year anniversay in Bulgaria to us!

today marks the 365th day of my life in Bulgaria! I can hardly believe its come so fast! there were times when I counted down everyday until COS (close of service), times when I woke up and suddenly it was saturday again, times when things were downright scary (WHAT are they trying to feed me?) to ridiculously funny (I once said that my frozen clothes were full of brother-in-laws, rather than ice).

here is the space where I should insert meaningful reflections on being part of the Bulgarian culture, living in a post-communist society which is vie-ing for a spot in the EU... what have I learned? Mostly, I've realized that making mistakes is the only way to learn how to do something right. I've encountered this mostly through learning the langauge, but also from "failed" assignments during training, mistakes made in the first workplace, misconceptions between cultures and people. I am firmly in support of making mistakes. and as my coworker Tsveti says "Az sam 'Za!'" (i'm for it!)

in other news, I am one of 5 youth development volunteers who was chosen to assist during the b20's (newest group of volunteers...i'm an "18") initial training. Each of us were assigned to a host community, where we will meet with the training groups and assist them with project design and management, help them organize meetings and events, and provide general support and assitance to them as friends and peers. Last thursday, we were invited to the "orientation" week in order to meet our groups, exchange contact information, and again, provide whatever support was needed. here's a picture of my group;

Toni, Karlen, The Patrick, Mike, Alden

this week was also interesting, as i learned how to take someone's blood pressure! Last night, i was coming home from a late day at work, and my elderly neighboor's door was open. When he saw me (Marteen), he began talking about taking my blood pressuere. I was thoroughly confused, but decided to come see what he was up to anyway. Well, Marteen is getting up there in age, and he lost most of his hearing years ago. His wife had taken on the job of listening to his heartbeat, but unfortunately passed away a few months ago. anyway, Marteen excitedly began describing the process to me, but i was completely lost! Since I was about 80% unfamiliar with what I was supposed to do, his thorough instructions in bulgarian were lost on me. Finally, after several failed attempts, I finally figured the whole thing out and was able to tell Marteen his blood pressure. Chalk that one up to new experiences learned! But seriously, it was nice to be of assistance to my neighboor.

well, so those are my brief reflections on one year in bulgaria. maybe during this week i'll be able to compose a list of funny/interesting things that have happened thus far, and post them!

MARATHON!

2006-08-05T18:55:00.000Z

okay, i HOPE all those pictures have shown up.

so one of the many things a Peace corps volunteer has is time. some people fill that time by making friends, learning to cook, writhing a book (way to go randy!), playing an instrument, reading, etc...

well, our group of volunteers decided that the best way to spend our time was to RUN and to do it with a CAUSE.

We are trying to sponsor a group of young Bulgarian Scouts attend the World Jamboree in 2007! we're asking our friends, family, coworkers and all other blog-readers to help us send these kids to a World Jamboree! How can you help? you can make a pledge (sort of like Math-a-thon) towards the Scouts by checking out this website....

http://www.scout.org/donate/
Select ÂScouting in the European Scout RegionÂ,
Select the currency ÂEUR, USD, and mention
ÂWorld Scout Jamboree 2007, support to Bulgaria, YOUR NAME, and the NAME OF THE PC (that's me) volunteer in whose name you are donating

about 15 of us have dedicated the past few months and the next 3 months of our lives to running the original marathon- the marathon in Athens. Not only will this be a personal accomplishment, but each mile we run will bring a young Scout in Bulgaria closer to the Jamboree.pleaseeace support the cause! we just finished week 5, and we've got 13 more to go!

Pictures from Camp!

2006-08-05T18:31:00.000Z

hey all-

here are a few snippets from Mutli-ethnic camp in Tsarevo, Bulgaria. also check out my webshots link for more photos!

these are some girls doing the "kuchek" which is a dance done in turkish and roma cultures. In the background, one of the PCVs is dressed in traditional bulgarian clothing.

This is the whole group! the kids, the PCVs, the Bulgarian organizers...look how happy we are!

All the PCVs...we're happy to be tanned, on the beach, and working with these awesome kids!

A few of the contestants for "Mr. & Ms. Zaedno Napred"

Multi-ethnic Youth Camp

2006-07-23T09:07:00.000Z

On friday, I returned to pernik from a wonderful week at the beach! I spent 8 days working with multi-ethnic youth from across bulgaria on the lovely Black Sea.

Though this camp was not the first multi-ethnic camp in Bulgaria (it was the second), it hold promise for one that will continue as long as there is interest from the youth. The camp was organized by an NGO that works with Roma youth in the city of Pazardjik. This NGO also hosts a Peace Corps Volunteer, and together they planned the camp "Zaedno Napred" (Forward together). This NGO has organized summer camps on the Sea for active and motivated Roma youth for the past 5 years, and after 5 years of success, the director was able to realize his dream of holding a multi-ethnic youth camp.

There were 5 ethnic groups represented at the camp; Bulgarians, Bulgarian Muslims, Turkish, Roma, and Jewish. Each ethnic group had atleast 5 open-mided, motivated and exhuberant representatives. during the day, the campers participated in different team building activities, fun games, and lectures on topics related to different ethnic groups. Nearly every afternoon we managed to squeeze in a little time for the beach, time to walk around the center, or just hang out with new friends.

One of the coolest things that happened during the camp were nightly presentations of each groups culture. each group chose rituals, ceremonies, holidays, music and dances that represented the most important (or most basic) aspects of their culture, and presented these for the entire group. Each and every person present was engaged by these presentations, and everyone learned something new about the different groups- even from the groups (like the roma) that that other campers felt there were already familiar with.

going into this camp, we were all a bit worried that the youth might fight with each other, not want to talk to eachother, not respect eachother and their cultures, and that they might demand to go home. Cultural differences and intolerance in bulgaria can run high. but we were nothing but suprised, pleased and impressed with the group of youth that participated in this camp. By the time camp had finished and the bus pulled up to take the students away, their were tears, promises of emails, and exhanges of cell phone numbers.

I have participated in many different types of camps before, but this one was by far the best! we had our fair share of misommunications, troubles, etc...but the youth were some of the best that I have encoutnered in both the US and Bulgaria.

I've got to run (time's running out at the internet cafe!) but I promise to post pictures soon!!

Weddings and Bulgaria

2006-07-12T17:35:00.000Z

So in the last extremely brief post I mentioned how AWESOME it was to see my sister and Jason get married!! Well, incase you somehow didn't pick up the vibe, it was incredible to be home, and especially for such a momentous occasion!!!

Concerning other weddings, two of my favorite people in Bulgaria - randy(pcv) and petya- we married this sunday! I had the honor of serving as one of their witnesses, the best man as it were, for the ceremony. As a witness, I had to confirm that Randy and Petya were a good match and that I would always be there to give them good advice and such things... of course I said the equivilent of "I will!" As soon as I can, I will also post pictures from their wedding. We did lots of fun and zanny things, including making Petya's bouquet ourselves, and buying silly gifts after the ceremony.

Jumping back in time, I want to share with you a brief summary of my return trip to bulgaria. Let's put it this way...it was LOOOONG!! I started out my travels at 6am in SD, and about 60 hours (approx. 2:30am bulgaria time) later I made it to my apartment! The day(s) that I traveled happened to be the same as the big rainstorms out in the east. When I got to Chicago, my flight was already delayed, and as the day wore on the delays continued to increase. After 5 hours of waiting (around 11pm), we boarded the plane- mintues later we learned our plane had failed safety tests, and that our new flight would depart the following day at 3pm!!! United put us all up in various hotels around the city, so in groups of 6 or so, the passengers all started to become aquainted with one another. I expected a lot of german people to be on my Germany-bound flight, but instead, most people were US citizens returning to their home countries in Eastern Europe to grab a few weeks vacation. I met several families from other Balkan countires, and we had a good time comparing the similiarities of our languages, I met a lovely greek couple who live in Athens, and quite a few Bulgarians!! The bulgarian families that I met were really nice to me, and as we dealt with all the delays and such that we faced, it was nice to speak freely in BULGARIAN rather than ENGLISH infront of the customer service ppl! Well, by the time we finally arrived in Munich, everyone had missed their connecting flights by more than 16 hours and almost no-one would find a seat to their final destination unless they took additional connections or stayed another night in Munich!!!! I wound up being re-routed through Frankfurt and arrived in Sofia at midnight on friday, about 36 hours later than estimated arrival. As luck would have it, one of the bulgarian families were not only traveling to my city, but they also lived on the same street as me!!!! I was exteremly lucky, as I otherwise would have spent the next 7 hours inthe train station, waiting for first train to my town! So, after a crazy long trip, I was extremely glad to have met loads of new and interesting people, but mostly, to have arrived to my apartment!

It was also been great to be back in bulgaria! I have been busy catching up with friends, "remembering" Bulgarian, and planning for several youth camps that I'm participating in, and celebrating coworkers' birthdays!

okay, well we have to go run and catch a night bus, but I will write about this mutli-ethnic youth camp when I get back!

2006-07-06T15:14:00.000Z

WOW!! after a 60 hour trip (it was supposed to be half of that...), I've finally arrived in Bulgaria!! This is just a quick note to let everyone know that things are good. Please check out my pictures from the wedding.

http://community.webshots.com/user/cafejunkie05

all I can say was that my sister and jason's wedding was pretty darn cool. thanks to everyone who helped out!!

promise to write soon, but until I do...

only in europe will you see shorter shorts on the men than the women... wow.

American in One week!

2006-06-05T20:02:00.000Z

Hey all! i have been awfully terrible about keeping this blog updated. My apologies!

there are a lot of things that are different about bulgaria. I've forgotten most of those things, however, and adjust my life around them. BUT there is one thing that I really HATE about bulgaria, and can't manage to adjust to; purses. In Bulgaria, you aren't allowed to put your purse on the ground. For example, if you are leaving someone's house and putting your shoes on...it is completely unacceptable to put your purse onthe ground as you tie your shoes. If you are a guest for tea of for a meal in someone's house, it owuld be absurd to set your purse down next to your chair. If you are out in public, never, ever ever put your purse on the ground...everyone will stare at you and think you are insane! Sometimes it is much more convinient to simply set your purse down next to you, and go about your merry ways...

today I spent some time with a girl named Asia. Her mother works for Peace Corps, and they happen to live in the same town as me. well, i finally met up with Asia a few weeks ago, and as of late, we've been hanging out together. She studies egyptology at a local university and is about the same age as me. Anyway, today we were in the city park, and we passed by a little cabin. Asia called it "baba yaga's house," and started laughing. I had heard the cabin called this before, so I asked her what the deal was. Well, Baba Yaga is a character from Russian Literature, and...amongst other things, she eats kids!! So, in the way that older kids terrorize younger kids without any sort of remorse, this park houses Pernik's Baba Yaga...the grandma who eats kids.

okay, that story was supposed to be better, but i'm tired!!!

tomorrow, i am finally moving apartments!! after a few weeks in limbo and enduring a lot of stress...I signed the contact today! tomorrow i'll hand over the money, then start the process of moving my stuff from one end of town to the other. I can't wait until its all done!

THEN, then i'm coming to america! not in the eddy murphy sense of the phrase... but hey... if I somehow become a princess while I travel, i'm not going to complain! I will be in the US for almost 2 weeks for my sister's wedding. So if you don't already have plans (like graphing calculator camp...thanks adam. i miss you too!), stop by and say hello!

america, here i come!

Workin girl

2006-05-25T18:57:00.000Z

So as some of you may know, I have a new job in Peace corps!!

My former job sitauation was pretty insane; no coworkers, no director of my organization, no youth... Things were kinda okay back in January, but still pretty iffy. I used to joke with friends that I had promoted myself to "director of the NGO." One girl even suggested that I start all sentences with "As the director of this NGO.." it was pretty funny. Finally, after 4 months of my counterpart (peer coworker) driving taxis all day, Peace Corps agreed that it was time to find me a new organization.

So now, I work in the Palace of Culture (dvoretsa na kyltyrata)! They are really eager to work with me, AND they show up to work!! My new counterpart is named Desi, and she is about the same age as me, and seems like she'll be fun to work with. I share an office with a few people, one of which is an author who is totally crazy!! he has a really good time trying to tell me jokes in bulgarian, and giving me books about the bible and the koran to read in english (right...like I understand them).

I think things will be going a lot better for me from now on, and I look forward to writing some grants and finally getting to be a volunteer!!

Beautiful Bulgaria

2006-05-17T19:59:00.000Z

This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to one of Bulgaria's famed cities. Veliko Turnavo, a city located in the center of the country and north of the Balkans, was the former capital of Bulgaria, and remains one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen! Like several cities in bulgaria, VT has an old city, and a new city. The old parts of these cities are always the most interesting; with their cobblestoned streets, homemade jellies, and architecture you won't find anywhere else in the world, you can almost transport yourself back 100 years. The streets are lined with domashni stoki (homemade goods) and shopkeepers who are usually not only glad that you are willing to spend your american wealth on their handy-work, but are so very proud that you can utter a few sentences in bulgarian. at the very end of the old city, there is a fortress. These remains remind us of the bulgaria that was- a place where much of modern civilization was born and fought for.

But what was I doing, exactly, in VT? Well, I was singing! Back in february, I joined a women's choral ensemble in pernik. we aren't really that good, but after a small introductory concert in pernik, we were invited to perform in VT's annual Folklore Festival. Early saturday morning, the choir joined pernik's youth dance group, and we loaded the bus, and headed for VT!! Our concert was held in a beautiful cathedral which is reminiscent of the Alexander Hevski Cathedral in sofia (when you visit me, you'll see!). I had envisioned a normal concert, but instead, our performance was more like an event at the state-fair. We were scheduled for a certain time, and when that time came around, visitors and folk-lore-goers came to watch. It was pretty cool because we were also filmed!! so now, this moment is forever captured in bulgarian folk-lore history. After our concert, we received several awards- one for participating, one for my solo, and one for our director. I think it was a good experience over-all, and I was especially happy because BEN and JEN of Shumen came to the concert! I was so happy to see familiar faces!

after roaming about town with Ben and Jen, I jumped on a Bus to sliven. my good friend Christin is a PCV from my group (b18s) lives in sliven, and works for an environmental branch of the local municipality. a big plus about her town, is that is it directly south of the Balkans. So when she looks out her windows, she sees a stunning backdrop of mountains and foresty things (contrast this to my view...old communist style apartments (which are falling apart), and factories...something isn't fair here!). We decided to go hiking..for 6 hours!! I definitely got tired and I'm surprised I didn't pass out on the mountain somewhere!! One of the funniest things was that we took a ski-style lift back DOWN the mountain. Oh, Bulgaria... But in general, good times were had in sliven- hiking, making pizza, watching grey's anatomy, and just seeing the sites.

oh my trip down to sliven, i had a small "layover" in VT. While waiting for the bus, a Roma lady decided to strike up a conversation with me. She has asked me a question about the bus (she also was traveling to sliven), and after identifying my accent as one of a foreigner, became increasingly interested in me and my life here. She was a really nice lady, and even offered to let me stay at her family's home, to go 'na gosti,' and in general, to pledge life-long friendship to eachother. She saved me a seat on the full-house bus, and merrily chatted with me the entire bus ride about my work, my opinions of bulgaria, and some of the differences between my country and hers. Though it may not seem like a big deal to most people, these are some of the moments that are most valuable to us as peace corps volunteers. Sure, some people write projects with 300,000 euro budgets, some people open movie theaters, some people get married to bulgarians... but for those average PCVs among us, its these everyday conversations we have with bulgarian citizens that makes our time here worth-while. America is a totally foreign land- people only know America from the movies. Anytime we have the opportunity to tell about people about America- that we have problems, that not everyone drives a BMW, that kids like to read books- we have an opportunity to show someone a piece of america thorugh a very different lense than that of a hollywood camera. and from a non-egotistical american's standpoint, its always good for bulgarians to see foreigners treat Roma people with respect. One girl on the bus was so rude as to deliberately change seats on the bus, simply because she was sitting next to a Roma person. I always hope, that on some level, people reconsider their opinion on Roma citizens when they see foreigners speaking with this minority group. I know that's really too much to hope, but sometimes I think it makes people think twice.

okay, here is a picture of me on the hike in the mountains!

two things I forgot

2006-05-07T18:11:00.000Z

okay, so BILLA opened up in pernik on thursday! this means nothing to America, but we europeans know that BILLA is the german's answer to kroger (or, for non-southern educated folks: safeway, albertsons, HiVee, etc)!!!! it is quite lovely to browse around shopping- picking up packages, comparing prices, thinking in english... Anyway, its been really fun watching this building get constructed and wonder about the glory day when it finally opened. I passed by the construction site everyday on the bus, so i've been able to keep excellent watch on the operation. I've been curious to observe how people traffic changes at the adjacent bus stops (which are typically empty), what will happen with the near-by run down cafes, and how people's shopping patterns in general will change. yes, i have a boring life and I'm well aware! On the second day of bussiness, I braved the lines. I found some great stuff (westernish cheese, wheat bread) and observed some funny things. On of my favorite moments was an older lady walking with her grown daughter, commenting on whether or not the prices were any better, and then on the fervrent shopping of her fellow countryment.

which leads me to my next point...eavesdropping. genearlly, i would say this is a VERY bad thing, and that people shouldn't do it. Unfortunately, I've also discovered that its an extremely useful language learning tool for me here in bulgaria! i find myself listening to all sorts of conversations in order to increase my comprehension of the language and observe usage of words, etc. Eavesdropping is now second nature for me, so hopefully I can rid myself of this habit when i'm in the US!

alright, so i really forgot 3 things! last sunday, a fellow volunteer (lincoln) and I went to mass. We thought we were going to the latin mass, but it turned out to be a children's mass! This has never been on the schedule before, and it was SOO fun! first off, everything was designed for children, which meant that the words and sentences were much easier. The lesson had something to do with how we know that jesus is a real person (or something like that...). It was hilarious though, because the priest started asking all the kids why people lie. Then he asked one specific child why she lies...and when she wouldn't answer, he simply said "don't worry! we all lie! just tell us why you do it!" it was pretty cute and definately funny. We're hoping to catch more of these masses...as we comprehend more and they are at 11:30am. two good things!

the last month or so

2006-05-07T13:31:00.000Z

Okay, so now that May is upon us, I thought it was time for an update!

I've been spending an increaseing amount of my work time at home. Why? because I have internet in my apartment, and my organization barely has money to cover the office rent, let alone pay for a computer and internet! This week, after spending a morning researching grant options and reading the local news, I headed for my bus stop. I was a bit early, so I was spacing out while waiting for the bus to arrive. Suddenly, my attention refocused on Bulgaria when a car and "float" passed by FULL of face-painted and coutume clad adults. Between the happy music pumping cheerfully from the stereo and the colorful getups from the paraders, it took me a minute to realize...THE CICRUS IS IN TOWN! about 1 minute later, my bus finally comes...leaving the circus parade in the dusk. now, i've seen a lot of weird things in bulgaria, but for some reason, this one is WAAAY out there for me. something about the circus wagon arriving before my bus made me crack up all day...

Condi Rice was here. She was on a tour of the region, talking about the EU, Cyprus and NATO. Bulgaria joined NATO a while back, and an informal meeting was held at Sofia's national palace of culture (NDK). Traffick was a mess, people were outraged that trafic was a mess, and a local political group - Ataka- was outraged that Bulgaria had just signed a bill allowing more US bases to be built in Bulgaria. This winter (?), it was discovred that several American bases in eastern european countries were actually being used to torture people, so there was big of controversy over whether or not Bulgaria should take these bases. Ataka staged huge rallies, but thankfully, the Bulgarian officials did a MUCH better job controlling oppositional forces that the government of say, Greece. There were much more violent protests in Athens, 3 days before Condi came to bulgaria. We were a little worried that we would encounter some anti-american violence, but everything turned out well...and i got a lovely picture out of the whole deal!

On of my students, Eli, is applying for a journalism competition. This program is designed specifically for Roma youth, and would include a 10- week training on becoming a journalist. Unfortunately, she doesn't know how to type, so she came over to my apartment on monday (bulgarian labor day) and we worked on her resume and motivation statement. It was pretty funny recieving a dictation in bulgarian, espeically since I didn't know all the words! It was even funnier when she asked me for my input...thankfully, those were during times when I understood what I was writting! but mostly, i feel really good about what we were able to do together. It might not seem like a lot to those of you back in the states, but when its all said and done, these are the kind of moments that make our peace corps service feel rewarding. Eli's friends don't have computers, don't know how to type, and don't have access to the internet- luckily, I do- and I was able to help her. Now, I hope she gets the chance to go!!

finally, i would like to request that no packages or mail be sent to me for a short time. The mail address is- as it seems- currently not the most accurate...I will post here when its all cleared up!

happy bulgarian labor day, cinco da mayo, and george's day (bulgaria)!

Condi at the Embassy

2006-05-05T07:13:00.000Z

Orthodox Easter!!

2006-04-24T16:55:00.000Z

Luck, health, and anything else a person could wish for...its all mine!!!

atleast, according to a Bulgarian Easter tradition, that is.

Bulgarian Christians celebrate Christmas on the western calendar, but Easter according to the eastern calender. This year, easter fell one week after the western celebration, so I got to celebrate twice!

On the 24th, I took a city bus to go to my friend Ogi's house. She lives about 3 miles away, but a quick 15 minutes bus ride. Her family is mega cool, and they are pretty much my adopted family. They enjoy feeding me (i really like that too!), asking my questions about my work, my family, or america, and I like hanging out with them and getting little history lessons on the sly (Ogi's dad looooves to talk to me about communism. However, no one else in the family appreciates these stories- so he can only tell me about it when no one is looking!).

As soon as I got to their house, I was greeted by lunch, 3 puppies and an inviation to go to the famed mountain of "vitosha!" I was pretty pumped to say the least. They had been waiting for the weather to warm up so that they could show me this mountain, and Ogi's mom Nadia decided that we "should use the moment and the weather" for my initaition.

One old-school russian car ride later (oh yeah, there's a picture), we were breathing clean air and setting up a mini-picnic. We ate "kazanlak," which is a bread that is made only for easter. Back in the day, people made it at home, and it took ALL DAY LONG! we didn't eat "domashna"(homemade) kazanlak on the mountain, but it was still really fanstatic! Then the family brought out a basket of colored eggs. Now, as most americans have been dying eggs for generations, this doesn't seem to irregular. But here in bulgaria, instead of hiding the eggs, we SMASH them!

each family member takes an egg, and one by one, cracks their egg on someone else's. If your egg cracks- sorry! no health and luck for you- just a tasty runner-up prize. If your opponent's egg cracks, you advance to the next level to smash someone else's egg. Well, between pure luck and being a guest- I won! Provided that I guard this egg ALL YEAR LONG, its said that i will have a lot of luck this year. For the rest of the day, i was sort of suspecting that i'd break the egg doing something foolish- but 24 hours later- the egg is still intact!

The rest of the day was spent romping around in the mountains, snapping pictures, grabbing naps, and discussion books (nadia (ogi's mom) reads all the time and loves french and american authors) and exploring nature. Ogi's dad even made me eat grass. No joke. he picked it, ate some himself, and then gave me the rest as a mid-afternoon snack. now THAT is cross-cultural.

So all in all, it was pretty darned fantastic. the weather was gorgeous, the company was unbeatable, and my luck is only going to get better.

pretty cool easter, huh?

some good news

2006-04-15T18:24:00.000Z

For the past two months, 90% of my time has been focused on creating a committee on ethnic issues and tolerance within Peace Corps. there have a been a lot of struggles, a few false moves, but mostly, success! So with a lot of passion behind the issue and a good internet connection, i've been working to drive memebership and generate support, while other volunteers have been looking for funding option, creating support in the administration and in their communities.

One of our goals is to help keep a minority-youth camp running and sustainable. This camp, called "Zaedno Napred," (Together, forward) has been going on for several summers, and this year, they are adding a multi-ethnic camp. We are invited applicants from all ethinic background in bulgaria to participate in an informative, educational, and FUN week on the black sea- learning about each other, and how to help groups interact better in their home communities. So back to how the minority committee is helping. This year, the camp is short about $1000, and we need a way to raise it. Instead of asking wealthy Americans or brits who live in bulgaria, we are turning to the "grassroots" level by asking local governments for help. we are also applying for various grants in the area.

and we got one! today I just got word that we recieved our first grant for 500 leva! This is about $320, but its a big deal! some of you may recall that myself and another volunteer used "skype" to help write this project about a month back...thank goodness for technology!

and in other good news, one of my best friends from Vanderbilt just got into the peace corps! her interview was on thursday, and normally, the waiting game would take up to a month. However, they offered her a nomination right on the spot! i have NEVER heard of this in my life, and infact, her interviewer said he'd never done that before! So, Cindy is going to become a teacher in either eastern europe or asia, and will leave in august. WOW! i was really impressed.

so that's what's going on here! send me an email and let me know about you!

Celebrating Outer space

2006-04-12T16:28:00.000Z

Today we mark the first successful manned flight into outer space!!!!

in 1961 Yori Gagarin, a soviet pilot turned cosmonaut, made civilization's first trip out into the big blue sky.

After he returned, Gagarin became something of an international hero; touring at home, to other bloc countries, and even abroad. He is so well loved that its impossible to enter a former soviet stronghold without finding remnants of his accomplishment. Streets, schools, public places- they all bear his name. Here in Bulgarian, you'd think he was one of their own- atleast, I certainly thought so until today.

I think one of the most remarkable things I encounter here is a doorway into history. Sometimes I wonder if Bulgaria has entered the newest millennium or not, but there is still something admirable about the memory for its past.

In an area of the world breaking new ground yet mired in the past, who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Wikipedia- an addiction

2006-04-09T16:38:00.000Z

The internet can be used for either good or evil. But if one has an addiction to the internet, I am pretty sure only evil can ensure.

my most recent addiction? Wikipedia- the clientele edited online encyclopedia. Here, you can find information on your hometown from the 2002 census, which supreme court cases are dependent on the 14th amendment (my favorite amendment!) to the name sake of your street...

Who knew that my address was tied to communism? Not me! Anyway, wikipedia away- I recommend it!

Silence and 2 #2 pencils

2006-04-08T18:36:00.000Z

Every peace corps volunteer has a secret.

from the moment we start filling in bubble sheets with our social security numbers to the day we conclude our service and return to the United States, we keep this secret tucked away- only to share it with the closest of volunteer friends.

each of us secretly hopes for a fabulous international career with the foreign service. With a life that promises travel languages culture and movie-like scenes where we advise the Host Country's President on how to save civilization from impending doom, life as a foreign service officer seems our path to happiness.

Today, hundreds of us around the world drug ourselves out of bed at 5am and while wiping the sleep from our eyes, began memorizing the address of the American embassies. Why? Today, April 8th, was the international test date for the Foreign Service Written exam- a test composed of grammatical know-how, essay savvy, political and historical knowledge, and a specific career track exam. This 6 hour test is the first of 3 steps required before a candidate can become a Foreign Service Officer (FSO). The exam is so daunting that more than HALF of those registered to take the test fail to report to the test facility.

1 down, 2 to go!

so there, that's our little peace corps secret.

ISTANBUL!

2006-03-22T08:13:00.000Z

*queue "Istanbul (not Constantinople) by the Four Lads*

Istanbul, the city where "east meets west," loads of people speak English, and everyday is a good day for bargaining!

with a combination of bulgaria's proximity to turkey, its frequent buses to Istanbul, and Peace Corps earned vacation days, Istanbul is perhaps the one place that all volunteers visit. last tuesday, I boarded a bus at 10pm to take me to this former Turkish capital city. $27 and 12 hours later, Christin, Kelly, and I arrived in Istanbul- armed with our tourist information and maps gallore, we set off to experience a city entwined with Greek, roman, ottoman, and EU influences.

Our first stop was hostel "bahaus." After wandering tram to tram, we finally found our hostel, which was lodged between rows and rows of other hostels- each one promising to be more homey, cozy and english-language-friendly than the last. Our hostel was beyond fantastic, and one of the real selling points was the staff. if you've never stayed in a hostel before, here's a quick run down of the experience. (Hostels vary a lot in quality and rooming, but in our case, we booked a room for three people, and then shared common spaces with other people-hallways, showers, common room/dining room. The idea behind hostels is that people who are traveling the world need to save money more than they need their own bathroom. Hence, the hostel culture is one where you meet really amazing people, and if the reduced cost of your night's sleep isn't enough of an incentive to stay at a hostel, the other guests that you'll meet definitely should be!) One great service that our hostel offered was a walking tour of Istanbul- highly, highly recommended!! Not only did we pay about 15% of a travel agency's price for our tour, we again got a chance to meet other hostel guests and staff members, and saved a LOT of time following around a local, rather than getting lost with our heads stuck in our travel books!

Istanbul is a largely Islamic city, which it has been since the end of the Roman empire. So one of the most beautiful things about this city is the number of ornate mosques which were commissioned during the Ottoman empire. Although it would be impossible for me to actually NAME most of the mosques we visited, the two most famous are the Blue Mosque, and hagia sofia, though the latter is no longer a mosque. most of the mosques are open to tourists. you simply have to remove your shoes- and for women cover your head with a scarf- and then you can enter the mosque. We also visited several Tomb sites, which are all in public buildings. Who knew that my vacation would include seeing the coffins of former sultans of Turkey?

speaking of sultan's, one place that can't be missed is the palace in sultanamunt (the old city). We spent almost 3 hours just wandering around the palace grounds, marveling at the beauty of the structures, the gardens, and the view of the city. A lot of people go to this palace to see the harem. The harem was really ornate, and is the largest building in the palace. If you check out my photos from the last post, you can see pictures of the sultan's throne/sitting room. We also checked out the treasury, which held precious items and jewelry from several important time periods in Constantinople. One of my favorites was the jewel encrusted throne on which the Sultan would have been carried from place to place- think Aladdin here!

another 'do not miss' aspect of Istanbul is the trip to Asia!!! Istanbul is separated by the Bosphorus River so that part of Istanbul is on the European continent, and part of it is in Asia. People often say that once you leave Istanbul, you have left the last piece of Europe behind, and have entered into The East. So while you can't tell a difference in the Asian and European part of Istanbul, its pretty fun to say that you've been to both continents in one day!

And of course, no trip outside of Bulgaria would be complete without the desperate search for a starbucks! If you are looking for the true mark of the modern world, you must first seek out the city's starbucks. I think there's actually a law about it. Brush up on your homeland security sub-laws. So, while feeling TOTALLY American, Christin, Kelly, and I indulged in Starbucks and reveled in the smoke-free coffee shop that volunteers in Bulgaria only remember in dreams. Or trips to Istanbul.

So in addition to a trip to the Asian continent (I've now been to BOTH sides of Asia!), hanging out in a harem (no job offers just yet!), hitting up the local starbucks (and I actually hate caffeine!) and scoping out some palaces, we saw tons of other landmarks too! We went to a photography exhibit near Taxim, which displayed photos taken by a current parliamentary Member. As part of our walking tour, we climbed up some tower for a view of the city, which was effectively Istanbul's answer to the Empire Statebuilding. It was basically a big waste of money b/c the sky wasn't that clear, but the ticket was cool- so all and all, that trip wasn't so bad :) We tasted Turkish Delights, sipped apple tea, reveled in Turkish style pudding (soooo cheap!), took Turkish baths, and visited many mosques.

Another thing which you might be familiar with, is the bazaar scene in Istanbul. For a normal Westerner who does their shopping in malls with the occasional summer-time roadside sweetcorn purchase, bazaars are a bit daunting, if not insane. But for seasoned Peace Corps volunteers, bazaring is our way of life! its how we get our shoes, our fruits, our veggies...sometimes even notebooks or jewelry! But the big difference between Bulgarian bazaars and Istanbul's??? The BARGAINING!! When you enter the bazaars, such as the spice market or the grand bazaar, you'll notice two things. First, EVERYONE will be dying to get your attention. You'd be surprised how the simple utterance of "hello, how are you today?" or "hi lady!" will attract your attention to a booth. Some people say nonsense, and others come up with witty sales pitches such as "how can I help take your money today?" The second this that will strike you is the lack of pricetags. By and large, every item must be bargained for, and your ability to speak English could significantly decrease your ability to take home your treasure for a great steal! I tried by best to speak Bulgarian to people in the bazaars, and I think it helped me get a better price- but only when people understood Bulgarian! lol.

the spice market was one of my favorite places, because it was filled with shops overflowing with colorful bins of different spices. From natural fruit teas, to sugary fake teas, to Iranian saffron, fake perfume, different peppers, to whatever kind of spice you can think of! Its all sold in the spice market. When you make your selection, its really high-tech. All the shops have those vacuum seal machines, so your purchase is not only well suited for packing, but it will stay fresh longer. In the grand bazaar, people selling Turkish rugs, bracelets, pillows, pottery, artwork, tshirts, tapestries, purses, gold, perfume...You name it! This bazaar was SOO big that we actually left to prevent getting lost!

So we saw lots of cool stuff and met lots of cool people, but I have to say one of the best experiences for me was linguistical. Enough people in Turkey understand Bulgarian, but most people don't speak it. However, we were lucky enough to meet a few characters who spoke and understood Bulgarian! First, in our hostel, one of the boys who was working there was born in Bulgaria. He lived most of his life in a town with a large Islamic population, and for that reason, speaks both Turkish and Bulgarian. He didn't speak English, but all the other guests in the hostel only spoke English or German. So we had the unique experience of communicating with this guy in his own language! Then, on our last night, we were killing time in a cafe until our train arrived. We were enjoying our last cup of apple tea, when the people at the table next to us bumped our table and began apologizing in English. We struck up a small conversation, and when one of the men (who was from Slovakia) realized we were living in Bulgaria, he immediately began speaking Bulgarian to us! As it turns out, this guy had been a professor in Bulgaria for 3 years, and as a result speaks remarkable Bulgarian- he could have passed as a native speaker in my book! As I've spent time in Bulgaria, I've marveled at the group of foreigners we know who speak their second or third language, English, to each other. Its so cool to see people use additional languages in order to communicate, so when I was able to take part in an attribute I've been admiring in other people for so long, it felt really good!

All in all, this trip to Istanbul was more than I could have ever imagined a vacation could be!! I got to meet some really fantastic people, see a historically important part of the world, speak a little Turkish and Bulgarian, and come home FULLY relaxed and ready for work.

I recommend Istanbul to all of you!

pics of istanbul

2006-03-21T23:28:00.000Z

http://community.webshots.com/user/cafejunkie05

Istanbul photos are ready- check 'em out!

okay, update soon. promise! :)

istanbul sneak peak!

2006-03-19T22:29:00.000Z

This is the Hagia Sophia - a church turned mosque turned museum- sorry the picture is blurry, but I thought it was too beautiful to delete! This building was orignally commissioned in the 6th century by Justinian. Today, this part of Istanbul is considered the "old city," and contains many historical buildings.

St. Patrick's day! This is Christin and I celebrating the holiday in local "Irish" pub in Istanbul's hip neighboorhood, Taksim. We spent more money on beer and fries here than we did on entire night's sleep in our hostel! and we only bought 1 beer each!

okay, stay tuned over the next few days for a detailed list of characters encountered in Istanbul, more pictures, and a general update!

travel travel

2006-03-14T16:51:00.000Z

One of my new favorite spots in bulgaria is the sofia central bus station. I wager that anyone with an inquisitive mind and fascination with public transportation would feel the same way.For this bus station, you can get almost anywhere via a direct bus to your destination city or one further down the line. at 7pm, 8-10 buses depart to all different directions of bulgaria, and rain or shine, those buses are always full. This friday, as I sat in the front seat of a bus bound for Shumen (home of ben and jen of shumen), I marveled at the array of people traveling around the country- to shumen, plovid, dobrich, varna, pazardjik, viden, instabul, greece- everywhere. and with a varied assortment of luggage, newspapers, and snacks, one can't help but wonder the what and the why of the travelers. how many of them commute? the bus to plovdiv is a double decker, and every night its packed full. as i looked out my window into sector 26, the plovdiv sector, I saw people sitting calmly, people stuffing their luggage under the bus, people snoozing, and people reading the newspaper. something about those newspaper readers really triggered my mind, and I wondered if it was possible that these people commute to sofia? everything seemed so normal and undercontrol- as if people had made these trips before a hundred times. outside the buses, girlfriends and boyfriends shared hugs, kisses- husbands and wives, cousins, and other close relations shared long goodbyes- and it makes you think- is this event only today? do you go through this process every week? so i am truely amazed by the sofia bus station- people always coming, always going...who knows what their business is?

today that person will be me. the mysterious person traveling for mysterious reasons. Only for you, dear reader, is the mystery about to be solved! with my bags packed and an extra hour to spare, I am going to Istanbul! that's right, Istanbul, the former center of the Byzantine Empire, former largest city in the world, formerly called "constantinople," and I'm going!!! after 4 1/2 months at work, its time for a little pochevka! (break!) So I am catching an 11pm bus out of sofia, meeting up with Christen (PCV from the city of Sliven) and her sister Kelly (visiting) in Plovdiv, and heading for the border! We should arrive around 7am- IF there are no delays crossing the border! Hopefully we picked a good company, because there are many horror stories about bus companies that really just operate for smuggling cigarettes and liquor back into bulgaria...so keep your fingers crossed that we don't do accidentally do anything illegal!

While we are there, we will see the St. Sofia church (sofia, is this region of the world, means "knowledge"), which if i am not mistaken, was at one time the largest church in the world? or something?? anyway, Istanbul is this amazing city where "east meets west," as the city straddles two continents; europe and asia. After Constantinople was taken over by the Turks during the Ottoman Empire, this once over-whelmingly christian city is now FULL of mosques...many of them gorgeous- so expect pictures!

part of me thinks that taking vacations like this while being a peace corps volunteer is ridiculous. My friend Monica, from Vanderbilt, recently returned from 'alterntive spring break" in guatamala, where she was working with Peace Corps Volunteers doing physical labor of some sort. Since I am in Europe, its infinately easier for me to travel to other countries than say, a PCV in guatamala. While Bulgaria is far from a perfect country, the infrastructre is WAY more modern that some other peace corps countries, so it is really easy for us to move about. PLUS, since Bulgaria itself was part of the Ottoman Empire, many Turks live in Bulgaria, and many Bulgarians live in Turkey. That means that travel between the two countries is frequent and CHEAP! I am traveling a total of 24 hours on a bus (provided no border delays) and the entire ticket will cost me about ~$50! you can barely get a ONE-WAY ticket on southwest for that price, *and* I'm going to another country and attempting to speak turkish!! (this is the part where everyone comments on the sensibility of my trip, rather than the extravagence of taking an international vacation :) )

okay, well a nice part of my extra hour is up- so i better gather my stuff, double check for the passport, and jump on the bus to sofia!

po dobre

2006-03-05T21:38:00.000Z

A week ago, i was in Stara zagora, thinking about how much i wanted to kill my counterpart, Isai. This week finds me in a different mood- thankfully NOT one of murder and corruption!!! PeaceCorps sat us down with a translator last week, and for the most part, everything was worked out. Some people might file this away as a big mis-communication, but I would say its more accurately described as an unwillingness to communicate. Well, such is life, and there is no point in dwelling on things such as "who was right" etc etc... from the beginning, I have just been anxious to move on and start developing some stuff at work. Hopefully this will start to happen pretty soon!!

Other things that have brightened my mood are recent visits by near and dear b18s- PCVs from my group! as friday was a holiday, apryl from rakitovo came to pernik!!! we ate yummy traditional bulgarian food on friday and also enjoyed some wine. On saturday, i made BIG plans for us to take a hike up to the famous "krakra fortress!" This fortress was a medieval structure used to protect the city of Sredets from Byzantine threats. The early town of pernik gained and lost importance throughout history, but the remenants of this fortress- with its reinforced walls and turrets- prove a lasting reminder of the theaters of war in europe. whoops, got sidetracked! anyway, after making sure we'd eaten something and loaded our bags with snacks and water, apryl and I started off for krakra fortress! map in hand, we successfully found ourselves weaving through town and onto some dirt roads. Approximately 5 minutes later, we'd arrived at the fortress!! so my big plans for hike turned out to be plans for a little stroll around town- but check out our pictures anyway! (some are stolen from apryl!)

afterwards, we headed into sofia (surprised) for some indian food! we met up with my sitemate Lincoln and his girlfriend Sevi, and a former volunteer from pernik, Brian, and his wife Maria. good times were had by all!!

On sunday, after latin mass and a fantastic vegetarian meal, apryl went back home to the Rodope mountains!! :(

THEN i met up with Vassi!!! i assume we all remember Vassi as my DC and borovets roomie, but if not, consider that your reminder!! :) we ate some dinner, caught up from her trip to india (!!!!) and then cruised around sofia on foot! we both made some interesting discoveries in town including; a new movie theater, break dancing bulgarians, many many stores with great clothes that we will never be able to afford! after some ice cream and talk about the upcoming minoirty camp committee meeting, we parted ways-

so i just wanted to say that I am doing much better, my boss still sucks but I'm willing to overlook that, and in 9 days, I will be sitting on a train to ISTANBUL!!!!!!

pictures!

2006-02-25T23:36:00.000Z

check out my photo link!!! i will put more up later, but for now this is it!

http://community.webshots.com/user/cafejunkie05

and also, check out mike's photos from the Republic of Georgia!

http://community.webshots.com/user/mikerobie

for real this time!

2006-02-25T07:52:00.000Z

Okay, before I get started- South Dakota should immediately be forced out of the Union. And mike rounds...well, I'll pretend that the things I have to say about him and the state legislatrue are prohibited by the FCC. I'm really tired of people who think that changing a roe v. wade decision will only change a women's right to choose. In reality, if this case were ever overturned, it would affect a lot of court-cases UNrelated to a woman's right to choose. ack.

but let's talk about me :)

One important thing that I left off of the last post is the other committee I'm on- Team travel. Sounds official, doesn't it? well, I don't really care about the committee...the point is, its set up for traveling to the November 5th Athens Marathon!!!!! that's right, 26.2 miles, here I come!! Last year, a group of volunteers (10 or so) ran the Athens marathon. my group has thus decided to keep the "tradition" alive, and there are currently 20 of us planning to run the marathon. SO if you've thought to yourself "I want to run a marathon!" and "I want to see toni!" then make plans to come to Greece in the first weekend of november! Rumor has it that people there speak english! no you have NO more excuses!

Yesterday, my friend Ogniana or "ogi" (from "fire") had her 23 birthday!! we met up after work, and then i went to her family's house. A lot of her friends are out of the country (normal for young ppl in bulgaria- its the only way to find a job), so her birthday was really relaxed. I love spending time with her family! they are SO incredibly nice to me, and whenever I have a bad day or I am consumed with something, they have this uncanny ability of erasing that. They are remarkable hospitable and kind people. Anyway, the day of bulgarian independance is coming up next week, so I earned big points with her dad by asking about the holiday and how its celebrated. bulgarians love bulgaria! So yeah, i have had a TERRIBLE week, but by the time I left their house last night, I felt ready to face the world again.

On sunday, I am leaving Pernik for Stara Zagora! in addition to being the home of one of my friends, there is a peace corps conference on grant writting! I am pretty excited about it
a)because I hardly ever travel out of the sofia region
b) all my friends will be there (ahhh, reunions and english speakers!)
c) it will be a really valuable experience for my NGO!
The workshops is from Monday - Wednesday, and during that time, we will learn some spefics on writting projects for USAID, and other funding organizations. Espeically since my organization has absolutely NO money (and hasn't for the past 3 years...) this will be a very good workshop for us.

Last weekend, I spent most of my time in sofia, because a former volunteer from my town got MARRIED!!! it was pretty exciting to see his family pour in and get ready for the wedding here. And even though his brothers don't speak the language, they did a pretty good job trying to set up some "normal" social activities for the friends and wedding party. On friday night, we went out to a club in "studentski grad" (university town, basically) and hung out there until the wee hours of the morning.

Bulgarian independance day is March 3rd, which means I get to enjoy my first national, non-religious holiday since I've been a volunteer! Anyway, find any old bulgarian man, and he will gladly tell you the story of bulgaria under the turkish empire/turkish yoke. Last night, my friend's dad, Paulo, finshed the story with "and we have been free ever since!" to which his wife replied "except for communism!" it was a hilarious moment for me, though perhaps, just because I understood the whole converstation!

Starting on the 1st of march, some of the sofia region volunteers (Myself, Andrea, Boudreaux (married couple) and Randy) will start an advanced english discussion club in the Sofia public library. There was an initial meeting last monday, but most of us weren't able to make it. Anyway, for about an 1 once to twice per week, we will get to sit down with a group of bulgarians who speak excellent english, and get to ask them about anything we want!! This is always a good opportunity to learn about bulgarian culture and holidays, or any other information that we dont understand. For example if you see a story on the news that you don't quite understand, it becomes perfect material for the group! The topic focuses on current affiars, so WE are learning more, and the Buglarians get to practice their english! Perfect symbiotic relationiship!

Today I am resgistering to take the foreign service exam! While I highly doubt that I can pass both the written and the oral exam, its a good opportunity to take a crack at the test before I am truely "serious" about entering the foreign service. I think I am going to try for the Political track, which is the most competative, but also the most relevant in terms of my major at vandy.

Other than that, Peace Corps had a discussion with me yesterday about wheither or not I want to stay at my host organization. Things have been a bit "rough" for the past couple of weeks, climaxing this week with my counterpart (think: bulgarian coworker who is your main contact in the organization) spreading rumors about me. He has also been lying to a lot of people. The biggest thing, however, was an argument that we had over this grant-writting workshop in stara zagora. Isai (counterpart) has to find a new job somewhere, because the NGO has no money and he has a family with three kids. This is defiantely understandable, and I would never think that someone should be prevented from taking care of their family. however, Isai will not be in our NGO's office to actaully help pass on the information gathered from this training- this means it is a wasted resource and opportunity for our NGO. Peace Corps suggested that someone else from our NGO attend the workshop- it would be stupid to train someone who won't be present during working hours to help me write a grant. This did not go over so well, and so Isai has basically refused to talk to me for several days, won't answer the phone when I call. SO peace corps offered me the opportunity to change sites. For right now, i am going to stay where I am, and see if these problems can't be resolved. I am really happy with the town I am in, and the youth i am working with- so its pretty hard for me to pick up and move. At the same time, I have to wonder what I am putting myself through...

but on a brighter note, Mike Robie from vanderbilt, who is a PCV in the republic of georgia, was online today! we spent about 2 hours talking and catching up on what's happening in our countries, with our friends at vandy, etc. it was SO fun to have that opportunity to see what is different beteween our countries, etc. If all goes well, we are going to meet up somewhere in Europe this summer! maybe bulgaria, maybe germany, who knows!!!

okay, have a great week, and send me some emails!

quick update!

2006-02-21T22:02:00.000Z

Dear darling Keith is right- i need to update!!!

so quite plainly here it is;

I now have a refridgerator!!!!!
I have a laptop!
complete with internet!!
my minority committee is on a bit of a halt
But i'm now heading a fundrasing committee for a Roma youth camp
I might go to Russia in may to sing with my choir/ensemble!!
My counterpart (director of my NGO) is taking a job in another city
The Vanderbilt Hustler interviewed me for an article on the peace corps
I attended a mass in bulgarian!!

Things aren't looking too good for BG and Romania...EU what??? http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/bulgaria-and-romanias-on-time-eu-accession-chances-decrease/id_13671/catid_69

i know i have written total crap here, but even a crappy list is better than nothing, right?

A feeling of accomplishment

2006-01-29T16:11:00.000Z

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, all of the b18s (that is- bulgaria, group 18) PCVs had some additional training in a resort town called bankia. We met up for an "in-service" in order to regenerate our enthusiasm, grab some new ideas for working in our communities, and catch up with one another!! Most of us hadn't seen eachother since the end of October, so it was definately fun to catch up with them and see how VERY different each of our assignments are. While some PCVs are so busy that they barely have a moment to themselves, others have a more relaxed work environment are are working to find their work-place niche. We had a lot of interesting sessions on youth empowerment, character buliding, leadership development, grant writting, and of course, the health and safety sessions which are designed to keep us happy, healthy and safe. those last ones were kind of a snooze! the last day, we attended 6 language classes!!! It was pretty exciting to be back in "formal" classrooms with the Peace Corps language instructors!! These teachers are some of the best i have EVER encountered in my life, so in addition to learning a lot, we a had a bunch of fun.

but the most important thing that happened at IST, for myself, was a meeting for all PCVs with minority-related assignments. There are a handfull of us working with Roma or Turkish communities throughout bulgaria, and I thought it was time that we became connected in order to share our ideas, successes, and failures. So, I organized a meeting with PCVs and the Bulgarian counterparts (basically, our bosses) to talk about what kind of a network people were interested in establishing, how they thought their needs could be served, and what kind of information and services we will provide. Everyone was really excited and enthusiastic, and contributed to the creation of this new committee. We decided that we are going to begin as a network of information for each other, and will eventually branch out to include ALL PCVs in bulgaria working with minorities, and after that, to become a resource center for all the OTHER PCVs looking for information on working with minorities. I basically came up with this idea after conversations with my friends increased my curiousity for their jobs, their communities, and their successes. Each person had a different community (big, small, rich, poor, isolated, etc), and yet everyone was having successes in their community. My idea was to bring together all of these experiences, so that we can learn from eachother, and then share our knowledge with other volunteers in the country. and Since bulgarian wil be the primary language used in our communications, when volunteers return to the united states, their bulgarian coworkers will STILL have access to all the information, in addition to contacts all around the country!!

i am really excited for the potential for this group!! We have already discussed creating a newspaper and organizing multi-ethnic summer camps. I will definately keep you all posted on this!!

More holidays!

2006-01-18T09:54:00.000Z

So, those of you who are more astute (like my sitemate, Lincoln) will recognize that the bazar/market I explained is much like a farmer's market!!! I foolishly forgot that we had anything in the US that resembled our marketplace. But as my language faulters, and I forget what life was like in the US- don't worry, because I promise I remember all of you!

Happy name day to me (tues 17th)!!! Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, happens to share something in common with me- our name!!! In the bulgarian orthodox church (which oddly celebrates things according to the gregorian calandar, and not e orthodox...), the feast of each saint, as they would be called in the Catholic Chuch, is CELEBRATED! I mean, this is a big deal!!! So for anyone named Tony, Toni, Anthony, Antoinette, Antonia, etc, yesterday was a party day! in some cases, we Tones aren't even expected to go to work! we are supposed to drink a lot of rakia, eat chocolates, and have a party in a restaurant that night. Its also a day when the similarly named person pays for everything- you "treat" your friends to food, coffee, candy, etc because of your good fortune of sharing a name with a saint. People have all kinds of wishes for you- including those of long life, good health, and lots of love! Too bad someone didn't wish me luck in the bulgarian language.... :) I celebrated by bringing chocolates into work, and then took my english class to coffee after class.

Oh yeah, so I'm teaching an english class now :) I am phenomonaly happy to be teaching this class- in fact, I am so pleased with this bi-weekly activity that I have definately suprised myself. I was extremely resistant to teaching an english class for myriad reasons, perhaps one of the least flattering that "I didn't go to university to teach English!" However snobby that was(and I don't really care that it is, which is probably telling of my haughty character and my notoriously dominating work-style), I truely felt that my time would be better spent writting grants and building connections with other organization- after all, that was WHY I was placed with my organization- they wanted a grant writter, and PC thought I showed potential. Needless to say, with a crappy attitude like this, I thought class would be terrible. Man was I wrong!!!! Though I have only taught 3 classes so far, I have had a TON of fun with my students, and I think they get a kick out of my attempts to explain MY language while speaking in THEIRS. I have about 8-9 students, which is small, but they are incredibly bright and have great energy and enthusiasm to learn english. SO far, they can introduce themselves, ask you who you are/where you are from, use the verbs "to be" and "to like" with questions, positive statements, and negative statements, and identify basic food items in english. I am really proud of them, and this has become the highlight of my week!

Also last week, I celebrated the Roma New Year!!! I attended the event with my coworkers, local Romi people, and another volunteer from a near by (and TERRIBLY small) town. We ate a ton, danced even more, and for the most part, had a really great time! the only negative thing was that my boss got in a fight! Clearly, this was no good, espeically since the bulgarian version on National PBS was at our party!! whoops!!!! Actaully, the reasons he got in a fight was partially because of me. There was a guy from another Roma NGO who came up and introduced himself to me during the course of the party, and he had obviously read about me in the newspapers or watched the interviews on the local news, because he knew that I had done work for the Dem. party and that I was a Peace Corps volunteer. SO the converstation started out fine, but then he asked me how I had become a volunteer for my specific organization. As I began to explain the application and interview process, he interrupted me and began telling me that I was a liar! Then he said that all Americans are liars, that the embassy is full of liars, etc- and to make matters worse, he then told the TV reporters that i was a liar, a bad person, and A SECRET AGENT sent from the US to spy on the Romi people in my town!!!!!!!!! what?!?!?!?!?!? well, as it turns out, this guy was really drunk, but in general, is known for antics such as this. So Isai, my boss, basically had enough, and started a fight with him!!! Thankfully though, no one was arrested, the mean guy was escorted out of the party, and nobody got hurt!!!

okay, so that is MY update- I'd love to hear yours!!!!! please send me some emails!!!

Food, food everywhere!!

2006-01-15T13:06:00.000Z

Okay, so in one of my recent posts, I knocked bulgarian cookies. Now, before you go thinking that there is no good food to eat around here, i have to take a little time today and fill you in on how I find food here in the BG-

Remember being in elementary school? Middle school? high school? do you remember days when the lunch hall food was so appalling that you opted to go hungry instead? do you remember days when you ate the food anyway, only to find yourself hungry a few hours later? Well write to your congress(wo)men folks, because right here in the BG is the very solution you were searching for as a child!! Instead of having cafeterias in the schools that serve meals, snack stands exist within the school itself, and directly surrounding the school grounds. These snack stands are awesome, and feature a full range of breakfast foods, warm lunchy-type foods, to juice, water, pretzels, chocolate candies, "little debbie" style snacks, etc. Whatever kind of snack food exists here in bulgaria, it can be found right here! Think of this as a reved up version of a consession stand, but with selection beyond your imagination, and competative prices!!! So for a mere 50 stotinki, or about 35-37 cents, I can happily munch on a 50 gram bag of pretzels, drink a bottle of mineral water, or delight in a FRESH chocolate croissant! its pretty amazing- between the affordablity of these 1 portion-sized snacks, the selection, and the availablity- i'm definately sold!!

Okay Toni, so we know that you are getting adaquet snacking time in your life, but what about food that provides nutrients? you know, nourishing foods like fruits and vegetables? Enter the bulgarian market-place. Every town has "market day," called a пазар, or in bigger towns like mine, the markets run every day. If you have ever visited chinatown in new york, this is what the bulgarian market looks like. Up and down several street blocks, venders set up tables filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, honey, homemade wine and rakia (brandy), clothing, housewares, tools, and almost anything that a person could possibly need! (note the almost... :) ) These venders have spaces that are about 5 ft X 5 ft on which they display their products. There are always tons of venders selling the exact same product (wheither it be pair of mittens or a piece of fruit), so competition results in outstanding product display (the best venders will cut an orange in half so you can see the quality of the fruit), encouraging kindness (I in fact, only buy from the venders who try to entice my attention), and the guarentee that if you wander through the entire pazar, you can find exactly what you are looking for, at exactly the right price. A typical trip to the pazar in my case usually results in 1/2 kilo of tangerines, a few apples and bananas, some potatoes or tomatoes, and the occasional article of winter-weather clothing-ie, gloves, hat, etc.

But sometimes the marketplace isn't a viable option after dark, so I have to get food somehow, right? After work, I have two options for securing food- what i'd like to call "american" style stores, and "point" stores. The "american" style stores are what we are used to (hence the name, right?), where you grab a shopping cart or a basket, and wander around the aisles, making decisions between brand x and brand y, and at your leisure, shop and check out. Then there are the "point" stores. If, as volunteers, our "foreignness" is more noticable anywhere else than in these "point" stores, I'd very much like to see this place! Stores are much smaller here, and have limited space, so things are often squeezed right next to the next item, and the shop keeper has an excellent knowledge of each product's location. In these stores, you go to the counter and list off everything that you want- so if you don't know the name of the product you think looks tasty, this is where the "pointing" comes in!!! This can be either frustrating or comical experience for both the volunteer and/or the shopkeeper, and hopefully more of the latter!

so next time you are wondering around a grocery store trying to decide wheither to buy store brand frootloops or the real kind, think about how much tougher the decision would be if you didn't know the name for either!!!!!

happy shopping!

Christmas, new years, and everything in between

2006-01-03T12:15:00.000Z

okay, welcome back to my life in bulgaria! Happy new years ! (belated!) merry christmas (extremely belated!)

So in the days before christmas, everyone asked me how we celebrated christmas in the US, and how it was different from how it is celebrated in the BG...some what of a challenging question to answer, considering i hadn't seen a bulgarian christmas! but here are some of the differences and similarities;

similarities;
*presents!!
*orthodox calandar, which means we celebrate christmas on the same day as bulgarians
*days off of work!

Differences
*Santa Clause's helpers aren't elves, its a beautiful girl in a tiarra and white dress named "Snow White," or снежанка (sneh zhan ka)
*Stockings are NOT hung by the chimney with care...bulgarians hadn't heard that we did this, and now think that I/we are strange
*Christmas Eve, бъдни вечер (buhd nee vecher) is considered the most family oriented holiday. No one can eat meat or meat products, and an ODD number of food items must be on the table
*one of these food items is a big round loaf of bread with a coin in it. each person takes a portion of the bread, and then searches for the coin- whoever finds it, has luck for the next year!
*presents are put under the Christmas tree, елха (elha)- but elha doesn't mean christmas tree- it means something entirely different, which I can't figure out

but perhaps one of the most glaring differences is that a lot of people don't get THAT excited about christmas. My host sister told me that traditionally, new years is a much more important holiday than christmas, and it hasn't been until recently that christmas has become more important. why, you might be asking yourself??? well again, thank you Communism. Under Communism, people weren't really allowed to practice their religions (even though most people were Christians, and Catholics at that...so its not like bulgarian religion was crazy or something), and in fact, a lot of people were persecuted for practicing. Comminists were big time athiests, so for about 50 years, people didn't celebrate christmas with much gusto, but rather, new years. Santa Clause was called "Grandfather frost" and presents were exchanged during the new year. so there you go...

another interesting thing about the holiday season is that you get to see Bulgarian superstition in action!! Bulgarians are highly superstitious (hence the odd number of food items on christmas eve and the coin in the bread). Another example is in holiday wishes. In the states, we say thinks like "happy holidays" "merry christmas" and "happy new year!" but that's all I think of. Here, however, there is a very specific and LONG wish that you extend to everyone- its this very set and formal response, and I believe that if you fail to recite these wishes, you are wishing bad luck on yourself, or something. so here, what you say is "I wish you health, luck, love and love." okay, so maybe that's not really so long or strange, but it is strange that every person tells you this, regardless of their affiliation with you!!!

okay, so other than that, I have recently been hanging with a girl here named Ogi who works for the local TV station. She used to speak really great english when she was in school, (and in fact, still does pretty well, i think) and she wants to learn more- so we've been hanging out, talking in some combination of english and bulgarian together. she's really cool, and we definately have a good time! Yesterday I met her family, which was also nice. I think her dad really took a shining to me b/c (a) I was excited to hear him play the accordian and (b) because my last name is german, and he in fact, speaks great german. anyway, I think i was adopted into the family because they kept talkinga bout all the things we are going to do in the summer!!!

alright, so i'm sure that's enough for everyone!!!!! I want to say a big THANKS!!!!! to david and jessica for their wonderful package that they sent to me- I had such a good time playing with all the random things you sent me!!!

the politics of coffee, and don vito’s vital role

2005-12-20T09:53:00.000Z

Before I came to bulgaria, I couldn’t really stomach coffee. As much as I enjoyed the smell of coffee, a little too much, and I was assured not only fitful sleep, but probably borderline hallucinations! And so now, while not an avid coffee drinker, I’ve been doing my part to stunt my fragmented hopes of growing any taller. But more on that in a moment.

Another thing I did (or rather, something I did do, veruses something I couldn’t do)- I made several claims that anyone who sent me a letter would be entitled to bulgarian candy. Well, that’s a lie. As it turns out, there really isn’t that much candy here! You can buy bars of chocolate, or boxes of chocolates, or haibro gummy bears (yummm!!! But, as an imported product from germany, I can’t really afford them! I mean, daily. Drat!) but if you ever coming to bulgaria hoping to find a candy aisle, you’ll be a bit disappointed! Same goes for the cookies and cakes. Somewhere along the way, bulgaria missed the memo to put vanilla in their cakes and sugar in their cookies- haha. Okay, so its not quite that bad, but each trip to the grocery store, I make a trip down the cookie aisle- and its an evil game of trial and error, where each trial always results in my error of judgement! Sometimes the cookies on the box look SOOO good, and I think to myself “finally! A tasty cookie!” but usually, I’m wrong. The picture on the box promising me ooey-goey caramel in my cookie turns out to be simply caramel flavoring- this is definitely a tragedy in my life!

But you know what these cookies are really great for- coffee time! That’s right, coffee. Since the cookies aren’t particularly sweet or frilly, the wind up being the perfect companions to a nice fresh cup of coffee! While I can usually only bring myself to eat 1 or 2 cookies (out of pure necessity, I assure you), if I’ve got a nice cup of coffee in front of me, well, let’s just say that the cookies don’t stand much of a chance! J

Bulgarians take their coffee seriuosly. I mean, really really seriously. There are tons of coffee magazines (stores) littering the sidewalks in my town- each with barrels full of coffee beans, just waiting to be freshly ground for you! People will walk about of their way to visit a new coffee magazine or to a particular magazine where they can find their favorite bean. I know there are plenty of americans like this too, but it gets better!

If you truly want to accomplish something in Bulgaria, you can forget the board room. Everything from the personal to the professional goes down in the local cafes- establishments that typically serve only hot beverages, juices, and the occassional sandwich. For example, about 2 weeks ago, I sat through a meeting that took the entire morning. The people at the meeting were an array of people working in obshtinite around our oblastna (the municiple governments in our “region” or “county”) who had come together to discuss the status of minorities in each of their towns. So you would think that everything had been taken care of, but it hadn’t. As soon as the meeting let out, little clusters of people began foruming around the room. The atmosphere was a bit like choosing teams for middle-school kick-ball, where the ultimate winners would be the team that assembled all the right players with all the right assets. Each person was scouted, being scouted, or perhaps even both. The idea was to choose your dream team before someone else can get to them first. Then, your newly assembled team heads to the local café, where you begin pitching ideas to eachother, and start deciding your networks have connections in all the right places. So when someone asks you to go to coffee in Bulgaria, you’d best be advised NOT to skip out, for café-ing is not just a social activity- it’s the beginning of a new bussiness deal.

Oh, and as far as Don Vito goes, Jessica, I thought you should know and would appreciate that there is a “Don Vito” pizza in Sofia. ‘nuff said.

last weekend!

2005-12-19T14:40:00.000Z

There's SNOW in bulgaria! I mean, real snow! really large amounts of snow! On saturday night, the first "sticking" snow fell countrywide- totally nearly 1 ft (in my best estimation)! so that's exciting, and it means that my "fridge" (ledge outside my window) is function at extremely high capacity!!

this past weekend, I was in Shumen, visiting the formerly referrenced "Ben and Jen of Shumen!" It was a good time, though I must admitt I'm not sure I can make the trip very often. First off, it cost almost 1/8 of my living allowance just to travel there, and secondly, it was a 6 hour trip AFTER my 1 1/2 trip to the central bus station in sofia!!!! so yes, there were many good times, but from now on, I'm making them come visit me!! just kidding. mostly, we just ate a lot- cooked breakfast burritos (yummy!) and went to a chinese restaurant. But jenn also introduced me to a movie called "the original family band" or something like that- which is none other than an old disney film set in 1880s dakota territory. there's song and dance. check it out!

okay, so that's not a real update, but i really wanted to post some pictures of our little posse! Also, i can't explain why they posted that way. sorry!!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

Excerpts from my written journal

2005-12-09T11:23:00.000Z

Since I don't have stead access to a computer, I often use "low-traffic" work times to jot down notes, sentiments, or just plain ol' feelings in my trusty little notebook (which goes EVERYWHERE with me). here are a few excerpts taken from different days, varying from days of a "can do" attitude, to days when I wish I were back in the states.
---

"...I've starting to envision my role now. Basically, requested an "upstart" organization, and now I"m trying to find my way and define who I am, what I can do, and how we can work together. Some days I find myself so frustrated because I have nothing- no computer, no financier/sponsor, no youth group, no real place- but I also see all the opportunity and resources that COULD BE. I see what my organization could achieve, and its these moments that get me through the periods of over-whelming helplessness and nothingness. Then, other days, I realize that no matter how empowered I feel, my language is a limiting factor. Some days I believe that fluency in the language would make my job too easy. Of course, this is nothing more than a 'grass is greener' type dream- they're are still people to convince and there is trust to gain. Even if I know how, sometimes I am met by completely disbelief of possibility- people believe that if it hasn't happened before, they shouldn't try it. I see my role as developing into a cheerleader and personal coach of development and know-how. People here can do it, someone just needs to convince them that they can. I don't have all the answers, and I refuse to pretend that I do, but if I believe that with a little trust, a little facilitation, and a dash of cheerleading, my time in bulgaria will be a success."

---
"...Right now, people assume I"m here to help- and will help- because I can speak english and I"m American. Don't underestimate the power of persuation I exude (in their minds) with the simple aura of my American-ness. Sometimes I think people believe that my mere presence will solve everything- that I have fail-proof ideas, and guaranteed sponsors. Sooner of later (def. sooner), I will fail them as their American hero. And I'll become just like them- another powerless "chobek" (person)- unable to help them escape from the trap of discrimination and crippling illiteracy. SO this is why I must earn their trust- because someday, we will all wake up and my celebrity status will fade. Without their trust, what will I become? Just another chovek. But with their trust- this fateful day will come and pass. and the next day, we'll start again, not as the heroic American and her marginally functioning NGO- but a a team- dedicated to the same goal, and unafraid of failure."

---
I mentioned before that I see my language barrier as the real hindrance of my work here. However, this is a deceptive and, thankfully fleeting, belief. It is foolish to believe that speaking their language is synonymous with the acquisition of the ability to communicate.

---

I'm SO conflicted in my mind about- well- Communism

People were happy. They had food, jobs, vacations. Buildings had heat, electricity. Kids had clubs and activities and avenues through which to shape interests into abilities. But they couldn't speak.

Welcome to free enterprise. You might get fired, but even if you aren't, you still can't feed your family. You have to buy your son a 2nd hand, women's coat for the impending winter. You hope that you can stay warm in the house, but you're not sure if you'll be able to pay for the electricity. And your kids. There's nothing for them to do- except to go to cafes and watch the WWF on TV. Vacation is a dream for you. But you can speak.

Which is a better life to lead-
*One under silence, but within a system that guarantees survival
* One where you can talk and talk, but at the end of the day, your stomach is grumbling.

Do we choose hunger and freedom? Oppression and plenty? The question becomes- which is more important to the human existence. Piece of mind, or a piece of the pie?

And then ask yourself- what if they old system did something good. What if the old system did something good, but with subversive intentions? What if the outcome was only consequential to the goal? What if they educated you, not for your own good, but so that you would become assimilated? What if you were raised in place where assimilation was the end result, and your entire culture was stolen away from you? What if today's regime refuses to help those in desperate poverty? At what point does idealism faulter? At what poin do you remember the rosy, and never the rough?

most of the Roma remember the times under communism as good times. People could be educated, but this was because the state wanted Roma to abandon their culture and "become bulgarian." somehow, racism seemed like less of a problem then. now it appears to be escalted, people poorer, and with less education. less than 1/2 percent of Roma in Bulgaria have a college education. Can you imagine??????

lots of people have fond rememberances of communism.

---

adress in ENGLISH! for you!

2005-12-08T12:11:00.000Z

So some of you were feeling a little hampered by the bulgarian address I provided. not that any of you told me that, but i'm assuming that the lack of mail I've recieved from you can be partially attributed to the address with crazy letters. So here it is, in english, so that you can send me packages and letters to your heart's delight-

2300 GR. Pernik
Oblastna Administratsia
Ploshtad " Sv. Ivan Rilski" 1 b
Valentina Sandeva
/za Toni Schneider/

rock on

from terrible to much better

2005-12-08T11:48:00.000Z

These last few days have definately varied drastically.

Tuesdays are days I have come to dread. This is the day when people (Roma) can come to my boss' office with their questions and concerns. Questions are typically based around where a form needs to go, who they need to talk to, etc- Valia functions are an information center. But lately, people have been coming in with a recurring problem- their electricity bills. At first, it would be one person, a bit upset, hoping that Valia could help. Then, in the last couple of weeks, this number has increased dramatically, to the point that this tuesday, and entire community came into the office. Of course I can't understand all of what went on, but it seemed that people were getting mad at Valia. Since she's Roma, they were basically saying that she should be doing more to help them, and the help most of them wanted was not to pay their electricity bill at all. ever. THEN they demanded a meeting with the mayor and the municiple council, who consequencly enough, were all in sofia for a meeting. So it was this big, fat hairy day of lots and lots of yelling and some crying. And to make matters worse, Isai - Valia's husband- came up to the crowd of people and began saying that the Roma HAVE the money, they just don't want to PAY. Where he came up with this idea, I don't know...but it definately got people fired up.

I think the thing that makes me dread these days is seeing the hardships, and admitting that they are there. When I get my weekly dose of the reality of poverty facing the Roma, it sometimes makes me think that what I'm supposed to accomplish is either impossible, or useless. Will creating activities for youth to participate in REALLY help them pay their bills? help them achieve satisfactory levels of education? be treated like equals in their community? its so hard to know what I will accomplish in the next two years, and so easy to believe that it will be nothing.

and then there was wednesday. work was the same old, same old, but we wound up leaving a bit later than usual to head for the bus. As we walked across the town square, our night was brightened by the newly hung lights and decorations for christmas!!! further down the street, we heard music (traditional bulgarian music) and when we got there, there was a youth dance group performing! We had arrived just in time to see a little ceremony for the town christmas tree- also new today- that included dance and music. It was the first time in a long while that i'd heard bulgarian music and seen kids dancing- quite a breath of fresh air. It was that little bit of "something" that I think I needed to get myself through the week. The first signs of christmas.

A few unanswered questions

2005-11-30T14:40:00.000Z

Andrea asked me some questions, so here they are!

Do your colleagues much speak English, if any?
This is an excellent question! not really!! Occasionally, I hear an array of English vocab such as "pig" (when describing what I was about to order at a restaurant) "when is your 'happy birthday'" (in reference to my birthday, obviously) to "ok," to "how are you." These are pretty basic phrases that most any bulgarian can utter. Yesterday I was lucky enough to hear "I'm going to go smoke some pot!" which I am pretty sure was gleaned from the TV, given the high influx of American programming. On the other hand, there is a woman who works in the local government who speaks perfect British English. Basically, it depends.

How many people do you work with?
Again, this depends! I was told that I would be working alongside 15 volunteers. My first week, I was accompanied everywhere, from the pizza stand to the post office to the bus stop, with a hand-ful of Roma youth. As time has past, however, I find myself working with only one woman. All volunteers have a "counterpart" in their organization who is Bulgarian. Mine studies at a university in another town, and I've only met her once. The boys that I used to work with have secured jobs. So while I'd like to say that I work with more people, the number of people I work with is typically indicative of the local unemployment rate.

Do you have your own office, or will you? If not, do you have your own desk?
I do have my own office, but I don't work there because its in an isolated building. Rightfully so, the director of my NGO thought it would be best if I worked in his wife's office, so that I don't suffer from complete human withdrawal. She (Valia) is the regional expert on minority questions, and she works for the local government. Its actually really good that I work in her office (sit in a chair in her office) because I get to see everyday Roma people that I will eventually be working with, and because she and I work hard together to create new ideas and plans of action.

Do you work in a big building with lots of other people?
I work in the administrative side of the municipal government building, so there are always loads of people about, since my town is about 85,ooo people. There are security guards at the front door, secretaries, and then our office. I used to be really scared of the security guards given that my bulgarian was pretty pathetic in the beginning, but after a month here and a batch of cookies, I have more friends at the office! There is also an kitchen/restaurant thing here too- so each day we receive a menu and choose what we want (reasonably priced!) for soup, main course, and dessert. how cool is that!?!?!? one meal that I don't have to cook for myself! I usually go for the rice with peppers and either pork or chicken. trust me, this stuff is good!

How far is work from your apartment?
As best I can figure, its about 7 or 8 km from where I live, to where I work. Everyday I take a bus (they come about every 12 minutes, depending on if its the top of the hour or not) for the equivalent of $0.35, and the trip is about 13 minutes long. and yes, i really did time it. I also work in the center of town, so on the weekends that I don't go to sofia, I'll come into the center to browse or eat in a restaurant.

What are your work hours going to be?
again, this depends! some volunteers (like the english teachers) only work about 15 hours a week, while there are others (like the community development volunteers) who work closer to 40. I usually come in around 9:30am and leave at 5:30, but as of late, Valia realizes that there isn't much to do at the moment, so she sometimes encourages me to leave around 5pm. And anytime another volunteer comes into town, i get to take a coffee break! this means I get to be AWOL for as long as I want! well, i guess AWOL isnt correct, but i get to wonder around without leaving a detailed itinerary- so that rocks.

Is there stuff you will have to take home to work on, or can you leave work at work?
my first week- I wrote a grant. I took it home with me over the weekend because I was so excited about the work. Now that we are waiting to hear about the financing of the project, I have less to do. Most of my work is on the internet, so I can't take that home with me.

Who are you working with to write the grant?
Three people at work collaborated to write our project, which we are proposing to the Dem. Commission through the US Embassy and USAID. I went to a consultation session about 10 days ago. It went pretty well, but right now I have to convey the meaning of "sustainable" and a few things like that to my Bulgarian coworkers. this idea is pretty foreign (thank you, communism), and most NGOs just want a sponsor to give them money for a year-round project. then, when the project is up, they want to find a new sponsor to give them the same money again. I think my biggest goal will be to get my coworkers thinking in the mentality of "how will the program replicate at the end of the year?" instead of "okay, so who's next in line to dabat pari (give us money)."

do you enjoy metric conversions?
I do! its kind of disgusting. BUT as it was one of the few things my public education afforded me well, I run with it. I even use my ability to do conversions in my head as a party trick. okay, that's not true- but I do have to convert everything! ewww. thank goodness I brought american measuring spoons!

stay tuned for more adventures in my refridgerator-less and limited-income life!!!!

Address clarification

2005-11-21T12:16:00.000Z

alrighty-
so I don't really know my address in english b/c some of the words don't translate. SO to appease the US side- under the BG address, you can just write
Pernik
Republic of Bulgaria
and with the so-called zipcode (2300) everything should be peachy.

small post offices will ask you STUPID questions like "Is that a country? are you sure?" just insist that bulgaria is infact a country, and that you happen to know someone right now in desperate need of this package full of candy/cookies/dvds/gold jewelry/first-season of magnum p.i./etc.

my name is the very last thing in bulgarian тони шнайдер - so for those of you wondering about that, my name is there!

ciao ciao!

My trip to American Jurisdiction!

2005-11-21T09:35:00.000Z

Last tuesday, I was in America. Yup, I sure was, and I didn't call any of you so we could meet up!! I mean, I would have, but you were all sleeping- and I hate international calling!!! wha?!?!!? you maybe be asking yourself? okay, I WAS technically within the jurisdiction of the US goverment for about 3 hours, but I was still "in" bulgaria at the US Embassy! I was there to present my grant/project to the Democracy Commission, and get feedback on where the idea was headed, what they were looking for, etc. Well, it went well for the project, and really well for me!! I wound up spending the afternoon networking, and by the end of the day I had even been offered a job with us-aid. this is the amazing thing about living near sofia and working with the peace corps, you never know when opportunity is going to show its head!

breaking news for bulgaria: NO EU accession for 2007. this is pretty big, as most people were counting on the accession. BG is tentatively set to join the EU in 2008. laundering of money and organized crime were sited as reasons for the delay.

also last week, I saw my first ballet and ate indian food for the first time! Two of my favorite volunteers were in town (this means sofia in my world) for a conference on the economic implications of bulgaria joining the EU. After work, I hopped on the bus, met up with Ben and Jenn (of shoumen, buglaria) and watched the national ballet perform Hans Christian Anderson's "The Red Shoes" and "The Emperor's New clothing." it was a fantastic night!

This weekend, I was back in sofia (yup, three times in one week!) to meet back up with Ben and to watch Lincoln, my sitemate, play rugby. along the way, while speaking english on the streets of sofia, by chance we ran into two other volunteers from our group- Andrea and Boudreaux! They heard people speaking english behind them, and lo and behold- it was people that they knew! its a small world, i tell ya!

In other news- its cold here! that means that after I wash my clothes (by hand, mind you...no washing machine in my apartment, and no laundramats in the country!), they go out on the clothes line. this morning, I awoke to frozen clothing. Thankfully I was amused, rather than annoyed.

today I had an interview with the local TV news. I think this is actaully the third time i've been on the local news. its pretty crazy, because occassionally they get wrapped up in the interview, and ask me questions that we didn't discuss before the interview started...so sometimes I look like a huge idiot. other times, only mildly so...

not a terrorist!

2005-11-16T08:03:00.000Z

I am the proud owner of a lichna carta.

"Lichna carta? what is that?" you might be asking. well, this single card is possibly more important for bulgarians than a cell phone is to a notorious gossip. This card serves multiple functions; you must have it to work, to check into hotels, to enter the US embassy, to have a legal address- essetially, its a suped-up version of the marriage of a US driver's license and Social security card. Without this card, a person can't really do anything except order coffee at a cafe. Needeless to say, my life with this card will be much improved (especially because it means I can leave my passport at home!), but they can be tricky to aquire! Some PCVs spend as many as 5 weeks trying to get their card- luckily, I got mine in a week. The last step of the process, however, was definately something I was not prepared for! I had to be interviewed by the local authorities to determine wheither or not I was a terrorist, in the country with malicious intent, or anything else vile or presenting a threat to the state. This interview would be challenging enough, given that I'm a single female working with an NGO that works on minority issues (very, very strange here in the BG), but throw in the fact that I only understood about 30% of the questions I was being asked...well, lets just say that a few times, I just answered "yes" and hoped for the best. hahaha.

In other extremely exciting news, the central heating system in my apartment starting working on sunday night and i have a TV! this marked the official end of my sleeping while wearing a stocking cap and socks! Granted I don't really understand what's going on on the TV, but it also means that there will be a serious decrease in the number of mildly depressing nights where I made feeble attempts to stay warm while singing various english songs that I still remember...

okay, just wanted to post this while I could! andrea asked some really great questions, and next time, i'm answering them!!!!

2005-11-08T09:41:00.000Z

гр. Перник 2300
Областна Администрация
Площад "Св. Иван Рилски" 1 б
Валентина Сандева
/ Эа Тони Шнайдер/

its my address!!! print it out and copy it (maybe bigger?) and SEND ME MAIL! LOTS OF IT!! please!

The return of toni!

2005-11-05T08:34:00.000Z

no, not to the states- to the Internet!!! Oddly enough, I now live in a city 10 times the size of my last one, yet have a harder time getting internet time. ah, bulgaria...

first off, THANKS to everyone who sent me birthday greetings either via email, SMS(text messages) the facebook, or other- it made me feel wonderful!

secondly, i have an address! but believe it or not, not every computer supports the bulgarian alphabet (how odd!!!!) so I have to wait until monday to get on my boss' computer. SORRY!

Well, this week marked the first work week for the new PCVs, which in most cases, means for the next 3 months the PCVs just sit around and try to learn Bulgarian. Well, either through a pure stroke of luck or blind-fate, that's not my story!!! On tuesday I went to work, and by Wednesday afternoon we were writting a grant to the US Embassy! It was a little frustrating at first, and since some of you have mentioned that I seem to be peachy-keen here 95% of the time, I'll let you in on a little secret here- I thought I was gonna cry about 5 times on Wed!! My organization "O Romano Drom" is so excited to have me here, but they sometimes get carried away in their expectations of me AND of my language skills. I got pretty overwhealmed quite a few times, but now I have a pretty darn good idea of what they want, and since the grant has to be in English- its a good thing I feel this way!!!!! :) anyway, the grant is for up to $24000 (a literal fortune in BG) and we're going for it- I'm pretty pumped. On the 8th and 15th of November,the Embassy (its actaully the Democratic Commission) is holding help sessions for the grant in Sofia, so I'm gonna make a little trip there and figure out how to improve our odds!

last night I went to a Bulgarian party (in a restaurant) with my colleuges and had a blast! In Bulgaria, your colleuges aren't thought of the same way as we think of them in the states. You become close friends with your coworkers, and if you don't, its basically considered an insult. The good thing is that I like them all, and they do a great job taking care of me. Dancing is a really big part of the culture, especially the Roma culture, and so the whole evening was spent dancing to the band. Now, when i say "dancing,"what I really mean is "shaking our asses" except that its totally culturally apporpriate! The dance is called the kuchek, and is essentailly the bulgarian roma equivilant of belly-dancing. So there you go-

Did I mention that I have a sitemate??? i DO and his name is Lincoln and he's fabulous. Through odd twists of fate, we weren't able to meet up on my first trip to Pernik, but monday night we met up for drinks and introductions and hit it off pretty well. Since they aren't privy to the "peacecorps way, "my colleuges thought that I was insane for meeting some guy that I'd never known before- now they are really excited taht I have someone to speak english to, and they can't wait to meet him. Lincoln has been in BG since mid-April, and he's a TEFL (or, english as a foreign language) volunteer. Right now he's teaching students that want to go to the US or England for school, so he speaks English in the workplace. Personally, I think that would be hard, but hey, he's still alive! Other than that, we both enjoy movies with litte-to-no plot, american football (although damnit, he went to U. of Co at boulder- he's a buff!!! eeeewww!), and drinking beer. Also, he likes peanut m&ms, so next time you send me a package, make sure you throw in a little bag for me :)

okay, well its getting cold in BG and all I have is the fleece columbia coat that I bought the night before I left the states...so I'mgonna go hit up the second hand store and scope out the goods!!!

HOORAY!

2005-10-27T11:48:00.000Z

I'm am writting this as an OFFICIAL PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER!!!!

after a grueling 11 weeks of language training, cultural training, technical (ie-job know-how) training and all the other "wonders" that are pre-service training...I have made it! Now there are just 2 more years, right??!?!?!?!?

our swearing-in ceremony was lovely. Every year, one of the volunteers gives a speech in Bulgarian, and my site mate Anna was chosen to do the job! her speech was fantastic in english and in bulgarian, earning her many accolades from fellow volunteers, bulgarian speakers, and the Honorable John Beyrly himself! (our ambassador) the speech was so good, actaully, that the Ambassador is planning to post it either on the Embassy's webpage, or on the state departments- wow, good job anna!!!

again, i know i always promise picutures, but I defiantely want to send y'all pictures of my friends here and to see how different we all look after 11 weeks!!

keep in touch, and keep those text messages coming- i love them!!

2005-10-22T12:47:00.000Z

last night in our little town of ceptemvri- there were a lot of reasons to celebrate!

On wednesday, our community project, planting trees near the obshtina (local gov. building...think: the mayor works here), was a huge success! we had a lot of area youth present and they were laughing and joking around, so we're sort of assuming they had a good time!

Friday marked the first of the last for Pre-Service training for myself and my fellow volunteers. By 2pm on friday (while most of you were still fast asleep) we had to take our LPI, or, language proficiency interview! thankfully, we all made it out alive! it was quite a bit tougher than what we thought it was be. For example, I was asked to explain living on a cattle ranch in some other capacity than "working, eating and sleeping." Peace corps just doesn't understand that there's really nothing more to it than that... ;) but I guess I got easy because one of my sitemates had to talk about the conflict in northern ireland after she innocently mentioned that she had traveled to Ireland while she attended college. whoops!:) I think Peace corps definately had different agendas for this language test and the "optional" one we took during the midpoint of our training. After the first test, some of us walked away smiling, congratulating ourselves for our mastery of the language at the novice level. This time, however, the goal was apparently "scare" us into learning more langauge. At this point, most of us have sufficient "survival skills" in bulgarian, meaning that we can pay bills, eat at restaurants, buy food and stamps, find out when there are trains, talk about our families, why we joined peace corps, what kind of jobs we've had, and what kind of food we like! so espeically for those of us who live in bigger cities, its believable that someone, somewhere would decide that they speak the langauge pretty well, and they would decide to stop learning bulgarian. Thus, peace corps instills fear in the hearts of we "almost- volunteers-but- not- quite -yet!" so that we continue to study bulgarian. charming, isn't it?? but yeah, its safe to say that I passed the language exam, and even though I didn't pre-plan and memorize the kinds of conversations i wanted to have (like some trainees...), I think I scored pretty well!!

Also, this thursday was our teacher's husband's birthday! as per the tradition in BG, the person with birthday treats their friends to dinner and candy, and this was certainly no exception!! we had a wonderful dinner of lamb with rice and tomato salad- not to mention plenty of wine, champagne, and even a cigars ( i mean...of course I didn't have one...). all in all, we had a HUGE week and we're all SO glad that its over with! hooray!

bulgarian politics and reasons to hold the mail

2005-10-17T13:55:00.000Z

Don't mail me anything!!!!!

this is an advance warning that someone, somewhere in BG knows what my permenant address will be, but that that person is not yours truely. I'm trying to work on that right now, but for the mean time, just log on to the MTEL webpage and send me SMSes. If you don't know what MTEL is or what an SMS is, check the schneider family group on yahoo, email one of my parents, my sister, david sims, jraz (jess rass.), meredith, cindy or keith. probably others, but i'm lazy and don't want to list them! i'll keep you posted on the addy.

today in class, we took a little break from formal learning and tried to write down the lyrics to an old bulgarian song. as we tried to translate the unfamiliar words, we came across a few from communist times. I think i've already mentioned that bulgaria was one of the most loyal countries towards russia during communisim and those sentiments remain visible in bulgaria today. Anyway, this particular word drewgareo is the word for "commrade," and our teacher told us that even students were required to address their teachers with drewgareo istead of Mr. or Miss. I am completely blown away by this! I always had this impression that communisim was exactly like the book Animal Farm, where words like "commrade" were used in secret meetings or with people who were part of the movement. I didn't even think about how the usage would differ in full-fledged communist states, so I was both bemused and startled that students used the word this way. Each day I continue to be amazed by what communism is and was.

In other news for Bulgaria, I have heard that the accession into the EU on the 1st of January 2007 is looking a little bleak. I've heard talk amongst the USAID circles that Bulgaria and Romania (who are set to join the EU together) are ne gotove (not ready) to make the transition into the EU. I think later next week, the official state of the accession will be announed, and most Bulgarian officials and Bulgarians who watch the news closely, belive that the accession into the EU will be delayed by atleast a year, if not more. So definately look out for that announcement- Oct. 25th comes to my mind as the date the report is set to come out, but I could be wrong.

In other BG news, the Bulgarian President, Gerorgi Povolnof (not sure how its spelled in english- that was my best attempt at phonetics!), is in the US today meeting with George Bush! Is exciting only because I now live here (and oddly almost think of myself as bulgarian...) and so pay attention to these things. I'm sure the meeting with be all fun and joy, as the US and BG almost as tight as Bush and Cheney. The BG gov't loves George Bush, but its unclear if the citizens feel the same way.

I'll be honest when I tell you that the last post was made after very little sleep and directly after I got off of the bus from the hike. I'm going to go ahead and expand on the hike right now. Our tour guide was actaully crazy. he got us lost several times (scary!) and often enjoyed breaking out into song. okay, okay, i actaully liked the spontanious song-age part, but all in all, this guys was a bit loopy. I would have to say that one of the things that made me happiest was my drinking water. as we hiked for hour upon hour, we stoped for a pochefka, or break, to have water, rest, etc. well, it was SO COLD that our water stayed ice cold the entire time! so when we were hot and exhausted, we had a prefect beverage to sip on! simple things make me happy. I had a ton of fun because I got to hang out with a group of volunteers that I don't normally spend time with, but with whom I thought had a lot of similar interests. turns out that 9 hours of hiking provides ample opportunities to meet up with people and not only exchange quips about our varying degree of exhaustion, but also getting a feel for what we did back in the states, why we chose to do Peace Corps, what we'll be doing in our town, and how we think we'll survive the winter! On the second day, we went hiking to see the "7 lakes," and even though most of the hike was covered in thick fog, we finally managed to see one of the lakes. Since I rarely saw mountains in the States, I am still spellbound by not only mountains themselves, but also the fact that thousands of feet up the moutains, there are lakes. even though so many people see these lakes each year, in the early morning fog I couldn't help but think that there are still somethings in nature "untouched" by the exploitation of capitalism.

where have I been?

2005-10-16T14:50:00.000Z

Sorry y'all...but between writting a mini-grant for peace corps, visiting current volunteers, meeting up with the nashville volunteers, and saving the world (okay, that's just a joke), things in the last three weeks have been insane.

also, sorry if anyone called this weekend (though I doubt that...) because i was 6000 ft above sea level in the beautiful Rila Mountains!!!! we left early early saturday moring, packed down with food for 2 days, several layers of toasty clothing, water to last a lifetime, and excitment to make the 10 hours of hiking our trip called for!!! we forded streams, trudged through mud, sleet, snow, incredible inclines (okay, to me the novice hiker they were "incredible" but to others, maybe they were simply uphill!) and in general, got an amazing workout! we hiked almost 4 hours to our "hija," which is the Bulgarian version of a chalet (note the emphasis of "bulgarian version) on the first day, and then on sunday, we hiked to the "7 lakes" and climed an additional 1000ft. The hija was one of the biggest in the Rila mountain chain, and it had a main floor with a lounge and a cafe, a downstairs with a "bar" and two upper floors containing rooms for 7 people, 2 people, or 11 people. We had about 30 people on the hike, and most of us stayed in 11 person rooms. Surprisinly, even though it was snowing up in the mountains, the hija was actaully warmer than most houses in bulgaria! we were pretty excited to take off wet shoes, socks, and clothing, sip hot chocolate, and bask in the warmth of the hija. when the hiking was all said and done, our crazy guide (who must have been about 60 years old) only got us lost a few times on the way up, and despite the periodically heavy fog, we saw a lot of beautiful landscape and made new friends with volunteers on the hike. all and all...a pretty darn good weekend!

this week, my training site is implementing our community project. We are working with the obshtina, the local government, and youth in the community to plant trees near the center of town. we plan to have members of both ethnic groups in our town (Bulgarians and Roma) participating in the event, and we're very lucky that our Obshtina is so excited to work with us!

Other than that, our site has our final lanuage exam (called the LPI, for language proficiencies interview) on friday morning. my teacher is pushing myself and Anna, one of the other trainees, to pass with "intermediate-mid" which is a full two levels higher than is required by peace corps. I think we should be able to do it, it just means I have to study a bit this week!!

well, i hope that all is well with y'all!!!

2005-10-07T13:36:00.000Z

here's a picture of our town! hope you like it!

visit from the ambassador!

2005-09-27T10:13:00.000Z

I can't honestly remember the last time I updated, so I'm just going to fill you in on today-

There is a new American Ambassador in Bulgaria, and he stopped by our training in Pazardjik today! He sat with us for a little bit more than an hour, and spoke very openly and honestly with us about the state of affairs in Bulgaria, what the US Embassy's (in Bulgaria) role and missions are, and how he foresees the future of Bulgaria. We were unbelievable lucky to have this meeting with him (I don't think Q&A sessions are a normal part of PC training...) and ever luckier to have such a valuable conversation with him. He served in Bulgaria before in the mid 80's when Bulgaria was an ENTIRELY different county, and had definitely one of the most loyal governments towards the USSR. He was previously the second in command in Russia, and has been in BG exactly one month today. Bulgarians like him very much, and he speaks excellent Bulgarian!

in other news, last Friday I had my mid-point language interview! This was a verbal and written test (2 parts oral, 1 part written) administered by the person who will give us our final test in about 3 weeks. I have very good news about the progress of my language, which I am not allowed to share, but I am able to tell you that I passed the examination and next week, will start additional studies outside of the formal classroom!!

I got a letter from Michael Robie! Maybe I mentioned this, maybe I didn't, but it certainly made my day to get his letter, which was filled with advice and memories of VUCC and general Vandy-ness. Thanks Michael!!

okay, that's it! hope that all is well back west- keep sending me emails! :)

Toni makes a return!

2005-09-20T13:02:00.000Z

For the next two years, I will be residing in the lovely city of Pernick, Bulgaria! I spent wed., thurs., and friday in this city, and it should be a lot of fun! I'm pretty excited about my job, the city, and the people i'm going to work both for and with...but let me back up a little

two saturdays ago, I attended a workshop on acquiring funding from the EU in Plovdiv. This was a day long workshop full of gorey details on the EU and how Bulgaria with be affected with accession into the Union. Though it was sometimes mindnumbing, it was very valuable information. For example, before BG joins the EU, the EU will provide 70% of the funding for proposed projects, while BG will foot the other 30% of the bill. After BG is part of the EU, the funding burden is flipped- that means I had better start writing projects ASAP! ;) just kidding!

Last monday (not the 19th), permenate sites were revealed to the 49 PC trainees. We all gathered in a gym and waited expectantly around a map of bulgaria on the floor which was constructed entirely out of masking tape! people's names were drawn at random, and then their sites were announced. Luckily, I was one of the first people (maybe 15th or so) so I didn't have to get too nervous! anyway, once we heard our site, we found it on the big map and waited there while other sites were announced. My city is about 20km from the capital city of Sophia, which is great, but unfortunately, most of my friends from training were placed in the eastern part of the country! I guess that will make for some great vacation days, especially since the eastern part of BG is a BEAUTIFUL beach!!!!

In Pernick, I will be working in an NGO for Roma people. This NGO is focused on increasing the standard of living for Roma people in the town, and specifically, on school retention. In BG, many of the Roma youth stop going to school after 5th or 6th grade, and as the poverty cycle goes, the Roma have a challenging time trying to create a happy and healthy life for themselves. I will tell you more details about my job as they come, but one of the things people are most excited about is that I will organize some youth clubs and some after-school english clubs. People were so excited, in fact, that I was interviewed three times; once by the city paper, once by another local paper, and once on the TV news! this was DEFINITELY overwhelming but also exciting! the tv news interview was quite stressful though, because the reported repeatedly asked me questions about the problems that face Roma (and all minorities worldwide) and what I think the biggest problems are, and what I think the solutions are. WHEW! Luckily, since I had a translator, I was able to understand what they were asking me, and I also was able to be very politically correct- afterall- how terrible would it be to offend your community before you are even living there?!?!?!?!

okay, more later, but this is only a short break

oh, AND i DO have a GSM, and I'll be emailing that number out later!

okay, one small update

2005-09-08T13:28:00.000Z

In Bulgaria, there is one day that's even more important than your birthday- your name day! In the Catholic faith, each saint has their own day, or "feast." well, in Bulgaria, almost everyone is Orthodox, and they take these days seriously! Today is "Cbeta Mary" or Saint Mary (as in, gave-birth-to-Jesus, Mary), and anyone who is named Mary/Maria gets the day off! okay, that's not official, but it is observed!

so last night, festivities for Cbeta Mary began in a neighbooring town. EVERYONE went to church (cirk-vah) and then headed out to cafes and...a CARNIVAL! that's right, I went to a bulgarian carnival this week and it was awesome! I had some cotton candy, but I was a bit scared of the rides- afterall, people in bulgaria don't think they need seatbelts, so what kind of safety standards do they have for carnival rides??!??!?!!?

I had my BIG interview for site placement today- I think it went well. My guess is that I will be working in a Roma Minority community doing integration work, leadership development, volunteer recruiting, and fundraising. but that's just a guess...

My schedule for next week

2005-09-07T14:33:00.000Z

side note-

friday, we are visiting an orphanage with the other youth development (YD) trainees, so we'll be out of town.
Saturday, we are going to a seminar on BG's accession into the EU. I'M SO EXCITED for this day-long seminar- you have no idea. anyway, its in plovdiv, so we'll be gone all day.

monday, we have another HUB session in Pazardjik. this is a VERY important day, because I find out my permenant site in BG!!!!!!! we stay in p-town until wed. morning, when we travel TO our permenant site. I think we will return to Ceptemvri on friday evening, and hopefully recuperate from an entire week of travel! needless to say, i probably won't have phone/email access during this time.

okay, have a great week!

weekend update- nearly 4 days later..

2005-09-07T13:49:00.000Z

this weekend, my training class took a trip across bulgaria! our language teacher and her family accompanied us in a small rental van to two of the countries biggest attractions- the ampitheatre in Plovdiv (third largest city in Bulgaria) and the Bachcov monastery which was nearby in the mountains. we parked our bus about 2km from the monastery and walked up a small hill that was filled with vendors selling everything from freshly canned jellies (blueberry...yum!) to turkish candies and pottery. Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures in the monastery. :( the monastery itself was built in 1300 as a tribute to the virgin Mary, and the building was quite interesting. the outside was very old, but inside, the decor was very ornate with many gold encrusted articles. on the way to plovdiv, we stopped at an old fortress that had been converted into a church but now serves as a national landmark. we trudged up an old, rocky path, and once we reached the top, we could see several villages and the many, many mountains. I have pictures of this one- i promise to find a computer that supports american flash drives soon!

Plovdiv has two main sections- old city ("star graht") and, well, not old city! Within the old city is an ampitheatre! you can see that the theater was abandoned at somepoint in time, but now it is used for operas and plays in the summer months. as we got ready to leave, we ran into fellow volunteers! they lived very close to plovdiv, and so had decided to make a trip into the city for some second hand shopping and a glass of wine. We were suprised and excited to see them, but with nearly 200 volunteers in such a small country, I am guessing this ocurrance was not highly unusual...

other exciting news this week includes my host sister's trip to the capital, Sophia. Sophia is about 100km from Cemptembri and you have to take a bus- no fun! BUT when I went home for lunch, she had a new car! so this week has been filled with impromptu visits to neighboring villages- because afterall, now that we have a car, why not??? We went swimming in mineral water pools, visited other cafes, and went to the "kroger" style grocery store (called Billa).

I can't remember if i've mentioned it or not, but my training group has an amazing relationship with the local police. last thursday we had a coffee date with the inspector and one of the other officers, and tomorrow, we are making a safety video for PC bulgaria with our beloved police! we're going to be smalltime movie stars! in addition, the inspector, Ivan, has promised to take us "fishing" some weekend ( "fishing"in bulgaria is the smalltown USA equvilant of fishing, just incase you were wondering!).

in other news, this weekend also marked Cemtemvri day! okay, so it probably isn't called Ceptemvri day, but my bulgarian is still progressing...we don't know the name of the holiday yet! Since bulgaria is a MUCH older country than the US, nearly every town has a holiday to commemorate a battle of some sort- so Sept. 2nd was our day. the town put on a concert and a national dancing/singing folk troup performed as well. afterwards, there were fireworks. this was all very fun, except the fireworks were a bit scary- they were lit within 20m of the general public, and as my "cousin" Nicky and I walked back to our house, smoldering lumps landed right next to us!! that was a little weird, but its just an example of how life in the US is highly regulated, and in places like BG, people are more carefree about risks.

Ceptemvri day also coincided with a national holiday, so my host family's relatives from Pazardjik and sophia spent the weekend with us. The weekend was partially work-filled too-Checho Petco (uncle petco) brought nearly 100 kg of a sqaush-like vegetable with him that the whole family cut up and fried in oil. the slices were then put in smaller bags (about 1kg) so that local stores can sell them. His daughter, Yanna, was also there. she works in bulgaria for wal-mart canada, and she only speaks english in the workplace! Again, it was nice to have an english speaker in the house, especially so that I could ask all of my burning gramatical questions! (you think I'm joking...)

okay, that's a lot of nothing...its been hard to get to the internet lately so I'm sorry that i crammed a lot of boring stories together. I promise that when they happen they are very fun!

quick update- more tomorrow

2005-09-05T16:48:00.000Z

hello from pazardjik! i am the home of my "cousin" right now, waiting for pizza! okay, so its not quite the same as americanized pizza- but I can successfully pronounce the name of what i'm eating...so I like that a lot! :)

I had another amazing weekend- one that included travel and hiking- more on that later.

today, i had an evaluation meeting. this evaluation was very important for my site placement in bulgaria, and my teacher says that I did very well. hooray!! in addition, my teacher stopped by my home to see how I am getting along and to speak with my family/aunt. this was basically a 2 hour meeting that closely resembled a parent-teacher conference. eeep! it turned out quite well though, and i'm pleased to say that my family likes me very much. that's good, because I like them too!

I had to update- its free internet!

ciao!

Wedding party!

2005-08-31T14:16:00.000Z

what a weekend!

this weekend, the PC trainees in Ceptemvri were invited to a bulgarian wedding! it was held at the nicest restaurant in town (nice by american standards, I think) which is very near to my house. the party started at 6:30pm, and we finally made it home just before midnight. when we arrived, there was a cultural ceremony following the church wedding. the bride and groom drank from sepearate glasses, and then threw them over their shoulders. Then, someone tied a ribbon around them, and the two of them walked around a table together (this is very Greek, I believe). Finally, then kicked a giant loaf of bread called "peta" and the dancing began! there was a DJ at the party, and most of the music we heard was actaully american music. at one point during the night, the DJ came to speak with "the americans" and since his english was not very good, and our bulgarian was even worse, he spoke to one of the trainees (Alex) in german! in the end, Alex does not, apparently, understand German all that well, because we wound up ALONE on the dance floor for an entire song- the DJ played a song that was just for us. In america, we have songs that are just for the new couple, but that night in Ceptemvri, we americans had our own "first song." as the night went on and we recovered from our embaressing dancing event, we enjoyed bulgarian foods, gave our gift to the bride, took a picture with the bride, and each of us recieved little white flowers to pin on our clothes. what a great introduction to bulgarian culture!

after all of THAT excitment, myself and my fellow volunteers had additional entertainment as we traveled to our HUB city of Pazardjik to be reuined with the 45 other volunteers!!! The official purpose was to receive more training and information on health and safety, but we managed to have a lot of fun too! we stayed in a local hotel, and my roommate and I were supremely lucky and got a TWO room apartment-style room that we were able to use for entertaining our fellow trainees. :) we met a TON of volunteers who came to visit us and have panel discussion- they are such a valuable resource because they can tell us what works, what doesn't work, and general tips for surviving in Bulgaria.

I want to remind everyone how minimal our bulgarian skills are. keeping that in mind, we spent two full days in a large city full of Bulgarian speakers...what great exposure! I felt really bad for all of the restaurants who dealt with our shakey bulgarian, but it was sure a relief for the Ceptemvri trainees to find out that we were HELPING most of the other volunteers. So, I guess, even if we're all bad, Ceptemvri is the best of the worst!

I also found out that there is another nashvillian in PC Bulgaria! one of the volunteers, Anna, who served on a panel this week told me about this guy. His name is Chris, and he is in the same program as me, but he has been here for a year. I can't remember if he was a Vandy or UT/Knoxville grad though. Apparently, there are a lot of TN volunteers in Bulgaria.

the final exciting thing (that I can think of) is that *potential* permenant sites were revealed this week! for the 19 YD (youth development) trainees, there are 25 potential sites. We have a few days to look them over, and next week we are interviewing for our spots, and at the start of week 5 (two weeks from now) we'll know our permenant sites! how exciting!!! I really hope to be placed in an NGO that is looking for assistance with grant writting, and also one that is working on integration between the minority groups and the "bulgarian" majority.

the only sad news I have is that Lisa, one of the other trainees, decided to ET. an ET is an "early termination" from the program. she decided PC wasn't her thing, and she actaully left after her first weekend with her host family. we were ALL quite shocked about this, especially those of us who had made good friends with her. in addition, she was the first person to ET in our group of 50 (now 49). She was one of the people I was really looking forward to seeing at HUB, and I would never have picked her as a person to leave. hopefully, things are going well for her back in washington state.

hope that all is well!!

Would you like to see my badge?

2005-08-26T13:30:00.000Z

Yesterday, as part of our peacecorps (PC) assignment, the volunteers visited the local police inspector and his deputies. They told us about crime in ceptemvri (almost none), where it was safe to run, what to expect from local people, etc. This was, however, much less interesting than the ambiance that surrounded our visit. One of the things that is so striking to me is the reminants of communism and soviet influence. Each building lacks the aesethetic exterior that we, as americans, are so acoustomed to seeing- the paint is chipping and where there is color, that too is faded with age. the buildings are largely square and efficient, looking sturdy and stern, seeming to communicate that each building has a purpose; that when one passes by, you are reminded of its stately presense, and nothing more. i refrainn from labeling the buildings as "dilapitated" or "run-down," but I can't explain why. The police officers, in their uniforms that exude "soviet issue," seem to come straight out of a movie. their small box-like office is congested with smoke, local newspapers and a single picture of a man who is wanted (for embezzlement) in the area. maybe, afterall, its not so different from smalltown, USA? The inspector and his deputies were quite happy to see us, however, and we were even given an inviattion to utilize the private community fitness center (really nothing more than a tiny room filled with free weights and walls plastered with picutres of famous fitness models (govenor arnie and the like...)) with them. They told us that we should feel safe in ceptemvri and to stop by and chat every now and then.

one thing that is challenging to adjust to is constantly being on dislay. as forieners not only to the country but to the city, and especially as americans, people are concious of what we do. if we visit a tavern or a restaurant, its certain that someone in our host family will have heard about it by the next day. when we walk places, people are curious to see who the new people are, and they want to know what we are up to. they mean no harm, but its a little disconcerting to know that every move you make is recorded in the town's history. the impressions we leave of americans are impressions that will not fade easily.

i've realized that this is a really depressing update! I had meant for some of those things to be humorous, but alas, apparently i've had a need to cleanse my mind- that seems to happen when you spend only 4 hours a day with english speakers.

my bulgarian is getting better! i think my family was starting to get frustrated with how little bulgarian i am able to speak, but hopefully i've am over the initial learning curve. I know how to say "pimp" in bulgarian, and I even know a swear word or two...:) word on the street is that this monday, the PC will distribute a list of bad words to all the volunteers...just so we can be in the know! this monday and tuesday we are meeting up at the hub city, so that should be fun! this weekend we are going to a wedding party and visiting a boy who was in a terrible bike accident a few years ago. he is parapalegic, so we are going to visit him occasionally and keep him company.

here are two interesting/humorous (i hope) items for you;
*bulgarian beer costs roughly $.60 for 32 oz, and a heineken costs a mere $1.50!
*Mr. clean (the bald detergent man) has a commerical here too, except he's "mr. proper." go figure.

stravete! leave me a comment!

Hello again!

2005-08-25T09:53:00.000Z

We finally found an internet cafe that is closer to our training center...hooray! many of us typed up some emails on our flashdrives, but we can't get these bulgarian computers to reckognize them. hopefully soon...

looks like I gave you a false alarm on the GSM (cell phone). we just got word that a new provider will start serving bulgaria in september/october, so those of us who've taken econ classes know that the marginal benefit of buying a phone now will be less than that of one purchased in a month's time. you know, assuming that both cell phones and money give you happiness- but hey, this is the peace corps, I guess I shouldn't care about those things anymore????

i have been eating many new and wonderful things! last night, I had some tasty bread with cooked/broiled eggs (e-yite-zay) and feta cheese (cerini, say it with me now "sea-rah-nay") and you guessed it...more fresh tomatoes! after dinner, I had a visit with "malko tony" (little tony), the neighbor boy who lives across the street. he's about 2 years old, and its mildly discouraging that his bulgarian is leaps and bounds ahead of mine. of course, one of the trainees pointed out, he's had 2 years to learn the language and i've not had but 2 weeks...but still!

i had many wonderful stories to tell you, but they are locked up in my flashdrive!

Ceptembvri is a BEAUTIFUL city in a valley. the horizen is filled with mountain-goodness, and I will send pictures as soon as we resolve the flashdrive compatibility thing. my family owns four rows of a vineyard, and the view from there is spectacular. I live very near to the training center- I literally walk out of my front door and cross the street. its very nice, especailly considering that two of the trainees have to walk 30 minutes each way! I also get to go home for lunch (which is 90 minutes long! I LOVE bulgaria!) and lela vanya always has something warm and fresh for me to eat. Sasha works each weekday from 3pm-midnight, so I only see her at breakfast and at lunch. during the evening hours, lela vanya and I try hard to understand each other. sometimes, its quite frustrating since no one speaks english in my home. peacecorps' language program is designed for trainees that have atleast one english speaker in the house, so there are times when I feel completely helpless.

today we've taken many fieldtrips and class was very informal. we went to a supermarket to see all the traditional bulgarian foods (and also the non-tradition ones like macaroni!) and learn how to ask for them, and how to ask for the bill. we also visited the train station and later this afternoon, we are going to meet the police chief! Ceptemvri is so small (about 5000) that crime is not really a problem, but still, he seems like a good guy to know! everyday, there is an interesting mix of people and vechicles driving by- people with horses and cart, people with BMWs, audis...all kinds of cars.

since lela vanya is retired, she watches a lot of TV. last night, i saw a direct rip-off of america's "friends!" The characters seemed to be mirror images of the ones we are familiar with, and even the music accompanying the opening credits had a similar theme. ha! The only american tv channel that we get is the animal planet, but it doesn't matter since i've had much more fun trying to decipher the news or gameshows in bulgarian!!

yesterday our techinical and community trainers made a trip from Pazardjik (our HUB location for the 10 satallite cities) to Ceptembvri and reviewed our training schedule. its slightly overwhealming to see how the next nine weeks will play out! we are going to be very busy, and there's a lot to accomplish. each trainee in Ceptemvri has a project to manage, and mine is the community meeting next week. we have to assemble a group of youth and find out what their needs are, etc. i'm very excited to be heading up this project!

okay, this is probably enough for now. hopefully, this hasn't bored you to tears!

best
tones

okay, a few more things!

2005-08-21T11:35:00.000Z

bulgaria is gorgeous- did i mention that before? we spent our first few days in a ski resort about an elevation of about 4,000 feet. most of the country is mountainous (is that a word?) terrain, so those hiking boots will come in quite handy!

bulgaria was having a small confusion with the parliament, but this weekend it was finally settled, and the former majority party is now the minority party, and no one has a majority. people seem to like their president, but i'm not sure about the prime minister. bulgaria sent troops to Iraq, so most people also like our president.

the currency here is called the lev. the exchange rate is currently near 1.66 leva for 1 dollar, so things are not so bad, but a few years back, the dollar was equal to roughly 4 leva. as bulgaria nears accession to the EU (jan 1 2007), i'm sure the exchange rate will reflect the presence of invincible euro.

I think one of the interesting things about bulgaria (as if i could quantify that...) is that it seems to be very modern. my house has a computer and tv, but no fridge- there are hardly any trashcans to be found either. that was very inarticulate, but if you forgive me, i try my best to think in bulgaria (which means i have a vocabulary roughly the size of a 2 year old child- if that!)

across the street, we have a neighbor named tony!! he, however, is only 3 years old- so he's not much for talking. i gave him some american candy though, and seemed to break the ice! :) hopefully he and i can visit more, and I can learn more about basic sentence structure from him. you may laugh, but i'm serious! today we saw a baby that was a few weeks old, and i joked with my fellow trainees that the baby probably knew more bulgarian that i do!

this week, my family will probably be invited to a 'na gosti.' this is a big dinner party where we eat a lot, drink rakia (like brandy, only, you MUST sip or your might pass out...) and talk for hours and hour. na gosti can last for 6 or 7 hours! anyway, a fellow trainee (alex) is staying with my host family's niece...and since THEY are english teachers, i will be able to understand a little!

more often than not, i've found that when i'm confused about what to say in bulgarian, instead of using english i use italian! i thought i had forgotten it all, but in desperation, my mind is trying of so very hard to help me communicate!!! dear brain...if only italiano was helpful...

okay, i'm sure that was boring, but ce'la vie! obviously, my french is as good as my bulgarian! ;)

stravete ot bulgaria!!!!!!

2005-08-21T10:46:00.000Z

Strave, strave strave!!

hello, hello, hello!!!!

my address changed, so i put that at the bottom-SORRY!

i hope everyone is well, and i'm alive enough to tell you that i am mnogo dobre (that means, very good)!! i have many, many funny stories after only cedam (7) days in bulgaria- but in time, in time...

first off, let me tell you about my host family! I'm living in a two story house with about 8 rooms, and i have a room all to myself with two beds and a two windows for nice breezes. my host mom is "lela vanya" and her daughter is 'alex' but called 'sasha.' i think this must be because her uncle is named alex- but i don't know for sure...i can say so little in bulgarian! sasha is 23, so that is very nice, and she also speaks malko engelski (a little english)- so that is helpful!! lela vanya speaks NO english, but she is kind and warm. she is an EXCELLENT cook and feeds me waaaaaay too much! I am so full each day, that when the next meal comes, I am still very full. now let me tell you about the food!!!! it is also mnogo dobre- lots of veggies, esp. cucumbers and tomatoes...TONS of tomatoes...and not just any tomates, tomates from a dream!!!! they are larger than a softball, and since they are mainly organic, they are also very red and quite tasty. dad, you would be extremely jealous! there is a salad called "shopska" which is cucumberx, tomatoes, and 'sea-ree-nay" which is basically feta cheese. YUM! also, lots of chicken and pork. today, for breakfast was coffee, tea, assorted meats (cold, sort of deli-like), bread (whobava), cheese (the feta kind) and some kind of cookie. so as you can see, though I don't get to eat frosted mini-wheats, the food is still good!!!

I am in the town of Septemvri, which in english, you can see is named after the month of september. there are about 7000 people who live here, so its quite small and very safe...with one exception! there is no such thing as speed limits in bulgaria (as far as we can tell!) and people don't wear seatbelts because its considered an insult to the driver's abilities...all i can say is YIKES!!! my first day in septemvri, Sasha (host sister) was driving a million km/hr while dodge herds of sheep and people. let's just say i wide awake after that!

Lots of things are "backwards" in bulgaria, for example, 'up' on a lightswitch turns lights off, and down turns them on. heres the kicker though...nodding your head means NO (ne) and shaking it means yes (da)! what's a girl to do!! with our limited language skills, we defniately have a hard time not sending a mixed message! oh well- it has been fun to try!

over the next 10 weeks, i will be training in Septemvri with 4 other trainees (not volunteers yet...we have to go through training first!). here are their names, so that you can keep up to date :)
courtney
erika
Alex (boy)
anna
Vessi- language trainer

other good names to know- Vassi was my roommate in DC and in Borovtz (intial city we were in-bulgarian ski resort) and she is quite fun! she's from montana, but grew up in sophia (capital city of bulgaria)...so her bulgarian is good, but not perfect. she will actaully be learning turkish and working with a turkish minority population. Sarah Beth- from maryland ( I think) and is also fun, Lisa is from the deserts of washington, ben is from all over the place, ah, i think of more names later- right now i am drawing a blank! anyway, there were 50 of us to start with, but now we are in groups of 4-6 all around a center city called Pazardjik (Pah-zh-are-gee-k). every two weeks, we make trips to pazardjik to catch up and learn more technical skils, etc.

Official training starts tomorrow, and its from 9:30 until 5. i'm very excietd because our language teacher is GREAT and because I'll be able to communicate better each day!!!!!

one final note...my addres changed again!!!! argh!
TONI SCHNEIDER (caps, underlined)
PO box 178
Central Post Office
Pazardjik, 4400
Bulgaria

let me warn you that its EXPENSIVE to send stuff...like, a letter many cost you several dollars...so i guess...send me the bill!!! lol. however, if someone is feel VERY nice, i would LOVE some cloves..you know, the bali hai ones with fish on them...this would be excellent, and seriously, i have a checkbook and will mail you the expenses.

OH and i'm probably getting a phone the 1st of september, and incoming calls are free for me (but sadly, not for you. i'm an expensive friend!)- so stay tuned for the number.

please leave comments--- i love them (oh-beach-um comments!)

dovezhdane! (doe-vee-zh-da-nay (good-bye))

Time change and departure!

2005-08-14T03:55:00.000Z

Bulgaria is 8 hours ahead of central time- so all and all- not too bad for trying to keep in touch!

Staging has been okay. Thankfully, we were not subjected to gruelling icebreakers, so that has definately made the experience better! there are 50 total trainees in the group, and I think that after 26 hours of knowing them, I can name them all! Three trainees are from montana, and we even have a U of Minn. grad amongst us! my roommate (from montana) has been FANTASTIC. Her name is Vassi, and she was actaully born in Bulgaria, but has been living in the states for quite awhile. She's a ton of fun and has certainly livened up the group! during training, some diplomats from the Bulgarian Embassy made a suprise visit- how exciting! this does not happen often, so we were quite fortunate.

Once I arrive in BG, we will stay at a modest hotel for one week (nearly) before meeting our host families. after that, most of our training will be in groups of 5 or6 and will take place in the village that our host family calls home.

I'm sure some of you are really sick of updates, as most of them are mundane and non-descriptive, but I wanted to say hi again before I leave the states!

Greetings from Washington DC

2005-08-12T01:03:00.000Z

of course, it merely took my credit card to sniff out an internet cafe, and while the georgetown holiday inn is hardly bulgaria, how could I resist an update?

Today's travels bring me from the less-than-lovely south dakota in a 6 hour jaunt across the US. After flight delays and a mixup at my hotel, I failed to make the highly anticipated newyork city leg of my trip. SORRY CINDY!!!! how am I going to face two years without that kid? cinday- you had better be saving your pennies for a plane ticket to sofia b/c i am sure you are 10x the friend I am!

other recent debacles; there have been three, count 'em, THREE failed attempts to secure printouts of digital pictures of my friends and family to show to my new friends and family in Bulgaria. I think its some kind of omen...

OH and I called Michael Robie (for all you VUCCer's) on wednesday and he's doing well!