one year!?!

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 will mark the one year anniversary of when I landed at Sofia airport. Although it hasn't quite come yet, the past 362 days have been a pretty sweet ride.
Before I get into some thoughts and updates, i want to give some love to Champ (aka vyines) for all of the great years he spent with us. He passed away to doggie heaven a little more than a week ago. OK, so maybe he never had the keen intelligence of Rin-Tin Tin Canine Cop(lets be honest, he would only even 'SIT' when you had some sort of food in your hand) but he was most certainly an awesome part of my family. Let him rest in peace knowing he will always be loved and missed by my family and those who grew to love his endearingly futile doggie ways.
Now, about me. I just returned from Panichiste, the mountain lodge in the Rila Mountains where all of the newly arriving volunteers spend a week in meetings in order to get further informed of the finer parts of their peace corps service before they split up into their own training sites where they will live for about 3 months. Remember? I was in Kyuestendil for my training site. I was invited to greet the new volunteers because I am a 'Resource Volunteer.' There is one recourse volunteer for each of the 8 training sites. I will return back to Kyuestendil for a week in May in order to share my experiences with the 5 peace corps trainees that will be training there this spring.
It was definitely a refreshing experience to talk with some of the new volunteers and hear how motivated and excited they are for the next 27 months. I also got to see some of the other PCVs from my group and that is always a good time. The only bittersweet aspect of the trip was the reminder of how i spent the tragic morning of 4/16 a year ago seeing newsflashes of VA Tech on Bulgarian news and not understanding a word they were saying about the tragedy. That was and always will be a morning filled with confusion, loss, and unrelenting pain.
Life in Ruse has been pretty good. In March, Ruse hosts the 'MARCH MUSIC DAYS' where many different performances are held at the Drama Theater, Opera Theater, and smaller salons in the Municipality building. I went to a few different events with students, colleagues, and friends. My favorite was a production of "The Bald-headed Singer." It was performed in English although it was written by the Romanian playwright, Yunesco. After the performance, both me and one of the teachers at my school remarked how our faces hurt from laughing constantly for over an hour during the performance.
I spent Easter sunday with a fellow PCV at a Catholic church in town. After the service, we had a sunday lunch at the house of one of my colleagues who sent us home with some delicious pastries and 'easter bread.' Finally, in the afternoon, I played touch football with some of the students from my high school. What a great day!
Finally, I have started teaching an English Class at a local Social Services center where one of my friends works. The 'students' all work at the center and it is a relaxing way for me to teach english without worrying about discipline.
Also, my family and I have nearly finalized our plans to travel to Dubrovnik, Croatia for a week this summer. Mark set up the place where we are staying and it looks amazing judging by the pictures on the internet. Can't wait!

hope all is well east of the atlantic!

love,

eric