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
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
and the Sun returns...
In hinesight, it has certainly been a long eventful winter. My first Holiday season away from home, a trip to Asia with Will (ok we were only in Istanbul but it was still wild), becoming a published playwright (except for the published part), increasing my language literacy, writing my first project grant, luxuriously traveling (not so much) all over Bulgaria via the Bulgarian train system, and surviving a snow fall of over 2 feet in an apartment alone. I'm not gonna lie, my life has been pretty awesome at times yet rather somber at others this winter. With that said...I'm so excited for the spring!
In Bulgaria, on the first of March people hand out 'Martinitsi.' They are symbolic yarn crafts that bring luck and health in the coming seasons to those who receive them from friends. I am certainly going to receive all that I get with a yearning for health and luck, but just as importantly, a yearning for some freakin' sun and heat!
Dark, cold, dreary weather is definitely something that I can't deal with. O wait, I've been dealing with it for the better part of 3 months! I've wholly internalized how it can weigh on the psyche...
So what do I have to look forward to?...well first of all, my teaching schedule was increased from 18 hours last semester to 23 hours this semester. After school I'm helping the Drama Club with our production of 'Charley's Aunt.' <
I'm definitely gonna be exhausted come fridays!
Also, I have been getting the ball rolling on a FLAG FOOTBALL CAMP for High Schoolers in Ruse during the summer. Hopefully I can get some help from my other PCV friends as well as other friends from Ruse. Also, Skyler, Ryan, and Blake might be over here to help out. If this camp all comes together and all of these people get involved, I will be so unbelievably pumped!
But before this, Joanna is coming to stay with me after she finishes her study program in London. After experiencing the life here in Ruse for a week or so, we're gonna meet Mom, Dad, and Mark in Croatia for a week. Joanna and I will travel from Ruse through Montenegro and along the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. yea i said it...jealous??
To those that have made it this far along in the blog...although I may not talk to some of you all that often, you are constantly (generally-speaking) randomly (specifically-speaking) in my thoughts and prayers! I love and miss you all!
cha cha cha bo-ieee,
ejay crowderrrrrr
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Thinking a bit lately...
"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn beween a desire to save and savor the world. And this makes it difficult to plan the day." --E.B. White
The Peace Corps seminar director back at my initial orientation meeting in Philadelphia offered this quote to the newly gathered group of Peace Corps volunteers. The idea has really resonated with me lately; and I have come to enjoy my role as a PCV even more with this sense of serenity.
As I have mentioned before, I have struggled in the first few months in Ruse accepting the idea that I would be working at a school with priviliged students (relatively speaking) in a huge city (relatively speaking) that could and most certainly would go on existing the same way without me in it. How was I supposed to satisfy my desire to 'save the world?'
But the more I harped on this fact, the more it got under my skin. Until a week or so ago when I was looking back through a journal of mine and saw this quote I had taken down back in Philly. It was unbelievable when I read it because it spoke to me so strongly now (much more than when I was back in Philly during April '07).
'Savoring my world' is something I have not been doing enough. Certainly I have had some amazing opportunities since I have been in Bulgaria, and I have done some great things with some great people. But I realized I have not done enough savoring.
In class the other day my class started getting loud. Before Christmas Break, I probably would have raised my voice, told them to quiet down, and I would have become agitated for at least the rest of the class if not the rest of the school day. But with the idea of 'savoring' at the forefront, I simply smiled. I mean lets be honest, all they were doing was joking around. No one was getting hurt and no one was being ugly to anyone else. They were simply being carefree, fun-loving students. I realized I should feel lucky to have the opportunity to teach such warm people. Feeling miserable because they don't always want to learn English with the focus of an adult is self-destructive and unneccesary.
I am learning Bulgarian, meeting amazing people, helping really fun students, all while truly growing as a person; what is there not to savor?
So, I've had this thought of the save/savor complex with me for the past few weeks of my life and it really has made things more rewarding...and most importantly, more fun!
The Peace Corps seminar director back at my initial orientation meeting in Philadelphia offered this quote to the newly gathered group of Peace Corps volunteers. The idea has really resonated with me lately; and I have come to enjoy my role as a PCV even more with this sense of serenity.
As I have mentioned before, I have struggled in the first few months in Ruse accepting the idea that I would be working at a school with priviliged students (relatively speaking) in a huge city (relatively speaking) that could and most certainly would go on existing the same way without me in it. How was I supposed to satisfy my desire to 'save the world?'
But the more I harped on this fact, the more it got under my skin. Until a week or so ago when I was looking back through a journal of mine and saw this quote I had taken down back in Philly. It was unbelievable when I read it because it spoke to me so strongly now (much more than when I was back in Philly during April '07).
'Savoring my world' is something I have not been doing enough. Certainly I have had some amazing opportunities since I have been in Bulgaria, and I have done some great things with some great people. But I realized I have not done enough savoring.
In class the other day my class started getting loud. Before Christmas Break, I probably would have raised my voice, told them to quiet down, and I would have become agitated for at least the rest of the class if not the rest of the school day. But with the idea of 'savoring' at the forefront, I simply smiled. I mean lets be honest, all they were doing was joking around. No one was getting hurt and no one was being ugly to anyone else. They were simply being carefree, fun-loving students. I realized I should feel lucky to have the opportunity to teach such warm people. Feeling miserable because they don't always want to learn English with the focus of an adult is self-destructive and unneccesary.
I am learning Bulgarian, meeting amazing people, helping really fun students, all while truly growing as a person; what is there not to savor?
So, I've had this thought of the save/savor complex with me for the past few weeks of my life and it really has made things more rewarding...and most importantly, more fun!
Monday, January 14, 2008
hit 'em straight in 2008
just thought i'd pass along a pretty
ridiculous experience i had earlier in the week...
so, after a great christmas vacation and a freshly restored level of will
I was ready to start the whole teaching thing again...
Tuesday morning I entered my first class with a meticulous lesson plan, a nice shirt and tie, and even a mini rah rah speech to start my students off with in the new year. 'CHALLENGE YOURSELF!' was going to be our new motto and I was going to write it on the board and simply point to it when the students got a little out of hand.
With the attendance book and text book in one hand, I turned the door handle with the other expecting to see 27 smiling faces atop 27 standing 8th graders with the same amount of fortitude that I promised myself I would maintain for at least the next 6 months.
Instead of this, what did I see? three boys and four girls in the back of the classroom 'supermanning that ho' and blaring this wonderful example of songwriting; while the other students were listening to the song on one boy's cell phone and bobbing their heads to the beat, studying this carefully coreographed dance routine.
...Generally speaking I take my role as a teacher over here serious, but at that
time I just had to laugh.
ridiculous experience i had earlier in the week...
so, after a great christmas vacation and a freshly restored level of will
I was ready to start the whole teaching thing again...
Tuesday morning I entered my first class with a meticulous lesson plan, a nice shirt and tie, and even a mini rah rah speech to start my students off with in the new year. 'CHALLENGE YOURSELF!' was going to be our new motto and I was going to write it on the board and simply point to it when the students got a little out of hand.
With the attendance book and text book in one hand, I turned the door handle with the other expecting to see 27 smiling faces atop 27 standing 8th graders with the same amount of fortitude that I promised myself I would maintain for at least the next 6 months.
Instead of this, what did I see? three boys and four girls in the back of the classroom 'supermanning that ho' and blaring this wonderful example of songwriting; while the other students were listening to the song on one boy's cell phone and bobbing their heads to the beat, studying this carefully coreographed dance routine.
...Generally speaking I take my role as a teacher over here serious, but at that
time I just had to laugh.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Its beginning to feel a lot like xmas
'i feel it in my fingers, i feel it in my toes, christmas is all around me, just like the saying goes!'
A few days ago I watched "Love Actually" for the first time and I haven't been able to get that 'one too many syllable' gingle out of my head. I definitely feel the christmas spirit is all around me...but, proverbially, maybe just one syllable off.
I've been pretty active over the past month not only during the week with the school year in full swing, but it seems like every weekend I have a full schedule. The Second weekend in November, I traveled with 4 other teachers and two of our classes from Geo Milev High School to a town in central Bulgaria: Gabrovo. Although it was raining litereally the whole time and the temperature was hovering right around freezing, we made the best of it. We went to the planetareum in Gabrovo where disappointingly the presentation failed to mention the recent renumeration of planets to exclude Pluto. I thought that was a rather blatant ommission of facts considering none of my students knew what I was talking about when I brought the subject to their attention. Also, Gabrovo is known throughout the country as the 'capital of humor.' Because of that, they have a Home of Humor with different famous Bulgarian Cartoonists and Satirists work on display as well as an exhibition of interesting Bulgarian sayings/adages. The one I liked the most was: "No matter what you produce, when you go to market you must sell yourself." Ambiguous maybe, but I liked it. On our excursion, we stayed in a Hotel with our students. Fortunately the night was rather uneventful (at least no one got hurt or drank too much according to my knowledge) but being so close to their age, I felt a little awkward for sure.
On our way back to Ruse, we stopped at an open air museum that was set up like an eighteenth century bulgarian village would be. This time in Bulgarian history is very popular/nostalgic for Bulgarians because this is the time immediately following their Rebirth from the Ottoman Empire. Once again, although it was miserable weather-wise, I enjoyed it as much as I could.
Next weekend was Thanksgiving weekend. I really began to feel homesick as the days began to end around 5pm and I yearned for the feeling of returning home from Blacksburg to experience the sights and sounds of The Bridge for a week. But I got over this the best way I knew how. I invited some of the teachers from my school over from my school for a thanksgiving dinner. I made a pumpkin pie, roasted a turkey, and made some delicious stuffing. Surprisingly the food was delicious! My friends loved it and we had a great night at my apartment. This was also the first weekend of the Ruse Teachers 3v3 Co-ed Basketball Tournament organized by the Municipality. Many factors led to Geo Milev absolutely dominating the tournament and winning first place. Among them being: I was about 10 years younger than the next youngest player, the other man on my team is about 6'5", and apparently not many of the teachers in Ruse have a thorough background in Basketball. We won a pretty nice-sized trophy that was awarded to us at an Awards Banquet/Holiday party.
That night was a lot of fun filled with folk dancing (horo), good food (a 3 course traditional bulgarian style dinner), and good drink (rakia).
One weekend, along with a couple of the men that work at the Youth Center in Ruse, I took some students to a nearby lake that is (or at least was) absolutely filthy. We spent the morning filling about 70 bags of trash and spent the afternoon playing football. One of the kids had a football that his mom brought him back from the states when she went on vacation this summer to Miami. It was a great time throwing the football. When I think about it, going a whole summer and fall without touching a football is a tragedy. But it was pretty fun tossing it around after all. It was also cool how everyone was seemingly dumbfounded how I could throw a spiral.
On Thursday, some of my students will perform a Christmas play that I wrote. Well, I didn't exactly write it. I adopted 'A Christmas Carole' by Charles Dickens into play form and shortened it while also making the English very easy. Either way, I'm definitely excited to see my students perform it on Thursday.
But my excitement for that doesn't come close to how excited I am for Ill nana to come. Will is coming to visit me for my Christmas break. I am going to meet him at the Sofia Airport on Xmas day and we are gonna travel from Sofia to Kyustendil to Plovdiv to Istanbul...in effect traveling across Bulgaria. I've heard nothing but great things about the sights in Istanbul so I can't wait to experience it with Will and some of the other PCVs who will be traveling with us.
I hope everyone is having a great holiday season...MERRY CHRISTMAS!
A few days ago I watched "Love Actually" for the first time and I haven't been able to get that 'one too many syllable' gingle out of my head. I definitely feel the christmas spirit is all around me...but, proverbially, maybe just one syllable off.
I've been pretty active over the past month not only during the week with the school year in full swing, but it seems like every weekend I have a full schedule. The Second weekend in November, I traveled with 4 other teachers and two of our classes from Geo Milev High School to a town in central Bulgaria: Gabrovo. Although it was raining litereally the whole time and the temperature was hovering right around freezing, we made the best of it. We went to the planetareum in Gabrovo where disappointingly the presentation failed to mention the recent renumeration of planets to exclude Pluto. I thought that was a rather blatant ommission of facts considering none of my students knew what I was talking about when I brought the subject to their attention. Also, Gabrovo is known throughout the country as the 'capital of humor.' Because of that, they have a Home of Humor with different famous Bulgarian Cartoonists and Satirists work on display as well as an exhibition of interesting Bulgarian sayings/adages. The one I liked the most was: "No matter what you produce, when you go to market you must sell yourself." Ambiguous maybe, but I liked it. On our excursion, we stayed in a Hotel with our students. Fortunately the night was rather uneventful (at least no one got hurt or drank too much according to my knowledge) but being so close to their age, I felt a little awkward for sure.
On our way back to Ruse, we stopped at an open air museum that was set up like an eighteenth century bulgarian village would be. This time in Bulgarian history is very popular/nostalgic for Bulgarians because this is the time immediately following their Rebirth from the Ottoman Empire. Once again, although it was miserable weather-wise, I enjoyed it as much as I could.
Next weekend was Thanksgiving weekend. I really began to feel homesick as the days began to end around 5pm and I yearned for the feeling of returning home from Blacksburg to experience the sights and sounds of The Bridge for a week. But I got over this the best way I knew how. I invited some of the teachers from my school over from my school for a thanksgiving dinner. I made a pumpkin pie, roasted a turkey, and made some delicious stuffing. Surprisingly the food was delicious! My friends loved it and we had a great night at my apartment. This was also the first weekend of the Ruse Teachers 3v3 Co-ed Basketball Tournament organized by the Municipality. Many factors led to Geo Milev absolutely dominating the tournament and winning first place. Among them being: I was about 10 years younger than the next youngest player, the other man on my team is about 6'5", and apparently not many of the teachers in Ruse have a thorough background in Basketball. We won a pretty nice-sized trophy that was awarded to us at an Awards Banquet/Holiday party.
That night was a lot of fun filled with folk dancing (horo), good food (a 3 course traditional bulgarian style dinner), and good drink (rakia).
One weekend, along with a couple of the men that work at the Youth Center in Ruse, I took some students to a nearby lake that is (or at least was) absolutely filthy. We spent the morning filling about 70 bags of trash and spent the afternoon playing football. One of the kids had a football that his mom brought him back from the states when she went on vacation this summer to Miami. It was a great time throwing the football. When I think about it, going a whole summer and fall without touching a football is a tragedy. But it was pretty fun tossing it around after all. It was also cool how everyone was seemingly dumbfounded how I could throw a spiral.
On Thursday, some of my students will perform a Christmas play that I wrote. Well, I didn't exactly write it. I adopted 'A Christmas Carole' by Charles Dickens into play form and shortened it while also making the English very easy. Either way, I'm definitely excited to see my students perform it on Thursday.
But my excitement for that doesn't come close to how excited I am for Ill nana to come. Will is coming to visit me for my Christmas break. I am going to meet him at the Sofia Airport on Xmas day and we are gonna travel from Sofia to Kyustendil to Plovdiv to Istanbul...in effect traveling across Bulgaria. I've heard nothing but great things about the sights in Istanbul so I can't wait to experience it with Will and some of the other PCVs who will be traveling with us.
I hope everyone is having a great holiday season...MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
what a month!
he's ba-aaaaaaaack! Hello everyone! As of Tuesday, November 5th, 2007 the public school year began all across Bulgaria. Nearly, 2 months after the originally scheduled first day of school (September 15th) I am teaching in a high school full of the teachers holding class everyday and students (some energetically, some begrudgingly) coming to class everyday. I am continuing to teach my 8th and 9th grade classes and next week I will begin hosting an after school group with older students who would like to get more practice with their English and who would like to get more realistic English exposure (discussions of real world issues, films, music, current events, etc.)
Although I am assured whenever I make the comment (mnogo e studeno neska...its really cold today) that this winter will get much colder, the weather has gotten pretty damn cold already here in Ruse. I have a space heater in my apartment that I keep on 24/7 because it has recently been brought to my attention that my apartment block has no working central heating this winter. Awesome! But really I can't complain. The cold winter will balance out the extremely hot temperatures we got here during the summer. There has yet to be any substancial snowstorms but it has flurried a couple times.
So what else have I been up to since the last time I entered Blogworld? Other than teaching, frankly, not a whole lot....
The first week in October, I took a weekend trip to see my host family from Kyuestendil (the town close to the Macedonian border where I lived for my first 3 months in Bulgaria during my training). It was a great weekend. I felt a bit proud of myself when I could communicate with all of them leaps and bounds above the level I communicated with them when I lived with them during the summer. My host brother and sister, Velisar and Velislava, live in Sofia because they attend University there. After I saw my host parents in Kyuestendil on Friday night and Saturday, I traveled to Sofia (about a 2hour bus ride) to hang out with Velisar and Velislava. We had a great time painting 'Student City' - the section of Sofia where all of the students live - red. We met up with a bunch of their friends and ate, drank, and danced the HORO all night. The HORO is a style of traditional Bulgarian folk dance where everyone dances in a line side-by-side and follows the line around the room in a random pattern (in this case, it was the entire restaurant where we were). Its really a good time. But after many trips around restaurant, the DJ started playing more modern music and taking requests. At this point I took it upon myself to request classic American folk music....Michael Bolton. haha I laugh, but it happened.
Back in Ruse, I sometimes feel like a bit of a needle in a haystack. When I decided to join the Peace Corps I really didn't picture myself living in a city with 120,000-plus people, but that is the reality of it. I suffer sometimes from feeling like I'm not doing enough, not because I lack the desire, but because I lack the power/connections/know-how. At first, and even sometimes still, this lack of efficaciousness weighs heavily. But it really has helped me gain a more humble sense of serenity. Which is a good thing when coupled with the opportunities I do have...
After all, I get to meet with over 100 kids everyday who clearly express that they think the world of me. With this respect (well-deserved or not) that I get from my students, I have the chance to teach them the skill of the world's most international language that can do nothing but help improve their lives in the near future and in the long run. Whether it be translating a claimer from a travel website, or helping revise Motivational Letters for students that aspire to attend Univerisities that use English as the the language of discourse; I have learned to focus on the task at hand so that even if I may be only a 'needle' in the proverbial haystack, I am a hard-working and thoroughly-giving needle.
*****************************
I turned 23 on the 28th of October! This is the first of two birthdays that I will celebrate over here in Bulgaria. It just so happened that my birthday coincided with the nationwide celebration of Halloween by many of the PCVs in the town of Veliko Turnovo. We all had a great time dressing up and acting blatantly and obnoxiously American for a weekend in a guest house that we rented for 2 nights. I was a ninja. Ladies, don't get too excited when I say this, but was wearing tights. See the pictures on snapfish.com or facebook.com....
The next weekend, I ran in my first marathon. I ran it in Athens, Greece where the first marathon was ran 2500 years ago. Or at least this is according to the legend that was first recorded 1900 years ago. Sunday, November 4th, 2007 was and most assuredly will be one of the coolest days of my life. Marathons are such great experiences. The energy and excitement is almost tangible in a city that is hosting a marathon of over 7,000 participants. 8 other PCVs ran in the marathon as well and we all ran at different paces but with similar outcomes...great memories, promises that the next time we'll train harder, and inexplicable pain shooting through muscles we didn't know we had. Additionally, in my case, I hurt my left ankle during the race and could hardly walk from my hostel to the bus to catch the airport the next morning. But with that said, I have and always will have great memories of november 4th.
I believe thats all for now...I hope all of my friends/family/loved ones don't regret the time they took out to read the preceding randomness that is my life nowadays, and I thank you for thinking of me. In one way or another, I have thought of you and used our friendship and memories to help me in times of homesickness over the past 7 months. :)
god bless you all!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
The school year is underway...
It is now the middle of my third week of teaching classes at Geo Milev 'High School' in Ruse, Bulgaria. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the classroom with my students, but the first few weeks of school have been anything but uneventful.
First of all, just like in America, the teachers of public schools are poorly underpaid. Although very few people (if any) are willing to justify this reality, it remains a fact of life; not only in the U.S. but in Bulgaria and - I would guess - the world over. Because of this, the teachers of Bulgaria have mobilized and have enacted a 'stachka' (bulgarian for STRIKE) to protest these unjustifiably low wages. But since I am paid by Peace Corps Bulgaria and as an organization we do not take any political stances, I continue to have classes (along with all of the other PCVs at their respective schools around the country).
There are a few teachers still holding classes along with me at school but for the most part, the teachers have told their students not to come to school because they will not be teaching anything. In protest, the striking teachers simply show up to school at 8am and 'sit in' until 4pm. This strike has now been underway for 12 days. That is 12 days worth of pay that the teachers will not receive. But most importantly, that is 12 days worth of school that the students have not received. Instead they will have to make up the lessons they have missed with extended days, on weekends, or worst of all, on holidays. So with all of this political turmoil...who wins? Well that remains to be seen if the Ministry of Education will increase the salaries of the teachers. But certainly, the losers are clearly the ones who have no control of the situation: the students.
So that is one thing that has made my fledgeling weeks very interesting. Other than that, I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with the level of my students' English. Although they have only been taking english lessons (in school) for a couple of years in primary school, I am able to explain things in simple English and they understand most of what I say. (Part of my instructions from my colleagues is to speak only in English during class. If the students really do not understand something when I explain it in English, they can ask me after class and I can try to explain it in Bulgarian)
As a whole the students are extremely enthusiastic about learning English in my class and are very curious about life in America? (i.e. Is everyone rich? Is high school like AMERICAN PIE? Do you like 50 cent?) by the way, Curtis Jackson did all of us teaching English a disservice by using that name. Students find it very confusing to say, The cookie costs 50 CENTS while also saying, I like to listen to 50 CENT. My mom and I are setting up a classroom exchange program where my 9th grade students in Bulgaria can communicate with her students at Woodbridge Middle. They are definitely excited about that. Although I hope they keep their curious minds somewhat censored when asking questions to her students.
For the most part, my life has been spent at school. After school, I go jogging (31 days until the Athens Marathon!!!) http://www.athensclassicmarathon.gr/default.1.asp And I try to cook different things using the amazingly delicious fruit and vegetables from the market that is just next to my apartment. I have cooked a couple of meals for friends and colleagues on the weekends and they seem to enjoy my cooking. For those of you all that are wondering...my cuisine has congealed into a somewhat more ordinary array of dishes. (I have yet to serve ramen/milk/mustard/chicken/chocolate sauce delight to anyone in Bulgaria like we used to do it at the PRC)
also....With the help of slingbox (and my brother despite the fact that he still hasn't bought an audio splitter or had the cable guy come fix his DVR), I have been able watch the beginning of the VT and redskin seasons. (I think I woke my neighbors up due to my yelp similar to that of an 8 year old child being spanked when Betts was stopped at the 1)
This weekend I am going to take the bus back to Kyuestendil to visit my host family and hopefully see my old language teacher Anni. (see my first blog entry; I heart Anni)
Thats about all for now...although I do not get to talk to you often, it really makes me feel great when you shoot me an email and tell me something funny/nice/new/cool/interesting about what you are up to or about life in general.
God Bless!
First of all, just like in America, the teachers of public schools are poorly underpaid. Although very few people (if any) are willing to justify this reality, it remains a fact of life; not only in the U.S. but in Bulgaria and - I would guess - the world over. Because of this, the teachers of Bulgaria have mobilized and have enacted a 'stachka' (bulgarian for STRIKE) to protest these unjustifiably low wages. But since I am paid by Peace Corps Bulgaria and as an organization we do not take any political stances, I continue to have classes (along with all of the other PCVs at their respective schools around the country).
There are a few teachers still holding classes along with me at school but for the most part, the teachers have told their students not to come to school because they will not be teaching anything. In protest, the striking teachers simply show up to school at 8am and 'sit in' until 4pm. This strike has now been underway for 12 days. That is 12 days worth of pay that the teachers will not receive. But most importantly, that is 12 days worth of school that the students have not received. Instead they will have to make up the lessons they have missed with extended days, on weekends, or worst of all, on holidays. So with all of this political turmoil...who wins? Well that remains to be seen if the Ministry of Education will increase the salaries of the teachers. But certainly, the losers are clearly the ones who have no control of the situation: the students.
So that is one thing that has made my fledgeling weeks very interesting. Other than that, I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with the level of my students' English. Although they have only been taking english lessons (in school) for a couple of years in primary school, I am able to explain things in simple English and they understand most of what I say. (Part of my instructions from my colleagues is to speak only in English during class. If the students really do not understand something when I explain it in English, they can ask me after class and I can try to explain it in Bulgarian)
As a whole the students are extremely enthusiastic about learning English in my class and are very curious about life in America? (i.e. Is everyone rich? Is high school like AMERICAN PIE? Do you like 50 cent?) by the way, Curtis Jackson did all of us teaching English a disservice by using that name. Students find it very confusing to say, The cookie costs 50 CENTS while also saying, I like to listen to 50 CENT. My mom and I are setting up a classroom exchange program where my 9th grade students in Bulgaria can communicate with her students at Woodbridge Middle. They are definitely excited about that. Although I hope they keep their curious minds somewhat censored when asking questions to her students.
For the most part, my life has been spent at school. After school, I go jogging (31 days until the Athens Marathon!!!) http://www.athensclassicmarathon.gr/default.1.asp And I try to cook different things using the amazingly delicious fruit and vegetables from the market that is just next to my apartment. I have cooked a couple of meals for friends and colleagues on the weekends and they seem to enjoy my cooking. For those of you all that are wondering...my cuisine has congealed into a somewhat more ordinary array of dishes. (I have yet to serve ramen/milk/mustard/chicken/chocolate sauce delight to anyone in Bulgaria like we used to do it at the PRC)
also....With the help of slingbox (and my brother despite the fact that he still hasn't bought an audio splitter or had the cable guy come fix his DVR), I have been able watch the beginning of the VT and redskin seasons. (I think I woke my neighbors up due to my yelp similar to that of an 8 year old child being spanked when Betts was stopped at the 1)
This weekend I am going to take the bus back to Kyuestendil to visit my host family and hopefully see my old language teacher Anni. (see my first blog entry; I heart Anni)
Thats about all for now...although I do not get to talk to you often, it really makes me feel great when you shoot me an email and tell me something funny/nice/new/cool/interesting about what you are up to or about life in general.
God Bless!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)