summer lovin happened so fast...

I can honestly say the past three months have flown by. Back in the spring, I was so excited to host my family (minus dad), and already I'm missing them again...solitary teardrop.

Of all of the great experiences and fun things I have been able to do in the past month, one particular memory jumps out at me as being truly awesome.

One month after Kosovo had officially become an internationally-recognized country (and not just an autonomous state within Serbia), my brother, sister, and I got to travel through it on our way from Bulgaria to Dubrovnik, Croatia. From the time we crossed the Macedonia-Kosovo border in the back seat of the mini-bus we boarded in Skopje(capital of Macedonia), I had felt like we were truly seeing something unique. All along the roads, we saw signs of the United Nations' presence: trucks, soldiers, complexes, barbed-wire. My imagination ran wild thinking about the broken-lives that had been created here within the past decade. As we drove, I was reading BALKAN GHOSTS by Robert Kaplan. He had traveled through the same part of the world almost 20 years ago and I found it fascinating how what I was seeing was so different from the Kosovo that he had experienced.

The capital of Kosovo, Prishtina, was so alive. Everywhere I looked, I saw people walking, running, but mostly just standing in small groups. I noted how few women I saw. The ones that I did see were predominantly escorted by an older man and clothed from head to toe (tradition stubbornly failed to recognize the 90 degree temperatures). The inner Robinson Crusoe in me longed to get out of the mini-bus and get lost in it all. Yet, traveling through the outskirts, I was awed by the infrastructure. It was sub-standard in some places; non-existant in others. Prodigal hotels shot out of the ground next to cow pastures and auto-body shops working on any thing from donkey carts to 1970s communist-issue buggies to Mercedes G-wagons. What a fascinating microcosm!

Although I have loved and appreciated almost every other experience I have had recently, no sense of me was satisfied as thoroughly as my sense of raw adventure was that evening.

***

Pictures on snapfish.com can certainly paint a better picture of my summer up to this point, but now I will briefly try with words. I guess it all started with a wedding in southwestern bulgaria between an american peace corps volunteer and a bulgarian man. The wedding was in a itty-bitty village called Slashten (don't even try searching for it on the map). The size and rural aspect of Slashten did not prevent - in fact, surely caused - the explosion of love, fun, and kindness that was omnipresent throughout my time there. I did not know the peace corps volunteer (Andrea) or her husband (Mustafa) before the weekend. Beckie (my amazing girlfriend) invited me. Some of my other friends in the Corps were there and we had a great time; folk dancing/reception decorating/picture taking/soccer in the town square. It was great.

Then, I met my sister in the Sofia airport early Monday morning. She flew in from London to stay with me for 2 weeks before we again headed west to meet my brother at the Sofia airport. We went to school together, watched movies together, and drank beers together at Ruse's beer festival. But most importantly, she discovered the glory of Shopska Salata! Also she got to see the end of the year performance of my school's Drama Club. I was very proud of all of our young actors and I think Joanna (and Beckie and the other PCVs that were there) were very impressed by the actors and their English deliverance. The play was called 'Charley's Aunt.'

After stopping in the towns of Gabrovo (where we received some true PC hospitality//I heart you Foltzes and Amanda and Jerry//) and Veliko Turnovo, my sister and I met Mark at the airport. We made it back to the hostel and met some very cool people. After all, what is a European Hostel experience without jovial big-boy status brazilian man and a well-traveled friendly swede? Bernardo and Anders were two guys I will not soon forget.

After our mini-bus traversed the balkans, we arrived at 5am in Dubrovnik. Mom had already arrived the evening before and she was very excited to see us (but mostly me...right mom?)

The whole week was absolutely amazing. I can't think of one thing I didn't enjoy. We even got used to the 53 stair incline-21 stair decline-54 stair incline that it took to get from the street to the apartment where we were staying. Despite the fact that Dad wasn't there to remind us, UNIT keys remained in our secure possesion for the week's entirety. whewwwwwwww

After Mark and I said good-bye to mom and joanna (until July '09!) we caught our bus back to Bulgaria. Mark and I went to Beckie's village and rested for a night. The next morning we went on a hike to the Rila 7 Lakes in Rila National Park (SW Bulgaria). I was really happy Mark could see one of my favorite places in the country; as well as my favorite person.

After sending Mark off to the Sofia Airport, Beckie and I went away for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. We went to the Rhodope Mountains to see 'The Devil's Throat.' This is where the Thracian Oracle of Orpheus originated. Also, a beautiful place (look at the pictures).

***

Now, I'm back in Ruse. From the 12th to the 15th, I will be running a Flag Football camp in town. Other PCVs will be here to help and some of my Bulgarian friends will be the coaches of the teams. Hopefully I will have pictures and stories to tell about that....posle (later).


I'll say good-bye with a quote from Joseph Addison's CATO: "'Tis not in mortals to command success, but we'll do more,...we'll deserve it."


love, hugs, handpounds, daps, cheers to all,

ejSEEZY

SPRING BREAK 08!!!

честит рожден ден марк! Big Bro turns 27 today! damn...we're gettin old!

For those of yall (like me until a couple of months ago) who didn't know, Easter is celebrated on different days of the year depending on if you consider yourself a member of a Western Christian Church or an Eastern Christian Church. The Western Church celebrates Easter on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon which was the 23rd of March this year(wikipedia says the paschal full moon is simply determined by a 'complex' formula). so if you want more information about this...be less lazy than me and figure it out yourself. The Eastern Church (of which Bulgarian Orthodoxy is included) determines the day they celebrate Easter using the Julian Calendar as opposed to the Gregorian Calendar used by the Western Churches. Bottom line...those of us living in countries with state religions existing under Eastern Orthodoxy get to celebrate Easter twice! This year, Bulgarian Easter is on the 27th of April.

I for one am taking full advantage. After tomorrow, I do not teach until the 7th of May. (yes this school system that is granting us a week and a half off of school for Easter/Labor Day/St. George's Day is the same school system that endured a 6 week strike by its teachers to start the school year) In the meantime, i'm gonna be doing some hardcore relaxing and some hard core hiking.
Saturday, I am going with one of my colleagues from my school to his village and we are going to celebrate Easter with his friends and family there. Then, after I come back to Ruse, I am going to go with a couple friends to the second tallest peak in Bulgaria. It is in the Balkan Mountain Range and everyone I tell says its an amazing place but a really difficult hike...can't wait. After that, I'm gonna see some other PCVs in Veliko Turnovo. Mindy, who was in Kyuestendil with me for the first 3 months, is gonna be there with her family from the states.

Not too long until I get to see mine! (excluding poppa dukes...don't worry dad, we'll say jeez-o-flip a few times in your honor)

hollllllllllller

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

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

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!

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.

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!