So folks, here I am back in the "hometown" of Krichim. I just returned from a few days at my permanent site on Friday (my birthday), which was pretty exciting. I will be working in a town called Straldja in the mid-eastern part of Bulgaria (guess I'm always an East Coast chick), about an hour drive west of Burgas, one of the two major resort towns on the Black Sea. It's a small town in the shadow of Starra Planina (translated as "Old Mountains"), which is the mountain range known in the west as the Balkan Mountains. Near Sofia they are huge and snow-capped, but further east they are more like really tall Appalacians. My school is really nice, and there is a Roma school in the town for me to work in as a secondary project. My counterpart (the Bulgarian teacher who has "adopted me") is really nice and speaks incredible English. She will be the primary grammar teacher and I will be more of a cultural and communication teacher (pronunciation, etc.) There is a running joke in our group of trainees that one guy from Long Island will be teaching phonetics to his students. His accent should make for an interesting class!
Tomorrow trainees south of Pazardjik will meet in the dumpy little town of Brestovitsa to talk about our site visits. I hope every else is as happy as I am with mine. My brithday was a rockin' good time...My family had all the volunteers in the area and lots of their extended family over for a party. They taught us all the couchek (the Turkish dancing) and they claim we are good...I really don't think so. My Bulgarian is getting better, so that's a good sign. I'mlooking forward to getting back into my rountine in Krichim after a week away.
