I am a volunteer

It's been a heck of a few weeks, which is why I have bene negligent in writing. During our last week in Krichim Ivan took us on a whirlwind of field trips and excursions (we suspect so that we'd give him really awesome final reviews.) He took us hiking to the Krichim pool and on the way home we found an awsome spot in the river to dip in. The next day he took us to Bretsigovo, a small town west of \krichim, to bum around and take our minds off of our final language tests the next day.

The day of our final LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) was one of the hottest in Bulgaria, ever. We were all really slow on the draw, but as it turned out, I was given a rating of Intermediate Mid -- the second-highest rating awarded after Pre-Service Training. Apparently only 4 people in the history of PC Bulgaria have gotten higher than that, so that's cool. After two months, I think my Bulgarian is actually better than my German, and I studied that for 4 years!

Anyway, this past week was eventful as well. On the 4th of July we were planning to have a party with our kids as a project, but the weather was really crappy so we had a 5th of July 4th of July Party. Lots of kids showed up, and we took them to the pool and played American games with them like sack races and stuff. They were really happy with it, and the gym teacher from our school came to learn some new stuff to do in class.

I must say that everone in town wished us a happy Independence Day, which I found suprising. THey all know our day, but no one outside Bulgaria knows theirs...That might also be because they have 3, but that's beside the point! (One to celebrate the beginning of kicking out the Turks, one to celebrate the final leaving of the TUrks and one to celebrate the leaving of the Soviets.)

Thursday was a pretty rough day. Our host families dropped us off in Pazardjik and we said our goodbyes, which were quite tearful. All day they made us do menial things to get ready for Friday, which was our big day. We heard the news about London in our afternoon (an hour of two after it happened) but our internet was down and we couldn't get much accurate news. Many of us have actually lived in London for periods of time, so we were all pretty upset.

THe next day, Friday, was the Swear-In day for the B-17s. They bused us to Sofia, took us to the Peace Corps compound, had the ceremony (which included reading out our names and hometowns, the American Ambassador of Bulgaria giving us the oath, and the Minister of Educatiuon in Bulgaria officially welcoming us to his employment.) Afterwards my five sitemates and Ivan bascially milled around together, not really wanting to go our separate ways. We decided that before school starts we will meet in the Rila Mountain town of Dupnitsa to hike to the Rila Monastary. Ned, one of my sitemates, will be living there, so it seemed like a good starting point. I will probably take a train to Plovdiv, meet up with Ivan and Ethan, and Ivan'll rent a car and drive us to "The Dup." I'm looking forward to it.

But after a few hours, everyone had left the compound and I was left waiting for my school director to come and pick me up. Once she came it was a 5-hour ride home to Straldja, and here I have been for the past two days, attempting to settle in.

I have some major cleaning and stuff to do in my apartment, but my town is so small there is not much shopping to be done here. TOmorrow I will travel to my nearest city, Sliven, about 45 minutes away, to get some supplies.

I know I'll be fine here. I have the language skills and the independence. Now it is simply a matter of settling in, meeting people, and getting into a routine.

I will also soon begin using either internet at my apartment or internet at the school, so my emails can be more poetic without time restrictions.