I will try to get this email about before I fall asleep on my laptop. This weekend was not condusive to sleep, and the 3 1/2 hour-long train ride with stuck-shut windows today didn't help...
Last week I began some work, thus ending my profound boredom. Three students returned from their various summer rambles and we were able to start some essay-writing and test-prep courses for university entrance exams. After our lessons they took me out to the cafe and introduced me to some of their friends, so at least I have an "in" in the community now. When school starts I'll be with the teachers every day too, which will give me even more social interaction.
On Friday I had our writing lesson, my Bulgarian lesson, and then I caught a train back to Krichim. This was a weekend I had been looking forward to all month -- the Krichim Town Festival.
In Bulgaria most towns, no matter how small, have a gradska praznik (a city holiday) once during the year. It is basically a time to get everyone in town outside and talking with music, dancing and fireworks in the town square. When we heard that Krichim's fesitval was the last weekend of August, the 5 of us decided it would be a good time to have a reunion before the school year starts. Only Ned was unable to make it, and he was missed.
Krichim has new trainees, and they are all living with our old families. Vassy, the trainee in my family, was actually born in Bulgaria and speaks Bulgarian, so she is learning Turkish instead. I must say there is an eerie familial resemblance between us -- a number of people in town stopped to ask me if we were sisters.
On Friday evening the families, new trainees and old trainees sat at a cafe in the town center while listening to the music. It was very nice to see everyone again and meet the newbies. They were so impressed with our Bulgarian that it was a good weekend for ego-massage. (It also felt good because I remember a few months back when I was thinking, "I'll never learn this language!" and I heard other volunteers who had only been here for a few months speaking and thinking, "There's light at the end of the tunnel.")
Saturday had beautiful weather, so a bunch of us went on our favorite hike to the top of the mountain behind town. One other new trainee from Stamboliski joined us, and he was a character. He kept whining about all this stuff he missed from the states (McDonald's french fries, BBQ chicken, etc.) and I thought to myself, "Buddy, you were in the states just two weeks ago..." I hope he can get over it and doesn't end up going home early. It just seems kind of early to be complaining about missing things.
Saturday night the 4 old Krichim volunteers broke apart from the new trainees for the chalga concert in the center. Vesela, one of the chalga stars (one very very popular type of Bulgarian pop music) performed some of her songs, and then they set off some fireworks. Afterwards we met some of Bulgarian and Turkish friends at one of our favorite cafes and stayed until it closed. They were all so impressed by how much better our Bulgarian has gotten.
On Sunday I introduced two of the new trainees to Plovdiv. We saw The Island, which was a pretty interesting movie. It was a beautiful day, but hot and we came home exhausted. However, the trainee living with Maegan's family (my host aunt) had a birthday, and if there is one thing the Turks love it's a birthday party. There was the typical congregation of family members and Americans, lots of dancing kuchek, and even some Elvis songs (thanks to Husein, one of our friends/"cousins" who was home from college in Turkey.) Needless to say, it was another late night.
Monday, yesterday, I more or less spent the day on a very very hot train as the windows were stuck closed. Lots of sleep followed, and I feel back to normal today.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
A Mundane Account of Daily Life
It recently occurred to me that although I write a lot about big things I do (my travels and adventures) I have never written about the mundane day-to-day doings of my life in Bulgaria. Since this weekend was pretty empty, here it is…
I usually wake up around 7 o’clock because the roosters are crowing loudly by then in the neighborhood by my bloc, but I can still lay in bed comfortably until 8 a.m. Much beyond then the sun is too bright and it starts getting too hot. My first order of business when I get out of bed is to check if there is water (there is a 40% chance there won’t be) and turn on my hot water boiler. I made the mistake of not checking the water one morning and I was very lucky to catch it in time before my boiler blew up…it did make a very angry noise though.
During the hour it takes to get hot water, I either doze off or eat my breakfast. I usually eat some muslei (oats, raisins, nuts and corn flakes) with some Bulgarian kiselo mlyako (yogurt that is world-renowned for being awesome). I also have a hard-boiled egg (one of the few things I can cook on my 200-year-old heating apparatus they consider a stove) and this week I’ve been eating some oranges I found at the fruit market in Yambol.
Ever since I got internet at the apartment I’ve been checking my email during breakfast. I also watch either the Bulgarian news or BBC World (though I haven’t gotten that channel this week and I wonder what happened to it…) The thing is BBC World only produces one news broadcast a day, so once you see the 30-minute segment you are done until the next day. The thing with Bulgarian news is, well, it’s in Bulgarian and they speak really, really fast. Luckily with pictures and story headlines across the bottom of the screen, I do okay.
After I shower and get dressed I try to read some of my Bulgarian vocab words. Sometimes I don’t feel like it and watch an American sitcom dubbed in Bulgarian instead. They have Mad About You and Everybody Loves Raymond in the afternoons. That helps because I can read the English lips and hear the Bulgarian words.
By the start of the afternoon I am usually stir-crazy in my apartment. It’s only one room, and one can only sit in the same chair for so long. If it is nice out I’ll either a) take a walk around Straldja or b) catch a bus to Sliven or Yambol and wander there. It’s gotten to the point where Yambol is pretty boring if I don’t have business there, like shopping, but the ride is pretty. It’s across the Thracian Plain, and you can see the mountains next to you get bigger as you head west. Sliven is a bit more of a hassle to get to, but it’s prettier and has a Billa supermarket. There is also really good hiking I still have to scout out when Eric can make it up (my closest volunteer).
The last bus to Straldja from both towns is in the 5 o’clock hour, so I am always back by 6. I try to procure some sort of meal for myself…this week it’s been tomatoes and cucumbers I got from the garden of my counterpart. As it’s just me, and my cooking apparatus is sub-par, I usually don’t keep much food in the house lest it go bad. I have mastered the baked potato and there are usually hardboiled eggs leftover.
Through the evening I alternate between reading books I took from the Peace Corps office the last time I was in Sofia, watching TV (they’ve been showing the tennis tournament in Cincinnati a few days behind, but I’m not complaining), and writing things. Now that I only talk to native speakers of English sporadically, I have to write to keep my color in my speech…Twice a week in the evenings I have my Bulgarian language lessons, which are getting progressively more challenging and useful.
By 11 p.m. it is usually cool enough to sleep, so I go to bed and start the process all over again.
This week I will start my essay-writing classes with three students from school. They want lessons 4 days a week, so I’ll have more to do. I will also go back to Yambol to speak some English with the Red Cross Director there (she is learning and wants a conversation partner.) Other than that, I pretty much bide my time until I have a very rigid, busy schedule during the school year.
So that’s it. That’s what I do right now. In one way I’m glad I had all this time to get settled, but on the other hand I am pretty bored…Soon life will be more work-filled, and I’ll be longing for a vacation! Oh, the irony.
I usually wake up around 7 o’clock because the roosters are crowing loudly by then in the neighborhood by my bloc, but I can still lay in bed comfortably until 8 a.m. Much beyond then the sun is too bright and it starts getting too hot. My first order of business when I get out of bed is to check if there is water (there is a 40% chance there won’t be) and turn on my hot water boiler. I made the mistake of not checking the water one morning and I was very lucky to catch it in time before my boiler blew up…it did make a very angry noise though.
During the hour it takes to get hot water, I either doze off or eat my breakfast. I usually eat some muslei (oats, raisins, nuts and corn flakes) with some Bulgarian kiselo mlyako (yogurt that is world-renowned for being awesome). I also have a hard-boiled egg (one of the few things I can cook on my 200-year-old heating apparatus they consider a stove) and this week I’ve been eating some oranges I found at the fruit market in Yambol.
Ever since I got internet at the apartment I’ve been checking my email during breakfast. I also watch either the Bulgarian news or BBC World (though I haven’t gotten that channel this week and I wonder what happened to it…) The thing is BBC World only produces one news broadcast a day, so once you see the 30-minute segment you are done until the next day. The thing with Bulgarian news is, well, it’s in Bulgarian and they speak really, really fast. Luckily with pictures and story headlines across the bottom of the screen, I do okay.
After I shower and get dressed I try to read some of my Bulgarian vocab words. Sometimes I don’t feel like it and watch an American sitcom dubbed in Bulgarian instead. They have Mad About You and Everybody Loves Raymond in the afternoons. That helps because I can read the English lips and hear the Bulgarian words.
By the start of the afternoon I am usually stir-crazy in my apartment. It’s only one room, and one can only sit in the same chair for so long. If it is nice out I’ll either a) take a walk around Straldja or b) catch a bus to Sliven or Yambol and wander there. It’s gotten to the point where Yambol is pretty boring if I don’t have business there, like shopping, but the ride is pretty. It’s across the Thracian Plain, and you can see the mountains next to you get bigger as you head west. Sliven is a bit more of a hassle to get to, but it’s prettier and has a Billa supermarket. There is also really good hiking I still have to scout out when Eric can make it up (my closest volunteer).
The last bus to Straldja from both towns is in the 5 o’clock hour, so I am always back by 6. I try to procure some sort of meal for myself…this week it’s been tomatoes and cucumbers I got from the garden of my counterpart. As it’s just me, and my cooking apparatus is sub-par, I usually don’t keep much food in the house lest it go bad. I have mastered the baked potato and there are usually hardboiled eggs leftover.
Through the evening I alternate between reading books I took from the Peace Corps office the last time I was in Sofia, watching TV (they’ve been showing the tennis tournament in Cincinnati a few days behind, but I’m not complaining), and writing things. Now that I only talk to native speakers of English sporadically, I have to write to keep my color in my speech…Twice a week in the evenings I have my Bulgarian language lessons, which are getting progressively more challenging and useful.
By 11 p.m. it is usually cool enough to sleep, so I go to bed and start the process all over again.
This week I will start my essay-writing classes with three students from school. They want lessons 4 days a week, so I’ll have more to do. I will also go back to Yambol to speak some English with the Red Cross Director there (she is learning and wants a conversation partner.) Other than that, I pretty much bide my time until I have a very rigid, busy schedule during the school year.
So that’s it. That’s what I do right now. In one way I’m glad I had all this time to get settled, but on the other hand I am pretty bored…Soon life will be more work-filled, and I’ll be longing for a vacation! Oh, the irony.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
A Weekend Out of Thin Air
On Thursday this weekend was going to be a boring one at home. I had some studying to do, some cleaning to do (the Inspector General from some branch of the US Government, not sure which, will grace me with his presence tomorrow for god knows what reason), and indefinite plans to meet Eric Brooke, my closest other volunteer in the town of Elhovo and hour away, for a hiking trip in the Starra Palnina near Sliven due west of Straldja. It had been a slow week, the highlight being a package sent from home I picked up Wednesday.
But on Friday I took the train I take so much (the one that goes through Plovdiv and on to Sofia) to Pazardjik for a Minority Committee meeting. I am not sure why, maybe because of the damage from the flood, I had to change trains in Plovdiv and board a Pontechevsky train (local, stops at all the villages and fields) from Plovdiv to Pazardjik. But I made it in one piece and quite early, so I managed to find Ivan at the hub office. He is now working as the Youth Development programs as a head trainer (a promotion) for the group of B18s to arrive tomorrow (Monday). I helped him and his assistant write scenerios for the new trainees, which was fun because I was writing the things that I have been answering for the last few months.
After a while we had the meeting (not many people showed due to travel problems no doubt). Afterwards I took the bus back to Plovdiv with Ivan, who was going home for the weekend, and one other volunteer from my area who was staying with his friend in Plovdiv.
I was going to take a late train home to Straldja, but Ivan discouraged it because of the unpredictability of train service right now and it would not be good for me to get stranded in some no-name town at 2 a.m. So he opened his apartment to me and we had a fun night in Plovdiv. We walked his weiner dog, Hannah, who is one of my favorite "people" in Bulgaria, and ate some salad in a beautiful cafe in the park near his apartment. Then we headed over to the Old City and found this Bulgarian-style beer garden that played jazz and other good American music. It was nice to hear something other than chalga (the Bulgarian pop music that is basically half-clothed women singing Bulgarian lyrics over Turkish melodies) which permeates the reast of the country.
After coffee in the morning I headed to the train station and waited half of forever for my train home. I got there after 4:30, thus destroying my plans with Eric, and relaxed in the apartment.
Then this morning I woke up to my telephone ringing. It was Jay, the volunteer who will be leaving Straldja soon, inviting me to a picnic with him, my counterpart, and her husband. The "picnic" turned out to be a day-long schlep around the Starra Planina just north of Straldja. They took me to an historic town called Jeravna and then we hiked to some waterfalls nearby. We found a very nice spot near the river to eat the food (a 4-hour process) and then found a little mountain hotel to eat ice cream at. Eventually we wandered home, and now I am relegated to cleaning my dirty apartment for this government official who will come tomorrow. I'll let you know what he wants when I find out...
But on Friday I took the train I take so much (the one that goes through Plovdiv and on to Sofia) to Pazardjik for a Minority Committee meeting. I am not sure why, maybe because of the damage from the flood, I had to change trains in Plovdiv and board a Pontechevsky train (local, stops at all the villages and fields) from Plovdiv to Pazardjik. But I made it in one piece and quite early, so I managed to find Ivan at the hub office. He is now working as the Youth Development programs as a head trainer (a promotion) for the group of B18s to arrive tomorrow (Monday). I helped him and his assistant write scenerios for the new trainees, which was fun because I was writing the things that I have been answering for the last few months.
After a while we had the meeting (not many people showed due to travel problems no doubt). Afterwards I took the bus back to Plovdiv with Ivan, who was going home for the weekend, and one other volunteer from my area who was staying with his friend in Plovdiv.
I was going to take a late train home to Straldja, but Ivan discouraged it because of the unpredictability of train service right now and it would not be good for me to get stranded in some no-name town at 2 a.m. So he opened his apartment to me and we had a fun night in Plovdiv. We walked his weiner dog, Hannah, who is one of my favorite "people" in Bulgaria, and ate some salad in a beautiful cafe in the park near his apartment. Then we headed over to the Old City and found this Bulgarian-style beer garden that played jazz and other good American music. It was nice to hear something other than chalga (the Bulgarian pop music that is basically half-clothed women singing Bulgarian lyrics over Turkish melodies) which permeates the reast of the country.
After coffee in the morning I headed to the train station and waited half of forever for my train home. I got there after 4:30, thus destroying my plans with Eric, and relaxed in the apartment.
Then this morning I woke up to my telephone ringing. It was Jay, the volunteer who will be leaving Straldja soon, inviting me to a picnic with him, my counterpart, and her husband. The "picnic" turned out to be a day-long schlep around the Starra Planina just north of Straldja. They took me to an historic town called Jeravna and then we hiked to some waterfalls nearby. We found a very nice spot near the river to eat the food (a 4-hour process) and then found a little mountain hotel to eat ice cream at. Eventually we wandered home, and now I am relegated to cleaning my dirty apartment for this government official who will come tomorrow. I'll let you know what he wants when I find out...
Sunday, August 07, 2005
A Change of Plans, Miss Turkey and the Great Flood: Take 2
So I think the title of this email pretty much sums it up. But, for the sake of a good story, I'll elaborate...and add verbs.
So for the last few weeks all of the Krichim crowd (5 trainees and Ivan) had made plans to meet in Dupnitsa, a town in the Rila Mountains where Ned lives, to go hiking in what is famed for being the most beautiful part of Bulgaria.
However, the plan began to unravel Tuesday. Ivan, who recently took a promotion in the Peace Corps (he'll no longer be a language trainer), had been traveling every day for the previous three weeks and was in no shape to travel more. As I was going to go with him in a rented car, I had to come up with a way for me to get there via public transport. I had my route down and was all set to go.
Then on Thursday Ned let us know that due to a storm that was predicted for the weekend, he thought we should postpone the hike. Though the weather forecasts in Bulgaria are even more arbitrary and inccorect than they are in the states, we decided not to risk it, as it was going to take me a lot of money and effort to literally cross the country.
I still wanted to get away and do something for the weekend, so I decided to take the smaller and less expensive trip back to Plovdiv and Krichim. I pretty much have my "Going home to Krichim" routine down: I take a 7:59a.m. train across the Upper Thracian Plain from Straldja to Plovdiv, get there before noon (on a slow day) catch a 2:30ish movie at the Flamingo Theater near Ivan's apartment, then catch a 5 or 5:30 bus to Krichim, putting me there in the 6 o'clock hour.
So that's what I did this Friday. It was really gloomy the whole day, but as soon as I crossed the threshold of the house in Krichim the sky opened up, dumping HUGE amounts of rain and scary bolts of lightning.
The storm continued through the night. When I woke up in the morning it was still thundering and lightning, which is really weird to have happen in the a.m. like that. I spent the day practicing my Bulgarian with Berin, then I went over to Maegen's old house to practice with Villdane and Gulchen, her former host sisters. I got all the gossip from Krichim, the most notable being that the 21-year-old woman who recently won the Miss Turkey contest was in town to visit her grandmother (she was born in Krichim, but moved to Turkey when she started school). As I say, Krichim is a really small town so on my way back home from Villdane's house I ran into Miss Turkey. She is 6 ft. tall with long perfect brown hair and perfect oval brown eyes. She knew who I was because she had been told about the Americans in town, and I told her I knew who she was because people mentioned Miss Turkey was in town and had shown me newspaper clippings. She spoke English and a little Bulgarian (I think I might speak more correct Bulgarian than she did) so we talked for a bit. I'm not sure what competition she was Miss Turkey for, but I know it was an international one because she had pictures of herself with "Miss"es from all over.
Anyway, Saturday night the news came on at a special time to tell everyone that the whole part of Bulgaria between Sandanski on the Greek boarder, Sofia near the Serbian boarder and Plovdiv (they make a triangle) was flooded. Of course, Krichim is right in that triangle, but due to the huge reseviour in the mountains behind the town the Reka Vucha (the river in town) wasn't swollen. It was a huge mess elswhere...They showed pictures from Kostenets and Stamboliski, both places that had trainees I visited, where the bridges were collapsed and the feilds were swamped. Residents were crying to the camera because the first floor of their homes were destroyed. Most of the water in the towns is now unpotable.
Anway, today I managed to get to Plovdiv and trains were running (slowly) to the east and I was able to get home. We crossed the Reka Maritsitsa on the way (the river that cuts Plovdiv in half) and it was a huge mess. They had huge hoses to pump the water off of the train tracks and everything. However, had I gone to Dupnitsa, there'd be no way for me to get home for the next few days...I sure called that one.
But I got home safe and sound and typed up this email. Hope all's well in the states, and now I will look for a way to get all of our extra water over to Portugal to help out with the drought and the fires. What is happening to Europe?!
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