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.