Wednesday, November 24, 2010

thanksgiving

i'm going to have to apologize again, i'll have to take about a week off my blog.  i know since i haven't written much if at all this week it will be longer than a week by the time i pick back up!!   the thanksgiving day preparations are underway and it should be a nice day!  i just heard one of the teachers will stay the night on thurs so she can see the students perform.  how exciting!!  she commutes and usually has to leave after lunch but is going to stay with me tomorrow night!!  YEA!!  cranberry salad is chilling in my refrigerator and the students helped me wrap the potatoes in foil after school.  stuffing the turkeys, all 4 of them between 3.4 and 4.2 kilograms, tomorrow and then we wait...and baste.   after that i'm leaving to have a little tgiving of my own with some volunteer friends.  a very happy thanksgiving to all of you and even though i'm not there with you all to celebrate i'm always with you in spirit and if someone says something totally off the wall you  KNOW  I'm there!!  i am so very thankful for each one of you back in the states or wherever you are!!  the thoughts and prayers and words of reassurance and letters and packages and everything else just is more than i can say thank you for and they all mean so much!!!  knowing that i have a family and friends that are supportive of my living here and all that i'm doing gives me comfort.  once again i will say i couldn't do this without you!!  you are my rock!!  love and kisses to all!!

Friday, November 19, 2010

friday post ##2

i need to apologize for the earlier post again.  well not the whole post just the when i said "...i hate money" part.  what i really dislike about money is that some people have it and some don't.  the people here is B. i want to be able to visit me in the states don't have it.  THAT is what i hate.  however without money i would not be where i am today and am very grateful to be here!!  i just want everybody to have an equal share.  but i guess if that were the case the things i love about B, some of them anyway, wouldn't be here!  it's a vicious cycle but i do have t apologize for "hating" money earlier!  so I'm sorry.

day recap

i'm finding i have to hurry my blogs so that means i have to find another time to do them when i don't have to hurry!   i was going to give you all a recap of my day since i can't think of anything else creative.  i wrote a skit, with help from a writeup from another vol, for our tgiving celebration so hopefully things won't be so boring.  we rehearsed it after school and i think the students did very well !!  of course it was in english and they did super!!  then i had to leave while writing an email at home and run an errand quick.  since it was going to be quick, i just had to run across the center to the hostel and grab 2 students, i just left dressed the way i was.  i was talking on the phone so didn't tie my shoes.  i showed up at the hostel and one of the students stopped me and tied my shoes.  ok i tied 1 and she tied 1 but still i thought it was very thouhtful of her...and funny that she would think to do that.  then ass i was walking to my apt i passed the kindergarten and heard a "lisa" scream.  i looked around and here was one of my kids runnign towards me.  he spotted me from quite a distance.  it was cute!  i don't think they're used to or maybe as into hugs as i am and i will have to work on them!  those of you who know me from my previous jobs with kids know that hugs are one part of the job i love!  when he came running down the sidewalk all i could thing about was how hard it is going to be for me to leave after my time here is up.  as much as i want everyone here to visit the usa and me i know it's not  possible and won't happen!!  that makes me sad and that makes me hate money!  i wish i could charter an airplane and load all my coworkers and students and friends up and fly them to america to visit me and to have the opportunity to go to america like is a dream for so many people here but won't happen, so they don't even think about it.  if only.........short and sweet, sorry about that!!  love to all!!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

hodgepodge

this is going to be very short b/c i'm very tired and it's bed time for me!  first of all i have to clarify.  BiRam isn't a turkish holiday it's a muslim holiday.  since the 2 go hand in hand here is guess i forgot that's not always the case.  sorry about that.  the preparations are underway for our tgiving meal, or after dinner meal.  i never thought the first time i made a turkey would not be with my mom looking over my shoulder telling me what to do, let alone in B!  what's more is we'r preparing for about 65 people.  what an undertaking.  i looked at the ovens today and am a bit nervous to tell the truth.  i told the ladies in the stol, the cafeteria, next week i will be stressed and not to take it personally.  one of the ladies said "you don't look stressed."  I said "b/c we're not doing anything yet!  wait till next wed!"  this will fall into the category of something i'll never forget.   kinda like when steph, sister, and i spent xmas eve in the train station in switzerland b/c we forgot things might not be open and the train station was the only place we could find!  we also went to church and sang silent night in english and not dutch!!  i can hear it now.  i'll have steph's kids over t my house when i'm older and tell them about the first time i made a turkey.  "it was in Bulgaria of all places!"   love to all and you might want to double those thoughts and prayers next week!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

let's talk weather!

i'm not exactly sure what to write about so i'll talk about the weather.  in the states when we have inian summers they last for a couple days, maybe a week if we're lucky.  we have nice warmer weather for a couple days and then the bottom drops out and it goes back to being cold again.  i like the gypsy summers over here much better!!  our gypsy summer has lasted a couple weeks now.  yes, it's still cooler in the mornings, sometimes, but gets into the 70's (F) in the afternoons!  in fact i have been having a hard time figuring out what to wear because all my  summer stuff is clean and i don't want to have to wash it again. it's such a hard life!!! (i hope you all heard the sarcasm in my voice!)   BUT this nice weather just makes me more nervous about the winter!!  up until now i always thought the temperature B's talk about isn't so bad.  if i can go through winters in northern Indiana where we have lake effect weather then i can certainly handle what they're saying!  now tho I'm not so sure!  if it's this nice when it's supposed to be colder then i can only imagine the payback from mother nature!  we shall   see!  thinking of and praying for family in france and hoping all is well!!  love to all!!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

BiRam 2

i was just gosti at a household that celebrates BiRam and asked all kinds of questions and have more information to share with all of you.  first i should qualify this might not be the best blog for kids.  it's exposure to another culture which is important but this one is more graphic.  BiRam is a 4 day turskish holiday that includes Ramazan which already passed.   on Biram the killing of a big, male animal symbolizes the passage to the "other side."  muslims believe there is a passage between this world and the other world, i'm assuming where you go when you die, and killing a male animal assures passage to the other world.  now there are rules, ways to do it like in everything.  you are supposed to do it nicely so the animal doesn't feel anything.  at first i questioned this too but after watching some of the BiRam happenings on the television tonight with a person who knows how it's supposed to be done i can understand more.  there are humane ways to kill an animal and there are inhumane ways to kill an animal.  you are supposed to cut the throat.  if you kill it another way it might not "count" and by this i mean the animal may not be waiting for you on the other side.  thats another thing too.  you can kill an animal for someone, like a son or daughter, and then that animal will be with them on the other side.  and women can't kill the animals; if they  do you have to kill another animal if you want to celebrate the right way.  sorry this is all over the place but i keep remembering other things.  there are places reserved for this and you can't just kill your animal in the street or in your garden.  if you do you will get a ticket and have to pay a fine.  i thought it would be impossile to enforce too until i saw it on the news.  sure enough, there was a helecopter looking for people doing it wrong and a cop also writing tickets.  as with just about anything you have people who take advantage of the tradition, do it just for the sake of doing it or "just for the meat" as my friend said.  this is why i rarely give things up for lent even tho i'm not catholic.  i believe that comittment requires some thought as to why i'm doing it and not just a haphazzard "oh it's lent!  i think i'll give up___!"  for me i seldomly put that much thought into the reason behind why i'm choosing to give up something and i don't think it's fair of me to take part.  Jesus certainly put more thought into giving up things for me and i feel like i owe the same.  all that to say that i certainly learned lots tonight and really enjoyed myself!  there's meaning behind this religious celebration and i'm glad to be part of it!  if this blog offends anyone i am certainly sorry!  words and i don't always agree and i'm not turkish.  this might not be applicable to all muslims so i can't generalize.  i will say this is what i, being a WASP, learned about a turkish holiday from someone turkish.

Monday, November 15, 2010

integration-kinda

ok, i'm going to get this done early b/c #1. i can.  i have the next couple days "off" and #2 i have lots i want to get done today and don't want to have to do this later and #3 have an idea in my head and it can't wait to get out!  today's blog is about integration and a lesson i was taught and, i think, learned this past weekend.  and if there are any Bulgarians reading this if you're anything like Americans on this issue you'll just brush it off and say no big deal.  but to me it is a big deal and part of what i need to learn to live here.  a little history, sorry if you've heard this and get bored-you can skip this part.  part of the reason i joined the corps was to "help", that's not the word i want but i'm having trouble thinking of the right word at 9:30 in the am, the image of Americans, especially women in other parts of the world.  this goes back to when i was in the Dominican Republic and all women were "Marilyn Monroe" and when i walked down the street i was hissed at.  that i didn't like and wanted in my own little way to show that not all Americans are what you see on t.v.  flash forward to this past wknd.  integration to me is living in a cultrue, imursing yourself in that culture, and adapting aspects of that culture.  gosti is a aspect of this culture that i love.  visiting another person and drinking coffee until it gets cold is a great part of this culture.  just dropping by and having the host drop whatever they were doing to sit and chat is what it's all about!  because after all aren't people more important??  anyway, i'm here, integrated as well as i can be i think, and ready.  or so i thought.  as my parents will attest my place in the states wasn't always keep spick-n-span and i can say the same thing about my apt here.  i woke up this past weekend and was being lazy.  i watched a bit of english tv, i let myself on the wknds, and puttered around until 11 when i was ready to get ready for the day.  my apt was not ready for guests, my work things were scatered all over the couch and there was really only room for me to sit.  am i ready to have a gosti??? NO!  But what happened?  i had one, actually 2.  and was i ready-no!  here i am in B and all excited about gosti's, being one and having them.  and i was being a lazy American.  here i talk about integration but wasn't ready when a chance came my way!  and the thought of me being American and i can get by with not being ready?  i have to say that's one of the stereotypes i came here to rectify!  now i'm sure this whole thing doesn't sound like a big deal and in the grand sceme of things really isn't, but it's a big deal to me.  if i talk the talk, i'm working on it, i have to walk the walk.  so everytime i leave the apt i'm going to try to ask myself if i can host gosti's.  if the answer is no that means i have to work harder.  and to my friend Brad who was with me on skype last night helping me download software i should have had but lost, a huge thank you and i love you for it!!! love to all!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Bi Ram

so i'm getting ready to be on vacation until next thurs.  if i would've planned ahead these next days would have been perfect to go somewhere but i didn't think about it before hand.  besides there's plenty of work for me to do!!  monday isn't really a holiday but Bi Ram, the spelling is questionable, is and it falls on tues and wed during the week.  since the majority of our students commute we have mon off as well and will make up that day later.   haven't done a lot of research or talked a lot about Bi Ram but what i know now is that it is a Turkish holiday, not bulgarian, where a female animal is killed and eaten.  before it is eaten some of it is given away to people, either 3,6, or 9 people.    i get the feeling that this is one of the older traditions and, like Ramazan and American holidays for that matter, some people celebrate and some don't.  just today after lunch i was talking with my counterpart about Bi Ram and i asked her whose house i should go ghosti to for Bi Ram b/c i want to see what goes on and just like that, i'm invited to Bi Ram.  a little side note here; i will never get used to knowing people are talking about you in front of you and not being able to add anything to the conversation or being clueless it's about you!   i don't mind but i feel a little silly when, for instance, someone says "ok you can do this" or "you can go there" or something like that and i didn't even know I was the subject of the conversation!  or when i meet someone for the first time and am with someone i know and after the new person says something to me and i ask them to repeat it so i can understand, they start talking to my friend who knows me about me.  then of course i can't add anything b/c the new person is talking to a native speaker and i'm lost!  i really don't mind it's just hard to get used to!  anyway the next several days should give me a great chance to get caught up on my work and get prepared for new things.  'm interested to learn more about these couple days and will write more about this tradition later.  for now i'm going to go enjoy a peanut butte cup from my dad and step-mom!  love to all and enjoy the weekend!  this past week it was in the mid 70s and very nice!  

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Halloween pics

the stories were read again in B but that
was kinda anti-climatic
we started off reading some spooky stories
in english. they didn't work very well!
some of the costumes were very creative!

here we have some of the male students  dressed up like
babas.  they were very funny



mixed in here are some of the teachers
that i work with at the English school.  this couldn't
have been possible without their help!.  

another one of the jangley skirts women wear.  you should
see these young women go!  it's amazing!
the red skirt you see has little almost like coins that
jangle when women dance and move their hips.  it is really something to see!  










Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Halloween

time to talk about the halloween celebration even tho it's about time for tgiving.  since hall fell on a sun we had our parties, at the english school and the kindergarten, on the 28th, the day after i arrived back here after visiting my families.  ths students were excited about what we were going to do, the teachers kept telling me how excited they were, and even brought some pumpkins with them to school from their homes.  i had found some templates online for different kinds of bats, ghosts, and pumpkins, and even a witch and made patterns and used them to decorate the school, the stol where we were to have the party, and the kindergarten.  all the teachers helped me cut out and color the decorations and put them up so it was really a team effort!  the 28th i went in to school to carve the first pumpkin and then the students did the rest during the school day.  (next year i want to have carving tools and diffferent patterns for the pumpkins.)  the i went to the apt ao prepare for the kindergarten.  i also made comies of various hall creatures for them to color, cut out if they anted to and either tke them home or leave them to decorate their classroom.  the students at the eng school said they wanted food for our party so after the kindergarten i went back home and finished making some finger sandwiches, i had help from one of our teachers not from here who stayed behind to see the celebration.  it was going to be her first American "praznuvic" or tradition, celebration and she wanted to stay for it and she helped me with the finger sandwiches.   then at 6 pm, after a little "real" dinner we started to decorate and prepare the stol.  my coworkers really helped out by bringing food and with the decorations.  i had found some more chilling stories i was going to read and try to scare the students.  it worked but the only problem we had with this was i was to read them in english.  while most of the students know english enough to follow along it was hard and lots "got lost in the translation."  the man who drives for our school hid in the kitchen and at certain times made noises and some of the students jumped.  then we read the stories in B too but it was kinda anti-climatic.  we had a hall quiz and then the dancing started!  tom i will post some pics but the students really got the whole costume idea!  we had a mummy to young men dressed up and babas, grandmas!  it was really funny and a good time was had by all.  my mom and step-dad found my pacer shorts, believe it or not i didn't ask them to look for them, and a friend of mine from the fieldhouse got me a pacer jersey with my name on it that i brought along with me so for the eng school party i was a pacer.  at the kindergarten i wore the tigger mask, tail, and bowtie that my parents brought over for me.  i figured the tigger costume was a little young for high school kids!  i think they had a good time with the American halloween!  about 2/3 days after hall my counterpart started asking me about tgiving and said that she explained to the students that was the next holiday and how we could do something then too.  oh i have to tell you!  whenever i talked about hall i always said it was that next sunday.  i explained to the kindergartners about getting candy and all and going from house to house.  the director's son, of the kindergarten, is in my older group and the week after hall when i went to the kindergarten i ran into her and she tol me that over the hall weekend her son asked her if they could go to American on sunday for halloween.  how cute is that!!!  tom...piccs of hall but right now it's bedtime.  sorry this was so long but lots to explain!  love to all!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

fall and papa johns

well i found out that when people here told me there would be a display of leaves with all diferents colors during fall they were not joking around!  it had been fall here for quite awhile and the leaves have been changing for quite some time now i just haven't gotten around to blogging about it yet.  one thing B is proud of is their many forests and greenry.  now with all the different colors on the trees and on the ground, we're had such strong winds the past 2 days I'm sure there aren't any leaves left of the trees, it looks just georgeous!   and the view driving thru the mountains to pick up my parents at the airport was more than i can describe in words!   the word beautiful just doesn't fit!  it was like looking out into the (i know i'm going to spell this wrong so please excuse me)Shanandoahs Valley is Virginia during the fall!  We literally drove up one side and down the other side of the mountain!  looking out into the valley was one of those things you just can't take a picture of, it will always be prettier in my mind!  i tell people all the time about how in the states we rake up the leaves and jump in them and if my knee would let me, better but i still need to pamper it so jumping is the last thing i want to do right now, i would do just that and show everyone here what they are missing!  and i have to say the next time i complain about raking my leaves in my yard i'm going to think back to the brooms and 3 pronged "rakes" that are used over here!!!  t's time for me to do some of my other work; big preparations for the "den na blagodarnost", thanksgiving.  however i'm going to leave you with this thought.  i love it here, the people, the food, the laid back atmoshere, my jobs (the ones i have actually started), among other things...however...someone please have a ham and pineapple and peppers papa john's pizza for me with a huge bowl of cookies and cream ice cream, or yogurt, for me and i want essays on how they taste!!!  that's YOUR homework!!  love to all!! steph, you can totally be all over the ice cream for me!  remember how i stir it up first??!!??

Monday, November 8, 2010

my families

first of all let me apologize for the long absence!  second of all let me welcome my aunt to my blog.  where to start!!  i have so many things to write about it's hard to know whick one to do first!  i had a wonderful time with my parents, both my American and my "Bulgarian" parents.  my B parents are really like siblings since we're the same age but they are the parents of the family i stayed with during pst and so they are like parents.  once again the B hospitality came out, for me but really for my mom and stepfather.  my host father drove 2 hrs both ways to pick up and drop off my parents at the airport in sofia.  we went to my gma and gpa's house and  were treated wonderfully!  AND i have to say i think the best part of that visit was when my gma let me help clean the table, my mom couldn't, b/c i was "family."  later on that same day she even called me a "Bulgarka."  it looks kinda strange in english but in bulgarian it means a  Bulgarian woman.  that was it for me!!!  and when my sister went to translate something to me, my B family is much better with their english too, my aunt said "she knows Bulgarian!"  i have to say both were kinda strokes to my ego!!  WOWWOW!!  they did give me a run for my money with the translations tho and now i understand when my counterpart says it's kinda hard going from eng to bulg.   i agree!!  i will say tho it made me feel kinda good that i was able to understand and translate.  people ask me if i can tell my lang is getting better or not and i really can't tell b/c it's me being the judge.  however visiting my pst family i really could tell a difference!!  in the past when i was in pst and i went to my gparents house i went where they told me to and spoke when spoken to.  this time i wasn't so quiet.  i still have a very long way to go, by B teacher says that i am in the 5th grade level with my b!!  my parents were introduces to banitza and rakeya and very much enjoyed both!  in fact they were given a bottle to take home and i'm really not sure it they have any left!!  i can't say enough about either family!!  my Am family carted an extra duffle bag around italy, trip b4 b, just for me with tons of food, sweets, clothes, and even some halloween costumes.  my B family rolled out the red, white, and green carpet for my Am family, put several hundred miles on their car, and showed my parents bulgaria, the spirit of the people i have grown to love and some of the countryside.  from the bottom of my heart thank you to both families!!  I LOVE YOU ALL!!  love to all, lisa     oh yeah!  catching the bus back was an experience i'll never forget!!  let's just say i got on!