a Christmas wish

I just want to wish everyone Merry Christmas and/or happy holidays!  I'm off for vacation and probably will not get around to blogging until after the 8th of January...which is my dad's birthday.  Remember why you celebrate this season and be grateful for what you have!  The Colts got a win so I'm satisfied; now if the Pacers can do the same!  Seriously though thank you for reading my blog and caring about Bulgaria and me!  I have been blessed with so much!  I believe God is the reason I am here and all I do is for Him/Her!  Cherish your time with family and friends, your health, and so much more this Christmas time!!  The United States has fallen on hard times (however you care to phrase that) but we still have a lot more than others!  Everyone have a safe holiday season and walk carefully on the snow so you don't slip!   I love and miss you all!!  Till next year!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday.  Before I forget I'm not sure I'll have time to post next week.  Thursday for sure!  My sister's family made me a calendar with pictures and things every month and then every so often my sister wrote little questions or statements on a certain date.  For instance a recent question was "how's your Bulgarian?" and I must say it is suffering.  Well one day this week she told me to buy myself a little xmas gift.  I took care of that about 1 month ago when I bought plane tickets to Frankfurt, Prague, and the Czech Republic!  Not really a "little" xmas gift but a gift I am very much looking forward to and, frankly, need!   Xmas here right now is a little like xmas in Florida; you don't even know it's xmas time really!  Sure there are decorations every now and then and all the kids know "Dyado Kolada" is coming.  But overly I have to say xmas is sneaking up on me!!  Yes I have a small tree, thanks to my mom's family, complete with lights and some Colts ornaments (can I ask for a win for xmas?) , a couple strands of lights that are up and blinking as we speak, the Nativity scene, again-mom's family, and today I bought a Santa hat that I plan to wear a lot next week .  But I have to say it really doesn't feel like xmas.  That might change if there was some *@#& (I don't want to specify because that might slow down/cancel the buses and I really do not want that to happen right now.)  That's pretty much all I got right now.  Thoughts and prayers are with family and friends of a very close friend of mine.  Love and hugs from here!!

mish mash 4

I was walking down the street the other day when someone waved, or said hello-I can't remember, and now I take that for what it is.  BUT when I stop and catch my breath I remember how that didn't happen when I first got here.  That makes me happy.  I just came back from buying some big poster paper and when I was coming back to the apartment my baba scolded me because she hasn't seen me and I haven't visited her in awhile.  This is just a collection of stuff I'm sure you have figured out.  So I'm doing handprint/footprint reindeers with the two younger classes in the Kindergarten and handprint salt-dough keepsakes for the older group for their parents for xmas.  I was in a magazine, store, copying a poem the other day and printing directions to the hostels I will stay in for my xmas trip and trying to explain "there is a concentration camp in Krakow that I was to see" but then I realized "oh, I forgot the word for war" so here I am trying to explain, and Jewish escaped me too, "the time when some German people didn't like other people and put them in camps and they worked and died."  That''s NOT funny, but it sure was funny hearing myself trying to get myself out of that one!!  Bless her heart, I think she got the picture.  I love it when people help me try to explain things!!  So it's December 13th and almost xmas time!  I havn't NOT been in the xmas mood but haven't overly been IN the xmas mood.  Today at school Nargis was on the computer and playing DJ at the same time with xmas songs (until she threw a Ricky Martin song in there and threw me off) and I got more in the mood and singing along!  Nothing like "All I Want FOr Christmas Is You" to put you in the mood!  THANKS UTUBE!  So, I had to go to a store anyway for my poster paper, and ended up buying some xmas lights...the "cheaper" ones.  In the sttes when we try to buy something don't salespeople alway show the more expensive item?  Even of 2 same items they bring out the more expensive ones?  I walked in the magazine and saw this box and was curious.  She showed me what it was and then took it out of my hand and put it back on the shelf and said "these ae cheaper.  These are expensive."  She even plugged them in for me; I figured I should buy them to add to my other lights my family sent me last year!  OH, final thing for today!  I am requesting your prayers for...me.  I need to make a decision and believe God will show me what He wants me to do.  Everything is fine, nothing to worry about (for those people like my mom who would read into that).  I just am going to need help figuring out what God wants!  It would be so easy if He gave BLATENT/OBVIOUS signs; alas it doesn't work that way.  Love and hugs from an unusually-warm-day-for-winter Bulgaria, and me!

favorite things #5

It just occured to me that it's about time for another "favorite things" blog.  I love the fact that when I go from the Kindergarten to the English school (for my adult classes mon-wed) I pass chickens and roosters on the street out for their daily stroll.  Not something I run into everyday in Indianapolis!  I took notice of them yesterday while walking and had one of those moments, one of those "I don't think I've ever shared the street with chickens and roosters before!"  I love the fact that, after making smores with some of the high school boys in the hostel last night, one of the boys was very excited when I told him I would give him some marshmallows to take to his village so he could show his family.  I also love that he wanted to show his family.  I love the fact that he wanted to pay me for making him a smore because he used something of mine.  That attitude, after experiencing the "gimmie, gimmie, gimmie" attitude of many children/young adults in the states that I am used to dealing with, is very refreshing!  He fought me on my "no" for awhile and then finally I got through to him when I said "I win because I'm 40 and you're 17-case closed!" He did make me promise to let him treat me to a coffee sometime which I appreciate.  I love it (and hate it at the same time) when, sitting at dinner the other night with an 8th grade boy talking about doing stuff and being bored and all and me explaining that I'm here for activities and to do things with youth, he says "but what will we do when you leave?"  AW!  I love it that my girl students want to show me the dances they are working on when I go visit them in the hostel.  I also have to say, no matter how well I know the language, I still have to have people translate for me, or repeat what I say, when I talk to people because of my accent or because I say things in a more confusing way.  I'm thinking about the Kindergarden and how the teachers help me with directions and all because they understand me.  It's like they use a shorthand/clarrify things for me.  Believe it or not, I love that they do that for me!  I love the fact that I have to ask what is popular on the radio in the states because I hear so many English songs here but have no idea if they are from years ago or are popular in the states now.  I love the fact that, years from now, I'll be somewhere in the states and hear a song on the radio that I hear over here and the memory will take me back here.  Memories are such powerful things...and I will have enough to fill a book!  I lso love he fact that you all back in the states go to such lengths to show me that you care about me!  THANKS MOM !!  Next time, have Ron mail it!!Love and hugs from here!

Aunt Rosie

This blog is going to be about my Great-Aunt (I think) Rosemary who passed away last Wednesday.  Not quite sure about her age but whatever her age she didn't look it!  The weekend before I left Indy for Bulgaria my Aunt Jan had a party/get together for the family up in the Goshen area, where my mom's from, at her house and my mom and I went.  Rosemary came to the party but also wanted my mom and I to have lunch with her at her house.  She made us the nicest lunch and asked me all about what I would be doing in B.  She was so interested in the work of the Peace Corps and in the work I would  be doing!!  I'm really glad that is my last memory of her!  I was telling her all about the 3 goals of the Peace Corps (1-to provide interested countries trained men and women, 2-to expand the minds of Americans about peoples served, and 3-to expand the minds of peoples served about Americans.  This is a rough idea and in no way exact, but you get the idea!) and she was so interested she asked me to write them down!  My family is full of strong women figures who serve as excellent role models for me and she was no exception!  I have to admit that I don't know as much about her as I do my own grandma.  She was the geneological, tracing the family history, person in our family.  It took a good friend of mine here to make me realize that now she is watching first hand the activities of the Peace Corps and myself from Heaven!  I will also say that it comforts me to know that Rosemary, Luanne and Gma Miller, are together in Heaven!  Now they have a dog to take care of and who will take care of them!  The sunshine here has left and the rain (and wind) have arrived!  I knew it couldn't last too long!!  Love and hugs from here!

World AIDS Day

Let's see here, what to write today.  Today is World AIDS Day. (Just a side note here, all these international days like today and International Women's Day on March 8th I really was not aware of until I joined the corp; kind of interesting.)  Once again Nargis, the teachers, and the student who went through the Life Skills Trainings (covering sexual health and all that goes with that) have put together a nice presentation/informational session for the students of the English School.  The teachers decided to have it during the day instead of 2 of the "extra" classes (not really extra but I can't think of another word to describe them) at the end of the day.  That's all nice and good and way to go collegues(yea!) BUT my schedule was already full at the time they wanted  to have it and I didn't feel right about cancelling my other committment; I have a class in the Kindergarten.  This is really what sustainability is all about (with the exception that usually the volunteer slowly backs out of the planned activities instead of being a no-show at the start of the activities!)  The reason that one of the students and Nargis, my counterpart for the newbies to the blog, went with me to the trainings this past summer was so that they feel they are able to, and have the resources to, do things on days like this after PC leaves Bulgaria.  I have to say from my perspective, they've got it way covered!!  The teachers I work with are always so eager to help with whatever.  I don't see sustainability being a problem here!!  Today is another sunny day here but not as warm.  My mom sent me a "20Q" game and last night I had it in my coat pocket and pulled it out after supper and the students loved it and took turns trying to stump it.  I' m thinking about smores tonight for the girls floor in the hostel but not quite sure yet.  Thoughts, and prayers, are with my family in the states!!  Love and hugs from me!!