birthdays

i can't remember if i have written about this or not so will share again.  in B it's custom to give chocolate on your birthday and very rude if you don't take the chocolate offered to you.  this i may have mentioned but did i mention its customary for the bday person to buy dinner??  yes that's right, the bday girl/boy buys the dinner if you happen to go out to eat to celebrate your bday.  in addition to birthdays, which are kind of a recent celebration for B, there are also name days.  name days are days of certain saints and if your name is the same as the various saints then you get to celebrate on that day too.  name days are a little bit more popular than bdays.  o if you happen to have a bday and invite all your friends out to dinner you better be prepared to pick up the tab!  as you can imagine this could pose quite a sticky predicament for an unknowing birthday person!  now on to some revalations ive had without even thinking twice or stopping to think about what was happening.  just this afternoon i realized i can hold a conversation with people AND THEY CAN UNDERSTAND ME!!  excuse me while i take a moment to celebrate.  YEA FOR ME!!  anyway i realized today, it just kinda hit me and i'm not sure why now, that people for the most part, maybe even more than that but i'm not holding my breath, know and understand what i'm saying!  now i still run into those turkish speakers who have no idea, and vise versa, what i'm saying but for the most part i can hold a conversation and be understood.  i guess i'm mainly talking about the people i deal with on a daily basis and talk to regularly.  for example just this afternoon i had 2 meetings, well one was a phone conversation, by myself and was understood by them and also i understood.  ivan, with the corps and one of the yd trainers, is coming for a visit and so i told the principal of the eng school.  i then realized that i work for the kindergarten and mayor too and maybe shoul let hem know as well about the visit.  i had a meeting with the principal of the kindergarten, by myself i might add, AND called the mayor to let them both know.  y bulg-eng dictionary is still with me the majority of the time but i'm relying on it less and less.   just this afternoon after work i was having a conversation, that alone i think is incrediable, with some teachers in the eng school and they were asking about the corps, the process, and other things like that and i think i got my point across.  if i didn't and you are reading this Tadzhenur, don't tell me they didn't understand; just let me have this one  woke up this am with what i thought was pink eye.   emailed the pc dr and asked about what to do.  thru the course of the day it got better and now i think i'm suffering from a very bad mosquito bits!   don't know where they come from but they find their way into my house and those kinds of ghostis i don't like!  love to all!

day of volunteering

i knew they would love it!  at least the young women had fun.  i can't say what the young men did and i'm going to have to ask the principal of the kindergarten if they need to come with me on thurs.  the y.w. with me jumped right in and i fell in the background, which is actually what is supposed to happen for sustainable development, i just didn't realize it would happen with the classes!  it actually came in very handy b/c they know B better than i do and could translate for me.  i think we even stayed a little longer than we were scheduled to but hey, as long as it is working!  one of the teachers went with me to take pictures and i think she had a nice time too and it also helped for translation too.  i have to say tho it was kinda tiring afterwards.  i offered to take those who wanted to out for kafe for a t-you and one of the y.w. and the teacher who came to take pics came with me.  one spoke B and i speak english with the student and it was hard going back and forth!  i usually try to speak B if one person knows only B but there were times when i was just talking to the student, can you believe i don't know all their names and i spent 1.5 hrs with them, and i had to switch back to my native tongue.  not gonna lie it was kinda hard.  well maybe i planted a seed but either way it was kinda interesting having someone volunteer, help, me since i'm used to being the volunteer!  there's a lot more i have to and want to do but all i need is time!  i almost forgot!  today while having tutoring my tutor told me my language was at 5th gr level.  i'm 39 yrs old and in the 5th grade!  anyway...tonight i have to think about how to tell the story of pinnochio in B!  Today i listened to a fairytale in Bulgarian and for homework i have to think of one in english to translate into B.  why is it that when she said that the only story that jumped into my head was that one!  and i really don't know it that well.  i'll have to sleep on it!  i'm going to help the y.w. in the hostel tonight after dinner which i'm kinda looking forward to.  that's all for today.  it's raining outside right now and is only going to get colder!  do utre!  all my love!

REGGIE

just had to let everyone know!  i just went to a magazine here to talk to someone and while looking around i found a notebook WITH A LITTLE PICTURE OF REGGIE (miller for those of you who don't follow) ON THE BOTTOM!!!  of course i bought it right away.  what can i say??  reggie is reggie.

babies #2

clarification time.   i asked about the baby gifts thing and found out that indeed the parents to be don't go w/o pre-baby but only the family gives gifts before the birth and then after that's when shower the family with gifts!  now today's blog entry.  tomorrow is the day for volunteering and also my day at the kindergarten.  i had an idea that maybe some of the students from the english school could help out at the kindergarten.  i asked the director of the kindergarten and also the principal of the eng school and now have 5 students at my disposal to help tom!  i kinda thought they'd get into helping little kids and when N and i told 1 of the girls her face just lit up and she was so happy!  when i asked the director of the kindergarten earlier in the day, by myself i might add with notes, she told me it was a good idea.  in the states we do that kinda thing all the time, big helping little, 1st gr students reading books to young children to practice their reading, things like that.  maybe tom will lead somewhere for one of the 5!  also, 3 boys are going to see if they can help put a shelf together or build a door or something.   think if the students really like helping out this could become a partnership btwn the 2 institutions!  i'm pretty excited about it and glad i get the opportunity to "use" some students!  it turned chilly over the weekend and i might actually have to use a blanket tonight in addition to a sheet!  i got some pictures of my nieces today and that was a very welcomed surprise!  thanks mom!   love to all and happy birthday krista!  

babies

now i don't have lots of info on this subject but apparently in B when someone has a baby you don't get them presents or give them things before the baby's born.  one of the teachers at the english school is pregnant and today was her last day with us.  i stopped off at a magazine before i went to school and got a few things, not much but a small stuffed heart, baby powder, and a spoon and fork set.  after i gave it to her one of the teachers pointed out that in b it's not customary to give gifts before the birth.  this is something different b/c i can't say how many baby showere i've been to in my 39 yrs!  i really can't see this either b/c the reason we have showers pre-baby is b/c of all the things needed once the baby arrives and it's not like you can run out and get them!  i'll have to get more info on this; maybe she was just talking clothes.  even then tho the baby's going to need something those first days!   after eating lunch i was going home and left n, she and her family go to her apt in another town, and happened upon some students outside the hostel waiting to go home.  they are so eager to use their english and show me that they can talk in english!!  and i have to say some of the students are better than i thought they would be!  they yelled the common "have a good weekend" or "hello" and then started laughing when i stopped walking home and went over to talk to them.  i do have to say when nargis told me it's tiring translating, going from bulgarian to english and back,  i now understand that she is right!  there are coworkers at the english school who speak english and i speak english with them (i figured they'd want to exercise their english but i guess i could ask them which they prefer) and there are coworkers  who speak bulgarian and i speak b with them, or at least try to.  BUT...with the students i'm here to speak english with them so they can hear the native tongue and to help them learn.  sometimes i forget who i'm speaking to!  like when a student is leaving the stol, cafeteria, and says "cao" to my other collegues sometimes i forget to answer in english!  opa!   then there are people who i run into, like the other day in a magazine, shop, i like, that speak english and it takes awhile for me to switch to english and realize i can speak in english to that person.  or another thing i've run into, and this happens often, is someone has a friend or a relative visiting and wants to speak english with me.  the other day i was at the eng school with my class of 1 student and the door opened and the principal walked in.  the head of the muslims, who finances our school, was here and came to see me; i had missed him on the first day of school b/c i was traveling for the corps.  he motioned for me to follow him and we went into the principals office and then he left and another man came in.  he was from saudia arabia and spoke english and the principal wanted me to speak to him...in english.  you know, when i was in the dominican republic i looked at the American things and saw the dominican people wanting to be like us and got a little mad.  i saw them trying to stifle their culture and replaace it with ours b/c i thought they thought ours was better and i didn't necessarily agree!  it really kinda frustrated me b/c i didn't want them to stifle their culture!  now i have a little different view.     regardless of my thoughts on the subject english is becoming increasingly more popular.  to get anywhere you kinda have a need for english- i'm learning that now.  if you travel to another country and don't speak their language but know english, chances are you'll get by b/c someone will know english.  nargis asked me the other day, it's been awhile ago, if i was proud that everyone else wanted to learn my language.  i told her it depends on why they want to learn it.  if they want to learn english so they can move to an english speaking country and leave their native country b/c they don't like it or think the grass is greener than i'm not proud that you want to learn.  however, if someone wants to learn english b/c the world is gravitating towards english and knowing english will help you make a better life for your family or just like learning new things than yes, that i can get behind.  i just see lots of good and different things in this culture, and in the hispanic culture, and hate(d) the thought of someone wanting to lose that!   this is a long and i have to say pretty confusing entry based on the title.  i'm going to try to get lots done today for next week so i can concentrate on cleaning and other things this wknd!  preatin yekend!