a day, or two, in the life of... (both my thumbs pointing at me) This Guy!

ok - im going to try to be better at sharing my everyday wacky experiences with you all.

so lets start with yesterday.

Yesterday i wake up, get dressed and head out to a local cafe before work with about 20-25 minutes to spare. i am greeted by the lady that works there, who i must say is incredibly cute, my age and married, but anyways i order a coffee and a "toast" which is just like a sandwich with some cheese, salami, tomatoes, cucumbers, mayo and ketchup, toasted. its pretty delicious and it costs a single lev. so like 75 cents. i get my coffee quickly and start sipping it at a table. then 20-25 minutes pass and i am hungry and now on the verge of being late for work. so i get up to pay assuming that they forgot my sandwich. they didnt. they then went to go get it. i thought it was strange that a simple sandwich would take 25 minutes to make in a near empty cafe with a few people working. oh well, i say, and head to work.

at work, i find that it is just me and the lady who cleans the place. she is very nice and loves to talk. the other people i work with are in another town far away doing business of some sort. so we sit and talk all morning and it was pleasant. mind you, no english has been spoken yet during this day. i am also told that i will be working at the culture center/library alone in the afternoon. i must have the doors open, but if anyone comes, to tell them its closed. i didnt follow the logic, but as a good volunteer, i did what i was told. I came in, opened it up and sat down to get to work. which is doing nothing. i flipped open my laptop and started watching a movie. during this time, the only visitor of the day shows up looking frantic. i tell her that i am here alone, assuming she knows who i am, and that the others will be back tomorrow and that i am sorry. she looks confused and then tells me she needs a book. i tell her again, that i dont know how to work the library and i dont know how to find books, because im the new guy that does nothing there. well, she tells me she is from another town and cant come back the next day, so please help her. i say, ok - why not, im a volunteer, i like helping. so i tried. and failed. after a few minutes i called pepi who is on vacation for assistance. i told him the name of the book - he said they didnt have it. i dont quite believe that he knew the book's availability off the top of his head, but the lady bought it and left after i apologized for the 100th time.

so i leave work and head home. on my way, i decided that i wanted to do some laundry (in my fancy second hand automatic washing machine that i just bought!) and i didnt have detergent. so i went to the store and bought some. in the store, an older woman approached me and asked if i drink coffee in the afternoon. i think its an odd question and i tell her yes, sometimes i do. she asked if i would like to have some coffee now with her at her house. i saw no reason to decline, so i headed to her home with her. she served me a big cup of steaming hot coffee that was homemade, so it was like mud. and actually kinda tasty. so i had some coffee, some small cookies and some decent conversation. after the coffee, naturally, rakia was then brought out and served to me. i had a glass, thanked her for her hospitality and started to leave. this is when she presented me with a large bag of tomatoes and some peppers. i love it - they are so hospitable here. on my way to the apartment, i ran into a little friend of mine named Sisa. Sisa is about 10 years old, but looks 6. she is absolutely darling. she asked me when i was going to start teaching english to her. i said - heck, i have nothing to do ever at work, so come by tomorrow when you get out of school and we can start. i told her to bring any friends along too. i figured this was the best way to start my classes, word of mouth. get a couple kids in and tell them to invite whoever they want. a flawless plan. and not a word of english spoken all day by me. interesting.

the rest of that day is boring.

so then today happens. again, i wake up, head to the cafe with plenty of time, and order a coffee and a toast. again, the coffee comes quick and again i am late for work becuase i am waiting on the magical toast that takes 25 minutes to make. but while i was waiting at my table alone, enjoying the coffee and waking up, a gentleman sits down with me at the table, even though the place was at about 10% capacity. So i say good morning and he looks at me for a second and says, i dont know you. i responded, no you dont, my name is rory and it is nice to meet you. after which i extended my hand hopeful for a handshake and exchange of names. he just looked at me, smiled, and started drinking his coffee... it was strange and i left soon after.

So then i go to work, where i am greeted by the usual crew. i sit with them and after some time, i tell them that a person from Peace Corps is coming tomorrow to check out my place, see the town, where i work and to just assess my overall well-being. well they get all panicky and start cleaning like crazy. then they tell me to take the afternoon off so i can clean my 2 room apartment... as if it takes more than an hour to clean. but i tell them no, i am coming this afternoon because my friend Sisa is coming to study english with me and she is bringing friends. they say ok. then about an hour or so passes and they have a change of heart. they then tell me that Sisa is forbidden to come, and I will not teach her english today. because if i teach her english, then all the other kids will want to come and they will pester my coworkers as to why they werent invited. i replied that was exactly what i wanted, kids to show interest and to get my class started. but they said no - i would have to form a list of interested kids and start formally with this class. then they asked, how many students do i want. i said, i want as many as there are that want to learn english. they were baffled. i told them i will not refuse to teach a child english if the child wants to learn. again, they werent understanding. so i succumbed to their wishes, canceled the class for the day and spent the afternoon at home "cleaning" my apartment. again, no english words spoken out loud today.

oh, and i spent my morning reading a book in bulgarian about a small boy who wishes to be invisible on his birthday and gets his wish. he enjoys some small mischief around town and messing with his classmates, but then he becomes sad becuase none of his friends or family can see or hear him. im like 4 chapters in and understand maybe 25% of whats written, but i get the gist and its interesting for me to read a book in bulgarian. its not a small book either.

I guess maybe in a few weeks i will finally have something to do during the day that is meaningful, but until then, i just wait until this list magically appears or someone introduces me to the teachers/students so i can figure out who wants in my class.

So that's it - a snip-it of 2 days in the life of me.

everyday is an adventure out here.

everyday.

till next time!

Corn, cereal, princesses, sausages, the scottish and a friend.

Back again. I put some new pics up on that website http://picasaweb.google.com/Roryjnolan and you can view them. they are from earlier this month when we went to this city called Velikno Turnivo for a conference. It was a really pretty place and they even had their own awesome castle from a really long time ago. And the name of the castle is dangerously close to the word for "corn" in bulgarian, so when people kept asking me if i had gone there, i got really confused. its hard to go to corn. at least here in bulgaria it is, i guess in Illinois, Ohio, Upstate New York or wherever you people are reading this, going to corn doesnt sound so strange... Speaking of corn. i dreamt of corn flakes last night. and special K. it was a pretty disappointing dream because when i woke up, all i was craving was a bowl of cereal and some cold milk. but i dont have any. in fact, i havent had a bowl of cereal since i got here. they dont really eat that stuff. instead, my breakfasts usually consist of a slice of bread, with a pork paste spread on it, and put in the toaster oven for a few minutes. when the pork paste becomes "cooked" i put some kashkaval on it. kashkaval only translates to "yellow cheese" (on a side note, only 2 kinds of cheese here: Cirene and Kashkaval. One means White Cheese, the other is Yellow Cheese. - i know, pretty specific. it always makes for a fun conversation when people ask me if we have "Kashkaval" in the states. they dont really grasp the fact that there are like 10,000 kinds of cheese in the US) but anyways, back to breakfast. so i put this yellow cheese on there and maybe some spice that is green. i dont know what it is called, but its tasty. and then i toss it back in the toaster oven for a bit. This concoction is called a "princess" and i have no idea why. toast, pork paste and cheese. open faced. And it looks just like this.

So something funny just happened... someone from scotland just got dragged to my office with a woman and he needed help translating what he was saying. It was pretty funny. I got to translate! haha that was the first time ever. and the woman understood what i was saying! i feel proud. I guess this guy buys properties here for ridiculously cheap prices, like a house for $3000 with a 3000 sq ft garden... and then he rents them for 120 dollars a month to people from england. pretty good plan i guess. says he owns 12 houses in bulgaria and is making some good money.

Anyways, still not much to do here. i bought new clothes last weekend. I went with a girl from Moravitsa to go shopping. I basically just purchased everythign she said she liked. well, not everything. but damn near close. i didnt have any clothes for winter, so i needed some warmer stuff and some new jeans cause ive lost a bunch of weight here. so i ended up with seriously the tightest fitting clothes i have ever owned. i feel like a sausage. Bulgarians have no shame in big bellies with clothes that hardly fit - in fact, its fashionable. I honestly think its a game to see how tight you can get your clothes without ripping them. and another fun fact is that most clothes here have some sort of writing on them in english. no one really understands english, so it doenst matter if the words make sense in a sentence, or if they are spelled correctly or what. just as long as they look cool. For instance, there was a shirt i was going to buy that i thought looked neat. but when i read closer the sentence on it said "all the boys say this is the highest fashion" which to me sounded a little too much like i was interested in boys, if you know what i mean. especially since it was written in cursive and was all shiny silver. so i had to turn it down. i couldnt wear it knowing the words written on it. the girl i was with didnt understand why i put it down. it made for good times. Maybe there will be some pictures of me rocking the real fashion of bulgaria. All i need next is a chain necklace and new sporty shoes.

Actually, that scottish guy that came in told me i looked more bulgarian than most bulgarians... haha! yes!

Oh, and Tom Pattison from Ridgefield will be in Sofia all next weekend! I'm going to have a friend here! someone that has known me for longer than 4 months... funny to think, not one person within like 5000 miles has known me longer than 4 months... except Alex my cousin who is living in Europe. he doesnt count becuase then it wouldnt sound as cool... :) So yea, Tom is coming and I have no idea what to do with him. there isnt really much to do here other than sit at a cafe... maybe we could go for a walk. i dont have a car or anything to get around. we would have to take buses and trains. and that takes forever. so i dunno. stay posted, ill let you know what we did... or maybe i wont depending on what we do... :)

Well maybe that's enough for now. My thoughts are with my family and friends back home. i wish you all the best of health and happiness and successes. eat a bowl of cereal for me.

Rory

The beauty of a new language.

I feel like each time i post, i start by apologizing... It's once again been like a month since my last post... oops. You would think i was incredibly busy, but its just the opposite. I'm actually not really up to much. Although each day is a challenge and a learning experience, i spend most of my work days in an office with no work to do. I mostly sit from 8-5:30 with a 2 hour break for lunch in a quiet office surfing the web or trying to explore ideas on what projects to start here and what my limitations/abilities are. I also study the language a lot. It's not an easy one, but day by day i am getting more efficient in it and am at a point where i can understand a lot of what's going on around me and what is said to me when i am talked to. the hard part is forming coherent sentences, properly formed and pronounced and then peicing them together to make thoughts and paragraphs...

I think everyone should take a few months of their lives and jump head first into a society that doesnt speak a lick of their language. as americans, we are lucky because in america, if you travel 2 or 3 thousand miles across the country, you will end up in a state where they speak the exact same language as you. here, if i drove 50 miles north, or 150 miles west, i would be in either romania or serbia respectively and have to speak a different language completely. it's just an odd realization for us that come from a land where language is never a problem. And if someone in america doesnt speak english... good heavens! how dare they not speak our language in our country!

I remember a specific incident that happened right before i left for Bulgaria. I was at an mechanics place getting Rubi ready for her new family and was waiting for her to get done. There was a man that had his car worked on and it was completed. He appeared to be of Indian descent and hardly spoke english. The man was confused because he thought he had something fixed on his car that cost one thing, but the person behind the desk was charging him a significantly higher price. Well, i guess the individual that didn't really speak english had agreed to something he was unaware of or didnt understand before his car went in for service. So he probabaly ordered the full package after the mechanic asked if he wanted it. he probably just nodded, which is what i do all the time. well that cost him some cash. But the interaction between this man and the attendant was what was most interesting for me to watch. Instead of the attendant slowing his speech down, using smaller words, and remaining calm to explain the situation and understanding - he got more and more upset and simply repeated himself louder and faster as he got angry. the man that was to pay got defensive and just walked out because he didnt know why he was getting yelled at! luckly he was able to call someone that spoke english to explain - but i know that situation all too well. and i think we should all be humbled by putting ourselves in a situation where the simple act of communicating a thought vocally is stripped from us. and when we do try to communicate it, we feel embarrassed and always questioning whether the words we are saying make sense and if they understand what we want.

it is so easy in this language to screw up the meaning completely. for instance, if i say "obicham te" it means i love you. if i say, "obicham ti" it means you love me. get my point? Ti vs Te. do you know how easy that is to screw up?! ugh.

Here is another fun little struggle ive run into - just for giggles. two days in a row i took trains to and from sofia. 4 trains total. i got on the wrong train 2 of the 4 times. not really the biggest problem because the trains ended up going to the same place, it was more the time they left and the amount of stops they made along the way... but do you know how nerve racking it is to just step on a train and only be like 70% sure you are on the right train? and then how fun it is to explain to the conductor why you have a ticket for the wrong train? yea. good times. luckly one conductor just shrugged, said no problem and moved on. the other was not so friendly and drilled me with questions. luckly the individuals near me saw my struggle, explained to the conductor and i was saved.

day by day.

well school has started now and hopefully i will have something to do now. maybe they will give me direction in terms of work.

I shaved my beard. i am like a 17 year old now. the people here like it though. and i have gotten some nice comments from the women, which is always nice. i am not sure how much i like it though. but oh well.

I have been back to moravitsa a bunch. its a good place with good people and it makes me feel like home. its a little safe haven for me when i need it. i wonder how i will repay them for all they have done for me. but the thing is, repayment is an odd concept here. Here, if i helped someone and provided everything for them for a long time while they got on their feet, i would never expect anything in return. in the states, it just doesnt seem like that would happen. and i feel obligated almost for my own self to give them something. i am in serious emotional and financial debt to them! but i should chill out - i honestly believe that i have been adopted by Rosen's family as a member. and recieve the same treatment as a brother would treat a brother. It's amazing.

I have also been making friends here in Koynare which has helped a lot. there have been a few times where i will be walking home from work and get "kidnapped" by some people at a cafe i pass. and that's nice. they want to hang with me. and i can hold my own in conversation enough that it's not pure silence. mind you - when i say i hold my own, i mean i can spit out sentences, nod when i understand, and generally answer questions. But they want to hang with me, and i could use all the company and companionship i can get!

There is also a woman i work with that has been wonderful. she takes me to the nearby town where there are shops and helps me buy stuff for survival. she also takes me out to the cafe and has invited me to her house as a guest. she is cool, has a good sense of humor and enjoys hanging out with me as far as i can tell. She has 3 children which is a little uncommon here, usually its only 1 or 2. and her husband has worked in spain for, i think, 8 years. she has only been there once to visit and he has only come back a few times as well becuase it is expensive to travel. i cant imagine that life. they talk everynight on skype. this is life here. i cant imagine.

it reminds me of the stories i heard from the people that came to america from south america/mexico to work. they come alone and take money. they send most of it back to their families in their home country. but imagine how incredibly hard that is for them! they are kinda like me... but married with kids. cant imagine. thats a hard life.

anyways - lets end this on a positive note! I'm making friends and feeling better about my language ability and koynare is going to be a good place to be for the next few years... it better! :)

Hope everyone is well out there in the world! Keep in touch. send me emails if you like, i will get back to you or if you have questions or just want to hear more unedited, uncensored stories :)

Rory