Dan - Brave Yankee.

So to keep you posted on the situation Dan is a-ok, he is moving towns to a nearby city where he will live, but he will still work at the same place. Dan called me last night because he was at dinner with a family, but he had received a phone call from his host family (from the first 2 months here) wondering if he was ok. They had heard in the news that a 25 year old american thwarted a robbery attempt in his town. well it turns out this is quite a story for the media. An american peace keeper has 3 men break into his house with weapons and the peace keeper thwarts the attempt using "karate and a knife" - good story. well they caught the guys with dans help and it turns out they had quite a criminal record and were suspected of multiple other crimes... here is an article. copy and pasted off a translater...

Pleven. U.S. peacekeeper revealed gang robbers. American Peace Corps, deployed in the town Pordim enter into melee with three dangerous bandits who broke into his headquarters.25-year-old Daniel Baker-Smith was attacked on Tuesday night. Like sitting behind your computer in 21 hours in his room in the balcony jumped up three Roma, armed with poles and a shovel. They climbed in gutters without trying to hide their faces with masks. Gypsies seeking money, but proved karatist Peacemaker. Brave Yankee applied them two or three tricks. He grabbed a kitchen knife and then resting in the throat of one of Roma. Aver onemeli panic-stricken and withdrawn. In their flight they even pulled off the iron fence of the facilities. The alien escaped without a scratch. The next day dark-skinned assailants were caught, but they recognized Smith in the police station. The chief Simeon Alexiev, 19 years Pordim been convicted 6 times. He was suspected for 22 thefts and robberies. Collateral his Veselin Benchev, 20 years from the village of Assen has a file with 15 robberies and three convictions.The third group - Stoyan Velev, 18, is criminals. Three have made a full confession before a judge in his complicity in the abortive attempt. Tiknati are in custody for 24 hours, police said. 
Evgeni Goranov 

pardon the racism and the poor translations... but you get the gist. 

Our new friend, Dan has a native-american name. Brave Yankee.

So yea - exciting times. 

This week there hasnt been much other than the fact that it is getting COLD. and its funny cause its not that cold, its just that there isnt heat. my office isnt heated yet because they have to burn wood for heat, and thats a pain in the bum to get going, so we will just wait till its really cold. and my apartment has 3 rooms, a kitchen, a bedroom and another room with a small bed in it and its where i hang out most the time. well now i am debating which room to live in now. The room that i hang out in most the time is bigger and right above a cafe that plays loud music. so i dont really want to sleep there or heat that big room. I have one small electric radiator that is the size of like a large computer box.... not very big to heat a big room. it heats my bedroom fine. but when the real cold hits, im going to have to just live in one room. the others will be frozen. ive heard that the food in your refrigerator will freeze. so maybe i can save electricity and just keep my food on the table in the kitchen where it will no doubt be frozen. yee haw. im also trying to get used to the fact that my fingers and toes will be cold until...say... May. it makes typing fast no work so well. my fingers are moving slower than usual and my backspace button is getting a lot of use. so yea, summer is hot - no AC. winter is cold - limited heating. dig it. 

i used to be able to only feel cold when i got in my car. but that jeep heated up in just a few minutes. the glory of having a gas guzzler... and i could wear short sleeved shirts to work in the winter because the office was always warm. but now... damn. 

oh wanna hear something gross? my mother sent me another box of contact lenses not too long ago becuase i was running out. well, i think i lost those boxes which totally blows. but i tossed my contacts before i realized that i didnt have anymore lenses.... so what did i do? i retrieved my lenses from the garbage. washed them a lot, and put them back in. they work for now but ill probably only get a few more days out of them. then its time to stop seeing so well too... cold and kinda blind. its going to be a fun winter. 

my coworkers are starting to get on the ball about me teaching and stuff. so thats good. and there is a rumor that a group of kids want to learn american football! so yippie! i might get to play some football!! 

thats all for now. enjoy the central heating.