Successes, injuries and metal shows.

Again, it's been about a month since my last post. Oops. :)

Let's start with some highlights. The trainees are still here and they are adapting well. They found out their permanent locations a few days ago and none of them are near Koynare unfortunately. On a positive note, Koynare will be getting another volunteer! Her name is Evan and she is going to be an English teacher here in town. She will move in at the end of July. I met her the other day and it seems like we will get along well and we both are looking forward to working with each other in the coming year(s).

I started working outside all the time now. I am available to the kids in the mornings at the stadium where I wait with my big bag of sports equipment for them. It's not as big a success as I want it to be right now, but with time I think it will attract more kids. They did recommend that I go to the stadium at around dinner time instead of in the morning. In the morning, it's getting hot and the kids have to wake up early. At night, its cooling down and they are already up. So I guess I'll start going in the evenings.

I also started a fitness group at the local gym. I am helping out with fitness training and all that good stuff. It's fun but I don't know how long it will last. It started enthusiastically and is now appearing to die down. Yesterday no one showed up... So we will see.

Shakira, the dog I had, has also returned to her previous owner. Which is way better for her. And now I have a cat. She is 3 months old and super cute. She loves being around people and enjoys sleeping in the bed with me, which is kinda strange.

So that's the good news.

The bad news is that about 2 weeks ago I was playing volleyball and sprained my ankle pretty bad. It's a funny sprain and isn't really healing as well as I want it to. So I am in a brace for the next few weeks. The sprain and all the limping around has also inflamed a patellar tendinitis which I was dealing with anyways. It was a small problem, but now it has become more of a problem. I went to the hospital while I was in Sofia this week with the Peace Corps. The doctor there re-x-rayed my ankle and ruled out a fracture in my metatarsal which was a possibility. Then she told me not to do anything sports wise for 3 weeks or so. Then I told her about my knee. She put me in a knee a brace and then told me to rest that knee for 1 month... So now my sports filled summer is going to start late and I am walking around like the bionic man with braces all over me.

That's the bad news. But it's not horrible.

I want to end this post with an observation I made this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Cveti and I were at a concert in Sofia. Not just any concert... but the most bad-ass metal concert I've been to. Day 1 was Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. Day 2 was Stone Sour, Alice in Chains, Manowar, and Rammstien. It was crazy. But not as crazy as I had anticipated in fact. Let me tell you the differences between the way Americans go to metal concerts, and the way Bulgarians go to metal concerts. The first thing I noticed was the demographic. American metal shows are full of what society calls "outcasts". Not everyone, but I will speak in generalities here. The American metal show outcast stereotype is male, wearing black, fully tattooed, pierced, really fat, smelly, long hair or shaved head. The young ones are visibly angry and put a ton of thought into their appearance to show that to the world. The older ones are clearly not to be messed with as they have been following these bands for countless years and been blasting their music in their semi-trucks or harleys for ages. Either way, they look and feel the part. Also - about 5% of the crowd at the American show is made up of women. And only the lamest individuals are wearing the band's shirt that is playing at the concert.

Now for the Bulgarian demographic. This show was full. 70,000 people were recorded as being there. There were of course your really big metal heads that looked and felt the part. They looked like the American version described above. But they were the exception. The average person looked like the average person. I would say there were more males than females at the show, but not by much. Maybe 60/40. Black was the dominate color, but again, it wasn't necessary. And I think about 80% of the people attending the day that Metallica played, had on a Metallica shirt. Same for when Rammstien played the next day. Everyone was sporting the bands shirt. It was so odd. One last thing I noticed and it surprised me. Bulgarians go to the show to watch the bands and listen to the music. Americans (not all of them) go to the show to get tossed in the mosh pit. There was not a pit in Bulgaria and with bands like Slayer, Stone Sour, Manowar and Rammstien, I would have thought it would be hard to not be a part of a little pit action, especially since we were right up by the stage.
I guess the people here are smarter than us, or at least their metal heads are a little more sane...

So that's all for now. Hit me up with questions if you got any. I'm gonna get back to doing other stuff.

Rory