classes started

my meeting with my boss from headquarters was freaking awesome. we got a lot of good ideas flowing with the people i work with and i have noticed a real change in the way things are going. i am excited about it! i am going to use these english classes as a spring board into the next wave of projects. the kids that come and work with me this winter will be my ambassadors for the other projects i want to get started down the road! right now i have 25 kids signed up for the classes with rumors of another 10-15 that want to come as well! this will surely keep me busy.

last night i went out with one of my coworkers to a cafe for "a beer". well, a beer is never a beer. and a beer turns into 5 or so. and then i wake up with a killer headache and wanting nothing more than to lay in bed for the whole morning. but i was glad i got to work today because it was one of the better days ive had! even if i was slightly to extremely hungover. one funny something - i went to a 10th grade class today. there were about 10 or so people in it, and only 2 of them were guys. the teacher tells them i dont understand bulgarian and they must ask me questions in english. this is a daunting task. the girls giggle like crazy and want to ask me things, but they just dont know how in english. so i listened to many things said about me between the girls becuase they thought i couldnt understand the language. well, i understood everything. it was pretty funny - just stuff that 16 year old girls say about the new young teacher from america. so after answering a few questions about my favorite foods and about my family, something funny happened in class. so i laughed. well, the girl in the front said something along the lines of how beautiful my smile was. i quickly looked at her, said thank you and told her she had a pretty smile too... well this set off panic amongst the girls because they then thought back on all the things they had said about me during the class! every one of them turned bright red and i had myself a hearty chuckle over the situation.

during the afternoon, i had a whole bunch of 17 year old students come and take the test i had set up for them. its just a test to see how much english they understand. 3 or 4 of the girls that came dont understand english at all. and as i was later told by another student, they have no interest in learning english either - they just want to come to my class and get to know me. so yea, its kinda funny being the popular guy and i get a kick out of it. a little ego boost.

other than that, nothing too interesting is going on this moment. another day, another experience.

staying in touch

Hello world! So my work is coming together. I have gone to a couple classes in the school where i help the teacher and the kids to understand a native english speaker. its definitely interesting and i really enjoy it. i get a good energy from the kids and it makes my day a whole lot better. Yesterday I went to the school and then after that i ate in the cafeteria with a bunch of kids. one cute girl, about 10 years old, came up to me and gave me a leaf from a tree. I have heard that "leaf art" is actually kinda common since other materials arent readily available. so she gave me the leaf, i gave her my chocolates. haha i think she won on that exchange, but it was really cute!
well i left the cafeteria, saw some kids that were just hanging out and might be classified as "bad kids" - i approached, asked what they were doing and when they responded with "nothing" i took the frisbee out of my bag and tossed it to one. They were shocked, adults dont really play with kids here. so i got about 5 or 6 kids in a circle and taught them how to toss a frisbee. we had a lot of fun and it didnt take long for a crowd to gather and watch us play! we played for like an hour and i have a feeling that these kids skipped class to play. i asked if they had class, and was assured over and over that none of them had class that hour... i think it was BS. but i had fun, they had fun, and everything was grand.

I also administered an english test in my chitalishte to kids that are interested in furthering their english studies after school. i got about 8 kids to show up and take a test so i could find out what they knew in english. they were excited and hopefully i will get something started up that has meaning.

so yea, i dunno what else. my birthday is coming up. it will be interesting to see what happens with that. and Brave Yankee lives in Pleven now and i went to visit him and help him move in. Pleven is a city of over 100,000 people and has pretty much anything you could want. so he is going to have to learn how to budget that small amount of money that we get!

Is that a light at the end of this tunnel?

oh my! its starting. its about time too... i was getting pretty anxious and i was really distraught for a while. Finally, there is organization and maybe a purpose for me here. My boss from headquarters is coming out here on tuesday and that news has sent a panic amongst my coworkers. my boss wants to know what work im doing, wants to see what im doing, wants to meet the kids im working with and all the other people in town i work with... well. its funny because i havent really been doing much of anything.

I knew she was coming since early last week and made passive mentions about it to my coworkers. then yesterday she called and actually talked to them about her future visit. and thats when the ball got rolling. i am getting all the broken stuff in my apt fixed... i went to the school today FINALLY to meet the english teacher and help with classes... i am getting a place set up in the culture center where i work so i can teach classes there... we are finding people that want to learn english... I HAVE WORK! so now i can finally breath a little easier. i have more freedom believe it or not because i am working. i have purpose. nothing has started yet, but now i am 100% confident that it will start soon. Oh Thank God!

i feel a large weight lifted off my shoulders. nothing worse than waking up in the morning with a lot of energy and good feelings and wanting to do stuff only to walk into an office, sit down and do nothing until 530pm. then do more of nothing after that. its draining. but now - i have something!

oh, and here is a fun story. well a couple fun stories i guess. yesterday morning i put some clothes in my new second hand washing machine and started her up. i sat down at the computer to get on the internet and after about 3 minutes i heard a thud and my power went out. i investigated my apt, nothing looked out of the ordinary and nothing fell, so i left for work. came home and still no power. i heard music... so someone had power. i found the buildings electric box and my fuse was blown - i flipped it and had power. i went to the washing machine to restart it... but apparently the electricity decided to show ultimate power on the washing machine and gave it a good hard lethal dose of shock. now my washing machine is dead. i bought it two months ago and paid a fair chunk of change. UGGGGGG. never catch a break.

and let me take you on a journey. close your eyes.... wait. that wont work. uhm, think really hard about it being Monday night. i was tired, i laid in bed maybe around 10pm. i sat in bed, awake, until around 2pm when i decided it was ridiculous, i flipped on the light and read a book til about 3. fell asleep at 3. woke up at 6am! why? becuase i was stressed about my life here and what the heck i was doing. so i get 3 hours rest. i go to work. i come home a little early, around 5pm and say to myself, "man, i just want to grab a beer for tonight (the beers are 2 liters or 6-12oz beers) and drink a little with dinner and fall asleep at like 7pm. so i leave my building to purchase said beer. i see a man that lives in my building. he asks me what i am doing and why i havent come to his apartment yet to meet his family. i told him i was doing nothing. he said, well lets go then. so i 180-ed and re-entered the building and headed to his apartment. this was 5pm. i was exhausted. i sat in his kitchen and enjoyed a glass of cola and some sweets with him and his wife. another woman entered, she was nice and we talked, she had cola too. then she left after an hour or so and i tried to depart at the same time. i was told to sit. i did. then our conversation resumed and many topics discussed. one being google earth. so we went to the other room to the pc and tried to find google earth. it wasnt there. so we downloaded it and visited many places. it is now 745pm, past my planned bedtime. i ask when the shops close and i knew damn well they closed at 8pm. i wanted an excuse. he said, why are you going to the shop? i said i have to cook dinner and need meat(a lie). he said, no no - you will eat dinner with us tonight. i said, ok thank you. (uhg, they are so hospitable here!) so we listened to music and watched a bit of some western movie. then dinner was served and it was good. dinner ended around 10:30pm or so. but i couldnt leave after dinner! conversation continued until past 11:15 or so when i was literally falling asleep in my chair. i finally stood, said i must go and thank you for everything. we made arrangements for another dinner tonight. i slept well last night - so i should be ok.
but that is just a small example of how you can never plan anything and in the blink of an eye, everything changes. my neighbor is an incredibly smart guy and very nice. so i was happy to meet him and spend the time there. its just that i wish i had slept the night before!

So things are looking up. except that my freaking washing machine and electricity decided to brawl. i lost some good money on that fight.

and dan the brave yankee is moving to a nearby city in a sweet apartment. im going there this weekend to help him move. dig it.

so long, farewell, and keep it real.
Rory

Zimata idva.

not much to write about today. ive kinda started work and i think tomorrow ill get these damn english classes started that ive only been waiting since july 25th to start. its cold out and rainy. and i have a little radiator that i drag around with me to the room im in. i wonder what my electricity bill is going to be? i was in moravitsa last saturday night and it was pretty chilly. i got a taste of how the winter will be spent. let me describe it to you.

Cafes will be crowded because it is warm in the cafe and you dont have to heat your own house to stay warm if you are sitting in the cafe. the doors are closed and windows are closed. everyone is dressed warm. alcohol keeps people warmer, or so it seems to the person drinking, so the drinking starts earlier. but not with beer, or not as much with beer, its mostly homemade wine and rakia. and i believe i have told you this before, everyone smokes here. if not everyone, at least 90%. so the rooms become like a cloud of smoke, everything you are wearing stinks and your eyes burn. the stove in the room is burning wood and coal and keeps the room incredibly hot. so a hot cloudy room full of people drinking and laughing and wearing warm clothes. and this is what i foresee winter being. oh, and i ate donkey meat. so in like 2 weeks time i have eaten both animals that i have seen pulling carts around town. donkeys and horses. donkey was gross, horse is better.

so i have a birthday coming up on the 6th of november and if anyone wants to be awesome and send me a little sumthin sumthin than that would be sweet. so here is the shameless plug. SHAMELESS and i feel bad about doing this, but this is the stuff i want/need as of now: http://amzn.com/w/2P9QL1CYSZYJ4 oh, and any types of spices are welcome. Ranch dressing and hot sauce too... :)


I will be indebted to you for anything that is sent. it isnt cheap to ship stuff but its also proving to be difficult to find these things here. especially books in english... and earplugs. which are needed becuase i live above a lively cafe with loud music... 

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.