The temperature scale: as according to Rory. and - a new friend?

another entry for the sake of having another entry. winter appears to be giving us a bit of a break here in northern  bulgaria. today is sunny and 4 degrees celsius... i guess thats near 40 maybe? and towards the end of the week the weather is supposed to get up to 11 degrees! which is like around 50? i know that 15 degrees is 60 fahrenheit... so yea. its going to get nice. here is my celsius scale. we will start from Evaporation to Glacier.
40+ = standing in front of a fan in a puddle of sweat, in my underwear, drinking water, taking salt tablets and waiting for the sun to go down.
35-40 = 8 liters of water consumed in a day, sweating from every pore in my body. ice in my freezer turns to water.
25-30 = hey look, im sweating while doing nothing!
20-25 = ahhhhh... i love wearing shorts!
15-20 = THE BEST WEATHER EVER! Rory performs at his best in these temperatures.
10-15= a nice walk around town in a sweatshirt and smile.
5-10 = hey, this aint so bad.
0-5 = hmm, its a little cold out there, i better put on a hat.
-5-0 = walk quicker, but stop to say hello to the familiar faces. carry tissues in my pocket for my runny nose. food is left in the kitchen, as it is basically a giant refrigerator.
-10 - -5= quick walk and a quick wave with a smile. (conversations outside are limited to "studeno li e?" translation: "are you cold?" conversations inside become "are you cold in your apartment?")
-20 - -10 = standing by the fire burning stove to escape the chill and willing my beard to grow faster and thicker.
-20 - -25 = quick inventory check of the amount of wood/inflammable items i have. make a fire, and sleep next to it. also, consumption of red wine increases to warm the fingers. computer usage limited in fear of frostbite. food and toothpaste in the kitchen freeze solid.
-25 and below =  contemplate burning furniture and unneeded clothing for heat. wear everything that is made of cloth and then get in the sleeping bag and wait.

So we are exiting the frigid scary times of cold and loneliness. and entering the times when the birds sing again in the morning. actually, this morning i awoke at 4am due to a restless brain and i read until it was time for work. the songbirds have actually returned already, and i was pleasantly excited to hear them singing in the wee hours of the morning. it wont be long though before i curse them as the arouse me from needed slumber in the spring and summer...

I recently found a website that is dedicated to rescuing the abused, abandoned and homeless dogs in Bulgaria. The need foster homes for them since they cannot house all of them. I showed interest in fostering one. They sent me a link for a dog who they found in the street a few months ago. the dog was starving because he used to be a house dog and didnt know how to fend for himself on the streets. They nursed him back to health, neutered, vaccinated and dewormed him. He is a small black shaggy dog of about 2 years. he is about the ugliest dog i've seen, which makes him all that much cuter. haha! I am going to meet him on Friday to see if we are a good fit. I am excited to get a dog. The companionship is much needed on both our ends!

I talked to my mom and dad on skype the other day. it was good to catch up and see where everyone is. now i just want to hear from my siblings... hint hint... :) and of couuuursee i want to hear from other family and friends likewise!

be good, be warm and hug your central heating units today.
Rory

SO MANY HOLIDAYS!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Yesterday Cveti and I celebrated not only one holiday, or two holidays... but FOUR holidays... all on the same day! Obviously yesterday was Valentines, but that wasn't the most dominant. There is a holiday called Trefon Zarezan. This holiday has a lot of tradition, but basically what it means for the average Bulgarian is that they go out to their gardens, trim their grape vines, and then drink wine all day and dance and play music and all sorts of other fun stuff. The other holiday... Sirni Zagovezni... is kind of like mothers day and fathers day and grandparents day all in one. It's like the beginning of Lent from what I understand too. The people celebrate with their families and the kids ask forgiveness for all the mistakes they made as kids and the parents and grandparents forgive them and what not. It's a nice holiday... Then the last but not least holiday we celebrated is called Kurban. This is a personal holiday for my wonderful Cveti. When she was a kid, she suffered a bad burn on her stomach from boiling water. She was in a hospital for a while and took a long time to recover. February 14th is the anniversary of this event. So, per tradition, when you survive a life-threatening situation or illness, you celebrate the yearly anniversary by cooking chicken and eating it for your health. SOOOOO... lets see. we did a lot of celebrating.

First we wake up, say happy valentines to each other. Then we went and got coffee and breakfast at the cafe. The people there asked us which holiday we would celebrate today. We said valentines cause we are just THAT cute. But I found most people were interested in the wine holiday... of course. So after eating, we went shopping. We got an egg, some ground-up sweet wheat thing, and some other things. We got to the apartment and boiled the egg and cooked chicken that i had. when the egg was done (the egg was for the holiday about the parents and lent and all that stuff) we tied a string around it and hung it from a ceiling light at mouth level. tradition says that whoever can get the egg in their mouth first will be healthy all year or something like that. so cveti and i stood across from each other and without using our hands we had to try to get the egg. i won. i will be healthy for the year. luckily though, you do the same thing with that sweet wheat stuff. she won that time. so we will be healthy together. then we ate the chicken we cooked, and we had wine with that for the wine holiday. Unfortunately we didnt do too much for valentines though. i mean, i couldnt get flowers or anything like that. but we spent the weekend together being "valentine-y"... whatever that means.

Ohh... sorry - i want to step back to Friday the 12th... There was a party in town for the holidays and we went to a cafe/restaurant with like 30 other people. Cveti and i were the youngest ones there, as the others were mostly retired. We drank wine and rakia and ate lots of homemade food. we danced and told jokes and laughed and it was grand. then at the end, one guy decided he should interview me in front of everyone. he was already kinda... well. he had been really celebrating the holidays... so anyways, i couldnt understand a thing that he said. and i just kinda sat there going... uhhhhh..... what? haha it was pretty embarrassing, but funny im sure for the 30 other people in the room. ugh.

and last but not least, Pepi told me that his daughter, who lives in a nearby town, found a scorpion in her daughters room yesterday. just one more thing to worry about. i didnt even know scorpions lived here. the good thing is though, i am bigger than a scorpion and will surely win in if there is ever a battle between us. i just might be sore and slightly sick if the little bugger gets a strike in. and be sure, if he strikes, he wont perish comfortably under the sole of my boot. it will be slow and painful. i think maybe putting him in some cold water on the stove... then letting it slowly get hot... (to all the scorpions out there reading this: take this as a warning, for you will not get a second chance!)

That said, enjoy the day.
Rory

An Adventure in Sofialand

We have been getting plenty of snow here and the weather has stayed cold. But honestly, it has totally stopped being a problem. I've always enjoyed the cold as long as there is snow on the ground and I'm not having to sit in traffic.

So this weekend is Valentine's day and I will confess... I have no idea what to do for the girlfriend. Honestly. She is coming here this weekend. Typically a nice relaxing evening with a good meal, some wine and a movie sounds like something I would want to do on this holiday, but I live in a single room that is over-crowded with everything I own. We watch movies on my 15 inch laptop screen. It's really not as comfortable as I would like. The chairs I have to sit in are wooden school chairs and my table is about knee high off the ground. And the one restaurant in town to go to has made both of us kinda sick almost every time we go there... so I am at a loss of things to do. But I'm sure I'll figure something out!

This week I had to travel back to Sofia for some stuff with the PC office. Dan and I went down there on Tuesday afternoon. We arrived and decided that some Mexican food would be ideal. When we got to the one Mexican restaurant in town, we heard a group of very loud girls talking in the corner. Dan looks at me and says "That sounds like American English..." I agreed. Dan went over to say hello and ask where they were from and what they were doing here. They turned out to be 4 medical students from America studying in Bulgaria. They invited us to sit with them since it is so rare to meet another American in this country. These girls were (I hate stereotyping) typical American college students. They were so loud with no regard for those around them. Curse words were flung out colorfully as they tried talking over each other. We got into some conversations regarding sensitive topics such as the minority groups in this country and the opinions they delivered were clearly from a sheltered background. It was very interesting. We enjoyed their company and enjoyed being able to speak freely in American English with strangers. After the Swiss Burger with Mushrooms and a few cold beers, we all went our separate ways. Dan and I looked at each other and both agreed - we are glad we are here and we do not miss hearing that group sitting in the bar... It was definitely refreshing.  I experienced "Culture Shock" from sitting with a group of 4 American girls in their early 20s. It was astonishing. It makes me really wonder what it will be like to step back onto my country's soil and walk down the roads paved in gold on my way back home.

How hard will it be to re-adjust to the life in the Home of the Brave where almost every aspect of life is perceived differently?

Be well out there, and keep your eyes and heart open to the lives of the others in the world.

Rory

Damaged Packages and Busted Hands.

I just saw something that made me say to myself "I must share this with my followers."

I work across the street from the post office and I was standing outside just watching people walking around. The postal truck came down the road and pulled into the parking lot next to the post office. The parking lot is covered in snow, so the driver did what used to be one of my favorite things to do when I had my little Nissan... He pulled an e-brake slide. For those that don't know what that is, it is when you are driving, usually in snow, and turn the wheel in one direction and at the same time engage the e-brake. It locks your tires and swings the back end of the car around quickly. Needless to say, it made me laugh. This vehicle is the vehicle that carries those packages I receive from friends and family from the States. This driver is just thrashing that vehicle around and I'm sure those packages are bouncing around all over the place in the back of the car... Good times.

Other than that, I am still struggling to figure out what the heck is going on here. Yesterday I had a meeting with my group set up at 2:15 PM because school ends at 2:05. or so i thought... Turns out that every Wednesday and Friday, school actually gets out at 1pm. You would think this would be a fact I was aware of... But no. No one told me up until yesterday.

I also had the fun experience of getting a big splinter last night while putting wood in my stove. I don't own a needle or tweezers or really anything to remove said splinter. So I just left it in my thumb and went to bed. Needless to say, it hurt this morning. So I came to work, asked if anyone had a needle, and of course there wasn't one. But I was handed a small nail. After much digging with a dull nail on a slightly infected thumb, the splinter was freed! This fire burning stove has resulted in absolutely chewing up my hands. My index finger and thumb on both hands are so calloused from the small burns I get from the stove, that they actually don't feel heat anymore. Which of course I find a blessing because now I can touch the hot stove without worrying about "burning myself"... I have also received many small and one or two good sized cuts on my thumbs and fingers from my hatchet. I have to make the big pieces of wood smaller to get the fire started, and that involved chopping them up with a hatchet. Sometimes the hatchet misses the mark and shaves some skin of my hand instead. Nothing serious and I don't swing the thing hard enough to lose a finger or anything, but it's just making my hands look pretty awesome. Oh, and those burns I mentioned... they have turned my fingers a permanent shade of black that doesn't wash off. My coworkers just say that these injuries and wounds are normal when you have to light a stove to keep warm in the winter. Ohhhh... the price of staying warm....

Ok, a large bag of more wood just arrived for me to take to my apartment. Yay! I gotta go take it there now, on a sled, even though the snow is totally melted on the roads.

Take care
Rory

PROGRESS!!!

Again, its been a long time since I wrote anything in here. And again, I am sorry. It has been busy, and when it hasn’t been busy, I’ve been lazy or trying to stay warm. That’s another thing, it’s a real pain in the butt to type something long when your fingers are nearly frozen. The amount of mistakes I make typing are astronomical. I have a lucky moment now at work where the wood burning stove is exceptionally hot and my fingers feel normal. But don’t get me wrong, I’m still wearing my new down jacket that my mother sent for Christmas and my hat. My toes are still cold. The joys of winter.

So since last I wrote, it has gotten much colder. We have had a couple days here with -25 degree Celsius weather, which is around -10 or -15 Fahrenheit. It’s cold and it’s hard to escape. I just have to make a good fire and sit near it all day. For instance, a couple days ago I didn’t have any work to do so there wasn’t a reason for me to be in the office. I was also running out of wood to burn for warmth, so I grabbed a book, went to the office, and sat next to the stove all day reading. I went to work only to stay warm. Haha that’s a first!

Things with the girlfriend are going well. We get to see each other pretty much every weekend. Last weekend I went to her place and she set up a nice candle lit romantic dinner with music, warmth and good spaghetti. It was the first time someone has done something like that for me, and let me tell you, it’s probably about as relaxing as it gets. It was like a vacation for dinner. Sitting in a dark candle-lit warm room with relaxing music, good food and a bottle of wine is seriously underrated. For all those with significant others, I suggest doing this for them.

I have some unfortunate news though. One of my friends here who is a volunteer is leaving. Long story short, she worked at a place that was basically a correctional facility for youth. She was physically threatened and harmed on a daily basis. Some of the things done would scar the average person for life. This volunteer is very strong willed and very strong emotionally, but she simply does not have the training to handle a situation like the one she was in. She complained about it and was transferred to a different site due to the danger of working in the facility. Unfortunately the site where they sent her did not work out either. There were no more options available and she is now finished with her service. It’s a big tug back down to reality for me that this service is able to be terminated at any time. I feel terrible for her. She doesn’t leave for another week, so I will do my best to spend some time with her before she heads back to New York. She will be greatly missed by me, my friends, and the people of this country.

And now for the good news and the thing that is making me feel accomplished in my days! Over the past month or so, I have formed a group of youth. About 10 kids, mostly from 14-16 years old, are in this group. They are leading it with my help and our goal is to make Koynare a better place to live. Over the past few weeks, we have started a project to totally revamp a park near the school. The park is falling apart, over grown and filthy. We are going to add park benches, picnic tables, a gazebo, garbage cans, lamps and improve the grounds in general with grass, flowers and maybe more trees. It’s a big project. But these kids are super excited, super smart, and we have the full support of the Mayor for our project. It is so fun to see them starting to believe in a thing that they never thought was possible. I worked with 6 of them yesterday for 4 hours straight!! We finished with a meeting with the Mayor showing him everything we had done. The kids talked the whole time and I sat there with the biggest smile my face could allow. It was incredible. I feel like a proud father watching these children see that they actually have a voice. It’s what I came to do. And I am finally getting that warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment that I missed for the last 8 months. Ahh, it’s paying off…

So that’s kinda what’s going on in my life. I’m just trying to stay warm, keep the kids motivated, find new projects and activities and prepare for the warmth to come back when we can get these projects moving.

I have so much I want to do and it’s becoming possible with the support of these kids, and the town! Excellent.

Btw – I am now at 29.75% of my service complete. Just thought you’d like to know. But that’s if I finish at the normal time. Maybe I’ll extend another year if things are going well or maybe something happens that makes me finish early. Who knows? I wanna stay.

Another thing - for those that I used to work with - I am looking at a Ricoh van outside certainly making SPIFFs on whatever is being sold... you can't escape the Ricoh SPIFF. It's everywhere. Even Koynare.

Your friend, brother, son, grandson, cousin, nephew or uncle,

Rory (v.1.2975)