My Boring Blog

Hello all. This is my blog which I will be using primarily to show pictures that I have taken while I am in Bulgaria. Any thoughts or opinions are strictly my own and no one elses.

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Location: Washington, D.C., United States

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Bulgarian Dentistry





This past Friday I had my medical and dental check ups. Good news I'm not going to die, due to medical reasons, for a little while longer and my teeth don't have any new cavities. The bad news was that the dentist was a pretty unpleasant experience.
Now the hygienist that I went to is actually from Sweden and she seems like a very nice person. Her chair side manner leaves something to be desired however. When she was cleaning my teeth she took the sharp metal pointy thing you scrape the teeth with and jammed it into my gums (I assume that this was an accident). She then asked me if it hurt? I wanted to scream out "YES, WHEN YOU SHOVE A SHARP METAL STICK INTO MY MOUTH IT HURTS!!!", but I just nodded because she still had the sharp metal stick; so I thought it best not to provoke her. She also used some sort of water blasting device on my teeth to clean them. At one point she hit the outside of my mouth at my chin with the high powered water spray. I flinched and clenched my fists in fury, but didn't do anything.
The most interesting thing however were the xrays. She took xrays of my teeth and thought there might be the beginning of a cavity, so she wanted to have the dentist take a look. Fine I though, good to catch it now before it becomes a problem. The dentist came in, we spoke, and he seemed like a very nice guy. He looked at the xrays and started talking to the hygienist in Swedish. He then took the xrays, flipped them over and turned them around. Apparently the reason something looked wrong with the teeth was that the xrays were being looked at in the completely wrong direction. Needless to say this does not inspire confidence. But I am glad that they caught the mistake before they started drilling.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Alphabet






The other day was a very big holiday in Bulgaria, Cyril and Methodi day. These are the two guys who created the Cyrillic alphabet, they were also brothers. They were Bulgarian and their creation helped spread literacy, Christianity, and a great deal of culture throughout the Balkans. A women at my local grocery store told me that that holiday is the most significant of all Bulgarian holidays. The holiday is celebrated throughout the country with parades, parties, eating, and drinking.
Also at this time is when twelfth graders graduate school and go out into the world. At my school they had a commencement ceremony where the students kissed the school flag and then got to march in the parade, along with all of the other students from the school. I didn't teach any twelfth grade classes this year but it was really nice to see so many students had made it to graduation.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Summer is coming




Ok so it's been awhile since I've posted anything, sorry. This has been primarily due to two factors. One, I have been crazy busy with school wrapping up and SPA project stuff. If you look at any PCV's web site that is doing a SPA project you will get some idea of how nerve racking they are. I have come to the conclusion that hell for me would be one long never ending SPA project. It is amazing the amount of trouble one can have getting everything done. I had everything done on time, and in most cases ahead of schedule, but getting my project team to get everything done was impossible. When I started the project I promised myself that I would not do the majority of the work, my job should be as a facilitator. But somehow up became down, frogs began raining from the sky and I did almost all of work. The truly baffling part is that I am doing all of this to give away money to people who desperately want it, but still do not want to work for any of it.
Oh well... The second reason for not posting more: laziness. No story behind this. No comments. That would require effort.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

My first football fight



__I just got back from watching my local football team Пирин Гоце Делчев (Pirin Gotse Delchev) and I saw my first football fight. I wasn't involved and it took place on the other side of the field but it was cool to see.
The Game between Pirin and the other team (I forget the name) had been pretty tense all game but Pirin managed to score a goal right before the first half ended. When the second half started the other team came out very aggressively and attacked. Pirin did a good job of defending and counter attacking however. The referees made several calls that the crowd thought were questionable, I thought they were correct calls but I'm sure I don't have the same perspective as the home crowd. While the home fans were screaming and swearing at the refs (I only understood some of the words but they were definitely unkind to say the least) I sat with a cool smile on my face of amusement and detachment.
Eventually the referee called a yellow card on a Pirin player for an extremely rough tackle he made, this was not well received by the crowd. About a minute later I noticed about five or six men on the other side of the field, in the stands, pushing each other. A few seconds later punches were being thrown. A second after that one man put another man into a head lock, body slammed him to the ground, and began punching him in the head.
On my side of the field things got immediately quiet as everyone watched the fight. The players stopped playing as they watched the fight and the refs stopped running around to watch. After about twenty or thirty seconds play started up again on the pitch as the fight had stopped, I assume police arrived on the scene but I didn't see anything.
About a minute later Pirin scored a second goal and five minutes later added a third. The crowd began shouting "Още! Още!" (More! More!) The tension between the fans and the referees became irrelevant as Pirin pulled ahead.
When the game came to a close everyone was on their feet applauding the home team. When the refs left, they were sent off with a course of boos and whistles. It was a thrilling game and caused me to realise I believe I missed my calling in life. Football hooligan.