My Boring Blog

Back in the States

2007-06-07T01:28:00.001+03:00

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Well I am back in the States after my two years of service. It's strange being back. There's allot to get used to. So far I think I have adjusted pretty well but allot of the small things that are different here are throwing me off. For instance yesterday I couldn't remember how to place a long distance phone call, did I have to just dial the number? put a 1 in front of it? I haven't spoken Bulgarian at all which I am surprised about but every time I talk to someone I don't know or order food in a restaurant I want to speak Bulgarian. But so far I am definitely enjoying being back.

Picture of my students

2007-05-30T15:30:00.000+03:00

Here is a picture taken of one of my classes on our last day.

Just some pictures

2007-05-27T19:00:00.001+03:00

Felt like posting some more pictures from my town and school. I have taken allot of pictures and could never post them all, but I'll probably put some more up at some point.

About to leave

2007-05-27T00:27:00.000+03:00

Well my time in the PC has just about come to an end. Right now I am busy getting rid of the grand pile of paperwork and other stuff which I never paid attention to, packing, and getting ready to go back to the States. Hard to believe that the time has gone by so fast. I have experienced many good things, many bad things, but regardless they are all interesting and have helped me to grow. I would not trade any of those experiences for anything in the world. If you want to know more, you'll have to ask. ;-)

Nap or sleep

2007-04-22T19:20:00.000+03:00

Last week I was sick all week, I'm still coughing up stuff actually. One day I came home from teaching and was positively exhausted. I didn't have to teach the next day so I decided to take a nap. It was about 11 am when I laid down and about 3 pm when I woke up. After that nap I was wondering if it was still a nap or that really sleep. What separates the two?
Anyway this past moth has gone by incredibly fast. I had my close of service conference (COS) and after that I went to Vienna and Budapest where I met my sister. The conference was probably the last time that I will see allot of the people I have come to know over the past two years. It was strange thinking about that. One of the things I have thought about recently is that when I go back to the states I will be with a bunch of people who won't have had similar experiences that I have had over the past two years. In some ways that will be a welcome change and in others it will be a loss of a unifying experience that I have really come to enjoy.
Vienna and Budapest were both beautiful cities. It was great to see my sister again. We had a great time, although I think I annoyed her with my lack of preparation and laid back attitude. Thankfully however she was a great sport about it and is used to putting up with me.

First of the Lasts

2007-03-11T18:31:00.000+02:00

Well I have entered an interesting time in my service. I only have a few months left and have started doing things for the last time. Last weekend I went to Blagovgrad with my friend Brian and went shopping for books in English. It was probably the last time that I will go to the city in my time here. It's weird thinking about this stuff because I can clearly remember when I went there for the first time. Hard to believe because the time has gone by so fast.

Meh...

2007-02-11T20:08:00.000+02:00

Don't really have much to say. I took these pictures this weekend.

Unexpected movies

2007-02-04T17:05:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went to Bansko and my favorite restaurant in Bulgaria, the English bar the Lion's pub. It was great to have a real hamburger, fries and onion rings; I always eat way to much when I go there. On the way back to Gotse Delchev the bus was showing a movie, always an unexpected treat. The movie: Weekend at Burnie's. I really hope the next time I ride in a bus Weekend at Burnie's 2 is showing.

Stupid hamster

2007-01-30T18:20:00.000+02:00

One of the things that happens when it rains for me is that the internet cuts out, it did this weekend. And when it does come back it is very slow, so slow it is maddening. I'm not sure why this happens but it might have something to do with the hamster that powers the internet drowning in its Cisco wheel or something. I can't believe that I'm in the Peace Corps and I have to put up with a slow internet connection. This is not what I signed up for! I mean do PCVs in Africa have to put up with this? I think not! Now if you'll excuse me I am going to go watch football on my cable tv, microwave some popcorn, and then get into my rocket car. ZOOM!!! (I might need to get out more I think)

Two rainy days

2007-01-28T18:17:00.000+02:00

Well last weekend the weather was very nice, this weekend it rained. I thought it was supposed to snow in January? Oh well.

Two beautiful days

2007-01-21T13:05:00.000+02:00

The past two days have been positively beautiful here. They have been more like two days in mid March then January. In order to take advantage of these days I went on two short hikes. It was very nice to spend so much time outside in the sun and get some exercise.

The Hoff

2007-01-16T19:35:00.000+02:00

My students are giving presentations on their favorite song/music. Today among their choices were Bon Jovi, Britney Spears, Right Said Fred, Ricky Martin, and David Hasselhoff. These weren't jokes they were playing, they really like these people. I couldn't laugh out loud at them obviously and now I think I have a hernia from keeping the laughing to myself.

New Years Day

2007-01-03T11:16:00.000+02:00

This New Years I was in the town of Razlog. On New years day they have a parade and celebration called Kookery. In this parade people dress up in hairy costumes with bells and dance around, I believe the origin of this is that the costumes and bells would scare away the evil and winter spirits and bring the arrival spring. In addition to the dancers, neighborhoods within the town create a float that they bring to the center of town. It was allot of fun to see all of the people dancing and also the interesting floats they made. All except for one.
One float contained the most disturbing thing I have seen since I have been here. The title of this float was something along the lines of "Killing pigs the EU way" (Bulgaria entered the EU on January 1st). On this float there were men in butchers aprons, several tables and a stove. As the float moved into the center of town I saw that there was also a live pig on the float. When the float arrived in the center of town the men placed the pig on the table and slit its throat. They did this in front of everyone. Many people crowded around the float to watch the pig thrash about as it died and take pictures. While the pig was moving some men on the float held it down while others waved their bloody knives in the air and danced around.
I have been living in this country for eighteen months now and I would have thought by this point that I would be more or less used to seeing just about everything that goes on in this country. Seeing something like this and being shocked by it makes me feel good however, because I know that this place hasn't changed me for the worse and turned me into someone I don't want to be.

Киното

2006-12-30T22:44:00.000+02:00

One of the cool things about my town is that there is a movie theater in the center. Not many towns have movie theaters in Bulgaria and certainly not many towns that only have twenty five thousand people.

Over the past nine months or so I met the owner of the theater and talked to him quite a bit. He remembers me because I am the American in town and also because many times I am the only person who shows up to watch the movies. The owner is a cool guy who also owns the cinema cafe right below the movie theater. He operates the theater at a loss because he loves movies, a very expensive hobby. Several weeks ago I was talking to him about movies which had come out recently and the new James Bond film Casino Royale came up. I told him that I was a huge Bond fan and he told me he was too and that he was going to get the movie about a month after it came out in Sofia.

Well last week I went to see V is for Ventetta (a very predictable and cliched film) and he told me that next week he would be getting Bond, I could barely contain my excitement. Well this Friday Bond came and I went to see it both Friday and Saturday (today). There are lots of other blogs and web sites which talk about movies and almost all of them have better writers then me so I won't go into an in depth review. I will say this however: Casino Royale is the best Bond film I have ever seen and Daniel Craig was perfect as Bond. Everyone should go see this film.

Pop goes the Bulgarian

2006-12-28T14:53:00.000+02:00

As in many countries people celebrate the new year here in Bulgaria with fireworks. For the past several weeks children have been setting off fireworks during the day all over town. Now what I mean by a firework is a small explosion. Well sometimes it's not that small. Children set these explosions off by cars, doors, plants, people, and animals. Most of the time the bang is far away and just startles you a bit, but sometimes they are quite close. One time I was using the atm when a firework went off very close, I didn't see exactly where, and but my ear was ringing for several minutes. It is a miracle that more children don't get their hands and fingers blown off by these things. These kids are managing to cheat Darwinism, for now at least.

The truly amazing thing is that there were lots of people around and no one did anything, they just kept wandering around doing whatever it was that they were doing. I couldn't help but think that if this happened back in the States people would have gotten pissed off and hunted down the children and called the police. But here people don't seem to care. I've often wondered what you would have to do to get people to react and do something.

Born in a barn

2006-12-17T17:07:00.000+02:00

Well I don't really have much to write about right now. This is the last week of school before our Christmas break and I can't wait for the time off. Everyone is really tired and needs a break. But one thing I think that is interesting about Bulgarians is how they absolutely hate drafts. Any type of air circulation actually. They believe that drafts cause you to become sick and that baba Marta will come and burn you (at least I think that's it, I have a hard time paying attention to stuff like that, no matter what the reason is Bulgarians hate fresh air, hence all of the smoking, pollution, etc.). The interesting think though is that many people leave doors open all the time when they come into and out of a building. It does not matter what temperature the weather is outside, they leave the door open. One thing I do when I am at a cafe or restaurant is try to get a seat facing the door. I do this for several reasons: 1) In case any assassins enter who want to kill me they won't have the element of surprise (laugh if you want but Wild Bill didn't do that once and look what happened to him), 2) I watch people come into and leave the place and leave the door open. Followed by someone getting up and closing the door. I know what you are thinking: wow your life is insanely boring. Well I'd love to argue with you but you are right and someone with shifty eyes just came into this cafe and I have to keep my eyes on him.

Turkey Day

2006-11-26T17:11:00.000+02:00

Well this weekend I celebrated my second Thanksgiving in Bulgaria, I had a great time. I spent it with both old and new friends at the same place I did last year, Maegen's. Once again the food was fantastic. At the end of the day my pants were to tight and I didn't want to move. Everyone had a great time eating, laughing, and talking.

One thing that I noticed, for me however, was a somewhat sad feeling. This was the last Thanksgiving that I will ever spend here in Bulgaria with these friends and it was a bit depressing. It made me realise how fast time has gone by and how little time is left.

More acting pics

2006-11-22T16:54:00.000+02:00

Just wanted to put up some pictures of my 11B class. They acted out the Friends episode, The one with all the rugby.

Winnie the Pooh

2006-11-20T15:07:00.000+02:00

The past two weeks in my 11 and 12th grade classes we have been reading and analyzing Shakespeare. As you can imagine this can be an incredibly boring subject for a bunch of high school kids, I can't even imagine how confusing Shakespeare is to a non native speaker of English, I can barely understand it and I know Emglish real goob.
Anyway we have been acting out Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet and one of my classes asked if the could act out something that they chose. I asked what they would act out and they said Winnie the Pooh. Great idea I thought. So today my 11а acted out part of a Winnie the Pooh show, Pooh's birthday. It was allot of fun for me and the students had a blast too. My 11в class chose to do a Friends episode (The one with all the rugby), fun was had by all.

Hmmm

2006-11-19T16:34:00.000+02:00

Ok well my blogging stinks. There's really not much going on right now so I don't have much to blog about. This isn't a bad thing though because time is going by pretty quick which is good, but it's also bad, so it's normal. For the past month my life has been, more or less, wake up, teach, work on the grant I am writing for my school, figure out what I am going to teach tomorrow, and go to bed. Then wake up and do it again.
The good news is that the grant is submitted so I don't have to think about it for a little while. The bad news is that I said I would start a course teaching the teachers at my school English on Monday. I have a sinking feeling allot of teachers are going to show up tomorrow. I am hoping for a small group that I can have informal relaxed lessons with, but if the group is large then the lessons will have to be more formal and therefore less fun and more of a pain in the ass. Of course as the course goes on fewer and fewer people will show up as the teachers loose interest so ultimately it will be ok I think.

Counting

2006-10-24T17:32:00.000+03:00

Well I haven't posted anything in a while. The main reason for this is that not much has really happened. I have settled into a bit of a routine with teaching, which is good because it makes the time go by faster. My projects are coming along slowly but they are going to pick up a bit. The SPA deadline looms, so my headaches stomach cramps will get much much more severe. I will start teaching English to the other teachers of my school soon which should be fun I think.
Other then that not much has happened. I have become hooked on the tv show Lost and read scripts and watched episodes to get caught up to the most recent episode. Really the only thing that I have been doing is counting. Counting the number of weeks left of teaching (30), counting the number of weeks left with my 12th graders (25), counting the number of weeks until I get to go home (35) yea!, counting the number of weeks until I am unemployed (35) eep!, counting the number of weeks until I get to eat a Kopps hamburger (35), counting the number of weeks until Christmas break (8), and counting the number of weeks until my Close of Service conference and say good bye to so many new friends I have made (23).

Nap Time

2006-09-26T18:41:00.000+03:00

Google blogger has been acting all funky lately so I'm not going to try to post any pictures.
I remember in high school going to school and sitting in my first class at 7:48 in the morning and listening to whatever teacher I had, the only one I remember specifically was Mr. Heis my senior year, drone on and on about whatever it was they were teaching. I stared up at him and try to keep my head from nodding too much or falling off my hands that I was using to prop it up. At some point a question entered my head, why don't we have a nap time in high school? At first I thought this was just me being my lazy self but now I realise it wasn't laziness, it was brilliance.
Now that the shoe is on the other foot and I am the teacher droning on about whatever it is I am suppose to be teaching I still wonder, why don't we have a nap time in high school. Every morning I wake up get ready for school and start teaching. The first hour I am usually more incoherent then normal, which is really saying something. Usually my thoughts are centered around not tripping over the bumps in the floor or the steps that are randomly dispersed around the room and making sure my fly is closed (I usually fail at at least one of these things a week). The students usually are half asleep and the ones that are awake aren't happy.
If sometime during the school day thirty minutes were set aside for everyone to take a nap I believe that everyone would be more productive and much more pleasant, well not everyone but enough people anyway to make a difference. Why don't we do this? I have no idea. Thankfully however I never have to teach beyond 2pm so if I ever need a nap I just tell myself to make it to then and then I go home and take a nap.

Just some pics

2006-09-20T16:55:00.000+03:00

Almost finished with my first week of classes and am pretty tired so no real comments. Only sleep...

Inside the storehouse

2006-09-17T14:21:00.000+03:00

These are just some more pictures from inside the Guiness storehouse.

First day

2006-09-16T22:05:00.000+03:00

Just a quick note that yesterday was the first day of school over here. I had a very quick discussion with a student about how depressed she was about school starting. I told her that I was also depressed, she didn't believe me. I don't understand why but for some reason students believe that teachers are happy to teach and work all the time. This is undoubtedly true in some teachers cases but I have yet to meet one. To me the beginning of school is the end of sleeping in, staying up late, being a lazy bum, and traveling. And while it will be nice to get back to doing what I came over here to do in the first place, I will still miss the laziness.

More Guiness Goodness

2006-09-15T20:12:00.000+03:00

One of the greatest things about Guiness is that it is very thick. When it comes out of the tap it is like a very runny syrup. I imagine that this is because it is so carbonated. Plus Guiness is full of calories, vitamins, and other goodies. My friend Todd said that when you drink a pint of Guiness it's like you are drinking a pork chop. And if that doesn't make you want a Guiness, I don't know what will.

Thank goodness it's Guiness

2006-09-13T19:34:00.000+03:00

One of the highlights of my trip to Ireland would have to be the tour of the Guiness storehouse. The Storhous is where they used to make Guiness until relatively recently. Now it isn't really a brewery at all but more of a museum and gift shop. It is really cool though to see all the different stages that the beer has to go through. Of course you also get a free pint of Guiness at the end of the tour which is cool, although to be fair since you have to pay to take the tour the pint technically isn't free.
Guiness in Ireland tastes very different from the stuff in the states. In Ireland Guiness is very smooth and not quite as bitter as in the states. I was told that this was because if the bar serving the beer does not clean out it's pipes enough the Guiness tastes different. So if you try a Guiness in the states and it tastes pretty bitter and not smooth, the bar needs to clean it's pipes. Incidentally the Guiness that comes in a can or bottle does not have this problem, so that is always a safe choice.

Random Dublin

2006-09-12T20:28:00.000+03:00

Just some more pictures around Trinity college and Dublin in general.

Pics pics pics

2006-09-11T01:21:00.000+03:00

Irish football

2006-09-10T10:49:00.000+03:00

One of the most interesting things I saw in Ireland was a sport called Irish football. Irish football is a combination of rugby and soccer. Two teams try to get a football like rugby. They then have to run, pass or kick the ball towards a goal on the end of the field. The player can then shoot the ball through the goal, for three points, or kick it through the goal posts for one point. It is a very rough sport where hard tackling is allowed as long as it is not malicious. My favorite part was when a player got leveled by another player. The re was no penalty however because the referee thought is was a good rough shoulder.

More of Dublin

2006-09-09T21:52:00.000+03:00

Just some more random pictures I took while walking around Dublin. One thing that struck me a bit was that there weren't allot of tall buildings in the city. I'm not sure if this was a style choice, regulations by someone, or maybe they just ran out of building materials.

Dublin pics

2006-09-08T14:06:00.000+03:00

Ireland pics

2006-09-03T19:09:00.000+03:00

These are just a few pics I took near Sutton, which is a part of Dublin.

Hey this finally worked

2006-09-03T15:12:00.000+03:00

Wow I can't believe that I am actually able to update my blog! For the past several days I haven't been able to up load pictures to the blog thingy, hence the lack of posting and pictures. Anyway I will start posting again once I think of some stuff to say, right now I am to shocked.

Temorary things

2006-08-29T17:00:00.000+03:00

I got back from my vacation yesterday from Dublin and London. I lack the verbal ability to say what a good time I had. Going to London has been a dream of mine for longer then I can remember and I did it with two friends that I have known for over ten years. On top of that I got to go to Dublin and see another one of my best friends that I only get to see every once in a while.
One thing that struck me during vacation was that I have had these friends for over ten years and we still are close and keep in touch. Very often it can be hard to realise permanent things here in Bulgaria. When I arrived I went to a temporary camp, then to a temporary family with a temporary language group, then I left to go to a temporary town to a temporary job, I live in a temporary apartment and I know temporary people. Leaving everything behind was one of the major benefits of joining the Peace Corps but it's nice to now that while I live these temporary two years of my life I will have friends to go back to that aren't temporary.

I'm off

2006-08-18T09:59:00.000+03:00

I'm leaving for Ireland tomorrow so no posts or pics for a while.

3 days until Ireland

2006-08-16T20:09:00.000+03:00

Pics

2006-08-12T19:16:00.000+03:00

To tired...

2006-08-11T22:51:00.000+03:00

Just pictures

2006-08-10T21:30:00.000+03:00

Spanish Steps

2006-08-09T13:24:00.000+03:00

The pictures the past couple days have been of the Spanish steps. The Spanish steps are basically these old, steep, steps. They are very beautiful and famous, although I'm not entirely sure why they are famous. As you can see from the pictures there were tons of tourists there, guess where most of them were from? Despite that fact it was very beautiful and even better looking at night.

More Pictures

2006-08-08T09:56:00.000+03:00

Just Pictures

2006-08-07T19:15:00.000+03:00

Parents in Bulgaria

2006-08-05T13:57:00.000+03:00

It would be remiss of me to talk about my trip to Rome without mentioning my parents, they did pay for the whole thing after all. My parents came all the way across the pond to spend a couple of days in Bulgaria with their favorite son. After that we hopped on a plane and headed to Rome. My sister (who visited me in April) and I had warned them about how different Bulgaria was from the States. I was particularly worried since this was their first trip to Europe in many years, they went skiing in Europe in college. I am pleased to say that they took mine and my sister's advice seriously for the most part and managed to get through Bulgaria unscathed, which is quite an accomplishment given that Turkish toilets were involved. I believe they had a good time and I know it was great to have them here. Although to be completely honest it was much better to go to Italy with them and see Rome.

Rome is full of Germans

2006-08-04T21:11:00.000+03:00

Well I just finished a vacation to Rome Italy with my parents, it was amazing! Rome is an incredibly beautiful city. There is history literally around every corner. People whip around scooters with no regard for their safety or others.
The most annoying thing about Rome however were the Germans. The Germans have started two wars trying to take over the world, but I think they have finally found a way to do it more effectively (and peacefully): tourism. German tourists are EVERYWHERE in Rome. They are like ants and cockroaches scurrying all over the place. I have always thought of Americans, such as myself, as the most annoying tourists. Americans don't speak any language but English, expect everyone to serve them, and are often just generally rude. Well I still believe all that but while Germans may be better at these things are infinately worse because of their numbers. Everywhere in Rome there were Germans wearing these stupid scarves identifying themselves, they moved around in packs following huge German flags, they yell at each other across the streets, and they leave litter behind them everywhere they go. Not all of the Germans were like this, but there were so many of them that even if only a small percentage of them are jerks it results in thousands of people.
Well there will be more stories and pictures to come. But I had to get that off of my chest first.

Still and Only

2006-07-09T15:53:00.000+03:00

Still have another year left, Only have another year left.
Still have a year of Bulgarian food, Only have a year of Bulgarian beer.
Still have a year of teaching, Only have a year to get better at it.
Still have a year without driving, Only have a year of riding buses.
Still have a year of not hearing English, Only have a year of speaking Bulgarian.

Still have a year of chalga, Only have a year of European Mtv.
Still have a year of liter everywhere, Only have a year of hiking in Mountains.
Still have a year of not watching movies, Only a year of watching football constantly.
Still have a year alone at my site, Only have a year of getting together with PCVs.
Still have so much work to do, Only have a year to do it.
Still have a year in the Peace Corps, Only have a year in the Peace Corps.

Spelling

2006-07-06T22:27:00.000+03:00

Well if you don't know it by now my spelling sucks. It is so bad that my Bulgarian students have asked me why my spelling is worse then theirs in class. I responded that it was because chalk doesn't have spell check. Spelling in English is very hard. Speaking it is actually pretty simple but the written language is very difficult. Here is an example: Quote:
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wh otuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

I know nothing

2006-07-02T08:46:00.000+03:00

_I know nothing about football. England lost and so did Brazil. The three teams I figured had the best chance of winning were Brazil, England, and Argentina (which was also eliminated the other day, sorry Carin). If I had to pick a team to win I would have to go with Germany because they have home field advantage and have played pretty well during the cup. Now that I have said that however I am sure they will loose in the next match.

Last Day

2006-06-29T16:39:00.000+03:00

Today was my last day teaching! One year down, one to go! Not allot of students showed up, as final grades have been calculated and everything is done. In my classes I decided to teach the students, who did show up, two dances that they don't have here in Bulgaria. The Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance. One of the above pictures is of the student doing the Hokey Pokey, I believe it was during put your head in and head out part. They absolutely loved the dances, especially since I did them with them. Some students laughed so hard at me dancing that they needed to be put in a straight jacket and institutionalised. I believe it is safe to say that any respect the students had for me has been lost.

Bend it like...

2006-06-26T16:44:00.000+03:00

Beckham scored quite possibly the greatest goal of this world cup yesterday, I may be overstating that a bit but not by much. It was a pretty boring game but that goal was worth sitting through it. Go England!
This is the final week of teaching for me, three days left. I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing, because the final grades are in and there is absolutely no incentive for the students to pay attention (although to be fair they never pay attention). The Bulgarian educational system is set up so that students must continue to go to classes after they have taken their final tests and their final grades have been determined. I would be amazed by the lack of logic in this but I have been here to long to even make a sarcastic comment.

Go England!

2006-06-23T17:13:00.000+03:00

Well the US was eliminated yesterday by a combination of crappy offense, defense, and a referee who had his head up his ass (and fixing the game in my opinion). The US didn't play very well I thought but they weren't embarrassed, which is something. Hopefully they will do better in four years with some more experienced players and some more talent.
Now I hope England wins the whole thing. Hopefully Beckham et al will bring the cup back to the country that invented the modern game.

Dear coach Arena

2006-06-13T20:56:00.000+03:00

I know that you have forgotten more about football then I will ever know but please listen to me. This is the world cup. The most important tournament in the world. Please play your best players. John O'Brien is one of your best players, PLAY HIM! The same can be said for Eddie Johnson, your best pure offensive player, PLAY HIM! You can be cute with your line up later. Now please pay attention because this is important. ALWAYS PLAY YOUR BEST PLAYERS!!!!! Thank you.

World Cup!!!!

2006-06-09T19:41:00.000+03:00

World Cup!!! The world cup has started and it is being played right now. Technically it's half time but by the time anyone sees this it will be over so who cares. As stupid as it sounds when I found out that I would be in Europe for the World Cup I got incredibly excited, even though I wouldn't be in Germany. It is great to be so close to the Cup and be able to watch all the games easily on TV. I can talk with just about everyone about it and I talk about it everywhere; in class, at the store, with neighbors and complete strangers. Football is great and the World Cup is my favorite sports tournament.

Trainees Vist

2006-06-04T21:19:00.000+03:00

This weekend I had three new trainees visit me. They came to see me as part of a program where they can ask questions to volunteers and see them in their communities. It gives them a little bit of an idea of what their life might be like in a couple of months. The three volunteers were named Jamie, Jim and Natalie. They were really cool and it was great to have them visit.
One thing that was a bit weird was seeing them and seeing myself in their shoes one year ago. The way they talked about their training groups, HUBs, PC staff, host families. It was kinda strange and made me realise what I, and the other volunteers, in my group must have sounded like to the more experienced volunteers. It's comforting to know that what we go through as volunteers here has already been experienced by other people, and that we are all part of something greater then ourselves.

Bulgarian Dentistry

2006-05-28T17:36:00.000+03:00

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.

Alphabet

2006-05-26T19:36:00.000+03:00

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.

Summer is coming

2006-05-24T15:25:00.000+03:00

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.

My first football fight

2006-05-06T20:19:00.000+03:00

__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.

Few degrees colder...

2006-04-28T20:13:00.000+03:00

Well I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't there, but today I managed to get everything I need for the initial submission of my SPA project. Today I got the budget and several figures which have taken weeks and months to figure out. So tomorrow I will complete the forms and send them off. I am sure there will be a ton of changes that need to be made but I'll worry about that later.
Allot of changes are happening here with PC policy. Especially regarding travel. I won't go into it to much because everyone who needs to know about them knows, and if I talk about them to much the Thought Police will come down on me. Thankfully however I don't think they will impact me much if they are implemented as planned. Some people however are a bit peeved. PC has there reasons for the changes, I can't honestly say that I believe them but I will respect them; despite the fact that I feel we are being punished for other peoples mistakes and stupidity.

Flight

2006-04-25T00:43:00.000+03:00

Ok this will be the last one year type of posts. My plane arrived in Bulgaria on the 25th of April one year ago. After that I went to the town of Strelcha for a week before meeting my host family.

One Year

2006-04-22T22:11:00.000+03:00

Well one year ago today my parents dropped me off at the Hampton Inn in Chicago. I said goodbye to them, gave them hugs and kisses and began my Peace Corps Journey. Hard to believe that an entire year has passed. This has easily been the fastest year of my life. So much has happened that it causes my head to spin sometimes when I think about it.
Just over a year ago I left my job at the Minneapolis airport and moved back with my parents for about two months before leaving to come to Bulgaria. During that two months I had three weekends of decadence with my friends Mike and Mike in Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee. I played golf with my father and his friends and ate out at allot of restaurants with my mother. I watched allot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD and enjoyed driving my car before I had to sell it. My family through me a surprise going away party, which I grudgingly admit was allot of fun and an excellent idea. I went to my cousin's wedding and visited the hollowed ground of Lambeau field.
Those two months were a great time to relax, enjoy my friends and family, and get ready for the next two years of my life. I wasn't sure what I was going to experience but I knew that it would be a challenge. Well I was definitely right, the past year has been a challenge, but in the most incredible and fantastic way possible.
One of the main reasons that I left my job, friends and family behind for two years was because I had become content with my life. I had a job which I was good at but also caused me stress and frustration. I was happy with my friends and family but also incredibly bored. I knew that if I didn't do something my life wouldn't change significantly for a long time, and I didn't want that to happen. The only choice I had was to give up everything and go in a completely different direction. It was a scary decision, but the prospect of not doing anything scared me even more. When my parents dropped me off at the hotel and left me there alone I knew that no matter what happened from that point, I was going to experience things that I never would have if I had stayed put in Minneapolis.
Looking back over this year I am amazed at how far away I am from Chicago, both in a physical and metaphorical sense. I have been accepted into a Bulgarian family, whom I love. I have met people that I never would have even known existed. And made friends with people who were not in my life a year ago, but whom now I can't imagine life without. I know allot of people think that you have to be crazy to join the Peace Corps, and indeed that definitely helps. But at the same time, I believe that you would be even more crazy to not want to try something like this.

Busy

2006-04-16T12:57:00.000+03:00

Sorry I haven't been posting much recently. The past few weeks have been very busy. During my spring break my sister came and we went around Bulgaria so I couldn't post then. And this past week I had training in Sofia. In addition to this my school wants to get a SPA grant done by a deadline in mid May, despite the fact that almost none of the paper work is done (the only paper that has been done is the stuff I am responsible for) and they do not know where they are going to get their share of the money for the project from. It's pretty interesting being this busy however after months and months of twiddling my thumbs. While part of me is screaming to relax it feels nice to be doing something somewhat productive again. I just hope that everything works out in regards to the SPA project. I'm not quite sure that the other members of the project team I am working with realise that time is running out for this quarter. I need everything to be more or less done, as far as planning goes, by the end of next week, so I can submit the proposal to a committee member before revising it and then submitting it to the committee for approval. We are having a meeting tomorrow to talk about the project and I will make sure to tell them that time is running out and that if the time line isn't met then the project will have to be delayed. Needless to say this will not go over well. But hey what can I do? I've done everything I can.

It's over

2006-04-10T15:25:00.000+03:00

Well vacation is over.... Ack... I taught for the first time in over a week today. Classes and students were pretty normal but I was just depressed. You know that feeling of impending doom you get towards the end of a vacation? Well It all hit me yesterday after I dropped my sister off at the airport. As I got into the cab I realised how great it was to see her and how much I was looking forward to her visit.
But hey life goes on. Soon summer will be here, my parents will come visit, we'll go to Rome, I'll travel all over Europe with friends, and a bunch of stuff will happen in between. Some stuff will be good, some will be bad. Thankfully I am sarcastic, bitter, and positive enough (yes you can be all those things at once) to handle it all and laugh along the way!

The Inspector cometh...

2006-03-29T21:20:00.000+03:00

One of the interesting things about teaching as a Volunteer is that you are and are not a member of the school staff. I am because I teach students, grade things, and have to follow curriculum rules. But I am not because I am not as accountable for teaching as other teachers, am only there for a certain amount of time, and am ultimately accountable to my country director in Sofia. This creates a myriad of advantages and disadvantages as you might imagine.
Well this week an inspector came to my school for a visit. Allot of the teachers were very nervous as she would be observing them teach their classes. Luckily for me she wouldn't observe my classes, so I remained happily indifferent towards her visit.
Today the inspector was observing a class in the room next to mine. When class started I went into my room and began taking attendance. The kids were running amok as usual and I was trying in vain to get them to sit down and be quiet. Well it turns out that the students were so loud they could be heard outside of the room. A janitor came into the classroom and told them to be quiet because of the inspector in the next room. The students quieted down for the briefest of seconds and then started making noise once again. I told the students to be quiet but they ignored me as they always do. A couple a minutes later the assistant director came in and told me about the inspector, I told her I knew and that the class knew. She then told the class to be quiet in Bulgarian and said a bunch of other stuff which I didn't understand. After the assistant director left the class was silent and I stood looking out at the students with a sly smile on my face, the only sound in the room a droll chuckle escaping from my lips.

Break is coming

2006-03-26T16:16:00.000+03:00

Well spring break is almost here and I know that students and teachers at my school are really looking forward to it. We have had about seven or eight weeks of straight classes without a break so as you can imagine the students are sick of the teachers (more so then normal) and the teachers are sick of the students. The good thing is that the rest of the school year has several holidays, so days off will not be so few and far between.
Another good thing is that the local football team, called Pirin, has started playing games again. They are not in the Bulgarian first division but rather the second or third I believe. But what matters to me is that it is live football in front of me and the tickets are cheap, only two lev.

I'm a Muppet

2006-03-21T20:40:00.000+02:00

There are a tonne of these types of things out there but this one I found amusing because it involves Muppets. And if I must say it did a pretty accurate job of summing me up, with a couple of mistakes of course.

You Are Scooter

Brainy and knowledgable, you are the perfect sidekick.
You're always willing to lend a helping hand.
In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going.
"15 seconds to showtime!"

The Muppet Personality Test

Chess

2006-03-19T22:02:00.000+02:00

I love chess but unfortunately it does not love me. Tonight I was beaten in eight moves by my friend Ethan. EIGHT! I have never played chess very often and I am sure Ethan is a great player, but come on! I know the rules and I have a IQ higher then a fungi so I should be able to last for, I don't know, twelve moves.

Sales Pitch

2006-03-15T17:59:00.000+02:00

Today I had to attend a meeting taking place after school. On Monday I signed something that said I would attend this meeting. I was told that this meeting was suppose to have some kind of English inspector attending from somewhere. I wasn't sure however because I really don't pay attention to things like that because they never affect me since I'm not a real teacher.
But as it turns out it wasn't an English inspector but a salesman. The meeting was not a meeting but rather a sales pitch for a new type of English textbook. Why I was required to attend this thing I have no idea. I was bored before the women started her routine and my boredom only increased with time. She presented a bunch of information which I already knew; about students not remembering almost all of what they are taught and how teachers need to have more interactive and interesting lessons (This is a new and foreign concept in Bulgaria by the way).
The only remotely interesting part was when she had everybody do a memory game in english. You had to try to remember numbers in sequence, historical dates, and important people. I must say that I completely kicked everyone's ass at that. The women eventually figured out that I wasn't from Bulgaria because of my accent and the fact that I spoke english very well so she stopped calling on me.
The presentation lasted an hour and a half and I want that part of my life back. I didn't learn anything and the only thing I got from it was a cheap pen and a granola bar.

Damn Dancing Bulgarians....

2006-03-06T15:08:00.000+02:00

Last night was another holiday here in Bulgaria, I have no idea what it is called. The main component of this holiday is gathering branches, maybe from pine trees I'm not sure, and placing them in an obscenely tall pile. At night the branches are lit aflame and people dance around them. I believe that this is to celebrate the beginning of spring.
Now the part where I come in is that I have been sick for over two months. Nothing serious but I have basically been coughing, wheezing, and generally crummy for a over two months. Yesterday I was feeling particularly wonky so I went to sleep at 9 pm to get some extra rest. I was sleeping like a rock until about 1030 when blaring music woke me up. I looked out my window to see the huge pile of wood aflame and glowing red hot embers flying everywhere. At first I thought my building my go up in flames but thanks to communist era efficiency it is built from cement so no fire danger exists.
The pile of wood was HUGE. I live in a block apartment building on the third floor and the top of the pile was even with me. After watching the heathens, I mean Bulgarians dance around the flames for a while I turned around and went to bed hoping that the music would stop soon. Three hours later it was still playing. People weren't dancing anymore, they were just sitting around a table getting drunk. At about 1 am I was passed the point of being angry and was busily plotting my revenge against these people. At one point I wondered "Don't these people have jobs to go to tomorrow?" I laughed at that thought and continued plotting. At 2 am the music stopped. I sighed, reveled in the quiet for a brief second, and promptly fell asleep... only to wake up 4 hours later to go to work.

Баба Марта

2006-03-03T09:40:00.000+02:00

March 1st was Baba Marta (Баба Марта) day here in Bulgaria. This holiday is celebrated people giving each other red and white bracelets, pins, and necklaces. People then wear them until they see either a flower bloom or a stork. When you see either of these things you are supposed to place the objects under a rock or on a fruit bearing tree. This is suppose to bring bring you health and safety (that's what the colors red and white stand for). Baba Marta means grandma March and it holiday is also the traditional welcoming of spring.
Баба Марта has definitely been one of my favorite Bulgarian holidays so far. People spent most of the day giving each other bracelets and wishing each other good health, a pretty nice way to go through the day if you ask me. I was lucky enough to have several students and colleagues give me bracelets and pins (which are called martinetsa, Мартъница). Bulgarians seem to have allot of holidays that deal with health and happiness. Maybe that is because for much of its history Bulgaria was being controlled by someone else so health and happiness were not something you could take for granted. Regardless of the reason that has become my favorite aspect of Bulgarian culture.

Gluttony

2006-02-28T16:06:00.000+02:00

Very often I am asked what I miss most about America. The obvious, and true, answer is my friends and family. But this is a somewhat deceptive response. While I do miss my friends and family they are not what I miss most often about America. For that the answer is food. This may sound like a horrible answer but that is not the case. When I lived in America I did not see my friends and family everyday. I could always call or email them whenever I wanted. Now it is more difficult to call and write my friends and family but it can still be done. Getting a proper burrito in Bulgaria however, is a physical impossibility. They simply do not exist in any way shape or form. Furthermore the components of a burrito do not exist, so if I wished to make one I cannot. I suppose that I could make everything from scratch but I am not a good enough cook to do that, I am also far too lazy. Plus I am a firm believer that food tastes better when someone else makes it.
It was with great joy then that me and my friend Brian went to a pub in the nearby town of Bansko this past Sunday. The pub is called the Lion's Pub and it is a British style pub. The pub has real American style cheeseburgers, spare ribs, bangers and mash, Guiness, and Strongbow beer. When Brian and I went there we ordered nachos and onion rings for an appetizer. The onion rings came with an onion sour cream dip and the nachos with guacamole. I do not posses the vocabulary to describe how good the food was so I shall make up a word: Superfantasmicfull. It was all that and infinitely more. Needless to say we will be going back again, and again, and again....

Arsenal

2006-02-22T13:36:00.000+02:00

As much as I would like to write something profound and insightful right now, I can't think of a single thing that would come close to qualifying (not that I ever write anything profound and insightful but you know what I mean). Ohh Arsenal beat Real Madrid last night in the Champions League YES!!!!

First Hike

2006-02-19T14:51:00.000+02:00

Well this weekend the weather was finally nice enough for me to go out and go for my first hikes of the year. It was great to be able to spend some time outside again, feel the warmth of the sun and breath some fresh air. I have had a bad cough for over six weeks now and going outside really helped.

Hearts and Needles

2006-02-15T13:12:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, as everyone is aware, was Valentine's day. Valentines day is one of the many holidays that Bulgaria has imported from the west. For the most part it is exactly the same here as it is in the States. Couples exchange gifts, red and pink candies abound, and single people are ostracized as freaks and lepers. There were some small things done at my school to celebrate the holiday, many posters with hearts that people would write messages on. Also when people entered the school they had a paper heart pinned on their chest, a girl from one of my eighth grade classes pinned one on me. It was interesting that not all of the teachers had hearts pinned on them, and neither did the director or assistant director. Anyway it was very nice and sweet way to celebrate the holiday I felt.
I did have a problem with one of my classes however. As I said the hearts were pinned onto the clothes... pinned. Anyone see a potential for a problem here? My second period class immediately saw this potential and began sticking each other the entire time I was trying to teach. If you have ever tried teaching English to a bunch of 14 year olds who are sticking each other with pins it is impossible. It is enough to make you want to stick them with pins... of course if I did that I would get in trouble. Damn civilization....

Open spaces...

2006-02-12T16:52:00.000+02:00

This past week I traveled to the town of Stara Zagora for a training session. The bus that I took from my town went through the Rhodope mountains to the city of Plovdiv. From there I took another bus to Stara Zagora. As I left Plovdiv on the bus I had a very strange feeling. The terrain from Plovdiv to Stara Zagora is for the most part pretty flat with gently rolling hills, very similar to Wisconsin and Minnesota. As I looked out at the flat hills I had this feeling in my head like the world was slowly pushing in on me. It was very subtle and didn't bother me but I could not figure out what was causing it. After a few minutes I realized it was because of the flatness of the land. For the past 9 months I have lived very near, or in, mountains. This was really the first time that I had been in an open plane for some time. It was very weird. The feeling disapeared when I was in Stara Zagora surrounded by buildings and didn't return until I left to go to Plovdiv. The area of Bulgaria that I live in is very beautiful and mountainous; I guess it is having a greater effect on me then I thought, although not necessarily for the better....

Dobrinishte

2006-02-06T12:39:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went skiing in the town of Dobrinishte with some friends. It was allot of fun and the skiing was pretty good, and much cheaper then skiing in Bansko.

The one bad thing was that it snowed quite a bit all day so it was often very difficult to see. On what turned out to be my last run for the day I came out of a narrow trail lined by trees (pictured) and picked up speed as I went down the mountain. Because of the snow I was having a difficult time seeing more then fifteen feet in front of me. As I was turning I hit a bump which I did not see and was not prepared for. I immediately fell and both of my skis went flying off my boots. Fortunately I was not hurt that much; I do think I banged up my thumb pretty good as it is very stiff and sore as I write this, but nothing serious.

This picture is of two friends that I went skiing with. The one falling down is Matt and the one behind him is Scott. The trail that we went down is not very steep but was very narrow. It was allot of fun going down the trail the second and third time when I knew what to expect and could go much faster.
The skiing was fairly difficult that day so Maegen and I decided to take a break in the chalet halfway up the mountain and have a cup of white hot chocolate. A perfect drink for a cold snowy ski day.

Yesterday was also the first time that my Friend Lucia went skiing. Lucia is not a big fan of the outdoors, and especially not a big fan of the outdoors when it is cold and snowy. Despite this however she managed to succumb to peer pressure, give skiing a try, and have a pretty good time doing it (at least I believe she did). She did a fantastic job for her first time, much better then I did my first time skiing in fact.

Who are these people?

2006-02-04T09:11:00.000+02:00

These are some pictures of friends that I went skiing with. The guy who isn't me is Andy, the girl is Maegen, and the other girl is Maegen's counterpart. It was Maegen's first time skiing and she did amazingly well, especially since she had to put up with me teaching her, never a good thing (just ask any of my English students). Andy is a very good snowboarder who was able to get down the mountain in about one tenth the time I did.

The Summit

2006-02-03T12:00:00.000+02:00

These are some pictures from the top of the ski mountain in Bansko. They do not do the view justice. The sky was crystal clear that day and you could see for many miles. The towns of Bansko and Razlog were both visible from the top of the mountain.

Just more skiing pics

2006-02-02T16:58:00.000+02:00

Sooo Sore

2006-01-31T14:15:00.000+02:00

This ski trip was my first in about two years. I love skiing but have been unable to ski the past two winters because of surgery and working. When I went skiing two weekends ago it was amazing, great, and incredibly painful. I was helping my friend Maegen ski when I showed her how to do a snowplow. When I demonstrated a snowplow my hips immediately cried out in pain, it felt like my hips were going to explode and my legs would fall off. A bit later my hips were fine as they got used to ski movements again.
Getting old has never bothered me, everyone and everything gets old so why worry about it... unless your dead but then you have a whole series of other more important problems. But what I hate is how my body is falling apart in front of my eyes. I really think that you should be able to stay as healthy as you are when you are say about 21 and then just die one day suddenly. That would be a much better system. I wonder who I can complain to about that?

Despair

2006-01-29T20:43:00.000+02:00

Here is a site that my Dad showed me. It is called despair.com It has de-motivation sayings and phrases to bring down your day. I think it's great. Here is a link to one of my favorite phrases (which is also bitingly true for many of us PCV's). Despair.com/ambition

Skiing

2006-01-29T11:49:00.000+02:00

Last weekend I went skiing for the first time in two years with some friends. We went to the town of Bansko which is about an hour north of my town. Bansko is one of the most popular tourist locations in Bulgaria, especially during the winter. It is located at the base of the Pirin mountains and is a very popular ski town. In order to get to the ski slope you have to take a gondola through the mountains for a bit to the base of a mountain. From there you take two chair lifts to the summit. The rides on both of the lifts was breath taking.

Clocks

2006-01-25T13:53:00.000+02:00

While in Prague we went to a museum called the Green Room (or something like that). It was a fascinating museum that had some incredibly beautiful pieces. Some of my favorites we ornate clocks that were hundreds of years old. Many of these clocks had animated figures in them and were bejewled with diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones. It was fascinating to look at a clock that was 300 years old but still in incredible condition.
I absolutely love museums and have since I was a child. One of my favorite things about museums is that I am able to see objects that are very old and in many cases one of a kind. I think about what an object has gone through and of the stories it could tell. But the biggest reason I love museums is because for the most part they never change. Sections may come and go, displays may change but for the most part they provide a static snapshot of time.
My favorite book is The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, he expresses what I feel far better then I ever could. "The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and the pretty skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be much older or anything. It wouldn't be that exactly. You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have on an overcoat this time. Or that kid that was your partner in line the last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new partner. Or you'd have a substitute taking the class, instead of Miss Aigletinger. Or you'd heard your mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd passed by one of those puddles in the street with those gasoline rainbows in them. I mean you'd be different in some way-I can't explain what I mean. And if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it."

Beer Hall?

2006-01-24T13:39:00.000+02:00

When I think of Germany the first thing I think of is... invading Poland. The second is beer halls. When I first found out that I would be going to Dresden Germany I immediately though that I would have a pint of lager in a century old smoky wooden beer hall. There would be a group of German's arguing over football or politics in the corner becoming ever more inebriated. I would be sitting at a table with a huge stein of beer eating authentic German sausage. Well the reality was a bit different.
Apparently Dresden doesn't have any beer halls, or at least doesn't have any near the train station and downtown area that we visited. As we walked around seeing the sites we couldn't find any beer halls whatsoever. The only thing we found was an Irish pub. After a day of site seeing we abandoned our search for a beer hall and went reluctantly to the Irish pub. I don't remember the pub's name but it wasn't anything special to tell you the truth, and not nearly as nice as Rocky O'Reilly's in Prague. I had a beer at this pub and fish and chips, the pub didn't have German food.
So I can now say that I have been to an Irish pub in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Germany. I am hoping to go to Ireland this summer, I wonder if I will be able to find an Irish pub there? Although I imagine it would just be called a pub. One final note I did manage to have a German sausage at the train station in Dresden. It was ok but not nearly as good as the ones I have had at home in Milwaukee.

Dresden

2006-01-22T08:36:00.000+02:00

During one day of my week long stay in Prague me and my fellow travelers took a day trip to Dresden. Dresden and Prague are very close, only about a two and a half hour long train ride, to one another. The train ride was very beautiful. We traveled through villages in Germany and the Czech Republic that were literally cut out of the mountains and rocks. A hill would have a section of it cut out like a birthday or wedding cake might, and in its place there would be a house. In many cases this would occur running along the hill horizontally as well as up the hill vertically, creating a layered effect. I had never seen anything like it before; it was amazing to see how people could change their surroundings to suit their needs.
Another interesting thing that occurred on the train involved a man from the Czech Republic and a German Boarder guard. The German Boarder guard was going through the train checking peoples passports and stamping them. The Czech man had gotten up just before the checks started and was moving around. When he encountered the German boarder guard he did not have his passport with him, needless to say this was not a good thing as far as the German was concerned. The Czech man started talking to the German guard in German but the guard was speaking English. After a few seconds of this the Guard yelled at the man "Only English!" The man then spoke perfect English somewhat dejectedly and I chuckled to myself.
Occasionally teaching English I am frustrated by my students lack of understanding about how important it is to learn English. If the students learn English they will be able to get a much better and higher paying job then they would otherwise. They will also be able to communicate with people from the rest of the world. But I can't get too upset, they are only kids after all, most around 15 or 16 years old. And when I was there age I didn't care about what was going to happen three or four years in the future, an eternity it seemed then.

Once more into...

2006-01-19T14:07:00.000+02:00

The most two famous land marks in Prague are the Celestial clock and the St. Charles Bridge, my pictures of both have been previously posted. The St. Charles bridge was built in 1342 across the Vltava river. Later about 30 statues were added to the bridge, which you can see in some of my pictures. Most of the statues portray scenes from the bible. One of the statues however has a tradition of granting wishes to those who wish on it. I of course am always on the look out for easy wish fulfillment and got in line with the rest of the tourists. The way the statue works is you touch one part of the metal statue with your right hand and put your thumb on a small post at the base of the statue. You then make your wish. After that you put your left hand on another part of the statue and your right thumb on the small post, wish again for the same thing. The metal glimmered and shown from the many people placing their hands on it. It was very interesting and fun to do something that thousands, if not millions, of people have done before. Finally don't bother asking me what I wished for, it hasn't come true yet so I can't tell anyone.

Prague Castle

2006-01-17T17:06:00.000+02:00

In several of the pictures that I have posted so far you can see a rather large cathedral in the background. That cathedral is part of Prague Castle. The castle is one of the most singularly beautiful buildings I have ever seen in my life. It is huge and very old. I went there twice, once during the night and again during the day. At night the castle is light up with many lights that make it look both spooky and elegant. When I returned to the castle is was on a Sunday and there was a mass in service. As I walked around the Cathedral I could here the organ playing music and people singing hymns. The scene was very moving. I can only imagine how a larger cathedral like Notre Dame in Paris must be like... until I go there.

Just pics

2006-01-15T17:14:00.000+02:00

Manamana....

2006-01-13T15:08:00.000+02:00

Only pictures today. Although if you know where the title of this post is from I will be very impressed.

Architecture

2006-01-12T17:13:00.000+02:00

Well as you might have guessed one of my favorite things, probably my favorite thing, about Prague was its architecture. Many of the buildings are very old, including churches and cathedrals that have existed for centuries. One aspect of the buildings in Prague that impressed me was how well maintained they were. This is in complete contrast to Bulgaria where there are also many old buildings, but they are not well maintained. The main reason for this is not money, which is the reason most Bulgarians would give, but rather will. The Czech people believe that it is important to maintain their buildings. They see the value of having a beautiful city for economic reasons, such as tourism, and national pride. This is a viewpoint that very few Bulgarians have. Bulgarians may be proud of what they have and where they have come from (as they should be), but they do not seem to see the value in improving it.
I recently taught a lesson that concerned architecture being the mother of all art forms. Through architecture it is possible to read a culture and its achievements like a book. When you look at the great pyramids of Egypt you are able to understand ancient Egypt's culture and scientific knowledge. This principle definitely applies to Bulgaria. If you want to understand Bulgarian people and their culture look at the buildings in the cities and villages.

Clock

2006-01-11T16:48:00.000+02:00

One of the most popular sites in Prague is an astronomical clock. The clock is on the side of a church and is very old. It has two main dials, one of which shows the time, the other shows the month. Every hour there are animated apostles that go past windows on the clock along with other animated figures. The whole thing is very beautiful and impressive, especially considering how old the clock is.

Quiz

2006-01-09T20:19:00.000+02:00

Your Social Dysfunction:
Happy

You're a happy person - you have a good amount of self-esteem, and are socially healthy. While this isn't a social dysfunction per se, you're definitely not normal. Consider yourself lucky: you walk that fine line between 'normal' and being outright narcissistic. You're rare - which is something else to be happy about.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

My friend Maegen posted this quiz on her blog and I thought it was interesting. Kinda disappointing result. I thought I was much more abnormal and unhappy then that.

Even more...

2006-01-09T13:29:00.000+02:00

Just some more pics.

More Prague Pics

2006-01-07T12:40:00.000+02:00

Damn Chelsea....

2006-01-06T12:57:00.000+02:00

After the Mozart concert I went to an Irish Pub called Rocky O'Reilly's, the biggest and best Irish pub in Prague. That evening the pub was showing two games from the English Premier League. One game involved involved Liverpool and the other Chelsea. I am an Arsenal supporter and as a result hate Chelsea. This season the Premiership has been dominated by Chelsea however, Aresenal pretended to play well early in the season and then dutifully started circling the drain. But regardless of all this I was looking forward to watching real football in an Irish bar. I sat down at the bar, ordered a steak sandwich and a Guinness, and proceeded to watch the games. Unfortunately for me there were allot of Chelsea fans in this particular pub. I started conversations with many of them, actually conversations is probably a stretch. Many of the dialogues involved yelling ARSENAL SUCKS!, CHELSEA SUCKS!, and LIVERPOOL SUCKS! over and over again (often with bad words thrown in for variety). Chelsea won their game 1-0 and further secured their lead for the FA cup. I was subjected to endless taunts, singing, and yelling by Chelsea fans (one of whom was the owner of the bar). The great thing was that everyone was having a great time yelling at each other. I joined in the singing after some people explained the words to me and began chanting along with everyone else. Plus the owner of the pub, and many other people, were so impressed that a Yank like me actually knew something about football that they bought me several pints of Guinness and Strongbow.

Luckily for me I truly enjoy watching football. There is almost always a game on every night in Bulgaria so I am rarely bored. I have probably had more conversations about football in bulgarian then I have any other subject. It gives me a subject to talk to just about everyone with and life would be much more boring without it. Football truly is the global game and it is a shame it isn't more popular in the States.

More theater pictures

2006-01-05T23:10:00.000+02:00

Here are some more pictures from the theater. Unfortunately my camera does not do very well in low light conditions, but hopefully you get an idea for what the theater looked like.

Concert

2006-01-05T15:05:00.000+02:00

One of my favorite parts of my Prague trip was the chance I had to attend a concert in a national theater there. The concert was of Mozart's Requiem, my favorite piece of classical music, by my favorite composer. It was the first time I had attended a classical music concert and I could not have asked for a more beautiful and moving experience. The orchestra was superb, the singers wonderful, and the choir amazing. It was probably the highlight of a fantastic trip.

Prague

2006-01-04T17:15:00.000+02:00

Well Prague was an absolute blast! I had a great time seeing the city, museums, going out at night, and I even went to a concert. Here are several pictures that I took. There are quite a few so I will be putting them up over the next couple of days ( I took close to 80 pictures in all). These pics show the apartment we stayed in and acouple of street pictures. Prague is easily the most beutiful city I have ever been in. The buildings look incredible. It has lots of churches that are hundreds of years old. For almost the entire trip I walked around looking at buildings, with my mouth gapping open I am sure.

Host Family Christmas

2006-01-04T17:05:00.000+02:00

These are some pictures of me with my Bulgarian host family during Christmas. I spent Christmas eve and part of Christmas day with them and it was wonderful to see them again. I didn't quite realize how much I missed them until I had arrived. They are some of the best people you could ever hope to meet. (Krassi, Temelko, and Mirka)

Merry Christmas

2005-12-22T16:54:00.000+02:00

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! I will be celebrating the holidays in the city of Prague in the Czech Republic. I won't return until January 3rd.