Merry Christmas!

So, tomorrow morning I am leaving to meet up with my family in Salzburg, Austria.  I am so excited to see them and to celebrate Christmas with them in Austria.  I think it will be absolutely beautiful and quintessential Christmas! :-)

Just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Safe travels for all of you who are visiting family and exploring new places!! 

Love you! Happy Holidays!

Christmas Break is finally here!

Oh what a week.  Serendipitously (and lucky for me) my students were doing group work, so the work load this week was not too heavy.  I would have thought that Thanksgiving vacation would have offered some respite, but it only made me more anxious for Christmas to come.  Ahhhh... the feeling of knowing you are on vacation.  It is so wonderful :-)

This past weekend was filled of Christmas engagements, a few basketball games, and lots of work as well as play.  Friday night was the faculty Christmas party at the "Floyd Black House".  Floyd Black was the founder of the school, and so the Presidents' house is named in his honor.  The Cangiano's hosted a wonderful party, complete with the passing of our final Secret Santa gifts, a little bit of appetizers, and well stocked bar (as the Bulgarians do a party well).  I was certainly surprised by who my S.S. was, and received this adorable single serve tea pot with cup.  It was a very cute gift.  Saturday night, our friends hosted a small gathering at their house for some more Christmas cheer, good company, good stories, food and drinks.  I made some mulled wine (yummmm!) and it seemed that most people enjoyed it!  (at least I hope they did.  I thought it was pretty good)

During the afternoon on Saturday (between the two evenings of Christmas parties) we had a 3 v 3 basketball tournament

 where Erin and myself played as the "exhibition game" against the winning female group.  Needless to say

 that NEITHER of us have EVER played on an organized bball team, and have very limited experience on the court.   Maybe except for the occasional game of H-O-R-S-E with a sibling or in

 gym class.... So, I thought we played really well.  Only lost 10-0 but we played very hard- great defense, just no offense.  It is kind of a necessary skill.  Oh well. It was a wonderful and fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  The men's exhibition team, however had more skill and definitely more talent, and more players than the team Erin and I made up.  I think that the men's team was definitively winning up until the last 5 minutes, where one of the students scored 3 3-pointers.  It was certainly a close finish, and definitely a good fight. 

The busy nature of the weekend just continued right into the week, which was a whirlwind of classes, last minute errands, making sure things are all set for when I come back from break, and just the act of teaching.  I also had m

y fill of the teenage drama--I really had not had the privilege yet of dealing with any overly emotional and/or anxiety-filled/stress-filled

students about the week before vacation.  This week I think 

I had my fill of the drama for the entire year.  I am sure that everything was just compounded with the fact that it is the week before Christmas break and so everyone is just ready to be gone.  It was interesting trying to get my students to do the things that I wanted them to in a timely manner, and everything seemed to work out.  I think we all will benefit from some time off. 

 I certainly am looking forward to it! 

Yesterday evening and this afternoon were the performances of the ACS Winter Concert.  There were several different acts:a few school bands, a rap, the debut of a couple songs from the spring musical (the school is doing a production of Hair), as well as a few songs and solos from the ACS Choir.  I thought all the students did  a really great job with each of the performances.  The last part of the concert was the balkan dances.  Erin, Jess, Andy and I were a few of the international teachers who took part in the winter celebrations.  We performed in the Balkan 

dance with about 40 other teachers, students and even a few parents.  The beautiful, colorful costumes, were made of this heavy wool material, and of course were multi-layered.  It was hot up on stage, but was so much fun, learning the steps to the dances, and being with other teachers, adults and of course students.  Some of my students were also dancing, and they said we were good.  I messed up a few of the steps, but not anything major.  

Apparently they have a show in the spring too, which I would like to do. 

Here are a couple video clips of the dances.  One if of us at practice, and the other is of the students on stage right before the dances I was in.  Enjoy!

Video of the students in full costume on stage:

After the performances were over, everyone was invited outside in a whole group dance.  

It was pretty neat see almost 100 people all doing the same steps in time with one another, as well as some people trying to just in to learn them (like me).  It was a pretty nice day; the rain was attempting to hold off from falling.  I have another short video of the group dancing outside too.  (Hopefully you are able to see all of these)

That wraps up, in a nutshell, the whirlwind of a week that I have had.  I cannot wait to leave on Monday to go meet up with my parents in Austria.  It is going to be a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas, and I cannot wait to see them and my sister.  After Christmas, we will come back here to Sofia and explore the city and hopefully some places outside the city.  :) 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!  and for some translation into Bulgarian:

Весела Коледа и Честита Нова Година

Koprivshtitsa... An overdue entry

The weekend of Halloween (yes I realize that this is over a month ago), we went on a trip outside of Sofia, a few hours to a mountain town of Koprivshtitsa.  It is a beautiful heritage village, with museum houses and good traditional Bulgarian restaurants.  I had the best "doughnuts" of my life there before we headed back onto the bus to return to the big city.  They are a little less like doughnuts and more like small rounds of fried dough (which I guess is what a doughnuts is but these have more of the "fried dough/funnel cake" consistency). They are served hot, with powdered sugar, and I am sure are terribly bad for you, but taste oh so yummy... 

We took a bus the morning after Halloween from Sofia, and arrived mid afternoon in this lovely town.  We- my roommates (Meg and Erin), their boyfriends (Cooper and Andy) as well as Meg's friends from England went; two other Mike and Kate also went as well.  We all perused the shops, antiques, Bulgarian crafts, touristy shops too, as well as a little "open market" in the main square, where some baba's were selling homemade jams, bottled honey, woodcrafts, etc.  It was a great afternoon to wander around and enjoy some of the slower pace of the small town.  

Our "hotel" was an adorable inn/house.  We had rented out a couple of apartments in this building which had been refurbished from an old house into a rentable residence.  It was absolutely precious.  The inside of the apartments were painted and furnished with Bulgarian furniture, tapestries, and decor.  The ceilings were also extremely low!  I felt almost like Alice in Wonderland, when she is in that little house and eats the different pieces of mushroom to grow or get smaller...

It was just such a neat place to stay for this weekend trip.  The house itself was adorable and had a wonderful view of the village below and the mountains across the way...

The night we arrived, after sitting down to a large dinner/late lunch Andy convinced everyone 

to hike up this hill to this horse statue that is supposed to symbolize the man who fired the first shot in an uprising that happened in or around Koprivshtitsa.  By the time we reached the top of the flight of large granite steps, the sun had set behind the mountain on the other side of the town.  From our perch, under the orange and lavender sunset, we had a wonderful view of all the chimneys pumping out smoke from the houses, up into the darkening sky.  Such a neat sight- hundreds of rooftops, chugging smoke out the top...

Erin, Andy and I woke up early on Sunday to go for a walk around the still sleepy town.

  Gorgeous pictures were taken, mostly of the sun rising over the beautifully painted buildings.  There were bright greens, blues, a purple church, all with the low hanging, brown shackled roof.  Such a trip back in time...  

Bulgarian TV

So, a week or so ago, my two roommates, their significant others and a couple other ACS teachers were on a Bulgarian television game show.  Since I was the only one at home at the time to watch it, because my two roommates were at the studio on the show, I had to resort to laughing and giggling to myself as I watched them as the objects of this game... the contestants, two Bulgarians, had to match these people from ACS to the photos of a family member of theirs.  A fairly simple game but fairly amusing. :-)

Mark, the first guy you see on the episode, posted a copy of the game show.  I hope you enjoy and find a little bit of amusement in the fact that these people I work with and are my friends... :)

I think they did a great job, despite the ridiculous amounts of face make up on the women, as applied by the studio makeup artists.  Enjoy!! 

Bulgarian Game Show, 7 Sense

End of My First Quarter

I just realized that it has been almost a MONTH since I have last posted to my blog... I guess it is about time. Well, to get a picture about what has been happening, grades for the first quarter closed on Friday and I stupidly gave my classes a test last week.  This past weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon and Tues) were spent grading all 145 of these exams and then entering the grades into my computer. 

The fun did not stop there, because we then have to enter the grades into the report card system along with our comments for each student. Now, under normal circumstances this would not be that big of a deal since I already have grades on my computer. However, this grading program/system I speak of is a collection of binders, one for each section of students for each grade in the conference room. 

I have to hand write the student's grade into their report card, then I put a comment in the designated spot. I did, thank goodness, have the warning from fellow teachers and thus the foresight to make up labels with all my comments, so I was not hand writing all 145... This technology, the "Ticonderoga 2" as my Dad so accurately put it, is a completely inefficient use of all of our time, and I was SO happy yesterday when I finally stuck my last sticker comment into the comment spot on the last student's report card.  Supposedly, we are supposed to get a new system up and running this 2nd quarter, which will allow us to enter grades and grade reports, which I think will be the first time it will ever be digital for them... The program was supposed to be functional at the beginning of first quarter, so I will be happy to see if it actually works this time around. 

Anyways, that is a brief update of the past weekend. 

Up until that point, we took a weekend trip to a heritage village called Kaprivstitsa the weekend after Halloween.  I had started a blog entry about that weekend, but then got caught up in school work, so my apologies for my negligence!  I will post some photos of the trip soon, so you can see some of the town, and the beautiful traditional architecture.  It was a great trip, with good company :)

Well, I am off to continue working on my planning for today! Happy Wednesday, and happy end to the first grading period, for all you teachers out there. I now understand the meaning of the word stressed... hahaha. Ciao!

Gunshots?

So, I may not have mentioned before now how the school shares the entrance and is essentially surrounded on all sides of our campus by the Bulgarian Police Academy.  This means that at any time of the day there may or may not be gun shots, artillery and other such exploding loud noises going off.  It is kind of distracting.  And loud... well, what can we do.  I am pretty sure the explosions are all blanks, so no one is in any danger of being injured (which is good)...but still... loud explosions during the day, afternoons, and early evenings... 

Telecommunication

So, tonight, we went to the mall for a girls' evening of shopping/perusing the stores and a movie.  I brought my phone in hopes that I could purchase some minutes on a SIM card, with a new Bulgarian phone number, so I could get in touch with/be contacted more easily here...  A friend of mine had brought her old phone in and said that she bought an 8 leva SIM card, with 200 minutes... which is a great deal (8 leva = about $6).  So, I went to the M-tel store, talked with the woman who was very friendly and helpful, which was pleasant.  I bought the SIM card for 7 leva and 98 stotinki, put the new SIM card in my phone, turned it on, punched in the pin number for the new card, and then my phone asked me for the service password?!  Apparently Cingular has some sort of hold on my phone, which refuses that it is used outside with a new service provider?  Which, makes sense I guess... but is annoying to me because I am still without means of communicating, except through smoke signals, emails, and personal contact... My next course of action, would be to call Cingular, via Skype to talk to them to see what is going on, however I need to purchase a monthly calling plan with Skype.  I tried to do that the other day, but in order to pay with a credit card online, Skype sends a confirmation number to your cell phone, so you can then put the confirmation code into the website.  (do you see where I am going with this?...)  Without a cell phone that can receive messages, the process of using Skype as a means of communicating is difficult too.  Moral/message of the story = I need a cell phone.  

Good Morning ACS :)

The past few days on my way to school, we have had gorgeous sunrises.  :)  These are a few of the views from my classroom, and the pictures of the mountain are from my office windows... very nice way to start my mornings :)

Communism and Democracy

So, the other week I had two things happen to me, at separate times, which I thought together made a very amusing contrast and juxtaposition.  First, a few weeks ago, I went bowling at the alley down the street: the Science Department challenged the English Dept to bowl against us.  It was not the bowling with was the funny thing (although I REALLY have to work on my game...), but when I was walking into the building, this is what I found in the parking lot.  It is AWESOME! haha

Yes, Communist tendencies still roll strong and deep here.  I only shot a picture from the front, because I was already carrying my lacrosse stick (which gets odd looks from EVERYONE)  and I didn't want to draw more attention to myself taking a bunch of pictures of this amazing car.  However, I must add that on the trunk of the car, also painted in Communist Red, was "CCCP" which is the Cyrillic abbreviation for the USSR.  Like I said, amazing!  I love Communist Russia.

So, the juxtaposition to this encounter with the car in the parking lot, is that the following week, I received my absentee ballot for the Presidential Elections.  I  quickly filled out the ballot (well, after looking up the local Maine politicians) and it has been returned via FedEx.  I got confirmation that my ballot was received on Friday!  Yay Democracy!! :)

So, hooray for Democratic process enabling me to cast a vote from 5000 miles away.  But I have got to praise the Communist following here too.  Hammer and Sickle for life!

Success!

Ahhh, a successful weekend indeed!  

Thursday/Friday: To Greece and back, in 28 hours, 11 of which were spent in a van, which careened to and from Thessaloniki for the trip to get our Bulgarian visas.  There was no problem with this procedure, as it consisted of our stack of passports being passed through the gate, where they were to be held for about a half hour.  We went down the street in Thessaloniki to an adorable French coffee shop for some morning beverages, waiting for our passport visas to be stamped, processed, and officialized.  We returned to the consulate, where our passports were slipped through the gates once again, into our eager hands.  I was excited to see the large sticker of my visa which covered an entire page of the passport!  I am officially able to reside in Bulgaria without tourist status!  Woohoo!  

The trip certainly was short.  We did however, stop in a Bulgarian town, Melnik, which is fairly well know for their wine and traditional Bulgarian village architecture.  It was a beautiful place, and we had the perfect weather to wander around and poke in the gift shops, browsing the traditional crafts.  I purchased a set of nesting dolls/matryoshka (матрошка ...I think is the Bulgarian spelling)--they are so cute, blue and white with a small ladybug on the outer doll. :) I also bought a small piece of pottery, that is used to hold table spices for dipping bread or spicing a meal, however, I am using it to hold my rings and some jewelry...

Saturday, I went down to the park in town to practice lacrosse with some people.  I am the women's coach for the lacrosse federation (which is very small) and we have been doing some recruiting in the park, trying to generate some interest among the bystanders.  It is really funny, the looks that I get while riding the bus downtown from the school, toting this foreign metal and plastic stick contraption.  People just don't know what the game of lacrosse is, let alone how to play, or what equipment is needed.  Hopefully we can change this though :)

Saturday afternoon, I spent correcting and grading papers (woohoo...) and then got ready for the Bulgaria vs. Italy football game!  It was awesome!  I went to the game with my roommate and a few of the other avid football fans in the international teachers ring.  We had a great time!  Went to a Bulgarian pub right before the game for some snacks and a beer, and then made our way over, through the crowds, for the 9 pm kickoff.  There was quite the commotion when we got to our seats, though, because there were people sitting in some of them.  We (well, Derek) worked to get them to leave for a good 5 minutes, and when the imposers finally stood up to move, we could hear this resounding cheer from across the aisle..... there were about 10-15 of our students cheering Derek on for his persuasive talents.  haha.  After this, the national anthems were played, and right after the Italian anthem was played, some of the Italy fans began burning a Bulgarian flag in their section of seats.  Almost immediately, 50+ mob police rushed into the crowd.  I don't think I have seen so many people scatter so quickly!  Once the unruly fans were dispersed, some of the Bulgarians began throwing things, and getting a little excited.  The police also went into the crowd to settle them down, which was a fiasco complete with bully clubs... This certainly was the most exciting football (soccer) game I have ever been to!  

The game itself was pretty tame.  There were barely any shots on the goals, and we finished with a tie, 0-0.  After a post gaming event at a pizza place downtown, I made my way home, sharing a cab with friends, rolling into bed, ready to sleep after the craziest week I have had so far this semester.  

Sunday was lovely.  Woke up without an alarm later in the morning.  I made my way to the grocery store to buy some ingredients to make zucchini bread for the Canadian Thanksgiving celebration we had last night.  It was wonderful!  The bread came out pretty decently well (tasted great, although a little subpar on appearance).  Our oven burns everything on the top, so I just had to scrape the burnt parts off before serving... The dinner was awesome!  So much food!  Everyone seemed to have a great time, sharing food and company.  The night rounded out with a few hours of grading and planning for this week, as I am currently procrastinating the grading I have left for tonight!  haha oh well.  Pictures from Greece, et al., will have to come later, as I do not have the connector for my camera right now.  But they will come!  Promise!  I know the pictures are the fun part.  

Hope all is well with everyone!  Love and miss you all.

Ciao. 

Off to Greece, Part Dve!

Tomorrow after school, we are headed to Thessaloniki for the second time to pick up our visas and work permits, etc., which will thus make us official residents in the wonderful Balkan country of Bulgaria.  We should be back Friday night, so it is a really quick turnaround for the trip.  Anyways, another border crossing for me!

Midnight Passport checks at the Serbia-Bulgarian Border

Woah, where have the weeks gone??!!  I had meant to post an entry after our trip over the long weekend to Serbia, but simply ran out of time, and now here it is,

 another week! 

A few of us international teachers went to Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, for a long weekend excursion.  Belgrade was awesome.  I thought that it was going to be the younger/punk/rougher kid brother version of Sofia, but I was actually wrong!  The city was clean, and very well kept, and the people were extremely friendly!  Not that you can't find these qualities here, in Sofia, but there are moments...  Anyways, we took an overnight train which got us into Belgrade around 6/6:30 ish in the morning.  After we procured our reservations for the way back, we headed out from the train station towards the direction of our hotel.  We got there and they amazingly let us check into our room.  

We rested there for a bit and then went out exploring the city.  

Belgrade was beautiful despite the overcast and rainy forecast we experienced... 

Here are a few of the pictures I took.  PS, I cannot believe that I started this post like 2 weeks ago, and just now am posting it.  Sorry for my delinquency!!  I started out so diligent... 

The Sofia train station is quite the interesting place.... hooray for lots of Communist style art and architecture... woots! 

Erin and Andy excited for our trip :)

And we are excited to be in our sleeper car!! hahaha.

Welcome to Beograd!!!   (also known as Belgrade, to all of us westerners.)

Woohoo first self portrait of the weekend!  haha.

Once we got there, we walked to our hotel, the shining Hotel Moskva, in all of its shining Communist glory (can you sense the trend of Eastern Europe?)  I love this place! 

Quite the stately place...

   

On our way for a walk around the citay... We headed past the parliament building of Serbia/Yugoslavia (even though it is no longer a country...we sometimes still saw stuff for it.)  Past the parliament, we headed to the Nikolas Tessla museum.  It was pretty awesome considering that this little modest museum was home to the tribute to the man who invented the alternating current and some other major mechanical engineering contributions...

Derek poses with the Nicolas Tessla statue in the museum.  I swear he did not pose for this... but hysterically there is resemblance... lol.

This is the famous alternating current machine thingy.  It was pretty cool when the Serbian tour guide was talking to us.  Basically it is magnets with a copper wire coil on the outside, and the alternating magnets can essentially keep the motor running for an indefinite amount of time.  Hooray for science teachers in a science museum!! 

Inside and outside the rakia bar that we stopped at to warm up a bit from the chilly walk from the museum.  Rakia is the national drink in this area.  It is similar to grappa (the Italian liquor) except that it does not taste nor smell like rubbing alcohol and or gasoline (as grappa can sometimes do).  I have yet to try rakia, but it basically is like some sort of clear plum/fruit moonshine.  I will let you know how it is when I do try it.  The boys said the rakia was good at this bar.  The cappuccino was delicious!

There was this amazingly large pedestrian area in the old town (Stari Grad) with tons of shops, restaurants, cafes, and a few art museums/exhibits!  (which made me happy) :) 

We spent most of Saturday walking around this area, which leads to the citadel near the river.  I took a nice photo montage of self portraits near the fortress.  I found them to be semi amusing. 

My self portrait montage at the entrance of the Kalamegdan Fortress

Crazy Serbian armory outside the citadel... large guns pointed everywhere!  

A little mini Kalamegdan Fortress model! 

Me in a turret!

A view of one of the rivers, the Sava or the Danube, from the top.

Welcome to Beograd.  We have large fruit and watermelon shaped benches in our parks! 

This is all for now.  I have several more pictures I would like to post, so I will add to this later.  (Or make a new post)  either way more pictures will come!!  Ciao ciao! 

Sarah. 

Ain't no party like a Snoop Dogg party, 'cause a Snoop Dogg partay don't quit!

So, yes. It is true.  I went to see Snoop Dogg play in Sofia, Bulgaria.  I think it may have been the most bizarre event I have ever been to... I went with 7 others from the school, and we had an absolutely great time.  After an interesting dinner at a Bulgarian restaurant, (where I had the sub par chicken curry, which was not quite curry, but a Bulgarian version of it... which is not better...) we made our way about a half a kilometer, to the skating rink, turned concert venue.  Snoop was on stage when we got there, and I surprised myself with my knowledge of Snoop's repertoire.  I knew more songs than I expected myself to, so it turned out to be a pretty fun show.  

Now I am sure that many are wondering why a west coast rapper, from the US would be making an appearance in Eastern Europe, let alone in Bulgaria!  It was a surprise to me, indeed, but there actually is a huge hip-hop and rap following here in E.E.  As far as I can gather from my students, the favorite music genres have been rap, rock (classic rock) and hip hop.  The rap following was apparent last night in the packed house of Bulgarians.  The crowd was fairly benign throughout the show 

and then Snoop pulled out a Bulgarian flag, waving it around on stage as he donned a Bulgarian football ("soccer") jersey

and the crowd went absolutely bizzerk. 

And yet, despite the title of this entry which also is a line from Snoop himself, the party did come to an end.  Around 11 pm.  And the lights came on.  Show was over and the crowd squished us as we all tried to exit through ONE exit..... no bueno...

We went to a bar for a little while longer, enjoying the company we were in, and then I think I took the funniest cab ride I have ever been in.  I felt like Mr. Magoo, and I think the 4 of us had piled into a smart car, however I checked when we got out and it was some sort of Hyundai.  It might as well have been a smart car because it felt that small... Well, we made it back safely to the gate of the school, even though Derek was unsuccessful in convincing the cab driver, Nikki, to stop and go through the McDonald's drivethru on the way back... He may have been heartbroken, but Nikki was pretty determined to get us back. haha. It was great. 

Now, Friday is completed, the first official week of school, and I feel pretty good about how things are going.  It certainly is a bit interesting teaching the same lesson all week long, about 8 times.  I have 8 different sections of kids who I see only one time a week, so it can get a bit repetitive, with moments where I space out and forget where I was going with my train of thought.  But, overall, all my classes are full or little angels, at least for the first week... I am sure that the colorful behaviors will come out in the next month or so for a lot of them. :) But I think that it is the teenage personalities and dramas that keeps teaching entertaining, and certainly keeps me on my toes.  That is one thing I certainly love about teaching, no two classes are ever the same, no matter how many times I teach a lesson, and the kids are so different in their likes, personalities, etc, that you are constantly adjusting your approach in order to reach them all.  It really never gets dull, no matter how long you have been teaching for.  

There is so much that I am still getting used to here, and that I know I will still have to learn.  We start our advisory program on Tuesday, which I am happy for.  It will give me the chance to get to  know a few 9, 10, 11th grade students a bit more, and hopefully be able to help them navigate the school, as well as be an advocate for them too.  I love stuff like this, mentoring, etc, so I am excited to be able to be in this role, in addition to teacher. 

Anyways, this weekend is a long weekend, as Bulgaria is celebrating their Independence Day on Monday (so no school!) I am going to Belgrade, Serbia with 4 others, Erin, my roommate and her boyfriend, Andy, as well as Derek and Jenn from next door.  It seems like an interesting and ecclectic place to go, and I am excited to get some traveling in.  Belgrade sounds very similar to Sofia, which I love.  And I am excited to visit the area, since I grew up learning about the Serbia/Kosovo tensions as a kid; it is neat to be able to travel there finally. 

Well, I should finish up a few things before I start to pack and make dinner.  I will be sure to post some pictures from Snoop (once I steal some from someone else) as well as pics of Serbia. 

Ciao! 

Best Day of School, Ever.

So, today, instead of the normal ritual of school meeting, classes where teachers tell the students the rules and regulations of their classes, loading the students with the class textbooks, etc...we introduced our new advising program with an "ACS Olympics" between the different advising blocks.  It was awesome! (well, the rain could have held off a bit more, but oh well.) 

We had three-legged race, potato sack relay, tug-of-war, water balloon toss, egg/spoon relay, and the highlight for my day was the Mini Bike relay race.... This was the funniest thing I had ever seen!  The kids got on bikes, that I am pretty sure were made for 5-7 year olds, and then had to bike around this loop through campus.  It was amazing!  Everyone was as good of sports as I would have expected, even despite the rain, and I hope that this spirit continues through the year. 

Well, last minute supplies are needed from the office supply store and then maybe some shopping at the grocery store. 

Ciao ciao!!

First Day tomorrow!

So, tomorrow is the first day of school!  We are actually not going to have any instruction, but instead a day of games and mini competitions among our advising houses... It should be fun, and a good way to begin the week I think.  I guess there is a whole school meeting in the morning, where they introduce the new teachers and the incoming 8th grade class, up on stage, with standing ovation.  It should be fun!  Anyways, I am off for an early evening to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow.  More details soon to come!

I hate moving.

So, the school has renovated the English and Science buildings, which is awesome.  However, not so awesome is the fact that they are not done and my classroom and office are not completely put together.  My room is not so bad, however.  But I don't have a desk, just a table... And there is only one electrical plug which is in the very front of the room, between the whiteboard and the door.  I am not sure if one could have found a more inconvenient spot. 

So, enough of my little whining... I moved all of the books, binders, resources, maps and posters that I could possibly want/use which were in the 3rd floor classroom of the old Physical Geography teacher, and move them all to the 3rd floor classroom that will be mine, which is in a completely separate building.  My arms certainly got their workout for today!! I can't wait for everything to be completely set up in the office and classroom.  There will be more work tomorrow and this weekend for sure.  In addition to the planning for classes. Oh yeah, I start teaching on Monday! (well, Tuesday actually, is when our classes first meet)

Bring it on, Donkey Kong!

Just so you know that it's fo' real...

In case you have not heard.... Snoop Dogg is coming to Sofia in two weeks.  And I have a ticket to go... hahaha.

First ventures downtown...

So, last night, we had a cookout/BBQ (whatever you prefer to call it) at the Last House, which is the name of one of the other faculty villa on campus besides mine.  It was a shindig that the "old" international teachers put on for us "new hires".  It was really nice to all get together after our first week of work.  The weather was beautiful, there was great food, contributions by all, and the company was fantastic.  

After a few hours of chit-chatting and gorging ourselves, the crowd dwindled a bit, but a pretty big group of us had decided to go out and experience some of the night life of Sofia.  This was the first time that I had been back downtown since my first tour with Mimi, and this was quite the different tour.  

We went to this place which they call the "Candle Bar" but is actually called Humbara (The Barn) in Bulgarian.  And this is exactly what it was.  We took a taxi from the College into town, met up with the folks who had gone to their apartments first to change, etc, and then we walked a few blocks to this little side alley.  We walked through this wooden door/shanty looking entrance that had a printed sign posted in Bulgarian (which I assumed was the signage for the bar).  As I walked in, and my eyes adjusted to the lack of bright light, I realized that I was literally inside a barn.  The floor was a swept, hardened dirt floor.  The bar was to the left, along the wall, with all of the bottles lined up along several shelves.  Along the far wall, under the second floor loft, were wooden stools (which were more like upright logs) and planks laid out as little bar seating areas.  There were picnic table like seating on the second floor, if you ventured up the rough hewn stairs near to the door.  I didn't venture up to the other levels, but there also was a third floor as well.  There is no electricity in this bar.  The entire place is illuminated by candle light.  The only electrical supply leads to a tiny fridge behind the bar, and the boom box playing some jazzy, Frank Sinatra like music.  

When we walked in, there were about 10-12 others in there.  Our group immediately created quite a crowd, and we almost filled the place, but it was still quite comfortable.  There were large canvas paintings hanging all around on the walls, and the only menu or list was a small chalkboard next to the bar, listing all the pours with the price of the serving (all in Bulgarian, of course).  I ordered a vodka and sprite, and quickly the ice cubes she put in my glass had melted, and we were enjoying each others company, talking, and just taking in the general atmosphere.  

Andy, Erin's boyfriend (Erin being one of my roommates in the Pink House), began to tell me the history of Humbara.  Apparently, this bar is the site of the beginning of Socialism and Communism in Bulgaria.  It is where they would hold secret meetings, and at the beginning of a meeting, the leaders would take their candle that had been lined up outside the door, and light it once they got inside the barn in order to provide light for their meetings.  I think the barn was also used as a secret paper press as well, although I will have to ask Andy about that again to get the history straight again.  

I just thought it was a pretty amazing place.  Now I can say that I have drank at the place where Communism in Bulgaria began... Nazdravey! (cheers!)

After we had been in Humbara for a while, some people decided to go home, the rest of us made our way several blocks to another bar/club called Mojitos.  This had a bit more of a modern club atmosphere than the barn did... There were three rooms, each playing different music with a separate bar in each one.  We went all the way inside, to the third and least crowded room.  The DJ was playing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and we all began to laugh and those who knew the moves to the dance, brought them out... A few drinks and the headiness of all the cigarette smoke loosened everyone up and we all began to dance to the random 70's and 80's music the DJ selected.  It was quite the evening.  I will have to write another entry at a later point about how I noticed that no one smiles... but that will come at another time. 

It was a great night, and a wonderful way to get an idea more of the "night scene" of Sofia.  Andy, Erin, Matt, Derek and Jenn and I all stopped at a place called Mimas on our way home for something called a "duner/dooner".  Basically it is a Bulgarian giro...shaved chicken, a few bulgarian style french fries, sliced tomato, garlic sauce, wrapped up in a soft pita.  It was delicious, and a perfect late night snack.  (For all you C'villians, it was right up there with a trip to Little Johns...) We then piled into a taxi and made our way to the American College, where I promptly crashed into bed around 2:15 am... 

and for some reason I got the feeling that was an "early" night, compared to many of the other people who were out last night.

Because of my trip last night, I decided that I felt I could make my way around downtown on my own.  Today, I took the #76 bus from the stop near ACS towards town.  The bus experience is one you would expect in any foreign country:  a long wait, of about 30 minutes before the right bus came along;  a jolting ride that was borderline stifling hot, forcing me to take a standing position right next to a tiny window, so I could get some moving air;  having absolutely no clue where exactly I should get off, despite having a map in hand.  I had needed to go to the Apple Repair store to see if they could fix the CD drive, which refuses to eject my cd.   I found the right bus stop, got off, and started walking a few blocks to this little side street, Svetoslav Terter, where I could see the little Apple icon down a little ways.  Unfortunately the only person I found inside was the weekly cleaning lady, who told me (in Bulg) that they were not open on Saturdays (shucks).  I will just have to make the trip this week sometime again.  

I kept walking towards the center, pausing occasionally to consult my little Sofia guidebook map to see where I was headed.  I passed the Nevsky cathedral, and the vendors that line the sidewalk out in Nevsky square.  I was starting to sweat so I have stopped in a coffee shop, Onda, where we stopped last week with Mimi, right across from Ruska tsurkva, the Russian church.  The cold water and iced cappuccino are delicious, and happily I found there was wireless...thus my blog entry.  

Before I leave to head back to the school for the evening, I need to walk to the book market, Slaveykov, in order to search for my Bulgarian language book that we are using with our language teacher, Lora.  We meet with her every week for lessons in order to develop some conversational and basic Bulgarian.  It is nice, because I can read and write it from taking Russian (never thought I would be able to use that language again..) but there are a lot of words that are different from the Russian.  I am excited to be able to communicate, since it is proving to be kind of hard right now... 

Well, I am off to make my way to the book market.  Dovishdenay! (I will eventually figure out how to post cyrillic...)

"Kak say kazvatay?"...and other thoughts

The past three days I have started my days with faculty meetings (which have been surprisingly short).  It has been really neat meeting and getting to know these people.  I really like the fellow science teachers in my department.  I think I am really going to enjoy working with them and I look forward to doing so. 

This past weekend, most of the new international teachers all had to take a trip to Thessaloniki, Greece in order to process our visa applications with the Bulgarian consulate.  We got to Thessaloniki on Thursday night, after having a lovely drive through several beautiful Bulgarian villages, we stopped at the Rila Monastery. 

Rila Monastery is maybe one of the most photographed locations in the country, and rightfully

 so.  The building is absolutely beautiful, with amazing frescoes, and black and white design. The monastery is nestled down in the middle of this gorge in the tree covered mountains, which rose almost straight up on all sides.  It was absolutely beautiful. 

When we got there, the whole place was swarming with people.  The car with a huge floral wreath tied on the roof, which had passed us earlier on the two way, curvy mountain, had parked in front of the monastery; a man in a dark suit took the wreath off the car and walked inside of the front gate into the throngs of people... Apparently, as Tanya informed us, the day we were there, it was the 800th-something anniversary of St. John, the monk who established the monastery in the mid 900's.  

The mountains were just so pretty... they seemed to rise just straight up, and were covered in trees.  Outside the outer wall was a several little kiosks selling food, saint icons, and other little touristy things.  There was this one little building which sold the doughnuts, that Tanya said "we had to try".  Tanya waited for like 20 minutes in this line to buy them for all of us. 

There are beautiful detailed paintings all over and around the buildings of the monastery and the outer "dorm" building...I am not really sure of what it is, but the outer wall of the monastery had three or four floors of all these different rooms, which I assume were used as the living quarters of the monks who lived there at one point in time. 

We walked into this one room on the bottom floor.  It was the kitchen, and there was this huge soot covered ceiling that opened up to the sky, where there was a little bit of light coming through.  On the ground were huge cauldrons where they would cook and prepare the food.  I think this was a pretty cool shot of the kitchen. 

The cauldrons in the kitchen.....

There were also all of these fountains where people would just walk up to and drink out of.  Apparently they are all over Bulgaria, and it is very common to just go an

d use the water that flows out of them, however I am not sure how "safe" the water is to drink. 

After being at Rila for about an hour we went to lunch at this restaurant that was tucked in one of the valleys next to a shallow stream.  We sat at a couple tables, enjoying the nice day, and the breeze, and ate some delicious Bulgarian dishes.  After lunch, we continued on our drive south to Thessaloniki.  I am pretty sure most of us in the van passed out from our food coma, promptly after getting on (well, at least I fell asleep and didn't wake up until we had arrived at the city).  Well, we did have to pass through customs, and that went successfully without any issues.  

We arrived in Thessaloniki just around dinnertime...We all checked into our rooms, and I was able to sneak a shower before we met to go to dinner.  We walked through the streets a few blocks into this larger "piazza" like square, which covered a few blocks, and stretched out right

 down to the water.  We went off onto a little narrow sidestreet lined with restaurants, each with dining tables spilling out into the cobblestones, from both sides.  Our group was immediately bombarded by waiters trying to get us to come and dine in their establishments, and they were very persistent, however Tanya had already made arrangements with one of the restaurants.  We get there, and there is a big table set up outside.  Shortly, after 

some negotiating with the waiter, we had ordered huge platters of amazing Greek food...kebobs, lamb chops, different sauces, salads, etc... Wine and beer... we had a feast!! 

After we had eaten as much as we could, we all went to walk along the "boardwalk" along the bay.  It was dark by now, so I couldn't really see the water, but we walked along this large wall, and the waves just crash right up against them. 

I bought some street art, because I can not stand the fact that the walls in my room are so bright white... There were a few people selling art, and

 one guy had some scenes of Greece.  There was this really beautiful one of  Santorini that I decided to buy.  I think it was a bit overpriced at 5 Euro, but I think it is worth it, as it adds quite a bit of color to my room.  (Which, I think I am going to try and paint sometime soon...woohoo!)

Friday, we had to be at the consulate early in order to make our appointment.  Tanya took us in one at a time, where she would hand him our application for a visa, he asked me to confirm my signature, and that was all that was said.  It was very strange and interesting.  There was a little gift bag on the desk, which I imagine was some sort of gift to help push the visa applications through... Very interesting event, but we all made it out alive. 

After we had all gone in and passed our visa apps to the consulate we then piled again into the van and made our way back north, along the coast to a different border checkpoint than the one we crossed on our trip down.  Apparently this was a brand new crossing point and someone had suggested it because there would be less traffic.  When we got there, it apparently was more of a big deal than was expected, and it took about 45 minutes to process our passports.  This new border crossing was set up to process the NEW American passports, the ones with the hard magnetic covers that has all the information stored as opposed to the "old" ones where the attendant has to enter all the information manually. So after waiting, and several lines forming behind us later, we were processed through the Greece/Bulgarian border, and proceeded to our next destination for the afternoon/evening.

We stayed at this mineral bath/spa hotel, called Hotel Victoria, which I cannot find anywhere online (because I have forgotten where we were exactly).  I do know that we were about an hour south of Bansko, the famous ski resort around here.  Anyways, this hotel was, like a lot of things, in need of a little bit of basic upkeep.  The food was good (I don't know if I can eat another shopsko salad for a month or so) and the pools were nice.  The water is hot, almost like a giant bath tub, because of the hot springs that come out of the mountains where the hotel was built.  It was kind of cool.  However, because everything used these springs as a water source, there was no cold water in my hotel room, and the shower smelled a bit like sulphur...It was an experience nonetheless.  At night, there was a guitar and violinist who were playing some traditional Bulgarian music.  There were some people who were doing some of the traditional dance to the music.  Tanya got up after dinner at one point and joined them... The video is a little dark but you can at least hear the music.

Some shots of the hotel and the pools....

Hello John, Roxanne and Greg! 

Front entrance to the hotel

On Saturday we left around noon, and drove up to this mountain village... I cannot remember what it was called, but I will find out and post it.  This village was beautiful.  I guess you can rent out some of the houses for a week vacation.  It was very cool.  We walked around the village for a bit, took pictures, and then continued on to where we were having lunch.  We ate at this hotel/restaurant that used to be an old mill.  The food, again, was good.  Very basic, and simple, but tasty.  We had some wine, and enjoyed the entertainment provided by a frisky tiger colored cat, who I had to resist taking home with us :) 

The food, again placed me into a food coma, and I dozed again on the way home to Sofia.  It was a little bit of a long trip with all the driving and stopping, but we finally made it.  

This is the steeple of the church in the little mountain village we stopped in.  I think it was possibly the smallest church I have ever been in, but absolutely lovely...

A little bit of a fixer-upper in the mountain village :)