I've have gotten this question a lot this week. So i figured i could blog it and save myself some time and just direct you to this entry...

what do i do on a daily basis?

WELL....

Monday: English tutor a middle aged lady name Ruska for about an hour in the morning. Grab some lunch at the house so Mechka can go outside. At about 3ish I go to the school and take some Children's English books and read for a little while and have a Q and A time.

Tuesday: I have been researching things in order to get a basic art course and a program for the kids this summer. School ends May 31st so I have time to get all this together. Tuesday mornings are the only days I am really in the office so I am usually talking to the people i need to or on the computer. In the afternoon, I have Bulgarian tutoring for an hour.

Wednesday: At the Kindergarten all morning. After lunch I go to the school and do some pilates/yoga (its way easier to call it a 'fitness course' so thats what i do.)

Thursday: Back at the Kindergarten but with a different age group. Then some more tutoring in this language we call Bulgarian

Friday: Bazzar day in Yablanitsa! wahoo. So i am usually dragging my feet and getting into work late(shh dont tell), check out the bazzar, and grab a cup of coffee with a friend who lives in a neighboring village and works in Yablanitsa. I dont go back to work in the afternoon because the Chitaliste has no work for me right now, only my own projects which i take care of on Tuesdays....


so there! there you go...

OH! ANNDDD the weather is awesome! I have yet to wear sandals because I am afraid the older ladies in my town will shoot me (no joke),  but I do not have to wear my winter jacket any more and I went for a run today (that should tell you that the weather is about 50's hitting 60's)

 

As you know i have a puppy that has a VERY small bladder. emphasis on the VERY. Yesterday I took Mechka out and had snow standing close to my mid calf- and this is no exaggeration. It is only days from March and I was in hopes of warmer weather by now, but the abdominal snowman decided to come and crush my hopes and dreams.  So heres the bad news: It's suppose to be cold for awhile longer. Someone told me (in broken English mind you) that its suppose to be neg. 10 for the first couple weeks of March. I'll let you know how that goes...

I was in conversation with a guy from the U.K. when i heard that depressing news and litterally 10 seconds into the conversation he asks if Ohio is in Canada. bahaha. i laugh and so no, 'why do i look Canadian?' he responds and says yes and you act like one of em'.
All in a matter of 2 minutes i am depressed about the weather, laugh from ignorance, and loose a potential friendship. awesome.

I watched a lot of movies this weekend. One of them was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So i will leave you with this because it's appropriate: "the best kind of prize is a surprise."

love you.

 

I cannot get enough of Sigur Ros right now. it's just so pretty. I just finished reading 1984 and i loved it (i think it mentioned that in the last post).  There was about a page and a half that i reread at least 3 times. for some reason or another i resonated with it. I thought about it a lot on my way to Hissar this last week (I had to go there for a Peace Corps Conference = boring conference but hey there was a pool and a waterslide! so of course i had fun). Anyway. I have been forcing myself to do something artistic once a week whether that be sketch (thanks Rach), look at art via internet (through this i have discovered that Picasso is my favorite artist),  paint with watercolor, or oil pastels just to get some practice at it. I want to be better so i figured thats the only way to do so. There is an awesome idea for that page and a half that i really liked out of 1984, its going to be a triptych with some watercolor, and newspaper. I am excited for it and may let you see it one day. dont know why but i am private about my art stuff.

um, Mechka is getting huge. She was babysat while i was gone this last week and i was stunned to see her again. i should put pictures up of her again.

Some other things I suppose:
- I am going to be starting Pilates again the first week of March.
- My family got a little over 300 childrens books donated to me.
- Spring is coming soon!!
- Winter wasnt that bad, actually i enjoyed some real snow.
- I am really considering starting an outdoor club for Summer. I found some good places to hike and it will give me an excuse to play soccer once again.
- I have a meeting with one of the teachers at the school to talk about Human Trafficking. I really want to get this information flowing in the school but because of my lack of Bulgarian and the difficulty in doing a project like this it will be exciting if she is willing to help.
- English classes with the adults is going really well and am confident for it to end soon- meaning they can read on their own and all that jazz.
 

I think that is all for now. And I will leave you with this hopeful article : http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=101093
Love you.

 

Other places and perspectives about Bulgaria written by red white and blue blooded Americans. 
PC Bulgaria volunteers blogs:
http://greginbulgaria.blogspot.com/ ---Greg Herb
http://tylerwasson.blogspot.com/ --- Tyler Wasson
http://handofhope.blogspot.com/ ---Katie Filkens
http://thhbulgaria.blogspot.com/ --- Tobias Hewitt
www.billyknox.com ---Billy Knox
http://calexber.wordpress.com/ --- Callie Bertsch
http://bulgariama.blogspot.com/ --- Shah Khan
http://cynthiamccoy.blogspot.com/ --- Cynthia McCoy (shes from the nasty Nati' too!)
http://pcb24.blogspot.com/  --- B24 Group blog

New Movies (to me):
- Revoluntionary Road. (i liked it...kinda. umm the plot is incredible and i have nothing against it. so really i guess i did like it. i just wouldnt  
  recommed it to some people) 
- Secret Life of Bees. (wish i would have read the book first)
-  Legends of the Fall. (really good movie. Brad Pitt = incredibly hott)
- City of Men. (wow. intense. which is probably why i liked it)
- Milk. (very well done)
- Mr. Magnorium's Wonder Emporium. (so cheesy but i am a huge fan of Dustin Hoffman)
- The Other Boyelyn Girl. (really really good movie)


Music that seems to be played over and over again on my ITunes:
Armchair Apocrypha album- Andrew Bird. i mean hes just too good to not have on repeat.
Broken Social Scene self titled album- upbeat. Kevin Drew is a genius
For Emma, Forever Ago album- Bon Iver- soft and a can listen to all the songs - which is good to read a book to.
New album and a lot of different Sigur Ros- for reasons you should know
Iron & Wine- more upbeat stuff like Woman King, Boy with a Coin
Rogue Wave
Damien Rice- always.
Neon Bible album- Arcade Fire. Haven't listened to it in a while but have come to fall in love with it again
The End of History- Fionn Regan. A new love and a recommendation for all.


Books:
Just finished: Blue Like Jazz- 2nd maybe 3rd time i have read it. It is funny how each passing day we learn something and with time it changes us but we dont realize it.
Current read: 1984- incredible! i have only 1/3 left and just keeps getting better.

Things I miss:
- Chipotle
- you (of course)
- new clothes
- driving the beast.
- my bed in Loveland.
- a real grocery store
- chinese food
- a good bath with sea salts.
- Barnes and Noble



Other things:
- Bulgarian grammar is rough.
- I have made friends with the people in my bloc because of the undeniable cuteness that is Mechka.
- There is absolutly nothing for me to do at the Community Center right now. There are projects i am suppose to be 'preparing' for the Spring. Haven't been doing it because its way too early to start on it so i have been writing letters to friends and family. It takes time to write a good letter and i like doing it so that is what i filled my mornings with at work this week. We got a new basically mini fireplace and its called a petchka. Its incredible because it produces a lot of heat and you can hear the crackling of the wood. This is probably one reason i enjoy sitting at my desk- to feel warm, listen to the pecthka and think of how to comprise a letter that explains my life for the last 6 months.
- I teach English to Adults three times a week. I started this in late Nov. and this past week i just had them do conversation- to practice speaking English and ask whatever question they wanted. One guy asked me to explain Carbon Dioxide (but in Bulgarian because their English vocabulary is limited). hah, really?
- Every Friday the Yab. has a bazzar. Every season there is new stuff- like whichever food is in season, winter clothes in the winter, and so on. Apparently Palenchinki's are appropriate for the winter season (i would have to agrue  and say that its appropriate for all seasons). 3 weeks ago a guy set up a Palenchinki stand and i have been going ever since. You see, a Palenchinki is this flat pancake-like texture with goodness filled in the middle. My personal favorite is chocolate and banana's. First time i went I had small talk with the Palenchinki guy and ever since we have been best friends. Now I say i want the usual and we have a nice conversation about our weeks. I may become a fatty but at least i will have friends.  
- i am learning how to knit from an older lady that comes to the Community Center because she has nothing better to do with her time. 
- I have been writing a lot more. i am happy about this. I am writing about experiences, certain situations, or things i have seen. maybe one
  day i will write some of it on this blog thingy
- I do believe that toliet training a puppy is nearly impossible.
- i told some of you before i got here that i think it would be a shame to not run in the Athens marathon while i am on this side of the world. SO i have been consciously eating properly (this is a hard thing for me to do because I think i have a sick obsession with chocolate) and doing some pilates in preperation for when the weather is better to be able to run outside.
- i have been attempting on doing art a lot more. Its crazy because now that i have taken the time to sit down and do it almost every other day and ideas just come to me. pretty awesome. i think my creativity and imagination is being streched because of all this free time.


now you know that i really am a loser and all i do is eat, read, watch movies, and sit on the internet.

Sincerly yours,
Jenna

i know, i know its Jan. 21st. but hey better late than never is what i say. so um lets start with Thanksgiving..

Thanksgiving: I had to at my apartment. I think i fed 21 people? People came all throughout the day on Saturday bringing the food they made and some cooked while the rest hung out watched football and talked about things. We ate some delicious turkey (compliments of Katie buying it in Sofia to make sure we had Turkey on Thanksgiving. what a team player), stuffing, mashed potatoes, lots of desserts, and whatever else  you typically have on Thanksgiving. After this eating-all- you-can eat fest we went to the discotec in my town. We stayed for a total of maybe 45 mins. You see, Turkey makes one tired and the discotec sucked. A lot of people left early the following morning and when i woke there were 2 people in my apt.: Tobias and Angelo. Oh and I also woke to a sink full of dishes, food all over the kitchen, and no electricity. awesome. so glad these boys stayed. we took care of the electricity issue, watched Primal Fear, cleaned the kitchen, ate the leftovers all day long (this is a necessary for the day after thanksgiving), then procecced to watch some more football.

Christmas: Neil kindly hosted Christmas this year. haha probably wont do it next. He lives in a town called Knezha (Kene-sha). pretty little town. Everybody got there on Christmas Eve and we had dinner at what is called a Mehana. I think it can be described as a restraunt/bar/hostel. We had a White Elephant exchange and just sat around and enjoyed each others company. The Mehana allowed some of us to sleep there because Neil's apartment couldn't hold the amount of people that came. I was one of the "lucky" ones to sleep at the Mehana. I slept on a bench that had a beautiful curvature to make one feel good in the morning. Next morning, went to Neil's apartment and hung out all day. did nothing really. Some people played some football in the first snowfall we saw in Bulgaria!! (sidenote: it snowed Christmas Morning!! my absolute favorite. Some of the other volunteers had never seen a White Christmas. i liked being apart of thier first experience of what a White Christmas is). Next day, hung out again and enjoyed the bliss of doing nothing. Next morning, went to Billy's place. He lives in a town north of Knezha called Nikopal. Cozy little town super close to Romania where one can see the Danub. pretty awesome. Billy very well may be the best host i have ever had (i think it may be his Texas roots). i hope you are reading this little shout out to you.

New Years: Day before New Years Eve i get a call to go to Varna. you know me, i cant pass up sponantaity. so of course i went. hop on a train and 4 hours later i am standing in front of the Black Sea admiring the splendor of it all. be jealous right now. After all this excitment of being in a bigger city and seeing legit clothes stores, McDonalds, coffee shops, and KFC we trek to the hotel. And by we i mean Ashley, Neil, Tobias, Billy and I. Get ready for a night on the town and enjoy the nightlife that Varna provides. At midnight (literally running out to the center) we catch some fireworks that go on for what seemed forever. which i am way more than okay with... got back to the hotel late and slept in only to wake up to hunger pains for McDonalds. hooray. you know i never really liked McDonalds but until you dont get the freedom to have gressy frenchfries and what may seem like a day old hamburger you will miss it. After munching down on a Big Mac (go big or go home, right Brit?) i got to enjoy the sauna that the hotel had. awesome. After this we went to the Varna mall. drank some coffee and went to the Bowling alley. i love me some bowling. i am awful but i love it! after the good times went back to the hotel to get up early the next day to catch the train back to what now seems like boring town compared to what i did for my holidays.

love you and sorry for the silence,
Jenna

I’ve been in a sentimental mood as of late. I cannot really tell you why, but I can say that I have had some precious moments and I think its because I have actually slowed down in life and am allowing things to affect me. You know like really have an effect on me.

It could also be because I have been listening to a lot of jazz and reading a lot of N.Y. Times articles. I have been digging on Duke Ellington. He is really optimistic for being a jazz player. But that’s beside the point.

This past week I have really missed my friends. I don’t know why…there wasn’t an event or something to trigger (ehh psy. Word but it fits- sorry.) this feeling (another psy. Word.ahh!)…I am happy to be where I am at but I really miss the people that know me. You know those people that can look at you and see your having a good or bad day and they know exactly what to say or not say. The ones you don’t have to figure out/ pull from each other’s past history, present, or future dreams to get to know them anymore. I mean that is all well and good because people constantly change, but I believe that people also have something that is constant. We find/ understand this with time for most people. 

You know who you are, and I want you to know that I genuinely miss you and want to share life with you.

I know I am still able to share life with you but it just is not the same.

It’s hard to explain this because really I am not sad. I am truly happy where I am. I love this small town. I love walking everywhere. Good exercise and get to see what I’d like to call ‘the norms’ in the morning. Saying friendly hello’s and admiring the view all the while going slowly take my steps into work. I have nothing but time. I love being able to figure things out for myself and I especially love the people. There is one lady that owns a food store and every time I see her- this is no exaggeration- with her hyperactive voice and matching energetic body movements, ‘ I am so glad to see you.’ Every time. It’s the kind of happiness that makes you want to join in with her and I always do :)

Today one of the kindergarten teachers and I were talking about upcoming projects and things that I can teach and do with the kids. After this, immediately in a kind of awkward beat she asked what I love, what do I do, etc. I was thinking she was asking about hobbies and what not so I told her and she said no no I mean what do you love? My thought is regards to life… what I find interesting…what do I love about Bulgaria…Yablanitsa... You know these types of things.

She kind of skipped over what just asked me and went on to say I am 44 years old. Strange conversation I thought. Then I looked into her eyes. She looked like she is at a complete loss, like a lost little girl. At this moment I felt older than her, like I had experienced more out of this life. She asked if I wanted a cup of coffee and I could tell that she wanted to talk. I accepted her invitation and we went on the roof so that she could smoke a cigarette.

I started the conversation by telling her most of the ideas I got for the kindergarten was because of my Grandma (she is a preschool teacher), hoping the conversation would roll from there. It didn’t really. There were pauses at the beginning, hesitation. I liked the silence because sometimes it takes a lot of energy to have a conversation. My vocabulary is limited and with some people I can only have shallow conversations. Hello, how are are you. Where you from? How old are you? Some don’t care to have a conversation past this. Because of this I feel robotic at times. So you can only image how relieved I was that this women didn’t want anything else but company to just sit with her. So this lady, her name is Maglana. She looks like a Bulgarian version of Cameron Diaz. I will have to show you a picture. I don’t know what to really think of her. I didn’t have a very good first impression, but those are the ones that surprise you the most. 

Eventually we got into a conversation. The usual at first---family, friends, why are you here, etc. etc. While we were on the roof she told me that she studied history in college and I told her my brother did as well. So then again we got to talk about family again. But this time it got more personal. She told me her son is 28 and speaks like he is 3 years old. He has been deaf all his life and recently was able to get hearing aids—they are so expensive. She saved money for 3 years. 3 years, you kidding me? She told me she was married but he was very mean to her (I think he beat her) and had a hard time raising her son and things of this nature. She wanted to stay in Yablanitsa because her mother lives here. She was telling me that the job opportunities are slim to none, but she believes her son is happy here and this is what she has always known.

Most of the things she was telling me were quite depressing but I appreciated it for some reason. It felt like it was one of those moments that you knew that you would mull over after it was over. I don’t know if I would call it something that I treasured but I too was able to be honest with her. I told her how I missed my friends and family, some of the things that upset me about Bulgaria, living alone. This was the first Bulgarian I felt I was able to honest with and was allowed to be because she wouldn’t run off and tell the whole town (this is a small town and word travels fast).

She wasn’t too proud to thank me for listening to her either. She told me I have something special going on for me. This was good for my heart.

I just finished this incredible book called Three Cups of Tea. Go read it.

Really there is not much to say but I wanted to keep up with this thing as a way of communication so that you wont have to ask questions like “so what do you do on a daily basis?”

Well, this week…

Monday- Had my morning coffee with the co-workers and had a “meeting.” Went to Teteven (a village close by) to seal the deal for our local amateur theater group to perform there on Wednesday. Afternoon, sat and read about 6 chapters of that book (I have been averaging about 4 chapters a day at work)

Tuesday- Again, coffee and read that book all day. Every Tues. and Thurs. I have tutoring at 4 with an older woman who does not know any English. She does know Russian and Italian so that should count for something, right?

Wednesday- Coffee then went to the Kindergarten to teach 5 year olds English. They were awesome. When I walked in the room they were all so quiet and were ready to learn. So I introduce myself and then I taught them you know hello, how are you, things of this nature. There is no black board so they repeated everything I said. I had no idea what to teach them so I kinda just picked things up around the room and said this is a chair and so on. After about 5 minutes I thought they would get really bored with that so I asked one of them so pick out something in the room and I would tell them what it was. After one kid did this they all wanted to do it and it was the cutest thing to watch. I was there for about 30 minutes and before I left every one of the kids ran to me to give me a hug. Love it!

After that, went back to the Chitaliste and read that book. At about 4 went to Teteven with the theatre group. I went because my boss is one of the actors… Play ended at about 9 then we ate at a restaurant. That was one of the longest dinners but it was a lot of fun. The group is an older crowd but there was a 17 yr. old boy who is in the group and is studying English so he helped a little bit with the conversation. The guy sitting next to me found it interesting that I studied Psychology at a University and asked me questions about it. We had a small chat then the conversation led into politics and I kinda stopped the conversation and played the “I don’t understand” card because really I don’t understand Bulgarian politics. From what I hear there is about 100 different political parties and a lot of history that I have yet to learn.

Thursday- Again, coffee and went back to the Kindergarten. I teach 7- year olds this day. The teacher is younger and knows a little bit of English and has been teaching her students. We sang the alphabet and they now know how to introduce themselves in English. They taught me a game Oh! And I now have a boyfriend! His name is Christiyan and he has the brightest blue eyes. After class ended he walked up to me and said hello my name is Christiyan. I am 6 years old. Will you be my girlfriend? And gave me a kiss on the cheek. Oh man how could I refuse?

After that, went back to work and read the rest of that book.

Friday- I am at work right now. Had my morning coffee and waiting to go to the Bazar. Bazar is a big deal in this town. It’s an outdoor fresh food market type thing. A lot of stands to choose from what vegetables you want and its typically cheaper than buying these veggies at the store. 

Hey I am still alive!!

Too many things to say…

This past week the other P.C. volunteers and I stayed in a ski resort to learn the preliminaries about language, safety, feel the repercussions of jet lag (ugh), what our schedule is like, technical things like that…

I am in my host home right now and I must tell you I think I am in love. Have you seen the movie Chocolate? Remember the stairwell that is a wide spiral made of concrete but has this rug like material over it?  It looks a lot like that. pretty.

My first impression of my host family was generosity with natural curiosity of who I am and having patience for what little Bulgarian I know. I cannot wait to get to know Bulgarian a lot better so that I can hold an actual conversation rather than staring at each other trying to figure out what the other is saying. There is a lot of pointing/hand motions. My Bulgarian dictionary is my best friend right now.

So here’s a cool fact. One of my host sisters knows English so we talked all the way in the cab ride home. We talked about family, friends, traveling, my hometown, her hometown, college, and it was so nice to share a curiosity about life with another person. She went to Greece this weekend with her school friends so I have been hanging out with my host mom, Antoaneta. She is soo funny and has a genuine laugh. It’s the kind of laugh that makes you want to laugh with her. She is also so very curious about my life- family, school, friends, etc. I showed her pictures today and she got so excited. She also really liked the pictures from my graduation parties and thought that the little cousins look fun and funny Antoaneta works as a tailor and her husband Dimitar is a technician. They have a beautiful garden in which have been eating our food from it. It taste soo good and fresh. They grow tomatoes, potatoes, apples, cucumbers, lemons, and I think that’s it. Antoaneta is a very good cook. The first night I arrived we ate rice pilaf and butter with baby sheep. I have never had it but I really liked it. Dimitar grows his own brandy (common in Bulgaria). He said it was about 45% proof. Wow. We had it with dinner. Very good. It’s also common to make your own wine. Good. good.

In the mornings I wake up to the sound of the roosters but lay in bed and journal/ read/ listen to music/ look at pictures, etc. Like right now I’m listening to the music Daniel gave me before I left. It is very beautiful. I especially like track number 14 I think its Exile to Elba? Man he is sooo good. Music is my muse and my sense relaxation right now. Some of the other volunteers have given me some good recommendations for some music. Can’t research it right now because my host home does not have Internet. Everything is so chill here. For example, today Antoneta and I went on a walk to the local store to get towels. We took the “long way” home and stopped by one of her friends homes. She has two grandchildren that I was able to play with the cutest one year old and a rowdy 5 year old. We drank coffee and ate watermelons for at least an hour. I love this place… 

Oh! I am staying in a small village called Cry- nitch-si. It is spelled Kraynitsi.  I am in love with it. I cannot wait till you see pictures. I think it is absolutely beautiful. Bright colors, gardens, horses, chickens, mountains, bright stars, smiles, and a natural curiosity as to why you are there.

Don’t know what else to really say. I want this to be short enough so that you will read it and keep some interest.