The Table

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, of course I'll have to celebrate it on a different day because we don't get the holiday off, but thanks will be given only a couple days later than traditional. I'm actually quite impressed at what we are able to rustle up for Thanksgiving dinner here. I think many packages were sent with fillings for pies and makings for casseroles, and because of this the all important Stove Top stuffing will make its appearance and be scarfed down, I'm sure. Thanksgiving is a really fabulous holiday though. Usually, as a family, we sit around the table and say what we are thankful for that year. It's pretty much like a movie... almost nauseatingly so. I think, since this is my first blogging Thanksgiving, I will give my thanks online this year at the chimerical internet table. We can all sit 'around' our computer screens and give thanks at our cyber table.

I'll go ahead and start. I am thankful for:

20 cm of snow that I saw falling and made a snowcaptain, snow angels, and much more snow mischief in last weekend.the amazing, loving friends that I have: in Bulgaria, in the States, in Mexico, and all over the world.

my family and the fact that I get to see them in about a month!

7 continents and new experiences on each one.

cabbage. There is so much you can do with it... and I'm finding out just how much.

my kitty Mila (sweetheart in Bulgarian), who is also finding out just how useful cabbage can be. (That is Mila sniffing the 3.5 kilo-> cabbage I bought at the market. The cabbage weighs about three times as much as she does.)

wonderful colleagues who make me banitsa and also make me laugh.

the internet.

copy machines.

nice sheets.

and last but not least... Peanut Butter.

So thank you for joining me at the table. Please share what you are thankful for too, if you feel so inclined. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Enjoy the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Dog Show, and Georgia-Georgia Tech football game for me. GO TECH!

Getting to know you.

Here is a link to an article in a Bulgarian magazine for ex-pats (people that have moved from different countries and now live here) it's in English, of course. The article is about Peace Corps Bulgaria and it might help make what I'm doing here a little more understandable.
Check it out:
http://www.vagabond-bg.com/index.php?page=live&sub=19&open_news=659

Also, if you'd like to help feed the hungry and practice vocab go here:
http://www.freerice.com/index.php
It's very useful if you like to sound smart or are studying for the GRE, SAT, and other standardized tests or if you have lots of free time and find suduko can only be entertaining for a short time.

Teaching Again, but not The End

My school is teaching again! Yay! I now have something to occupy most of my days and a purpose for being in Bulgaria! But the strike is not over, unfortunately. I'm not sure when it will be, if ever. They keep getting so close to deals and then the day they are supposed to sign the teachers always back out. I really want them to reach a conclusion soon, but I don't know how realistic that is.
We started teaching just in time for Halloween which was brilliant, and I'm sure that they planned it that way just for me (since they don't celebrate Halloween here). So my first week back to school (which is this week) I get to tell ghost stories and talk about little kids in costumes. Very easy lesson planning! So for homework I asked them all to write a ghost story based on parameters we set up in class. My large, smart, and unruly class chose to set their ghost story in a castle in New Jersey in 1861 with Frankenstein, his wife and son, as the antagonists, and our class as the 'normal' people. Then my smaller, eager, off-to-college class went a bit more traditional and set their story in a small town in the 18th century with vampires and once again I asked that our class be in the story too. The twist in the latter class was that one of their elements to a good ghost story was that good people had to die. So we'll see who they kill off from the class. Ha ha! These kids have been in the same class with the same students for 5 years. It's remarkable how well they know each other. In some schools kids will be in the same class, with the same class teacher and the same classmates, for all 12 years of schooling. I can't even imagine.