Rainy Days

I wrote this post awhile ago but haven't had time to post it until now. So if I have time this might be a double edition. Oh, and if you don't like stream-of-conscious then i suggest you skip to the second part.
5-21
I keep my head down as I walk so that I can see the puddles. Although my shoes are soaked and squishy my jeans have started to dry. Running through the pouring rain for an Italian meal may not have been our best idea, but it certainly was one of our tastiest. Even now, two hours later back in Bobov Dol, still soaking wet and chilled to the core I think it was worth it.
jump over the river that has overtaken half the street
well at least I only got one foot wet, the other has stopped squishing finally and is now just damp
I can smell the cigarette of the man walking 15 meters in front of me. It's amazing how inescapable that smell is. Even in the open air it haunts you. As I start walking up the steps i notice two other girls that were on the bus with me. We seem to have all taken different routes to end up at the same steps.
so much like life
Our paths converge for an awkward second and we don't speak or look up. Then I am past one girl and the other passes me. The moment is over along with the awkward pause.
two blocks, turn left
up the stairs, up more stairs
turn left, one block, turn right
up the stairs, again
get the keys out...wait it's unlocked. she's home
Thank goodness today I'm not assaulted at the door. She yells from the kitchen and laughs. I respond in Bulgarian, there is no English spoken here,
"Yes, there was lots of rain today."
and think about my wet shoes and jeans. I hope she doesn't notice them. She doesn't.
"No, thank you I already ate dinner. I thought we talked about that yesterday."
"Oh, ok. No, I don't want dinner."
Any phrase that includes me not wanting food never seems to translate. After lots of pointing and motioning she gives up trying to feed me a second dinner.
My room always looks a mess. I clean it everyday and yet there is just too much stuff for one small room. More papers today, more handouts we were given, more notes, one less book lent to a friend, a pair of wet jeans, wet socks and shoes. Sort. Stack. Sort. Find space. Organize ...somehow.
Are those flees? I think I can feel them. I thought they were gone. Are there bites? No, only my imagination. Still I spray more to kill them if they are there or not.
My feet have finally dried and the chill is starting to fade from my legs. Don't itch the old flee bites, don't itch. Think about something else... don't itch. Ack! Stop itching.

Second Post: Now for Today
Today was Alphabet day. I know this makes no sense to anyone who is not Bulgarian so I'll do a little explaining. Cyril and Methodie were brothers and they invented the Cyrillic Alpahbet (notice only one of them is the namesake). Bulgarians are very proud of their alphabet because from what i understand it was one of the first in the area. So May 24th every year they celebrate these brothers that created the alphabet. Those are the basics.
Our school (and the other school in the town) put on an event with speaking and singing. So of course we all went. As the assistant mayor spoke I thought perhaps I was mistaken at what i heard. But no, oh no, I was not mistaken. then the mayor got up and I thought, perhaps everyone will maintain a quieter volume for this woman, the mayor, who is old enough to be their grandmother. But no, oh no. I have never sat through so much talking and disrespect in my whole life. Well I did stand through something worse when one of my students decided to jump out of the window of our classroom while I was teaching. Unfortunately we were only on the first floor. But I thought maybe, in a different setting where respect is commanded and expected these kids will demonstrate some amount of restrain. But no, not even a little. They were yelling to each other, getting up and down, talking incessantly at a normal level and when you combine 400 or 500 kids talking at a normal level all in one room it turns into a roar then add the speaker and sound system. Let's just say I ended up with a headache.
Tonight we'll be going to the teacher's celebration which should be much, much better.
Just as a side note:
As I type this I'm sitting next to a boy around 4 years old playing Miami Vice or whatever that video game is where you drive around in a car and run over people. He's the cutest kid. But now i can see exactly why they all acted as they did today.

Bravo Bulgaria

Well I'm in Byala Slatina and I love it. I wrote a huge post on my laptop, but don't have access to wireless right now so I'll just give a little blurb for now.
At first I was skeptical. The outskirts of town are not very impressive, but the center of town is beautiful and has lots of cafes to sit outside and drink coffee at. It's just the right size, not small enough that everyone knows each other but not so big that you feel lost or like 'just another person in the mix'. The teachers at my school are simply wonderful. They've been amazing, and I don't feel like I can begin to cover how great they all have been and how at home they've made me feel. Every single one of them is kind, welcoming, eager to get to know me, friendly, helpful, and nice. The eleventh grade students took me out to coffee today and talked to me the whole time. I was amazed at how good their English was. I couldn't ask for a better school and town or have picked a more perfect fit for me if I choose it myself. As far as PC assignments go I know I lucked out. I really hope everyone else in my Training Class feels the same way though. :-) I'm so freaking excited about getting here in a month and a half. Now I feel like I have incentive to learn Bulgarian. I want to be able to learn about the people here as much as they want to learn about me. It's amazing. I'm in shock.

I found out where I’m going to be for the next 2 years the other day. It’s a medium sized town in the north center of Bulgaria. The name of the town is Byala Slatina. I’ll be working at an agriculture specialty school. I’m so excited to see it. There’s another volunteer from my group that’s going to be living in the same town as me. Her name is Sehee. She’s really fun and I’m really excited about her being close to me! I’m going to live on the campus of the school in a boarding house. The school has a fitness center, a summer swimming pool, a garden patch, and a hotel/boarding house. They seem super friendly and I can’t wait to meet all the English teachers and the staff.

I’m loving it right now. I’ve spent the past two days with all the volunteers in sessions but also hanging out. It’s amazing how quickly you can make close friends. I feel like I’ve known these people forever. They are so supportive and we all understand what each other is going through. It’s incredible how much you can bond through common experiences. I feel like I don’t know the Volunteers at all, and yet I know them so well and can talk to any of them and hang out with any of them. It's really nice to hang out with these amazing people. We all are so different, but have the same empathetic spirit and desire to do something good. I'm so fortunate to know them.

The language is so challenging. I'm going to have to learn much, much more before I go to my site permanently.

Oh the tiredness...

Today marks the end of my 4th week in Bulgaria. I can't believe it. It seems like I've been here for at least 3 months already, although my language skills show that I haven't. I think when you're in a new culture it takes at least twice as long to process and get through anything. I've been given just enough assignments to fill each day, don't speak the language of most of the people around me, and learn (or try to) lots of new language everyday add that all together and you get one tired Krista. Today in Bulgarian language classes I actually nodded off. I couldn't believe it. We also had our first observation while teaching today which was stressful. I'm going to blame the nodding off on stress. Yup, it was the stress. I think my language trainer just laughed at me because of it. They decide on our sites tomorrow and we'll find out where we'll be for the next two years on Monday. Then we'll go visit for a week. I can't believe training is half over with. I feel like I have so much more to learn.

Well done

Today I had coffee with one of my students. She is really nice and speaks very, very, very little English. So that was challenging, but we ended up talking about what sports we like, our brothers and sisters, and I said that when my Bulgarian is better we should do it again. She's a 7th grader and she asked me to coffee. It made my day. The 7th grade is my favorite class. There are 28 of them and it's the biggest class by far. They are only supposed to have 25 in language classes, but 2 people came in mid-semester and they didn't want to have to split the class. They are completely out of control half the time (or what we would call out of control in the states) and loud and always seeking attention. But I love them because they respond; they are interactive; if you give them positive attention they respond positively everytime. They may be loud, noisy, and rowdy but they aren't disrespectful (unless they're testing your boundaries) and they give you immediate results. Teaching is going well but I have alot to learn. There is a volunteer at our school, Andy, and he is completely helpful. It's really nice to have him there and see what he's done that's worked and what hasn't. We went out of our little country town this past week for 2 days and as we were riding the bus back I was thinking how nice it would be to get back. Then I saw our town and sighed and smiled. It was a nice realization that this does feel like home in a way, and that it feels nice to come back here after being away for a few days. There are other volunteers in smaller towns and some in bigger, some with better schools, all with more behaved students.

This next week we will interview for our permanent sites...it's kinda nerve racking. We have so much to do this week and next. We are pretty much chocked full to the gills with things to do for all of training. It makes learning the language much tougher. But it's coming. I've gotta go eat until I feel like you could roll me to bed and hear from my host mom how little i ate. I think this is the only country where you can eat enough for 5 people and then have the person feeding complain that you never eat anything. Alas I am well fed.

Oh wow.

So I've been here for two weeks...well I've been gone for two weeks. I've been in my small town for one week and in Bulgaria for a week and a half. I'm starting to notice culture differences, which is good. There are a lot of things that seem the same on the surface, but aren't really the same at all once you get down to it. I started teaching yesterday and will have my first full class on Wednesday. So far I've taught 7th graders. They are loud and crave attention, but I really enjoy them. They are eagar to learn and aren't apathetic yet. I think I'm starting to come down with something though. So let's hope it's just a sore throat and that it'll be gone by Monday.

Let me give you a basic run-down of my schedule:
between 6:30 and 7 am Wake-Up
8 am Meet the other Volunteers at the cafe and drink coffee and walk to school
8:30 Get to school and prep for class
9- 11:30 We teach English
12:30- 1:30 Lunch at "home"
1:30 -4:30 Bulgarian Language Class
5:30- 7 Read and study
around 9 pm we eat dinner
i go to bed before 11 every night.

Needless to say I'm glad it's the weekend! Now, I'm going to go rest. :-)

I'm in Bulgaria!

As Jeff stares over my shoulder I write this to tell everyone that I'm safe, I have a new apartment and a host mom to go with it, I have 40 new friends, and that I can say basic phrases in Bulgarian. I don't have long; we just got done eating at Ben's house and we have to go back for more language and training stuff. I'm in a small mining village between Sofia and Dupnitsa. It's beautiful and all the people know each other even though there are about 6 or 7,000 people here. There are 3 other volunteers in the village with me: Josh (from Columbus), Ben, and Jeff. Yes, back to the Tech ratio. I don't mind that a bit. I miss you all and I hope that you're doing well. Send me emails and mail! I'd love to hear from you. I have pretty good access to the internet, so I should be able to check and write back weekly.

I'm leaving TODAY!

I'm so excited! Yes, our flight might be canceled. Yes, we have to sit in the first airport for 5 hours. Yes, we have to sit in the second airport for 4 hours. Yes, it's pouring outside. Yes, I have way too much and way to heavy luggage. BUT I'm still really excited!! I'll miss you all terribly though.

I really like all the people I met here. They're all so different but so similar. There's the quiet guy or two. I'm the crazy girl, I have a feeling. We have the thoughtful few and the ones who kinda go along for the ride. And I like them all; that's the best thing.

Two Days, Too People, To Parents

I can barely stop myself from running outside and jumping around (the cold rain is a good deterrent though). The four glasses of sweet tea may have something to do with it, but I'm sure my exuberant abundance of excitement about leaving in less than Two Days is the main cause. I can't believe it. I mean that phrase very literally; it is very hard for me to grasp and believe that in two days I will be on a plane and gone from Atlanta for over two years. In the past weeks I've come to realize how much I love ATL. I always knew that I enjoyed the city and never minded living in it, but I feel like Atlanta is home. I'll miss it while I'm away; I missed it even when I was only an hour away.

My parents are being hysterical, well hysterically funny. My mom tries to dramatize every moment. Tuesday night we're all watching TV and she blurts out "Krista! This is the LAST Tuesday night you'll be watching TV with your parents! *fake sob* *fake sob*." Then, as we leave for church, "Krista! This is the LAST time you're going to church with us!! *gasp* (as she swoons with her arm on her forehead)." It's better than crying and funnier than moping. My dad is reserved, but very intent on saying "Bye, I love you!" every time he or I leave the house.

Packing isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. And yes, I did make an Excel spreadsheet and already pre-packed just to make sure everything would fit. But I was still debating exactly what to bring (and I kinda still am). It's been much easier to start weeding things down though. I have one bag entirely packed; it's like a heaven for vacuum bags. I had some stuff, like my amazing 5 pound buckwheat pillow that I love like a child, that I just couldn't take. Then there was some more stuff that now fit since I wasn't taking the other stuff. All in all I've just got a ton of stuff, actually only about 100 pounds of stuff but that's still alot.

The Final Steps

So I've taken care of almost everything. I have my plane ticket for Philadelphia (that's where staging is going to take place) on Friday the 13th (such an ominous day). I've paid all my bills that can be paid right now. I'm starting to see all my friends and family and slowly say "See you later" (because I don't say "good-bye's" unless I know I'll never see you again). Everything is starting to fall into place and feel taken care of. As the day to leave approaches I feel much more calm and ready, which is odd 'cause I certainly thought I'd be flipping out or at least more stressed with each day instead of less.
I've gotten a lot of questions about some of the details so here's some explaining: Friday the 13th, I'll fly to Philly and start Staging. Staging is a two-day orientation to the Peace Corps in general, not the specific country, for all of the Trainees (PCT's) for Bulgaria. There will be about 40 PCT's in my group. Sunday the 15th (it's just not as fun to say as Friday the 13th), all of us will bus over to NYC for our flight to Bulgaria. It'll take a full day of flying with a lay over in Germany to get us to Sofia, Bulgaria. The first four days in Bulgaria we (the 40ish PCT's) will be at a hotel getting some primary training before moving in with our host families. The fourth day, or maybe the fifth, we will meet our host families and go with them. I'll live with a host family in a medium-sized town for the first three months. There will be 4 to 5 other PCT's in the same town as me with other families. Training is three months of intensive language learning, culture adaptation, skill training, and just time to deal with all the things that you don't expect to have to deal with. About 10ish weeks into training I'll find out what town/village/community I'll be in for the next two years. So, just to re-cap, I don't know where I'm going to be living within Bulgaria for the two years and won't for the next few months. The address I have is only for while I'm in training for the first 3 months.
I'll be teaching English as a foreign language to High Schoolers once I finish training. I really can't wait. Each day I get more and more excited and anticipatory. I'll be in Atlanta this Friday and Saturday if you would like to get together just call me. I'll be in Athens later today, that's a little bit shorter notice, but same thing goes. I'm also going to Eggs in the Easy for Easter weekend and I'm sure I'll get to catch most people there. Only two and a half weeks left!

Address!!! Only 4 weeks left!

My address for the first 10-12 weeks in Bulgaria is:

Krista Greiner , PCT
Zora Community Center
2 Nikolaevska Str., Floor 3
2600 DUPNITSA
BULGARIA

I would love letters and I'm really good at writing back! I will also have intermittent access to email.

I started the initial packing stuff last night. I made an excel spreadsheet of everything I'd like to take and which bag it will go in. I also paired all the different outfit combinations by letter and number. There are over 125 different pairings... obviously I went to Georgia Tech. Then I tried to put all the stuff in the bags... not as easy as making a spreadsheet. My backpack was completely full to overflowing with only half the stuff in it and my other bag had room to spare. My goal is to get most of the weight into the backpack and not touch it until I get settled in Bulgaria. I'm hoping that vacuum bags make a huge difference.
What am I trying to pack in these bags? Here's a list so far:
16 shirts
2 sweaters
2 dresses
3 skirts
3 pairs of pants
2 pairs of shorts
2 scarf sets
2 sets of workout clothes
2 pairs of long johns
1 sweatshirt
3 jackets
compact sleeping bag
fleece blanket
5 pairs of shoes
toiletries for 3 months
1 set of T-shirt sheets
6 books
assortment of my favorite teas
a photo album
2 chef's knives
assortment of Thai and Mexican cooking spices
That's all in 2 bags whose measurements can add up to no more that 105" and each bag can weigh no more that 50 lbs. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it goes :-)

Why do they have to have titles?

I mean really. Does it have to have a label? I'm not so big on the labeling.
I just watched a bunch of videos and filled journal entries out about labeling people. Really I think it was supposed to be about quesitons you could be asked while you're serving, but aren't those questions really just so we can label each other?
Anyway...
It's almost a month exactly before I leave. I'm getting so excited and nervous. I have no idea what to pack, how much to pack, what to pack in... I'm trying to learn the Bulgarian Alphabet (it's Cyrillic) and boy that's exciting. I'm also starting to realize I have to say bye to everyone. I don't like good-byes so I usually just make it a "see you later" and don't have to worry about it. But this is for a little bit longer than normal, so I'll just have to see how I do.

The Six Weeks

There are six weeks left before I leave. If you'd like to stay updated on how and where I am and what I'm doing then this is the spot for you. I'm horrible about posting things, so I'm sorry if this doesn't meet your expectations for frequency of posts, but it's all I've got.


I'm feeling: loved, thankful, happy
and thinking: OMG six weeks and Amanda's already gone!!!!