Check out this extremely cool link. You'll like it.
-Age
Showing posts with label awesome things i get to do as a peace corps volunteer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label awesome things i get to do as a peace corps volunteer. Show all posts
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
I'm Like Your Grandma, Only Without the Knitting Needles
I'm sitting here, waiting patiently for Spring. With Spring comes, not only sunshine and warmer weather, but all the things I miss and love about being a volunteer here in Bulgaria: my volleyball team, my adult English course with the best Bulgarian ladies EVER, and the ability to exercise and not feel like a hybernating bear.
Though, there are a surprising number of things going on currently that I'm pretty darn excited about. First, I'm a Co-Secondary Organizer (Official title. Fancy, right?) of the International Writing Olympics here in The Bulge. Several countries from this neck of the wordly woods are competing and Bulgaria is participating for the first time. Which means, we're kind of new at this. Vaune, the coordinator, basically our boss, is an amazing volunteer who has taken-on this project with gumption and only minor skepticism. She has delegated to Megan (the other Co-SO) the task of collecting 21 prizes for the first round of the competition. Things started off slow - like us planning a trip to Sofia with letters written in English and Bulgarian asking major bookstores and publishers to donate to our event only to find that all the bookstores were closed - no one is interested in reading on Saturdays, apparently. But, after the PC office promised us old Bulgarian-English dictionaries and the amazing Valya gave me the email to a woman at the embassy who has already started looking for other prizes for us, things are looking up!
The event takes place this Thursday and I have some students from the local high school interested. Though I've taken on a bit too much lately and haven't been able to make my way over there in awhile, I hope that more students have decided to sign-up and I'll have some seriously great essays to take with me to Sofia for judging in just a few short weeks. Then, it's on to the the International part of the competition (which means our work is pretty much over and the more exciting aspect of the competition begins!)
Also, some more awesome volunteers are coordinating a spelling bee for Bulgaria and I and my counterpart, Reni, are participating. I am working with not only my school, but a school in a neighboring village becuase the English teacher there had a PC volunteer at one time and is still very intersted in the things we do, naturally. We've decided to have our own practice SB between the two schools at the end of February and then move on the the regional aspect of the competition in late March. Eventually, our best students will wind-up in Sofia to compete nationally. I'm pretty excited about this as I have some pretty amazing 2nd and 6th graders (as well as one stupidly smart 4th grader) who I feel will go really far. The list of words for each grade is long - 250 words - but I know they can do it, I've got some smarties.
Being a teacher here in BG is exhausting. So exhausting that I've been abbreviating for some time now, I'm sure you've noticed. Also, I'm too lazy to spell-check and find out if "abbreviate" has two b's or not. I go to bed at 9:00pm. Like an old lady or a 3rd-grader. I'm either 9 or 79 depending on whether I drink apple juice or warm milk before falling asleep. Don't judge me.
Anyway, like I said, I'm sitting here, waiting not so patiently for Spring. It snowed today. Snow, I'm beginning to really despise you. Though, I recently bought (or PC bought) a ton of wood for my pechka (stove) to keep me warm over the next couple months - as soon as I get a key to the garage it's locked away in, I'll be warm and toasty. Mmmmm, toast. I'm gonna go make some. Ciao.
Wait! I also recently found out I'm going home to the States for a two-week vaca in June!!! I'm so excited that 3 exclamation points really don't feel sufficient so...
! x Infinity = my excitement (it's probably algebra and can't be debated. Math never lies, I'm that excited.)
-Age
Though, there are a surprising number of things going on currently that I'm pretty darn excited about. First, I'm a Co-Secondary Organizer (Official title. Fancy, right?) of the International Writing Olympics here in The Bulge. Several countries from this neck of the wordly woods are competing and Bulgaria is participating for the first time. Which means, we're kind of new at this. Vaune, the coordinator, basically our boss, is an amazing volunteer who has taken-on this project with gumption and only minor skepticism. She has delegated to Megan (the other Co-SO) the task of collecting 21 prizes for the first round of the competition. Things started off slow - like us planning a trip to Sofia with letters written in English and Bulgarian asking major bookstores and publishers to donate to our event only to find that all the bookstores were closed - no one is interested in reading on Saturdays, apparently. But, after the PC office promised us old Bulgarian-English dictionaries and the amazing Valya gave me the email to a woman at the embassy who has already started looking for other prizes for us, things are looking up!
The event takes place this Thursday and I have some students from the local high school interested. Though I've taken on a bit too much lately and haven't been able to make my way over there in awhile, I hope that more students have decided to sign-up and I'll have some seriously great essays to take with me to Sofia for judging in just a few short weeks. Then, it's on to the the International part of the competition (which means our work is pretty much over and the more exciting aspect of the competition begins!)
Also, some more awesome volunteers are coordinating a spelling bee for Bulgaria and I and my counterpart, Reni, are participating. I am working with not only my school, but a school in a neighboring village becuase the English teacher there had a PC volunteer at one time and is still very intersted in the things we do, naturally. We've decided to have our own practice SB between the two schools at the end of February and then move on the the regional aspect of the competition in late March. Eventually, our best students will wind-up in Sofia to compete nationally. I'm pretty excited about this as I have some pretty amazing 2nd and 6th graders (as well as one stupidly smart 4th grader) who I feel will go really far. The list of words for each grade is long - 250 words - but I know they can do it, I've got some smarties.
Being a teacher here in BG is exhausting. So exhausting that I've been abbreviating for some time now, I'm sure you've noticed. Also, I'm too lazy to spell-check and find out if "abbreviate" has two b's or not. I go to bed at 9:00pm. Like an old lady or a 3rd-grader. I'm either 9 or 79 depending on whether I drink apple juice or warm milk before falling asleep. Don't judge me.
Anyway, like I said, I'm sitting here, waiting not so patiently for Spring. It snowed today. Snow, I'm beginning to really despise you. Though, I recently bought (or PC bought) a ton of wood for my pechka (stove) to keep me warm over the next couple months - as soon as I get a key to the garage it's locked away in, I'll be warm and toasty. Mmmmm, toast. I'm gonna go make some. Ciao.
Wait! I also recently found out I'm going home to the States for a two-week vaca in June!!! I'm so excited that 3 exclamation points really don't feel sufficient so...
! x Infinity = my excitement (it's probably algebra and can't be debated. Math never lies, I'm that excited.)
-Age
Friday, February 4, 2011
Attitude Adjustment
To be quite honest, I haven’t been enjoying teaching much. There are a lot of reasons and I don’t really want to get into them all (plus, I’ve already whined about this) but I’ve been having a difficult time finding the motivation I need. It seems that I simply can’t wait to leave my village on the weekends and meet up with other volunteers. I try not to do it too much but my weekend’s quickly fill up and I so look forward to the end of the week. This is beginning to worry me. I’m here not simply to help, I’m here for the experience as well. But I’m not gonna experience much in terms of Bulgarian life and culture if I’m not a part of it, right?
After the flu vacation and my many days off from school, I did not want to go back. I wanted to stay in bed and be lazy and pretend that I didn’t have any responsibility here. I mean, who would miss me really? I team-teach every class so it isn’t as if the students would be left without an English teacher. The Bulgarians I tutor were getting on just fine a few months ago without me. Volleyball isn’t going to define the futures of the young girls in my village. And my school’s fully capable of collecting money and supplies when needed. Who would miss me?
But, I got out of bed. I went to school. And all my students, all my little monsters, greeted me with big smiles, with English “Hello, Miss Hadaway, how are you?”’s, with “happy birthday”’s, and made it perfectly obvious that they did in fact miss me. There are some students who could care less about whether or not I’m there and those students are louder. They used to grab my attention with more frustrating strength but now I know that most of my students are sweet and kind and benefitting from my presence. It felt good.
Not only that, I had my friend, Marietta, and her husband, Angel, over for dinner to celebrate my birthday and they immediately began to fix every problem I had in the place. They showed me how to make a fire, offered to find me wood to last the rest of winter, unfroze my pipes so I could shower (hallelujah!), and changed the breakers so that I’d stop losing electricity. She also said that I should come for dinner at her house once a week and sleepover – it’ll be fun and more warm, she says. They are always taking such good care of me.
It’s good to be back.
I’m still running around and planning to meet volunteers in various places but I’ve decided to try and spend more time in my village because there are some amazing people here and the relationships I’ve made are real and worth the struggles. I’m blessed. I’ve been trying to foster this attitude for months knowing it was somewhere inside of me and I think I’ve finally found it. I’m going to focus on the good and exciting things that are happening (like the National Spelling Bee and International Writing Olympics!) and really enjoy the rest of this school year.
-Age
After the flu vacation and my many days off from school, I did not want to go back. I wanted to stay in bed and be lazy and pretend that I didn’t have any responsibility here. I mean, who would miss me really? I team-teach every class so it isn’t as if the students would be left without an English teacher. The Bulgarians I tutor were getting on just fine a few months ago without me. Volleyball isn’t going to define the futures of the young girls in my village. And my school’s fully capable of collecting money and supplies when needed. Who would miss me?
But, I got out of bed. I went to school. And all my students, all my little monsters, greeted me with big smiles, with English “Hello, Miss Hadaway, how are you?”’s, with “happy birthday”’s, and made it perfectly obvious that they did in fact miss me. There are some students who could care less about whether or not I’m there and those students are louder. They used to grab my attention with more frustrating strength but now I know that most of my students are sweet and kind and benefitting from my presence. It felt good.
Not only that, I had my friend, Marietta, and her husband, Angel, over for dinner to celebrate my birthday and they immediately began to fix every problem I had in the place. They showed me how to make a fire, offered to find me wood to last the rest of winter, unfroze my pipes so I could shower (hallelujah!), and changed the breakers so that I’d stop losing electricity. She also said that I should come for dinner at her house once a week and sleepover – it’ll be fun and more warm, she says. They are always taking such good care of me.
It’s good to be back.
I’m still running around and planning to meet volunteers in various places but I’ve decided to try and spend more time in my village because there are some amazing people here and the relationships I’ve made are real and worth the struggles. I’m blessed. I’ve been trying to foster this attitude for months knowing it was somewhere inside of me and I think I’ve finally found it. I’m going to focus on the good and exciting things that are happening (like the National Spelling Bee and International Writing Olympics!) and really enjoy the rest of this school year.
-Age
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Apparently I Enjoy Doing the Dishes Which Has Me Worrying for My Sanity...and Really Happy to Actually Have Clean Mugs in the Mornings
So, integration is a big part of Peace Corps. We are supposed to get to know the people in our villages, make friends, spend time with them and plan all kinds of na gosti’s (visits). I haven’t really done a whole lot of that. I get to know people, for sure. I’ve made friends, don’t get me wrong. I think most of my colleagues like me alright but na gosti’s are not popping up everywhere for me like they are for some volunteers. It seems to be more popular to go for coffee or have dinner at the (really nice) restaurant in town than to spend time in people’s homes. I don’t mind this at all, however, I feel more comfortable in that type of setting anyway. I also enjoy the occasional weekend where I never leave my apartment at all and really hope no one calls to “hodi na restorant.”
But, it can get a bit boring.
Hence the highlight of my evening a few days ago when, after eating a meal of boiled beans (cuz my culinary skills are sadly lacking), I saw a bean on the table and exclaimed to no one in particular,
“Hey! A stray bean! What’ya think you’re doing?”
And I ate it.
And then there’s the fact that I’ve come to look forward to washing my dishes. I actually enjoy it. To the point where I save them, waiting until the time is just right so I can savor the act of scrubbing while listening to my ipod and hoping that my neighbors can’t actually hear me singing through the walls while also thinking that it’s probably a bit of a treat for them as I sound pretty damn good (I don’t). I’ve also started to eat less in an attempt to not put on the weight of a hibernating bear which has seriously deteriorated my dish-count (though, sadly, not my waistline) making the evening ritual shorter than I’d like. Who would’ve thought that would be a downside to dieting? Certainly not me.
But what else is there to do when I’ve already given myself 20 minutes to come up with the cleverest facebook post I can think of to express my day and another hour or two jumping from skype chats to blog posts.
Not to say I don’t work (in case PC staff is reading this and judging the use of my seemingly immense amounts of free time). I do. Though, it’s slowed down as things have gotten colder and people are beginning to nestle down into their winter habits which are, as yet, unknown to me. I don’t know what my Bulgarian winter habits are either – though it’s clear they involve cleanliness… which is next to godliness… which may make me the God of winter, but only in Bulgaria. Which is cool.
I’ve also found it hard to work at home. Without the motivation of others working alongside me, it’s difficult to get excited about daily lesson planning. Sometimes I stay at school and work in my classroom or the teacher’s lounge but it’s just as lonely there as the teachers at my school book it the second school is over. My counterpart has a second job teaching at another school in town (not just English but math and music as well) and can’t stay after school to plan with me though the team effort would be nice. I sometimes wish there was another volunteer in my village to work with, bounce ideas off of, and bitch to but I also understand the importance of being a part of the community as opposed to a separate…commodity? I don’t know.
Anyway, I’ve started a Volunteer Committee with about a dozen students from my school (though I'm sure, like everything else I start, the numbers will dwindle to only the truly serious ones). Our first meeting will be this Friday which also kicks off the beginning of our clothes drive. I sent home fliers (in Bulgarian as the super nice lady at the internet club helped me write it) to the students to give to their parents asking for old clothes and shoes. Then the students helped me to decorate a Christmas box in order to put the clothing in and we’ll be making some fun posters tomorrow in technology class (my counterpart teaches this as well – she’s a busy lady). The kids are already pretty excited and talking about the bags of clothes they plan to bring.
I’ll then be making a slideshow of the children we’ll be donating these clothes to as another volunteer is collecting for the students in her orphanage and asked us all for help - she sent me photos of her students to add to my slideshow. I want to show the students where their generosity is going and, hopefully, take the students in the Volunteer Committee with me to donate the clothes in person and maybe even meet some of the other children. That would be asking a lot of everyone involved and I’m not sure if my school or kids are ready for that but I’m willing to give it a try.
What I’m not sure of, is what to do afterward. I want to show the students, and their parents, that I care and appreciate what they’ve done, show them that giving and thinking of others is truly important, but I don’t know how to go about that. A thank you letter might be nice but I thought maybe something more. Hmmmmmm. If you have any ideas, let me know!
That’s all. Love ya.
-Age
But, it can get a bit boring.
Hence the highlight of my evening a few days ago when, after eating a meal of boiled beans (cuz my culinary skills are sadly lacking), I saw a bean on the table and exclaimed to no one in particular,
“Hey! A stray bean! What’ya think you’re doing?”
And I ate it.
And then there’s the fact that I’ve come to look forward to washing my dishes. I actually enjoy it. To the point where I save them, waiting until the time is just right so I can savor the act of scrubbing while listening to my ipod and hoping that my neighbors can’t actually hear me singing through the walls while also thinking that it’s probably a bit of a treat for them as I sound pretty damn good (I don’t). I’ve also started to eat less in an attempt to not put on the weight of a hibernating bear which has seriously deteriorated my dish-count (though, sadly, not my waistline) making the evening ritual shorter than I’d like. Who would’ve thought that would be a downside to dieting? Certainly not me.
But what else is there to do when I’ve already given myself 20 minutes to come up with the cleverest facebook post I can think of to express my day and another hour or two jumping from skype chats to blog posts.
Not to say I don’t work (in case PC staff is reading this and judging the use of my seemingly immense amounts of free time). I do. Though, it’s slowed down as things have gotten colder and people are beginning to nestle down into their winter habits which are, as yet, unknown to me. I don’t know what my Bulgarian winter habits are either – though it’s clear they involve cleanliness… which is next to godliness… which may make me the God of winter, but only in Bulgaria. Which is cool.
I’ve also found it hard to work at home. Without the motivation of others working alongside me, it’s difficult to get excited about daily lesson planning. Sometimes I stay at school and work in my classroom or the teacher’s lounge but it’s just as lonely there as the teachers at my school book it the second school is over. My counterpart has a second job teaching at another school in town (not just English but math and music as well) and can’t stay after school to plan with me though the team effort would be nice. I sometimes wish there was another volunteer in my village to work with, bounce ideas off of, and bitch to but I also understand the importance of being a part of the community as opposed to a separate…commodity? I don’t know.
Anyway, I’ve started a Volunteer Committee with about a dozen students from my school (though I'm sure, like everything else I start, the numbers will dwindle to only the truly serious ones). Our first meeting will be this Friday which also kicks off the beginning of our clothes drive. I sent home fliers (in Bulgarian as the super nice lady at the internet club helped me write it) to the students to give to their parents asking for old clothes and shoes. Then the students helped me to decorate a Christmas box in order to put the clothing in and we’ll be making some fun posters tomorrow in technology class (my counterpart teaches this as well – she’s a busy lady). The kids are already pretty excited and talking about the bags of clothes they plan to bring.
I’ll then be making a slideshow of the children we’ll be donating these clothes to as another volunteer is collecting for the students in her orphanage and asked us all for help - she sent me photos of her students to add to my slideshow. I want to show the students where their generosity is going and, hopefully, take the students in the Volunteer Committee with me to donate the clothes in person and maybe even meet some of the other children. That would be asking a lot of everyone involved and I’m not sure if my school or kids are ready for that but I’m willing to give it a try.
What I’m not sure of, is what to do afterward. I want to show the students, and their parents, that I care and appreciate what they’ve done, show them that giving and thinking of others is truly important, but I don’t know how to go about that. A thank you letter might be nice but I thought maybe something more. Hmmmmmm. If you have any ideas, let me know!
That’s all. Love ya.
-Age
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Drinkin' Outta Cups
So, I recently went to a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with some lovely Bulgarian and Peace Corps friends and took some fun pics. We had a GREAT time - I missed family and friends from back home but Bulgarian Thanksgiving was uniquely fantastic and I'm excited to do it again next year. After Thanksgiving, we all traveled to our In-Service Training which was also a lot of fun as well as highly informative. I'm also giddy with excitement when I think that in just a few, short weeks I'll be celebrating Christmas in Varna and New Years in Italy!!! Does life get better than this? I don't think so. And one more thing: it's not snowing. (Well, not yet anyway)
We ate
We smiled
We cheered
We made awkward faces
We laughed
We ate some kick-ass cake (thanks, Evan!)
We played Dirty Mind (of course)
We were drinkin' outta cups (but not bein' a bitch)
It was a lovely time at Red-Headed Mary's!
-Age
Thursday, November 25, 2010
I Love Stalking(s)
Today I sent my mom a text message saying, “I have some ideas for my stalking list: black hair rubber bands and new ear buds for my ipod," as my mom will be sending me a package full of Christmas goodies soon. I realized right before pushing “send” that I’d spelt it “stalking” instead of “stocking”. Oops. But, then I of course started to think about what would have been on my “stalking” list.
1) Binoculars (obviously)
2) Camouflage (or I could just make an outfit from those handy condoms PC gave us)
3) A new phone with an application that blocks my outgoing number
4) “How to Get a Restraining Order Appealed For Dummies” (it’s out there)
5) Snacks (stalking sometimes requires long hours with no lunch break – it takes real dedication)
I think that would make a nice starter kit, at least. Hmm, I can feel the entrepreneurial side of me responding to this idea, leave a comment below if you’d like to invest.
Also, tonight I went to the local children’s hospital to help my counterpart teach English to the students there. There are seven students, some with Down Syndrome, others with polio, and all super sweet and excited about English (what a nice change!). I plan on helping her out there a lot more in the future. There was a student with Down Syndrome who kept saying the word for “boobs” in Bulgarian while referencing mine and my counterparts. It was pretty hilarious and the other students couldn’t stop giggling…and neither could I. The word in Bulgarian, I now know, is similar to “Bambi” so I at first thought he was referencing the movie and was encouraging, saying things like, “Oh, Bambi, how nice. Do you like that movie?” My counterpart stopped me right there and corrected my mistake. Oops.
Also, our In-Service Training is starting soon and we’ll all be spending a few days together in Plovdiv! I’m very excited about this. My counterpart and I were asked to give a presentation on Team-Teaching that Monday about which I’m equal parts nervous and excited. We planned it out today and will be incorporating some videos we took of us teaching 2nd and 5th grades. We plan to end the presentation by showing our 5th grade boys making sexual gestures to the camera while we weren’t looking. It’s kinda hilarious. I’ll post that video on here soon – you’ll laugh, it can’t be helped.
But, before Plovdiv, I’ll be heading back up to the Vratsa area in order to celebrate Thanksgiving with some of my favorite volunteers. We’ll be cooking and eating traditional Thanksgiving meals (to the best of our ability) all day which just sounds heavenly. I can’t wait.
All in all, it’s gonna be a fun week! Happy Holidays!
-Age
1) Binoculars (obviously)
2) Camouflage (or I could just make an outfit from those handy condoms PC gave us)
3) A new phone with an application that blocks my outgoing number
4) “How to Get a Restraining Order Appealed For Dummies” (it’s out there)
5) Snacks (stalking sometimes requires long hours with no lunch break – it takes real dedication)
I think that would make a nice starter kit, at least. Hmm, I can feel the entrepreneurial side of me responding to this idea, leave a comment below if you’d like to invest.
Also, tonight I went to the local children’s hospital to help my counterpart teach English to the students there. There are seven students, some with Down Syndrome, others with polio, and all super sweet and excited about English (what a nice change!). I plan on helping her out there a lot more in the future. There was a student with Down Syndrome who kept saying the word for “boobs” in Bulgarian while referencing mine and my counterparts. It was pretty hilarious and the other students couldn’t stop giggling…and neither could I. The word in Bulgarian, I now know, is similar to “Bambi” so I at first thought he was referencing the movie and was encouraging, saying things like, “Oh, Bambi, how nice. Do you like that movie?” My counterpart stopped me right there and corrected my mistake. Oops.
Also, our In-Service Training is starting soon and we’ll all be spending a few days together in Plovdiv! I’m very excited about this. My counterpart and I were asked to give a presentation on Team-Teaching that Monday about which I’m equal parts nervous and excited. We planned it out today and will be incorporating some videos we took of us teaching 2nd and 5th grades. We plan to end the presentation by showing our 5th grade boys making sexual gestures to the camera while we weren’t looking. It’s kinda hilarious. I’ll post that video on here soon – you’ll laugh, it can’t be helped.
But, before Plovdiv, I’ll be heading back up to the Vratsa area in order to celebrate Thanksgiving with some of my favorite volunteers. We’ll be cooking and eating traditional Thanksgiving meals (to the best of our ability) all day which just sounds heavenly. I can’t wait.
All in all, it’s gonna be a fun week! Happy Holidays!
-Age
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Awesome Things I Get To Do ('Get To' Being My Optimistic Spin On Things)
I have a lot of projects in the works right now. I'm trying to get as much done as possible before the winter hits and everything and everyone slows down. I still struggle with teaching as a team and trying to control a classroom full of undisciplined yet sweet and fun-loving students but I feel like that will get easier with time so I'm going to branch out and make this busy life even busier.
In a couple short weeks I'll be conducting a Halloween Fair at my school. Every student will be given the opportunity to skip their last period and join me and several other teachers who have volunteered their time to play games, carve pumpkins, bob for apples, eat tons of candy, and win awesome prizes. And, of course, dress up! The students seem to be most excited about the opportunity to wear costumes to school. The thing is, it's seems that every student I talk to is going to be...Pippy Longstalkings. I've fascinated to find out the reason why so many students have this costume. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Pippy. What girl who grew up in the 80's doesn't? But why? That's all I want to know. Why?
My adult English class is going strong as well. We're about halfway through the lengthy lessons I have planned and my students are staying positive and punctual. We've moved that class up a half an hour and cut it down from 2 ½ hours to only 2 because it's getting dark so soon but we should be finished by early December. I'm excited to see how their language progresses. I don't get the impression they practice at home much but, hey, neither do my students. Not to mention, I can't remember the last time I practiced Bulgarian at home. That's one of my winter plans, to really buckle down and increase my language skills because they have not got much better since the end of PST and I'm a little worried.
-Age
In a couple short weeks I'll be conducting a Halloween Fair at my school. Every student will be given the opportunity to skip their last period and join me and several other teachers who have volunteered their time to play games, carve pumpkins, bob for apples, eat tons of candy, and win awesome prizes. And, of course, dress up! The students seem to be most excited about the opportunity to wear costumes to school. The thing is, it's seems that every student I talk to is going to be...Pippy Longstalkings. I've fascinated to find out the reason why so many students have this costume. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Pippy. What girl who grew up in the 80's doesn't? But why? That's all I want to know. Why?
My adult English class is going strong as well. We're about halfway through the lengthy lessons I have planned and my students are staying positive and punctual. We've moved that class up a half an hour and cut it down from 2 ½ hours to only 2 because it's getting dark so soon but we should be finished by early December. I'm excited to see how their language progresses. I don't get the impression they practice at home much but, hey, neither do my students. Not to mention, I can't remember the last time I practiced Bulgarian at home. That's one of my winter plans, to really buckle down and increase my language skills because they have not got much better since the end of PST and I'm a little worried.
I've also recently started a girls' volleyball team. We practice every Thursday afternoon in the recently refurbished gym next to our school. There are almost 20 girls which is entirely too many but I have a feeling the numbers will dwindle when they realize they actually have to take this seriously. The first practice was absolute chaos. The teenage boys from our school had heard about it and wanted to “watch”. I didnt' believe that for a second and told them no but they snuck anyway and spent the first 30 minutes making my life hell. Eventually I found another teacher to yell at them in Bulgarian and make them leave. The children really are not used to being told what to do, they seem to assume that free reign is their priveledge so needless to say, they were pissed. It was kinda funny actually. I was then allowed to conduct practice. Oh, wait. No. My collection of 5th, 6th, and 7th grade girls decided they were going to conduct practice. They had no patience for my limited Bulgarian and decided to start a game on their own. I threw up my hands, told them they obviously didn't need me and that I would just watch and maybe go home since I was tired anyway. I watched for maybe 3 minutes as they smacked the ball towards the floor and each others' faces before they asked me to come back and coach them properly. I told them that if I saw anymore attitude, they could leave. The practice went smoothely from there. After an hour. Sigh. Hopefully next practice I'll be able to get the chaos controlled within the first 30 minutes. High hopes, I know.
I'll also be writing a request for 100 pounds of free books from an organization in the US I recently heard about. I'm pretty excited about this and hope to use these books to get my lower students back up to the appropriate level as well as to challenge my students who really go above and beyond (though there are far fewer of those students, unfortunately).
I'm hoping by December, or the first snowfall, whichever comes first, to have all of this checked off the list of Awesome Things I Get To Do As A Peace Corps Volunteer. And then I'll take a much needed break. I'm thinking Italy. Seriously, plans are being made and I may just spend the New Year in my favorite country!!! Cross your fingers that it all works out!
-Age
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