A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

Fast Times in Haskovo

When reading other PCV's blogs prior to coming to Bulgaria I was always frustrated by extended periods of silence.  I vowed never to allow that to happen.  Of course the first week I finally have internet in my apartment and can actually begin posting again as I've wanted I don't make one single post.  Whenever talking to other people about posting entries to their blogs they make the comment that when nothing’s going on you have all the time in the world to post about nothing – and who wants to read that?  However, whenever you have things happening you usually don’t have the time to post.

 

The latter has been the case for me for more than the last week.  I vowed to get out and get to know as many people as possible, and rest assured that’s happened - almost to an excess.  A large portion of the people I’ve met are other internationals here in Haskovo.  It’s kinda funny, after being here just a small amount of time, you can spot the foreigners a kilometer away. 

 

One such foreigner is Barbara from The Netherlands (not Holland, there actually is a difference between the two).  She’s here on holiday and is investigating opening a business here in Bulgaria.  We’ve actually been virtually inseparable for the last week.  I don’t know who’s a worse influence on the other, but we’ve had a lot of fun meeting other people, chatting, closing down cafés/bar/discos, and generally staying out until the wee hours of the morning – many times watching the sunrise.

 

Other than Barbara, there’s Stan (aka Stanislav), a Bulgarian who Barbara started seeing this week after we met him a KDK (a nice café which has quickly become my neighborhood bar of sorts).  He’s actually going to college in New York and sometimes I think he speaks better English than I do.  Zdravko, another Bulgarian, is actually Barbara’s friend and has been wonderful to hang out with.  He was the one who first got me to go out – getting me to X (aka Exclusive – the best disco in town) on Retro night last week.

 

There are tons of other people I’ve met – I’ve easily managed to hold up to my goal of meeting at least one new Bulgarian a day.  People here are generally warm and friendly – but only after you’ve been introduced.  One thing the internationals in town have noticed is that if you’re not introduced many Bulgarians will ignore you; even if sitting next to you at a table of friends in a café. 

 

I guess the point of the rambling entry is that I think I’m blessed.  Haskovo itself is a beautiful town for the most part.  Well, at least by Bulgarian standards.  It’s large enough that there’s a fair amount to do and it has many people who come here to volunteer or occasionally visit from abroad.  I’ve spoke to a number of other volunteers and most of them are not getting out and meeting people as I have done.  Well, at least not to the degree I have.  Of course, this has a down side in that I’ve spent way too much money thus far.  But I also vowed to myself that I would take every opportunity to get out and about that presented itself.

 

That said, I’m truly enjoying life here.  My actual work is slow right now, but I’ll save that for another post.  I’ve included two pictures (finally!) this time.  The first is of myself (notice my PCV haircut) and Barbara.  It was taken from the enormous park (Kenana Park) whose main gate is but a 30 second walk from my front door.  We were entertained that evening by Stan as he played some Bulgarian songs mixed with a bit of Goo Goo Dolls on his guitar.  Outside of the mosquitoes it was a fabulous evening.  The second picture is one of my favorite pictures I’ve taken here.  It was from the field close to my host family’s house in Septemvri.  Now I'm off to pick up Erin, a PCV friend, from the bus station.  Later this evening we're dining with Claire, a french volunteer in town.  I'm looking forward to some wonderful home cooked French food.  Just another night here in Haskovo.

Posted by: mjmarble at July 23, 2005 12:19 | link | comments (5)

A bit of sunshine on a cloudy day...

It has been raining like cats and dogs here in Bulgaria for about 2 months now.  All over the country, but especially in the north, there's been quite a bit of flooding.  The Bulgarians I've spoken with have never seen a summer like this and are a bit perplexed and a lot frustrated by it all.  Just yesterday it rainned three times - with one being a downpour.  Already today, it's rained at least twice (if you don't count the multiple instances of drizzle) and the largest storms usually happen in the evening.

This has made navigating the center and major shopping district of Haskovo an adventure at times as flash streams appear down the sidewalks and streets.  Luckily for me, I purchased a pair of much needed and desired sandals earlier this week at the flee market for a wonderfully low 10 Leva.  Yes folks, with currency conversion, I paid approximately $7 US for a pair of sandals I'll be living in at least for the next few months.  This is the joy of being in a developing country.

Since I last wrote I've been rather busy doing a lot of seemingly nothingness.  But after a bit of retrospect, I'm actually amazed by all that I've accomplished.  Some of the best news is that as of Monday (barring any accident or intervention of monumental proportions) I should have high speed (yes, high speed) internet in my very own apartment.  This, along with the music I've brought with me, brings sanity to my corner of the world.  For everyone who happens to read these ramblings, this means (hopefully) better posts and (drumroll, please) pictures.  Given the cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words, this alone should cut down on the length and breath of my posts.  Ok, maybe not - but it was a thought.

Another thing I've done this week is spend quite a bit of time with my counterpart, Dimitar.  I feel badly for dragging him around with me as much as I have, but by his own admission he's extreemly bored this summer.  Remember the aforementioned rain?  It's been preventing him from doing any repair work on his house.  Regardless, he's been a blessing taking me from store to store, showing me many of the sites around Haskovo, helping me obtain that wonderful internet in my apartment, help me get my Lichna Carta (residency card - an adventure in beauracracy if I've ever seen it), etc.

And whenever I haven't been spending time with him, I've spent time with Ethan, another volunteer who is in the city to the north of me, Dimitrovgrad.  Luckily it's only a 10 minute bus ride so I get the feeling we'll be seeing quite a bit of each other the next two years.  Tomorrow a number of PCV's from this area (all from our group) will be getting together here and in Dimitrovgrad.  Ethan and I kinda threw it together and I'm actually surprised at how many people are coming.  It'll be good to hang out with other PCV's.  Even though it's only been a week since swearing in, it seems like forever in some ways.  I'm also excited since we'll be doing a movie exchange and I'll have new things to watch.

But I think one of the best things that has happened this past week was beginning to meet Bulgarians.  It's happening slowly, but it is happening.  Whilst working to get my Lichna Carta earlier this week, I met a Dutch woman, Barbara, and her Bulgarian friend Zdravko (all foreigners have to register at this office).  Well, Barbara is out visiting other friends right now, but Zdravko has turned out to be great.  I went out with him and his friends last night to one of the local discoteka's for retro night and had a blast.  He called today and we ended up hanging out briefly at one of the local swimming pools.  I suspect that I'll be seeing him (and Barbara - when she returns) quite a bit over the next few weeks.  There's a number of other people I've begun to meet, but I won't bore ya'll with the details.  Basically, it boils down to getting out and about is helping me to integrate rather quickly - much faster than I thought I would.  Heck, I even found out there's a choir in town I might join next fall after they get back from their break.

So, I'm in good spirits and enjoying life here.  I actually had a moment earlier today whilst having a lunch of chicken, rice, peas and bacon with Dimitar at a resturant watching the rain come down.  It dawned on my, quite suddenly actually, that I was going to make it here and that I would be successful.  It's a rather suprising thing to realize, actually.  It makes me look forward to the next two years in a way I hadn't before. 

Posted by: mjmarble at July 15, 2005 16:53 | link | comments (3)

First Night that wasn't and then was

I'm now an official Peace Corps Volunteer, (for all future refrences a PCV), after being sworn in Friday at a ceremony in Sophia.  It was presided over partly by the outgoing US Ambassador to Bulgaria and was surprisingly short.  The Bulgarian national news covered it, although I didn't see it later that night on the news.  The longest portion was actually the speach made, both in Bulgarian and English, by the speaker we elected from our class.  Annie did a wonderful job with her speach incorporating a recent trash collection crisis in Sophia with our becoming volunteers.  You'll just have to trust me that it work.  I'm not (too) ashamed to say that I didn't understand about 70% of her speach - her language learning skills seem to be otherworldly.  There's a reason we elected her.  After the ceremony I managed to meet up with my friend from my previous job at the bank and she gave me one of the best presents I've recieved in a long time - a jar of creamy JIF peanutbutter.  We made some arrangements to get together later this summer and head off to the beach to visit Kellen, another PCV, for a weekend.

During the trip back from Sophia to Pazardjik I realized I'd forgotten only one thing back at my host family's house - the keys to my apartment in Haskovo.  This meant I had to go back to Septemvri for Friday night to retrieve them.  Luckily for me, my host family was gracious enough to put me up for one more night.  Unfortunately, I felt bad for having to stay there another night.  Also, I felt terrible since I had made plans to help my friend, Erin, since we were travelling in the same general direction.  She had a lot of big heavy luggage and since I was travelling relatively light, due to my trip the previous week to my apartment.  So I felt horrible for having to bail on her.  So I spent on final night in Septemvri.

Luckily for me, my host brother, Zdravko was travelling to Plovdiv the next morning.  Even travelling light it's a treat not to have to lug bags onto trains and what have you.  So after catching a bus to Haskovo I finally arrived at my apartment about 11:00 yesterday morning.  The apartment was as I'd left it, but the building is empty sans me for the summer.  Let me tell you it's weird being in an otherwise empty block style apartment building.  That alone is going to add to the challenges I have this summer getting out and meeting people.  Another factor that will make the next few days a bit more difficult is that fact that all the other volunteers in Haskovo are elsewhere in the country for the next week or so.  There's no real problem with this, of course, I just had certain expectations coming here - that there might be a few friendly faces to make the transition a bit easier.  And that's not going to happen for a week or so now.

So yesterday, after emptying my bags and generally organizing all that I'd brought with me, I ventured out to the center for some lunch and a bit of shopping.  After an abortive attempt at a couple of dooners (aparently this particular stand ignores special requests for 'no sauce' - aka mayonese), I grabbed some kebache - basically spiced ground meat rolled into a link instead of being formed into a patty like a hamburger - and fries.  I then discovered the wonderous food bazaar and picked up my first groceries (tomatos, carrots and some fresh fruit) for my apartment and a broom.  After dropping them off at my apartment I ran to the supermarket (a real one which is a rarity here in Bulgaria) to make what I hope to be my largest single food purchase during my time here. 

Keeping with my mantra of not staying in my apartment I spent an hour or so outside watching some people play soccor and helped them throw rocks at the ball when it became stuck on the roof.  By the time they took off it was starting to get dark, so I obstensively  headed back into my big, dark empty concrete building to continue unpacking.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't lonely.  I questioned my sanity for coming here in the first place.  I also wondered how on earth I was going to get past this stage - because it just plain sucks.

I was saved last night by the mail I'd recieved from Lucy (a wonderful woman I know from TARflies).  She'd sent me copies of a number of shows I'd watched whilst still in America.  So last night it was a 'Lost' marathon where I managed to watch 4 episodes in one sitting, including the 2 hour finale.  Talk about intense, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that much 'Lost' in one sitting.  But then again the show's like a drug and you can't just stop watching.  I digress, having those helped me last night and took my mind off being lonely.  I owe Lucy a bouquet of flowers or something of the like.

So hopefully one of the more difficult days of my PC time has passed.  Whilst daunting, I'm sure it could have been much worse.  I reestablished contact with my counterpart here in Haskovo and have already had coffee with him today.  And I discovered this internet club, which will hopefully keep me going until later this week when I can (FINALLY) get internet in my apartment.  Life's looking up a bit more already.  Tomorrow I start the process of getting my offical documents to allow me to live and work in Bulgaria for the next year.  I'll drop another line when something of interest happens. 

Until then I just need to remember the words of wisdom from a few post back - beginnings are scary.  There's a really big middle I'm headed towards.

Posted by: mjmarble at July 10, 2005 12:36 | link | comments (5)

The best laid plans...

Ever since I was a little kid I've loved the Olympics.  I remember in 1984 when I was all of 9 years old taking every VHS tape in the house and recording every possible minute of the NBC coverage.  For years later my family would come across these tapes and ask me permission to finally tape over them, which I would reluctantly give.  I'm such a fan of it, besides watching endless hours of the games every few years, that I've taken to following the non sport Olympic news. 

So you can only imagine my excitement yesterday for the announcement of the host city for the 2012 Summer Games.  I have to say that I've long been rooting for London to win it, not just because I'm an Anglofile, and when they won I was as happy as if the Indians had won the World Series.  Ok, maybe not that excited, but you get the idea.  On a quick side note, I am just as horrified today regarding the attacks in there.

To me, the Olympics are all about dreams and their realization.  It's about hard work and setting goals which are achieved.  And of course it's all done with international flair, pomp, and wonderful goodwill.  Honestly, I've long held it as a goal to live and work in England, specifically London.  With the announcement yesterday I feel all the more committed to that long term goal.

But in the interim, I'm here in Bulgaria with my entire service in front of me.  I have many goals and aspirations for my time here; some personal, some professional, some just plain fun.  Now that I'm about to begin I want to lay these out here, not just for those who read but also as a log for myself.

When I get to Haskovo, I have only one simple goal for the summer: get out and about and do not stay at home in my apartment.  If I find my self there too much this summer I'm sure that the rest of my service will suffer, both mentally for myself as well as with the job and projects I hope to work on.  This may be the most difficult thing that I do and the scariest.  I mentioned two posts ago that this is the hardest point of my service - leaping off into the unknown in a truly foreign midsized city.  So I really want to get out and meet people and start off on the right foot.

I also want to really work hard with my primary job as a TEFL teacher in the language school.  I don't just want to show up and do my job, but rather I want to challenge the students and get more out of them.  In large part, my service here in Bulgaria will be defined by trying to make these students look beyond their own safe world to the larger one.  Why do they study English?  What do they hope to do with it?  Many, if not most of my projects will center around these questions.  My hope is to have an impact on these students and that they will work in a larger world then their parents, or even I, do.  This is how I hope to have an affect on the betterment of Bulgaria in the long term.  If they can get out and see the world at large, the can then take Bulgaria with them and eventually bring back good things to the country.

Along this vein, I want to really work with students on TOEFL, SAT, Cambridge Exams, and study abroad.  This includes helping them with essay writing in the American style and different teaching styles.  I'd like to try and work with those who want to apply to Universities in America and the UK.  I want to help the willing students achieve things that would otherwise be impossible for the simple fact that they might not know about them or be to shy to attempt.

There's a program through the French program in my school for an exchange for two weeks with students from Provence, France.  Luckily for me, I've already been invited on this excursion next summer.  Basically students from France come to Bulgaria to see and meet students who study French and the the Bulgarians go visit them and stay with them for two weeks.  I'd love to explore the possibility of innitiating this with a school in England for my students.

I also want to bring baseball to Haskovo, to everyone's surprise I'm sure.  There are a number of volunteers who are already doing this here and I'm already in contact with many of them.  It a good network to have since they can help with what has or has not worked in the past and where I can go to get the necessary equipment and such.

On a more personal note, I'd like to overcome those concerns and fears that I listed a few posts ago.  I want to continue to grow and challenge myself, my views and expectations.  I really want to have a successful PC experience which will help me not only get into a wonderful masters program but give me the habits and skills I'll need to succeed there. 

I had another volunteer tell me that I seemed lost in the beginning of training.  They said I seemed to be searching for something that I hadn't found yet.  Whilst I don't really know what she meant, I have to say that somehow I agree with her, if that makes any sense.  Of course she was the same volunteer who told me that I didn't seem like a smoker.  When pressed as to what type of person I seemed, she replied "a Christian" so maybe she was onto something there.  Hopefully I'll find that something that I don't know.

And that's it.  I'm sorry for any typo's since I'm using the worlds worst keyboard here in the internet club in Pazardjik.  I sincerely hope that I can achieve just half of what I set out to do. 

 

 

Posted by: mjmarble at July 07, 2005 16:39 | link | comments (2)

July 4th Fireworks

Tomorrow I'll have the other posting about goals and aspirations.  I just wanted to share what my Language Teacher, Vesi, and her husband did for us yesterday.  They bought fireworks and champagne for us to celebrate.  I can tell you it was really appriciated by everyone in our group, all of whom did have a twinge of homesickness.  It's funny, you don't realize how much you'll miss certain things until you don't have them.  Hopefully everyone had a happy and safe holiday.

Posted by: mjmarble at July 05, 2005 12:10 | link | comments (1)