A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

Changing Seasons

The beginnings of autumn have come to Haskovo.  The deep green leaves have begun to brown, jeans and sweaters have replaced shorts and skimpier outfits on women, and construction workers throughout the city seemingly have picked up the pace so to finish their work before even cooler times come.  The bustling cafes throughout the center have begun to shift indoors.  You can see, smell and hear the change of season everywhere.

These last few weeks I’ve embraced celebrating the last of summer – which is odd since I honestly prefer fall.  With friends such as Barbara, Stan, Claire, Petia, Kalina, etc. all leaving – many of these have been going away parties.  Not all have been though.  (Pictured: One of the nicer hotels in Sunny Beach).

A few weeks ago, Haskovo celebrated itself with a week of festivities called “Den Na Haskovo” or Day of Haskovo.  September 8^th is actually the official day – but the week saw multiple concerts, museum exhibits, wrestling matches, a strong man competition, and the like.  On the 8^th, there was a performance by a national dance troupe and a concert by a pair of famous Bulgarian pop singers in a gorgeously renovated outdoor performance arena.  Afterwards I watched a fireworks display worthy of any 4^th of July in America go off directly over my head.  If you’ve never experienced seeing fireworks directly overhead, it’s truly something to behold – and avoid since all the ashes fell on us.  Once the fireworks were over we went to Egoist, one of our favorite café’s for drinks.  The evening ended by watching people dance on the bar which had been lit afire by the bartenders.

That night we were invited by some friends to go to the coast for the weekend, and so on a whim we headed to Sunny Beach (think Myrtle Beach – but a bit nicer) the next morning.  We met some other people who were already there and walked the strip and talked for hours.  Afterwards we hit a few discos and danced until 6 in the morning.  The friends who I went with are wonderful people and conversations were great.  Especially one woman who reminded me in so many ways what I want out of a woman and life in general without even realizing she was doing it.  Without getting into too much tedious details the combination of days, both Thursday and Friday, were probably the best I’ve had since coming here and even beyond.  Heck, I even met a different woman from Belarus who doesn’t speak any English (nor I Russian) and we’ve been emailing for the last couple weeks with the help of a free online translator. (Pictured left to right: Carol, Vladi, Galin, Svetla, Pavlina, me).

This past weekend I went to some Thracian ruins called Pepericon – basically a town on the site of the ancient Temple of Dionysus.  It was here that Alexander the Great received an oracle that he would conquer the world.  We went on a Sunday, so there were no real tour guides.  But we had a wonderful time climbing on and walking through the ruins.  There’s an ongoing excavation on the site but we didn’t really get into those parts.  As you can see, it was still rather warm out and that the views were phenomenal.

But these last summer flings have all been done with the fact that autumn is indeed coming.  I’ve begun to settle into my life here.  With school starting, my previously empty 9 story building has filled up with students.  I have to admit it’s nice to have neighbors even if they are loud and like to throw things out of their windows.  I’ve joined a choir, the “Radna Pecen” which competes (rather successfully, I might add) throughout Europe.  Next summer they plan on heading to Hungary.  It’s good to be singing again, I’ve always sung in choirs and it’s a bit of a stress reliever for me.  Plus this might be the best choir I’ve ever sung with.  Of course, I really need some more time to accurately judge it – but I like what I’ve seen so far. 

I’ve also had about 6-7 Bulgarian tutoring lessons.  I’m trying to have them about twice a week, and they do help.  My goal is to be able to speak the language as well as my friend Carol does after two years.  It takes a bit of motivation on my part since I know enough to get around and travel, whilst my job requires that I speak only English.  If I keep up on the tutoring, I’m sure that I’ll be more or less fluent in no time.  Plus I have to be able to impress any friends who might pass through with my mad language skills. (Pictured: Me and The Boys at Pepericon - as Carol calls them).

As of yesterday I finally, officially got my teaching schedule after asking for it for nearly 2 months.  Never mind that classes began a week and a half ago.  As many PCV’s say when asking why something is like it is here, “Its Bulgaria.”  I like my schedule though; I have an 11^th grade Literature class and otherwise mostly conversational English with varying classes.  Now I just need to find something for these kids to talk about all the time.  The early reports getting back to me are good though.  Apparently the students like me – which will hopefully go a long way to me being able to teach them.  I’m also starting to move past being the circus act in the staff room and to becoming just another teacher and hopefully (someday) someone who has my colleagues respect.

So life has begun to settle for me here, but the changes continue.  I can see the framework of my life for the next 9 months forming, and I like it.  Honestly, I still need to find start attending church – but hopefully I can start that this Sunday.  I also have a long list of secondary projects I want to work on – none of which I want to begin until my primary job of teaching is going smoothly. (Pictured: Carol and Petia).

I also continue to meet new people and have many friends leave.  For example, Carol – my long lost twin sister finishes up her service here in 3 weeks or so and will be returning to California.  It’s just another reminder of the change of the season...

Posted by: mjmarble at September 22, 2005 14:03 | link | comments (2)