And whilst I’m thinking of it, let me be a bit shameless.  With my big 31^st birthday less than a month away now, if anyone is looking for gift ideas feel free to get me a subscription to either Foreign Affairs or Foreign Policy.  Both can be viewed online, which is a heck of a lot easier then trying to mail them to me.  If that fails, Open Democracy is a cheaper alternative.  If it helps, think of it as helping me get ready for that great big beyond after PC.

Posted by: mjmarble at September 29, 2006 00:26 | link | comments

The past week...

Another busy week down, another one coming up.  This last week was my first real one of teaching.  All in all it was fairly uneventful.  I just went through the usual routine of expectations, grading, rules and the need for me to speak slower.  I gave them the right to throw something at me should I continuously talk too fast.  That line got laughs every time I used it.

I’m teaching 3 grades this year.  The first being 8^th class preps.  It was interesting to be greeted with wide eyed awe that I’d long forgotten as last year wore one.  It probably will last about a month or two and I’ll make sure to enjoy it whilst it lasts.  This year’s kids are a lot less curious then last years but that saves me the embarrassment of miscalculating the weight in kilos of my huge cat from home, O’Ryan.  I still have to say that he’s about 12 kilos, but if asked about it now I’ll tell them to be quiet about it lest the local zoo hear about it in Charlotte hear about it and come to take him. (Pictured: Anelia, Carol, Angie, Joko and myself at a local traditional tavern - St. George's)

My 11^th classes are a bit different than last year.  I honestly don’t know what to make of them at this point.  They’re definitely quieter than last year’s groups.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.  Regardless, they seem a bit more self assured and cocky, albeit not in a bad way… yet.  I will say this though, teaching the same material will be surprisingly easy the second time around.

The 12^th class might be problematic.  They’re convinced that they own the school and can do what they want when they want.  I like the kids but we have to nip this in the bud as quickly as possible.  I know that I’m bound to lose them around spring break regardless just due to it being the end of the year.  But this is September and I will not allow 2/3 of the class skip and head to a café like they did today.  I ended up tracking them down in another of their classes, borrowed 10 minutes from the other teacher and basically reamed them.  Not sure if it’ll work, but here’s hoping.  This is especially true since I actually asked to teach them again this year.

Outside of teaching, I had some small progress on projects.  Work continues on the library I’m building with packages coming, movement of books from a repository, and general organization done by students.  There seems to be sizeable interest in tutoring primary school/orphanage kids and the director today gave her approval to allowing the school to be used.  I have a meeting set up with Stan from NATFA for the Play Writing Project next Friday in Sofia. (Pictured: myself and Petya outside at KDK)

On personal fronts, I registered for the GRE and will be a nervous wreck until November 6^th when I am finished.  Everything else in this master “5 year plan” of mine to get to a good grad school I’ve succeeded at, but I knew I’d succeed.  This is the most concentrated event that I feel I have the least amount of control over.  I believe I must do very well in order to overcome some other deficiencies that I have from my wasted youthful college days.  It’s a lot of self imposed pressure, but if I do well here I’m sure life will be a lot happier next April when acceptance/rejection letters start rolling in.  I also had my first Spanish tutoring lesson and have discovered, at least in a structured way, I don’t remember quite as much as I thought I did.  Yup, back to being a beginner.

I’ve also had a visitor this past week.  Carol, a PCV here in Haskovo for two year up until last October came back for a visit.  She’s decided she doesn’t like the working corporate world to terribly much.  Funny thing is that she is doing a job very similar to my old job at the bank prior to my coming here.  Only hers is with my bank’s primary rival.  It’s been great having her back around, I’ve gotten around to see a lot of friends that aren’t my primary group here.  I’ve even met a few new people – just to show me that there are a lot of young English speakers kicking around town that I don’t know.  We’ve also taken a few days in to watch movies and bum around when the weather’s been less than ideal.

So Carol’s leaving tomorrow to go visit with her old host family in a town called Velingrad before heading back to San Francisco.  I’m kind of jealous of her for this, because my host family in Septemvri are scattered to the four winds and I doubt that they’re even still there – let alone the thought that I’d be close enough to them to return to visit in a year or so.  Later this week I might have a friend from England come through and crash here for a few nights.  This upcoming weekend Pauna also returns from working at Sunny Beach. (Pictured: Carol getting some love from Deyana and Lily)

I find these things wonderful on one hand, rather unfortunate on another.  I love hosting and having guests, but I honestly cannot have a week like this past one where I accomplish so little.  To many days I literally got nothing done.  With the ambitious schedule I set before myself this year, I need to make the best of just about every moment that’s been given me.  That’s not to say I don’t give myself down time, I do.  But going days without working towards any of my projects, goals or studies is a waste of time I don’t have.  Especially with fixed deadlines like GRE and grad school applications hanging over my head.

Posted by: mjmarble at September 25, 2006 19:49 | link | comments (1)

Back to work

This past week was a rather active and productive one for me.  After the last 4 months or so of traveling and vacationing I actually wanted to get back to work.  I know it sounds crazy, but there’s only so much of traveling, hanging out at the pool, going to café’s or the disco, and general vacationing that one can do.  Well, at least there is when one doesn’t have an unlimited budget.  In all seriousness, it’s good to have a reason to get up in the mornings (and go to be earlier at night too). 

The school year started last Friday with the schools opening ceremony.  No classes were taught, but kids lined up by class outside and there was the raising of the Bulgarian flag coupled with the welcome of the new 8^th class, aka Preps (by the teachers) or Rabbits (by the students).  There was the traditional tossing of carrots and cabbage at them by the upper classmen.  And of course there was the welcoming speech by the school director.  So the school year is officially underway, even if it isn’t underway yet. 

Tomorrow morning I have to teach my first class of the year, 11^th Literature, at 8:00 am.  Whoever made up the schedule obviously doesn’t know me or the fact that my earliest class last year was around 10:30.  It’s not that I’ve never done early in the morning before, I used to start at 7:30 when I worked at the bank.  It’s just that I haven’t done an 8:00 in over a year an a half.  Luckily this is just the temporary schedule and the ‘real’ one won’t be determined for about a week or so.  Yeah, the scheduling for school doesn’t finish until about 2 weeks into the year.  Why is this, you might ask?  The only answer I have is it’s Bulgaria.

But my work has already begun regardless of my primary job.  This past week I helped organize student applications for a scholarship from the American Foundation for Bulgaria.  This last year we had seven students apply and win a 60 leva a month scholarship from the foundation.  For those who don’t know, 60 leva a month to study is unheard of in a country where the starting teacher salary is about 200 leva a month.  They also attended a summer camp sponsored by the organization.

Due in part to the success from the past year we had 23 applications to organize.  And with the help of 5 of the students from last year and a couple teachers, we managed to pull together all the applications in a mere 2 days.  Each packet included a cover letter, resume, a statement of goals for the year, a declaration of any scholarships received this past year, a copy of their grades, and two references.  The English Department nominated a large number of qualified youngsters, I sincerely hope that a good number are able to win it.

I also met with Lilly at the local Youth Center this past Thursday.  This is the organization which sponsored the international youth exchanges that I participated in this summer to Liechtenstein and Hungary.  I went in to discuss concerns I had with the organization and exchanges yet somehow walked out even more involved than I was before.  Not quite sure how that happened, but I now have to pull together a proposed leadership training retreat weekend to be held in November.  I also will be assisting the orientation of the two European Volunteer Service volunteers they’ll get in October and maybe continuing my work on exchanges.  This on top of my hope to become involved with a Big Brothers/Big Sisters program they have with a local orphanage. 

After my meeting I went to see my Bulgarian language tutor, Lyd.  Her normal job is more or less as an independent guidance counselor and she’s had great success at tutoring kids in English and getting them into Universities in America.  Turns out that she has picked up a side job running the office responsible for European Union grants in the Haskovo region.  This of course is a great resource and opportunity to fund any projects that I can think of in the next year.  That is, of course, if I can come up with any projects that might need funding.  Thus far all of my projects have not needed external funding.

In addition to this, she helped me find English to Spanish language tutor.  If I am going to go to GraduateSchool for International Relations after my time here in Bulgaria I’m going to need to speak a major foreign language.  Bulgarian doesn’t fit the requirements, and to be honest I’m not terribly good at Bulgarian.  I can get by, but I’m far from fluent.  I have taken Spanish whilst in High School and met a number of Spanish speakers in my travels this past summer.  I was surprised at how much I remembered.  I have plans for next summer to help me continue learning, but I wanted to start taking refresher courses whilst I was still here in Haskovo.  Unfortunately I had a hard time finding a Bulgarian who was fluent in both English and Spanish.  Lyd solved my problem by finding someone for me and I now have my first tutoring appointment next Wednesday.

It turns out that her last PCV tutoree was also interested in International Relations and went to Columbia  She spent the last year or so in Afghanistan working for the UN.  Lyd offered to put the two of us in touch so I can ask advice from this woman.  All in all, my meeting with her was more than I could have hoped for.

On top of this, I’ve also agreed to begin tutoring a friend in English this fall.  She doesn’t speak a word of English so I’m going to have to go back to my original Bulgarian textbooks and reverse them to teach English.  I think this will actually help me a lot with my Bulgarian so I’m looking forward to it.  And of course, my English Club will start up again once most of the participants get back in October.

There are a bunch of other projects this fall to keep me busy including continuing to build an English library accessible to the students, applying for a grant from PC for new audio equipment in the English Self-Access Center (SAC) at the school, possibly having the students (my 10^th, 11^th & 12^th class kids) tutor primary school kids who have just started learning English, and leading a writing competition my school competes in yearly.  My Department chair, Margarita, also is interested in finding a school in Eastern Europe with a PCV to pair up with and become sister schools.  This would eventually lead to student exchanges, correspondence, etc.  I’m also still searching for a school in the UK or Ireland to conduct an exchange with as well.  I’m continuing work on the annual national Playwriting Project with the National Academy for Theater and Fine Arts hopefully playing a larger role this year and will be meeting with the director of the Academy later this month to give him an update on where the committee stands.  Finally, I’m set to help out those students applying to Universities in America to search out grants and scholarships.

All and all, it’s a heavy workload.  I think I’m making up for my vacation with a lot of work this fall/winter.  American’s tax dollars at work, and all that – have to make the most of them.  I’m looking forward to accomplishing as much as I can during the remainder of my time here. It's about time that I got back to work.

Posted by: mjmarble at September 17, 2006 21:59 | link | comments

Olivia's Wedding

Last Saturday I went to the wedding of one of my good PCV friends Olivia in Kalofer.  She met Matt, her husband, this past January and after a whirlwind romance they decided to get hitched before summer was over.  Overall, the wedding was an interesting blend of Bulgarian and American traditions.

Since neither is very religious, they elected to have a civil ceremony in nearby Karlovo.  The town is known to be beautiful and is situated at the base of the Balkan Mountains.  I met up with about 8 other PCV’s there and we walked along the cobblestone streets past beautifully restored churches and homes to the town’s municipality.  While we didn’t get lost, we underestimated the time it would take to walk and ended up arriving about 10 minutes late and almost missed the ceremony all together. (Pictured: The happy couple, Olivia and Matt)

What I saw of the ceremony, my first one in Bulgaria, was simple yet straight forward.  In Bulgaria couples don’t have a best man and maid of honor.  Instead they have witnesses.  These aren’t necessarily your best friends, but rather people you think can give you good guidance throughout your marriage.  Olivia and Matt choose two PCV’s, Annie and Matt (Olivia’s best friend – not her husband), serve as this.  The couple stood in front of the magistrate flanked by their witnesses and stated some oaths reminiscent of wedding vows before signing a document and being pronounced man and wife.

After the 20 minute car ride to Kalofer, Olivia and Matt’s hometown here, I took some pictures for them before the reception started.  The weather was perfect, in the low 70’s and sunny.  The center was deserted, which made it easy to take pictures amongst flowers and old soviet era concrete monuments.  I don’t know if I did them justice, but being PC volunteers they did everything on a budget and I offered to be their photographer. (Pictured: Olivia and her bouquet)

The reception was rather entertaining.  All the PCV’s sat together in assigned seating in front of the wedding party’s table.  A few got annoyed at some cultural differences and we started a mock game keeping track if the wedding was more Bulgarian or American.  It all stemmed from the Bulgarian’s refusal of leaving their wedding presents on a gift table, preferring to hand them directly to the newlyweds when greeted.  It’s a simple cultural difference which doesn’t seem that major now – but then a few PCV’s became a bit offended by this simple thing.

So for every thing that was done in the American style – tapping the sides of our glasses to make the couple kiss, for example – a point was awarded to the ‘Americans’.  For things like the bride and groom eating some ceremonial traditional Bulgarian bread, a point was given to the ‘Bulgarians’.  The PCV’s really got into it, all in good fun really (it wasn’t mean spirited), and of course the Bulgarians present never knew of it. (Pictured: Calling the Bride)

All in all, it turned out to be a rather equal affair.  The Americans present all sang at the top of their lungs to “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston.  We all danced the traditional Bulgarian Horo until we collapsed.

A word about the Horo: it is wonderfully entertaining common dance which is done at just about every type of celebration you can think of – weddings, holiday’s, birthdays, etc.  There are many different kinds, but all pretty much require dancing holding hands around in a circle with set dance steps.  I know about 3 or 4 different ones, but they are generally the simpler ones.  Some are quite complicated and I’m amazed that people remember them.  Bulgarians seem born knowing how to do most of the dances.  They also never seem to end.  A short song usually lasts over 15 minutes.  You have to keep in mind that for this 15 minutes you are bouncing, kicking and grapevining (for lack of a better term) at a fairly quick pace.  Luckily, you can drop out and rejoin as your stamina allows.  It’s a very communal experience and one I greatly enjoy.

The reception lasted well into the night and everyone present seemed to have a great time.  While it wasn’t a completely traditional Bulgarian wedding I was able to see many traditions which are different from those I’m familiar with in the states.  I hope I have a chance to go to another one before my time is up here.

Most important though, the couple seemed happy and very much in love.  I sincerely wish them the absolute best and many blessing throughout their lives together. (Pictured below: Happy Blessings to the newlyweds)

Posted by: mjmarble at September 16, 2006 21:32 | link | comments

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