A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

Change in focus...

Coming back to Bulgaria this past Thursday, I once again found it difficult to come back to Haskovo.  Yet again I was in Italy for a week, this time with my choir Radna Pecen as we turned a 2 night performance just outside of Rome into an 8 day excursion.  Not that I’m really complaining all that much since it was good to be back in Florence, Rome and Venice whilst also seeing Naples, Siena and Pisa for the first time.  I never really need an excuse to spend time in Italy, a country quite high on my desired places to live. (Pictured above: the sun streaming through a window in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome)

 

What was difficult was coming back here because I’m quite ready to move on to the next thing in my life.  It’s been a month since my last posting and during that time I’ve studied and successfully taken the GRE.  Well, I should say I scored better on the GRE than I expected but not quite as high as I hoped.  I’ve also made significant strides in my graduate school preparations, although much work still needs be done.  The point is that instead of focusing on my job, projects or friends here in Bulgaria, I’ve really honed in on working towards my time when I’m done here. (Pictured left: Me making a wish whilst on my astrological sign in a mall in Naples)

 

Even while in Italy, we passed by the city of Bologna a couple times.  Each time all I could think about was that more than one of the programs I’m applying to have branch campus’s at this medieval university town.  The idea that I might be living & studying there in less than a year is almost too good to be contemplated.

 

Yet my life here goes on even busier than before.  I added 50% more classes to teach this school year.  Having a year’s experience and knowing the material is negated by the additional classes.  I began a project to have my students teach English to young orphans, and it has not gone very smoothly.  Other projects have required more time than in the past.  What has been abandoned to a certain extent has been my social life. (Pictured: The Leaning Tower of Pisa at night).

 

All of this is as it should be to a certain extent.  But it’s also challenging to juggle so many things, all of which justifiably demand your time.  The preparations for life after PC are winning out in the battle for my time.  Professors are contacted for recommendations, resumes are updated, personal essays are contemplated.  This upcoming Monday I attempt the GRE one more time in order to potentially improve my scores.  I’m pulled even as I push towards this end that I set out five years ago to achieve.  Unfortunately that just means it’s tough to be here right now. Not because I don’t like it or am unsatisfied with my life here, but rather because I can just about taste what’s just around the corner. (Pictured below: My fellow members of Radna Pecen in San Marco Square in Venice as I feed the pigeons in front of them)

Posted by: mjmarble at November 28, 2006 23:44 | link | comments (1)
travel, work, contemplation, future