A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

Snow!

For someone who grew up in northeastern Ohio, the sight of snow is not normally something which draws a lot of excitement.  If you understand the words "snowbelt" and "lake effect" then you know where I'm coming from.  My father, for instance, has enjoyed moving to North Carolina and swears that he'll go further south every time he sees a snowflake.  Yet I do love my four seasons and thus look forward to winter each year.  There's something refreshing looking out over crisp, pure snow driven fields that warms my heart.

This winter in Bulgaria has been anything but what I would consider "winter".  Thus far, I've seen only one snowfall that stuck at all, and that was really only a dusting that lasted for a morning.  Most days have been downright balmy with temperatures around 50 degrees fahrenheit.  Bulgarian winters are supposes to be dreadful affairs with ice and cold, slips and falls.  It's actually been downright depressing in some ways.

Yet never fear, there was snow this evening amounting to about 2 inches.  I walked through the center of Haskovo with Mirian, the Spanish volunteer here who has never seen snow before, amazed at the beauty of it all.  Wonderful, fat, wet, delicious snowflakes were caught on our tongues.  Mirian was shocked that it was warmer with snow falling than it had been an hour earlier with the sleetish rain that was falling.

So we'll see how long this hangs around.  The snow is coming down at a smattering of what it was earlier. If it was still snowing hard, I would take a picture.  But there's just something depressing about the fact that it's pretty much stopped now.  By later this week it's supposed to be raining, at least according to CNN Internationals world weather.  One can only hope that the cold air holds out just for a few days, long enough to give us here in Haskovo a taste of what winter should be like.

Posted by: mjmarble at February 28, 2007 03:05 | link | comments (2)
daily life

Az sum bolen...

I'm one of those people who like to be busy.  I always feel like I could and or should be doing something.  This isn't to say that I'm a 'Type A' personality, my attributes don't necessarily fit that bill.  Just as long as I can remember I've enjoyed being busy.  Sitting around and relaxing makes me feel lazy and I usually think about what I could have done after I've taken a bit of downtime.

Yet this impulse to stay busy usually means I end up overextending myself.  And not necessarily a little bit, but rather usually by a lot.  Of course to keep all my commitments I end up running from one thing to the next having very little time to do simple things like eat or sleep.  On average when running at full steam, I get about 3 - 5 hours of sleep a night.

Unfortunately this leads me to crash and burn every now and again.  This past week or so has been one of those times.  I've managed to catch a rather nasty cold which just won't go away.  I thought I was getting better last Thursday when I got the news from Syracuse, but apparently I overdid it and ended up spending the weekend indoors again.  After consulting with the PC Medical staff (and my mom) I finally agreed to go to the doctor today.

Thanks to Rumy, my counterpart, and a few other colleagues who recommended their local GP's to me, I got in this morning.  Good news is that my blood pressure is good and my lungs sound healthy.  Bad news is my throat is swollen, red and generally in bad shape.  I've been placed on antibiotics and hopefully will be back to full strength in the next few days.  Until then all I can do is sleep, eat soup and drink tea with honey.   We'll see how long before I'm up and running...

Posted by: mjmarble at February 27, 2007 02:22 | link | comments (1)
sick, daily life

Success!

Yesterday, 22 February 2007, is a day I want to remember.  In many different ways it just was a memorable day.  It didn't necessarily start out that way.  I've been fighting a rather nasty cold that's sidelined me for this entire week.  I've been fortunate in that I've had a couple friends, including my gracious counterpart Rumy, who have stopped by to bring me soup and make sure I was OK.  But this morning I awoke around 11:30 just glad that I could breathe through my nose and I wasn't hacking up what was left of my lung.  I actually contemplated beginning to clean my apartment, a sure sign that I'm starting to feel better.

I ended up going out of my apartment for the first time this week.  It was a much needed break from these tired four walls of my apartment.  I met a dear friend of mine for lunch and then had a cup of tea with honey at a local cafe.  Without going into details, she's a dear friend of mine and we're wrestling with whether or not to start something.  There are a number of hurdles, not the least of which is my departure in a few months.  But we had a wonderful time together and we left things much more complicated than when we first sat down to lunch.

On the return home I noticed the flowering trees out in front of the school I live next to have begun to not only bud but show the glorious white flowers I've been looking forward to since last spring when they gave way to leaves.  It's supposed to snow here this weekend (maybe) but winter really has rushed by this part of the world without ever really making more than a passing whimper.  Watch us get buried with 2 meters of snow next week now that I've said that...

But the best news of the day was waiting for me in my email inbox when I arrived home.  The learned faculty at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University decided that I should be granted admission to their program.  I'm going to graduate school next year!  I really still can't believe it.  After all my planning and work, its finally a reality.  The email will be followed with a more formal letter sent, I assume, to my address here.  But the email contained plenty of info for me to mull over such as potential scholarships to apply, contact information for current students, welcoming weekends in March (I won't be able to attend), internship considerations, etc.  If this was the informal information, I can't wait to delve into the meaty formal acceptance letter.

Of course, this accompanied a number of phone calls, IM's, emails and the like.  For me, the best part of good news is sharing it with people.   I loved my dad's response to my email to him "Call me as soon as you get a free minute".  He called an hour later (mildly frantic) asking what was wrong.  I wondered why something had to be wrong and couldn't be right?  He didn't sound amused until he heard the news.  Pauna came over this evening and patiently sat by as I Skyped with this friend or that, talked again with my parents and generally had people get back to me.  We made wonderful vegetable soup (I'm getting quite good at soups) and questionable beef patties (too much rice) and talked about everything that led up to this.

I still have to hear from the other four programs.  I honestly was surprised to hear from Syracuse this quickly since their deadline was the latest - some two weeks after the others.   But the pressure is off.  Now I can patiently wait until the end of March when I shall hear from all the various programs and make a decision.  I shall now enjoy this time in a way that was impossible previously.  My biggest worry at the present moment is how I will look when I take the traditional Bulgarian celebratory drinks and candies into school tomorrow (on my day off) to share the good news with my colleagues since I've missed this entire week due to sickness.

But tonight I shall head to bed to fend off the remnants of the cold that infects my body and say yet another prayer of thanksgiving to God for taking care of me.  It's truly been a wonderful day.

Posted by: mjmarble at February 23, 2007 03:04 | link | comments (2)
plan, future, grad school

Wonderful London...

During my travels over the past 10 to 15 years I’ve always looked at the places I visit not just for the sights that are there and good times to be had, but also for how much I would like to live at said locale.  Savannah, for example, is a wonderful little city rich in history and culture – not to mention a glorious St. Patrick’s Day party.  Chicago, a city I constantly refer to as a ‘town’ for some inexplicable reason, is great as well with all of its cultural attractions, sports teams, multicultural population, and opportunities.  I love New York, but don’t think I could be happy living there more than a few years and probably wouldn’t choose to move there.  I’ve glorified Italian cities such as Florence or Rome, but I wouldn’t want to live there until I retire. (Pictured above: The Houses of Parliament across the Thames)

 

There are a lot of things that are important to me when looking at places that I’d like to live.  The city should have a well developed public transportation system so that you’re not reliant on taking a car everywhere you go.  It must have a developed cultural side such as museums, theaters, concerts, and history.  I like an established city with ties to its roots.  Aesthetics are extraordinarily important to me and the more parks, monuments, grand buildings and churches, and green spaces present the more I’ll probably like it.  Yet I want the city to be young and alive with a heartbeat of its own.  I also like the place to be a center of education providing chances to grow and attract talent.  Toss in the ability to have ethnic foods such as Thai or Italian on the same day and I’m a happy camper. (Pictured: Trafalgar Square at night)

 

Whilst I was in London I kept thinking about how much this city is exactly what I’m looking for.  Yes, I spent a majority of my time in the center which can often be described as a museum in and of itself – but I did my best to look past the surface to what was underneath.  No matter how you slice it, it has everything I look for in a place to live.  I am a bit of an Anglophile which doesn’t hurt my appreciation of it.  Of all the cities in the world, a solid argument could be made that London is the most international.  I’ve long wanted to spend a lot of time there and every time I happen through my desire to live there grows.  Simply put, I'm happy there. (Pictured: The London Eye from the Millennium Bridge)

 

This time was no exception.  After a bit of difficulty getting there due to incompetent French air traffic controllers and “bad weather” at Gatwick (turns out there was two inches of snow that fell – they should look at what’s happening in the states)I and the wonderful and illustrious Estonian Virge both landed 4 hours late.  After the immediate price shock – it took ₤26 for roundtrip tickets to the center – we acclimated and got into town.  Every time I come in I end up coming out of Victoria Station and heading straight down to see Westminster Abby.  It’s become a tradition of sorts and there’s nothing like lugging your baggage through the streets of London.  Virge lucked out a bit in that her bags were lost and followed her a day later and thus wasn’t encumbered like I was. (Pictured: Westminster Abby)

 

Whilst in the city over the 3 days we managed to do a lot, yet in retrospect it feels like so little to tell.  We were usually in the center for the better part of 14 hrs a day.  The food was wonderful and ranged for me from ‘Toast and beans’ to a huge plate of Thai food for ₤4 to Ham and cheese sandwiches at train stations to lots of tea/hot chocolate at McDonalds (with the occasional fries tossed in) to Lasagna at a great Italian restaurant.  I know it may be strange for some to understand, but coming from Bulgaria where I eat a steady diet of Bulgarian food, Bulgarian Italian (aka wood oven Pizza), or Duners this was quite a coup.  I’m not one to crave food unless its peanut butter, but it’s great to have the options and to take them. (Pictured: Big Ben through traffic)

 

Of course there was a lot of photography, as is evidence by the pictures I’ve posted here.  I should have brought my mini tripod since most of my pictures are nighttime ones and without the tripod are slightly blurry.  But for the resources available, I’m quite pleased with them.  I only wish that I would have taken more – but my camera batteries died the second day and I was stupidly picky and deleted 2 dozen or so whilst killing time on trains.  Virge took a goodly number, however, which can be viewed at this link. (Pictured: Buckingham Palace our last night in London)

 

The main purpose of Virge and I getting together was to see a musical.  We’d been chatting online last fall about wanting to get out and do something together and all of a sudden we happened upon the idea to fly to London and see one.  We ended up seeing Mary Poppins – an easy choice for me since it’s by far my favorite Disney movie.  The stage version is bit different and introduces a new character, different characterizations of existing roles, and new song or two (which were not as good as the originals and sometimes didn’t fit).  But I have to say that this was the best musical I’ve ever seen.  I was thoroughly entertained from beginning to end and the special effects employed worked perfectly.  If you get a chance, go see it. (Pictured: Virge and I outside the Prince Edward Theater about to go see "Mary Poppins")

 

We also did more than a bit of shopping.  One of my goals going up was to pickup a traditional black overcoat.  Not necessarily to wear with my suits but more on an everyday basis.  I have had my old winter coat for well over 10 years at this point and it was high time that I got a new one.  So up and down Regent St we went between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly.  Whilst I paid more at the store I finally settled on, I got a quality coat which hopefully will last me years.  The salesman at Moss Bros made all the difference. Virge has a picture of me trying on coats on her photo’s page.  But I began to feel bad because after buying me a coat we started to try and concentrate on shopping for her a bi too.  But it seemed every time we went into a store we ended up getting me something (ie. two new pairs of much needed shoes – both great bargains).  In retrospect I am a bit taken aback since I spent more in one afternoon than I make here in a month.  This is why I rarely go shopping – I spend too much. (Pictured: Big Ben with directions)

 

We also managed to take in an Evensong Service at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  This was welcome since I haven’t been to a church service since Christmas in the states.  They have the service daily with the church’s Men’s & Boy’s choir.  There is something awe inspiring about listening to the sound of voices reverberating through the cathedral.  It’s an experience I’ll hold onto for quite a while.  And of course I love the mosaics which populate the ceiling and High Alter portion of the church. (Pictured: The London Eye from the park adjacent to it)

 

One last thing about the trip which I enjoyed – staying with Virge’s friends out in Windsor.  While it was a bit of a pain to travel in and out of the city on a daily basis, it was great to see how people live instead of staying at a hotel.  Our hosts were more than gracious and went out of their way to take care of us.  It also provided me an opportunity to see Windsor Castle, the Queen’s other residence.

 

Being back here I really miss being there more than I’ve missed the other places I’ve visited.  But I’m sure that on the path I’m on that opportunities to at the least get back there frequently – if not live there – will be plentiful in the future.  Step by step I'm sure I'll get where I want.  I’ll just have to hold on to that for now.  Personally my goal would be to live there by the time the Olympics roll into town in 2012, but that's a long way away from now and so much can happen.  For now, time to refocus (once again) back to teaching and these final few months back here in BG.  Haskovo isn't a bad place to live for now - and I should enjoy what it has to offer whilst I still can.  It's not necessarily high on many of the things I want in a place to live, but for Peace Corps, it's better than I could have ever expected. (Pictured: Virge checking her voice messages with Big Ben through the window.  We'd stopped in a cafe to get out of the cold - notice her red nose and hands)

 

 

Posted by: mjmarble at February 15, 2007 02:03 | link | comments (3)
travel, friends

From Windsor

We're having a great time here.  The trip in and out of London to Windsor every morning and evening is a bit much, but the people we're staying with are wonderful.  Seen a lot of things, bought myself a overcoat that I've wanted for some time, seen the musical Mary Poppins, walked in parks and around the streets, and taken some great pictures.  Hopefully will share those soon.

I now know for sure that if I had my choice in the future that I'd choose to live in London over any other city I've ever been.  There's just a sense of culture(s), history, importance that feels very comfortable to me.  It's difficult to explain, but the simple fact is that I'm quite happy here.  Hopefully I'll have pictures in a day or so (once back in Haskovo) to share.

Time to jump in the shower before heading into the city for one last day of fun here...

Posted by: mjmarble at February 10, 2007 12:31 | link | comments
travel