A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

George Washington

The good folks over at George Washington University apparently have seen fit to let me study at their University.  I got an email yesterday inviting me to the "admitted students" open house on April 10th.  I still haven't got a letter from them or any other communication, but upon checking I realize that I had all correspondence sent here to Haskovo.  So I'm thinking it might take a bit longer to get the official notification.  So nothing is "official" yet, but it appears that I will have a choice to make.  Still waiting on American University and SAIS at Johns Hopkins.  I have to pick a date to end my service by next Wednesday, so let's hope I hear from them soon. 

All in all, a great way to start a weekend.  And with the downpour of rain we had these last two days, Spring has finally and completely arrived.  Everything is green and lush and beautiful.  I head to my end of service conference (COS) next Wednesday to go over all that needs be done before I finish up here in the end of June.  And next Friday I fly to Egypt for spring break to visit the venerable James in Cairo.  It'll be my 11th or 12th trip outside of BG since coming here 2 years ago.  Oh, how my life has changed in the last few years.

Posted by: mjmarble at March 23, 2007 16:24 | link | comments (2)
travel, daily life, grad school

Disappointment

I received word from a second program yesterday evening.  Unfortunately The Fletcher School at Tufts University has declined to admit me.  This one stings a bit since it was my personal top program.  I'd had high hopes of going and secretly been imagining myself there for a couple years now.  I'm sure I would have excelled studying there.  But it was not meant to be.  I came across an article ranking of programs in Foreign Policy last week, and given that I applied to only Top 10 programs, it's completely understandable that I didn't get in everywhere  I am hoping to hear from the remaining three programs sometime in the next two weeks.  However, the only program I am assured will mail out their decision before the end of the month is SAIS at Johns Hopkins. 

This causes me a bit of consternation because in 10 days I have to notify PC the date I'll end my service.  There's a lot of uncertainty in my plans right now - most of which will be cleared up in the next month.  Hopefully I hear something positive in the next few days, keeping in mind I already heard something that I appreciate all the more now - my acceptance to Syracuse.

Enough of that - I'm off to a na gosti tonight with my surrogate family here in Haskovo.  And then it's a busy week of work and running around before my end of service conference next week.  It'll be my last PC conference.  Yet another of the lasts.  I'll try to get some of those posts I've been meaning up this week.

Posted by: mjmarble at March 18, 2007 17:02 | link | comments
grad school

Ambassadorial Visits

As luck would have it, this past Friday the US Ambassador to Bulgaria, John Beyrle, came to Haskovo and made a stop at my school.  I'd like to say that I had something to do with it, but in reality it was all done by a former student of the school who now works at the Embassy.  She's quite proud of where she's come from and saw this as an opportunity to do some good all around. (Pictured: One of my students from last year, now in 9th class, preparing to greet the Ambassador)

However, this did not mean that I wouldn't have a slew of things to do regarding the visit.  Due to my status as the American in the school, I became part of the official welcoming committee and was looked to all last week to arrange things at school.  This included making sure that formal welcoming statements were prepared for a couple students, that the group of students who would attend a Q&A session were properly vetted to ask intelligent questions, to help plan the logistics of the visit, and to generally help the powers that be at my school not get too wound up. (Pictured: My view of the Q&A session with the students paying rapt attention and the Ambassador enjoying himself).

Everything went pretty much as planned, although the school felt rather sterile the whole day.  Too clean and rather un-gymnasia-like for my taste.  The Ambassador is an affable gentleman, who speaks fluent Bulgarian.  He really seemed to enjoy the visit and the chance to talk to young people.  I ended up being the emcee of the Q&A session and the only real mistake of the day came when I pronounced his name Bur-Lay and was instantly corrected by him.  Well, that and I didn't get to school until 30 minutes before his visit was scheduled (I don't teach Friday's and was busy ironing my shirt, etc). (Pictured: Myself and the Ambassador).

And before you knew it, the whole affair was over, the 3 car motorcade had left and the bell finally rang to end the extended, controlling period.  Students had still gapped at the spectacle through the windows, some classes remaining in their seats, some not so much.  That was to be expected a bit, though.  And within an hour you could have never really guessed anything had happened to begin with.  It was a nice event for the school - one that was written about in the papers and covered on the TV news - as well as something that the students who participated will remember for quite some time. (Pictured: The Ambassador accepting a gift of a framed photo from Toni, one of my 12th class students)

Posted by: mjmarble at March 06, 2007 20:31 | link | comments (2)
work, daily life

Baba Marta and other notes...

As I chronicled last year, the 1st of March is Baba Marta in Bulgaria.  To summarize (for those of you too lazy to click on the link) this is a day where you basically give red and white string bracelets, pins or necklaces (known as Martenitsa) to family, friends, and colleagues wishing them health, etc.  You are supposed to keep said Martenitsa on until you see a stork or the first buds of spring.  Given the early appearance of warmer temperatures and buds - I think I'll hold out for a stork this year.  It's a great tradition that's uniquely Bulgarian and one I feel ready for this year.  Last year, I didn't know you gave Martenitas to EVERYONE and received them likewise.  So this afternoon I spent about 3 leva amongst the vendors that popped up in the center to prepare myself with both ones for specific people and smaller ones for unexpected people.  Generally though, I'm happy to be experiencing yet another one of these.  It's community things like this I'll miss when I'm gone. (Pictured: Some of my 8th class students peacing out with their Martenitsi)

I'm still fighting being sick, but I'm feeling a bit better.  The antibiotics seem to be doing the trick on the bacterial side of things.  Now hopefully my immune system can get cracking on that virus side.  I'm tired of coughing, sneezing and having my head so congested I can't hear out of one of my ears (which ear  alternates based upon the moon, the way I slept the night before, progress on Pakistani/Indian peace negotiations, how fast the Dow Jones falls, and other complex interwoven variables).  I just think it's about frackin' time this goes away.

I'll be headed to Devin this weekend to see friends, other PCV's, and the same wondrous Kukeri festival I attended last year.  Like with the Martenitsa, I'll have a better idea what to expect this year.  This translates to potentially having more than 5 pictures of the whole day.  That'd be nice after all.

Good news that I finally got my FAFSA financial aid form sent in.  I had to fight with the US government website to get a PIN, but eventually did.  What this means is that my financial status this past year or so - or really lack thereof - will be considered when the Grad Programs who accept me offer monetary aid.  As anyone who has gone to grad school can tell you, it's not an inexpensive affair.  Or if you haven't, just check this out as a comparison of what I'll be facing (I've applied to Maxwell, American, Fletcher, GW and SAIS).  Also, I got special permission to submit a separate, required form to SAIS that was due back on February 15th.  The use FAFSA, yet also want their own form and I missed that until about the 18th, so I'm happy they've allowed me to send  it in late.

Well, that's about it.  I should get to sleep.  Tomorrow and Friday are bound to be rather busy...

Posted by: mjmarble at March 01, 2007 02:37 | link | comments
sick, daily life, grad school