Happy Thanksgiving!

I was supposed to go up in the mountains for the next couple of days with my counterpart for a seminar, but my counterpart got promoted to Vice-Mayor and therefore became very busy. He kicked me and the other women that works with us out of his office. LOL! It's cool though because we will move to a new office and I will get a bigger desk and be able to set it up right. Before my back was facing the door which sucked because when people came in it was hard to greet them and I felt like they were always looking over my shoulder. My counterpart will remain my counterpart, which is good, and we'll get a new guy to take his old position after the new year.

Happy Thanksgiving! They don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Bulgaria, but because my counterpart got promoted we are moving a lot of furniture around so he said I could go home. This weekend I will probably meet up with some volunteers to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Let the Pictures Tell the Story

I went to my counterparts house last night for dinner. His mom said she would show me how to cook something new every Saturday. So this means I am studying the Bulgarian language, learning to play piano, and learning how to cook Bulgarian cuisine. That's considered a fullload in college isn't it? Consider that on top of working at the Municipality fourty hours a week and I am going to start Junior Achievement in Bratsigovo soon as well. Who said life was slower in Bulgaria?

I added a photo albums section today. You can find it in the right-hand sidebar. Check it out! let me know what you think. It has pictures featured in some of my posts and of course more. I'll be adding new albums regularly.

-Nasdrave!

Where am I?

(Volunteers of the 16th Peace Corps Training class in Bulgaria. Small photo, I know!)

I've been in Bulgaria for a total of three months now and at my permanant site for one month. I wonder when I will get used to living in a foreign country and consider it a home. I use to wake up in the morning, open my eyes, and feel a little confused but mostly suprised that I wasn't sleeping in my bed at home in the US. That phase has passed, but my dreams still only take place in the US. Also, instead of considering myself a foreigner in a foreign country, I think the Bulgarian people are the foreigners. He ha ha!

So I am definitely physically in Bulgaria, but I guess it will take longer than I thought to be mentally here. Now this doesn't mean I am not having an awsome time here. I am! Everyday with every new experience I encounter, I know I made an incredibly wise decision. I just wonder when I will stop feeling like a visitor.

I found a tutor to help me continue learning the Bulgarian languange. We meet for an hour every Tuesday and Thursday. This should help me integrate. I also found some friends, but they turned out to be the Bratsigovo bad boys. LOL! Everyone in town is very adament when they tell me not to hang out with these guys. So I guess I shouldn't or integrating into the town might not be as smooth. Tomorrow I start taking piano lessons. I have been wanting to do that for a loooooong time. Maybe I should have chosen the guitar. It's more pratical, but I love the piano.

Who's the Gringo?

(View from my apartment)

Last night I went out with some friends to a couple Disco's in Pazardjik. Pazardjik is the closest decent sized city to me. When I was talking to my friends, who are Bulgarian, I told them that I made mexican food for dinner the other night. Most Bulgarians have never had a good Mexican meal. However, they are familiar with the ethnic group. This brings me to another interesting opposite. As soon as I said the word Mexican, they said, "ah, gringos". I couldn't help but laugh at that one. I had to ask for confirmation to make sure of what I heard. I heard correct. These guys said that Mexicans are sometimes called "gringos" in Bulgaria. I told them that in the US I was the gringo. I am not sure if they understood.

I finally got internet in my apartment this weekend. I had to upgrade to Windows Xp. It's cool. My computer works a lot better now with XP.

Bulgarian Stlye Mexican food

(I took this my first week in Bulgaria)

I made Mexican food for dinner the other night. You would be suprised how hard it was. They don't have the same grocery items in Bulgaria as in the US. I had to make everything from scratch. It was the first time I ever made tortillas. They turned out really good and they were easy to make. The food I made wasn't exactly the same as in the US of course. I had to use some substitutes. The ground beef here is really a mixture of beef and pork. The food turned out great anyway though.

At work I had to explain to everyone what a taco is. For my next Na Gosti (to have guests over) I should make tacos. The next thing I need to learn to make is BBQ sauce. They don't have that here. Anyone know any good recipes for BBQ sauce?

Click here to learn how to make flour tortillas

Bulgaria, twice the fun half the price

The picture above was taken a few weeks ago when me and some volunteers went hiking in the mountains in Bratsigovo.

Today I went with my counterpart and an architect to a neigboring village in the municipality. My city is trying to attract investors to build a Golf course. Shhh.....! It's a secret. They are also supposed to build a small ski and snowboard park this winter. That would be cool if they do. Then I won't have to go so far if I just want to do a little snowboarding one day.

Since I am a marketing major, my counterpart has been asking me what ideas I have about attracting tourists from the United States. They want American tourists to come here as opposed to Greece, Italy, Spain, and the like. Have any ideas? Please share.

Time to find friends

I have been at my site for two weeks now. The past two weekends a volunteer has visited me. Not this time. So I decided this weekend I had to go out and find some friends. A little after 8pm on saturday night, after building up some courage, I went to this street where young kids are always hanging out. I walked up to one of the groups and introduced myself. We started talking and it went well. They invited me to a party........at my house. I ended up hosting my first Na Gosti. Good thing I made some Tikvenik earlier. Tikvenik is a pumpking pastry. It was my first time making it, but it turned out good. Everyone liked it. We listened to music and talked. Young people in Bulgaria seem to talk more about politics and serious issues than in the US. One of them said he would help me with starting Junior Achievment. We'll see.

I ended up not being able to get internet. The installation guys don't know how to configure the settings for Windows ME.

Comments Anyone?

It looks like I will have internet in my apartment this weekend. Yay! I won't feel guilty checking my email and writitng for this blog at work anymore. They told me the connection is only 36kbps. That seems pretty slow. They also said the enire municipality shares a 36kbps connection. Thats pretty hard to believe. I will find out this weekend.

So when you visit my blog don't be affraid to leave a comment. Even if you just say hi. I want to hear from you.

Mo Money

So I have been searching for funding to provide a healthy and reliable water supply to three villages in the municipality. The project costs half a million US dollars. The municipality has written a project proposal and had it translated into english. I was reading it and found out that this proposal was written two years ago and they never sent it to any funding organizations. Now that I am here they want me to find the money. I have been searching but haven't found much. I did send out a couple short letter to two funding organizations that seemed promising.

Then the Peace Corps provides me with information that the Bulgarian government is accepting proposals for such a project. I look into it and find that this is the best solution out there so far. I tell my counterpart and he says,"yeah I know about that one". For some reason he hasn't moved on it. I guess he wants funding from the US. I don't know but I told him to get moving on this one. I didn't say it politely either. Him and the other lady in the office rushed to start working on it. He he! I guess its going to take me a while to get use to their slow work ethics. Or maybe it is going to take them a while to get use to my work ethics.

Wild Fruit

I went to the mountians this past weekend with my counterpart, his family, and another volunteer. We went on a hike and picked wild berries and mushrooms. The food was great. The strawberries tasted like candy and the apples tasted too much like apples to be apples. The mushrooms were arguably the best I ever ate. It sucks though because winter is approaching and the produce will get sparce.

On the other hand that means snowboard season is coming. I can't wait for that!