Bye to Bratsigovo

2006-09-11T21:28:00.000+03:00

Leaving is bitter-sweet. It is time to move on to other things, yet at the same time I feel as though a good friend has died. I've had a busy last week. We had a German consultant in town helping us with the new information center we just opened. The volunteer who will replace me was also in town for a few days to see where he will be living for the next 2 years. I did a lot of translating and guiding them around the municipality.

This blog was created with the specific purpose of relaying my Peace Corps experience to interested readers. As my Peace Corps service in Bratsigovo has ended, so will this blog. I will end with a list of things I will miss about Bratsigovo.

- The view of the mountains out the window from my apartment.

- Being invited to a friends house for dinner where everything is homemade and homegrown from the meat, eggs, vegtables, and alcohol.

- Taking walks through this small cobble stone road town.

- Living in a place where everyone knows my name.

- The sound of horse hoofs clacking outside my window.

- Visiting the orphanages, teaching the children how to cook, play football (American football), and goofing around with them.

- Going to Tiffani's after dinner and having a drink with Chicho colo, the bar owner.

- Meeting with friends after Tiffani's at a tavern, drinking rakiya, smoking cigars, and joking around.

- Traveling Bulgaria and discovering new places.

- Paying $7 a month for someone to do my laundry for me.

- I'll miss gorchitsa, mayonaisa, ketchup, smily, nyamachka, mexikanets, kruf, and all the other people I gave nicknames to.

Trip home

2006-05-03T18:55:00.000+03:00

I went back home for my brothers wedding. He decided to get married. I knew he was going to do this when I was half way across the world. My time there was interesting and it allowed me to dump a lot of baggage off that I won't need for my last three months in Bulgaria.

As soon as I entered the airport in SF, my nose was filled with strong smells. It was wierd to see people eating lunches out of cardboard boxes, talking on cell phones, playing with laptops. I already felt the rush of life here.

Coming back home it was as if I could see Americans as if I wasn't one of them. Now I understand what they meant when they said I would have to re-integrate into American life. My Dad took my to a grocery store and asked me if I wanted anything. I'm used to small little markets. This store had way to many options for me to sort out. I just said I didn't want anything.

I ate lots of food I missed. Chinese buffet's and mexican food. The wedding was really nice. I did a speech and spoke a little bulgarian. Bulgarians gave me a lot of stuff to take to the states. I brought a lot of stuff back to Bulgaria to give as gifts. Vegetable seeds, pork rinds, alcohol, etc.

Istanbul 2006

2006-03-06T22:19:00.000+02:00

I just got back from a second trip to Istanbul. It's a city with so much history yet modern at the same time. It's also a very clean city despite the fact that it's very hard to find a trash can to dump your trash after eating a duner kebab. All six of us enjoyed the trip and claimed Istanbul one of our favorite cities of all time. This is from people who are much more traveled than me. The weather was pleasant which added another plus to the trip.

We left Tuesday night from Stara Zagora by night train. It took over 12 hours for us to get there. Last time I take a night train. It only took 8 hours to get back by bus, eventhough Bratsigovo is further from the border than Stara Zagora. Just before we left I realized I forgot my American Bank card, and since I had been to Istanbul previously, I knew my Bulgarian card wouldn't work. So I pulled as much money out of my account as I could while I was still in Bulgaria. I ended up changing this money to Turkish lira once I got to Istanbul. It wasn't enough though, so I had to ask my family back home to wire me some extra funds.

I got to see some things that I didn't see last time. Like Haghia Sofia (pronounced Aya sofia and translated St. Sofia). This Mosque was built over 1500 years ago and was originally a church. I also got to see Topkapi Palace, explore a different section of the Sultanamet district (this is the more historical and touristy district. It's also where we slept), and spend more time in the Taxim district (this is the more modern district with nice shops and the best night life). The city is huge and dense. It is growing by leaps and bounds. About 15 years ago the population was around 1 million. Now it's over 10 million. At the same time the city is very organized and I didnt feel cramped or uncomfortable.

One of my favorite parts of town is the Grand Baazar. This is where you get to see the market forces in real time. The sellars are aggressive. They shout phrases out at you as you pass by. "Yes, please", "Why don't you waste your money on something you don't need", "Looking is for free", "Would you like a water pipe, carpet, tea set, etc","Excuse me." Even outside the bazaar the sellars are aggressive. Men stand outside trying to convince passerbys to eat at their restaurant with phrases like "yummy yummy for your tummy let me help you spend your money." The worst are the parfume sellars on the street. They are relentless. You should never say a word to them. Not even "no." In fact don't even glance at them or they'll hound you. Well, once you get the system down it's not so bad. I bought lots of gifts and souveniers at the Grand Bazaar. It was a lot of fun. I've really learned how to haggle. I wanted to buy some turkish delights. The original price was 2 for 40 lira. I got 3 for 15 lira.

They have an El Torritos there, so I was able to have my first good mexican food in a long time. It was so good I almost wanted to cry. The last day I wandered around the whole city by myself and was able to see lots of interesting parts of town. The only thing I regret is not getting to see is some whirling dervishes. I would love to go back for a third time. I highly recommend Istanbul.

Thanks to the IWC

2006-02-17T22:34:00.000+02:00

(This a Dancho, a likely benificiary of this project)

I applied to the International Women's Club in Sofia to provide a transition home for orphans once they gradate. Often times these young adults have no where to go and have as little as a month to find out what to do with their lives. This home will help them adjust to living in a community, find work, and take care of themselves. A big problem in orphanages is that everything is done for the children. They leave not knowing how to cook or clean.

The Women's Club decided to fund half the budget, which includes remodeling a house to be used as the transition home. The other half of the budget includes funiture and appliances. They will try to secure these items through donors in Bulgaria. This project will be up and running by the end of the school year.

Bratsigovo is home to three orphanages. Two of which are among the most well run in the country. We shouldn't have a problem filling up the fourteen spaces in the transition home.

Name days Kick my butt

2006-01-18T23:29:00.000+02:00

I know I have a post like this last year. It's true though. These name days come with too much partying for me.

Most name days fall in the winter because traditionally people work on the farm in the summer and needed more reason to party during the cold months. Every name is associated with a saint and a special day. Sometimes these name days can be bigger than a birthday. Bulgarians celebrate by having guests over till wee small hours of the morning. Do you have a name day?

Momchilovtsi

2006-01-16T23:27:00.000+02:00

I went snowboarding in a little village called Momchilovtsi. A volunteer lives and works at a snowboard park there. It was a pretty cold weekend. I got to test my skills at walking on ice down hill. Dave is pretty could at it. He had fun waiting for me to catch up with him.

We headed out to the snowboard park on Saturday. I got to test out a drag lift for the first time. It took about an hour for me to get the hang of it. It was exhausting. Not a big fan of the drag lift, but it was great to be back out on the slopes after two years of absence.

That night we checked out the little disco in Dave's village. I was surprised he has one. I live in a town and we don't have one. I warmed up with some tea mixed with a little Rakiah (Bulgarian whiskey). The we headed back to Dave's place for some well deserved rest. He gave me a book to read called "The Black Tulip." It looks pretty good. Check it out!

New Years

2006-01-04T23:32:00.000+02:00

During communist times in Bulgaria they didn't have a Santa Clause.They do now and he is called "Grandfather Christmas". New years use tobe the bigger event where they would exchange gifts. They waited for"Grandfather Cold" to bring them presents on New Years. When midnight strikes they pull out the banitsa. It is a salty breadproduct with fetta cheese and egg for the filling. There are fortunes hidden throughout the banitsa. When you get your peice you search for your fortune.

I went up to the mountains and stayed in a cabin with about 17 other Bulgarians. It was a non-stop party the whole weekend. At anytime you could go down to the main room and there would be someone down there playing music, dancing, and drinking. I went to bed at about 5am NewYears day and by 8pm one of the Bulgarians came in to wake me up and tell me to get back down stairs because they were drinking Rakia. I just tried to get some sleep. It was an interesting New Years.

First white Christmas

2005-12-29T13:23:00.000+02:00

Last year it didn't snow on Christmas, making this year my first white Christmas ever. Last year I celebrated Christmas with volunteers. This year I wanted to spend Christmas with Bulgarians. It turns out I spent Christmas with both. I stayed in Bratsigovo and a few volunteers joined me and we celebrated with a few Bulgarian families in town. Here is how Bulgarians celebrate Christmas.

Christmas is a 3-day event. On Christmas eve they cook food without meat. Sermia is very popular. Sermia can be stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls, or stuffed grape leaves. The main filling is rice. Baklava is the traditional dessert on Christmas eve or cake. Typically they celebrate this holiday with just the immediate family. Guests are rare. The head of the house lights up some sage and makes sure the smoke passes through every room in the house. Then he grabs a big round loaf of bread, called pitka, and starts breaking peices off. First to god, then to the house, to himself, every member of his imediate family (present or not), and then to guests that are present. There is a coin hidden in the loaf. The coin brings good luck to whoever finds it in there peice of bread. I participated in this tradition twice and both times the coin went to the house. Then everyone begins to eat. The number of dishes served should be an odd number. Nine is the most common. On christmas day they might have a bigger party with more friends or go to a restaurant. The day after christmas is a day of rest.

Christmas day all the volunteers visiting my town gathered at my place and we did an elephant exchange. I got someones clay teeth mold from the dentist. A great conversation peice! Then we headed up to a local orphanage to give the children presents. Bob Anderson (here and here) sent me a bunch of money to buy presents for all the children who would celebrate Christmas at the orphanage. I filled gift bags full of presents. Each bag a little different. The children sang a few songs for us and we sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" for them. I acted as Santa Clause and handed out the gifts. They seemed to really enjoy them.

Later that evening we headed to a party with a Bulgarian family. We made Cheese cake, apple pie, and pumpkin pie for dessert. The main course was a rump roast. That's not something volunteers are use to eating here in Bulgaria. The food was great. We drank, talked, danced, and finally headed home for the night.

Devin Seminar

2005-12-15T18:57:00.000+02:00

I went to a three-day seminar in Devin last week. It covered marketing tourism in the Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria. Since I graduated with a marketing degree, I pretty much knew all the material. The interesting part was the conversations between the different Bulgarians present.

Thursday was Student day, so we held a little celebration. It included a raffle of many different prizes. I won a pair of womens panties. It's one of the only things I've won in my life. I hung them up in my living room for all to see.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2005-11-28T16:39:00.000+02:00

This year I went to Chepelare to celebrate Thanksgiving with about 20 other volunteers. We had way too much food. Potatoes au gratin, mashed potatoes, stuffing, a casseorole dish, a rice dish, salad, and some other stuff. Instead of eating turkey we slaughtered a lamb and paid some local guy to roast it over a fire on a spicket. It was really good.

We did a little dancing and then called it a night.

On my way back I passed through Plovdiv. They've been cleaning up the center a lot and had some new shops. I found a nice liquer shop that sold cigars resting in a humidor. I bought a Cuban to share on New Years. I also picked a little facke christmas tree to decorate and put in my apartment. They next day some presents came from my family. It feels like Christmas now. I've opened a present just about everyday. Whenever a friend comes over they always want me to open one. I'm just trying to save some till Christmas.

The First Snow

2005-11-19T19:14:00.000+02:00

Snow has been falling all day. By the time it hits the ground it melts. At the end of the day the top of the mountains were white.

I stayed inside and cooked all day. It smells like Fall in my kitchen. I cooked pot soup with onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, every spice in my kitchen, and some Macedonian sausage. I put in a cube of chicken, mushroom, vegetable, and beef broth. Oh, and then I added some rice that's been in my cupboard for a while. The pot is so full I could eat this for week as long as I just keep adding water. =)

I also cooked a Pumpkin pie for the first time; and from scratch. I haven't tasted it yet, but it looks perfect. Ah, cleaning can wait until tomorrow.

New Guveche Recipe

2005-11-15T18:17:00.000+02:00

This one is better than the last one I posted. Remember to play with the recipe and make it your own.

- First take some meat. About a pound, but a little more is ok. Pork, lamb, and even turkey works. Cut it up into bit size chunks. Add a tablespoon of cumin, black pepper, and dill if you like. Mix it all up and marinate it for a couple hours.

- It's been two hours and now your ready to cook. Cut some mushrooms up real fine and throw them in a pan with some oil. Put as many or as little mushrooms as you like. In this recipe they act more like a spice.

- Now add a nice head of onion to the pan; chopped up real small. You can also add your meat at this point. When it's cooked, set it aside.

- Now this recipe works best if you have about six little earthenware pots, but you can also try a casserole dish. Place a layer of peeled and cubed potatoes in this dish. Now add your meat mixture. Again, add another layer of potatoes.

- Not add a little tomato puree to the top. Clean the pan you used to cook the meat with some water and add that water to the dish. The water should fill the dish half-way.

- Add some small chunks of butter to the top. Now add a lid and place in the oven on high. When the potatoes are done, so is the Guveche. You can crack some eggs on top just before it's done cooking if you like. That's all!

Nahsdrave!

Potato Festival and Weekend in Biaga

2005-10-30T15:08:00.000+02:00

(A river through Biaga)

A couple days ago I was reading the town newspaper and I noticed that a village in Bratsigovo named Ravnagor was holding a potato festival on Friday. I thought what a coincidence I had been telling them they should do this for over six months. The idea came from my Dad when we were talking about ways to promote the Municipality of Bratsigovo. We exchanged a few emails on the topic. My Dad gave the example of the Gilroy garlic festival near where I'm from in California and asked if Bratsigovo could hold a similar event. Soon after that it hit me. People around here are always talking about how great the Potatoes are in Ravnagor. I told my counterpart that they should start an annual potato festival in Ravnagor. After all there's a bunch more things you can do with a potato then garlic, right? Anyways, I was glad to hear someone finally put the event together.

I invited the British family in town to come along with me. They had traditional dancers, potato art, and a bunch of food all made from potatoes. I asked who came up with this idea. Everyone told me it came from city hall, where I work. Hmmm, I started to wonder. So I asked my counterpart (the vice-mayor) who came up with the idea. He just gave me an awkward look, not knowing what to say. When I first mentioned the idea to him, he thought it was a silly idea. "This sort of thing may work in California, but it won't work here", he said. I've heard that a lot.

About a month ago when the Director of Peace Corps Bulgaria came for a visit, I mentioned the idea again at lunch and he thought it was a great idea. So, I wonder who in the municipality came up with the idea of a potato festival? Well, after this success and a few others, the people I work with have been willing to listen to my ideas more and work closer with me.

This weekend I went to Petia's place, a village of Bratsigovo, for the weekend. She is the other women who works with me in the municipality. We cooked the whole time. We made banitsa, a traditional Bulgarian pastry. We cooked stuffed peppers and sermia. I forgot the name of sermia in English, but it's rice and spices wrapped in a grape leaf. We also made a bean salad, bread with hot milk and sugar for breakfast, and other good stuff.

Petia's husband and I talked a lot . My favorite discussion was about why Americans always smile. I told him Americans, that is volunteers who live in Bulgaria, wonder the opposite about Bulgarians. Why they frown so much.

On another note. Did you know you can eat the seed of an apricot. Its good too. kinda like an almond. Try it out. You just crack open the pit and there it is waiting for you.

Trainees gone

2005-10-26T14:00:00.000+03:00

(David, John, Nick, Will, Meghan, Me)

The trainees in my town are finally gone. Life in Bratsigovo as I knew it has returned. They were here for a few months working on language and technical training, and living with local families as an integration component. They were really a great group to be around. I'm suprised how well we connected.

They departed at a perfect time. I think they were ready to get to their permanent assignment and cities they'll be living in for the next two years, and I was ready to get back to mine. It's nice that things are back to normal in Bratsigovo, but at the same time I'll miss having them around to hang out with.

I read a head-line in a popular Bulgarian newspaper introducing the newly graduated group of volunteers. It read, "48 yankees to work in Bulgaria for two years without pay." That must sound really weird to Bulgarians. I myself have spent many hours over the past year explaining what I do and what a volunteer is. I think my counterpart has just figured it out. It's hard for Bulgarians to understand why I would want to work as a volunteer and give up all the money I could be making back in the states. Before I came to Bulgaria I received similar expressions from Americans when I told them my future plans. I guess in this instance Bulgarians aren't so different than Americans. To be honest it's really hard for me to explain the reasons why I decided to join the Peace Corps. You either get it or you don't. I think anyone who volunteers in any capacity will understand what you get out of it.

Well good luck to the newbies. Dobre Doshli!

Last weekend

2005-10-25T13:58:00.000+03:00

Last weekend some trainees in Bratsigovo and I went to Sofia to celebrate Meghans birthday. After checking into our hostel we made our way to the Kentucky Fried Chicken. We all paid about the same, but for some reason some of us got twice as much food as others. Luckily, I got the big meal.

We headed to an Irish Pub early in the night where I felt a little uncomfortable. I'm not use to being in a place where everyone speaks English. It felt akward to think that everybody could understand what I was saying. I had to watch myself. After that those of us who hadn't gone to bed went to check out "Swingin Club." It has two rooms with two live bands that play covers of songs in English. We all danced, sang along, and switched back and forth between the rooms.

The second night we ate Mexican food at Machu Pichu. It's been a year since I had Mexican food and for that I think I enjoyed this dinner more than the trainees. Honestly the food is not top quality Mexican, but it was close enough for me. I think they'll enjoy it more in a year too.

We stopped by Beer hall after dinner. They have a big wall full of all kinds of beer to choose from. I got a whiskey on the rocks. "My Mohito" was our next stop. A bunch of actors shooting a film in Sofia happened to be there. There were some Jackie Chan karate stunt men. I recognized one of the other actors. He's a mid-range actor named Nicholas Gonzalaz. It was interesting to see the Jackie Chan stunt men do their moves on the dance floor. It was even more interesting to see them try and hit on Bulgarian women. It's hard to get womens attention in this country. They're pretty tough.

We left Sofia the next day, but not before stopping by McDonalds and subway. The trainees will be leaving my town soon and I think this trip was a nice send off.

Bob Anderson

2005-10-19T13:07:00.000+03:00

A few weeks ago Bob Anderson came to Bratsigovo for a visit. He was here roughly three years ago with a national gaurd unit from Tennessee and helped with a remodel of one of the orphanages in town. Since then he has kept in contact with the director and kids from the orphanage. I've translated emails to the director from him and vise versa. He even helped me get my first grant. So when he made it into town I met with him and his wife and showed them around the municipality for a couple days. They treated me and another volunteer to lunches and dinners. At one of the dinners he invited the director of the orphanage and a couple others. We ate patatnik for the first time. It's like a Potato pancake, but bigger.

Now Bob is back in Tennessee, but last week sent me some money to by clothes for two orphans named Sedefka and Sasho. They are brother and sister. So I went out with them and someone from the orphanage and bought new socks, sweaters, shoes, mittens, pants, etc. for the coming winter. It was hard to spend the money because things are so cheap here. The rest of the money I gave to two sisters who lived at the orphanage when they were younger. He told me to reserve some money to take out Maggie, another volunteer who happened to be visiting me while Bob and his wife were in town. Last week while at a Peace Corps conference we went out for chinese. Thanks for treating us with your presense Bob. Maggie and I enjoyed ourselves and I know the Director was thrilled to see you.

Through the Fog

2005-10-17T14:08:00.000+03:00

(In the Rila Mountains)

Last week Peace Corps held a conference for trainees from my group. We learned more about development work, discussed some interesting issues in Bulgaria, and had more language classes. On one of these days I organized the annual Peace Corps bazaar to raise money for the orphanage committee I work with. The money we raise is used to provide small grants to volunteers for orphanages in their area.

After the conference I went on an organized trip with some of the current Peace Corps trainees in Bulgaria to the Rila Mountains. We hiked through the mountains for a couple hours with a guide before reaching are hija. A hija is basically a hotel for hikers. It was a cold hike with snow sprinkling down much of the time. The scenery was beautiful though. Lots of trees and soothing smells. We spent the night in the hija playing cards and enjoying a few drinks.

When I woke up in the morning the fog was dense and I decided not to go on the hike past the seven lakes. I figured what's the point if I won't be able to see them. I don't hike for exercise. I hike to see what I can find out there. For me, hiking is about the journey not the trek.

Out in the Vineyards

2005-10-10T13:09:00.000+03:00

(John, a Peace Corps trainee in town, working the pumpkin)

A few weekends back my counterpart asked me if I would come to his village and help him work the vineyards. So we took off on Friday after work and headed to the village called Melinkio (or something close to that). My counterpart, his sister, mother, aunt, grandmother, and I got started working that same Friday until eight in the evening. I learned how to make wine from start to finish.

First we picked grapes. The next day we pulled off the grapes from the bunches and dropped them in a huge wooden vat after running them through this mulching type tool that sits atop the vat. The grapes were all different kinds. So it was pretty much a bouquet wine. Once the vat was full we added sugar to it. Now it was pretty much grape juice and we were able to pour some of it out of the vat and drink it. We also emptied some of the juice out and reserved it to make white wine, which is a little more complicated and the process takes longer.

Everyday the grandma will mix the juice up with a big tool. Two weeks later the red wine is done. There is a spout at the bottom of the vat and that's how you empty the wine into bottles. There is also a filter (a bunch of branches) to keep the solid parts out. My counterpart will take the leftover solids and make Rakia (Bulgarian whiskey) out of it. The white wine should be done by new years.

My counterpart gave me a bunch of stuff from the garden for helping him out. I told him Halloween was coming up and he gave me a pumkin to carve. Later in the week, some of the Peace Corps trainees in town, came over, cooked and helped carve the pumpkin. I made them a pumpkin/carrot/apple cake. I just made it up, but it turned out really good.

I placed the pumpkin on my balcony where people could see it. Some have already asked me about it. Halloween isn't celebrated here, but they've heard of it from movies and stuff. I'll need to figure out how to make pumpkin pie for them and see how they like it.

I'm paid for

2005-10-04T15:00:00.000+03:00

I just won a grant for a little over $4,000 to build a metal and wood workshop in a school for troubled youth. The idea is to teach the kids a concrete skill that they can use in the future. Also, by providing these classes after school, we keep the kids off the street and out of trouble.

Every month the municipality I work for pays $50 a month for my apartment. Now I feel like I've more than paid for myself. Everything else from here on out is gravy. I still have a year left and it looks promising that I can win a few more projects before I leave.

In a year I've; met with investors interested in Bratsigovo, helped out with both orphanages in town, teaching English and International cuisine, secured equipment (refrigerators, heaters, dressors, mattresses, chairs, utensils, plates, etc.), acted as a translator, helped pick roses, helped write a marketing guide for small businesses in Bulgaria, helped with a study on orphanages in Bulgaria, raised money for orphanages through the Peace Corps orphanage committee, helped with the training of new volunteers, made a lot of friends and integrated into my community. People in Bratsigovo keep trying to convince me to stay past my term and the kids at the orphanages say they're not going to let me leave in a year. Maybe I'm not the superstar volunteer of Peace Corps, but I feel successfull.

So yeah, I've been here a year already. At moments it seemed like the time would never pass by, but now that it's been a year, it seems like the time just flew. Recently I have had dreams of being back at home in California. My two-year term in the Peace Corps had ended. Instead of them making me miss home, they made me miss the home I've made in Bulgaria. These dreams made me realize I better make sure I get the full experience of my time here in Bulgaria before it's over.

It's been a while

2005-09-29T23:17:00.000+03:00

This summer has been very busy and the internet has been very crappy. Bratsigovo has upgraded the internet network and has even lowered the price at the same time. So now I am back and have so much to say.

Two groups of French girls came to Bratsigovo this summer to help out at the orphanage. We organized activities for the kids and hung out a lot. When they finally left the girls and the kids were in tears. I still keep in contact with some of the French girls. One of them works in marketing which is what I have a degree in. One of the girls even said that I changed her mind about Americans. I guess I have to say they changed my mind about the French as well. They were great to hang out with and be around.

After that I took a trip to the black sea with a bunch of students from a town called Purvomai. Me and another volunteer helped supervise them, but mostly just hung out with them and planned some activites. I met a bunch of Americans there from Polish decent who were travelling around Europe performing shows for traditional Polish dancing. They were in high school and we hung out at the the clubs on the beach smoking hooka and drinking. It was interesting because they preferred speaking English, but their parents prefered speaking Polish. One time on the beach a mother and son were in an argument. The mother would only speak in Polish and the son would only speak in English. I could only understand half of the conversation. I also met some Russians on this trip and learned that with my knowledge of Bulgarian I was also able to understand a little Polish and Russian. Durring this trip I had some time to relax, get burnt, meet a lot of people, and even dive for muscles and barbeque them.

This summer I also had the oppurtunity to go to Croatia and Italy. You can see the pictures on the right of this page. Croatia was awesome. I met an old high school friend there. I Visited Zagreb and fell in love with the city of Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is a fortress where people still live, work, and go to cafe's. It's just a really cool town. Bulgarian and Croatian are like Spanish and Italian. I was able to understand much of what people said there. Fortunately most of the people spoke English there.

From Dubrovnik I took a boat to Italy which lasted eight hours. In Italy I visited Barri, Rome, Florence, and Venice. The sights in Rome were incredible. The food was amazing. It was everything I pictured Italy to be. With Italians playing music as I walked through the cities. I wish I would have stayed a few more days just to get my fill of the food alone. I think the pictures I have posted do a good job of showing you how great it was there.

Now the summer has winded down and I'm back in my little town. Five new Peace Corps volunteers have arrived in my city. They live with Bulgarian families, will learn Bulgarian language and culture. We've been getting along great and I've been answering a lot of their questions. One interesting thing is that three of them happen to be red heads. Bratsigovo has never had a group of trainees with any red heads. Let along three. They have been wondering if there is a purpose to this red head invasion of the city. I still have another month with these volunteers. When they leave I know I will miss them.

Right now winter is headed my way and I'm bracing for it. Last winter was one of my hardest times in Bulgaria. I'm sure this winter will be better, but none the less my California blood is fearing the cold snowy months ahead.

Busy Busy!

2005-07-19T19:06:00.000+03:00

I haven't been posting as frequently as before because I've been really busy. I've been helping an English family that moved into Bratsigovo get oriented. They've been having a lot of problems getting the house in their name and I've been acting as a conduit between them and the Municipality. This past weekend I took the Brits to their first Na Gosti (guest party). We went up in the mountains to visit with the internet guy (Zoro) in his villa. It was an all day event with plenty of food. It was great to see Jean and Trevor's (the Brits) reactions to the whole event and all the food that was served. The mountains were cool and peaceful.

Last week eight french girls arrived for the summer to to help at one of the orphanages. They speak english and I've been translating and helping them plan activities for the kids. On Friday they're going to help me with a cooking class I started at the orphanage and cook French food since I know nothing about how to cook French food. On Saturday, as long as the weather holds out, we'll go for a hike in the Rhodopi mountains near Bratsigovo.

I've been working on a project to create a wood and metal shop in one of our villages. It will be available to the community, but first priority will be given to students. These particular students have been sent from all around the country to live in a boarding home in this village. The idea is to give the students some training in a skill they can use in the future. We would also like to use the shop for after school programs to keep the kids of the street. Bratsigovo and Bulgaria in general is in desperate need of youth development. Typically school gets out at about 1pm and the kids don't do anything, but go to Cafe and get into trouble. In addition to Community and organizational development (my program) and teaching English, Peace Corps has a youth development program. It's new, but probably one of the most important programs. They can do a lot of good if it's organized well.

So those are the things I've been up to besides a lot of traveling around the country. The young people have come out of their caves for the summer and I've been making a lot of new friends. If the rain would go away once and for all, things would be near perfect.

4th of July

2005-07-05T13:24:00.000+03:00

I've experienced a lot of firsts in Bulgaria. My first fresh squeazed milk and homemade yogurt. My first fresh layed egg. Recently I experienced a couple more. Last week while heading to a Bulgarian tavern in town to meet up with some friends, I noticed these little lights flashing in front of me and then around me. This is before I had even drunken a drop. I wasn't sure what they were, but was little concerned that if I touched one of them it might shock me. I stayed clear. It turns out they were fire flys. Those have to be the coolest little bugs i've ever seen. I might go out hunting for them tonight and see if I can trap one in a bottle. Hahah!

A couple days later, I headed to the coast for 4th of July weekend, I took a night train and sprung for a sleeping wagon for the first time time. The conducter gave me my own room which was nice, unfortunately I think he also charged me double because I am American (or more exactly a supposed rich foreigner). I have to stop saying I'm American. I'm not. I from the Czech Republic. =) Hey it worked in Turkey and some other parts of Bulgaria. One time while in Kardjali I was getting a hair cut and the barber asked if I was from Yugoslavia. I said "no, I'm from the Czech Republic." He apologized. I said, "It's ok. A lot of people get us mixed up." I'm sure I saved at least 10 lev that day.

Anyways back to the train. The trip took five hours. I tried to get some rest, but every time the train came to a screeching halt so did my sleep. Once I met the destination, I got off the train to see dozens of Baba's (grandma's) holding signs saying they had hvratira's to rent out. I figured that must mean that they rent out rooms. I asked someone just in case and asked how much they usually cost. Then I walked up to one of the Baba's and she rented me a whole apartment (pretty nice) for less than $5. I think I had a neighbor in the next room, but I never saw him.

Sunday night some volunteers reserved a club and got a live band. The live band did mostly cover songs in English. Popular rock songs of the 80's, 90's and also a few Beatle songs were thrown in. When the band took breaks Jackson, a departing volunteer, pulled out his ipod, hooked it up to the sound system, and played new and old American favorites. You know the little story about Jack and Dianne, American Pie, and born in the USA. All the volunteers sang as loud as they could and even some Bulgarians who trickled in from somewhere.

I stayed up the whole night and when the sun came up, I went to take a last look at the sea before catching an early morning train. It wasn't the same as the San Francisco Bay back home. No huge waves, but it was nice to see the water again. I gathered a few shells as souveniers before I left. I'll be back to the sea again this summer.

Summer Work

2005-06-21T20:40:00.000+03:00

(A few ladies I picked roses with)

Rose crops are big business in Bulgaria and have been for a long time. It's a national symbol and Bulgarians love to use the rose as a metephor to describe the beauty of the country and it's women. Every year a rose festival is held in The Valley of Roses. This region contains most of the rose crops in the country and is one of the biggest producers of rose oil in the world.

Although Bratsigovo is not in the valley of roses, many people in town own a few acres of rose crops. My counterpart is one of them. The other week I helped him pick his roses. We started work at six in the moring and were done by about eleven. I got pricked by just a few roses, but his hands looked like a cat had been scratching them for five hours. I guess through the years he's learned to accept that sometimes you get pricked and prefers to work faster and finish work earlier.

At the end of the day, after gathering all the rose buds, he sells them to a firm who uses them to make rose oil. This firm then sells the rose oil to perfume companies in Italy, France and the US. There are other uses for these roses as well. People in town make homemade jam, juice, tea, rakiah (whiskey), and liquer out of roses. I've also been given candy and shampoo made from roses.

The rose season only lasts for a month and then it's off to other pickings. Yesteray after work my counterpart invited me to his house to pick cherries. We filled a huge bucket full and he gave them all to me. Way too much for one person to eat, so I made a huge cherry pie. It's the first time I've ever made cherry pie. The crust came out great but the filling was a little too sugary and way too liquidy. Next time I'll put less sugar and maybe drain the liquid that the sugar creates or add flour or something to make it thicker. I'm not sure. Anyone know how to make cherry pie filling from scratch? Let me know!

I'm Back

2005-06-10T20:40:00.000+03:00

I haven't posted much in a while besides some pictures. Partly because I've been busy and partly because I've been a little lazy, but I'm back now and in full force. Enjoy!

Turning the Tables

2005-06-10T20:38:00.000+03:00

Recently I've been turning the tables on my co-workers. In the past they would offer me food and I couldn't refuse it. Now I've been doing the same. Feeding them enchiladas, salsa, chili, and snacks my parents brought for me that they don't have here. Often times they would decline my offer with an excuse. They were sick or on a diet. So I used the same type of rebuttals they've used against me in the past. "oh, this is good for you when your sick" and "it's healthy it will help with your diet." I pushed this food to them just as aggressively as they've pushed food to me in the past. I even got a "stiga bay" out of one of them. That means "stop man."

Bulgarian hospitality is great, but it's difficult to say no. Especially when it comes to being offered rakiah (Bulgarian whiskey). They have a saying that goes something like "if your sick it's because you haven't been drinking enough rakiah." I've seen them use this stuff for everything not just drinking. To disinfect cuts, to clean computer parts like the little ball in the mouse.

So yeah, I've been having a lot of fun turning the tables. On some occasions I've decided to speak only English for the whole day. It was interesting to see how much they understood me even though they don't speak English. I've asked them the do-you-have-this-in-Bulgaria questions. My favorite is to try and translate things into Bulgarian that can't be translated, like "casual Fridays", "cowboy", or sayings like "don't cut corners." They look at me struggling to understand.

British Invasion

2005-06-10T20:36:00.000+03:00

A retired British couple moved into Bratsigovo recently. For five weeks they alluded me and most of the city. One day the municipality said they needed me to translate for them because they wanted to speak to some anglichani (brits) remodeling a house in town. Since then I have been helping these anglichani settle in. It turns out another British family has bought a house in Bratsigovo as well.

Officially foreigners aren't able to buy property in Bulgaria, but a loop hole in the law provides a work-around. You can form a corporation. The corporation doesn't have to do anything, but the house will be in its name. A lot of brits have been taking advantage of this loop hole, buying up property and retiring here. With the pension they get back home, they live comfortably here. The lev goes 3 to one on the pound. Everyone I've talked to in Bratsigovo welcomed the new family. However, in the past I have talk to some Bulgarians who were a little annoyed because at the same time all these brits enter Bulgaria, Bulgarians have had a tough time recently getting into England. In any case I think it's safe to say the British invasion of Bulgaria is in full swing.

Birthday in Istanbul

2005-06-10T20:01:00.000+03:00

Five volunteers and myself met up at Brett's place in Kurdjali. On Monday we traveled to Istanbul by bus. When we arrived at the border everyone had to get off the bus so the guards could check passports and look through our luggage. The guard that checked luggage waved us through and let us get back on the bus since we were American. The special treatment we got throughout our trip makes traveling nice, but it doesn't come without costs as we later found out.

You say your American and you get top notch service, but they also charge triple the normal rate. We had to haggle over prices for everything. We haggled at the hostel, we haggled when buying things at stores, and we haggled over prices at dinner. It's interesting to see the market forces alive in front of your eyes, but at the same time very tiring. Every time I walked into a shop I felt like I was being ripped off and I hadn't even bought anything yet. Even when you take all the precautions, there is still a chance of getting screwed as we found out one night at dinner.

At a nice seafood restaurant everyone perused the menu trying to decide what to have for dinner. I proposed we get a big mixed seafood platter and share it. The waiter assured us that the 40 million lira (it sounds like a lot, but it's only about $30) plate would be enough to feed all of us. After confirming three times that the charge would be 40 for the whole thing and not 40 per person, we ordered the dish. The huge patter displayed all kinds of fish. The waiter dished us all a plate featuring a little of everything. Nobody went hungry that night, but after checking our bill, a fear had come true. They charged us 40 per person. We knew we'd have to haggle with the waiter. He dropped 40 off the bill instantly, but still unsatisfied we continued to bargain over the price for an hour. At one point the waiter told us to leave and that he would pick up the tab. A few minutes before he said that we saw the police zoom up to the end of the wharf, so we decided to stay put. The waiter eventually dropped 60 off the bill as we originally requested. We paid and left, but not before getting a receipt with his signature on it.

Haggling over prices occurs everywhere in Istanbul, but the most fierce display takes place at a huge bazaar. The aggressive sellers shout out to you as you walk by. There is no such thing as window shopping here. Don't even glance at anything or you'll be bombarded with sales pitches. We spent a day there. Nobody bought anything until the afternoon. I think we were all a little nervous about getting ripped off. It's probably true that I overpaid on most things I bought in Istanbul, but I did get the sellers to bring down the price and by American standards I made some good deals.

I bought so many things, I had to buy a bag to put it all in. I am happy to say my Christmas shopping is complete and it's not even summer yet. I was able to get some some art and music, which is what I plan to do in every country I visit. Everyone speaks English there so communications wasn't a problem. One of the things the sellers do, and I've noticed this in Bulgaria as well, is ask you where you're from. I think this gives them an idea of what to charge you. If I say I'm American the price goes up at least 300%. Often times I said I was from the Czech Republic or Bulgaria. I was a little nervous about saying I was from Bulgaria because it is so close and they might know better.

Bulgarian did come in handy sometimes. We spoke Bulgarian when we didn't want others to understand what we were saying. When I got to the bus station to buy my ticket back home, I walked up to the counter and said English. The women behind the desk said no, but when I asked her if she spoke Bulgarian, she replied in Bulgarian. Also, when I was at the Grand Bazaar I met a sellar there from Macedonia. Bulgarian and Macedonian are almost exactly the same. So I spoke Bulgarian and he spoke Macedonian and we understood each other perfectly.

We had a great time exploring the area. We took a boat ride down through the Boshperus, visited old mosques, and museums filled with ancient artifacts. On my birthday we headed over to an area called Taxim. There is a lot of night life there. We ate dinner pretty late and since most of us were tired from the day activities, we decided not to stay out too late. We did go to this Jazz bar though that featured a saxophone as a beer tap.

I was also able to take a ferry across the Bosphorus to the Asian side. It's not far just a 20 minute boat ride. That side is less touristic and I didn't have to worry about being charged 4 million lira for a little bottle of water that should only be a half million. So now I can say I have been to the Middle East and Asia and it only took one trip to do it.

Holiday of the Week

2005-05-20T22:35:00.000+03:00

If you've been following my blog for a while you have realize by now that Bulgaria has a lot of celebrations. We celebrated bread day today. As well as the graduation of 22 students at the highschool, and the 60th anniversary of the high school in town.

Since it was bread day I decided to go around asking everybody when we were gonna eat bread. LOL! It turns out they did that yesterday. They mayor told me she would show me the pictures. From what I understand this is a gypsy holiday that Bulgaria is promoting for the first time this year. Today in Bratsigovo they held a contest between the elementary students where they drew pictures representing this holiday on the asphalt. See the pictures in the right hand column.

After that I wanderd down to the the graduation ceremony. They don't wear gowns like we do for high school graduations, but they dress up really nice and get a new hair dew. Now I know why I couldn't get a hair cut yesterday or today. They'll be heading off to Turkey for a little vacations. Coincidentally, so will I.

For the 60th anniversary of the high school they presented a concert at the cultural dome. The students put on little skits, danced, and sang. After that a select few, including myself, went up to have drinks and eat hourdevours in the dining hall. One item was particularly interesting. A small piece of bread topped with a lemon slice (rind and all) topped with three little fish. I wasn't sure how to eat with the rind an' all, but I just stuck the whole thing in my mouth. It wasn't too bad. After that my counterpart invited me over to his house for a visit where we ate dinner sometime around 9:30pm. It worked out great because I wasn't in the mood for cooking today.

Next week they have yet another holiday. They celebrate the 24th of May. It's a day of appreciation for two saints, Cyril and Mothodius, the two Bulgarians who created the Cyrillic alphabet which is used by many baltic nations, Russia, Poland and others. I won't get to see how this holiday is celebrated because I will be in Istanbul, Turkey to celebrate my birthday. I'll let you know how it went when I get back.

Musaka

2005-05-16T11:41:00.000+03:00

Below is a great recipe that can be made in one of those little guvech clay pots. It also works great in a nice baking dish. Don't be affraid of the yogurt and egg mixture that you place on top. It doesn't add much flavor but does have a nice texture. Let me know how you like it!

5-6 medium to large potatoes
1 container (1 1/2 cups) yogurt
5 medium tomatoes or 1 1/2 cups peeled, canned tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cups ground meat
1 tablespoon oregano/savory
2 small to medium onions
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
3 eggs
3/4 cup water or tomato juice

Brown the meat and onions. Don’t drain. Peel and dice potatoes and place in a baking dish (large rectangular or round pan). Grate fresh tomatoes (or chop canned) and add to potatoes. Add browned meat and pieces and then pour water or tomato juice over all. Mix and bake at 200 C until potatoes are tender (about 45-60 minutes). While it’s baking, mix eggs and yogurt. At the end of the baking, pour yogurt mixture over the top and bake another 10 minutes or until top is set or very lightly browned.

Nahsdrave!

Like a Sore Thumb

2005-05-15T12:52:00.000+03:00

Since I've lived in Bratsigovo everytime I enter my apartment this cat tries to follow me in. I figured that this cat must belong to the person who lived there before me. The other day when I stepped out of the door to go for a walk, I discovered that this cat is a girl. She layed cuddled with her kittens up against my door. I shut the door carefully, not wanting to disturb them.

I take these walks all around town just about everday in the hopes that the locals will get use to me and not stare everytime I walk by. After seven months of being here, I'm still waiting. It's usually the old men that stare the most. Then, after I say hello to them, they call me a "goteen peech." I'm still not exactly sure what that means, but I think it's a compliment. Eventhough I know it has nothing to do with the fruit, I still feel uncomfortable being called a "peech" by an old man.

I know I stand out like a sore thumb in this small town. Especially when the cows stop to stare at me when I pass them by on the street. I'm not making this up. They let the Bulgarians walk by, but when I pass they stop and stare. At the same time I'm trying to find a a fence to hop or a tree to run up in case it decides to charge me. Nothing like a crazed fanatic cow coming after you.

Now I better understand what life as a celebrity is like in a small town setting.

Some Introductions

2005-05-13T14:00:00.000+03:00

To get you better aquanted with the town I live in, I thought I would introduce you to some of the locals in Bratsigovo today. I see these people just about everyday and they certainly make my stay in Bulgaria more comfortable and hospitable.

Meet Chicho Colo, Mariana, Nasco, Cici, and Vasca below!

Chicho Colo

2005-05-13T13:50:00.000+03:00

Chicho (or Uncle) Colo is the owner and bar tender at Tiffani bar in Bratsigovo. This is the bar I most often frequent. Whenever I go in, he always gives me a quick lesson in Bulgarian slang. He also knows a lot of Turkish phrases. He tells me that he is my "kahdem." That means good luck charm in Turkish.

I've made most of my friends at this bar. In fact, I went there last night and met about a dozen more people. I always know that there will be someone I can hangout with at Chicho Colo's bar. On the rare occasions when there isn't, Chicho Colo pours himself a drink and we toast each other.

Mariana

2005-05-13T13:40:00.000+03:00

We affectionately refer to Mariana as Marianka sometimes. She works at a desk right across from mine. I love to joke with her and test out the new slang I've learned on her. I often bring in food for her to try. Like when I made enchiladas the other night. Or sometimes even American snacks. She was caught off guard when I had her try a listerine strip. She didn't expect such power from a little piece of paper. Her reaction was better than most though. Some people think it's a narcotic. She is always ready to help me when I need some information.

Cici

2005-05-13T13:30:00.000+03:00

This is Cici. She has hosted a volunteer everytime there has been training in Bratsigovo. She is a great contact to have in town. She knows everyone and everyone knows her. I often go to her house for an un-announced visit and she is always ready for me with food and a glass of rakiya (Bulgarian homemade whiskey).

She is very sympathetic listener. Meaning she listens to me closely so that she will understand my Bulgarian and she speaks slowly so I can understand her. Whenever I feel down about my Bulgarian language skills, I go to her house and we can talk for hours understanding each other perfectly.

She is always full of project ideas for Bratsigovo and willing to help. This summer she said she would show me how to make rakiya and take me into the mountains in Bratsigovo and find herbs for tea. Cici's sister is married to Chicho Colo.

Nasco

2005-05-13T13:20:00.000+03:00

Here Nasco is posing with a couple of his employees who work at his grocery shop. His store is my favorite in Bratsigovo. The employees are always understanding and helpful when I am trying to explain what I am looking for. This store is one of the cleanest in Bratsigovo and less crowded. I usually start my day by picking up either a bananna or some pastry for breakfast before going to work.

Nasco loves to tell his stories of when he was in the army and all the countries he travelled to. He recently told me of a drink that was very popular in Bulgaria about a decade ago called "American and Russian friendship." It's Russian vodka mixed with Coca cola. I told Chicho Colo about this drink last night and he mixed one for me and himself.

Nasco's wife is the director of the museum in Bratsigovo. They have a little boy together who knows a little English. Megan and I had him over for a visit one time and cooked him dinner. I am planning on going over to Nasco's house soon for a visit.

Vasca

2005-05-13T13:10:00.000+03:00

Vasca is the director of the youth center in Bratsigovo. She was a host mom for the first time last year when Bratsigovo had five trainiees. Megan, the volunteer who stayed with Vasca and her family during training, often comes back to visit.

Vasca's family is not the traditional Bulgarian family. The volunteers who know this family, affectionately refer to them as the hippies because of their different style and attitude not typical of most Bulgarian families. Vasca doesn't usually do the cooking in the house. Her husband Nasco does, but because she wanted to be a really good host mom for Megan, she did all the cooking and planned out each meal a month in advance so that no meal was ever repeated.

Vasca makes the best french fries I've ever had. When I came back from new years with my jacket stained with red champaigne, Vasca made it look new again. When my parents came to visit, I had to take them over to Vasca's house so they could experience her hospitality. She and her family are always a lot of fun.

Local Holiday in Bratsigovo

2005-05-12T14:41:00.000+03:00

(Monkey Business)

The 11th and 12th of May in Bratsigovo is a local holiday. The reason for celebration has something to do with the Bulgarian April revolution in 1876 which freed them from Turkish rule after close to 500 years. They place flowers at a monument of, Vasil Petleshkov, a local and national hero.

The festivities also include a huge flea market, rides, fireworks, military ceremony, and a concert by a famous traditional Bulgarian music singer. Just check out the pictures for a better idea.

I think most cities have a celebration of this sort sometime during the year. I was surprised how nice it was. I didn't plan on going on any of the rides, but one of the local kids dragged me on them. Most of the rides were the kind that go round and round. They seem to keep them going for a longer period of time, which makes them dizzying. The festivities continue today as well. I'll try and stay clear of any more rides.

Lots of Birds

2005-05-08T10:00:00.000+03:00

I woke up this morning at the crack of with the loud chorus of birds singing out my window. They were so loud, they even drowned out the noise of the roosters crowing. When I looked out my window, I could see tons of these little birds flying over the city. It looks like every bird has returned back from the south now.

This weekend I planned on going camping with some friends, but the weather turned bad and I ended up just staying around town. Today I decided to take a walk over to one of the orphanages. Since all the really little kids napped at the moment, I played and talked with the older ones. We played a little soccer, but I never liked that sport much so when I fell and skinned my hands on the asphalt the game ended for me.

I like to go to the orphanages as much as I can to give the kids attention. They get so excited when I come, they don't know what to do with themselves. After an hour or so, I have to leave because they become to overwhelming for me to handle. I found out recently that one of the orphanages is getting a few French volunteers for the summer. That should take the load off me for a while.

By the way, I've added some new photos to my album. Check 'em out!

Good Album Fix

2005-05-03T23:04:00.000+03:00

I found a new place to host my photo's. It looks really cool so far. I'll test it out and see how it works. If you look on the left hand column under the "Photo Album" heading, you will see a little icon there that will take you to the most recent photo's I have posted if you click it.

Better than that, click here to see a Flickr slide show of my latest photo's. Tell me what you think.

A Temporary Fustration

2005-05-03T19:37:00.000+03:00

Unfortunately my photo albums are down. I will get that back up ASAP. Swing back here tomorrow. Till then, the following is a great website with lots of pictures of Bulgaria. If you look close enough in some of the albums you might even be able to spot me. http://brettnet.net/other.asp

Bratsigovo Art

2005-05-02T19:04:00.000+03:00

I've posted a couple new albums in the last few days. Here's another one with interesting graffiti I've found in Bratsigovo.

All my photo albums are in the top right hand column of this site under the heading "Photo Albums." Check them all out and feel free to let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Happy Easter!

2005-05-01T23:16:00.000+03:00

No, I'm not late. Easter in Bulgaria is today this year. Normally Bulgarians use the same calendar that we do in the states, but to calculate the occurence of this holiday they use the greogorian calandar. The logic being that that was the calendar used when Christians first celebrated this holiday.

In Bratsigovo a lot of people go to church around 11pm and stayed there until after 12am. After this a lot of people go to a cafe. Usually cafe's in Bratsigovo close around 11pm, but this day they will stay open till around 2am. I feel like it's New Year's. Unfortunately I have gotten use to turning in early at night and am ready to tuck myself into bed now. Next year I'll make sure I'm awake to see the traditions carried out on this day.

Kookeri Album

2005-04-30T22:18:00.000+03:00

(I don't know)

I don't really know what this little guys is, but him and a bigger version of him ran around through the crowds, scaring, and attacking people at the Kookeri festival last March. You can see the big one's leg sticking out toward the little one.

All pictures in this album are courtesy of Jim Mayers because I forgot to bring my camera. To check out this album, click here.

Veliko Turnovo Album

2005-04-29T21:42:00.000+03:00

(Pepy's Bar)

Veliko Turnovo is probably my favorite city in Bulgaria. Everytime I go to Veliko Turnovo I always stop by Pepy's Bar shown in the picture above. Check out my new album on Veliko Turnovo to see more pictures.

English and Books.

2005-04-22T09:12:00.000+03:00

While my parents were here last week they brought a bunch of books with them for the kids at the school. They brought Dr. Suess, a book with every Disney story in it and a bunch of others. This week I delivered them to one of the teachers who teaches English in her class room. At the end of class I read them Green Eggs and Ham, my favorite when I was a kid. They kept asking, "whats Sam-I-am mean?"

I have a shipment of books coming from another organization as well. It's suposedly in the mail. I'm not really sure what they sent, but hopefully I will find out soon. The kids really liked the books. I know they would be happy to get more.

I also started teaching an English class once a week at one of the orphanages. It went well, but I think I need to make the lessons more intense. Some of them asked me for homework. I was surprised. There was a good showing of kids though. We'll see how many come next week.

Guveche!!!

2005-04-18T14:54:00.000+03:00

Here in Bulgaria a lot of dishes are cooked using clay crock pots. A couple weeks ago I bought six little versions of these clay crockpots. Now I make six meals at a time. One of the traditional recipies used with these clay pots is called guveche. The best way to make guveche is using one of these clay crock pots, but you can substitue another pot that can be used in the oven.

To make guveche cut up pieces of your favorite sausage (cooked). You can use italian sausage, hot links, any of the Aidell's sausages would be great. Place them on the bottom of a buttered pot. This is the first layer. Now add a layer each of chopped onions, fetta cheese, diced tomatoes and peppers. Sprinkle with your favorite yellow cheese such as mozzarella or swiss. Add some savory and other spices of your choice. You can also add olives or hot peppers if you like. This is a good dish to be creative with. Now add tomato juice or water. The concoction should be like soup or stew in consistency. Cover the pot and put it in the oven at about 300 C. When everything is just about cooked, take it out and crack a raw egg on top. When the egg is done, so are you!

I've also made rice with these pots. Last night I put a little tomato sauce in the bottom, rosemery, and a mixture of other spices. I poored chicken broth in the pot and then added an appropriate amount of rice. It was really really good. Try it and let me know how it was!

Family Visit

2005-04-16T09:35:00.000+03:00

(On the Black Sea with my Mom)

I haven't added a new post in a while because I was busy showing my family the treasures of Bulgaria. My mom, dad, brother and my brothers girlfriend (strike girlfriend. Make it finance. No, strike fiance. Make it my caca. I'll explain later) came for a visit.

I took them to three na gosti's (dinner parties) to show off Bulgarian hospitality. They got to sip homemade rakiya, eat guveche, banitsa and other traditional Bulgarian dishes. And I got to do a whole lot of translating. I realize that my Bulgarian lessons are paying off now. My family was surprised when I was able to translate the word "billiard" from a sign on the street. "You know the word for billiard", they said. What they didn't know is that the word is the same in Bulgarian. I just needed to be able to read the Bulgarian alphabet. Ha ha!

Since they were here for only a short amount of time, I gave them the quick tour of the country. After staying in my village for a few days we went to Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, where my brother, his fiance, and I tasted the night life. One of the clubs we went to had a live rock band that sang only in English. Ironically the singer didn't speak much English.

We traveled to the black sea where we stayed at Musala Palace, probably the nicest hotel any of us has ever stayed. The six course breakfast even included dessert. After that it was off to Veliko Turnovo to explore Tsaravets castle and party and Pepys bar.

One day we stopped in a little town called Ihitiman so my dad and brother could play golf. At lunch my brother purposed to his girlfriend. Of course mom started bauling. Ha ha! Later at one of our na gosti's we found out that the word for big sister in Bulgarian is caca. So LeAnne, my brothers fiance, will become my caca. I'm sure she will be a very good caca.

The last night we stayed in an apartment in Sofia, and my family left before six in the morning to catch their flight back home. I watched a little CNN on the TV, but was out the door by seven, headed back home too, in Bratsigovo.

The time went by so fast. Even if they stayed for a month, I know it would have went by fast. I wish we could have walked through Bratsigovo and the mountains. I wish they could have danced the horo and eat skembe. I wish we could have made it to a discoteka so they could hear the kind of music people listen to and how they dance. Well like my friends here have been telling me, "next time."

Roadside Assistance

2005-04-01T14:26:00.000+03:00

(Toilet paper stand)

On one of my trips through Bulgaria I spotted this toilet paper stand and had to take a picture. What an idea! Haven't we all wished for one of these when traveling a lonley highway and nature decides to call one of its little emergency's?

Wishlist

2005-03-25T10:44:00.000+02:00

I added a wishlist for an NGO I represent called the Center for Sustainable Development of Bratsigovo Municipality. The items on this wishlist will help with many of the projects I am working on. Check it out and if you know of a source where I can get these from as an in-kind donation, let me know.

1st Day of Spring

2005-03-22T11:05:00.000+02:00

(Celebrating with co-workers on the 1st day of spring)

On the 1st day of spring I went to one of the orphanages to celebrate with the kids. A man from the US Military who helped re-model the orphanage a few years back sent some money to me to treat the kids to pizza. Thanks again Bob! After dinner some of the kids had singing lessons and I sat in to listen to them sing traditional Bulgarian songs.

After that I met up with some co-workers at a restaurant and was out until about midnight. All in all, it was a pretty nice way to welcome in the spring. Especially since back home, I usually don't celebrate this day at all. I also got to take off all those martinitsa bracelets they gave me on the 1st of March. This means no more snow and here comes the rain. Now I enter California's winter.

Happy Trails

2005-03-21T10:13:00.000+02:00

(An old Roman road in the Bratsigovo Mountains)

Last week I visited the town of Kalofer for a seminar on creating a tourism center. Bratsigovo is interested in creating one of these to disseminate information on business developments as well as tourism. It was interesting and informative. I wish one of my co-workers would have attended. In any case I have made some contacts to help me with this project and will fill my colleagues in on what I learned.

After the seminar we went on a hike through the mountains in Kalofer. It had pretty nice scenery with a river and waterfalls. I wish I could show you, but I left my camera at home.

Pumped up from our little hike, me and a couple volunteers, decided to go to Bratsigovo and do a little hiking there. It was a little difficult because there were no maps marking the trails. We ended up having to turn around many times when a river got in our way or we just didn't know where we were going. We did pass through a little village called Rosovo in search of a resevoir. Never did find that resevoir. A cool project I can work on now is disovering many of the trails and creating a map.

I added a link to Peace Corp Bulgaria Photo blog under the about Bulgaria section. It has a collection of photos taken by current Peace Corps Bulgaria volunteers.

One Week Later

2005-03-16T12:31:00.000+02:00

This Peace Corps life is a rollercoaster of emotions. I never know what's in store as the new week starts. What a difference this week is from last. Last week snow lined every nook and cranny. Outside was dark and dreary. I didn't know when winter would end or what was to come. Now the cold and lonely winter seems to be over.

This week the weather has warmed up and the sun is shinning. I feel like I am in Mr. Rogers neighborhood and about to break out in song. People have returned to the streets. I say hello as I pass them by and sometimes stop to talk. People wave to me as they drive by in their cars or horse wagons.

On top of that work has picked up and I finally found a good set of friends. Soooo, "it's a wonderful day in the neighborhood a beautiful day in the neighborhood, won't you, won't you....."

New Store in Town

2005-03-15T19:12:00.000+02:00

OMG! I am so exited. Bratsigovo just got a video rental store. I've never known life with out a video rental place in the states. This must be how people felt when videos first came out. They even have little membeship cards.

The great part is that since they usually use subtitles instead of dubbing, all the movies are in English. I just rented my first movie for less than a dollar called "Efectut na Peperudata" with Ashton Kutcher. I think it is the "Butterfly effect." All I have to do is change the region code on my computer.

You think this will ruin my streak of reading books? Hope not, but after a long day of work it is nice to just sit, relax, and watch tv(or my computer screen).

Happy Cell Phone Day

2005-03-14T20:53:00.000+02:00

I finally got a cell phone today. I was one of the last volunteers to hold out. I think I should get some sort of prize for that. My Mom sent me her old cell from the states and all I had to do is buy a new sim card.

Email me a text at 359885257029@sms.mtel.net to send a little love my way.

Service here is expensive, so a lot of people usually send text messages. The good thing about service here is if someone calls you, you don't pay. Like landlines in the states.

Kookeri Festival

2005-03-13T20:03:00.000+02:00

I went to a Kookeri Festival this weekend in Kostenets. It's a Bulgarian tradition that pays homage to past tribal Bulgaria. Groups dress up in bear skins, pose as different types of animals, and perform tribal dances. It was very interesting. The best way to tell you about it, is to show pictures. I will put up some pictures of the festival within a couple of weeks. Till then click this link. It has a few pictures of what I'm talking about. It's in Bulgarian, so to get to the next picture just click the link at the very bottom of the page that says "следващата."

Gmail Offer

2005-03-11T17:36:00.000+02:00

I know a lot of people out there are still looking to get an invitation to open a Gmail account. I have a 100 invitations. If you are interested in one, all I ask is that you donate at least $3 to help support one of the projects I am working on.

This small fund raiser is not affiliated with the Peace Corps organization and is supported by the Center for Sustainable Development of Bratsigovo Municipality, a Non-governmental organization serving the Municipality of Bratsigovo. For more information send an email to mwahlgren@usfca.edu or post a comment.

Click here or in my profile to view an updated spreadsheet of the charitable projects that I am searching funding for and subsequently implementing.

One Bulgarian Rose

2005-03-10T13:35:00.000+02:00

The Womens day celebration on Tuesday was pretty cool. Yes, we had the typical traditons of dancing, including the horo. Fortunately that guy who always tries to start a dance competition with me, didn't dance much. He made up for it on the the bus ride back. He likes to ask me dumb and really obscene questions. Not to get an answer, but just to make fun of my youth. My Bulgarian is getting better though, so he better watch out. You don't walk away from a job at a grocery store for 6 years without learning how to be a smart ass. Thankyou Safeway. LOL!

This time instead of that one lady dragging me out on the dance floor, I was the one dragging people out on the dance floor. Ha ha! I guess I figured if I can't beat her, join her.

Like Christmas, without notice, I was asked to do an impromptu speech. Thankfully my Bulgarian is a little better now. I was interupted many times with cheers. They asked me to dedicate a song to all the women at the party. I chose "One Bulgarian Rose." This song is one of pride among many Bulgarians. The restaurant didn't have the song though, so I lead them in singing it. Actually they sang it and I tried to sing it. When we finished singing, the mayor handed me a rose. Yes, it was one of those kumbaya moments. I guess my speech wasn't so bad.

First Grant

2005-03-09T10:58:00.000+02:00

(The town of Bratsigovo)

I got my first grant last week. Well, kind of. Back in 2002 a group from the US Military came to Bratsigovo to help remodel one of the orphanages. The director of the orphange still gets emails from a few of the people in this group and I tranlate the emails between them. One of the men in this group sent an email expressing that he would like to treat the kids to a pizza party. Just to brighten them up a little and let them know that someone cares about them.

I located a bakery in town that makes pizza, found out how much it cost, and this man sent me the money. He also included some extra money for one of the kids he met at the orphanage. I gave her the money Monday. I don't think she quite understood why this person was giving her money, but she was greatful none the less.

We will have the party on the 22nd of March to welcome in spring. Thanks to Bob Anderson of Tennessee! Lets all raise a toast to him and the kids at the orphanage on this day. With what? Jack Daniels, of course. "The nectar of Gods." Bob would say.

Zhenski Den

2005-03-08T10:08:00.000+02:00

(At a party with co-workers)

Happy Womens Day! I guess there is really no need to explain this holiday. It's a day to celebrate women. They have a Man day too. It was on February 2nd, but I didn't hear about it until yesterday. I guess it's not that popular. Today after 12pm we have the rest of the day off and will go celebrate in Peshtera, a neighboring city. I wonder if I will get dragged out to the dance floor by that lady again and tossed into a dance competition with that man (read here and here for more on that). I hope he doesn't try to strip again. I'll be sure and report if anything interesting happens.

More opposites

2005-03-07T10:35:00.000+02:00

Back in September after I had been in Bulgaria for a couple months, I presented an Introduction to the Opposites. Well, after being here for seven months now, I have discoverd some more. So jump down that rabbit whole with me agian for a few more, but watch out for the rabid dogs.

When deciding on what projects to undertake for the municipality, instead of determining what is needed, my colleagues often search for grants on the internet first to see what projects organizations are funding. If they find an organization they think they can get money from, then they decide to do that particular project described by the funding organization.

Bulgarian weddings include a lot of celebration and can often last several days. When a man finally slips the ring on his brides finger he slips it on her right hand, not left.

At restaurants drinks are often displayed in the front of the menu, not the back.

The "other week" means next week, not last.

Cars are parked on the sidewalk and people often walk in the middle of the street.

Men wear capri's, not women. Volunteers often call these "manpri's."

Now you know a little more about the world I live in. I hope you didn't get bit, but if you did maybe I'll see you in Bulgaria soon. I hear my family got bit.

Shopska Selada

2005-03-06T14:04:00.000+02:00

I've been meaning to add some Bulgarian recipies that I make and enjoy often. I think shopska selada is an easy one to start with. It's a cucumber and tomato salad. All you need to do is slice some cucumbers and cut some tomatoes into wedges and put them together. If your feeling fancy you can add a little diced yellow or red onion and maybe a little bell pepper cut into small squares. After that dress it with vinegar & oil, and crumble a little fetta cheese on top. That's it!

While I'm talking about easy recipies, I might as well tell you how to make purzheni kartofi. Go to McDonalds and buy the big thing of fries. Dump them on to a big enough plate, top with crumbled fetta cheese, and eat with a fork.

Expect more challenging recipes next time. Until then....

Nahsdrave!

Life as a Celebrity

2005-03-05T11:14:00.000+02:00

(Me Dancin' The Horo)

Being the only foreigner living in a small town of 5,000 can be nice. Remember the TV show "Cheers." They sang, "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name." Bratsigovo is that place for me. I am sorry to say I can't remember all of their names. It's so difficult because the names are so different. I don't know if she is Desislava or Tvetanka. If he's Trendafil or Karamfil.

This celebritydom does bring a lot of attention with it. Highschool girls love to say "hi" to me from accross the street and call me "sexy." Ha ha! At parties, I am often the main attraction. Sometimes it's because they think of me as a novelty and other times it's genuine interest. When I walk in a bar, I often encounter a record skipping moment. ReWeeRT! Everyones eyes are on me. I don't know what they're thinking. Maybe, "Oooh look! It's the Amerikanets!" I also don't know what they say about me, but I'm not sure I want to know.

I'm sure they think I'm very different (especially when I am wearing those orange traction grips on my feet to keep from falling in the snow), but when I go to their parties and do the Horo with them for five hours, it makes them see me as being like them. Going over and visiting some of the people I meet for Na Gosti helps a lot too. These can last a long time, but once the initial stage of "Do they have this in America" passes, it's not so bad. Plus they usually give me some things to take home with me. Maybe I should Na Gosti more often.

Of course there are the bad parts too. Like the lady who always drags me out on the dance floor at every party or the guy that wants a dance competiton with me and does all these extra hip movements to show it. But more or less, even for a shy guy like me, the attention is pretty nice.

Chestita Baba Marta!

2005-03-01T10:58:00.000+02:00

On March 1st Bulgarians celebrate the coming of spring by making red and white bracelets made of string and tying them around the wrists of their family and friends. These bracelets are called martinitza's. They wish them a long and healthy life. They don't take off the bracelets until they see the first stork, which signifies the beginning of spring. I guess it's a little like ground hogs day. This holiday is called Grandma March.

I decided to visit the elementary school and orphanage on this day. The kids sang for me and tied the little red and white bracelets around my wrist. I knew this holiday was coming but I really didn't know how it was celebrated. Next year I will be prepared to hand out some martinitza's as well

Mnogo zdrave! Mnogo Shtactie! Lots of health! Lots of bliss!

Bankia Seminar

2005-02-22T13:30:00.000+02:00

Last week I attended a seminar hosted by Peace Corps in a little city close to Sofia called Bankia. So, if I was a little late responding to your emails now you know why. All the volunteers in Bulgaria from my group were there along with their counter-parts. About a little over half of the sessions were useful. We learned about how to work together more effectively, how to find funding, grant writing, and some administrative stuff. Aaaaaa! I get tired just reading it.

When we arrived, my counter-part said, "hey, this is a hospital." Actually it is a rahabilitation center. They had a little gym, with a suana and a mineral water pool. The showers in the bathroom were great. Some of the volunteers said it was the best shower they had taken in a while and one volunteer said he took a shower everyday that week because the shower was so nice.

The most useful stuff that came out of the seminar was in the form of advice from other volunteers. It's amazing what things some of the volunteers are attempting to accomplish. I caught up with one volunteer who has started a band , is teaching biology at the local high school, and is trying to find funding to open a disco. This was not the plan when he moved to his town. This is why I believe you have to keep an open mind when you get to your site and be willing to help all the people, organizations, and firms in town. What may start out as a secondary project can very easily turn into your primary project. I also met another volunteer who is so fed up with her organization that she has broken away and only works on "secondary projects." What you accomplish doesn’t necessarily depend on your experience or know-how, but more so on the situation you have been placed in at your site. I know a very experienced and talented volunteer who has not been able to accomplish anything at her site as of yet.

Every night the volunteers were able to reunite with each other. One night we went to a country bar and grill that not only played country music, but served American food as well. I was going to get the steak, but they ran out, so I got the pork chops. They weren't bad and neither was the BBQ sauce. Another night we celebrated two birthdays and Thursday night the guys went to Sofia to celebrate a bachelor party, while the girls stayed at the rehab center to celebrate the bachelorette party. I think it's funny. When she gets older she can say she had her bachelorette party in rehab.

Sofia was fun. I don't usually hang out in Sofia. It's a big town and a little too crazy for me, but when your with people who know where they're going, it isn't so bad. I had never been to a bachelor party before. We went to a strip club and did all the typical things you do at a bachelor party. It was a little crazy at times, but what happens at a bachelor party stays at the bachelor party, right? We have to protect the innocent...lol...and especially the groom.

I was hoping to get Pizza hut while I was in Sofia, but that didn't happen. The group I was with opted for Indian food instead. This is why I have no money. Peace Corps volunteers have expensive taste. The food was really good though. I hear they actually import the cooks from India. Next time I got to Sofia I am going to make a triple stop; first to Pizza Hut, then KFC, and finally Subway for the ride back.

When you visit my blog feel free to leave comments. It's nice to see who has stopped by. And if you have a blog yourself, it's a great way to advertise it.

Here is a letter from Peace Corps about Peace Corp.

I Need Your Help

2005-02-10T10:33:00.000+02:00

Now listen. As soon as you read this I need you to do me a favor. First, don’t look behind you. No matter how much you feel the urge, DON’T LOOK BEHIND YOU. I don’t care if the dogs barking, the cat’s meowing, or who’s calling. There’s no time for that. I have a problem. I’m craving Cinnabon. Now that’s right, you’ve guessed it; they don’t have Cinnabon in Bulgaria. I need you to get in your car, right now, and buy a big Cinnabon and eat it for me. Now I don’t want any of those nuts and things on it. Just take some of that cream cheese frosting stuff and glob it all around. Don’t be afraid to add extra. Then get back in the car and…no, never mind that; I don’t think I can wait. Just eat it right there. Ok, on the count of five. 1..2..5! Go!!!

Aaaah! That feels better already. Are you still here? Go!

P.S. Thanks. I owe you one. Now get outta here!!!

Current Projects

2005-02-08T14:48:00.000+02:00

Here is an Excel spread sheet listing the current projects I am working with the municipality to implement.

The main barrier to implementing most of these projects is lack of funding. This is why most days I usually search for funding organizations through the internet. When I find one, I tell my colleuges what needs to be submitted and when they get the information I translate it into English with the help of my tutor; Then I send the application off. This is as about as effective as making cold calls. In other words it's not all that effective, but you never know when you might hit that one. Once I've sent out one app, all I have to do find another organization to send it to with a few adjustments.

http://m.1asphost.com/matyoo/Projects%20Matyoo.xls

A Na Gosti & a Rojden den

2005-02-07T19:38:00.000+02:00

Megan, a volunteer from kostenets, came over this weeked. She trained in Bratsigovo. On Friday we hosted a na gosti (guest party) together in my apartment and invited her host family. We served deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms for appetizers. The main course was roasted chicken with carrots, potatoes, and onions. We also had potatoe salad as side dish and made carrot cake for dessert. They were blown away by the cake. They had never heard of cake being made out of carrots before, but they really liked it. And for alcohol we drank Jack Daniels. It turned out to be a pretty American na gosti as planned.

Saturday we went to a birthday party (rojden den) for a girl at work. I got her wine and a shot glass souvenier I bought at Peir 39 before I came to Bulgaria. They rented out a restaurant and we danced and ate all night. Did the hora of course and learned a new dance called the rechinitsa or something. I think it's there version of the macarena. That one lady that drags me all over the dance floor at occassions like this wasn't there this time; however, there was this other guy that always tries to get me into a dance competition with him, but I'm not interested. He starts dancing around poles and doing extra hip movement. It's kinda scary. I just look away. Sometimes he starts to strip and someone has to stop him. I don't know why he always wants a dancing competition with me, but me and Megan just laughed the whole time.

When they brought out the birthday cake with lit candles, guess what song we sang. "Happy Birthday to you" in english. I thought that was interesting. It's like the mechanical Santa Claus we had out in front of my office building that sang "Jingle Bells." We left the party at around five in the morning, while a few others stayed behind and talked, waiting for the sun to rise I presume. It seems like it's not considered a good party unless you stay out till to see the sun rise. I wasn't gonna make it that long, but I think I did pretty good.

Soundtrack of Bulgaria

2005-02-06T16:35:00.000+02:00

Since I moved to Bulgaria, I have had the oppurtunity to listen to a lot of different music, not only Bulgarian, but music from all around Europe that we don't get in the states. From Ukraine, Romania, Greece, Turkey, and on. I am really open when it comes to music and like to listen to a lot of different styles. These songs will be the soundtrack of my experience in Bulgaria and years from now when I stumble upon one of these songs, it will take me back to my life in Bulgaria and bring back the memories and emotions; some of which I have not yet experienced or felt. I thought it would be great if you could listen to a sample of my soundtrack. Below is a site where you can download songs.

http://www.data.bg/index.html?setlang=en

It's in english, but it has many songs that aren't.

If you look to the right where it says "most requested music" that will give you a pretty good idea of what I listen to. Some songs are from America as well. Below are some of the songs I like. Just click the search tab at the top of the Data.bg website and copy and paste the song into the search. If you like it and want more by the artist, type his or her name in the search field and all the songs by him or her will come up. To the left of the song click "http" to listen to a live stream. To download the song directly to your computer, click "dir". If multiple files show up in the search, choose the file ranging from 3 to 8 megabytes. No the titles below are not typos. That's how you spell them in english.

Giorgos Mazonakis is a Greek musician. I am listening to the first song of his below right now. It feels so appropriate. I look out my window at the village and the mountains behind them with the sun setting. It makes me feel like I am in old town Italy. It doesnt matter that the song is Greek and I am in Bulgaria. I don't know what he is singing about, but the style feels so appropriate for living life simply.

Apopse Tha Soneireutw
To Gucci Forema
nikotina

A Bulgarian favorite is Anelia. A lot of Peace Corps volunteers will probably gag when they read this, but I like her.

Nez Naesh
Pogledni me v o4ite
Bavno Umirah
Samo Mene Nqma6

Irina Florin is another Bulgarian artist

Moga

Below is a Bulgarian rap song with Vanko and Irina Florin

Zapazi Ve4erta

Alina & Costi are from Romania

Necasuri Si Suparari(re)

Got Peanut Butter

2005-01-27T11:33:00.000+02:00

Last week when I went traveling around Bulgaria I planned to get a couple things before coming home, avacados and peanut butter. You can find them in the bigger cities, but in small towns like Bratsigovo the stores don't carry them. Got the avacados but forgot the peanut butter.

Well I got my peanut butter today! I had to go to Pazardjik for an emergency exercise. Every volunteer is a part of a consolidation group of around a dozen volunteers that meet in case of a disaster. The guy in charge of security for Peace Corps Bulgaria chose my group to take part in the test. Every one in my group had to meet at our consolidation place in Pazardjik. After we all gathered together, they let us free. So I went off and bought some Peanut Butter. I could hardly contain my exitement. See what Peace Corps does to you. It makes you jump around at the thought of getting things like peanut butter.

My mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday recently. I almost told her to get me Ziploc bags. Ha ha! They don't have those here and they are so useful.

Lunch starts in 10 minutes. I hope those avacados are ready today.

More Snow, No Dough

2005-01-26T16:23:00.000+02:00

It snowed pretty good for the last couple of days, but today the snow melted into slush. I wanted to take more pictures of Bratsigovo in the snow, but I guess I will have to wait until the next snow storm. The ski resorts up in the mountains should have a lot of snow now. Maybe I can check one of them out in a couple weeks.

The work I am doing this week is about as boring as the color of snow. We have a lot of projects to do, but no money to carry them out, so I look for funding sources on the internet. I can't seem to find money for these projects. I've looked through so many organizations websites, I forget which ones I've already looked at and for which project.

When I was in Shumen last week I met a very good volunteer and he has recieved about $35,000 for his organization. He's been in Bulgaria for a year and a half. Most of the projects I need to find funding for are $35,000 alone. That's down from the half a million dollar projects they wanted me to find funding for when I first got here. $35,000 doesn't seem like that much money on the grand scale. It's got to be out there somewhere, right? But where? I'll keep looking.

Месо Хляб?

2005-01-23T19:15:00.000+02:00

I made meat loaf tonight. It turned out very good. Below is a recipe for Banitsa. A traditional Bulgarian dish. Typically you use fetta cheese for the filling, but I've made Apple Banitsa, Pumpkin Banitsa, and mushroom and cheese Banitsa. It's very versatile. Try it out.

http://www.abvg.net/Foods/Feta/recipes/banitza.htm

5 Cities 5 Days

2005-01-22T17:43:00.000+02:00

Last week I went to five cities in five days. Veliko Turnovo, Tsenevo, Rousse, Razgrad, and Shumen. I visited volunteers and talked about the projects they're working on and met with their English clubs or classes in some cases. That's the days. The nights were a little more interesting. Read on.

My visit to Veliko Turnovo was the tail end of a birthday party, but I stayed an extra night and had dinner with a volunteer there at Mustang food. A place with not so good American food. The volunteer told me to come back in a year and it would taste much better. I guess it depends on how long you've been away from the states. We talked about being a PCV and I got some good advice.

In Tsenevo I visited two PCV's, Sarah and Johney. Johney is trying to get funding to make a park around a local pond. He's got all the info and blue prints on how to make it. When communism fell a lot of projects that had been started were never finished because there was no money for them any more. You can see a lot of half built stadiums and buildings in a lot of cities.

Next it was off to Rousse where I helped Don, a youth developement volunteer with his English classes. It was a pretty informal class and I just walked around and talked with groups of students. It was fun. I almost wish I had the oppurtunity to teach a class a week. The night before Don took me out to see what the night life in Rousse had to offer. It was a pretty crazy night. We met this Brit and he kept buying us drinks. We ended up going to a strip joint, but it sucked so we went to another one called Moulin Rouge. We managed to make it back home before five am just after we got back from a brothel. That's right I went to my first brothel in Bulgaria. Am I a man now dad? Actually we didn't do anything. The only thing I remember there was the toilet. A little too much mastika(licorice alcohol) for me. Man, Don's a pretty crazy guy when he gets drunk. You'd never know it by looking at him.

The next night in Razgrad another guy kept buying me and Jason(a PCV) drinks. This guy was probably from the mafia. My drink of choice that night was Bailey's. A double shot of that costs 8 lev. Which is pretty expensive here considering a beer costs 1 lev and the average income is around 200 lev. I held my own, but Jason got pretty drunk. Maybe a little too drunk. The mafia guy continued to buy us drinks and tried to say that Russia would beat us if there was a war. After a while when we started talking to someone else he kept saying, "Fuck America." Some people like to say that here just to get a reaction out of us. On one of my first nights in Bulgaria I met a guy who said Osama Bin Laden is his best friend. They just want to see how we react. I don't fall into the trap. The night before in Rousse the Britt was trying to argue that Peace Corps is equaitable to the Nazi youth. They're just messing with us. None the less the mafia guy and the Britt before him kept buying us drinks. There was a lot of Nahsdrahvay's(toats) or nice drive ways as some like to say.

If you think the week so far was pretty exciting let me tell you about Shumen. I hung out with some pretty loud and crazy guys there. I met with three volunteers who live in Shumen and three others who came to celebrate one of the volunteers birthdays. They brought a Euro volunteer from Denmark with them. She couldn't understand why one of the volunteers had an American flag hanging in his living room. Mark, the PCV, said sarcastically and appropriately, "Well before I lived in Bulgaria, I lived in America." He he! That was the end of that conversation.

We got take out chinese(really good this time). You know I have had more chinese food here then I do in the states. Everybody wants chinese when we go out. Oh well! So yeah...we drank a lot of course. There was a little nudity and a lot of odd dancing. I have lots of pictures, but I'm not sure you want to see them. Mark has a hooka pipe so we smoked mint hooka. That stuffs pretty good. I'd only done it one time before at a hooka bar in Sacramento. We finally got to the disco in town and were able to break a few bottles on the floor before we left. I went to bed at three and woke up at five to take the only train at six am. Eight hours later I made it to Plovdiv and took a bus to Bratsigovo. I am now safe at home. Whew!

I took so many buses, trains, not planes, but automobiles last week I am surprised I made it to all my destinations without incident. I did have some close calls though. I didn't get on my first bus because I was going to Veliko Turnovo and the sign on the bus said Rousse. I didn't know it stopped in Turnovo until the bus driver told me to get on the bus. And then when I was leaving Shumen I couldn't get out of the building where I stayed with a volunteer. The door was locked. Finally somone came with a key. I thought I might have to break a window.

You can find info about all the cities I visited in the right hand column under "Cities I've visited in Bulgaria."

Veliko Turnovo

2005-01-20T17:38:00.000+02:00

(My Bus Friends)

I went to Veliko Turnovo, the old capital, the other weekend. It took six hours. I made some friends on the bus to kill the time. Turnovo is a really cool city. Probably my favorite so far, right ahead of Plovdiv.

The reason for my journy was to celebrate the birthday of another volunteer. We stayed in a hostel a little out of the way, but had a great view of the castle. We ate chinese food that night, went to a few bars, and went to bed early(2am) to see some site seeing the next day.

They're rebuilding the castle, but right now it is pretty delapidated. We wandered all through the fortress like it was a jungle gym, climbing walls and jumping in holes. The old church at the top was pretty modern inside. The art inside is new and a little odd, but cool.

Pictures coming soon!

Guest Tour

2005-01-14T17:06:00.000+02:00

This weekend I am going to Veliko Tournovo, the old capital, for the first time. It should be fun. I knew a guy back in the states who lived there for three months and he told me some places to check out. Pepy's and Sream!

Next week should be really cool too because I decided it would be interesting to visit other volunteers and see what work they are doing. Some of them are teachers or have English clubs, so I am going to do some speaking in front of their groups. It should be a good trip. I am going to Russe, Razgrad, Shumen, and Tsenevo. I just hope I don't get lost using the public transportation. I'll post something about my little trip when I come back. Have a great week. I'll talk to you when I talk to you.

Interesting Questions

2005-01-12T17:02:00.000+02:00

Since I've been in Bulgaria I have been asked lots of questions by the Bulgarians I come in to contact with. Most of them have been meaningful and a few of them have been very memorable. I've been asked if I am from France. One of the first questions I was asked is how I can be from California if I am so white. My favorite though is, "are women in America fat?" How do you answer that kind of a question? I said, "sometimes" and the guy, who happens to be one of the Vice-Mayors in my town, disimissed my answer as being diplomatic. LOL!

I think the best way to answer some of these questions is with another question. Instead of saying, "no', my Dad use to say, "does a chicken have lips?" Do you have any more of those Dad? I have to think of some. And can you translate it into Bulgarian? Ok...I'll have my Bulgarian tutor translate them for me. It'll be nice to see the look on her face anyway. He he!

I added another album. Lovech & Tsenevo. Enjoy it! I also added a bunch more links about Bulgaria and the cities I have visited. All of them should have an English version except a couple. Well I have been on this computer way too long today. I'm gonna get something to eat.

California Dreaming

2005-01-10T14:52:00.000+02:00

I added two photo albums. Peshtera & Pirin and Winter in Bratsigovo. Eventhough the winter here took a sharp turn looking more like spring. Am I in California or am I dreaming? I don't know if I will get to snowboard this year. I'll let you know if I do though. Below is a few more perspectives from other PCV's in Bulgaria. Check 'em out.

JBrian Murray
The Alaskan Bulgarian
Sofia Slide Show

Imen Den

2005-01-08T11:43:00.000+02:00

This week has been kickin' my ass. I have been trying to recover from my four day New Years Marathon and this is the week that work starts to pick up. On top of that, I have been to so many Na Gosti's(guest party's) because of peoples Imen Den's(name day's). A name day is a religious holiday Bulgarians celebrate. Every Bulgarian has a day when their name is associated with the name of a Saint. Sometimes this day is bigger then their birthday. This week the name days for Jordon and Atanassov, and of course all the derivitives of these, were celebrated on Thursday and Friday respectivley. At these little Na Gosti's drinking is pratically a requirement.

Yesterday I was about to leave work when someone said, "Haiday Matyoo" because there was a Name day party in the cellar bar. "Ah man", I thought. For them these parties are a time to relax, but for me it's work. I have to listen hard when someone is talking to me and try to understand what they're saying. Then I have to figure out how to respond. And of course once I got down there that one lady grabbed me to dance. I guess there is a little joke that she likes me because everybody was kidding me and my counterpart was trying to hook me up with her. But she's too old for me. I don't know how old she is, but it doesn't matter once they hit thirty. The PCV's joke about how Bulgarian women are gorgeous until they hit 30, then the ugly stick gets them. And it's true. Ah, I had fun anyway. It is nice to be the center of attention.

The night before I went to a Na Gosti for another Imen Den and stayed out till 2am. Rise and shine for work at 8am. The good thing about these Na Gosti's is that I don't have to worry about dinner. The bad thing is they last so long. I was there for 8 hours. At one point in the night they sang some old Bulgarian songs and then they wanted me to sing. They said, "Sing something country." So I sang the Gambler by Kenny Rogers. He he! They enjoyed it.

So now it's the weekend and I want to go out. Maybe visit some of those bars I talked about in Plovdiv. But I should probably set this weekend out.

New Year's Marathon

2005-01-04T14:44:00.000+02:00

Chestita Nova Goodina! Happy New Year!

The party marathon started on Thursday. I headed for Plovdiv to find a bus to Chepelare. While I was in Plovdiv I bumped into another volunteer and he covinved me to go to Smolyan with him. When we got to Smolyan we met some other volunteers who were sitting with and old Scotish Royal Marine who lived in town. We chatted and he paid for all our drinks. Later that night we went out to a bar where I had my first Captain and Coke in a long time. I don't think it was real Captain Morgan though. It didn't have the pirate on the bottle and it tasted horrible. I only took a few swigs. What a tease. I drank a few other drinks and got a little faded. That night we stayed at a volunteers apartment. We woke up early and made it to Chepalare in the morning and met with some more volunteers.

In Chepelare we stayed at a hotel owned by a Brit. They housed us, fed us, and threw us a New Year's party for $40 bucks. Not bad, huh? When midnight struck the owner of the hotel sprayed everyone with red champaigne. Everybody's cloths got stained red. I don't think he knew it was red champaigne. I've never heard it before. Outside everyone in the city let off all their fireworks, so no matter where you looked, there was sparks in the sky followed by loud bangs. We did the horo out in the snow until someone slipped. After that we went to the disco in town and then went back to the hotel to crash for a few hours.

Saturday night some of us went to Plovdiv. Thats the closest big city to my town, Bratsigovo. I found a lot of cool places there. We went to a bar that played only songs like "What a Wonderful World", "Boardwalk", and "Stand by me". Classic R&B I guess. When certain songs played we all sang. I think the crowd liked it. I know the bartender did. Another place we went to had a band that sang rock music. The lyrics were in english but we didn't recognize the songs. It was a cool place down in a basement. Very scary and dungeon like. My brother would like it. That night was probably the funnest of all of them because I was with only a small group of volunteers.

I drank the most that night of any of the nights and on the least amount of sleep. We went to a few other places and late in the night, probably after five in the morning, after getting lost and not being able to find the hostel (eventhough it was right in front of me) I went to bed. Yeah, I had a little too much to drink that night. I woke up about ten in the morning and took a taxi back home. I spent Sunday recovering and promising never to drink that much again.

Horo'ed All Night Long

2004-12-30T11:30:00.000+02:00

Last night my Municipality had a Christmas/New Years party. We celebrated with Peshtera and Batak in a restaurant in the mountains of Batak. There was at least a hundred people there. I danced all night. Slow dancing, fast dancing, I even did the horo. The horo is a traditional Bulgarian dance where every one holds hands. You don't form a circle though. The shape is more like a snake with a leader and an end. It wraps around itself over and over again. It sort of has a life of its own. You have to see it for yourself.

When ever I got a chance to sit down and rest my counter-part would say, "haiday(come on) Matyoo." But most often it was this one lady who kept grabbing me over to dance. Sometimes she would pull me over when I was already dancing. Finally I asked her where she lived and she said, "you don't remember me". "NO I DON"T REMEMBER YOU". Actually I didn't say that I just pretended I didn't understand her. That's the good thing about being a foreigner. Here I am everything you hate about foreigner's in the US. If I don't want to answer a question, I pretend I don't understand you. And if you say something that I don't understand, I just say "yes" all the time. LOL! Well what else am I supposed to do. They'll just keep talking. I also like to mispronounce words on purpose to make it sound like something else. For example there is this guy named Zhorro. I call him Zorro like the masked character. I think it's funny. Getting back to the lady...I'd swear I've never seen her before in my life, but she acted like we were old high school buddies. She even knew my name. We must have met once when I first got to Bratsigovo and she remembered me.

My counter-part asked me if I wanted to do a little speech about Bratsigovo. "Uhhh...ok". And he imediatley grabbed me up on stage. "Ugh...Hello....how are you?" I wasn't sure what to say. Of course I have to talk in Bulgarian. "Bratsigovo is a great town and has the best Mayor in all of Bulgaria." They seem to like that kind of talk here and of course everyone from Bratsigovo cheered. "Happy New Year." And my little speech was done.

Later on that night the DJ called my name. "Matyoo Wolgren." Everyone cheered. I didn't know what to do, but that one lady grabbed me and put me in the middle of the dance floor where I had to strutt my stuff for a few seconds. He he! I was the center of attention all night. I noticed people kept looking at me. "Hey look, it's the American"

When I did have a chance to escape to the table, we did a lot of drinking and toasting. "Nasdrave Matyoo." I got back in the wee wee wee wee small hours of the morning about 15 minutes before 5am. I was planning to take a bus to Chepalare this morning at ten, but since it's already noon, I think I'll take another bus. At least I don't have to work like most everyone else. I have to meet with the Mayor of Chepalare now. The mayor of Bratsigovo found out I was going to Chepalare and it turns out she is friends with the mayor of Chepalare. So I have to meet with him and tell him "Pozdrave". I am not sure what it means, but it's probably some sort of wish of good health for the new year. Well I think my bus will be coming soon so I better haiday.

Chili but not Chili Enough

2004-12-28T20:18:00.000+02:00

I hope you like the map of Bulgaria I placed in the last post. Now you can track where I travel. I put the link to the map in the "About Bulgaria" section as well.

The snow has pretty much all melted in Bratsigovo. If I'm lucky the snow will be refreshed tonight while I sleep. Since I don't drive, I'm enjoying living in the snow. If it's going to be cold anyway might as well have snow, right?

Tonight I'm making chili for dinner, from scratch of course. I hope the beans turn out right. I've never cooked dried beans before. It smells good. Let's just hope it tastes good. Mmmmm...I wish I had biscuits to go with it. I guess I will have to learn how to make those too. I'm making a full pot so it should last me for the rest of the week and considering I am leaving for Chepelare Thursday morning, it should last me for part of next week too.

I hope you all have a great New Years! Let me know what you did. I'll be sure to tell you how my New Years went.

P.S. Did you hear Kate is in Bulgaria? It's another perspective from a PCV. Check it out!

Christmas in Bulgaria

2004-12-27T09:38:00.000+02:00

(Click the map for a better look)

I took a night train to Byala the Thursday before Christmas. Byala is in northern Bulgaria close to Ruse. The train left from Plovdiv at 11pm and I arrived in Byala at 5:30am. I am lucky I made it. Byala is like Springfeild in the US; there's a whole bunch of 'em. I didn't realize I had to switch trains half way through the trip and got off just in time. From Byala I took a taxi to a small city called Tsenevo. This is where I spent Christmas.

When I got to the volunteers apartment he was still sleeping. I rang the door bell, banged on trash cans, yelled his name, and finally after a long time he looked out the window and realized he was not dreaming. There were a few volunteers that arrived at his house the day before. One of them looked out of the window at one point told me to simmer down and them went back to bed. He may have been sleep walking. All I know is that they must of had fun the night before to be able to sleep through all the noise I created.

One of the volunteers did all the cooking. The food was great. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and so on. I brought cheddar cheese. It might not sound like much, but it's hard to come by in Bulgaria, so it was a nice treat. Bulgaria typically only has two kinds of cheese. A feta type cheese and a monterey jack type cheese. In fact they don't even have a word for cheese.

This Christmas was obviously different than any other for me before eventhough I was celebrating with Americans. This year the men cooked and the women sat on the couch all day and watched TV. It seems as though The wonderland of Bulgaria is encouraging us to create some new opposites.

One of the neighbors stopped by and gave us fresh apples, Rakiya, and pork sausages. The sausage was especially fresh, in fact we heard it being slaughterd that morning. It had a gamey flavor but was very good. We talked with the neighbor for a while and drank a glass or Rakiya together.

The travel back was intense. I left from Tsenevo at 10am to Ruse to Sofia to Plovdiv and finally took a taxi from Plovdiv to Bratsigovo for 20 lev ($13). That taxi rate was pretty good. Another taxi driver wanted to charge me 60 lev ($40). The routes to get me home were limited that's why I was all over Bulgaria that day. I walked through my door just past 7pm.

This trip was the first I've taken since I've been in Bratsigovo. I am suprised I traveled so well without making a mistake. Lets hope the rest of my travels in Bulgaria run as smooth.

Snyak in Bratsigovo

2004-12-21T21:01:00.000+02:00

(winter in Bratsigovo)

I went to bed last night and woke up to snow outside this morning. I bundled myself up tightly and even had the oppurtunity to use my Yak Trax on my way to work. As you can see they're these things you slip on to the bottom of your shoes and they keep you from slipping in the snow. The company donated a bunch to Peace Corps and I picked one up. Mine aren't neon green though, they are the ever popular neon orange. I think they even glow in the dark.

I am still having trouble cooking recipes from the U.S. They never quite turn out right here in Bulgaria. Today I tried to make brownies and it ended up turning into chocolate cake. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

President Bush sent all Peace Corps Volunteers a letter for Christmas you can view it by clicking here or looking under the "About Peace Corps" heading in the lower right hand column.

Last Night

2004-12-18T14:56:00.000+02:00

Yesterday after lunch I visited the ceramics factory in town. They have many different designs they work on. I watched a man make the view of a street in Old Town, Plovdiv. He made a three dimensional design of it from a photograph. Three people were working on that same design. It's like an assembly line, not with conveyor blets, but each of them worked on a different part of that design. Another guy was sketching new designs on paper and preparing to make a new mold. They showed me a tour of the place and all the different things they make.

After that I went to the other Dom Za Detsa(orphanage) and they ended up having an event that night. People from all over Bulgaria came to give gifts to the kids for Christmas including German red cross. I hung out and talked with the kids and they put on a show for everyone. They gave us ornaments they made as gifts. After the show they turned the cafeteria into a disco for the kids. In the winter time there isn't that much for them to do at night because the only disco in town is closed.

After that I stopped by Sisi's house and met up with some volunteers. They're teachers and from a differnt class than mine, but they did their training is Bratsigovo. Sisi fed us fried potatoes, keilbasa and gave us Rakia to drink. We talked a lot. It's interesting because eventhough we were speaking in Bulgarian I recall the conversation in English.

That night I went to a Cafe with the other volunteers. I drank mastika or oozo(is that how you spell it?) and they had beer. I ordered some duck hearts and one of the other guys ordered chicken hearts. The duck hearts are much better! We talked about the differences between being in the education program, which they are in, and the economic development program, which I am in. We also talked about volunteers who go back to the states before their time has been served. In my class of 59 we've already lost 5. We let some guy buy us another round and then stumbled back home.

What a cold night it was; I couldn't feel my nose. I'm learning the key to staying warm is in layers. I've got thermal, under shirt, under sweater, under jacket. And that's not enough. I need my beanie, gloves, and maybe some long-johns. I feel like I'm wrapped up in cellophane. When I look around it's only us American's who seem to be bundled up so tightly. You can be fashionable or you can be warm. I choose the latter, but maybe some of the Bulgareen's choose the other.

I'd like to end this message with a great philosophical question. Why is snow white and ice clear? Aren't they just different forms of water? If you succeed in answering this question please let me know. I can add it to my list of useless facts. Welp...I'm gonna go see if I can find some food. Come again.

Friends of Bulgaria

2004-12-17T10:07:00.000+02:00

I added a new link under the "About Bulgaia" heading on the bottom right-hand column. It's called Friends of Bulgaria. This is an organization started by a group of former PCV's in Bulgaria. They provide small grants for assistance in Bulgaria. They also have a little information about Bulgaria and some cool pictures.

I've also added another perspective from a PCV under the "Other Perspectives from PCV's" heading called Where's Julian. Check it out and read about the explosion that shook his home while he was sleeping.

The lady that I share an office with just handed me another cough drop. Every time I sneeze she gives me one and has one her self. I am getting tired of eating these things, so I just put them in my drawer. I feel like the kid who stuffs his pop tarts in his locker at school. I tried to tell her I don't want them, but she doesn't take no for an answer.

That's pretty common here. It use to happen when I lived with a host family. They would ask me if I want some Rakiya(Bulgarian whiskey) and I would say,"no thanks." They would say, "just a little bit." I would agree and then they would poor me a whole bunch. The same treatment goes for food and anything else you can think of. Actually sometimes when it comes to food once you have finished even just one of the dishes they fill it back up to the brim with out asking. It's because compared to them Americans eat fast and if you eat too fast they think you must be hungry. Same goes for the Rakiya, so if you ever get a chance to experience the hospitality of Bulgarians make sure you take your time when eating and drinking.

Getting Out in Bratsigovo

2004-12-15T21:14:00.000+02:00

This week I decided that from now on I am going to work out of the office on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. I told my counter-part I am here to help all the people of Bratsigovo, not just work in the Municipality office. I said that in order to help the people, I must know the people, and I can't get to know them by looking out of my office window. I want to meet business people in town, important and interesting residents, and the regular Joe Shmoe's. Doing this will not only help me get acquainted and integrate into Bratsigovo, but it will give me more to do.

Often times I am just sitting in the office with no work and just playing on the internet. I don't have enough information about Bulgaria or Bratsigovo to complete projects on my own. I need someone to work with me side-by-side. Truth be know, since my counter-part got promoted to Vice-Mayor, I really don't have a counter-part anymore. He is too busy. I don't like this right now, but in the future this arrangment will probably be benneficial. I share an office with a women, but I can never understand her. It's funny lately I have been feeling pretty poor about my language skills, but today when I spent my first afternoon out of the office, I was able to talk with and understand everyone I met.

I first visited a women(C.C.) who has hosted volunteers at her home durring their training. She introduced me to her colleauges and we sat and talked for an hour or so about potential projects, what were doing for Christmas, and just small talk. One of them invited me to hang out at a cafe soon. I also found out why all these cats keep wanting to get into my apartment. A couple of years ago there was a volunteer who lived in the apartment I live in now and she would take care of the cats. Eventhough she has been gone for a couple years they still come in the apartment building and they keep trying to get in my place. I always wondered who's cats these were. It turns out the apartment building never had cats until this volunteer came. It's funny how the cats still linger here after two years.

After my visit to C.C. I went to one of the two orphanages in town. There is one that is prodominantly for little kids and one that is for older kids. I went to the one with younger kids ( I will go to the other one on Friday). I talked to the Director of the orphanage for a couple of hours. She showed me some pictures from a couple of years ago when the U.S. Military visited the orphanage. I translated an email they sent her and a card she got from the director of Peace Corps in Bulgaria. I told her I would come back again and help her write letters to some of the Army guys that she met. While I was talking with her some of the kids who live there kept coming into the office to offer us treats. For some reason the kids kept asking me if I'm French. I don't know why think I'm French.

I'm glad I decided to get out of the office. It's going to help me with my language skills and networking.

Happy Student Day!

2004-12-08T17:39:00.000+02:00

Today is Student day in Bulgaria. Students and former students celebrate their accomplishments. Today at lunch we went to the bar in the municipality building and drank Rakia and ate salami, cheese, nuts, and other snacks. Then we went back to work. They have a lot of holidays in Bulgaria. Yesterday was St. Nikoli day. That's a different kind of holiday though. It's a name day. Every Bulgarian has a name day and on their name day they hand out treats to everyone and have a Na Gosti at their house later that night. Every week there is someone coming into my office offering me a chocoloate (or bon bon as they call them here).

I thought it would be a good idea to layout my day for you so you can imagine yourself in my shoes. I get up around 8:00 in the morning to start work at 8:30. It's cold now so i wear a warm leather jacket and put on my gloves, sometimes I wear long John's. Then, when I get to the municipality I climb a couple flights of stairs to my office and strip. My office is really warm and I haven't figured out how to turn off the heater yet. Neither has the other lady in the office; she always opens the window instead.

Me and my counterpart travel durring the week sometimes. We've gone to Sofia, Plovdiv, Pazardjik, and villages within the municipality. Right now work is few and far between. I don't have enough information to start projects independantly. I often search the internet for funding sources for certain projects that my counterpart has told me about. My counterpart used to just tell me to search for funding and I'd say, "search for funding for what", and he'd say, "it doesn't matter just search for funding." I had to explain to him that I can't search for funding if I don't know what I am searching funding for. So he gave me a big list of project that need funding.

Now the main project I am working on is creating a new website for the municipality in English and Bulgarian. That should take some time. I am not using any web creation software, I have to type all the HTML commands myself. My counterpart comes in and check on me often. Actually there's a lot of interuptions. People are always coming in looking for Petia. I have to keep telling them that she's not in the office and I don't know where she is. And if she is here then they sit and talk forever. It's very distracting. Top that with the flys. There aren't that many flys here, but they are much more annoying than in the US. They keep landing on me and getting in my face and eyes. They drive me crazy sometimes. Ha ha ah!

I go to lunch at noon and come back and 1 o'clock. After work I either have piano lessons or Bulgarian lessons, depending on the day. They last an hour long. After that I cook dinner and usually eat around 8pm. I don't watch much tv. I've been reading instead. I've read Angels with Demons, Omerta, Easy Prey, and listened to Travel's with Charlie and Rich Dad Poor Dad on audio book. Now I am reading Executive Orders by Tom Clancy. It's over 1400 pages. That's a big task for me;I've never read a book that long. It's about a terrorist attack where an airplane was purposely crashed in Washingtong D.C. and killed the president, and most of the Supreme Court and Congress. Now the Vice-President(Jack Ryan) ,who was just sworn in a couple of hours before the attack, takes the helm as president and has to put the country back together. This is not a new book; it was written about 7 years ago. Like I said this is a long book, so I am reading The Fourth K by Mario Puzo too. Maybe this will give me more instant gratification in my reading. I play on the internet a little bit and then it's off to bed...

Old Cell

2004-12-03T11:16:00.000+02:00

Hello all! I would like to ask a request from you. If you have an old cell phone that you don't need and might end up throwing it away, don't! If it has a sim card, send me the phone. I could use it.

In Bulgaria cell phones are expensive and they don't have the nice monthly plans. Its pay as you talk. The plus side is, if someone calls me I don't have to pay. I only pay when I make a call.

So if you have an old cell phone with a sim card(I can replace the sim card here so the phone will work on Bulgaria's network)
email me and we can figure out how to get that phone to me.

Thanks A lot!

Roughin' It

2004-12-02T15:52:00.000+02:00

Lately I've been thinking how life in Bulgaria for me is more luxurious than when I lived in the US. I pay a Baba $6 a month to do my laundry. You heard me; $6 for the entire month to do all my laundry. Bratsigovo doesn't have a dry cleaner, but that's ok because the municipality has chaufers and I send them out to take care of my dry cleaning for me. They also drive me to places I need to go. Just yesterday I went to Sofia, a two hour drive, to visit the Peace Corps office. If I need anything my counterpart calls up his connections and gets it for me. He also repairs my toilet and anything else that breaks down in my apartment.

I don't have to worry about bills. Peace Corps takes care of them for me. Ever since I got to Bulgaria Peace Corps has taken care of everything, setting up a bank account for me, providing transportation, and making sure the place I live is safe and secure. Some PCV's complain that Peace Corps is too over bearing, but-all in-all it's a pretty good deal. On top of that I've gotten free produce and groceries from markets and neighbors and one market that I frequent often has extended me a line of credit. That is if I don't have the money now, I can pay him later. I live in a great little town surrounded by mountains. I have a great little apartment. My bathroom has a great little heater. You don't know what a luxury that is here right now. And you should see the view from my balcony in person. Yeah....I'm roughin' it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2004-11-25T14:31:00.000+02:00

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

2004-11-21T22:04:00.000+02:00

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?

2004-11-16T22:08:00.000+02:00

(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?

2004-11-14T20:48:00.000+02:00

(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

2004-11-13T23:46:00.000+02:00

(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

2004-11-11T16:30:00.000+02:00

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

2004-11-08T09:32:00.000+02:00

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?

2004-11-05T15:42:00.000+02:00

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

2004-11-04T15:18:00.000+02:00

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

2004-11-02T13:30:00.000+02:00

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!

Introduction to the Opposites

2004-10-29T13:24:00.000+03:00

Living in Bulgaria I often wonder if I have entered another dimension. On the surface things seem pretty much the same as in the United States, but once you delve in you find some very striking opposites. I sometimes feel like Alice in wonderland, but instead of chasing a white rabbit a rabid dog is chasing me. Run with me and catch a glimpse of a remarkable and interesting world.

Go to any Cafe in Bulgaria and order a mug of coffee. I can tell without any uncertainty that the server will bring it to you in a teacup. Now, order a cup of tea. Guess what? It’s served in a coffee mug. In Bulgaria they don’t drink coffee like in the United States. Here when you ask for coffee you get espresso. One morning I sat down with a couple of volunteers who at the moment craved American style coffee in a big coffee mug. I watched them stumble with their adolescent Bulgarian language skills trying to explain that they wanted “watered down coffee in a big teacup.” The waitress looked as if she had just fallen into a large rabbit hole.

One of hardest opposites to absorb involves body language. When Bulgarians say, “Yes”, they shake their head from side to side. When they say, “No”, they nod their head up and down. This obviously inversely differs to how Americans use the same movements of the head when responding, yes or no.

When I first moved to the beautiful country of Bulgaria the first place I wanted to visit was … of course… the Internet cafe. Once I found the place I was looking for I walked in and motioned to the computer in front of me, indicating that I would like to use it. The man shook his head no. Even though people warned me about the opposite head-shaking thing, it did not compute. So, I asked, “Can I use that computer over there then.” Again the man shook his head no. I eventually grasped the miscommunication and sat down at the spot right in front of me, realizing that I had entered a land of confusion. I must admit, I too have learned how to shake my head no while saying yes. The hard part now is when I meet a Bulgarian that understands this cultural difference and tries to compensate for it by shaking his head in line with the way we do in America. I sometimes feel like reaching over and holding their heads still when they answer a yes or no question of mine. I am sure they think the same thing when I respond to one of their questions.

One of the things I love best about Bulgaria is the dirt-cheap prices. You can get a fancy meal at McDonald’s prices. In fact McDonald’s is one of the finest meals you can buy in Bulgaria. When I say finest I mean expensive, as the quality is no greater than that in the United States. I visited a McDonalds in the capital city of Sofia that had a grand staircase, fine dining furniture, and even a cozy fire place. No, there were no chairs or tables fastened to the floor at this fast-food chain. Who could ever imagine a McDonalds so fancy?

There are other opposites! For example, what is considered politically correct in Bulgaria is opposite of that in the United States. People originating from Africa should never be called “black”. Instead, Bulgaria has adopted the more culturally sensitive word “Negro.” The opposites don’t end here! To turn a light on in a room the switch is flicked down not up, a shot of Rakiya or any other hard alcohol is always sipped and never downed. I am sure I will encounter many more interesting opposites throughout my two-year stay. And wherever I go in Bulgaria, I will introduce Bulgarians to my odd and sometimes funny opposites as well..

An American Na Gosti?

2004-10-26T16:59:00.000+03:00

(My host brother Elanko, host mother Yordanka, and Me)

I said goodbye to my host family last week. It wasn't very emotional because I am only moving one town over. They made me promise that if my parents come to visit me in Bulgaria we would come over to her house for a Na Gosti. Na Gosti means to come over for a visit. It's a much more formal thing than it sounds. There is a lot of preperation and cleaning invlolved. When the event finally takes place you eat a lot, talk a lot, and drink a lot of Rakiya. Rakiya is Bulgarian whiskey and is usually made at home out of just about anything you can think of. I have had Rakiya made out of grapes, plums, apples, and even roses. A Na Gosti can last late into the night.

I notice that Bulgarians like to socialize for a much longer period than I did in the United States. Back home I would usually go out at about 11pm, meet up with some people, and have six or so drinks in a two hour period. My night would usually end at about 2am when the bars closed. Now when I go out with Bulgarian friends, we usually meet up at 8pm at a Cafe. Get something to drink and some appetizers. At about midnight we head for the disco, drink some more, dance a little, and don't arrive back home until about 5am. We basically do the same things as in America, but instead of having six drinks in two hours, I have about six drinks in eight hours.

Socializing is an extremely important part of Bulgarian culture. If you pass by someone you know on the street you never just say hello. It doesn't matter how busy you are. You always have at least a short conversation. I was thinking about having an American Na Gosti. What would I serve? In Bulgaria they often serve shopska selada (a cucumber and tomatoe salad), purzheni kartofi (french fries), and a meat dish. Maybe I should serve Jack Daniels, potato salad, and BBQ chicken. Yes, they have Jack here over 30 lev a bottle ($20). But no BBQ sauce. I am realizing that I am gonna have to learn how to make a lot of things from scratch here.