Complaining

I had a crappy day today at work.  I don’t want to go into details but I just want to grumble and groan and say grrrrrr…….   I don’t get paid enough to deal with this crap!!!!!

I have reached my Scary age, and I am ok

I know everyone has that age, the age they thought they would have it all figured out and together.  For me that is 27.  Well I am 27 years and one day today and I am nowhere near close to having it all figured out and I am ok with that.  So my birthday was awesome.  I received flowers from some of my kids and a great package from the folks.  I went over to Semah’s place and met a few friends of her’s and had an amazing lunch.  Some great Bulgarian food.  Today Emmy, Anna and Kari showed up and we had some coffee and just chatted.  I love Peace Corps.  I seriously feel like I have this third family that I know will always be there for me.  Love you all if you read this.

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Update from Popsicle world

Things are a heck of a lot warmer here lately.  Today I was able to put my clothes outside to dry.  That is a happy day for anyone who doesn’t have an electric dryer. With this brighter and warmer weather my spirits feel a lot brighter and at ease.  I feel like things are definitely going my way and I am looking forward to my 27th birthday tomorrow.

Tales from the Bilzzard

Hello all you people who I am assuming are warmer than I am.  I just wanted to let all of you know that I am well.  I am about 60% healthy.  So that is good.  Hillary Bulgaria for 5 hours.  A bunch of Peace Corps Volunteers were able to meet her.  I, living on the other side of the country and ill, wasn’t able to meet her.  That sucks, but it just wasn’t meant to be.  We have another 5 day vacation because of the cold and snow.  It has been dangerously cold in eastern Europe.  I am just looking forward to normal temperatures.  I went to the store to stock up for a while.  :)  Hope I’m not stuck at home for too long.  The roads are closed and I have cabin fever.

Photo via US Embassy Sofia

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Blizzard Cold

So for those of you who don’t know Eastern Europe has been hit with a terrible cold snap.  It has gotten as low as -28 C in Knesha, and it doesn’t feel like it’s getting better.  Now let’s add that I have caught the flu.  That’s right, the icky sticky yucky flu.  And being cold, with the flu in the cold really sucks.  I am taking my medicine, which is disgusting, and looking out the window at the snow.  The snow is beautiful.  Absolutely gorgeous.  It’s the cold that sucks.

The first semester feels like it is ending early, partially because it is.  The teachers at my school still have to work because grades are due when grades are due.  And I guess in all fairness it’s better to get them done now then to be rushing.  It’s funny though.  We’ll go back to school monday in first semester and Tuesday will be second semester.  :)

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Chinese food In Bulgaria

Last monday was Chinese New Year, and one of your jobs as a Peace Corps Volunteer is cultural exchange.  That is why when my friend Dan told me that he was going to be celebrating Chinese New Year with his kids and asked me for his help, I was more than willing to say yes, as long as it was safe for me to travel.  There were two reasons for my overwhelming urge to help, one Dan is my friend, and two Chinese food isn’t great in Bulgaria, and three being that Dan is an amazing cook, but that is a given if you read my other blog posts.  Chinese food in Bulgaria has shown me the best and the worst of chain Chinese restaurants in America, not counting that AMAZING Chinese restaurant that my PST group, see post http://fromheretobulgaria.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/so-a-funny-thing-happened-in-plevin-today/ .

I arrived in Dan’s town early by Saturday morning standards and we went shopping:  flour, sugar, rice vinegar, salt, sugar, ground pork, salmon, cream cheese, onion, and avocado.  My thoughts first went to the Superbowl party that I can’t go to because we don’t get our four-day weekend .  Anyway we went back to Dan’s place and met with his students.  We made pot-stickers and sushi, Philadelphia Rolls to be exact even though I have never heard of them.  It was fun to make food, eat it and enjoy the company of Dan’s students.  We then went to a community center and shared the food and Dan shared a bit about Chinese culture.  All in all it was a great day of 2nd and 3rd goal activities.

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Snow Day!!!

I just wanted to write a post marking this tremendous occasion where I Miss S have a Snow Day.  My first working day off in Peace Corps that doesn’t involve a conference, illness or anything broken.  Now what will I do with this day off, sleep!

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Beautiful Desolation

Honestly that is the way I feel sometimes when I look out my window.  I feel as though I live in an area of beautiful desolation.  Maybe that is just the way that snow makes me feel.  I love looking at snow, but winter is the most impractical season.  Besides boots, I HATE boots, its wet and icky.  I said it, icky.  Now that doesn’t mean that I would rather live somewhere else.  On the contrary, I love my little home that I have made in the Peace Corps.  I sometimes feel like I own my desolation.  That it’s my little piece of silence.  I never really had silence in America. Everywhere was noise and distractions.  There are so few noises here that I sometimes wish for a distraction or two, and then I remember where I am and I realize that this is something I have always wanted, to learn to be with myself.  And I think that is the scariest place to be, is with your own head.

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Christmas Vacation the Finale

As midnight hit in Istanbul I was in cloud ten.  I couldn’t believe that I was where I was. Staring at this beautiful bridge that crosses the Bosphorus, lit up in purple, green and red.  Surrounded on all sides by fireworks laughing and smiling.  It was one of these sites that I could never forget and I hope that I never do.  The next morning Nancy and I went looking for breakfast.  For some reason we were convinced that nothing would be open on New Years Day, and so we didn’t expect much.  We found this random stand open, and were asking for juice.  The guy’s father lead us to this really interesting restaurant that felt very bohemian.  The sort of place that you would have imagined hippies at.  The bathroom was funny as hell, you had to crawl through a window to get into the bathroom.  Seriously.  We then went to this museum about Arabic art, and then went on the bridge that crossed the Bosphorus.  We had lunch in this fancy seafood restaurant.  I don’t know if I will be able to have seafood anywhere else after having seafood in Turkey.  I was starting to feel really sick at this point, so I ended up going to bed early.

The next morning I had to leave early for my bus.  It left at 8 am.  Nothing unusual on my trip home.  I made it back to Isperih at about 7pm.  The next morning my water heater was fixed.

I honestly feel this trip was life changing.  For the first time I was able to go somewhere and feel completely content of where I was and what I did.  I was really just happy about where I was.  I am so grateful that I am in the Peace Corps and that I am able to see places like Istanbul and to travel.  I am also glad to know that I have a job to come back to, crazy kids who I know are happy to see me when I return.

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Christmas Vacation Part 4

Now we are only on the 30th and 31st of December of my Christmas Vacation.  I know what you are thinking, how long is this gosh darn vacation!!! I am kidding, I hope.  Anyway on the my second full day in Istanbul.  So day two started off pretty similarly to day one.  We realized we had to wait a few minutes for the woman to come back and put the boiled egg on our breakfast plate and that the coffee really isn’t that great but other than that it’s all good.  Except I seem to be catching a cold.  And it doesn’t make me too happy.  Nancy and I leave for the Spice Market.  The Spice Market is kind of near the Phosphorus, and it is right next to this giant mosque.  We couldn’t find exactly where it was at first.  We got a bit turned around and then ran into two other volunteers, Raf and Jacob.  We hug and greet each other and while doing this get caught behind a commercial/music video/ tv show, being taped.  Not sure which but all we know is that this man ran in and out of the Voda-Phone store a lot.  Then Nancy and I found the Spice Market.  This place is, in my humble opinion, much cooler than the Grand Bazaar.  It has a more authentic vibe.  You saw both locals and tourists and people there weren’t as pushy.  Don’t get me wrong, people were still trying to convince you to buy their stuff, but they were more hands on and trying to show you what they had and why you should buy it.  I tried turkish delights there and they were so so good.  Then Nancy and I walked around and saw some other shops nearby.  There were streets that all where one kind of things, clothes, fabric, ext.  Then we had lunch and a lot of things closed down for mid-day prayer.  It was kinda cool to see that people who stopped for prayer just put a bar over their shop door and people respected that.  We headed to the Blue Mosque after taking a bit of a rest and let me tell you that this is one of the most  beautiful places I have ever seen in my entire life.  You enter into the mosque and then you take off your shoes and you walk in and the architecture simply takes your breath away. The designs on the ceilings alone.  is pretty unbelievable.  I ended up sitting on the floor looking up and the ceiling just thinking about how I couldn’t believe that I was here, in Istanbul looking at the screen saver on my computer.  Honestly this was the sort of trip that I believed that I would never be able to have and there I was, having this trip.  After the Blue Mosque Nancy and I went for a walk and then had dinner at a restaurant that seriously cost more than half my living allowance, and the food was so so good.  The best sea food I have ever had in my life.  We then went back to the hostel and I went to bed early.  I felt like crap and I wanted to be able to go out for New Year.

New Years Eve in Istanbul was excellent.  Just to start there.  I woke up early and decided I couldn’t take it anymore and went looking for a pharmacy.  I found one that was open, and the pharmacist spoke English, thank goodness.  After finding some medicine, I was off.  We went to this restaurant called The Pudding Shop and had, turkey in Turkey.  I know that is kind of dumb, but it has been a bit of an obsession of mine and I checked it off my weird things to do list.  Then it began to sprinkle and Nancy and I went to the Basilica Cisterns.  They were pretty cool actually.  I didn’t know what to expect, but they were really pretty.  Then we went   back to the hostel and rested before New Years Eve partying.  I went out with the Peace Corps Volunteers from Azerbaijan and this other guest from Chili and we first went to McDonalds and got some food.  Then there was a little pre-gamming before we went to another hostel called Cheers.  The party at this hostel was very typical for clubs I have seen in big cites in Europe.  You have everyone in groups, the Americans, the already drunk Brits, and then the other group.  In this case the other group was seven French cartographers, who were really interesting to talk to. I went to the Galata bridge with the French people and we rang in the New Year right, watching four different sets of fireworks.

Last post on Christmas vacation,  January 1st and then the return home.

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