The past few weeks have been a series of adventures. I was sworn in as an official Peace Corp Volunteer and moved to my new home almost 3 weeks ago. My little town is about 30 km from the coast and 60 km from Varna (the biggest town in the region). It takes about an hour to get there by train. The funny thing is it costs about 4 leva to get to Varna, by bus or by train, or 3 leva to get to the next town over, a 5 min bus ride. Not quite sure how that works, but it is what it is. There are a ton of volunteers around the region and Varna is the main hang out hub. Plus, there is a Thai Restaurant there. And I LOVE thai. Not Charles though.
My apartment is not much to look at. It is small. I mean really small. My entire apartment is slightly larger than my bedroom in college. If anyone remembers my bathroom on Wilbur st, it would be described as ‘spacious’ compared to my current one. On the plus side it will be really easy to heat in the winter. Just baking heats the whole place up. The place is right off the center of town so I don’t have a far walk to get anywhere. In fact, there is a small bazaar right outside the entrance that sells fresh fruit and vegetables.
Other than that I have been super busy with getting settled in and starting work. I have been working with the student council trying to make a school webpage. Trying to do something creative by committee is not easiest and I have my natural Wolfgang patience. However, we are making some decent progress so I am trying not to be cynical. Other than that I am teaching some English in the afternoons and I am starting to write some grants to try and build the school a decent gym/ workout room. It is slightly self serving since I would love a place to workout, but students have all said that it is something that they really want. The real fun is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I get to do my normal summer routine, aka, playing kickball. I have taught about 15 kids the game. I consider this one of my more impressive feats considering my poor language skills (though I did pass the minimum requirements for Peace Corps) and the fact that the kids have no knowledge of the rules of baseball, or for that matter, a game of baseball. Explaining everything from what a base is on up has been a real challenge. I get to use the computer in my counterparts office a few times a week, so I spend a fair portion of that on Google translate.
I should have internet at home sometime soon (hopefully whenever I post this is an indication). The internet company has been promising to turn it on for a few days now. I would describe business moving on ‘island time’. Nothing is really rushed. Case and point is getting my Bulgarian ID card. It is called the Linchna Carta. The process to issue the card takes the better part of 6-8 weeks. Everything goes through a tiny office in Varna so there is always a sizeable line. Last Friday, after waiting 1 week for 2 signatures, I went to get my photo taken and fingerprinted. Unfortunately it was too hot that day so the boss wasn’t in. So, I had to go back on Monday. Monday, however, I was taking a group of students to the beach. So after a day on the beach and no shower I went and got my photo taken for my official Bulgarian Identity card. My brother, Justin, has a passport photo that makes him look like he just got off a 3 day bender. This picture makes me look like I went on a Keith Richards style 3 day bender.
I’m still losing weight like crazy, which I love. I have scaled back the running. It is way too hot and I don’t have Tessa here to make me go. That and there is no good area to run. The track in Knezha was really nice and the hill we would run up was a lot of fun. Here the track is super over grown and I am not supposed to run outside of town due to wild dog attacks. This leaves running through town and up and down the hill that the town is built on. I have a good circuit to run, but the stares and pointing are a bit uncomfortable.
This past sunday I went to a near by town for lunch and to hang out with the other volunteers around. There are 3 volunteers in the next town over, but no easy way to get there till I buy a bike. The town is only about 7-8 km away, but on the other side of a mountain, so to get there is about 20 km so I have to take a bus. Sadly, there are only 2 buses a day, a morning one and an afternoon one. There are no set times for the bus. The morning one comes between 7:30 and 8, so I try and get that one, but the afternoon comes pretty sporadically. After I get there we run up to see this ancient fort above the town, both grab showers and meet the other volunteers for coffee. Then grocery store!! I am really missing big grocery stores. Wegmans, Whole Foods, Stauffer's. I would even settle for a Weis. The one we went to was like an Aldi's but compaired to the stores in my town it was epic. I will def have to make a monthly trip there to stock up. So after a really excellent lunch we check the bus times. There is one at 6pm. Perfect! So around 5:45 I get to bus stop only to find the bus came and went about 20 min ago. The bus came a full half hour early! So I had to take a taxi (rather pricey) back home. All and all it was still a pretty great little adventure!
That’s all for now!
