I have been neglecting this thing for ages now. With Flucation (Flu+ Vacation= FLUCATION!!) wrapping up I guess I can’t say I have a lot to do so might as well take a few minutes and give everyone one an update on life.

Where to begin? To start back with Halloween? The awesomeness of my Kiss costume and the promise to top it next year (I’m thinking Daft Punk). It was held in Veliko Turnivo, which was really cool. I hope to get back to the city and walk around without a splitting headache and hangover. Spring is coming! But it was an amazing party. I easily give myself the award of best costume. I'll probably take second place too. I liked it that much.

After that, hmm… ah, IST. I have to say I love PC gatherings. For some reason, the forced suffering though countless training sessions, flip chart upon flip chart and the pressure of having counterparts there did nothing to dampen the mood. It was great. The gigantic rooms invitied the in room partying. We completely bought out the gas station next door of any and all cheep booze by the second night. I would say that it wasn't a total loss for PC. I actually learned a good deal. That combined with all the espresso you could drink between sessions lead to a hyper, rather keyed up volunteer.

Next event was Thanksgiving. The little things I didn’t even realize I missed were amazing to have. Particularly green bean casserole. Seriously, that stuff is great. It was hosted at Hannahs swanky new place in Varna. It was so much nicer than my apartment it made my head spin. I have grown to like my place. At first I was honestly a little disappointed. One room, a kitchen and a bathroom? Maybe 120 sq feet in total?!? Seriously? But I have to say I have grown to love it. It takes all of an hour to clean the entire place top to bottom, the space heater keeps the whole place (except the bathroom! UGH!) a balmy 65. Not too shabby I have to say. But back to thanksgiving. With the part winding down Greg, another volunteer, was going to leave to go to another party and had to catch a train. I had that metal flash. That flash that said something isn't quite right.

Situation:9+ people staying.

Only 4-5 were getting beds or a couch.

That gives me about a 50% chance of spending the night on the floor

I live an hour and 20 away.

Nope! These odds aren’t going to work. Peace.

So I literally dashed out the door and followed and slept in a comfy bed (Perhaps the greatest purchase I've made here)

Following that was a low point for me. I had almost no motivation to do anything. Spain was looming, the kids were dragging me down and above all it was getting to be winter. I don’t do winter. I don’t like winter. I would go so far as to say I hate winter. If winter were a country I would declare all out war against it. Yeah… But on the plus side, it only had to last a month. Then Spain!

Traveling in Bulgaria is always an adventure. Am I going to make it ok? Is it going to take less than a day to go 40 km? After the bus incident from Razgrad (which btw Drew has yet to come to Varna. Jerk) I don’t take public transportation for granted. So rather than taking the night train and flying out that morning I decided to take the train the day before, stay over in Sofia and fly out in the morning. Plenty of time, just to be safe. So I catch the train and Dalgopol and looking for a compartment when a voice calls out to me and I see another volunteer, Kevin Burns. It turns out he and his GF are going to Italy and staying the night in Sofia. So much better to have traveling companions. Plus I made amazing sandwiches (Really a luxury here due to the lack of deli meat, but that is a rant for another time) so it was a pretty fun, and more importantly, an uneventful trip. So getting there I invited them to stay with me at the Hilton since my dad was nice enough to get me a room. It was pretty great. My Dad has status with Hilton. Upgraded the room, amazing breakfast, and the best part a free ride to the airport. Plus all the amenities for Kevin and Laura. The funny thing was the room for the night was a little more than what Peace Corps pays us for the month. Way better than a hostel for the night.

Spain was amazing. A-MAZ-ING. It was really great to spend the holidays with my family. Skype is great. Don’t get me wrong. I thank the elves that make it work every day (I’m not 100% sure on this one. I assume it is something like that). But it isn’t the same. That combined with being in a western European city was heaven. I nearly had a breakdown in the grocery store by the hotel. I seriously was having some problems. I am a bit of a foodie, so BG has been limiting, but I think I am going to have to be stepped back in gradually. Maybe just Aldi’s for the first few weeks before I can work up to a whole foods of wegmans. Combine that with a gorgeous resort, warm sandy beaches, and people who all spoke great English and I was so happy.

Getting to Spain was too easy. Looking back I realize that now. I should have realized everything went too smoothly. Smooth train ride, taxi to the airport, only slightly delayed flight. Yeah, the travel gods were going to have to balance the scales a bit. Easy travel, huh? Great trip, you say? Well, guess what hotshot.. BAM. Now you are landing 300 miles off course. Suck on that one buck-o!

I have my headphones and slept on the flight. As we are making are approach for landing the pilot comes on and says his little talk and we will be landing in Polvdiv in 5 min. In my sleep addled brain I kind of shrugged it off. Plovdiv? No, silly, we are landing in Sofia. I have a room in Sofia. Taxiing to the terminal I see a sign. Пловдив. Pl. Ok.. Plov.. Shit! Plovdiv? WTF are we doing in Plovdiv? I turn to the guy next to me. Well, Sofia doesn’t have fog lights, so we landed here. Haha, wait, what? So I curse under my breath how the hell am I going to get to Varna. Thankfully my explicatives were loud enough to carry across the aisle to a cute girl. She said that she too had to get to Varna. Take that travel gods! She turned out to be one of the coolest of the random people I have met. She was professional puppeteer. Let me say that again, a puppeteer. How cool is that?!?! She ended up getting a ride from a friend of her fathers, but sadly I couldn’t tag along. Ah well, at least I made my first Bulgarian friend outside of PC, right?

So that brings me up to the present with the goal of updating a bit more frequently. But, I said that last time too, so we shall see.