Flucation = Way better than Snow Days

Oh Flucation, the sweetest of all the school holidays. Growing up, I was regarded snow days as the highlight of winter. Day off? For sure! Who cares that you have to make it up in June. 2 hour delay? Count me in. My AP classes were always the ones I missed. These are nothing compared with the glorious joys of FLUCATION! Comparing a snow day to a day off on flucation is like comparing apples and a steak dinner at the Palm. The reason? The weather. Snow days mean snow. Cold, unpleasant snow. I hate snow. Yes, snow is very pretty. I also think volcanoes erupting are pretty. That doesn’t mean I want to be anywhere near either of them. Flucation isn’t fettered by dismal weather. It is a beautiful sunny day off today. Not a cloud in the sky. Thank you Flucation

So what caused this miraculous of events? Cosmic rays? A boon from the lords of Olympus? Nope, just as you guessed, the common flu. Apparently flu shots are not the de rigueur in Bulgaria so every year there is a massive outbreak. Like, really massive. Over 30% of my school was ill. It shut down everything in town. So that left me with loads of free time. Wrote some grants, planned some awesome lessons, studied BG a bit, and most importantly, watched a lot of movies. Umm… so maybe not most importantly. But regardless, it was an amazing vacation.

The best part? These days don’t have to be made up. School is out, no matter what!

I can only wait till next year. In the mean time, I’m taking the soap out of my classroom. Might as well help the odds, right?

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.

Homeward Bound

This hasn't been updated in awhile. I will try and fill in the last few weeks before IST on Sunday. So let's start at the top.
This past weekend I went to visit my friend Drew in Razgrad, a city about a third of the way across the country from me. Traveling in Bulgaria is always an adventure. While waiting for the bus in Razgrad I happened to hear someone swearing fluently in English, then Spanish, behind me. Kakvoooh? I turn around to one of the most unlikely sites in all of Bulgaria, a Mexican Mormon. Now, Mormons are that uncommon, they are sprinkled about Bulgaria on mission trips. However, knowing I had a two hour bus ride ahead of me and, frankly, just plain curiosity, I struck up a conversion with him. He had met his wife when she was on a mission trip to Mexico, ended up getting married and moving back to Utah with her. So, in the Mormon church you can go on another mission trip once you are 50. So he is living in Turkey now, and took a vacation to Romania and was staying with a friend in Razgrad for the night. Crazy.
The day past with the usual haze of a 20-something birthday weekend and once again I was on the road; this time with the unhelpful addition of a horrible hangover. I arrive 30 min early for the bus to Varna only to find out that it is sold out. However, you can usually get a spot standing on the bus if you don't mind. I was in no position to argue with the idea of getting home in a speedy manor to a warm and comfy bed to ride out the remainder of this chemically induced hell. However, having most likely kneeled at the wrong statue and prayed to the wrong deity, I would be riding home on a double decker bus. My initial excitement at this fantastic novelty quickly waned when I realized that the ceiling of the bus on both floors was only a shade over 5 ft. Now I am 5'11", so that "shade" really wasn't going to cut it. And being packed like sardines in the aisles meant no chance of sitting down. Well, this is just going to be spec-freakin-tacular. Two hours standing with my head cocked to the side already feeling bright and chipper. Thankfully, the bus broke down about an hour in. Yes, after an hour I was thankful for the reprieve. And even better we broke down within walking distance of a roadside shop where I bought some water. Returning to the bus in time to see the remnants of the engine fire put out and a bus from Shuman (a city half way between razgrad and Varna) called I hopped on and proceeded to pass some time at the Shuman bus station till another bus could be rounded up to take us all on. Thankfully, they had to get two buses, which was almost perfect for everyone on the whole bus to get a seat, save three. I being a stupid, stupid gentleman gave up my seat to a rather attractive woman. Anyone who says chivalry is dead can go kick rocks. So I passed the remaining hour of the journey sitting on the step next to the bus driver. I arrived in Varna just as the train to Dalgopol was leaving. Hooray! Thankfully the next one was at 5:45. So after a quick bit of grocery shopping I make it to the train station, find a comfy bench and relax. And relax a bit too much because I fall asleep. Luckily the arrival of the train wakes me and I get back (finally) to Dalgopol, none to worse for wear. Ah, the fun adventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer never stop.