Yordanovden.

I went back to Boboshevo for a couple days back in January. I hadn't realized it when I left, but it was Yordanovden. This is a slight digression: every day is some saint's feast day. The feast day of the saint you're named after is your name day (imenden), and is celebrated something like a birthday. Some other saint's days are holidays for other reasons, which I generally don't know. Like, St. George's Day, Georgovden, is the Day of the Bulgarian Army. Don't ask me. The biggest feast days are, of course, the ones with lots of people named after them. So Ivanovden, St. John's Day, is a big holiday. Sometimes, a completely random (as far as I can tell, anyway) woman's name will be associated with a saint's name too. For instance, Arcangelovden is the name day for anyone who is named after one of the Archangels...and it's also the imenden for women named Galina, which is fairly common. It is, in fact, my counterpart's name, and I didn't get her a gift, so I felt like a big jerk.

ANYWAY. I was in Boboshevo for Yordanovden. That's...St. Jordan's Day? Is there a Saint Jordan? I don't know. Maybe it's just Jordan Day, like the River Jordan. The tradition is to throw a cross in the river and all the young, crazy men jump in after it. Remember, this is January. I don't know what you do if your town doesn't have a river.



Everyone in town, waiting.




The pope carrying the cross. I gather that being the pope in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is not quite as singular an honor as it is in the Roman Catholic Church.



The cross in the river. The young men of the village get ready to jump in the river.




There they go!


I don't know what the winner gets. A towel, maybe?

Also: here's me with my host niece, Danislava, age 8. I've promised to go back to Boboshevo for her birthday in March. Isn't she the cutest?

Back from Plovdiv.

I was in Plovdiv Monday-Wednesday for PDM. It was nice to see everyone, I hadn't since IST. And now I won't again until MST in June.

Ages ago, I remember saying something to a friend whose sister had been a Volunteer about how much paperwork was involved in Peace Corps and how it served to remind us that PC is run by the federal bureacracy. She said that based on her sister's stories, it's impossible to forget that, and you know what? She was right. If you're interested in Peace Corps, or possibly stalking me, this is what I'm talking about.

1. Staging. This is when all the members of your group arrive in the city in the US from which you will depart for your assignment. Mine was in Washington, DC (really Arlington, VA) and we sat around in a hotel conference room for two and a half days talking about expectations and doing skits and making lists.

2. Pre-Service Training (PST). The biggie. Ours lasted for ~10 weeks. This was when I was in Boboshevo. We had 5 hours of Bulgarian a day, practiced teaching at the local elementary school, and did (largely silly) community entry assignments. My group of B19s was seperated into eleven towns and village surrounding the city of Dupnitsa, and every two weeks we gathered there and talked about how we were doing.

3. In-Service Training (IST). We had this back at the end of November, in Kazanluk. Which was great for me, since I live about 25 minutes from Kazanluk and stayed at home instead of the hotel. More talking about teaching and community entry and Bulgarian. My counterpart had to come, too.

4. Project Design Mamagement (PDM). This is what we just had. Most Peace Corps Volunteers work on projects to improve their school and community, and write grant proposals to get the money to do this. We just had a three day workshop on how to get this done. My school director accompanyed me this time. I like my director, but I was pretty nervous about spending three days with her. I hope she doesn't think I'm awful for sometimes working with my Bulgarian flashcards during deadly dull seminars. (Can we just ban Power Point already? Gee whiz.)

5. Mid-Service Training (MST). This is in June, right after the school year ends. Included in MST is the Experience Exchange Conference, during which we, the now-veteran B19 TEFLs will give our advice to the now only hypothetical B21s, who are due to arrive on April 16.

Then, we are free, free, FREE of conferences for months and months! Yay!

6. Close of Service (COS). This will take place, I think, in March or April of next year. Obviously, I haven't been yet so I don't know exactly what we'll all be talking about. I guess it's more complicated than just saying adios.

In Pavel Banski news, we have a carnival this weekend. I am looking forward to it. Expect pictures soon!

Koprivshtitsa

Okay, ages ago, back in November, my colleagues and I went on a trip to Koprivshtitsa, a town about an hour and a half west of Pavel Banya. It's famous for its well-preserved and beautiful architechture, and also for being the hometown of a whole bunch of famous Bulgarians AND for being the site of the beginnings and headquarters of the April Uprising, a failed attempt in 1876 (yes, I had to look that up) to throw off Turkish rule. There's a bridge in town that's known as the First Shot Bridge because it's where the first shot of the uprising took place (a Bulgarian shot a Turkish soldier). Like I said, the uprising failed, but it's extremely significant in Bulgarian history and the leaders are all national heroes.


The town square.



Walking through the cobbled lanes. That's my counterpart on the left. Incidentally, my counterpart's family is originally from Koprivshtitsa, but her great-grandparents fled to get away from the chaos during the uprising. She still lives in Tuzha, the village near Pavel Banya that they settled in.



In the courtyard of a museum house. My counterpart, Galya, is on the left. Deshka, my Bulgarian tutor, is on the right. The whole trip, she made sure I understood everything, explaining what everything was in language she knew I would understand.



This is, I believe, the house of Dr. Petur Beron, a famous writer and educator.



The inside of one of the museum houses.

Shopska salata.

Shopska salata is pretty much the essential Bulgarian meal. Here's a picture I found:



If you're familiar with the tomato and cucumber salad that's popular all over the Middle East, a shopska is somewhat similar.

Chop up an equal amount of cucumber and tomato. How much you use depends on how much salad you want, but there should be about the same amount of cucumber as tomato. The pieces should be bite sized, but not tiny.

Chop up some bell pepper and some red onion. These are for extra flavor and there should be less than the cucumber or tomato, but according to your own preferences.

Finally, shred a pile of cirene over the salata. Cirene is a Bulgarian cheese similar to feta, but somewhat harder, so you can shred it without it falling apart completely. If you can't find cirene at your local supermarket, crumble a bunch of feta on the salata. Garnish with an olive. (The one in the picture here is green, but I'm more used to seeing green.) Pour a bit of olive oil and sprinkle some salt on the salata if you like.

Voila! Now you have some delicious shopska salata!

Another day, another $8.93.

That's how much I live on a day, converted into your American dollars. (400 lev=$268/month.)

Things have pretty much settled down here. I wake up, go to school, have Bulgarian tutoring, come home, get attacked by Max, read, watch TV, go to bed. Life is...ordinary.

The first semester ends on Wednesday. Then we have two days of vacation. The second semester begins next Monday. Can you believe it? I'm already one quarter of the way done with my service. Crazy. April (and the one year anniversary of B19's arrival) is just around the corner. The B17s are going to be leaving in a few months, and the B21s - who I guess are just beginning to take shape in some office in Washington - will be arriving! Time flies. I have learned so much this semester, it is amazing. I look forward to continuing to improve my mad teaching skillz.

Here's some spam, but it's for a good cause: Peace Corps Partnership Program. PCPP is a way for outside people to help volunteers get great stuff done! (We aren't allowed to accept direct cash donations.) If you click on the link, you'll see lots of proposed projects that Volunteers all over the world are working on. Right now, there are three projects up in Bulgaria. Matt Sumpter and Olivia Smith each have a project up; they're a married couple (you might notice they're from different states - they actually met here in Bulgaria and got married last year!) and live in Kalofer, which is the town just west of Pavel Banya. If you want to help out, drop them a buck or two - it goes a lot farther than you might think! (If you don't believe me, take a look at my salary up there at the top of this post again.) Donations are tax deductible, of course.

I like looking at the PCPP page from time to time, it is so cool to see what people are up to. They're fish farming in Madagascar, building a maternity clinic in Mali, educating people on HIV/AIDS in Costa Rica, producing spices in Vanuatu, etc. I hope you'll see my name up there sometime soon.