Mini vacation in Sofia, Bulgaria

Sorry it has taken awhile to put this up. I got back from Sofia on Monday and the week got away from me.  It is true what they say, your second year in the Peace Corps is busier and will fly by faster than your first year.

So last weekend, myself and 3 other volunteers decided that after only a few months into school that we needed a vacation.  We decided to go to Sofia, (the capital of Bulgaria) since its close and we could do it in a weekend.  We left on Friday and our first stop was Kriva Palanka. We planned on taking the 10:30am bus from Skopje (a city in Macedoniia); but as we were standing outside waiting for it, I noticed that a bus driver was waving me over.  My first thought was "this is going to be good, he is calling the American over".  He asked if that was the 10:30 bus and I said yes and then he said something else very quickly and the only word that I could catch was "policia."  I go back and tell the others and we finally learn that that was the 10:30 bus and there was something wrong with it and he had to take it to the stop.  Nothing like the elaborate story we came up with: that the bus driver was running away from the police and even though he could not stop to pick us up he was still nice enough to tell us that the police were after him.  True customer service.

So we had to waste more time in Skopje; and the Macedonian way to waste time is to drink coffee. Making that my 2nd cup of the day.  We had to wait for the 1pm bus and 15 mins before 1:00 we decide to go out and get seats on the bus, because we thought it would fill up since the earlier bus never came.  We got out there and it was not a bus, but a combi (aka a van) and there were only 3 seats left.  Guess who did not get a seat?...............you got it. ME!!! I stood in the back and could not believe it but more people were trying to get on the combi.  By the time we left the station the combi was full (seats, standing room, laps, everything).  But the best part was as we were driving out of Skopje the bus driver continued to stop and "try" to pick people up.  The joke of the ride was how many more people can we cram into this combi.  Two and a half  hours later we arrived in Kriva Palanka. Yes, I stood the entire time. Except for the last 5 mins when the combi finally started to clear out.  As we were driving though Kriva Palanka people were getting off and finally it was just the 4 poor Peace Corps volunteers left. The bus driver turns around and looks at us and says "What are you doing? Get out!"  We were all expecting for the combi to go to the bus station, but this was the last stop instead of the middle of town. Just another day using Macedonian public transportation.

We all stayed at a fellow volunteer's house and she took us up to a famous monastery before it got dark.

The weary travelers in front of the monastery.

As we were walking back down to town, a little kitten that we found up at the monastery and that I played with followed us all the way.  She was a very determined little thing and thought that we were going to keep her.  We gave her a box with a blanket and some food and water expecting that during the night she would leave.  But the next morning she was still there and excited to see us.

Isn't she soooo cute!!!!  We asked other volunteers if they wanted her, because she was so lovable, but no one took her. So we brought her back up to the monastery found her a warm place and gave her some food before we headed off to Sofia.

We stayed at a nice hostel in the center of Sofia, Hostel Mostel.  We had a 4 person private room which was about a 5 minute walk from the main hostel building.  Our room was in its own apartment, along with 2 other rooms, a living room, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen.  All for the low low price of 10 euros a person.  Comfort and Class on a budget.

 In front of the main building.  This price of our room also included breakfast and a pasta dinner.

 The living room in the separate apartment.

 Kitchen

Our room, the 4th bed was to the right was mine.

Our first stop in Sofia was SUBWAY!!!!

The gentlemen in the window were laughing at us when we were getting our picture taken. We walked around and explored Sofia.  Took a trip to the Mall of Sofia and considered seeing a movie. But all the ones in English we had already seen online or had no interest in seeing.

The next day we did a free walking tour of Sofia and saw all the sights.

 The Russian church.

 Picture with the guards in front of the presidents office.

 Drinking warm water from the old hot baths.

After the tour, we went to a Chinese restaurant and ran into a Bulgarian Peace Corps volunteer!!  She lives in a village of 800 people and is close to the Turkish border.  She sat and talked to us for a few minutes before she had to go to a meeting. It was nice to hear about the similarities and differences about being a PCvolunteer and living Macedonia and living in Bulgaria (small world!!).

It was a great weekend trip with a great group of people.  I am already looking into my next weekend getaway.  Check back next weekend to see how we do Thanksgiving -- Peace Corps style!!!!

English Classes for Adults

Last year I was asked if I could teach English to five people who worked at the Crisis Management Center in the municipality (town hall).  My main focus was on my school last year; so I did not have any time to start teaching adult English lessons.  Then when the school year started in September, we were working on getting the library up and running. Then October came and here in Resen October is taken over by apples so I knew I could not start teaching then.  But now it is November, and I have finally gotten the adult English classes started. I had my first lesson last week.  There are 5 people (4 gentlemen and 1 lady) and they all have different levels of English. One gentleman lived in Ohio until he was in 2nd grade.  He can speak very well, but does not remember how to write.  Another gentleman has taken seminars and classes. Another gentleman, the one who approached me to start teaching these lessons,  lived in Australia until he was 4 or 5.  He said that then he just knew English and did not know any Macedonian; and then his family moved to Macedonia and he lost all the English he once knew.  It is also funny because he is married to one of the English teachers at the other primary school in Resen.  And the other gentleman and lady do not know much if any English.  In school they all learned French, because that was the main language they needed to know back then, but now they realize that English is more useful to know than French.

Our classes are once a week for an hour. Peace Corps has a manual on how to teach English to adults; and they also have a workbook to go along with it.  When I walked in the room, all of my "good "students were ready to learn with their workbooks.  I try to speak only English or mostly English during our classes. Last week we started with the basics: hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, and good bye.  After they learned the greetings, we started with the alphabet and then went on to personal pronouns and the verb "to be" (I am, you are, he is, etc.).  By the time I got through those ,I started to notice that they, just like children, were getting a little restless. So we ended the class there. This week we will pick up where we left off and start learning "where are you from?" and the names of some other countries.  We had a good time and I am excited to continue it. 

Halloween

The past two days have been full of Halloween activities.  Halloween is an American holiday; so it is not celebrated in Macedonia but the kids know about it.  They do similar things on other holidays. For example, the day before their Christmas, Jan 6th, the kids go around to houses and collect candy; and on April 1 the kids dress up in costumes; but there is no holiday where they carve pumpkins. Irena and I taught all of her classes about Halloween.

Irena and I with our pumpkins!!!  They were the only two orange pumpkins that we could find at the pazar, or farmer's market, last weekend.  I walked up every aisle looking for an orange pumpkin, they had green, greyish-green, and yellow pumpkins.  All for eating, but then I saw 1 small orange pumpkin.  It only cost me 30 denars, less than $1, and the lady even asked if I wanted the other small one because she said it was not enough for eating and not as sweet. But I told her no thank you, I wanted the small orange one.

In the 1st grade class, Maria, the talented artist, drew pictures of Halloween items and we taught the kids the vocabulary words. Then they copied them into their notebooks, because they love to draw, while I played some Halloween music.

In Irena's kindergarten and 2nd grade classes we taught them Halloween vocabulary using flash cards, they made their own pumpkins, and we showed them the pumpkins we carved.  The kids loved to see the faces on the pumpkins all lit up.  We sang the "5 Little Pumpkin" song and listened to Halloween tunes. They all knew the Addams family and Casper the friendly ghost.

In the 5th and 6th grades we read "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow."  I tried to do it in my scary voice, but we all just ended up laughing instead.

At the American Corner in Bitola they had a Halloween party full of costumes, games, a costume contest, and candy.

The ladies that work at the corner were dressed as witches and a pirate. The four PCVolunteers came as the Four Seasons.  I was Spring, Lauren was Summer, Helen was Fall, and Katie was winter.

 Pin the wart on the witch!!!!!
The kids that came to the party did a great job with their costumes.

 This one was the best!!! A rubics cube!!!! After I took the picture I asked him why he did not smile. He said it was because he was "not solved" lol.

 The cutest!!! Uncle Sam!!!

 This is one of the interns that helped out at the corner.  He did a great job on his costume.

The kids had a great time at the American Corner's Halloween Party.

Today Irena and my 6th grade students wanted to carve their own pumpkin.  One of my students, Philip, his family has a farm and he said he had tons of pumpkins; so he brought one in for everyone to carve.

They wanted me to cut it open.

 Getting all the seeds out. It was a very sweet pumpkin.  By the time we were done the room was full of the sweet smell of pumpkin.

 They were very creative about how they wanted to decorate their pumpkins. They had a scalloped top.

 And then we did the traditional eyes and nose and they wanted a zig-zag mouth too.

 Sara and Elena with the finished pumpkin!!!!

 6th graders with Irena and I in the resource library with their awesome pumpkin.  All the kids had a great time with our Halloween activities.  Until next time........

 Happy Halloween!!!!!