October 23, 2001

Hi all. So fall is really here. It’s getting cold here and we need more blankets at night to keep us warm. I wake up early for my 7:30am classes and it’s dark – or at least it will be until this weekend when the clocks change. Then it gets dark early and everyone starts to batten down the hatches for the winter ahead. Large bags of coal were stacked up on the stairs to our block the other day. A man was lugging them in, one by one, to the elevator to be taken up to his apartment for heating this winter. People in the bazaar are beginning to hang tarps around the rear of their stalls to keep out the cool wind. Little boys and girls are overly dressed for the weather as their parents make them wear winter hats and gloves when it’s only 40 degrees or so. People are hunched over their coffees at the outdoor cafes, pouring sugar into their coffees and smoking cigarettes. Today, the sky was mostly gray and it rained a little bit. It would be nice to do something American-fall-like, like going out to a pumpkin patch or going to a Friday night high school football game. It’d even be nice to go to some cheesy fall fair like the Circleville Pumpkin Festival in Ohio.

These first six weeks of classes have breezed by, in comparison to last year. Last year, it seemed that it took forever to get to my birthday in October. This year, it came quickly. I’m looking back at my lessons that I taught last year and I’m amazed at what I was teaching. It’s incredible what a little experience can do. Hopefully I’m teaching some better, more useful stuff. All of my lessons depend on me – I can choose what we study. My school has never given me at textbook with which to work. However, I have been using books from the school library that have been donated to shape a lot of my lessons. (Those textbook donations do help!!!) And it seems like I know where I want my students to end up after a lesson. Last year I sometimes wondered, along with most of my students, what exactly we learned during class. I’m just glad they had other teachers to teach them something.

We had a few people (other PCV’s) up to Silistra last weekend for my birthday. After everyone got over the shock of how long it took to get up to this forgotten and forlorn corner of Bulgaria, we had a great time. I think most everyone traveled at least eight hours to get up here – others about ten or more hours. (Remember, this country isn’t any bigger than Ohio.) We mostly just hung out and laughed a lot. But we had a great surprise on Saturday when we hiked up the hill to the Turkish fort. I thought it would be closed, but when we tried to get in, the door swung right open. Inside were two men who were part of the renovation crew, I guess. One of them took us on a tour around the whole of the fort and we learned a little more history of the place. This time we didn’t have to scale the wall or anything! All the places that were to dark or buzzing with bees and wasps were cleaned out and nearly ready for the museum that will occupy the fort sometime in the future. We came back to our apartment and made – at least in my estimation – the best meal in all of Bulgaria. It was Mexican night. Thanks to a little ingenuity and lots of creative chefs, we made an amazing meal of chicken fajitas. Everyone had to take off early on Sunday morning so after a brief night of sleep, our guests were out the door. It was quick, but a great birthday!

We’re already beginning to make plans for our Christmas break – we’re going to Italy. We’ll be at the Vatican for Christmas. I can handle that. Then we’ll travel north and see how it all comes together. We’re both looking forward to the goooooooooood food. That seems to be one of the main reasons for taking a vacation outside of Bulgaria lately. Our review of any country that we visit now relies greatly on how good the food is. I’ve grown tired of Bulgarian food and any change of pace is welcome. I used to think it was fun to experiment with Bulgarian food, but now the experimenting is over and I’ve found that I like very little ethnic Bulgarian food. Well, I guess that’s how it goes . . .

-Josh