letter15

Dear Family and Friends,

I am officially halfway though Pre-Service Training! Only 5 weeks to go!
This is cause for celebration! Break out the rakiya! :-) And things have
been great here in beautiful Bulgaria . . .

We finished one week of Model School and then we will have one more week of
this teaching experience. And who would have thought that the 7th graders
would be my favorite class? ME, who DREADED working with kids this age and
ME who would never set FOOT in a 7th grade classroom in America! But,
there's just something about a 7TH GRADER, a 13 or 14 year old kid, seeing
you on the street, waving frantically, and yelling, "Miss Sloan!" or "Hello
Missus!" because they are actually excited to see you. I even chose this
class to do a presentation with at our closing program next Friday! Now,
it's time for you to say, "I told you so!" I loved the 5th grade class also
and my skit until with both of these grades turned out to work wonderfully,
which was apparent in the skits they proudly presented today. The 3rd grade
class, on the other hand, turned out to be my biggest challenge, but I was
able to teach them SOMETHING, which was a HUGE accomplishment in my book!
Discipline is NOT going to be easy in Bulgaria, but I know I can face the
challenge. Sometimes our biggest challenges end up being our greatest
rewards.

I will find out my site placement in about a week, on August 6. I am
anticipating this so much! Especially when descriptions of the sites are
posted and stare us in the face everyday! My site placement interview is on
Tuesday, so please pray that I am placed where I can best serve and give
glory to God. I know that He already has my site picked out, so keep this
in your prayers!

And now, I am off to go to a birthday "Na Gosti" with my host family. I'm
sure it will probably last several hours! Bulgarians really know how to
party, that's for sure! I love and miss you all and have a great weekend.
Do me a favor this weekend, spend a few hours shopping at Target for me,
just gawking at the millions of aisles of cool things, then go have a greasy
burger at Wendy's with either some Chinese or Mexican food to wash it down,
and then go sit in a plush air conditioned movie theater for a while
thinking of your long lost friend in the Peace Corps . . . the things you
miss when you are in Bulgaria!!!

Love Always,
Chantel