| Wednesday, 27 February 2002: Upcoming visit-lots of exciting stuff! |
| Hello all. Things here are going great for many different reasons. The sun is starting to shine consistently now, and although Mother Nature tried to scare off Spring with a snow/rain storm on Monday, things are again beautiful here. I'm contemplating walking outside without multiple layers covering my body so much that you can't even tell if I'm breathing!! Another way to tell if spring is on it's way is by the flowers. Bulgarians believe that when a certain white flower begins to bud, that spring has arrived. Guess what? It's here! There are also many new veggies appearing in the market, things I had forgotten existed! Spinach, green onions, tomatos that aren't brown or with holes, mushrooms, and radishes (yuck!). You may be wondering why this is important. The answer is that I'm sick of eating onions and potatoes as my only vegetable. I don't want to look at another potato for 5 more months. I walked through the market yesterday, and when I stopped to buy something, I realized that I knew the name of almost all the people selling veggies at the market. It was something that never occured to me before, but since they are the ones providing me with life-enriching vitamins, it's important to befriend them. One actually helped me pick out the best mushrooms, and I didn't realize there was that much of a difference!! It just goes to show that friends, and connections are important, even at the veggie market. Apples are starting to show up again too, although they still don't look all that great. I guess I'm just excited about all this because I'm beginning to become a vegetarian here. Don't get me wrong, I love red meat. It's just that I rarely eat it here. Meat, the good kind, is pretty expensive, and I only buy chicken whole, which means a lot of extra work. So lots of variety means I won't get as bored in the kitchen! Another reason I am so happy is because my mom called me last night and told me that she is flying into Sofia at the end of March!! She already has her ticket and everything!!!! I can't even explain how excited I am about this. I knew that I missed her, but I didn't realize how much until I knew that I would see her is a month! I am already busy tryng to plan the trip, where to go, what to do. How many days of vacation do I need? I can't focus of teaching Present Perfect Continuous tense when my mom is so close to being here! My kids think I'm crazy, they say "spokoino miss" meaning relax. You have a little while. But what they don't understand is that this is the best thing that could be happening!! Also, my mom got a phenomenal deal on her ticket, and I'm happy about that too. If you need info about cheap flights, email me and I'll give you the number of the person/company my mom is using. Well, I have to get back to class now. I'll write more this weekend. It's going to be nice, on Saturday morning there should be a football game in town that some of my students are in, and that afternoon I'm going to hike up the hill behind town with a few of the kids. It will hopefully just be a lazy weekend in town. I miss you all! -Sarah |