a tale of bulgaria

The book A Tale of Two Cities starts with the opening line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I think that will pretty much sum up my experience as a volunteer. Very often I use this blog as a venting outlet to complain about things not going so well, or missing friends and family. And sometimes it really does suck being here, but then I have a good day and think, "this isn't so bad after all."

This weekend, I went to Sofia with my fellow volunteer, Shantay. I love hanging out with her, because she is more like my friends back home. We have the same sense of humor and directness. We finally saw the new Batman movie. I have to admit, that it was the most intense movie I have ever seen thus far in my relatively short life. I did not like that Maggie Gyllenhaal played Rachel though. She's not cute, and she looked a little coked out if you ask me. Other than that though, it was very compelling. I wanted to see Sex and the City soon too, but it's not in theatres anymore! Movies come and go so fast nowadays. Oh well, I guess I will wait to see it on DVD.

So, after the movie, I spent the night in Pernik, Shantay's city/town. It wasn't bad. For a big city (bigger than my site) it didn't have too much though. Kyustendil has way more cafes and stores in general. But even hanging out and doing nothing was nice! There is another volunteer at her site, Brian, and he has some device... I forget what it is called... but it allows him to watch his friend's TV back home in the states. It's the coolest thing I've ever heard of... I gotta get me one of those!! Somehow we started talking about football, and he said I could come watch the Georgia games at his house! Wa-hoo! It really made my little week. Chad had mentioned that I could watch the games via internet for a small fee on CBS sports, but it will be fun to watch some of the games with someone who actually likes sports! I kid you not, there is not ONE person in my group who watches college sports. What is the world coming to? Girls, fine... it's stereotypical, but true. In general, girls aren't into sports... but the guys... I guess it's kind of sexist of me, but I just think something's not right if a guy doesn't like sports.

Basically, I finally had a good weekend. I think I'm going to start pinching more pennies during the week so I can start traveling more on the weekends. I pretty much have to in order to maintain sanity. This weekend, I am planning on returning to Sofia for an ex-volunteer's birthday (or to clarify, a volunteer who finished their service and now live's in Bulgaria). So that should be fun. And it will give me a chance to meet more people. Always a plus.

Lastly, I have had a really strong showing at my summer class. I only have one week left. It's only a three-week course. I am undecided if I will continue it or not. I am quickly running out of ideas on how to fill two hours of class time, four days a week. And it's funny how often this happens.. but Thursday I ended class a little early. I wasn't feeling well, and I thought the students would be happy. But when I told them we were done for the day, one girl was like, "oh man..." and I asked her what was wrong? She said, "well this is my last day, because I am going on vacation..." I was just amazed that she enjoyed the class, because she never wants to participate and I always have to snip at her for talking while I'm talking. I figured her parents were making her come, but wouldn't you know, she was interested all along. That very thing happenened during training in Dupnitsa too. It's always the students you think could care less, who seem to be geniunely intrigued. I guess kids are kids and no matter how interested they are, sometimes learning/concentrating is just hard for them.