an extra day celebrating me? what a fabulous idea!

before i mention how i spent my vacation, i wanted to make note of the people here who really do have good hearts. tuesday was my "name day." here in bulgaria they have name day holidays. meaning, quite literally, there are various days in which people with celebrate their names. i believe that the names they choose to celebrate are those of saints, but i could be mistaken. there is one day, for example, in which people with the names of flowers have a name day (i.e rose). anyhow, like i said tuesday was "yordanov den," or "jordan day." (go me!) i actually don't have classes on tuesdays, but when i went to my first class today, the kids had bought me a big stuffed animal and a little card that said "happy name day." i just thought it was so sweet! of course, this was one of my two favorite classes. it really is a tragedy that the other students are such little monsters, but i guess it just makes me appreciate my little 8th grade angels even more!

so as most of you already know, i went to london for my christmas break. first i will briefly mention christmas itself. it wasn't so bad! i think i was so sure that i was going to be completely and utterly alone and miserable, that the events of the day were actually quite pleasant. in a nutshell, shantay came to hang out, which of course is always good timese. we just lounged around christmas eve. she got me a couple of presents, one of which was simple, but i particularly loved. it was a little wooden charm that said "super woman" in bulgarian. after all the hell my students put me through last month, well it just made me laugh. christmas day we went to my assistant director's house for dinner. she's always been very kind and hospitable. i forgot that she kind of has this thing about people of different ethnicities... but in a good way... she's just intensely intrigued. i remember her showing me pictures from her italy trip this past summer. she had a picture with a random asian guy and one with a black father and daughter. so i guess i really made her day by bringing shantay along, more than she could have possibly made mine! haha.

on to london. it was A-MAZING. i loved it. i could seriously go on and on about everything i saw/did. the variety of people, those precious and charming accents, the history of the city, the architecture, the food, the millions of things to do. and of course, there was starbucks. heavenly vanilla mocha lattes and frappuccinos. ahhhh, the good life. my showers were long and hot. my back wasn't sore when i woke up in the morning. basically, it was heaven on earth. there were only a few places we didn't have time to visit. but we definitely hit the highlights. and besides, i'll be back in june :)

i will compile an entire album in due time and post the link... but until then, here are a few of my favorites: