victory is mine!

"i don't care if monday's blue.
tuesday's gray and wednesday too.
thursday i don't care about you.
it's friday, i'm in love.

monday you can fall apart.
tuesday, wednesday break my heart.
oh thursday doesn't even start.
it's friday, i'm in love.

i don't care if monday's black.
tuesday, wednesday heart attack.
thursday never looking back.
it's friday, i'm in love."

a wonderful, glorious thing happened today. first of all, i went through an entire week without having a nervous breakdown! now while this may seem slightly crazy to some, it is an enormous accomplishment. i'm either getting a thicker skin or creating my own little niche. maybe a combination of the two.

secondly, i had a MAJOR language breakthrough. a little background info: yesterday, i somehow got a virus on my computer. at first i was really upset. i mean, my computer is my life right now! plus, it was just really annoying because this little "antivirus" bubble (in actuality a virus masquerading as an antivirus) kept popping up literally every other minute. anyhow, i took it to a computer repair place here in town. (my tutor showed me where it was when i was having trouble with my microphone and they fixed it in about five minutes --and for free-- so i was confident they would have no trouble). basically, they were able to fix the computer with no problem (yay!), but it took a looooot longer than expected. so, after walking around aimlessly for three hours (they kept telling me, "a little longer, a little longer"... which was fine. i didn't mind waiting. i just wanted it fixed. and i had nothing better to do).

anyhow, three hours later, after i browsed every shop in town, i finally just decided to wait at the computer place. i asked how much longer, but the guy replied so fast that i didn't catch one word. so i asked him to please repeat a little slower, because i don't speak much bulgarian. well this intrigued the second gentleman working there, so he asked me what my native language was. i told him english, and mentioned that i was teaching english at the high school PMG. well, wouldn't you know, his daughter goes there. and she takes english! she is in 12th grade though, and i'm only teaching 8th and 9th... but after that, he was mr. chatty. in a good way though. we talked about all sorts of random things. honestly, he did the majority of the talking, but i understood everything he said!! (well about 90%). now, the clincher is not that i understood so much (although that was rather extraordinary), but that we talked for ONE HOUR! 60 whole minutes. i don't even talk to my tutor that much during our lessons. usually i can't understand that much and i just zone out after a while. it was such a confidence booster. and after my computer was fixed, they only charged me five leva!! ($3.50 in american currency, to put it in perspective). it was nice to walk away with a healthy computer and a renewed sense of self.

and the last delightful little tidbit. it was brought to my attention that one of my students unknowingly took a picture of me during class. how you may ask? a lovely little gadget we call the camera phone. well, at first i was embarassed... then a little worried.... were they using it to throw darts at? was it a forum to complain about me? come to find out, it was none of these things. in fact, all the students who did comment on this picture of me had nothing but nice things to say! one of the students (dare i say my favorite student) from my summer class translated everything for me. the comments consisted of "she's so cool," "she's so pretty," and "best teacher ever." which reminds me... i need to figure out exactly who said what... they're gettin A's! haha. but seriously, it was just further validation to know that i'm not completely wasting my time after all. even if they hate school... i'm connecting with them on some level. and that's the first step.

tomorrow i travel to sofia with shauntay. we are maybe going bowling. (bowling in bulgaria-- so curious to see if it's the same as in america). maybe going to a bar/club. i'm sure it will be a good time. hanging with her is always fun and refreshing.

missing everyone back home but excited for things to come. namely halloween and london! love ya'll. ciao for now!