OK, well it's been more than a minute since I updated ya'll on all my happenin's, sooo, here goes...
Let's see...my last update was in September soo, what came after that was, MY TRIP HOME!
Most of you guys know that I took two weeks to go home. I really hadn't planned on coming home during my two year...two reasons: A) it's eeeexpensive, B) I kind of didn't want to have that "break" so to speak during the time, it's hard to explain. Just wanted to come here do my "time" and get back to everything. Going home has different affects on volunteers, and I didn't want it to risk it setting me back emotionally for a while. I will say that it was a great, and very busy, trip back.
I was actually excited and ready to get back to Bulgaria...where things are more "spoko", relaxed, haha, so to speak. Two weeks after I had gotten back felt like 2 months...just crazy how that happens! It was great to be back when I was, I made it for a best friends wedding, was able to go to Texas and see family and friends, and spend time back in Oklahoma to visit the rest of my family and some of my friends, and it was at the beginning of fall, a time I love.
Time flew and I was pressured for it constantly! I had hoped for at least one chance, ok honestly more than once, to veg out on the couch and watch all my TV shows im behind on and movies, and not do a single thing but eat popcorn or pizza and possibly not even talk...yeah didn't happen :). Oh well, it'll be all that more exciting next year when I move back home just in time for the holidays and I'll be done and i'll have months of nothing but crashing on multiple family couches! :) 'Till then, sitting at my little cozy table watching crazy, random, ridiculous movies they pick to show on the TV here will have to do, oh and popping my own popcorn on the stove top :)
But like I mentioned before I was really glad to get back and be able to be Jessica's Maid of Honor and see my family! Especially since I've been gone while so much has been happening in my family...I've missed my grandpa Porterfield's funeral, my Great Aunt Alda's funeral, a year of my grandpa Phillips chemo and my mom and step dad move into a new house...just across the street of my grandparents! :) I was blessed to be able to see my Aunt Alda though before her passing on my visit home...we took a trip out to McAlester one Sunday to see our family Phillips side! I was blessed to get to see her and everyone else and get to visit, especially since I wouldn't be there for her memorial service the following month. She was a great gal, and will truly be missed!! She doesn't have pain though now! ;)
Jessica's wedding was a blast! Us girls from OKC showed up everyone else and were the last ones on the dance floor....man it was great!
I didn't get to see so many people I had also hoped to see, so apologize now to all of you!! Two weeks really isn't as long as it sounds...especially when you have a crazy spread out family like mine! Going to the Ft. Sam Houston cemetery to see my papa's grave with my grandma and uncle in San Antonio was very special...I was able to have that moment that I missed experiencing with my family the few months before. It was interesting to read the other headstones of other military men and their spouses....serene, comes to mind. :)
I hadn't eaten like when I was home, well since I left! MAN it's amazing the quantity we eat in America, I mean I knew but, after not being around it everyday I forgot the feeling. I didn't have the "hungry" feeling until I got back to Bulgaria and a week or two had passed!! I treated myself as soon as my feet were on American soil. Once I made into the Dallas airport and found my next gate, I turned to my right the see my destiny....Chili's with their Top Shelf Margarita!!!
Yep, how perfect was that! Next thought...ATM, NOW! Finding the atm was not all that easy...no easy sign showing you where it was, and it wasn't an ordinary machine. I get my cash and settle up to the bar, no menu needed just one big top shelf with salt margarita. Not two seconds passes after I order and I realize, why the heck did I go get cash, I'm in the land of DEBIT CARDS! Completely forgot! Oh well. Ended up chattin up the man next to me, and I ordered some salsa and shared his chips with me. Turns out he was waiting for the OK flight as well. He's also been in the Eastern Europe area with the Army. Ended up getting into OKC almost 2 hours late...welcome party went home, all but my mom, dad and step mom...troopers.:)
That was just a sign to come of my flight home! My mom and I get to OKC airport 2 hours in advance like conscientious int'l traveler that I am, to realize that I grabbed the tickets that were useless in checking in! Fortunately bro David was home to meet my mom out on a highway exit to bring me my tickets I ridiculously left behind. Well, we wait in the long line (note there was no line when I originally got there), and proceeded to figure out my flight situation. Situation you ask, YEAH I had a situation. Flight into OKC was delayed and flights going TO Chicago (my destination) were delayed. SO, of course that altered my int'l connection in Chicago to Germany. Well, to get to the chase the man was very helpful, booked me on an optional later flight just in case and I proceeded to wait 6 hours, i believe it was, in the OKC airport!! Get to Chicago, I make my "just in case" flight and we are trafficking down the runway until we are at a dead stop in front of a building. Yeah, pilot comes on, says we'll all be sittin here for a possible 2 hours!! well turned into only an hour or so! My delays gave me 5 or so hours in Frankfurt to do NOTHING. I fortunately was familiar with the terminals I was departing from and knew exactly where the reclining "nap" chairs were...got myself a nice 3 hour nap! And off course, that flight was also delayed. SO, in the end I got into Sofia at 11pm friday when I was going to be getting in around 1pm and would have ample time to catch my choice of a bus or train, straight home and to crash!! NO, I had to get a cab and take it to the only hostel I could tell the cabby how to get to. I get there, NO ROOMS. So i walked about 10-15 minutes away around midnight to another hostel, bunked for the night and was on a 9am train home!!!
So, what's been going on since I got back in October...I'll break it down like this:
October: I got back just in time for classes to resume after our nation wide strike. Some other schools had already opened classes though still officially striking while mine on the other hand didn't hold classes. The schools who hadn't been having classes decided to resume "for the kids".
A group of volunteers had a Halloween costume party in the very cool, medieval town of Veliko Turnovo. I and my site mate Emily paired up as Thracian Goddesses :)
November: After 25 years of no cavities, I find out I have two! and one of them is rather large! SO I got that taken care of...wasn't as bad as I expected. The dentist Peace Corps uses is really cool and good. He also has some nice bling diamond in one of his teeth! haha Oh and he's also from Sweden. Also found out I have been exposed to TB...I DON'T HAVE TB but have LATENT TB...So I started the 9 month long med treatment...also no alcohol, not even red wine with dinner for 9 months! I do have my good friend Jelly who also tested positive to go through this with me! We got our chests x-rayed at a "lovely" communist/post communist (?when) hospital...that was an experience!
Like what I'm used to back home, I got to fest twice for Thanksgiving! My Plovdiv site mates and I had a mini Thanksgiving on the day of and that next day I and my homemade cornbread boarded a train with 5 other volunteers out to Burgas on the beach where 15 or so of us were going to have a fest on Saturday! It was a success!! It was great. We had a long day of just hangin out, a walk to the beach (in place of afternoon football), mimosa's and wine while we cooked all day! Even smelled like Thanksgiving. I was in charge of stuffing and dressing...yes they're different!! I think my Gram would be happy! :)
Work: Yeah been a tad slow! My counterpart and I have a new project but jeez, it's like pulling teeth to get her to sit down with me and go over everything at once! Also, classes with the high schoolers has been straining to start up this semester with the mess up after the strike. When we get back in Jan., things will start to smooth out as far as classes go.
December: Well immediately upon my return from the Burgas I decided to host dinner one night and also put up my Christmas tree. Andrew our site mate and a Jew, after all was said and done with the tree (takes like 10 minutes tops) said, wow you're tree isn't tacky! hahaha He just doesn't like xmas trees. lol On the 7th some of my good friends came into town to celebrate my birthday (the 6th). We went to the Arabic Restaurant, got our humus and hookah fix, and ate some of the awesome homemade cake Lina (my counterpart) made for me! It looked professionally done! The out of towners stayed until that sunday so we all got to just hang out and do whatever. We ended up laying low saturday night and just going to see a movie...Beowulf, wasn't bad. We got our first snow the night of the 13 and it snowed all weekend!!!! I decided to go visit my host family that weekend since I wouldn't be able over Christmas. That was a weekend of, food, drinks and name that meat. Yeah seemed like every meal there was some meat and my host dad would ask me, do you know what kind of meat this is....I delay as I was already unsure...the first mystery meat was goat, second tongue and the 3rd pork. The pork I had guesses but the goat I honestly thought was beef, roast beef...and the tongue, yeah I had no clue what it was when i decided to try a tiny bite before being informed.
SO, brings us to the present: My school is pretty much beginning break tomorrow though most schools finish through Friday. Since my school is 99.5% Roma and/or Turkish who happen to be Muslim and their 2nd biggest holiday (Eid al-Adha "Festival of Sacrifice"...Байрам, Bayram, in BG) starts tomorrow, we won't be having class. Why have class if they won't be there anyway. Went to the Christmas service tonight at the clubhouse, Segun from Nigeria and Craig from England have their work and ministry out of. Segun has a soccer team and they use the building for that and then twice a week they have services with the few Roma in the neighborhood who are Christian. Kate, a site mate, went with me. We walked literally 1 minute from my apt. where the building is which is directly across the street from my high school. It was really interesting to see and it was cute to see the kids singing and performing. Heard Christmas songs in all Bulgarian, Roma and Turkish. Saw some of my kids there too. I got a few pics, not good though...I'll attach what I can.
So, Friday I am leaving to go to my friend Melanie's town where Saturday at midnight we are catching the train from there to Bucharest, Romania. We're going to go see a little of Romania over Christmas. Mel is a type A planner so I'm just confirm whether or not I'm cool with the plans. :) We're going to go to some supposed to be really cool church on the eve of or the day of Christmas there in the city of Brasov...a cool little medieval place, supposedly. It'll be a nice 4 day getaway. We'll get back and then I'll just chill at her place until after New Years. So many of our friends ended up going home for Christmas so us and some others who are going to be around are going to get together and hang. Mel is our Italian cook, so we'll be well taken care of at her place!
Ok, it's late...sorry for the way-too-many-details and ramblings/babblings!! Those of you who know me best know I get wrapped up in all the details, so sorry for those of you who aren't and have the God given talent to be short, sweet, to the point and witty with no effort!
Everyone have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR
Весела Коледа и Честит на Нова Година
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
I miss and love you all!!!!
чао за сега ... bye for now
:)
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