BIG GINORMOUS NEWS!!!

First some boring things:
This past week was kinda boring but I will list some of the great things:

1. Dr. Toni came to check up on us, make sure we read all the edical stuff and came bearing gifts. We got Tampons, helmets, water filters, bug spray and super intense bug killer!!!! It felt like Christmas!
2. Had my Mid-Term Langauge Test and it kinda kicked my butt, it was made up of a recorded 20 minute conversation all in Bulgarian. I was told that I did fine and that it was good that I spoke in paragraphs but I didn't feel at ease. It was an eye-opener and made me realize my need to talk to my host family more in complete sentences: right now my Bulgarian kinda sounds like this: I tomorrow like go market bread banana. Which is understandable just sounds like a caveman.
3. Made my host family dinner. I made stir-fry and made my own teriyaki sauce (honey, brown sugar, garlic and soy sauce) which turned out wonderful!!! I think they geniunely liked it and my host mom said that I can cook anytime. I also made chocolate chip cookies which were a little different than usual, some sustitutions on ingredients but turned out tasty (with slight curry undertones-I put the chocolate chips next to my curry powder in my suitcase).

Now, THE BIG NEWS!!!

I know what town I will be serving in for the next 2 years!!!!! (found out thurs, June 17, 2010)

I will be in a town on the Danube River right across from ROMANIA!!! Seriously, I will be able to see Romania! It is a big town (33,000) located in the north in the middle of the country, if you email me or ask I will tell you the name of the city. I will be teaching (as far as I know) 1st-8th grade as well as a special 12th grade American Literature Class!!!! Plus I will be super involved in drama, art, and sports. I am so incredibly excited and think this sounds wonderfully amazing! God is Good and is taking such good care of me! I am so thankful! Plus, I met my counterpart who is great! She talks a lot, is really good at English, funny, and loves dancing! She reminds me of my host mom, so I am excited to work closely with her for the next two years.

Here's the next steps:
Right now I am in Vratsa (lovely city), with my counterpart and the rest of the volunteers and we have been doing a lot of activities and had far too many sessions, but it has been great because our personalities click and we both have a similar love/addiction to coffee. Plus, I have been getting to spend a lot of time with my wonderful Peace Corps family. On Sunday, I will go with my counterpart to my town and check out the city and the school, as well as my apartment (if it is ready?). Then I return to Tarnava. (side note: In the 2 days that I have been gone, I have heard from my host family each day and find that I miss them but, not going to lie, this little vacation away from them has also been nice).

Ok, that's all. God is incredible. I am pretty much in love with Him.

I can't help but write a lot, but I think my mom may appreciate this.

Ok, so let's see....In the past week, I tried to cook Bulgarian, went to a ball, taught 3 lessons, nearly killed my host family, met the mayor, and found myself astounded again with God's goodness.

We tried to cook Bularian. June 3, 2010.

One of our assignments was to cook a Bulgarian meal for our language trainer. Being the only one in my group that likes to cook and has cooked a number of times different dishes, I took lead on this and we ended up cooking for 11 people (the 5 of us plus the 6 people in my host family). We made meatballs (kinda) with potatoes, tomato and cucumber salad, and a strawberry cake. The meal was pretty good and my host family loved it and now somewhat trusts me to cook again, which is absolutely fantastic. Good thing is that my group worked wonderfully together and it absolutely opened the door for me to cook at my house, which is something that I really love doing and miss doing, so yay!

Bulgarian Ball. June 5, 2010.

A week earlier, my host family informed me that I would be going to a ball the following saturday. This was all that I knew. I didn't know who or what is was for, where it was, or what I was expected to wear. First of all, I made sure I was home, with plenty of time to get ready before the ball to find that no one was home and I was going to base what I was going to wear on what they were wearing. No luck. Finally, my host sister Didi got home, so I asked her what to wear, and through the use of Google translator, was told to wear "Lamb." Which again was not helpful nor did it really make sense. Thanks Google. Anyways, eventually decided on nice top and trousers. I was dressed semi-appropriately as the dress was casual to prom fancy. The ball was great! It was like a mix between a polka dance, a belly dance competition, russian dancing, freak dancing, and an awkward junior high slow dance. I was wildly amused the whole time. Plus we were served a lot of Rakia and massive amounts of meat, Lamb (which made the earlier conversation perhaps more understandable). Seriously, I don't think I have seen so much meat served to a single person in my whole life. Two more great things: my host family made sure I had a steady stream of men to dance with throughout the night (mainly old, smelly, awkward Bulgarian men-the way I like 'em!), and there were a number of times when there were more men on the dance floor than women, (straight men...i think, kinda hard to tell-gay or European doesn't work here). I danced like crazy, seriously, so much fun! There are so many more wonderful things about this night but please skype me and I will tell you all of them. I don't feel like writing them all here.

Taught 3 Lessons. 5th, 7th, and 8th grades. June 7, 8, 9, 2010.

I love teaching and more importantly I love making a fool of myself and opening the door to get stubborn/too cool for school 8th graders to make fools of themselves as well. These lessons were easy peesy lemon squeezy. I was really intimated by the 7th and 8th graders because they are just so awkward, but I found the more I was comfortable in being a dork in front of them, the more comfortable they got with not having to "be-so-cool." The 5th graders were, as always, super wonderfully great and responded great when in competition. I liked them all and am stoked on teaching multiple levels.

Nearly killed my host family. June 9, 2010.

I decided that I would try to make banana bread again after my first attempt burned. So, I made sure that I put the oven on the right temperature and my host mom and baba were nowhere around, so I figured, GREAT! Anyways, I started making the banana bread and mixing the ingredients. This is when I smelled a slightly unpleasant smell of burning and thinking that something must have dripped down and was burning on the bottom of the oven, which I was not nearly concerned with. Then, I noticed that my Deeado (grandpa) was walking out and carrying something. (Little explanation-oven inside in grandpa and grandpa's while kitchen area in outside away from oven and where we eat). Then I realized that deeado was carrying half of a plastic serving dish that I immediately remembered was sitting on top of the oven. Then I realized what I did. I had accidently turned on both the stove area above and the oven. The fumes I was smelling, which at this point had completely filled inside with a think black, obviously toxic smoke, was the sweet smell of burning plastic. Inside was like someone took all the smog in L.A. and placed it inside the house. It was hard to breathe and I could feel my lungs deciding that they hated me, and best of all I'm pretty sure the fumes could kill small children or animals. This is when I thought, wow this could totally kill my host family, which would just be messy and awful (I can't be the PCV to kill her whole host family). Pulling the plastic off the stove was like pulling thick long taffy. Good news: After this, my banana bread cooked perfectly and tasted delicious! So, to make the perfect Banana Bread just almost kill everyone by burning plastic on the stove beforehand!

Meeting the Mayor. June 10, 2010.

Big Pimpin'. If you didn't hear before, I live with the Mayor and know her very well at this point. Plus my whole group had already made her dinner (June 3), but we finally got to have an official meeting with her, which is one of our assignments. So all week, I've been telling my host family how excited I am that I get a meeting with the Mayor on thursday, and she just blushes. We decided to dress up for the occasion, and the whole thing just made me so happy. It is not that great of a story, but I was pretty stoked because I got to wear a dress and my pink striped knee socks and found the whole fiasco really funny.

Found myself astounded by God's Goodness. Unending 2010.

I am blessed beyond all measures by this whole experience and just am so thankful for everything God has given me. Life is beautiful. For those of you who know and don't know, a couple of months ago now, my grandma died and this was one of the hardest things that I have ever gone through, and I miss her like crazy and I continually think about her and how wonderful she was. She had a huge impact on my life. Anyways, since coming to Bulgaria, I have found that God has put another wonderful grandma in my life, who is so incredibly like Nannie (that is if Nannie were Bulgarian and drank more). It is like God is giving me more time to experience life with her, while helping me to let her go and simultaneously remembering Nannie and why I loved her so much. I am finding this all therapeutic and wonderfully amazing. God is good. He is wrapping me in his arms and letting me know that I will be ok and he is helping me with my grieving. It is spectacular the way God works in and through things. God is good. He takes care of everything. Life is beautiful.

Ok...I realize this is long but I only post these things like once a week...

ok, so my internet has been off for a few days now and it just came back and then went away again....so I am writing this on Wednesday, June 2 and will post it when I have internet again.

So, to catch up on the events, this is how it went down.

Monday, May 24th:

Alphabet Day!!!! So this is a Bulgarian Holiday to celebrate education, culture, teachers, students, and the alphabet!! Yay for Education! No School! On this day they threw a huge celebration for the town and the kids put together a number of songs, dances and skits that they presented to the community. Everyone in my host family was involved. It was great!

Tuesday, May 25th:

Primary Education Cluster (aka OMJ! I totally forgot that there were other Americans in this country!) We all got together gossiped about our host families, the food, the towns, the people, funny stories, not knowing the language, getting the word "beautiful" mixed up with the word for "cucumber" or in some cases "cheese," or and learned a lot about different teaching methods, games, activities, classroom management, etc. It was weird and wonderful to see some of my PC family.

Wednesday, May 26th:

I taught my first full lesson. It went really really well. I had to rearrange the lesson plan and drop some activities and add some others to meet the students needs but I felt good about it. I think I'm going to fully enjoy my time here teaching. No doubt.

I think it was also on this day that my family had a party for the almost 3 year old cousin, Dosi (cutest little boy who loved me). Dinner with both sides of the family, delicious food, hilarious conversation (I assumed-we laughed a lot, I didn't understand a thing but couldn't help but laughing, which may have made them laugh more), and two desserts! I ate a ton and my Baba took me around to everyone to explain that I didn't know Bulgarian but I could say certain things like "cynep" (super) and "dobpe" (good), so I tried to say these things as much as possible.

Thursday, May 27th:

Sleep in. Yes, please. The 7th grade is taking exams, so there was no school for the other grades. A little explanation: in 7th grade students take exams to be accepted into certain high schools, which could be a general high school or they can study a specific subject. We also got to have a wonderful trip to the Police Station in the city, so we could find out all the risks we face while being in our area. The most awkward part was when the police gave us a brochure of the mug shots of all the theives in our area and said, "Remember their faces." Upside, they let us into a jail cell and we got to take pictures! Successful field trip.

Friday, May 28th:

HUB 1-All PC family reunited!!! We got to see our whole group and go to the Big City (Vratsa)!! It was magnificent! I have said it before, but I absolutely love (almost) everyone in my Peace Corps group, (almost) all 87! We also went over a lot of material....like history and stuff (I took my notes in pictures, it was that interesting).

Saturday, May 29th:

So, funny story. Mary's (see right bar) host mom wanted to take us on a picnic on saturday, so we signed permission slips and let the Peace Crops know we were going five minutes away from our town for a few hours, thinking ok, a picnic should be fun. Well we showed up at her house at 9am, were served wonderful food and coffee, met a bunch of the family, and then headed out in two cars. We drove to the next town over, pulled over on what seemed to be the side of the road and got out. Then we walked where we met a lot of other people, kids, some high school students wearing Bulgaria red cross shirts, our school director, our resource teacher, and others. It was a really big group (35-50 people). We stood around and then started walking up this path that lead to a park where signs were up. We found out that the whole thing was not just a family picnic but a huge picnic to celebrate "Kid's Day!" (another Holiday which actually took place on June 1). Luckily we brought mitts, baseballs, a volleyball, a jump rope, a football, and some other games. We ended up just playing with the kids, drawing some great pictures, and having a really good time. It was not what we thought we'd be doing at all but had lots of fun!

Next thing: Soccer Game! Our town's team played another town's team, and both team's were not very good. It wasn't that they individually did not have the skills, it was that the team couldn't work together. But, the highlight was definitely going out to drinks after the game with the soccer team and the mayor (my host mom). Big Pimpin'.

Sunday, May 30th:

Pajama Day! I stayed in PJ's (which were my space needle shirt and track pants-which are actually really in fashion, so booyah!). I decided I would bake banana bread since my host family bought me a ton of bananas when they saw how much I liked them and I couldn't eat them all. Well, it went fine...until my host mom looked at the recipe and saw it said 350 degrees (in F), so turned the oven (in Celsius) up to it...my banana bread burnt. I was lucky that I smelled the banana bread burning, so I took it out of the oven 25 minutes early, but it was still burnt. I explained to my host mom that the oven was too hot, and she saw that I was disappointed, so she took the bread out (cooked in a bundt pan), and smothered it was powdered sugar and said it looked beautiful, promptly took a slice and told me it was delicious. This totally made up for the fact that I failed at baking my first thing in Bulgaria. It was even better when she made everyone else try it and had people telling me the rest of the day that it was delicious and they loved it! They asked me to make it again for them the following Sunday. I pray it doesn't burn...again.

Monday, May 31st:

BREAKDOWN! (#1) The PC warned us that we would have a breakdown sometime during our pre-service training, so we all have been joking about it and declared that we would yell "BREAKDOWN!" the moment it happened. Well, that might have happened on Monday. So each week our language trainer goes over everything we were supposed to accomplish the week prior, including marking our punctuality (which I have perpetually failed each week) and our respect toward the culture, our trainer, and our host family, which I was horrified to find that I had also failed. I am sarcastic and our whole group teases each other all the time, including our language trainer, but the week before, when we were with other groups, we were joking with her about a bunch of things. Needless to say, our trainer got really offended and we really hurt her. She misunderstood our teasing and got really really hurt. She told us all on monday and we broke down. We LOVE our language trainer and think she is wonderful, and without knowing it, we had shown her disrespect and really hurt her. We felt awful (and I still do) and all of us broke down (well I guess to be honest the three of us who had been joking around the most). The scary thing is that none of us had any idea that we had offended her at the time at all. It was the first time I became aware that I still don't know this culture as much as I feel I have integrated myself into it. I am now horrified that I will do something and offend someone else without knowing it. I need to learn as much about this culture asap.

Tuesday, June 1st:

Happy Children's Day!!! Guess what! I'm team teaching! On Monday we found out that we had to team-teach our lessons on Tuesday, so PC could observe all four of us as teachers on the same day. After perfectly planning out my lesson, I had to relent some of my power/control (some of the lesson) to someone else, which for those of you who know me well, this is not easy for me to do. However, I did it. The lesson went fine. It was fine and I team taught with a wonderful teacher (Thomas-he's kind've a big deal). Besides that, that night we had another community celebration for Children's Day and the next holiday (June 2). The kids performed many of the same dances and songs that they did for last week's holiday but with some new ones as well. My family pretty much ran it. My sister was the MC, my dad the technical and sound guy, my other sister in the parade, and my mom was the guest of honor who also presented awards. I felt like part of the in crowd.

Wednesday, June 2nd:

Another Holiday!!!! WooHoo!! Hristo Botev Day aka the Man who looks like the Guy from the Hang-Over Day! Actually Hristo was a pretty amazing person, an intellectual that lead revolutions...and was eventually killed for it. Plus, he was a stud. Today we also discovered that my host mom is terrified of the family pet (a hamster) when it is let loose. She runs and slams doors behind her, while the rest of the family laugh outrageously. the whole scene is spectacular to watch. I try not to laugh too much as I am still horrified that I will do something culturally insensitive.

Well, pray that I will be careful in what I say and do as the last thing I want to do is hurt someone or disrespect someone. Luckily, this time our language trainer got to talk to us and explain everything and forgave us, so we'll know for the future. Also, please pray that the Bulgarian meal that my group is cooking tomorrow will be stupendous! (or at least not burnt) Besides that, God has surrounded me with amazing people and I feel lucky to be in the situation I am. God is definitely carrying me in his arms, and I am relying on Him.

I am from a little town in Europe...you do not know.

I am not sure if I'm allowed to post what town I'm in or not so, I will not say the name but call it instead "Tiny Little Village"

Ok, so I have been in Tiny Little Village for almost a week now (arrived last Sunday night) and I love it...for the most part.

Host Family Fun Facts:

• I have 2 little sisters (14 and 10) who I thoroughly enjoy being with, so I don't know why my siblings ever complained about me.
• My Mom is the Mayor (it's pretty great because I get to meet EVERYONE in town)
• My Dad is the IT guy for the school so I have wireless (hallelujah)
• My Baba (Grandma) doesn't speak any English and thinks by speaking louder then I will suddenly be able to understand her, so I just pick one thing in each sentence she says and repeat it out loud and this seems to satisfy her. She is a very kind, happy, wonderful lady who makes me smile so much.
• My Grandpa offers me Rakia (the strongest liquor I have tasted in my life-rubbing alcohol anyone?) which I always, shake my head no (which I always forget actually means yes here), and say "nay" (which is actually "no") but he brings it to me anyways and has me cheer and drink with him. This makes me laugh really hard every time, which is every night.
• My whole family calls me "Katie" since I accidently introduced myself as it my first night, I don't know how that happened but I don't mind being called "Katie" in a thick Bulgarian accent.

Daily Grind:

• Wake up extremely early like 7:27
• 8:30-12:00 School Observation (or teaching lessons)
• 12:00-1:00Awkward Lunch with Host Mom (she doesn't know much English and I don't know much Bulgarian and she gets angry when I say I'm full-she is constantly scared I don't eat enough but I have been eating more each meal than I would usually eat at Thanksgiving)
• 1:00-4:30 Language School (3-4 Hours)
• 5:00-9:00 Hang out with Sisters/study/go for a walk/drink coffee
• 9:00-10:00 Dinner with Family (lots of Rakia and ridiculous amount of food)
• 12:00 Finally say goodnight/finish homework Bed-Time

Trainee Fun Facts:

• Gave my first Lesson (only 10 minutes) on Friday- Numbers and Foods-went well!
• I have a flush toilet and warm water (it's good to be with the Mayor)
• My room has 5 large windows that look out into the main entry way, so I constantly have people looking in and waving at me in my room (pictures to follow soon on facebook)

Favorite Stories so Far:

• Woke up one morning to find my Baba waving outside my window directly over my bed, and promptly asking (now that she saw that I was awake) if I wanted a sandwich or more closely to I'm going to make your sandwich now! (sandwich=breakfast food) 7:07 am
• We were invited to a cocktail party after a school appreciation concert for the teachers with all the other teachers, so we went. We awkwardly sat at a small table, all the trainees and our language teacher-5 in all. Other chairs were brought over and the majority of the teachers at the school came and sat with us, or stood nearby. Then we literally danced all night, drank, and ended the night with an impromptu magic show-if I wasn't sure if I was ready to commit two years in Bulgaria before, I'm sure now. IT WAS GREAT! Plus I got to spend more time with my parents (dad is teacher and mom gave speech for teachers there)
• I loved the cheese during the first week at the ski resort, so when my host family asked if I liked cheese, I said, "I love cheese." Grandpa immediately went out and grabbed some home-made fresh cheese and brought it to the table and put a huge slab on my plate. It did not taste like the cheese I had loved but rather more like the way a farm smells of animal stench and feces. I almost gagged but I think I managed to keep a straight face and smile afterwards. It was awful and I had to eat most of it and now it is on the dinner table every night. great. Word to the wise: don't say you love something until you try it.

I love Bulgaria...seriously.

• I sing and dance more than I have ever before, probably because my sisters join in and they know Gaga and I don't know Bulgarian well yet.
• I am finding everything pretty funny and so is my host family, so we laugh a lot.
• The coffee is great
• I feel like the work I'm going to be doing in the schools is going to be the most rewarding experience, especially since it already seems to feel that way.
• I feel like God is saying, "I told you so," and it feels great.
• Oh and top it off, Volunteers in Thailand may be evacuated because of riots in Bangkok, so probably this is the better situation for sure. Prayers for them would be great. btw.

So, I'm doing wonderfully. Don't Fret!

Off to Live with a Host Family...this might get awkward...

First Week: Bulgaria Ski Resort Freakin' Beautiful

Logistics:

87 People Trainees-Pre Volunteers

Three Groups:

Education- Primary and Secondary (I am Primary) (Ed)

Youth Development (YD)

Community and Organization Development (COD)

Week 1- May 12-May 16- Orientation at Ski Resort

Weeks 2-11- Training and Living in Host Family

2 Years- Permanent Site (I'll find this out in a few weeks)

Favorites:

Everyone in The Group (Seriously best people in world, maybe)

Food (Cheese-like feta but better, lots of cucumbers, meats, stews, casseroles and soups)

My Host Family (haven't actually met them but they will be great!)

Dance Party and Dinner Saturday (Dressy and Wonderful)

Language Learning (Azsome Katelyn= I am Katelyn)

Living with this crazy blonde girl from New Hampshire (for 1st week)

Bugarian Mountains and Fields are like The Sound of Music

Knowing what I am doing finally

About My Host Family:

Living with the Mayor and her Husband and two children. Grandma and Grandpa live in the back and will join us for meals. Also, I WILL HAVE WIRELESS INTERNET! (I'm the only one that I know of that has it, so yippee! super lucky)

Hard Core Peace Corps

Ok, so to begin.

Sunday, May 9th. Happy Mother's Day! I'm going to Bulgaria! This was the most stressful day so far. Breakfast ran a little longer and we got to the airport late. When we arrived at the airport, the lady told me that it was too late to check in bags, which almost made me cry, but then changed her mind, and decided it was ok, but that my bags were too heavy. So, I ended up leaving my toothpaste and incidentally my toothbrush as well, and my razor in california, and wearing my rainboots on the plane. I was glad to find that I had packed an additional toothbrush and toothpaste in my carry-on. Because we were in such a hurry, and I was so stressed, I didn't get to say goodbye and was really snappy with Mom, Dad and Caleb. I made it on the plane and eventually I even found the fact that I had to wear my rainboots on the plane somewhat funny. I made it to Philadelphia, bags in tact to my hotel where I discovered a roommate in my room, fast asleep until I came in with my four bags.

Monday, May 10th. Slept very little. (3 hour time difference) Met all the West Coast people, who also arrived the day before, at breakfast. Explored Philadelphia. Had Staging events, where I met the entire group (87 in all), and discovered that the people that do the Peace Corps are some of the best on earth. Did the best skit out of all the groups (not just my opinion-was told multiple times). After training all day, we were ridiculously hungry, but ended up going with a small group to Old Town and eating at a bar, who incidentally also had an open mic night that night. This is where I met my future husband/wife, who was wearing a caution tape dress, and a bejeweled arm cast. Pictures on facebook.

Tuesday, May 11th. Slept very little again. Took bus to New York. Flew out of JFK to Munich.

Wednesday, May 12th. Slept even less than previous nights. Got to Bulgaria, one bag short. My bag along with 50 other bags from our group didn't make it to Sofia, since evidently they weighed too much for our plane. We were welcomed here by current volunteers, which was great. Got on a bus and traveled an additional two hours up to our mountain resort where we will be staying for the next few days before going to live with our host families for the next 10 weeks. We got there, ate dinner, and then I went to bed.

Thursday, May 13th. Finally slept. Still tired. Unfortunate. All day orientation and first round of training.

My thoughts so far, I really like everyone in our group, yes all 87. They are great. I think Bulgarian food is good, so thankful for that. I'm looking forward to being settled but am glad that we finally made it Bulgaria.

I had a dream...and it kinda came true so far.

So, on December 18th (you can reference below or just start here) I decided to accept the invitation to work as a primary teacher in Eastern Europe leaving at the beginning of May, but had yet to receive the official invitation in the mail letting me know what country it was in. Sometime around the beginning of January 2010, I received my official invitation packet and discovered, "OH MY JESUS! MY DREAM CAME TRUE! I AM GOING TO BULGARIA!!" Alright, I'm pretty sure not all the dream is going to come true, like the part about water sanitation, shuffle board, and the fact that Bulgaria was geographically located right next to Germany, BUT the fact that I wasn't going to Thailand but really going to Bulgaria absolutely came true and I think that was the main point. However, Germany was mentioned in my dream and I will have a lay-over in Munich on my way to Bulgaria...weird...maybe water sanitation and shuffle board will also come up once I get there....You never know. I'll try to keep you updated on their reoccurrence in my life during my time in Bulgaria.

January 2010-March 2010

For the first time since graduating in December 2008, I had to write an essay (oops...except for those other ones for the Peace Corps when I first applied) and it was the most difficult thing EVER. Seriously I had to write like 5 short essays (titled My Aspiration Statements) about what I hope to accomplish and such with the Peace Corps and my strategies for getting along with a new culture and with new colleagues. It took me forever to write these just because it had been so long since I wrote a proper essay. Anyways, I definitely looked up what other people had written to get a general idea of what they were looking for and tried not copy the good things that they wrote too closely (that's not cheating right? I figure it was ok because I really didn't write close to anything they had written, just the style-I think my attempt to save my dignity here is failing). Then I updated my resume and made myself look awesome! That was that and I didn't have to do much else until like April.

End of March-Now (April 24)

At some point I decided to start learning Bulgarian, and by that I mean I downloaded two apps for my IPod Touch and copied the alphabet from wikipedia. One of the apps is a full bulgarian/english dictionary-which is wonderful and going to be really helpful. The other is a Rosetta Stone-esque app that pronounces the words and breaks things up into different categories, each of which has several different quizes-it is really great as well. I have also gotten personal property insurance for all my things, and figured out how to defer my student loans.

Ok, now Logistics/All That I Know For Right Now:

a. My Assignment: Primary School Teacher (English and More?)

It looks like I will be working with a Bulgarian teacher and be team-teaching and/or splitting up the days Mornings and Afternoons. I think my primary duties will be teaching English and then some other subjects according to their needs.

b. Secondary Assignment: This will be decided by me when I see the needs of the community and what programs I can start. To be honest I think I will end up doing something with theatre but I'll find out once I get my placement

c. Living: First 3 Months (Training)- I will be staying with a host family somewhere near my training site (maybe close to Sofia?)

After Training (3 Months) I will be given my placement and then will move into my own apartment close to where I will be working.

d. Dates:

May 9th- Fly out of San Jose 2:20pm and arrive in Philadelphia (after lay-over) near 1am.

May 10th-Pre-departure training in Philadelphia all day (after 12pm)

May 11th-Fly out of JFK (how we get there is a mystery-probably hovercraft) to Munich and then fly from Munich to Sofia

May 12th-16th -Arrival Retreat (we get orientated --real word just fyi) and stay at a retreat style place BUT WILL HAVE NO INTERNET ACCESS-so don't fret if you don't hear from me. I'm probably safe. probably.

May 16th-Aug. 16thish- Live with Bulgarian family

Aug. 16thish 2010-Aug. 16thish 2012- Peace Corps Service, Meet Bulgarian Husband, Get Married to Bulgarian Husband, Have many Bulgarian Babies, Become Bulgarian Queen, etc...

Besides Peace Corps stuff, I have to admit I think that it was really great that I stayed around another few months. First of all, I got to hang out with all the wonderful people in my community group more and really just get to know them all more wonderfully. Second of all, I got to save up more money, plus my job was pretty great...most of the time. Third, more family time!!! (not sarcastic) Fourth, I got to throw a Lady Gaga lawn party. Fifth, I got more time with my friends in sc and also got to sneak in two trips to Portland and Seattle. Sixth, I got to be around family and friends when I needed them, and got to go and be a part of my grandma, Nannie's memorial services (which really meant a lot because I think it would have been really difficult to not be around when she died). Seventh, I got to prepare myself more for the language, culture, emotional, physical (not that I got fit but I got to eat more ethnic food before leaving), and spiritual challenges that I will be faced with.

Lastly, I am getting really anxious about going but am trying to turn to God as much as possible during this time and allow Him to lead me and carry me when needed. I'm excited that I am close to leaving and starting a new chapter (corny, but quite literal when I turn this all into a book one day). Keep praying for me, I will need a lot of prayer during my time there. Hopefully, it won't be another 5 months before I write on here again.