At this point my Bulgarski is still not good enough to say. Dearest Totka, I shall depart for Vratsa on Thursday to commence my journey to the site I will be volunteering in for the next 2 years. Please wish me the best on this perilous journey and if you must make me a sandwich please use a light hand with the butter and skip the chicken. I saw it sitting out last night and your lack of concern for refrigeration makes me uncomfortable to say the least.
I don't even know if some of those tenses exist in the Bulgarian language. Anyway, these past couple of days have been used to pick our sites. What's great to know is that the Peace Corps actually cares that you are happy where you get placed. I had my site placement interview and my teaching feedback session last Friday. My classes have definitely hit some highs and lows that I was not prepared for. Favorite high of last week during a game where the kids had to name different actors a girl shouts out "Dean Cain" As in TVs Superman and Ripley's Believe it or Not?What? How do you even know who that is? Favorite low of last week. Completely losing control of my 9th graders. I think one of them told me she hated me. Siigh. However she was a little trouble maker and I don't think her English is good enough to even understand what she was saying. My class Friday went pretty well. For all you TEFL teachers out there. English Jeopardy is a great review for grammar and a great test to see how much American culture has reached even the smallest towns of Bulgaria. They got the question right about "What movie/book stars a vampire named Edward and girl named Bella" before I even finished my sentence but neither team could answer "Where is the headquarters of the United Nations" Stephanie Myers-2 Elani and all that is good in the world-0
As for the site placement interview, well that I would equate to a first date. You want to seem like you know what you want while being laid back enough and not too needy. My town currently has about 10,000 people and I kinda dropped the hint by saying "So I'm from a city of 8 million people this is enough of an adjustment I don't think I could handle a town smaller than this" Hmm maybe that wasn't so subtle. But it was a pretty great interview overall. It was good to get a chance to sit down with someone and find out about projects you could work on outside of teaching. The only umm moment I had was when asking me if I would want to be near other volunteers. This was a double edged sword as I was nervous to say yes and seem like I was too dependent on other Americans and if I say no does that mean they're going to stick me to the furthest reaches of Bulgaria? I didn't even really have a chance to answer as my interviewer looked and me and said "You seem independent, you'll make bulgarian friends" then he made some notes and I sat there in a daze after all that happened. Either way I'm sure it'll be great. Besides I would rather be far from anyone than close to someone I really don't like. Yeah I said it.
After we find out where we're going we spend a few days getting to know our counterpart at the volunteer site then we actually go there for a few days. I'll have the opportunity to see the school I'll be teaching at and even a chance to get to see the place I will live. Then I have to find my way back home by myself on Tuesday or Wednesday. That will be very interesting with my Bulgarian. I'm sure I will have stories. Lets just hope I don't end up in any of the other Balkan countries on my way back. Fingers crossed.
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