Razbirate Bulgarski?

So the last few days have been kind of hectic. And a lot has happened in the last week or so. I went to Greece last weekend. But more on that later. Yesterday I decided that I was going to move out of my apartment and into a different one. I had been thinking this over for a while (I was unhappy with the location, the furniture, and my landlord, among other things at this one) but it finally came to a head when my bathroom ceiling sprang a leak and it took over a week to replace the moldy ceiling tiles. Maybe I complain too much, but this place still doesn't have a washing machine and I've slowly come to realize that it's a really inconvenient location for me to get to school. Yesterday another teacher helped me find a new place and I met a woman who had rented her flat to a Spanish teacher at my school last year. Bizarre coincidence? Maybe. Pleven is a really small town. This new flat is actually a bit older but I like it so much more than this one that I'm willing to put myself through yet another packing and moving day just to get the heck out of here. The only problem was that I had signed a contract with the other landlord, but after some negotiating (no small feat for me, passive aggressive extraordinaire!) he agreed to have me pay a portion of next month's rent but not all of it. To be fair, I didn't give him much notice. So I'm still losing some cash but it'll be worth it in the long run. Actually, because this new place is just ever so slightly cheaper, the difference in rent will make up for the extra money in nine months. Win! I'll put up some pictures of the new place when I get settled in.

Thessaloniki and the Aegean Sea

In other news, I love Greece! I just went to Thessaloniki for the weekend with another American Fulbrighter and I wish I could live there. It's a great city, but small. I think I'm going to love Athens. The price difference between there and Bulgaria (only a few hours away by train) however, is ridiculous. Most things (food, beer, you know, the essentials) cost at least twice as much in Euro as they would have in levs. That means they were quadruple the price! We had to stop mentally converting everything because it was getting depressing. The hotel we stayed in was so cute and in a perfect location, and I really liked just walking around all day and enjoying the sea views. It was almost like going home, really, because Thessaloniki has so many American chains that don't exist in Bulgaria (at least not in Pleven). So it was a nice little diversion to get out of the country and I appreciated my life here so much more when I got back. The Cyrillic alphabet is starting to look more like something I can actually read and understand, though I still have some difficulty pronouncing it. But at least it's not Greek to me anymore!

School days

The first day of school was last Wednesday. I walked up to the Foreign Language School, where I was entertained for about an hour and a half of singing, dancing and speeches- in Bulgarian. Okay so it wasn't so entertaining. The mayor of Pleven was there... But I did enjoy the boys' break dancing team and the fact that one girl sang 'Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira.

I received my schedule (which, despite claims that the schedule tends to change after the first week, seems to be permanent) and it looks like I'm only actually working three days a week. Bulgarian students attend classes in one of two shifts: first shift, in the morning, from 7:30AM until about 12:30PM, and second, in the afternoon, from 1:30PM to 6:30PM. I'll be working the later half of the second shift on Mondays, the later half of the first shift on Wednesdays, and then (this is my favorite part) both the first half of the first AND the second half of the second shift on Thursdays. This basically means I have a six-hour break between my classes, but I still have to wake up at 6AM to make it to work on time. But I do have Tuesdays off, which is a nice bonus (having Fridays off was a special consideration negotiated by the Fulbright Commission so that we could have more time to travel- thanks, Julia). So I'm actually pretty happy with the schedule, besides having to trek up to school twice on Thursdays. But 6 hours leave more than ample time for a well-deserved nap, right?

Because the first day of school wasn't a real teaching day, I've only actually met 3 of the 4 grades I'll be teaching this year so far. I had three classes with the 9th grade and then three more with the 8th grade on Thursday, and yesterday I had three classes with the 10th grade. Tomorrow I would be meeting my 11th graders, but it's a national holiday (Independence Day) so I have to wait until next week. So I have today and tomorrow off of school and need to think of productive things to do with myself.
I hadn't actually put that much thought into what teaching would be like- which is weird, when I think about it now. What was I thinking? I would just show up, introduce myself, and hope they would ask questions? Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking. Needless to say my first few classes were a little awkward (for me, at least) because I hadn't planned them enough. Not that I'm going to be slacking as a teacher, I just hadn't really put that much thought into the first day. I've talked to a lot of my colleagues and they've given me suggestions for getting the students to engage in discussions. I'm going to focus a lot on their interests and try to present them with stimulating topics that will actually give them useful conversational skills. Since I'm only meeting with most of them once a week, and I'm the only native English speaker at the school, it's important to maximize my time with them. I put a bit more effort into my lesson yesterday and I think it worked pretty well. I asked them to do a short writing exercise, then discuss what they wrote with their peers and introduce one another to the class. I was pretty happy with the results, except that I forgot to collect the writing assignment afterward. Three times, actually. So at least I'm consistent in my absent-mindedness.

Another aspect of my teaching here is going to be an elective course on American culture, which will probably start next week. I've been thinking about possible topics a lot and it's hard to conceptualize what exactly I want them to learn about American culture, whatever that means. What can I teach them that they don't already know from television, the movies, advertising, international news, etc? So it's going to be sort of a work-in-progress. This is the only class I feel severely under-qualified to teach.... maybe I don't actually need teaching credentials to assist in English classes once a week, but doing a class on American culture? I'm not sure if I'm the best person to do it. I hope these kids like South Park...

Moving In

So I'm officially moved into my new apartment! I still don't know how to pronounce the address... minor detail. But it's a nice neighborhood, about a ten-minute walk from the center and maybe 25 minutes to get to school, so I'll have to be good about leaving super early to get there on time. Pleven feels a lot bigger than I thought it would- there are lots of big supermarkets and a couple of department stores, and lots of cafes and restaurants near my apartment. There are a lot of monuments to the Russo-Turkish War because the Siege of Plevna (Pleven's former name) was the biggest battle of that war. Most of these monuments have artillery around them for decoration. I really like the tree-lined pedestrian boulevard in the center, which has a series of fountains and man-made waterfalls in a small park at the end. There's a really big park, maybe a national one but I'm not sure, right at the edge of the town called Kailaka Park. I haven't been there yet but it's supposed to be beautiful and good for walking.

This is a view of the park with the fountains. The red building to the left is the town hall and to the right is the St. George Chapel and Mausoleum. Today I went to the police station to register with immigration services. I got all of the paperwork in order so I should have my Bulgarian id card in about a week. I got a good deal on my apartment (utilities included, it should end up being under 200 USD per month). This weekend I went to visit another teaching assistant in Haskovo, which is in the south. It was a long trip through the mountains to get there but we had a good time and I finally got to see the world's largest statue of the Virgin Mary! :)

It was built a few years ago, all with funding from residents of Haskovo, and apparently they decided to make it the world's largest. There's a Guinness World Records plaque to prove it outside. It's a nice view of the valley from the hill, too. Maybe one day I'll see the one of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro and I can make a collage of both.

Haskovo also has a zoo, although it's not really worth visiting. It was pretty depressing, actually. I don't think I'll visit any more zoos like that one here. It was located in a nice foresty park near Hillary's apartment and we went for a run there the day before I left. On the way back to Pleven we took a mountain road through the Stara Planina, or Balkan Range. The road we took goes through the famous Shipka Pass, the site of another major battle in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8. It was beautiful. The mountains aren't very tall but there are lots of scenic valleys and viewpoints. It was a very windy road. I also got to pass through a few other towns on the way including Lovech, where another Fulbright English teacher will be this year. It's only about 30 km from Pleven so we'll probably see each other a lot.

I'm still getting used to things here in Pleven and since it's the last weekend before school starts I've decided to take a trip (again!) to Sofia and Blagoevgrad for the weekend. I'm already sick of buses but since they will be my primary mode of transportation here I'd better get used to them. It's nice spending time with the teachers here and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of them but I want to take advantage of my free time and visit friends while I can. School starts next Wednesday and I can't wait to meet my students. I've been preparing a lesson plan for the American Culture class but I'm trying to keep it as open to changes as possible because I definitely don't want to bore them to death with it.

Ah, Pleven, at last!

I finally arrived here in Pleven last night and I'm currently staying at the Hotel Face in the center. I'll be staying here tonight as well but hopefully moving somewhere else very soon because it's kind of expensive. Well, maybe not by US standards but I could spend about what I'll pay for a three-night stay here on a month's rent in Bulgaria. In general, though, things aren't very expensive here. There are tons of restaurants, cafes and bars in town and it's very walkable. The hotel is located in the middle of a pedestrian thoroughfare, and is close to the City Gardens. My school, the Foreign Language Academy, is situated on top of one of the few hills in town. Everyone who works there hates this hill. And I get to feel all smug about it because by San Francisco or even Seattle standards it's a piece of cake! It's got maybe half the incline of the one my mother lives on. In any case the slightly strenuous walk should keep me in shape, although I imagine I'll be walking a lot here anyways.

At the school I met a lot of my fellow English teachers and other staff members. Everyone was very friendly and I got several invitations to dinner (and one offer to find me a Bulgarian boyfriend!). I sat through several meetings, mostly conducted in Bulgarian, and one with just the English teachers to discuss how I might structure some lesson plans. They think I should incorporate some information on American culture, as that would most interest the students. I'm trying to think of creative ways to do this so if anyone reading this has an idea, please email me! I'll be teaching all five grades in the secondary level (8 through 12) and each of those is made up of three groups of about 25 students each. So that will be 15 classes per week, possibly adding on a few more 'elective courses' if enough students are interested. If all the scheduling goes well I should only have classes from the late morning to early afternoon and I will definitely have Fridays off so I have more time to travel on the weekends. I have at least ten people to visit across the country and we have plans to meet as a group sometimes (we might go to Istanbul in a few weeks!). We don't have much time off until the winter holidays but apparently the spring will go by very quickly because there are so many holidays then. I'm excited to get to travel some more while I'm here.

I looked at two apartments today, one of which is livable. It's nearby a nice park and 'Macedonia Square,' which is in the middle of a neighborhood known as 'Orange County' because a lot of rich people live there. I liked the place a lot, although it's a bit small and needs some repairs done. If the place I'm looking at tomorrow doesn't work out I think I'll move in there, although it won't be ready for a few days so I may look for a cheaper hotel. The other apartment I saw was further from the center and in a grim-looking communist era building. Okay, both of the apartments are in communist era buildings but this one was a little too grim for me to handle. The light was out on the lift, so we took it up to the sixth floor in the dark (creepy!) and then entered what was supposedly a recently remodeled flat. I won't go on and on about it but it did not appear as advertised. Tomorrow I'm viewing a flat close to the school, which is also close to the center. I'm hoping for the best so wish me luck.