Why, hello there.

Yikes! I promise that I am still here and have not gotten into any serious trouble. The last few months have been really busy...

In September I started a new job- yay! I'm officially a first grade English teacher. I also teach Science and Nature Studies/Geography, which is very fun. We get to make experiments and I like to pretend that I'm Miss Frizzle from The Magic Schoolbus (only with less awesome outfits, obviously).

The only problem about my job is that the school is really far away from where I live, so I travel for about an hour on two metro lines, a tram and a bus to get up to the mountain. The area is very beautiful, though, and right at the foot of Mt. Vitosha. This also makes it colder and snowier than the rest of the city. Oh, well.

For Halloween Kiril and I dressed up as a cowboy and 50s housewife, respectively, for a costume party here in Sofia. It was a lot of fun, and Kiril's homemade chocolate chip cookies were a big hit once again! People kept asking if I had made them, but alas I am not the baker of this relationship. I can whip up some great pancakes, though. ;)

Last week we spent Thanksgiving dinner with some friends here, mostly current Fulbrighters. I'm really happy that I get to meet the new researchers and English teachers every year, and that there are so many Americans who want to spend a year here in Bulgaria. A couple of prospective applicants have even emailed me through this blog, which is awesome! I guess that means I've done my job promoting how wonderful it is here.

In other news, I've been exercising more often and cooking a lot at home. It's getting colder now but we've had a relatively mild November compared with last year. October was downright hot. But winter has to arrive at some point... I've got my boots and heavy coats prepared anyway. Perhaps we'll be lucky and this won't be another record-breakingly cold winter.

Do skoro!

Bulgarian-American Partnerships

Just a few tidbits on current Bulgarian-American political and economic relations:

Touring the United States ahead of the upcoming UN Summit, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev spoke about the Bulgarian economy on an American financial news program. Watch the interview here. The commentators didn't seem to know much about Bulgaria, except for rumors of high corruption, but President Plevneliev made plenty of references to recent statistics like Bulgaria's growing rate of GDP and decreasing budget-deficit in order to persuade them that the Bulgarian economy will pull out of the current slump soon.

I think that a lot of what he says is true- Bulgaria seems to be an attractive place to do business for investors (apart from the bureaucratic nightmare which accompanies nearly every official procedure) and there are many opportunities for growth in lots of sectors and industries.

In related news, the next U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria, Marcie Ries, released a YouTube clip (see above) in anticipation of her arrival here in Sofia after a few weeks. It will be interesting to watch new developments unfold as the American Embassy changes staff- most Foreign Service Officers and other diplomats serve three year terms and right now there is a big overhaul in process. I had the chance to meet a few new staff members last week, and it was exciting to see so much enthusiasm to promote mutual understanding between our two countries. I wish Mrs. Ries and the rest of her new team the best of luck here in Bulgaria!

Hiking in the Polish Tatra Mountains

As I wrote in an earlier post, this summer I visited Zakopane with my cousin. Zakopane is a small touristy town nestled at the foot of the Polish Tatra Mountains, which are part of the Carpathian Range. It was a fun trip, and relaxing for the most part- except for the day when we got stuck on the mountain in a storm. That was a bummer. I should mention that I have a very low threshold for discomfort, and previous travel companions of mine (you know who you are) will confirm that I can get a bit *something* when things aren't going the way I expected. So when we ended up hiking for seven hours up some very steep slopes in the wind and rain, you can imagine the temper tantrum I wanted to throw. But everything turned out alright in the end. We found our way back down and made it into town for dinner after sunset (zurek- a delicious soup made from sour barley, sausage and boiled eggs).

Here's a view of the mountains from one of the city parks- the peak you can seen is named Giewont, and it's supposed to resemble a sleeping warrior. Can you see his head in the middle of the frame?

Going up the ski lifts to the peak where we started our hike. By the way, the line for the lift was huge so if you're going to Zakopane for hiking I'd recommend getting there early (before 9am) on a weekday if you can. When we got to the top if was too foggy to see much, but the view was still impressive.

When the rain started coming down- I wanted to take a photo at the Slovakian border. The whole time we were hiking my cell phone kept going in and out of range between Polish and Slovak phone services. Also, the look on my face sums up how I felt about most of the hiking adventure (not thrilled). But I think it was worth it for the experience, and spectacular views (once the fog lifted, of course).

This is the backside of Giewont from a neighboring peak. Now the warrior's head is on the left side!

In retrospect it probably would have been a good idea to check the hourly weather forecast before going up the mountain. It's really difficult to plan anything up there because at that altitude the conditions can change drastically within minutes. That being said, we both survived and it was a good bonding experience. My family in Poland are always trying to show me something different, and since there isn't much left that I haven't done in Warsaw it's nice to travel to new places, too. Next time, however, I'm going to suggest a less strenuous excursion.

There's Just Something About Mary

Walk through any town in Poland for ten minutes and you will find at least one of these iconic shrines to the Virgin Mary. A shrine or grotto built to venerate the Catholic Church's most worshiped saint can be found on many street corners, next to churches or even in national parks throughout the country.   

A grotto next to a small river in the Chocholuw Valley nearby the Tatra Mountains resort town of Zakopane.

This one is located in what looks like an abandoned lot on one of the main streets leading to the bus station in Zakopane. Southern Poland is considered to be more deeply religious than the north, and the town even has a chapel financed and built by local citizens as an offering of thanksgiving when the late Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in 1981.

This alcove is on a street corner in the old Praga district of Warsaw, adjacent to a newly restored vodka factory-turned art facility that currently houses the Praga History Museum. I think that these shrines are quite beautiful, and wonder who takes the time to so carefully maintain them?

Settling In for Year Three!

About a month ago I moved into a new apartment, which isn't very far away from my old neighborhood in Sofia. I love my new place for a couple of reasons. First, it's well-connected by public transportation to the city center and other places of interest. I have a metro stop, two trams, several buses and a few marshrutki (also known as shared taxis) within easy walking distance. Second, the layout is great for having guests over because there is a separate room with a pull-out couch and the living room (which doubles as my bedroom) has a big sofa with comfy chairs and plenty of room to sit, chat and watch movies with friends. As you can see, I had a few friends over shortly after I moved in:

I hope to have many more gatherings like this one here. The only drawback is that there really isn't enough space for more than ten people here at a time. But I prefer more intimate settings, anyway. Third and most important is the amazing view I have overlooking Mount Vitosha and the sports high school next door. Why is it advantageous to be located next to a sports high school, you ask? What is a sports high school, you ask? It's a fantastic spot because with two large football fields directly behind the building, my windows look out onto green grass and open space rather than directly into other people's apartments. And a sports high school is another category of specialized secondary schools that have been established here in Bulgaria since the socialist period. It was thought that education should be highly specialized into different practical fields so that students could be more prepared to enter the workforce upon graduation. The foreign language schools where I used to work in both Pleven and Sofia are also legacies of that system.

I really can't emphasize the view enough. It's simply wonderful, especially at sunrise and sunset when the mountain is illuminated by pinkish or orangish light. From the eighth floor I also have a view of the southwestern corner of downtown- including the Military Hospital and the distinctively unappealing Hotel Rodina, one of the tallest buildings in the city at just 25 stories in height.

In other news, I'm still working on getting my project ready for implementation in the fall and waiting for the paperwork to be filed so I can really start canvassing schools. Ideally I'd like to work with one school in Sofia as well as one school outside of Sofia, mainly because there are a lot of differences between urban and rural (or less urbanized) regions in Bulgaria. This is largely due to high levels in unemployment resulting in dwindling small town populations. Many factories which once dotted the countryside have closed over the last twenty years, displacing hundreds of thousands of workers who have left in favor of higher wages in urban areas. Parallel to this trend is the so-called "brain drain" of educated professionals such as doctors, lawyers and educators who move abroad for better pay, resulting in local deficiencies in numerous sectors.

So my goals for this year are to see "Learning Through Our Differences" through to its completion (and reapply for future funding, as well as disseminating information about its results across the country) and to study more Bulgarian! I keep getting frustrated with my lack of vocabulary when talking with colleagues and friends, but it's really up to me to stick with it and push myself to learn more.

Searching for pre-war architecture in Warsaw

A little over a month ago I was in Warsaw visiting my relatives on my mother's side. I've been making pretty regular trips to Poland over the last several years, at least since I've been living in Eastern Europe. I wrote about my visits during my first year as an ETA in Pleven, again that summer as well as during the fall of my second year. Over the course of these visits I have become more and more interested in my family history. And this time I got to do a little more research on putting together the puzzle pieces of that story.

My Polish grandfather was born in 1909 in a small town in the south called Częstochowa, most famous for its shrine to the Virgin Mary which is believed to have saved Poland from Swedish invasion in the 17th century. We don't know much about his life there because the family moved to Warsaw when he was still a young man. His father was an auto mechanic, I imagine a lucrative profession in the first decade of the 1900s. Back then Poland was still partitioned into three sections by the Prussian, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires. My great-grandfather used to travel to Russia often on business, but mysteriously disappeared on a trip there in 1914 at the onset of the First World War. His family never heard from him again and he was presumed dead, leaving his wife with four children to look after. After the war ended Poland was re-unified and became an independent country, but this was to be short-lived; in just over twenty years Nazi Germany would invade Poland and set off the beginning of World War II. At some point between the wars my grandfather's family moved to Warsaw, where they lived in an apartment on Puławska Street. I found the address on my great-grandmother's German identification document issued under Nazi occupation and while I was last in Warsaw my aunt and cousin took me to visit the building. We weren't even sure if it would still be there, but it was!

The exterior wasn't very remarkable (although it did have a fresh coat of paint, something lacking in most of the older Warsaw buildings outside of Old Town or New Town) and the ground floor on one side is currently occupied by a supermarket chain and a gym. One surprising detail was that there is a pharmacy which has been standing there since 1930. They even have a display case full of antique medical equipment. Going inside of the inner courtyard, however, was the biggest highlight. Tall, cream-colored walls surrounding curved balconies with wrought-iron railings and an open patio decorated with bright red geraniums awaited our discovery. Although I don't know the floor or apartment number where my family lived (or if the building has ever been remodeled or changed) it was still an exhilarating experience to stand there and imagine my grandfather walking into that building every day as a university student. 

After finishing his degree as a mechanical engineer at the Politechnical University, my grandfather enlisted in the air force. Just a few years later he would become one of thousands of Polish airmen who fled occupied Poland to the United Kingdom, where they were incorporated into the Royal Air Force as a separate Polish division. I recently came across military archives from his service there and found out that my grandfather was promoted twice and awarded the Polish silver cross medal of valor. Due to political reasons he was never able to return to Poland permanently after the war. I also know that he didn't like talking about what had happened; it must have been difficult leaving his life and family behind. His mother actually died on Victory Day in 1945 without knowing the fate of any of her four children (one son had been arrested as a prisoner of war and summarily executed, another had joined the Warsaw underground resistance army and her daughter was also working with the underground). There are so many stories from that turbulent time that have probably been forgotten, but as I put together details and facts that I come across it makes me feel like I'm making our family story more complete. 

On a related note, I also visited a former vodka factory that was recently converted into art galleries and loft space. It's located on the right bank of the Vistula River in the Praga District, one of the least damaged areas of the city after its destruction at the end of the war. You can still find old brick buildings left standing from the 18th and 19th centuries there, a rarity in a city that was made 90% rubble just over 60 years ago. The outside walls are covered in colorful graffiti, and inside the main building is a temporary exhibition of old photos from Praga before the war. The Museum of Praga is temporarily located in the old Koneser factory until the original building (formerly a Synagogue) reopens after restoration.  

New (and Old) Beginnings

This week I returned to the Fulbright International Summer Institute as an alumna to share my experiences with the new group of English Teaching Assistants. Now that I've been in Bulgaria for two years, I keep thinking back to those first couple of weeks in Bansko: adjusting to life in a new place, making wonderful new friends, getting confused all the time by the language (oh wait, that still happens to me every day), and most of all being excited to learn about everything around me. I'm still just as curious as ever about everything Bulgarian, but things seem to move more slowly now. I feel comfortable here in Sofia, and I never would have imagined two years ago that I would be getting ready for yet another year of teaching in Bulgaria.

Meeting the new group of ETAs was a great opportunity to make acquaintances (hopefully many of them will come visit throughout the year!) and also to reflect on my time as a Fulbright grantee. I'm happy to have been able to share some of the best and worst parts of my tenure as an English Teaching Assistant, and I hope that through networking and sharing new experiences, this year's grantees will be even more successful in their projects. By the way, the topic of my presentation was "lesson planning and resources." I know that Maria promised to email all the presentation to the FISI group, but I wanted to also publish it here in case anyone else teaching English to high school students might be interested.

Fulbright ETA Orientation 2012

In the slideshow, I give a rough overview of what ETAs can do in the classroom, an example of a standard lesson plan, 12 activity plans and 9 links to helpful websites.

Now that I'm moving ahead and away from teaching high school, I wish the best of luck to anyone taking on the challenge of working with teens in the language classroom- especially the new ETAs working in Bulgarian foreign language schools. Have a wonderful school year!

Summer Update

A lot has happened in the past month or so. A lot of months have been like that over the last couple of years, in fact, but July 2012 was a particularly intense exception. I finished my last day as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at the end of June, attended the farewell party for U.S. Fulbrighters and Bulgarian Fulbrighters who are going to study in the States next year, and I left for Poland to visit my family in Warsaw for three weeks.

Staying with my relatives is always a relaxing experience (lots of reading, picnics and swimming in the river by their summer cottage), and once again I took a trip with my cousin to a new destination in Poland. Last year it was the Baltic coastal city of Gdansk, but this time we headed south for the Tatra mountain resort town of Zakopane. While there I managed to check my email only rarely, but I did receive some startling and exciting news about my project, ""Learning Through Our Differences" (working title). Several months ago I applied for a grant from the Open Society Institute, who agreed to fund my project!!! So I'm working hard on that (more updates to come).

I hope that everyone is having a sunny and restful summer! 

Forget Your Past

On our recent road trip through Central Bulgaria, Kiril, Laura, Sydney and I stopped off at what has become a popular off-beat tourist attraction: the space-like Bozludja monument near Shipka. This monument, built in 1981 to commemorate the founding of Bulgaria's communist party a century earlier, was once a proud symbol of the ruling government. Today, it sits crumbling atop the windy mountain where it was built over thirty years ago, and is very likely to fall apart completely if nobody steps in to preserve the structure.

Up until about a month ago, visitors could (illegally) enter the building because although there was a sign warning that the structure was unsafe, there was no lock on the gate. When we went there was a very sturdy lock and chain on the outside doors- comforting to me, because let's face it I am just not that adventurous. I'd rather not have pieces of ceiling tiles falling onto my head or breathe in the toxic asbestos that surely insulates the walls. Anyways, the building itself isn't very interesting, except that it looks like a giant spaceship perched on top of a hill. There's even a tail section with the socialist red star painted on either side. All of the letters on the outside are falling away, the roof is leaking and birds inhabit the upper floors. There is some graffiti scattered around the sides, but it's mostly just poorly drawn scribbles, with a few exceptions.

This message (intriguingly written in English- begs the question of who actually put it there) proclaims one current attitude towards the recent past. Or maybe it's supposed to challenge the complacency with which many choose to forget painful, although important, memories. One thing is certain: this structure has been forgotten by those in charge of its maintenance. Even the attempts to bar access are laughable at best- besides the aforementioned door lock, the only other effort to prevent people from visiting the monument is a road block with a warning sign. Taking a closer look, however, one sees the tire tracks where many cars have simply gone around the road block, onto the grass and back on the road again.

Whatever the future may hold for Buzludja, it is definitely a distinctive landmark for Bulgaria in more ways than one. If it wasn't for its remote location, I'd say it would make an excellent extension of the Sofia Museum of Socialist Art. For now, it's just another roadside attraction, although quite far off the beaten track.

Hiking Mt. Vitosha- Kamen Del

This year on May 1st, the international worker's holiday, I decided to get out of the city and go for a hike on Mt. Vitosha with Kiril and Elana. The mountain is one of the first things you notice when approaching the city, either with a car or by plane. It looms over the city, snow-capped in winter and vibrant green in summer, and has an almost magnetic pull for Sofia's outdoor enthusiasts. There are hundreds of trails and paths all around the mountain and and endless array of activities there, including horseback riding, skiing and soaking in the mineral-rich hot springs.

For hiking, there are lots of options. We chose to drive up to the hija (lodge) closest to Kamen Del, one of the most visible peaks from the city below. It's also one of the lower peaks- Aleko and Cherni Vruh are much higher up the mountain- but we didn't start early enough to summit either of those. On the way to Kamen Del you pass a natural rock formation called Zlatni Mostove (Golden Bridges) made up of huge boulders leftover from an ancient river. There are also waterfalls and caves scattered around the outskirts of the mountain.

Admittedly, the path we chose wasn't the most strenuous of hikes- there is a longer way to go starting from the Golden Bridges area, but we didn't have that much time. It took us about an hour or so to get from the lodge to the peak, and it was mostly a gradual climb; we moved through muddy forest, grassy field and rocky outcropping as we approached the peak. We were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the city below, and met two mountaineers who were attempting to summit every peak in Bulgaria, carrying the same flag around with them on every hike. 

Now that the weather is getting hotter and the snow has mostly melted from the other peaks, I hope we can go back to the mountain soon and explore its other beautiful sites. There is a very famous trail in the Rila Mountains that traverses across seven mountain lakes- aptly named the Seven Rila Lakes. They're supposed to be breathtaking, although more difficult to reach, and weather is a huge factor there because the wind and rain can really ruin a hiking trip. Hopefully in the summer it will be warm and dry enough up there to go for a daytrip. There are almost too many places I still need to visit here in Bulgaria!

Earthquakes, Road Trips and Birthdays

The last several weeks have really flown by. One of my best friends from Seattle came to visit me here in Sofia, and we spent a few days traveling around the Bulgarian countryside in order to show her something more "authentic" than the busy atmosphere of the city. We also had a terrible shock when we were awakened one morning by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake and several smaller aftershocks. Growing up on the West Coast, we are both used to earthquakes happening every now and then. But usually when they happen at night, I sleep through the whole thing. This time it was a very shallow quake, and the epicenter was only 15 miles from Sofia. This made it nearly impossible to sleep through it (or fall asleep afterwards, for that matter).

More interesting than the earthquake was the road trip we took to the center of the country where villages and towns with architecture preserved from the 19th century sit nestled between the rolling green Stara Planina (Balkan) mountains. We stayed in Gabrovo, a town whose citizens are famous for their sense of humor and thriftiness and which is also conveniently located close to other interesting sites nearby. Only a few kilometers outside of town is the Etara museum complex, featuring an old mill, traditional shops, scarecrows, crafts and a very well-stocked sweet shop. We tried their specialty- kisses from Etara, two big white meringues filled with almond cream but decided against trying "Gabrovo chocolate," made out of prunes.

We also visited the monument at the Shipka pass- where a famous battle was fought during Bulgaria's war for independence from the Ottoman Empire. We drove up to the massive stone tower and climbed the steps, through the accompanying museum exhibits on the way up, to the top where we enjoyed an incredible view of the surrounding mountains. The clouds were gorgeous that day, and we could see all the way to our next destination, Bozludja- an abandoned communist party monument that sits on a hillside like a spacecraft waiting to return to the mothership (more about that in another post).

After the monument we visited a beautiful church in the town of Shipka before continuing along the mountain-hugging highway that connects the rose growing plain region with Sofia. Along the way we stopped in the town of Karlovo, one of two towns famous for its rose festival every June. I hope to go back there soon, if only to have lunch in the same place again. Prices are usually cheaper outside of Sofia (except for the Black Sea resorts) but not only was the food there cheap, it was also incredibly fresh and delicious. After stopping for lunch we continued on to Koprivshtitsa, another town famous for a battle fought (or at least started) there. Koprivshtitsa is also famous for its beautifully preserved old houses and idyllic setting in the mountains. We got there a bit later in the afternoon so there wasn't much going on, but we took some photos and began our return to Sofia through the windy mountain roads. I was ecstatic to see these horses grazing by the side of the highway, so we stopped there to take photos. I do love horses.

Side note- I turned 24 on May 23rd! I had a very relaxing day at the spa in Pancharevo (on a lake just outside of Sofia), hung out with some close friends and went to see a movie in the evening. It was extra nice because I had the whole week off school and didn't have to worry about work or deadlines or anything like that. Now we're in the final stretch of school, and while I'm sure it will just fly by as the last month has, June 29th seems too far away just now.

TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

I've been a fan of TED Talks ever since learning about the program a little over a year ago. You may be familiar with Sir Ken Robinson's widely shared talk on changing educational paradigms. This animated version was created by RSA, which has a channel on YouTube. RSA has several animated Ted Talks, making already stimulating subject matter more engaging with stop-motion hand-drawn cartoons to paint a mental image. I think that these are great to use with teenagers to start a discussion in class, and they have worked particularly well with English language learners aged 14 to 18. Another great RSA animate is Philip Zimbardo's "The Secret Powers of Time"- it usually inspires a good discussion about understanding differences in perspective and the problem with stereotypes.

Another cool new project to come out of the TED program is TED-Ed, a website dedicated to sharing lesson plans based on short video lectures on various topics. One very cool new video explains two of Shakespeare's most famous insults (from Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet) and the importance of language used to create specific moods in literature. There are lots of other subjects, including science and technology, with lesson plans built in that feature comprehension and discussion questions, and extension activities with related content. There is even an option to "flip a lesson" when you register with the site. This way, teachers can modify and create their own versions of the lesson for videos they want to share with students. I love using videos and websites in class- if only we could make lessons like this every day!

May Day Weekend: Varna and Balchik

This week was shorter because of the four day vacation that extended through Tuesday, May 1st. May Day, or International Workers' Day, is officially celebrated in many countries around the world- but not the United States. From what I remember, this had something to do with a general fear of the popularity of socialism in the early 20th century. Americans celebrate Labor Day in early September.

But to get back to Bulgaria, we had a nice long weekend and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous summery weather and visit my friend L in Varna, on the Black Sea.

It was a much-needed break. I am feeling a little overwhelmed by deadlines and the end of the school year quickly approaching with too many things to finish, so it was great to go to the beach and relax. I was joined by our friend A, who is also living in Sofia, which made the whole trip felt like one big extended sleepover party (fun!). We dipped our legs in the still-freezing water, worked on our tans/sunburns, enjoyed lots of delicious food (Varna has an amazing Thai restaurant and a sushi place, not to mention great seafood) and took a day trip to the botanical gardens in Balchik.

Here are L and A enjoying a beachfront meal of mussels, fried fish, calimari and beer.

The botanical gardens in Balchik are on the grounds of what used to be Romanian Queen Marie's residential palace. It was built during the interwar period when Southern Dobruja was under Romanian control. It is now part of Bulgaria, and the gardens are maintained by Sofia University. Fun fact: the queen's heart was buried in a special part of the gardens, but were transplanted to Bucharest after the region was returned to Bulgaria in 1940. 

One of the most distinguishing landmarks of the palace is this minaret, which looks like what you would find attached to a mosque. This building, however, was neither designed as a mosque, nor has it ever been used as one. Apparently Queen Marie had it built as a symbolic gesture to the architecture of the region. She also professed her belief in Baha'ism, which explains the coexistence of Islamic and Christian symbols in this part of the complex.

I returned to Sofia on Tuesday night feeling well-rested, but the rest of the week was a blur. I guess that happens when the working week is only three days long: you feel much more exhausted afterwards than you would normally! 

Deaf Awareness Week

Next week (May 7-13) will be Deaf Awareness week in the UK. I received an email today about the launch of an online platform for students and teachers to learn more about communication with deaf people, particularly teenagers: "Look, Smile, Chat" aims to improve understanding and communication between deaf and hearing teens. I thought it would be an excellent topic to explore with my 8th grade students. Tomorrow morning, I will use parts of the lesson plan (available for free download here) to get students talking about and recognizing the steps everyone can take to improve communication with deaf people. The website has several videos which would also be very interesting to use as discussion starters for students of any age.

Because we don't have have access to a multimedia projector in the classroom, I printed worksheets out for students to complete in pairs with the "Mythbusters" section on deafness and an unlabeled diagram of the human ear. After working on the worksheets in pairs I will have students try to lipread short statements read silently by their partner. After that I will ask some of the pairs to act out everyday communication tasks, such as simple questions and praise, in front of the class without speaking to see how easily we can understand them without words. I also printed out four posters with tips about communication, and we will discuss these as a class, including how we can incorporate each of them into our everyday communication with others.

I am really excited about using these resources in the classroom and very thankful to the NDCS for making them available!

"Learning through our Differences" project- part two

This post tackles some basic information about my side project, including its goals, my ongoing research, some favorite resources and an example of one very successful tolerance education program I participated in years ago.

Here's a quick list of my goals and objectives for the project:

1. To help make schools safer spaces for both students and teachers through dialogue and mutual understanding
2. To break down communication barriers, such as negative stereotypes, through hands-on activities that encourage critical examination of those barriers
3. To challenge students to be more self-reflective as well as empathetic, tolerant and understanding towards others
4. To develop a workshop curriculum, tailored specifically for a Bulgarian high school context, that can be further adapted for other contexts within the EU and the world
5. To help organize a network of facilitators prepared to carry out these workshops in schools across the country

A large part of my work so far has been researching the best methods and activities from professional organizations committed to tolerance education. There are tons of similar programs out there. Corporate diversity training, for example, often uses the same activities I've been researching to create more open and inclusive work environments. When I was in college I remember doing some of these activities for a seminar class in a Living-Learning Community Program. There are plenty of online resources available for teachers who want to incorporate tolerance and multicultural understanding into the classroom.

Some of my favorite websites:

- Multicultural Education Pavilion from EdChange (Paul C. Gorski)
- Diversity Learning Wiki from University of Wisconsin Whitewater (they also have a list of published resources here)
- Teaching Tolerance at the Southern Poverty Law Center

The only problem I've had with these is that most of their activities are very US-centric. So using them will involve some serious editing and adaptation for Bulgarian high school students to benefit from.

I gave a presentation last week to a group of high school principals, teachers, English Teaching Assistants and Fulbright staff on the project and I showed a segment of this documentary from Dutch television called "Over de Streep." This was the first time that Challenge Day, a San Francisco-based youth program, came to Europe and you can read more about it here. I actually attended Challenge Day when I was 13 at my middle school in Seattle. This program is particularly effective, and it's been around since 1987. I hope that what I can bring to Bulgarian schools with this project will also provoke discussion, awareness and understanding of differences in a similar way.

"Learning through our Differences" project- part one

I wanted to dedicate a couple of posts to this project I've been working on for the past year. When I accepted my Fulbright grant in 2010, I had the intention of working on a side project in addition to my teaching responsibilities. Apart from my volunteer work here in Sofia, I am now putting together grant proposals and meeting with local partner organizations and individuals to make this project a reality by the beginning of next school year.

"Learning through our Differences" is meant to address various problems with intolerance, bullying, name-calling and other issues in Bulgarian schools which I don't think are being discussed very often. In the past two years I have witnessed and heard about all sorts of incidents like these, from homophobic insults and racial slurs to actual violence or isolation from social groups. Like teenagers everywhere, Bulgarian high school students are susceptible to negative peer pressure and low levels of self-esteem. This leads to social anxiety, which can cause major behavioral problems (including self-destructive ones) in the long and short-term. I firmly believe that a sense of safety within the school community, backed up by a strong network of supportive adults and peers, is fundamental to assuring the emotional, physical and intellectual development of our students.

With that in mind, I am using existing models of tolerance, diversity awareness and community-building activities to adapt within the context of Bulgarian high schools for a series of one-day workshops with both students and educators as participants. I am lucky to have several contacts with years of experience in human rights education who have been kind enough to share their knowledge and also listen to me as I tried to formulate my ideas into a coherent plan. (THANK YOU!!!)

Stay tuned for more updates on the project, as well as example activities I plan to incorporate into the curriculum (still in the works, to be translated into Bulgarian for the final phase of the project). If you want to know more, or have a friend who might be willing to collaborate in either the planning or implementation of the workshops, please contact me at sophillarosa@gmail.com.

Honey, please!

Bulgarian honey is a big business for the small, family-run honey producers across the country. It's also extremely delicious, healthy and 100% organic and pesticide-free. Honey is a natural sweetener, antibiotic and immunity booster. The best places to buy honey are from the local producers in outdoor markets (there is at least one of these in every Bulgarian town). When I lived in Pleven I used to buy honey from the Iliev family beekeepers, and enjoyed learning about the health benefits of honey from one of the owners. I even brought home some samples of different types of honey to share with family and friends over the holidays.

Here in Sofia there are lots of markets where you can buy honey, and plenty of shops selling it along with other honey-related products (natural soaps, wax candles, tinctures, etc.). You can find pretty decent honey at the grocery store, but this removes the added experience of meeting the producer. A more interactive option just arrived this week: the "Week of Honey" exhibition. I happened to be passing by the Central Baths on my way home from work when I noticed the white tents and different vendors selling all kinds of honey products. There were lots of different types on offer: linden, lavender and herbal bouquet varieties to name but a few. I bought my honey this time from beekeepers in Razgrad, in the northeastern part of the country. I had the option of buying the clarified version or the raw, unfiltered kind that looks solid and milky rather than syrupy. I decided to go with the advice of the vendor and bought the crystallized raw one, and it is certainly yummy! The "Week of Honey" is also happening in 9 other places around Bulgaria, through this Saturday.

Sofia's "Week of Honey" Exhibition at the Central Baths (photo credits).

Orthodox Easter in Bulgaria

Bulgarians are getting ready to celebrate Easter this Sunday. While much of the Western world follows the Gregorian calendar, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (along with most Orthodox Christian churches) goes by the Julian calendar to determine the date of Easter. However, Bulgarians do celebrate Christmas on December 25th as many Roman Catholic and Protestant followers do, unlike followers of the Russian Orthodox faith who celebrate it two weeks later on January 7th. The date of Christmas never changes; Easter changes every year. Last year Orthodox Easter fell on the same date as Catholic Easter, but this year it's happening one week later- hence the lateness of this post!

Yesterday Kiril and I painted Easter eggs, an important tradition which reportedly dates back to the time of Christ's death and resurrection. You're not allowed to dye eggs on Good Friday (or "Crucifixion Friday" in Bulgarian), so most people do this on either the Thursday or Saturday preceding Easter Sunday. The first egg is always red, which symbolizes health, and is left as an offering for the house. Many families keep this red egg stored somewhere for the whole year, until it is replaced by the next year's egg. Sounds a little smelly to me. One of my students told me that there is an additional tradition where you crack open the old egg and if it's still intact, this is an omen of good luck for the household.

We painted 8 eggs, a random number but that's because I forgot that I already had two in my fridge when we went out to buy half a dozen eggs yesterday. For some of them we mixed colors together and tried to use something called "crystal powder" that makes the eggs looks like there are little crystals all over them. I don't think we followed the directions very well for those ones, but the rest turned out great. On Sunday we get to play a game with them, which is another Bulgarian tradition.

The game goes something like this: each player holds an egg and knocks it against the other player's egg twice- first on the pointy end and then on the rounder end. The player whose egg survives this test is the winner, although I'm not sure what the prize is. If we were in the States, it would probably be a chocolate bunny or maybe a marshmallow shaped like a chick. But sadly, those are not really traditional here. 

"Spring Fatigue"

I've been feeling a little under the weather the last several days, and incredibly tired. Normally, I love sleeping in on the weekend (usually after staying up really late watching movies, though) but lately I can't seem to muster the energy I normally have, even with ten hours of sleep. Apparently this tiredness might be attributed to something called "spring fatigue" (in Bulgarian, пролетна умора) and is totally normal and very common at this time of year. But I've also developed a cough that sounds a little suspicious, which I shrugged off as a minor annoyance, but my boyfriend suggested that I start taking some vitamins and immunity-boosters just in case. 

By the way, this is Kiril. He's pretty wonderful. And the reason I'm pumping my system full of vitamin C, echinacea and various syrups (including propolis and ivy leaves). Although I was skeptical about the bee stuff, I have to say that after only two days I am feeling much better. It's nice to have someone taking care of you when you're sick!

We had a little argument the other day about American medicine vs. Bulgarian medicine. I had been taking some generic over-the-counter cough syrup that wasn't working, and he said that of course the Bulgarian kind would be better, because they only sell products here that actually work. I'm still not sure this is true, but I have definitely noticed an improvement over my Walgreens brand Dayquil substitute. In general, health care and medicines are far cheaper here than they would be in the States, which is sad to think about because I know there are lots of people back home who avoid going to the doctor to avoid the financial burden. In Bulgaria, although the quality of most public hospitals leaves much to be desired, at least you can get basic care for very little money. There are lots of differences between medical care here and in the U.S, which are too many to put into one post. I'm just happy that the more "natural remedies" seem to be working, at least for now.

Daycare Center in Kazanluk

The last couple of weeks have been very busy- I passed the first stage of the Foreign Service Officer Test, which as you may remember, I also passed last year, but I didn't get to the final stage. I spent a lot more time this round on the essay questions. We'll see if my essays were good enough to pass the next step sometime in May.

Last weekend I made a short trip to Kazanluk, a small town located in the middle of the country at the base of the Balkan mountain range. Kazanluk is most famous for its rose festival every spring, but it's also home to a daycare center for children with disabilities supported by The Cedar Foundation, a non-governmental organization where I have been volunteering for the last several months. Cedar, based here in Sofia, aims to close Bulgaria's institutions for the disabled. These outdated institutions are largely underfunded, overcrowded and lacking basic resources to provide essential care for their residents. Organizations like The Cedar Foundation are working hard to transfer these residents into family-style group homes where they can receive more individual attention and, hopefully, become fully integrated into Bulgarian society. Cedar has already achieved remarkable success in this process through the closure of one such institution near Kyustendil.

The daycare center in Kazanluk is different because most of the children who go there live at home with their families. I was visiting with a friend who works in Cedar's Sofia office to observe the daycare facilities, meet the staff and children there. It was a wonderful experience. All of the staff have such positive energy and are constantly developing new activities for the children's therapy and education. After visiting a similar facility in the UK (on a staff training trip sponsored by Cedar), the daycare staff created a new sensory room where the children can have a more interactive therapy experience. The room has an "under the sea" theme and includes materials for children to touch, hear and see. Although I am not very knowledgeable about early childhood education or physiotherapy, I was impressed with this room.

I'm really happy that I was able to see the facility in Kazanluk because it puts my volunteer work into perspective: seeing the positive results of the foundation's efforts has motivated me even more to continue working with them. 

Western Balkan Adventures

One really cool thing about living in Bulgaria is the proximity to so many other fascinating places. Obviously, I love to travel, and I have taken the opportunity to visit most of our neighbors in the Balkans. I still need to add Albania and Kosovo to the list, but we're getting there... Three years ago I spent a month backpacking in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. Last year I visited Macedonia, Greece, Romania and Turkey.

If you're keeping track, you'll notice that I've actually been to every former Yugoslav country (again, not counting Kosovo). For whatever reason, I feel right at home there. I think it has something to do with the breathtaking landscapes, amazing food and kind-hearted people I've met in my travels. As a continuing theme along with my last post, I am going to share with you some highlights from my travels around this exciting and beautiful region.

Stop #1: Lake Bled, Slovenia

This gorgeous mountain lake is close enough to the capital, Ljublijana, to make it a day trip. We rented a paddle boat and ventured across the lake to see the medieval church built on a small island. As you can see, the scenery is gorgeous, with plenty of lush green forests all around. There are also lots of ducks and swans swimming around, and other water sports available to tourists. Ljubliana is probably a more exciting place to stay at night, though.

Stop #2: Split, Croatia

Croatia's Dalmatian coast is full of excellent beaches, charming towns and ancient historical remains. You can find all three around Split, right in the middle of the Adriatic coastline. We explored a Roman emperor's palace, took a ferry to the island of Hvar (with the most beautiful beach I've ever seen), sampled local sea-fare and walked through the botanical gardens (the big green hill, pictured). If you visit the big towns in Croatia, be prepared for lots of crowds, like any major European tourist destination. If I go back, and I hope that I will, I plan to visit some smaller towns and fishing villages in the north, along with the Elaphite islands near Dubrovnik.  

Stop #3: Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mostar is a small town in the Herzegovina region, but its central feature- the old bridge- is an important symbol of cultural identity. Like all former Ottoman towns, Mostar's population was divided into separate living quarters but its groups carried out business and maintained friendly relations with one another. In general, the bridge separated the Christians and Muslims who lived on either side of it and served as a connection point between them. It was also an unfortunate casualty of the 1993 war, when it was completely destroyed. International efforts to restore this cultural property began in 2001, and the bridge was reopened in all its former glory in 2004 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One tradition that has remained over the years is the diving competition, where young men take the daring plunge into the cold water of the Neretva river below. 

Stop #4: Ostrog Monastery, Montenegro

I have a harrowing tale to go along with this photo. But first, let me begin with the church built into the face of a cliff. This is something I've seen in other parts of the region, namely in Bulgaria and Greece. Under Ottoman rule, many monks lived in remote, mountainous areas and built some impressive dwellings to keep up their hermetic lifestyles. To get there, you have to drive through winding roads and mountain passes, sometimes too narrow for more than one car to pass at a time. My friend Wade and I had rented a car to get there, but I ended up having to drive because it was a manual transmission and he could only drive automatic. I don't love driving, and hadn't expected to on this trip, but it was the only way we were going to get there so, after a few stalls along the way, we made the journey to the monastery. 

About halfway up the steep slope where it's located, I was making a sharp turn and forgot to change gears, which caused the car to stall and slowly creep towards the edge of a very high cliff. Pretty freaked out by now, I pulled the emergency break and then tried to re-position the car so we wouldn't fall to our deaths. At that moment, a group of burly men stepped out of a Jeep to assist us- or, rather, Wade. First asking if we spoke Russian, they interrogated him in broken English about why he, the man, wasn't driving. Sigh. Unfortunately in this case I was acting a bit helpless, but it never feels nice to be patronized. Taking the keys, one of our rescuers managed to turn the car around- facing down the hill. 

- "Wait," we protested, "we want to go up, not down."

- "No more drive like this." was their reply.

Defeated and car-less for the rest of the trek, we hiked the rest of the way up to the monastery, which took about 45 minutes. It was impressive, with sweeping views of the valley below. On the way back, we hopped back into the car and rolled along down the hill and back onto the highway towards our hotel. I really hope I never have to drive stick shift again.

Stop #5: Belgrade, Serbia

Belgrade, the grand capital city on two rivers, has plenty to offer in terms of history, cafe culture, nightlife and pristine parks. The old citadel, Kalmegdan, is surrounded by a beautifully manicured park and also houses the national military museum, which has some very interesting exhibits on the Balkan Wars. In the summer there are floating restaurants and bars that open up along the riverbanks where you can spend an evening dining and enjoying great music. 

The most unique part of Belgrade, in my opinion, is the House of Flowers, where the remains of Josip Broz Tito are kept within the grounds of the Museum of Yugoslav History. Just like the mausoleum of Bulgaria's first communist leader, Georgi Dimitrov, which used to stand across from the Gallery of Foreign Art in Sofia, the House of Flowers commemorates Yugoslavia's founding father who symbolized the ideals of socialism. Tito's tomb today serves either as a shrine for "Yugonostalgists" or simply an important part of recent history to be remembered by future generations. The mausoleum in Sofia was destroyed in 1999, and it's questionable whether or not its existence will be remembered in the future. 

There are so many other places I visited on that trip and many more I plan to see in the future. I hope that this post gave you a taste of what the countries in this region have to offer- a lot!

Film review: "The State of Shock"

"A bittersweet comedy about capitalism and changing social values during the past 20 years, which have completely transformed the Eastern European countries. A story about losing and regaining the power of honesty." (Sofia International Film Festival website)

I was so impressed by this newest feature film by Andrej Košak (Slovenia). A collaborative effort between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, the film centers around a Yugoslav metal worker who goes into a state of euphoric shock when he is awarded with a communal apartment at the first of May worker's celebration in 1986. He wakes up from this catatonic state ten years later to find his entire world changed: Yugoslavia no longer exists, capitalism has replaced the socialist system he loved so much and his wife has married his best friend. As he struggles to adapt to this new reality, the audience witnesses some of the violent economic and political changes taking place in the region today. Most of the people he meets think he is crazy because he lived in an institution for so long, but as the film draws to a close it appears that he may be the only sane person left. The script was touching, funny and thought-provoking. 


Because I attended the Bulgarian premiere at the Sofia International Film Festival, the director and leading actor (Martin Marion) were there to answer audience questions at the end. A testament to how much modern technology has permeated everyday life, Marion revealed how he first met Košak: a few years ago he read a comment the director had written on a mutual friend's blog and realized they were both living in Berlin. He contacted the blogger on Skype, got Košak's phone number, called him and they soon began working together on the film. Originally rejected in Slovenia, they finally won the support of several screenwriting organizations and local production companies to fund the project. The result is one of the best films I've seen in years, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the recent past of the Balkans or Eastern European society in general.


You can watch the trailer here. 

Remembering Dimitar Peshev

On a quiet street in the center of Sofia, a small group of people gathered around an unassuming apartment block on a Friday morning. They were there to remember the actions taken by Dimitar Peshev, deputy speaker of the Bulgarian National Assembly during WWII, to prevent the deportation and likely death of Bulgaria's sizable Jewish population. March 9th marked the 69th anniversary of the date when the order given by Hitler to send all Bulgarian Jews to German-occupied death camps in Poland was refused, at the urging of Peshev. This remarkable event, although quietly remembered today, is hugely important to the few Bulgarian Jewish families who remain here and the thousands living abroad. I went to the small ceremony held at Peshev's former home with a group of students and teachers from the Hebrew School. Several leaders from Sofia's Jewish community spoke about Peshev's life and legacy, and the Deputy Minister of Culture said a few words about Bulgaria's history as a tolerant and accepting nation. While the story may be more complicated than that, it is a moment in history that Bulgarians can and should feel proud of: not one Jew from Bulgaria was deported during the war.

Celebrating Bulgarian Women

For International Women's Day I created a lesson plan centered around short biographies of some of the most influential women around the world. I tried to keep the list as varied in background as possible, while still choosing public figures who would be interesting for my 8th graders to read about: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Angela Merkel, J.K. Rowling, Oprah Winfrey, Mother Teresa, etc. After we discussed who the most interesting or influential women on the list were, I asked my students to think of other names we could add. Most of them chose Bulgarian women, which was interesting for me because I learned something from my students, and I decided to share them here. These are just five of the most influential Bulgarian women (according to a random sample of Bulgarian teenagers):

1) Valya Balkanska- a folk singer from the Rhodope mountains best known for her recording of "Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin" (Delyo the rebel has gone outside) in 1977 that was sent into outer space in a time capsule.

2) Dilma Rousseff- the current president of Brazil and the first female president in Brazil's history. Her father was a Bulgarian immigrant from Gabrovo. 

3) Ivet Lalova- an international award-winning sprinter, holds one of the fastest records for the 100 meter race and is more widely known as the fastest woman in Europe.

4) Lili Ivanova- the "first lady of pop" in Bulgaria. Friends of mine have compared her to Cher.

5) Ralitsa Vassileva- a CNN International television news anchorwoman who has covered many global events and interviewed famous world leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Ariel Sharon.

Happy (belated) International Women's Day to all Bulgarian women, and all women around the world!