Ball-garia

I can't believe that we are only two weeks away from leaving for Bulgaria. I have so many mixed emotions it isn't even funny!

The other night (I think it was Tuesday) Tony's friends from Bulgaria invited us to a little Cafe that serves "Balkan cuisine". I was dreading this date, because I knew that everyone was going to be speaking Bulgarian, and that my skills would be so basic that I wouldn't be able to communicate with anyone and therefore not have any fun. We drove to Salt Lake City and attempted to find the address that Nesheva gave us. The part of town we were in was quite industrial, so Tony and I were wondering where we would find a restaurant where we were. We finally drove up to a tiny little shack of a place that said "Main Street Cafe, Balkan Cuisine". When we went inside, it reminded me a lot of my grandma's restaurant, except everyone there spoke a Slavic language, haha. (My grandma did attempt to speak Bulgarian once, but we won't go into that story---she's nuts!) The food there was okay. The salad was disgusting, even Tony thought so. We shared this meal for two that was just loaded with all kinds of greasy meat and the only really good part was the french fries. Luckily for me Tony said the food in Bulgaria won't be like that. After all, the owner of the place was from Croatia, not Bulgaria :).

As for the conversation, I was pleasantly pleased with myself. I could understand most of what everyone was saying, and had a basic idea of what each conversation topic was. I wasn't planning on speaking a word of Bulgarian, because all of these Bulgars spoke perfect English. Tony had other plans for me. One of the guys there asked me about Tony teaching me Bulgarian and Tony says to him, "hey! Ask her about it in Bulgarian." So, he did. As I thought of what to say to respond my face turned beet red and I said some simple things to him "Yes, I can understand, but I don't like to speak." Tony said everyone there was really impressed, but I was so embarrassed that I didn't care, haha. Bulgaria is looking to be quite an embarrassing experience if I keep this up!

In other news, we learned where we will be living during our stay in Bulgaria. This news was not what I was expecting, but I suppose I have to deal with it, huh? We will begin our internships in an orphanage called Sveta Marina. It is located in a selo, or very small village, called Medven. We'll actually be living in a village house in a small city called Kotel that is right outside of Medven. This orphanage looks very difficult. I was planning on playing with a bunch of cute little ones similar to my experience at House of Hope. I've never dealt well with people/children with disabilities so this is kind of scary for me to think about. Looking on the bright side, I will learn things I never would have learned because I would never put myself in this situation. Tony says my Bulgarian will improve very quickly living in a small village because absolutely no one speaks English there. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but I'm beginning to be grateful for this opportunity.

After Medven/Kotel, we'll move to a city called Bratsigovo. There isn't much information on this orphanage so I'm not sure what it has in store for us. I know that we will be living in an apartment there. Hopefully the orphanage there is a different experience from Kotel so that I can really gain some knowledge while in Bulgaria.

Like I said, I have lots of mixed emotions and I'm not really sure what to think about all of this right now, but I'm still so excited to go. Here I come Bulgaria...ready or not.