I thought this would be fun...try it out!
RULES:
1. Put Your iTunes, Windows Media Player, MP3 Player, or whatever on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds!
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
If someone says, “Is this okay?” You say? Anywhere But Here - Stephanie Smith
How would you describe yourself? Summer Girls - LFO [yeah...right lol]
What do you like in a guy/girl? Message in a Bottle- Sting
How do you feel today? Praise to the Lord Almighty - BYU Combined Choirs [:)]
What is your life’s purpose? What if Jesus Comes Back Like That - Collin Raye [HAHAHA!]
What is your motto? Waiting for Tonight - Jennifer Lopez
What do your friends think of you? Much Too Young - Garth Brooks [What's that supposed to mean???]
What do you think of your parents? Step By Step [yes, from the Sitcom]
What do you think about very often? Just to See You Smile - Tim McGraw [aww]
What is 2 + 2? I'll Be - Edwin McCain [that one doesn't make sense]
What do you think of your best friend? Wild Wild West - Will Smith
What do you think of the person you like? Perfect - Alanis Morisette
What is your life story? Yellow - Coldplay [I guess.... Yellow IS my favorite color]
What do you want to be when you grow up? Belief - John Mayer
What do you think of when you see the person you like? Abide with Me 'Tis Eventide [hahaha]
What will you dance to at your wedding? Always On My Mind - Michael Buble
What will they play at your funeral? AM Radio - Everclear
What is your hobby/interest? Love Today - Mika
What is your biggest fear? Breathless - Corinne Bailey Rae [that is true, I never want to run out of breath!]
What is your biggest secret? Hotel California - The Eagles [yeah, that's right ;) ;)]
What do you think of your friends? Beverly Hills - Weezer
What will you post this as? Shake the Sugar Tree
10/29/08
10/28/08
Busy Week
Let me just start off by apologizing for the music that comes on when you look at our blog. I liked the song for the picture show below at the time, but now it is driving me nuts. You can mute it by clicking on the little speaker. I'll try to post a lot so that we can get that off of there!
This week is going to be a very busy one for us. The whole weekend I was kind of dreading the upcoming week, because I knew that we had so much to do. We are hosting our Halloween party this Friday and we've got lots of decorations and food to prepare. Oh, yeah, and I'm teaching a bunch of kids the Thriller dance. I'm not really sure why I decided I wanted to do it, but I figured it was an American Halloween classic. I spent the whole weekend learning and I taught my first "dance class" today by myself. I was terrified but I think I did pretty well seeing as how I'm neither a dancer nor a speaker of the Bulgarian language.
I was fearing that the kids would not really get into the dance and I would have wasted all of this time learning it and thinking of creative ways to teach it. When I went today, however, it was a different story. I told them (in Bulgarian) that we are going to practice every day at 2pm and if they didn't want to, it's better that they not participate because I don't want to waste everyone's time. They all responded with an enthusiastic "oh no way, we're doing this!" Then I told them I wanted them to take it seriously so it could be fun for everyone and they promised me that they would be serious :). Cute kids! AND they're fantastic dancers! We learned over half the dance in 1.5 hours and they want me to come back at 6:30 tonight to teach them the rest. One girl, Pepa, said that it was best to just learn the whole dance and then keep repeating it and the others agreed. So, I suppose that's what we'll do. We're all planning on dressing up for the dance and the kids are so excited to perform it for the party. We'll definitley put up the video of that. After all, I'm sure you're all dying to see me shake it on the dance floor, nali?
So, as we assemble our trash bag tarantulas and experiment with cider recipies, we'll be thinking of you in the US and feeling sorry that you couldn't come to the biggest, baddest, Bulgarian Halloween party ever.
Muahahahaha....
This week is going to be a very busy one for us. The whole weekend I was kind of dreading the upcoming week, because I knew that we had so much to do. We are hosting our Halloween party this Friday and we've got lots of decorations and food to prepare. Oh, yeah, and I'm teaching a bunch of kids the Thriller dance. I'm not really sure why I decided I wanted to do it, but I figured it was an American Halloween classic. I spent the whole weekend learning and I taught my first "dance class" today by myself. I was terrified but I think I did pretty well seeing as how I'm neither a dancer nor a speaker of the Bulgarian language.
I was fearing that the kids would not really get into the dance and I would have wasted all of this time learning it and thinking of creative ways to teach it. When I went today, however, it was a different story. I told them (in Bulgarian) that we are going to practice every day at 2pm and if they didn't want to, it's better that they not participate because I don't want to waste everyone's time. They all responded with an enthusiastic "oh no way, we're doing this!" Then I told them I wanted them to take it seriously so it could be fun for everyone and they promised me that they would be serious :). Cute kids! AND they're fantastic dancers! We learned over half the dance in 1.5 hours and they want me to come back at 6:30 tonight to teach them the rest. One girl, Pepa, said that it was best to just learn the whole dance and then keep repeating it and the others agreed. So, I suppose that's what we'll do. We're all planning on dressing up for the dance and the kids are so excited to perform it for the party. We'll definitley put up the video of that. After all, I'm sure you're all dying to see me shake it on the dance floor, nali?
So, as we assemble our trash bag tarantulas and experiment with cider recipies, we'll be thinking of you in the US and feeling sorry that you couldn't come to the biggest, baddest, Bulgarian Halloween party ever.
Muahahahaha....
10/21/08
Hmmm...
Recently I've been brainstorming different activities I can do with the kids at the orphanage. It seems like we do the same boring things every day and I want to have more fun with them! One thing I thought would be fun was making bracelets (the girls here like to do that) while Tony plays basketball with some of the boys (they usually play every other day). So, I pulled the bracelet making skills out of the Girl's Camp archive in my brain and made a couple of examples! Tony thinks they're pretty cool. You know, I WAS in the Friendship Bracelet club at school when I was in 1st grade so, I'm basically a professional. The only hard part about this fun little activity...I need to know lots of weird Bulgarian to teach them how to make them.
Do you guys have any fun ideas for activities? The kids range in age from 7-18 years. There are a lot of first graders and then the kids are pretty scattered as far as age goes from there. I've got some games in mind to teach them. I'm kind of stuck, though, because they are games I played at House of Hope and I want them to be fun for everyone, not just the little kids (that's what happens when you work in a preschool environment for almsot a year!). So, gimmie some ideas you smart people, you! (please)
Do you guys have any fun ideas for activities? The kids range in age from 7-18 years. There are a lot of first graders and then the kids are pretty scattered as far as age goes from there. I've got some games in mind to teach them. I'm kind of stuck, though, because they are games I played at House of Hope and I want them to be fun for everyone, not just the little kids (that's what happens when you work in a preschool environment for almsot a year!). So, gimmie some ideas you smart people, you! (please)
10/17/08
Finally found an apartment...and some surprises
Hey, guys. This is Tony, here. So, we finally found an apartment to stay in. It was the former apartment of a Peace Corps volunteer who just left for the States.
It is just a five-minute walk from the orphanage, which is nice. We had three of the more trustworthy kids from the orphanage help us drag our suitcases over to the place, and hoist them up to the third floor.
Upon arriving at the place, we discovered one basic fact: The previous owner, was a big fan of booze. He had somewhere near a hundred empty liquor bottles in and around his family room cabinet! It was insane. Here are a few pictures to document it:
Otherwise, the place we are in now is great. We got it cleaned up and feel quite at home. I recorded a video of a tour, but it was on full-screen mode, so it was too big of a file to upload. I'll try to record a lower-resolution size for the blog.
I even got us hooked up with an internet connection! Woo hoo!
Just so you know, we talked to the kids about how bad drinking is. These picture are just supposed to be silly, and they know that drinking is bad for you. :)
It is just a five-minute walk from the orphanage, which is nice. We had three of the more trustworthy kids from the orphanage help us drag our suitcases over to the place, and hoist them up to the third floor.
Upon arriving at the place, we discovered one basic fact: The previous owner, was a big fan of booze. He had somewhere near a hundred empty liquor bottles in and around his family room cabinet! It was insane. Here are a few pictures to document it:
Otherwise, the place we are in now is great. We got it cleaned up and feel quite at home. I recorded a video of a tour, but it was on full-screen mode, so it was too big of a file to upload. I'll try to record a lower-resolution size for the blog.
I even got us hooked up with an internet connection! Woo hoo!
Just so you know, we talked to the kids about how bad drinking is. These picture are just supposed to be silly, and they know that drinking is bad for you. :)
10/14/08
Keepin' It Real
I've been looking through my recent blog posts and I've realized that all of them are so...positive. Yes, I realize that being positive a good thing, but you can't possibly believe that in all my time in a strange country working with orphans in orphanages that are still quite far behind most modern-day establishments that it's been all sunshine and rainbows. So, I'm posting a blog that is going to reveal some of the behind the scenes "real" stuff that goes on.
Experience #1
Upon arriving in Bratsigovo our supervisor, Nickolai, drove us to the orphanage where we would be living. For some reason, I was picturing a separate building where we would stay complete with our own little kitchen. Wrong. So wrong. We made our way down a hallway that smelled like rotten teenage boys and the worker opened the door to our new living quarters for the next two months. A room that was scarily familiar, looking almost exactly like my room I lived in while I was in Deseret Towers at BYU. I really wasn't sure what to think, because I was in so much shock. Seriously, we're living in the boys hallway..with the boys...with the orphans...IN THE ORPHANAGE.
After three friendly kids showed us around the town, I came back home and sobbed as I wrote in my journal. We had been promised our own apartment while in Bulgaria and hadn't seen any signs of of that yet. I couldn't believe that we had to live, breathe, eat, sleep, and shower in the orphanage. The first couple of days were extremely hard for me. The lack of privacy was too much for me to handle (it would be for you too if boys were trying to force their way into the room where you were showering!) and I didn't know how long I could take the kids always knocking on our door asking us for things until late hours of the night.
Now that we've lived here almost two weeks, I love it! It's fun to talk with the kids and have little hangouts at night. I'm learning so much Bulgarian from them and I really feel like I'm making an influence in their lives. We're also moving into our new aparment tomorrow morning! I am kind of embarassed that I cried about the living situation, I thought I was so tough. I'm grateful that we're getting our own place, but a little part of me will miss being with the kids so much.
Ugh, today was so hard. It started off at the store where Tony and I were buying our breakfast. I could see that something was bothering Tony, and I knew what it was before he even told me. He's mentioned to me before the burden he feels having to represent both of us, and translate the things I don't understand. It's really annoying to repeat things over and over. I just felt bad that I couldn't help him more and understand more. I would hate to have to talk for both of us and translate, it would drive me nuts. I began getting down on myself because of how little I practice and do lesson work. I felt like I could do so much more here and make it so much easier for Tony if I would just work harder! Tony has been really great while we've been here and I just wish I could take the language load for a couple of days. Plus, I was feeling kind of stupid before the store because of some comments people I know made about my Bulgarian, so that didn't help me at all.
I know, this sounds like SUCH a dumb thing to be so stressed about! But this is my internship for school and sometimes I feel so worthless because I can't communicate the way I want to with the kids. I was beginning to feel better about myself after lunch and then Tony told me he was going to play basketball with some of the kids. Usually at this time of the day I work on my homework for school, but everyone wanted me to play cards with them (Uno). Yeah, I was scared out of my mind. I had to go and play cards with all of these kids and I don't speak well.
So, I go into the classroom where everyone is waiting for me. Three teenagers sit down with me at a table and we begin our Uno fest. I felt like I was doing really well! I was congegating correctly, using the right genders, and I even somehow managed to explain the rule about the draw two and draw four cards! In Bulgarian! There was one kid, though, who made fun of me everytime I said a word, making fun of the way I say it. I realize that I probably sound funny to these kids and that they've never heard an American speak Bulgarian before and that I'm just learning so I say lots of things wrong, but after 45 minutes of non-stop teasing for EVERY word I said I couldn't take it anymore. I put my cards down on the table and with tears in my eyes told them that I didn't want to play anymore. Luckily my good pal Monica realized that I was upset and said to him, "you do realize she understands everything you say, right?" She then took me outside and we played badminton until Tony got back. I can honestly say that today I wanted nothing to do with Bulgarian language. It was too hard, and I didn't feel like trying anymore. But after a nice, long talk with Tony I feel much better about myself and I'm not longer afraid of trying again tomorrow. Tony always helps me talk through things, he's the best!
As strange as it may sound, I love having experiences like these. They make me stronger and they help me grow close to the things I want to be close to. Every time I have a hard time I say a small prayer in my mind and every time I do, something turns around to make me feel better about the situation. I love Bulgaria and I love these kids we are working with. They're really special and I can really see the difference I'm making by just being here for them.
*Just so you know before I begin, I consider all of these experiences blessings in disguise and no one can say to me "I told you so" about "bad" experiences in Bulgaria. I don't want to come home, I love this place and I will seriously miss it when we have to leave. I just thought it would be more interesting for you guys to read some stories about little hard times I've had that make the easy times well, easier! :)*
Experience #1
Upon arriving in Bratsigovo our supervisor, Nickolai, drove us to the orphanage where we would be living. For some reason, I was picturing a separate building where we would stay complete with our own little kitchen. Wrong. So wrong. We made our way down a hallway that smelled like rotten teenage boys and the worker opened the door to our new living quarters for the next two months. A room that was scarily familiar, looking almost exactly like my room I lived in while I was in Deseret Towers at BYU. I really wasn't sure what to think, because I was in so much shock. Seriously, we're living in the boys hallway..with the boys...with the orphans...IN THE ORPHANAGE.
After three friendly kids showed us around the town, I came back home and sobbed as I wrote in my journal. We had been promised our own apartment while in Bulgaria and hadn't seen any signs of of that yet. I couldn't believe that we had to live, breathe, eat, sleep, and shower in the orphanage. The first couple of days were extremely hard for me. The lack of privacy was too much for me to handle (it would be for you too if boys were trying to force their way into the room where you were showering!) and I didn't know how long I could take the kids always knocking on our door asking us for things until late hours of the night.
Now that we've lived here almost two weeks, I love it! It's fun to talk with the kids and have little hangouts at night. I'm learning so much Bulgarian from them and I really feel like I'm making an influence in their lives. We're also moving into our new aparment tomorrow morning! I am kind of embarassed that I cried about the living situation, I thought I was so tough. I'm grateful that we're getting our own place, but a little part of me will miss being with the kids so much.
Experience #2
Ugh, today was so hard. It started off at the store where Tony and I were buying our breakfast. I could see that something was bothering Tony, and I knew what it was before he even told me. He's mentioned to me before the burden he feels having to represent both of us, and translate the things I don't understand. It's really annoying to repeat things over and over. I just felt bad that I couldn't help him more and understand more. I would hate to have to talk for both of us and translate, it would drive me nuts. I began getting down on myself because of how little I practice and do lesson work. I felt like I could do so much more here and make it so much easier for Tony if I would just work harder! Tony has been really great while we've been here and I just wish I could take the language load for a couple of days. Plus, I was feeling kind of stupid before the store because of some comments people I know made about my Bulgarian, so that didn't help me at all.
I know, this sounds like SUCH a dumb thing to be so stressed about! But this is my internship for school and sometimes I feel so worthless because I can't communicate the way I want to with the kids. I was beginning to feel better about myself after lunch and then Tony told me he was going to play basketball with some of the kids. Usually at this time of the day I work on my homework for school, but everyone wanted me to play cards with them (Uno). Yeah, I was scared out of my mind. I had to go and play cards with all of these kids and I don't speak well.
So, I go into the classroom where everyone is waiting for me. Three teenagers sit down with me at a table and we begin our Uno fest. I felt like I was doing really well! I was congegating correctly, using the right genders, and I even somehow managed to explain the rule about the draw two and draw four cards! In Bulgarian! There was one kid, though, who made fun of me everytime I said a word, making fun of the way I say it. I realize that I probably sound funny to these kids and that they've never heard an American speak Bulgarian before and that I'm just learning so I say lots of things wrong, but after 45 minutes of non-stop teasing for EVERY word I said I couldn't take it anymore. I put my cards down on the table and with tears in my eyes told them that I didn't want to play anymore. Luckily my good pal Monica realized that I was upset and said to him, "you do realize she understands everything you say, right?" She then took me outside and we played badminton until Tony got back. I can honestly say that today I wanted nothing to do with Bulgarian language. It was too hard, and I didn't feel like trying anymore. But after a nice, long talk with Tony I feel much better about myself and I'm not longer afraid of trying again tomorrow. Tony always helps me talk through things, he's the best!
As strange as it may sound, I love having experiences like these. They make me stronger and they help me grow close to the things I want to be close to. Every time I have a hard time I say a small prayer in my mind and every time I do, something turns around to make me feel better about the situation. I love Bulgaria and I love these kids we are working with. They're really special and I can really see the difference I'm making by just being here for them.
10/11/08
Great Saturday!
Man, we are having a pretty good day today. I really didn't think that it would go as well as it has, but hey--I'll take it! Our day began with a Service Project we planned for the kids. We put up flyers all around the home (well, just two flyers) advertising the project to clean up trash around the orphanage and the only incentive we had was that there would be treats afterwards. I was expecting two, maybe three kids because the kids here are pretty lazy and the trash situation was really bad. It was pretty disgusting. We had about ten kids show up! They did a really great job and we all had a lot of fun cleaning up trash! Can you imagine? We had cookies afterwards (red box cookies for anyone who knows what those are) and we took lots of good pictures. I'll put those up later.
We also painted some ping pong tables today. They have these metal tables outside for ping pong that were completely rusted over so we attempted to sand them down, and we painted them green. The one we finished looks really nice. I really like doing things that make the orphanage look like a nicer place to be. I kind of want the kids to take pride in where they live and who they are instead of being ashamed of it. I know that's a hard goal to accomplish, but even if I instill a little bit in them I'll feel good. We are planning a service project for every Saturday while we are here and hopefully it will make the kids feel better by forgetting themselves and thinking of others.
We are also holding our very first "Клуб English" [club English] meeting tonight. We're going to learn the alphabet, play Around the World, and play Uno. The kids love to play Uno here, it's really fun. Next meeting we're going to learn colors and numbers and play Uno only speaking English. Hopefully this Club English will help me learn some Bulgarian as well. There's a girl who is a senior in high school that Tony and I are going to tutor privately. She already speaks English really well, but she wants to learn more because she plans on being a lawyer when she's older. It will be lots of fun, and she can teach me lots of Bulgarian, too!
Hope all is well wherever you are! :)
сърдечни поэдрави от България!
We also painted some ping pong tables today. They have these metal tables outside for ping pong that were completely rusted over so we attempted to sand them down, and we painted them green. The one we finished looks really nice. I really like doing things that make the orphanage look like a nicer place to be. I kind of want the kids to take pride in where they live and who they are instead of being ashamed of it. I know that's a hard goal to accomplish, but even if I instill a little bit in them I'll feel good. We are planning a service project for every Saturday while we are here and hopefully it will make the kids feel better by forgetting themselves and thinking of others.
We are also holding our very first "Клуб English" [club English] meeting tonight. We're going to learn the alphabet, play Around the World, and play Uno. The kids love to play Uno here, it's really fun. Next meeting we're going to learn colors and numbers and play Uno only speaking English. Hopefully this Club English will help me learn some Bulgarian as well. There's a girl who is a senior in high school that Tony and I are going to tutor privately. She already speaks English really well, but she wants to learn more because she plans on being a lawyer when she's older. It will be lots of fun, and she can teach me lots of Bulgarian, too!
Hope all is well wherever you are! :)
сърдечни поэдрави от България!
10/10/08
My Bulgar-Cut
Hey, I just got my hair whacked off royally in BG. I guess the numbers on their clippers were different than in the US, although that wasn't my experience in the larger cities. Anyway, for some reason I thought it was worth documenting.
10/8/08
Alive & Well
Happy October 8th! I'd give you some chocolates if you were here!
Did we scare ya? It seems like everyone thought we were dead since we haven't been on internet in almost a week. No worries, we're okay. We made it to Bratsigovo on Sunday after staying a night in the city of Plovdiv. We got to Plovdiv on Saturday and had a great time! Nickolai picked us up at the avtogara and took us to our hotel that he had booked for us. He decided it would be easier for us to get to church that way. Later that day, he picked us up and showed us the sights of Plovdiv. What a unique, wonderful place! We saw statues of Russian soldiers that helped win the Turkish war and liberated Bulgaria from the Turkish rule, we saw ancient Roman ampitheaters and staidums that were just found under the ground one day, we saw a concert, a wedding, the malls on main street, and even some Mafia members! There is so much history and culture there and I would love to back several times again before we leave.
After all of the sightseeing, Nickolai took us back to his place where his awesome wife (I love this lady, she's so funny) had made chicken soup--which was better than any chicken soup I've ever had in America--and chicken with rice. YUM! It was so good. They reminded me a lot of my Grandma Grey/Wilmoth though, because if you cleared your plate that meant you wanted a another heapin' helpin', even if you pleaded with them not to give you more food in fear that you would literally explode. They had Coke Light to drink (shout out to the mommas) and they also served us some coffee cake-ish stuff for dessert. It was really nice of them to cook such good food for us. They seemed SO rich to me because we had been living with people who complained about how expensive everything was. They are pretty well off people, but I was just in awe of how much food they were sharing with us...they even had a 2 liter of COKE!
We didn't end up going to Church on Sunday because Tony was really sick. He had a really bad headcold and we decided that it would be better to stay in our nice, warm hotel room (it was pouring rain) . They watched the Saturday session of conference because we are so ahead here Sunday hadn't come yet. Nickolai said it was really awesome and we're sad we missed it, but we're planning on watching it online soon. After church Nickolai took us to his place for lunch where they served some yummy salad made from peppers, onions, and some other veggies, and eggs. A whole lotta eggs just for Tony. They also served us these things that looked like crab pinchers but Nickolai's wife said it was just fish processed and colored to look like a crab pincher, gross. I didn't eat that one, haha.
After lunch Nickolai drove us to Bratsigovo (about a 40 min drive). He drove us around the town and then dropped us off at the home. When they told us we would be staying in the orphanage, I was picturing a little side house where we would have all of the privacy in the world, our own kitchen, a big bed, etc. PSSHH! We walked in to what looked like a DT dorm room. Two, small, again seperate beds and two wardrobe closets for us. We've been placed in the lovely hallway where the boys live. I don't mind sharing a bathroom, but sharing a bathroom with boys is a different story. The day after we got here, I was taking a shower and several boys just happened to stumble into the room where the shower was. Couldn't they hear the water running? There was a lock on the door, but it didn't work. After walking in on me, they proceeded to stand in front of the door giggling. How disrespectful. We talked to the director about it and now I have my own secret little bathroom where no one can find me (and I can lock it). We did, however, find an American working with the Peace Corps (Eric) who rents out an apartment here for 100 levs a month. That's like 80 American dollars. We're trying really hard to get that apartment and we think it will work out. No one is offended that we want to leave, so that is nice.
They let us eat the food here at the orphanage, too. It's actually not that bad. They serve a lot of soupy kind of things because they have to feed so many people but they are always really good soups. They served Musaka for dinner the other night and I finally got to try real Bulgarian Musaka. It doesn't really taste like how I make it, oh well.
As far as the kids go, they are awesome. When we first got here three of them showed us around the town and the orphanage and then treated us to some soda (how grown-up of them). We showed them some pictures of us on our laptop and they loved it. One girl, Monica, noticed a hair style that I had in one of my pictures and asked me if I could do her hair that way. I agreed to, and now she loves me! I've done her hair twice now, and she always asks me to straighten it or borrow my straightener. They always come into our room and hang out with us and we really like them. We even taught them how to play Uno yesterday. Shhh--don't tell, but I got Monica some makeup for her birthday which happens to be TODAY just like mine! She was telling me last night how much she likes makeup and how someone stole hers. She told me she really likes brown and black so I bought her some gold and brown eyeshadow and some black mascara. I'm really excited to give it to her. Last night she gave me some chocolates to hand out today (they do that on their birthdays here. The birthday boy/girl treats everyone to celebrate) and she made me a little bracelet. They call it Scooby Doo (?) and it's some kind of braid/weave thing with the plastic tube kind of string stuff. It was even yellow, my favorite color! She is so sweet.
Not all of the kids here are super-dee-duper cool. One kid at dinner after telling his friend "watch I'm going to be best friends with these guys" came and sat with us. He seemed like a genuinely nice kid, and Tony let him put some songs from our computer onto his phone. He stayed and talked with us for a while, but the longer he was there the more uncomfortable I got. He kept asking us how much we paid for things, how much money we had, etc. After a while Tony told them we were going to bed so they left, and not even 5 minutes later this kid and his buddy come to our door and ask Tony if he can talk for a moment. Tony goes out into the hall for a little bit while I did some homework, and when he came back in he told me that these two boys told him that they were so hungry that they couldn't sleep and that they wanted 4 levs from us. Tony was a good husband and told them he needed to talk to me, but one of the kids was like, "we can just keep it between the three of us, she doesn't need to know." UGH! Luckily, we had some apples so I told Tony to tell them we could offer them apples but we couldn't spare any money right now. Funny, because when Tony told them they could each have five apples, they didn't want them. So hungry you can't sleep, eh? They probably wanted to go buy beer or cigarettes or something. It was really frustrating and it made me want to move into our own place even more.
I'm writing too much! Hope you enjoyed this post. There will be more because we found internet in the actual orphanage that we can use whenever we want. It's nice, fast internet, too!
Ciao for now!
Did we scare ya? It seems like everyone thought we were dead since we haven't been on internet in almost a week. No worries, we're okay. We made it to Bratsigovo on Sunday after staying a night in the city of Plovdiv. We got to Plovdiv on Saturday and had a great time! Nickolai picked us up at the avtogara and took us to our hotel that he had booked for us. He decided it would be easier for us to get to church that way. Later that day, he picked us up and showed us the sights of Plovdiv. What a unique, wonderful place! We saw statues of Russian soldiers that helped win the Turkish war and liberated Bulgaria from the Turkish rule, we saw ancient Roman ampitheaters and staidums that were just found under the ground one day, we saw a concert, a wedding, the malls on main street, and even some Mafia members! There is so much history and culture there and I would love to back several times again before we leave.
After all of the sightseeing, Nickolai took us back to his place where his awesome wife (I love this lady, she's so funny) had made chicken soup--which was better than any chicken soup I've ever had in America--and chicken with rice. YUM! It was so good. They reminded me a lot of my Grandma Grey/Wilmoth though, because if you cleared your plate that meant you wanted a another heapin' helpin', even if you pleaded with them not to give you more food in fear that you would literally explode. They had Coke Light to drink (shout out to the mommas) and they also served us some coffee cake-ish stuff for dessert. It was really nice of them to cook such good food for us. They seemed SO rich to me because we had been living with people who complained about how expensive everything was. They are pretty well off people, but I was just in awe of how much food they were sharing with us...they even had a 2 liter of COKE!
We didn't end up going to Church on Sunday because Tony was really sick. He had a really bad headcold and we decided that it would be better to stay in our nice, warm hotel room (it was pouring rain) . They watched the Saturday session of conference because we are so ahead here Sunday hadn't come yet. Nickolai said it was really awesome and we're sad we missed it, but we're planning on watching it online soon. After church Nickolai took us to his place for lunch where they served some yummy salad made from peppers, onions, and some other veggies, and eggs. A whole lotta eggs just for Tony. They also served us these things that looked like crab pinchers but Nickolai's wife said it was just fish processed and colored to look like a crab pincher, gross. I didn't eat that one, haha.
After lunch Nickolai drove us to Bratsigovo (about a 40 min drive). He drove us around the town and then dropped us off at the home. When they told us we would be staying in the orphanage, I was picturing a little side house where we would have all of the privacy in the world, our own kitchen, a big bed, etc. PSSHH! We walked in to what looked like a DT dorm room. Two, small, again seperate beds and two wardrobe closets for us. We've been placed in the lovely hallway where the boys live. I don't mind sharing a bathroom, but sharing a bathroom with boys is a different story. The day after we got here, I was taking a shower and several boys just happened to stumble into the room where the shower was. Couldn't they hear the water running? There was a lock on the door, but it didn't work. After walking in on me, they proceeded to stand in front of the door giggling. How disrespectful. We talked to the director about it and now I have my own secret little bathroom where no one can find me (and I can lock it). We did, however, find an American working with the Peace Corps (Eric) who rents out an apartment here for 100 levs a month. That's like 80 American dollars. We're trying really hard to get that apartment and we think it will work out. No one is offended that we want to leave, so that is nice.
They let us eat the food here at the orphanage, too. It's actually not that bad. They serve a lot of soupy kind of things because they have to feed so many people but they are always really good soups. They served Musaka for dinner the other night and I finally got to try real Bulgarian Musaka. It doesn't really taste like how I make it, oh well.
As far as the kids go, they are awesome. When we first got here three of them showed us around the town and the orphanage and then treated us to some soda (how grown-up of them). We showed them some pictures of us on our laptop and they loved it. One girl, Monica, noticed a hair style that I had in one of my pictures and asked me if I could do her hair that way. I agreed to, and now she loves me! I've done her hair twice now, and she always asks me to straighten it or borrow my straightener. They always come into our room and hang out with us and we really like them. We even taught them how to play Uno yesterday. Shhh--don't tell, but I got Monica some makeup for her birthday which happens to be TODAY just like mine! She was telling me last night how much she likes makeup and how someone stole hers. She told me she really likes brown and black so I bought her some gold and brown eyeshadow and some black mascara. I'm really excited to give it to her. Last night she gave me some chocolates to hand out today (they do that on their birthdays here. The birthday boy/girl treats everyone to celebrate) and she made me a little bracelet. They call it Scooby Doo (?) and it's some kind of braid/weave thing with the plastic tube kind of string stuff. It was even yellow, my favorite color! She is so sweet.
Not all of the kids here are super-dee-duper cool. One kid at dinner after telling his friend "watch I'm going to be best friends with these guys" came and sat with us. He seemed like a genuinely nice kid, and Tony let him put some songs from our computer onto his phone. He stayed and talked with us for a while, but the longer he was there the more uncomfortable I got. He kept asking us how much we paid for things, how much money we had, etc. After a while Tony told them we were going to bed so they left, and not even 5 minutes later this kid and his buddy come to our door and ask Tony if he can talk for a moment. Tony goes out into the hall for a little bit while I did some homework, and when he came back in he told me that these two boys told him that they were so hungry that they couldn't sleep and that they wanted 4 levs from us. Tony was a good husband and told them he needed to talk to me, but one of the kids was like, "we can just keep it between the three of us, she doesn't need to know." UGH! Luckily, we had some apples so I told Tony to tell them we could offer them apples but we couldn't spare any money right now. Funny, because when Tony told them they could each have five apples, they didn't want them. So hungry you can't sleep, eh? They probably wanted to go buy beer or cigarettes or something. It was really frustrating and it made me want to move into our own place even more.
I'm writing too much! Hope you enjoyed this post. There will be more because we found internet in the actual orphanage that we can use whenever we want. It's nice, fast internet, too!
Ciao for now!
10/5/08
Enjoy
Here's a treat for you all. It's me speaking a little bit of funny-sounding Bulgarian with Nadia (I think I sound really funny). I was helping her with her counting...
I can count to TEN!
*Dovijdane = good bye (if you couldn't tell)*
10/3/08
I Didn't Forget You!
I haven't posted in over a week! I'm such a slacker, I know. I guess that means I have a lot that I need to update you on, so let's start from where we left off, eh?
Well, first off...we're moving to Bratsigovo TOMORROW! The people here were ripping us off with rent, so Nickolai decided we should just move to our next location. So...ciao ciao Medven!
We went to Ruse last weekend, and it was super duper fun. I finally got to meet Krassy! We stayed in a little hostel-like place called the English Guest House for three nights and had a jolly good time. We went shopping, saw the Danube river (which isn't so blue...), and ate some more diuners. We had a little party with the missionaries who were getting transferred and we had cake, ice cream, cookies, and root beer! Bulgars aren't too fond of root beer so there really isn't any but one missionary had some root beer concentrate stuff and he decided to make it for us. It was pretty good.
Our last week here in Medven has been fun but kind of uneventful (imagine! in a town of 260 people!). I think that my body is trying to get really sick but because I sleep enough it's not working. Tony and I recently found some mysterious red dots all over us that look like some sort of bug bite. They're so itchy! We're not sure what it is, but we both have them all over our stomachs (and Tony has them on his feet!). Recently I've been feeling really achy all over. Maybe it's the ГРИП?!?!?!?! (flu)
Today the director of the orphanage took us to a little touristy town called Jeravna. It was REALLY fun. We saw all kinds of museums and old houses. The director is an antique collector so he knew lots of things about everything in those old houses. We went to another church, and bought some pictures from a Bulgarian man who spoke English like a Brit! My favorite part of our little trip was buying some Bulgar slippers from a little stand. They are the coolest, dorkiest things you ever did see. I'll be sure to post some pictures. Tony and I got matching pairs and plan to wear them all around the house. We also ate at a little restaurant with a live folk band. I got my favorite--PEPPERS and Tony got some chicken and pork dish. It was pretty tasty! Side note: I never knew that Bulgaria was such a popular place for clarinetists. When I tell people I play the clarinet, they love it! There's a clarinet in every folk band including the one at this restaurant(along with a drum and accordion). I had a lot of fun and I'm really glad Genchev took us there.
We've been having a lot of great fun with the kids at the home. We've been getting closer to them each day and we're having lots of fun. I'm still improving my Bulgarian and even helped one girl learn how to count the right way! It was really hard to leave today. We brought them all some chocolates and told them our final goodbyes. Some of the kids didn't really understand what was going on and asked if they would see us on Monday. :'( I miss those little buggers!
We'll see what adventures this Bratsigovo place will bring us.
Well, first off...we're moving to Bratsigovo TOMORROW! The people here were ripping us off with rent, so Nickolai decided we should just move to our next location. So...ciao ciao Medven!
We went to Ruse last weekend, and it was super duper fun. I finally got to meet Krassy! We stayed in a little hostel-like place called the English Guest House for three nights and had a jolly good time. We went shopping, saw the Danube river (which isn't so blue...), and ate some more diuners. We had a little party with the missionaries who were getting transferred and we had cake, ice cream, cookies, and root beer! Bulgars aren't too fond of root beer so there really isn't any but one missionary had some root beer concentrate stuff and he decided to make it for us. It was pretty good.
Our last week here in Medven has been fun but kind of uneventful (imagine! in a town of 260 people!). I think that my body is trying to get really sick but because I sleep enough it's not working. Tony and I recently found some mysterious red dots all over us that look like some sort of bug bite. They're so itchy! We're not sure what it is, but we both have them all over our stomachs (and Tony has them on his feet!). Recently I've been feeling really achy all over. Maybe it's the ГРИП?!?!?!?! (flu)
Today the director of the orphanage took us to a little touristy town called Jeravna. It was REALLY fun. We saw all kinds of museums and old houses. The director is an antique collector so he knew lots of things about everything in those old houses. We went to another church, and bought some pictures from a Bulgarian man who spoke English like a Brit! My favorite part of our little trip was buying some Bulgar slippers from a little stand. They are the coolest, dorkiest things you ever did see. I'll be sure to post some pictures. Tony and I got matching pairs and plan to wear them all around the house. We also ate at a little restaurant with a live folk band. I got my favorite--PEPPERS and Tony got some chicken and pork dish. It was pretty tasty! Side note: I never knew that Bulgaria was such a popular place for clarinetists. When I tell people I play the clarinet, they love it! There's a clarinet in every folk band including the one at this restaurant(along with a drum and accordion). I had a lot of fun and I'm really glad Genchev took us there.
We've been having a lot of great fun with the kids at the home. We've been getting closer to them each day and we're having lots of fun. I'm still improving my Bulgarian and even helped one girl learn how to count the right way! It was really hard to leave today. We brought them all some chocolates and told them our final goodbyes. Some of the kids didn't really understand what was going on and asked if they would see us on Monday. :'( I miss those little buggers!
We'll see what adventures this Bratsigovo place will bring us.
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