Zdraveyte from Bulgaria!

I’ve been living in Bulgaria for the past three weeks and it has been great! All of the volunteers spent a week up at a mountain resort getting to know each other, the PC staff, and a bit of the language. We were then broken up into 7 different satellite groups of 4 or 5 people each and we’ve been living at those sites for the past two weeks.

I live in a beautiful village (and I want to highlight village, it is not a town or a city, it is a village) at the foot of the Rila Mountains that is known for its waterfalls and lakes. It is incredibly beautiful and incredibly small! Which has taken some getting used to considering that I am from one of the largest areas in America. But over the past week and a half I have discovered so many wonderful things about this place, such as the fresh fruit that the people pick right out of their huge gardens in their backyards, or the fact that my road is the road that the cows and horses take out every morning to the pastures and the one they take back every night through the village to who knows where. I mean, I am from Texas, but I am from the city! I’ve never been in this much direct contact with animals.

We have language training almost every week day and HUB sessions almost every week where all the volunteers get together and train together all day. I feel like I’m already back in college-so all my friends who have one semester left, I am right there with you! Unfortunately I have already had a few minor health problems, which is to be expected, but I also sprained my ankle a couple of days ago and it is quickly becoming quite an inconvenience! We’ve hiked a fair amount and done plenty of outdoorsy things, and I was fine through all of this, but then I sprain my ankle stepping off a bus! I am such a klutz. This past Friday was a religious holiday and there was be a big celebration in my town complete with xopo (horo in English), which is traditional Bulgarian dancing and something that I am quickly starting to love, but since I hurt my ankle I wasn’t really able to dance. The town holiday was a fun, almost like a very mini fair in the states-there was even cotton candy! And some of us went to a “chalga” concert a few nights ago. Chalga is like their pop music here-like Britney Spears back in the old days, but with even more skin. It was….interesting and cultural.

I live with a great host family. My host “mother” is actually a year younger than me and 7 months pregnant with a girl! She is so cute and sweet and knows some English, so we help each other and get by and communicate pretty well most days. Her husband is a little bit older, and his family lives right down our street and her family lives not far down the main road. She is due in October or November, but I will probably already have moved to my permanent site before she gives birth, so she has invited me to come back in December to see the baby.

Of course I miss everyone and some days I get a bit homesick, but I really am happy here and have loved it so far. I’ll try my best to post more and not let this much time go by, but the Internet is a bit spotty where I am living.

The pictures I've put up are of the view of the town and the mountains from my window, the house that I am living at, and my host "mother" and me at a monastery during the first weekend.