More old-ish photos...

So, these are all old-ish photos, as my batteries in my digital camera are currently dead. I promise, I will buy new ones soon and post tons of photos of Svishtov! Captions are below each one.

One of my bird boys catching a lizard during my site visit in September.

This photo and the two following show one of the top reasons why you need to come to Bulgaria, the Seven Rila Lakes.

Thomas contemplating the majesty of nature.

Rajun and I being goofy. Can't you almost feel the love emmanating from this one?

Nazi artifacts for sale at the trinket bazar in central Sofia. N.B. vintage Leica's with the Nazi seals on them and the luftwaffe helmets under the table.

Me with Max, one of my technical trainers during PST and my illustrious predecessor in Svishtov, about five minutes after I found out I was going to be his replacement. Don't we look like we could be related?

Why I love my site- a 1st week perspective

1. The walk from my apartment to work.

I walk through the center of town every day, past parks, students, vegetable and flower stands and great window shopping. Plus, I get exercise without even trying and arrive to work in a great mood.



2. My view from my apartment. Good morning Romania!

3. I found a place where I can drink a Guiness.

Mind you, it is not on tap, nor even in the prefereable can packaging and costs 4 leva per American sized bottle. To add context for my American readers, Bulgarian beer comes in a half litre bottle and costs about 1.5 leva. For just one, only once in a blue moon, it is worth every last stotinki.

4. Science Nerds RULE

I almost feel guilty for how cool my PC assignment is. We should have hardships, difficult work circumstances and an assignment that might not be fun, but will make the world a better place, right? So far, my work has consisted of getting up to speed on local conservation issues, asking science questions, the occasional bird watching break and reading scientific literature, without having to annotate it! Yes, I realize that I am a superdork for proclaiming this, but this RULES.

More to come...

By popular demand...PHOTOS!

Rajun and I dancing horo at a sabor (town holiday) near our training site. Unknown Bulgarian woman between us. I chose this photo because in all the other photos from that day, I look totally befuddled by the dancing, in contrast to Rajun who looks ready to join a traditional dance troupe.


An awesomely huge meadow with mysterious fog coming down from the Seven Rila Lakes. Notice the people about to disappear!


Some members of my host family and I at Rila Monastary. Eli (mother), Vasco (father) and Maria ( their 11 year old daughter, aka, Mime)



My kitchen in Svishtov! I've already cooked spaghetti and meatballs and potato leek soup in it so far.

Our students who designed signs for the ecopath, with their signs getting ready to hike on a drizzly Saturday.

My training site mates and I on our visit to Sofia during the second to last week of PST. From left to right: Me, Thomas, Rajun and Chase with the umbrella.

Home Sveet Svishtov

Today was my first day of work in my new organization. As a first day, it really isn't much of a day for accomplishments, but I spent time familiarizing myself with the organization, thinking about project ideas, and researching bird conservation online. All in all, it will be work that will pay off later, I think. Information gathering never really feels like an accomplishment, but in environmental work, uninformed action can be disastrous!

So, I will have the pleasure of cooking my very own dinner this evening. While I have greatly enjoyed the cooking of my host family, I have been itching for some of my own cooking. I, taking after my mother, am an immodest fan of my own culinary skills. I was further encouraged in my zeal for my own cooking by the unearthing of some long-ago packed kitchen gadgets from my winter luggage (most importantly, my microplane). I have already scoped out a purveyor of kitchen gadgets (one of my favorite types of retailers), and will be buying my stove-top espresso maker post-haste!

Otherwise, this weekend I will be exploring my new city and beginning to settle in. I think that I may attend an event put on by Japanese volunteers tomorrow, rumor has it there will be Japanese food!

I must be hungry with all this talk about food. I'd better get going in order to remedy that!

Small Community Project

So, we implemented the first half of our small scale community project today. We got a pack of 6th graders together and had then paint signs for a local eco-trail. They mostly have some sort of conservation message on them, such as don't step on the flowers. Tomorrow, we will nail them up for the edification and enjoyment of passing hikers.

The hike tomorrow is going to be interesting to say the least. We will be carrying these signs for quite a while, in addition to hammers, nails, food and possibly other things that our 6th graders don't feel like carrying. Again, photos of both events will be posted as soon as my technological situation improves at my permanent site!

Anticipating Svishtov!

So, in just over one week, I will be in Svishtov. Not that I am counting or anything, or more accurately, I don't have the bus schedule yet so I don't know the exact hour of my arrival yet.

Peace Corps, as hierarchical and beaureucratic as it may seem to some, actually knows a thing or two about training. As I said in my final interview with our administrative officer today, I feel adaquately prepared for everything except the things for which one can't prepare. Also the timing of the end of PST couldn't be more perfect. It is short enough so that we don't completely burn out by the end (operative word: "completely," it's supposed to be hard). It is also long enough that most of us are chomping at the bit to get to our sites by the end.

I have a thousand and one ideas for projects at this point (ok, maybe less than that), but I think that the best thing is for me to simply be an extra set of hands at first when I arrive. After I earn some "street cred" (would flyway cred be more appropriate here?), then I will be in a better position to supply project ideas.*

*PC staff, if you are reading this, aren't you proud of my internalization of the Peace Corps' approach to development work?

In praise of Bulgarian DIY

So, in America we are really into homemade things. We buy magazines whose articles describe how to fashion jar lids into chic and environmentally correct sleeper sofas. We snap up homemade lingonberry preserve at craft fairs, and are willing to pay prices that might indicate that there is gold in the center of each. And we have a whole industry of ready made foods that we can pop into our ovens for that homemade taste.

Anyone notice anything here? There are some notable American exceptions; my mother's cooking, my grandmother's sewing and my grandfather's amazing woodwork comes to mind. For the most part though, Americans love the idea of homemade, but don't actually make much at home.

So in Bulgaria, they actually make pretty much everything at home. My family is in the process of harvesting grapes to make the homemade brandy or "rakia." They also made wine this weekend. When they needed a large outdoor table this summer for a party, they built one, just the right size, right in place. They darn socks, make preserves, bake bread, and make cheese from the goats that they milked. They also build their own houses (mostly out of bricks and concrete), pour their own driveways, and put up their own fences.

Also it seems that Bulgarians are much more spontaneous that Americans. It means that sometimes you end up having a wonderful adventure that no one really planned, or sometimes an immaculately tiled wall must be broken through to fix the plumbing that was thought of after the completion of the wall.

It is definitely different. And I like it! (Although, don't worry, I still think America has its finer qualities too!)