Photo Update

Here is the famous picture of me with short hair!!! The picture was taken at the Camp GLOW fundraiser in Sofia. These are my two good friends from the Peace Corps.

Thanks Tracy for the pic!!!

I braided my friend’s hair today. Its kinda cool because it was my first time braiding a Bulgarian woman’s hair. Her hair turned out extremely well!!! Unfortunately I do not have pictures but as soon as I find someone with a camera I will make them take pictures of her. If you are wandering I braided her hair in cornrows going straight back. Braiding her hair made me want to rebraid my own hair. I am thinking at the end of this month before I go to Italy I will do it. It sucks not having a camera!!! I have been wearing my hair in a curly afro thingy that is just gorgeous!!! You must see it but yea the camera situation. I can not afford to buy a new camera at the moment because of the Italy trip and my plans to go home August/September.

I plan to go home to visit soon! My twin sis is moving to a new apartment (I can help her move and we can spend time together), my brother Chris will be in Chicago for a short visit, and my friend is getting married. I think it’s a wonderful time to go home. Actually I just got really excited! Can you guess why? When I go home I am going to the beauty salon to have a cut and trim for the wedding. Hair hair hair. I love wearing my hair in different styles.

Work Stuff….

Tomorrow I have to teach the children a song in English. These are the kids I teach during the summer because they attend the Center’s summer camp. I love teaching them most of the time but it can be a little overwhelming because I am not a trained teacher. Actually I think I am getting better and better everyday because the children are starting to remember things I taught them from a previous lesson. Wahooo!!! I thank God for giving me wisdom and the ability to adapt to different situations in Bulgaria. Sometimes I am called to do various things that are out of my scope. However, I am able to complete the task successfully and learn something about myself in the process. This is the Peace Corps experience right?

Wow this is going to get longer than I thought. I just thought about a situation that occurred this past Friday. I was sitting at a table in a local pub with people I met last weekend. They were all pretty strange people (to say the least). Actually I think they were a part of some cult group or another. One of the guys to my left was someone new so he started to ask me the typical questions people ask when I meet them for the first time “Where are you from?”, “Do you like Bulgaria?”, “What are you doing in Bulgaria?”. I can pretty much communicate all of these answers in Bulgarian without blinking an eye because so many people have asked me these questions. So I gave the guy my normal speech. Afterwards he listened politely than he asked “What is your purpose here?”. My response was to repeat what I had said previously but in a different way. He then looked me in the eye and really started to freak me out. He said “No seriously what is your purpose in Bulgaria?” “People don’t travel this far across the world without a purpose”. My response was to turn to my friend (the girl whose hair I braided) and ask her to translate the conversation so that I would have a better understanding of what he was asking. I wanted to be sure he did not think I was a part of some government hidden group or something. Also the reason I did this is because I sensed evil from this person and needed a break from talking to him. It was as if he was tainting me because I believe that God has sent me to Bulgaria for a specific purpose. In fact the guy even mentioned my purpose in being here (which was not a part of my speech) before I turned away. He actually laughed at me as if my purpose was nothing. I have never felt so much evil and craziness in Bulgaria. When we left the pub my friend told me everything that the people were saying in Bulgarian and I realized that...well lets just say those people are def not people to hang out with.

waiting for the long flight home and liking Bulgaria at the same time,

Crystal

Ohh P.S. This is the lesson I am teaching tomorrow. Zoo animals! The song is really cool. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-songs-zoo.htm

Music and Home

I love all types of music really but there is something about hiphop and RnB music that moves me!!! I was just listening to that song "Buy you a Drank" and could not help dancing and singing to it in my room. This of course prompted me to think about Chicago and driving around town with my twin sister blasting music. Ahhhh I miss driving and singing really loud to music! Yup I was that person that cruised the streets with loud annoying music. What?! I can not get down with the techno music that everyone seems to play here. I guess overall I miss home. Well particularly my twin sister. During the summer we usually go to the "Taste of Chicago" (its like a huge food festival). Also the 4th is coming up and I spend this holiday with fam. Some of you might not know but the 4th of July is the day America got its independence. Dont get me wrong I am enjoying Bulgaria more now but I still miss the fam and African American cultural things.

Imma get gon and walk it out. I can do it all by myself. Ohh Ohh Ohh Ohh Ohh. Its Friday tomorrow!!! Wahoo.

Ok watch the video before I start typing the words...

Upates

Its has been a while since I wrote because I have been traveling a lot in Bulgaria lately. Veliko Turnovo is treating me well. I have friends and I am still alive. Weird things continue to happen to me that I can not completely understand but I guess that is the life of a person in a foreign country.

To be exact yesterday after spending the weekend and the beginning of the week with new volunteers I took the bus home to Veliko Turnovo. When I arrived I walked passed a restuarant and of course the people stared at me. Continuing on my little path home I was in deep thought about my next day at work when I heard footsteps behind me. Being from Chicago I am always paranoid about people following me. I turned around and saw an older Bulgarian man running towards me. I figured he was trying to get somewhere quickly so I keep walking. The steps continued to get closer. I turned around again and he yelled to me in broken English "Come here, I speak for you". My reply was "I am in a hurry. I do not have time to go with you" and I continued on my way. I have no idea what this man wanted but I can only assume he was trying to help me because its pretty obvious that I am a foreigner. Maybe he wanted to help me find lodging. Who knows....

I have some pictures of the Bush meeting but none with me and Bush. I am hoping the embassy has the picture though.

A couple friends and I plan to travel to Italy in July. I am extremely excited about this because it will be my first time in Italy. Wahooo fun times are on the way!!!!

Also the fourth is coming up, my favorite holiday in America. This will be the first time I have not been in America for the fourth.

Thinking about collard greens, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, and watermelon

Crystal

Bush in Bulgaria

Bush was in Bulgaria! I met his father a couple year ago so I was really excited to meet him as a Peace Corps Volunteer regardless of my political views. My one wish is that I would have had a camera when Bush shook my hand and told me I was doing a great job serving my country as a PCV. Urggh... Life is good and sucks at the same time. I am currently, trying to locate people that took the picture.

Wish me luck,

Crystal

I am a survivor

This past weekend and week up until this very moment has been great. I spent the entire weekend in Sofia for the Camp GLOW fundraiser. I didn’t intend to spend the weekend in Sofia but I kind of got stranded with my site mate and a friend. The entire situation was really hilarious so I will try to create the scene for ya.

Last weekend I was in an Irish Pub to raise money for Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) The night was not a huge success because we expected more PCVs but we had a good time and raised enough money to pay for all the GLOW t-shirts for our future campers. Anyhow, around 12 midnight I suggested we make our way to the bus station to catch the 12:30am bus. Two American military guys and a British guy that were with my friends suggested we stay a little longer. They both had donated a lot of money to GLOW and this was their last night in Bulgaria before they went back to location so we all agreed to stay.

We finally decided that 2am was a good time to go because there was a 2:30 bus to Turnovo. We called a taxi to take us to the bus station and of course the taxi service said that they were too busy to come pick us up so we had no way to get to the bus station. One of the military guys had hired a cab for the weekend and offered to ride with us to the bus station and he would go back to his hotel. Thinking this was a really nice gesture we all got into the taxi preparing ourselves for a three hour bus ride home. Meanwhile I was on my cell phone calling the bus station to make sure there was a bus at 2:30 because I had a suspicion that one did not exist. I used my broken Bulgarian skills to communicate my concerns to the receptionist at the bus station and they assured me that there was a bus around 2:30am. My fears were calmed until my site mate received a call from our friend (long story but the friend that was with us in the Pub went to collect his stuff from the hostel and was going to meet us at the bus station). Apparently all the lights were off and the doors were locked to the central bus station! We refused to believe him when we heard the news and proceeded to the bus station anyway. Meanwhile the military guy was like “If you all don’t have places to stay don’t worry about it. You are Peace Corps Volunteers. I will help you”. I was thinking “Great I know military people are a little controlling but gez I have been in Bulgaria for almost a year and he has been here for two days. What can he possibly take care of? Seriously?”

Sure enough when we arrived to the bus station all the lights are out and our friend was talking to the security guard about the absence of our bus. I called the bus station in Turnovo again to make sure I heard currently. The worker repeated that there was bus at 2:30am and hung up the phone on me. Me being me with a high tolerance for ignorance I called him back and had the security guard talk to him in unaccented Bulgarian. The security guard explained that the bus actually arrived in Turnovo around 2:30am and that there was no bus for us.

Surprise, Surprise we were stranded in Sofia and the hostels were full with other PCVs in town for the weekend and we certainly did not have enough money to stay in a hotel. Our options were as follows:

A. Sleep in the Central Train Station that is really close to the train station
B. Walk around all night with our crap until 6am when the next bus came
C. Go with the military guy to safety

Obviously we choose to go with the military guy because we figured he was the safest option. Also, I was with two strong athletic people (a girl and a guy) so if anything got out of control they would be the muscle and I would be the brain. So the military guy was like "you all can come back to my hotel,spend the night and go home the next day. There is a disco inside the hotel and we can hangout there and afterwards go to sleep". We were all like sounds like a plan. He gave us his room key, the name of the hotel, and said he would meet us at his hotel later after he collected his two buddies from the pub we were at before.

My friends and I went to his hotel dropped our stuff off at the room and went to the discoteka in side of the hotel. Him and his buddies showed up about thirty minutes later. The night was a blast and thats all I am saying... I love running in to Americans abroad. They sure know how to take care of their own. Well most of the time anyway. Contrary to what most people say I think Americans are very nice when I see them abroad. Anyhow, thats another story.

tired,

Crystal

English Lessons

I taught my first English lesson today to students between the age of 5-7. Children in Bulgaria start school at the age of 7! This is a really strange practice to me because children usually start school at the age of 5 or sometimes 4 in the U.S. Anyhow I realized the difference when I was asking a child something and another child stepped in and said "she doesn’t know because she has not started school yet. She is only 6 1/2". It was at that exact moment that I remembered the conversation I had with a friend a couple weeks ago. Working with the children was strange because I expect them to know certain things and they don’t know yet because they have never been to school. In America they would be in second grade at the age of seven! Wow!

Anyhow the lessons went pretty well but I did not know what to teach them because I did not know what level they were in English. Furthermore, I did not know I would start teaching them today. I thought I would teach them on Friday. The lesson went well and I had fun with them but I will def be more prepared on Friday.

Also I started to meet with this group of teenagers that just want to talk to me in English for practice. I met with them about a month ago. This Friday will be our second meeting. We usually meet in a cafe for coffee and talk about life and whatever comes to mind.

Ok I have to update you on the fun I had in Sofia this ast weekend but I am too tired. I will write it later....

Thinking about this upcoming weekend... thats all I am saying,

Crystal