Gloomy Weather

Sorry, Sorry!! I do read your comments and have been thinking about writing an entry. I just have not felt up to it recently and I have been busy.

Our trip to our host families was successful. It was great to see them again and they were very excited to have us. There was a big festival in the square of Saedinenie for Unification Day. It seemed like everyone from the town and surrounding villages were there. During the day there were wrestling matches. A calf was the grand prize. At night, we went to a small fair. There we saw a military parade and fireworks with AK gunfire throughout. YES, on the way home from this trip we bought a new TV. The price was not bad, but we all know that John has to have the best.

Our next big event was the start of school. On September 15^th students arrive at school for a celebration and to meet their class teachers. It was raining that morning, so my school had a small celebration only with the students from 1^st to 4^th class. I thought it was interesting that here it is GOOD luck when it rains. After the celebration it is tradition to go to a restaurant with your colleagues and share lunch.

John and I both had class this past week. The children in my classes are all relatively well behaved. I started each class by going over the rules. I decided to speak only in English for my 5^th and 6^th classes. They understand me, but act like they don’t sometimes. I think it is because they are still unsure of their skills. I am positive that this will improve with time, because I won’t let them off the hook that easily. One thing is, I will have to teach them what pair/group work is, because they don’t do that in Bulgaria. On October 1^st four more classes will start. These are optional lessons for 3^rd and 4^th grades. We will see how those go later.

It has been cold and gloomy here for the past five days. One day it was high 70’s and sunny and the next it was 50’s and pouring down rain. As soon as the weather went downhill, John got a bad cold. And of course, married couples share everything so I got the cold two days later. We were planning on traveling this weekend, a four day weekend, but between us being sick and the ugly weather, we have camped out on our couch for the last two days. Maybe we will head somewhere tomorrow.

Oh, and “Ne Raboti” is something like “it doesn’t work” in English.