Summer is coming

Only FOUR more days of school!! That means 10 classes or 9.5 hours in class until it is official summer. YEA!!!

"What are your plans when you are finished?"

As soon as we came to Bulgaria people started asking us, “What are your plans when you are finished?” How are you suppose to answer that question when you have two years ahead of you? Some people knew what they would like to do, but I felt like I just need to live the best I could now and think about this question later.

Well, I guess the past two months have been later. John and I have been thinking about all of our known options. Until recently, three weeks ago, we thought that our best plan was to go back to school. John would go back for his MBA and I would go back for my teaching certificate. This is still an option and a good one at that, but I think we have figured out something that fits were we are in our lives and what we would like to do during our lives better. We have always talked about living aboard while working and John has been surprised how much he likes teaching, so we have figured out a way to combine this two things. Currently, we are looking into getting our TESOL certification in Thailand after we complete our service. Why Thailand? Thailand is the least expensive place in the world to complete the required month training in order to receive our certification. The certification is the same any place you can take the course. We have also wanted to visit Thailand, so why not live there for a month. Once we get our certification, we will go to Japan to get a teach job. We know two people who have contacts in Japan. So, as of now this is our plan. Go to Thailand get certified then go to Japan get a job. We plan to teach for a year there, but we may like it. Who knows.

Update

I have only seven more days of teaching. YEA! John has 15 more days. We both can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In May, we went to a great teaching conversational English workshop in Sofia. The workshop was created so Peace Corps Bulgaria can help the Bulgarian government teach municipality workers English. They we need this skill to apply for grants and communicate with the EU. A trainer from SIT, School for International Training, was flown in to conduct the training. I think that all 40 of us there learned tons from the workshop. It was a great opportunity and I am very glad that we took advantage of the chance.

May is the month of holidays in Bulgaria. There are four different holidays; Labor Day (1^st), St. George’s Day (6^th), Culture and Language Day (24^th), and Education Day (25^th). Of course, we get school off on these days. It’s a great way break up the month and have some fun.

Coming up, we have mid-service training. It is crazy it think we have been here for so long and only have a year left. At our training we will meet the new volunteers still in training. Once John finishes school we are go, go, go until school starts in September. We have been invited and accepted a teaching position at an International Conversational Summer Camp. The camp is being run by the American University of Bulgaria. The camp will run from July 2 till July 22. We will have the kids in class three hours every morning and the help plan and implement afternoon and evening activities. There will be five other Peace Corps volunteers teaching at the camp. We are excited about the camp and really looking forward to it. August is full of travel and family. My Mom, Carol, is flying in on the 1^st. We will be visiting Bulgaria for about a week and then possibly traveling to Italy for a week. My Mom and I have never been to Italy, so it is bound to be a good time. John’s parents will be flying in on the 18^th. We will spend five days in Bulgaria and then off to Greece. We will spend six days in Athens and surrounding islands. We feel blessed to be able to visit so many new places. Once our guest leave, we will head back to school, but not before we start our baseball project.

We recently heard that we should get our grant money in July. We will work with the city the last week of July to get the field started and finished by the end of August. We may also have a press conference that week. Our plan is to start playing with the children in September. We should still have a few good months of weather.

Maybe, I will get a vacation when school starts, if not then in a year.