Projects
Grants- We have both successfully written a grant. I now know why people go to University to learn how to do this. It was a lot of work but both projects will help out our schools. My project will create a language resource and multimedia center. The center will allow teachers to create and use additional resources in their daily classes. The center will have a computer, printer, copier, language library, projector, and meeting space. John's project will create a mobile multimedia center. He will build a wireless network throughout his school and make a media cart with a laptop and projector available for all teachers to use. There will also be a printer available in the teacher's room for them to use. All of our teachers are really excited. Now we are just waiting on the grant money to be distributed.
Baseball- As you know this has been our ongoing project. In the Fall, our city final found a good location to build a field. In new field will be at the Agricultural school at the edge of town. The city has given the baseball field project to a local contractor. I think they are waiting till spring to get things going. We are planning a 2-day baseball instructor training in mid-March. The training will be held with support from Razgrad and the Bulgarian Baseball Federation (BBF). We are excited but have tons of work that we need to do to pull it off.
School
The first term is wrapping up. Wednesday, tomorrow, is our last day. We will have a two break. Then second term starts on Monday. I will teach 7 less hours a week next term. The extra time will be nice to work on my projects.
Continued Monday, February 12th.
Trips
We have been really have been really busy these past few weekends.
Istanbul
Last weekend, Thursday - Saturday, some friends and us went to Istanbul for our long weekend. It was fun. I love Istanbul. The city is beautiful, clean, colorful, and full of life. John took lots of pictures of himself. I got sick on Wednesday so I went out with everyone for a few hours in the early afternoon then went back to the hotel to sleep/rest while everyone else stayed out. It was not much fun, but I am still really glad that I went and would love to return someday.
Bucharest
The first weekend in February we headed off to Bucharest, Romania with our friends Jeremy and Erin. We had never been to Romania before even though it is so close to us. We live closer to Bucharest than to Sofia, Bulgaria's capital city. The city seemed similar to Sofia in many ways, but much bigger. The city has more pre-communist then Sofia, which was a nice change. The Parliamentary Palace, aka people's house, was beautiful inside.
Home Life
On January 19th, John turned 27. Yea, Happy Birthday! We celebrated by inviting some friends over for a weekend of fun. We all had a great time with tons of food and movies. John wanted cheesecake again for his birthday. So, I made chocolate cherry cheesecake , fajitas and lasagna for the weekend.
The next week John and I both had the flu. Not fun. We took the week off school and rested. Only to have the next week shortened because the city declared flu vacation for all city schools. In Bulgaria, if 40% of students are out sick then the school declares a flu vacation ranging in length from 3 days to 2 weeks. This year the flu was widespread and will over 50% of the countries schools had flu vacation. It is amazing to me how so many people can get sick at the same time.
