He Took A Bow And Made A Stance

So. I'm almost done with training. Literally, my last day of teaching is on Friday, and I only have one class. It's kinda exciting, really. A little unreal, perhaps. Honestly, I just want to get done with training so's I can get to my permanent site. The waiting around is killing me, even as I recognize the need for more language training.

I've taken the pictures of Radomir, which you can see at the end of this post. I dunno. It's really hard to describe how things are going, for some reason. Lately, even though I'm aware, on one level, that this is a really awesome adventure, it seems as if I'm just being held back, and that I'm in a sort of holding pattern. "Chomping at the bit" might be the best way to describe it.

Ah, well. Things will, as always, proceed. I'm here for the duration, after all. I've only got 3 more weeks to go, and I'm on my own, finally and at long last. That's actually going to be really strange. I've never really lived on my own for an extended period of time; I've always either had family or roommates. It'll be a learning experience.

I'll admit it, I miss the being around family and friends. There's no one here with whom I can really connect on a really meaningful level, and that makes things a bit harder.

Enough of my rambling. Here are the promised pictures (they're in reverse chronological order, and I like panorama shots, so you've been forewarned):































































































As before, apparently you have to right-click and hit "View Image" to get the full picture. I'll see if I can figure out a way to get around that by the next photopost.

Later, flipsiders.

He Could'a Pinned A Medal On Us For Bein' So Brave And Honest

Now that I've gotten my little rant out of the way, I can give you guys a real update (with pictures, though they don't seem to format properly. Check the URL if you want to see the whole thing). First:

From the time we got onto the bus in Philly, we were in transit for over 24 hours (once you include the layovers). This was not, as they say, much fun.



Ahhh, sweet freedom.







There were quite a few of us on that trip, and it was considerably more than a 3 hour tour.



Our arrival at Panichiste. A traditional Bulgarian offering of bread and salt.

Once we arrived, we had a basic run-down of what orientation was going to be like, had dinner, and got to explore a bit. The resort we were staying at was absolutely breathtaking.







In the winter, this place is a ski resort.





After 4 days of getting to know each other and a crash-course in what to expect, we went to Dupnitsa, where we met our host families (this was on Friday):



Eva and Pando. She's a retired teacher, he's a digger (I believe) who was a colonel in the Bulgarian military (drove tanks).





We basically had the weekend to get acclimated to the city, so Eva showed me around. On Sunday, Evan and I went to Rila Monastary with the son of one of Pando's friends. The monastary really is just beyond words, so I'll let my photos do most of the talking:



Rila mountain.



The outside of the monastary



The courtyard, with the church.







Panorama of the courtyard.















Some of the iconography on the outside of the church. The whole building was covered with it, outside and in. I thought that the Ufizi Gallery was impressive in using every surface, but that had nothing on this. The interior iconography incorporated giltwork (gold sun-discs, silver hands, that sort of thing). I can only imagine how long it must have taken.



Rila Monastary and mountain.



Tony, Eva ,Tony's sister and nephew (also named Alexander, or Sasho, interestingly enough).

This week, it's been back to heavy-duty Bulgarian lessons, as well as being introduced to the school where we'll be getting our TEFL practice. Should be fun. More updates as they happen, I suppose.

Later, all.

Every OS Wastes Your Time, From The Desktop To The Lap

The following was written at approximately 1:00 AM, 4/22/07:

One of the things that strikes me, as I lie in bed, staring at a Soviet-era Bulgarian ceiling, unable to sleep, is how much larger the world must have been when the Peace Corps was founded. Then, you had letters, postcards, photos, etc., but they moved at the speed of the mail (which was extremely variable). If you were lucky, you had phone service. Now, if you're connected to the internet, everything you could ever want to see or know (and quite a few things that you didn't) is just a mouse click and a load time away.

In the long run, it will probably turn out that my laptop's harddrive frying (or whatever the hell happened to it) will be a blessing. I can cut the electronic tether, learn independence from my internet/computer addiction (forced intellectual detox, if you will), that sort of thing. It doesn't change the fact that it is somewhat (and I am, of course, understating the situation) irritating to have a piece of technology - that you had assumed to be reliable - turn out to be a waste of packing space. Nor does it particularly mitigate the frustration of having to re-map any and all plans you may have had which were dependent on your shiny new paperweight.

I suppose that that's really what gets to me. I actually had a cohesive plan, for once; I knew how certain things were going to go. Were I a different man, I might suspect the universe of having a bit of a chuckle at my expense. I might even suspect my laptop of maliciously committing suicide. It's possible that I would even go so far as to shake my fists and rage with Shatnerian impotency.

At this point, none of these suspicions/actions have come to pass (though I reserve the right to put them into practice later). I mean, it could always have been worse. The bloody thing could have exploded. Worse still, it could have decided to do this after I left Radomir, in the middle of collecting data for my proposed research paper, before I'd backed any of it up. That would have been, to put it mildly, simply splendid.

What I'm getting at, in a sort of roundabout way, is that all of this can serve as an object lesson into the nature of the Peace Corps (or life itself, I suppose), if you let it. You've prepared for the journey, you've packed your bags, headed off into the wild blue yonder on your grand adventure, only to discover that the situation changed miway through. You discover that your baggage is useless; that you completely failed to anticipate certain eventualities; that the one constant upon which many of your plans were based was not, in fact, constant. You could take away all sorts of profound life lessons from the simple event of a technological malfuntion in a foreign country wherein you don't even speak enough of the language to find a computer store, much less inform the technicians of anything more than "it broke" (if that). Alternately, you could walk away with an altogether simpler sentiment:

...Freaking technology.

Later, flipsiders.

The Ringmaster's Telecaster Sings On An Empty Stage

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm not dead. I've arrived in Radomir, which is a small city about 25 km south of Sofia. The host family I'm staying with seems very interesting. Their names are Pando and Eva; the former being the husband. He was a colonel in the Bulgarian military and drove tanks (he speaks a little German), and she was a teacher here in Radomir (and speaks some English). They don't use processed sugar, which is nice, and they seem to be fairly health-concious, though they both smoke. It's a bit slow going, though, since they speak very little English and my Bulgarian is sparse at best. As lessons progress, however, I'm certain that things will get easier.

It's going to be a busy few months, to say the least, but I'm looking forward to it. It's starting to sink in just how long I'll be gone; a little bit of homesickness, I suppose. The group of volunteers seems quite cool; it's a shame I won't be able to spend more time getting to know them. There are three others in this town for Pre-Service Training (PST), so I'll probably know them pretty well by the time things are all said and done.

I'm slowly uploading photos, so I'll make a massive photopost once they're all on Photobucket. In the meantime, they can be found here.

Keep yourselves safe, flipsiders.

Once More, They Will Replenish Themselves

Well. Today's been off to a spectacular start. I woke up this morning to my fan falling out of my window onto my bed. I went to check email and the like, and my computer was displaying a message informing me that Windows had failed to start properly.

Ok, I think... No worries, I'll try again.

...Nothing.

I try with "Last Good Configuration"

...Still nothing.

I try Safe Mode.

...Same story.

Remove CDs from my computer, try again.

...Nope.

The good news is, the BIOS is still working, so I know the MoBo's not fried. The bad news is, I have no way of getting to my data, which is necessary for quite a bit of my Peace Corps prep, and the external HD I've ordered for the purposes of backup hasn't arrived yet. Thus I have, as they say, a problem.

I am also more than slightly irritated by this whole mess.

Time to get non-computer-based stuff done, I suppose.

Bloody machine.

-Alex

Look At All The Happy Creatures Dancing On The Lawn

Staging kit is here! Staging kit is here!

I fly up to Philly on the 13th, registration is from 1:30-3:00 PM, and then the initial events are from 3-6 PM. Saturday, it's a 10 hour day (8 AM-6 PM). Then, 9 AM bus ride on Sunday to JFK Airport in New York. From there, it's JFK to Frankfurt to Sofia, and off into the wilds to deal with "a bunch of Bulgars," as Lisk once put it.

It's all coming together. All the waiting, the paperwork... it's all happening. I'm excited.

...Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go fill out some forms in triplicate.

-Alex

The Lesson's Not The Answer You Once Heard

A month to go, and things are starting to get hectic. The "Welcome CD" that I recieved has been very helpful, thus far, but I'm still trying to develop the proper phonetic-orthographic associations for Cyrillic. Learning a new alphabet is always a tricky proposition.

At least Cyrillic is a 1-1 orthography (i.e., no duplicated sounds, no redundant letters). That makes it somewhat easier. I haven't yet gotten to the actual sounds of the language, which is probably a mistake. Being able to parse before I arrive in-country will be a good thing, I suspect.

Also, going through my stuff is proving to be all sorts of fun, as I'm rediscovering miscellarious tschockes that I wasn't even aware I had. This is both a good and a bad thing, as, for instance, I've found pillows and headset/microphone, but I've also found random junk that perplexes me as to why it was moved in the first place. Such is the nature of moving, I suppose.

Ah, well. Back to work. Hopefully the little snafu for today won't preclude me getting paid. That would be most irritating.

-Alex