Obviously, I am not used to severe weather shifts. I woke up this morning feeling intensely hungover, only without the convenient excuse of having had anything alcoholic to drink last night. Regardless, when light triggers migraine-throbbing and moving is an exercise in unpleasantness, I am not terribly likely to go into work.
I don't get it, though. I was never sick (even marginally) this often in the States. Here, I got sick a couple times in November, and now twice in March. More than slightly irksome. It could be, as I originally attributed it, due to the bipolar weather (seriously, sunny and warm one day, snowing the next), or it could be that I'm just not used to whatever microbes are living around here, or a combination thereof.
What sucks is that I was feeling all right yesterday, minus a minor bit of insomnia. And now... moving hurts. Joint soreness, muscle soreness... I just hurt. And it's irritating. It's a gorgeous day out, my brain is restless and wants to go out exploring, trees are starting to bloom and I want to take pictures. So of course, I get stuck at home.
At least I'm not violently rejecting food this time.
Later, flipsiders.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Down Below In The Hold Was A Cargo Of Bricks
To start with, the weather is weird, here. Yesterday, it was a bit too warm for a light jacket. As of right now, it is snowing. Some of it's even sticking.
Like I said, weird.
In the interim since last I posted, I've been sick (some sort of violent stomach thing), visited my host parents (they're doing well), made rakia (sketchy as hell doesn't begin to cover it), spent way too much money going to the capitol (but had a really good time) and have taught some basic Irish history (and exposed my students to Irish drinking songs).
In order, the sickness lasted for about three days, during which I had to fight to keep toast, chicken soup and water down. It was all sorts of pleasant, let me tell you. Visiting my host parents, on the other hand, was genuinely pleasant. I always enjoy talking with them, and I can actually have real conversations with them, now. Kinda shocking, given how little I could talk with them when I first got here.
-On a side note, I've been here for 11 months; almost a year holy good goddamn-
The following week, one of my colleagues said he was finally about to make rakia. This made me happy, since he invited me to come with him. To elaborate, this guy is probably old enough to be my grandfather, lives in a village about 4 km. outside of Dupnitsa immediately next door to his parents. They both have decent-sized grape vines, with which they make home-made wine (and, obviously rakia). He's probably been making this stuff since he was a teenager. Needless to say, he knows what he's doing.
The basic process is simple. Take a bunch of grapes. Stick them in a barrel with some sugar and let them ferment for a month or two. Afterwards, you take the juice that has fermented, with as little of the actual fruit as you can, and put it in a 100-liter still. Depending on how sour the ferment is, you need to put in 100-300 g of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and about 300 g of salt. Then, you light the fire, seal up the still (we used bread soaked in water to form the seal) and wait. The first stuff that comes out won't be clear. Throw this away, as it contains methanol as opposed to ethanol. Repeat until the distillate is clear. It'll probably be about 120 proof. Dilution with distilled water is required to get it to a less intense proof (most stores sell 80 proof rakia) The whole process of transferring the ferment to getting the distillate took about 4-5 hours, though it was certainly going to continue on for another few by the time I left.
The next day, I headed up to Sofia for a birthday party/St. Patrick's Day celebration with some other PCVs. I got to see several people I haven't seen in a while, and there was good booze - Guinness, Bailey's, and combinations thereof. Also, Cachaça (Brazilian rum-like drink) and spicy Indian food (lamb khaltada) which made me happy for reasons entirely unrelated to St. Patty's Day. It was a good, relaxed time with good people.
The Irish history/music thing went over fairly well, I think. At any rate, they were happy to have something else to do rather than just listen to me talk. Plus, it's meant that I've not had to do a whole hell of a lot (always a benefit).
So, yeah. That's been my month so far. Things with Mila are still good, though I really dislike the distance issue. My own fault, there, I suppose, but it still sucks.
Later, flipsiders.
Like I said, weird.
In the interim since last I posted, I've been sick (some sort of violent stomach thing), visited my host parents (they're doing well), made rakia (sketchy as hell doesn't begin to cover it), spent way too much money going to the capitol (but had a really good time) and have taught some basic Irish history (and exposed my students to Irish drinking songs).
In order, the sickness lasted for about three days, during which I had to fight to keep toast, chicken soup and water down. It was all sorts of pleasant, let me tell you. Visiting my host parents, on the other hand, was genuinely pleasant. I always enjoy talking with them, and I can actually have real conversations with them, now. Kinda shocking, given how little I could talk with them when I first got here.
-On a side note, I've been here for 11 months; almost a year holy good goddamn-
The following week, one of my colleagues said he was finally about to make rakia. This made me happy, since he invited me to come with him. To elaborate, this guy is probably old enough to be my grandfather, lives in a village about 4 km. outside of Dupnitsa immediately next door to his parents. They both have decent-sized grape vines, with which they make home-made wine (and, obviously rakia). He's probably been making this stuff since he was a teenager. Needless to say, he knows what he's doing.
The basic process is simple. Take a bunch of grapes. Stick them in a barrel with some sugar and let them ferment for a month or two. Afterwards, you take the juice that has fermented, with as little of the actual fruit as you can, and put it in a 100-liter still. Depending on how sour the ferment is, you need to put in 100-300 g of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and about 300 g of salt. Then, you light the fire, seal up the still (we used bread soaked in water to form the seal) and wait. The first stuff that comes out won't be clear. Throw this away, as it contains methanol as opposed to ethanol. Repeat until the distillate is clear. It'll probably be about 120 proof. Dilution with distilled water is required to get it to a less intense proof (most stores sell 80 proof rakia) The whole process of transferring the ferment to getting the distillate took about 4-5 hours, though it was certainly going to continue on for another few by the time I left.
The next day, I headed up to Sofia for a birthday party/St. Patrick's Day celebration with some other PCVs. I got to see several people I haven't seen in a while, and there was good booze - Guinness, Bailey's, and combinations thereof. Also, Cachaça (Brazilian rum-like drink) and spicy Indian food (lamb khaltada) which made me happy for reasons entirely unrelated to St. Patty's Day. It was a good, relaxed time with good people.
The Irish history/music thing went over fairly well, I think. At any rate, they were happy to have something else to do rather than just listen to me talk. Plus, it's meant that I've not had to do a whole hell of a lot (always a benefit).
So, yeah. That's been my month so far. Things with Mila are still good, though I really dislike the distance issue. My own fault, there, I suppose, but it still sucks.
Later, flipsiders.
Friday, March 7, 2008
I'd Trade You Places Any Day
Well, I seem to have broken two rules that I set for myself. First, I came here with the express intent of not starting a romantic relationship of any sort. Second, I have a long-standing rule about long-distance relationships.
Yeah, so much for that. I've managed to fall for a girl who lives seven hours away (native Bulgarian). If any of you recall me posting about my friend Mila, it's become rather more than "friendly," at this point. We'll see how it all works out, I'm sure.
Later, flipsiders.
Yeah, so much for that. I've managed to fall for a girl who lives seven hours away (native Bulgarian). If any of you recall me posting about my friend Mila, it's become rather more than "friendly," at this point. We'll see how it all works out, I'm sure.
Later, flipsiders.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Amazing What A Good Breakfast Pickles Make, Isn't It?
Surreal moment of the day: going to throw something out and finding a dead weasel next to the dumpster.
In other news, I got to get kids thinking about predicting the future, acting out celebrity interviews that they'd written, reading/discussing William Blake and the Romantic/Idealistic poets, especially re: Anti-Rationalism and the reaction against the Industrial Revolution and watching the Mattress Skit*. All in all a pretty decent day, teaching wise.
Also, I've got my 11th graders doing a reduced version of "A Modest Proposal" as a writing assignment. It'll be interesting to see what kind of problems/solutions they come up with.
In non-academic news, I had my first two capoeira students today. They seemed to have fun with it, even though we only did a warm-up, some stretching, and learning ginga. Towards the end, I showed them aú and rolê. They were more comfortable trying the latter, but I'll get them doing aú soon enough. It took about an hour, including the small cool-down workout/stretching we did, which isn't bad for a first session. By the time things really get started, we'll be up to 2-hour sessions, including a roda. If this gets really popular, I may consider having class 3 days a week. We'll see, obviously.
Here's hoping.
Later, flipsiders.
*I showed this because we've been talking about satire, and this particular skit uses the hymn "Jerusalem," the lyrics to which are lifted from Blake's poem "And Did Those Feet In Ancient Times."
In other news, I got to get kids thinking about predicting the future, acting out celebrity interviews that they'd written, reading/discussing William Blake and the Romantic/Idealistic poets, especially re: Anti-Rationalism and the reaction against the Industrial Revolution and watching the Mattress Skit*. All in all a pretty decent day, teaching wise.
Also, I've got my 11th graders doing a reduced version of "A Modest Proposal" as a writing assignment. It'll be interesting to see what kind of problems/solutions they come up with.
In non-academic news, I had my first two capoeira students today. They seemed to have fun with it, even though we only did a warm-up, some stretching, and learning ginga. Towards the end, I showed them aú and rolê. They were more comfortable trying the latter, but I'll get them doing aú soon enough. It took about an hour, including the small cool-down workout/stretching we did, which isn't bad for a first session. By the time things really get started, we'll be up to 2-hour sessions, including a roda. If this gets really popular, I may consider having class 3 days a week. We'll see, obviously.
Here's hoping.
Later, flipsiders.
*I showed this because we've been talking about satire, and this particular skit uses the hymn "Jerusalem," the lyrics to which are lifted from Blake's poem "And Did Those Feet In Ancient Times."
Saturday, January 19, 2008
His Life's A Great Big Bang-Up
So, funny story.
I just managed to lock myself out of my apartment. While on my balcony.
As that sinks in, I'll elaborate. Every door that leads directly to the outside (i.e., the porches/balconies) is a two-layered door system. Sort of the same principle behind storm windows. Normally, if you want to hold heat in, you would just close the outermost door whilst outside. In this case, I just sort of swung the doors closed, meaning the inside door latched shut, as well. This is, as we say, a problem.
This is a problem because both doors open inwards, meaning that I can't get to the inside door to open it. Also, since my apartment door is currently locked, I can't get call anyone to come to my apartment to let me in. Thus, I have two options. Climb down, or spend the rest of the day (and the night) outside. As I live on the 2nd floor (3rd floor in America), neither option is particularly appealing to me.
Fortunately, there are a great many protrusions, ledges, and other balconies that I was able to use, though I imagine it would have caused awkwardness had anyone actually been there to watch (specifically when I had to slide under an antenna support bar to land on one the balcony railing of one of my downstairs neighbors).
The escape route:
Still, no harm, no foul, and I'll admit that, in the end it was a bit of a rush.
...That doesn't mean I'm eager to have a repeat performance.
Later, flipsiders.
I just managed to lock myself out of my apartment. While on my balcony.
As that sinks in, I'll elaborate. Every door that leads directly to the outside (i.e., the porches/balconies) is a two-layered door system. Sort of the same principle behind storm windows. Normally, if you want to hold heat in, you would just close the outermost door whilst outside. In this case, I just sort of swung the doors closed, meaning the inside door latched shut, as well. This is, as we say, a problem.
This is a problem because both doors open inwards, meaning that I can't get to the inside door to open it. Also, since my apartment door is currently locked, I can't get call anyone to come to my apartment to let me in. Thus, I have two options. Climb down, or spend the rest of the day (and the night) outside. As I live on the 2nd floor (3rd floor in America), neither option is particularly appealing to me.
Fortunately, there are a great many protrusions, ledges, and other balconies that I was able to use, though I imagine it would have caused awkwardness had anyone actually been there to watch (specifically when I had to slide under an antenna support bar to land on one the balcony railing of one of my downstairs neighbors).
The escape route:
Still, no harm, no foul, and I'll admit that, in the end it was a bit of a rush.
...That doesn't mean I'm eager to have a repeat performance.
Later, flipsiders.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
I Can't Leave You Alone For Five Minutes
So, a week into the new year, and I've done approximately nothing so far. I meant to go skiing, but, due to my friend who lives near the ski slopes having scheduling conflicts, that got pushed back a bit. Ah, well. There's still snow on the ground here, and I don't think it's coming off the mountain anytime soon. Sometime this month, it will happen.
Regarding the rest of my holiday, I ended up going to a small town called Bobov Dol for New Year's Eve. There were several other PCVs there (2 from my group, one from the group immediately preceeding mine), so we ended up drinking together, cooking tasty food, and playing cards. Later, we venured out to see how the natives were ringing in the new year. The center got pretty crazy, and I learned that the Bulgarians love their firecrackers. People lighting them and tossing them pretty much everywhere - I had one go off right in my face as I turned around. My ears were ringing for days. On the plus side, there were a lot of entertaining drunks and a lot of people doing the horo. I even played (they play the horo, instead of dancing it) one with them, though they were doing one far more complex than the few I know.
On a completely unrelated note, I have realized that at this point, I officially have less than 18 months to go - I'm 1/3 of the way done with the total time, and 1/4 of the way done with my actual service time. Crazy. Further, there's only 3 months before the next group of newbies arrive. It really seems like just yesterday that I was getting off of the plane, and now, I'll be the old hand.
*shakes head*
Time does weird things when you let it. Which I suppose explains why the past two weeks were a blur and don't seem nearly long enough, and simultaneously have me feeling restless and in need of things to do.
Speaking of time, how the hell did I end up in my mid-20s? Has it really been over a year and a half since I graduated? Have I really been here for 9 months already? Jeez. I'm not sure my perception of time will ever really be the same, after this.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
To wrap this whole meandering update up, I've started growing a beard (as of 2 weeks or so ago). See?
Side view:
Later, flipsiders.
Regarding the rest of my holiday, I ended up going to a small town called Bobov Dol for New Year's Eve. There were several other PCVs there (2 from my group, one from the group immediately preceeding mine), so we ended up drinking together, cooking tasty food, and playing cards. Later, we venured out to see how the natives were ringing in the new year. The center got pretty crazy, and I learned that the Bulgarians love their firecrackers. People lighting them and tossing them pretty much everywhere - I had one go off right in my face as I turned around. My ears were ringing for days. On the plus side, there were a lot of entertaining drunks and a lot of people doing the horo. I even played (they play the horo, instead of dancing it) one with them, though they were doing one far more complex than the few I know.
On a completely unrelated note, I have realized that at this point, I officially have less than 18 months to go - I'm 1/3 of the way done with the total time, and 1/4 of the way done with my actual service time. Crazy. Further, there's only 3 months before the next group of newbies arrive. It really seems like just yesterday that I was getting off of the plane, and now, I'll be the old hand.
*shakes head*
Time does weird things when you let it. Which I suppose explains why the past two weeks were a blur and don't seem nearly long enough, and simultaneously have me feeling restless and in need of things to do.
Speaking of time, how the hell did I end up in my mid-20s? Has it really been over a year and a half since I graduated? Have I really been here for 9 months already? Jeez. I'm not sure my perception of time will ever really be the same, after this.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
To wrap this whole meandering update up, I've started growing a beard (as of 2 weeks or so ago). See?
Side view:
Later, flipsiders.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Let's Hope It's A Good One (Without Any Fear)
Well, happy holidays, one and all. Hopefully, your Christmas/Festivus/Yuletide/Zappadan/Coming of the Great Old Ones was a good one. It was definitely weird to be away from family/old friends around this time of year, and odd not being able to call you crazy cats up and wish you a Merry Christmas the day of, but even so, it was still pretty good. I got a bunch of new music, courtesy of some of the other PCVs burning a DVD of stuffs for me.
Backing up, I went to a city called Razgrad (Разград) for Christmas, and saw some folks I hadn't seen in a few months (3-6, depending on the person), which was nice. There was a chicken dinner with roasted veggies and mashed potatoes, and trivial pursuit (which took up most of the afternoon/evening, due to a house rule that to win, you had to run the entire card). My team ended up winning, which was satisfying, but it took a whiles, and eventually was settled essentially by a trivia-off.
After that, I went to Rousse (Pyce), and had a late lunch with my friend Mila, and spent a few hours catching up with her - I haven't seen her since May, so it was nice to see her face to face again. There was a bit of panic at the end, when it turned out that I'm mistranslated a preposition, and thought that the last bus TO Sofia was at 6 PM, when in reality, that was when the last bus FROM Sofia was to arrive. Fortunately, we arrived at 5:20 to discover this, and there was a 5:30 bus that I was able to catch (just barely). From there, I got into the central station, convinced that I had missed the last train back home, though it turned out that it was supposed to leave 30 minutes later than I thought it did, meaning I had approximately 2 minutes to get buy a ticket and get on the train.
A minute and a half of panic later, I had my ticket in hand, and was frantically searching for the train. Upon my failure to see the train, I asked an employee where it was, only to be told that there was a 30 minute delay for it, and I was, in fact at the right track. The 30 minute delay turned into an hour and 15 minutes, meaning I got back in to Dupnitsa at 2 AM or so. All in all, fun times!
Hopefully, I'll be going skiing sometime soonish. I promise I'll take my camera along, if that happens.
Later, flipsiders.
Backing up, I went to a city called Razgrad (Разград) for Christmas, and saw some folks I hadn't seen in a few months (3-6, depending on the person), which was nice. There was a chicken dinner with roasted veggies and mashed potatoes, and trivial pursuit (which took up most of the afternoon/evening, due to a house rule that to win, you had to run the entire card). My team ended up winning, which was satisfying, but it took a whiles, and eventually was settled essentially by a trivia-off.
After that, I went to Rousse (Pyce), and had a late lunch with my friend Mila, and spent a few hours catching up with her - I haven't seen her since May, so it was nice to see her face to face again. There was a bit of panic at the end, when it turned out that I'm mistranslated a preposition, and thought that the last bus TO Sofia was at 6 PM, when in reality, that was when the last bus FROM Sofia was to arrive. Fortunately, we arrived at 5:20 to discover this, and there was a 5:30 bus that I was able to catch (just barely). From there, I got into the central station, convinced that I had missed the last train back home, though it turned out that it was supposed to leave 30 minutes later than I thought it did, meaning I had approximately 2 minutes to get buy a ticket and get on the train.
A minute and a half of panic later, I had my ticket in hand, and was frantically searching for the train. Upon my failure to see the train, I asked an employee where it was, only to be told that there was a 30 minute delay for it, and I was, in fact at the right track. The 30 minute delay turned into an hour and 15 minutes, meaning I got back in to Dupnitsa at 2 AM or so. All in all, fun times!
Hopefully, I'll be going skiing sometime soonish. I promise I'll take my camera along, if that happens.
Later, flipsiders.
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