Serbia and Smokey caught in a fly trap

I'm still not sure why exactly I went to Serbia, but it was a late-night decision, and luckily my mom was there to confirm that it was a good idea. Before thinking too much about it, I booked a flight and a hotel. I think this was my way of celebrating 1) the team winning the first tournament, and 2) having a free weekend (shocking!).

The trip was everything I needed it to be. I had no planned itinerary besides walking around. This was my favorite kind of trip. Romania was great because everything was planned, but sometimes I like to be totally spontaneous, make my own plans, and get lost (which I did more than once. That's what happens when you don't have data roaming turned on).

I think the highlight of my trip was the first night. I took a bus from Blagoevgrad to Sofia, Metro'd to the airport, and then took a short flight to Belgrade. I arrived around 4:30 P.M. when the sun was already setting. The time zone shift surprised me, as the flight was about 45 minutes long. So that's one more thing Bulgaria has on Serbia: a little more sunlight. 

The first night I arrived at the hotel, asked the desk receptionist if the city center was walkable from the hotel, and was met with a firm "No, it's almost 5 kilometers." I said, "Okay..." but in my head was thinking, "Challenge accepted." 

I happily walked those 5k to the city center (what's a 5k walk?!). I did get a bit lost trying to cross the Sava River from New Belgrade to Old Beldgrade (the center). Many of the bridges didn't seem pedestrian-friendly, so I wandered around until I finally crossed. Luckily, the bridge I eventually crossed dropped me off right at the Belgrade Fortress, which was awesome to explore at night because I felt like the only one there, aside from the couples kissing on the benches overlooking the river. 

The following day involved a lot of the same thing: walking around, simply exploring. The one thing I was determined to find was the preservation of the NATO bombing of Belgrade from 1999. It was truly surreal to see, as it was surrounded by beautiful old (and new) buildings but still looked like the bombing had happened yesterday. 

More than anything, I'm glad that I worked up the courage to take a solo trip to a foreign country. That was a first for me (moving to Bulgaria aside, as there is a tremendous amount of support in Bulgaria). I wasn't sure that I could do it, or that I'd panic at the new language, etc., but I survived and am intact and happier for having gone. 

I was, however, glad to get back to Bulgaria to see my Smokey. Smokey didn't seem to care that I was gone. He meowe'd for about 3.4 seconds and then got into my lap and started purring. He really is the easiest cat ever. 

Except for when he got trapped in a fly trap...There's a fly trap (sticky tape) hanging from my ceiling, and as I was in the kitchen, it fell down. Poor Smokey got it wrapped around his whole tail. He ran around like a bat out of hell for a good 30 seconds and finally set up on my bed and looked up at me like, "WTF do I do, human?" I came over and slowly worked it out of his tail. It took a good 10 minutes to get off of his tail, but he stayed quiet and still the whole time. The problem was his tail was ridiculously sticky afterwards, so I used the trusty Google and found that olive oil can work wonders. I gave Smokey's tail an olive oil bath (again, he stayed still) and then washed it off with some soap. I think he liked the aftertaste of olive oil (what a Bulgarian cat), but hopefully he doesn't walk into any more fly traps. 

The other exciting event of the week was Athena coming to visit. Athena is my predecessor who was here in Blagoevgrad for 3 years as an ETA and coach of the speech/debate team. We had a great "surprise" dinner for the students. I put "surprise" in quotations because a few of the students knew, and I'm a chronically bad liar, so I had a hard time keeping it a secret. My smile always gives it away. It was a great night seeing her surprise the students; you can tell how much they love her. Oh, and the food was good and cheap. Standard for Bulgaria. 

Athena came by school on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I'll be the first to admit that it was a bit difficult. The kids so clearly love her, and for a good reason: she's a passionate teacher. I think I got a bit jealous - I want that kind of rapport with the students, but I have to remind myself that I've been teaching here for only about 10 weeks, and she had 3 years. It did make me miss my students in Las Vegas (especially the ones I had for the two years). But it also gives me motivation to work hard, be passionate about teaching/coaching, and do the best job I can - not at replicating what she did but at doing the best job I can at being myself, both in the classroom and outside of it. It worked in Las Vegas, and I have no reason to doubt that it will work here. 

Thanksgiving's tomorrow, and this is the 2nd time I've been away from my family for the holidays. I was away from them in 2010, but that almost doesn't count because I couldn't have cared less that year. It's tough this year being so far from them, but I'm thrilled that they'll be visiting over Christmas (Christmas in Prague sounds perfect). I'm also glad that I'll get to spend "Friendsgiving" in Plovdiv with other Fulbrighters who are all in the same boat. Now I just have to figure out what I can bring besides Diet Coke. 

But sometimes, Diet Coke (or in Eastern Europe's case, only Coke Zero) is all you need... 

In honor of Thanksgiving, here are just a few of the things I'm grateful for: 

• a kitty that's sound asleep on my back right now 
• a family that's willing and able to visit me soon 
• a group of people to join together and celebrate the holiday
• having a job and a roof over my head (2010, looking at you) 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 

First BEST Tournament

I wanted to write this post before the excitement and adrenaline of our first BEST tournament wears off.

First of all, I want to thank all of the donors who gave money for our team. This trip was expensive for us because we had to rent a charter bus as well as stay two nights in the hotel, as Bulgaria has a really strict law where buses cannot carry students when the sun is not out. Daylight savings time did not work in our favor for this trip, and there is a huge mountain range between Blagoevgrad and Stara Zagora which makes public transport (e.g. train) difficult and slow, as we would have had to go through Sofia, adding another night to our trip. We could not have made it to the tournament without your help.

The tournament's opening ceremony started at 11, and the first round started at 11:30. We showed up at approximately 11:31. We threw our bags into the luggage room of the school (great idea, BEST folks!) and I tried desperately to help my students find the correct rooms. I was then whisked away to "judges training" so I felt fairly helpless knowing that my students were in round 1.

One of BEST's rules is that judges cannot judge an event in which someone from their school is participating, obviously to prevent bias. Because Blagoevgrad had so many students in the tournament, nearly every room for every event had some of my students in them, so I was free to wander around and watch my kids (some of whom were mad at my appearance...Viktor and his "Tell-Tale Heart" made that clear, but he still killed it, no pun intended).

I had no idea how my students would perform, as this was my first tournament. But man, they showed up with their A-game. When the results for semifinalists were posted, we had around half of the total slots (and 3 out of 4 of the semifinal debate teams).

I did get to judge a few debates from other schools, which were fascinating. Watching students debate in a foreign language is incredible. I could not have done what they do...in English. Most of the debate topics are announced weeks prior to the tournament (but not which side you're on), but there are also 2 impromptu rounds. The impromptu round that I judged was "This house believes that people are not born equal." There were fascinating scientific and philosophical arguments from both sides.

The final day was incredibly exciting. I got to watch all of my kids who were in the final rounds. The final debate (held in a beautiful auditorium) was between two debate teams from Blagoevgrad who had researched and prepared together. It was amazing to watch them debate like enemies and then hug afterwards. It reminded me of watching the prosecutors and defenders at the District Court in DC talk candidly after a trial.

This House believes that counter immigration measures are regrettable: proposition (government) on the left and the opposition on the left. Blagoevgrad vs. Blagoevgrad throwdown. Both teams did amazing. I'm glad I didn't have to judge the winner. 

The closing ceremony was a rush of emotion and adrenaline. For this tournament, BEST decided to combine the novice (8th and 9th grade) with the varsity (10th-12th), which had a lot of my novice kids in panic mode. However, we had several students who won the "Best Novice" award. They were so thrilled. In fact, out of 5 events, my students won 4 of the "best novice" awards. Imagine being an 8th grader, just starting to learn English in a high school context, and competing against 12th graders. They stepped up to the plate. 

Besides the overall win, I had two favorite moments. The first was watching one of my students who competed in oratory. A week ago she was so frightened at the idea of participating that she considered dropping out. To hear her name called for "Best Novice" was unbelievable. I am not an easily excitable guy, but I actually screamed at the top of my lungs for her. 

The other favorite moment was watching two of my 10th graders win the duo finals. These students sent me their script of West Side Story back in September (first week of school!) and had worked tirelessly since then. After their final, they were worried that they didn't do well. Seeing them win the overall award was absolutely a highlight. I think this photo of their reaction sums it up well. 

Pure joy on the left from West Side Story duo: congrats, guys! 

Of course, winning overall was incredibly exciting, despite the fact that I was in the far corner of the auditorium and assumed that the whole team would go up to pick up the award. Turns out, they just wanted the coach to go up. So I had to wade my way down to the front. My students started chanting "Alex! Alex!" which made me blush just like I would do when people used to sing "Happy Birthday" to me as a kid. The thing is, they should have been cheering for themselves. They did all the work. I was a facilitator of their work. I didn't have to stand up in front of a crowd and give a speech/debate in a foreign language. Sure, I dedicated a lot of time to practices, but so did the students. If I think back to high school, I cannot imagine showing up to school 2.5 hours early to work on a speech. My students truly should have cheered for themselves. We did it together.

All in all, I was immensely impressed with BEST as a whole. The tournament was well-run, and the atmosphere was more like a community as opposed to a group of competitors. I think it's so brave of the students (from all schools) to sign up to compete in these English events, so it's only right that the students support each other. Sure, they want to win, but they also understand the broader meaning of the organization and the tournament. 

When I came here to Bulgaria, I knew that I was filling big shoes in that the former coach had worked with these kids for three years and knew the ins-and-outs of the organization (she helped found it). I had been so fearful that we would not perform well, and that I would take it personally as a sign of my own failure. Yes, winning the tournament did help validate that somewhat, but I think that even if we'd not won, I would still feel proud of the team (and myself) for competing in the tournament. 

The icing on the cake was returning from the tournament this morning around 11 (we had to leave Stara Zagora when the sun rose) and heading to the school director's office with the other chaperones. The principal handed us some chocolate and let us know that we were excused from school for the day if we'd like. We took her up on that offer. It was a long weekend of early mornings, long days, and celebratory nights (with no students breaking any rules *claps*). 

I got home to Smokey, who gave me a quick meow and then jumped up on my lap in the middle of the hallway. I was scared to leave him alone after only getting him a week ago, but Mark from AUBG was kind enough to check up on him everyday. 

I'm looking forward to a few weeks of relaxation (i.e. not 2.5 hours of practice before school every day). And I just reserved a room in Plovdiv for a Fulbright Thanksgiving. Things are looking up! 

Шампиони!

Romania, Reunions, and Rescued Kittens

Sometimes alliteration just works out like that, without even trying.

I haven't posted in several weeks, which is the exact opposite of what I need to be doing. When there are so many things going on here, it's hard to remember to pause and write about it (to whomever may care to read this, but more for my own future reading's sake).

Because so many things here are disorganized and chaotic (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), I want to keep this post super-organized, so humor me.

1. Halloween Trip to Romania with Fulbright friends 

This was a trip that I'd badly needed. Before I came to Bulgaria, I had dreams of traveling around on the weekends and taking exotic and cheap vacations to nearby cities and countries. The reality is that my weekends are filled with speech & debate practices (which I love, don't get me wrong). But I was ready to finally break the seal on the traveling aspect of my time here. Romania with friends was a perfect way to do that. 

We all met in Sofia late at night and took an overnight bus to Bucharest. This bus was packed. It was the first time I've ever had to actually sit in the "място" that shows up on the ticket. And of course there was an angry old man in front of me who was intent on reclining his seat the entire way. My legs were already tucked up at an odd angle just to fit in the seat. At first I tried to use force to keep his seat from reclining; strong legs come in handy sometimes. He started wildly thrashing about on his seat to get it to recline, forcing me to come up with some Bulgarian: "I am the tallest person on this bus, and there is no room. We can change seats." I'm sure it sounded less grammatically correct than that, but the message was received. And he got off the bus in Ruse anyway. 

Crossing the Danube near Ruse with Bulgaria on the right and Romania on the left

We arrived in Bucharest around 7 in the morning and realized we had no money (Romanian lei). The Bucharest bus station is far less well-developed than the new Sofia bus station, so there was no ATM in sight. We finally found a man who directed us (in Russian, thanks Colby) to an ATM where we played the "Whose card will work?" game. Thanks, Charles Schwab. 

Bucharest felt like a busier version of Sofia. We stayed at an airbnb apartment which downstairs had a kitten cafe/meditation room. It was just like I'd imagined Romania to be...

We walked around and made our way to an incredible museum where Romanian architecture from different centuries has been recreated. You can actually feel like you are walking through an old Romanian village (if that's your thing). 

Finally, we went out to dinner in the Old Town part of Bucharest (think: cobblestone and narrow streets with important looking buildings and hole in the wall restaurants). 

After Bucharest, we made our way north to Transylvania and Sighisoara. Sighisoara (spelling is hard) is a small Romanian town with a sort-of citadel medieval village atop the city. Our hostel was in the medieval part of town. We had to drive through the old gates to get to it. (Side note: shout out to Moriah for driving in Romania, through the winding roads, at night, with a stick shift. You're the best). 

Sighisoara was nice and compact. Bucharest felt overwhelming in its size, but this small town was entirely walkable. My favorite part was the old arts and crafts store in the basement of a cafe where I got my mom her birthday present: an old Romanian spoon with symbols of motherhood on it. The lady was so excited that someone wasn't asking for another Dracula-themed spoon. 

The next day we headed to Bran with a pit stop at an interesting and cheap medieval castle plopped on the side of the highway. Bran was, as Ryan put it, like "game day." It was packed with people. Bran is the site of the commonly-known-as "Dracula's castle" where Halloween festivities would be. 

The most interesting part of the night was not the tour of Dracula's castle, but rather Moriah and I's search for our hotel, which was far more out of town than we'd imagined. And of course we didn't have cell phone service to type it into Google Maps. In desperation, we pulled up next to a hotel, logged onto their Wifi from the rental car, and mapped directions to our hotel. Unfortunately, Google maps told us our hotel was in the middle of a barren field on the side of a mountain. Thanks, Google! We eventually found our way to the hotel though, and a fun (but cold) evening was had by all. 

At least we had a pretty view while searching for the hotel. 

On the next day, we drove back to Bucharest and tried to catch up on our sleep in Bucharest's Starbucks (the comforts of home...). Our bus back to Sofia was also an over-nighter. Luckily, this one was entirely empty. I had the back row to myself (6 seats!). We were all upset when we opened our eyes and realized that we were back in Sofia. We wanted to nap for a bit longer...The worst part was it was approximately 3am and the first buses back to our respective cities weren't until around 8 or so. So we got to hang out in Sofia's central bus station for longer than anyone should be required to do. 

All in all, Romania was a great time and a much-needed break. 

2. Reunion with Mom 

I could not be happier that my mom came to visit me. I think that the further I get from home (DC...Las Vegas...Bulgaria...), the more I realize how much I adore my family and the time I get to spend with them. 

I think my mom was understandably overwhelmed with Bulgaria, especially not knowing the language or the Cyrillic alphabet. But damn, she was a trooper. She even made it to the Rila Monastery on her own (I was at work). 

My favorite 3 parts of her visit were 1) her getting to see the speech/debate students rehearse, 2) her actually getting to see me teach a class, and 3) watching Netflix each night with her (a true "Netflix and chill"). 

We went to the Blagoevgrad museum (after confidently walking into the entirely wrong building), hiked through Bachinovo and tried out some strange exercise machines, and ate at far too many restaurants. It's just too tempting to eat out when you realize that this nice meal costs around 4 dollars when converted from the Bulgarian currency. 

She also went "full mom" on me when I gave her a set of apartment keys while I was at work. I would come home and find a new toaster oven, fresh laundry hanging out to dry, and a cleaned kitchen. I think that she misses getting to be "mom" sometimes, and I am certainly not one to complain about that. 

The final thing she left me with was...

3. Rescued Kitten 

There is a group of around 5 black kittens that hangs around a dumpster around the corner from my apartment. One of the cats (as identified by not being entirely black - he has some grey on his sides and belly) has walked with me to my apartment before, while the others skittered away. He'd even gotten on top of the lean-to which looks into my apartment. So it was inevitable that when my mom and I were walking home and the little котка came walking with us, that we would take it in. Our initial plan was to just see how it would do in a house. 

I think the kitten was purring before we reached the couch. 

It's amazing how fast he's been domesticated. He uses the litter box (and tries to use the plants, but I cut that out), let us give him a bath without whining, allowed us to trim his claws without making a sound, and sleeps purring all night long beside me. When I left all day for work, he didn't eat all of the food I left him, which I'd assumed a formerly feral cat would do, as they don't know when their next meal will come. 

It almost started to seem like this must have been a stray and not feral cat, but he truly was feral. He's no more than 8 weeks old and shows no signs of having been domesticated before (siblings outside, distended belly, having seem him at the dumpster for weeks on end, etc.). I think I just got an amazing kitten. 

He loves to play with his new mouse toys and sleep on me when I'm trying to do work. Right now he's lying in my lap and intermittently paws at my hand to send me a cease and desist letter for typing this blog post. 

Oh, and his name is Smokey (after much deliberation and contributions from my Bulgarian friends). The name fits perfectly: 1) Smokey was my childhood cat's name (like way, way into childhood); 2) His skin color is a smokey black and grey; and 3) The air outside was exceedingly smokey when we took him in - many people in Blagoevgrad still use wood-burning heaters, so there is a layer of smoke around every night. 

I'm off this weekend to Stara Zagora for our first Speech & Debate tournament (thanks to all the donations!) and have found Smokey a pet-sitter, a professor from AUBG, to check up on him once a day, although he seems pretty independent. I plan on taking him to the vet to be checked out and neutered, once I return from Stara Zagora next week. 

I'm sure that will be an entirely new adventure...Don't hate me, Smokey! 

Speech & Debate, or My 2nd Job

It's been far too long, and I wholly blame Speech & Debate for taking up all of my time. Our first tournament is in about two weeks, and it's been a whirlwind of trying to get everyone prepared, register folks, get ISBNs, and somehow nail down transportation for 40 kids halfway across the country (along with Bulgaria's law that charter buses cannot transport students in the dark).

So with that said, I wanted to include in this post some information about what the Speech & Debate team actually IS because before I got here, I had a really bad idea about it all. I thought of it as a "debate" team when in reality, debate is only 1 out of 5 events.

I found out that I'd be the head coach of this team when I was accepted for Fulbright. It was not forced upon me, but rather presented by my amazing predecessor as "Here's something I did that worked well; if you want to continue it, I can help." I happily accepted once I learned that events were in English and not Bulgarian. I'd be a useless coach if events were in Bulgarian.

The team is part of the BEST Foundation (Bulgarian English Speech & Debate Tournaments) which was founded by fellow Fulbrighters, including my predecessor. The organization is an NGO which hosts regional and national tournaments, as well as a US Qualifying tournament which is held here in Blagoevgrad next spring. Nearly all of the the ETAs with Fulbright have inherited a BEST team, so we are all in the same boat. However, my team is HUGE and has a record of success so it feels like I'm trying to jump onto a moving train.

For simplicity, I'll outline the 5 events below:

1. Original Oratory. This is the standard "speech" event in which the students gives an original, memorized speech about an issue of importance to him/her. I've heard oratories on topics from racism to bad role models to the status of Bulgaria as a "modern colony." Oratories are up to 10 minutes long and, as mentioned, are memorized. Imagine memorizing and performing a speech in a foreign language in school. These kids are outstanding.

2. Duo Interpretation. In duo, the two students perform a scene out of a published book, play, poem, etc. As with oratory the work is memorized except the students are not writing the work themselves, hence the term "interpretation." Students "cut" a longer piece of work into a 10 minute performance. For instance, I have two students who are performing "West Side Story" in 10 minutes. Think of it as the "highlight" version of the story. One of the coolest rules is that students are not allowed to look at each other. It makes for some pretty amazing acting. My students are far better actors/actresses than I ever was.

3/4. Prose/Poetry. I'm including these events together because they are so similar. In each case, students take a written piece of prose or poetry and read it aloud. It sounds easy (just reading something out loud), but most of the work comes in adding appropriate gestures, changes in tone of voice/intonation, and appropriate or dramatic pauses. These are some of the hardest things to learn how to do in a foreign language, so it's amazing that these students can do so.

5. Debate. Debate is still the most foreign concept for me, but I'm catching on. Each debate team is composed of 3 members. There are 4 speeches given for each team. Each team is either the government (proposition) or the opposition. For our fall tournament, the debate topics are: Ahmed Mohamed's scholarship, counter-immigration measures, and outsourcing in Bulgaria. Before the tournament, students do not know which side they will be on, so they have to research from both sides. I think that's where a lot of the real learning occurs: trying to formulate arguments on a side that you may not necessarily agree with. There's also an impromptu debate topic that is introduced at the tournament itself.

So far, I've been overwhelmed by the amount of logistics it takes to get a team to a tournament (blue ink only for this form, the 3 names not 2 names on this sheet, the ISBN on this form, etc.) but the student leaders have been amazing. Viktor, Lollie, Yoana, Kari: shout out to you guys! You've made my life a lot easier.

As I said before, our first tournament is in about 2.5 weeks (Nov 15-16) in Stara Zagora. I will be sure to keep everyone posted on how we do. Fingers crossed :D

American vs. Bulgarian Education

It has been far too long since I've posted on here, but life finally started to get busy (which is a good thing!). I've now been in Bulgaria for 5 weeks, but it feels like a year. Time has seemed to move slower since being here, likely because little things are much more difficult than they were back in the U.S. Going to the grocery store is an experience in and of itself.

Despite the difficulties involved in adapting to a culture and life which has to be the diametric opposite of Las Vegas, I think I've finally started to find my metaphorical rhythm. Or at least as much of a rhythm as one can find while living so far from home.

In this post I wanted to go a little bit into the differences I've seen between the education systems in Bulgaria and the U.S. I've been in Bulgaria for only a short amount of time, and my 2 years teaching in the U.S. hardly qualifies me to speak on the subject, but I do have a few observations.

The first and most general observation is that education in Bulgaria seems to fit into the "teacher-centered" category which was so widely-derided in the U.S. Using the term "student-centered" in my papers at UNLV was a given; a student-led classroom was the holy-grail. Here in Bulgaria, however, that's not the case. The teacher is seen as the center of the classroom. Dictations and grammar exercises are common. While I would have been quick to say "That won't work" (given what I'd been taught), the students here are really, really smart. Their English is outstanding. (Disclaimer: My kids are in a foreign language school, so what I say may not ring true for all of Bulgaria).

I think that in some ways, the method of education here better suits the introvert. In the U.S., I often thought that the pedagogical methods were suited towards the extrovert: sitting students in groups and emphasizing collaboration. I do understand the benefits of collaboration and peer-work, but I also remember being a student myself and enjoying when I got to sit down with a bunch of work and figure it out on my own. Group work was always a nightmare for me.

I wish there were an educational system that catered to both types of personalities. Some students learn best in groups, talking with their peers. Others learn best by sitting down with a textbook or listening to a lecture. I think that the proverbial pedagogical pendulum swings too far in both directions.

Another observation from Bulgaria is that the students are extraordinarily respectful of their teachers. It is standard for the students to stand up when their teacher enters the classroom. I have been caught off guard by this a few times. I walk into the room and am wondering why all the students are standing up, looking at me, until I remember to tell them that they may be seated.

I've also found that students here listen to every word I say. If I write a term on the board, they immediately write it in their notebooks. If I ask them to bring something to class the next day, they do so. As I mentioned above, this may be a school-specific thing, but it's still unusual to me.

Other minor differences include that the students stay in the same room; teachers rotate. This has been really hard for me, as I enjoy having my own "space." Classroom management was easier when the students were entering "my" room. It was much easier to organize my stuff when I had my own room. I long for the days when I had a separate bookshelf for each class. Now all I have is a small drawer in the teacher's lounge.

Overall, I cannot make a sweeping generalization about the Bulgarian education system (nor can I make one about the American system). I can only make observations about what I've seen in both. It is a totally different world. I look forward to learning more about the ways they are different and the same.

Now, I should get back to lesson planning...

Езикова гимназия "Акад. Людмил Стоянов"

Lakes and Lessons

What a short but long week it has been!

Last weekend was an actual long weekend, with Monday and Tuesday off. Many of my Fulbright peers shipped off to other countries, but I knew I wanted to stay close in to Blagoevgrad to really settle into my new home (or at least try to). I went out to dinner last Wednesday night with Tracy from AUBG (American University in Bulgaria - a prestigious American-style university located approximately 400 meters from my apartment). She asked me if I wanted to go to the 7 Lakes region of the Rila Mountains with her on Saturday.

Instant plans made!

The 7 Rila Lakes are glacial lakes not far at all from Blagoevgrad, at least how the bird flies. The actual trip there (and back) was a true adventure. I wouldn't have made it without Tracy and her Bulgarian skills. Our trip to the mountain involved jumping onto an AUBG van on its way to Sofia with conference attendees from all over the world, haggling prices with a cab driver to take us to the lift from Dupnitsa, and finally a gondola to the trailhead. There the actual hiking began...I struggled at the beginning but eventually got my hiking legs back under me. The result was a phenomenal view and surprisingly cool weather (yet perfectly sunny, which I read and hear is not usual for the lakes).

Tracy overlooking her lakes 

The ride back was where the real fun began. We rode the gondola/ski lift back down then walked around until Tracy managed to find us a ride with a couple from Plovdiv, after he refused once then changed his mind. Their Mercedes was not a bad way at all to get down the mountain. They dropped us off in the middle of some unknown town because they were headed in a different direction than Dupnitsa at that point. We wandered down the main road and then found a bus stop. We jumped on a bus that looked straight out of 1950 and barreled our way down to Dupnitsa. At the bus station, we learned that there were no more buses to Blagoevgrad from there, so we bought train tickets and hopped on an hour later. 

Excited for my first Bulgarian train ride 

The rest of the weekend was somewhat frustrating, as I had to wait until the following Wednesday for Vivacom to bring my router. There are only so many times I could walk over to AUBG, act like a student, and get me some Wifi. It's amazing how reliant we become on technology, and we often don't realize that until we're separated from it. 

So I spent some time making the apartment more "mine": 

Shout out to my favorite mountain 

Natalia and Jennifer made me promise to put up their drawings. 

It always helps to remember my students back in Vegas 

This week only involved two days of teaching, but I think those two days alone reduced my "What in the world is going on?" percentage by about 50%. I knew that I was going to be teaching mostly 8th graders, so I was thrilled to finally meet them on Wednesday. They are just as sassy and unpredictable as my 8th graders were back in the States. 

The difference in ability level between students is really pushing me as a teacher, though. I knew I needed differentiation (buzzword alert) in Vegas, but this is a whole 'nother level. My students at EГ come from many different villages and schools with wildly different English levels. 8th grade is the first year of high school here, so these students are totally new and absolutely not on the same page. And I now know so well what they feel like: you feel dumb. I feel dumb walking into a store and wanting to say "Olives please?" but instead I have to fumble around with my words. It's not that I don't know what olives are; it's that I don't know the Bulgarian word for them (маслини, I now know). So I really sympathize with those students. I have a lot of work to do to be able to reach students at such different levels, but I'll get it done. 

With all of the changes and all of the uncertainty and "I can't do this" milling about in my head, I made a decision this weekend to focus on the little victories. It may be something as small as getting a load of laundry done correctly (the machine is in German and doesn't like to do what I tell it to), making a pseudo storage area out of cut-up boxes, or successfully asking for a check at a restaurant, with my speech/debate students filming it because "No foreigners ever speak Bulgarian." This is the first time I've lived alone and it's in Bulgaria. I can't expect to immediately feel at ease and at home, but I'm getting there one small victory at a time. 

In the meantime, I decided to go full Bulgarian and make myself a shopska salad. I'm thoroughly pleased with the results. Happy early weekend, Fulbrighters! 

Jesus Take the Wheel, for Real

The last few days have been tough and lonely and anxiety-inducing, but today was a great "first day" of school. Metaphorically, Jesus took the wheel. I'll explain later.

Blagoevgrad has been great so far, but it's also been lonely. It's hard to go from being in Sofia for orientation with 30 other Americans to being the (seemingly) only American in town. Being in Sofia was somewhat like being a tourist, so we were shielded from a certain level of culture shock. But now everyone's hours and train rides and bus rides away, so it's been tough. 

One nice part of Blagoevgrad has been my apartment. A German teacher at my school lived here for the prior 6 years, and he spent a lot of time, energy, and money upgrading it. I'm lucky to have things like AC and a beautifully-tiled bathroom. It looks like a communist-style block of apartments from the outside, but it has character and is spacious on the inside. Plus, my bed is huge. I know that my school went out of their way to make me a big enough bed, so I'm incredibly grateful for that. 

It's also been hard because my teaching schedule is still so uncertain. I knew that was going to be difficult coming in; in Las Vegas, I enjoyed knowing my classes, knowing what I'd be teaching, and having an idea of how to do things like make copies, discipline students, etc. That information is a bit harder to get here, not helped by the language barrier. But I've met up with many of the Speech & Debate students several times, and they've made me feel so much more at home. 

Today was the official first day of school, In Bulgaria it involves a ceremony with a whole bunch of flowers and speeches. I was so incredibly nervous on the walk to school: would I see my classes today? Would I know my schedule? I walked into the building and was recognized as the "American" and quickly whisked away into the director's office. She doesn't speak English but does speak Russian. We had an interesting conversation mixing Bulgarian, Russian, and even a bit of German. Whatever gets the message across - nonverbal communication works well, too! 

For the ceremony, I was not actually there for long as my mentor teacher had prepared for me to go to the police station to register myself as a resident of Blagoevgrad. I was put into a green van with a man who spoke no English and taken to a cavernous building with long lines. Not a word was spoken in English, so I don't really know what happened, but I got my card stamped. And then day 1 of teaching was done! 

So I decided to go on a walk. I could have either stayed in my apartment and sulked at the fact that I still didn't know my teaching schedule and was anxious about being in a new country, but I decided to get out. I didn't know where, but I wanted to walk around. Once I started, I decided "I'll head up." I kept winding my way up the roads until they turned to dirt roads and eventually trails. When I smelled the pine trees, I knew I had to keep going. I'd heard there was a cross overlooking Blagoevgrad, so when I saw the cross in the distance, I tried to keep heading in that direction (with some switchbacks, barbed wire fences, and abandoned-looking zoos thrown in there). 

Oh and there was an elderly lady who forced me to take a peach. This was fairly far into the hike, so I was sweaty and probably looked tired, thirsty, and hungry. The peach was amazing. 

Eventually, I made my way to the top. It was a tough hike, and I've done some hard hikes (Whitney, Charleston). It just kept going up. And not to mention I had no idea where I was really going and brought only a half Nalgene and no food. 

At the top was a small Orthodox church that was surprisingly open. I walked inside and took some photos, which felt sacrilegious, but I did it anyways. 

At the top was also the most serendipitous event of the day. There were two girls at the cross, and I overheard them speaking American English. I usually would keep to myself, but I was too excited at the sound of an American accent, so I approached them and asked, "Are you Americans?" They are both exchange students at the American University in Bulgaria and even expressed interest in doing "outdoorsy" things around Blagoevgrad. Loneliness takes a hit! 

I'm off to meet one of the admissions officers at AUBG for dinner and will then try to stop overthinking the lack-of-information on teaching. Each day will reduce my anxiety as I learn more about my classes, my students, and the new city that I'm lucky to call home. 

Halfway Through Orientation

It's Sunday morning, and we've made it through half of Fulbright Orientation, which has been busy and enlightening.

Each day has involved waking up to an incredible breakfast buffet of every imaginable breakfast food. My choice has usually involved a "palachinka" or a crepe/pancake with a little bit of Nutella spread on it and rolled up. Others opt for the cucumbers...

We go through several different sessions that are not unlike TFA's All Corps, except I have found them more relevant and informative, probably due to the smaller group involved. We've had training on security from U.S. Embassy Officials (don't walk predictable routes, carry passport, etc.) and great sessions from Jessie, a guy contracted through the Embassy to give teacher professional development.

I think the most helpful sessions have been the roundtable talks with former ETAs/returnees who offer great practical advice. There have also been sessions on Bulgarian history from a guy who runs a podcast I actually listened to before coming here. And one more session was on different cultural and ethnic groups here. It's a ton of information to take in but doesn't seem as overwhelming as TFA Institute, probably because the teaching stuff is a "review."

Mock-lessons 

Two experiences so far have stood out to me as worth mentioning:

(1) Dinner at Restaurant Vodenitzata which is in the mountains overlooking Sofia. We had course upon course of different Bulgarian foods, and I got to sit next to the famous (amongst Fulbrighters)  Iliana Dimitrova, the Fulbright ETA Program Director who essentially got us all to Bulgaria in one piece. I mean, she even called the Chicago Consulate of the BG Embassy at 3am her time to set them straight about my visa application.

The dinner also included a traditional Bulgarian folk dance and a firewalking show.

A memorable moment occurred in the bathroom of all places. I was led to the bathroom by a 4 year old (interesting in itself) and once inside, noticed there was a suited man standing there with an ear piece, a la FBI. Turns out he was with the Embassy security, as the Ambassador to Bulgaria was at dinner with us.

(2) Day Trip to the Rila Monastery. The Rila Monastery is this fascinating place tucked away in the Rila Mountains (very close to my placement town of Blagoevgrad). It's an Orthodox monastery from the 10th century and, needless to say, was gorgeous. We had an English tour of the monastery's museum and free time to walk around. We then went down to eat at a nice Bulgarian restaurant where I faced my fear of fish, or риба, and ordered the trout which was caught from the stream at the side of the restaurant. Unfortunately, "trout" included the head and tail and skin and everything in between. A fellow Fulbrighter saved the day and cleaned up the fish so that I could actually look at it, much less eat it. I'll work on my fear of seafood. Sometime.

Incredible frescoes at every turn 

Рилски манастир


 Probably the best part of the trip to Rila was the post-lunch exploration of the stream beneath the restaurant. I failed at an attempt to hold a frog (apparently a fear of mine?) and we engaged in some serious rock-skipping that reminded me of my times at my grandparent's house in Heber Springs. 

I'm looking forward to the next week and meeting my mentor teacher, but I'm most excited about finally getting to go down to Blagoevgrad and settle in to my new home.

Arrival in Bulgaria!

What a long journey that was! I've made it here to Sofia!

My flights were from Memphis to Chicago to London Heathrow to Sofia. Everything went great except for a lost bag in Chicago, but because my dad is amazing (and knows how to get things done in airports), the bag was found and British Airways has it on its way to Bulgaria.

I think the most memorable part of the journey was getting a window seat from London to Sofia. We crossed right over the heart of Europe, flying over Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, and finally into Bulgaria. Those flights maps are awesome in that they show you where you are.

The final descent into Sofia was gorgeous. The city is flanked by a huge mountain, Vitosha, which reminds me a lot of Mt. Charleston in Las Vegas. The different types of architecture from the plane were interesting: on the outskirts of town were the standard communist-influenced apartment blocks, and there were also nice, wealthy looking neighborhoods. It's a colorful city, and I'm looking forward to exploring it. 

София

For the first two weeks of the Fulbright Program, we are staying at the Park Hotel Vitosha, which is located near the Technical University of Sofia - a university that gives a nod to Georgetown's Lauinger Library. 

So far I've been mostly sleeping and re-arranging my luggage. I did walk around the hotel area last night in search of food, but most places were closed. The hotel is not in a very commercial district to begin with, so today I look forward to getting into the actual city center. 

Park Hotel Vitosha with a view of the mountains and a surprisingly large park. 

Little did I know the room key would become my first encounter with "culture shock." It turns out the room key must be placed into the switch inside the room to power the room. I spent far too long flipping every switch and plugging into all of the outlets before I, exasperatedly, went to the hotel lobby with a : "Можете ли да ми помогнете" (Can you help me?). She smiled and, in English, told me how to turn on the power. 

And then there was light! 

We also received a nice bag of goodies from the Fulbright commission here including a Bulgarian textbook meant just for us. It was written by the Commission itself. I feel so special and so unprepared for speaking Bulgarian. 

Now I'm off to explore Sofia with some of the other Fulbrighters who are arriving early. All of you back in the States are in my thoughts. I miss you all already! 

Why Teach (for America and Bulgaria)?

I'm writing this post for selfish reasons. More than anything, I want something I can look back on when I'm frustrated at a lesson that didn't go as planned, or when I'm mad at the copy machine or some other similarly life-ending tragedy.

If you had told me three years ago at Georgetown that I'd be a teacher (in Las Vegas and Bulgaria, of all places), I would have laughed you out of my Lau cubicle and thrown an overly-highlighted politics textbook at you. The thought of willingly re-entering a school simply would not have crossed my mind. School was something I survived. Got through. Finished.

So where did Teach for America (more on my love-hate relationship with TFA below) come into play? I was a college senior searching for any and every job that both paid an actual salary and did not require 3-5 years experience for an entry-level position. I looked at paralegal jobs in the DC area and interviewed at several firms, knowing that my position would consist primarily of fetching coffee, making copies, and earning a wage that would barely pay for a decent toilet in DC's real estate market. More than anything, I knew that a paralegal position would hardly be making a difference.

TFA came into my field of vision because my sister was a corps member in Texas, and I'd had a positive experience visiting her classroom, aside from inadvertently slamming a child's fingers in the door. I saw that her kids respected her, that she loved her job, and that her work there was having a direct and tangible effect for the better.

Now, a bit on TFA and my problems with the organization. I had no business or experience being a teacher. Who was I to think that I could come in, undergo 5 weeks of training, and jump into a classroom? Fortunately, it worked, but I think that I was lucky. I saw too many other corps members struggle in the classroom, some of whom left the profession before the first semester ended. I do think that TFA is taking a step in the right direction by considering a three-year program that involves starting training in the senior year of college.

While I'm on the subject, I also think that Teach for America overextends itself with good intentions but ultimately to the detriment of students. TFA's Institute jumps straight into telling you how to be "transformational" without explaining how to get students to actually show up in your classroom on time or not sharpen their pencils while you're speaking. In the same vein, TFA along with the Common Core standards, want students to learn XYZ when they haven't learned ABC.

To use a track-and-field analogy, it would be like having a kid run high hurdles on the first day of practice. That athlete, save a prodigy or two, would slam herself into the hurdles and say "Screw it. I'll run distance." Instead, the coach should first instruct her on hurdling form, then move her up to the low hurdles before finally approaching the high ones. (I don't know if this is how hurdle training actually works. Appropriately, I ran distance.)

Problems with Teach for America aside, I teach because it allows me to step out of my comfort zone and be selfless. My career track before was selfish; how can I make the most money by putting in the least amount of work? How can I set myself up for success (as measured by money)? I wanted to be comfortable and rich.

Teaching affords you neither of those.

Stepping into the classroom and teaching blew the walls out of my comfort zone. I hate public speaking. Hearing the bell ring and facing a classroom of 35 twelve-year olds was something out of a nightmare for me, but I survived and ultimately found myself completely at ease in the classroom. So at ease that I wore a banana costume and used a scooter for transportation for an entire day because my kids scored high enough on their unit test.

More importantly than the selfish reason of personal growth, teaching allows me to be selfless. It forces me to be selfless, in fact. Show me a selfish teacher, and I'll show you someone who's both an ineffective and miserable teacher. The essence of the profession is helping others. While you do have to learn to strike a balance and take care of yourself (regularly showering and everything!), the job really forces me to think outside the confines of my own perspective. Who am I to think that I'm having a bad day when a student is crying to me that his dad has been deported? Who am I to half-ass a lesson plan when a kid's English education depends on me committing myself to it? The job requires that you push aside selfishness and focus on the perspective of others which is, selfishly, to the betterment of any person.

Now my ramblings may seem to come to a screeching halt when I admit that I won't be a teacher forever; I do have other career goals. My time as a teacher has, thus far, radically altered those career goals, however. I will never be happy in a career that does not further some sort of good in society (I'll be sure to re-read the above sentence several times when deciding what to do in the future). Teaching has implanted within me a sort-of barometer that allows me to gauge whether what I'm doing (or want to do) is right. While I could spend the rest of my life trying to find a job that is as rewarding and beneficial to myself and others, I now know that I won't be satisfied in a career that involves, say, helping this and that company make more money. I won't be happy in a career that doesn't both push me out of my selfish comfort zone and allow me to feel good about what I do on a daily basis.

I teach because I get to have that phone conversation with A.H.'s mom where she says "I can't get her to talk at dinner because she's reading another book."

I teach because I get to see students start planning and writing their own books, sharing their new chapters with me.

I teach because I get to see a student move from the level of "I correctly bubbled in my name, and that's all I'll do thank you very much" to meeting state standards within one year.

But more than anything, I teach because it allows me to wear a banana suit and ride a miniature scooter all day.

The Fulbright Application Process

I'm only writing this because several folks have asked me  "How do you apply for a Fulbright?" Some of these people are interested in actually applying for it, so I'm throwing together some information. In no way am I an expert; I'm just piecing together the little bit of information that I know.

This info is for the English Teaching Assistant alone; the research grant is a different application process that involves finding a contact at a proposed host institution abroad.

Your application will pass through 3 different stages:

(1) University faculty members/professors. See Step 1 below for more on this. In my case, I did a Skype interview with these faculty  members.

(2) Fulbright Selection Committee in the United States. This is a group of people at the International Institute of Education as well as scholars in the region or area of study to which you are applying. This group either recommends you as a finalist or you're dead in the water at this stage.

(3) Committee members in your host country. This is the final hurdle. These folks make the final decision.


Step 1 is to contact your university's Fulbright program office. These offices handle different scholarships and grants like Rhodes, Truman, etc. It's most helpful if you're still at the university, as you can communicate more with the office. Nearly every college and all universities will have some sort of Fulbright program officer. There should be a contact person at the school who will guide you through the admissions process by giving you deadlines. In Georgetown's case, their deadlines were set prior to Fulbright's actual deadlines to ensure that you got everything in on time (as well as to proofread and help revise materials). If you're not currently at the university, most will allow recent alumni to work through their office anyways. I did everything through Georgetown even though I was in Las Vegas, including the panel interview which I did over Skype. In your interview, be prepared to be grilled with questions about your selected country. In mine, I was asked "What do you think about Bulgaria's recent decision regarding Syria?" After a moment of intense fear, I replied: "I have no idea what that decision was. I'm in the first week of teaching and have been overwhelmed with that." (I didn't mention that the LSAT was also the following day). As a side note, they actually liked that answer. Go figure.

Step 2 (or before you begin the entire thing) is to select a country. For Fulbright you apply to a specific country. There are several factors that should help you select a country. Number one should be your interest. Can you show that you have an interest in that country or region? Paradoxically, having too much experience with a particular country can be counterproductive; I've read that, for instance, someone who has lived in or traveled extensively through, say, Mexico would be better applying to another Spanish-speaking country besides Mexico. You should also look at language requirements. Some countries have these; others don't. For Bulgaria, language proficiency was "suggested" but I took my study of Russian and showed that it would allow me to learn Bulgarian more quickly. Other countries like Russia require you to show proficiency by doing things like conducting the interview in Russian. Finally, you may also look at the acceptance statistics of the country. Western European countries have the most applicants, but they also have the most slots. A country like Spain has over 100 positions while countries like Kosovo have 2-3.

Step 3 is to complete the application. The entire application is online. You will have to write two essays: a Personal Statement and a Statement of Grant Purpose. In some ways, these two essays overlap. In my personal statement, I focused on, well, more personal things (obstacles overcome, reasons for wanting to do a Fulbright, etc.) and in my Grant Purpose, I wrote about my experience as a teacher, why I chose Bulgaria, and how I would benefit the Fulbright program.

You will also need 3 letters of recommendation, which will be completed online. If you have any teaching experience, use these letters to highlight that. I had a co-teacher write one of the letters, a former professor write another, and a former boss/mentor write another. I wanted to cover as many different angles of myself as possible.

You will also be asked about any supplemental projects you are interested in. For the ETA, this is difficult as you don't know your placement within that country, so your idea should be general. In my case, I wrote about starting an exercise or triathlon club within the community. Because ETAs work only 4 days a week and for limited hours, they want to make sure that you are engaged in other ways with your community. The goal of the entire program is a sort-of soft diplomacy, so supplemental projects ensure you're not sitting on your butt at home when you're not at school. By no means are you limited to this proposed project, however. In my case, I'll be coaching the Speech & Debate team, so I may not do the triathlon club, but I had no idea that was even a possibility when applying.

Final Note for those with teaching experience (i.e. every person who has asked me about the application). I do think that teaching experience is a plus, but you can actually have too much teaching experience. I've read that they want teachers with less than 4 years or so. I'm not sure of the rationale for this, but I can imagine it's because you're a teaching assistant and more veteran teachers may be reluctant to cede control of the classroom to the native teachers.

Also, if you haven't taught at all, that's not a problem. Experience mentoring, coaching, or leading others would suffice!

I think I've rambled on enough now. I'm really just doing anything possible to avoid packing...