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...

Let's see how this works...

I am two weeks away from flying out to Sofia (and then to Blagoevgrad) where I will be for the next 10 months (or longer). At the urging of my mother and various friends, I decided to start a blog, not because I think what I'll experience there is necessarily worthy of being shared in the "blogosphere" but rather I'd like to have a storehouse for my memories...and to let my mom know where I'm at at all times.

I received this Fulbright grant back in March after applying last September. In a separate blog post, I plan to go over the application process because many of my friends have asked me about it, and I remember endlessly browsing through the internet for information about the application.

My official position is as an "English Teaching Assistant." What that really means changes from country to country as well as from school to school. I'm still not even sure what exactly it means for me. I know that I will be teaching English at a school called Езикова гимназиа "Акад. Людмул Стоянов. For those of us less inclined to the Cyrillic alphabet, that's pronounced "Ezikova gimnazia 'Akademik Lyudmil Stoyanov." Or just EG. Thank God. I also know that I will be rotating through different classrooms from 8th to 12th grade. I do not know much more than that, which is certainly a bit unsettling, but I'm having to adapt to the uncertainty of the entire experience. Learning flexibility is something I've always needed to work on, so why not go all in?!

I'll keep this post short by sharing a little information about the town in which I'm placed: Благоевград, or Blagoevgrad. It's a town of about 70,000 people located in southwestern Bulgaria, a 2.5 hour train ride away from the capital, Sofia. With two universities (the American University of Bulgaria, or AUBG, and South-West University Neofit Rilski) it's definitely a college town and, from what I hear, has a more international feel to it than some Bulgarian cities. What I'm most excited about is that it's located in the foothills of two incredible mountain ranges, the Rila and Pirin mountains. I hated leaving Las Vegas and its surprisingly gorgeous mountains (Mt. Charleston, I'm looking at you), but in Bulgaria I'll be a bus ride away from ski resorts and alpine hiking.

Below I've included a photo not just of Bulgaria but of the entire Balkan region, which gives a bit more perspective on where I'll be. Using my newly-found Microsoft Paint skills, I added in an arrow pointing to the general area where Blagoevgrad is.