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!