Second, Istanbul

just a small observation. i realized that unintentionally i stopped biting my fingernails last week. Just didn't occure to me to do it. And now, here we are, two days back in Zlataritsa, and my fingers are damn near bloody again.
interesno.
anyway, today could have been crappy, for the normal set of reasons.
but, like always, the afternoon saved it.
for english today i decided that i didn't feel like sitting in a room, so we went on a walk for a couple hours. i don't really know how much english was learned but it was soooo good to walk around. i can't really describe how beautiful it is here. you guys at home have no idea.
the first spring trees are blossoming, and the grass is greening and the river has melted, and there are frogs and fish and mountains all around. it's like a dream.
with all the beauty around them, i still had to stop the kids about 10 times from throwing trash onto the street, or the river, or someone's yard. they kept telling me "this isn't America, tracy. this is BULGARIA"
which, in their minds, explains everything.
i told them if you want a pretty town, you need to keep it pretty.
i'm sure they will remember that about as much as they will remember the words for stairs, and bridge, and trash can, and air, and whatever else we learned today.
but oh well.
they also liked to say random english swear words that they know, and then ask me what they mean. well, obviously they know they are bad. they ask me every week. and then they pretend that they just came up with this word for the first time.
no, i remember. you asked me last week. i told you it was bad last week. word hasn't changed. it's still bad.
which i suppose is funny. how can a word be bad. words are words are words.
i suppose i'm just perpetuating the power of the word by withholding the meaning from the kids. well, maybe it will keep them coming back. the possibility of learning how to swear in english. whatever it takes. or something.






well, if you haven't already guessed, these are the pictures from Istanbul. it was a great, however short, vacation.
got scrubbed down at a turikish bath, went to asia, saw the blue mosque, the grand pazar as well as spice pazar, smoked some hookah, went dancing, got sucked into a carpet store for a few hours, heard nearly every line possible by pazar vendors, ate turkish delights, went to starbucks... you know... everything you think one should do when in istanbul. i could go back again. the sooner, the better.
this has nothing to do with the mass quantities of beautiful people living there.
nope, not at all....
even though, sadly, we did not see the turkish volleyball team that we had met in dupnitsa, like crystal and i had hoped... but the people we did see pretty much made up for it.
ok, no more talking. more pictures.
then i'm off for a run.
4ao for now.