no opinion

so on september 15th, the first day of school here, 3 of the mothers here decided that they did not approve of the way Zlataritsa chooses to separate the children in the 1st grade classes.

so these 3 mothers, whose children were entering into the 1st grade (which means they were coming from the kindergarten, which means there is a good chance i taught all of their children their english 123's and ABC's) decided to start a petition to change the division of the two first grade classrooms.

what was the problem here?
what was so horrible about the division of children that three of the local women decided to start collecting signatures to change?
well, i'll tell you.

the women petitioned to have the children separated, not by random choice, alphabetical, chronological, astrological or however they do it...

but by race.

yes folks you heard me.
these women wanted the bulgarian children of the town (about 50%) learning in a separate classroom than the Roma (gypsies) in town.
apparently the other bulgarian parents agreed, because with the exception of one family, all of the ethnic bulgarian parents signed the petition.
on the first day of school this petition (which was made without the knowledge of the Roma parents) was presented to the school director who immediately called the mayor asking the mayor what to do.

the mayor settled it in about .05 seconds.
loosely translated he said, "are you kidding me? what year is this? 1900? how about we start having separate bathrooms and drinking fountains too because that is about how logical this insane petition is. throw it away while i go cry for the mentality of my constituency."

ok, actually i have no idea what he said exactly, this is just what i am imagining he said in my head.
anyway regardless, the outcome was...nothing.
the petition was thrown out at once.
the children will study together. just like they live together and play together.

i'll say nothing more on the matter.
as i don't think korpusa na mira would exactly appreciate my oppion on this being posted on any sort of public site.

bathroom problems

so for the past week i've had one problem after another with my bathroom.
first, the boiler stopped working (again, again, again)
then the sink wouldn't stop running.
but last night was the worst.
at like 11pm i decided to wash some clothes.
after i was done i went to shut the water to the shower off, but it kept running.
not like a drip drip, but like full force, completely on, running.
my neighbors were asleep, i had no idea what to do at 11pm.
anyway, so i called my friend in sofia for advice. he offered a few suggestions, such as try turning it off really reallly hard. ummm thanks vangel, already tried that.
so he said he would think of something and call me back in a minute.
well, within the minute i had a knock on my door.
he had called his cousins in zlataritsa and immediately they came over to try to help.
they were able to shut the main water to my apartment off which at least stoped the water from flooding my bathroom for the night.
awwww... what a sweet friend i have.

anyway, so this morning i kind of wanted to take a shower, and wash my dishes, or maybe just drink some water, so i had to have the main water turned back on for that.
so i went to see the maintence people, my friends.
anyway, nicoli wasn't there.
walking back the mayors chauffer saw me and invited me for coffee.
no time i said, i need to find nicoli because i have serious problems with my water.
no problem he said. he took me up to the assistant mayor who located nicoli and had him go immediately to my apartment.

so things are fixed. for now.
there are definitely some good people around here.
i wish nicoli wasn't diabetic, or else i'd make him cookies.
i used to, and he used to eat them. it wasn't till months later that i found out from someone else he was diabetic and ate my sweets because he was my friend and didn't want to make me feel bad.
umm, it's one thing to eat my cookies if you just don't like them and don't want me to feel bad. it's another to eat them when you are diabetic and they could kill you.
so anway, i had my mom send over some splenda to give to him so he could have sugar in his coffee in the morning.
this is a bunch of rambling.
anyway, to make a long story short, i love my friend in sofia and the maintence people in my town are the best.

happy friday everyone.

bye bye katie

so a little over a year ago in arlington i checked into my hotel room. sat down on the bed and wondered what the heck was going to happen in the next two years.
however, i didn't have much time to think because shortly after the door opened and in came a girl lugging in her baggage behind her. a fellow midwesterner. immediately friends we walked to the mall, got food, then headed to the first of seemling endless training.
just a bit of nostalgia for you guys.
anyway, katie left to go back to the states last week. i'll miss her, but reality was calling...



orientation in last august


saying goodbye at the airport