Bulgarian Experiences: July 19, 2011

I enjoyed our "excursia" last week. Hissar is a town known in the area for its mineral waters, and our trip there was very fun. The kids were so focused on swimming that they were really good. There were bath houses for those who preferred to swim or soak in the mineral water sans suits. I really wanted to soak my feet, so one of the nuns and I went exploring the ladies’ bath house. Sure enough, no clothes. “Are you sure you want to go in there? They are naked!” she said. We both laughed, and I went to soak my feet in the kiddie pool.

Thank you for the many birthday wishes! Some of you have asked how I spent my birthday. The tradition in Bulgaria is for the person celebrating the birthday to give some small gift to everyone they associate with, usually candy called bon-boni and (I thought) not to receive anything. Since I was working with about 100 kids that morning, I took about 500 pieces of individually wrapped chocolates and these little chocolate covered wafer things and spread them out over the work tables which are set up outside in the shade of the church. They were all foil wrapped - red, blue and gold - and looked so pretty…and lasted maybe 5 minutes, if that.

The kids all meet in the church before the activities start each morning, and once the nuns knew it was my birthday (from all the bon-boni) they whipped into action and came up with a gift for my English students to give to me...a red Hello Kitty billfold and perfume :) The priest also gave me a gift...a book...in Bulgarian. I started reading it last night by translating the title: The Salt of the Earth; Catholicism and Christianity through (or for) the 21st Century. Of course, that's all the farther I got. I hope someday my Bulgarian will be good enough to read at least some of it. And my landlady gave me some of her needlework that I will treasure forever, especially after I found out she hasn't done any of it for many years. Then word spread that I was having a birthday, and my local hairdresser/neighbor sent an e-card that came with one from America. I thought that was funny – both from the same web site and even said “click here for your next e-card.” THEN my landlady informed me there were a couple of women coming by who wanted to see me. They turned out to be friends of a friend who wanted to meet me and welcome me. They brought a beautiful flowering plant (total strangers!) and visited for about half an hour. People here want to talk to me especially if they know some English so they can practice their English, and these gals knew English...and practiced it...for 30 solid minutes :) Many Bulgarians speak English so well that it kind of makes me wonder why I'm here sometimes, but then I remember - I'll be in the classroom in a couple of months and probably earn my keep there.

This is the Catholic church in Rakovski where the summer day camp is held.

I had a wonderful experience hiking and camping in the Rodopi Mountains with the Borovan group last weekend. Actually we took a bus from Plovdiv to a place called Zdravets up in the mountains, so we didn’t have to hike too far. I thought we were farther away from civilization than we were, but when the folk music started blaring at midnight, I realized we hadn’t gotten too secluded. But we were high enough that the air was much cooler than in the city and very pleasant.

I hope to get back to Plovdiv soon to do some more exploring. I looked it up on Google Earth to try to get my bearings and discovered tons of photos of some of the places I’ve been and many I want to see yet. If you do a search, look for “Old Plovdiv.” I hope it makes you want to come and visit and go exploring with me!