Permanent Site Visit!!
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2006
1
24
102
Trip End
Jul 2008
Belitsa,
Bulgaria
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Belitsa is really beautiful. It's at the foot of the Rila mountains, but from here you can also see the Pirin mountains close by and the Rhodope mountains in the distance. Since we got here after school we didn't do much the first day, I checked into my hotel (people are painting my future apartment) and walked around with Dora - my counterpart - a lot. It was amazing the change I saw in her the further away we got from Dupnitsa!
01.
! She speaks much better English than she showed at first. Yes it's pretty broken, mixing up tenses and pronouns, but she has a wide vocabulary. So we can understand eachother with a bit of work. I could see a big change especially in Belitsa, where she is comfortable and knows she is one of the only people who can speak to me at all. And her attitude just made me so happy... she told me that her English is not very good, but that she wants to speak with me and be my friend, and is already having me over at her house (I'm using her internet right now.) She's already said that this summer we will go hiking in the Rila mountains and she will teach me to cook more Bulgarian foods, yay!!On Thursday I had a visit to the school, the point was basically to meet people, observe some classes, but most importantly I think make a good impression. I had such a warm welcome in the teacher's lounge I couldn't believe it!! 2 students dressed up in traditional dress just for me, and greeted me with bread and honey, and I got more geraniums (for health.) The principle welcomed me, with the secondary English teacher translating. She gave me a traditional Bulgarian apron, and tied it on me in front of all the teachers, and they all laughed and clapped. I know it's stupid but I almost cried I was so happy. But I didn't. Everyone seems really great, they all seem to get along to the untrained eye, which is definitely not the case in Kocherinovo
02. view from the school's balcony
.I didn't think it was possible but I am more famous here than I am in Kocherinovo. I swear I hadn't taken 5 steps into the school when some kids called out 'Hello!!' and one said hello my friend!! which I found very funny. In Kocherinovo it was about a week before the young students started to come up to us in groups of 5 or so, to say hello and want to shake our hands. But here the kids, no matter the age, congregate in big groups outside the teacher's lounge, come up to me in the hall and shake my hand, and about 40 primary kids mobbed me in the schoolyard after the 3rd grade class I observed. In general I think it's sweet and really funny.
After school I saw the Belitsa museum, which i thot was really impressive especially for such a small town. Apparently Belitsa's other PCV, an environmental PCV who served from 2002-2004, worked a lot with the museum. Next we went and saw my apartment, which is really small but right in the center. The only let down is there is no washing maching - it's a good thing Fidanka taught me how to wash my clothes!!
