The Chronicles of Chris: A Bulgarian Journey: I'm baacccckkkk!!!!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the extensive gap between this post and the last, but a lot hasn't changed since then. The weather has become very cold and gloomy, which has caused a deceleration in most of my work. The one part of my work that hasn't slowed is my English classes. I'm teaching 8 to 9 English classes per week to the children and staff in SOS, but it's not as time consuming as one might think. I am still trying to advise an English club once a week, but the meetings have become sporadic because of an outbreak of the H1N1 virus. Also, the weather is keeping many people inside and making it difficult to encourage the members to attend meetings. My youth basketball team is currently taking a respite from training because we can't find a proper place to practice indoors. It looks like it might be March or April before we can begin practicing again, which is a pity because the boys really want to practice and compete. It may turn out being a good thing because we still need to find more resources for the team such as basketballs, uniforms, and funding for transportation.

The holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, turned out to be better than I was expecting. I spent the Thanksgiving holiday with Peace Corps friends in northern Bulgaria where we prepared turkey and other typical servings like stuffing, casserole, pie, etc. For Christmas I visited my family in Germany, which was very relaxing. It always feels good to visit them because I'm able to decompress and totally clear my mind, although it always ends too soon. For New Year's Eve I flew back to Bulgaria, mainly because it was the cheapest way for me to fly, and I spent the entire day traveling to my town. I failed to think about the level of difficulty traveling on a holiday and I paid for it. By the time New Year's showed it's face I was hanging by a tread trying to keep my eyelids open. To make a long story short I said hello and good night to the new year!

Now that the new year is here I will try to continue some things that are in progress and start new things. I will continue to teach English, advise the English club, and coach basketball, but I will try to start a couple of new initiatives in my town. I will try to start a new physical activity program in SOS for the children, which will involve sports and healthy life style activities. I will also try to expand the recycling program in SOS to include more recyclable materials, and different ways to use those materials. At the local high school I will try to get more involved in their youth parliament with the idea of influencing more volunteerism in town. In addition to all of that I will begin the task of studying for the GRE. My hope is that I'll be ready to take that test between now and April or May, so that I can begin applying to graduate schools. It looks like I will have a full plate but that's what want, so that I don't have time to think about how much I miss people back across the Atlantic!

Well, that's all for now. Keep in touch with me through Facebook or e-mail because it's always good to hear from everyone back home.

Peace, Love, and Understand...