I'm moving...

I have decided to start a new website with my wife. Read as we finish our time in Bulgaria, move to America and try to find new jobs, an apartment and try to keep our sanity. Come see our new digital home!

another week done...

I have been teaching here at the American University in Bulgaria since July and it has been great. I am teaching 29 class hours a week, I am usually at the language center from 11:00 am everyday to 8:00 pm, but I couldn't love it more. I have great students and my colleagues are great. I even have enough time in the morning to go to the gym and wake up not too late.

Today is Friday and so I only have one class. And it's done. I still don't have Internet at my apartment and so here I am still at school writing and downloading the 1978 AL East Playoff game between the Red Sox and the Yankees. MLB.com has a new service where they let you download old games and -starting this playoff season- new games for only $1.99 a game. The games are posted a day later, but for a fan living in Bulgaria while his team is on the way to the world series, the charge and the time delay is nothing. Real baseball, I can't wait.

As I have a free afternoon, I've started thinking about somethings. Mostly, the way my life has been going and where it will go in the future. And I am amazed at how my life has taken some turns I could never have imagined. So, I have decided to compile a top-five list. I hope you enjoy:

The Top 5 Things I Wasn't Expecting in my Life Ten Years Ago:
1. I would be living in Bulgaria. I gotta admit, this current situation was quite a surprise. I'm not sure 15 year old Andy even knew Bulgaria existed, besides some hazy notion of Bulgarian Olympic gymnasts. I never thought I would learn Bulgarian, make Bulgarian friends, eat cow stomach soup, can my own peppers and peaches, pick and dry herbs, or fall in love with a country so different than my own.

2. I would be teaching. I remember a teacher in my AP Biology class suggesting to me that I should look into teaching because while it is a really tough job, I would love it. Well, it's true but I thought at the time, "yeah, right."

3. I would be contemplating law school. I'm still shocked and unnerved by this one but there it is. I always thought that law school was for other people, not me. This was the same feeling that I had when I thought about applying to Ivy League schools and the Peace Corps. They were things that I always heard about growing up, but always thought they were not possible options in my life. Now, as I am once again standing at the door, I am beginning to think that this choice may bring me as much happiness and success as the other two.

4. I would miss New Hampshire and Concord. When I was 15, like most teenagers who grow up in a small town, one of my constant thoughts was how to get out. I was sick of how boring it was, how small it was, and how everywhere I went I kept running into people I knew. Now, after living abroad for 2 1/2 years, I have started to realize how much I took my state and my hometown for granted. I am looking forward to returning at the end of July to my home, my family, and friends, with an excitement that is both sweet and heartbreaking.

5. I would grow so much. I used to think when I was 15 that I was at the peak of my emotional, intellectual, and spiritual growth. Of course I would have never admitted it, either aloud or to myself, for fear of being labeled naive, but still I carried this sneaking suspicion inside me. After these two last years, I realize how much I have grown and yet how much this growing never stops. I know deep inside that we never stop growing. As long as we are active and care and try, we will never stop. And that excites me most of all.

where is andy?

He is alive and well in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Unfortunately, he has yet to get internet in his apartment. There has been some problems with finding an internet company in his new home. He is on vacation in his new apartment doing little more than watching TV, reading, and playing computer games. He feels like a slug because there is a whole internet world he can't access unless he wants to come to this dingy old internet club and pay too much money for too slow access. You can tell he is really upset because he is using third person speech. Anyway, until he can return to the 21st century, enjoy your internet access and think of him...

andy gets misty eyed

Tonite is my last night in Bobov dol and my last nite as an active Peace Corps volunteer. I'm struggling with what that all means. Of course, I am not leaving Bulgaria; unlike all but three volunteers in my group, I will be staying for an extra year in Bulgaria and work in the American University as an English teacher. So while I will not technically be in Bobov dol, I will be only about a 40 minute car ride away. And while I will not be an officially active volunteer, I will continue living in the same country and continue teaching English. Things change but end staying the same...

As a way to say thank you to all the people here in Bobov dol, I hosted a banquet tonite at my favorite local bar. There were about 14 of my closest and most important friends here. There were people who took me to their village and taught me how to can peaches. There was the woman who gave me Bulgarian lessons, twice a week, for two years. There was her son who was in my seventh grade class, who despite all the other crap in his life, still has a grasp on English that is unnatural for this place. But more important than that, has a flame in him that refuses to be extinguished. There was the woman at whose apartment I was always welcome and with whom I ended up eating many dinners when all I wanted was a coffee. There was the counterpart who selflessly took over the position when my old counterpart left for the big city. She was like the big sister I never had who was there no matter what and was not afraid to tell me when I messed up. And the list goes on.

In between the eating, dancing and laughing, I started to grasp, albeit only in the most general of concepts, what actually happened here in these two years. I think it will take the rest of my life to actually figure that out exactly, but I did start to get an inkling. Here I was, surrounded by so many people who I can count on no matter what. People who I would trust with my life, though I have known them for two years, and many with whom I have only spoken to in a language that I have only been speaking for two years. I came to this town knowing no one and yet am leaving, feeling like the king of the town.

I knew I wanted to be a Peace Corps volunteer when I was about 6 and used to wake up early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons. In those days, they used to have very simple commercials for Peace Corps, so simple in fact that I only remember the punchline: "Peace Corps: The toughest job you'll ever love." It sounded so perfect for a kid growing up on adventure shows and GI Joe. I liked to believe that I was tough, and the toughest? Well sign me up!

I have learned what tough means in these two years. But that was something that I was expecting. I knew it would be hard and that I would be tested. I know that I would be going into a possibly hostile environment, away from everything and everyone I had previously known and be expected to succeed. I knew that and it definitely lived up to those expectations. But in these two years, I learned something else. I learned that the second part of that slogan was the more important part. I learned what it means to love. To love a job, to love a place and to love people. Sure my job was infuriating at times, so much so I would have done anything to not go in some days. Sure Bobov dol made me angry sometimes, and made me question my hope in the future. And sure people here made me mad and made me question my hope in people. But through it all, I learned to love them all despite all these things. All these bad things don't make you love less, they make you love something more. Because it is easy to love something that provides no resistance, something that is welcoming of your love. It is so much harder to love something that acts like it doesn't need or want you, something that sometimes acts like it hates you. If you can persevere and love it despite this, your love will become so strong and will grow. I thought when I became a volunteer that this job would be tough because I would love it and put my whole heart into it, but I never expected I would love it because it was so tough.

Thank you Bobov dol for teaching me love. And thank you for being so tough.

VOTE FOR THE 7 NEW WONDERS!!

There is less than a month less to vote for the new 7 world wonders! Go to this website, register and vote for what you think are the most important wonders in the world. It's free and a great way to take part in a truly worldwide vote. The results will be announced on 07.07.07 so you have little time left.

http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=315

And if you are trying to decide on a 7th one to vote for, pick Petra. I've been there and can personally tell you how awesome it is. Or just check the comments page for my cousins, I'm sure they'll have something to say about it soon...

in a pile of bad news, a smile...

I'm grading a pile of tests from my 7th graders and it was the usually bunch of bad news, until I got to one of the last tests. One of my best students got an American superstition a little confused...

Task: Write 5 American superstitions
4. "When you step on a crack, you will bake your mother's bag."

I'm sorry Mom but with a little honey, they don't taste all that bad.

chalga saves the world

Apparently it is trying... Chalga- the part pop, part traditional music, all cheese- music style that is all the rage in Bulgaria and the rest of the Balkans has been exported to the Middle East where it is challenging existing conservative views. According to this BBC article, while this music isn't called Chalga, a new style of music has sprung up in the Middle East that smacks of the Chalga we have all grown to love. Cheezy videos, subtly (or not so subtly) erotic lyrics, scantily clad singers and controversy; yup it's gotta be Chalga. Good luck Arabic Chalga, I hope you can limit that religious extremism that decades of war haven't.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6666725.stm