It's Falltime...

In the spirit of starting to teach at the University this week [that's right Prof. Jackson is not far off now], I would like to pose an awkward English question to you: You can say springtime, wintertime, summertime, why not falltime? [Try it in Word; you will be promptly scolded with a squiggly, red underline.] English can be a real pain some times and as cool as it sounds to teach English at a University, I have a feeling my experience will often boil down to the phrase '˜that is just how we do it, if there is a reason -€“ I don'€™t know it.' Brilliant. Me teach English good soon.

Grammar aside, it really is falltime here. Leaves are turning, nights are getting cold, and Peace Corps volunteers are preparing to shut themselves into one room of their apartments. Yup, in order to survive the winter it is a common practice to just pick one room to heat and stay there. This often means cooking with a ski coat on and crawling into a sleeping bag the second you get home only to get out of it in the morning [how is that possible you ask? One word: hopping]. O, Summer why do you leave me?

This past weekend I ended up staying in Shoumen. On Friday, another volunteer and I cooked up some Mexican for my colleagues. We took over the kitchen of a local bar and did our magic -€“ burritos, fresh salsa and tortillas for everyone. I guess I could delve into how this fits with the Peace Corps mission or how we are working hard to expose our Bulgarian friends to new things; but, that would give too much importance to our real intentions: we wanted burritos.

The gang at dinner.

On Saturday, a buddy from a town about three hours away came. And, as is becoming more and more common, I had a cocktail party to attend and drug him along. The party was for a conference of '˜Transatlantic Connections of Culture with...€™' I don'€™t really remember; but, it was probably one of those vague titles that lost even more meaning in translation. That being said, the buffet set up was nice [these things are important]. From the cocktail, we headed out on the town in Shoumen. Good times, as always.

Sunday consisted of a big lunch and watching a DVD. I think I was asleep by ten o'clock. Ahh, R&R.

My first class is Tuesday - wish me luck,

Mark

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