Whooooooosh

Wow, time is breezing by pretty quickly here...soooo much has happened in the past few weeks, gotta hold on to my seat so i don't lose it as life breezes by. Here are some of the highlights...

* Shopping trip with Nejda and Ailie, to the biggest pazar/bazaar/outdoor market in Bulgaria...Dimitrovgrad. I got T-shirts and sweatpants and popcorn (those weren't very sustainable, i'm
afraid ;-P). Nejda got a cute jean outfit, a sweater, and other assorted stuff for her "chiiz", the luggage that she'll be taking to Bursa when she gets married on July 9th. Can you believe she's getting married on July 9th and moving to Turkey? I still can't believe it...she probably can't either, for that matter...it takes a while for big changes to sink in, but dang it, i'm gonna miss her. She's been an amazing friend and inspiring colleague and motivational hiking buddy in the time we've known each other. Ailie got some clothes for her son, Giokai, who was taking an exam during our trip.

*Two-day excursion to Sandanski with a group of kids from the school Beron. Spent about 17 hours on the bus and, maybe 6 hours off the bus, but it was worth it, at least after the kids got tired of throwing up from the motion of the bus. We stopped at Rila Monastery, ate some pancake-like mekitzas, played frisbee, my neighbor/teacher Mima went to visit her relatives in the city, we walked around Sandanski for about an hour (there are beautiful monuments and mineral baths there that we didn't get to see due to shortage of time, nevertheless, we were there! on our walk, i met two hippies from Canada, who were heading to a mini Rainbow Gathering in a nearby village, i helped them buy some groceries...they left a trail of people talking about them behind their backs...for those who don't yet know this, drinking coffee and gossiping are two of the national sports in Bulgarian villages...the liberated Canadians aided in the sustenance of the latter). After the big tangent, we ate, slept, played frisbee, got on the bus, some of us threw up, then we went to Sofia Land, which is a mini, mini, mini Disney Land (i.e. there were about 15 rides there, but hey, it's a blast!), some others of us threw up on the rides, others got wet while floating around on logs, we ate McDonald's (it was a cultural experience ;) ), i bought a whoopee cushion (which created a big stir on the bus, for about ten minutes, before it got popped...it was probably a good thing for the bus driver that it got popped), we got on the bus again, Nejda and I read, the kids danced (this was a very good thing, as it kept their minds off of throwing up!), then Aishe and I played basketball with a bouncy ball, and a cup, and we came home with sore bottoms but happy hearts.

*Went on a picnic in Krichim with Sunai, Freddi, Andy (from the Krichim cast of characters), Nejda, and Andy's friend Kristal. It was so sweet to be back in Krichim...it's such a beautiful and amazing place. That night, we all went to a Chalga bar in Plovdiv and danced the night away. Going to a live Chalga (this is Bulgarian pop/folk music) bar had been a dream of Sunai's for, well, ever since I've known her, and perhaps longer, but she was sooooo tired the next day that she won't be going back for a while. 'Twas enough shaking of the booty and sniffing of the smoke and ringing of the years for about a year. Nejda went to classes the next morning (she's finishing up her Masters in Psychology), and I was happy to meet some of the wild and interesting people in her Masters class. Nej took a healing course based on the philosophy of Norbekov (a Russian man who studied in Tibet for many years), suggested to her by one of her classmates...it was a powerful experience for her, and i'm curious about it too. Mom, you may be interested in that course as well, when you decide to venture over here.

*Last weekend, went to a USAID English Conversation Teaching class in Sofia, which was helpful, inspiring, and well organized. More on that to come...but one of the highlights for me was walking around the center with my friend Zheni, who also went to India, and stumbling onto a pillow fight in front of the National Theater. In the background, a man was playing the saxophone, creating a gentle, mellow atmosphere, while all around him, people were banging each other with pillows and feathers were flying everywhere. Apparently there's a pillow fighting club that meets every two weeks...of course we had to join...it is fabulously relaxing and fun...possibly even better than yoga :-)

More to come...