Sunday, April 23, 2006
For East Othtodox Easter 2006 we had dyed eggs and Easter bread.
On our way to Blagoevgrad we stopped at a cafe in the village of Drugan. It was called Arizona. This reminded us our Easter a year ago in Arizona. We spent it with the Bulgarian community at the East Orthodox Church St. Sophia in Phoenix.
On both banks of the Bistritsa River that runs through Blagoevgrad we enjoyed the company of Peter, Pepa, Marek and Tsanko.
We spent Easter Sunday 2006 with friends in Blagoevgrad. We went to the local church in Old Town.
My old friend Marek is an descendant of Gotse Deglchev. He was very moved and proud of his ancestors, The Delchevs, when he took us to their memorial.
Marek and I were very happy to reunite in his hometown. We remembered our Auld Lang Syne at Moscow State University and shared news about our work and families.
My Easter eggs were not many. They had either stickers or the Happy Easter or Borak sign.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Saturday, April 01, 2006
March 1 is known in Bulgaria as Baba Marta Day (Grandmother March Day). On this day people exchange red and white tassels, symbols of good health and luck. In 2006 Baba Marta Day fell on a Wednesday. My students from 9 B and 9 V class gave me lots of tassles to pin to my breasts or to put round my wrist.
All decked-up with martenitsi, this student is answering questions about the Titanic as a practice of the Past Perfect Tense.
The red and white tassels are called martenitsi in the Bulgarian language.
Since Christmas there have been students' drawings in the hallways. The Art teacher does a great job with giving publicity to our students' visual thinking.
Drawings of 8th and 9th graders are on display on the hallway walls.
Unfortunately, students' drawings can be seen even on the desks. The captions are in all the languages that are being taught at 91 GLHS - Bulgarian, German, English and Russian.
On Macrh 10, Friday, DJ came to visit. He spent the weekend with us, and he came to my classroom straight from the Bus Station. The guy talked with the students from 9 Zh and 9 G about the USA, Bulgaria, and Macedonia and the students had fun. There was no communications barrier.
On Saturday Boyan, Sasho and I took DJ to Verona, a pizza restaurant in our neighborhood.
When DJ answered my students' question about his favorite food, he said it was pizza!
On March 19, I attended a one-day in-service training workshop for EFL teachers. It was organized by Express Publishing-Bulgaria and about 600 teachers attended it. Jenny Dooley, a textbook author, presented the textbooks she had written together with Virginia Evans. The syllabus is based on Common European Framework of Languages http://www.expresspublishing.co.uk. On this day I fell ill - I had a stiff back, a back pain and could hardly walk, but I got certified. In this picture are Jenny, Chavdar and a teacher from Sofia (L->R).
I continue taking pictures of misspelt sings in Bulgarian and English. This one I took in March next to the Central Supermarket (Halite) in Sofia. Can you spot the mistake?
In March I looked for a shelter for Randall's upcoming 4-month visit to Bulgaria.
Stray dogs are a big problem in Sofia. I know this from my personal experience, as on December 5, 2005 I was attacked and bitten by such a dog. I will have the scar to the end of my life - dog bite scars never disappear! In fact, in most of the cases, people and stray dogs peacefully co-exist on the streets of Sofia. This picture could be named "The beautiful (flowers) and the ugly (dogs)." I took it at the bus stop right in front of the Pliska Hotel.
On March 27 I was at Vlado Bunardjiev's documentary screening and exhibition at the House of Bulgarian Architects. It was a big cultural event in Sofia.
Drawing Easter eggs was inspired by one of Geo Milev's poems for children. The Art teacher, Mrs. Andreeva, had chosen those drawings for online publishing before the end of March.
