It Looks to Be a White Christmas

Only 7 days left till Christmas! It came so fast. It seems like I just arrived in Bulgaria and already over three months have past and Christmas is quickly approaching.

I arrived in Kazanluk in late October and since then there have been a lot of ups and downs. I am now living on my own in Bulgaria, although I am still learning the language and customs, so I guess that is to be expected.

My apartment Building or "Block"

The view from my kitchen

My refrigerator otherwise known as the balcony


Note the many cartons of milk in the photo above. I thought they were just going bad quickly because I was storing them on the balcony but apparently that was the type of milk that needs to be boiled because it's not pasteurized-Luckily I didn't get sick.

Overall my apartment is nice. I think it is one of the largest of any Peace Corps volunteer. There are three bedrooms! Only the main bedroom is actually furnished though and since it is hard to heat the place I just keep the extra two rooms closed off. My site mate, the other volunteer in Kazanluk, calls them my haunted rooms. One is actually kind of creepy. It has bunny-rabbit wallpaper and a teddy-bear lamp in it. There is also a mark left on the door from a letter "A" which use to hang there. (I'm assuming the child's name started with an "A" who lived there). The other one just kind of smells.

I also have two bathrooms, however, the toilet does not work in one of them so I just use that bathroom for the shower. After moving in I have had to get use to not being able to flush toilet paper or anything else for that matter. I had heard about this during training but my host family lived in a new house so flushing was not much of a problem. But I suppose I am lucky. Apparently I almost ended up in another apartment that only has a Turkish toilet! That's basically a hole in the ground that you have to squat over to use. That's what I have to use at work but I try to avoid it by always going before I leave home. At the very least I have worked out my thigh muscles a bit and hay I barely ever pee on my self anymore!

The first snow fall

The center after the first snow

Today!

I love the snow. It's cold but it makes it feel a lot more like Christmas time and more like home. I was walking around town today and there were children having snowball fights and building snowmen. I have a tree up in my apartment now and after much searching managed to find some Christmas music. I have also been getting in to the holiday spirit by baking a lot. My oven does not work well so the first time my cookies were burnt on top and dough on the bottom but another volunteer suggested preheating it and then turning the top off before putting the cookies in. That has worked well but it does take me a little over an hour and a half to make cookies now.

A fountain in the center

A main street in the center decorated for Christmas

One of the many street dogs and a local "Pazar"

I had dinner for the first time at one of my neighbors on Thursday night so I brought some cookies over with me for them. After first arriving at the wrong apartment (Oh my, that was fun! They must have thought I was crazy.) I finally made it to dinner. When I gave them the cookies they looked at them like they were from outerspace but after dinner when they finally had some they said they had to have the recipe. I am almost tempted not to hand it over though. The secret of chocolatechip cookies has managed to made me a good cook as far as Bulgarians are concerned and that's no small feat.

The Arizona cocktail Bar - Yes "Arizona"

Well I am going to wrap up this enty now. I have much much more to say but my hands are very cold (the office is not well heated) and it is making typing hard. I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year.

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