Leading up to Christmas

About a month ago I was feeling a little down because the Christmas season was fast approaching and I was knew this was going to be my first Christmas away from home. I never really need to look very deep for a reason to miss home, and I often do my best to keep myself away from thinking about home. The Christmas season on the other hand makes it hard to think of anything but home. At least that is how I saw it at the beginning of December but, even thought I do miss home and the people there I can safely say that I am so happy being here. The last few weeks in particular have just been so wonderful that I can hardly believe that I was lucky enough to be apart of them.

Biscochitos: Made in Bulgaria

Where to begin to explain..... last weekend I went to a Holiday party for the town's (as well as other near by town's) Horo dance group (Horo being the traditional Bulgarian style of dance). I always love going to these events, aside from the dancing factor they are always a lot of fun. For this time in particular though, I noticed how dramatic these dances and dancers are. I mean to say that watching a large group of people all dancing the same way with so much joy, so much life, and so much history behind every single step is something powerful to behold. Dancing inside this group is even more of a moving experience and is intoxicating for the soul, it makes me feel like I am a part of something much greater than me.

My walk home

Needless to say I was feeling great heading into a busy week of school but the last before the Winter break. I woke up Monday morning to snowy day and excited about the planned events for the week, which included several Christmas parties and to seeing the completion of some projects my students had been working on. The first project was my 8th grade class' performance of "A Christmas Carol" all in English for their parents. All 29 students had speaking parts and I can't even begin to explain how proud of them I was. But this isn't exclusive to the 8th, every single on of the students I have the pleasure of teaching NEVER fails to impress me in every which way. My 10th graders made two very impressive fake News Programs that they wrote, filmed, and produced all on their own. They are all so smart and such a pleasure to teach and did such a great job that even a week later my heart is still so full of excitement because of what they did with very little time and resources and most importantly how much fun they had even though it was school related.

My Christmas Tree

The next night was the largest of my projects. I decided to bring a little bit of my own culture here to Bulgaria in the form of Luminarias (many small paper bags with a candles inside of them). In New Mexico we use these to celebrate Christmas eve by arranging them and lighting them in mass quantities. I am lucky because when I brought up this idea to the people at my school and to the city hall they were excited and very willing to help me by aiding in locating the needed materials. I was also lucky because the snow from Monday had melted and even more amazing was over 20 students came to help me set them up and light them and clean them up afterward. I am very sure that the locals really enjoyed them. I was thanked by many people for being something beautiful, different, and interesting to their town. I've already received many requests for making more next year. It is such a nice feeling knowing that you created something that people really enjoyed and I am so happy that I had this opportunity to share something that is distinctly from New Mexico.

Part of the 400 Luminarias in the town center

The very next day it snowed A LOT, when I woke up there was a thick white blanket over Parvomai and when I got to school there was a lot of students outside playing in the snow, of course I had to join in. Once some of the kids noticed that Mr. B, Jake, or the American (they have many names for me) was playing with them I shortly found myself being the only target for all their snowballs, some of the older boys even tried to tackle me in the snow. All in all I had so much fun, I not only felt like a kid again but that the kids are comfortable enough with me that they are willing to throw snowballs at me or tackle me into snow.

Kids playing outside school (view from my classroom)

And now it is Christmas eve and even though I am dearly missing my home I am excited to celebrate Christmas here in the glow of an amazing past week, the curiosity in a new way of celebrating a familiar holiday, and most importantly in the humbleness that this experience is creating inside of me.

Here is some of my 10th graders and I with a message:

 
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to everybody

Winter Winds

Winter Fog in Parvomay

I would like to think that I have a full and complete understanding of where I am and what I signed up for when I came to Bulgaria, but sometimes I stop and look around me and see where I am and what I am doing, and it is during these moments that I am not only filled with a sense of purpose but also with an overwhelming feeling that I have left everything I knew and everybody who is dear to me, because I had a greater calling.
 If we are take what is around us as meanings more than their face value than I'll say this. Last night my town was covered in a dense fog and this evening the winds blew it away leaving a starkly clear sky. This evening I stood on my balcony in the freezing cold wind and watched the sun set over the mountains and thought, wow I am really here and this isn't some fantasy or dream that I am in, that the people below me going about their daily activities are real people, walking on a real street, speaking a real language, in a real town underneath an unbelievably real sky and mostly importantly that I am apart of it. Is it possible to be this lucky? To be experiencing this experience that is too good to be true because life is never this wonderful. Life never lets you see your purpose so easily, or the things you need to cherish over the things you don't. Or perhaps this is simply my reflection in the clarity of a foreign sky in a foreign place. Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't end anytime soon

Thanksgiving

I was worried how Thanksgiving would be living in a country that doesn't celebrate it, but it turned out to be one of the best weeks of my life. Not only did I have three Thanksgiving dinners, but each was with a wonderful group of people in a beautiful locations. My first Thanksgiving meal was the Sunday before actually day and it was in Plovdiv with 15 other amazing people from my group of volunteers. My second was in a tiny Muslim village high in the mountains in Southern Bulgaria, and the 3rd was with a group of volunteers who extended their service for a 3rd year. I am so lucky to be friends with all of these wonderful people who have become my family while I am away from my real family.

Thanksgiving Dinner #1

Autumn

My School

The Church in Town

But in tradition of the Thanksgiving Holiday I want to Thank everybody who is in my life. Thank you for all your support and love. It makes being away from home much easier than it is.