Besides the fact that my eye has been twitching for some unknown reason today, things are rolling. School starts on the 15th and the summer was exactly what it should've been: hot, sunny, relaxing, and fun.
Most of July was spent teaching my English Summer Camp at my school which consisted of making maracas out of rice and toilet paper rolls (a year's worth) and dancing in a conga line to "Jump in the Line" (Shake, Shake, Shake Senora- from Beatle-Juice???), playing Red Rover (kids are fierce with this game!), and making animal masks. It was actually a great time to have fun with the kids, interspersed with English lessons. The older kids always wanted to take me to the river in their village. We'd just walk and talk, mosey around, then when we'd get to the river, the more rambunctious boys would strip to their skivvies and jump in the river! And I mean, this isn't some mountain river, it's got like trash in it! So I'd always object, but they did it anyway. They seemed to be having a good time anyway.
This summer was also the birth of my yoga class and it's really my pride and joy. I've been working on this ever since I got to my site last summer but there was never a space for it. When I asked if I could hold it in the Cultural Center in town, the then-director said "Yoga is a sport, not cultural". I was like WTF, mate, what yoga are you talking about?? So that pissed me off, it was mainly because they didn't want to pay for heating probably during the winter and at the time I had no way of paying for it. During the spring though, an amazing business-woman in my town opened a gym for women and had extra space and agreed happily to let me start a yoga class there. After purchasing mats with money raised from donations Stateside, it started once a week in July, but the women enjoyed it so much, we decided on twice a week. There's a couple teachers and other women from my community who come, even a pregnant lady came and really liked it so I had to look up special pre-natal yoga poses for her. I'm by no means an expert, or even a seasoned amateur, so I like to stress that I'm "leading" the class, not at all teaching. Thank goodness for the internet, I've been reading about breathing exercises, looking up poses and sun salutations, I definitely couldn't do this on my own. But it's really given me a new appreciation for yoga and the whole practice. It sort of makes me want to go to India for a couple weeks after Peace Corps to do some sort of intensive workshop with a yogi. We'll see. Hopefully I can get a couple women really excited about it to possibly continue the class when I'm gone, that would be ideal.
After English Summer Camp was over, I booked it straight for the Black Sea. It was a bit of a rocky start. My boyfriend, Ljudmil, thought his friend had a villa on the sea, close to Turkey, so on the day of our departure, we're sitting there talking to his friend, Plumen. Plumen's like, this is how you get there looking on the map, and Ljudmil's like, well I thought it was this way and Plumen's like, well you're going to the Rodope Mountains, aren't you, and we're like no, isn't your villa on the Black Sea, and he's like, no, it's in the mountain, and we're all like SHIiiiiiit.
So that sort of sucked because it was peak season and we had no reservations on the sea. But being the optimist that he is, Ljudmil suggested we still head that way and find something when we get there. Needless to say I was a little pissed, even though I guess it was an honest mistake. We drove (or he drove, more accurately) 8 hours to Sozopol, a little seaside resort area. We got in around midnight, his car on it's last leg making some really strange sounds, and with no place to stay. We wandered around for an hour or two in the new town with no luck and finally found a place around 2 in the morning. It was pricey of course, but we stayed there for 2 nights before we found a great little guesthouse by the beach in the old town, owned by a sweet Bulgarian couple. It was pretty cheap and we ended up there for about 6 more nights. Ljudmil was like a kid in the water, he hadn't been to the beach since he was in 6th grade! How does that happen?! He bought scuba fins for his feet, and a snorkel set, it was pretty hysterical but he seemed to be enjoying himself and the water was just perfect. I mean, besides the occassional jellyfish, the water was pristine. The old town was just cobblestone street after street lined with old Bulgarian-style guesthomes and shops. There were cafes and restaurants lining the shore and a beautifully lit, old fort wall.
It ended up being a perfect getaway besides the rocky start, the car breaking down, getting stranded without a hotel, me getting stung by a bee for the first time in my life. But we took a boatride, ate mussels and delicious seafood. Walked around, watched an outdoor film, watched free concerts, and tanned on the beach. There was even a lunar eclipse while we were there so that was pretty cool. Ljudmil's car ended up in Bourgas, the large city nearby, to get fixed up and by then we just wanted to get back home instead of going through the mountains like we had originally planned. It was enough adventure for us.
So now school is starting, I really can't believe it, but I'm ready to get back, ready to have a schedule, ready for cooler weather. The leaves are already changing here, it's a little sad. And only 10 more months in-country. That, I can't believe. It's going to fly by. So, year two, show me whatcha got.
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