Blagoevgrad at last!

It's Friday afternoon and I'm finally in Blagoevgrad, set up in a computer lab, and printing handouts for Monday's classes. I met my co-teacher as one of us (the Bulgarian teacher) will be covering the grammar, and the other one of us (the American teacher) will be covering the other stuff. It's my understanding that that means I'll be organizing more speaking activities. I'll teach two groups of upper-intermediate in the mornings. On Wednesday afteroons, I'll conduct teacher development workshops, much like in Ukraine. Oops gotta run as the secretary is going to show me where the paper cutter and hole punch are...

OK, all set. Just a quick explanation of why I say "at last" in the entry title. My flight to Phoenix went off without a hitch - then Phoenix to Denver went OK (after much running around to see which airlines partnered with Lufthansa - turns out it was United, but it didn't say that ANYWHERE on my ticket!). Had 30 minutes to make my connection in Denver to my Frankfurt flight. Of course, I was in the very very last row next to the window, so I couldn't have been further away from escaping to make that connection. I did manage to swap with a nice lady for a mid-plane seat. Once we landed, I raced for the flight to Frankfurt only to find that it was delayed 4 hours to to the fact that the plane had been hit by lightening earlier in the day. They wanted to inspect it to be sure it was not damage. Go ahead . . . inspect away!

We finally got from Denver to Frankfurt - I even slept about 5 hours. Of course, by the time we hit Frankfurt, the connecting flight to Sofia had been long gone. So, I had to wait 5 more hours at that airport before the next scheduled flight to Sofia. Not to mention, I had to make a couple of phone calls to make sure the driver didn't come to get me too early. Poor guy - the European soccer finals were on TV and he was obligated to come pick me up at 11:30pm. As the drive to Blagoevgrad is around 2 hours, I was in bed at my spacious dormitory by 2am. I feel pretty good today all things considered and even took a walk this morning. As you may know, Joe and I were here exactly 10 years ago, so it is interesting to see how things have changed. More impressions to come . . . .

Adventure coming soon . . .

Well, it's the day of departure and I'm waiting for my dear "media naranja" to pick me up and take me to the airport. Joe's going to keep the Bulgarian language book to study for the next couple weeks. My sweet friend Melissa sent me a pocket-sized Bulgarian language book all the way from England! Thanks Missy! I'll be looking it over on the plane to see what corresponds (or doesn't!) to Russky-yazik (Russian language, that is).

I finished my Russian book, but I'll be bringing it with to review. Well, wish me well on my trip to Phoenix, Denver (35 minute connection!), Frankfurt, and Sofia (and then, I almost forgot, by car to Blagoevgrad).

Waiting to go . . .

Well, we are still in the USA but headed for Bulgaria soon. Joe's now immersed in his MA studies, and I'm hitting the Russian books hard! Although they speak Bulgarian in Bulgaria, Georgian in Georgia, and Armenian in Armenia, many people speak Russian. My lack of language skills while in Ukraine made me determined to study a language that could help me out in all these countries. We'll see if I've made some improvements!

I have two, yes only TWO!, more chapters in my "Take off in Russian" language book (exercises and CDs). I plan to also bring my Bulgarian book to brush up, or would I be confusing myself? Maybe Joe should take the reins on the Bulgarian stuff.

Well, just thought I'd start of the "Where are the Herrins" blog before I take off - which will be next week!!!