Down to the Last Week

I am finishing my last week of PST here in Bulgaria. What does that mean? Well, it means that I have to take a long verbal test on Tuesday, say goodbye to my family and friends in my town on Wednesday, go to Vratsa on Thurs, and then again on Friday for the graduation ceremony, and lastly, move to my permanent site. I am happy to be done. I can't lie. It's getting more difficult every day to follow rules that are in place for people much younger than myself. I find that I don't have as much patience now as I did 2 months ago. I am looking forward to some quiet alone time for the month of August. Maybe even some time at the local pool working on my tan.

My group went to Sophia on Friday to have out last interviews with the Peace Corps staff. How is everything going? Are you still able and willing to serve? Things like that. Sled Tova (after that), we toured Sophia a little. Our language trainer has a place here so we had a "local" tour guide. I must say, it's TOO BIG for me, and I come from a larger city. Sophia has 3 million and Mpls has 300,000. It doesn't compare. When Radi asked if it was like home, I couldn't explain the difference. It's too vast. Sophia reminds me of New York, in that it has so many people and shops, and advertisements. It's hard to move around in and confusing. I'm not sure I could travel there by myself. It was nice to get home to my town of 2,100.

Although things here are coming to an end, I am getting a little nervous to be on

my own. I still not confident buying food in a store. I don't know what the things are let alone how to cook them. But I guess that means I can be creative. Who will meet me for a beer or a soda at any given moment of the day? I know I have some B25's in town, but I need my B26's. I'm sure things will even out soon and I will be as busy as ever, but for now I am going to let these feelings roll around inside my head.

Yesterday, Kate, her host family and I went to the panorama near Pleven. It is a painting telling the war of 1877 between the Russians and the Turks. But if you ask

a Bulgarian, and we did, they will say that Russia

didn't liberate them. They fought and liberated themselves. The painting was painted in 1977 and put in a big concrete building. I thought it was amazing.

That's all for now. Next post will be from my permanent site. Yippee!!