So, where were we? Right, school. Monday morning, a week ago, everybody ate a light breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast was free to everyone in the hotel, and none of the staff had any problem with my joining in until the last morning we ate there. Then I had to pay three leva. I'd say it was worth it. I think they let me slide because I did all the talking and if I weren't there, my Mom and sister would have beat upon the waiter until he figured out they wanted more yogurt. It's an everybody wins kind of situation, I think.
Breakfast finished, we walked around the riverside, explored a couple of the ruins, and headed off for school sometime near 10:30. We went to my first class and sat around, talking to the students before the bell rang. The first class went rather well. We talked about the potential differences between Bulgarian and American weddings (the subject matter of the week) and we all decided that they're pretty similar. Bulgarians, apparently, don't have ushers or a maid of honor, but other than that, everything's the same. There was a lot of useful dialogue between the kids and the family and everything was going peachy.
Then we moved on to the other eighth class. The kids there didn't quite seem prepared in life to have a large group of Americans in their classroom, they still seem to be in some form of awe. At any rate, they spent the whole class nervous, looking behind them at the family, and talking. At one point, it got so loud, that Dad apparently couldn't hear over the din. So, in a perfectly understandable appeal for respect, he slapped a table in the back and asked everyone in the class to quiet down in the sternest voice he has. This kept them quiet for four or five minutes. But I fear it only made them more nervous, because they were up and talking at full force soon after. It was a pretty long class, and afterward my family was pretty sapped.
So they all went back to the hotel and napped while I taught eleventh class. And that's largely how the rest of the school week went. Napping and teaching. I suppose it was a good comination. Mom came to twelfth class Wednesday morning, and they gave her a good, solid quizzing. Many of them seemed visibly upset that she's a vegetarian. They demanded answers as to how a person could avoid eating meat. It isn't a terribly foreign concept in Bulgaria, all restaurants usually have some vegetarian options, but Silistra has a meat-packing plant, and even though the kids spend all available time talking down the quality of its meats, they still feel like they have to defend the industry.
But other than that exploration into eating habits, the classes were pretty much standard fare. The rest of the time the family and I spent wandering around Silistra and seeing all the sites. When everybody got tired, we'd wind up back at my apartment and relax. Sometime during the week, during one of these periods of relaxation, I noticed a pair of doves working on a nest in a tree 8 or 9 feet from my building and level with my apartment on the fourth floor. They have two eggs in there, and they're still taking care of them well. Pictures will come tomorrow, and I'll make updates about the nest's progress. Everytime I walk into the living room I go straight for the window to see how they're doing. It's kind of addictive.
Once we'd exhausted all of Silistra and seen the pair of doves, we decided it's be best to spend an extra day in Sofia. We all hopped on the bus Friday at one and set off for the big city. The stories about which, since I've already been in the internet club fot a while, doing unsite-related things, will have to wait until tomorrow. Until then.
Posted by Rob at March 30, 2004 05:22 PM