Nope. Nothing. Instead of the Superbowl, SAT 1 in Germany showed writhing, naked Germans for a couple of hours. While we were in full emergency mode as contingency plan after contingency plan fell through at 1:30 in the morning, we kept checking the channel and new people would be writhing. No one in the room had ever been nearly as angry to see such a thing.
So, for year number two I was deprived of a Superbowl when my schedule would have allowed it. I should note that I'm not normally an enormous football fan, and the thought of missing the Superbowl in America wouldn't normally piss me off like it did Monday morning, but when the oppotunity to really feel like a part of American culture comes along in, not just Bulgaria, but a town of 30,000 in a quiet corner of Bulgaria, well, it hurts when you miss that opportunity.
There are volunteers who (more or less) dislike all there is in American culture and are happy to be away from it for two years. More power to 'em, I say, but I love most things Americana and this self-imposed two year exile weighs pretty heavily occasionally. It's always good to feel home, and--though I really didn't need to see the Pats win--it would have been nice to closely connect for a few hours with the culture that raised me.
It probably isn't a coincidence that, since Sunday, the idea of "six months" has been passing through my head more often than it had before. I really like Bulgaria, it's been good to me, and Silistra has given me almost two great years. But, at the heart of things, it's been two years without home, or anything dramatically new to push thoughts of home further back in my mind, and the six months until my completion of service seem both tragically short and unbearably long. There are things cropping up every day that I think I should be doing in my time left, ideas are coming more easily now. But most of the time I realize that I don't have anything near the time needed to do any of them.
Six more months in Bulgaria. One more missed NBA playoffs. Just six months to do all that needs to be done here. Six more months to figure myself out. Any way I look at those six months, they're pretty scary.
Posted by Rob at February 8, 2005 03:48 PM