November 15, 2006 - I can't beleive it's almost Thanksgiving again. We have big plans again this year. About 12 PCVs are coming and some Bulgarian friends. While I was home in October for Bill's wedding, I loaded up on food supplies, so I think we should have everything needed for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Everyone is pitching in to make something and Olivia and Matt are coming early to help bake pies.

March 17, 2006 - You would think I would be writing much more often with all this time I have since it is too cold to go outside, but just can't seem to sit down and write. I don't know why. I am really getting excited about my trip with Sharon this June. We aare going to hit the major cities of Eastern Europe such as Budapest, Prague, Vienna, Krakow and Warsaw. It is something I have been looking forward to since I left the States.

School is going well, but I just don't know what else to teach these kids. All they want to do is surf the net and play games. And since many of then do not have computers at home and there is no internet club in town, I can't blam them and I do try to give them allot of time to play. But I feel like I need to teach more important things about computers. There is no set curiculum and whenever I ask what to teach, they just tell me anything I want. I will talk to my director this summer in hopes of teaching some English classes next year.

Feb 11, 2006 - It has been a long and cold winter. I have moved into one room in my house as I can not heat the whole house with my electric heaters. It is very gray and there is not much going on in town. I had been making trips into Pleven once a week for supplies, money, and entertainment, but the busses are not as frequent. Not to mention really cold. I am very thankful that Wendy lives in Pleven. I have miss the bus going back to Iskar often since they just don't show up some days and others there are so many people and not enough seats. So I stay at Wendy's every once in a while. She has a really nice apartment and much better cable. She get's CNN, BBC and AXN which has shows like Law & Order, CSI, ect, be it older seasons, but I'm not complaining since I get squat in Iskar. Anyway, I now only go into Pleven about twice a month. I am looking forward to the spring.

Jan 9, 2006 - Christmas was very nice. Olivia and I when to Katia and Ivan's. I think I ate more food in those 3 days than I have in the past 3 months. I ended up getting Ivan a small bottle of Jack Daniel's Whisky since I've heard him talk about it before. Actually, it was Olivia's idea, and it was perfect. We found a shop in Sofia that had it and Ivan loved it. Whisky is the closest thing America has to Rakia. Ivan, as well as many others, often make their own Rakia and it is served with almost ever meal. But Ivan says that the JD is the best.

While I was in Plovdiv, I met up with a good friend, Sabka. She is a manager with Avon and I met her at Mariela's language school last summer. Anyway, she took me to a monastery near Plovdiv, which I can't seem to remember the name of now. It was very interesting and surprisingly commercial. There are many shops selling touristy stuff and you can even book a room and stay at the monastery. Not what I expected.

On the 29th, we all met in Plovdiv and boarded the train for Istanbul. There was me, Olivia, Annie and Ted, Nancy and her friend Milinda from the US, and Jen and her Mom from Canada. We left around 10pm and the train was surprisingly nice. The porter was great and very helpful. However, around 3am we arrived at the Bulgaria/Turkey boarder. We followed the crowd to customs only to find we have to go somewhere else first to buy the visa. $20 USD for a visa, but Jen's Mom being Canadian, it was $60 USD. And then she would not take her money. Finally we discovered that they only accepted new $20 bills in very good condition. Good to remember when traveling in Eastern Europe. So, between all of us, we came up with 3 20s in good enough shape and got back on board. Even though we felt rushed and as if the train was going to leave without us, we ended up staying there for 3 hours. I think we were waiting for another train so some cars could be added to our. After another 6 hours, we arrived in Istanbul around 11am.

Istanbul is an incredible city. Check out my pictures section for shots of the city. The first day we just walked around on our own and saw the sites. The Mosque were unbelievable. The are hugh! Everyone was so nice too. And I was very shocked at how many people spoke English. It is truly an international city. Our second day, we took an all day tour. The first part was a walking tour of the new Istanbul. The city is broken into three sections by water. The old part of the city, that is over a thousand years old, is where the tourism is the greatest and where the main Mosques are. Across a bridge is the new Istanbul, only several hundred years old and where we did our walking tour. Then the third part is actually on the continent of Asia and is mostly residential. During the tour, we went to one of the largest rug dealers in the country and got a lesson and demonstration of the art of making rugs. It was fascinating and some of these rugs were over $5,000. The detail and textures were amazing.

After lunch, which was incredibly good for a free lunch with the tour, we boarded a big ferry boat to head back to the old city. Istanbul is a really pretty city from the water. Then we changed to another smaller boat for a private tour. Somehow, Jen and her mother didn't get on the second boat and they missed a great cruise. Later that night we found a Korean restaurant and Olivia was very excited. This was the first time I have has Korean food; it was very good. Later that night we hear about a square where people were gathering to welcome in the New Year. It turned out to be Istanbul's equivalent of Times Square in NYC. There must have been 20,000 people there easy. They even had a great fireworks display. It was a great time.

The next day we took a ferry to the Asia side. I could not be that close and go. Now I can say I have been to Asia. We wondered the shops and had lunch at a great restaurant and headed back. Then we shopped and walked around until it was time to board the train to go back to the Bulgaria. However this time, our porter was horrible. Even at the border, he didn't wake us up and only thanks to Olivia did we make it to customs in time. Then when we got to Plovdiv in Bulgaria, he was no where to be found. Again, Olivia woke up and got us all off the train in time. Welcome home, huh! Overall, it was a fantastic trip and I can't wait to travel to somewhere else now.