Spring is here. I am pumped. Hiking has started again and tourist season is just around the corner. That being said. I have busy months ahead. I have successfully created a vizitka (business) card for my secretary mayor...but He wants some minor changes. I will work on those tomorrow with him. My business cards are done. (This was a lot harder than you'd think...but I won't go into details). I have been continuously working on the website and the web visibility. I have been working with the new shop in town to create a menu and business card. I am still desperately trying to get all of the files of the business cards from those who are interested for the brochure. IT is done. I just need the files for the final layout then talk to the owners to collect money. So so so so close. Updates on this.. within a week. Other news is that my kids are starting to listen to me...sort of when they're in my class. Sort of. At-least I have a class. So I'm thankful. Been busy. It feels good. 18 days and I've been out of the states for 365. Crazy. Definitely crazy.
Cheers.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Macedonia
After our Tourism Meeting in Sofia, a group of volunteers and I headed to Skopje, Macedonia to continue our experience exchange with other Peace Corps Volunteers. On the ride to Skopje, I looked over my notes. I looked at what we had just learned, and what we had experienced at the tourism meeting in Sofia. We talked sporadically of what we liked about the conference, what we felt was most useful and how we can try to implement these things in our sites. It also got me excited to think of what the weekend held for more potential exchanges and that the possibility of the PCV’s in Macedonia experiencing similar struggles as well as possible partnerships.
We were all excited about meeting new(er) faces, being in a new(er) country and enjoying some familiar travels aka long bus rides. It took us about 7 hours (with a one hour stop at the boarder) to get into Skopje. We were beat. I was sitting next to a guy that I’m pretty sure thought he owned all 3 seats in the back of the bus. He kind of reminded me of this guy.
Anyways once we got into Skopje, our other Macedonian college picked us up and headed to the hostel. The weather was great and I had no idea, but Macedonia is an hour back than in Bulgaria. Plus that weekend was Daylight savings. Talk about confusing.
After a few beers, we were tired and hit the bed, we had to get up for the conference we had been patiently waiting for. Long story short, the conference was great. We learned a lot about each others’ respective country programs, where the trends were, what the plans for future involvement are and future collaboration. After that, we went and had some Mexican…don’t judge.
We then had the opportunity to walk around Skopje and take in all the sites. We saw the Turkish Pazar and Old town, The Fortress, Mother Teresa’s Birthplace, and The Old Stone Bridge. All in all a great trip! Pictures in order!
PS I haven’t loaded the pictures up cause my camera is not at work. So I've 'borrowed the pictures from a friend of mine!
Another Update Tomorrow.
We were all excited about meeting new(er) faces, being in a new(er) country and enjoying some familiar travels aka long bus rides. It took us about 7 hours (with a one hour stop at the boarder) to get into Skopje. We were beat. I was sitting next to a guy that I’m pretty sure thought he owned all 3 seats in the back of the bus. He kind of reminded me of this guy.
Anyways once we got into Skopje, our other Macedonian college picked us up and headed to the hostel. The weather was great and I had no idea, but Macedonia is an hour back than in Bulgaria. Plus that weekend was Daylight savings. Talk about confusing.
After a few beers, we were tired and hit the bed, we had to get up for the conference we had been patiently waiting for. Long story short, the conference was great. We learned a lot about each others’ respective country programs, where the trends were, what the plans for future involvement are and future collaboration. After that, we went and had some Mexican…don’t judge.
We then had the opportunity to walk around Skopje and take in all the sites. We saw the Turkish Pazar and Old town, The Fortress, Mother Teresa’s Birthplace, and The Old Stone Bridge. All in all a great trip! Pictures in order!
PS I haven’t loaded the pictures up cause my camera is not at work. So I've 'borrowed the pictures from a friend of mine!
Another Update Tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
March was busy...sorry for the Delay!
So March was a busy month for me. Goodness! Following my last post I had gone to regional village for one of the biggest village kukeri festivals throughout all of Bulgaria. This kukeri festival is considered pagan and it's to bring the end of winter with spirits and what not. Men in costumes are elaborately dressed and dancing with cowbells. It was quite intriguing.
Here's some pictures from that event.
Then the following weekend we had a seminar with one of the EU funded projects in my municipality called the Leader Program. They held the seminar in my village. Which was great. It was like a epiphany for people in my town. For all those PCV's out there. It was like a PDM conference but only in the language of Bulgarian. The PDM conference is Project Design Management. It was interesting. But here's why it was especially good for the people of my village. About 80% of the ideas I had mentioned in my previous 8 months at site...about brochures, creating a logo/crest...website, homemade souvenirs....make your own yogurt...village and cultural tourism just to name a few, my town had laughed probably saying oh...cute ideas Jon but seriously....these are what you're suggesting? Well these highly regarded EU program facilitators came into the meeting and said just about every single one of my ideas. I kept my mouth shut. When one of the facilitators asked why I was so quite, a collegue interjected and said..'because you've stated his ideas already'. It was an eye opening experience for my village. The play makers in my village instantly took notice that I may actually know what I am talking about. And that's when I got busy. Taking note that I have mentioned and that I am on the same mindset as this EU funded program. I would say my schedule is looking mighty busy!
After that I had spent most of my time in the village cause I have English classes. Let me tell you. Things are starting to pick up. I have my one adult class on Thursdays but after a few classes in February, not only did I gain a student but they wanted to have it 2 times a week. PUMPED. That's great! So now it's a Tuesday and Thursday routine from 6-7...but it usually runs till about 7:30. Now I had been having my art classes on Wednesdays but I found out that the kids only have that one day as their free day. So I've made it optional. Instead I've been teaching English every week, 3 classes. First class, is from 2-3. Second and third class is from 3-4. and 4th and 5th class is from 4-5. With the art/environment club from 5-6. I'm really excited about the classes today as my partner school in Maryland has sent me letters for myself and the kids. I spent last week teaching the kids how to form their basic knowledge of questions to write letters. They seem discouraged but they will have my support. They know it. They have all the peices of the puzzle. They are excited about it. Hopefully it will help foster long lasting friendships with Americans with them.
I have also been working on creating a logo for my village. I am very excited about this as I have been working with a bunch of people to grab their input. In addition to this logo I have been asked to make business cards. Working on making a brochure (still in the process)...this is a slow process because trying to make it as cheap as possible and well as visibly enticing. I still need to work on some of the translation.
Here's the Logo. Unfortunately since my town is so small I had to blur the name out for you all.
Then after that...I had a tourism resource exchange in Sofia for a day with other PCV's throughout Bulgaria. This was something I had been helping plan and whatnot. Using each other for resources I find is very important. The ideas and exchanges we got was great. Especially in time for tourist season!
Then onto the next post. Macedonia!
Here's some pictures from that event.
Then the following weekend we had a seminar with one of the EU funded projects in my municipality called the Leader Program. They held the seminar in my village. Which was great. It was like a epiphany for people in my town. For all those PCV's out there. It was like a PDM conference but only in the language of Bulgarian. The PDM conference is Project Design Management. It was interesting. But here's why it was especially good for the people of my village. About 80% of the ideas I had mentioned in my previous 8 months at site...about brochures, creating a logo/crest...website, homemade souvenirs....make your own yogurt...village and cultural tourism just to name a few, my town had laughed probably saying oh...cute ideas Jon but seriously....these are what you're suggesting? Well these highly regarded EU program facilitators came into the meeting and said just about every single one of my ideas. I kept my mouth shut. When one of the facilitators asked why I was so quite, a collegue interjected and said..'because you've stated his ideas already'. It was an eye opening experience for my village. The play makers in my village instantly took notice that I may actually know what I am talking about. And that's when I got busy. Taking note that I have mentioned and that I am on the same mindset as this EU funded program. I would say my schedule is looking mighty busy!
After that I had spent most of my time in the village cause I have English classes. Let me tell you. Things are starting to pick up. I have my one adult class on Thursdays but after a few classes in February, not only did I gain a student but they wanted to have it 2 times a week. PUMPED. That's great! So now it's a Tuesday and Thursday routine from 6-7...but it usually runs till about 7:30. Now I had been having my art classes on Wednesdays but I found out that the kids only have that one day as their free day. So I've made it optional. Instead I've been teaching English every week, 3 classes. First class, is from 2-3. Second and third class is from 3-4. and 4th and 5th class is from 4-5. With the art/environment club from 5-6. I'm really excited about the classes today as my partner school in Maryland has sent me letters for myself and the kids. I spent last week teaching the kids how to form their basic knowledge of questions to write letters. They seem discouraged but they will have my support. They know it. They have all the peices of the puzzle. They are excited about it. Hopefully it will help foster long lasting friendships with Americans with them.
I have also been working on creating a logo for my village. I am very excited about this as I have been working with a bunch of people to grab their input. In addition to this logo I have been asked to make business cards. Working on making a brochure (still in the process)...this is a slow process because trying to make it as cheap as possible and well as visibly enticing. I still need to work on some of the translation.
Here's the Logo. Unfortunately since my town is so small I had to blur the name out for you all.
Then after that...I had a tourism resource exchange in Sofia for a day with other PCV's throughout Bulgaria. This was something I had been helping plan and whatnot. Using each other for resources I find is very important. The ideas and exchanges we got was great. Especially in time for tourist season!
Then onto the next post. Macedonia!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
It's March. 4estita Baba Marta and much more!
As I take a break from preparing my night class (as I mentioned before I have a night class of English to one of the Tour guides in the cave and his wife), I take time to reflect on the last couple of weeks. With the weather heating up, the snow melting, and the birds starting to sing their songs. One thing that has occurred to me. I've survived my first winter here. Not that it was brutal or anything. In fact I love the snow, and this winter was weak in the Rhodopes. Pretty sub-par by my standards. Granted it could just be an off year but I wanted more. Regardless I've made it through.
So I have had my art class for the last couple of weeks and I think I will take it to the next level and sign up for Paintbrush Democracy. It should be a good tune for the kids to see other works of art. I am also coordinating with my WWS match in Maryland to do something similar!
The start of March also signifies "Happy Grandmother March" day 4estita Baba Marta. This day (in my town really isn't much) Although all of the martinitsi (these small red and white braceletes are handed out signifying good luck. I was able to recieved 3. (everything works in threes).
Then 2 days later on March 3rd was Bulgarian Independence day. It's like our 4th of July. Although on this day Bulgaria regained it's independence from the Ottoman Empire so it's definitely a huge day. On Weds. I arrived to my office with some coffee and to check email. I was 'hollered' out side. Thinking that I would take the offroad jeeps up to the mountain peak for the celebration, my mayor said that those were for the race. To my surprise the peak that usually takes me 2 hours to hike up casually was an all out race to the top. Utterally underprepared for this escapade. I ran upwards. I reached the top of the mountain in about 40 minutes. I was beat. Someone was at the top handing me some warm tea and water. It was fabolous. That's when the real celebration started. With free food, skara (like a bbq) drinks, music it was a jolly time. Then as we headed over to the other peak, we sang songs and danced. We finally reached the destination. We got in a circle, stated the history of my village...and with a moment of silence we all got down on the ground kneeling. It was quite amazing. Then with the cannon, we lit it and enjoyed the festivities. It was an all day event. If that's not enough, I have one day rest...one day...as I head into the nearest town tomorrow for a meeting with a tourism agency. These people were at the Tourism Expo in Sofia. They had told me to come to their office for a meeting. Hopefully soon. If not tomorrow. Soon. This weekend is a Kukeri (Kookeri) which is another festival in the Rhodopes not too far away. It should be a good time. I will say. I love the Rhodopes. I love the people, I love the history (however confusing it may be), the surroundings everything. It's truly great.
I also started planting my garden. In my room. I figured the greenery will help the inner air quality (it's already good as is) But I like plants. I planted some sweet peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and Bell peppers. I will move them outside when the weather gets nicer at night.
I'm also working on some Tourism exchange possibilities between neighboring PC countries, so if any of you reading this. In and around the Balkans and the Black Sea work on this particular assignment feel free to contact me.
So I have had my art class for the last couple of weeks and I think I will take it to the next level and sign up for Paintbrush Democracy. It should be a good tune for the kids to see other works of art. I am also coordinating with my WWS match in Maryland to do something similar!
The start of March also signifies "Happy Grandmother March" day 4estita Baba Marta. This day (in my town really isn't much) Although all of the martinitsi (these small red and white braceletes are handed out signifying good luck. I was able to recieved 3. (everything works in threes).
Then 2 days later on March 3rd was Bulgarian Independence day. It's like our 4th of July. Although on this day Bulgaria regained it's independence from the Ottoman Empire so it's definitely a huge day. On Weds. I arrived to my office with some coffee and to check email. I was 'hollered' out side. Thinking that I would take the offroad jeeps up to the mountain peak for the celebration, my mayor said that those were for the race. To my surprise the peak that usually takes me 2 hours to hike up casually was an all out race to the top. Utterally underprepared for this escapade. I ran upwards. I reached the top of the mountain in about 40 minutes. I was beat. Someone was at the top handing me some warm tea and water. It was fabolous. That's when the real celebration started. With free food, skara (like a bbq) drinks, music it was a jolly time. Then as we headed over to the other peak, we sang songs and danced. We finally reached the destination. We got in a circle, stated the history of my village...and with a moment of silence we all got down on the ground kneeling. It was quite amazing. Then with the cannon, we lit it and enjoyed the festivities. It was an all day event. If that's not enough, I have one day rest...one day...as I head into the nearest town tomorrow for a meeting with a tourism agency. These people were at the Tourism Expo in Sofia. They had told me to come to their office for a meeting. Hopefully soon. If not tomorrow. Soon. This weekend is a Kukeri (Kookeri) which is another festival in the Rhodopes not too far away. It should be a good time. I will say. I love the Rhodopes. I love the people, I love the history (however confusing it may be), the surroundings everything. It's truly great.
I also started planting my garden. In my room. I figured the greenery will help the inner air quality (it's already good as is) But I like plants. I planted some sweet peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and Bell peppers. I will move them outside when the weather gets nicer at night.
I'm also working on some Tourism exchange possibilities between neighboring PC countries, so if any of you reading this. In and around the Balkans and the Black Sea work on this particular assignment feel free to contact me.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Ok this is an actual TODAY Post
It’s another cold day in the Rhodope Mountains. I woke up this morning to plan on cooking some breakfast and some hot chocolate (Swiss Mix…Thanks Mom). This is however not the case. My water is frozen. The electricity is out, as it has been doing every 2 days and stays out for days on end. Even my phone says there’s no coverage…I am truly a hermit on this day. I love it. In addition I awoke to about 18-20 inches of snow and it continuing to snow. I don’t know if I will even make it into the office this morning, if there’s no electricity…I might as well just type/write a few letters and emails here before getting internet back. Perhaps I will read and start drafting a project as well. I’ll have enough to keep me busy. The last couple of weeks have been busy. Last week I was in Sofia for a week, a few days for the staff retreat, a meeting with my program manager, meeting with tourism companies, and I ended up meeting with some Albanian Peace Corps Volunteers working in the same program as me; tourism development.
First the staff retreat was great. It is very interesting to learn exactly how yearly budgets and requests go through the whole process. The two-day process went from the smallest details of what volunteers need to what staff needs. Taking into consideration the larger groups planning on being introduced here a lot of factors get taken into consideration. I would like to point out that Peace Corps Bulgaria ranks 7th worldwide for Peace Corps programs participating in the WWS program. This program is where volunteers write to a school match back in the states and set up a pen pal per se. I think that’s great. I do think we can do better as well!
I then had a great opportunity to pick some Albanian PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteer) brains about what they have done for tourism development. What I learned only solidified my push for creating an opportunity for other PCV’s to connect with our regional brothers. As PCV’s we can and should use each other as resources. Especially in Eastern Europe where the economical landscape is consistently changing due to the accession of the European Union. We can share with other PCV’s in other countries what has worked and what has not. Creating and sustaining this connection will only strengthen our skills as well as our creativity. We will see hopefully we can have more continued talks here in the efforts to connect with PCV’s in the region.
Lastly I talked to my program manager about helping set up some sort of tourism technical training. It was an overall great meeting and it was good to squeeze in some talking time. I also told him about my first true business related success. I know I know 10 months in. It’s normal.
So the success story. Now granted a lot of people are still trying to get a feel for me in my village. Perfectly normal. There’s one individual that totally wants to learn. He is a tour guide at the cave. He is the only one that gives the English tours to English speakers. The catch? He only knows English from watching TV. He doesn’t even know the alphabet. He wants to learn to read and write. So I casually gave him a time to come to my office for his classes. I had forgotten about it because most people say they will do something and then don’t show. Again pretty normal. Well he came with his wife! I was so excited. My first adult class. His assignment is to write out (to the best of his abilities) what he says on his English tour. We will go word for word helping him structure it and create pamphlets for the other tour guides and for the tourists if he is on another tour. English and tourism development…one class. My success story! It doesn’t seem like much but it’s the way that it should be. I should be the facilitator, the change agent, and the catalyst for change, not the person doing everything. I have a feeling I will be working with this individual quite closely for my time here. As he WANTS what I want. In a town of 400 give or take. This is like finding a golden nugget in a river.
I couldn’t be happier.
I hope you all are enjoying yourselves.
B-26ers, anyone?
Have questions? Leave a comment
First the staff retreat was great. It is very interesting to learn exactly how yearly budgets and requests go through the whole process. The two-day process went from the smallest details of what volunteers need to what staff needs. Taking into consideration the larger groups planning on being introduced here a lot of factors get taken into consideration. I would like to point out that Peace Corps Bulgaria ranks 7th worldwide for Peace Corps programs participating in the WWS program. This program is where volunteers write to a school match back in the states and set up a pen pal per se. I think that’s great. I do think we can do better as well!
I then had a great opportunity to pick some Albanian PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteer) brains about what they have done for tourism development. What I learned only solidified my push for creating an opportunity for other PCV’s to connect with our regional brothers. As PCV’s we can and should use each other as resources. Especially in Eastern Europe where the economical landscape is consistently changing due to the accession of the European Union. We can share with other PCV’s in other countries what has worked and what has not. Creating and sustaining this connection will only strengthen our skills as well as our creativity. We will see hopefully we can have more continued talks here in the efforts to connect with PCV’s in the region.
Lastly I talked to my program manager about helping set up some sort of tourism technical training. It was an overall great meeting and it was good to squeeze in some talking time. I also told him about my first true business related success. I know I know 10 months in. It’s normal.
So the success story. Now granted a lot of people are still trying to get a feel for me in my village. Perfectly normal. There’s one individual that totally wants to learn. He is a tour guide at the cave. He is the only one that gives the English tours to English speakers. The catch? He only knows English from watching TV. He doesn’t even know the alphabet. He wants to learn to read and write. So I casually gave him a time to come to my office for his classes. I had forgotten about it because most people say they will do something and then don’t show. Again pretty normal. Well he came with his wife! I was so excited. My first adult class. His assignment is to write out (to the best of his abilities) what he says on his English tour. We will go word for word helping him structure it and create pamphlets for the other tour guides and for the tourists if he is on another tour. English and tourism development…one class. My success story! It doesn’t seem like much but it’s the way that it should be. I should be the facilitator, the change agent, and the catalyst for change, not the person doing everything. I have a feeling I will be working with this individual quite closely for my time here. As he WANTS what I want. In a town of 400 give or take. This is like finding a golden nugget in a river.
I couldn’t be happier.
I hope you all are enjoying yourselves.
B-26ers, anyone?
Have questions? Leave a comment
February
It’s February. Unbelievable. Winter has been pretty mild. I’ll say that. Only 7 weeks left. It’s currently raining right now. I just finished working on a tourism table to compile all the places of accommodation surrounding my area. This week I will go and collect the information. This is just another piece of work that has helped me watch time fly. Hopefully this information will be used for the future website and other forms of communication to tourists. Tomorrow I have a meeting with director of the school. I am proposing that I split the kids (I currently teach about 15 kids ranging from 1st to 8th grades…definitely difficult) into 3 classes so that I can have better control. This will also give me the opportunity to teach the kids that need the most help and help me push the kids that ‘know’ what they’re doing. I also have made posters for the art club and environmental club. I’m hoping with tomorrow’s meeting I can persuade the director to allow me the 2 hours out of the week for these small projects. I mean why not? Art is a healthy and fun activity and with the environmental club I can have the ability to also teach some science and earth friendly courses. We will see.
I’m also trying to plan some sort of small weekend get away to either Thessoliniki, Istanbul or Skopje, Maybe Belgrade…..Not sure. Any suggestions? I’d love input! I am also currently looking a planning my trip back to Cyprus because I miss it too much
I’m also trying to plan some sort of small weekend get away to either Thessoliniki, Istanbul or Skopje, Maybe Belgrade…..Not sure. Any suggestions? I’d love input! I am also currently looking a planning my trip back to Cyprus because I miss it too much
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Back from Italy!
I went to visit my brother in Rome for a couple of days and wow what a weather change! I will never (well I can’t say that) make pizza again after eating some of the food. Wow…It was good to get away, but even better to see my brother. He was growing some sort of Ravens beard or something, but it was more like patches. More power to him. Rome was out of this world. The hotel was literally a few blocks away from the coliseum, which was amazing. The pantheon, the roads, and the forum it was just truly spectacular. I definitely want to go back. Maybe after my service though, we’ll see. My brother is doing well and I think that is what I enjoyed the most. Seeing him. I know he enjoyed my company too, but to see him and not via skype, well it was a late Christmas for me. We went out, drank, had dinner, all the things we hadn’t been able to do like we do during the summers. Hopefully he can find his way back to Europe during the summer and we can do it again. I know it was a great trip for him as it was for most of his friends, for me it was interesting hearing English again. I must say I kept having the problem of starting conversations in Bulgarian or ordering in Bulgarian. Smooth Jon- real smooth. I guess that means another step in the process of Peace Corps right? When your brain starts to function in Bulgarian? Always interesting. I also celebrated 8 months in country when I was in Italy, so Nazdrave! (Cheers!)
Here’s a post from December:
So it’s December now! Not as cold as you would think. It has been very mild and not too much snow at the moment. More rain than I could actually want. I’m sure it will be considered a good thing when I find out that winter is only going to be 6-7 maybe 8 weeks long. Last week I went to visit my friend Ryan up North for Thanksgiving. It was awesome. He’s right on the Danube River. Kind of a trek for me, but it was totally worth the small get away. It was actually colder there than it has been in the mountains. Things are starting to move along. I’m starting to find projects, whether or not they get in motion is another story. Hopefully they do! I’ve decided that I will be going to visit my other friend Joe for Christmas again up North because I want to spend New Years here. I’ve heard many good things about New Years in my village as the population grows with all the tourists. Time will tell!
So here’s another one of those posts from before Thanksgiving.
Hey again!
So I’ve been in country for 6 months. Wow! I’m at my IST or in-service training. It was a nice location since it only took about 3-4 hours to get here. I am loving my site. It is getting somewhat cold, but definitely enjoyable. In about a week I will head up to one of my buddies’ site and spend Thanksgiving there. Maybe have some turkey and try to stream the football games. Hopefully it will be a relaxing time, after all it will take me about 13 hours to get up North. Here at IST it is good to know that everyone is feeling the same way. You find yourself at site with a lot of free time and questioning on how you can improve on certain things. The fact of the matter is though, sometimes people are purely content with how they are and what they have. It becomes a process of ‘OK, how do we do this, and how can it be creative?”, or “What do YOU want to do?” I’m still doing a lot with the kids, or trying to. I’ve been chopping wood for the last couple of days, so I’ve been able to stop my work out routine- chopping wood is enough. The process to do this is first you slam the axe into the cylindrical shaped piece of wood, usually 70-80 pounds. After the axe is lodged into this piece of wood, you then lift up the whole piece over your shoulder and flip it- so that the axe is facing down with the wood hanging from it over your shoulder. Then in a smooth-swinging motion you slam the end of the axe onto the stump, so that the axe if facing upwards. It then splits into two. It’s quite interesting and very melodic…and therapeutic. This motion is usually one quick action and takes less than 2 seconds to complete. So I think I’ve deserved the right to not have any workouts this week. Well IST sessions are about to get going I’ll post more after Thanksgiving or sooner!
4ao.
So I’ve been in country for 6 months. Wow! I’m at my IST or in-service training. It was a nice location since it only took about 3-4 hours to get here. I am loving my site. It is getting somewhat cold, but definitely enjoyable. In about a week I will head up to one of my buddies’ site and spend Thanksgiving there. Maybe have some turkey and try to stream the football games. Hopefully it will be a relaxing time, after all it will take me about 13 hours to get up North. Here at IST it is good to know that everyone is feeling the same way. You find yourself at site with a lot of free time and questioning on how you can improve on certain things. The fact of the matter is though, sometimes people are purely content with how they are and what they have. It becomes a process of ‘OK, how do we do this, and how can it be creative?”, or “What do YOU want to do?” I’m still doing a lot with the kids, or trying to. I’ve been chopping wood for the last couple of days, so I’ve been able to stop my work out routine- chopping wood is enough. The process to do this is first you slam the axe into the cylindrical shaped piece of wood, usually 70-80 pounds. After the axe is lodged into this piece of wood, you then lift up the whole piece over your shoulder and flip it- so that the axe is facing down with the wood hanging from it over your shoulder. Then in a smooth-swinging motion you slam the end of the axe onto the stump, so that the axe if facing upwards. It then splits into two. It’s quite interesting and very melodic…and therapeutic. This motion is usually one quick action and takes less than 2 seconds to complete. So I think I’ve deserved the right to not have any workouts this week. Well IST sessions are about to get going I’ll post more after Thanksgiving or sooner!
4ao.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Well Long overdue.
Well over the next couple of days I'll be posting copies of what I had written in word when the internet was going haywire in November, December and Now. But it's back so I have about 6 posts that will be posted in the next couple of days!
So here's the first post from November:
Well here it is November and hopefully it will continue to be just as good as October was! We have a In Service training coming up and that means close to 6 months in! Which is amazing. The language is coming along and my office is slowly but surely moving forward. The snow has melted and I've spent most of my time just chopping wood and teaching classes. I'm pretty excited about the snow because it is sooooo gorgeous here covered in white! My brother moves to Italy after Christmas to study for about 3 weeks. Hopefully I can work something out where I can visit him. I'll keep you posted!
So here's the first post from November:
Well here it is November and hopefully it will continue to be just as good as October was! We have a In Service training coming up and that means close to 6 months in! Which is amazing. The language is coming along and my office is slowly but surely moving forward. The snow has melted and I've spent most of my time just chopping wood and teaching classes. I'm pretty excited about the snow because it is sooooo gorgeous here covered in white! My brother moves to Italy after Christmas to study for about 3 weeks. Hopefully I can work something out where I can visit him. I'll keep you posted!
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