I have arrived!
May 2nd, 2005 by bulgaria1020.Ok, so i made it here!! Staging in Chicago was very fun. We have 50 people in our group. But i must warn everyone that there was no bulgaria specific info given to us. We had to wait to have our questions answered till we were in country.
IF YOU ARE GOING INTO THE PEACE CORPS, BRING A PHRASE BOOK! like “I want to eat” “Can we go here” Those are hard to look up in a dictionary.
I am now with my family. We had three days of language training and then a family picked each of us up and now I live in a small town with 3 other pcv’s. My mother’s sister has another pcv (stephanie) So we hang out all the time. It is very overwhelming to have people talk to you and have no idea how to communicate. It is stressful for me b/c you all know how much i love to talk and now i am without words!! But since i have been here, i have tripled my bulgarian.
The first day we went to a “sam’s club” type store. i couldn’t believe it. I didnt know they existed here. That was true culture shock! My brother is 21 and stephanies sister is 21. So, they like to take us out with there friends. It’s good and many of them can speak some english words. I have found the kids english textbooks very helpful when communicating with my family. Today is a national holiday and town holiday (like papillion days) There is music, booths, and lots of music.