Listening: To the various play-lists I use when I go running.
Reading: What Is Good? by A.C. Grayling. It’s a survey of philosophers’ thoughts through the millennia on what it means to live virtuously.
Yay: LSU FOOTBALL! Trips to Macedonia and home.
Boo: Losing to Auburn because of a bad call!

So it’s been THREE MONTHS since I last wrote a journal post. For that I apologize. I have lots of reasons for not writing, none of them very valid. Mostly I’ve just been busy and haven’t taken the time to update the site properly. Now that I have a little time I’ve decided to try and combat that a little by creating a journal here on WordPress. This will allow me to journal more easily without having to update the main site all the time. I can pop on, make a post, and get done all in a few moments. To me, that rocks.

As for news, I suppose there is lots of it. The biggest news is that I went home for a week and spent time with friends an family. Then I came back, visited the Rila monastery, and then quickly went back out of country to Macedonia for a week to attend a training that I lovingly called clown school. After that I came back and did a lot more travelling in country, and then went BACK to Macedonia for a training for youth workers on Globalism, Consumerism, and Citizenship. It was done by the same folks as the clown school one, and I really enjoyed them both. Pictures from clown school are on my website, by the way, as well as from some other trips. All of that can be found by clicking on the link to my main website. You’ll also find a wealth of other information there too, by the way, if this is your first exploration into the wonderful, web-world of Koubi.

As I said, I’ve been really busy lately. Peace Corps and travelling has kept me pretty occupied this summer even if going to work at my institution hasn’t. The kids were gone all summer, and are back now, but during the summer I made the trips listed above and also helped out with three different trainings for new volunteers coming into Bulgaria. Last week was the most recent one, and I was asked to bring back four trainees to my site to show them my work. This coming week is our own Mid-Service Training, which means everyone I came to Bulgaria with will meet in a hotel in the mountains concurrent with the all the new trainees to have a large couple days of mutual training (though we will all be in different seminars each day). It sort of functions as a meet and greet for volunteers who are in the same program and do similar work.

The other big thing I’ve been working on is my Fulbright Grant Application. I am hoping to move to Germany and teach English in a high school there after finishing up with Peace Corps. I can do that with a Fulbright grant, make decent cash doing so, and at the same time live in the country that I was born in. I have some family there now, through my brother’s wife. If I get stationed near Stuttgart I’ll be near her sister Taylor, Taylor’s husband Andreas, and his whole family. I’d really like to be able to be near them and get to know them. As I’ve gotten older, family has become even more important to me.

In a month’s time I will be heading to Athens to run the Athens Classic Marathon, which is still run between Marathon and Athens. A group of 18 of us volunteers will be running, and I’ve been training a lot for it. It’s pretty crazy to think that I’m in the best shape of my life right now (while serving in Peace Corps no less!). I should be spending about five days total in Greece, and am really looking forward to it. So be sure to cheer me on come November, 5, even if it’s from accross an ocean.

Anyway, that’s pretty much the news. Every day I wake up, eat breakfast, go to work (which means playing with kids), go running, and then do internet or computer based work till bed time. Usually that last bit has a lot of goofing of, watching movies, reading the news, and emailing folks mixed in, but that’s what keeps me sane. You wouldn’t want to know the shit I hear and see at my institution with regard to what these kids go through. I’m starting to realize that despite that the institution is a crap place for a child to be, that for some of them it’s still a hell of a lot better than home.

Peace, Be Well, and GEAUX TIGERS!