Listening: Ivy – “The Edge of the Ocean” and Frou Frou – “Hear Me Out”
Reeading: A copy of The Economist I picked up in Sofia
Watching: Veronica Mars Season 2 (Having finished Grey’s Anatomy Season 2 AND Scrubs Season 5 recently)
Yay: Lunch with the Ambassador
Boo: It’s COLD!
So while it may be rather obvious to most residents of the northern hemisphere over, it’s getting pretty cold now. Tonight is the first night I brought my heater back into the bedroom. From here on out my life at home is pretty much confined to the four walls. I’m surrounded by right now. Luckily within these walls lie my bed, computer, books, movies, heater, and enough space to do make sure that when I go crazy that I can flail about with a reasonable ammount of security that I won’t break anything, myself included.
I’m going to hate this winter. It is an evil that I will have to deal with. This is not because of the coming cold, though that is a serious cramp in my style. No, it is because of the fact that by January I will have lost a lot of the friends that helped keep me sane last winter. First and foremost is my sitemate, Matt. He went home to Washington and will no longer be available for nightly decompression sessions (where I would hang out in his apartment, watch TV, and generally complain about everything). Nor will he be available to share food with, talk about the news with, speak English with, etc. Also gone are Ted and Holly from Isperih; Jason from Razgrad; and, soon at least, Ben from Shumen. I’m making new friends in John and Alana in Razgrad, and of course I’ve still got Will; Annie; Greg; and, most importantly, Carey, but my pool of friends in the immediate area has gone down considerably. I have a feeling I will be reaching out to volunteers further away more often now, which is fine, but will mean more time travelling and more money spent on it. One volunteer I know I’m going to become better friends with is Andy in Varna, but that’s still a long haul, though it would definitely be worth it. I like Andy a lot, and let’s not forget that Varna is a large city with a lot to offer in terms of shopping, dining, and entertainment.
Still, I have a feeling that depression will be something to watch out for this winter. I’ll be missing home and friends and family quite a bit, I’m sure. So, dear readers, that means it’s your job to fill my inbox with emails and my kitchen with the fruits of care packages. *nudge nudge*
In other news, I had lunch in Razgrad on Monday with Ambassador Beryle. He was there on a state visit to open a section of the oblast (county) library of American books donated by the State Department. When he travels out into the provinces he likes to dine with PCVs. Not only is the face time and free food a moral boost for us, but he gets the chance to talk to us about how American-Bulgarian relations are going on the bottom level.
Not much else is going on at the moment. This weekend I will go to Shumen for one of the last times that I’ll be able to go while Ben is still there. The weekend after that is the Halloween Party, followed by a few dentist appointments in Sofia before flying to Athens. Then I have a few weeks to prepare for Thanksgiving here in Zavet. So I guess that’s that. I miss you guys.
