LG's Excellent PC Adventure

I went back to Saedinenie last Friday to visit Veneta & Stoil. I haven't really worked my way into any sort of social life here in Stara Zagora so it's really nice to go back to that small town where everybody knows my name. I was greeted by half a dozen people on the walk from the bus station to Veneta's place and had to stop and tell each of them what I'd been doing and how I really preferred Saedinenie to Stara Zagora. In many ways, that is the truth too! I had the usual belt popping meal with Veneta and Stoil and then he and I watched soccer for awhile and drank a glass or two of his homemade rakiya. I asked them if they planned to get a new pig and a new PC trainee in the Spring and they gave me a definite 'yes' on the pig. I offered to speak with the PC on their behalf if they want a new trainee on the condition that the new guy doesn't get 'my' room! There are limits, after all. Right now, my room is filled to bursting with all of Veneta's plants and potted shrubs. She even has several trays of veggies that have been started from seed and are beginning to sprout. The next group of trainees will arrive in April and will be comprised of TEFL's (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Then in August the next group of COD's will arrive and our group of B-16's will be almost half way home. Veneta hasn't decided whether she wants a new guy or not, but I'm sure she'll let me know.

They lit a fire in the wood burning stove upstairs for me and I crawled under fifty pounds of quilts and blankets and was actually quite comfortable during the night. The next morning, during breakfast, the doorbell rang and Brian and Kate turned up at the gate. They had come to town to visit their own Host families and to see if they could buy some of Stoil's homemade (domashna) vino and rakiya. The vino is a hearty red table wine that is quite good and the rakiya is an award winning beverage with just a hint of Jet A fuel combustibility. I tried to buy a bottle of each to take with me back to SZ and got thoroughly chewed out for my trouble. Someday I'll learn. They loaded me up with wine, rakiya, fig jam and stuffed peppers to ease my journey back home. It is always great to get together with the two of them!

Back home I went about my chores and did a load of wash. I failed to notice that a pair of brand new navy colored socks had snuck their way in with my white unmentionables and now my shorts are all a very attractive dingy grey color. At least the washing machine worked without destroying anything this time.

Tuesday, March 8th, was the International Day of Women. I brought flowers and candy to the four ladies I work with and congratulated them heartily on being women. They took me out to lunch as the token male in the office and we ate in one of the nicer restaurants in town. I was set to order the pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes but was convinced at the last minute to change to the special, lamb. When my meal arrived I discovered that a hunk of lamb consisting of part of a spine and maybe a hip had been removed from the animal with the surgical precision of a Viking's axe and then charred so thoroughly as to disguise any evidence that it had ever been organic matter. The coal-like lump of matter sat stolidly in a pool of lukewarm oil but it did have a solitary raw green onion as a garnish, so the meal wasn't totally inedible. One of my colleagues had quietly ordered the pork chops which arrived looking absolutely wonderful. They were moist and succulent with a light breading and the garlic mashed potatoes looked so good that I, briefly, considered bludgeoning her to death with my club of lamb and stealing them. Serves me right for eating in a public restaurant on Women's Day.

As I've mentioned previously, there are two Neolithtic Dwellings in Stara Zagora that have been determined to be over 8,000 years old. We believe that they could and should be a major tourist attraction but the City doesn't really publicize them. Now we're putting a project together that proposes to improve access to the Dwellings, upgrade the facility that protects them, and announce their existence to the world. Oh, and in addition to that, we also would like to rebuild them to their original state (prior to the fire that burned them to the ground 8,000 years ago). Actually we are proposing to build full scale replicas of the originals right next door and have them be part of an interactive exhibition. Visitors would be able to make bread and pottery in the homes just like the inhabitants did so long ago. I've begun referring to them as the Neolithic Condos and Timeshare Association and that was how the original proposal was titled until the little language misunderstanding was sorted out. So, for those of you who are interested, pre-construction pricing is still available on the New Neolithic Dwellings!

It was time today to don my jodhpurs, monacle and beret and snap my riding crop smartly across my palm. Yes, the Film Club kicked into action at the local Languages High School. Many of you have had experience dealing with young people, some on a professional basis. I have not. I found myself delivering a monologue on film making to a room full of small statues dressed exactly like teenagers. When I asked, just before they left, if they were interested in coming back for a second meeting they gave me an enthusiatic group head nod and filed out. The teacher who was helping me assured me that this level of behavior is completely uncharacteristic and that they will certainly misbehave next time. In the Bulgarian school system, these kids are the best and brightest. When they are in grammar school, the kids take tests to determine which high school they'll be eligible for and the school requiring the highest marks is the Language School. Many of these kids will go to colleges or universities in England, Europe or the States. The Science and Math School is next, followed by other 'specialty' schools and then the general education schools. If enough of them are interested and return on Tuesday for our second meeting, I think I'll enjoy working with them over the next year or so. They all speak English and the movies will be in English as part of the agreement with the school. I've asked them all to try and help me with my Bulgarian so it will be fascinating to see what new words I learn.

Next Tuesday the Opera is "Tosca". It oughta be a hoot! So, until next time, as we say in the Corps, "Peace".