The good folks

So Ill just take a sec to recognize the Bulgarians who are just so wonderful. They joke with me, they invite me places, and they are just so nice and caring.
Vanya-works in my school. She is so adorable. She is an older woman and I go and talk to her often about all sorts of things. During the spring break, I came to the school to see her. She walked to the stored to help me buy the yellow ribbon for my apt, and bought me some ice-cream cuz it was nice that day. I've been over to her house once and she made a ovely dinner for me. She is the epitome of a loving grandma I would say, and she makes me feel extra welcome. She squeezes or smacks by booty from time to time and it would be awkward if it were anyone else, but she is extra cool.
Im not gonna go person by person, but I would just like to put in the atmosphere that there are really NICE and DECENT people who live in Pernik and they treat me like a very dear friend or a family member.

Happy Easter....(A week and some change late)

So Happy Easter folks. And I know all of you are thinkin what the hell am I on, cuz Waster was a week and some change ago. But Since the Bulgarians go by the Orthodox Catholic calendar, Waster is a week after we celebrate it in the States. And one of the things that I actually like about BG is that it is still so rich in culture and tradition. On Easter EVERYONE young and old paints eggs. But eggs are only painted on Thursdays or Staurdays (damned if I know why). The first egg painted MUST be red, symbolic of Christ's blood. A really nice bread called Kozunak (which I am not particularly keen on) is made and lamb is eaten on Sunday. Also, when the clock strikes 12 AM on saturday, most Bulgarians go to church, light candles, and walk around the church 3 times. They also walk down the street holding the candles too. Its kinda cool.
I dont know what anyone else does for Easter, but when I was younger I went to church and dressed up all pretty and died egss. But as I got older, I stopped dying eggs, and going to Easter Egg hunts, and basically stopped going to church. I cant remember my mom cooking anything special for Easter, but I remember there being a nice dinner.
I was invited on Saturday over to my program director's house for lunch. I brought a nice bottle of wine, and we ate salad, and some other Bulgarian food including lamb. After, her son, daughter and I went for a bike ride. We left about 2 and I didnt get home til about 7:45 NO LIE. We biked in the rain to a nearby (well not THAT nearby) town and met up with a friend of their's. She was nice. We stopped at her house for a bit then biked a lil bit further before we decided we were all dead tired and should turn around. It was a great workout. Honestly I really had to check myself a few times. I kept gettin caught up in that city girl mentality.
First off, to go biking I wore my Airmax sneakers. I thought we were gonna bike ride around the town, you know along the street or in the park. But we were on the grass and had to go through dirt and stuff. Then the rain didnt help matters at all. We came to this one place where the grown my split, like a hurricane ran through it and created a rift. To get from one side to the other we had to get off the bikes and walk over a whole bunch of dirt and mud. You know I almost caught a heart attack. I didnt want my kicks to get messed up, and I damn sure didnt want to slip and fall and get all dirty. I made it over tho! *whew, wipes hand across forehead*
Before we got to the friends house we had to bike almost 10 Kilometers (dont know the conversion, but look it up if your so interested) and I thought I would die. IT was fun goin down the hills and feeling the wind in my face and feeling carefree. But then after a while I just got tired and going up the hills was no walk in the park. But I made it!
Overall we stopped often enough for me to catch my breath and get my energy back to keep on biking. I would do it again, altho I was worried what the daughter and son thought of me after hearing me complain about the bugs, rain, gettin dirty, being tired, near death, etc.

Paris and Milan Pics

The church where the Last Supper is painted.

One of the main shoppin areas in the center of Milan

We stopped at McDonalds and got these lil things. Its fried spinach, and altho they looked nasty in the pic, them joints were sooooooooooo good!

Really nice church around the shopping area

Parisian burger

A busy street in Paris

We got our drink on in Paris

The train station in Paris was probably bigger than Grand Central Station

Champs de Le blah blah blah (I dont know how to spell it)

Eiffel Tower

Cant forget about the clothes....

Uumm yeah, I know how ridiculous I am. I took this pic to show jsut how RIDICULOUS I am. My closet is so damn full from clothes that I have brought with me and bought while I was here. Im lovin this lil wardrobe too. Its wooden and looks so old school. Below the open area with the doors is 2 drawers full of undies, socks, and pajamas, and shirts, and more sweaters. Life is Excellent!
I could clothe a small village with all this stuff. And Im just thinkin of all the stuff I left behind in NY.*just a thought tho*

My APT

I am a firm believer that your environment should make you feel comfy. Especially since I am in BG. It is of the utmost importance that when I come home from a hard day of work, that Im able to relax. I dont want to look at no chippin paint on my walls, or have to feel disgusting lookin at how horrible the ceiling looks.

And it doesnt hurt that Im up on the fashion scene, and just had to do something spectacular with my apt. As it was, it looked really bad. But now, I have a nice lil couch for folks to sit on (altho I havent had not one damn visitor other than my fam or PC volunteers), I have a nice sized TV, and the walls are painted a cute white and light blue color. I was tryin to figure what to accessorize my walls with, and I decided on yellow. My couch is actually a deep mustard color (so Im on point without even trying, cuz I got the couch before I even thought of the yellow thing) and I got some cute blue and yellow candles to place around the room. So my newest acquisition has been these lovely white and blue curtains, which I have been meaning to get for the longest time. The curtains I had before were so damn dirty and nasty that I took them down and the window has just been bare.

So after I got the curtains, I didnt really like how they just draped over the window like that and decided to pull them back. So I got those lil sticky white things and stuck them on the wall and got this BEAUTIFUL yellow ribbon to tie the curtains up tie them back the way you see in the pic. Cuz thats how I get down!

I love SHOES!

So those of you who know me, know damn well that my world revoles around looking very feminine, and wearing sexy high-heeled shoes and tight dresses (lol). Since I have come to BG, that has kinda been put on hold. While my button-up and work game is on point, I feel my shoe game is lacking considerably. I could only bring 2 suitcases with me initially, and I opted to bring business atire for work and other useless BS, instead of bringing shoes. What a MISTAKE that was. I quickly realized that I was at a loss. I found some clubs to go to, but had nothing to wear cuz I didnt bring the proper attire. I thought in the beginning that I wasnt gonna really be clubbin like that while I was here. And while I dont be in the clubs too often, I still go from time to time to have fun and forget about the day to day foolishness that ensues while I am at work or in town. with that being said, I was so frickin happy when I was blessed to receive a suitcase full of shoes and clothes sent from my fam back home (more specifically my older sis cuz she packed the bag). Now I am in sheer bliss and in shoes heaven. Not only did I get 7 pairs of pumps, I also got the Airmax that Poppa bought me before I left fro BG, about 8 pairs of jeans, shirts, and 2 dresses. *let the church say AMEN*
And just so you understand how exclusive I am with the shoe game, I took a pick.....

7 pairs of pumps, sneakers, 2 pairs of shoe boots, 1 pair of sneakers, and I cant forget the 8 pairs of flats I brought with me including my BELOVED coach flats.

I love shoes!

Thanks Poppa

So of course I couldnt let another day go by without shouting out my baby, who sent me a lovely care package full of goodies. I took a pic of some of the stuff, but the bag was full of lots of things that I wanted, and some that surprised me. Poppa has been a great source of support, and I just wanted to commend him on hangin in there and stickin with me throughout this entire year. I know its not easy, and not many people would do it, so you get a special KUDOS and a *kiss*
We not gonna even talk about who's care package was better between Poppa and Jojo's or who loves me more. As long as I am at the center of both worlds Im happy! hahahahaha
And you two dont have to fight over me, there is enough Lady Sha Sha *strikes a pose* to go around!

Look at my mini-me....Super!

After the Monastary, we stopped at a small place for lunch. Vlasko order kiselo mlako (sour milk) and had the fam taste it. Of course they werent really feelin it, and thats obvious from Tiff's face!

All of us at the Monastary.

Nice pic of the Monastary.

So one night I took them out to this lil place that I used to frequent very often called the Art Salon. Its a lil restaurant where a lot of older folks go to drink, talk shit, laugh, joke, and dance. Well these 2 were there and they were really nice to the fam. The guy kept tryna get my mom to let Tiff drink some wine with us.

*side note* Why do I look fat in this pic....I hope its just the pic and that I didnt really look like that when I wore this....oh and FYI, you know I stay down with the Red....

The Maxwell's come to town!

Tiff in at the Rila Monastary in front of a painted mural on the outside wall.

My town is apparently split into 2 sides, and separated by a highway. The highway has a bridge for people to walk over to get to either side, and of course I live on the other side ot the bridge! So I can either walk safely across the bridge, or I can run across the highway like Frogger....Oh, and then after the highway there are train tracks....So I literally live on the other side of the tracks! hahahaha

Me and my mini-me at the aiport. And Tiff was lookin mightly BRIGHT-LIGHT with that hoody on and some hot-pink shades.

Tiff and mom at the airport