Train Excapades

So let me start off by saying, this def qualifies for Foolishness status.....

So on Tues, I went to Sofia to get some shoppin in. I finished work pretty early, bout 12 or so, and decided what the hell, your bday is tomorrow. I usualy take the bus cuz its closer to my house, and Ive just got accustomed to travelin that way. BUT on this particular day, I figured sonce I was goin to the mall, I should take the train since it will put me closer to the mall which = more time to shop.

And here is where I say a big damn you b*tches for sayin people need to take the road less traveled......

Wouldnt you know, one stop away from where I got on, we stayed at the station for damn near 2 1/2 hours (I sooo which I could caps lock that for emphasis)?!?!?!?! Apparently when we stopped I thought it was something routine, a short delay or what have you. But noooooooooooo something happened to some guy at the next station which prevented his train from moving, thus preventing our train from moving, thus further preventing me from gettin to Sofia earlier to shop. Chain reaction........

Folks got off the train to play cards at a table at the train stop. The ticket checkers started unbuttoning their shirts and gettin comfy, the damn train driver got off the train to start yappin his gums. Folks were drinkin beer to pass the time, or just plain knocked out/mouth open in a deep slumber. And the funny thing is, I didnt dare ask for a refund so I could go take the bus. The seemed almost ridiculous.....

So here I am, playing with my phone, eating chips and chocolate, hoping that someone wouldnt snatch a cute bag that I might want, or take the size I needed and bought something that I could have worn so much better. Finally, the train begins to move. I thought maybe I would see blood/guts/someones head at the station when we passed it, but honestly everything looked to be like normal and I was wondering what the hell could have happened to hold us up for 2 1/2 hours (insert emphasis here)...

So some guy gets on the train and asked me for the time, altho he had a watch on. I suppose he just wanted to make sure his time was correct, altho I really suspect he just wanted to say something to me. And mind you this dude looked to be like 65. So as he is gettin off the train, he extends his hand to me and says have a nice day. I shook it to be polite and said the same to you IN BULGARIAN. That must have been a test to see my skills cuz this MOFO gon tell me that at the stop he was gettinoff at, there is a really nice hotel nearby. At first I thought maybe I didnt hear correctly, but then he started talkin shit bout how his town is so nice blah blah blah and mentions the hotel again. I just shook my damn head and turned away.....the nerve of these people.......

Then I had to go to the bathroom. And thank the lord for those lil tissue things cuz there was NO type of anything that resembled toilet paper. And not to mention the smell. Oh my Goodnes it smelled so damn rauncy in there I almost couldnt use the bathroom.....

Oh so then there were these drunk dudes on the train. They started walkin back and forth from car to car arguin about something. And besides the fact that they were slurrin their words, wobblin from side to side in a drunken stupor and reeked of booz, one dude had the audacity to be holding a freshly poured to the brim plastic cup of beer...ON THE TRAIN. I was beyond stupified......

Train ride from hell. Im takin the bus like I usually do from here on out damnit.....

I See you Girl

so I recently got some new shades. black with pink rim. I decided to break them out today. I walk into Mama Vanya's office and she had this cute lil floral top on the went with myy shades so I told her to take a pic with them on. She's extra adorable!!!

Bday Gifts/Love

G got me this bag. Gray faux leather bag from Mango. Ive worn it everyday since I got it, nevermind it didnt match my damn outfits......

Painting. On the cliff there is a bird kinda just chillin and takin it all in alone. I think thats me. Just doin my own lil thang....

The art teacher at my school was supposed to do a portrait of me. I sent her a dozen pics of me before she finally admitted she didnt have time to actually do it. She did however cough up this lil jewel......

Everyone loves flowers right? Mama Vanya, my colleague and students gave me flowers

This is the gift from my colleagues (the ladies I had lunch with). The director gave it to me personally while everyone watched. She said a few words and I was so surprised that they went out of their way to get me anything. The bottle is full of rakia, tihs awful alcohol that they have here and think is the best thing since sliced bread. Its in a wagon and those lil cup things all have Bulgaria inscribed on them. Its just adorable......

I didnt take a pic of all the things I got myself for my bday. There are sales goin on all over Sofia for some reason, and I suppose I used both these reasons to simple splurge on myself. I got a pair of sandals (which technically shouldnt be held against me since those were a rare find cuz they damn sure dont usually have size 11 shoes), a skirt, shirt, and 3 dresses. I wont even mention how much all this cost.

Im starting to think I have a real problem......But hey, you only live once right? Why not look damn good?!?!

OH and as a side note, I love russian salad. There is a colleague at my job who makes the best homemade russian salad I have ever had. So for my bday I asked her to make me some and she obliged. Well I was out of the house when she came by, so she left it with my neighbors. I came home and got it and I was extra eager to eat the salad. I open the bag look inside and see the salad in a plastic container, a rose and a small bag with something in it. I open the bag and its a stick deodorant?!?!?! excuse me.....I kept tryan figure out if she meant I smelled, if that was a mistake, or if it was something she got by accident and didnt want it. Um WTF?!?!

Happy Birthday to ME

Well ladies and gents, that day has come and passed. It def was spectacular and that really sursprised. I wasnt sure if other people would make a big deal out of it, and I honestly was convinced that the day would be mediocre.

BUT much to my chagrin, my birthday was great. It kicked off with a nice surprise from G. She pretended she was gonna come visit me on my birthday and called to get directions. But she was outside already. At the stroke of midnight, she was standing in front of my balcony and screamin for me to come outside. She is learnin to drive, and got her driving instructor to speed all the way from sofia to pernik just so she could hand deliver a rose, and muffin/makeshift birthday cake. Greatly appriciated!!!

I went to bed shortly after, happy to be 24. I had work at 7:30 AM so I had to wake up extra extra just to make sure my hair/outfit were perfect. I had on a cute white top with pink/blue/light brown verticle stripes, white skirt and white sandals. I looked really nice and chill. I decided to be down to earth and not dress up cuz it just wasnt necessary. Pumps and a dress were just not apprpriate for work at 7:30 at a damn school!

Everyone commented on how nice I looked and all gave the usual birthday wishes you would imagine-a life full of hapiness, love, wealth, health blah blah blah. One teacher who I am real cool with brought me a flower and I was excited. I treated everyone to chocolates. I bought about 7-8 boxes to offer chocolates to 56 students, my director, teachers and even the cleaning staff.

I decided since the day was about me, in my classes we would have fun and play games. We played Jeopardy and one of the categories was trivia about me. The students really surprised me cuz a lot of them know most of the questions I asked about myself. When I got to the 9g class, I was almost pushed to tears. Those lil breats sang me happy birthday and got me flowers!!! I was sure they hated me, but they really touched me!

The day went by pretty smoothly. Times flies when you are havin fun.....After, I planned a nice lunch with mama vanya in her office. Her and Irina work there together and usually have lunch there with the director, ass. director, secretary, and this other lady. Since it was my birthday however, I treated them to vodka, juice, salami, cheese, and bread along with the usualy tomatoes and cucumbers we have.

That vodka got me a lil tipsy. I havent had a drink in a lil min (other than that bottle of wine that one time) and by 2:30 my eyes started to feel droopy. I went home to change clothes real quick. For some reason I got extremely dirty and couldnt be seen walkin round like that. I did a quick "change clothes and go" into this lil number. Met up with some other folks for drinks and such.

Overall, my day was great. I spoke with my fam back home, got a few bday messages from vols, and freinds from back home. I got gifts too (yay me).

damn, Im almost a quarter of a century......

Karaoke pic

Uh

Im bout to go home and snuggle up with some wine. drown my sorrows and problems in multiple glasses....fuck it, the whole damn bottle!!!

Summer Plans

Just booked my flight for Milan. Mom is doing some work out there with her models and needs me to come hang out. End of July im in Milan, we might hit up Rome on the weekend and then back to BG. I really want to go to Macedonia and Kosovo before AUG, so I gotta fit that into my schedule.

Oh the fun. Now I just have to make it to the end of the school year without hurtin myself or one of these damn students.

Pray for me!

Gettin Ready

Well folks, that time is almost upon us: my BIRTHDAY. Just in case you have been hiding under a rock somewhere and are totally oblivious, its JUNE 16, Tuesday.

So Ive decided to do 3 outfits for the special occasion. A first indeed for me. Usually I just do a nice club outfit. But for some reason, I feel like I gotta stunt this time around. So I was walkin around the other day and saw this cute lil shirt. It went really nice with this cute white skirt. The outfit was very summerish and looked awesome on me. So Im thinkin that will be my work outfit. Ill come to school with that on and do the BG thing and bring a box of chocolates and offer them to everyone.
Vanya thinks I should do something that day and Ive decided to bake a cake and do a small thing in her office. A Russian salad, shopska, some vodka, juice and call it a day.
For the weekend, Im gonna do dinner with G and invite other vols to come hang. Then I have to do a quick outfit change (dont know where exactly) and put on my club outfit.
So jsut to make sure you get it, that 3 different birthday celebration outfits, a small get together with colleagues, and im baking a cake.

This should be fun. You'll see all the pics, dont worry....

O Really?!?!

The straws activity went pretty well in the other classes. I was explaining what happened to a Vanya (the lady who is like my grandma) and she said something like, oh that sounds good. You cant do anything serious with these kids now. And I immediately had to testify to that shit, and tell her what happened yest in my class. So the assistant director walks in while I am talkin and comes in on the part when I say something like the kids told me they were tired. How the hell can they be tired?
So come from out of nowhere, and says of course they are tired, they are at the club and cafe til 12 AM.

Im not sure if that was some justification for them being tired, or if she was being a smart ass, or agreeing with me by being sarcastic. But uumm....

In the other half of the 9g class, the activity went really well. Folks were standing on the table taping straws together. In the 10g class, it went well too. They seemed a lot more methodical and systematic. Most of their structures had a base to it, and they all worked together really well.

The winners get ice cream...I hope I can afford it.

This is my last day of work, cuz Im off on fridays, so Ill hit yall up next week. Have a great weekend folks....

And im out....

Straws

Ive done this activity with PC and it was so fun, so I decided to do it with my students.

The idea of the activity is to build the highest free standing structure, only using tape and straws in 10 minutes. The structure cant be taped to the ground, and has to stand for at least 30 seconds. The team with the highest structure wins. Easy right....

I thought this would be a chill activity. It has that element of competition, and is relatively fun cuz you really have to think about how to get the structure to stand in the alotted time.

So I let the class choose their teams. MISTAKE. One group was talkin instead of competing. I also noticed that some of them were not interested. In one group about 3 of the girls just talked and watched the one girl try to create the structure. I had to remind them that it was a group effort and that they should be helping. I also noticed that there wasnt very much competition. I mean that drive that makes you want to do as much as possible in the time given and actually beat the other teams. Everyone seemed so calm and relaxed even when there was a prize at stake. When I did this activity, I remember my group was on it! WE jumped up out our chairs when we heard the signal to do so. We all helped and dialogued on how to get it to stand. We argued but came up with a plan and put it into action. I should mention that we won the challenge partly due to the fact that Im not a LOSER! I get the job done.....

Anyway, maybe it was just the class. The 9g is always lazy, even with games sometimes. Some of them maybe just didnt really think about it all that much. I realize now that competition and games in class is not something they are used to. Some of them like it, others are just like "blah"

Ill see how it goes in the other classes.....

Speakin of the 9g class, they showed their asses again yest. Well mostly just one boy who shall remain nameless. They have a test next week and they have to write an essay. I was doing tips on how to weite a good essay and brought in an example so we could analyze it and told them to practice writing an opinion essay. Well one kid just decided he was above doing anything and he really pissed me off. I had to show him who the BOSS was. I told him to do his work, or leave the class. HE started writing for like 2 minutes then stopped. So I told him instead of answering the question given, he could write on why he thinks he doesnt have to do work in my class. He holds his book up and says he wrote something. There had to be like 4 lines on the paper. Something that usually happen. The students sometimes think that if they write a few words, then thats good enough (quality over quantity is not poopin over here). So I told him on the test he had to write at least 3 paragraphs, and what he wrote was not enough. He said he couldnt think of anything else.
Ok well let me help you. I wrote 5 extra questions on the board and told him to pick which one he wanted to answer. As a matter fact, why dont you just bang them all out is what I said. When you finish with one, move to the next question. I better see your pen moving til the bell rings. The room fell quiet and everyone looked confused. I announced to the class that they should all be writing and not talking til the bell rings and not a second sooner. I know they all thought I was the bitch of the century.
But what they dont realize, and what Ive said PLENTY of times before, is that when they looked bored, and dont do work in class, it makes me want to give them more work. I am naturally combative and when they think they can just sit in class and do nothing, I make sure they KNOW, that shit AINT going down in my class. They need to skip/not come to my class if they plan to do nothin. The year is not over yet and they need to understand that. Its funny too, cuz I actually planned to do fun activities and games til the end of the year. It makes no sense to learn anything new cuz we have finished the textbook. So im thinkin we could do some games, speaking activities and such. But the way they actin, it looks like writing assignments, dictations and boring stuff. I wish they would just learn to do their work.

Silly rabbits......Im clearly campaigning to NOT teach this class next year. I will NOT have it!!! The majority of them dont like to do work, and I WILL NOT fight with them the entire year cuz they are not doing their work. Im SO OVER IT.....