What I have learned about my students and myself:
First, I teach 18 different classes a week. I have all of the students in 9th through 11th grade once a week for a conversation class. This is really nice in terms of structuring my lessons and keeping students interested. The hard part is learning students names and connecting.
About my students:
I am teaching at one of the best high schools in Bulgaria and definitely in Varna. This means that a lot of my students want to study abroad and are very motivated to learn english. This is really exciting and I am so happy that so many of them actually care.
But... they are still high school students and I have a bunch that are not interested and are really misbehaved. Also, high school students mumble - and between the accents, the ridiculously hard to pronounce names and the misuse of words I am finding myself saying "what" all the freaking time.
About me:
I have learned that I have more energy than I thought, that I am kind of funny (I have made 16 of my classes laugh) and I can be strict.
I know that in order to earn their respect I need to come on strong and if I need to peddle back I can. This means that my two terrible classes have required me to practice patience, move students seats and give short speeches about respect and behavior - which I did not know I had in me.
But overall teaching has been really good the past two weeks and I think I am going to really enjoy it!
After school fun!
Last week I had a lot of guest. Obviously, I thought that I would be living alone and was completely prepared for that but it was a really nice way to get adjusted having visitors.
Tuesday, after my first real day of teaching a friend I made while traveling in Romania came to visit. He wanted to see Varna so it was really nice - we did something fun every day after work.
Wednesday, we went to the sea garden and down to the sea and Thursday, we went to the rock monastery a little outside of Varna and then went to the sea for dinner and watched the sun set from the docks! It was gorgeous!
The rock monastery is super cool! The monks built a monastery into the mountains so its really interesting looking. (unfortunately didn't have my camera so no pictures :( )
Friday, my friend left and then seven other fulbright etas came to visit. It was Blaine's birthday and she wanted to celebrate in Varna obviously (best city in Bulgaria). I got her a cake, we went to the sea (finally went in the water) and went to a salsa club! It was really fun and so nice to spend time with other etas and see how their first weeks went.
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| friends celebrating birthdays! In my kitchen! |
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| Jake with the dead jelly fish - eek! |
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| jumping picks never work... |
Then this week - I didn't do as much and relaxed a lot more - because I was pooped! But I did meet a lot of new people living in Varna and that was really awesome!
Sunday, I met up with some people, Juliana - the eta from last year - was friends with and went to a nice bar.
Then later in the week, my friend Minka (who is doing a fulbright research grant) had me and one of the guys we met on Sunday over for dinner.
I also met up with the volunteer coordinator for the battered women's shelter so hopefully I will get started with volunteering there soon.
And I went to this event called Polygot cafe - where various foreigners get together once a month to speak in their native language and meet other foreigners living in Varna. That was amazing! I met this american women who owns an english bookstore here that has monthly events, and this really nice bulgarian girl who lives near me. This girl was incredibly nice - she insisted on taking the bus an extra stop to make sure I got home okay and offered to give me a tour of the city and show me around one day next week! I'm starting to really feel settled here and I am meeting amazing people!
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