Hello!!!

2007-02-04T15:33:00.000-08:00

Well, let me first start off introducting myself!
My name is Tracy, and I am currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is a small country (well, compared to the United States. It is actually about the same size as the state of Tennessee) and is located on the Black Sea in Eastern Europe.

I came here in August and will be living and working here for two years with the Youth Development Program, which means untill sometime around October 2008.

What do I do here? Well, right now I run after school English clubs for the kids, coach baseball when the weather is good, teach jewelry making, and help plan different events around town. (I'll let you guys know about them when they come up)

Before moving here I had lived in Michigan all my life. I graduated from Michigan State University and went to high school in Northville.

Some things are the same here, like the weather. This winter has been weird and not very cold, but usually it's about exactly the same as in Michigan with 4 seasons, hot summers and cold winters. But there are still lots of things I'm getting used to everyday, since in other ways Bulgaria is a lot different than home.

The biggest one which you might have already guessed, is the language.
They speak Bulgarian here, and they don't use our alphabet. They use cyrillic. It might look crazy to you at first (I know it did to me!) but once you get used to it, it is actually not too hard at all.

Трейси - Tracy
България- Bulgaria
Америка- America

So, you can see that some of the letters look similar, and others don't at all...but it was fun to learn. Almost like getting to learn a secret code. Except that everybody in Bulgaria knows it....so I guess it really isn't all that secret...
anyways.

There is so much to tell about this beautiful country, things that you guys probably didn't know.
There are castles here (actually one of them is only a half hour away from the village where I live) . There are mountains. They have televisions and running water and MTV.
They also have places where sheep are still herded through the street everynight, they make their own yogurt and everything they eat comes stright from their own garden. It's an interesting mix of historical culture and modern technology.

BTW- although nobody really knows who first discovered yogurt, most people believe that is was the Bulgarians. The yogurt here is fantastic and everybody eats tons of it. If you want to make your own Bulgarian Style Yogurt at home, here is how. Get your parents help of course!

Well, it's lunch time for me here so I gotta run, but I'll be here checking my blog and updating it with pictures and stories for you guys, so feel free to leave comments with questions or anything else you want! This blog is for you!

Lek Den! (лек ден) = pretty much means "have a good day!"

Tracy

Tracy In Bulgaria

Hello!!!