No Electricity...

They warned us that one of the realities of living in a block apartment is that your electricity may blow out rather frequently. Remember, they use a higher voltage. Its nothing to be careless about.



I had been lucky up to this point but the day has finally come. My electricity blew out. I got home from school to no power. What a bust! I didn't know where to begin, so I called my counterpart. (Do land line phones usually work when the power is out in the states? I cant remember.) Anyways, my counterpart instructed me to take a look at my fuse box, to check if the fuse was black and burned. Okay, so I grabbed a chair and my trusty (no batteries needed) flashlight and unscrewed the fuse. Nope, looks fine to me. What next you ask. That is where those nosy neighbors come in handy.

As usual, there were about four or five babas and diados sitting out on their benches. I walk outside confident as day, ready to explain my problem. The only problem is I blanked. How do you say "electricity"? I think I ended up saying "I have no sun", but they got the picture. One of the very old men came to save the day. He looked at my fuse box. Everything normal there. So he checked the fuse box outside my apartment. Oh, wait...it's locked..and he doesn't have the key.


So all I could do was wait. Not a problem, it was the middle of the day. About 20 minutes later, I hear loud voices outside my door and TA-DA!!! I am back in the game. I have power! So, thanks to the ever handy diado, I was able to get back online and write this damn blog. YEAH!

The Wacky Bulgarian School System...

During the communist period between 1945 and 1989, the Bulgarian education system was strongly influenced by Russia and their way of doing things. But in the last 15 years or so it has had some great fundamental changes. I am not aware of what exactly the Russian style of teaching was, but even today I still see some very communistic ways. When I or any other teacher walks into the classroom, the students are obligated to stand. They remain standing until the teacher directs them to sit. If the students are late for class, they stand at the door, profess their apologies and sit only when the teacher instructs them to do so.

Do you remember when you were in high school? You had certain classes and you moved around the school attending your different classes with different classmates. Well, another odd aspect to the education system here in Bulgaria is that the students stay put and the teachers move around the school. The same 25-30 students are placed in a classroom and those are the students that will be together for the next 4-5 years. They stay in one classroom and the teachers come to them. Needless to say, the classroom walls are rather bare as it is not one teacher’s classroom but a classroom shared by many teachers.

And instead of the normal 8:30 to 3:00 school day, most schools here function in two shifts: the morning shift form 7:30 to 1:20 and the afternoon shift from 1:30 to 7:20. At my school, the 9th and 10th classes are in one shift while the 11th and 12th are in another shift. And because I work at a language school, the 8th graders have 20 hours of English a week. They are at school all day from 7:30 to 6:30. (That is longer than the typical 9-5 job!)

What about grades? They don’t have the A, B, C, D, F system but rather the 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 system. It’s a big deal if you get a 2. This means poor, but really is the failing grade. It is rare for most teachers to give this out. Parents would have a field day.

The teachers’ duties are also slightly bizarre. We are required to prepare a year plan. This is a year plan of the material to be covered with each class group and schedules all textbook lessons to be taught as well as reviews and tests. This plan must be approved by the principal. This is a mighty hard task when you don’t teach from a textbook like myself. And me being a volunteer, they asked me not to bother. Then there is the “Dnevnik.” Each class of students has its own dnevnik. This is a big notebook that keeps tracks of the students’ absences, term grades and other comments written by the teacher. It is brought to each class each hour by the teacher who is teaching the class. And finally there is the “Materialna Kniga.” This is a large book placed in the teacher’s lounge. Every class is written in this book. After every class, you must write a short summary of what you taught that day and sign it.

So that is the wacky Bulgarian school system today. I am sure I did a horrible job of explaining it and probably missed some other important aspects I am just not aware of yet. But since I don’t speak Bulgarian above the 1st grade level, what do you expect. It all sounds very weird and confusing, but you catch on really fast.

My School's Website...

Here is a link to my school's website. I don't think they have updated it in some time so it is very outdated. Ans don't dare ask me what it all means, i can only understand bits of it. (But that is a start, right?)

Romain Rolland Foreign Language School

And the lady there, that is my principal. She is the most friendly and caring person. Always very concerned, making sure all is going well with me and my apartment and life here in Stara Zagora.

A Rocky Start...

So you know how they all say, start off with a bang and your students will listen to you. Well, it went off with a bang, but not the bang you necessarily want. I take my 7 minute walk to school, very excited for my first day of teaching. I am nervous about how things will go. But as long as I don't trip or my fly isn't down, it will be great!

I walk into my first class, the 11th grade, which started at 8:20 and wouldn't you know it... the schedule has changed and I was in the wrong class at the wrong time. I had just introduced myself and was about to get the lesson started when another teacher came in saying that she was teaching. Little did I know, my counterpart Borislav failed to inform me that the schedule he gave me changed. Typical. It was sooo humiliating having to gather all my things and walk out. I am almost positive my cheeks were a bit rosy as I left, too.

It was not the worst thing that could have happened, but it was not exactly the first impression I wanted to give either. Wish me luck for my other classes.

My First Day of School...

So the first day of school is September 15th. Every year, its the same thing. But to be honest, I thought the first day was a complete joke.


I arrived at 10 to meet my fellow teachers and future students in the school yard. Ideally an opening ceremony was to start at 10:30 but there were technical difficulties. So the show didn't start till about 11:15. The ceremony itself consisted of the playing of the national anthem, the principal speaking, a new student speaking and a graduated student speaking. That lasted maybe 20-30 minutes total. And that was it!!! From there, the students and teachers went to their classrooms and I myself, went home. What a first day, and what a waste of time. But it is the tradition that counts, right? And I guess I have no room for complaints because after all I did get flowers from one of my students I met over the summer. (The big thing here is that the students give the teachers lots and lots of flowers.)

Classes will resume/start as normal in Friday. But as luck would have it I don't teach on Fridays (Its just like college!) Then we have a working day on Saturday to make up for a long holiday next week. (Yes, students sometimes go to school on the weekends and its not considered detention). And since our holiday next week falls on a Friday, I dont have to work on Saturday either. Sooo, I don't really start school until Monday. So my first real week of teaching consists of 3 teaching days for me since we have Thursday and Friday off. (This really is like college!) What a life I tell you.


But really, I am getting pretty excited to get into the swing of things. Should be an interesting first couple of weeks. It is a bit nerve racking too, since I don't have any real experience teaching except for the small bit during training. (I think getting my teaching credential before I left would have been wise...but then I wouldn't be here now...) Lets just hope the kids don't terrorize me. I think my big smile will do the trick! What do you think? Wish me luck..