My School and Work in Bulgaria....

After a few months more in Shumen, I am truly settling in and finding my place both in my new home as well as in my job as a Peace Corps volunteer. Being from the Education Program, I work as a secondary (high school) teacher at a technical school for Construction, Architecture and Surveying. Most of the students are boys and accordingly, class can get a little difficult at times when it comes to discipline but I'm taking it in stride. The students here are the same in some ways to students in the States but in others very different. For example, they dress and act similar to American students-perhaps a bit more rowdy and unfocused. On the different side of things, they very infrequently bring things to class (no paper, books or pens sometimes) and have the propencity to cheat like you wouldn't believe. During tests they will literally ask out loud "Как е ________ в Английски?" or "What is _________ in English?" to their friends with total disregard for the school rules. Most will also simply work with their neighbor who in turn is working with thier other neighbor, etc, etc. You can tell them to work alone - "Работете сами!" but they will usually stop for 30 seconds before starting again. I often want to reprimand them or give them a zero on the test but what I try to remind myself is that this is simply normal here in Bulgaria. That doesn't mean it's O.K. or a good practice, but it does mean you have to be understanding of the culture they grew up in and discourage them from cheating and punish them more accordingly.
So, while there are some negative things I deal with in the classroom, there are also many positives. I have students that are quite good at English and actively want and try to learn more to better their future situation in life. Teaching these students who truly care makes each day worthwhile. I teach 18 or so classroom hours a week (a full load for Bulgarian teachers) with 6 different language groups: 9А, 9В, 10Д, 11А, 12А and 12В. Three of my groups are more focussed and committed to learning English than the others and they are of course, more enjoyable to teach. Hopefully, in the coming months my duties at the school will change a bit and I will have less official classes and more extra-curricular classes for the better students and the teachers who want to learn/perfect their English. This is what the school wanted me for originally but for now I am covering for a teacher who is on leave.
In any event, work continues and I am learning how to speak Bulgarian and teach English more everyday. My counterpart Stella and my fellow collegues are very supportive and welcoming. I look forward to getting to know them better and working with them over the next year and a half. I have included some pictures of my school for you all to see where I work and spend my days. Now that things are settling down, I would really like to start posting here more often so stay tuned. I will also send a mass email out everytime i make a post, but if you are seeing this and not recieving the email notifications, please let me know at pgordon33@gmail.com and I will add you to the list. Thanks all and as usual don't hesitate sending an email from time to time. They brighten my days.  

The front entrance to the school

To the right of the 1st picture, you can see this building. It has classrooms and a cafeteria but also houses a dormitory for students who live there Sunday night through Friday after classes. The students who stay here are usually from villages to far from Shumen to get to school everyday. The cafeteria serves them a light breakfast of banitsa and iyran(a yogurt drink) or boza(a thick wheat based drink). For lunch and dinner it is usually the same items but rotates every day. Many teachers bring tuperware to school and buy food to take home to their families because it is so cheap. For example, this week i took home a big bowl of soup called tarator, potatoes similar to au gratin and two kebabche(seasoned and ground meat skewers) for about 2.20 leva or $1.50. It's a great bonus to working at my school because the others schools in town don't have food services.  

My collegues...can you find me?

The director at my school. She is a very nice and respected professional amongst the staff.

The teachers lounge. The cabinet in the back houses all of the important books involving every class group, their grades, what the teachers teach each class, etc.

One of my collegues teaching her biology class.

An average classroom - the furniture in the back was all build by students in the furniture building classes. They even built some furniture in my apartment.

The first day of school at ПГСАГ. This picture is actually from the year before I arrived but the same ceremony occured this year. Three students are the school color guard and parade the flag around the semi-circle of all of the class groups and their class teachers(like homeroom teachers).

Some of the 12th graders dacing 'horo' after a ceremony for the Day of Construction two weeks ago. We were supposed to have classes after the ceremonies but all of the students went home. It's almost as if all 650 students secretly planned that they would skip classes that day. In any event, the teachers all stayed and we had a party ourselves downstairs.

Some of the students in the surveying class group.

Lastly, here are some collegues dancing horo at the Villa we rented for the party on the Day of Construction. One part collegues + one part alcohol and Bulgarian folk music + late at night = horo dancing.