Vionet12 is a blog about the 2006/2007 school year in my life.

It begins with the official ceremony for the opening of the school year in Bulgaria that always takes place on September 15 and will finish with the last day of school, June 30. The blog is my photo-diary and I intend to upload captions for all pictures. The blog covers the main events that made my professional and private life special between September 2006 and June 2007. This blog is a continuation of the events presented in http://vionet11.blogspot.com.

I will be happy if you learn about my country from my writing and photographs and visit it someday. Your comments and questions will be appreciated.

Violeta

We started the new school year on September 15, 2006.

The first day of school is always a festive one in Bulgaria. Students and parents bring flowers to school and give them to teachers. In our school it is a tradition to welcome all students and teachers back to school with songs, speeches, crane-bill, home-made bread with salt and pepper and a lot of smiles. We prepare for the event two weeks prior to the event.
I am teaching the 10th grade this year.

In the Staff Room we had a cocktail party for the teachers. Retired teachers attended it, too. It is common for some alumni to drop by on that day and talk to the teachers and their current students. This year my students from 10 Z class met Nasko from Class 2001.

On September 15, 2006 a monument to Iosip Strossmeier was inaugurated on Strossmeier Street in Sofia. I attended it on my way back from the school ceremony and the first conference with my new class.

My neighbors Prof. Veselin Dimitrov and Prof. Sergei Ignatov were at the ceremony. They were active members of the committee that had initiated the building of the monument of the Croatian preacher Josef Strossmeier (1815-1905) who contributed a lot to our culture life.

These are some of the ruins of the building at 39 Alabin Street in Sofia. It collapsed in the evening of September 19, 2006 and killed two young women who were in a car nearby. In very close proximity from this place is Sofia Art Gallery, which we decided to visit. I took this photo 4 days after the tragedy.

We went to Sofia Art Gallery on September 23, 2006 and saw the paintings and collages of an artist who we had not known. We liked them. The name of the painter is Rumen Gasharov.

Boyan and I enjoyed the company of Boyan’s mother and cousin.

This is Second Hand by R. Gasharov. Boyan and I liked it best.

More paintings are available online at http://www.gashar.dir.bg.

In October 2006 our friend Bissera invited us to the opening of her latest exhibition. We enjoyed her paintings in the company of her family, friends, colleagues and students.

This photo was taken in late October 2006 in our study-living room. It was the time of our last two months in that apartment. I definitely miss the bookcase and hope that soon we will have a new one for the thousands of books.

The Department of English Studies of the Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv hosted an international conference on (INTER)CULTURAL COMMUNICATION, 3-5 November 2006.

I stayed at the Leipzig Hotel and enjoyed the view of the hill with the monument to the Russian soldier Alyosha atop the hill.

At the conference I spent some time with Brian, a Fulbright teacher in Sofia. We made plans for one-day school exchange with his school.

My presentation was entitled With a Card-card Here and a Card-card There…

A well-known old favorite for all ages goes that Old MacDonald had a farm “with a “moo-moo” here and a “moo-moo” there, everywhere a “moo-moo.” In order to imply the idea that a plastic or paper card is a required accessory in everyday life in the USA nowadays, I paraphrased a line from this song. This allusion helped the audience understand better the idea of the modern card-based society.

From the perspective of an English teacher, making successful phone calls, doing the laundry in a Laundromat or using public transportation in the USA requires excellent listening and reading skills. Speaking and writing could be even at a survival level for the visitor. He should be able to ask for directions, fill out some standard forms (just words or phrases). In the English textbooks the "Using the Telephone" unit should be based on the current diverse usage of telephone services in the USA and “Doing the Laundry” the American way should be on the curriculum, too.

In October 2006 I did some reading, writing and art on The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. My students wrote essays and made posters about the origin of their first name. Next they exchanged their writing with students from Brazil and Georgia. They posted their writing at the forum of the My Name iEARN international project.

Here is an essay written by a sophomore.

My name is Vasilena and in Greek it means "divine light" or "the light of the kings." Many people in Bulgaria celebrate their names and my name day is on 1 January. I get presents and it is very funny. My uncle and my granddad are called Vasil and my great-grandmother's name is Elena, so my parents combined the names and the result was Vasilena. My nickname is Vasi - all my friends call me that way. My first name is not a family tradition. My mum chose the name because her favorite writer is Iordan Iovkov and one of his favorite main characters is Vasilena.

Between 1901 and 1970 out of all women born in Bulgaria only 27 were named so.

I like my name - it is not like the others. In case that I were called Maria - this is a very common name in Bulgaria – I would be very sad and unhappy about this. I would not like to christen myself under a new name. I will never change my name because Vasilena is like the real me!

At the evocation stage of my lesson I used some posters that my HHS freshmen in Chandler, Arizona made in 2004 and this helped my students in Sofia.

I took my Drama Circle to the Little Theater Beyond the Canal to see The Odd Couple by Neil Sinon and meet the actors. We talked to Aneta Sotirova, Ilka Zafirova, Maya Dragomanska and other actors and actresses after the performance. We would like to recommend this play to you.

The producer Andrey Avramov has done a great job!

In November I attended the screening of a documentary about special education produced by Jacky Conforty. On November 15, from 11:00 November 15, Choices and Inclusion Issues for Educators was presented in Prof. Alexander Madjarov auditorium of Sofia University. Boyan and I helped Jacky to translate the script in Bulgarian.

On Nov 20, 2006 Prof. Randall Baker’s book Strange Places, Interesting People was launched in Bulgarian. The event was hosted by Helikon Bookstore (http://www.helikon.bg) on Partiarh Evtimii Blvd. in Sofia.

Boyan and I translated the book while we were in Chandler, Arizona in 2004/2005.

The author is signing books, anwering questions and accepting invitations for talks about the book.

Whenever Boyan and I are in a bookstore, we always check if Prof. Randall Baker's books in Bulgarian are on the shelf. In December 2006 Strange Places, Interesting People (Странни места, интересни хора) was lying on the shelves of the bookstore at 6, Shipka Street. If you want to look at some strange places in different countries of the world through the eyes of the inquisitive Welsh-American, you should read this book. Bulgaria is on the map of strange places, too. Soon we start working on Part Two of Strange Places, Interesting People.

At the booth of New Bulgarian University Publishing House at the Christmas Book Fair at NDK (National Palace of Culture), Prof. Randall Baker's book was on display. While Ana and I were there, two people bought it.

In September 2006 a teacher from the English Department of our school retired. In December she invited some friends out to dinner to celebrate her retirement and Christmas. We danced, laughed, had delicious grilled meat and drank to Zoya's health.

Zoya was happy to be with her colleagues from school and her family in a non-formal environment. We gave her flowers and a souvenir to remind her of the time spent at 91 GLHS.

December is the time for preparations for Christmas. It is common to see heaps of pumpkins on the sidewalks in Sofia. In Bulgaria we make pumpkin pastry (tikvenik, тиквеник) and cook beans for Christmas Eve dinner. This year we bought pumpkins and beans that had been grown in Dobrudzha.

In December 2006 the art of our students was put on display in the hallways. These paitings contribute to the festive atmosphere at Christmas. I was found Lachezar's paintings fascinating. He gave me one of them as a gift - beautiful flowers in a vase. It can be seen at the far end of the paintings. I framed it and it will be hanged in our new apartment.

Christmas Card Exchange Project is an iEARN project that our school joinned in October. Students from 8th and 9th grade made 80 cards and sent them to their peers in 7 schools in Taiwan, Belorussia, Russia and the USA. The writing was done in the English classroom and most of the art work - in the Art classes.

Making Christmas cards and writing Chiristmas wishes was fun, especially for the sophomores. Our work on this project took us about two months in the fall of 2007.

Our students sent 70 Christmas cards that they had made in the Art class to 7 schools in 4 different countries. Before they sent them, the cards were on display in the Staff Room for a few hours.

We received cards from 7 schools in 4 different countries.

To my pleasure one of the participating schools was from Phoenix, Arizona.

At Christmas we exhibited the cards in the hallways of our school and in the Staff Room.

This is Lacho's flower piece. The boy is so creative and talented!

We started moving out right after Christmas. First, we packed and transported all fragile objects. Next we packed for a few days and moved tons of books and some furniture. These are some of our boxes stored in the entrance of the apartment building and waiting for the moving company to arrive.

On December 31 we always prepare banitsa (cheese pastry) for the New Year’s Eve dinner and baklava for New Year’s breakfast. This time Julia, a Fulbright researcher in Sofia, joined me in the kitchen. I gave a banitsa and baklava workshop to her and she made her own banitsa. Here’s the recipe for baklava.

Baklava

Baklava is a traditional New Year's dish in our family. We usually eat it at breakfast on New Year Day.

Ingredients: 1 cup pounded walnut meats, 4 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 packet (12 g) baking powder, 1 cup melted butter, 1 lb. phyllo* dough

Syrup: 3 cups water, 0.5 tsp. lemon acid, 2 cups sugar

Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with some melted butter. Cut the folded phyllo sheets into strips 2-3 mm wide. Next unfold the strips to make them fluffy. Divide the strips into two equal halves. Cover the baking dish with half of the stripped phyllo dough. Pour half of the quantity of the melted butter on top of the phyllo.

Filling: Pound walnuts with a wooden mallet into small pieces. Beat slightly 4 eggs in a large bowl. Add sugar, flour, baking powder, and walnuts. Cover the phyllo layer with the filling. Add the remaining part of the phyllo strips over the filling and pour the rest of the melted butter on top of it. Bake in an oven for approximately 30 minutes until brown. Next cool for 10 minutes.

Pour cold syrup on top of hot baklava.

Syrup: Boil water, sugar and lemon acid for 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

*This word can be spelled in three different ways: phyllo, fillo and filo.

In Bulgaria on the first day of the new year family and close firends exchange visits. Children visit their parents parents and married couples visit the family of the best man and the maid of honor.

On January 1, 2007 we visited my father and next spent some time with my mother-in-law. In this photo I am enjoying baklava and coffee.

Boyan is holding the calendar of the President's Office for 2007.

On January 15, 2007 some of my students and I attended a night about Geo Milev's 112th anniversary. We listened to speeches of poets and writers and enjoyed a recital of his poems. After the recital the students had the opportunity to meet some contemporary Bulgarian writers. In this picture they are standing with Leda Mileva, Geo Milev's daughter and distinguished writer and translator; with their Bulgarian Language and Literature teacher and me.

January 2007 was time for presentations and a term test in English. The topic for the oral presentation was My First Trip Abroad. Some of the students had made posters. We learned a lot about other countries. The students, who had not travelled abroad, talked about their dream trip abroad.

March 1 is known as Baba Marta Day in Bulgaria. On this day people exchange white and red tassels (martenitsi) and wish each other Happy Grandma March (Честита Баба Марта)!

A martenitsa is a symbol of good health and happiness. This poster for Maba Marta Day was our students' poster for their teachers.

This is a birthday student hidden behind the balloons at the desk in my class. The balloon fashion has reached Bulgaria. The birthday girl or boy usually brings a box of candy for everybody in the her/his class and the students give her/him gifts - books, balloons, flowers, perfume, etc.

On March 4 I celebrated my birthday with all the students who had a class with me and with the teachers in the staff room. I had a cake, cheese pastry, candy and soft drinks and showed them the photo album about Phoenix, Arizona.

On March 16 Randall went to a school in Luylin to meet the students and teachers at Balkanika College and tell them about the future and the process of globalization. Boyan was his interpreter while I was teaching. They did a good job.

At Prof. Randall Baker's book launch at Sofia University, March 14, 2007. His latest book The Future Is Not What It Used To Be was presented to an audience of faculty, college and high school students, translators, Fulbright scholars, and friends. In this picture the author is posing with the renowned Bulgarian poet and translator Mrs. Leda Mileva; Mr. Zhivko Kushev, Director of Paradigma Publishing House; and Mrs. Violeta Tsoneva, one of the translators of the book.

This is a typical situation at our school - a dirty chalkboard. When the students from the morning shift do not erase the board at the end of their classes, in the afternoon the students have to do this and they do it unwillingly. When the afternoon shift students leave the board dirty, it is the morning shift students who have to clean it, etc.

On December 6, 2006, Wednesday, I thought in the morning. I had a class in Room 205 with 10 V class and the notes on the board were from a philosophy class on euthanasia the previous day.

I dream of the future when in every classroom there will be a white board. Now I remember that about 10 years ago a friend of mine donated money to our school and a sports teacher and I bought the first white board for our school at Christmas. It was put in the Informatics classroom as at the time other teachers (not only the Informatics teachers) had access to the Computer Room to have their classes there. The will of the sponsor was to have the white board used in the Informatics and English classes. His wish was ignored!!!!

In March 2007 I took the students from 10 G and Z class to the Man and Earth Museum. We visited an exhibition of exotic animals - cobras, rattle snakes, pythons, spiders, tarantulas, iguanas, scorpions, etc. Fortunately, the curator spoke English and communicated with the students in Engish.

Some of the students were brave enough to touch and even to hold the beautiful iguana for a while.

From this point you can see Sofia and enjoy its skyline.

A runner woven in Rodopite region of Bulgaria adds to our good mood. When I bought it and showed it to my colleagues at school, they were fascinated by it.

On March 23, 2007, Brad Guarino, a Fulbright scholar in Sofia, came to my classroom.

The artist gave a PowerPoint presentation (http://www.bradguarinoart.blogspot.com) to my students from 10 G class. The students asked intelligent and thoughtful questions, and responded well to the concepts brought up in the discussion. Brad appreciated their seriousness and their interpretations of the artwork that he presented (For Want of Something Better, General Confusion and The Call for Reinforcements, Trust and The Enviable Future, For What We Have Not (Yet) Lost, and The Persistent Echo of Earlier Assumptions)—in some cases they brought up valid points about the work that he had not thought of. In a message that he sent to me a few days after his visit, Brad wrote: “Overall their command of English vocabulary was impressive, and they were in most cases able to express their ideas concisely and clearly. The teacher was attentive to what was going on in the discussion and jumped in to help when it was needed.”

This is the main school entrance. The bucket in the corner is for garbage and especially for cigarette butts. In Bulgaria smoking in school is forbidden, but teachers and students can smoke on the street. The students-smokers are usually impatient to go outside during the break and light a cigarette. There is no need to look at the clock to find out if the end of the class is approaching as they stand up sharp at the moment when the school bell announces the beginning of the break.

This is from a board with the regulations for the use of the public transport in Sofia. I saw it at the bus stop at the Mall of Sofia on April 26, 2007. I could not understand the text beginnig with "Immediately..." Will the foreigners be able to undrestand this text and follow the rules?