Learning About Bulgarian Education

Life here is going good. Steven and I are encouraged everyday by how much more we are able to understand the language around us. Now if we could only respond...but we know that will just come with time. Audrey has progressed immensely in her language skills. She has a tutor for the summer to boost her confidence and give her some basics in the language. Her tutor said she thinks she will do great in "purvie class" if her teacher is patient with her, speaks slowly and annunciates her words so Audrey can follow. I think she is going to do great in school this year. Her school doesn't start back until Sept. 15th, but we start our homeschooling supplementing Mon. She is excited about her new curriculum we ordered and wanted to start her reading comprehension the day we got it in the mail. I love her desire to learn.

The boys are a little different story. We realize that Jonathan needs a more structured environment with more kids his age to interact with. The only problem is finding a place for him to do this. We also don't want to have to walk all over Sofia to take our kids to 3 different schools. So, we are currently looking for a quality place to send Jonathan and Eli that would still be close to home and meet all their social needs. Steven thinks we might have found it at a Montessori school just up the road. I would love for my boys to attend a Montessori school, if it is really done right. We go to meet with the owners Friday morning so I can ask my questions and check it out. We are really praying God will show us if this is the place. I would also really like to get to know the owners wife who is Montessori certified. To develop a friendship with a fellow education nerd would be great for me!

Steven and I will continue to plug away at our language classes in the hopes that one day we will be fluent....maybe in 20 years :)

Refreshed and Ready to Learn!

Well, we got back from our week in Bansko and we loved it!!! Some colleagues of ours let us borrow their car, so we were able to take our time and explore. It was wonderful to not be bound by a train or bus schedule. To simply jump in a car and go is something I haven't experienced in almost 6 months, and for someone who is very independent this was so freeing. The weather was great and the mountains were beautiful. Bansko is one of those places you can go and not have to spend any money to have fun. Our hotel had an indoor and outdoor pool, a small playground, and an indoor kid’s play area. Those things alone were enough to entertain our kids. In fact, every day we left the hotel to do something, the kids would say, " Can't we just stay here and swim and play?" However, after dragging them away they always had a good time doing what we had planned. We got to hike into the mountains one day. Along the way we did a little rock climbing, played in a little lake, and raced sticks and leaves down a small mountain stream. The sky was bright blue and the clouds fluffy white, which only served to exaggerate the grey and green of the landscape below. There were families with young children everywhere, and we were able to let the kids play in a lake with kids from all over Europe. We met families that included people from Czech, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and they all lived in UK. I also heard German, Spanish, Bulgarian, British English, and French while hiking. When meeting other people on the trail you never really knew what language to greet them in. It was awesome!!    

                                                       hiking in the Pirin Moutains

                                                                  He loved hiking!

                                                       Playing at the park in Bansko

The next day we went into the town of Razlog and walked around downtown. They had an amazing park area that seemed to stretch through the entire town. The town also had many small streams running through it...literally. I took a picture of a house that had been built over one of the streams. The kids had a blast racing leaves down the streams that wound through the park.
We did many other things that would take too long to mention, but we will definitely be going back. The kids didn't want to leave to come home. However, I can honestly say that I am glad to be home. Back to familiar surroundings and somewhat of a routine. The break from language classes was nice, but I am ready to get back into it and study hard!!!

                                                                The park in Razlog

Bumpy road of visas

Well, I am excited to say that this past week was much better in regards to language and I really appreciate all the prayers.  I was able to get back into the swing of language Wed. and had no trouble in class following along and understanding what was being said.  Again, I praise God for this!!! 
The only down part about the week was our visas.  Man, it is hard to get visas into this country!  You would think a country with a negative population growth would be encouraging people to live here, but it seems very much the opposite.  Or, they just make you work for it to make sure you really want to live here.  When we went to pick up our visas on Tues. they gave us a paper indicating we had not turned in a background check. Well, after three days of runnning around Sofia getting the background check translated again, and turning it back in, we now wait to see if they will accept it.  If not, we will have to spend hundreds of dollars to get an FBI background check that can take up to six weeks.  Did I mention that our current visas expire on Monday?  You would think we would be stressed and worried about the outcome, but we really aren't.  We did all we could, so now we just have to wait and pray!  I know that God has this and that all of this is no surprise to Him.  Through all of this we were able to establish a friendship with our translator.  He is a college student studying linguistics, and we really enjoyed getting to know him.
Apparently most of the people in Sofia go on vacation during the month of August, so we planned a little family trip of our own out of the city next week.  Our teammates are loaning us their car and we are going to drive to Bansko. It is a little town about 2 1/2 hours southeast of Sofia.  We are going to stop at Rila monastery along the way and just take our time to see what else we find.  We are really looking forward to it though.  This will be our first big trip out by ourselves, with just our limited language knowledge to help us.  Bansko is in the mountains so we are also planning on doing some hiking.  We also found out that the hotel will arrange outings for you, from horseback riding to white water rafting.  I can't decide which one I want to do more, but I have a feeling Steven would not be up for taking the entire family white water rafting.   I'll post pics when we get back.

Can a brain be to full?

So, language this week has not been pleasant for me. While I am still excited about learning Bulgarian, my brain is just really not cooperating. I seem to be forgetting things just as I learn them. I don't feel like I have retained any vocabulary, much less how to conjugate all the verbs (past, present, future, perfect and imperfect).  This has lead to a very frustrating week for me. I need to research to see if it is medically possible for the brain to get so supersaturated with info that it needs time to process before it can continue. Sounds like a great theory to me. Maybe our brains are like computers...they can handle massive loads of information, just the more info you put in them the longer it takes to find what you need. There is also the problem that what little Spanish I did remember is slowly dissipating as well. Leaving me feeling like a complete lingual failure. I know that I can speak so much more Bulgarian now than I could 4 months ago.  I can understand quite a bit as well.  Most weeks it is rough, but okay. It has just been this week that I feel like I went to bed one night and when I woke up it was as if I had never heard the language before. A friend of mine said it best when she said, "You never realize what a privilege it is to tell people about God until you can't." That is how I feel here. So, right now, this very moment I am praying for patience with myself and peace. God speaks all languages and knows my hearts desire to tell Bulgarians about His son. For those reading this in the US, I encourage you to take every opportunity to tell people about the hope you have in Christ....it is truly a privilege to be able to do so!