Hmmmmmm......

For starters I was bored today at the office and decided to turn up the song by pussycat dolls "London Bridge" and asked the ladies if they wanted to start a discotech right here and without any hesitation we were all dancing around the room to London Bridges, Ciara 1, 2, step, Missy Elliott, and Single Ladies by Beyonce. Don't worry, I showed them the Vonski and they went CRAZY with excitement! After I dusted the floor for one woman I work with to make her move, I thought to myself, I am really going to fit in here!! I have been working on translating A-tip information and games for the kids to play. So far, that is going well! My cat is doing well I found out that she really likes to eat scrammbled eggs! That's my GIRL! She also gets a kick out of climbing up my leg and chasing her tail...she's not the brightest crayon in the box but she is mine! The other day I noticed I now had about 25-30 flies in my apt and I did not have a fly swatter....of course! So i made a fly swatter out of a wire hanger, a card board piece of a nesquick cereal box, and tape! To my amazement it worked and their are now about 4 flies left, but I have a feeling that they won't last long! A couple of days a go I received a very strange phone call from a man who knew my number, full name, and that I lived in Dolna Banya and it made me very nervous. I asked him who he was and he just kept repeating are you Ashley Stanard who lives in Dolna Banya! The peace corp office called me for something un-related and I asked if I was suppose to report these things. They said yes becuase it is common. I went to work and about two hours later a man walks in and opens the door where I was having a meeting with three directors. We were discussing my role here! He said is their an Ashley Stanard here and they all pointed at me. He disappeared and came back with beautiful flowers....This man then gos off in Bulgarian and they all start laughing and I am just sitting their bright red and smiling. They of course were from my lovely boyfriend Chris and at this point I was very glad that I had not reported this to the PC yet....hahaha! Thanks Chris for the adventure and SURPRISE!!!

Von

Zdravei!!

Well, I have had an adventurous last three days or so! I decided to adopt a kitten because she looked as if she was going to die and she didn't even know how to eat on her own. She is gray and white and I named her жалая! That means wish in Bulgarian!! So here is what happened! The kids were all going on a vacation for ten days and they where just going to leave her in a box. So I had to take her that day obviously and I was calling around to see where and if their was a vet in DB and their was! So after work a colleague of mine walked me a mile to the vet and when I got their the lady had literally just fallen and broken her arm! She was in agony and still gave the cat its vaccination and tried really hard to help me understand in Bulgarian what the H I was suppose to do with this cat!! Of course, I kept her there longer than I should have because I kept double checking with her because like all new mother's I was terrified!! =) I also believe the lady was talking to the local hospital to see when she could get her arm checked out!! CRAZY RIGHT!! Any who, I then walked another mile back to the orphanage and had the kids hold the cat until I could buy a toilet and food for the kitten! She is literally 4 weeks old! So after I convinced a women in a "store" to let me buy the rubber container she was using to hold her soil in to sell, I now had the cat's toilet. I then went and found cat food! I then looked in the street for жалая kitty litter which, I then had to De-ant before I took it inside!! I also bought a big plastic spoon with holes so I could clean the litter box!! When I got жалая home she didn't move all night! Then I woke up to her having diarrhea in her box and the smell could have cleared the room.....BLAH! She doesn't know how to eat or drink on her own! So then I gave her a Medicine bath with the medicine from the vet because she had bugs crawling everywhere! She really hated that! Then after two days of still bathing her in the medicine I decided to act like a monkey mother and sit there with a bowl of water and I started picking the bugs out one by one and drowning them!! It took a few hours but I was determined!! My baby looked miserable!! So Now everyday I put dry kitten food milk and warm water in a bowl and mush it up with my hands and then put it in a syringe and force her to eat!! I of course freaked out that she wasn't eating and I fed her too much because later that night she puked it all back up....YUMMY! I called Jill and my grandma Lee on skype and told then I needed advice because at this point my kitty was ready to die! She couldn't even walk on her own anymore she was so weak and scared!! I finally was told my Jill and my grandma who talked to a vet in Nebraska that I needed to feed her a lot of sugar with water to get her blood sugar up and to get her appetite going! I did and I really thought she was going to die the way she looked ....ahhhh I can't get her face out of my head!! So after two days of every two hours of force feeding today is the first day I have heard her meow and she was walking around and following me everywhere! My baby is going to live!! She now tries to eat when I give her the syringe and she still doesn't know know how to drink water! She also has about five different forts I have made for her around the apt!! She is really living now!! She is now bug free and walking around!! She is starting to have a real personality!

On another note back to the chicken incident I was cleaning the kitchen the other day and opened the oven where the chicken was and out came millions of ants!! At this point I was fed up with feeling and seeing tiny bugs crawling everywhere!! So I lost my mind for a sec and with a outburst of laughter I said "IT'S ON!!" I shut the door to the oven and turned the heat on high!! I waited for the smart ants to make their way out and when they did I killed them one at a time ahhahahahahahaha!! Again this took a good two hours seeing as I had lost my mind and was talking to myself whenever I killed each one!! Saying things like you can't run from me....how are your brothers and sisters are they burning alive .......WOW!!! These are the things that I do in my spare time!! Then later that day I was at work and some lady I work with walks over and asks me to translate this pamphlet that's only in English to her in Bulgarian!! OK... I said!! I Will try when I read it I see the word pregnancy and told her in Bulgarian oh I am on these kinds to "birth control" they all stopped looked at me and laughed and said why are you on these pills? With a confused looked I kept reading and come to find out it was medicine she wanted to take for menopause hahahahaha!!! opps! And in Bulgarian I translated when she was suppose to take the pills, what where the symptoms she should look out for, and when and if she needed to call a doctor and so on.....THIS IS MY LIFE!!

On a more serious note I was talking with a child in the orphanage who is leaving soon because he will turn 18 and when I asked where he was gong to go he said he was going to stay with a friend and I said oh that's great news! Later that night he walks in the room with a cell phone and tells me that his friend wants to talk to me because he can speak English! I said ok and we talked for a while and I had a very strange vibe from this man!! After I got off the phone I asked the child how long he knew him and where he met him. The child said he knew him from the Internet, he was 37, and that he's only known him for 4 months!!! RED FLAG!!!!! I looked up the word for be careful in Bulgarian and by the time I found it he was on the phone with this guy again!! I waited as long as I could and then had to leave because the orphanage was looking up for the night. So I pointed at the word and said because you have only known him for 4 months off the Internet!! He told the guy on the phone what I had said and all I know is that guy was really pissed and defensive because the child kept saying relax relax she just doesn't understand!! I talked to the PC about it and they gave me some advice on some anti-trafficking techniques and resources for the child so he knows he has other options.....It is official that my work starts NOW!!! I love you all and I hope all is well!!

Keeping it Real

Von

Alright! So here is how the chicken incident played out! I ended up making soup out of it and it was Delicious. I also think I am going to be adopting a kitten from the orphanage because the baby kitty is scared of the children! One little girl came up to me and said maybe if you take the cat home with you the cat won't be scared anymore!! AHHHHH.......now I need to figure this one out! She is a cute little baby girl kitty and I am allowed to have them in my apt! Any who I went to a really cute children's outdoor theater skit tonight out at our local hospital! It was really nice! Yesterday, I took the kids for a walk and let two boys film themselves singing because one of them is trying out for a "Bulgarian idol" here and he needed the clip for his application! Of course, I asked first if the boy could do it and it was obviously OK. We had to show the clip to the director and she approved it! He will try out the first of Sept and I really hope he gets in he is really good! Today, I helped a child at the center learn English as well as the director of the whole orphanage! This Wed I am going to Sofia to the Peace Corp headquarters and to the police station to get my linchna carta, which allows me to live here for one year and I will need to reapply next year......FUN STUFF!! One thing I love about this place is whenever I go on walks the kids and I can pick fresh grapes, apples, cherries, raspberries, pears, and other fruits I can't say in Bulgarian off the trees and vines because they are everywhere here! The other day some woman told me to come and talk to her and I did of course and I ended up leaving her house with three tomatoes and some really tiny, what I believe are blueberries, and when you mix it with yogurt here it is so yummy! Tonight, I am going to lay low and maybe try and study some more language later! I hope you are all well and I miss you all a lot!

Love always,

Me

Just a quick update! Today I tried to make chicken breast with orange juice and so far not so good! I was in the other room when I smelt the chicken burning I ran into the kitchen and it wasn't the chicken burning it was the orange juice haha! So when I go to take the pan out so that I can figure out a new plan of action the handle to the pan broke and I dropped the chicken onto the floor. I proceeded to jump as high as I could because the chicken and the orange juice had been in the "oven" for at least 25 mins now! Of course the chicken and the juice went everywhere and I was lucky enough to be wearing jeans! To make the story better on the way to the "store" I tripped and cut the bottom of my heel. So now their was also blood everywhere because I had jumped right back onto the hot orange juice and it reopened the cut.....hmmmmm.....So after I starred at the Orange bloody mess I tried to pick up the pan and it melted the oven mitt I was wearing so I dropped the pan again because now my thumb was burnt! Finally, I got the mess picked up washed off the chicken and it is now hopefully boiling nicely in the one other pot I own! I will let you know how it all turns out later because I need to get ready to take the youth for a walk!

with love from your clumbsy,

VON

Hello all you AMERICANS!!

So here is what is going on in Von's world! =) Today I woke up pretty tired and decided to clean my apt where I found at least 25 spiders and I named about five of them because I needed some entrainment and something to keep my mind off of all the spiders! I named them tiny Tim, Mama Mia, chicken legs, OMG, and SICK REALLY. After I cleaned my apt I burned some potato soup and still preceded to eat it because hey I am in the peace corp now! Oh ya today I really wanted some eggs so I went to the "store" and baught some! When I got home I realized that all I had in my fridge was tomote, apricot, and orange juice....no butter or milk! I said screw it I am going to try and make scrammbled eggs with orange juice. I then also realized that the only "salt" I had for seasoning was intended for soup. So after I had made scrammbled eggs with orange juice I put the seasoning on top and OMG it was amazing I recommend everybodt to try this wonderful surprise! In all seriousness I would have ate it any way and my college friends can agree to that testimony. Things here are pretty interesting like they always are and I recently found out that my counterpart is leaving and they are now trying to figure out what to do with me, which is really tooo bad because the center was a wonderful place for the children to receive free counseling. "welcome to the peace corp" I am practicing my flexibility here! Anyways, I went to the municipality yesterday and wrote them a note in Bulgarian about how grateful and thankful I was for them paying for my apt and getting everything ready! I also thanked them for allowing me to participate in their community. Oh yeah and I handed out some chocolate to sweeten up the deal "WINK" Anyways, they told me in Bulgarian that they wanted me to teach in a classroom for 17 and 18 years old English of course because they were short one teacher this year. They also told me that they would like me to teach English to kinder gardeners, still work in the at-risk youth center, the orphanage, with anti-trafficking, and I am choosing to work with the Roma kids and put on camps in the summer time......now lets all take a deep breath together.......1...2...3..4..5...and let it out! =) I am excited to be so busy. As of now I am just working at the at-risk youth center where I am playing uno and presidents and @$$holes......sorry grandmas! The other day I walked in however and they told me I had 30 minutes to come up with a game for the kids to play. With a look of fear in my eyes I said OK! They don't speak English and I pretend to speak Bulgarian so you can understand the look I gave! So real quick I thought OK lets play I spy.......I looked up all the words I thought I needed for the game and when it came time I told them how to play and to my surprise they didn't understand ha! So I tried to explain again and it clicked and they ended up really liking it! After about a half an hour they asked if I knew any other games and with a even more terrified look on my face I said in Bulgarian ....."Ya I know a lot of games how much time can you give me to look up all the words" and then just smiled at them with a stupid grin!! They said ok another time will be fine! I said great I will be ready by Monday! Today I went and hung out with this comsmetics woman who I teach English to outside of her shop and its pretty fun. She gave me an elephant necklace as a thank you and she buys me ice-cream.....I just don't want to break her heart and tell her that I am really not a big ice-cream fan...=) I got to see my niece on skype for the first time in like a month and a half and believe it or not I still can't stop crying! I miss that little BUG! Anyways tomorrow I am gong to be busy with translating games into Bulgarian, playing with the kids, and hopefully meeting up with a friend for coffee! That's what we do here I have never drank so much coffee in my life and they don't mess around here with their coffee! Well that's it for now I love and miss you all and I feel very blessed everyday! God has been good to me! Keep me in your prayers!

Love Me

This is my first time blogging this is just a test run!