The Journey Meets its End...

Wow. It has been one LONG month for me...

Teaching went well throughout the month of January. Things got back into full swing, and I was enjoying my time at school with my colleagues and students. As most of the other months, there were many holidays in January. Birthdays, name days, someone's neighbor's brother's uncle's anniversary... etc. Bulgarians like holidays. So almost every day at school there would be a table filled with chocolates, soleti, banitsa, and of course, rakia and homemade wine. I never complained.

February brought more difficult times for me. In fact, the most difficult since I got to Bulgaria. Unfortunately, an incident happened with a man in my town. I won't go into details, but it definitely was an uncomfortable situation for me. The police got involved, and took it very seriously at that. Any way, that brought about a lot of stress for me.

Less than a week after the incident, I was in Varna with a group of other Peace Corps volunteers for a Super Bowl party. The pub we went to had the game on a big screen, Killian's on draft, darts, and some good food. I was having a blast. However, around about halftime, I started feeling not so great...

Long story short, I ended up in a hospital in Sofia for about a week to have surgery. Let me tell you... a week alone in a foreign hospital to get surgery is NOT exactly a picnic. Any way, everything did go well, and recovery is going alright. But I think this experience (coupled with the other not-so-fun experience of the month) has made me think that it's time for me to go home. I guess I now realize that I never want to spend this long of a time (it's been about 9 months now) away from home, family, and friends. Because in the end, home is always where the heart is <3.

That being said... there are SO many people (and places) in this great country that I will miss. From my host family to the volunteers to my colleagues to the woman who works at the shop below my apartment, this experience has allowed me to meet such a great network of people who I will always be thankful for and will always miss. Peace Corps/Bulgaria has allowed me to experience things that few people ever get to experience, and I will always look back on the great memories that I have made here and smile. So to ALL of you who have helped shape this rollercoaster ride part of my life into something that I will cherish forever, thank you. Really. And I love you.

...Ciao za sega, Bulgaria :)