"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.” - Buddha

Hello All!

Wonderful of you to participate in my blog. Be sure to click the follow button so you can receive updates on whenever I post!

Today is my last day in Wisconsin. It will be filled with family, laughter and great food! Tomorrow I will fly out to Philadelphia. I will meet Jose and we will travel to our hotel until other volunteers get there later that night and the next day. On Monday all the volunteers will meet one another and do a whole bunch of flip chart activities (i.e. expectations, feelings, goals, etc...).

On Tuesday we will all take a bus to JFK airport and spend approximately 8 hours waiting in the airport for our plane to leave for Munich, Germany. I'm not sure if our layover will be long enough to travel around like it was last time... We then will fly to Sofia, Bulgaria where current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) will be waiting to help us unload at a very nice resort. We will spend the next four days learning bits about the country, important vocabulary and preparing to meet our host family. OHHH and also lots of flip chart activities... Peace Corps also loves for volunteers to do skits about everything so I'm sure that's within our midst.

At our four day orientation we will also find out what village we are staying in and who the other volunteers in our village will be. Language groups consist of about four to five volunteers. We will spend everyday working on the Bulgarian language (which sounds similar to Russian). Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic alphabet and will be tricky to learn.

This time around I made sure to bring all my creature comforts. Those of you who know me are aware that I am fairly girly. Therefore, my creature comforts include my rings, headbands and nail polish. I also was sure to bring more games this time to play with my host family and host neighbor children. Other then that I packed less than I did for Kyrgyzstan and am sure I will be just fine.

I will not be able to update this blog for a couple weeks I'm guessing so hang tight and I will update you all when I have the chance!

Cheers,

Johanna