WARNING: I got introspective on a train ride, so this is an analysis of my experience of the economic crisis in Bulgaria, so if you only want funny anecdotes feel free to skim or skip this blog entry.
I'm on a train. I'm returning from the Mid-Service Conference in a town in the mountains. Red-roofed cottages dot the hills and occasionally a vibrant blue swimming pool catches my eye. A home swimming pool is an anomaly for Bulgarian families, but it makes sens. Even though the brain drain is taking place and the best and brightest Bulgarian youth and English-speaking professionals make their homes in Western Europe and the U.S., there are also many (older) laborers who work menial jobs abroad and improve their homes with the money they've saved when they return. The life of an immigrant is difficult, so one must feel enormous satisfaction when he or she can return home and be the only villager with a pool.
According to experts on the news, Bulgaria is deep in the economic crisis. When my friend explains that his factory will stay open during the usual vacation weeks in August, he sighs and I hear the familiar line "Ima crisa." Even my next door neighbors, who have an improved standard of living as pensioners because of the money their daughters send them from Italy, are concerned because of the rising cost of utilities. Most Bulgarian budgets can cover just enough for utilities, food, and the occasional clothing and entertainment purchase, so when factories shut down or have layoffs, there are little savings to fall back on. Fragile household budgets can also explain the popularity of homemade rakia, or brandy, and wine, and it they are great sources of pride for the home-brewer.
In the government sector, there haven't been as many layoffs, but the pay for public service jobs has always been very low. Before the beginning of my service, I heard about the teacher strikes that interrupted school for two months, only bringing about a nominal raise in salaries. I recently visited a school for disabled children just outside my town. My impression of the school was that it was a warm, inclusive environment and that it managed to serve the needs of its students with wide ranges of abilities and behaviors. The school may be shut down soon because of the Ministry of Education's integration initiative, which would place these students in general high schools and have one more teacher in classes with a special needs student, a very similar practice to the American school system. The teachers at this school were fiercely opposed to the policy, insisting that their students would fall even futher behind when attending an ordinary school. Their concern was personal too, however, as lately more and more schools have been shut down as a result of the reduced enrollment due to lower birthrates since the fall of Communism. These teachers feared for their livelihoods in a country where schools compete for the money they recieve for teaching each student, and only the schools that please the students survive, as students can change schools as they wish.
On that day, the minute I entered the schoolyard, an orphan girl introduced herself by staring at me and took my hand. When it came time for her to go to class and for me to leave, she wouldn't let go. I think that some students, especially orphans and institutionalized youth could benefit from integration policies, and Bulgaria is a place where institutions for the marginalized have been socially and financially neglected to an alarming degree. Ima crisa.
During that visit, I spoke to the gym teacher about life in Bulgaria. He works two jobs, as do many of the teachers there. He also owns a bar in town and explained how most Bulgarians don't have time and can't afford to travel to the beautiful parts of their own country that tourists usually see, especially the Black Sea during the summer. I asked him if he knew who he was planning to vote for in the upcoming election. He laughed and told me that it made no difference, and that the political parties were made up of Todor Zhivkov's (Bulgarian leader under Communism) cronies. He said the future of Bulgarian politics with then fall into the hands of the cronies' children. He then explained how high the taxes are for small business owners and how no one can make a profit. Before leaving for Bulgaria, I had heard the same sentiment from U.S. small business owners about the unfair taxation in a democratic context, and the Bush legacy can make one question when the best and brightest actually rise to the top, or whether money, family and connections really conquer all.
The gym teacher gave me a ride home-in his convertible. So maybe my earlier skepticism wasn't holding water. He later invited me to his house that he described as a mess because they were doing repairs and installing-wait for it- a swimming pool. Ima crisa. So people are getting by here. Life is getting tougher, but some Bulgarians have met the balance between over-working and improving their standard of living.
The elections just took place, and in a strange concurrence, the democratic group GERB, which means heraldic or emblem, won. Their slogan? To Prove that Bulgaria Can! (ie Obama's Yes We Can). Some of my friends here were cynical, citing the fact that the new Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, was Todor Zhivkov's bodyguard, and predicted that he would be a figurehead for the same policies. Others were more hopeful. They noted his successful work in Sofia and the larger voting turning (some of my colleagues had to wait in a long line to vote for the first time this year). The next year will tell, and as my language abilities improve, I think my consciousness of politics and economics will improve.
I have one year to go, and going to that conference was a reminder of how fast the time passes and how precious an opportunity I have. My goal is to limit the time that I spend with volunteers (while it's necessary to have a break from time to time) and limit my time online chatting in order to make myself more aware of the world around me and to do what I came here to do.
Keep posting comments, and if any of you can share your experience of the crisis back home, I would really appreciate knowing what I've missed and what to expect when I return.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Just a Day
Няма ток. I hear this twice on my way up the stairs. My first and third floor neighbors warn me that there’s no electricity as I trudge up to the seventh floor. I thank them for letting me know and it doesn’t even make me wonder anymore why that is the first thing out of their mouth. When you’re about to get stuck in an elevator or sick in a sticky apartment without the relief of a fan, there’s no time for pleasantries. You need the information on your electricity status.
I’m feeling each step on the way up- in my calves. Not to mention the wooziness from my sugar coma brought on by the chocolate wafer, cake, more cake and two coffees that I enjoyed this morning, followed by the cake I had this afternoon. I need to learn how to say no, but today’s a holiday.
Today was my last day of school, and I think we all had been ready for it for a long time. The weather was fit for the beach since early May (keep in mind I’m from
I’m hoping for more productive days, like the one where another volunteer, Greg, and I arranged for his orphanage to come visit my city to see an educational theater production. I’m hoping for more mellow days like in Kamchia, a peaceful beach town where the sleepy river empties out into the
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Busiest Months Yet...?
So by crazy, I mean unusual and busy. Things have been sailing past me in the last month.
I made a new friend who wanted to practice her English before her adult English course's final exam and was whisked away to a restaurant by a lake one evening and later a day-long excursion to a historic town called Arbanassi, just outside Veliko Tarnovo, a former capital of Bulgaria, with a huge castle remaining. She also later had me over for her name day (On each Saint's Day people with the same or similar name celebrate- for example, Galya celebrated on Gergiovden, St. George's Day).
Not too much later, we held our first successful fund raiser for my school's science department. We held a student v. volunteers volleyball match, and even though the kids did ruin us with their honed volleyball skills (volleyball is a sport for men more than women here, and most of the girls at my school stopped playing sports long ago) we managed to raise more money than I expected we would.
I later attended a conference hosted by the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking. I listened to numerous lecturers including Ambassadors from Austria, the Netherlands, and Norway, experts from the UN and Bulgaria's national commission against human trafficking and leaders of NGO's, It was a two day conference and a lot of material was covered, but basically all the governmental and non-governmental agencies that deal with trafficking are trying to step up their efforts in protecting the victims and prosecuting the offenders by reconciling differences between current laws and practices. As the Co-chair of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Committee, my job is to try to help get TEFL volunteers more involved in prevention activities like lesson plans and plays.
After the conference, I hosted a family friend in my town and showed him the seaside and the sights in my town. It was interesting to see his reaction to the things I have found so commonplace, like abandoned factories left over from the Communist Era, the tendency for everyone to push to the front of the line instead of waiting his/her turn, and the appropriate receptacle for toilet paper. However, we had a lot of time to interact with my students and Bulgaria partners and friends, and I think he had a pretty positive and balanced view of life here.
Just after that, I went to Sofia for our quarterly ATIP meeting and to do my annual checkup and dentist appointment. The most unusual part was the dentist's sandblasting to clean our teeth. It wasn't too painful (unless your lip gets in the way, which mine did!). I have never had to wash my face after going to the dentist before. I am proud to say that after my blood test, my recent change to a vegetarian diet has not been affecting my iron intake (sorry Dad, no steaks for me...).
That same weekend we had the matriculation exam at school and I came early to help print and arrange the tests. To avoid advanced preparation, we were given a password protected file with three versions of the test and that morning with fifteen minutes before the test, we found out on the radio which test it was. Then we scrambled, some printers working, others not, papers flying everywhere to get the tests ready and to pass them out. I was surprised by the level of secrecy and asked if the students were going to be able to cheat during the test, after which I was informed that they probably could still cheat anyway :( They are very хитри (hee-tree) which means cunning or sly.
The following week we had a send-off for the seniors. For my school this means a show featuring Bulgarian pop soloists, our school's hip-hop group (they're really really good), a magician and his bouncy assistant, a lip-synch/dance to YMCA dressed the Village People, and the award ceremony. Teachers chose award for students in the 12th grade, like Mr. Muscles, Best Babe, and Best Dude. The seniors chose awards like Best Teacher, Most Chatty, and The Scariest. Well, since our math teacher (who really IS scary) didn't teach the senior class, I won The Scariest Teacher Award. I was pretty nervous when I had to go up and give my speech, but it went like this. "It really was scary, however, it was a great pleasure." Later I found out that to win this award is a compliment and that only the teachers that push them get awarded it. Also, one of my collegues that I respect a lot has won the award every other year and at least this year she got a break.
That weekend we had our first baseball game of the season in Razgrad. Unfortunately my town did not represent themselves well. The "Vandals" had only four players show up, so by combining with other teams and their extra players, we were able to play two games. Later that afternoon when we were gathering equiptment and our belongings, it became apparent that my wallet and all of our baseballs were missing (the boys later found one of our bats hidden under a bush far away from where we had been playing). I had to file a police report (and if I hadn't met a Bulgarian friend along the way, it would've been much more difficult) I guess I thought that because we are giving our free time and effort that they would respect all the teams in return. Unfortunately, this is a lesson about teenagers that I learned the hard way.
On a positive note, the following day was the holiday of Bulgarian Language and Culture, Kiril and Methodius Day, named after the creators of the Cyrillic alphabet. We marched in the town center with our school and were annnounced by the town hall, to the cheers of the enormous crowd. Later that evening was the Abiturenti Ball, like our prom, but it is only celebrated by the graduating seniors. The students gathered again in the center in their evening gowns and suits and gave flowers to their teachers and took pictures. This was then followed by a procession through the center (again that day) and a ball at a nearby restaurant. Unlike American prom, all teachers that taught the seniors are invited to attend and get down with the seniors that night. There were games, food, dancing, and the celebration lasted until 6:30 in the morning. As an old lady myself, I quit early at 2 am.
I tried to select the best pictures from all this madness, so enjoy! Sorry this was so long!
Emily
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Hi again, and happy spring!
I can tell that spring is in the air at school because the students have started "twitterpatering." For those of you who aren't great Bambi aficionados, that's when animals begin their mating dance in the spring. I've noticed it with my eighth graders, who were segregated by gender a month ago, but as of late have been "fighting" more and chasing each other around the room. One boy was brave enough to ask to be placed in the girls' group during an in-class exercise.
This month has so far been busy with a conference to plan a project proposal and try to secure funding for more science materials at my school. You'll see a photo of me with my Bulgarian counterpart who has been very helpful to me so far in the process of integrating and managing the everyday life in Bulgaria. She went with me to the conference and on our way home, we passed through a historic city, Plovdiv, and stumbled upon a casting for the Bulgarian version of American Idol, Music Idol. If you get the chance, you should YouTube Ken Lee, a Music Idol favorite and international sensation. The singer was trying to sing "Can't Live, if living is without you", by Mariah Carey, but it came out "Ken Lee, di bu di bu dout yu..."
February was an interesting month because I had the opportunity to play the host for the first time in Bulgaria. My school is involved in a Comenius Project, an exchange with schools from Poland, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and Romania. The schools all came to visit us this time and I got to host a Romanian student. She was very polite, beautiful, and kind, and it was a pleasure hosting her. My house became the hangout for her, her Romanian friend, and the Bulgarian teen hosting him. We worked on the ecumenical calendar between all the groups, went on a tour of some museums in town, learned how to make Turkish water paintings, and went to Varna, the town on the seaside to see the plantarium, mall, and dolphinarium. At the dolphinarium show they asked for a volunteer, and wouldn't you know it- they picked me! I got to play the lost American who floats in the middle of the tank in a rubber raft, but here's the shocking end- the dolphins come to my rescue and push me to safety!
All in all the exchange is great for my students English skills and interesting for all of us. I directed our school choir (ok only 5 girls) and we recorded the project hymn. We were all pretty nervous, but it was overall a success. The only minor hiccup along the way was that the Bulgarian students were giving their presentation about holidays and mentioned a holiday when Bulgarians were freed from Turkish slavery. Now this really upset the Turkish teacher who claimed that Bulgarians had never been slaves to the Turks. The tense moment passed, but later my collegues pointed out to me at the museum numerous captions reading "while under Turkish slavery..."
History is a funny thing. I had a conversation with my students the other day while reading Huck Finn about the word "nigger" and why so many rappers use it and why it is still considered a bad word in America. I wish that some of the people who use the word could come to Bulgaria to see what it leads people to think here. It also made me think about American race sensitivity. How we talk to each other and what we believe about one another can be very contradictory. I guess that shows that every country still has to work on the issue, but America still seems like a beacon of racial tolerance (especially this year after the elections) in the world to me.
Happy Valentines Day, Martin Luther King Day, St. Patricks Day, and beginning of Spring!!!
Emily
Attached are photos from a semester break trip to Plovdiv, a city in southcentral Bulgaria, and pictures with my Romanian guests. Oh and the dolphins.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Happy Belated Holidays!
Hello again!
What a winter it's been already. I have become a pro at taking the overnight train, let me tell you. We began the holiday season here in my town with lots of holiday treats, a student directed Christmas concert, and a school banquet filled with dancing, food, rakia, and homemade wine. After the banquet I hopped a night train to my host family's town on the other side of the country. All in all, the trip was about 13 hours, but I managed to make it there for Christmas Eve, or Budni Vecher. It was great to see my host mother, grandmother, and host sister and brother again. Although I missed everyone dearly back home, a Bulgarian Christmas is not all that different from my American Christmas. There is lots of eating, Christmas music, drinking, dancing, and Christmas specials on television to be enjoyed. The tradition for most Bulgarians that celebrate Christmas is to eat a vegan dinner on Christmas Eve with an odd number of dishes (7 or more). Each year there is a bread called a pitka with a coin baked inside. Each person rips off a piece of the bread and the one that finds the coin inside will have lots of luck and success in the year to come. Also, little slips of paper are baked inside banitsa, or a filo dough and feta cheese breakfast dish (delicious and dangerous because of how much it causes new volunteers to gain weight) and these little slips of paper will have fortunes or 'kusmetche'- 'little luck' inside. My kusmetche said that I will have a big beautiful house with a terrace and a pool....I'll keep you updated on that.
I went with a group of volunteers around New Years by train to Athens. It was a great trip. Although it was more than a little more expensive than Bulgaria, we did our best not to break the bank. The scenery couldn't be beat and it was nice to see palm and orange trees in January. We walked all around the city, shopping, viewing Greek ruins, and sampling the cuisine. Overall it was a well-needed break and a little therapeutic for those of us that missed cosmopolitan areas. The people we met along the way were interesting too. One of the men who worked at the hotel, named Hristos, was just like the father from the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." His delivery was perfect and he even explained the way international words came from Greek. Cosmopolitan comes from Cosmos-world and politan-citizen, citizen of the world. Makes sense, right? We met another very charming old man who had worked in American and called himself George the Greek. A retired sailor, waitor and businessman, he promised us he would write down his life story.
When we first wanted to go to Athens, we weren't sure about the security situation because there had been riots, looting, and property damage (like hanging a banner on the Acropolis and burning down the city Christmas tree) after a Greek policeman fired a warning shot and accidentally killed a student. The riots had continued and the rioters had promised to do something on New Years Eve (according to some reports). When we got there, we were able to travel safely and didn't notice any suspicious behavior or anything more threatening than graffiti.
However, an unexpected situation was waiting for us when we got back to Bulgaria. Russia, because of its allegations that the Ukraine had been stealing gas from the pipeline that brings gas to Europe, decided to cut off the gas supply. Unfortunately, approximately 80% of Bulgaria's gas comes from Russia. This translated into a very cold school week for my gas-heated school and even though many people use electric heat, it's more expensive and we have to be careful of overloading the circuit. However, my work week has been decreased quite a bit since the school's schedule keeps changing and classes are shortened (not a bad idea since we teach in coats and mittens). Russian and the Ukraine have finally come to an agreement (with the help of the European Union in negotiations) to begin resupplying the pipeline, and we should have heat by Friday at the latest.
So that's a lot. Tell me your Christmas stories! Let me know if you're still alive in the Western Hemisphere.
Wishing you lots of health, luck, happiness and love this holiday season,
Emily
P.S. Attached are the pictures of me and my host sister, the town center during Christmas, the Parthenon, and a couple more random ones from Greece.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Holidays in Bulgaria/Romania
Hi All!
I say this every time I write, but seriously so much has been going on that I can hardly keep up in writing :) I've got a routine down at the school now, and things are going a little more smoothly. By teaching literature, I spend a lot of time re-reading the classics, which sometimes is a pain and other times a great pleasure (I just listened to The Scarlet Letter by streaming it from a website called LibriVox.org- by doing so, I was able to crochet a scarf and hat at the same time).
The month of October really blew by quickly. Some memorable moments were my participation in an exchange project with my school. On Halloween I went to Romania to meet with other teachers from Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania, and Turkey. It was a good opportunity to bond with my fellow teachers and to help improve the other teachers' English skills. Romania seemed a lot like Bulgaria, but slightly warmer, and listening to others was a real trip. Romanians and Bulgarians share a common Communist history, and thus a lot of Soviet architecture and city planning, but linguistically, there are great differences. Romanians maintain more of the Roman language, Latin, and so it sounded closer to Italian or Spanish only with an Eastern European twist and some shared vocabulary with its neighbors. I met another Peace Corps volunteer working in the town and helped to teach a class with her, and the students' behavior didn't seem too different from my Bulgarian students. I guess teenagers will be teenagers the world over. While in Romania we went to an old salt mine that was open for visitors and tourists. Inside the salt mine is a beautiful little church (for the miners since they would spend so much time down there) and playground equiptment, chessboards, souveneirs, and other games (for the tourists that come to spend time in the salty air for many an afternoon). The next day we went to Bran Castle, the former home of Count Vlad the Impaler, or the inspiration for Dracula. The exhibition was beautiful, and we toured the entire castle, but it wasn't very scary as most Romanians look at Count Vlad as a hero, not a bloodthirsty ruler. We also went to a beautiful town in Transylvania called Brasov, and it had all the characterists of Romanian achitecture on the Hungarian side, with high turrets and large churches and state buildings. It was quite beautiful.
Before leaving on this trip however, we had a mini Halloween celebration at my school. I made spiced applesauce and pumpkin pie for the teachers (which they loved and made me give them the recipe), and in my 8th grade class we played Halloween games and had a costume contest. I was really impressed with some of the costumes, including Spring, a skeleton, fairies, and a China doll. I myself dressed up as a Bulgarian grandmother, or baba. I definitely got some strange looks walking around school that day! A few days before, I carved a pumpkin, and prepared Haunted Boxes with different food items to simulate brains, a dead man's thumb, eyeballs, etc. The kids all gave away what they were but the look on some of the other students' faces were pretty priceless when they reached into the boxes. The students also bobbed for apples and had a contest in teams to make the best mummy by wrapping each other in toilet paper. It was hilarious and although we didn't always speak English, it was one of my most festive Halloweens in quite some time.
The next holiday, Thanksgiving, was a little more low-key. I made cornbread, apple cobbler, and stuffing for the teachers, but somehow I got hungry and accidentally ate all the stuffing before it made it to school :( I went hiking with some new Bulgarian friends from the English class that I teach and hit the gym after all the holiday food. It's starting to get cold here and there was already snow on the mountains. I still occasionally go to my dance class on the weekends although I'm not really a morning person on Saturdays. On the weekend after Thanksgiving I met with a group of volunteers from a nearby town and we celebrated by eating too much and playing board games. It was really comfortable and we were able to swap stories and advice for teaching and working in our communities.
Just yesterday was another holiday that marked a big milestone for me. On World AIDS Day, I went with some of my students to the Riokos, or health services center in my town and made a presentation for the students from the school for the deaf children in our region. In my classes we had made HIV/AIDS awareness posters and some of my students from the language school where I work came and presented theirs. A teacher from the deaf school translated and some of my colleagues came to watch as we showed a film with subtitles and a dramatic discussion group called "8+" came and did a scene showing risky behavior. "8+" was made up of Bulgarian students and it was a good opportunity for them to integrate with some of the students from the school for deaf children. I was relieved that everything went well and that my first real project to address a need in the community worked without a lot of hiccups. The students had a little discussion afterwards (using translators) and it was a good opportunity to remind them of the importance of protecting themselves because most of the students had only learned about HIV/AIDS from reading cartoons.
Besides the issue of HIV/AIDS, now is a serious time for most Bulgarians with the effects of the international financial crisis, stemming from the U.S.'s recession. Bulgaria as a developing nation is extremely dependent on foreign aid and funds from the European Union (since 2007 when Bulgaria was admitted). Hundreds of millions of Euros have been suspended by the EU because of Bulgaria's lack of transparency and failure to act against organized crime. Bulgaria also has a tiny stock market that has been subject to financial vulnerability, with the stock index falling 80% this year. Bulgaria shares the same level of financial risk as other small, vulnerable economies (such as Iceland that actually went bankrupt due to the international financial crisis) and is rapidly losing foreign investment. This manifests itself in everyday lives as I speak with my friends that work in upper management and project up to a 30% decrease in production next year and the loss of many jobs in American and other international factories in Bulgaria. This will be a difficult year. I don't know when things will change, but for now in some Bulgarian cities it is not too uncommon to see a Mercedes share the road with pedestrians and a donkey cart. More anti-corruption action needs to happen to encourage investor confidence to ride out the recession.
I missed everyone during the holidays (and have never been more grateful for Skype!). I hope you're all staying warm and taking care of yourselves. What has everyone been up to? Write me back!
To life and health,
Emily
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Baseball, Hizha, and a Wedding
I have lots to share this time around.
First of all, two weeks ago was the regional baseball championship. My team was short of a couple of players, so we joined with a team from a village nearby. Luckily that village had an amazing pitcher, so we won the first two games with a good lead. The second team has a lot of sportsmanship issues, so after the game some of my boys had to climb the fence and search for our equipment that their opponents threw over. The last game our team was pretty tired and we played against one of the best teams in the country. We lost miserably, but overall it was a good day for boosting our players' confidence in themselves. I later got to watch the vice presidential debate (Thank you Youtube!) and sent off my absentee ballot.
During the week I've been teaching literature and beginning English to the 8th graders at my school. I feel like I'm falling into my routine finally. The only hiccup along the way has been the amount of cheating in some of my classes. Apparently cheating is looked at more as helping by some students and teachers. I will be working to change that as much as I can.
The next weekend was action-packed. I went to a mountain lodge on a lake with some of David's collegues. The homemade rakia (grape brandy) flowed liberally all night, and I got to practice a lot of my horo dancing. Again people were a little confused about what do with me as a vegetarian, but overall we had a great time. Early the next morning I barely caught a ride down the mountain to catch my bus back to Turgovishte for a wedding. I was late for the legal ceremony, but made it in time for the church ceremony of my friend and student, Joro. I got to meet his beautiful wife and the daughter of my collegue at the school.
Bulgarian weddings seem a lot like American weddings, but there were some differences. The bride and groom make their entrance in the reception by walking over a white cloth that has been arranged with Zdravets leaves (for health), coins (wealth), seeds (fertility), and candy (I don't remember). Guests at the wedding pick up each of the articles after they pass so that they can have health, wealth, etc. A young woman who keeps the white cloth is the next to be married. The bride and groom also pass under 3 ribbons, white for youth/innocence, blue for their children to be, and red for love. The best man makes a toast, and thebride and groom begin the night with a lively horo joined by the best man and maid of honor. There is even a similar tradition to make the bride (Bulka) and groom (Mladozhenets) kiss; instead of clinking their glasses with spoons however, people yell out GOR-CHI-VO!, which means bitter. Later there is something similar to a dollar dance, but instead the people donate money into a basket that the bride holds and join hands with her in a horo and people keep adding to the chain. Later in the night, the bride and groom open a champagne bottle. If the champagne explodes forcefully, they will have a son, if only a little, a daughter, and if not at all, twins. Fortunately (or unfortunatly) Joro and Nadia will be having twins (according to the champagne)! Like American weddings, the bouquet and the garter belt are tossed and the cake is cut, and dancing continues late into the night. Ooh, one thing I forgot to mention, though, they drink wine and then throw the glasses on the ground, and the more broken shards there are, the more love between them :)
I've attached some pictures of the baseball game, the mountain lodge, and the wedding. Enjoy! Also, please write me and let me know what is new and exciting with you!
Thanks,
Emily
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