Week 24: Snow day! Snow way!

Martenitsa!

As an educator, I think we all--deep down--are curious about education systems in other countries. What resources do they have? Subjects? How many students? What is the appropriate attire? But, beneath these lingering questions, there is one question we're afraid to ask: how does a school decide to close??? Well, folks, I have an answer!!

Galabovo City Center

For those who read my blog about Georgia, you would've discovered that Georgians close school when it's at least -40 (luckily it's the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit) regardless of snowfall. You would have to strap up the huskies, and sled across the mountains--5 kms uphill both ways of course.

Now, Bulgaria's a bit different. In January, I discovered the wonders of a 'Flu holiday.' Due to Bulgarian law, if there are less than 30% of students present in the schools within the province, schools must close. As i'm sure you can guess, this 30% of the student body finds themselves in a dilemma: should I feign sickness in order to skip school and possibly close school for several days or should I go to school like the responsible young adult I am? I have never seen such large displays of collective youth movement or, rather, the lack thereof, in my life! Admittedly, some students were sick, but, others? Hmmmm!

Anyways, "the Beast of the East" struck Europe and I found myself underneath several inches of snow with some chilly temps this past week. Do I think we could have went to school? The hardy Midwesterner within me says, 'yes!' but, alas, the roads leading to the villages were snowed in making travel difficult! So these past few days (I had school only on Monday), I found myself prepping my students for the BEST competition (more on that in a future post) next week, lesson planning, and celebrating Baba Marta! What is Baba Marta you ask? Scroll down for more!!

I'm honestly unsure of the origins of Baba Marta (literally translating as Grandmother March), but the idea is that the first of March is the beginning of spring. So peeps buy red and white bracelets symbolizing 'Pijo' and 'Penda' which bring good fortune and give them to friends, family, and loved ones for good health! When you see a tree bloom, peeps then hang their Martenitsa (bracelet) on that tree!

Unfortunately, I didn't have school for this particular day, but, that didn't stop some of my favorite townspeople from giving me some Martenitsa! Of course, lunch at Darina's (my mentor teacher) with her life-changing musaka and orange zest brownies just made everything so much better!

Darina's World Famous Musaka (Right)

Some of the brownies had a flu holiday . . . in my stomach

On a final note, the past few weeks have been great! The Sofia BEST competition was 2 weeks ago and the Bulgarian Creative writing competition was last week, both of which I had the pleasure of judging! The creativity these students have in ANOTHER language in both spoken and written word is absolutely incredible! As for class, I had a really successful lesson with directions! Nothing is more fun than blindfolding your students and having them go through a labyrinth of chairs and desks while 2 competing teams give them conflicting directions :D Of course, the chicken kebabs at cooking club were a huge hit, too! See you next time and честита баба марта! Happy 1st of March!

Confusion!

More confusion

Seasoned in olive oil and smattering of seasoning!

Grill Master Martin

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