Bonjour and Hola! We are the new volunteers, Nathan and Guillaume from France and Frida from Spain. Frida and Guillaume are staying for 1 year and Nathan for 6 months. A new house has been renovated for us, and we are alone inside. This month was the beginning of our life in Bulgaria, discovering Shipka, teaching at the Golden Apple School in Kazanlak and getting used to the cold.
We spent most afternoons with the children, learning from them how to survive the cold and snow and having lots of snow fights. We are slowly learning Bulgarian in order to communicate better with them and hope that we will be able to understand basic words very soon.
We built the most important thing in a house… A shoe holder thanks to bamboo and wooden planks.
Eating is definitely our favourite part of the day so far and we haven’t missed a meal. We prepare our lunch for school in jars and make a variety of meals as there are great chefs in the house!
We walked in the forest and mountains near Shipka, discovering the beautiful environment around us. It was also the opportunity to take Ronnie for walks, Tatyana’s, Open Minds director’s dog, as we had looked after her for two weeks.
Art was made in the house, as Guillaume and Nathan create music, and Frida plays music and draws. We went to a jam session in Plovdiv, discovering typical traditional Bulgarian folklore music. We also saw Oranitza in concert, it was incredible! The most surprising thing about Bulgarian music is the great lyrics and voices, also the rhythm like 7/8, 9/8, 11/8 (kopanitza).
We had a “big” pizza in Kazanlak, and I mean, it was BIG.
We sometimes had low morals because of leaving our homes, so we have been enjoying taking nice pictures to look back on. Here are some picks!
