Hello, hello. It's been a while since I've posted anything of real substance but these things happen when you're traveling (and when your blog goes down and you're too lazy/busy to fix it in a timely manner).

I back from my adventure in Elena where I was teaching English three hours a day at a summer camp for children from all over Bulgaria.  It was great fun but hard work. Little kids demand a lot of energy to keep them on task and big kids require a lot of energy to keep them engaged.<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Medium" title="Main square Elena" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6040433653/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6201/6040433653_6e401d0de5.jpg" alt="Main square Elena" width="500" height="333" /></a>

This said, aside from the first class of the morning when the kids were all still waking up there was plenty of energy floating around camp. The kids love it there.

Basically the schedule is this: Eat breakfast, study English, eat second breakfast (or what I'd call a snack), study more English, eat lunch, study even more English, play games, have a snack, do some more stuff, have dinner, play some more, have a snack and then go to bed. Repeat the next day.

When I volunteered for camp (yep, I did this all without pay) I took a leap of faith and went to camp not really knowing what I would be doing.  I had the vague sense that I'd be teaching a couple of classes and that I'd be helping out with sports and crafts and things. I didn't know where exactly I'd be staying or how I'd get to camp. I had no idea what the camp looked like--rustic cabins in the mountains or state of the art retreat house. And I didn't actually know what I'd be doing. But Villy promised that I'd get to speak plenty of Bulgarian.

So for whatever reason, I figured I can do anything for two weeks and I signed on. Or I am a nut. Either way, I went.

Here's what I learned the camp "VillyLand" is actually in the very small town of Miikovtsi outside of the smallish town of Elena. I would actually be floating around between classes giving conversation classes--this I am beginning to learn is the fate of native speakers--here, talk to (and with) these kids they need access to a native speaker.  What's great about this is that you just get to talk to the students, ask them questions, push the limits of their vocabulary and correct their mistakes and urge them forward as necessary. The drawback of course is that you don't get to know the students as well and you're not the one setting the boundaries and expectations for the students it's their regular classroom teacher.  And I'd be staying in the town of Elena and going up by mini-bus each morning to teach. The afternoons were my own.

I was especially grateful for this in the beginning because I was battling jet-lag and by lunch time the only thing that I could think about was taking a nap. A long one. Then after a couple of days it was great to have the afternoons to myself to practice and work on my Bulgarian with a teacher. More on learning Bulgarian in a latter post.

Elena is a lovely little town with a good mix of traditional houses and some serious communist-concrete work. There are a couple of outdoor cafes with unbelievably low prices and I went to a pizza restaurant on the main-square with passably good Bulgarian-style pizza and to a very good Bulgarian restaurant.

It was really a wonderful way to spend a couple of weeks. My colleagues were incredibly nice and patient with me. The students were quick and unbelievably funny. What's more they were funny in both English and Bulgarian. Two examples and then I've got to get on with my day.

First, a teenager (she's maybe 13 years old) asked me in English: Have you got a husband? Me: No. Her: Why not? Me: I have found the right guy yet. She nods seriously thinking about what I've just said. Her: I think that you should look very carefully for one. Me: What is that? Her: I'd like you to stay here.

<em>Aw</em>. I mean how cute is that?!

Second on the way home yesterday, I rode in a van/mini-bus with five kids going back to Sofia. When the van picked me up one of the youngest girls at camp--she's just 7 years old--couldn't control herself. She was so excited to see me that she's jumping. The older kids weren't as excited but really, why should they be!?! Because the kids are little, I think they are in the first two beginning English classes I say hi in English and then switch to Bulgarian. The seven-year-old is smiling and smiling. She tells me her name and then all of the other kids do as well. Then she tells me that my English is excellent. Bless her. I tell her it's because I am from America. I ask the kids some other questions in Bulgarian and that's that.

Then we make a stop to pickup some paperwork and the little one makes a cellphone call to her dad. This is what I hear, we just left camp. I am in the car. I've been speaking English to an American girl. Okay, I love you daddy.

I think, oh she's so cute. She's been speaking to an American but she hasn't been speaking to me in English. Maybe she doesn't realize. Or maybe I am the first foreigner to speak to her in Bulgarian.  Either way she was as cute as can be and I didn't correct her.