B-grad and Rila Monestary

So the Academy in Blagoevgard (B-grad) we had last week turned out to be pretty helpful. Besides seeing my friends again we actually did productive things during our sessions and I think I'll be using a lot of the stuff we went over; EU funding and it process, how to teach English, and how to teach HIV/AIDS awareness in a country that doesnt have health education like we do in the US.
Also, they have the American University in Bulgaria in B-Grad so the movie theater plays movies in English and there is a bowling ally/pool hall, so our evenings were well spent. Inception was only 3.50LV and a game of bowling was 4LV. We stayed in one evening too. A lot of us sat on the steps outside with some snacks and drinks, someone had a guitar and we sang songs and had a massage train.
The guitar is in there somewhere
Massage TrainDuring the afternoon once we had a pick up football game in the park. COD program versus the TEFL program. I played some the second half and COD won, not really b/c of me but I was there.

After the training was over we were meant to travel home right after that. I figured I had 11 hours on a train no matter what and I might as well go with my Pavolche peeps up to the Rila Monestary before getting the train back b/c the chances of me being all the way over there again are pretty low. We went up in the late morning, it took two windy buses up into the mountains but it was worth it.
The Rila MonestaryThe archways outside the Chapel at the monestary center
I took the bus straight from the Monestary to Sofia where I met Brittany and Dan, ate subway, and got on the night train to Shumen. Brittany lives in Shumen (on the same train line as Varna) so I got off there with her and slept a bit and took a bus to Varna, and later a bus home, Friday afternoon.