And then I thought...: Pre Service Training Wrap-Up.** Updated!! 8-4-10

Well suddenly it was 3 months later. Not sure how that all happened but I think that is what everyone says. Training is over with and I am now a volunteer as of Friday July 23rd. I had a wonderful time in training and although I was eager to get the freedom of my own living space back, I miss my host family very much already. I will be back there for Christmas if not earlier. I have a few last photos of training I wanted to share and let you all know that I have arrived safely at site. I am in the process of getting acquainted with my village, apartment and counterpart. I will update soon about site but these are just the last of the training pics.

**One story I forgot to mention in my blog that happened in PST was the day they brought me a soup to try. Normally my host Mom makes great soup. I steer clear of the meat but the flavor is great. Well I had a spoonful of the soup, again staying away from the "meat". Then I noticed they were watching me. Then they told me, I had just had a spoon full of cow stomach soup! I kind of just looked at them and laughed. They asked if I wanted any more and very kindly told me I didn't have to eat it. I decided when the hell am I ever going to get this opportunity again, so I actually pulled up a chunk of cows stomach from the bottom of the bowl and ate it, of course that was all of it that I ate, and I gave the bowl to my host Mom right after that. But it wasn't horrible. The hardest part was knowing what it was. After that it was a running joke with my host Father at every meal time! =)

This is my host Father Petar, his father and brother during my last week in training. I got very close with my host family during training and miss them all very much already.

These are two very special people in my life, my language trainer who helped me out in so many ways other than just language and my host mother who is just amazing!

Went to dinner at a "cousins" house and before I knew it they brought Petar a drum, and then the wife comes busting through the door with her husbands accordion! It was hilarious but the best part was that as we were leaving he started playing the accordion again and we started dancing in the streets in the middle of the night! A great memory for sure.

Here we are before the show got started.

Have I mentioned the scenery here?

My host family very generously took me on an outing the weekend before I left. We traveled to Ledinika Cave and to a Hristo Botev Monument. Both spots were really interesting.

This is Petar and one of my host sisters Inna. She is wonderful and goes to school a couple hours away from us but she came and visited a couple of times while I was there.

This was Petar showing his creativity with the angle of the camera. This is one of my training friends. We always had great white wine when she came over for dinner!

My host mom always picked out great snacks. These little things were called "Lucky Girl" I call them "air snacks" cause it was kind of like eating air. But they came with a prize, so Maryana, host Aunt Julia and I all put on our bindi's

This is the park that we focused our community project on. We cleaned it up installed the equipement the kids are playing on, and later we painted the benches.