In the interim...

Bulgaria...

I loved the fields of sunflowers and am working on a creative way of describing the beauty of filds upon filds of the yellow flowers that lay at the feet of mountains.

I learned that these flowers are called girasol. When I proclaimed to one and all that they were missing the beauty around us they politely took note and then went back to their conversations. One friend though took it upon herself to make sure that a field wasn't passed that wasn't brought to my attention and so for the next three hours to our destination and the entire four hours on the way back to the airport a few days later anytime a sunflower was spotted a cry of "girasol" was announced from the depths of the bus.

Our dancing went well, we danced in an old castle along the banks of a river that seperated Bulgaria from Romania to an enthusiastic crowd. We were able to meet new friends from all corners of Europe and I witnessed forms of dancing that I was previously unaware existed.

I was able to lose all of the weight that I'd put on in the states during our five days in Bulgaria. The food was slightly less than wonderful, but the bread and butter were good.

I had a really great time with the group though and was able to get to know my fellow dancers a lot better. My Portuguese improved as that was pretty much all that was spoken. They did take mercy on me and when I had the truelly lost look in my eyes would make sure to catch me up on what was being talked about.

I was able to make a self observation during our trip. A few years ago I took an improv class wherein we talked about different levels of humour and comedy. While on our trip to Bulgaria I realized that at this point in my life, at least here in Portugal, I am at the most basic elementary level of humor. I am constantly using physical, almost slapstick type humor to make people laugh. I'd like to think I'm more sophisticated than this and that it's my limited language that is causing me to act this way but I can't say diffinitively. Just another thought with no point but which will give me something to think about in the future.

I'm back in Portugal now. And I'm really excited to be here. I've been coming into school for the past couple days, slowly getting things together for the next year and trying to brainstorm different ideas that will make me into a better teacher. It's been nice, quiet, and it's o.k. if I get sidetracked with things like facebook and infrequently updating my blog.

My house is clean. Like for real. Like I even did the windows. It smells all nice and clean like too. It's a habit I'd like to get into, this keeping a clean house. I feel a lot better when things are clean and now that it's clean I'm finding that it takes a lot less effort to keep it clean rather than when it got ridiculous and then took days to clean. So, this is my official announcement... Justin Wallace will now be keeping a clean house! For all the naysayers out there, you're probably right, but I'm going to make an effort, which is more than I've said for myself, well... ever.