Oh, the Dog Days...

Not gonna lie, the words "air conditioner" were not the first to come to mind when we first decided to become Peace Corps Volunteers.  People, we have one.  An air conditioner.  It came with our apartment.  We now know why Peace Corps Bulgaria is also known as "The Posh Corps."

We are really fortunate to have this little machine, because, just as you guys are also experiencing, IT'S HOT.

In addition to sitting under this AC unit right now, we have found a few other things that bring a momentary reprieve from these dog days:

1. Go shopping at Kaufland's (a walmart-like store).  It's completely air conditioned.  Who cares if our pantry + fridge is full.  We need something... 


2. Give the local hotel 5 leva & they'll let you swim in their pool!  You even get a lawn chair + umbrella.  This isn't an everyday thing, but it sure is a fabulous recent discovery.  There's nothing like working on lesson plans or Bulgarian homework next to a pool.  Sigh.


3. Good 'ole ice cream.  Bulgarians love ice cream.  And, we love that they love ice cream.  They even have ice cream trucks!  Check out this one Randall found the other day...





"Mind that child"

4. All of those are good (right?), but the BEST solution we've found is going camping at 4200 feet in the Rodopi mountains with a handful of your best buddies (we missed you, Moses!).  It was approximately 20 degrees cooler.  Plus, it was a blast.  The place we went is a ski resort in the winter...

Just to bring it back around... to something delicious, we also celebrated birthdays for three people that weekend.  The burgers didn't help the coolness factor, but the cake & ice cream sure did!

 

Now, if only we had a homemade ice cream maker...