March Top 10 (+1)

Sorry we've been MIA, people.  You're about to see why.  Spring is here and we've been livin' it up!

Here's our top 10 fav's (+1) from March 2012:

1.  Martenitsi.  We finally saw our first stork last weekend, and have tied our Martenitsi on a budding fruit tree.  Woohoo!

2.  Flowers.  Lots of them.  It's the simple things, right?  These little white flowers were the first we saw after winter.

3. Banitsa Training.  We're determined to make Banitsa from scratch before we leave this country in a year.  Vania's mom was generous enough to walk us through it.  It's still a work in progress, but we did get our hands dirty!

4.  Muffins.  One of our buddies, Dorrie, wanted muffins to cherpi at work for her name day... so, Joy and Vania got to work!

5.  AGRA.  Randall's organization held a booth at the local agricultural fair.  These are just a few of the MANY things he found:

6.  Women's Day - March 8th.  At school, Joy's colleagues planned a pot-luck.

And, in the evening, we went to our local Mexican Restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!  Other than Liza (she couldn't make it), here are all the ladies who celebrated that day:

7.  Dimitrovgrad.  All three of us + our local buddy, Joan, went to visit our buddies, Jacki, Dave, and Brenda in Dimitrovgrad.  We ate lots, played our favorite charades game (if you come to visit, you will see how fun it is!), and even visited the famous market down the road.  Thanks, guys, for having us!

8.  St. Patrick's Day.  We are so lucky to have an actual Irish Pub in Plovdiv.  Terry and his brother run it.  And, yes, they are from Ireland.  We spent this St. Patty's Day there with quite a few other volunteers.  So fun!


9.   Tsalapizza.  This is Vania, Stefan, and Marty's village, just outside of Plovdiv.  We packed the car with work clothes, warm PJ's, and delicious goodies, and headed out to plant potatoes, garlic, parsley, onions, and peas one Saturday and Sunday.  It was absolutely wonderful.

10.  Spelling Bee.  Randall was the announcer for our friend, Miglena's, spelling bee.  Being a native English speaker and all, it made sense.  He wasn't planning on being the announcer, but since Joy got sick, he came to the rescue!

11.  Language Refresher/1-year Anniversary in Bulgaria.  So much fun!  Sadly, everyone has already went their separate ways, as of this afternoon, after our Bulgarian language refresher.  But, 7 of us were "refreshed" by our fearless teacher, Vessi, this weekend, plus, we were able to celebrate our 1-year anniversary with some of our PC buddies!  Yes, we went to the Mexican restaurant.  We can't get enough it!

We've had a busy month, but we've loved every minute.  We miss you guys back in the States, and can't believe it's been a year.  Thanks for all your support and for following us along the way.

Here's to another year!

Joy and Randall