New Socks and a Funny Story

Yeah! The weather has warmed up a bit here. The snow is even starting to melt a bit (although, this does leave some slick spots on the ground that are a precursor to an embarrassing moment - I guess we'll just take our chances.) Here is a picture of my new socks Pete bought for me this weekend. I got three pair in several different shades. Now, before you make fun of me and say, "Wow! She really is becoming Bulgarian! Those are heinous!" I want to remind you of a couple things. 1) Although it has warmed up, it's still quite chilly and knee-high socks are great in combating this temperature and 2) Colorful stripes make me smile in the morning when the last thing I want to do it get out of bed and walk in the snow to school. Now, with that said, go ahead and poke fun.
Now, on to the funny story: Our roommate, Stephen, is a basketball coach at the school. This weekend he had a tournament at one of the local high schools in Sofia. Wanting to see a Bulgarian public school, his wife, Laura, decided to tag along to the game. When they arrived the team started warming up. A few minutes later, the opposing team showed up without uniforms and without a coach - just a bunch of kids ready to play ball. Stephen thought this was weird, but continued the warm up. A few minutes later, the opposing team's cheerleaders showed up to support the team. Ironically, the cheerleaders not only had a coach, but were completely decked out in full uniforms. Again, Stephen thought this was weird, but continued to go on with the warm up. A few minutes later the school's security guard shows up --- with homemade wine! Yes, you read correctly. He starts passing out the wine to the parents and fans, even offers one to Laura and Stephen. When Laura says, "Sorry, I'm going to have to pass because I'm pregnant." The guard replies, "Oh, no, it's O.K. This isn't supermarket wine - this is wine from home. You can have some." So, in an attempt not to be rude, she accepts the wine and then throws it out when he isn't looking. Now, back to the game. The game begins, they play for about 15 minutes, but then the ref decides that it's not O.K. that the other team doesn't have a coach or uniforms, and says that the game will have to be forfeited. As the team still wants to play, they make a last ditch effort to smooth things over by trying to make the cheerleading coach the coach of the basketball team. The ref doesn't buy it, the game is forfeited, and everyone goes home.
This is the country I live it. Seriously - most of the time I still can't believe it ...

On the school front, it's still finals. Pete is frantically grading and I think he's going slightly insane because of it. I have a few papers to grade, but as there are only four kids in my English class, my sanity is still intact. I have more kids in keyboarding, but, come on, it's keyboarding! Anyway, hope everyone is doing well!