And I am officially a Peace Corps volunteer... well at least I finally feel that way.

This is Banitsa. I don't think I will ever be able to live without this amazing little piece of heaven for as long as I might live. I fully intend on making it for you guys when I come back to visit this summer. Get ready for delicious greatness....

Well my latest adventure involves food so I figure this is an appropriate place to share with you. Yesterday I had some food that didn't exactly agree with me and ended up getting food poisoning. I went home from work early and reveled in my misery from about 3 in the afternoon until this morning. It is actually kind of funny looking back on things. I must have looked so completely pitiful lying in bed for 16 hours straight. Anyways, I came to work this morning and the adventure continued. I was told by my colleagues that I still looked sick (a real self esteem boost) and then they began to diagnose just what went wrong. The diagnosis ranged from sitting all day long in my chair and then running after work which lead to a "nervous stomach" to the fact that I reffed the basketball game and was sweaty from running up and down the court. Regardless of what happened I am feeling better now, a little tired, but better. I am going to Romania for the day today and am scared to death of all the things they are going to try to make me eat. It is custom here to "cherpi" for guests, which is simply passing out chocolates or sweets or special foods when they arrive. Gross. I have to go now. Looking at this picture is making me a bit queasy...

In the words of my colleagues over here there are not words I can put here to explain this picture... But in a valiant attempt: I was the referee for a basketball between game my school and another one nearby today. I think I got the job because I am the crazy American kid (as you can see I tried my best to play the part) and apparently 14 year old girls think I am cool... I can tell you that I did not get the job on any sort of merit. I suck at basketball. I am big and get in the way but that is about as far as my range of skills goes. Anyways, it turn out to be amazing. The game was mass pandemonium and I am positive that if I called ever foul or double dribble the kids would have never gotten to play but things went well. After I took a picture with all the kids (will put it up here soon) and even convinced a few of them to help me pick up all the trash left by the crowd. I couldn't help but feeling like I was actually doing something as I ran up and down the court with the throngs roared behind me... On a positive not I talked to some girls about forming a real team (for like the 100th time) and I think for the first time the actually listened to me and were interested in the idea. We are suppose to start with out first practice next Tuesday, but we will see what happens.

This is a challenge....

This lady was gettin' down with her bad self and I was caught in the crossfire. You can see that I had been reduced to the ability merely to clap and smile in utter disbelief and amazement!

I wish I could tell you that the hazy appearance of this picture is due to a fogging of the lens on the camera because it was trained on an individual as ravishing as myself but we both know there is no way you would ever believe that... You see the truth is that by this point in time in the night a nice level of cigarette smoke had formed throughout the entire restaurant. Who wants a smoke? No need, just take a nice deep breath....

My English class at the high school!

Kids... So many kids. This was after a basketball game that I reffed... I had no idea what I was doing!

Pretty much any chance to make myself look ridiculous is well exploited...

Like I said.