Unexpected Opportunities

Last Wednesday evening I went to a local Toastmasters Meeting.  I have been a member of the SLO Motions Toastmasters club for several years and have totally enjoyed my experience.  Before leaving home, I checked the TM International website and found a chapter here in Plovdiv.  I decided to check it out and was quite impressed.  The meeting had an agenda and was structured almost identically to our meeting back home.  I really didn't know what to expect - would the meeting be in Bulgarian or English.  Would the members be old or young - male or female?  I was by far the oldest person in the room filled with energetic, English-speaking Bulgarians.  They were a bright, funny and quite enthusiastic.

I am looking forward to returning and hearing more of their very entertaining speeches.

And then, on Saturday, I participated as a judge in the Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition. Essays from all over the country from grades 6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12 were submitted.  We first read about 45 entries and decided on our own if they should move on the to next level.  The criteria was heavily weighted towards creativity, but grammar, spelling, and adherence to the theme were also factored in.  The next round consisted of reading the "passed" entries from a different grade.  We scored these and the top ten in each grade made the final round.  Our group then read the top ten and picked the top four to move on the National judging.  As you might expect, there were some marginal entries, but I was impressed by the clever, sophisticated and entertaining submissions by so many students.

Here is a picture of the judges from the Plovdiv area.

You may wonder how I got involved in this.  The organization that puts on the competition asked the Fulbrighters if they would be willing to help out.  Carol said that she was too busy but happily volunteered me to participate.  Let's hear it for the Half-Brighters.