Rugby, Soccer & Comfort

4-2-06
I just made it through another long and eventful weekend. I played a rugby game against Serbia on Saturday. We won the game by a very comfortable margin; it was a bitter sweet victory because I am pretty sure we weren’t playing against there A-side. The last time my team played Serbia we lost 95-0, so I believe the team they brought this time reflected that. It was a beautiful day in Sofia, and a great day for rugby. The Serbians shared there local liquor with us, and took the bus home when the kegs ran dry. The day was a complete success, the only bad note, was when my friend Lincoln almost got his ear ripped off making a tackle, it took 9 stitches to reattach the his ear to his head.
4-11-06
Well I am at work right now, a bit bored and pondering a few thoughts. I just faxed in my leave request form to Sofia, I will be heading to Istanbul in two weeks. I will only be in Istanbul for a weekend, but it should be a blast anyways. I have saved up a hand full of vacation days, and thanks to my tax return I will be able to travel around a bit in the following months. After Istanbul I plan on visiting Athens, as well as a few of the Greek islands. After all I am only about a 2 hour drive away from Greece.
Last weekend we played a Rugby game against a Bulgarian club from Gabrovo. It was a very physical match, and was tied up when the clock ran out. During the middle of the second half, I got tackled pretty hard from the side, and dropped about 3 feet onto my head. I saw some sparks, and felt pretty dizzy for the next 5 minutes. It took a lot longer than anticipated for my head to recovery from this blast. I felt like I was stoned for the next 3 hours. It was horrible, because I just wanted my head to clear up so I could actually talk to people with out mixing up words. Well the PC doctor confirmed that I had a concussion later that night with a series of strange sobriety tests. And after I refused to get a cat scan he released me with a handful of ‘concussion rules’. I am now fully recovered from my concussion, and my head finally feels as clear as ever.
In other news, I dropped almost a month’s salary on a new bed last week. I finally had enough of the old bed, and decided it was time to make a change. My old bed has a high footboard, and happens to be too short for me, so this has been a major problem; also the middle caves in like a hammock. So I basically have been sleeping in a whole, and slightly to the left. By the time I found out that the vicious bugs that have been terrorizing me were actually termites living in my bed frame, I couldn’t take it anymore. So now I have a new bed and have been sleeping better than ever.
Yesterday my municipality team played a soccer game against the Roma’s. We played at the Roma School next to the Mahala (Roma Slum). The field was pavement, and about twice the size of a basketball court. It was truly a great experience, to see my colleagues interact with the Roma as equals. There was a large audience of Roma, as well as Bulgarians watching the game. I have been very frustrated with the segregation in this city, and was overjoyed to see a glimpse of hope yesterday. It was cool to see how sports could bridge the gap between cultures, and how they could get along in harmony for that moment in time. After the game I was approached by some of the Roma kids who were fascinated to see a foreigner in there neighborhood. They asked me where I lived and were shocked to here that I lived in Chirpan. The Roma kids looked very poor and some of them didn’t even have shoes on there feet. I plan on going back there sometime soon, and playing a bit of soccer with the kids. Well that’s about all I have to say this time, thanks for the emails, and those of you that have been keeping in touch

Trevor Lake