Empty Weekend

After giving blood and the Sg party, both which were fun and fulfilling, I realized on friday that this is the first weekend that I'm not doing anything. It's been thanksgiving, macedonia, and everything else that I've been up to. I was going to go to Sofia for water polo, but decided to get a really good nights sleep and swim at the local pool instead. I have a really tough workout that is related to water polo training, so I think I'll give it a try. The fact that I'm not really doing anything is also magnified by the fact that a lot of people are not here. They either went home or are traveling (to places i've already been). I also thought about the fact that I still haven't been to the Rila monastery, so I have to do that before I go. I don't think I'll be able to do it this weekend because I need two other people and a Bulgarian so that we can make a deal with a taxi driver and split the fare. I definitely cannot do it next weekend because I'm pretty sure I'm going to Serbia and hopefully Montenegro. I watched the new Bond movie after dad suggested it because it's supposed to be set in Montenegro. I liked the movie and the scenery, but was disappointed when I found out that it was filmed in Italy and the Czech republic. Oh well, just means I'm going to have to go to the Czech republic. I was talking to Carolyn on Skype last night and amazingly there was barely any delay. Unfortunately I had to run out and get my pizza because they get mad when you make them wait, and when I started talking to her again, the fire alarm went off in her building! I have finally depleted all the money from my Bulgarian bank account. I literally have nothing left in my wallet. I get charged a flat fee of $3.50 for using my american Visa, so I've guessed that i'll need about 300 leva for the rest of my time here. I'll be going down to the ATM soon, I really hope the machine doesn't just give me three hundreds because I would have a really hard time breaking them. As I near the end of my stay here in Bulgaria, I'm really happy that I'm going to be back home and see the family and friends. But I also am sad that I'm leaving, because I really like my friends here, and I know it's going to be hard to see them again. They don't want me to leave either, and everyone that asks how long I'm staying cringes when I say that I'm leaving soon, and they try and convince me to stay. It's really odd, but people here are just so much easier to befriend than people back at pittsburgh. All the people that I hung out with last year don't talk to me that much anymore, and I really don't mind that they don't. My challenge next semester is going to be finding friends as wholesome as the ones that I have made here. Luckily Oksana and John will be coming back to pitt, so that's a good start. I feel like I'll be in this distant situation when I come back home, but with all my friends here because most of them are staying. I was surprised to find out that only 15 students are here for only one semester, and I know every single one of them. We have to do a ridiculous amount of stuff before we leave. We have to collect something like 6 separate signatures, write a letter to the guy who sponsors the scholarship, turn in our ID cards (which I really want to keep), and complete an exit survey. I really don't know why we have to do all this stuff, but I guess I don't have much choice.
Well, I'm tired of typing here sitting in my underwear. I'm going to get dressed and see if I can get the money, eat something, and hopefully go swimming soon.
See all of you in a few weeks!