Бойчиновци (Boychinovtsi) - Chapter 1

While in Panichishte we learned of our pre-service training sites. I, along with three other trainees, would be spending most of the next two months studying Bulgarian language, observing and teaching English classes, and immersing ourselves in Bulgarian culture in northwestern Bulgaria in the village of Бойчиновци (Boychinovtsi). From what I could gather, Boychinovtsi had seen better days and was little more than a railroad junction along the Sofia-Vidin railway, with convenient links to the larger cities of Montana and Vratsa. Every other training site seemed infinitely more appealing—some were in larger towns, others were in serene settings, others had interesting histories—and I was less than enthusiastic about spending two months in Boychinovtsi. The next several posts will be about my time there and how and why my apprehension was in some ways justified and in other ways unjustified.