Ooh No! There Goes Supercross08! Go, Go, Debtzilla!

It may be the end of Supercross08 as we know it, but I feel fine! Together, Tim and I accomplished some rockin good things!

We had good times and difficult times, and in the end it wasn't time that we ran out of, but funding... Stupid money. I'm proud of what we've done, and I'm proud of what we've learned. Every experience and every person we've met has given us something dear that we'll cherish for the rest of our lives. Unfortunately, it's ending. Kind of.

Tim has decided to go home. For that story, you can visit his blog. I have decided to embrace my future! And by that, I mean "embrace my debt" in order to continue traveling! I intend to continue to meet and converse with people, and to continue with the goals of Supercross08! I will put forth all my effort to spread peace through dialogue and cultural exchange! And where possible, I intend to meet with youth organizations and schools to facilitate discussion groups, as consistent as possible with how we had done it in the past.

Both Tim and I brought something unique to the table in all our work together. From organizing meetings and facilitating discussions, to casually meeting people on the street and learning about them. It's been a project of a magnitude beyond what either of us had hoped it would be. And I'm going to do my best to continue on with its spirit! Of course there's no possible way I can even begin to try to fill his shoes, but I will do my very best to outgrow my own!

Now then, read on to learn about our final event together!We participated in the 3rd Annual Chirpan Soccer Tournament Fundraiser! Our buddy, and fellow RPCV Trevor, started this tournament in his Peace Corps Bulgaria days. The Volunteer that replaced him continued this tradition and did a fine job of it!

There were 11 teams of Volunteers and Bulgarians! A mix of all levels of age and skill, but everyone had the same capacity for a good time! Tim and I dressed up, for the first match, in costumes to commemorate how cool we are. I was the Ninja Defender, and he was the Super 80s Star. Together, we managed to take our team to the championship match against the best Bulgarian team that's ever played the game! I think they were elite professionals who had taken an interest in the local competition and felt it in their best interests to enter the competition in order to help with the fundraising for those less fortunate! The truth is, basically, they were old men with nothing to do on that particular Saturday.

We played our hearts out! It was our fifth or sixth match of the day - no other team had played as many matches as we had because of the odd number of teams! We rocked their asses! And by that I mean we didn't let them score! Not once! Of course, scoring for us wasn't really ever part of the equation for this match as the ball was constantly on our side of the field. At the end of the two grueling halves the score was zero - zero! We were flabbergasted! It went to penalty kicks! Each team member had to take a shot from midfield on a goalieless goal. At the end of their five shots on goal and our five shots on goal, the score was an unsurprising four - zero! We had just won second place! =)At the end of the day, the tournament/fundraiser had raised 400 levs (about $300 USD, but if you wait a week it'll be about $400 USD) for the At-Risk Youth Fund!

I had a great time playing with the new Peace Corps Volunteers as well! They're a GREAT group and they reminded me how much fun I had had in the Peace Corps!

Next on my plate is an Earth Day Beach Clean Up in Varna! It's gonna be the best Earth Day, ever! The beach doesn't even know how clean it's gonna be!