Constant Chicken

That's the game we feel like we're playing here. Walking down the sidewalk, driving the car, just riding the roller coaster of life, we are participants in a constant game of chicken and I'm not sure if we're winning.

Last Saturday I would have assured you that we were. We set our clocks back an hour, thus shortening the time difference with NY down to 6 hours, which surprisingly made a HUGE difference in our ability to communicate with people. We gained an extra hour of sleep and had daylight when the alarm goes off - yay! It's dark by 6pm now, so that makes the night feel much longer, causing us to stay inside more. But the weather has been fantastic! It's supposed to get into the mid-70s and remain sunny for the next 5 days. This will almost certainly delay getting heat in our apartments, and since it's dropping into the 30s at night, that's not cool. I've relocated my space heater from school to home to try to help, and we still use the oven for a heat source. But I digress, back to last Saturday. We spent the day hanging out downtown, drinking hot chocolate and checking out some local restaurants. We found a really cool cafe that turns tango club at night, a great Greek restaurant with CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE, and a decent place that will deliver to our apartment! We also found the last of the three malls in Sofia, and checked out the tasty fruit juice bar, who incidentally, will also deliver. This is how we try to spend most Saturdays since it gives us a chance to get to know the city, eat healthier than we do all week, and practice our tour guide skills for when you all come to visit!  We even found mini-golf for only 3 leva (about $2.00)!

               

Sometimes we go alone, and sometimes we meet up with folks. As you can see, we attempted to meet one of our neighbors, Tom, affectionately known as Junior, for dinner. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it and I ended up having a very Breakfast at Tiffany's moment, much to the entertainment of passersby, as I waited with my flower that Greg bought from a gypsy on the bench with the statues. Pretty hilarious, I must admit.                                                             

Incidentally, this is a picture of Junior, who shaved half his face just to be random on Halloween.

That's all for now in the way of updates.  Below are some pictures that I have been accumulating over the past few weeks while waiting to upload. Enjoy!

Theresa - for you and your kids!          

Two pics from our trip to Thessaloniki: a rainbow on the Greek border and the village of Melnik

     

Here are some neat photos from campus: 

The path leading to our admin building, Sanders and Dafina's Garden

      

The fountain in the middle of  campus and the old pool back on the trail behind the houses

      

One of the views from my room, Mt Vitosha from outside my room, and Onda, the coffee shop

          

For all of you who are concerned...

I sometimes wonder if anyone out there bothers to read my blog, since no one other than Evan and Alanna ever leave me comments...and then came the flood of emails...some expressing genuine concern, others snidely laughing at the madness of our lack of heating situation.  So I thought it time to update you all on the status of heat in Sofia...drum roll, please...

We have heat!  (At school.)  Seriously, they have provided heat on campus (something to do with being connected to the police academy, I hear), but NOT, I repeat NOT in our apartments.  It would be nice in the apartments since it's dropping into the low 40s at night, and to help dry our clothes (currently they hang to dry over 2-3 days and either smell like mildew because they take so long, or pollution if we put them outside.)  But, on the other hand, I'm a little glad we don't have heat yet, because it seems once it goes on, it cannot go off (or even be turned down!)  So, even though it's been clear and sunny and in the 70s for 3 weeks now (no, I'm not complaining - it's one of the most beautiful autumns I can recall), my room is cranking out three heaters worth of hot air and let me tell you something about SWELTERING!  We leave all three windows open all the time, and still today kids were complaining that they felt sick, and poor Arissa can't stop panting.  I guess we should be careful what we wish for!!!

Not much else to report, as my camera cord still has not arrived.  I'm shooting tons of photo and video though.  In the meantime, I'm obtaining lots of photos from previous years from my students and colleagues for my project, so if I get really desperate, I'll upload some of those for you guys.  I'm hoping to be able to send you my own soon, including one of what is beginning to be a spectacular bulletin board filled with your pictures!  

More to come - especially with Halloween next week, which from what I hear, is quite an event at school.  Kids in costume, a children's party/haunted house, a dance, and a faculty party all in one day!  Apparently, the faculty party includes a costume contest...I'm open to suggestions for costumes that can be made (by me, so nothing too involved) and inexpensively using whatever supplies I may be able to find here.  The clock is ticking, so send those ideas...

And PS - for those who don't read the NY Times, we made the headlines!  Here is the link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/world/europe/16bulgaria.html?_r=1&scp=2&sw=Bulgaria&st=cse&oref=slogin

Yay Canada!

Those of you who have lived with me in upstate NY for the past few years, will appreciate that I now sing the praises of Canada...where previously of course, I was blaming them for the cold weather and wishing we could wage war.  (OK, maybe that's a little extreme, after all, they do have Montreal...)  But tonight we celebrated our first Canadian Thanksgiving and got to eat TURKEY!  May not seem like a big deal to most, but those who know me (and were witness to the 3 week daily turkey binge before we left the states), will understand the significance of turkey dinner after a two month cessation (cold turkey, pun very much intended.)

I have more to write, but I have pictures that accompany my stories, and therefore, you will have to wait...Sadly, there will be no more pictures until my new camera cord arrives, since someone (no names will be mentioned, but let's just say that her new name is B-A-D D-O-G) ate my cord!

Sorry folks.  More to come soon though, I promise!

Country of Contradictions

I'm not really sure anecdotes adequately capture what it is like to live and work in Bulgaria, but in conjunction with pictures, maybe I can give you a glimpse. After a very busy week at school (we rarely arrive home before 5pm) we decided to spend Saturday on our own acting like tourists in Sofia. We got an English guide from a Holiday Inn and took one of the self-guided walking tours, with a few stops for food along the way.

The day began with an attempt to attend an "American BBQ" at the American Embassy. We were excited to eat some good ol' home cookin' and get to shop for local Bulgarian crafts. Unfortunately, even though the event was scheduled to run from 11-3, when we arrived at 1 (after a 40 minute bus ride followed by a 30 minute hike - the embassy is NOT centrally located) there was no food left! We were starving, exhausted, and more than a little disappointed. Even the building, which does not appear here because photography was not permitted, was not as impressive or grand as many of the downtown embassies. The neighborhood in which it is located, however, was really upscale. We were surprised by how nice it was, as we had come to believe all of Sofia was ugly. Turns out, just our neighborhood, which although safe and full of yuppies and pensioners, is pretty ghetto looking. (And don't you love that the apartment building under construction on the embassy block is called "The White House"?)

After hiking down and finally catching a cab, we headed for our tour, which began at Jovan the Dutch Bakery. We knew the name of the street, but not the address, and had been told Jovan had a green door. For those who saw last week's episode of HIMYM, you can imagine the humor as we searched for the green door and the sign that says "Jovan's." Incidentally, this green door was not his, but was a false alarm, two blocks up on the same street.

Now Jovan sure isn't John the Baker, but this was by far the best bakery we have found. (I hear rumor of pumpkin banitsa, a local pastry, which sounds amazing, but I haven't found it yet...) After our debacle with poor timing at the embassy, we were thrilled to find our luck had changed when Jovan was taking Easter bread fresh out of the oven and selling it still hot. After buying so many bags of goodies that our gluttony was visible to all passersby, we headed out to Onda, our closest shop to Starbucks for some coffee to wash down our treats. Spoiled as we are, we were a bit surprised at how much money we spent on coffee, since the Onda on campus sells at a discount. (One of the many perks of working at ACS!)

We walked around the central part of downtown checking out some lovely churches, some Roman ruins, and the Presidency. Our timing was perfect as we happened upon a wedding party who made for some spectacular pictures.

From there, we headed to a part of Sofia that was new for us. We saw the only mosque in the city, the Turkish baths, and the Synagogue.

We visited Halite, the food market, and found the only pedestrian street in the city.

Our tour ended at the Women's Market, which was a bizarre bazaar. Greg wouldn't let me photograph everything (like the surgical instruments for sale set up on a card table), but I was able to capture some images of the gorgeous fruits and veggies, as well as some other random available items like homemade Rakia (a brandy typically made from grapes that I hear is a lot like moonshine and supposedly cures all ills - clearly, I haven't tried such a beverage.)

Our evening ended after our first ride on the trolley public transportation, previously we had only experienced the busses. We found our way back to our starting point near the bakery to eat dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. (Where the food was so good, we ordered take out again last night.) So, the list of yummy places grows, and we have learned that to eat well, we need to eat downtown or order delivery (which usually takes 2 hours, so I have to learn to plan in advance.) We're getting good at navigating though, and we can communicate on a really basic level, so we will be great tour guides when you guys get here! We even had a really nice conversation with our taxi driver in Spangarski, as he is a student of Spanish and nostotros estudiamos Bulgarski.

On that note, manana is quite a busy day for me, so I'm going to sign off now. Hope all is well and please keep the pictures, care packages, and comments coming... My "People I love and places they've been..." wall is a work in progress and waiting for your additions!