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