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Here are some recent photos, taken at the Fulbright Thanksgiving party in Sofia (which turned out amazing!), train rides, the commemoration of a famous battle that took place in Pleven and a trip to another town in the Rila mountains. This weekend is the 'official' Fulbright Christmas party and an end-of-year conference where we will share information about our grant projects.

Thanksgiving dinner! (photo taken by my friend Dena F.)

River canyon- view from the train from Pleven to Sofia

Commemoration of the Siege of Plevna

First winter snowfall in Bulgaria

Two cities revisited: Krakow and Amsterdam

Krakow Main Square

Monument to Holocaust victims, Amsterdam

Some hilarious street art, Amsterdam

A couple of weeks ago I went on a week-long trip to Krakow and Amsterdam. My second trip to Poland in less than a month had a professional purpose, for a regional ETA training. We (myself and most of the ETAs in Bulgaria) had the opportunity to meet with other teachers from different countries in Eastern and Central Europe. We also attended lectures on creating lesson plans, tips for teaching students of different levels and the like. There was even a mini Hungarian lesson to demonstrate foreign language learning in which I discovered just how little of it I remember from my semester abroad. :) Because of all of these workshops our time in Krakow seemed very short, and we only had time to explore the city after dark. That was fine by me, having been there once before. I did get a chance to visit the amber market in the cloth hall where I picked up some beautiful earrings and a ring. Amber jewelery is a special product of Poland so I'd been planning on buying some for a long time. This trip to Krakow, like my last visit to Warsaw, reminded me of how much I love Poland and I was reluctant to leave.

Several layovers and flights later, I arrived in Amsterdam with Conor and Hillary. This trip was a much-needed break from school and the unfamiliarities I sometimes struggle with here. It was almost like going to New York City for the weekend. Amsterdam was full of so many things that reminded me of home, such as a completely 100% English bookstore (amazing!), not to mention some of the foods I've missed. We're talking bagels, pancakes and hamburgers. I don't remember seeing a single Starbucks, though, which was interesting. Amsterdam is simply one of the most fun, youthful and beautiful cities in the world. We took a free walking tour, visited the Anne Frank museum (I didn't go there the first time I visited and I am so thankful I was able to on this trip), did some shopping and checked out a coffeeshop or two. The only fault I can think of in that city is the extremely high probability of getting run down by a bicyclist, which nearly happened to me. It would appear that bikes always have the right-of-way in Amsterdam. Something that I was really impressed by was the variety of street art all around the city. In some neighborhoods there are entire buildings covered in murals (kind of like the Mission District back in San Francisco). I hope I get to go back there someday because there is so much to do, it's impossible to see everything in one (or two) trips.

Trip to Koprivshtitsa

Koprivshtitsa is about an hour and a half drive from Sofia. I went there with a group of Fulbrighters and staff about two weeks ago. It's a really cute little town and is important for Bulgarians because it was one of the locations of the 1876 April Uprising against Ottoman rule which resulted in the massacre of many civilians. So it has a special place in history for remembering that tumultuous time period, the National Revival Period. 

 A lot of the houses there were built in the 19th century and are still decorated in the same style as they were over 100 years ago. Different colors were used to paint the exteriors of homes to signify the profession of the owner. There are bright orange, blue, red, yellow and brown houses all over the older part of town. Many of them are now museums dedicated to the people who once lived in them. Poets, revolutionaries and influential businessmen were some of the figures our tour guide talked about. It was a lot of information. The exhibits in a few of the museum houses were really interesting and had traditional costumes, crafts and tools on display.

It's getting a lot colder here now. We had a real Indian summer, longer than usual I've heard. Now the weather's changing a lot. Yesterday in Pleven there was a thunderstorm in the middle of the afternoon. But mostly it just gets foggy at night and stays pretty chilly all day. The winters here are notoriously harsh, even for Bulgaria (and especially considering  the fact that we're not in the mountains). A lot of people have told me that this year is supposed to be particularly cold so I'll get to experience winter for the first time! It doesn't really get cold enough to snow most of the time in Seattle. Which is ironic because they're having record low temperatures for November and lots of snow right now. I can't remember a white Thanksgiving ever in my life. In celebration of the holiday this weekend I'm going to an ex-pat party in Sofia with some other Americans there. We're going to have a turkey, cranberry sauce and everything so it should be almost like home.  

I love Warszawa

Me and Aunt Zofia in Warsaw

I spent this past weekend in Warsaw, Poland, with my family. It was a wonderful trip and I wish I could have stayed longer. I left on Friday morning at 9am and arrived around 5pm. It takes such a long time to travel even a short distance! To get to the airport I had to take a bus to Sofia and then a taxi from the bus station. The flight only lasted 2 hours, about the same time to fly from San Francisco to Seattle.  I stayed in Warsaw until Tuesday morning, not a very long trip but I will definitely be back soon.

My cousin took me to a concert of Russian music and the Chopin Museum, and we went to the 30th floor observatory of the Palace of Science and Culture (pictured above), which is the tallest building in Warsaw. My aunt Zofia's father was one of the builders back in the 1950s. We walked around the city center a lot and visited the contemporary art museum at Ujadowski Castle. We also talked a lot over glasses of rakia I brought from Bulgaria (they called it "southern vodka"). I love hearing family stories and getting to catch up on things with them. I don't see my aunt and cousin often and we normally only communicate via snail mail so it's great to have some face time.

This was my third visit to Warsaw and after walking around the city a little more and doing some exploring I've decided that I could really see myself living there one day. There's a lively atmosphere and I felt very comfortable on my own. Maybe one day I will return for a long-term stay. The weather was perfect: mostly sunny and a little bit cold but still pretty decent for late October. And the fall colors in the city parks were beautiful!

Ujazdowski Castle

Now I'm back in Pleven, done with teaching for the week and looking forward to not traveling anywhere this weekend. :) Next weekend begins a long trip with the Fulbright Commission and some friends to Krakow and Amsterdam. There's a day trip to Koprivishtitsa, a training conference in Krakow and then three of us are going to spend a few days in the Netherlands because we have some time off to go. We got a good deal on the tickets but it's going to involve a lot of back-and-forth travel which will not be very much fun. I'm excited for all of these trips but it makes me tired now to think about the traveling part!

My new home

These are some pics of my new apartment on Ivan Vasov Street in Pleven. I love my new neighborhood- there are lots of families, I live across the street from a school and there are several nice shops and cafes within a minute or two from my front door. I live on the first floor (you can see my laundry drying in the bottom left side of the photo) and the apartment gets a lot of light during the day. Right now it's getting very cold in Pleven and I've been coming down with a cold but I'm staying indoors and turning my heating on (or at least trying to! haha). 

Weekend in Plovdiv

Plovdiv is the third largest town in Bulgaria and I think it is by far the prettiest one I have seen. It's an ancient city with Roman ruins, historic buildings in the old town, wide tree-lined boulevards and plenty of sidewalk cafes. I met up with five other ETAs and another one who lives in Plovdiv. He took us to an Armenian restaurant the first night we were there. I had never tried Armenian food before but it was delicious. Lots of garlic and lemon, and good desserts, too. We also went to some cool bars in town. Compared to Pleven the nightlife there is amazing. Coincidentally, there was a group of a couple hundred US Air Force officers in town who we met at a pizza place near the center. They invited us to their hotel party, which was fun but also strange and made me really appreciate what I've learned here so far.

(Me and fellow Fulbrighters Olivia and Hillary in Plovdiv.) I loved seeing my friends and meeting new ones, like a few other researchers and ETAs who arrived after we left Bansko. It's going to be a great year if we keep it up with these reunions! I miss everyone now that I'm back in Pleven but it's also refreshing to get back into the school week and do my own thing here. Tomorrow morning I start Bulgarian lessons at the Medical University with a tutor so I'm pretty stoked to learn how to say some basic things. I know I won't become fluent but I'll try to learn as much as I can. Two weekends away is my trip to Warsaw to visit aunt Zofia and my cousin Andrej! I can't wait to see them. It's been a year and a half since I visited while studying abroad and will be my third trip to Warsaw. So much to look forward to in the coming weeks. :)

Minor Annoyances

I finally have a washing machine! Only problem is, I don't know how to use it. Tomorrow I'm picking up the instruction manual from whoever has it, though, so for the first time since I've been here I will be able to do my own laundry! The past month or so my fellow teachers have been helping me out with this, doing my laundry for me. But I really want to be able to do it myself like a grown-up so I'm really happy it's finally here.

In other news, the Fulbright Commission has informed me that there is a Regional ETA Conference in Krakow in November, and I'm super psyched to go! Literally two days before finding out about this I had booked a flight to Warsaw for a long weekend at the end of October. Needless to say I am a little miffed about making two trips to Poland in a month. BUT there may be the possibility of changing my original flight and getting Fulbright to cover part of it... I'm waiting to hear back on that. But that would be freaking fantastic. I could be in Poland for about 9 days and both visit the family in Warsaw and attend the conference in Krakow. Fingers crossed on that one.

To finish this whiny little post, my AC adapter for my laptop decided to stop working completely last night. So I had to go buy a new one. The same thing happened to another Fulbrighter here so I'm wondering if it has something to do with the different voltage. Or maybe I just have bad luck. Anyways, so far this week is feeling like a drag because of these little upsets, but I do have the weekend to look forward to: I'm meeting 6 other Fulbrighters in Plovdiv for a mini-break! I'm really excited to see everyone. I haven't seen most of them for over a month so it'll be so great to catch up on things. :)

Razbirate Bulgarski?

So the last few days have been kind of hectic. And a lot has happened in the last week or so. I went to Greece last weekend. But more on that later. Yesterday I decided that I was going to move out of my apartment and into a different one. I had been thinking this over for a while (I was unhappy with the location, the furniture, and my landlord, among other things at this one) but it finally came to a head when my bathroom ceiling sprang a leak and it took over a week to replace the moldy ceiling tiles. Maybe I complain too much, but this place still doesn't have a washing machine and I've slowly come to realize that it's a really inconvenient location for me to get to school. Yesterday another teacher helped me find a new place and I met a woman who had rented her flat to a Spanish teacher at my school last year. Bizarre coincidence? Maybe. Pleven is a really small town. This new flat is actually a bit older but I like it so much more than this one that I'm willing to put myself through yet another packing and moving day just to get the heck out of here. The only problem was that I had signed a contract with the other landlord, but after some negotiating (no small feat for me, passive aggressive extraordinaire!) he agreed to have me pay a portion of next month's rent but not all of it. To be fair, I didn't give him much notice. So I'm still losing some cash but it'll be worth it in the long run. Actually, because this new place is just ever so slightly cheaper, the difference in rent will make up for the extra money in nine months. Win! I'll put up some pictures of the new place when I get settled in.

Thessaloniki and the Aegean Sea

In other news, I love Greece! I just went to Thessaloniki for the weekend with another American Fulbrighter and I wish I could live there. It's a great city, but small. I think I'm going to love Athens. The price difference between there and Bulgaria (only a few hours away by train) however, is ridiculous. Most things (food, beer, you know, the essentials) cost at least twice as much in Euro as they would have in levs. That means they were quadruple the price! We had to stop mentally converting everything because it was getting depressing. The hotel we stayed in was so cute and in a perfect location, and I really liked just walking around all day and enjoying the sea views. It was almost like going home, really, because Thessaloniki has so many American chains that don't exist in Bulgaria (at least not in Pleven). So it was a nice little diversion to get out of the country and I appreciated my life here so much more when I got back. The Cyrillic alphabet is starting to look more like something I can actually read and understand, though I still have some difficulty pronouncing it. But at least it's not Greek to me anymore!

School days

The first day of school was last Wednesday. I walked up to the Foreign Language School, where I was entertained for about an hour and a half of singing, dancing and speeches- in Bulgarian. Okay so it wasn't so entertaining. The mayor of Pleven was there... But I did enjoy the boys' break dancing team and the fact that one girl sang 'Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira.

I received my schedule (which, despite claims that the schedule tends to change after the first week, seems to be permanent) and it looks like I'm only actually working three days a week. Bulgarian students attend classes in one of two shifts: first shift, in the morning, from 7:30AM until about 12:30PM, and second, in the afternoon, from 1:30PM to 6:30PM. I'll be working the later half of the second shift on Mondays, the later half of the first shift on Wednesdays, and then (this is my favorite part) both the first half of the first AND the second half of the second shift on Thursdays. This basically means I have a six-hour break between my classes, but I still have to wake up at 6AM to make it to work on time. But I do have Tuesdays off, which is a nice bonus (having Fridays off was a special consideration negotiated by the Fulbright Commission so that we could have more time to travel- thanks, Julia). So I'm actually pretty happy with the schedule, besides having to trek up to school twice on Thursdays. But 6 hours leave more than ample time for a well-deserved nap, right?

Because the first day of school wasn't a real teaching day, I've only actually met 3 of the 4 grades I'll be teaching this year so far. I had three classes with the 9th grade and then three more with the 8th grade on Thursday, and yesterday I had three classes with the 10th grade. Tomorrow I would be meeting my 11th graders, but it's a national holiday (Independence Day) so I have to wait until next week. So I have today and tomorrow off of school and need to think of productive things to do with myself.
I hadn't actually put that much thought into what teaching would be like- which is weird, when I think about it now. What was I thinking? I would just show up, introduce myself, and hope they would ask questions? Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking. Needless to say my first few classes were a little awkward (for me, at least) because I hadn't planned them enough. Not that I'm going to be slacking as a teacher, I just hadn't really put that much thought into the first day. I've talked to a lot of my colleagues and they've given me suggestions for getting the students to engage in discussions. I'm going to focus a lot on their interests and try to present them with stimulating topics that will actually give them useful conversational skills. Since I'm only meeting with most of them once a week, and I'm the only native English speaker at the school, it's important to maximize my time with them. I put a bit more effort into my lesson yesterday and I think it worked pretty well. I asked them to do a short writing exercise, then discuss what they wrote with their peers and introduce one another to the class. I was pretty happy with the results, except that I forgot to collect the writing assignment afterward. Three times, actually. So at least I'm consistent in my absent-mindedness.

Another aspect of my teaching here is going to be an elective course on American culture, which will probably start next week. I've been thinking about possible topics a lot and it's hard to conceptualize what exactly I want them to learn about American culture, whatever that means. What can I teach them that they don't already know from television, the movies, advertising, international news, etc? So it's going to be sort of a work-in-progress. This is the only class I feel severely under-qualified to teach.... maybe I don't actually need teaching credentials to assist in English classes once a week, but doing a class on American culture? I'm not sure if I'm the best person to do it. I hope these kids like South Park...

Moving In

So I'm officially moved into my new apartment! I still don't know how to pronounce the address... minor detail. But it's a nice neighborhood, about a ten-minute walk from the center and maybe 25 minutes to get to school, so I'll have to be good about leaving super early to get there on time. Pleven feels a lot bigger than I thought it would- there are lots of big supermarkets and a couple of department stores, and lots of cafes and restaurants near my apartment. There are a lot of monuments to the Russo-Turkish War because the Siege of Plevna (Pleven's former name) was the biggest battle of that war. Most of these monuments have artillery around them for decoration. I really like the tree-lined pedestrian boulevard in the center, which has a series of fountains and man-made waterfalls in a small park at the end. There's a really big park, maybe a national one but I'm not sure, right at the edge of the town called Kailaka Park. I haven't been there yet but it's supposed to be beautiful and good for walking.

This is a view of the park with the fountains. The red building to the left is the town hall and to the right is the St. George Chapel and Mausoleum. Today I went to the police station to register with immigration services. I got all of the paperwork in order so I should have my Bulgarian id card in about a week. I got a good deal on my apartment (utilities included, it should end up being under 200 USD per month). This weekend I went to visit another teaching assistant in Haskovo, which is in the south. It was a long trip through the mountains to get there but we had a good time and I finally got to see the world's largest statue of the Virgin Mary! :)

It was built a few years ago, all with funding from residents of Haskovo, and apparently they decided to make it the world's largest. There's a Guinness World Records plaque to prove it outside. It's a nice view of the valley from the hill, too. Maybe one day I'll see the one of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro and I can make a collage of both.

Haskovo also has a zoo, although it's not really worth visiting. It was pretty depressing, actually. I don't think I'll visit any more zoos like that one here. It was located in a nice foresty park near Hillary's apartment and we went for a run there the day before I left. On the way back to Pleven we took a mountain road through the Stara Planina, or Balkan Range. The road we took goes through the famous Shipka Pass, the site of another major battle in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8. It was beautiful. The mountains aren't very tall but there are lots of scenic valleys and viewpoints. It was a very windy road. I also got to pass through a few other towns on the way including Lovech, where another Fulbright English teacher will be this year. It's only about 30 km from Pleven so we'll probably see each other a lot.

I'm still getting used to things here in Pleven and since it's the last weekend before school starts I've decided to take a trip (again!) to Sofia and Blagoevgrad for the weekend. I'm already sick of buses but since they will be my primary mode of transportation here I'd better get used to them. It's nice spending time with the teachers here and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of them but I want to take advantage of my free time and visit friends while I can. School starts next Wednesday and I can't wait to meet my students. I've been preparing a lesson plan for the American Culture class but I'm trying to keep it as open to changes as possible because I definitely don't want to bore them to death with it.

Ah, Pleven, at last!

I finally arrived here in Pleven last night and I'm currently staying at the Hotel Face in the center. I'll be staying here tonight as well but hopefully moving somewhere else very soon because it's kind of expensive. Well, maybe not by US standards but I could spend about what I'll pay for a three-night stay here on a month's rent in Bulgaria. In general, though, things aren't very expensive here. There are tons of restaurants, cafes and bars in town and it's very walkable. The hotel is located in the middle of a pedestrian thoroughfare, and is close to the City Gardens. My school, the Foreign Language Academy, is situated on top of one of the few hills in town. Everyone who works there hates this hill. And I get to feel all smug about it because by San Francisco or even Seattle standards it's a piece of cake! It's got maybe half the incline of the one my mother lives on. In any case the slightly strenuous walk should keep me in shape, although I imagine I'll be walking a lot here anyways.

At the school I met a lot of my fellow English teachers and other staff members. Everyone was very friendly and I got several invitations to dinner (and one offer to find me a Bulgarian boyfriend!). I sat through several meetings, mostly conducted in Bulgarian, and one with just the English teachers to discuss how I might structure some lesson plans. They think I should incorporate some information on American culture, as that would most interest the students. I'm trying to think of creative ways to do this so if anyone reading this has an idea, please email me! I'll be teaching all five grades in the secondary level (8 through 12) and each of those is made up of three groups of about 25 students each. So that will be 15 classes per week, possibly adding on a few more 'elective courses' if enough students are interested. If all the scheduling goes well I should only have classes from the late morning to early afternoon and I will definitely have Fridays off so I have more time to travel on the weekends. I have at least ten people to visit across the country and we have plans to meet as a group sometimes (we might go to Istanbul in a few weeks!). We don't have much time off until the winter holidays but apparently the spring will go by very quickly because there are so many holidays then. I'm excited to get to travel some more while I'm here.

I looked at two apartments today, one of which is livable. It's nearby a nice park and 'Macedonia Square,' which is in the middle of a neighborhood known as 'Orange County' because a lot of rich people live there. I liked the place a lot, although it's a bit small and needs some repairs done. If the place I'm looking at tomorrow doesn't work out I think I'll move in there, although it won't be ready for a few days so I may look for a cheaper hotel. The other apartment I saw was further from the center and in a grim-looking communist era building. Okay, both of the apartments are in communist era buildings but this one was a little too grim for me to handle. The light was out on the lift, so we took it up to the sixth floor in the dark (creepy!) and then entered what was supposedly a recently remodeled flat. I won't go on and on about it but it did not appear as advertised. Tomorrow I'm viewing a flat close to the school, which is also close to the center. I'm hoping for the best so wish me luck.

Sofia... transitions

I am in Sofia, staying at Ellen's apartment (which is getting increasingly more full every day!). Two other Fulbrighters are staying until they find an apartment and another girl, Sarah, from the program arrived today. Hillary is coming tomorrow so there will be a grand total of six adults in a two-bedroom apartment. But I'm loving it. It's so nice to have people to talk to and explore the city with. We're all still adjusting to the pace of things here so of course it's great to share some of that culture shock/ random observations with each other.

I am going to Pleven on Sunday to begin apartment hunting. More on that later because I have no clue how it's going to go. It's only about two hours outside of Sofia, though, so I imagine I'll be back here pretty often to visit. The internet at Ellen's isn't set up yet so right now we're sitting at a cafe in the park nearby that has free WiFi.

The Black Sea was a fabulous trip and I hope to go back there soon. (PS- The restaurant we ended up going to had Chinese food, which was pretty weird but OK).

Sozopol

I arrived in Sozopol (on the southern Black Sea Coast) on Sunday morning with two fellow ETAs. We have been having a great time here. The town has a very typically Mediterranean feel, with windy cobblestone streets, red-tile roofs and a stone wall fortress surrounding the Old Town. It also has a small harbor with colorfully painted fishing boats and small restaurants serving up fresh-caught fish, plenty of bars and cafes, several craft markets and more than a few kebab stands.

Our hotel is on the north side of Old Town, above steep cliffs overlooking the central beach and another peninsula where the "new town" is. We walked over there yesterday to go to South Beach, which is the other public beach within city limits. South Beach is where most of the night clubs in town are, most of them right on the beach and pumping techno music all day long. We spent about four hours lounging there and wading in the warm water. Today we checked out the central beach but it was much hotter so we didn't stay nearly as long. I've been good about sunscreen (yay!) so haven't been burned much and I'm slowly acquiring a freckly tan.

Sozopol was originally a Greek settlement called Appolonia, after which its summer arts festival is named. The festival starts next week so we're going to miss it, but there are already some booths set up and the amphitheater's been roped off. This town definitely has an "artsy" feel, with lots of craft vendors lining the streets (selling more than just the typical touristy souvenirs, though they have all of that too) and a couple of little pop-up shops filled with homemade jewelry, clothes and paintings that are oddly reminiscent of Anthropologie in the States. Tonight we're planning on getting dinner at a Greek place on the water. I'm so excited to eat something other than "traditional Bulgarian food." Not that I don't love Bulgarian food, because I do. It's just that after two weeks of the same repeating menu at the hotel it's nice to change it up a bit. After that we're hopefully going to check out some of the beach clubs or something like that. Tomorrow Ellen and I are going back to Sofia and Hillary is going to Haskovo, the town where she will be teaching. It's sad to say goodbye to everyone I've been living with for the past two weeks but we're all going to meet up on trips and visit each others' towns. At the end of September we have a four day weekend when a bunch of us are planning to go to Istanbul, which isn't very far away. It's exciting being here in Bulgaria because it's not really far from a lot of places I want to go. That being said I am very much looking forward to go to Pleven this weekend and finally getting settled at home. That's all for now and I'll definitely post something from Sofia later on this week!

Goodbye, Bansko... Hello, Sozopol!

The famous Bulgarian roses!

 Okay, so it's been a while since my last post... the conference ended up being a pretty busy couple of weeks, surprisingly enough. It was mostly full of social stuff but hey, that's why I went. I got to know a lot of the other Americans here in Bulgaria for the year pretty well and made some Bulgarian friends as well, all of whom I hope to meet up with throughout the year. We even met the US Ambassador to Bulgaria at our farewell dinner. Right now I am at a hotel in Sozopol on the Black Sea coast, which is FABULOUS.

But back to Bansko, I really enjoyed the conference, only actually took one course the last week (Bulgarian Culture, Art and Music) and had a great time. The second weekend we were there everyone went on a daytrip to Blagoevgrad, a nearby town where the American University is, and a smaller village to hear some traditional folk music and participate in a mock-wedding ceremony. That part was really hilarious because our two volunteers had to dress up in folk costumes, dance around with the singing babas (literally: old grannies) and drink homemade rakiya. 

The setting for the folk singing/ wedding ceremony was in a beautiful rose garden at a medieval church, which was covered in restored frescoes of Bulgarian Orthodox saints. The church, located in Dobarsko in the Pirin region of Bulgaria, is famous for a few of its icons which have irregular angular shapes depicting heavenly light. One of the strange shapes around the figure of Jesus has been likened to a rocket ship.

The next day our group took a bus into the Pirin Mountains just behind the town of Bansko and hiked to a few glacial lakes nearby. And while the program described a 'walk' to one of these lakes, whichever path our group ended up taking was definitely not the easiest hike. But it was well worth it and the views were amazing. Going up there definitely made me want to try skiing and I imagine it would be relatively inexpensive to try it here. Two of the girls (also ETAs) and I decided to take a mini-vacation to the Black Sea resort town of Sozopol following the conference, and that's where we arrived this morning after taking a night bus from Sofia. We didn't realize that the night bus would only take 6 hours, however, so we ended up waiting near our hotel for a couple of hours before it opened at 8AM. But Sozopol is absolutely stunning, with cliffs and sandy beaches on either side of the peninsula and an extremely walkable and enjoyable old town center. We walked around a fair amount today and plan on staying here for two more nights. Then I'm headed back to Sofia to spend the weekend with Ellen (who is teaching English at a high school there) and off to Pleven on Sunday!

Beautiful Bansko

Bansko is a very charming little town. It's become something of a world-class ski resort recently and with the festival in town there's obviously a big draw for tourism. I think that most people who come here are from Bulgaria but I've overheard some conversations in English and other languages while walking around the cobblestone streets. The hotel I'm staying in is really nice and I actually have my own room because my roommate hasn't shown up yet. Yesterday one of the professors scheduled to lecture finally arrived (he was delayed in Pakistan due to flooding) so I've been attending another course on peace and conflict resolution. I'm enjoying taking classes, although it means waking up early after staying out late at night.

We've already established a couple of bars we go to regularly, and most nights there's a big group of us Americans and usually some Bulgarians that go out in a huge group. It's a lot of fun getting to know everyone here and I hope I can keep in touch with them after the conference is over.We had a big meeting with all of the Fulbright researchers, scholars and teachers in the country earlier tonight. It was cool to see what other people are doing here. Hopefully I can make it into Sofia often to go to some of the events the Fulbright Commission and the US Embassy organize throughout the year.

Today in our Bulgarian culture class we learned about ethnic minorities and social exclusion, specifically focusing on the Roma minority here. Bulgaria is not only one of the poorest countries in the EU but it also has one of the largest populations of Roma, or gypsies, apart from Romania. The socioeconomic status of minority groups has gotten worse after 1989 and now with the financial crisis. All of the statistics we read about unemployment, crime, access to services and other problems were shocking and difficult to accept as the reality here. It's an issue that I hope to educate myself on more, especially because the marginalization of Roma in the educational system is extreme. The professor suggested that we as foreign teachers might try to integrate multiculturalism into our lesson plans. I definitely plan on working on that as well as learning more about Roma culture and history.

I had a little incident with my camera and had to buy a new one so I will belatedly put up some photos on Picasa/Facebook soon. The store I went to was sort of like a Best Buy, and they actually had a lot of different cameras that all had displays in English, though the descriptions were all in Bulgarian. Me speaking  the language would have helped, again! But I got everything figured out and the camera wasn't too expensive. Definitely an upgrade from my old AA battery-operated one. I'm excited to get to take pictures of things here again. This weekend there are two organized trips we're taking: one to Blagoevgrad and another small village and one to a mountain lake near here. I want to try and explore some of the mountains and natural scenery available while I'm here. My town isn't too far from the mountains (also Romania!) so that will be good. I can't wait to go to the Black Sea the week after next. We still need to get tickets but everything I've heard about Sozopol sounds amazing.

Pictures and more stuff coming soon! 

Zdravei!

I am sitting in my room at the Orphey Hotel in Bansko. Bansko is a little skiing town at the base of the Pirin mountains, which are strikingly beautiful and loom over everything. Right now it's the off-season, but there are still lots of tourists here for the Bansko Jazz Festival, going on this week. It just so happened to coincide with the Fulbright International Summer Institute here at the hotel so we've all been enjoying going out on the plaza at night to listen to music and people-watch in the crowds.

I only arrived in Sofia last Thursday but it feels like I've been here much longer than that. I spent one night there, meeting two other Fulbrighters and attempting to set up my cell phone, then we got on a bus to come here for the conference. There are 11 English Teaching Assistants in Bulgaria this year, including me. We're all scattered across the country in different towns and villages. Only 8 of us are here along with a couple of researchers who will be based in Sofia for the whole year. It's been great getting to know everyone. I think we all have similar interests and are very excited to be here.

I found out why they increased the number of ETAs this year (last year there were only 2). The America for Bulgaria Foundation, which is fairly new, donated the funds to send 10 Americans to Bulgaria to teach English at local language schools. It's part of their program to develop higher education standards for high school students so they can be more competitive in their university applications. I've learned a lot about the Bulgarian educational system in the past few days, and it seems that educational reform is a really hot topic here. A lot of people want the universities to promote higher standards for their students but the tests to get into university, especially the University of Sofia, are outdated and mainly based on repetition of facts rather than critical thinking. It's interesting getting to know more about the issue but it is very controversial right now.

In Bansko there are a lot of restaurants, mostly mehanas, which are taverns that serve traditional Bulgarian cuisine. I've eaten almost all of my meals at the hotel restaurant (because it's free!) and the food here has been really delicious. There are some Mediterranean and Turkish influences, with a lot of salads, potatoes, grilled meats and my favorite: sausages. The cheese and yogurt are great here, too. For breakfast they serve a goat cheese that is just like feta, and usually for dinner there are fried cheese balls. Needless to say, I'm definitely not going to have a problem getting used to the food here. In town we've gone out to a couple of bars and the drinks are surprisingly less expensive than I'd imagined. Usually you can get a half liter of beer for about $2, and that's expensive for smaller towns in Bulgaria. The boxed wine they serve at the hotel is great, too.

Last night was the welcome dinner for the Summer Institute and it was served in a "traditional setting," in a hall downstairs with wooden beams and lots of folk dancing and music. It was definitely entertaining, although parts of it were a little strange because I'm not familiar with the meaning of the songs. It would be really great if I understood Bulgarian, although most of the other Americans here don't speak it, either. I'm going to try and get better at some basic conversational stuff before I leave Bansko.


FISI is the only Fulbright summer program of its kind in Europe. This year there are about 100 participants from all over the world, mostly a lot of students my age from the US, Bulgaria and around Southeast Europe. I'm taking a Bulgarian Culture course, which is the only required one for us, and so far it's been a history of archaeology in the country, which is really interesting. I didn't know that civilization in Bulgaria went as far back as many millennia as it has; the oldest gold objects were found here and they're over 5,000 years old. It's definitely a complex history, with a lot of different cultures intermixing, so I'm excited to learn more about in the the next two weeks.