ACS is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. It's quite impressive, and it's one of the oldest remaining American schools outside the US. As the Bulgarian Foreign Minister said last night, Abraham Lincoln was president in our school's first year. Tee hee. There are quite a few asterisks on this accomplishment: a few different American schools were founded in different parts of Bulgaria, then only merged to become the school we know today in the 1920s. Also, there's the small issue of being closed for almost 50 years during the Communist era. Still, there is a sense of tradition and history that is worthy of being honored. The biggest event for the year was a gala concert last night, raising money for the scholarship fund. The act was Vasko Vassilev, who I admit I had not heard of before this year, but is quite a phenomenon. He was a Bulgarian child prodigy at the violin, and has gone on to much success with the best orchestras of the world, and also done a lot of rocking, not-so-traditional music with a variety of collaborators. It's fun stuff. The concert last night was wonderful, as was the reception at the swanky military club afterwards. The holiday season is chock-full of special events that are all individually fun, but can sometimes be collectively overwhelming. Luckily, this event was worth it. I've posted a few very short video clips that give a feel for the show last night (we were close...only in row 3!). I smile each time I watch these (regrettably short) videos...it was such a fun concert! Great job, Vasko, and kudos to all that helped put this together.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Things students say (or write) UPDATED x3
I will likely update this periodically. Here are two things written in student homework this week.
This was at the end of an otherwise underwhelming student presentation on climate change, and when I asked her about it, she didn't actually know if she had thought of it herself or if she was quoting something she read. Still, I liked it and thought it was prophetic:
UPDATE #2: from a student ecology homework, talking about the competitive exclusion principle:
UPDATE #3
Me: So, how was the test?
Student 1: It was confusing.
Student 2: It was awesome!
UPDATE #4
"The law of natural selection has played its part in the faith of the moths." (emphasis mine)
"because frogs are r-rated, this helps them survive."
Indeed.
The next one just shows so much confusion and or fence-riding I thought it was impressive. Poor ESL skill are also part of the problem, I'm sure. The response was to a question about how energy flows and matter cycles through an ecosystem.
UPDATE #1It means that elements go through recycling in cycles in each ecosystem, while at the same time some energy is constantly getting lost and then gained by sunshine, etc. They are kind of the same, for there is an input and an output, and it is determined by which is bigger, whether there is a loss or a gain of the element or energy over time, although when considering energy there is always a gain as long as there is sunlight, and there is almost always a loss, when there isn't.
This was at the end of an otherwise underwhelming student presentation on climate change, and when I asked her about it, she didn't actually know if she had thought of it herself or if she was quoting something she read. Still, I liked it and thought it was prophetic:
“If we want things to stay as they are, everything must change.” S.V.
UPDATE #2: from a student ecology homework, talking about the competitive exclusion principle:
"In fact it is the physically stronger species that survives. The best known example of this is the paradox of plankton."I really have no idea what he was writing about, though I do think the "paradox of plankton" could be a cool band name.
UPDATE #3
Me: So, how was the test?
Student 1: It was confusing.
Student 2: It was awesome!
UPDATE #4
"The law of natural selection has played its part in the faith of the moths." (emphasis mine)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Paris for Thanksgiving
Ahhh, Paree!
I didn't expect to be as impressed by Paris as I am. What a beautiful, practical, friendly, and interesting city. Yes, I said friendly. As an American I feel like I am constantly told that the French hate us and go out of their way to be rude to us when we go to their country. Luckily for my first visit to France I found the exact opposite to be true. People were wonderful - every person that I talked to (except 1) was very nice and showed no disrespect to me. Several of them laughed when I couldn't find the affirmative to a question such as, "would you like a bag for this?" Every time I somehow managed to forget which of the many languages I don't know I should use, so instead of a simple "yes" (since most people understood English perfectly well), I would stammer: "Da!, uh, ah, Si!, no, uh, yeah!, arggg! I mean oui!" I laughed too. But somehow never got comfortable with "oui."
We spent 3 and a half days in Paris. Oddly enough, this summer while we were traveling through the Balkans, we met a wonderful Parisian couple, Elaine and Cedric. And luckily, they invited us to stay at their flat in Paris over Thanksgiving weekend. Such lovely hosts! Their flat is less than a block away from the metro system and several blocks away from two train stations - so getting there from the airport was a breeze, and getting to anywhere in the city was even easier. They fed us traditional French food - which means lots of cheese, wine, bread, and heavy flavorful foods. For our thanksgiving feast we had duck, mash (yummy greens), and these wonderful cheesy potatoes that I need to get the recipe for. Fabulous! Elaine and Cedric's friend, Stefan, joined us for Thanksgiving - he had lived in the US for many years and missed the Thanksgiving tradition.
Of course we visited some of the expected sites:
We also saw a couple of less-well-known sites:
Yup, that's right, we went from the highest heights in Paris (the Eiffel Tower) to the lowest lows, pee-yew!
Many thanks to our wonderful hosts for a wonderful visit! We hope to return the favor - although I don't know if we want to go into the Sofia sewers...
I didn't expect to be as impressed by Paris as I am. What a beautiful, practical, friendly, and interesting city. Yes, I said friendly. As an American I feel like I am constantly told that the French hate us and go out of their way to be rude to us when we go to their country. Luckily for my first visit to France I found the exact opposite to be true. People were wonderful - every person that I talked to (except 1) was very nice and showed no disrespect to me. Several of them laughed when I couldn't find the affirmative to a question such as, "would you like a bag for this?" Every time I somehow managed to forget which of the many languages I don't know I should use, so instead of a simple "yes" (since most people understood English perfectly well), I would stammer: "Da!, uh, ah, Si!, no, uh, yeah!, arggg! I mean oui!" I laughed too. But somehow never got comfortable with "oui."
We spent 3 and a half days in Paris. Oddly enough, this summer while we were traveling through the Balkans, we met a wonderful Parisian couple, Elaine and Cedric. And luckily, they invited us to stay at their flat in Paris over Thanksgiving weekend. Such lovely hosts! Their flat is less than a block away from the metro system and several blocks away from two train stations - so getting there from the airport was a breeze, and getting to anywhere in the city was even easier. They fed us traditional French food - which means lots of cheese, wine, bread, and heavy flavorful foods. For our thanksgiving feast we had duck, mash (yummy greens), and these wonderful cheesy potatoes that I need to get the recipe for. Fabulous! Elaine and Cedric's friend, Stefan, joined us for Thanksgiving - he had lived in the US for many years and missed the Thanksgiving tradition.
Of course we visited some of the expected sites:
Notre Dame
Before we went inside the sun was shining.
After spending about half an hour inside, we came outside to graupel - ice pellets.
(Elaine and Cedric didn't believe that was a real word)
The gargoyles and chimeras were really cool.
From the tower of Notre Dame we caught our first site of...
the Eiffel Tower
One of my favorite parts of the trip - we rode the elevators to the top.
Amazing views of the city from above. Breathtaking. Literally. It's way up there.
Musee d'Orsay
Turns out Jeff and I aren't really art gallery people.
We enjoyed some of the paintings, but without an art history background, we weren't drawn in.
And I guess we didn't take any pictures here,
but we did get pictures of the outside of the Louvre:
the Louvre
Being the art-not-lovers that we are, we got there too late to enter the museum itself,
but enjoyed looking at the range of architecture outside.
Sainte-Chappelle
They are cleaning all the stained glass, so we didn't get the full effect.
Still, it was quite beautiful and magical.
a wonderful playground behind Notre Dame
Watch this video - you will not be disappointed!
the Musee de l'Orangerie
This is where a set of Monet's Waterlillies is displayed as if you were in the middle of the garden.
I was determined to see these - they grow more interesting the longer you look at them.
the Sewer Museum
Yes, that's me, standing by a river of shit.
Fascinating, but disconcerting. We were told not to touch anything down there.
For a stinky museum it was actually quite informative and interesting.
Many thanks to our wonderful hosts for a wonderful visit! We hope to return the favor - although I don't know if we want to go into the Sofia sewers...
Flashback: Fjords and Glaciers and Slugs, Oh My (in Norway, July 2010)
Every time I see a giant slug or a giant snail I have to stop and get up really close and simply look at it. Such weird creatures. So cool and so "eeewwww" at the same time. I've gotten to see many different slugs and snails in many different places: banana slugs in northern California, giant snails in Switzerland, huge snails and nightcrawlers (double "eeewwww") here in Sofia, and this summer, giant black slugs in Norway (as seen below, this one is about 4 inches long). We saw about 30 of these guys on our hike above Bakka.
That's it for my slug report, now on to Fjords and Glaciers...
For our 2nd Anniversary we had a choice of going to a giant 4th of July party on our campus hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (around 2000 people were expected to show up) OR go to Norway. It was a tough choice since celebrating not only our nation's independence but also our anniversary in Bulgaria with thousands of expats and Bulgarians would be hard to beat in future years. But we decided that that one extra day of vacation in Norway was worth missing a huge party for. So early on July 4th we caught our flight to Bergen, Norway.
We spent two nights in Bergen - our first and last nights in Norway. Bergen is a UNESCO World Heritage site with these wonderfully askew and very colorful wooden buildings along the bay. There was also a lovely park at the top of the mountain in town (we got to ride another Funicular!) where we watched the sun set for our last night in Norway amidst the sounds of the distant Simple Minds concert.
We spent three nights in Gudvangen at the end of the Naerofjord (I probably spelled all of that wrong, but I've given up on trying to understand the Norwegian alphabet). We enjoyed some biking and hiking while staying there, along with taking some rides on the ferries. We visited Flam (that's /fluhm/ to you) where a giant cruise ship had disgorged it's passengers and the town was a madhouse for most of the day, but it became a ghost town after the last incredibly loud burst of the ship's horn faded away. We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls outside of Flam on one day, then took the Flamsbana (railway) 20 km up to Myrdal on another day - watching a cheesy light and song show part way up and riding on a train that turned 180 degrees in a tunnel. From Myrdal we hiked back to town and during the last 5 km we actually ran in order to attempt some semblance of training for our upcoming half-marathon in September outside of Vienna (more on that later).
The next two nights were spent in Jostedal near Jostedal National Park. We were warmly welcomed by Astrid Jostedal to her family's campground where we stayed in a lovely little cabin next to a glacial river (Jeff was crazy enough to jump in this river - brrrrr - but I only soaked my feet). We spent one day on a "sea"-kayak tour on a glacial lake to a glacier that we got to climb around for an afternoon. The water was so cold, but so beautiful. And it was exciting to stand next to huge fissures in the glacier (we were roped up, of course).
Norway definitely is the most expensive place we have traveled to so far - I hope nothing else is that expensive! But so worth it. I wish we could have stayed longer.
If you have some time, feel free to browse Jeff's Norway photo album on Flickr (I don't yet know how to embed the slideshow - I'll try to figure it out and fix it later).
UPDATE: The Flickr slideshow is now embedded below. Click on the picture by the big play button to view the photos. To view them full screen, click on the little square in the lower right of the Flickr box that looks like four arrows pointing to the corners. You can toggle the descriptions/titles on/off by clicking the "X" by the title in the upper right or by hitting the "show info" link in the upper right.
That's it for my slug report, now on to Fjords and Glaciers...
For our 2nd Anniversary we had a choice of going to a giant 4th of July party on our campus hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (around 2000 people were expected to show up) OR go to Norway. It was a tough choice since celebrating not only our nation's independence but also our anniversary in Bulgaria with thousands of expats and Bulgarians would be hard to beat in future years. But we decided that that one extra day of vacation in Norway was worth missing a huge party for. So early on July 4th we caught our flight to Bergen, Norway.
We spent two nights in Bergen - our first and last nights in Norway. Bergen is a UNESCO World Heritage site with these wonderfully askew and very colorful wooden buildings along the bay. There was also a lovely park at the top of the mountain in town (we got to ride another Funicular!) where we watched the sun set for our last night in Norway amidst the sounds of the distant Simple Minds concert.
We spent three nights in Gudvangen at the end of the Naerofjord (I probably spelled all of that wrong, but I've given up on trying to understand the Norwegian alphabet). We enjoyed some biking and hiking while staying there, along with taking some rides on the ferries. We visited Flam (that's /fluhm/ to you) where a giant cruise ship had disgorged it's passengers and the town was a madhouse for most of the day, but it became a ghost town after the last incredibly loud burst of the ship's horn faded away. We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls outside of Flam on one day, then took the Flamsbana (railway) 20 km up to Myrdal on another day - watching a cheesy light and song show part way up and riding on a train that turned 180 degrees in a tunnel. From Myrdal we hiked back to town and during the last 5 km we actually ran in order to attempt some semblance of training for our upcoming half-marathon in September outside of Vienna (more on that later).
The next two nights were spent in Jostedal near Jostedal National Park. We were warmly welcomed by Astrid Jostedal to her family's campground where we stayed in a lovely little cabin next to a glacial river (Jeff was crazy enough to jump in this river - brrrrr - but I only soaked my feet). We spent one day on a "sea"-kayak tour on a glacial lake to a glacier that we got to climb around for an afternoon. The water was so cold, but so beautiful. And it was exciting to stand next to huge fissures in the glacier (we were roped up, of course).
Norway definitely is the most expensive place we have traveled to so far - I hope nothing else is that expensive! But so worth it. I wish we could have stayed longer.
If you have some time, feel free to browse Jeff's Norway photo album on Flickr (I don't yet know how to embed the slideshow - I'll try to figure it out and fix it later).
UPDATE: The Flickr slideshow is now embedded below. Click on the picture by the big play button to view the photos. To view them full screen, click on the little square in the lower right of the Flickr box that looks like four arrows pointing to the corners. You can toggle the descriptions/titles on/off by clicking the "X" by the title in the upper right or by hitting the "show info" link in the upper right.
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