I don't speak Bulgarian. I have been trying to learn, but it is quite challenging for an English-speaker to pick up. Unfortunately, I'm not even familiar enough yet with my Lonely Planet phrasebook that I can easily turn to the right chapter for a quick sentence or two. In my limited experience in other countries where I did not speak the language, at least I could rely on gestures and body language to help get a point across. That is also more challenging here.
I walked out my door on this overcast Sunday afternoon to find a friendly old man picking apples from the tree near our villa. He ventured over to me, and we tried to chat. His name was Malko, he is 60-something, retired, lives about 1 km from school in the Mladost neighborhood (so much for the security gate around campus!), and has a few grown children, and at least a few grandchildren. I managed to get across that I was from the US, had a wife but not children, a sister, a brother, and was 31 years old. That exchange of information took a long, long time, with many hand gestures and much reference to the phrasebook. It would have been less frustrating if I didn't keep interpreting his ayes for nayes and vice versa.
As far as I can tell, Bulgaria is one of the only countries in the world (only?) that reverses the american style of "shake head up & down = yes, side-to-side = no." But it's not just a reversal...it's more complex than that. Sometimes a "yes" gesture here is a simple side-to-side (once), so that if you order in a restaurant, and the waiter is indicating "OK, I got your order" my first instinct is to assume they're saying "NO" because I've ordered incorrectly, or they are out of that item. It doesn't help that they rarely use concurrent facial language such as a smile/frown that could indicate what they mean with the nod.
Other times, the "yes" nod is more of a Bollywood head bobble. That is at least distinctive enough that I don't think they're saying "NO" American style. The "No" is a straightforward up & down nod, just like our "yes." As I struggle to grasp tidbits of what they are saying to me in Bulgarian (I need to remember how to say "please speak more slowy," and "Could you repeat that please?), I invariably smile and nod my head up and down when I think I understand, which invariably makes them think I do NOT understand.
To confuse matters further, Bulgarians that speak some English or are more familiar with other cultures will sometimes try to use the non-Bulgarian method of head nod, to make it easier for us. So even if I remember what is "normal," I'm not totally sure if they are doing the American style or the Bulgarian style.
Oy!
I'll figure this out, eventually, but until then, I may have to wear a neck brack around town just to prevent any incorrect head gestures!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Bulgarian Birthday
Last week I turned 31 in Bulgaria -- it was my first international birthday. It was a very busy day, and I had many new experiences.
[I apologize for generally unimaginative writing in this post...we just got back from a several day new faculty bonding trip (more on that in a later post) and I'm pretty tired.]
Shannon was unfortunately chained to her computer most of the day, working on edits to her dissertation (she's almost done), so I had to find other partners for adventure. I was feeling antsy in the morning, so decided to go for a run. I headed out the back gate to try to find the base station for the Simeonovo gondola, which services the ski area (and hiking/biking in the summer) on nearby Mt. Vitosha. I had to cross the Sofia "Ring Road" to get there, which I was expecting to be an expressway, but was actually a severely overcrowded (bumper-to-bumper) 2-lane road at the part nearest campus. [I later learned that the Ring Road is also a major prostitute hangout for Sofia, but I didn't notice any of this on my run!] It only took 15 minutes to run to the base of the gondola, where I could have spent 10-14 leva (about $8-10) for a round-trip ticket up the mountain, depending on how high I wanted to go. I had hoped to come back later in the day to do some hiking on the mountain, but couldn't find willing adventuring partners. Instead I found folks interested in going into Sofia, and I hadn't been there yet.
I rode the Metro train with Garth to meet another new faculty member, Carolyn, downtown. Carolyn was in Sofia last year on a Fulbright scholarship (teaching English), and liked it so much she's working at our school this year. Carolyn used to live downtown, so she made an excellent tour guide of the old part of the city.
Birthday Self-portrait #1
Downtown Sofia is quite nice, and pleasantly very different from the Mladost neighborhood where I live. Mladost is on the outskirts of the city, and must have been a planned Soviet-style development (the sub-neighborhoods are actually numbered, Mladost 1, Mladost 2, Mladost 3, and Mladost 4). In Mladost there are lots of high-rise Soviet-type block apartments, interspersed with vacant, weedy/littered lots, interspersed with pastures (complete with cows/horses), interspersed with brand-new development. Quite a mish-mash. Sidewalks are inconsistent when they exist at all, often interrupted, abandoned, or parked on.
Mladost streetlife
Mladost View: The two towers are part of the police academy on the land that used to be my school campus (before communism). Both were abandoned mid-construction around 1990. The right tower is still derelict (and is the view out my bedroom window), while the left tower is finally being finished, and is now almost done. The buildings to the right of the towers are the under-construction "Russian School", which is less than a 1/2 mile from my "American School" oddly enough. Vacant fields in front, and Mt. Vitosha in back.
Downtown Sofia, on the other hand, is a smallish, low-key version of many of the other European cities I've visited. There is plenty of streetlife, and it is all very walkable. Streetfront shops, streetcars, street vendors, grand old churches and stone buildings with nice architecture.
After a tasty "modern Bulgarian" lunch, we took a stroll.
This is Carolyn showing us a big bowl of french fries covered in local cheese.
Artfully aged building on the street in downtown Sofia where Carolyn used to live.
We passed lots of booksellers (a few things in English) with tables under tents, a nice park across from the National Theater (with some guys playing backgammon), and several churches, including the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, the "largest Orthodox Christian cathedral in the Balkans." It was built to honor the Russians (mainly) that "liberated" the Bulgarians from the Ottoman Turks, after 500 years of Turkish rule (around 1878, but I don't have my dates down exactly). It was my first time in a Orthodox church. [The Russians were mostly acting out of self-interest, trying to have a friendly pawn instead of a foreign empire controlling Balkan/Black Sea transit routes, but that's a different post...]
Booksellers downtown. Customer service is spotty in Bulgaria, especially in Sofia. I picked up a Chemistry textbook to show to Carolyn and the saleswoman ripped it out of my hand to shoo me away. At another stand, the guy was more friendly, and wanted to chat in broken English. He talked about how "America is great country, but with terrorism, many people hate. You are rich and free, but don't want others rich and free. You need export your standard of life."
Interesting, and I wish we could have spoken each others' languages better for a more in-depth conversation.
Street life.
The National Theater in Sofia
Fountain in the park across from the National Theater.
Russian Church
Nevsky Cathedral
Flower ladies in front of Nevsky
Inside the church you first notice the burning incense, and the prayer candles. It's a good vibe. It is big, and ornate, but felt more actively used and spiritual (and somewhat less of a tourist point, though it certainly is one) than many of the large Catholic cathedrals we toured last summer in Italy. In Bulgaria the custom is to buy gifts for others on your birthday, so I bought Carolyn some gelato (Garth didn't want any) by the National Theater and Shannon some flowers by the cathedral. The flower ladies probably picked these flowers from their garden, and this might be their only source of income, so I didn't mind too much as they somehow talked me _up_ in price. My language skills are certainly still at the "I'm a tourist, please take advantage of me" stage.
I returned to campus (about an hour travel, including the metro ride and walking back from the station) in time to head out to dinner (Pizza, Bulgarian style) with most of the international faculty who had arrived so far.
Pizza in Bulgaria has a thin crust and light sauce (similar to Italy), but the toppings can get pretty weird: corn, peppers, pickles, eggs...some are good, some may be an acquired taste. There's a typical pizza place right outside the campus gates, but this was an "upscale joint" about a mile way. Tasty, and it was a fun crowd for dinner conversation.
Birthday Dinner with Shannon
The remaining 7 new international faculty were set to arrive in Sofia around 11 pm. We wanted to welcome them to their new home (it made the first night so much better for us when folks came over to our apt) so we had a bit of dance party while waiting for them to arrive. I got to dance really white to birthday themed songs in 3 different languages (English, Bulgarian, and Spanish). It was a good time.
When the van carrying the new arrivals rolled onto campus around 11:45 pm, I don't think they knew what hit them. About 10 people accosted them out of the dark, carrying bottles of beer for them and shouting "Welcome to Bulgaria!"
We shared beverages and stories until close to 2am on our porch.
Whew...this is sort of a laundry list of happenings, but it's all still a little too fresh for a more interesting reflection. Hope you enjoy the pictures anyway.
Lastly, thanks to all that emailed, called, left messages, or Facebook posts with birthday greetings -- they were much appreciated!
[I apologize for generally unimaginative writing in this post...we just got back from a several day new faculty bonding trip (more on that in a later post) and I'm pretty tired.]
Shannon was unfortunately chained to her computer most of the day, working on edits to her dissertation (she's almost done), so I had to find other partners for adventure. I was feeling antsy in the morning, so decided to go for a run. I headed out the back gate to try to find the base station for the Simeonovo gondola, which services the ski area (and hiking/biking in the summer) on nearby Mt. Vitosha. I had to cross the Sofia "Ring Road" to get there, which I was expecting to be an expressway, but was actually a severely overcrowded (bumper-to-bumper) 2-lane road at the part nearest campus. [I later learned that the Ring Road is also a major prostitute hangout for Sofia, but I didn't notice any of this on my run!] It only took 15 minutes to run to the base of the gondola, where I could have spent 10-14 leva (about $8-10) for a round-trip ticket up the mountain, depending on how high I wanted to go. I had hoped to come back later in the day to do some hiking on the mountain, but couldn't find willing adventuring partners. Instead I found folks interested in going into Sofia, and I hadn't been there yet.
I rode the Metro train with Garth to meet another new faculty member, Carolyn, downtown. Carolyn was in Sofia last year on a Fulbright scholarship (teaching English), and liked it so much she's working at our school this year. Carolyn used to live downtown, so she made an excellent tour guide of the old part of the city.
Birthday Self-portrait #1
Downtown Sofia is quite nice, and pleasantly very different from the Mladost neighborhood where I live. Mladost is on the outskirts of the city, and must have been a planned Soviet-style development (the sub-neighborhoods are actually numbered, Mladost 1, Mladost 2, Mladost 3, and Mladost 4). In Mladost there are lots of high-rise Soviet-type block apartments, interspersed with vacant, weedy/littered lots, interspersed with pastures (complete with cows/horses), interspersed with brand-new development. Quite a mish-mash. Sidewalks are inconsistent when they exist at all, often interrupted, abandoned, or parked on.
Mladost streetlife
Mladost View: The two towers are part of the police academy on the land that used to be my school campus (before communism). Both were abandoned mid-construction around 1990. The right tower is still derelict (and is the view out my bedroom window), while the left tower is finally being finished, and is now almost done. The buildings to the right of the towers are the under-construction "Russian School", which is less than a 1/2 mile from my "American School" oddly enough. Vacant fields in front, and Mt. Vitosha in back.
Downtown Sofia, on the other hand, is a smallish, low-key version of many of the other European cities I've visited. There is plenty of streetlife, and it is all very walkable. Streetfront shops, streetcars, street vendors, grand old churches and stone buildings with nice architecture.
After a tasty "modern Bulgarian" lunch, we took a stroll.
This is Carolyn showing us a big bowl of french fries covered in local cheese.
Artfully aged building on the street in downtown Sofia where Carolyn used to live.
We passed lots of booksellers (a few things in English) with tables under tents, a nice park across from the National Theater (with some guys playing backgammon), and several churches, including the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, the "largest Orthodox Christian cathedral in the Balkans." It was built to honor the Russians (mainly) that "liberated" the Bulgarians from the Ottoman Turks, after 500 years of Turkish rule (around 1878, but I don't have my dates down exactly). It was my first time in a Orthodox church. [The Russians were mostly acting out of self-interest, trying to have a friendly pawn instead of a foreign empire controlling Balkan/Black Sea transit routes, but that's a different post...]
Booksellers downtown. Customer service is spotty in Bulgaria, especially in Sofia. I picked up a Chemistry textbook to show to Carolyn and the saleswoman ripped it out of my hand to shoo me away. At another stand, the guy was more friendly, and wanted to chat in broken English. He talked about how "America is great country, but with terrorism, many people hate. You are rich and free, but don't want others rich and free. You need export your standard of life."
Interesting, and I wish we could have spoken each others' languages better for a more in-depth conversation.
Street life.
The National Theater in Sofia
Fountain in the park across from the National Theater.
Russian Church
Nevsky Cathedral
Flower ladies in front of Nevsky
Inside the church you first notice the burning incense, and the prayer candles. It's a good vibe. It is big, and ornate, but felt more actively used and spiritual (and somewhat less of a tourist point, though it certainly is one) than many of the large Catholic cathedrals we toured last summer in Italy. In Bulgaria the custom is to buy gifts for others on your birthday, so I bought Carolyn some gelato (Garth didn't want any) by the National Theater and Shannon some flowers by the cathedral. The flower ladies probably picked these flowers from their garden, and this might be their only source of income, so I didn't mind too much as they somehow talked me _up_ in price. My language skills are certainly still at the "I'm a tourist, please take advantage of me" stage.
I returned to campus (about an hour travel, including the metro ride and walking back from the station) in time to head out to dinner (Pizza, Bulgarian style) with most of the international faculty who had arrived so far.
Pizza in Bulgaria has a thin crust and light sauce (similar to Italy), but the toppings can get pretty weird: corn, peppers, pickles, eggs...some are good, some may be an acquired taste. There's a typical pizza place right outside the campus gates, but this was an "upscale joint" about a mile way. Tasty, and it was a fun crowd for dinner conversation.
Birthday Dinner with Shannon
The remaining 7 new international faculty were set to arrive in Sofia around 11 pm. We wanted to welcome them to their new home (it made the first night so much better for us when folks came over to our apt) so we had a bit of dance party while waiting for them to arrive. I got to dance really white to birthday themed songs in 3 different languages (English, Bulgarian, and Spanish). It was a good time.
When the van carrying the new arrivals rolled onto campus around 11:45 pm, I don't think they knew what hit them. About 10 people accosted them out of the dark, carrying bottles of beer for them and shouting "Welcome to Bulgaria!"
We shared beverages and stories until close to 2am on our porch.
Whew...this is sort of a laundry list of happenings, but it's all still a little too fresh for a more interesting reflection. Hope you enjoy the pictures anyway.
Lastly, thanks to all that emailed, called, left messages, or Facebook posts with birthday greetings -- they were much appreciated!
Monday, August 24, 2009
I Love Love Love Our New Apartment
Especially the pink comforter we got (and check out those pillows!):
Well, Jeff doesn't really like it. In fact, he's going to head to a bedding store today to get a new comforter, new sheets, and some pillow cases. I think Ivo (our friendly all-around go to good guy on campus) is going to get the rest of the furniture for all the flats in our villa today. Including a TV. We have cable for the first time in our young marriage. We're hoping to learn some Bulgarian via the news channels, but I'm guessing we'll still spend more time in front of the computer than the TV.
Here is a map of where we live now:
View American College of Sofia in a larger map
You can zoom out to see a couple of other landmarks we've bookmarked.
Jeff might have already mentioned this, but we're living in the villa called "Frat House" or Villa 16. There are three flats here: two single-story units and one two-story unit. We are in the back in the two-story unit. Bedroom and bathroom upstairs, kitchen, living room, and small bathroom downstairs. Everything is brand new - except the antique stairs - and very modern. We're guessing around 600 sq ft of living space. Lots of light. I love it! So, a quick tour:
Front door - we have a nice patio space
Kitchen
Living Room
Cupboard under the stairs :)
Stairs
Bedroom with the bathroom through the closet
Bathroom - we have a very nice and very large shower. The whole room is tiled and there is a drain in the floor, so I suppose we could just hose down the room to clean it.
Apparently we'll be getting some more cabinets/closets in the (near?) future. We are lacking in storage space, so we look forward to getting cabinets installed.
We've met a lot of really neat people. There will be 18 international teachers living on campus this year and 6 off campus (about a mile away). We're starting to make plans for weekly poker (or other card game) nights, progressive dinners, and other general hanging out events. Every day I feel more comfortable and ready to face this new job.
The rest of the new international teaching staff arrives tomorrow evening. We'll have a welcome dinner at the boss's place on Wednesday, then off on a little school-led tour of some well-known locations in southwest Bulgaria: Rila Monestary and Melnik, along with a little village that I can't remember the name of. Back on Saturday. Officially we report to work on September 3.
Oh - and we are finally getting a taste of summer. The days have been sunny and warm and we don't even have to wear long-sleeves at night. We had to get a fan to keep us cool at night. We've been told it's really dry here. Ha! Apparently those people haven't been to Montana or Colorado, because it's relatively humid here compared to there! And now there is a bit of a thunder storm happening on Mount Vitosha (the mountain south of our flat). Haven't gotten any rain here yet though.
That's it for now. До скоро!
-Shannon
Well, Jeff doesn't really like it. In fact, he's going to head to a bedding store today to get a new comforter, new sheets, and some pillow cases. I think Ivo (our friendly all-around go to good guy on campus) is going to get the rest of the furniture for all the flats in our villa today. Including a TV. We have cable for the first time in our young marriage. We're hoping to learn some Bulgarian via the news channels, but I'm guessing we'll still spend more time in front of the computer than the TV.
Here is a map of where we live now:
View American College of Sofia in a larger map
You can zoom out to see a couple of other landmarks we've bookmarked.
Jeff might have already mentioned this, but we're living in the villa called "Frat House" or Villa 16. There are three flats here: two single-story units and one two-story unit. We are in the back in the two-story unit. Bedroom and bathroom upstairs, kitchen, living room, and small bathroom downstairs. Everything is brand new - except the antique stairs - and very modern. We're guessing around 600 sq ft of living space. Lots of light. I love it! So, a quick tour:
Front door - we have a nice patio space
Kitchen
Living Room
Cupboard under the stairs :)
Stairs
Bedroom with the bathroom through the closet
Bathroom - we have a very nice and very large shower. The whole room is tiled and there is a drain in the floor, so I suppose we could just hose down the room to clean it.
Apparently we'll be getting some more cabinets/closets in the (near?) future. We are lacking in storage space, so we look forward to getting cabinets installed.
We've met a lot of really neat people. There will be 18 international teachers living on campus this year and 6 off campus (about a mile away). We're starting to make plans for weekly poker (or other card game) nights, progressive dinners, and other general hanging out events. Every day I feel more comfortable and ready to face this new job.
The rest of the new international teaching staff arrives tomorrow evening. We'll have a welcome dinner at the boss's place on Wednesday, then off on a little school-led tour of some well-known locations in southwest Bulgaria: Rila Monestary and Melnik, along with a little village that I can't remember the name of. Back on Saturday. Officially we report to work on September 3.
Oh - and we are finally getting a taste of summer. The days have been sunny and warm and we don't even have to wear long-sleeves at night. We had to get a fan to keep us cool at night. We've been told it's really dry here. Ha! Apparently those people haven't been to Montana or Colorado, because it's relatively humid here compared to there! And now there is a bit of a thunder storm happening on Mount Vitosha (the mountain south of our flat). Haven't gotten any rain here yet though.
That's it for now. До скоро!
-Shannon
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Into the city: Metro & Rakiya
After a lazy day on campus spent recovering from jetlag and months of general insanity, Shannon and I went into Sofia proper (we are about 5 miles from the center). We went with veteran teacher Sarah (she taught geography and biology last year, and will teach biology this year) and met up with Garth, a new English teacher. Garth has been in Sofia for a few weeks already, and took quite a few Bulgarian lessons (many more than us) from the same instructor we were using for the last few months. He can actually speak some, whereas we are barely able to sound out words. Oh well...we'll get better.
Above: Walking to the Metro. Here is a busy Sofia street in our neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, known as "Mladost." This is also a good example of Soviet-era apartment blocks.
Above: Looking south back towards campus and Mt. Vitosha, the mountain on the edge of Sofia. The geography reminds me somewhat of Pasadena, actually, with a big, gently-sloped mountain adjacent to a sloping plain.
We walked about 30 minutes to the brand-spanking-new (opened in April 2009, I think) metro station. It was probably the nicest subway station I've seen, which was in contrast to the actual subway cars, which appeared to both be new while also being 1970s Soviet surplus. Kind of funny. I'll have to get a photo later to post.
Dinner was at Pod Lipite ("Under the Linden Tree") a nice restaurant that served traditional bulgarian cuisine. We all had yummy bread and a shopska salad (a tasty Bulgarian standard, made primarily of tomatoes, cucumbers, and a feta-like cheese). After we ordered the salads, our waiter, who speaks American English after living in the US for several years, suggested that we really needed to have rakiya with our shopskas to make it more authentically Bulgarian.
Ah, rakiya.
Rakiya is a brandy, usually made of plum or grape, that is often homemade and is considered the national beverage of Bulgaria. It is also considered the national beverage of several other Balkan nations, but saying that out loud (especially after much rakiya has been imbibed) might be enough to start another Balkan land war. Andris and Prairie tried to convince to drink some of their clearly-homemade rakiya that they had brought back from Bosnia, but I managed to decline, expecting I would be in for plenty of rakiya merry-making in Bulgaria.
As the waiter was challenging both my manhood and my level of cultural experimentation, I figured I had to try. Garth also took up the challenge. I expected it to be terrible. It was...much worse. The nose was like a fine plastic-bottle tequila, like Pepe Lopez mixed with an equally-refined vodka such as Wolfschmidt. Not so bad. But the body...Drain-O with hints of Windex, I'd say. Horrid. Luckily, they don't serve it as a shot or in a tumbler with ice, but in a little bottle like a airplane wine bottle, forcing you to sip, and thus truly savor, these fine flavors. If you start with some shopska salad, do a rakiya sip, then immediately replace it with more shopska, the burning in your eyes isn't so bad. Apparently rakiya is an acquired taste.
I only had a single serving of rakiya, and about 1.5 glasses of wine with dinner, but this morning I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, tired and sore all over. The rakiya seems a somewhat improbable culprit, but considering I didn't really do anything yesterday, I'm not sure what else to blame. Not looking forward to more rakiya anytime soon.
-Jeff
Yes, that is indeed the Golden Arches, open 24 hours even. That is the Cyrillic transliteration (in italic script, which is quite different than regular script) of "McDonalds."
We walked about 30 minutes to the brand-spanking-new (opened in April 2009, I think) metro station. It was probably the nicest subway station I've seen, which was in contrast to the actual subway cars, which appeared to both be new while also being 1970s Soviet surplus. Kind of funny. I'll have to get a photo later to post.
On the Metro...on an above-ground portion.
Sarah and Garth, on the Metro
Dinner was at Pod Lipite ("Under the Linden Tree") a nice restaurant that served traditional bulgarian cuisine. We all had yummy bread and a shopska salad (a tasty Bulgarian standard, made primarily of tomatoes, cucumbers, and a feta-like cheese). After we ordered the salads, our waiter, who speaks American English after living in the US for several years, suggested that we really needed to have rakiya with our shopskas to make it more authentically Bulgarian.
Ah, rakiya.
Rakiya is a brandy, usually made of plum or grape, that is often homemade and is considered the national beverage of Bulgaria. It is also considered the national beverage of several other Balkan nations, but saying that out loud (especially after much rakiya has been imbibed) might be enough to start another Balkan land war. Andris and Prairie tried to convince to drink some of their clearly-homemade rakiya that they had brought back from Bosnia, but I managed to decline, expecting I would be in for plenty of rakiya merry-making in Bulgaria.
As the waiter was challenging both my manhood and my level of cultural experimentation, I figured I had to try. Garth also took up the challenge. I expected it to be terrible. It was...much worse. The nose was like a fine plastic-bottle tequila, like Pepe Lopez mixed with an equally-refined vodka such as Wolfschmidt. Not so bad. But the body...Drain-O with hints of Windex, I'd say. Horrid. Luckily, they don't serve it as a shot or in a tumbler with ice, but in a little bottle like a airplane wine bottle, forcing you to sip, and thus truly savor, these fine flavors. If you start with some shopska salad, do a rakiya sip, then immediately replace it with more shopska, the burning in your eyes isn't so bad. Apparently rakiya is an acquired taste.
Our first rakiya sip...
After...ooh, it burns. Notice the grimaces.
I only had a single serving of rakiya, and about 1.5 glasses of wine with dinner, but this morning I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, tired and sore all over. The rakiya seems a somewhat improbable culprit, but considering I didn't really do anything yesterday, I'm not sure what else to blame. Not looking forward to more rakiya anytime soon.
-Jeff
Friday, August 21, 2009
Photos of our trip and new apartment
Click here for a link to Flickr for some shots of our trip and new digs in Sofia. Hit the "Show Info" button for captions.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
WANTED: Dead or Alive!
This is a quick post, especially for Scarlis and Jenny G. As we got into the van at the airport last night, the song playing on the radio was none other than Bon Jovi's Wanted: Dead or Alive. 80s rock is alive and well in Bulgaria. Things are going to be alright. :)
Sofia, finally!
After one of the craziest weeks of our lives, we finally made it to Sofia, Bulgaria! Let's recap the week. Last Friday, Shannon successfully defended her PhD thesis, and is now "Doctor Shannon," a doctor of Ecology and Environmental Studies. That evening we had a great going away/PhD celebration party at our house. It was supposed to be a BBQ on the patio, and we were supposed to be all packed before-hand, but constant rain and our massive piles of stuff messed with those plans. Oh well...we just shoved aside the packing boxes and had the party inside. Thanks so much to everyone who came -- it was great to see you all and we appreciated your well wishes.
We spent all day Saturday packing, with Shannon's dad doing a masterful job with stuffing the Uhaul truck. We didn't get on the road until 7:30 at night (a wee bit after our planned 9am departure), drove til midnight, got up at 6 am and drove the rest of the 750 miles down to the Denver area, arriving just in time for another going away party! :) Down at Shannon's parents we got to spend the evening with her aunts and uncles and our friends Heather, Bajji, Dave, Leah, and Hanna. Thanks all for coming out to see us off.
Monday was more packing, as well as all the last minute "Oh my god we're leaving the country for 2 years" tasks, so we were up until well past midnight, again. Just trying to get so exhausted that we could sleep anytime, I suppose. We left for the Denver airport at 6:30 am.
Tip for international travelers: don't get 3 legs of your flight on 3 different, non-partner airlines. We didn't have a choice, as we didn't buy our own tickets, but it made life much more difficult, having to go to the ticket window in Denver, Chicago, and London to get our boarding pass for the next flight, and each time beg/cajole them to not charge us again for the extra luggage (United claimed months ago that we could pay them up front for the whole trip, then tried to change their story at the airport...not OK.)
After wandering Heathrow stupidly for almost 2 hours as we tried to figure out our next flight, we eventually got to use part of our 8.5 hour layover to take the tube ("Mind the gap!") into the city and spend a brief lunch break at the Tower or London with Chryssi (we're excited to be on the same continent as her again).
Traveling is almost always tiring and somewhat stressful (at least the way I usually travel...sorry Shannon!), but as we were on our approach to Sofia it started to hit me just what we were getting ourselves into. I said to Shannon, "I've done some crazy sh*t in my life, but this is definitley up towards the top of the list!" We were arriving well after dark in a new country where we didn't speak the language, we didn't know where we would be staying, if anyone would be around to orient us, if we could even get to a grocery store the next day, yikes yikes yikes.
As we landed, the passengers applauded, and a smile broke over my face. I like places where they still applaud a safe landing (or is it the excitement of a vacation destination?), as opposed to just expecting perfection.
We got all of our luggage (8 checked bags in total, plus 2 carry-ons each). We just walked right through customs without even slowing down. The school sent a driver with a big van for us, and took us on the surprisingly short (<15 minutes) drive to the school, which is set off from the main city a bit and is very quiet and peaceful on campus. We weren't sure if we were going to be living on campus or about a mile away, but we were taken to a beautiful apartment right on campus. They are still working on restoring the building, turning what was known as the "Frat House" into 3 separate apartments, but this one is done, and all the furnishings/fixtures/walls are brand new (they were still assembling furniture yesterday). We aren't sure that we'll get to stay in this unit, but we hope so...it's probably the nicest apartment I've ever had! We were very happy that the school had been thoughtful enough to buy a few essentials for us (bread, cheese, meat, soap, beer, wine...), which made the apartment much more welcoming.
After we'd been here about half an hour (about 11pm), 3 of our new colleagues came by to welcome us. It was very much appreciated, as we could ask them lots of questions (and polish off that bottle of wine the school had left us!).
I'll post some photos later on, but things are going well so far. Everyone has been very helpful and friendly, our apartment (or what will hopefully be our apartment) is great, and the campus seems nice and wooded.
Thanks to everyone who has been sending us well wishes. It was very hard to say goodbye to everyone -- we hope you'll write/call.
FYI, you can call us at area code (зоз) 5eight6-lfive71, and it will connect to us via Skype [I put some weird characters in the phone # to ward off web-crawling robo-spammers, but if you can't read it, just email us]. Free for us, and all it costs you is whatever a call to Denver costs (no international charges). We're 7 hours ahead of US Eastern Time Zone here, and are still trying to get used to the jet lag.
bye for now...
jeff
We spent all day Saturday packing, with Shannon's dad doing a masterful job with stuffing the Uhaul truck. We didn't get on the road until 7:30 at night (a wee bit after our planned 9am departure), drove til midnight, got up at 6 am and drove the rest of the 750 miles down to the Denver area, arriving just in time for another going away party! :) Down at Shannon's parents we got to spend the evening with her aunts and uncles and our friends Heather, Bajji, Dave, Leah, and Hanna. Thanks all for coming out to see us off.
Monday was more packing, as well as all the last minute "Oh my god we're leaving the country for 2 years" tasks, so we were up until well past midnight, again. Just trying to get so exhausted that we could sleep anytime, I suppose. We left for the Denver airport at 6:30 am.
Tip for international travelers: don't get 3 legs of your flight on 3 different, non-partner airlines. We didn't have a choice, as we didn't buy our own tickets, but it made life much more difficult, having to go to the ticket window in Denver, Chicago, and London to get our boarding pass for the next flight, and each time beg/cajole them to not charge us again for the extra luggage (United claimed months ago that we could pay them up front for the whole trip, then tried to change their story at the airport...not OK.)
After wandering Heathrow stupidly for almost 2 hours as we tried to figure out our next flight, we eventually got to use part of our 8.5 hour layover to take the tube ("Mind the gap!") into the city and spend a brief lunch break at the Tower or London with Chryssi (we're excited to be on the same continent as her again).
Traveling is almost always tiring and somewhat stressful (at least the way I usually travel...sorry Shannon!), but as we were on our approach to Sofia it started to hit me just what we were getting ourselves into. I said to Shannon, "I've done some crazy sh*t in my life, but this is definitley up towards the top of the list!" We were arriving well after dark in a new country where we didn't speak the language, we didn't know where we would be staying, if anyone would be around to orient us, if we could even get to a grocery store the next day, yikes yikes yikes.
As we landed, the passengers applauded, and a smile broke over my face. I like places where they still applaud a safe landing (or is it the excitement of a vacation destination?), as opposed to just expecting perfection.
We got all of our luggage (8 checked bags in total, plus 2 carry-ons each). We just walked right through customs without even slowing down. The school sent a driver with a big van for us, and took us on the surprisingly short (<15 minutes) drive to the school, which is set off from the main city a bit and is very quiet and peaceful on campus. We weren't sure if we were going to be living on campus or about a mile away, but we were taken to a beautiful apartment right on campus. They are still working on restoring the building, turning what was known as the "Frat House" into 3 separate apartments, but this one is done, and all the furnishings/fixtures/walls are brand new (they were still assembling furniture yesterday). We aren't sure that we'll get to stay in this unit, but we hope so...it's probably the nicest apartment I've ever had! We were very happy that the school had been thoughtful enough to buy a few essentials for us (bread, cheese, meat, soap, beer, wine...), which made the apartment much more welcoming.
After we'd been here about half an hour (about 11pm), 3 of our new colleagues came by to welcome us. It was very much appreciated, as we could ask them lots of questions (and polish off that bottle of wine the school had left us!).
I'll post some photos later on, but things are going well so far. Everyone has been very helpful and friendly, our apartment (or what will hopefully be our apartment) is great, and the campus seems nice and wooded.
Thanks to everyone who has been sending us well wishes. It was very hard to say goodbye to everyone -- we hope you'll write/call.
FYI, you can call us at area code (зоз) 5eight6-lfive71, and it will connect to us via Skype [I put some weird characters in the phone # to ward off web-crawling robo-spammers, but if you can't read it, just email us]. Free for us, and all it costs you is whatever a call to Denver costs (no international charges). We're 7 hours ahead of US Eastern Time Zone here, and are still trying to get used to the jet lag.
bye for now...
jeff
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Welcome to our new blog.
Hello Friends and Family!
The title picture of our blog is of the Appian Way in Rome - from our pre-wedding honeymoon last summer. The title of the blog itself is from Walt Whitman's Song of the Open Road - part of the poem that Jeff read to me when he proposed and that we used in our wedding vows. It invokes our love of travel and adventure and reminds us that every day is a gift of exploration.
We're getting ready to leave Bozeman, Montana for Sofia, Bulgaria. Jeff is now officially a Master of Science! and is doing all the work at home in preparation for moving, while I am preparing for my defense (August 14!). Two more weeks and we'll be on a Virgin Atlantic plane on our way to new jobs and a new life together.
We're new to this blogging thing and it might take some time before we get it all figured out. We encourage comments. You can folow our blog by clicking on the "Follow Blog" button at the top of the page.
Happy traveling!
The title picture of our blog is of the Appian Way in Rome - from our pre-wedding honeymoon last summer. The title of the blog itself is from Walt Whitman's Song of the Open Road - part of the poem that Jeff read to me when he proposed and that we used in our wedding vows. It invokes our love of travel and adventure and reminds us that every day is a gift of exploration.
We're getting ready to leave Bozeman, Montana for Sofia, Bulgaria. Jeff is now officially a Master of Science! and is doing all the work at home in preparation for moving, while I am preparing for my defense (August 14!). Two more weeks and we'll be on a Virgin Atlantic plane on our way to new jobs and a new life together.
We're new to this blogging thing and it might take some time before we get it all figured out. We encourage comments. You can folow our blog by clicking on the "Follow Blog" button at the top of the page.
Happy traveling!
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