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