January Hiking on Vitosha, Part 1

While the rest of Europe (and much of the eastern U.S.) froze their New Year's tootsie's off, due to a cyclical weakening of the North Atlantic Oscillation, Sofia had spring-like weather. A week ago it was in the upper 50s F, warm enough that all our snow melted. Terrible skiing weather, but nice enough for some mountain hiking. ACS colleagues Brett and Betsy organized an outing, along with a new friend of ours Sam, an American working at the U.S. embassy, and one of his Bulgarian colleagues Alex.
The hike started from the village of Zhelenitsa, on the east flank of Vitosha, about a 25 minute drive from campus. We headed up through some trees for about 2 hours to a beautiful area above treeline (windy!). We had lunch at a surprisingly large hiija (hut/refuge), where you could spend the night as well as get a hot meal. There were a bunch of Bulgarians who had dragged their skis up here, only to trudge up 10 vertical feet to slide down an icy slope. Desperate for powder, I guess. The folks jumping off the windblown snow bank were having more fun, I think.




The view to the west, as we looked uphill. The hijja is not visible, but basically on the right side of that ridge.



Brett and Betsy (above)


Betsy getting blown by the wind (above), Brett enjoying the windiness (below).

The view to the south (below).


The view east, as Alex makes his way up the hill (below).


Not so fun: upper right of photo, folks trying to sidestep up gentle, icy slope to ski (Whee!) back down. More fun (foreground): Jumping off snowbank.


The mountain hostel/hut (hijja).



Totally unrelated to hiking (but saw this at the front gate of campus on our way home). Some of the stray dogs had puppies. That's what they do. This will obnoxious in a few months, but right now it's pretty cute.

Faculty-Student Basketball

So the coach of the boy's basketball team at our school sent out a request for suckers on the faculty to play in a little scrimmage against his team before they start playing other schools. Sure, I haven't really played basketball since I was 14, and I wasn't really that good then (didn't make the 8th grade team, never tried out after that). Paul D. could usually beat me in a driveway one-on-one growing up, despite my significant height advantage. Either way, I'm pretty much always game for a public humiliation, so I figured what the heck?
In the US, I can't really imagine a school where a basketball game that pitted the varsity team against the faculty wouldn't end up in an embarrassing blowout win for the students (at best), and ambulances for the faculty (at worst). But here things are a little different. The faculty that choose to move overseas tend to be a little younger, more active, more competitive, I think. The students, hustle though they do, really don't have a lifetime of basketball experience to draw on. (Watching out intramural basketball games here reminded me of what it must be like for Europeans watching American kids playing soccer.)
The game was after a faculty work day, meaning the students had been out of school for several hours by game time (most had gone home), giving us a distinct advantage in the crowd. I'll take the home court advantage. We were playing 4 10:00 quarters, they had a full set of refs, and thankfully, they were supposed to rotate varsity and JV teams against us. We had 10 faculty show up, including the school president. Considering I was never so great, and considering the last time I had really played my opponents weren't yet born, I expected to be a bench-warmer.

Game Time.

I started on the bench, and by the time I came in, we were down several points, despite some nice shooting by our school president. I probably can't shoot, and I haven't done that dribbling thing in a while, but I can still run, I can still get in their face, and I'm still taller than some of them. Crazy Defense Guy! I stole some balls, I grabbed some rebounds.
I got fouled. 0/2 from the line. Ouch. We were down 12-4 when the JV team came in. Now this is more like it. I'm taller than many of them, and several of them are my sophomore students. I really enjoyed boxing out my students or stuffing the ball back in their faces. We switched out faculty so everyone played about half the time, and after the JV quarter, we'd pulled ahead.
At halftime the students were getting a little discombobulated. I don't think they expected to be losing to their teachers. Our zone defense held the varsity to no scoring for many minutes (while I was riding the pine). When it was supposed to be time for the JV to come back in again, the students started more creative subbing. Still, we held close. Brett managed to score a 3 on a play that involved 3 "passes" between he and I that were mostly ridiculous errors, but it looked pretty cool (if only we'd planned it, or could do it again!).
Down to less than one minute, and we're up by 4. Our "defense specialists" (that included me, apparently) went in. Students nailed a 3, then later hit a free throw. Damn. Several fouls exchanged. I got to shoot more free throws. 0/2 again. Double damn. Gotta practice those free throws. Our "offense specialists" go in, but to no avail. Overtime.
Really? We took the students to overtime? You really can't expect this is going to favor the old and somewhat out-of-shape. Thus far we had been counting on lifetime experience, determination, and "wisdom" to overcome youth, practice, and teamwork. But could we hold out in overtime?
Little scoring right away (shooting skills could use some work on both sides). Then some traded baskets. Still close. With less than a minute, Matt hits a 3 for the teachers to go up by 4. This should put it away. But no! Fouls exchanged. Students hit a free throw. Teachers up by 3 as the clock ticks down. Students put up a long shot as the bell rings...it's good! But how long?
2-pointer! Only 2 points! Final score: 50-49, Teachers win!
Whee, that was fun. Of course tomorrow (and probably the next few days), I'll be limping, and the students will be fine. That's OK. Smug looks in the direction of a few of my students will be excellent pain reliever, I'm sure.