Clouds Lifting

The clouds lifted over Sofia today, and my spirits did as well. We've had 10 days or so of pretty much solid cold, drizzly, windy, misty nastiness. A few nights it got below freezing, and the heat is not yet turned on in our classrooms or offices. They have been trying to turn it on for a few days now, but it's an old, creaky system, and no significant amount of heat is coming out yet. Oh well...maybe next week (until then the little portable electric heater Shannon and I bought last weekend is coming in quite handy).

I'm leading a field trip tomorrow for my International Baccalaureate (IB) Biology class. Field trips are not a common thing at our school, to the extent that one of my students had to ask "What's a field trip?" We're studying ecology right now, and we've got this mountain with a national park just a few miles from campus, and it seemed a crime not to go outside a little. This time of year planning an outdoor field trip, especially one up a mountain, involves having a little luck with the weather gods. Fingers still crossed, but right now it is supposed to be clear and rather warm and pleasant tomorrow (highs in the 60s F down here, but of course cooler up top).

I've been freaking out trying to figure out how I would get my class there, where we would go, what we would do, all that stuff. I only have 5 students in that class, so I get to be a little flexible, but I still wanted to have some sort of a plan. I thought we would take the ski lift up, but it's down for maintenance during October, so I'm having the school driver take us up the access road in a van to the top of the ski lift. Problem is, I have never been up that road to see what ecological communities are along it that might be worth investigating, or what the logistics of such a trip would be.

I had thought I might do a scouting trip a few days ago, but the weather continued to be lousy. Finally, today, the clouds parted, and the sun came out, revealing a lovely snowy mountaintop.

After school, I weighed my options. On my mountain map it shows a public bus line running up the mountain road, although I've been unable to determine how often it comes, where or when it stops. I decided to take a taxi. That's right: I took a taxi up the mountain today. :) Growing up in Michigan I think I took one taxi before the age of 18, so I never thought I'd be taking one up a mountain.

The driver was friendly enough, but spoke very little English (a common theme of taxi drivers around here, you'll notice). We managed to communicate that I spoke some German, and his daughter was fluent in German. He called his daughter on his cell while he was battling ring road traffic (scary). I attempted to explain to her in German, then English (I discovered her English was better than my German, at the moment) where I wanted to go, and then she translated for her father. It was pretty comical. I was surprised at how hard it was for me to speak German all of a sudden, especially since I keep trying to use German or Spanish phrases when I'm wracking my brain for Bulgarian words.

It was a beautiful drive up the mountain...fall colors, a clear view of the city, and no other cars. It was about a 30 minute trip from my house, and my total bill was about $15, including tip. Not bad, and if there were two of us it probably would have been cheaper than the gondola ride.
I didn't really have a plan of what I was doing at the top (there are hotels/restaurants up there, but all closed in this off-season between summer hiking and winter skiing). Mostly I wanted to poke around, see where some trails went, look at the vegetation, figure out where to take my students. I also wanted to be able to get home, and not freeze. I had not dressed warmly enough (that's twice in a row now for Vitosha...that mountain keeps surprising me).
Once again we called the cab driver's daughter. I asked her to ask her father if he knew if the one and only bus was still running that time of day, and if so when/where it might come. She translated for her father, who found some random guy outside and asked him in Bulgarian. The verdict was that I should be able to pick up a bus back down in 30 minutes or 1.5 hours. Though I didn't really believe I could catch this bus (if only catching buses were as easy as catching colds...), I felt confident with my new cell phone in my pocket that I could extricate myself from most unforeseen circumstances, so I paid the driver (with a healthy tip) and set off. As I walked away, I asked a bystander if spoke English (a little), and if he knew anything about the fabled bus (he didn't). I thanked him and moved on.

I walked around aimlessly for about 30 minutes, getting chilly but enjoying being out of the city on a silly after-school adventure. I considered walking down the mountain to a new town I hadn't been to yet, but thought better of it. I talked to a random maintenance guy about the bus, who was confident that I had definitely missed the last bus for the day, but I could probably hitch a ride if I walked down along the road. I decided I would walk down a forest path that frequently intersected the road, so that I could bail and hitch a ride (or call another taxi) if I wanted, or (hopefully) have a pleasant woodsy walk back to town if things went well.

Right about as I was about to set off down the path, I discovered the first gentleman I had encountered and asked about the bus. He was waiting in his late-model Audi (engine running) with his wife and kids in the back seat (empty passenger seat).
"You go to Sofia?"
"Yes."
"Want ride?"
[of course]
"Get in."
This nice man had actually tried to follow me on my walk to hail me back, to warn me that I had missed the bus (I had seen some weird guy whistling and waving in the distance, but didn't know he was trying to get my attention). When he couldn't get my attention, he waited for me, just so that he could give me a ride back home! (A ride that I hadn't asked for, and didn't expect!)

"I like mountains, and I like people. I want to help you," he said.

Turns out he owns a construction firm, he didn't work today because his kids were sick (they were coughing all over me from the back seat...yay, swine flu!), and he likes to ski. He learned some English back in the early 1990s by living in Cyprus. I didn't know that Cypriots speak English, but now I do. He drove me all the way back to campus (I kept offering to get out and catch a bus/taxi once we were in "civilization," but he wouldn't let me). We exchanged phone numbers (so happy to finally have a phone!) and said he wants to take me skiing this winter. Nice.
So...a taxi up the mountain for $15, a free ride down. Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon. I didn't really get a hike in, but just knowing for the future that I could get to a trailhead or three on my own makes me feel so much more independent. This is my first time in 10 years I haven't had a car, and my first time since age 5 that I haven't had a bike. It's a hard adjustment for my independence, especially as it's been hard to figure out the public transit system. The knowledge that I can call a taxi (yay, cell phone) and go hiking after school for a reasonable fee makes me feel very happy, even if that road will close for the winter soon. At least I know it's there.

Shannon also noted new-found independence today. She ran some errands that included taking a bus, calling her Bulgarian tailor on the phone (who doesn't speak English), and then going to the grocery store. Today was apparently the first time Shannon has left campus alone since coming to Bulgaria, venturing into the strange, strange world we live in without assistance (I hadn't realized until now that she hadn't done this yet!) Having her cell phone helped give her the confidence to do that also (who knew how reliant we have become on our phones?). We both felt proud/satisfied with our after school activities today. Gaining independence makes everything feel more surmountable.

One more thing that makes me happy: I downloaded on my cell phone a bulgarian-english dictionary which came in very very useful for my pidgin communications today. Yay, technological gadgets!
G'night, all!

This is not the post you're looking for...

I still will post Greece pictures and stories, I swear. I even edited the hundreds of photos down to a semi-reasonable number. The whole thing just takes a while, and we've been busy.
Sorry for the non-post. I just didn't want all of our loyal followers to think we've abandoned this site. I've been pleasantly surprised since I installed the visitor counter a few days ago how many people have been stopping by our site, even though we haven't posted anything.

Life continues here in Sofia. We're trying to get our heads above water with lesson planning (and soon grading), advising, life in Bulgaria, etc, etc. I've been surprised at how hard this teaching transition has been for me, even though I've taught before. The schedule and resources are very different, not to mention the challenges of teaching to english-language-learners. Of course it's all been much more difficult still for Shannon, as a first-timer at most of this.

Life also got tragically crazy here too...one of the students at our school was killed in a car accident, causing much upheaval in the community. Though I was actually faculty advisor of this student, I'd only met him once (and didn't teach him), on the first day of school. I've been involved in helping various communities deal with trauma, but I felt very helpless this time around, as I didn't know the student and don't know the rest of the student community yet either. Hard to watch so much sadness. There were 500+ people in the auditorium when they made the announcement, and you could hear a pin drop. Needless to say, the school was pretty disrupted in many ways last week. I'm learning that other people's grief seems to bring up my own as well, things I thought were pushed down out of the way enough to let me live my day-to-day life. [Miss you mom...]

We've had two weekends where we've stuck around Sofia, mostly resting up, doing schoolwork, and taking care of chores.
One fun outing was when we climbed up Mt. Vitosha, the 7400 ft mountain just outside of town. It was fun to hike (we took a ski gondola up and then hiked about another 1.5 hours up), but the weather was cold, foggy, windy, with very low visibility. Just about every other day for the last two weeks I could clearly see the summit from campus. Oh well.

Last weekend we did a variety of chores, trying to acquire boring things like more teaching clothes, a bookcase, and cell phones. We were definitely foiled on the cell phone front. That's a confusing enough experience in the US, but far worse here. After nearly 2 hours (yes, 2 hours) in the cell phone store, talking through an employee at the store next door (who didn't know anything about the phones or the plans) acting as an interpreter (because he spoke a little bit of English), we threw our hands in the air and gave up. We'll have to do our homework on the internet (where there are often english-language webpages of Bulgarian companies, and Google Translate is a decent option when there isn't) and go in knowing exactly what we want. Asking detailed questions of salespeople is not a luxury we have here. Part of the problem is that we were considering getting "smartphones" (wi-fi, web browser, GPS), but didn't really know what we wanted. Any fancy phone recommendations out there? The phones are much more expensive here (the new i-phone runs close to $1000, for instance) due to the lack of large long-term-contract discounts.

We just started doing Balkan dancing and yoga classes, both taught after-school by other teachers here. I had fun, despite my lack of bendiness or coordination, but I'm going to be mighty sore tomorrow, as the classes were back-to-back today.

Well, we surely will post Greece pictures/stories soon, and maybe some other stories about life. Thanks for all that are thinking of us.

-jeff

p.s. Our thoughts and prayers go out to my Grandmother Helen, who is in intensive care after a nasty fall down some steps, breaking several bones. We love you and are wishing you a speedy recovery, Grandma!