Goodbye Bulgaria

This is really my excuse to not pack. But I haven't posted in a while, so today seemed like a good time, considering I am leaving tomorrow (well, to Sofia tomorrow and then home on Thursday).

It is cliche to say, but it seems like yesterday that I landed in Sofia with no clue what awaited me. To be frank, I was mortified. I thought I had made a terrible mistake. In fact, when I got accepted for Fulbright, I brushed it aside. Staying in Las Vegas or going to Cornell would have been much easier. Why move to a very foreign country where I don't know the language or couldn't really locate on a map before? And why teach there?

My first view of Sofia

But I'm so glad I made the impulsive decision to move across the world.

I will be honest. This year has been hard. There have been very few easy days, if any. It's incredibly isolating to leave the apartment and not understand anything anyone says. I have never been so lonely, despite having incredible people around me (looking at you, students!). There really is nowhere like home. So many times I wanted to quit and fly back to Memphis. Especially on the first day of school. My feet felt like concrete blocks walking me straight into the unknown. Even mundane things like going to the grocery store or paying electricity bills provoked a newfound sort of anxiety. I felt like an outsider.

The long hallways of EG

But enough whining. Despite being tough, this year has been incredible for too many reasons to list in one blog post.

I got to coach a Speech & Debate team that didn't lose the entire year (and that was because of their work, not mine). I got to see 4 students qualify to compete in the U.S. championship. I got to see 8th graders go from crying at the first tournament to winning the national championship 6 months later.

I got to teach amazing classes from 8th to 12th grade. We did a lot of textbook work, but we also got to do some fun stuff, like mock presidential elections during the primary season.

Speaking of teaching, this is specifically to the 8th graders: you guys were amazing. Maybe it's because you're the same age-group that I taught in the US, but I think it is because you have not become apathetic about school. I hope that does not change. You guys brought so much energy to every class, even on cold and rainy Monday mornings. Please don't change that in 9th grade.

The amazing 8th grade duo 

I was lucky to be travel all around Bulgaria and Europe. I racked up trips to Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, and Poland. Most of those trips were solo, which taught me a lot about myself and how I can overcome the anxiety that wants me to stay home in bed instead of venturing into the unknown (a metaphor for the whole year, really).

Blagoevgrad was a perfect fit for me. It lies at the foothills of the Rila and Pirin mountains, which means there was a ton of hiking to do. I wish I had taken advantage of that more. It is a town of around 70k people, far smaller than Memphis, DC, Dallas, or Vegas. But it is an amazing city with so much potential, if Bulgaria can find a way to have their graduates stay in Bulgaria instead of fleeing to other countries.

A 45 minute walk from my apartment 

It's hard to imagine moving back to the U.S. I am incredibly excited to go home, don't get me wrong. But I've gotten used to the difficulties and small joys of life here in a small town.

So up next for me is law school, which is terrifying. It's not terrifying because it's law school; it's terrifying because this may be the start of my full-time career. I've become a bit of a wanderer (Vegas and Bulgaria), so the idea of settling down is frightening.

The good thing is that my time in both TFA and Fulbright has radically changed my conception of law school and the type of career I want to lead. I know I won't be satisfied if I become some sort of Wall Street lawyer. My eyes have been opened to many injustices to spend my time helping one company make more money. Luckily, there are many paths within law outside of Wall Street.

As a side note, I know that many people lodge the complaint against TFA (and Fulbright to an extent) that they are just resume builders. Why would I spend 3 years being a teacher when I don't plan on being a teacher forever? It's a fair question. Teacher retention will always be hard, but I don't think that is TFA's fault. I think it runs much deeper.

But for me personally, it's easy to imagine how my mindset would have been different if I had not become a teacher. My plan was to work as a paralegal in DC for a year, take the LSAT, and go straight into law school. I could've accepted those job offers, but thank God I didn't because my perspective would have been skewed. I would have seen life as a race for a better paycheck. That's no longer the case. I will never forget the students that I taught, nor will I forget the struggles many of them had to endure, and that will certainly influence what I do in the future.

I'm looking forward to getting home on Thursday and enjoying my last real summer (law school summers don't count - they are filled with internships and summer associate jobs).

But I'm also sad to be leaving a place I've come to love, mainly because of the people here, specifically the students. You may have hated me at times when we did another vocabulary drill or a listening exercise, but you all were the highlight of my time here. I will miss you terribly, each and every one of you. Please stay in touch!

Poland and Mom's Farewell to Bulgaria

Classic Warsaw: both old/rebuilt and modern with some Stalinism in there 

I should have written this post earlier, before the memories get weaker, but this week was surprisingly busy, including having school today (a Saturday) to make up for a Monday holiday that I wasn't even in town for. Registering the 2 students to participate in the US speech & debate tournament was also a time-killer.

But this trip was certainly one for the memory books. My mom has always wanted to visit Poland, and I'm sure she would've spent a month there going to different towns and historical sites. With that said, she did a lot of planning and we were never at a loss for things to do.

Warsaw

Our trip started with 3 days in Warsaw. Per usual, my mom elected to stay in an airbnb instead of a hotel, which allowed us to be far closer to the city center and have more amenities than a regular hotel. Unfortunately, what is advertised online isn't always true in real life. Example one: a sofa bed that doesn't actually turn into a bed. Just a sofa, and a small one at that. My mom was kind enough to let me sleep in the "real bed" downstairs. I promise it wasn't my choice!

Warsaw was...a lot of museums. Our first full day there, we hit up more museums than I can even remember. We first stumbled into the Katyn memorial inside of a chapel. It commemorates the killing of several thousand Poles by the Soviets in 1939 (when they also invaded Poland). The Soviets denied it, blaming the Nazis, but later on admitted fault for the killings. It was a tiny little museum tucked underneath a church. As my mom and I later came to learn, small museums are often better because...crowds.

After going to a small Jewish museum, we went to THE Jewish Museum (officially Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews), but it covered the entire history of the Jewish people. And it was busy. It was not easy to find your way around the crowds, but my mom and I developed a system of sighting one another and catching up every few minutes. I think my height helped that. The space given to the Holocaust was surprisingly small, given the impact of World War 2 on Warsaw, but I suspect the museum wanted to highlight that the Holocaust is only one part of Jewish history.

Finally, we went to the Museum of the Pawiak Prison, a former Soviet prison which became a Gestapo prison upon the Nazi invasion. It later became a stopover point in the "Final Solution", i.e. a place to store people before deciding where to send them. We ended the day with a nice meal and by watching The Pianist which covers Warsaw during the war and the uprising(s). I love watching movies when they are extra relevant.

The second day involved a bit fewer museums and more walking to different sights.

The exception to that was our first stop, the Warsaw Uprising Museum. In reality, this was more of a museum dedicated to Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. Like the Jewish museum, it was packed and complex. We came during a national holiday, so it seemed like everyone and their brother was there. In a TSA-esque line to watch a 3D movie of the destruction of Warsaw, I swear I almost got into a fight with a group of ladies who broke into the line ahead of me. But all in all, it was an interesting museum with an almost overwhelming amount of information.

After that, we walked around and found a part of the actual wall cordoning off the Warsaw Ghetto. That's the kind of thing we both like to see: history that still stands there. Much of Warsaw (as in about 85%) was leveled during the end of the Nazi occupation, so it was nice to find a part of the old Warsaw still standing.

We'd read that there were great views of the city from the top of the Hilton Hotel, so we tried to get to the top of it. Perhaps the person who wrote that was staying at the Hilton, because we quickly found out a card was required to use the elevator. We managed to get up to floor 33 out of 40 (thanks, random guy) and climbed to the top...only to reach a locked door. And a ladder. But there was a security camera, so we said no thanks and headed back down (which did not require a card).

I love my aerial views of cities, so instead of the Hilton we walked across the street to the Palace of Culture and Science. If you couldn't tell from the name alone, this was one of Stalin's creations. Upon entering the elevator area, my mom was happy to learn that the elevators have since been modernized (she doesn't like heights). The view from the top was incredible, only made better by a rainbow that formed before we headed down.

Rainbow = rain, which we should've known...

We left the "Palace" and walked back to our hotel. And it started drizzling. And then raining. And then pouring. And guess who didn't have umbrellas? Both of us. Never trust a weather forecast.

We tried in vain to stay dry but realized we were already soaking. And once you're wet, you're not gonna get more wet. So we took off running down the middle of the pedestrian street. Now picture this: a completely deserted pedestrian street. People waiting under arches and inside restaurants and along the side of the road to stay dry. But then here come running Susan and Alex, soaked and splashing up water all around them. I think there may have been some shrieking involved on my part. But we made it back alive. And really, really wet. There was no dryer in the apartment, so we strategically hung our clothes around the radiator because we had to pack for the next day's train to Krakow.

Krakow 

We took the super-fast, non-stop train to Krakow from Warsaw. I was blown away. If you've ridden trains in Bulgaria, you know why I was shocked. This was one of those super-modern trains where you can barely hear a sound as you watch the landscape fly past in a blur. So it was an easy trip, to say the least.

Krakow is much smaller than Warsaw and, like Prague, was largely spared from any bombing during the war, so it felt a bit more authentic than the modern Warsaw. To get to our airbnb (again located in the city center), we walked straight through the hectic Old Market, essentially the hub of the city. That was fun, walking along cobblestone streets with rolling bags and barely any space to breathe. But Krakow was beautiful. We didn't get to spend enough time in Krakow itself because our main goal was to get to Auschwitz, which given the number of "Auschwitz-Birkenau" tour kiosks, we were not alone in that goal.

The first night we did walk up to the Wawel Royal Castle which was closed but the grounds were still open. That meant fewer people (thank God!). We walked around, took silly pictures, and enjoyed an incredible sunset.

Auschwitz-Birkenau 

This, to me, was the highlight of the trip. There was some initial panic, as we realized we were there the day before the March of the Living, when young Jewish people from all over the world come to Auschwitz to commemorate the Holocaust. It was also a Polish holiday. So tickets were incredibly hard to find. Luckily, thanks to some suggestions from our Airbnb host and some intense Googling, we found a tour guide. Auschwitz largely requires tour guides (Birkenau excluded - explained below). My mom probably ended up paying more than either of us wanted for a private tour, including door to door service, but we'd come this far.

Our tour guide spoke great English (emphasis on spoke - she spoke a lot). Auschwitz is actually broken down into 2 main parts: Auschwitz I, which is much smaller and contains the actual museum, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, which is the huge death camp that you see in all the pictures titled "Auschwitz."

We started by going to Birkenau because our tour at Auschwitz I didn't start until 11:30. As it turned out, this was the best part of the day because we had it largely to ourselves. It was misty/rainy and a bit chilly. As I told my mom, it wouldn't feel right to be here if it were warm and sunny. We walked around the barracks, the railway into camp, and the unloading dock where the victims were selected to go left or right. It was quiet, eerie, and painful to see.

Entrance to Auschwitz II-Birkenau 

We then headed back about 2 kilometers to Auschwitz I for our tour. Tours are all guided in a variety of languages and with strict time schedules. This is due to crowd control. I would rather wander around on my own, but I actually appreciated the guided tour because it never felt overly packed despite the massive number of people there. The guides really had the flow of people down to an art.

The museum itself was also painful. A lot of money has gone into preserving Auschwitz and the museum, most of it coming from Poland and Germany. The result of such preservation includes rooms full of human hair, piles of childrens' shoes and toys that they brought (thinking they would be allowed to keep them), and a walk through the gas chamber and crematorium. The hardest thing for me to see all day were the scratches along the walls of the gas chambers. It felt like such a short walk. You entered into the unclothing area and immediately into the gas chamber, where you could look up and see the hatches through which the Zyklon-B was released. You then turned left and were at the crematorium. The crematoria at Birkenau were larger because that's where most of the killing happened, but it was still not easy to stomach. 

Entrance to Auschwitz I

After Auschwitz I, we went back to Birkenau to walk around the entire thing. It was much busier this time, so we were glad we spent some time there earlier in the day. This time we walked back to the remains of the crematoria. The Nazis destroyed most of the camp when they fled the Soviets, so everything was mostly in ruins. But that didn't keep it from being just as powerful as the preserved Auschwitz I. 

One thing my mom and I both remarked on was how peaceful Birkenau seemed. The trees surrounding the camp were huge and peaceful. The weather was (at this point) nice, although the rain was always on the horizon. My mom and I walked down a beautiful and green path that could have been in Overton Park or Shelby Farms. Except when you looked left and saw the barbed wire. And then noticed a pond that was used to dump human ashes. 

The last thing we saw before heading out was a bit more uplifting (as uplifting as Auschwitz can be). It was the site of the Sonderkommando uprising. The Sonderkommando were Jews who were forced to do the dirty work in the gas chambers and crematoria. After a few months, they were killed and replaced with a new team. The 12th Sonderkommando planned and fought back against the Nazis. Not surprisingly, they lost but they did destroy I believe 2 crematoriums and certainly didn't go down without a fight. 

On the drive back, the tour guide talked...a lot. I was too exhausted to keep up. My mom valiantly held up the conversation. I just wanted silence. She did go out of her way to drive us to the Jewish Quarter and to see Oskar Schindler's factory. 

Krakow -> Warsaw -> Sofia -> Blagoevgrad 

For our final day in Krakow, we had a bit of time between having to leave our apartment and catching our train. My mom wanted to walk back through the Jewish Quarter, and I wanted to stay nearer the Old Town, so we split up for a while. 

When we reunited, we got tickets to climb the St. Mary's Basilica which offered an incredible view over Krakow. And lucky us, it was pouring rain while we were in the tower but stopped when we left. It was like Krakow was saying sorry on Warsaw's behalf. 

We then meandered our way back to the train station, got back on the fast train, and made it to Warsaw by sunset. We stayed at an airport hotel where I got approximately 4 hours of sleep because we had to take the 4am shuttle to the airport. Due to flight changes, my mom and I were on different flights to Sofia (she went through Berlin; I went through Munich). So we parted ways and met back up in Sofia. 

We had a ton of luggage, so taking the Metro to the bus station wasn't an option. We walked outside the airport, looking for an OK Taxi. There weren't many around. One man approached us, and I asked him how much it would cost to get to the central bus station. 50 euros was his response. Keep in mind I have taken this taxi ride before and it cost me the equivalent of 4-5 euro. So I was not impressed and let him know that (in Bulgarian!) while walking away. He chased us down and dramatically lowered the price (15 leva or about 7 euro). I wasn't thrilled, but we took the cab anyway. And we did not tip, thank you very much. 

Now the fun part...the bus ride to Blagoevgrad. It is really hit or miss. I've been on nice buses with free Wifi and I've been on buses straight out of 1950. This bus was out of 1950. Actually, calling it a bus is an insult to buses. It was a minibus, at best. We had to sit with our luggage in our laps (there was no compartment or trunk). The driver blasted the heat like it was 0 degrees outside (it was about 70). And of course the road out of Sofia is as bumpy as a somewhat major earthquake. Damn cobblestones. But we made it. 

Blagoevgrad 

My mom did not have much time in Blagoevgrad, so we didn't get to do very much. But that's one of the things I love about traveling with my mom: we don't have to be going full-speed ahead the entire time. 

We spent time playing with Smokey, who of course acted like he didn't remember my mom, even though she was there the night we got him inside (and she was the first lap he sat in). But when I'm home this summer, I'm sure he'll realize that she's lap-worthy. Once she feeds him at least. The first night, we did dinner alone and then watched "The Grey Zone" which is about the Sonderkommando uprising at Auschwitz that I mentioned above. Interestingly, a lot of the movie was actually filmed in Bulgaria! 

We also got to see a lot of students at a few different meals. My mom met many of them back when she visited in October, so it was good for them to reunite. She's been following their speech & debate journeys along with me. 

I did take my mom to my favorite little hiking spot overlooking Blagoevgrad. It's more like a "walk through the winding streets until you get to the top" kind of hike. Once you get to the top, it's a short walk around some chicken fence to a spot where you have a beautiful view of Blagoevgrad on one side and towards Bachinovo and the Rila mountains on the other side. 

Saying goodbye wasn't easy; it never is. But my time in Bulgaria is quickly drawing to a close. I've started looking at flights back home, which is unreal because in a way it feels like I just got here. But that's a post for another day. 

All in all, this was one of the most memorable trips I've had here. Thank you, mom! 

April in Review

Smokey enjoying some sunshine and warmth (it hit 88 degrees a few weeks ago!)

April was a busy month.

From a cold-or-flu-or-allergy from hell to a trip to Greece to nationals preparations to traveling to Sofia for nationals, it has been one heck of a month. I certainly can't complain though.

April began with spring break, but the first half of my spring break was somewhat derailed. I got incredibly sick which required many trips to the аптека, or pharmacy. Finally, I had two students who went with me to the pharmacy so I could actually get some medicine that worked. It didn't help that I initially thought nationals registration was due during the Wednesday of spring break. An email was sent out to coaches saying that they'd moved the registration until after spring break, but unfortunately my email got left off the list (no hard feelings), so I spent a lot of the break inputting ISBNs, running after students for money, and helping students finalize their piece choices. The upside is that we were done with registration early, so I got to relax a bit after that. So then I went to...

Thessaloniki, Greece

I took this trip for a little spring break adventure. I considered going to Athens, but Thessaloniki (or Solun, as they call it in Bulgarian) is a short bus ride from Blagoevgrad, and that sounded much easier than a bus north to Sofia and then a flight to Athens.

The trip started out a bit scarily. I went to the bus station where, you know, one would imagine a bus would depart from...not so. I was given a long explanation in Bulgarian which I understood approximately 3% of, so I turned around in desperation. But then I saw one of my 12th graders who looked more like a goddess than a student in that particular moment! She helped me translate. They were telling me that I needed to go to a different office but they couldn't give specific directions. It was more like "Go left and go past this intersection then you will see a tree and a crosswalk and it is a little bit to the right behind some shops." Fantastic. Luckily I found the office. But it wasn't quite over. The bus, it turns out, started in Sofia and did not stop at the bus station in Blagoevgrad but rather at a random corner. I was not fully understanding the woman's directions (again, in Bulgarian) but guess who happened to walk down the street 10 minutes later? The same student. So I was told to go wait on the corner and that the bus would be there between 10 and 10:45. It came at 10:50.

But the bus was the nicest bus I've ever been on, so I cannot complain. There were personal TVs like on airplanes. There was an assistant who brought around food and drinks. And there were bathroom stops (my favorite! Alyssa Kasher...). And this cost me around $15 total. Much better than a plane ticket.

The next problem was that the bus dropped us off in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. I had mapped out the directions to my hotel from the bus station, but apparently on this trip bus stations are overrated and underused. I figured I would find a taxi, but first I needed euros which would require an ATM. No such luck. So I decided to just wander until I found the coast because I knew how to get to my hotel from the seaside. And it was definitely an incredible view.

While I did have a long itinerary of things to do (thanks in large part to Laura Hutchison!), I spent the first day just wandering. Specifically wandering uphill. Thessaloniki was largely destroyed in a fire in 1917, but one large neighborhood (Ano Poli) was spared. While most of Thessaloniki is in a nice grid (after being redesigned post-fire), this part of town (on a map) looked like someone threw a bunch of cooked spaghetti and called it urban planning. Which has its own charms. But not when you're walking uphill. Eventually though, using my "This is uphill" GPS system, I made it to the top where I was greeted with a lovely view. It was actually much more of a climb than this picture makes it seem.

On the way down, I got some Greek food (many, many gyros were eaten) and wandered a bit more slowly, enjoying the winding streets this time. I also walked into some beautiful churches and stumbled across the old Roman Forum (no big deal, right?).

On my other two full days there, I visited several museums: The Museum of Architecture, The Museum of Byzantine Culture, The War Museum, The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, The Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, a photography museum, and a cinema museum. The cinema museum was particularly fantastic because, well, it had movie theater-type seats in every room. I have no real interest in the cinematic history of northern Greece, but I acted like I did. Plus, it was free. Free is good.

Aside from my first day's aimless wandering, my 2nd favorite part was visiting the White Tower, the symbol of Thessaloniki. It had a winding stairwell (well, without the stair part) just like the Round Tower in Copenhagen. I didn't really fit in the walkway (height is a problem), but I eventually made it up. There was a fantastic view of the city and ocean from the top. On the way back down, I stopped in the different rooms that have been turned into a miniature museum (shocking!) of Thessaloniki.

Now, given my misadventures with bus rides to the south, I decided to take the train back to Blagoevgrad because trains most certainly have to leave from the train station, not a random corner.

And it was the nicest train I've ever been on (although I haven't been on many). I had an entire 6 room compartment to myself, although I paid only around 15 euro. I had planned to nap, but the scenery was too incredible. There were constant rolling green mountains throughout both Greece and Bulgaria.

I was a bit nervous about the border crossing. Three large, muscular Bulgarian police/customs agents walked into my compartment and took a look at my passport. After laughing at my hair in the passport photo (it's from 2009 when I tended to make bad decisions), one Bulgarian man looked at me and said (in the thickest Bulgarian accent imaginable): "AMERICAN MAN!" Then they left.

Jokes aside, every time I've crossed a border during my stay in Bulgaria, I realize how lucky I am to be able to do so. And to have an actual destination. I realize that not all are as fortunate as me, especially during these times.

Pre-Nationals and the Tournament 

I fully admit that this tournament scared the crap out of me. It was the first full national tournament, and I have placed far too high expectations on myself and the team throughout the year.

The amount of preparation all of my students did was insane. I want to give a special shout out to all of the varsity members who helped with the novice students. Many of the varsity (10th-12th) students spent just as much time coaching as I did. It was effective in reducing the workload on me (sometimes you gotta be selfish), but I think it was also effective because the students could communicate in Bulgarian, great relationships were established, and the the older students got to mentor the younger students.

But still, I was oh-so nervous and anxious and probably slightly insane...Around half of our 10th graders were unable to attend because they had a French exchange program. One of our top poetry and prose performers got smallpox the week before the tournament, and we only had 2 debate teams, usually our strongest event.

But I had no reason to be nervous because everyone did wonderfully. I don't care whether a student didn't make it through the first round or won the finals - I am still proud of them. Imagine being an 8th grader and giving a 10 minute, memorized speech in a foreign language. It baffles me that they have the courage to do so. That goes for ALL of the teams from across Bulgaria, not just Blagoevgrad.

Two moments that stuck out to me from the tournament were:

(1) Giving Elena Trayanova (or Lollie) a superlative award for "Best Team Therapist." I wanted to write "Best Team Therapist and Mentor and Counselor and Varsity Superstar and Calming Influence" but they limited the number of words I could use. I'm terrible at keeping secrets, so I almost let this one slip several times, but I kept it in.

(2) Seeing Hrisi Tsonkova, an 8th grader, win the poetry competition. I have watched her grow so much this year, from being so shy and nervous in her first tournament to giving an outstanding and emotional poetry interpretation that left everyone silent and with goosebumps. She absolutely deserved first place (she'll be the humble one, I'll be the one to brag).

A blurry photo of some undefeated national champions 

Right now it feels strange not having practices after school. It's bittersweet. When I found out I was coaching speech and debate, my first reaction was: "IN BULGARIAN?" Once I got over that fear (quickly), I then added on: "I have no idea what speech and debate even means!" And then I realized that I'd be coaching one of the biggest teams in Bulgaria with one of the best track records of winning. That initial anxiety eventually faded, and coaching these lovely students has really become the defining experience of my time here in Bulgaria. They are all wonderful, courageous, and certainly talented people who will go on to do great things.

So this week is all about relaxing. This coming weekend and the following week, I am going with my mom to Poland. We'll visit Warsaw, Krakow, and Auschwitz. My last two trips (Greece and Sweden/Denmark) have been solo trips, so I'll be happy to let her do some (or most...) of the planning. In my defense, she likes to plan trips. Or at least that's the excuse I'll use to watch Netflix, enjoy the incredible weather, and try to learn some Polish phrases this week, specifically "Do you speak English?" ('Czy mowisz po angielsku' if you're curious. Poland, the Cyrillic alphabet makes things a lot easier, just saying).

Alright, that's enough out of me for the night.

March: Things Are Heating Up (Literally and Figuratively)

Champions for the 2nd time! 

March was a really busy and, frankly, crazy month for me, especially the last week, which I guess was technically half April, but I don't really care :)

Pernik Tournament 

The tournament in Pernik (March 5-6) feels like a lifetime ago, although it was only a month ago. It was much easier to get to the tournament because we traveled by train, although my stress level peaked when 5 minutes before the train was due to depart, some of the students were still not there. Luckily, everyone made it in time. Because we were late to the fall tournament, I was determined to not be late to this tournament, In fact, we got to the school before BEST was even there...Sorry kids for that 6 am train ride.

But we got there with enough time to relax before the first round, which was definitely a plus. As always, the students did amazingly and took first place. They also had a surprise celebration for my birthday which included cake, a pie in the face (thanks Stefie), and a ton of amazing gifts. The best gift, though, was seeing them all perform and win again.

I will remember this when doing your semester grades. And I see all of you in the background who are laughing!

US Embassy Visit

This one was a surprise. I got a call (which is unusual here) from an unknown number (even more unusual). I answered it and was frightened to here, "Hello, I am calling from the United States Embassy in Sofia." What have I done? I thought to myself. It was a frightening 0.3 seconds before she explained that some Embassy staff members would be in Blagoevgrad the following Tuesday. She asked if I would set up a sort-of school visit for the staff. Athena (my predecessor) had done this before, she said. Knowing Athena's planning skills, that was little comfort.

What we ended up doing worked out quite well, although it involved running around the school on Thursday and Friday getting different students to agree to be in different rooms at different times.

First, let me say that the US Embassy is super-intense about their security. When the French ambassador came, it was like "Oh hey." But the US Embassy needed a full list of all students who would be in attendance, and the security detail came an hour before the staff. And the ambassador wasn't even coming himself!

In order to make the security measures easier (they had to check all the rooms we would meet in), we only meet in 2 rooms instead of the staff going around to different classrooms. The staff was met by two 11th grade students dressed in traditional Bulgarian outfits with the traditional food greeting.

From there, the staff and I met with the school director and my mentor teacher in the director's office. After that, I went and got several of the speech and debate students who came into the director's office and spoke about BEST and how our school has done with the tournaments this year. 

After that, the staff and I moved to the teachers room, where 50 selected students were waiting (very patiently). Strangely, the BEST students who had been in the director's office were not allowed into the teacher's room. Security, again, was intense. 

This was my favorite part because students got to ask a ton of questions of the staff. They asked about NATO, refugees, American stereotypes, and the challenges of working as a diplomat in Bulgaria (and elsewhere). The staff answered all of their questions truthfully and, well, diplomatically. 

US Qualifying Tournament 

This tournament was, thank God, in Blagoevgrad. It's a lot easier to wake up in your own bed and walk over to a tournament. And to not have to deal with school/travel paperwork. 

The US Qualifying tournament allows Bulgarian students to compete in the NSDA (US) Championships which are held every June, this year in Salt Lake City. The only events that can qualify are original oratory (a basic speech) and duo. Each team is allowed 4 entries for each event. 

While all of our students did well (we had 2 finalist duos and 1 finalist oratory), Kari and Nansi (12th graders) took first place in the duo with an amazing performance of a piece about human and sex trafficking. Every time I saw it, I got goosebumps. Mario Mateev and Marieta Milusheva (11th graders) took 2nd place in duo. Again, goosebumps. Judges later told me the difference between 1st and 2nd was a tough choice. But both teams gave each other huge hugs and were happy for each other. 

It was tough to see some hard-working students not qualify, but the level of competition was fierce. Dealing with losses is a challenge that I have had to deal with, but never as a coach. So that was a real learning experience for me. 

Duo finalists: Marieta and Mario on the left, and Kari and Nansi to the right of them

The Rest of March 

And at the end of all of this, I got some sort of horrible cold or flu or allergies. Whatever it was, it had me coughing so hard that Smokey was concerned. And it's not as easy as walking to Walgreens to get some medicine here. All medicine is at an apteka, or pharmacy. After a failed attempt at getting what I needed at the apteka, Lollie and Yoana went with me to one and got me what I needed: cough syrup. It has helped tremendously. 

It has also helped that last Friday started spring break, so I have gotten to do a lot of lying around trying to get healthy. I am headed off to Thessaloniki, Greece (Greece's 2nd largest city) tomorrow so that I have some semblance of a spring break. But couch + Netflix + Smokey wasn't a bad first half. 

I also decided that I will be going to Cornell Law next year instead of staying in Bulgaria a second year (ETAs here are allowed to apply for a second year). It will be hard to leave (reverse culture shock is apparently a thing), but I am excited for the next chapter. I've begun speaking with my replacement ETA and telling her all about life here. It's so hard to believe that there are only a few months left. It feels like I'm just learning how to get things done. Kind of. It also feels like only a few months ago that we all landed in Sofia with no idea what we were in for.

But of course, there is still a lot of work here to be done. 

Speaking of which, registration for Speech & Debate Nationals are due tomorrow...

Your duo champions! 

Belated February Recap

I wanted to get another blog post off before heading off to Pernik this weekend for the next Speech & Debate tournament, and luckily we have 2 school days off for a national holiday, so I have *some* free time on my hands.

February was a great and busy month. I've learned here that busy is a good thing. If I'm not busy, I get bored and start to feel, well, lonely. Staying active and having things to do keeps me sane, even if that's something as simple as playing with my Smokey.

This month started out with the new term, meaning our school now goes in the morning (7:30-1:15) instead of the afternoon (1:15-7:30). While I hate it whenever my alarm goes off, I actually do enjoy the new schedule because it's more in-line with what I did in Las Vegas. It's also easier to schedule Speech/Debate practices after school than before school like I had to do last semester. My schedule did not change much, except for I'm now teaching 11th grade literature with a different teacher. I was nervous about the uncertainty of that, but then I remembered how everything was uncertain last semester. So it's all in perspective now.

Trigrad Gorge

The former tenant of my apartment and German teacher at EG, Alexander Schleich, came into town earlier this month. He stopped by the apartment, met Smokey (who is not a huge fan of strangers), and we *sort of* figured out how to make the oven work. There's still no way to determine the temperature but at least the oven, well, emits a small level of heat. That's a good start.

Given that he has a car, he wanted to take me and the current German equivalent of me (as in, a program similar to Fulbright through Germany) on a trip to somewhere not easily accessible by the oh-so reliable Bulgarian bus/train system. We headed down to the Trigrad Gorge which is in the Rhodopes, a mountain range stretching across the south of Bulgaria. Blagoevgrad is located at the intersection of the Rila and Pirin mountains, so it was great to see some different landscapes. On the way to the gorge, we went through several "Pomak" villages. I'm not sure if the term "pomak" is politically correct, but it's used to describe several villages in the Rhodopes that are predominately Muslim. It was quite different than the rest of Bulgaria that I have seen.

The drive was long, windy, and rainy (and single-lane), so I'm glad I was not the driver. Once we arrived at the gorge, we were halted by a Bollywood film being shot in a tunnel that we needed to get through. So we had to wait around for a while. We never did figure out what the film would be called, but I did learn that a lot of movies are actually shot in Bulgaria. Go figure.

At the gorge (which was "gorgeous" - shout out to Ithaca and Cornell), we took a tour of the "Devil's Throat Cave" which has a bit of a haunting background myth and an equally comforting name. Luckily (?) the tour was in Bulgarian, so I didn't learn all of the background. It has something to do with Orpheus and Hades. The bottom of the cave is like a huge hall (The Hall of Thunder), big enough to fit the Nevski Cathedral from Sofia within it. There's a river flowing down through the cave, and it's notable because no one really knows where the river goes to. A pair of scuba divers in 1970 attempted to track the path of the river but never returned. So I kept my feet dry.

Another interesting fact, during the winter it's known to have the largest colony of bats in the Balkans. So that was all-the-more comforting.

Luckily, we made it out alive and back to Blagoevgrad in time to eat at a lovely Korean restaurant on the outskirts of town.

Papa Bransford comes to visit 

I was much better prepared for my dad's visit to Bulgaria than I was for my mom's in October, which has more to do with time than anything. I've learned more of the language, the struggle of getting around (*ahem* Rila!), and things to do and see. 

He arrived in Sofia and recuperated from jet lag and went on a walking tour. After school on Thursday, I went straight to the bus station to meet him in Sofia. He was staying right in the center, so we were in easy striking distance of seeing some of the cooler places in Sofia. Because he had seen most of it the day before, we left fairly early to Blagoevgrad the next day after exploring a predominately Middle Eastern area of Sofia (where I got my hair cut last year!). 

Because it was Friday, we got the chance to stop into school, although the math/science school was in session, not the language school. I was still glad that he got to see the school...and the squat toilets. 

He also got a chance to meet some of the team leaders from Speech/Debate as well as see two novice debate teams practice. I also dragged him into helping judge a creative writing contest at the American University here. 

Our big "to do" thing was to see the Rila Monastery. I fully admit that I was negligent in sending my mom off to Rila last October, not realizing it wasn't quite as smooth as having a chartered bus from Sofia with Fulbright...The route up was not too difficult. We took a small bus from Blagoevgrad to the town of Rila and, not wanting to wait too long in the rain for a bus to the monastery, took a cheap cab up to the monastery with a cab driver who drove way too fast for the weather/curving roads/mountainous drop-offs. But I'm learning that that's standard. 

We explored the monastery and it was beautiful, as usual. There was a ton of mist/fog around the monastery which gave it a creepy, haunting feeling but it also blocked the view of the snowy Rila mountains surrounding the monastery. 

We walked through the other side of the monastery down to the group of streams and river that flow beside the monastery. I think both of us enjoyed this almost more than the monastery because we had it all to ourselves. The sound really is incredible. In fact, my dad recorded the sound to use as a white machine sound for an app on his phone. Unlike when we visited last September though, it was far too cold to walk across the rocks in the river. Maybe next time. 

The trek back down was a bit more challenging. The scheduled bus was nowhere in sight, so I went up to a group of guys who seemed to be in charge of calling taxis. They told me it would be 30 leva. This was where I was glad to know a bit more of Bulgarian because I told them, in more words, "Hell no, we paid half that amount on the way up." 

So off we went looking for another ride down the mountain. From somewhere deep within me came the courage to knock on the door of a minivan and ask the driver (all in Bulgarian!) if he could take us down the mountain. He was leading a group of Italians back to Sofia but the town of Rila is on the way there. So we agreed to a much lower price and hopped on. We got back to Rila just before the bus to Blagoevgrad left. 

Now I know how and why my mom had so many problems getting to and from the monastery. For being perhaps Bulgaria's most famous tourist destination, it's shockingly difficult to access, especially if you don't have access to the not-so-reliable bus schedules and aren't able to talk to cab drivers/hitchhike. 

Dad had to get back to the states for work, so his visit was much shorter than my mom's, but we still had a great time. I think that he really liked Bulgaria because it's not touristy. He called it "Memphis versus Orlando" meaning Orlando is a tourist trap, but Memphis is a "real" city. He flies to a ton of touristy cities around the world, so I think he was glad to feel like he was visiting an authentic place. And it doesn't get much more authentic than Bulgaria. 

Random Things

The first of March is a big holiday in Bulgaria (Баба Марта, literally "Grandmother March") with yet another long legend behind it. It is meant to celebrate the arrival of spring. The tradition is to give and receive martenitsi, red and white decorations. You wear these until you see a stork or trees blossoming (not sure about all the intricacies of the holiday). From then, people hang them on blossoming trees. I didn't know much about the holiday before the 1st. I walked out of my apartment, still dark outside, and a very elderly lady came up to me quickly speaking so fast I didn't understand a word. She wrapped a martenitsa around my hand and patted my back. I was a bit confused, but once I got to school, I figured out what was happening. My students, especially the 8th graders, gave me a ridiculous amount of bracelets. I felt way too special. 

Unfortunately, Smokey thought that the martenitsii were a a play thing for him. I was no longer capable of petting him and ended up with way too many scratches. So I took all but one off and hid the others far away from his curious claws. I also tried to put one around his neck like a collar (another part of the tradition) but within two minutes it was off. He's a clever thing. 

As mentioned at the beginning, this weekend is the next Speech & Debate tournament. We're taking a grand total of 42 students + 5 chaperones/judges. Luckily, we'll be able to take the train because the tournament is in Pernik, meaning there is a direct line there (and no mountain ranges in between). After that, there is the U.S. Qualifying Tournament here in Blagoevgrad and finally the national tournament in Plovdiv. It's a lot of work, but the students put in so, so much work in doing something that I would have found, frankly, horrifying in high school. Public speaking in high school? No thanks. And in a foreign language? Don't sign me up. So I'm always impressed by what they do, whether we win or lose this weekend. Wish us luck! 

Sweden and Denmark

This is probably the fastest turnaround on a blog post I've ever done, but I want to get my memories "down on paper" as soon as possible. And I have little else to do tonight.

I had always wanted to visit Scandinavia, so when I saw that there was a Wizz Air flight directly from Sofia to Malmo, Sweden (and a 20% discount that day), I jumped at the chance. I did splurge a bit on the hotel in order to be in the center of the city (unlike in Belgrade), but it was worth it. For those who don't know, Malmo is a city of about 300k located directly across the Oresund Bridge from the more famous Copenhagen, Denmark. Because there was a direct flight there and Sweden is generally cheaper than Denmark, I decided I'd stay in Sweden and venture into Copenhagen for a day. From what I read online, that's kind of the reverse of what most people do. Most people will stay in the more touristy Copenhagen and jump across the bridge to Sweden to say they visited another country. I enjoyed staying in the lesser known city because it was more manageable, less crowded, cheaper, and I had almost all of the museums to myself.

Day 1: Travel 

This was my first time traveling by Wizz Air, a low-cost Hungarian airline, akin to Ryanair. Booking the flight was difficult because they asked you approximately 36 times if you'd like this and that extra fee. The only fee I did splurge on was for an exit row which cost me 10 leva (around 5 dollars) each way. That was well worth it.

I was also surprised that Wizz Air flew out of Terminal 1 in the Sofia Airport. For one, I'd always flown in and out of Terminal 2, the main terminal. Secondly, I didn't realize that the two terminals were a good distance apart. It took a 10 minute bus ride to get from one to the other. Terminal 1 is clearly the older, less flashy terminal. But I'll take it because the flight cost about the same as a flight from Memphis to Chicago in the U.S.

The flight was fine and easy, no problems. I landed in Malmo and bought a ticket for the bus into the city, as it is about a 45 minute ride from the airport into the actual city. The bus was nicer than anything I'd ever seen before, a sign of what was to come.

My only hiccup the first day was payment at the hotel. When I was in Sofia, I got an email from the hotel in Malmo saying that my card hadn't gone through (come on, Bank of America). So when I landed in Malmo, I withdrew enough cash to pay for the hotel. As it turns out, my card eventually DID go through, so I was left standing with way too many Swedish kroner. Luckily, at the end of my trip, I found an exchange place that actually converted to Bulgarian leva. Shocking, really!

Day 2: Malmo 

This was my exploration/museum day in Malmo. I started out at the Malmohus Museum, a former fortress which is now a collection of several different museums. One ticket allowed me entry into the entire museum complex which included not only the fortress but several other museums. I started out at the art museum. I admit I am not a huge museum or art person, so before I even went, I googled: "How to enjoy an art museum" or "How to appreciate a museum." Google's advice worked decently well. I slowed down and tried to "appreciate" what I saw. I was the only person in the museum because I got there at opening time, so I had time to do my own thing. Unusually for Sweden/Denmark, however, there were not translations in the art museum, so I had very little idea what I was seeing. Plus, I wasn't sure which direction I should be going in, so I would jump from the Reformation to modern Sweden to the 1300s. It was a bit hard to keep up with.

So eventually I headed across the street and found the best museum of the whole trip: the science museum. I wish every science student in the U.S. could visit this museum. It had hands-on exhibits on everything from Bernoulli's Principle to the way that a snake detects you approaching it. It was clearly a more kid-oriented museum, but I enjoyed myself.

I also wandered into the motor vehicle, technology, and aviation museum, which my dad would've appreciated more than I did. Finally, I went to the maritime museum and got to explore a U3 submarine. I'm too big for that. I truly hurt myself trying to get through the holes from one "room" to the other.

For lunch I met up with the sister of a college friend, Glynnis Ritter. She works at a documentary film studio in Malmo but lives in Copenhagen. I had met her two times back at Georgetown. She was PERFECT for advice, and we had a great lunch at a start-up meeting type place. She was busy with a deadline, so after lunch I headed to see the Turning Torso, an interesting skyscraper, the tallest in Scandinavia. I also went down to the water but quickly turned around because, damn, it was cold and windy. For the rest of the day, I just wandered the streets and jumped into random churches and stores. Note: I didn't buy anything because, good lord, those prices. They had me begging for the euro! And Denmark was even worse. Which leads me to...

Day 3: Copenhagen 

I caught one of the earliest trains into Copenhagen, across the famous Oresund Bridge. It was a short ride, about the time it would take to travel from Rosslyn to Gallery Park/China town. Except it cost way, way more.

There was no border patrol into Denmark (in contrast to the return trip).

On my arrival, I experienced my first crisis. I needed to use the restroom. There was a toilet in the Copenhagen train station but it required Danish money. I didn't have Danish money yet (they use a different "kroner" than Sweden). I searched endlessly for an ATM. I found one after about 15 minutes. I then realized that I didn't have any coins, so I didn't think I'd be able to use the bathroom. I went and bought a bottle of water to try to get some coins. No luck. I went back to the toilets and crossed my fingers. And what did I find? A credit card machine. For the toilets. This is not Bulgaria, folks. Lesson learned. Pee early on.

Overall, Copenhagen was fantastic. It was a "smorgasbord" of canals, incredible streets, parks, and museums. I first went to the National Museum which was free, as most state museums in Scandinavia are. Unlike the Malmo museum, this one did have English translations, so I spent a bit more time there.

From the museum, I headed toward the Nyhavn Canal, which is the famous canal pictured above. It is the classic Copenhagen photo/place, and I can see why. I was hungry at this point, but given that it was a tourist center, everything was more expensive, so I kept wandering through various churches and parks.

My turn-around point was the Little Mermaid statue. Many people had told me about this statue before coming to Copenhagen. I still don't get it. There were so many people taking pictures of it, me included. But it seemed a bit...strange.

But I rolled with it and was glad to see it. I turned back towards the city center and headed toward the Rundetarn, or Round Tower. This is an old tower that you can now climb and see aerial views of Copenhagen. Compared to climbing the tower in Prague, this was an easy climb. The views weren't as great as Prague, but there were still incredible. The best part was being able to see the Oresund Bridge and the skyline of Malmo.

I stepped into a few more museums (modern art...) and churches and finally got lunch...at around 3 PM. My legs were exhausted so I enjoyed staying at one park and sitting on a bench for about 45 minutes just people watching.

Eventually I decided to make my way back to Sweden before sunset, which is really early in Scandinavia at this time of year.

So typically, the route between Copenhagen and Malmo is a free border, per the Schengen Agreement. The two regions/countries are really part of one larger economic zone, and there are many people who work in one city/country and live in the other. Travel is *supposed* to be border-less. However, in recent weeks Sweden decided to crack down on its borders given the refugee crisis. I read that Sweden took in more refugees per capita than any other EU country. So what should've been one train ride because a metro ride to a train ride to the airport to another train ride across the bridge, with border checks at each stop. I saw no less than 8 customs officials and 10 policemen/women walk through the train.

Unfortunately, I did see one couple get held up at the first Swedish stop. They were taken away with the Swedish police. I don't pretend to know much about the refugee crisis or what countries should be doing about it, but I do know that Sweden is known for its humanitarian values, and the crackdown on the border strikes me as the opposite of that. In retaliation to Sweden's crackdown, Denmark has secured its southern borders with Germany, which Germany is not too happy about. It's overall a very sad situation, and I don't know what should be done about it, so I won't pretend to have an answer. What I do know is that in Sweden I saw a tremendous diversity of people. I walked into a Middle Eastern restaurant where the waiters spoke to the other customers in Swedish, to themselves in Arabic, and to me in perfect English. I'm sure they've been there longer than the current refugee crisis, but surely Sweden and other countries can see that the people leaving the warzones are the ones who do not want war.

Day 4: More Malmo Explorations 

So on my final full day in Malmo, I wanted to do more exploring. My first stop was the Modern Museum of Malmo, which is one of the larger modern museums in Scandinavia. If you've read this far (God bless you), you know that I'm not the best at museums. But I tried really hard. This museum had two floors. The first was an exhibit on motion...there were some strange and interesting pieces of art. There was a "video art" piece (aka a movie playing) of a man walking through a narrow passage only wide enough for his swaying hips, according to the brochure, and DAMN did he sway those hips. There was also a rectangular piece of wire on the wall. I thought, "This must be part of the wall and not an exhibit." False. Maybe I just don't get it. My initial response was, "I could do that," but the classic response is, "Well you didn't." Well maybe I should. But I think I have better things to do with my time. 

The second floor was more interesting. It was full of tapestries by Hannah Ryggen. She was an anti-war activist who portrayed that through her tapestries (quilts, etc.). It was actually quite interesting. My *favorite* part was when I was looking at one tapestry and heard a group of art student speaking in English. One very hipster and very confident guy said, "This is clearly symbolic of Hitler." Little did HE know I had read the brochure and knew this was a tapestry about the beheading of two Americans in China. I decided that on that note, I'd leave the museum with my chin held high. 

I then visited a huge park and had an amazing time walking around a large lake. Many times, I just sat down on a bench and people-watched. People running, people feeding the birds, people strolling with their babies. Everyone was out in full-force. 

I visited one more museum...the "Art Museum of Malmo." It was free, so of course I went in. The temporary exhibit was about wood artwork, so I figured it might have some wooden sculptures or be interesting or something. I was wrong. I stepped into the museum, check my backpack into a locker, and walked into the main gallery.  

There were a bunch of tables set around the room with cushions on them. Okay, this is nice...I thought. But then I started to wonder where the art was. An employee noticed me looking confused so he asked me if I needed any guidance. I obliged. He said the point of the exhibit was to sit on the cushions and examine the wooden stages (literally, stages) and imagine what I'd see on them. I acted interested for approximately 8 minutes and then gave a dramatic glance at my watch ("Oh look what time it is!) and left. I tried. 

Day 5: Heading back to Bulgaria 

The timing was a bit awkward here. My hotel checkout was at noon, but my flight was not until 8. I bargained for an extra hour. Do not take that as implying I slept until 1. You best believe I was up each morning for the free breakfast. It included sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, etc. And it was free, or complimentary. By the end of my stay, the breakfast lady definitely knew me. She knew I'd be tearing up house like a bear about to go into hibernation. After the 2nd day, we actually spoke and she said most American tourists did the same because of the exchange rate making everything so expensive. So I didn't feel bad loading up on Swedish meatballs. Next time I'll bring tupperware. 

So I checked out of the hotel at 1 and met up with Glynnis again for lunch, this time at an AMAZING burger place. It was straight out of the U.S. Fries or onion rings? Hot sauce or bleu cheese on the burger? I was in heaven. And it didn't break my wallet (about $12 converted). Plus, a fountain soda machine with ice? Unheard of in Bulgaria. I was out of my mind with excitement. 

Eventually, Glynnis had to peel me from the restaurant because she had to get back to work. I headed to the train station to buy my bus ticket to the airport and also to exchange money. I'd planned to convert to US dollars, assuming they wouldn't carry Bulgarian leva. You can imagine my surprise when she told me they did have BG leva. It's a far better exchange rate. 

Eventually, I got to the airport and made my way back to Bulgaria with some awesome row-mates who were heading to Bansko to ski. I found a bus/car-service to take me to the central bus station in Sofia for 5 leva, which was FAR better than the price I'd had taking a taxi to the airport before from the bus station. So I hopped on board. I stayed at the Hotel Ramada next to the bus station and slept for a grand total of 4 hours before catching the 6:20 bus to Blagoevgrad. I had to get back to my kitty. 

Random Notes: 

• The happiness of Scandinavians. I'd read about this in the Economist, etc. but had always assumed it was just an economic indicator. Health care, safety net, etc. But honestly, these people seemed so happy to me. Case in point: in Malmo I saw a biker get hit by an open car door in the bike lane. Now, before you read on, just imagine what would happen in Memphis, Vegas, etc. The first thing the two guys did was shake hands. Then the biker checked out the car door, and the driver checked out the bike. They shook hands again and headed out on their way. Imagine that in the U.S. 
• I know a large part of the "Nordic happiness" comes from the services the government provides to citizens at the cost of a large tax. I asked Glynnis about this (see above). I was curious about how such laudable government services (e.g. free higher education, maternal/paternal leave) would affect someone without a family and who already has a degree. She said that maybe Swedish people weren't as happy as they seemed. Obviously, she has a better perspective than I do, but I can assure you that Swedish (and Danish) people were almost obnoxiously happy. Perhaps it was because "Hello" is "Hej" (pronounce HEY!), so every waiter/store clerk seemed happy to see me. 
• My personal opinion is that it's more than that. I have read several articles over the past few days about the "Nordic happiness" and it seems that a lot comes from KNOWING that the government safety net is there, trust of the government, and low expectations. By low expectations, I mean even just assuming that it's going to be another gray Scandinavian day but then the sun comes through. I also think a lot of it also must do with the percentage of people who commute by bike. Both countries have set up "superhighways" for bikes to allow suburbians to commute into the city. And in the city, the bike lanes are LEGIT. They're not 4 feet wide. They're as wide as the car lane. And they have their own lights. Endorphins are a good thing. 

So now I'm back in Bulgaria and preparing for the next term/second half of my Fulbright grant. This term we will be on the AM schedule (school from 7:30-1:30 AM instead of 1:30-7:30 PM). I know it will take me a few days to get used to, but I'm actually glad for the switch because it's more in line with what I experienced teaching in Las Vegas. It's weird to teach when the sun is setting. I will have to get my coffee machine rolling again. 

In the next month, I have a few things to look forward to: our next speech and debate tournament in Pernik. The organization switched our district, so this time our team will be facing teams from Sofia, including the "American College of Sofia" whose education is entirely in English. But my kids are ready for them. We can take those capital kids :) I'm also looking forward to my dad visiting in a few weeks. I can't wait to show him around. Hopefully this time, I won't send him to Rila without a return ticket (sorry, Mom).