1 Week in the Books: Days 5-7 in Bansko

It's been about as good of a first week in a new, strange place as I could ever have hoped for. FISI continues:

More classes on Thursday and Friday, interspersed with meetings and more orientations. We had a presentation by Ken Moskowitz, the US Embassy's Counselor for Public Affairs, and Eric Alexander, the Consul General to Bulgaria. One of the topics of these presentations had to do with Internet privacy, the upshots of which you'll notice - I am required to severely censor my Facebook page (nothing personal - don't take it the wrong way) and post a disclaimer here, which you can see at the bottom of my page.

Friday night, after classes and the first week Closing Ceremonies, we had a special dinner featuring traditional Bulgarian music and dancing. Voici a few shots:

A traditional dance involving scarves

Line dancing, Bulgarian style

L - R: The Author, Irena, Georgi, Gustavo, Fred, Ana

Post-dinner came my first European Club Experience, as the lion's share of us headed out на клуб. Sparing the details, it was a whole lot of fun, and cool way to get acquainted with Eurotrash, albeit an apparently toned-down version ("This is not Miami. This is not New York. This is not London. This is not Hong Kong. This...is...BANSKO!"). Much satisfied with the course of the night, we headed for home somewhere around 3 AM, sleeping far too little in anticipation of our trip Saturday to Rila Monastery.

Founded 1100 years ago, and named after Иван Рилски (or St. Ivan Rilski), the Rila Monastery is one of the national symbols of Bulgaria. Nestled in the Rila Mountains, the Monastery has been continuously operational since its foundation, and, though burned to the ground several times, survived the Ottoman Occupation and the Socialist Period with functional existence intact. Its artwork and architecture are a breathtaking testament to the attention to detail emphasized by Balkan Orthodox culture, which stands in direct contrast to the Western, Catholic Monasteries of the same time period. Nearly every square inch of the entire complex is covered with artwork, and the interior of the sanctuary contains work so intricate that it would take a lifetime to see all of it. The mountains slope sharply upward all around it, so the effect is that of an outpost of civilization among the forbidding Balkan peaks.

Words can't effectively do it justice. Thus:

From the front

Fresco on one of the domes

All along the base of the walls there is a huge mural depicting the damned in Hell

St. Michael vanquishing some unfortunate dude

"The Repose of St. Ivan Rilski"

 The monastery, as you can see, is beautiful, and covered head-to-toe with frescoes. We had a wonderful time there, and afterwards went to lunch at a little restaurant by a river.

Sunday I took off to take care of some business; chiefly, sleeping in for the first time in a week and doing laundry. Apparently, there are no laundromats in Bansko, and so I embarked, for the very first time in my life, upon the Old World adventure of washing my clothes by hand. In my bathtub. Let me say nothing more than that it gave me a wealth of perspective - it made me feel so fortunate to live in a country where nearly every house has a washer and dryer.

The rest of the day was slightly more mundane and a great deal more aggravating. Long story short, my iPod got completely erased and my external hard drive started malfunctioning. The folks at Apple were less than helpful. To clear my head, I had the brilliant idea to go on a run at night in an unfamiliar place and got horrendously lost. An hour and a half later, I finally found my way back. The day was redeemed by the Skype conversations I had later in the night with my family, Ignacio, and Laura.

So now, the second week of FISI begins. If you've stuck with me so far, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. More updates soon.