On life in Sofia (Again)

O Beautiful Rainy Day -

It is the first rainy, overcast day since I've been here in Sofia, and it has actually been kind of nice. I'm not the type that craves weather like this--do you think I'm from Washington or something?--but it is nice to have one of these days every once in a while. It has been raining on and off all day, and the clouds are pretty, in their own gloomy way.

But I digress. I wrote a bit (OK, a lot) about life in Sofia a while back, and I just wanted to add some things, lest you get an incomplete picture.

First things first - my schedule. Before I tell you that I've been setting my own schedule, let me preempt your looks/cries of indignation by telling you that I have abandoned my procrastinatory ways. Maybe not completely--despite my visions for myself, they do not yet lie askew in a ditch by the side of the road--but I have been more or less disciplined about doing some work every day. Pat me on the head and give me a gold star?

But, yes, I've been setting my own schedule, and it has been nice. As a consequence, I've gotten to do a lot of things I want to/should be doing, like going out and meeting people, exercising, cleaning my apartment, and generally learning to live like a responsible, independent human being. And at the risk of giving you the impression that I haven't been driving myself crazy with work, I will say that I have actually had enough hours in the day. Perhaps that represents a step back from the resistant Type-A individual I had been forced to be in the States, but I nevertheless feel good about the progress I've been making on all fronts.

And it has been satisfying to go back to a 5-days-a-week schedule, which I haven't been on since my Junior Year of college. As of my Senior Year, my class schedule became erratic, and my first year out of school, I worked weekends, with random weekdays off. Having days off in the middle of week sucks a little bit, to be quite honest, especially when they aren't contiguous, because you can neither relax nor feel productive nor end up spending them wisely, usually. And as soon as I quit my job, I went to a do-a-little-work-seven-days-a-week schedule in preparation for my conducting recital, which probably went better because of this schedule than it would have otherwise.

The inherently satisfying thing about working 5 days a week and then resting for 2 (those 2 being the same days as everyone else) is that it gives me a sense, at the end of the week, that I've earned some time off. I've put my nose to the grindstone for 5 consecutive days, and my reward is to forget about all the work I've done that week and party/lounge around/drink an extra beer or 3. And part of the reason I've been good at getting work done 5 days a week is because I can decide what I need to do on a given day and get it done, without time constraints. I think one of the failings of a 9-to-5 job is that it either artificially limits the amount of work you can get done or it motivates you not to be productive, if you have the ability to meet your goals in less than the allotted time. I have found that being on a flexible schedule reduces the pressure for me to get things done within an arbitrary amount of time, and so leaves me free to concentrate on actually getting it done. When that thing has been research, it has given me the freedom to invest my time in what I think will be worthwhile uses of that time, whether that's reading books or online resources, going out into the field, or other things entirely. 

But planning is key. Would that we all had a specific plan and a flexible schedule. Were this the case, I have a feeling that so much of the time the average worker wastes in any given day (be it on Facebook or any other time-waster) would cease to function as a block to getting things done.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to devolve into a discourse on productivity and how we spend our time. The upshot of this discussion vis-a-vis how it applies to me:

I am relaxed here. I have so far enjoyed my research; it has yielded a great deal of information and even more questions than I had to begin with. I have a long road ahead of me in completing my four basic tasks - defining who the Shopi are, defining their origins, tracing them through the ages and comparing them at all points to who they are now, and pinpointing the locations and reasons for any discrepancies. But the work has not, so far, been too much for me to handle, and I have done a good job of compartmentalizing my workday from my leisure time. And so, I feel more relaxed here than most times in my life. I am away from a lot of mental blocks I had in the States, I have found people to share my time with here, and I have spent my time wisely and enjoyed doing so. Like I said, I have had time to do a lot of the things I want and I have felt like I've had enough hours in the day to get all of them done. And so, not worried about potentially impossible tasks or rushed obligations, I am relaxed.

An integral part of my adaptation here has been the expansion of my knowledge of the city. I have recently begun to explore the southern quadrant of the Center through my thrice-weekly runs, replete with such attractions as the National Palace of Culture and Малките Пет Кьошите (Literally, The Little Five Corners, where five streets come together). As I have expanded my knowledge of the city and consolidated my understanding of its layout, I have discovered more and more to do and to see. Along with this, I have begun to get a feel for how streets run and where they lead to and which neighborhoods are where in relation to each other, which has made the city begin to take on a character of its own before my eyes. I feel like I'm really beginning to understand it.

On Saturday, I pushed my boundaries a little farther and made an attempt to observe the Sofia's Day Festival in Ботунец (Botunetz), about 15 km east of Sofia. Lo and behold, when I got there, it turned out that budget cuts had forced the city to eliminate the live entertainment, leaving me disappointed, but with renewed interest in seeing Shopi music performed live. And opportunities abound: There is another festival this coming Saturday that I will be attending in search of this music.

Nor has folk music been my only White Whale. Last night, I went with Melissa (another Fulbrighter that I haven't seen since FISI) and her mentor-teacher to see Noa and Mira Awad in concert at the National Palace of Culture. The concert did not disappoint. It was a wonderful show and a great chance to hang with a couple of great people. It was, I say  perhaps gratuitously, a horizon-expanding and intrinsically enjoyable experience.

One more entry will be forthcoming before Saturday, when I go to Germany for a few days. If you've stuck with me so far, I appreciate it. Until then...