Dissertations. Emails. Articles. Festivals. Bolging. Bulgarian. Working out. College apps. Rakia.
May the dark tone this blog has assumed in the past few entries be forever banished. Every one of the above (and many more) had been coming to a violent and bitter head before my Birthday/Thanksgiving break, but now, refreshed and ready to face the next onslaught, I'm back down to work as of today. My game plan for the next three weeks looks something like this:
Finish up first college apps. Obtain piano and start practicing for auditions. Apply for financial aid. Apply to second wave of schools. Read Tim Rice's dissertation. Read a half-dozen smaller sources (на Български). Meet with an ethnographer I've gotten in contact with. Prepare a presentation to the Fulbright Committee on my findings so far. Get back in shape before Christmas, when I am sure to re-regain the 5 pounds I lost earlier this month.
The break I just indulged in was as welcome as it was pleasant. Laura flew in on Tuesday, straight from a wedding in LA, and we celebrated my birthday in jet-lagged fashion. I received gifts of an altogether-much-too-high quality (including my first DSLR camera, a Nikon D3100, so expect the quality of the pictures posted here to improve by quite a bit), and generally had a nice day. It's strange to think that I'm 24 - the mid-20's have always seemed to me like an abstraction, and it's just weird to actually be here.
Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving, and many of the other Fulbrighters and I celebrated by going to a reception at the house of one of the employees of the Embassy. I met an interesting assortment of people over hors d'oeuvres and even met a guy who had studied composition at Penn with George Crumb. The Fulbrighters and I (and a few others) came back to my apartment for the afterparty, after which, exhausted from a long day, I was done.
Friday played host to an assortment of interesting things such as shopping on Vitosha, buying my first scarf ever (Don't laugh - it's COLD here), Chinese food of a quality comparable to that of any of a number of small-town-Pennsylvania dives, the best gelato probably anywhere outside of Italy, and a rare early-to-bed night, as I was starting to come down with some sort of nefarious disease.
Saturday was full of the same sorts of things, including a big test-run of my new camera and partying with some of the Fellows of the American Research Center. Also, homemade lentil soup AND Funfetti Cake Mix pancakes. Nom? Nom. Sunday I had to take Laura back to the airport, and I spent the rest of the day wallowing in self-pity, laundry, and taking some experimental photos (some of which will follow soon, Scout's Honor).
It was a nice few days, and I needed it. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but the timing of these breaks (not just this year, but when I was in school, as well) has always seemed to coincide with overwhelming amounts of work. Now, having rested a bit, I have three more weeks to do my Duty to the World, and then comes Christmas, with all its attendant festivities, lights, and fatty, sugary foods. Hence, my window to shed a couple of pounds begins now and ends with the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
One more thing: When I said it has been cold here, I meant it has been cold here. Today was warmer (I believe it got into the 40's), but woe has betided me every time in the last few weeks I've ventured out after dark. And lest you think the temperature has been the only source of unpleasantness, let me tell you that it has been coupled with a not-entirely-unhellish wind.
One more thing: When I said it has been cold here, I meant it has been cold here. Today was warmer (I believe it got into the 40's), but woe has betided me every time in the last few weeks I've ventured out after dark. And lest you think the temperature has been the only source of unpleasantness, let me tell you that it has been coupled with a not-entirely-unhellish wind.
And it's only November. It's going to be a long, cold, lonely winter.
Obligatory philosophical paragraph(s): Sofia has come to be moderately familiar to me now. Within the parts of it I've traveled on a regular basis (those parts being, more or less, the eastern half of the Center from the National Palace of Culture up to the Central Station, and over to Madrid St.), I more or less know what is where and how to get around. I feel as though I've gotten lazy, though, and become complacent in my erstwhile knowledge of this, my home for the year. I started thinking about this when we took the bus down to the Boyana section on Thursday, and realized I had never really been west of Vitosha.
One of the things I have been trying to be conscious of has been seeing as many things here as I can. After all, that's more or less the whole point of my time here - to have as many experiences and absorb as much culture as possible. I have been moderately successful in doing this on an international scale--having already visited Germany and Romania, with travels to many more countries planned (including somewhere else before Christmas)--but I have grown familiar with but one part of this city in which I'm living. It will be on me to keep working, this entire year, towards expanding my knowledge of this still-exotic society amidst which I find myself.
/End philosophical paragraph(s)
Obligatory philosophical paragraph(s): Sofia has come to be moderately familiar to me now. Within the parts of it I've traveled on a regular basis (those parts being, more or less, the eastern half of the Center from the National Palace of Culture up to the Central Station, and over to Madrid St.), I more or less know what is where and how to get around. I feel as though I've gotten lazy, though, and become complacent in my erstwhile knowledge of this, my home for the year. I started thinking about this when we took the bus down to the Boyana section on Thursday, and realized I had never really been west of Vitosha.
One of the things I have been trying to be conscious of has been seeing as many things here as I can. After all, that's more or less the whole point of my time here - to have as many experiences and absorb as much culture as possible. I have been moderately successful in doing this on an international scale--having already visited Germany and Romania, with travels to many more countries planned (including somewhere else before Christmas)--but I have grown familiar with but one part of this city in which I'm living. It will be on me to keep working, this entire year, towards expanding my knowledge of this still-exotic society amidst which I find myself.
/End philosophical paragraph(s)
I'll post the first pictures taken with my spiffy new camera on Wednesday. Some of them are cool. Some of them are lame. Some of them are weird and experimental. But you get to see them anyway. Lucky you!
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