Midnight Passport checks at the Serbia-Bulgarian Border

Woah, where have the weeks gone??!!  I had meant to post an entry after our trip over the long weekend to Serbia, but simply ran out of time, and now here it is,

 another week! 

A few of us international teachers went to Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, for a long weekend excursion.  Belgrade was awesome.  I thought that it was going to be the younger/punk/rougher kid brother version of Sofia, but I was actually wrong!  The city was clean, and very well kept, and the people were extremely friendly!  Not that you can't find these qualities here, in Sofia, but there are moments...  Anyways, we took an overnight train which got us into Belgrade around 6/6:30 ish in the morning.  After we procured our reservations for the way back, we headed out from the train station towards the direction of our hotel.  We got there and they amazingly let us check into our room.  

We rested there for a bit and then went out exploring the city.  

Belgrade was beautiful despite the overcast and rainy forecast we experienced... 

Here are a few of the pictures I took.  PS, I cannot believe that I started this post like 2 weeks ago, and just now am posting it.  Sorry for my delinquency!!  I started out so diligent... 

The Sofia train station is quite the interesting place.... hooray for lots of Communist style art and architecture... woots! 

Erin and Andy excited for our trip :)

And we are excited to be in our sleeper car!! hahaha.

Welcome to Beograd!!!   (also known as Belgrade, to all of us westerners.)

Woohoo first self portrait of the weekend!  haha.

Once we got there, we walked to our hotel, the shining Hotel Moskva, in all of its shining Communist glory (can you sense the trend of Eastern Europe?)  I love this place! 

Quite the stately place...

   

On our way for a walk around the citay... We headed past the parliament building of Serbia/Yugoslavia (even though it is no longer a country...we sometimes still saw stuff for it.)  Past the parliament, we headed to the Nikolas Tessla museum.  It was pretty awesome considering that this little modest museum was home to the tribute to the man who invented the alternating current and some other major mechanical engineering contributions...

Derek poses with the Nicolas Tessla statue in the museum.  I swear he did not pose for this... but hysterically there is resemblance... lol.

This is the famous alternating current machine thingy.  It was pretty cool when the Serbian tour guide was talking to us.  Basically it is magnets with a copper wire coil on the outside, and the alternating magnets can essentially keep the motor running for an indefinite amount of time.  Hooray for science teachers in a science museum!! 

Inside and outside the rakia bar that we stopped at to warm up a bit from the chilly walk from the museum.  Rakia is the national drink in this area.  It is similar to grappa (the Italian liquor) except that it does not taste nor smell like rubbing alcohol and or gasoline (as grappa can sometimes do).  I have yet to try rakia, but it basically is like some sort of clear plum/fruit moonshine.  I will let you know how it is when I do try it.  The boys said the rakia was good at this bar.  The cappuccino was delicious!

There was this amazingly large pedestrian area in the old town (Stari Grad) with tons of shops, restaurants, cafes, and a few art museums/exhibits!  (which made me happy) :) 

We spent most of Saturday walking around this area, which leads to the citadel near the river.  I took a nice photo montage of self portraits near the fortress.  I found them to be semi amusing. 

My self portrait montage at the entrance of the Kalamegdan Fortress

Crazy Serbian armory outside the citadel... large guns pointed everywhere!  

A little mini Kalamegdan Fortress model! 

Me in a turret!

A view of one of the rivers, the Sava or the Danube, from the top.

Welcome to Beograd.  We have large fruit and watermelon shaped benches in our parks! 

This is all for now.  I have several more pictures I would like to post, so I will add to this later.  (Or make a new post)  either way more pictures will come!!  Ciao ciao! 

Sarah. 

Ain't no party like a Snoop Dogg party, 'cause a Snoop Dogg partay don't quit!

So, yes. It is true.  I went to see Snoop Dogg play in Sofia, Bulgaria.  I think it may have been the most bizarre event I have ever been to... I went with 7 others from the school, and we had an absolutely great time.  After an interesting dinner at a Bulgarian restaurant, (where I had the sub par chicken curry, which was not quite curry, but a Bulgarian version of it... which is not better...) we made our way about a half a kilometer, to the skating rink, turned concert venue.  Snoop was on stage when we got there, and I surprised myself with my knowledge of Snoop's repertoire.  I knew more songs than I expected myself to, so it turned out to be a pretty fun show.  

Now I am sure that many are wondering why a west coast rapper, from the US would be making an appearance in Eastern Europe, let alone in Bulgaria!  It was a surprise to me, indeed, but there actually is a huge hip-hop and rap following here in E.E.  As far as I can gather from my students, the favorite music genres have been rap, rock (classic rock) and hip hop.  The rap following was apparent last night in the packed house of Bulgarians.  The crowd was fairly benign throughout the show 

and then Snoop pulled out a Bulgarian flag, waving it around on stage as he donned a Bulgarian football ("soccer") jersey

and the crowd went absolutely bizzerk. 

And yet, despite the title of this entry which also is a line from Snoop himself, the party did come to an end.  Around 11 pm.  And the lights came on.  Show was over and the crowd squished us as we all tried to exit through ONE exit..... no bueno...

We went to a bar for a little while longer, enjoying the company we were in, and then I think I took the funniest cab ride I have ever been in.  I felt like Mr. Magoo, and I think the 4 of us had piled into a smart car, however I checked when we got out and it was some sort of Hyundai.  It might as well have been a smart car because it felt that small... Well, we made it back safely to the gate of the school, even though Derek was unsuccessful in convincing the cab driver, Nikki, to stop and go through the McDonald's drivethru on the way back... He may have been heartbroken, but Nikki was pretty determined to get us back. haha. It was great. 

Now, Friday is completed, the first official week of school, and I feel pretty good about how things are going.  It certainly is a bit interesting teaching the same lesson all week long, about 8 times.  I have 8 different sections of kids who I see only one time a week, so it can get a bit repetitive, with moments where I space out and forget where I was going with my train of thought.  But, overall, all my classes are full or little angels, at least for the first week... I am sure that the colorful behaviors will come out in the next month or so for a lot of them. :) But I think that it is the teenage personalities and dramas that keeps teaching entertaining, and certainly keeps me on my toes.  That is one thing I certainly love about teaching, no two classes are ever the same, no matter how many times I teach a lesson, and the kids are so different in their likes, personalities, etc, that you are constantly adjusting your approach in order to reach them all.  It really never gets dull, no matter how long you have been teaching for.  

There is so much that I am still getting used to here, and that I know I will still have to learn.  We start our advisory program on Tuesday, which I am happy for.  It will give me the chance to get to  know a few 9, 10, 11th grade students a bit more, and hopefully be able to help them navigate the school, as well as be an advocate for them too.  I love stuff like this, mentoring, etc, so I am excited to be able to be in this role, in addition to teacher. 

Anyways, this weekend is a long weekend, as Bulgaria is celebrating their Independence Day on Monday (so no school!) I am going to Belgrade, Serbia with 4 others, Erin, my roommate and her boyfriend, Andy, as well as Derek and Jenn from next door.  It seems like an interesting and ecclectic place to go, and I am excited to get some traveling in.  Belgrade sounds very similar to Sofia, which I love.  And I am excited to visit the area, since I grew up learning about the Serbia/Kosovo tensions as a kid; it is neat to be able to travel there finally. 

Well, I should finish up a few things before I start to pack and make dinner.  I will be sure to post some pictures from Snoop (once I steal some from someone else) as well as pics of Serbia. 

Ciao! 

Best Day of School, Ever.

So, today, instead of the normal ritual of school meeting, classes where teachers tell the students the rules and regulations of their classes, loading the students with the class textbooks, etc...we introduced our new advising program with an "ACS Olympics" between the different advising blocks.  It was awesome! (well, the rain could have held off a bit more, but oh well.) 

We had three-legged race, potato sack relay, tug-of-war, water balloon toss, egg/spoon relay, and the highlight for my day was the Mini Bike relay race.... This was the funniest thing I had ever seen!  The kids got on bikes, that I am pretty sure were made for 5-7 year olds, and then had to bike around this loop through campus.  It was amazing!  Everyone was as good of sports as I would have expected, even despite the rain, and I hope that this spirit continues through the year. 

Well, last minute supplies are needed from the office supply store and then maybe some shopping at the grocery store. 

Ciao ciao!!

First Day tomorrow!

So, tomorrow is the first day of school!  We are actually not going to have any instruction, but instead a day of games and mini competitions among our advising houses... It should be fun, and a good way to begin the week I think.  I guess there is a whole school meeting in the morning, where they introduce the new teachers and the incoming 8th grade class, up on stage, with standing ovation.  It should be fun!  Anyways, I am off for an early evening to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow.  More details soon to come!

I hate moving.

So, the school has renovated the English and Science buildings, which is awesome.  However, not so awesome is the fact that they are not done and my classroom and office are not completely put together.  My room is not so bad, however.  But I don't have a desk, just a table... And there is only one electrical plug which is in the very front of the room, between the whiteboard and the door.  I am not sure if one could have found a more inconvenient spot. 

So, enough of my little whining... I moved all of the books, binders, resources, maps and posters that I could possibly want/use which were in the 3rd floor classroom of the old Physical Geography teacher, and move them all to the 3rd floor classroom that will be mine, which is in a completely separate building.  My arms certainly got their workout for today!! I can't wait for everything to be completely set up in the office and classroom.  There will be more work tomorrow and this weekend for sure.  In addition to the planning for classes. Oh yeah, I start teaching on Monday! (well, Tuesday actually, is when our classes first meet)

Bring it on, Donkey Kong!

Just so you know that it's fo' real...

In case you have not heard.... Snoop Dogg is coming to Sofia in two weeks.  And I have a ticket to go... hahaha.

First ventures downtown...

So, last night, we had a cookout/BBQ (whatever you prefer to call it) at the Last House, which is the name of one of the other faculty villa on campus besides mine.  It was a shindig that the "old" international teachers put on for us "new hires".  It was really nice to all get together after our first week of work.  The weather was beautiful, there was great food, contributions by all, and the company was fantastic.  

After a few hours of chit-chatting and gorging ourselves, the crowd dwindled a bit, but a pretty big group of us had decided to go out and experience some of the night life of Sofia.  This was the first time that I had been back downtown since my first tour with Mimi, and this was quite the different tour.  

We went to this place which they call the "Candle Bar" but is actually called Humbara (The Barn) in Bulgarian.  And this is exactly what it was.  We took a taxi from the College into town, met up with the folks who had gone to their apartments first to change, etc, and then we walked a few blocks to this little side alley.  We walked through this wooden door/shanty looking entrance that had a printed sign posted in Bulgarian (which I assumed was the signage for the bar).  As I walked in, and my eyes adjusted to the lack of bright light, I realized that I was literally inside a barn.  The floor was a swept, hardened dirt floor.  The bar was to the left, along the wall, with all of the bottles lined up along several shelves.  Along the far wall, under the second floor loft, were wooden stools (which were more like upright logs) and planks laid out as little bar seating areas.  There were picnic table like seating on the second floor, if you ventured up the rough hewn stairs near to the door.  I didn't venture up to the other levels, but there also was a third floor as well.  There is no electricity in this bar.  The entire place is illuminated by candle light.  The only electrical supply leads to a tiny fridge behind the bar, and the boom box playing some jazzy, Frank Sinatra like music.  

When we walked in, there were about 10-12 others in there.  Our group immediately created quite a crowd, and we almost filled the place, but it was still quite comfortable.  There were large canvas paintings hanging all around on the walls, and the only menu or list was a small chalkboard next to the bar, listing all the pours with the price of the serving (all in Bulgarian, of course).  I ordered a vodka and sprite, and quickly the ice cubes she put in my glass had melted, and we were enjoying each others company, talking, and just taking in the general atmosphere.  

Andy, Erin's boyfriend (Erin being one of my roommates in the Pink House), began to tell me the history of Humbara.  Apparently, this bar is the site of the beginning of Socialism and Communism in Bulgaria.  It is where they would hold secret meetings, and at the beginning of a meeting, the leaders would take their candle that had been lined up outside the door, and light it once they got inside the barn in order to provide light for their meetings.  I think the barn was also used as a secret paper press as well, although I will have to ask Andy about that again to get the history straight again.  

I just thought it was a pretty amazing place.  Now I can say that I have drank at the place where Communism in Bulgaria began... Nazdravey! (cheers!)

After we had been in Humbara for a while, some people decided to go home, the rest of us made our way several blocks to another bar/club called Mojitos.  This had a bit more of a modern club atmosphere than the barn did... There were three rooms, each playing different music with a separate bar in each one.  We went all the way inside, to the third and least crowded room.  The DJ was playing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and we all began to laugh and those who knew the moves to the dance, brought them out... A few drinks and the headiness of all the cigarette smoke loosened everyone up and we all began to dance to the random 70's and 80's music the DJ selected.  It was quite the evening.  I will have to write another entry at a later point about how I noticed that no one smiles... but that will come at another time. 

It was a great night, and a wonderful way to get an idea more of the "night scene" of Sofia.  Andy, Erin, Matt, Derek and Jenn and I all stopped at a place called Mimas on our way home for something called a "duner/dooner".  Basically it is a Bulgarian giro...shaved chicken, a few bulgarian style french fries, sliced tomato, garlic sauce, wrapped up in a soft pita.  It was delicious, and a perfect late night snack.  (For all you C'villians, it was right up there with a trip to Little Johns...) We then piled into a taxi and made our way to the American College, where I promptly crashed into bed around 2:15 am... 

and for some reason I got the feeling that was an "early" night, compared to many of the other people who were out last night.

Because of my trip last night, I decided that I felt I could make my way around downtown on my own.  Today, I took the #76 bus from the stop near ACS towards town.  The bus experience is one you would expect in any foreign country:  a long wait, of about 30 minutes before the right bus came along;  a jolting ride that was borderline stifling hot, forcing me to take a standing position right next to a tiny window, so I could get some moving air;  having absolutely no clue where exactly I should get off, despite having a map in hand.  I had needed to go to the Apple Repair store to see if they could fix the CD drive, which refuses to eject my cd.   I found the right bus stop, got off, and started walking a few blocks to this little side street, Svetoslav Terter, where I could see the little Apple icon down a little ways.  Unfortunately the only person I found inside was the weekly cleaning lady, who told me (in Bulg) that they were not open on Saturdays (shucks).  I will just have to make the trip this week sometime again.  

I kept walking towards the center, pausing occasionally to consult my little Sofia guidebook map to see where I was headed.  I passed the Nevsky cathedral, and the vendors that line the sidewalk out in Nevsky square.  I was starting to sweat so I have stopped in a coffee shop, Onda, where we stopped last week with Mimi, right across from Ruska tsurkva, the Russian church.  The cold water and iced cappuccino are delicious, and happily I found there was wireless...thus my blog entry.  

Before I leave to head back to the school for the evening, I need to walk to the book market, Slaveykov, in order to search for my Bulgarian language book that we are using with our language teacher, Lora.  We meet with her every week for lessons in order to develop some conversational and basic Bulgarian.  It is nice, because I can read and write it from taking Russian (never thought I would be able to use that language again..) but there are a lot of words that are different from the Russian.  I am excited to be able to communicate, since it is proving to be kind of hard right now... 

Well, I am off to make my way to the book market.  Dovishdenay! (I will eventually figure out how to post cyrillic...)

"Kak say kazvatay?"...and other thoughts

The past three days I have started my days with faculty meetings (which have been surprisingly short).  It has been really neat meeting and getting to know these people.  I really like the fellow science teachers in my department.  I think I am really going to enjoy working with them and I look forward to doing so. 

This past weekend, most of the new international teachers all had to take a trip to Thessaloniki, Greece in order to process our visa applications with the Bulgarian consulate.  We got to Thessaloniki on Thursday night, after having a lovely drive through several beautiful Bulgarian villages, we stopped at the Rila Monastery. 

Rila Monastery is maybe one of the most photographed locations in the country, and rightfully

 so.  The building is absolutely beautiful, with amazing frescoes, and black and white design. The monastery is nestled down in the middle of this gorge in the tree covered mountains, which rose almost straight up on all sides.  It was absolutely beautiful. 

When we got there, the whole place was swarming with people.  The car with a huge floral wreath tied on the roof, which had passed us earlier on the two way, curvy mountain, had parked in front of the monastery; a man in a dark suit took the wreath off the car and walked inside of the front gate into the throngs of people... Apparently, as Tanya informed us, the day we were there, it was the 800th-something anniversary of St. John, the monk who established the monastery in the mid 900's.  

The mountains were just so pretty... they seemed to rise just straight up, and were covered in trees.  Outside the outer wall was a several little kiosks selling food, saint icons, and other little touristy things.  There was this one little building which sold the doughnuts, that Tanya said "we had to try".  Tanya waited for like 20 minutes in this line to buy them for all of us. 

There are beautiful detailed paintings all over and around the buildings of the monastery and the outer "dorm" building...I am not really sure of what it is, but the outer wall of the monastery had three or four floors of all these different rooms, which I assume were used as the living quarters of the monks who lived there at one point in time. 

We walked into this one room on the bottom floor.  It was the kitchen, and there was this huge soot covered ceiling that opened up to the sky, where there was a little bit of light coming through.  On the ground were huge cauldrons where they would cook and prepare the food.  I think this was a pretty cool shot of the kitchen. 

The cauldrons in the kitchen.....

There were also all of these fountains where people would just walk up to and drink out of.  Apparently they are all over Bulgaria, and it is very common to just go an

d use the water that flows out of them, however I am not sure how "safe" the water is to drink. 

After being at Rila for about an hour we went to lunch at this restaurant that was tucked in one of the valleys next to a shallow stream.  We sat at a couple tables, enjoying the nice day, and the breeze, and ate some delicious Bulgarian dishes.  After lunch, we continued on our drive south to Thessaloniki.  I am pretty sure most of us in the van passed out from our food coma, promptly after getting on (well, at least I fell asleep and didn't wake up until we had arrived at the city).  Well, we did have to pass through customs, and that went successfully without any issues.  

We arrived in Thessaloniki just around dinnertime...We all checked into our rooms, and I was able to sneak a shower before we met to go to dinner.  We walked through the streets a few blocks into this larger "piazza" like square, which covered a few blocks, and stretched out right

 down to the water.  We went off onto a little narrow sidestreet lined with restaurants, each with dining tables spilling out into the cobblestones, from both sides.  Our group was immediately bombarded by waiters trying to get us to come and dine in their establishments, and they were very persistent, however Tanya had already made arrangements with one of the restaurants.  We get there, and there is a big table set up outside.  Shortly, after 

some negotiating with the waiter, we had ordered huge platters of amazing Greek food...kebobs, lamb chops, different sauces, salads, etc... Wine and beer... we had a feast!! 

After we had eaten as much as we could, we all went to walk along the "boardwalk" along the bay.  It was dark by now, so I couldn't really see the water, but we walked along this large wall, and the waves just crash right up against them. 

I bought some street art, because I can not stand the fact that the walls in my room are so bright white... There were a few people selling art, and

 one guy had some scenes of Greece.  There was this really beautiful one of  Santorini that I decided to buy.  I think it was a bit overpriced at 5 Euro, but I think it is worth it, as it adds quite a bit of color to my room.  (Which, I think I am going to try and paint sometime soon...woohoo!)

Friday, we had to be at the consulate early in order to make our appointment.  Tanya took us in one at a time, where she would hand him our application for a visa, he asked me to confirm my signature, and that was all that was said.  It was very strange and interesting.  There was a little gift bag on the desk, which I imagine was some sort of gift to help push the visa applications through... Very interesting event, but we all made it out alive. 

After we had all gone in and passed our visa apps to the consulate we then piled again into the van and made our way back north, along the coast to a different border checkpoint than the one we crossed on our trip down.  Apparently this was a brand new crossing point and someone had suggested it because there would be less traffic.  When we got there, it apparently was more of a big deal than was expected, and it took about 45 minutes to process our passports.  This new border crossing was set up to process the NEW American passports, the ones with the hard magnetic covers that has all the information stored as opposed to the "old" ones where the attendant has to enter all the information manually. So after waiting, and several lines forming behind us later, we were processed through the Greece/Bulgarian border, and proceeded to our next destination for the afternoon/evening.

We stayed at this mineral bath/spa hotel, called Hotel Victoria, which I cannot find anywhere online (because I have forgotten where we were exactly).  I do know that we were about an hour south of Bansko, the famous ski resort around here.  Anyways, this hotel was, like a lot of things, in need of a little bit of basic upkeep.  The food was good (I don't know if I can eat another shopsko salad for a month or so) and the pools were nice.  The water is hot, almost like a giant bath tub, because of the hot springs that come out of the mountains where the hotel was built.  It was kind of cool.  However, because everything used these springs as a water source, there was no cold water in my hotel room, and the shower smelled a bit like sulphur...It was an experience nonetheless.  At night, there was a guitar and violinist who were playing some traditional Bulgarian music.  There were some people who were doing some of the traditional dance to the music.  Tanya got up after dinner at one point and joined them... The video is a little dark but you can at least hear the music.

Some shots of the hotel and the pools....

Hello John, Roxanne and Greg! 

Front entrance to the hotel

On Saturday we left around noon, and drove up to this mountain village... I cannot remember what it was called, but I will find out and post it.  This village was beautiful.  I guess you can rent out some of the houses for a week vacation.  It was very cool.  We walked around the village for a bit, took pictures, and then continued on to where we were having lunch.  We ate at this hotel/restaurant that used to be an old mill.  The food, again, was good.  Very basic, and simple, but tasty.  We had some wine, and enjoyed the entertainment provided by a frisky tiger colored cat, who I had to resist taking home with us :) 

The food, again placed me into a food coma, and I dozed again on the way home to Sofia.  It was a little bit of a long trip with all the driving and stopping, but we finally made it.  

This is the steeple of the church in the little mountain village we stopped in.  I think it was possibly the smallest church I have ever been in, but absolutely lovely...

A little bit of a fixer-upper in the mountain village :)

Snoop Dogg

The honey nut cheerios I bought at the store were amazing for breakfast this morning.

Snoop Dogg is coming and playing in a few weeks here in Sofia!  We are going to get tickets to see him.  I think it is just hysterical!! So, hopefully it will be fun :-P

Okay, off to work!! 

First Day of Work!

So, today is the first day of work where the new teachers have all of our orientation meetings over the next couple days, get to meet with our department heads, and then finally meeting the whole rest of the faculty on Wednesday.  I was a little nervous last night, but really, it is just excitement now.  I am ready to start actually working; it has been a long summer waiting to start my job.  School/classes do not start for another 2 weeks, which is really nice, because I still have a lot of lesson planning to do!  Looking at the schedule between now and when the kids come, I think there will be plenty for me to be working on.  I have 5 different documents, including syllabus, course outlines, emergency lesson plans, and a couple others due by the 12th, so I think I will certainly have my work cut out for me between now and then.  

I still need to make an entry on our trip to Greece for the Bulgarian consulate and our "tour" of several different parts of Bulgaria on our way back.  I will try to write a bit and post some pictures of the weekend tonight, but bear with me if it is in a couple days :)

Last night, I finally went grocery shopping for some food so I can stop eating bread, cheese spread, and salami, because I am sick of it after having it for several meals.  I bought some cereal, pasta, eggs, you know, the basics so I can feed myself for (hopefully) a week or so.  It was certainly an interesting experience since I really don't know a whole lot of Bulgarian.  Makes it hard to figure out what each thing on the shelf is.  For instance, I had found some pasta sauces near the pasta, so I picked one out (it was a little overpriced for my liking, but it is fine for now).  I turned the corner in another isle, and there was an entire side covered in what I think was tomatoes, canned, jarred, with and without different spices.  I think they could be used for sauce, but I had no idea of what to choose!  So, I continued down the isle after staring for a bit at the shelves, wide eyed, and made my way to another isle with my little jar of overpriced pasta sauce.

On that note on food, I am off to make some breakfast, and prep something for lunch today.

Ciao Ciao 

(quick note on some Bulgarian:  they have brought in a few foreign phrases into their everyday informal speak, which makes me happy, since it includes some Italian, which I have studied and use often!  So, "Ciao" and "Merci" are both very widely used and appropriate phrases here!  So, Ciao Ciao!!)