It was a pretty good day

I will begin with a confession. Sleep and I are like Facebook “friends”: sort of familiar with each other and know a bit about the other's going’s on, slightly contemptuous of one another, and only rarely do we meet up face-to-face. So, usually my sleep is medicated. Last night sans help, I was up till 2 or 3am. I woke up at 8 and lounged until 11am, watching last night’s The Daily Show and drinking coffee. It was a shock to read of Steve Jobs’ death. I was sad. My iPad, the only Apple machine I have ever had, has changed everything for me. I wish I were a genius and an innovator or more importantly, I wish that geniuses and innovators get to live longer than 56. It seems miserably unfair.

After this, I cleaned the apartment. Veneta is out of town until the weekend. I’m sorry… but I kind of love it a lot to have this place all to myself. I’m in Europe with an apartment and a balcony. I listen to WFUV on recently purchased speakers and make cup after cup of coffee. It’s super great! But this was not my whole day. There was a lecture a 5pm on Thracian tomb iconography and so slowly I got ready and had a late disappointing lunch at the fish restaurant below my building. My time there has been as follows: I have a delicious fish musaka (the only thing I can say and I know is excellent) for lunch or when I have it for dinner, I take it home. Today, I had this strange feeling that the waitresses were plotting my death. They were thinking (pitiful excuse for East European accent): “Dis girl haz no frends or fameleee, we keel hir and tak hir iPad no one cam fo weeks fo hir… ha ha ha ha ha”   I couldn’t have another lonely meal there.

The lecture was fine. But afterward, when we are all schmoozing, I was introduced to a professor at the Center of Thracology who was responsive to my work. She gave me her card and we are making plans to talk more about Istros and Apollonia-Pontica. This also happened earlier with the scholar for Tuesday’s lecture. It’s refreshing to be reminded that I’m OK. I’m kinda interesting, if not smart, then earnest. I have a sense of humor and normally people like me. This is totally why I’m here. That’s the ticket!   

Then I went back to that fish restaurant with Kathleen and Kyril, Mehmet, and Marianna. Kathleen, fellow New Yorker and late-comer just finished her MPhil at Trinity in Ireland. She has been studying Bulgarian and modern Bulgarian art for a long time. Obviously her facility with the language prevents us from being true friends but I tolerate her because Kyril, her fiancé is Bulgarian and very kind and helps me all the time. That was a joke. Kathleen is the only person who has subscribed to this blog and I adore her. Mehmet is this brilliant Turkish guy who studies at UTexas in Austin. He works on modern Bulgarian history. His MA was published and there he is holding his book.  Mariana is a medievalist and Romanian. She goes to an American affiliated school in Hungry. It’s all very international and sophisticated and I really everyone is picking up Bulgarian faster than I am. This may bother me but at least now those waitresses know that I have friends and they can’t just do all kinds of weird things to my corpse ad infinitum. It’s these small victories that matter when living abroad.

Kathleen and Kyril- Their best to seem cool/aloof

Mehmet's book. It's in Turkish but it seems serious

Mariana with white wine, so mature

Fries with ketchup

Dinner, fish of course

But she ordered beans and it was just... ok

More fish

My meal-Fish Kavarma... it was hot and not musaka. So it was fine

A wee bit of silliness- dead smoked fish