No More Russian Around

What a week! ARCS is back in business and the weather could not be less accommodating. We have two new fellows, to replace Kathleen and Joe. On Sunday, we all went out to dinner. On Monday morning there was a brief meeting to discuss the upcoming term.  Tuesday’s lecturer was Prof. Gotzev who works at Pistiros. An inscription was discovered in Pistiros, which details the terms of a Thracian/Greek emporium.  Although Pistiros is not on the Black Sea coast, the inscription is treated in my dissertation.  I have not gone to the site, but now in May, I will go and take a look at the stone and the excavated site.  Wednesday there was also a lecture. This too was on Thracian religion. Now that I do not live in walking distance to ARCS, I really need these lectures to be good and informative/helpful: this week, they were. 

Tuesday night, coming back with some milk and a few other things, I literally slid into home.  My milk carton had a hole punctured into it. There is a nasty bruise on my leg. My head hit the step up to my building. No one saw, thank goodness; but in my mind I thought I heard someone yell "SAFE!" as I gathered up my soggy groceries and sadly walked in.   

Thursday was my last day of Russian, for now. I will return sometime in the spring, when there is no snow on the ground and I have finished my Toronto paper.  I told Borianka that when I return, I will be better or at least I will not have lost what she has taught. I am hoping this is absolutely true.  I have completely crossed over to the “Apple/Mac” side. I am always on iTunes and am hoping to get enough money in investing to buy the mac air. So I should make the iTunesU language help work for me as well as the books that I purchased and then left in the States and had to get my mother to send to me.  My teacher isn’t going to come back with me, so it is time I learn how to work independently. 

Speaking of iTunes, I wanted to leave a link to the winning video of Doug Benson’s Santa Size Me movie trailer contest.  The winners, father and son Tom and Jeff Levack are from Cincinnati. They show Cincinnati landmarks. This morning, while  having breakfast and cleaning, I listened to the latest Doug Loves Movies podcast episode. The Levacks were on and played the game very well. These guys are fun. How come I don’t know them? They weren’t hanging out with me when I was at Cincinnati.  But, with all the things I say about Cincy, I thought I would put this bit of positive feedback. You can listen to the podcast episode as well.

On Monday, I engaged in a bit of “na gosti” which is the Bulgarian tradition of visiting another person or family at their home.  The tradition usually involves an elaborate meal with lots of peppers and goes on for hours.  It was a lovely meal, no peppers, and lasted for about 2 ½ hours. I met a woman named Vili, whose son works with my mother back in the States.  Vili doesn’t live very far from my new place in a sweet little neighborhood, even closer to Vitosha.  I had had the ARCS meeting and then Russian all in the snow and cold, so I was exhausted by 5pm. But it was great to meet Vili. She is super kind and had made her own banitzas.  It’s good to get the perspective of Bulgarians while here. Each encounter is always so different; I should never make generalizations. 

This is Villi.

Vili’s children had finished their last 2 years in high school in the States. It was an exchange program. They lived with American families and did American things.  I was really impressed. It’s brave of a mom to let her 16 year old daughter leave the country for two years. I was really jealous. Her daughter was in Tallahassee.  She now speaks Spanish, German, Italian and English and of course Bulgarian; she lives with her Italian husband in the Canary Islands with their two little girls. When I’m on the bus or trolley or whatever and I see how alike everyone looks, I miss the States. There are millions of things wrong with the U.S. but the fact of diversity (not the accompanying problems with it) isn’t one of them. Being different when few people are different sucks sometimes. But knowing that Villi herself and her late husband ventured outside of Sofia and sent their children outside makes me give a bad day a second chance. It also puts things into greater perspective.  When dealing in academia, success is very specific, so there is lot of room to feel like a failure. It’s nice to encounter other, arguably  better types of success.

Past the church is where Villi lives. The mountain is left.

That's Vitosha. Today it is not snowing but still cold.

Well, I cleaned this morning, so I though I should take a picture. I love this little apartment.