Globul Domination

This is perfect. I was romantizing this place too much.  I was caught up in cheap beer, the view from my balcony, and my very simple life here. It became impossible to extend my stay another year, although I thought maybe I could. I am so tired of being a student. So recently, the rain has stopped and now there is just heat.  My bedroom is upstairs and the once beloved sky windows have not just created a hotbox where I cannot get to sleep.  And then I went Globul..

When I bought my micro sim card for iPad internet, I paid it all upfront: 14 Leva a month for 10months. Then because I am foreigner I was told to pay 200 Leva which I could get back, when I cancelled my account. OK. When I went there to cancel and get it back they said that I would have to wait until the end of September and I would be paying the 2 months that I did not pay from out of my 200.  Then I have to cancel in person and receive the remaining cash in person.  This is not possible.  So can I cancel now and you take the money 28 Leva and give me the balance.  No, because the fee for early cancellation, even if I pay the two months is all my deposit no matter what.  What happens if I don’t cancel and just say forget it?  I am automatically enrolled in another year and they start taking that from my deposit. But my sim doesn’t work in any other country. I won’t be getting a service. What am I being charged for?  You are charged for not cancelling and even if the service is stopped by us, you still have our sim. This can be very bad because you will have debt in Bulgaria forever tied to your passport.  Can I cancel on-line? No. Can I cancel by phone? No.  So…?  You need to have a proxy who has a document that reads, Whitney Snead is letting this guy cancel for me.

I go to Julij and he says sure, he will be around in September but we need to go to notary for the official document.  We first go to Globul and he speaks in Bulgarian to the manager for some time.  They are arguing. She was the same woman who “helped” me but this is better.  So now it is September 5 when he must come and cancel my account and it turns out I can pay now the two months. And so if he presents this document then the money will now go onto my debit card.  Not cash in hand.  Can I give you my card info now and you put it in under my account? No. Can you give me something that says I am paid in full and am owed 200 Lev on September 5? No. Can I have something that says that we saw each other on this date and had a conversation? No.   

We go to a notary. And because I don’t know Bulgarian it is illegal to have the one who translates to me be the interested party.  I have to have one more bilingual person with me in order for Julij to cancel this account.  We go to 3 notaries and it is the same. Alex is ill but maybe on Friday he can do it.  I can’t even go to Globul and say is this document ok? If he comes back with it will there be a problem? 

I leave Sofia in 7 days and this may have been the snap out of it slap I needed.  I hate being taken. I hate when people say one thing and do another. I hate when it is made absolutely clear to me that I have no power.  I was so pissed off this morning about being a student, jumping through hoops for my stipend.  Begging like a child. And now it is evening and I begged like a consumer. Had Globul asked me for some chapters on Greek settlements on the Black Sea, I would have had it to give. But they ask for my time and commitment, my trust and patience.  This I don’t have. 

A few years back I was trying to find some inner peace.  I was/am too affected by exterior forces. I don’t know how to forgive.  And so I sent for some books to be delivered to Blegen from other UC libraries. And David, the librarian, asked what I was working on to get these crazy Zen meditation books.  I said I am working on some serenity! Yeah but you know what Lloyd Braun said, serenity now, insanity later.