Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Going to DC Monday!

FINALLY have all my documents in one place where I can actually lay hands on them!  So exciting at least that's one thing I've gotten done in this week from Hell, but that's a different story.  Finals is all you need to know. 

Now the next step is to go to the embassy to get everything settled and started.  Unfortunately that means I have to travel all the way to DC.  While I love DC and don't mind going there most of the time, I just really want to hibernate for the next month, not have to get up at 3 in the morning to leave my house by 4 to be at the Atlanta airport at 6 in the morning to leave by 7.  That just is not how I want to start my Monday.  Yes, a Monday.  Sadly, the embassy is not open on weekends, otherwise I would just leave from Charlotte.  It's also cheaper to fly out of Atlanta.  Go figure.  Anyways...

I figured I would make a nice day trip out of it.  Get there in the morning, submit all my paperwork and do the interview, then spend the afternoon seeing the sights, and then hop on the plane back home later that evening and be back by the reasonably respectable hour of 10 or so.  That is assuming I haven't become a sleep-deprived zombie by then.  Any one have any sights they recommend for the afternoon?  I was thinking Arlington National Cemetery and the National Archives if I can.  I'll have probably about 5 hours or so in between flights. 

I'm extremely hopeful that everything will get through on time.  Leaving the 6 so that gives less than a month for something that takes roundabouts 30 days to complete.  They really need to give us more of a headstart than August to tell us where we're going and what we need to do.  The combination of goverment red tape and college students just doesn't go that fast.  But I digress.  Monday DC, January Blagoevgrad! 

Allon-sy!
~OwlHeart

Monday, December 3, 2012

It's Really Happening!

Hey All,

  Got my flight intinerary for actually leaving to go to Bulgaria this morning.  It all seems so real now.  Just over a month to go before I depart from the good ol' USA!  Leaving at noon on January 6 and looking to arrive in Bulgaria at noon on the 7th.  Flights and time zones still kind of boggle my mind a bit, especially since without time zones that's technically 24 hours, but in reality it's only 12...  Kind of hard to wrap my mind around.  Although I must say, I would greatly appreciate a later return time since I have to be at the airport at 4 in the morning!!  Alas, it's all set and ready to go and really I can't complain too much.  I mean, I am going to be living in a foreign country for around 5 months!  Not too many people from around home can say that.

  On another note, however, I am still waiting on a few more documents before I can go get my visa process started at the Embassy.  I'm hoping I can extract them from the clutches of the government soon.  Unfortunately, due to the whole application and notification process of the ISEP program, Spring semester applicants have a very short window in which to complete a very lengthy process.  I swear, I feel as if I am applying to join the CIA or something instead of just going to study abroad.  Someone asked me the other day if I was going to work over there (as a student I'm not allowed) and I looked at them like they were crazy.  One visa process is more than enough for me thank you!  And of course, it's only one thing holding up the entire process.  I'm hoping to get it back this week.  Keep your fingers crossed! 

  One more week of this semester left, exams, moving out of the dorm, policy memos and term papers.  I'm looking fowards to it being over and I can be that much closer to Bulgaria.  Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Bularian Adventures!  It's really happening!

~OwlHeart

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Where in the World is Bulgaria?

  Everytime I've told someone that I'm going to Bulgaria, the first question they always inevitably ask is "Bulgaria?  Why there?  Where is Bulgaria anways?"  Yeah, definitely not exactly a hotspot tourist destination.  Most people when they think of Bulgaria instantly associated the Harry Potter Quidditch Player Viktor Krum with it. 

  So here's the answer to the question of where is Bulgaria?  Bulgaria borders Greece, Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey, and Romania along with the Black Sea.  It's only slightly larger than Tennessee!



The climate is temperate with mostly cold, damp winters and dry, hot summers.  Basically like the weather we have in the South just minus the drowning humidity.  Geographically it's mostly mountains with lowlands in the north and southeast.  Bulgaria is located on or near fault lines and it is prone to earthquakes and landslides.  Landslides I've expereienced.  Earthquakes?  Mmmmm, not so much.  It is a strategic location near the Turkish Straits with control over key land routes from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. 

  So yeah, that's where and what Bulgaria is.  Until next time!

~OwlHeart

Bulgaria? What??

  So, I have been accepted into the International Student Exchange Programs (ISEP) to study abroad at the American University of Bulgaria in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria next semester.  This is beyond exciting for my nerdy International Studies major self!  I figured I would start a blog to catalogue my adventures in preparing to go to this country none of my friends can locate on a map and my subsequent adventures in this place halfway around the world.

  New languages, new places, new people, new food, a whole new adventure!  Stay tuned for more Bulgarian Adventures!

~OwlHeart