Friday, January 25, 2013

One Week Since I Looked at You

Yes, the title is a very thinly veiled reference to the song by Barenaked Ladies.  It's fitting though since it's been one week since I first laid eyes on Bulgaria.  I still can't believe that one week has already gone by.  It seems impossible.  Paperback Swap.com's Qoute of the Day perfectly mirrors my feelings on this matter. 

     "Methinks I see the wanton hours flee, and as they pass, turn back and laugh at me"
~George Villiers

 
 
   It's already 2 pm here and I've had both my classes of the day.  The hours really are fleeing.  It's been raining and absolutely freezing cold here today.  I'm writing this post while I thaw out some before I make a run to the grocery store.  Apparently red coats are not very common in Blagoevgrad since everywhere I go, I get stared at...especially today since it was so gray and dreary and I was also carrying a green and white and black umbrella.  It was kind of disturbing.  I'm not one to want to be the center of attention.  Although being brightly colored definitely helps for crossing the street.
 
    Speaking of crossing the street, I can now say that I feel more comfortable just stepping out into traffic.  I no longer try to dash to the crosswalk when a group of people get there so I can make it across.  It helps that apparently last year they passed a law that if drivers don't stop for pedestrians they will be fined.  I was thinking the other day that when I get home, I'm going to be on a first name basis with the police because I'll be jaywalking everywhere!  It's still strange to just cross the street where ever you feel like it. 

    One day later....

   I am actually finishing this post one day after I started it, since by the time I started it, I was falling asleep at the computer, so here's the rest.

    The shopping trip was a success.  It turns out that the store, called Kaufland, is just down the river and around the corner from the Skapto campus.  It's maybe a five minute walk.  When you walk in, it's like an Ikea in the layout in that you have one place where you enter and one place that you exit and there are plenty of little side markets just after where you pay.  Other than that, the interior reminds me a bit of a K-mart, just in Bulgarian.  Just like in the canteen in the dorm, it was pretty much a crapshoot when it came to buy packaged food since I still can't read a word of Bulgarian.  The towels weren't so hard to figure out, oddly enough.  A towel, is a towel, is a towel where ever you go.  They call Band-Aids Citoplasts here.  It reminded me of when I went to Ireland where they call them plasters.  I remember my Grandfather had cut himself on something and one of the cashiers had asked him if he wanted a plaster and it took us a minute to figure what she was talking about.  It was really interesting just to look at all the labels and people watch there. 

  I was kind of nervous when it came time to check out since the cashier greeted me in Bulgarian and I was just like, smile and nod, smile and nod.  I got to use my Leva for the first time.  I got the towel, Citoplasts, a bag of wafer things, and some breakfast bars for about 14 leva which is about $8 USD.  I'm still amazed at how cheap everything is here. 

   I feel completely at home here now.  I'm starting to meet new people, which will be in the next blog post, and becoming pretty comfortable with the city.  When I traveled out of the city earlier, there was one point where I thought, I just want to go back to nice, quiet, Blagoevgrad.  I still miss my home back in the States, but it's just like going back to school in the US for me, just in a foreign country halfway around the world.  That's all for today.  Stay tuned later for some more of my adventures.

Merci!

~OwlHeart




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