Watching Birds Instead of Eating Them

I have been doing quite a bit of bird watching lately, which I am really enjoying. We are in the midst of a monitoring project for wild wintering geese. The flocks or literally thousands of geese are really very impressive. Our monitoring project focuses on counting the geese as they fly over (we count by 10's, or sometimes just plain estimate), noting locations and times that the flock settles to feed and searching for the endangered red breasted goose in the midst of mostly white-fronted geese. There are a number of larger greylag geese in the flock as well.

Here is a shot of my counterpart, Emil, looking for red-breasted geese amongst the flock last Satuday.

The goose monitoring is an important project, as it will help determine the management plan for this particular protected area. Counting birds, it turns out, is not quite as simple as one-two-three. The geese come in such thick numbers that the one by one approach is impossible. I usually count by 10's or so, but sometimes even that is difficult. Also, if we set up our equipment in one particular area, oftentimes the geese may decide to land in a different field from the expected one. "Ah, the geese have surprised us again!" says my counterpart.

Call me touchy feely, or a nature freak if you like, but I not-so-secretly enjoy when the geese are unpredictable. I draw great comfort from the fact that there are still wild creatures in this world who do not always behave as we expect or desire them to. I understand the importance of getting numbers for our study, but would be very sad if nature always "cooperated" with us. This morning, for example, we went to the field to attempt to look for red-breasted geese. As you can see from this photo of two of our young volunteers, the weather prohibitted looking at anything further away than about 20 meters.

Despite not being able to see, hearing the geese break the frosty silence as they flew low through the fog in ever increasing numbers was a truly magical experience. We stood there listening to the honking and even the swoosh of air through their wings. And every once in a while, we would catch a glimpse, if only for a few seconds.

Developments in my Culinary Experience and a New Friend

So, I had a small adventure today in the world of vegetable shopping. I bought what I ascertain to be a kolrabi (I have never bought one before, but have seen them), known here as "alabash." I was looking for carrots, which the next vegetable lady over had, but they were kind of sad and old looking. So, I decided to ask what this purple thing was.



Next thing I know, not only am I receiving a small vocabulary tutorial, but I am being coached on how to prepare the thing. Bulgarians do a number of cold vegetable salads, often involving shredding or mashing or chopping. I am a huge fan of said salads, and was greatly appreciative of this new addition to my bulgarka repetoire. The end result is my shredded kohlrabi salad, with a little parsley, vinegar, or the ever present salt and sunflower oil. It is pretty tasty!


Work is going along decently considering that I am floundering at best in the local language and still have much to learn about the organization. I am figuring things out slowly, and trying to envision how I will fit in this little branch of the organization for the next two years. I am also trying to establish an organizational routine, with to do lists and a calendar on my computer. This way I can not only keep myself organized, I can also keep track of things for the distantly, but ominously, looming quarterly reports for Peace Corps.


The non-profit (or NGO as is termed here, I think the US is the only place that uses the term "non-profit") world here is going through some pretty big changes with EU acession. I think that NGO's are expecting that they will more easily find funding, which may be true as the EU definitely funds a ton of projects. What my organization needs to realize though is that they are going to quickly become very small fish in a very big pond. In other words, jut because money is available for bird conservation, doesn't mean that it will go to BSPB. An idea for my stay here taht occurred this week is to work on transferring fundraising and PR skills.



My other non-work related news is The other news is that I am starting to befriend my wine lady. This is she, on the left, posing rather goofily for the camera. She is super friendly, so I stop by to visit her when it is dead at the store on the weekends. Another key is that she is willing to talk really slowly and repeat things a lot for me, which is pretty much a requirement for any possibility of friendship with a non-English speaking Bulgarian at this point. We were born in the same year, btu she is married with a little boy.

We have great fun running giggling across the street to the automated coffee machine, looking at wines and just sitting around, all the while, she attempts to help me understand more Bulgarian. Furthermore, we have at least two common vices (wine and coffee), always a great start to an aquantance!

Fall in Svishtov and the WAR ON CARROTS

So, I have been taking a few photos of my everyday routine lately. This is the outside of my soviet era blok. I live in what real-estate agents might term the "penthouse," of course neglecting to add that the elevator is broken. I don't mind a bit though, keeps me in shape without even trying!

Here is our walking park in the center. Isn't it pretty with all the fall colors?

I pass this flower stand every day. Flowers are something that this country does very well. Note the ODD numbers of blossoms in each bouquet. Even numbers are for funerals, and if given to the living are considered very insulting indeed (possibly the equivalent of saying "I wish you were dead"). The American boquet of a dozen roses would NOT work here!

Everyday, I eat lunch with my colleague in what is termed in literal tranlation a "fast kitchen." It sort of reminds me of a high school or college type cafeteria in America, but with more choices and ketchup isn't considered a vegetable. Also, the food is much nicer than what I remember from my high school days. Here is a typical lunch of bean and tomato soup and a roll. It costs 90 stotinki (about 75 cents)!

My living room, with my knitting project on the couch. My computer also serves as my music source at the moment. Finally, note the end table with the family photos and bowls made by my grandfather. It is sort of my mini-shrine to things I love most about the US!

So, I know that some of my readers may be cursious about the title of this blog entry. Upon my departure, my host family gave me about 2 kilos of peppers and maybe 3 of carrots. The peppers were easy enough to cut up and saute, although they are sort of a cullinary guessing game as the peppers are in no way sorted by spiciness. The carrots are another story. They are very tasty, but they are small, and require peeling! The surface area to volume ratio of these things were not in my favor, but after a few weeks of staring at them from across the kitchen I went to work on them last night. This was my trash can afterwards.

And this is my countertop...but notice the finished product of a shredded carrot salad, with additional carrots in a ziplock for later use on the right. By the way, Bulgarian style shredded carrot salad is spectacular in in simplicity. All that is needed is shredded carrots, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, a little wine-vinegar and some salad oil.