Construction

It is worth putting a picture of a typical construction site in Bulgaria, which is completely different looking than construction sites that I was used to seeing in the states. In Bulgaria, there is not so much of the wooden frame approach, or even too much in the way of metal I-beams. This is a small addition to my work building, a new separate enterance for this portion. You can see almost all the steps, from the concrete drying in its scaffold supported mold at the top to the brick fill at the bottom. The concrete is poured around metal re-bar. In this case, the workmen carried the concrete in buckets up the steps as they built them.

At another work-site near my house, I once saw a man kick a board loose from the concrete mold to free fall to the ground...FROM 4 STORIES UP. And this mold was for the ceiling of the third floor, which meant that he was standing on the fourth floor with one foot, and vigourously kicking in mid-air with the other. Can you imagine how quickly an American construction worker would call his lawyer if he were asked to do that?

Sex sells....

...but cucumbers? Do we really want to think about the further implications here? It is a dark path, and this blog will not go there.

This is an advertisement in a food store window near my apartment. They do, in fact, sell cucmbers and I often buy them to make delicious traditional salads.

Field day with falcon boxes!

So, we spent last Thursday in the field installing nest boxes for the Red Footed Falcon, which is a globally endangered species. Historically, Red-Footed Falcons do not build nests, but use the nests from old Rook colonies. Rooks are not so popular with the farmers, so they have been "persecuted" in recent years, and their colonies have been in decline. Also, the falcons like to live in tree stands near open areas (like agricultural land), so that they can hunt for insects (the falcons are pretty small).

So, we placed some nest boxes out among some tree stands near agrilcultural land. Often near water swarming with all sorts of "falcon food." We did this loop during the day in northwest Bulgaria, covering quite an ammount of territory actually. Where we were is much flatter than most of Bulgaria (most of which is just chock-a-block with mountains), but the region is scattered with rolling hills with some limestone outcroppings up above river valleys. We passed through all these dreamy-quiet little villages of ramshakle little old houses with gorgeous flower gardens full of tulips at the peak of their blooming. It makes me happy to see that even in the poor regions outside the more quickly devloping larger towns, that people still have some beauty in their lives. We passed over the Iskar (among other rivers I believe); it was brimming with spring runnoff and far enough away from the bigger roads to be relatively free of litter.

Frankly, I am not sure how to react to the litter problem here. My instinct is to condemn it! To scold Bulgarians that I see littering in the same way that I would scold any American that I saw littering back home (full disclosure: I was once a volunteer park ranger, so shaming people into picking up after themselves was part of my JOB!). In the US, we are told from a very young age, "Don't through that on the ground! It is bad for the animals!" I remember all the education campaigns about birds getting their heads stuck in the plastic rings for soda cans, and endangered sea turtles dying from ingesting plastic bags that resembled jellyfish. Plus, in the US, there are signs everywhere warning of steep fines (I've seen $1,000 posted) for littering.

The hidden linchpin in the American system is this: we have had for years, and continue to have, a dependable and efficient waste collection/disposal system. Despite the fact that we are filling landfills and as a nation, produce far to much trash, that trash has a destination. And when the land fills are full, they are capped, burried, monitored and turned into parks! In Bulgaria, I have seen trash heaps on the side of the road, and official landfills and are not nearly as well contained as the ones I grew up seeing (and I grew up going to the dump with my father, as we didn't have collection in our town). Here, if you throw your trash in the dumpster, it is possible that it will be collected in a timely manner. It is also entirely possible that it will stay there until the dumpster overflows and the trash blows around on the street.

In any case, I picked up a few pieces of trash at the end of our field day (causing the Bulgarians to scratch their heads), at our last falcon box site. It was near a fishing pond, with islands in the middle, that happened to be home to a breeding colony of White Egrets (Бяла Чапла) and Night Herons (Нощна Чапла). I had never seen Night Herons before, so it was a highlight for me! Here is a wider shot of the pond.

Here is a "close up" in relatively speaking terms. The white things in the trees are the egrets!

My Best Day Yet!

So, just a quick one on what I think was my best day yet as a Peace Corps Volunteer.



On my way to work the trees looked like this:

I went to a village and presented to a room full of kiddos about migratory spring birds. I think it was almost all the kids who were in school that day. They were SO attentive, and knew a fair ammount about birds, from living in a small village. They have at least one stork nest there, but the weather was bad so I didn't get a chance to see it. In any case, I had a great time presenting, and the kids were very welcoming. I like to have a little fun when I present, so I made them sing like cukoos, which they did wonderfully. In the photo with me and the two girls, the girl on the left was my little helper...I gave her the "job" of pressing the arrow on my laptop to advance my presentation. She took it SO seriously, and being one of the younger kids I think she was kind of proud that SHE was picked.

Then I had what is arguable one of the best lunches in Bulgaria, called Surmi. Little bundles of rice and meat wrapped up in grape leaves and steamed. Mine were served with yogurt. There are vegetarian versions and versions with cabbage as well, all delcious.

After lunch, I did a little bit of translation for BSPB's website, which I is challenging, but teaches me better Bulgarian. Then, I had my Bulgarian lesson, and would have normally been headed for home, except I had an operetta to go to.



A musical theater company in Veliko Turnovo was putting on "Die Fleitermaus" (English: "The Bat" Български: "Прилепът") by Johan Strauss. They did a FABULOUS job, and I thoughoughly enjoyed the show. I had heard lots of the music before; Die Fleitermaus is supposedly one of the examplars of the genre, and for good reason. Operettas are supposed to be "lighter" in subject than operas, and this one is a society comedy set in old Vienna. The plot has all sorts of kniving behavior and intrigue, and was well acted as well as well sung. Plus there were some only in Bulgaria touches, aside from being performed in Bulgarian. At one point the scantily clad bat dancers (who attend the midnight ball taking place in the second act) let out a pretty distinctive whoop, that is very similar to what you hear from young girls doing traditional folk dances.



Here are some pics from my up high seats (I got comped). I did not manage to capture the bat-dancers unfortunately!

Spring? Maybe?

So, it being March, and I being from the American Northeast, I will not say that I have survived my first Bulgarian winter just yet. I think the places where I have lived in the states have prepared me well for the fits and starts of spring, that may happen here.

I have been thinking quite a bit lately about my role as a PC volunteer here. The economy here changing rapidly. One of the surest signs of economic growth that I have seen is the new construction projects that seem to be all over the place in Svishtov. And these are not just personal homes, these are pretty big buildings with retail and living space going in. Having lived in some rapidly growing areas in the US, the sound of hammers has always been sort of symbolic of economic growth to me.

Now of course, that doesn't mean that there isn't work to be done here. The economy is growing, but that doesn't mean that it will help everyone equitably, nor does is mean that it will grow in an environmentally sustainble fashion. While I know some Bulgarians would disagree with me, the problem doesn't seem to be the money. The problem is what is done with the money.

I think it is difficult for Bulgaria, because this is all happening so rapidly. They have not had time to mature as an economy like many western nations. The EU is having conversations about limiting carbon emissions, corperate social responsibility and sustainable development. This is something that western nations are arriving at after many years of economic prosperity, whereas here, it was only 10 years ago that they had to whack three zeros off the currency because of runaway inflation. To many Bulgarians these concepts seem to be luxeries that only rich countries can afford, whereas westerners see them as things that we can't afford to ignore.

In any case, I am not sure what to make of it. Far be it from me to post a conclusive statement on issues that are still playing themselves out. What I do know is that spring is beginning to arrive, flowers are popping up, and that everyone here seems to be cheering up. I have been visiting some classrooms, and I am trying to wheedle myself into a group of teachers that really care about enviromental education, and try to meet some of their needs. More on the day to day stuff later, I was more in a big picture mood today.

OH.....before I sign off, if you are reading this anywhere in Europe and you like birds, being a nature geek, being outside or the arrival of nicer weather, you should log onto www.springalive.net There are at least versions in at least 2 dozen languages! So righteous!

Riding the rails to Karlovo

Last weekend I took a trip to Karlovo to meet up with some fellow PCV gal pals. This trip marked a few of my firsts: first weekend trip out of Svishtov (other than the holidays), first train trip in Bulgaria and first time to Karlovo. It was a welcome change, to break out of my life here for a short time.

Karlovo has several things going for it on the tourist attraction front. It is right at the foot of the Central Balkans, so there are these absurdly gorgeous mountains looking down at you everywhere you go. Also, Karlovo is the site of an annual rose festival, being right in the middle of Bulgaria's famed rose growing region. Bulgarian rose oil goes for tens of thousands of euros per kilo, and is highly prized in the perfume industry. Last and not least, Karlovo is the birthplace of Vasil Levski, Bulgaria's famed "apostle of freedom" who was the major leader of the National Revival period. The National Revival took place late during the 500 year rule of the Ottoman Empire, and was the beginning of the eventually sucessful push for sovreignty.

We did not get to the Vasil Levski museum, but we did go for a lovely walk in a park at the base of the mountains, and ended up at the waterfall pictured here. And because I was crazy enough to clamber down off the bridge over the stream, I also got this shot of Cindy, Joan and Rajun peering down at me. What can I say? There was a cool rock down there that I wanted to take a look at.

On our way back, Joan and I were able to ride together for a good portion of our journey on the train. I've noticed that Bulgaria PCV's either fall in to the categories of "train people" or "bus people." After my journey, I am FIRMLY a train person now (Thomas, if you are reading this, I have seen the light). The train travels at a nice constant speed and does not ever need to pass slow ladas (a Communist era model of car, not famed for horsepower) on the highway in the fog, nor swerve back into the other lane when an oncoming vehicle is spotted. There is a bathroom on the train. The windows on the train are bigger, so you can see the often GORGEOUS scenery and the interesting little tiny train stations in the middle of the country like this one shot through the somewhat grimy window (note the EU flag, right there next the the BG one). There is more space on the train for baggage, legroom, and possibly for lying down to take a nap. Finally, the train is way cheaper than the bus. To temper my accolades, the bus is a little faster than the train, and there are some destinations to which I would still consider taking the bus if it was a straight shot, versus a complicated set of transfers. The final factor for me though, is that I tend to feel a little motion sick on busses and feel like pondscum when I arrive at my destination. At the end of a train journey, however, I feel like a real human.

Mid Winter Bird Count.....better late than never!

So it has been almost two weeks since the mid-winter bird count, our biggest field excursion of the winter months, but I am only addressing it now. I have had a mild case of the winter blues compounded with some delayed-onset culture shock as I encounter more everyday situations. I think that my brain and my enthusiasm had frozen over for a short time, but they seem to be recovering nicely now.

To illustrate why I am experiencing culture shock I will provide a fun example of a completely alien everyday activity. Did you know that in Bulgaria to retrieve a package you must: 1st) Notice the absense of a log book in your PO box 2nd) Stand in line in the PO box office window to inquire about it and then sign to receive an "invitation" to retraieve your package 3rd) Go stand in line in the parcel office that has it's own separate entrance from the other side of the building in order to be issued a payment slip for a small fee of undetermined origin. 4th) Go to the payment office (yes, another seperate office) on the second floor to pay and have the slip stamped to prove payment. Oddly enough the parcel office does except payments for stamps on outgoing mail, but not for this particular procedure. 5th) Return to the parcel office in order to submit the properly stamped payment slip, so that you can fill out a form with your national ID number and signiture. 6th) Receive the package! Even more perplexing, is that this procedure has been DIFFERENT every time depending on the weight of the package, whether it fits in the post box, who is working that day and possibly the angle of the sun. Again, this is not to criticize Bulgaria as a whole, but it does take a lot of energy to negotiate these wrinkles of being in a new culture, when the wrinkles so often seemingly come out of nowhere. To paint a fuller picture, all of the various ladies behind windows were extremely patient with me in my confusion, and helped me jump through these various hoops. It seems though that I am the only one confused by the existance of the hoops in the first place.

It is high time to get back to the birds. It was one cold day, although very interesting. We saw pelicans, ducks, cormorants, eagles and buzzards! It was extremely exiting to see all this, even in our limited visibility. We were in quite a cold snap at the time, and so many of our small local wetlands had been frozen over. The mighty Danube was mostly clear (although we had some concerns leading up to the day that icebergs which had been spotted upstream of us might arrive), so birds were concetrated there. Even with the cold, we were lucky to be out there. So many potential logistical snafus could have reared their ugly heads, but Emil managed to make it happen. Some of these said snafus: if the roads would be clear to get the boat to the river and allow a jeep to transport our other team along the banks of a smaller river, whether we would be able to see any birds at all in the fog, whether the Nature Park staff would be able free their boat from under the snow in time, whether the engine could be coaxed into working in the cold, which volunteers were crazy enough to come with us and no doubt, myriad other details that were lost in translation.

On the boat ride, we actually were doging floating ice. As you can see, it is an open boat, so it was not the warmest place I've been. It was also not the coldest (having grown up skiing in New England), and I should have been quite comfortable in my absurdly warm ski gear, except for the fact that I needed to go to the bathroom for about half of the duration of the trip. Anyone who has worked outside in the cold knows that "holding it" is about the most cold inducing thing you can do. But what could I do? I was a girl on a rapidly moving open boat accompanied by all males!

In the end though, it was a sucessful day. I was glad to be a part of it, and glad to help compile our data afterwards. Is it weird that I find data entry relaxing? In any case, I am continuing to learn a lot and am looking forward to our next field opportunity.

Bulgarian Christmas and a METER of snow

I appologize for the delay in writing about the holidays, but I will do my best to make it worth the wait. I spent Christmas with my host family in Southwest Bulgaria, along with another Peace Corps Volunteer (Magi, second from left)who lived with them (previous to me). My host family really went out of their way to make us feel welcome, and kept referring to us as "the kids." Here we are on Christmas Eve: Eli is between Magi and I, Bobi is on the far left and in the background is Stoil senior with the ever important wine pitcher.

And next, we have the men of the family: Stoil senior, Stoilcho the teenager and Vasco. Bulgarians tend to skip generations with family names, so there is a distinct possibility that if Soilcho ever has a son, he will be called Vasco as well. Stoil senior still has his wine pitcher; as you can see, he takes his glass filling duty very seriously.


One of the most touching moments for me was Christmas morning in church. It is tradition in the Bulgarian Orthodox church to write the names of your family on a small piece of paper,

and then the priest prays for everyone by name later during the service. Our host grandma (Baba Bobi) included us on the list too, right after the grandkids. Being as this was my first holiday season spent away from my biological family, it felt good to be part of an adopted one.

In Orthodox tradition, Christmas Eve is considered a fast day, which means that no animal products or any kind are eaten. So, Christmas Eve dinner is completely vegan, much to the delight of some of my vegetarian friends. Also Christmas Eve dinner in always eaten on the floor, which must have some sort of symbolic or theological meaning, but I don't know enough to conjecture about it here. As you can see it wasn't really a fast. We had mashed beans, peppers and cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, sweet and savory banitsa (the national pastry) and ceremonial bread with little slips of paper baked into it with "luck" written on them. It was almost like a Bulgarian fortune cookie (not the flavor, the luck).



I also got to visit with the goats, who some of my loyal readers will remember that I befriended. It turns out that my host family has a sheep now too. The goats are named Maya and Galla. The sheep, rather ominously, is not named. Magi, Stoil senior and I took them out for a lovely stroll through the edge of the forest.

After Christmas, I came back to Svishtov for New Year's . Bulgarians do not stop with a simple Happy New Year. They continue on to wish you health, wealth, luck, happiness and a long life. But that is not the big story. On New Year's Day in the evening it started snowing, and really has not let up much since! Today it accumulated to over a meter. The roads out of town are closed, and the sidewalks are just piled high with snow. Many regions of Bulgaria are in offical states of emergency. My power is on and everything, so I am quite comfortable, but I have heard of some power outtages in the villages. We're expecting to be shut in for several days, so I have been buying a little extra food.

Here is a row of parked cars in front of my block.






















Here are people walking down the middle of what normally is a very busy street.















Here is the walking park in the center. It is a nice place to walk, but not an absolutely essential walking corridor. I think it is pretty awesome that someone cleared a path through it for the sole purpose of enjoying the snow.

Not knowing what I am singing

So, I have joined a choir. Not just any choir but "The First Bulgarian Choir," meaning the first choir established in Bulgaria to sing Western and Central European style classical music. We also sang a Christmas concert in "The First Bulgarian Chitalishte." Svishtov, as I've mentioned before is first in a lot of things, and Svishtovlia (the unofficial term for people who live here) like to remind me and each other of these first as often as humanly possible. Here is the recently and quite classily renovated interior audotorium in said "First Bulgarian Chitalishte."


The program consisted of mostly traditional English language carols translated into Bulgarian. The one exception was one verse of Jingle Bells, where the English words were transliterated into the Bulgarian alphabet. Luckily, I, like most Christmas celebrating Americans, had studied these lyrics extensively in my youth (AKA, I sang it over and over with my little friends). More exiting is that I will continue to be in the choir in the new year. I hope to make some new friends, and maybe improve my Bulgarian pronounciation with all that singing! I will keep my readers posted, of course!

I know you are jealous

...but I have what is unquestionable the coolest security door ever. It actually used to be on the door of another environmental NGO in town. My friend, Georgi, who works there actually made it!

Also FYI, the Bulgarian translation of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" just came out. It is literally "Harry Potter and the Gifts of Death."

Visiting the neighbors

Last weekend, I baked the Swedish cardomom recipe that my family always makes at Chistmastime. I figured it would get me into the holiday spirit and I also baked enough to give some away.

On Monday evening, I knocked on the door of my elderly neighbors with a massive loaf in tow. They, of course, made a HUGE fuss and ushered me in to have dinner with them. Dinner was toast, with a variety of toppings to choose from. Special for me, was an addition of "ketchmak" or a sort of polenta-esque, but sweet Bulgarian cornmeal concoction served with walnuts on top. We had a long conversation, and I understood a fair ammount of it. They were very patient and helpful in helping me understand new words.

Just as we have all seen Americans shout slowly at non-English speakers in English, some Bulgarians do the same to me. This elderly couple didn't though. They seemed to assume that I am intellegent and capable of hearing normal speech, even if I don't have the language skills to prove it yet. I think they also are a bit lonely and isolated. The woman has trouble going down the 6 flights of stairs from the apartment, and so does not go out very often. Consequently, they both seemed really happy to have someone new to talk to.

Our conversation (or what I could understand of it) was pretty interesting. From what I could understand, they were both university educated here in Svishtov, where they met (love at first site, according to Mrs.). I got a thourough introduction to the history of Svishtov, which has proven to be an almost inexhaustible topic with most locals. In addition to being the first city to be freed from the Ottoman Empire and posessing the first Bulgarian chitalishte (community center) , apparently Svishtov was the location of the first piano in Bulgaria as well as the first western style ladies' hat (if I understood correctly), couretesy of trading partners upstream on the Danube. I also got to hear about the couple's travels to Kiev and Lenningrad (today St. Petersburg) with the erstwhile state run "BalkanTourist" travel agency. I even spooned sugar out of one of their souvenirs!

I've been thinking about them a lot over the past few days. Their whole world was turned upside down by the fall of Communism. They used to be middle class, vacation taking, souvenir buying people with jobs. Now they are living on what ammounts to a pittance of a pension and having toast for dinner in an old apartment with a broken elevator. So much of the development work going on in Bulgaria today has to do with building the skills and confidence of youth, which is extremely important work. I only hope that someone remembers the elderly, who are far too used to a system that rewards silence and compliance to speak up for themselves.

Feeding the Birds (a bit)

So, last week I took part in my first (drum roll please) educational activity with local school kids. We (two other BSPB-ers and myself) went to a biology classroom, where we made bird feeders with several classes worth of students. I was mostly an observer and sort of bopped around the classroom speaking cavewoman-esque Bulgarian to them. Right now my strategy building relationships with Bulgarians (including kids) is to attempt to make really lame jokes in Bulgarian, and then smile and appologize if they don't go over well. I employed this along with shaking my head yes* and smiling a lot.



So the lesson went like this. One of our superstar teenage volunteers presented how to make the feeders and why they are especially helpful during winter months. Students made the feeders out of plastic bottles they has brought, and put bird-seed in them. Sunflowers are a pretty major agricultural crop here, so sunflower seeds are a common snack (and sunflower oil, rather than olive oil the cooking/ salad oil of choice). The problem is the students brought snack sized bags of seeds....and mostly 1-2 litre bottles. So everyone had an inch or two of seeds in the bottoms of their bottles. Then we went to the forest nearby, where we hung the bird feeders. Kids were up in trees, running around and generally running amok, but we had a great time. The forest at the edge of town looks a little funny with all these nearly empty bottles hanging in it, but the kids got outside and are at least thinking about birds. I am lobbying for a spring clean-up to retrieve the bottles.

It was nice to meet some kiddos here in town. I have an interview this Tuesday with a 7th grade reporter from the school newspaper. I was actually recently interviewed for local television as well. I haven't seen the segment, but apparently everyone else in town has. It is a weird experience being interviewed in a language that you have only been speaking for 4 months! If I can get a copy of it, I will post it.

*A footnote for western readers. Nodding and shaking of one's head have opposite meanings of what we do in the west. I heard once that the gestures originated among Bulgarians during the days of the Ottoman Empire, seen as a dark period in Bulgarian history. The idea is that Bulgarians would nod their heads "no" in a secret gesture of defiance when talking to Ottoman officials, who read the gesture as "yes." I have not been able to verify this, but it would be a logical explanation.

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.

More old-ish photos...

So, these are all old-ish photos, as my batteries in my digital camera are currently dead. I promise, I will buy new ones soon and post tons of photos of Svishtov! Captions are below each one.

One of my bird boys catching a lizard during my site visit in September.

This photo and the two following show one of the top reasons why you need to come to Bulgaria, the Seven Rila Lakes.

Thomas contemplating the majesty of nature.

Rajun and I being goofy. Can't you almost feel the love emmanating from this one?

Nazi artifacts for sale at the trinket bazar in central Sofia. N.B. vintage Leica's with the Nazi seals on them and the luftwaffe helmets under the table.

Me with Max, one of my technical trainers during PST and my illustrious predecessor in Svishtov, about five minutes after I found out I was going to be his replacement. Don't we look like we could be related?