All is well

This is weird writing a blog about just normal things now. I don't have any crazy travel stories or adventures to write about. Everything is going well over here. I got my Polk audio system for christmas and I love it. I'm currently lying in bed listening to it while I'm typing. I also got the perfect companion for this system by getting an external hard drive. I got an 80GB one at first, but it encrypted everything and my itunes, etc. couldn't see it. Then I synced it to my comp after i had put everything onto the drive and deleted it from my comp. It almost deleted all my pictures and music forever! Thank god i had put my most important photos on my mp3 player. I returned that one and got a much bulkier, but reliable and simple, 160GB hard drive. Now I will never have to worry about losing space again. I'm just downloading everything i've wanted and the speed is really good over the wireless network in the house.
I've been eating like a king lately, we had fondue last night, I just had croissants for breakfast and all the normal kind of dinners for christmas before that. I've been to jarryd's a lot and I have fun over there. Then again, jarryd's house is the place to be after christmas, lol. I'm going to go paint balling with him and some other people on friday, should be fun. Everythig is going well between carolyn and I, we've been enjoying ourselves while working through the list of things each of us has to do before we go back to school.
I am very happy with the way that everything is going now and I couldn't ask for more. I'm off to bouquet gardens on tuesday, funny, the fact that i'm staying there is the only reason i'm not dreading going back to pitt. Everyone's busy helping with preparations for indonesian dinner tonight, 15 people need a lot of food. I think we're going to go out for dinner for new years and then i'm gonna have a little something here at home. I won't get plastered, but i wouldn't mind enjoying myself with my friends before it's off to pitt once again.

Going home

So this is my last entry in bulgaria. It seems like my flight will be leaving on schedule and everything should work out. I'm sad that i'm leaving here, i really enjoyed it. It's going to be hard to leave and i know i'm going to miss everything and everyone. if i could spend more time here, i definitely would. Not much to say about this, don't want to dwell on it too much. I'll be home in a few hours!

Done!

Finished, klar, finito, the end. I'm done with everything! I just finished my finals and all the other paperwork i had to do. I have nothing else to do but pack and be on my way! We have dinner at 4:30 and then we're "hosting" a party in our suite tonight. It should be a lot of fun. I have had such a great time here and it's going to be hard to leave, but at the same time, I'm very ready to go home. I'm going to find a book to read on the plane tomorrow and pick up the thank you letter for donating my books to the library. My science prof was so impressed at how good i was at his class that he tried to persuade me to have a minor and science when i gave him my final. Tomorrow is going to be a relaxed day filled with packing and goodbyes. It's both a wonderful and terrible thing.

Good and bad news

Last night was great. I came back to my room to find that I had finally got my room assignment. I was convinced that they were just going to stick me in towers, but to my wonderful surprise, I have been put into bouquet gardens! These are by far the best dorms on campus. It's 4 bedroom apartment style room with a kitchen that includes a stove, fridge, and microwave. I get my own room to sleep in and I can make my own food. It is also located right in between the two buildings that all of my classes are in. It is incredibly hard to get into these apartments and I cannot even fathom how lucky I am. Dad also started looking into the internship for Deloitte, so I can start preparing for something.
The bad news is that the fog is back and in full force. I can barely see across the courtyard it's so thick. I really hope it clears for my flight, otherwise i don't know what I'll do. Rasika left to go home last night, it's weird now that he's gone, the room feels more empty. I have written 5 pages of my paper, only 10 more to go. It shouldn't be too hard, I just have to do it.

Nearing the End

So Rasika is leaving tomorrow night, even though technically it is later today. Everything is sort of winding down as everyone is studying for finals and having dinners together before we all disperse. I managed to break my headphones a little more today, so i decided to tape them severely, they should hold on for a good while longer. My favorite socks have also worn through pretty much, it's a shame that they're the thinnest pair, would've been better it they made any difference in the weight of my luggage. I don't think there is going to be a definite problem with my flight, they have left on time the last three days. I managed to get a hold of Carolyn today and we chatted in amongst our studying. I am going to be home for such a short period of time that I'm planning things out a few days before I leave. I still don't know where I'm living next semester, and I still continue to get offers for apartments, I'm getting sick of telling all these people no. I realized that I really do miss home now because I feel that I haven't been talking to people from home enough. Sometimes I get anxious when I don't talk to carolyn for a while. There's no real big reason, probably just that I'm really far away and want to talk to someone from home. I learned today that the Internship Cafe that I signed up for in January might have a Deliotte representative there, hopefully it's the lady that dad has worked with. I have this paper to finish writing, which is due on monday, not tuesday; and then german on monday and science on tuesday. I have to get a bunch of signatures so that i can order a transcript and send it to pitt. I got a car to drive me to the airport at 2am. The school is organizing it, so i have faith in the fact that it will show up, otherwise i'm screwed. That's it for now.

Somewhat good news

I looked up the flights this morning and all of them left of time, so maybe there is hope yet. I am currently cleaning up my computer because I have something like 2.6 GB of space on my computer. I am compressing my files and it continues to find multiple copies of the same trojan. The numbers are staggering, I wonder why it's only finding them while I compress the files. Hopefully this will help my computer out. I have begun studying for various finals. I have marketing on thurs and the guide that he gave us is all over the place. I have to constantly flip back and forth through the book to find things. I also have to start writing this massive 15 page paper that our prof assigned us last thursday that's due on tuesday. We might revolt in class today. Only today and tomorrow and class is over!

The Final Fling

So my trip started off well. I went straight from class to the bus station and caught the train to Belgrade. I decided to get a sleeper car because it was heated and I didn't want to run into the troubles we had to Athens. The train left on time and arrived on time, apparently an incredible event, the train is usually at least 3-4 hrs late. I arrived in Belgrade around 6:45am and walked around and took some pictures. After figuring out that I was in a different time zone, I went to the bus station to see when I could go to Sarajevo. There were a few buses, but for me it was either 10am or 10pm. I decided to take the 10am bus, which left in 10 min. I had to withdraw money because I forgot to change me leva into euros. I caught the bus, satisfied with my 3hrs in Belgrade. The scenery on the way to Sarajevo was amazing. I made it to Sarajevo around 5:30pm and tried to make my way to the center of town. First i had to struggle with my lack of exchangable currency again, and eventually found an ATM. Then i tried to find my way to the center. There are 2 bus stations in Sarajevo, one very close to the center, and one about 12km from the city. I unknowingly was at the far one. After asking people for directions i finally gave in and took a taxi that was parked on the sidewalk. I made it into the center and found a hostile for 10 euro. Then I sat around and talked to a Finnish and a French guy, who I ended up going to the clubs with. We had our fun and came back around 3am. The craziest thing happened. There was a japanese guys in our hostile who looked strangely familiar. I didn't want to be racist and just assume that they all look that same (which i don't), so i asked him whether he had been to Ohrid. Turns out that he's the same guy that I met on the bus to Ohrid. What a small world. The next day I walked around the city and took pictures and bought a souvenir for Henk. Then I went to the bus station to wait for the bus to Podgorica so that I could go to Kotor. I was sitting down and reading my book when a couple asked me where I was going. I said Podgorica and they said that they were driving there and that i could go with them for the same price as the bus. I decided to go with them. The ride was fine, but the road to the border was absolutely terrifying. It randomly went from paved to unpaved, teetering on the edge of a cliff, barely wide enough for 2 cars. It went on forever and I was convinced that these people were going to kick me out and leave me for dead. Eventually we made it to the border and went through a national park in Montenegro. Even though it was dark, I was awestruck. It was like driving through solid limestone. We must have gone through at least 25 tunnels of varying length. The silhouette of the mountains were amazing. One the way down the weather turned terrible. The fog was so thick that we could barely see the white line in the middle of the road. I thought we were going to have to pull over and wait. We made it through the fog and rain and more fog and eventually made it to podgorica around 10pm. I decided to take the 10:45 bus to kotor and got there around 1am. I had no intention of sleeping anywhere, so I decided to stay awake all night and walk around the city until day broke and then head off somewhere else. Kotor is truly beautiful. A small walled city made almost entirely out of limestone. The whole city is paved in it and the buildings range from the 6-19th century. I really liked it there and after day broke I went up the mountain to get a good view and some exercise. I then headed back to Podgorica to make my way back home. I left Kotor around 9am and got to podgorica around 11. I went to pay for a ticket too nis, serbia, only to find that I had lost my ATM card. needless to say i was thrown into a flat panic. I was freaking out because i only had leva and they didn't exchange it here. I told one taxi driver who really helped me out by trying to find someone on the "black market" who exchanged leva. He ended up exchanging euro with me and i exchanged 120 leva for 50 euro. A 10 euro loss for me, but better than any other option. he also arranged for me to take a direct bus to sofia through a private company that left at midnight from a hotel parking lot. I was grateful, but suspicious of how shady it was. Now I had to wait around and I had almost 12 hrs before the bus left. I sat in the hotel and finished my 400 pg book i had received on thursday afternoon. If this bus didn't show up in its shady circumstances, i would be screwed, so i decided to take the indirect bus to nis at 8:15pm. I slept the entire 10hr trip. Strangely enough, there was no border check b/w montenegro and serbia. I made it to nis around 8am and the next bus to sofia left at 5pm. I found the train station and there was a train leaving at 1:10, so i did that. I walked around the city to kill time and finally caught the train, which was almost 2 hrs late. The train back was insane. Everyone was smuggling something. The train was packed full at the border, even the hallway was stuffed full. I saw at least 3000 packs of cigarettes being smuggled in different ways. People hiding them in panels, around their waists, legs, everywhere. It was a good weekend and I probably left some stuff out, but i've written this entry with many distractions, the biggest one being the almost certain cancellation of my flight next week due to fog. It makes it worse that there is only one flight to philly from frankfurt each day, so it's going to be tons of fun getting back. so a warning to those picking me up, I might not be able to get home at the appropriate time, or even day. I might even have to fly to somewhere else, i don't know. I'm hoping for the best right now, and we'll just have to wait and see.

Christmas Already?

Yesterday our german class was constantly interrupted by a concert going on outside and some guy yelling on a microphone. After class Kiro and I went to check it out and it turned out to be a christmas concert of some kind, on the 4th of December! The performances by kids and others alike were actually quite good, evenif Santa did arrive in a police car along with snow white. There was a dance team of girls dancing to the tokyo drift song, and they were good. The funny thing though was that there was a little girl of maybe 5 dancing with them. Afterwards there were fireworks which could be seen from almost anywhere in the city. I really hope this isn't going to continue until I leave. New years eve in bulgaria is going to be nuts this year with them joining the EU, and from what Kiro tells me, it's crazy to begin with. Everyone has fireworks and the whole country is like a war zone w/ all of them going off. God knows what this year will be like. It's a shame I'm going to miss it. I got my watch fixed and now it's solid as a rock, much better than before. I am going to be traveling alone again this weekend because I'm the only one that can leave on wed. I'm planning to go around serbia for a little, then to Sarajevo in bosnia, and then spend as much time in montenegro as possible. Bond my not have been shot there, but I can see why they wanted ppl to think it was. The landscapes look incredible, so I'm going to try and make it as close to the coast as i can. I will probably not be going to Belgrade because it's too far north and has been destroyed 40 times in 2300 years. I'm not sure what will happen on this particular trip, but it should be a blast.

Empty Weekend

After giving blood and the Sg party, both which were fun and fulfilling, I realized on friday that this is the first weekend that I'm not doing anything. It's been thanksgiving, macedonia, and everything else that I've been up to. I was going to go to Sofia for water polo, but decided to get a really good nights sleep and swim at the local pool instead. I have a really tough workout that is related to water polo training, so I think I'll give it a try. The fact that I'm not really doing anything is also magnified by the fact that a lot of people are not here. They either went home or are traveling (to places i've already been). I also thought about the fact that I still haven't been to the Rila monastery, so I have to do that before I go. I don't think I'll be able to do it this weekend because I need two other people and a Bulgarian so that we can make a deal with a taxi driver and split the fare. I definitely cannot do it next weekend because I'm pretty sure I'm going to Serbia and hopefully Montenegro. I watched the new Bond movie after dad suggested it because it's supposed to be set in Montenegro. I liked the movie and the scenery, but was disappointed when I found out that it was filmed in Italy and the Czech republic. Oh well, just means I'm going to have to go to the Czech republic. I was talking to Carolyn on Skype last night and amazingly there was barely any delay. Unfortunately I had to run out and get my pizza because they get mad when you make them wait, and when I started talking to her again, the fire alarm went off in her building! I have finally depleted all the money from my Bulgarian bank account. I literally have nothing left in my wallet. I get charged a flat fee of $3.50 for using my american Visa, so I've guessed that i'll need about 300 leva for the rest of my time here. I'll be going down to the ATM soon, I really hope the machine doesn't just give me three hundreds because I would have a really hard time breaking them. As I near the end of my stay here in Bulgaria, I'm really happy that I'm going to be back home and see the family and friends. But I also am sad that I'm leaving, because I really like my friends here, and I know it's going to be hard to see them again. They don't want me to leave either, and everyone that asks how long I'm staying cringes when I say that I'm leaving soon, and they try and convince me to stay. It's really odd, but people here are just so much easier to befriend than people back at pittsburgh. All the people that I hung out with last year don't talk to me that much anymore, and I really don't mind that they don't. My challenge next semester is going to be finding friends as wholesome as the ones that I have made here. Luckily Oksana and John will be coming back to pitt, so that's a good start. I feel like I'll be in this distant situation when I come back home, but with all my friends here because most of them are staying. I was surprised to find out that only 15 students are here for only one semester, and I know every single one of them. We have to do a ridiculous amount of stuff before we leave. We have to collect something like 6 separate signatures, write a letter to the guy who sponsors the scholarship, turn in our ID cards (which I really want to keep), and complete an exit survey. I really don't know why we have to do all this stuff, but I guess I don't have much choice.
Well, I'm tired of typing here sitting in my underwear. I'm going to get dressed and see if I can get the money, eat something, and hopefully go swimming soon.
See all of you in a few weeks!

Happy days

We made it to trent's house and after everyone was in awe of how nice his house was, we watched a little football on tv. around 5ish we started eating a pretty much standard issue thanksgiving dinner. I hadn't eaten anything all day (on purpose), so just kept eating. eventually people started finishing off and giving up, but i never got incredibly full. after dinner we lay around for a while, fighting off the tryptophan. Then we started drinking. We drank for quite a long time, but it was so spaced out and i had eaten so much that it really didn't have a effect on me. At night we went to a really exclusive club because trent knew someone that knows everyone in town. we were there for a little while and left after about an hour and a half. we went to grab something to eat, and then had to walk around trying to find three of our group who had decided to part ways and go to a casino. After we found them we went back home, but we had to take 3 separate taxis and the last one got lost. After some frantic phone calls and some walking, they finally made it back. the next day we woke up and had a mexican breakfast (burritos w/ egg, etc.). then i ran off to water polo to play. unfortunately the team i was supposed to play w/ had off, so i just swam for a while and then played around. I came back to trent's house to find that everyone except for joe (american guy) had gone home because he and trent had tickets to the opera that night through the school (only 4 leva a ticket). I decided to go with them to see if i could get a ticket and i did, so i watched the opera with them. I took the bus back to aubg because it was free (part of the school trip) and we would get back in time for the albanian party. There was a party in our building because sunday was albanian independence day, so they threw a party on saturday night. It was a really good party, by the time i arrived back from sofia around 10:30, people were already drunk. I went downstairs and something to drink, and then went out and ended up having dinner at a place called paparazzi around 4 in the morning. Yesterday wasn't too eventful, just did nothing and finished my science hw. I plan on giving blood on thursday. I would like to give blood in the states, but the american red cross won't take my blood, so i'm going to try here. the pin holding my strap on my watch broke, so i'm going to try and find a jeweler to fix it, my wrist feels naked w/o it. I don't have that much time left here, so i'm going to try and do as much as i can in the next 3 and a half weeks. as a start, i'm going to try and really get my hair cut tomorrow, i really hope this guy gets it right. I need to do it though because my hair is growing more out than down.

Imported Thanksgiving

Well, I'm off to Sofia to spend Thanksgiving (on a friday) at Trent's house. I think he's importing stuff from the states because he works for the state department and he imports all of his meat anyway. I going to try and play water polo tomorrow while I'm there. I played in the beer pong tournament last night and my team mate didn't show up so I just had Oksana pretend to be her. We won the first game in overtime and unfortunately lost the second. I had no idea that Oksana was so competitive. She high fived me so hard that she broke the pin to the strap in my watch. Luckily i think that's easily fixed. Anyway, I must be off. I'm going to starve myself until dinner because I know that it's going to be a lot food.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Incredible Weekend

Well, I said I hoped to come back with stories and I wasn't disappointed. The stories actually began before I even left.
We had agreed to meet after class and go straight to the bus station. I came to class ready to go and noticed that Sheylah didn't have any bags with her. She informed me that she couldn't go because she had a big test that she had to study for. Oksana couldn't go either because of some work. I was a little upset because it was 4:15pm and someone could have told me something before I was all ready to go. Because of the sudden change in their plans, I decided to keep to mine and went on my own. I made it to Sofia by 8pm and a friend of mine helped me find the buses to Macedonia. Low and behold, the only bus leaving to Ohrid was 2 hours late and would be leaving at 9 instead of 7, my lucky day. When the bus finally arrived to a hoard of freezing travelers (because this part of the station was outside), we looked for our seats. I sat in my seat and eventually a lady was looking very lost searching for her own. In listening to her ask others about the seat numbers, I instantly recognized that she was SOUTH AFRICAN! And she just happened to be sitting next to me with intent of also going to Ohrid. The first thing I said to her was not "hello," but "are you south african?" She was shocked because I sounded american to her and she didn't expect that at all. It turns out that she is just as culturally confused as me. She left South Africa 17 years ago and had been living in London ever since. She also carries a Dutch passport on account of her parents, I'm not sure if she spoke any dutch.
We made it to Ohrid at 5am an ended up taking an offer from a guy who approached us at the station. He had good rooms at a cheap rate. He also was very knowledgeable about the buses and when and where to take them.
We walked around town for awhile trying to warm up and keep busy until the sun came out. Eventually it did and we took a bus to a nearby monastery near the Albanian border. For some odd reason there were peacocks at this monastery, so I enjoyed taking quite a few pictures. Afterwards we looked for something to do when found out that the next bus wasn't coming for another 2 hours. We decided to take a boat tour of a tributary formed by springs. I don't think I have ever seen water that crystal clear in my life. Other people who have been on the tour include Richard Gere and Naomi Campbell. Afterwards we sat around and eventually a taxi decided to arrive right around the time when the bus was supposed to come. Generally they just want the same as the bus fare, so it wasn't that big a deal. That night we had to go to bed early, because we had to get up at 5am to catch the bus to the remote monastery on top of a mountain. Mia (the lady I was with) went to bed right after we got back, but I decided to catch the sunset and eat some of the Ohrid Trout. I spent forever looking for a specific restaurant only to find that they didn't have any. I went to a different restaurant and found what I was looking for. I asked him for 250g of fish because it was about $19 a pound. He brought out a filleted fish and told me how much it was going to be. Then he went into the kitchen and the chef cooked it for me. I got a lot of other things with the fish, plenty of bread, an amazing garlic sauce, a spicy macedonian sauce, cooked onions, vegetables, and potatoes. I put the garlic sauce on almost everything. I had fun eating the fish because it still had the bones and skin. I did rather well and it was absolutely delicious. It was cooked perfectly and the flavor was incredible. After the fish I went back to the room and slept like a baby.
We woke up at 5ish and made our way to the station. There were a lot of people who were willing to drive us for the same price as the bus again, so we did that. We got to the foot of the mountain around 8am. After a very long hike uphill, we got to the top around 10:30. We were rather tired. The monastery was really nice, and it still offers accommodation for people. We walked around and rested for awhile, and then decided to go back down. We asked someone for the fastest way down, and we ended up walking down with 3 macedonians who told us all about macedonia and other things. It was great. The one guy spoke great english which he learned from watching tv. They invited us into their house and we had juice and coffee. Then he drove us to the bus station and found someone to drive us back to Ohrid. We made it to about halfway and caught a bus for the second half.
I was going to either go back to sofia that night, or try and go to albania that night. I was strongly encouraged not to go to albania at night, so i stayed the night and went in the morning. I took the 6am bus to the border and made it into albania, but i didn't have the 10 euro for the entry visa, so i turned around and went back to macedonia. Needless to say, that's about as much of albania as a wanted to be in. I was going to try and go to Tehran, the capital of albania, but there were no direct buses to sofia for there, and it would've been really complicated. I pretty much spent the rest of the day enjoying the weather and taking tons of pictures.
If you like landscapes and similar scenery, bring lots of memory for your camera if you go to macedonia, because you WILL run out of space.
Around 1:30 I made it up to the top of the hill in the city where there was a church and a castle. I figured this was the best place to see the sunset and I had nothing to do until my bus left for sofia at 7pm, so i just sat up there and waited for the sunset. It was around 4pm (2.5 hours later) that the sunset began. Needless to say it was worth the wait. There were some gorgeous clouds that the sun passed through and everything was perfect. I took at least 70 pictures of that particular sunset and I love every single one. Hopefully you can access facebook and see them.
My ride back to sofia was terrible, and by the end I was in that kind of mood when you just want to kill everyone on the bus and just hope someone pisses you off so that you have an excuse to go berserk. I made it to sofia around 5am and waited for my bus to blagoevgrad at 6:40. I was exhausted and hungry and I had a thumping headache. The bus to blagoevgrad was really nice and i felt much better by the time i got back. I went straight to the main building and talked to my marketing professor because i missed class on friday. I explained what happened and he told me what I missed. Then I came back to Skapto and slowly normalized myself.
I'm really glad i went and have convinced sheylah and oksana that they missed out big time. Traveling alone sometimes is better because you can do what you want when you want to. You also get to meet people and might end up spending a few days with them. I'm glad I decided to go and also that my country count is up to 24!
One month until I come home!

Off again

Well, it hasn't been much of an interesting week here. Mom, dad, and Kari had a crazy weekend which would take quite a while to explain. I wasn't quite sure what I was doing this weekend until Oksana said that she and Shaylah were going to Macedonia. I have decided to join them and have a good time. Shaylah has to come back early because her boyfriend is coming to visit on Sunday. Oksana and I have no reason to go back early, so I'm hoping that we could hop over to Albania, or something like that. We both have science class on monday morning, but he's out of the country next week, which adds almost another day to our weekend (we do have class at 4:15 on monday though). I'm leaving right after class and not too many people know I'm going because I only decided last night. I'm going to miss the Ukrainian party tomorrow, oh well.
I'm not in much of a writing mood right now, so I'm just going to say goodbye and hopefully I'll be back on Monday with some stamps in my passport and some stories to tell!

What to do w/ no power

Yesterday the power went out just before it got dark. Very soon after that the internet went too. It was out for about 2 hours, but it was fun seeing what it was like to be in the dorms with no light or power. It was really peaceful and I had fun spotlighting people with Rasika's ridiculously powerful flashlight. When we came back from our midterms this morning, the internet wasn't working. It was connected, but nothing was happening. Again, we had to find other things to do. Kiro had his paper to write, but I just messed around seeing that the only thing I have in the near future is my german midterm on monday. We amused ourselves for awhile and then Kiro left for class. I sat here getting ready to read my book (which I will), and just as I was about to start, the internet came back.
Now that I'm sufficiently up to date, I can rest easy and read my book.

Water Polo

So I made it to Sofia last night around 7:30 and got to the pool after some confusion and taxi fares. I met the coach and president etc. and swam around for a while because they weren't really practicing. I threw the ball around w/ one guy from a different team who was huge, and a really good shooter. To my amazement, it was his first practice in 2 years! I played goalie for a while (meaning he launched balls at me) and then made my way home on the late train. After seeing what it was like, it would be really beneficial for me to play with these guys because they are all much better than me. The problem is that it is that it would be way too expensive to go there often. It's going to cost me around 20 leva a trip to get there and back, so it isn't really worth the amount of practice that I would get, even though I really want to do it! I think I'm going to call the coach and ask him to send me a workout schedule and things that I can do on my own, and hopefully the pool here in Blagoevgrad is bearable.
In other news, I got a 98% on my science midterm, so I'm pretty much set in that class, I hope. I had my falsifications midterm yesterday, and pretty much no one in the room knew what the questions were about. It should be interesting to see what she says about our work.

Nice trip home

The bus I took last night left at 8:30pm and the shuttle picked me up at 7 from the tourism office. For some reason, most Turkish buses have stewardesses (I would be PC, but bus attendant just sounds bad)! We only had to get out of the bus once at the border, where it felt like it was 10 degrees below. I got into Sofia around 6:25am and found a bus leaving for Blagoevgrad at 6:40. I finally made it back to Skapto around 8:30 and just dumped all my stuff on the floor. I uploaded, tagged, and described my 231 pictures seeing that I had time for it. I ordered pizza from retro for the first time on my own, and after some confusion I got my food around 12:20. I think i'm going to lay all my presents out that i've bought so far so that i can see who i still have to buy for. I don't have that many people left, so it shouldn't be too hard. Speaking of presents, i found out today that mom, dad, and kari are going w/ on a diving trip to Hondorus. I would be sore about it, but this means that i'm really the only person out of the four of us getting any real presents for christmas, lol.
My postcard reached Frau Burgess, my H.S. german teacher the other day, she was happy about it. Now we just have to see how much longer it takes Carolyn's package to reach her, seeing that I sent the card and the package on the same day.
Hopefully I will be able to get a hold of the coach/president of the water polo team that was suggested for me tomorrow. I visibly lost a little weight after my trip and my stomach definitely shrank a little, nothing a weeks worth of canteen can't fix.
I have 3 tests this week. Falsifications doesn't really matter because i've read everything and grades don't really matter there. Marketing was pretty easy last time, but still have to study for the one, but german is going to be the toughest. I haven't really taken a midterm at this level of a language before, so I'm just going to have to practice as much as possible until wed.
It's kind of funny, towards the end of my trip this week, I missed AUBG like a second home. Funny how an uncomfortable bed, schoolwork and tests can be welcoming thoughts.

Fall Break

So, I have nothing to do and it's snowing/raining outside so I may as well write this incredibly long entry.
Night of 27th, Friday
First we had to get to Athens. we took the train and got to thessaloniki about 1.5hrs late only to find that our connecting train had left an hour ago. We had to upgrade our tickets for 22 euro so that we could take the next train to athens instead of waiting until 7 in the morning. Everyone was pissed, but i just laughed because there was nothing we could do.
Saturday, 28th
All of us went our separate ways in the morning. Josh, Sheyla and I went walking around and did as much as we could because sheyla was leaving on her flight later that day. We found a nice hill that had a great view of the whole city. After dropping Sheyla off, josh and i decided to walk to Pireaus, the port town of Athens. It was a REALLY long walk. We must have walked about 5 mi on the highway before we gave in and took a taxi, even though we were almost there. We had something to drink and saw the sights and decided to go back to athens before it got dark. We found out the it cost 0.50 to take the bus back to Athens, so we went that way. We went out that night and Josh and i wanted to show everyone the hill we found and see the city by night. Unfortunately there were riot police all over the neighborhood, so we decided to pass. we went out for a drink and I had a really good mojito, probably one of the best drinks i've ever had. Sunday, 29th
We made our way to the Acropolis, where i got in for free because i was right on the youth cutoff of 19. we took a lot of pictures and then went to ancient agora, city ruins. Then we went to the Olympic complex where walked around and took pictures of the various stadiums, etc. going back to the train station we saw a massive building that looked like a mall. Of course the americans almost wet their pants and we went inside. for some reason all the stores were closed, but the restaurants were open. Trent spotted something and it turned out to be a Hooters. We went up and I had 3 mile island wings. They were delicious. I think i had more on my face than in my stomach, haha. It was Josh's birthday on the upcoming friday, so we had to embarrass him and announce it was his birthday. They made him cheer while on his chair, so much fun. That night we were in our room and trent walked over Preston's bed and a part of it cracked. Preston then had the great idea of testing its strength and broke the bed further. the next hour was spent reorganizing and arranging the bed. Josh and I then went back to the acropolis to see it at night and get a good view of the city, it was great.
Monday, 30th
The next day the weather sucked, it was overcast and was going to rain. Josh and i had planned to go to the beach, so we did anyway. We visited a sea turtle rescue center where they had leather backs and green turtles. Then we got seriously wet and after getting lost and even more soaked, we made it back to our hotel. We pretty much stayed in that night and trent and I bought some beers categorized by number. they were really good and all pretty different.
Tuesday, 31st
We went to the port city via the metro to see when we had to leave for the ferry and how much it was going to cost. They told us that due to the weather, the ferry probably wasn't going to be running, so we had to revamp our plans.We decided to go back to the mall considering that the weather was getting worse. We went to a best buy-like store that had free internet so that we could cancel our reservations. After that Trent, preston and james went to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch and Josh and I went to an interesting restaurant. I had a really good dish the i will definitely make when I come home. we walked around and that night they decided to go back to Blagoevgrad because they couldn't take anymore traveling and trent had to be in sofia. I definitely wasn't going back to the dorms, so i decided to go to Istanbul. Some guy at the train station about our age on many kinds of drugs was talking to us, but at the top of his voice. He attracted a lot of attention and after he bought us a beer to apologize.
Wednesday, 1st
This entire day was spent getting to Istanbul, I left Athens at 11pm, 31st, and got to istanbul at 10pm, 1st. 23hrs of traveling fun, at least the weather was much better. I even had the exact same crappy sleeping car that we had between paris and milan, but i managed to sleep all the way. I had to call the hostel to pick me up from the trains station, but the centers were closed so i had to use a hotel's phone. Eventually i got here and stayed up for a while before hitting the sack.
Thursday, 2nd
Because of the good weather, I decided to see all the mosques and do all the outside sight seeing i could. I went to the palace, but decided not to go because of the price. on the way back, I ran into peter and the polish girls from AUBG! What are the odds? he only knew i was in istanbul because i had said so on facebook. anyway, we went into the museum and saw some incredible stuff. there was a 5r carat diamond right next to an 84 carat diamond(found in a garbage dump and bought for 3 spoons). There was john the Baptist's arm and skull, and an entire room that is considered holy in the Muslim religion. It was the first time i got goosebumps in a museum. After all the things in the museum, we went to the Grand Bazaar, tons of fun. After that we went back to our respective hostels, and met up later for a drink. By the end of the night, everyone in my hostel knew peter. The owner of the hostel was also drinking, and decided to take us in a taxi for kebabs on the other side of town. It was crazy but really fun.
Friday, 3rd
Peter came to my hostel to get me in the morning, I had slept in and had 5 min to get ready. We were with the girls and they wanted to go to the blue mosque, which peter and I had already been to. We stood outside and waited in the weather that had decided to worsen once again. They took forever! we froze and eventually decided to part ways and peter and i went back to the bazaar. I bought so much stuff. I got something for dad, mom, carolyn and kari. I've almost covered the christmas list. peter had to leave that night so we said goodbye and I went back to my hostel. There was supposed to be a big soccer match that night, so myself and 7 others from my hostel made the trek over to the asian side of istanbul. We finally made it and thoroughly enjoyed the match, it was really fun. After the match i got separated from the group and finally made it home about an hr after everyone else.
Today, 4th
When I woke up, it was snowing, in Istanbul! Everyone that i had made friends with here was leaving today, so i got their respective email addresses and said goodbye. I took some pictures of the mosques in the snow,went to the travel agency and bought my bus ticket home, and then went to a turkish bath. Keep in mind that i hadn't showered in a few days because i didn't have a towel, soap, or flip flops; so this wasn't pleasure, it was necessary. I paid 35 lira and it was amazing. There's nothing like getting a soapy bath/massage from a huge turkish guy. After I was very clean and relaxed, i bought some turkish delight and some food for the bus and came back here.
This is my account of one of the best weeks of my life, I've traveled really far, met some great people, and done wonderful things. I'm really glad i came to istanbul because now i don't feel obligated to travel very far anymore. Now I just have to worry about my two midterms next week! Hope all is well back home and I'm almost done my shopping list, so don't worry. Hopefully i can fit everything.
P.S. Preston wasn't that bad, you just get used to him
P.P.S Sorry if the spelling/grammar isn't tip top, I don't feel like reading through this entire entry

Traveling!

So today I was supposed to give a presentation on a 5 page outline that I had typed. This pretty much meant I was teaching for today. I was kind of nervous and when class was supposed to start, our professor said that it was such a nice day that we were having class in the bar/cafe out the university building. On top of that, she decided to postpone my presentation until after the break. So instead of a nerve wrecking speech, I got to sit outside and have a beer (which she paid for) and listen to her talk. What a great class.
I was also talking to a friend of mine who is now studying in Barcelona and I think I might go visit him seeing that this is the best time for me to go seeing that I am so close. I am going to Greece on friday and Istanbul some time after that. The next two months are going to be as much traveling as I can handle along with my schoolwork. I am up to 20 countries and I'm going to do my best to keep the number of countries ahead of my age for as long as possible.

What a weekend

So I left on thursday night with Kiro. We got to Sofia around 8:30 and went to his dad's house to eat dinner. After some really good chinese food, we left and got on our train at 10:30 to Russe. We arrived in Russe around 6:30 and found out that the next train to Bucharest left at 1:35pm, so we went to the bus station. After looking around for awhile, we found out that the bus at 8am was already full, so we walked into town. An interesting fact about Russe, it is the first place in the world where a McDonald's has gone bankrupt. We came back around 9 for the next bus. It was a romanian company not affiliated w/ the bus station, so when it didn't arrive for awhile, we had no way of knowing whether it was coming or not. Finally, at 10:20, it decided to arrive. After packing into a minibus with a bunch old men and women, we were off. When we got to one side of the border, we had to get out of the bus and go through immigration one by one. We then crossed the bridge and had to do it again on the other side of the Danube for customs. When we were finally in romania, we found out that the old ladies we were with were "smugglers." They had brought enormous bags full of stuff to bring over the border. After we arrived in the town of Gorgiu (spelling), we had to get out and Kiro got on a different minibus going to Bucharest. As soon we started driving, all Kiro and I were doing was praying to get off the bus. This driver was insane, besides the fact that we had to listen to Chalga music all the way there. When we were finally in Bucharest, we just wanted out and told them we needed the closest hotel. Then we began walking around in the direction of the train station, eventually taking the metro. After buying our tickets for a train that left at 10:30am, we needed to find our concert tickets. We asked the taxi drivers and they said it would cost 50 Lei! That's 5 times more than we paid when we walked away from the train station and got an honest driver. He spoke german, so I got to practice mine. This guy was so nice that he told us how to get there by metro if we didn't want to take his cab. We made it to the ticket place, which was on the 6th floor of a bank building somewhere. There was a nice Morgan outside, so I took some pictures. We got our tickets and decided to get some coffee. We walked into a cafe, and I noticed that there was a door in the back to somewhere inside, so we checked it out. This landed us in probably the biggest mall in the city. I finally bought some things. After that we went to the concert hall, 3hrs early. We walked around and went to the bathroom, but had to leave because security was bugging us. We got some "dinner," bread, sausage, and beer.
We came back at 7:30 and saw that a small crowd had formed outside, so we stood for the next hour and half, waiting for the doors to open. When it did open, we made it to the front and did not move. It started with 4 warm-up DJ's, one hour each. The first 3 were good, and the last warmup DJ was DJ Vania, a romanian DJ. When Vania began playing, these 4 romanian guys came out of nowhere and began being incredibly rude by forcing their way in front of me and screaming Tiesto's name while other DJ's were playing. It was really hard to enjoy the music with them dancing on top of me. We were standing way in the front, right in front of the wall of subwoofers that provided the bass for the entire concert. We didn't really notice this until Vania turned up the bass as loud as it could go, and Kiro and I could not believe what we were feeling. EVERYTHING was shaking, my lungs vibrated when I took a deep breath, my feet were having a wonderful massage, my voice was even distorting it was so loud. Needless to say, I probably lost a year of hearing from those few hours. Then Tiesto came on, it was pure madness, imagine a goal in the last seconds of the world cup final to break the tie in injury time in the team's home country. That's about how loud everyone was. Tiesto began playing but didn't turn the bass down, so we moved too the very back. It was a completely different show. We were upset at first because he wasn't playing any of his good songs, then we realized that he was playing his old songs, he had just remixed them all. He played a few songs in their original form, and the crowd went crazy. I get goosebumps just thinking about when he played Adagio for Strings. Towards the end we moved back downstairs to the back of the crowd after resting in a seat in the back for an hour or so. The end was actually the best part because he played a lot of songs we knew, and we went crazy.
After it was over, we made our way back to the train station and had to wait for 4 hours for our train to leave. While in the Mcdonald's bathroom, I met someone from the concert and gave him my Skype ID, hopefully he will contact me. Kiro was out like a light, so I had to stay up to make sure that we didn't miss our train and that it wasn't delayed. Eventually we got on and I slept like a baby, which is incredible considering the train. We got to Sofia around 9:30 and the only thing we could do was take the train back to Blagoevgrad, so we did and finally got home around 12:30, right at the end of the Halloween Party here. We went out for a little bit, and came back to sleep. This morning I got well rested and Kiro slept until 2:30pm. Now that I am nice and full and have some things out of the way, I have to read something and write an outline for my presentation on Tuesday. I hope this was a sufficient account of the weekend for those who wanted to know what Tiesto was like. I took several video's of the concert, so if you would like them, please ask.

The time has come

So after I posted my last entry, we had a romanian speaker read the emails I received and found out that I had to pick up my tickets 5 days after I ordered them. Needless to say I was furious, not only because I had lost my tickets, but because I was in Bucharest at the time and could have picked them up. So after cooling down, we decided we would call them and find out. The call center was closed this morning, and we had the wrong number, we were never going to get through this. We found the right number and called them only to find that they spoke perfect english and that there was no issue, we were going to see Tiesto. After years of listening to his music, pissing off my family for watching the same concert 4 times in a row and listening to tracks over and over, it's finally come to this. The funny thing is that the problem in between only makes me more excited because I fully expected not to go. We will be leaving for Sofia right after class, and then take the train to Bucharest and hopefully get there in the morning. We'll walk around the city for a while and I'll probably buy some things if I can. Then off to the concert, we might get there nice and early seeing that we're there for one reason, and one reason only. I'm expecting it to go into the wee hours of the morning, so after it's done, we'll try and catch a train back and try to make the Halloween party that the American students are hosting. All in all, this is going to be really fun. I'm bringing my camera, so I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures and videos.
Happy 20th Birthday to my wonderful Carolyn tomorrow, I'll be thinking of you when "In my memory," etc. play tomorrow night.
Seeing that no one told me any specifics regarding presents, I'm going to try and find some Romanian things while I'm there.
Good day to all, I'll be back sometime on Saturday!

Can't wait for tomorrow

Tomorrow I leave for Bucharest for my Tiesto concert! Needless to say, I'm excited. It was a fun-filled weekend with birthday parties and anniversary celebrations. I finally managed to mail Carolyn's birthday present yesterday, so it will probably get there in a month considering the mailing system here. When we went to mail it, we asked what the difference between Priority and regular mail was. To our surprise priority mail takes longer than regular mail, how or why, I don't know. Trains here also take longer to get to destinations than buses do, maybe it's not coincidence that Bulgaria and backward have the same amount of letters. I also sent a postcard to my highschool german teacher thanking her for her teachings. I managed to make my schedule for next semester, it's not a hard schedule, but I have a 9am class on fri. All my classes are right across the street for my old dorms, Towers, which I really don't want to end up in, but would be perfect location-wise. I am hoping that I can find an apartment for next semester instead of ending up in the dorms because I really don't want to have the meal plan. It might be tough finding one for just one semester though.
It's midterm time here and everyone is stressing out and studying. Haha, not me. Not because I'm lazy, but because I unknowingly already took one midterm, and I have my science midterm next week. I actually have to go to a study session for that midterm tonight at 9:30. My other two finals are after fall break, Falsifications and German. I fear that german is going to be my toughest final, so I'm going to have to study hard for that one. So far the school work is going well, I'm enjoying all my classes and keeping up to date on hw, etc.
I decided to buy the jacket I wanted, because it would have been awful if I had decided to buy it and it was gone. I bought it fully expecting not to use it for a while. But that night it was like someone flipped a switch and night time here is now freezing cold. The weather during the day is bright and sunny, but no clouds means a cold night. I'm glad I bought the jacket, and I'm sure it will serve me well for a long time.
I was searching on cnn.com for news, etc. and decided to type in Deloitte. Of all the things to come up, it was listed as one of the be places to get an internship. I was looking into trying to get an internship this summer at the office nearby, so hopefully I can do something. All the interns in the article were senoirs from yale, etc. though, so I'm not sure if they will accept me. Hopefuly I will have set myself apart enough to qualify for the internship because I know how invaluable it would be in the future.
Well, gotta run off to German, hope all is well with everyone!

Qlique really is good for me

The past few days I have been going back and forth with the computer guy from Qlique trying to make it work on my computer. After many emails and sending Java logs, etc., the problem was finally fixed and I was happy that I could finally use Qlique. When I checked my email the next day, I found an email from Allen (computer guy) saying that all the thanks was owed to me and that I had helped fix a big bug within qlique. Then I saw that he was sending me a check for $100 for the time that I had lost and for helping them w/ fixing the problem. Needless to say I was very happily surprised. I'm finally using qlique now and I'm happy to say that it is working really well in the way I thought it would. I've already talked to a few people from different universities, and I've only been using it for a day.
The other news is that I finally booked my trip for fall break. I'm going to Greece for a few days, and then spending 4 days on the island mikonos(spelling). It sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun and it's going to be cheap, $120 for the all the accommodation, and then transportation on top of that. The downside is that I am going with Preston and James. Preston is pretty much the only person at the entire university that I would rather not be associated with. He is the embodiment of a loud, obnoxious american. All he does is yell "f*** yeah" to absolutely everything. It has come to the point where people are removing f*** from their vocabulary as to not sound like him. Hopefully he is not as loud and annoying on the trip. He seems to be ok when not surrounded by people he feels the need to impress, and he did organize most of the trip. I am also going with Trent and hopefully Josh, who I went to Bucharest with. It should be fun, as long as we can get passed the differences and act like adults.
I got a 90 on my Marketing midterm, and I'm happy with it. I only have to get a C in my classes to get the credit, but it's not like I don't want good grades. School is going well so far, I'm handling the workload well, and the books that i've had to read have now made me want to read constantly. I just finished my second book for the class today and I'm already looking for something else to read. For anyone who wants something specific, please tell me before next thursday when I leave to go to the Tiesto concert in bucharest. There's a lot of nice stuff there and it's really cheap. I don't want absolute specifics, just an idea of what you would like, clothes, decorations for the house, bags, whatever. I just need an idea.

Wet Weekend

So I had my trip organized by the school over the weekend. The weather was bad for a vast majority of the trip. We left early in the morning on sat and went to a village up in the mountains. It was interesting, but I'm sure the view would have been great had we not been surrounded by clouds. There is a church there from the 13th century. It doesn't look like a church at all from the outside, but the inside was different. Every surface of the church inside was covered w/ paintings, fresco's, etc. I think you could stay in there for a few days looking and studying all the portraits of saints and scenes from the Bible. We weren't allowed to take pictures though. The artwork was very well preserved because it is a small church and the smoke from the candles covered the walls, protecting the walls. After that we went to a small town were we had lunch in the only place open because it was the weekend. It took almost 2hrs for us to get all of our food. It was ridiculous. After the long lunch, we went to the Dancing Bears reserve. This was a sanctuary for bears that were forced to dance in the streets. It was very depressing because all the bears dance back and forth non-stop when they see people. The just walked back and forth without stopping. I could only watch for so long. We walked into the woods on one of the trails and it was very pleasant. The trail followed a river that was flowing really well because of all the rain. We saw a black and yellow salamander on the way back. After that, we went to Bansko, a place that is pretty much a ski resort town. It is supposed to be gorgeous when there is snow there, but everything was wet and closed while we were there. We went out to a bar-like place because we arrived in the town at 6pm and had nothing to do until we left the next day. I got soaking wet walking around trying to find somewhere to go. My shoes are just drying out today. I managed to catch the very end of the Gran Prix on sunday, actually just the interviews, which they viciously voice over in bulgarian. Around 12 we left to come back to the dorms. I finished reading the lie that wouldn't die, which i think we have a quiz on tomorrow. I still have one more book to read, but it's short and shouldn't be too hard. It was a good weekend, even if it rained a lot. I got some good pictures and had fun. I'm not sure what's in store for me next, but hopefully I am still going to the Tiesto concert next friday.

Free Day

I have no class today because my teacher is away at a conference. Unfortunately that means we have time to read the 2 books we have to finish by the end of next week. I'm almost done the first, so hopefully I'll be OK. I have a test in Marketing tomorrow, so I have to study for that.
Two nights ago I came into contact with the biggest cultural difference since I've been here. The funny thing was that it had nothing to do w/ Bulgaria at all. We had a BBQ and we all brought our own stuff to grill. To my surprise I found my steak on the same grill as hamburgers and hot dogs. I almost felt ashamed. I marinated my steak in what I thought was normal wine, but it was so crappy that it just tasted like grape juice. I cooked my steaks after I finally convinced everyone that I knew what I was doing. I cooked mine and Kiro's but because they cooked so many different things, I had to keep my food warm in the oven. The oven was way too hot so by the time it came to eat the steaks, they had gone from med-rare to almost well done. And this was on top of the fact that steak here is nowhere near as tender as it is back home. So the steak wasn't so great, but I was in need of real beef so I ate the whole thing w/ my hands. Kiro's steak was worse than mine because he wanted it more cooked, which ended up being a piece of leather. We had other food that the girls had cooked, ie mashed potatoes w/ cheese and some other things. The dinner was good and everyone was very loud. At the end we appointed two guys who hadn't done anything towards the dinner to clean up. We left them to do the work, only to find out that they had just rinsed the dishes and clogged up the sink. Needless to say, those of us who had already done work and had to clean up after them were not too happy. One girl, Oksana, who had told them to do it and had done a lot of work got really mad and eventually told them that they weren't allowed to eat with us again.
The concert is getting closer, but the only thing that bothers me is that Tiesto has been sick since Sept. 19, and there has been no update as to whether he will be playing or not. I really hope that he gets better because this is the only chance I have to see him for a long time, and I don't want to think about how hard it is going to be to get my money back from the Romanian ticket office.
I'm going on a trip on saturday to a bear reserve and some other places on a school sponsored trip. It sounds like fun and hopefully there's some interesting things to see. So far the only person I know that is also going on the trip is Rasika, my other roommate and RA. I probably know some other people, but it is impossible to recognize people just by their names here.
I am trying to start my involvement in Qlique again, but it is proving very difficult because it refuses to run properly on my computer and it's going to be hard to find 50 people to recruit with no face to face contact. Everything is just working against me right now, w/ the required time to sign on being b/w 4 and 8am my time, along with some other complications. At least I got my letter of Achievement for my previous work. Well, I need to get back to reading and maybe even planning out my trip for fall break, whose plans have changed again.

Enjoyable trip

I had a really good time going on our trip this weekend. First we went to Veliko Teranovo, which used to be he capital of Bulgaria. We took a bus there and ended up missing our stop and kept going for another 100 km. Eventually we figured things out and after wasting 4 hrs trying to get back, we arrived. We walked around, had something to ate and saw some of the sites. At night there is a light and laser show at the old fortress. This place is absolutely enormous and they run the show every night. It was spectacular. I'm really glad we went because I have never seen anything like that before. I have a short video clip in addition to the pictures that I took. They are blurry because it was quite a distance away and the shutter had to stay open in order to absorb the light. After that, we got on the train to Bucharest. After getting on and off a few trains and losing a lot of sleep, we made it to Bucharest around 6:30am. We walked around and drew some money. Their currency is very odd because they both the old currency, which is in the 10,000's, and the new one, which is the same thing w/ 4 zero's off the end. The actual money is great because it's the plastic kind, so it doesn't get dirty, torn, w/e. Bucharest is weird in that it feels like it is made up of little parts of other cities. It was designed like paris, parts looked like Rome, others Vienna, and etc. It brought back a lot of memories from the eurotrip. It was almost creepy how similar some of the things were, but I guess a lot of people have gone through that part of the continent during history, so there's a lot of different influences. The second biggest building in the world is there, the first being the pentagon. This building was absolutely monstrous, along with the city itself. We walked everywhere, and by the end of the day, I couldn't wait to just sit and rest. The weather was really good, which made it much better seeing that it the weather was crappy, we wouldn't have been able to get lost and find some weird/interesting things. Everything in Romania is really cheap, so i'm asking whoever wants something to tell me now so that I can go crazy when I go back in 3 weeks for the Tiesto concert. I really wanted to buy a lot of things when i was in both cities, but the same dilemma of having to carry it around w/ me arose. On the trip back our bodies finally gave in and we managed to fall asleep on the bus and the train, something we couldn't do before because it was so uncomfortable. We got back around 10am and spread to our respective rooms so that we could get clean and rest. It was a really good trip and I had fun with all 3 of the other people. The funny thing is that they're all seniors, so they were 21, 21, and 22.
Bucharest is definitely up there on my list of favorite cities that i've been to, if not the best. The other thing I accomplished this weekend was that Romania is my 20th country that i've visited. So I have now been to more countries than I am years old. I'm hoping to keep this accomplishment for as long as possible, but it of course won't last forever.
I'm glad i finally went somewhere, i didn't really miss anything here, not that I expected anyone to do anything besides drink and party. There is a trip organized by the school next weekend, I think I'll go on it because it's cheap and easy.
P.S. I didn't need anything extra visa-wise, my bulgarian ID card worked just fine.

Finally going somewhere

I'm finally going out to see some of the country! It's 12:39am and I have to stay up until 4am because we're taking a train at 4:45 to the old capital of Bulgaria. Hopefully I can stay awake, I'm just going to sleep when I get on the train, i think it's a 10hr trip. After that, we're going to Bucharest, Romania. I hope the weather is nice, because it's been raining on and off here for a few days now. I just bought 2 tickets to go see Tiesto in Bucharest on october 20th, so hopefully I might be able to pick up my tickets and find out how to get to Bucharest and back this weekend. The downside of of going on the trip is that we have classes on fri and sat because we had a day off last week. I only have one class on both days, but I talked to the professor, just to make sure that I wasn't going to miss anything essential.
The biggest club in the city opened tonight. It's called Extreme, and we also get in free with our school ID's. It's huge and really loud. I didn't really like it because it's not really a place you can stay and have fun. Also it's mostly locals there, so it's weird walking around and not seeing anyone that I recognize. We left after a little while because the section we were in somehow became a gay dance floor, and there were guys dancing with each other. I really did not want to drink tonight because i needed to stay up to catch the train. It was one of the RA's birthday, so we went out. I thought it we were going to eat, but it was only drinking. I told them i wasn't drinking, but they don't know the meaning of the word in Bulgaria. I only had a vodka, so I made it out sober and happy. I think I'll make it to 4am, I just need some coffee. Hope all is well back home, I'm starting to change into a bulgarian, so the fact that i'm starting to shake my head for yes makes me miss home a little more. I'm going to be so weird when i come back in december.

Busy Monday

Today was satisfyingly hectic.
I had my first class at 11:30, so I had to wake up at 10:30. I slept really well, so I actually woke up 30 min before my alarm went off. We had another pop quiz which i'm pretty sure i got right. After class i ate at the canteen, and then came back to work out. I started working out at 3, so i had to hurry up to make sure i had enough time to shower and get to class. I finished working out at 3:50, ran upstairs and showered, got dressed and ran out the door. I had to hustle to get to class on time because i had a short little news presentation at the beginning of class. I made it with 2 min to spare, besides being slightly sweaty and still going crazy from lifting. After german i came gack and did my homework, so i don't have to do anything for the next 2 days except read. I made it through the day only spending 0.80 leva, which spent on breakfast. The reason i don't have money is because my local bank account opens tomorrow and i'd rather wait than draw some money and get charged the $3.50 fee. Hopefully it will go smoothly tomorrow, even though i seriously doubt that's going to happen. I'm going to enjoy a good's night sleep after some reading seeing that my only class is at 4:15 tom.

Sunday...

And so it is the end of the weekend, time to stop drinking and get down to business. I just completed my german homework, which consisted of writing poems, telling stories, and writing a news report. The only thing I have left to do is just sit and read that book of mine.
I woke up this morning surprisingly not hungover, and after Trent called, we went to the old town to this nice restaurant that has really good, cheap food. The whole menu was in bulgarian, so I pretty much just asked what random things were until I found something that sounded good. Our waitress had an attitude, but then again, all the waitresses do seeing that there's no 15% tipping here. They're lucky if they get a few leva. Anyway, I had some chicken steak, which was actually really good. Afterwards I felt off, I couldn't pinpoint how or why, but i just felt weird. I thought maybe it was emotional, seeing that Carolyn and i are trying to figure out how to handle the situation we're in. It's not a bad thing, we're just trying to figure out what's going on. So i thought maybe it was that, but i think now it's a physical thing and that i'm not getting all my vitamins because i was shaking more than usual, and you can imagine how much that is. I feel much better now, even though for some reason i'm really hungry. I might go out and get some supplemental tablets or something.
There's a drink here called cloud. It's a mixture of mystika (bulgarian ouzo) and menta (mint liqueur). I really like it, but the issue (besides it being 2 strong alcohols mixed together) is that it wears away at your throat. I think it's the mystika, but when you wake up in the morning, it feels like someone rubbed the inside of your throat with sand paper, not so pleasant. I prefer drinking liquor because it's cheaper and being drunk off beer is "messy." I also don't get hangovers when i drink liquor, so it's easy for me to choose which one. The shot glasses that they have here in the bars are so small compared to the ones in the states. I don't know why, but they're almost half the size. Trent ordered some shots of tequila for some girls and himself, and he almost threw up because the tequila was so awful. Even though it's still cheap to drink in the clubs, we've decided to drink before because most of the time you don't get what you want, unless it's beer. Trent was saying that he asked for Grey Goose at a bar in Sofia, and they gave him juice, haha.
I'm getting good at reading bulgarian, but some things still throw me off, the biggest thing is that some letter's lower case are different than the upper case. For example, T is the same as in latin, but the lower case T is an m. So if you see a rounded, lower case m, it's a t. But if the m is pointed (M), but smaller, then it's an m sound. I don't know if i'm doing a good job of explaining this, but if you're thoroughly confused, you get the idea.

Crazy night

Last night was really fun. I wasn't going to do anything because I had to wake up early for a trip to Sofia. Nesho invited me to someone's b day party (where i met a guy from macedonia who's a dj, his name is DJ Monumental, he's really good), so i went to that, and one thing led to another and I got home really late after taking something like 95 pictures. I set my phone alarm and my clock alarm so that i would wake up. my clock alarm went off, and after a while it stopped ringing, so I assumed that went to sleep and would wake me up in 15 min. Apparantly not, I woke up at 9:02, ran out the door, got a taxi, and made it to the main building at 9:13, but the bus had already left. I was pissed, and on the glum walk back to the dorms, i found out that i had one hell of a hangover. I ate something and got some water to help my head, and then went back to sleep to see if i could feel human again. Eventually i woke up and felt much better. I had an "irish breakfast" at the irish restaurant at 2pm, it was pretty good. Now i'm gonna lie down and read my book, and get the rest of my hw done.

Working Out

I'm starting to work out, and it seems to be working. Hopefully I can keep doing it and actually get somewhere as opposed to the other times when i just gave up. I found out the other day that i have $150 for food on my card, so I'm trying to eat at the canteen as much as I can. The food there is hit or miss, and sometimes if you grab the wrong thing, it can end up being really expensive. I have to wake up around 8am tomorrow because the bus to go to Sofia leaves from the main building at 9 and it won't wait for ppl who are late. this pretty much means that i'm not going out tonight, so i'm going to keep reading this book so that i can get it done early. I have yet to go out to the clubs that opened last friday. Either someone doesn't feel like going (because they only play house music), or we end up doing something else. I would like to go sometime this weekend, along w/ the monastery. We have decided to go to Greece for fall break because it's closer and easier, and there's plenty to do there. If we have the time, we might go to the islands and Athens, but it's supposed to be expensive to take the ferry to the islands, but we'll see. I spent barely any money yesterday, seeing that I ate at the canteen and Trent payed me back for covering his dinner two nights ago. Poor kiro's body is being abused with being sick and go out and all his homework, he just needs some R&R. He's going home this weekend, for the third week in a row, he's still getting adjusted to living on his own. Kiro's dad was in Dubai last week, so he wants to see him this weekend. Some of the american students are going to the beach this weekend, but they're leaving tonight, and I can't really skip out on this Sofia trip tomorrow because it's mandatory. I would like to go, but I would either have to go from Sofia at the end of the trip on friday, or leave on saturday. I also don't know if I would be allowed to stay at this girl's house, and she's a little strange. Hopefully the weather holds out and i can go next week or something. I really need to start exploring Bulgaria more, there's so much to see around here.

Busy day

I had 3 classes today, so I was up nice and early and just finished a while ago. Not really an eventful day. I got my 1 question pop quiz right. the funny thing was that people who got the answer wrong, they got 80's and 85's. How in the world can you get that kind of a score on one multiple choice question? Hopefully this means that we will be getting a lot of partial credit on everything, that would be nice. I also had another quiz in Marketing, 10 questions, this one was a little easier than the one last week (we have one each week). I didn't do too well on the first one, so hopefully this one will even things out. Everything seems to be going well school wise so far. The only thing left for me to do is to get that bank account open. I finally found out that i have to finish reading this book (the lie that wouldn't die) in the next two weeks, so i'm going to try and finish it before we have the test/quiz on it. Don't know what i'm up to tonight, but i'm sure i'll find out.

Sofia

Sofia
Originally uploaded by fullfly87.

What a nice view of the city, yuck

Almost done

I finally got my ID card yesterday. I found out that it was ready after I went to the computing office to unlock my account because I didn't turn in a form. They went me emails over the weekend, but I was in Sofia. So I came back and y web email didn't work and neither did my account downstairs. So I finally sorted that out, and ran down to the police station to pick up the card. I also "opened" my debit account after running in circles for a few weeks. I had to bring my passport, so I left for class early so that I could get it done. I went to the bank fully expecting it to take forever. I signed a piece of paper, showed them my passport, and then they told me it would be ready in one week. Nothing is easy or simple here when it comes to money.
I still have no idea what I'm doing for fall break. Trent called me last night with the idea of renting a Winnebago and driving up to Amsterdam. Not quite sure how that would work, but it sounds like fun.
I've been reading this book for class non-stop because I have no idea how far we are supposed to be. She just keeps telling us to keep reading, hopefully I will get some sort of an answer out of her today.

Back to Normal

Well, back to normal again. Yesterday it rained for the first time since I arrived in the country. the nice thing was that there was a big rainbow right outside the dorms after it finished raining. I am going to attempt to open a second bank account today so that I can draw the money I have in the bank from an ATM. Don't ask me why I need two bank account in the same bank, but for some reason that's the way they do it here. Trent's dad was telling me that it's very confusing to most people, but for the people who know what they're doing, they can move money around very easily. It probably has something to do with the Mutra (the Mafia in bulgaria), but I don't know. I had a one question pop quiz in science today, it was really random, but pretty easy. The first part of that sentence sounds like something a third grader would say, I guess that demonstrates how hard this course is. I realized that besides getting me ahead in college, taking all those high level math and science courses did was make me feel worse about forgetting how to do even the most simple formula's, etc. I'm going back to Sofia for a day on friday for my Falsifications course. We're going to the museum to see the "Golden Treasure" and some other things I'm sure. We have "off" on friday because of another bulgarian holiday, but we have to make it up by going to class next saturday, it's so stupid. I will try to start sticking to a budget, as my parents have lectured me to do. I'm going to try and stick to 10 leva a day, or at least around that. I have been keeping all my receipts, so I should be able to figure out what cost what later on. I'm going to work out w/ Kiro today, even though I'm quite sore still, hopefully we will stick to the plan and actually get somewhere.

Weekend in Sofia

Just got back from my weekend in Sofia, lots of fun. Trent's dad is about as passionate about his meat as a south african. I ate like a king there, even having authentic, home made mexican food (Mr. Houston's "girlfriend" is from mexico). They moved to their new house while I was with them so I got do put together the sound system and help them unpack, etc. We went to a big club called Exit, everything was expensive, but still not as bad as the States. I even got to catch some college football because they get several american channels via satellite. The funny thing was that it was the army network, so all the commercials were pretty much army propoganda. I will be posting some pictures online in a few minutes, so you can see what it's like.

Off to Sofia

Well, I'm off to Sofia with in about an hour. I should be fun seeing that a lot of our freinds are from Sofia and they are going home this weekend. Not sure what I will be getting up to, but I'm sure there's plenty to do. I'm actually going back to Sofia for a day next friday for a class, and then hopefully going to the coast, if the weather is still good. Finally got to work out today, it feels good to be doing something physical again. I might not be able to get to a computer while I'm in Sofia, so I'll tell all when I get back.

Better

The internet has been getting progressively better as the week goes on. I think it might be because they were still creating the connections for the other computers. I called Carolyn on skype, and the quality was great, the only thing was that there was a 5 second delay between me saying something and her hearing it. So in order for me to say something, she would have to wait to hear it, and whenever I reacted to something she said (laughing, etc.), it would happen a few seconds later. I was amusing, but at least we got to talk on skype, hopefully the delay gets smaller with time.I slept really well last night, I didn't even stir until the morning when my roommate started moving around. My class is only at 4:15 and it's my only class, so this is a good day for me to catch up and get things done. The weather still is amazing, but it's starting to get pretty cold at night time.

Frustrating

I came to find out yesterday that this wonderful interent can be quite a pain in the ass. It is irritatingly slow, dropping skype calls, taking forever to load, etc. Trying to talk to Carolyn yesterday was pointless, we would get a few sentences if we were lucky, and then the connection would be lost. It was a little better later in the night, but it still dropped the call every now and again. It is supposed to get faster eventually, but who knows. Today is my busiest day, 3 classes starting at 10am. I hope to get to the gym today and find it open. I also need to do my laundry, or give it to the lady in the laundry room. I think I am going to Sofia this weekend with Trent, that should be fun. The weather continues to be impecable. I am hoping that I can make it to the shore before it starts getting cold, so hopefully I can go next weekend, or something.

A little better

Today was a little improvement after the second half of yesterday. When I came back from classes, i had no internet, the gym was closed, and i managed to hurt my back in some way, so that was fun. All in all the ending of yesterday was a bit of a downer. Today was better though. I had a class at 4:15 so i got a lot of sleep. Nesho (serbian friend) knocked on our door at 11:30 'cause he needed to send something in the mail and needed Kiro to come w/ him and translate. i woke up eventually and went down to do email only to have martin call and ask if i wanted to eat at the canteen. so i walked all the way over there in my glasses w/ barely any money. i came back to find that i had an internet connection, but it was messed up, so i couldn't use it. this frustrated me severely, so i tried to go to the office, but it was obviously closed, as well as the gym, seemed like a repeat of yesterday. I sat frustrated in my room, and then at 2:45, there it was. My internet arrived. i was so happy that i furiously updated definitions and posted all the pics i had taken. then i had to go to class. after that we had food, and i was going to go to some journalism thing w/ free pizza and wine, but it looked too serious, so i came back here. I am quickly learning that this connection is not so wonderful, so i can't do a lot of different things at once. I will have to deal w/ it, it's all i have, but it's not so bad.

Good Day Monday, Sept. 11, 2006

Today is a lazy one. I had my science class at 11:30 so I woke up around 10:30, but had to wait a little for the shower to “open.” Class was interesting, I learned that the zodiac signs are actually off by a whole month because the earth wobbles and the sun has moved in relation to the constellations. I got a locker at the main building, I’m not sure how much I’m going to use it, but I figured I would get one before they ran out, should make things easier. I have german at 4:15, so I’m going to leave in about half an hour. There is an artist’s work on display in the main building today in honor of the 5th anniversary of 9-11. It looks interesting, very colorful. Hopefully I will be getting an internet connection in my room today. I have been waiting so long for it and I am sick and tired of using the fucking computer lab. It is always busy and you can’t do anything in there anyway. I’m supposed to get it sometime after 5pm, so I’m going to try and keep busy until later so that I’m not staring at the computer praying for it to come. The gym is supposed to open today too, so I think me and some of my friends are going to go down and workout. Kiro (my roommate) is the one in most need of the weight room. He make me look fat, lol. We are going to try and keep each other motivated and avoid the usual scenario where you eventually stop going because you’re too lazy. I had to send an email to my german teacher for homework. I had to write it in german, but I think it was mainly just so that she could have our email addresses. I wasn’t quite sure what to write, so hopefully I did what I was supposed to. German seems like it is going to be tough, but I would rather put my nose to the grindstone and do it so that I can finish it when I get back to pitt. I’m reading the first required book for falsifications, “The lie that wouldn’t die,” it is about this document called the protocols of the leaders of Zion, which is pretty much a fake record of the Jews, secret plan to take over the world. It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read (the document) but it has been spread worldwide and many people believed it to be true. The book is mostly about finding out about it and how it spread, etc. All the books and material for this course seem very interesting and the professor is wonderful. She is more interested in human history than empirical history. Human history is shit like the history of salt, garbage, and cooking, just everyday things that one wouldn’t think to have much of a history at all. I’m really enjoying my time here. I really have to try to sit down and do work because everyone here is so friendly and wanting to do something w/ me or anyone else. Kiro came back today, he went home for the weekend. He brought some speakers from his old stereo that only plays cassettes, but the speakers work great and it sounds a hell of a lot better than the fucking laptop speakers do. I really like my room. It’s spacious and has a great view of the courtyard so that I can see where everyone is and check out if anything is going on w/o ever leaving my room. It’s on the second floor so it’s not a far walk (up the steps) and just out of reach so that people can’t get in through my window. The room is pretty much shaded all day, so it stays nice and cool. I have no idea why I have decided to start writing a journal, maybe because I had nothing to for a little, or Trent just mentioned that he (or anyone) should start writing a journal to remember all this. It is quite difficult to remember all that is going on here, especially seeing that everyone here is a fucking alcoholic. In the two weeks that I have been here, pretty much everyone has been drinking almost everyday. Not heavily, but just in general. Now it’s to the point where everyone is trying to make an active effort not to drink during the week, or the next few days, I know I have. I really would like to go to the winery soon, but it’s difficult to find someone who appreciates wine for something other than its alcohol in college. I sure I will find someone eventually. I hopefully will be going to Sofia w/ Trent this weekend, which would be great. He has a nice house, his dad is in charge of some part of the U.S. embassy here, so he is in ‘power,’ one would say. There seems like a lot to do everywhere, whether it’s in the town, city, country, or outside the country. Trent and some others would like to go to Amsterdam and Oktoberfest for the fall break. I would love to do that, but I don’t want to impose on Lily-Anne’s colleague. She was so nice to us last time and the last thing I want to do is get really fucked up and have a bunch of friends at her apartment. I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll ask mom or dad what they think and I’ll go from there. My Serbian friends invited me to come visit them at their homes. I would also love to do that seeing that I would never get the same opportunity for a while. I don’t know though because I seem to be drifting from them, so I’ll have to see what happens in the next month or however long it is. The cleaning lady finally came and cleaned the mould out of our fridge, I’m sure we could’ve done it ourselves, but I guess we were hoping to get a new one seeing that this one is so crappy. The other room in our suite had a fridge so new that it still has tape and cardboard on the inside. Oh well, ours gets the job done. Well, I should be off to class because there are many people in the class, so you have to go early if you want a good seat.
Ttyl
Max