... On to Plan B?

Readers of this space may or may not be aware of the fact that Anne and Mark have long been planning their spring break trip to Egypt.  Seeing the Nile, the pyramids and the spinks shyinks sphinx has fueled the excitement required to plan this trip for quite some time.  Unfortunately, it looks like that plan is going to have to be put on hold or cancelled due to stuff like this:

Using fire to protest

and this:

Using a Molotov cocktail to protest

 and this:

Using THE FORCE to protest?  Actually... would kind of like to see that

Apparently, huge protests in Egypt.  Thanks a lot, Egypt - we always knew you had it out for us.  Hey, don't get us wrong, Anne and Mark are all about remedying whatever injustice you are fighting to fix here.  But come on - you've put up with this for years, couldn't this protest have waited until mid-March?

I guess not.  So, it looks like spring break will have to be spent elsewhere.  Suggestions for spring break destinations will be accepted in the comments section (if your suggestion is selected, Anne and Mark will travel there and you will be awarded a huge prize**).  And, just to head off a bunch of internet-clogging comment posts - no, Kyle, we are not going to spend spring break in "Mordor" - so don't even suggest it.

**"huge prize" is defined as "no prize whatsoever".

In the meantime, Anne and Mark will be traveling to Istanbul, Turkey tomorrow to see the Grand Bazaar, the sea, the Hagia Sophia and whatever else is there.  Should be a lot of fun.

One final note.  Anne and Mark have been invited to a Super Bowl party here in Blagoevgrad.  Obviously, the Super Bowl is a cultural phenomena that transcends borders and it might be interesting to see how the Bulgarians and other students/faculty/etc. interpret it. Anne and Mark already know that there are significant differences in the way in which the game will be observed.  For one thing, it will air around 1 in the morning here.  Second, no one will cheer for a touchdown, but everyone will get really excited for the extra point kick.  For another, no one will have any idea how to actually play football (so basically like watching a game with Brad Childress, except at 1 am).

But Anne and Mark have not yet decided whether they will attend this party or watch this year's game at all.  Why?  The biggest reason to avoid watching this year's game is best summarized in Lauren's sentient analysis of the NFC Championship game below (around 35 seconds into the clip).

Agree to disagree on the Bears analysis, Lauren, but everything you say about the P*ckers is spot on (yes, that is censored because it is a dirty word).

In the unlikely event...

And we are back!  Today was the first day of school here in Blago and Anne and Mark were there for at least the second half of it.  Unfortunately, our fearless protagonists are still battling the effects of time change and jet lag.  Actually, Mark is battling it - Anne is quite content with sleeping until early afternoon.  In any event, neither has Monday classes, so they just rolled in early afternoon to make an appearance.

Our trip from Dubuque to Blago was another in our list of activities that probably should have been pretty easy but turn out to be an adventure.  In this case, the problem is not where we expected it to be (or rather "when" we expected it to be - as in during the first 20 hours of the trip, but rather during the last 10), so we were almost totally unprepared for it.

We left Dubuque courtesy of the Sheila and Joe taxi service, made a pit stop at one of the finer dining establishments along the way (Culver's) and then on to O'Hare International Airport.  We arrived extremely early.  We had several reasons to do this.  First, to ensure that our luggage was within the strict weight requirements of the airline (this also allowed the airline to lose our luggage in an efficient manner that would not have been possible without our early arrival).  Second, aside from our checked luggage, we were traveling heavy.  Really heavy.  As in 12 pounds of Bugsy D. Cat.  For those of you who are unacquainted, Bugsy is a big, bad mamma jamma who has been living with Anne for 8 years or so.  On our initial trip to Blago, Bugsy did not have his paperwork in order, so he ended up staying with the aforementioned taxi drivers in DBQ.  Unfortunately for Mr. Bugsy, this arrangement was a short term solution only as the local resident of case de sheila y jose, an ancient feline by the name of Monty, had a dispute about an unpaid debt or something - the details are sketchy.  Long story short: hiss hiss, scratch scratch, fight fight and now the litter box is not big enough for the both of them, so to speak.  So Bugsy came over to Blago.  *Footnote - either the dispute was brought on by Monty or Bugsy has been 'scared straight' because we have not heard so much as a cross word between Bugsy and any local Bulgarian cats in the week or so that he has been in country.

12 pounds of international Bad Mamma Jamma

In any event, the three New Bulgarians (Anne, Mark and Bugsy, or "Bubbers" to his friends) boarded in Chicago.  They had purposefully reserved seats in the last row so as to minimize the amount of stress on the cat in the plane by making him unable to see and hear all of the movement around him (or, at least in an effort to minimize the noise he would make if he decided to go that way).  Unfortunately, this appears to be a common strategy among people who travel with pets.  No sooner had the safety belts for row 58 snapped into place (yeah, there's a row 58) than the passenger in the seat across the aisle made himself known.

Don't let the puppy-dog eyes fool you, this was a trained killer.

Ok, that's probably not true.  Apparently, this guy (brown sweater guy) had come to the U.S. and was bringing fido back to Germany.  We never got the story as to whether this pup was a show dog or what, but we did notice that he had his own seat.  And these flights are not cheap.

So, given these circumstances, there was palpable tension in the air, cats and dogs being naturally enemies since time immemorial.  It seemed only a matter of time until the fur would fly.  Except for one key fact: puppies and big, fat cats sleep.  A lot.  Both fell asleep and remained that way for most of the flight.  Actually, it was really a non-issue, but we wanted to post the picture of the puppy.

Early the next day, the flight landed in Munich.  Since Anne and Mark had a short layover (30 minutes), the flight attendants moved them to the business class cabin prior to landing and they were the first people off of the flight (the first class passengers will simply have to wait).  Anne and Mark sprinted across the airport and made their connecting flight to Sofia.  Hurrah!  After take-off, all seemed well, so Mark dozed off.  Upon waking, Mark noticed the plane coming in for a landing.  He also noticed a large body of water.  He had never noticed that body of water in Sofia before.  He also noticed that the flight attendant said "Welcome to Varna," which seemed like a funny thing to say since he was in Sofia, but he just chalked it up to strange local customs (Mark is unlikely to question local customs because, hey, at least no one was pushing him in the chest and yelling "Permisso!").

Well, as it turns out... he was in Varna.  Which is NOT Sofia.  Not even close.  Here is what happened: Have you ever been on a plane and heard that "In the unlikely event of a water landing..." announcement (which does not even make sense - doesn't "landing" require "land"?  Not to put too fine a point on this, but isn't the correct term "crashing into the damn ocean"?  But I digress...)?  Apparently, there are some things airplances cannot do.  For example, airplanes cannot travel in time, fly out of London when there is an inch of snow on the ground, fly anywhere near Iceland when there is a volcanic eruption or serve a meal that you might actually like to eat.  Well, it appears we can add "fog landing" to that list.  Apparently, the fog in Sofia was so bad that the pilot could not see the run way.

Sofia Airport on foggy day.  Photo Credit: Trolard Pillinski

In the unlikely event of all fog, all flights will be diverted, and they were.  Ours was sent to Varna.  For those of you unfamiliar with Bulgarian geography (I know there must be someone out there who is a bit rusty), Varna is a resort town and a place that Anne and Mark had planned on visiting, although maybe not on this day in this particular manner.   Varna is a port located on the Black Sea while Sofia is a mountain town in... well, the mountains.  Varna and Sofia are separated by about 470 kilometers, which is roughly.... about 3,000 miles, I think (seriously, when are they going to just give up on this stupid metric system?).  Anyway, we ended up waiting for buses which took us from Varna to Sofia (I question whether the route the buses took - shown in red dots on the map below - was the most direct, but I probably should avoid trying to micro-manage).

I am in no hurry to get on the road again.  Willie Nelson is a liar

After arriving at the airport in Sofia, Anne and Mark met up with a van from the University.  We did not have cell phone or internet access and it was the middle of the night, so how did this van end up there?  Who cares, we got a ride home.  (For the record, we did not "steal" a ride intended for someone else - although we may have if faced with that situation.  Actually, the van was aware that we and a visiting student were on that particular flight/bus and was sent to pick us up)

The dotted blue line shows the route we took from Sofia to Blago.  Although it was 3 am local time and pitch black darkness, the van driver decided to take the scenic route.

But we made it.  A few days later, our luggage arrived.  So all is well.  Tomorrow both Anne and Mark begin classes.  Let's get it on!

Class Dismissed

The fall semester is now complete.  Anne and Mark have done their best to educate the youth done enough damage, as evidenced by this entry from a business law student:

Wow, this guy knows Joe?

He deserved to be hit in the face?  Partial credit.

But living in a far-off foreign land can wear on a person.  At a end of semester party, Anne and Mark noticed evidence that at least one faculty member was "burning it at both ends" - or at least burning it at the wrong end.

Filters - Now totally flammable!

So, Anne and Mark will be making the trip back across the pond tomorrow.  Well, they will try anyway. Not sure how widespread the news it, but apparently, Europe is snowed under: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/20/europe.winter.weather/index.html?hpt=T1.

"Apparently" is used because one would never know this calamity is happening if one were looking out the window in Bulgaria.

Man Panty Calamity

There may be other calamities.  But the weather here is fantastic.  It was at or near 50 degrees today, on Dec. 20.  Can't beat that.  So, as long as this weather follows Anne and Mark to Munich and on to Chicago (O'Hare, anyway - frankly, we don't care what the weather is at Midway), Anne and Mark should be back in the states Tuesday evening.

But, it appears that Anne's and Mark's work in Bulgaria is not complete (despite what you may have concluded based on "Partial Credit" above).  It feels like the basics have been set down, but there are still a few things to sort out.

Sports equipment fail

Skol Vikings (outside?)
Merry Christmas, everyone else.

See you over there - or back here - next semester.

Lingering Questions...

As Anne and Mark complete the last few days of their first semester in Bulgaria, they find it difficult to resist reflecting on all of the things they have learned.  Bulgarian movie theatres = not bad.  Bulgarian "Shot Food" hamburgers = not good.  Stuff like that.  But it seems that they have reached the point where each new answer or realization leads to several more questions, each more difficult to solve than the one before it.  For example, Anne and Mark were able to figure out why the pizza sauce and pasta sauce tasted remarkably similar:

Also known as: ketchup

They were just never able to figure out why someone would want to do that.

They also figured out that children here are physically fit, but Anne and Mark found it difficult to believe they would really travel at 30 kph.

There are 30 kids in this neighborhood?

Out of respect for the Metrodome (and snownami Mother Maturi, for those of you who listen to sports talk radio in Minneapolis), we have refrained from discussing the weather in the last couple of weeks.  Blago did, finally, enter into its version of winter.  But the snow is somehow different, and Anne and Mark had quite the difficult time putting their finger on exactly what the difference was.

"Localized" snow flurries?

In Minnesota and Iowa (if Anne and Mark recall correctly), the snow fell from the sky and landed on everything below, more or less, equally.  The first snowfall in Blagoevgrad, for some reason, landed on this car.  None of the other cars had snow on them.  The sidewalks were clear.  How does this happen?

But natural phenomena can probably be explained by our scientist and wanna-be scientist friends (everyone's looking at you Luehy), but questions of strategy might defy even them.  For example, I think we all know that the McDonald's Corporation is an official sponsor of the United States olympic teams (nothing says olympic athlete better than a BigMac and fries, right?).  So, if they were really in the business of supporting the U.S. team, it would stand to reason that they would not support the opponents of the U.S. team, right?  (the enemy of my enemy is my customer?)  But, apparently, McD's is spreading the love.

McHappy Day indeed.

It's all fun and games until Bulgaria beats out the Red White & Blue in the bronze metal table tennis match in London 2012, right?  (it could happen)

Now that we're rolling, a few more questions.  What are the odds that 9 paying customers show up on this road looking for a cab?

Not terribly high, apparently.  And speaking of odds, what are the chances that Bruce Willis knows that he is advertising Sobieski Vodka in Bulgaria?

I'm selling what?  Where?

... and what are the chances that the people who see this ad here knows what a 'Bruce Willis' is?

And finally, Anne and Mark have learned that they will be airborne over the Atlantic Ocean on December 21.  They plan to arrive in Chicago, refreshed from their trans-Atlantic voyage free from any travel-related stress or hassle.  


From there, they will travel to Dubuque, then La Crescent, Winona, back to Dubuque, then probably back to La Crescent, probably Minneapolis, back to Dubuque and then to Chicago for the return trip to Blago.  If you are in those cities in the next few weeks (or on the highways between those cities), let them know and maybe you can track them down to answer some of the questions posed in these posts.

Christmas in Blago

The city of Blagoevgrad has started gearing up for Christmas.  Many of the traditions are similar to the ones we might see in the U.S.  For example:

It looks like the tree at the end of the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon.

Christmas trees are decorated here, in virtually the same way they would be in the U.S.  And while there is no Rockefeller Center in Blago, they do have a city square, so we might as well put a big tree in it, right?

The commercialism is not nearly to the level you might see in the U.S., but there is a seasonal uptick in sales.  The city evens constructs a row of temporary kiosks near the main square where food vendors and sales people can peddle their wares.  It's kind of like a midway in a winter fair (and yes, it still counts as winter even though there is no snow).

Shoppers rush home with their treasures?

One problem that arises after the gifts are purchased is how the gift-giver is going to hide them from the recipient until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  Many of the apartments here are not large, so there is not a great deal of private storage space.  Anne and Mark found one apartment dwelling with an interesting solution to this problem:

Third balcony from the top

Christmas "bubble" on the balcony - genius!

In some respects, Blago may be even more into Christmas than other cities Anne and Mark have visited. For example, in how many cities have you actually seen a one-horse open sleigh?

Strangely, it does not look like "Oh what fun"

International Phenomena

Sometime in the early hours of last evening, the New Bulgarians blog became an official international on-line phenomenon.  The blog received its 2000th hit from the United States.  As shown below, the blog has also received hits from six other countries.

It was a close race, but Canada has beaten out Australia in page views.  Congrats, eh.  We are also proud to have a few hits from our Spanglish-speaking friends in Argentina.

Thanks for logging on to check on our adventures.

Local Flavor

Today was a big day at the Trolard Pillinski residence.  Anne and Mark's major accomplishment was taking a cab trip to the Metro supermarket to stock up on provisions for the rest of the semester.  While Mark and Anne will only be here for another 3 weeks or so before returning to the U.S. for a three week binge on tasty food, reality television (or any television in English) and showers equipped with shower curtain technology, they still needed to stock up on provisions here in the land of the Bulg.  One sorely needed provision was slippers for Mark.  The Trolard Pillinski apartment has hardwood floors throughout, so walking around in bare feet gets a little old.  Mark's shoe size is fairly unremarkable for an American (10.5 - 11.5 depending on the brand of shoe - handy tip for those of you still looking for gift ideas), but there is basically nothing in that size here.  It appears that generations of communist rule has resulted in the shrinking of the shoe size around here.  However, in a great stroke of luck, Anne and Mark were able to find one pair of slippers at Metro that would fit.  Hurrah!  And, for those of you who are curious, what brand of footwear fit the bill?  Why, "American Basket" of course.

Baller, shot caller

One by-product of a trip to the supermarket is the opportunity to look through the shelves at home and see what is still sitting on them.  Today Anne and Mark noticed that they had not yet opened their jar of Rose Petal Jam.

Ok, why not?

Bulgaria does not have a large number of developed industries, like most western countries.  While they were hanging out with the Warsaw Pact, they didn't really develop any cash crops or core competencies. Whatever they needed, they got from Russia or wherever, rather than making it at home.  It sounds like it was a really rough time.  For example, the paint factories in Russia would only make one color at a time. And they would make it for a year or so.  Then they would ship it out to everyone.   So, if you go to an apartment, you can not tell whether the people who live there have any sense about decorating because they did not choose what color to paint their house, but you can definitely tell what year they painted it, just by what color it is.  Anne and Mark, for example, have determined that their living room was painted in 1978 (orange) and their kitchen in 1982 (pea green).

Anyway.  So there are no big industries, but Bulgaria is a good place for producing a few things.  Well, two things.  Wine and roses.  (I know, it would have been cooler if they made guns instead of wine)  The wine here is ok, but supposedly is getting much better (the climate is good for growing, but they are do not have the expertise - apparently there is an effort to import wine experts from France, Italy, wherever to make the vino mas bueno).  The rose production, on the other hand, is a highly developed industry.  They grow a ton of them and make all kinds of related products, rose perfumes, rose extracts, rose... arees?

And, of course, rose jam.  While visiting Plovdiv, Anne and Mark bought a small jar of rose jam from a guy at a kiosk.  Anne asked the merchant how best to eat the jam.  (Keep in mind, if there was no industry here for 50 years, there certainly was no marketing, so the sales pitches can be a bit... rough)  The guy responds that if you eat a little on a piece of bread - is ok, no problem.  If you eat a lot, then 1 hour, then toilet.  If anybody reading this is in sales, feel free to go ahead and use this technique to increase your sales volumes.  Consider it a gift to you from Bulgaria.     You're welcome.

Despite the man's efforts to sell the product, Anne and Mark bought some anyway.  Today was the day to try it.  First, we got a freshly-baked loaf of bread from the market downstairs (if it's not warm from the bakery, just chalk it up as being stale).

Then we spread the new jam on the bread.  Then, the cat jumped up on the counter and gave it a try.  Anne and Mark are not normally in favor of testing jams on animals, but .... he's going to eat it anyway, so, you know - never look a gift cat in the mouth.

Canary in the coal mine

The cat ate some and seemed ok.  That's good enough for Anne and Mark (that and monitoring the cat's respiration and pulse for 45 minutes, just in case).

They're not going to come all the way to Bulgaria and then NOT try the rose petal jam.

The Trozone - watch your fingers while he's eating, kids.

Anne and Mark are happy to report that the jam, with a touch of what we think is margarine or something similar, is pretty tasty.  There are actual, visible rose petals in the jam, which is a little weird.  The taste is difficult to describe, but the closest we could up with is kind of like a sweetened rhubarb.

And, to wrap up the post, a picture of a car partially parking on the sidewalk.  These pictures may be getting tiresome, but that will not stop Trolard Pillinski from posting them here.  This one is somewhat interesting, though.  While living in Minneapolis, Madison or Washington, Mark sometimes wondered why people who drive around in the city all the time would need to have a vehicle that was designed for off-road purposes.  Well, this vehicle representing the Offroad Sandanski Team, parked on the street and sidewalk (and, technically, on both sides of a street corner - which is both impressive and wildly unnecessary) answers that question now and forever. Why do I need an off-road vehicle in the city?  So I can park half-way on the sidewalk.