First LectureDr. Evelina Kelbecheva met with us today for our first lecture at American University -Bulgaria. Shirley Hazlett did the sketches of today's session. Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
June 25
First LectureDr. Evelina Kelbecheva met with us today for our first lecture at American University -Bulgaria. Shirley Hazlett did the sketches of today's session. Enjoy!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Anne W. Dale Blair-Tuesday, June 24
Greetings from Bulgaria, Day 3 submitted by Anne W. Dale Blair.
The day started in assundry ways, depending on the needs of the participants. Breakfast was served down in the dining room from 8 - 10:30 am. Some of the group made it to the wonderful spread called breakfast...eggs, grape leaves wrapped around cheese, ham, little sausages, bread, vegetables, fruit, cheeses, orange juice, coffee, phyla dough wrapped eggs and cheese, and more. YUM. Next, because we had to meet in the lobby at 11 to go for lunch, we decided to go walking, go back to the room or searching for opera tickets. Some just got up for that happening and some went shopping and some went for falafel.
After breakfast, Le, Carol, Andrea and Stephanie went walking down a main shopping district and felt very fortunate to meet the acquaintance of another friendly Bulgarian. With her lovely Bulgarian dress and pillbox hat, she kept smiling and trying to speak the best English that she could. She was very interested in the fact that they were Americans. It gave her a chance to tell them about her friends that lived in San Francisco. She was also very excited and eager to share that she was 87 years old! She was so kind to allow them to get a picture taken with her and her huge smile was priceless as she saw it reviewed on the camera. She smiled even more when they told her how beautiful she was!
At any rate all had to be back at the motel by 12 to check out and load the bus with the cute little trailer to hold all our big suitcases. We all (can you believe it?) were on the bus and on the road by 12:08!!!!! \On the way we stopped and picked up Nadia who is our fabulous host while we are visiting the American University of Bulgaria. Karen and Kristen stayed behind to retrieve a late suitcase arriving on the same London flight a day later.
Fourteen of us, with Nadia, were headed to Blagoevgrad, sitting snugly on the cute bus. The landscape was initially hilly/small mountains- like Tennessee/Kentucky mountains and the road was like the Pennsylvania turnpike in some places, better and worse in other places. After driving through a pass, the land was less mountainous/big hills into more rolling hills.
We stopped at a pulloff gas station for a break which was like the gas oasises on turnpikes. The houses all along the way were all tiled in red and orange neat rows with the usual variety of newness and dilapidation. \I noticed that houses are usually in with groups of houses and not many out all by themselves, we saw rows of cypress trees that reminded us of Italy. The country side was beautiful, green, and because of the roads and houses you knew you were in a different country. I also saw a farmer helping push his horse drawn wagon up a short hill.
We arrived in Blagoevgrad at 2:20pm and unloaded all our bags from the bus and trailer and schlepped them into the lobby of the Residence hall called Scaptopara 1. We handed in our passports to the residence director - Ilko - who took them to copy and handed us our room cards. We had picked our roommate back in Michigan so there was no fighting about that! We went up and settled in, rested, etc. and met down in the lobby at 3:50 for our walking tour.
Blagoevgrad has a population of about 75,000 people, Nadia walked us through part of the city, past a shrine to someone, past a market area which is open on Wednesdays, to the American University of Bulgaria. The building was once the communist headquarters and is a massive marble building with an impressive entrance hall with flags representing the countries of students hanging in rows. There we were assigned our secret email passwords to be able to communicate with everyone. YEA! Then we toured the facility, saw our classroom for the next few weeks. and the dining room. We parted with her and walked down a main street to a restaurant named Napoli Ristorante.
Dinner was wonderful, sitting under an umbrella awning, with our new friends, eating great Bulgarian food. Interesting tidbit is that "broached beer" means draft beer....which was very good. I had the Bulgarian famous salad - shopska salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, with shredded feta cheese and topped with a black olive. Then shared roasted pork with sauce of garlic, parsley, butter and lemon.
We then had the walking tour of part of the city, including the old part, with a church and hotel. People live in some of the buildings and others are open to the public.
We are getting a sense of the city and the people. This is such an outstanding opportunity for us to learn and share our experiences with our colleagues and students. I am noticing all the strengths that everyone has as we get to know them better and those will add even more to the overall experience!
The day started in assundry ways, depending on the needs of the participants. Breakfast was served down in the dining room from 8 - 10:30 am. Some of the group made it to the wonderful spread called breakfast...eggs, grape leaves wrapped around cheese, ham, little sausages, bread, vegetables, fruit, cheeses, orange juice, coffee, phyla dough wrapped eggs and cheese, and more. YUM. Next, because we had to meet in the lobby at 11 to go for lunch, we decided to go walking, go back to the room or searching for opera tickets. Some just got up for that happening and some went shopping and some went for falafel.
After breakfast, Le, Carol, Andrea and Stephanie went walking down a main shopping district and felt very fortunate to meet the acquaintance of another friendly Bulgarian. With her lovely Bulgarian dress and pillbox hat, she kept smiling and trying to speak the best English that she could. She was very interested in the fact that they were Americans. It gave her a chance to tell them about her friends that lived in San Francisco. She was also very excited and eager to share that she was 87 years old! She was so kind to allow them to get a picture taken with her and her huge smile was priceless as she saw it reviewed on the camera. She smiled even more when they told her how beautiful she was!
At any rate all had to be back at the motel by 12 to check out and load the bus with the cute little trailer to hold all our big suitcases. We all (can you believe it?) were on the bus and on the road by 12:08!!!!! \On the way we stopped and picked up Nadia who is our fabulous host while we are visiting the American University of Bulgaria. Karen and Kristen stayed behind to retrieve a late suitcase arriving on the same London flight a day later.
Fourteen of us, with Nadia, were headed to Blagoevgrad, sitting snugly on the cute bus. The landscape was initially hilly/small mountains- like Tennessee/Kentucky mountains and the road was like the Pennsylvania turnpike in some places, better and worse in other places. After driving through a pass, the land was less mountainous/big hills into more rolling hills.
We stopped at a pulloff gas station for a break which was like the gas oasises on turnpikes. The houses all along the way were all tiled in red and orange neat rows with the usual variety of newness and dilapidation. \I noticed that houses are usually in with groups of houses and not many out all by themselves, we saw rows of cypress trees that reminded us of Italy. The country side was beautiful, green, and because of the roads and houses you knew you were in a different country. I also saw a farmer helping push his horse drawn wagon up a short hill.
We arrived in Blagoevgrad at 2:20pm and unloaded all our bags from the bus and trailer and schlepped them into the lobby of the Residence hall called Scaptopara 1. We handed in our passports to the residence director - Ilko - who took them to copy and handed us our room cards. We had picked our roommate back in Michigan so there was no fighting about that! We went up and settled in, rested, etc. and met down in the lobby at 3:50 for our walking tour.
Blagoevgrad has a population of about 75,000 people, Nadia walked us through part of the city, past a shrine to someone, past a market area which is open on Wednesdays, to the American University of Bulgaria. The building was once the communist headquarters and is a massive marble building with an impressive entrance hall with flags representing the countries of students hanging in rows. There we were assigned our secret email passwords to be able to communicate with everyone. YEA! Then we toured the facility, saw our classroom for the next few weeks. and the dining room. We parted with her and walked down a main street to a restaurant named Napoli Ristorante.
Dinner was wonderful, sitting under an umbrella awning, with our new friends, eating great Bulgarian food. Interesting tidbit is that "broached beer" means draft beer....which was very good. I had the Bulgarian famous salad - shopska salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, with shredded feta cheese and topped with a black olive. Then shared roasted pork with sauce of garlic, parsley, butter and lemon.
We then had the walking tour of part of the city, including the old part, with a church and hotel. People live in some of the buildings and others are open to the public.
We are getting a sense of the city and the people. This is such an outstanding opportunity for us to learn and share our experiences with our colleagues and students. I am noticing all the strengths that everyone has as we get to know them better and those will add even more to the overall experience!
First/Second Day, submitted by Heather Bartlett
From Heather Bartlett:
We (the Germans) would like to have our own experiences about the first/second day done so here goes: The day had finally arrived and we were on our way. Sitting in coach reminded me/us that upgrading is always a good choice especially when small children are allowed on the plane :) We landed in Germany and walked around looking for a place to get a quick breakfast. We ended up eating at McDonald's getting ready for our cultural experiences:) We also vowed not to eat there until we got back to Germany. As we eat Shirley drew the people around us. The airport was truly international. There were people everywhere speaking different languages and dressing in cultural gear. As we waited for our gate number to be posted, we shared stories and created bonds of friendship. We were discussing the tomatoes and how we were looking forward to tasting them. We had a choice when boarding the plane, from the front or back. Since I have never boarded a plane from the back before, Julie, Anne, and I boarded from the back even though we were row seven. I know no how salmon feel. As we flew, Anne showed our itinerary to a Bulgarian man. He looked at it and kept on using different adjectives to describe excellent. "This is really good!" He kept on saying. He kissed his fingers when he saw we were traveling to the Rila National Park. This made us even more excited to get there. Landing in Bulgaria, we had no problems finding our way through the airport and customs. We were greeted by Nadia, our American University contact. It was great to see a sign and a smiling face waiting for us. We knew we were in good hands. Nadia even commented about the tomatoes. The Paris flight was delayed so some of the original German flight leg went to sit on the bus. Anne and I hung around the airport with signs looking forward to greeting our delayed travelers. Karen from D.C. took her own flight out and was flying solo. We raced to find her as she exited the gate. I don't know how she felt with four people running in her direction with American University signs. It was great to meet her. As we watched the gate swing open each time a traveler arrived, we enjoyed the families waiting to greet the travelers. As the gate opened, it was like Christmas. Both the traveler and the waiters greeted each other as though they had just received the biggest gift as to see each other. It was quite touching knowing that on our journey home we will be on the travelers end greeting our loved ones. The Paris grouped arrived and we were once again a whole all 16 of us. We boarded the bus tired and weary from our travels but excited to experience Bulgaria. As we headed to the hotel in Sofia, we watched the cars traveling in every direction but the right one. The Communist bloc building displayed dreariness but the different clothes hanging from the buildings provided a sense of renewal. We arrived in the art hotel to drop off our stuff and take a walking tour of the city. At first Sophia seemed confusing, but after 30 minutes the city seemed to own us and we her. We saw the highlights of the city including the statue of wisdom (Sophia means wisdom), the Russian church, and the Alexander S. church. We then headed back for a traditional Bulgarian meal. The restaurant was in the basement of the building decorated with traditional Bulgarian patterns. The sign outside even included 3-D colorful Roma wagon. The meal was unbelievable. Everyone ordered a skopta salad and experience the excellent Bulgarian tomatoes for the first time. We were then serenaded by musicians at the restaurant. They even sang "O' Sole Mio". It was truly an international event. As we headed back to the hotel with our stomachs full, we looked forward to resting our heads and dreaming of what tomorrow may bring.
We (the Germans) would like to have our own experiences about the first/second day done so here goes: The day had finally arrived and we were on our way. Sitting in coach reminded me/us that upgrading is always a good choice especially when small children are allowed on the plane :) We landed in Germany and walked around looking for a place to get a quick breakfast. We ended up eating at McDonald's getting ready for our cultural experiences:) We also vowed not to eat there until we got back to Germany. As we eat Shirley drew the people around us. The airport was truly international. There were people everywhere speaking different languages and dressing in cultural gear. As we waited for our gate number to be posted, we shared stories and created bonds of friendship. We were discussing the tomatoes and how we were looking forward to tasting them. We had a choice when boarding the plane, from the front or back. Since I have never boarded a plane from the back before, Julie, Anne, and I boarded from the back even though we were row seven. I know no how salmon feel. As we flew, Anne showed our itinerary to a Bulgarian man. He looked at it and kept on using different adjectives to describe excellent. "This is really good!" He kept on saying. He kissed his fingers when he saw we were traveling to the Rila National Park. This made us even more excited to get there. Landing in Bulgaria, we had no problems finding our way through the airport and customs. We were greeted by Nadia, our American University contact. It was great to see a sign and a smiling face waiting for us. We knew we were in good hands. Nadia even commented about the tomatoes. The Paris flight was delayed so some of the original German flight leg went to sit on the bus. Anne and I hung around the airport with signs looking forward to greeting our delayed travelers. Karen from D.C. took her own flight out and was flying solo. We raced to find her as she exited the gate. I don't know how she felt with four people running in her direction with American University signs. It was great to meet her. As we watched the gate swing open each time a traveler arrived, we enjoyed the families waiting to greet the travelers. As the gate opened, it was like Christmas. Both the traveler and the waiters greeted each other as though they had just received the biggest gift as to see each other. It was quite touching knowing that on our journey home we will be on the travelers end greeting our loved ones. The Paris grouped arrived and we were once again a whole all 16 of us. We boarded the bus tired and weary from our travels but excited to experience Bulgaria. As we headed to the hotel in Sofia, we watched the cars traveling in every direction but the right one. The Communist bloc building displayed dreariness but the different clothes hanging from the buildings provided a sense of renewal. We arrived in the art hotel to drop off our stuff and take a walking tour of the city. At first Sophia seemed confusing, but after 30 minutes the city seemed to own us and we her. We saw the highlights of the city including the statue of wisdom (Sophia means wisdom), the Russian church, and the Alexander S. church. We then headed back for a traditional Bulgarian meal. The restaurant was in the basement of the building decorated with traditional Bulgarian patterns. The sign outside even included 3-D colorful Roma wagon. The meal was unbelievable. Everyone ordered a skopta salad and experience the excellent Bulgarian tomatoes for the first time. We were then serenaded by musicians at the restaurant. They even sang "O' Sole Mio". It was truly an international event. As we headed back to the hotel with our stomachs full, we looked forward to resting our heads and dreaming of what tomorrow may bring.
Larry Neitzert-Monday, June 23
June 23, 2008
Submitted by Larry Neitzert
Bulgaria has been invaded by fourteen teachers and two leaders! Just as General Dwight Eisenhower led the American troops in June of 1944 to liberate Europe, we have our A Day -- ARRIVED. We have arrived not to liberate but to learn the culture and history of Bulgaria and the Balkans.
Similar to that memorable day in 1944 we arrive in waves, leaving the United States at different times and places. No heavy artillery of munitions are brought -- just guide books and cameras, although some of the baggage was heavier than what the GI’s carried ashore at Normandy. General Pamela Galbraith of CASID successfully planned and executed this invasion of a land that serves as a buffer between Europe of the West and Asia of the East.
The only glitch that many of us experienced was a horrendous line in Paris that we had to stand in as we tried to make a connecting flight to Sofia. I thought about a scene in the movie Patton with George C. Scott where his tanks are held up by a poor peasant’s mule on a bridge in France. Patton callously shoots the mule and pushes it into the river, and then he sends his tanks forward to Germany. I thought it was probably not a good idea to shoot the offending French security guards. French and American relations are strained enough without me adding to the problem, besides I had left my sidearms home for this trip. Carol Mohrlock took charge and got us around the blockage. I think she would have made a great major or colonel at D Day.
By afternoon of Monday, June 23 everyone had arrived safely at the Sofia airport. (People all showed up, but a couple of bags had decided to stay in Paris and enjoy the sights.)
With people and baggage collected we headed by bus to the hotel where we were all registered and lodged by four PM.
Pamela took us on a walking tour of Sofia to briefly show some of the sights that we will visit and study later. Unfortunately she had forgotten to bring her cattle prod, club, or whip, and so we were strung out lagging behind -- some window shopping, some tired, and some limping with a bum knee. Fortunately she did not lose any of us and later we all gathered in a restaurant near the hotel for a meal -- a meal that was stupendous and sat well in our tired stomachs as we drug ourselves back to the hotel and crashed for the evening.
It is not certain whether General Galbraith or General Margaret Holtschlag deserve a bronze or silver star for leading the “troops” to Bulgaria. They certainly deserve some type of commendation for putting this Fulbright trip together and getting us here eager to learn and to experience Bulgaria.
Submitted by Larry Neitzert
Bulgaria has been invaded by fourteen teachers and two leaders! Just as General Dwight Eisenhower led the American troops in June of 1944 to liberate Europe, we have our A Day -- ARRIVED. We have arrived not to liberate but to learn the culture and history of Bulgaria and the Balkans.
Similar to that memorable day in 1944 we arrive in waves, leaving the United States at different times and places. No heavy artillery of munitions are brought -- just guide books and cameras, although some of the baggage was heavier than what the GI’s carried ashore at Normandy. General Pamela Galbraith of CASID successfully planned and executed this invasion of a land that serves as a buffer between Europe of the West and Asia of the East.
The only glitch that many of us experienced was a horrendous line in Paris that we had to stand in as we tried to make a connecting flight to Sofia. I thought about a scene in the movie Patton with George C. Scott where his tanks are held up by a poor peasant’s mule on a bridge in France. Patton callously shoots the mule and pushes it into the river, and then he sends his tanks forward to Germany. I thought it was probably not a good idea to shoot the offending French security guards. French and American relations are strained enough without me adding to the problem, besides I had left my sidearms home for this trip. Carol Mohrlock took charge and got us around the blockage. I think she would have made a great major or colonel at D Day.
By afternoon of Monday, June 23 everyone had arrived safely at the Sofia airport. (People all showed up, but a couple of bags had decided to stay in Paris and enjoy the sights.)
With people and baggage collected we headed by bus to the hotel where we were all registered and lodged by four PM.
Pamela took us on a walking tour of Sofia to briefly show some of the sights that we will visit and study later. Unfortunately she had forgotten to bring her cattle prod, club, or whip, and so we were strung out lagging behind -- some window shopping, some tired, and some limping with a bum knee. Fortunately she did not lose any of us and later we all gathered in a restaurant near the hotel for a meal -- a meal that was stupendous and sat well in our tired stomachs as we drug ourselves back to the hotel and crashed for the evening.
It is not certain whether General Galbraith or General Margaret Holtschlag deserve a bronze or silver star for leading the “troops” to Bulgaria. They certainly deserve some type of commendation for putting this Fulbright trip together and getting us here eager to learn and to experience Bulgaria.
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