Wacky Wednesday

So I have no idea what arrangement the stars were in today, but the result was a happily productive and social day for me.

Last night I went for my Bulgarian lesson with Rosie, and instead of a traditional lesson she taught me how to make this really versatile cake she is known for in these parts. It coincided with our chapter on Bulgarian imperatives, so basically she bossed me around in Bulgarian...

We finished the hour-long tutoring session, she brought out some rakiya made by her husband (who, I must say, is a master of the drink) and we chatted for a while waiting for it to finish baking. As we had to let it cool for several hours before removing it from the pan, we decided to turn it into a breakfast party today (our day off).

So at 9 a.m. today I headed over to her apartment. Her husband, Toshko, was there, as was her neighbor who I have met on a number of occassions (the one I really like because she speaks very clearly and I can understand her.) And sure enough, it was a breakfast party! We ate cake and drank coffee, and I gave my language skills a workout.

By 10 a.m., however, I decided it was time to shower (how long had it been? 2 days? Opah!) So I headed home, turned on my water boiler, and suddenly realized my apartment was gross. I hadn't swept in probably a week, and in these blocks you really have a lot of dust (and friendly home-loving pests) to contend with. So, I swept the big room and scrubbed the kitchen up a bit (dishes will have to come in my second wave of motivation) and THEN showered.

While I showered I recieved an SMS from one of my guy friends in Krichim (well, actually he lives during the week in Plovdiv and weekends in Krichim) giving me his ICQ address. I added him to my list (I now have a wapping two friends on it! Sudku and Rosie) and no sooner had I clicked "add" than he imed me. We talked for almost an hour -- I told him about my updates here in Straldja, he gave me gossip from the folks back in Krichim. It was overall a very productive conversation.

But, I eventually had to run to the post office to send my schedule to the Sofia office. That task completed I wandered to the business center in town to check up on an email I sent with some work I had done for them. Dichko, one of the few young people in town, was in his office and invited me to sit and chat for a bit. He asked me about school and how I was adjusting to life here. I asked him about his work, as I didn't fully understand it. It's important work -- he links traditional Bulgarian artisans with consumers all over the world. What I do for them is write up descriptions of products in English that they can put on their website.

I spent almost an hour there, and then wandered home, where people from the states and other friends in Bulgaria continued to IM me...It's just been a strangely social day for me. Good, I need days like this.

Now the evening stretches out in front of me. I have a really interesting book (Stephen King's Dreamcatcher) calling out to me, I have a pile of dishes longing to be washed (and just enough motivation to do them), I have some eggs and kashkaval I intend to make into an omlet for dinner, and fine weather to take a walk in. I think this clearness will lead to a very nice sunset over the mountains if I get my butt to the north end of town.

Overall, this breather in the middle of the week is very satisfying. Though in one way it'd be nice to have 3-day weekends (mostly for travel) I am finding that I enjoy two days of intense work, then a day to myself, then two more days of intense work before the weekend. Indeed, life is growing on me.