The Honeymoon is Over

I just got run off the road by a big white truck. Luckily, the baby and I were not hurt. I was driving up the mountain road to our house, as a truck was driving down. I had no place to pull off to allow him to pass. So, I slowed as best I could and TRIED to pull off as best I could, hitting a cement pillar/marker in the process. Better to hit the cement marker than to hit a truck head-on, right? It completely destroyed my front passenger side tire. The truck kept barrelling on. I tried to get home as best I could, but it sounded really bad. So, I found a place to pull-off up the road. I called the Embassy and they sent our mobile patrol guys to help me out. Thank goodness for mobile patrol. They changed my tire and got me home.

Yes, every tour we experience a "honeymoon period" where everything is new, exciting, interesting, fascinating and charming. I think when I am in a place for a short time, I tend to see the surface of life, but not until I get settled into life there do I really start scratching beneath that surface. And, then something happens, like a truck running me off the road, that's more a gash than a scratch. Now, I just need to remember that it is the surface, the gash and everything in between that are the true representation of the place, not any of them in isolation. When I reach that conclusion naturally, that's when I know I'm truly settled.

The Point of Rosh Hashanah is to not make your friends vomit!

Last night we went to my husband's boss's house for Rosh Hashanah dinner. She took the day off to prepare and I helped. Hubby was in charge of the office in her absence. Normally our youngest son (YS) goes to Embassy care for only a 1/2 day a few days/week. But, today he stayed for the full day, so I could be free to help prepare the dinner. Dinner was to be at 6 PM. Only, hubby had to stay late, which meant that YS had to hang out with him at the office after Embassy care closed. When I asked YS what he did at daddy's office, he replied, "I had a meeting with Daddy and Ms. Sue." Ms. Sue is actually Susan (our Deputy Chief of Mission). Luckily, for us, she was very understanding about the atypical situation at hand. So, hubby and YS arrived at 7 PM for dinner. Still, it was a nice dinner, if not a little late.

Today, we drove to the beautiful old Synagogue here in Sofia for services (most importantly to the boys, to see the shofar blown). We were just about there, when oldest son (OS) vomited all over himself and the car. We made an immediate u-turn and headed home instead. I know it’s a day of "no work," but there was no way I could let vomit sit in the car. I gave hubby the choice, watch the boys or clean the vomit. You can guess which one he chose. So, I spent the next several hours cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning! OS vomited again at home, luckily in the toilet, and then spent the next several hours sleeping. When he awoke, he was still sluggish and tired.

OS asked to watch a movie. I wanted to share one of my all-time favorites with him. So, we watched The Princess Bride together. He loved it as I knew he would. After the movie, he heard kids outside playing and insisted he felt better. I told him, "no, you cannot go out and play." Oh my goodness, you would think the world was about to end. So, we had a long talk about Rosh Hashanah. We discussed how important it is to look at yourself, your choices and what you can do to think about and help others. If he went out to play, he could very well get his friends sick and that wouldn't be a very good thing to do. So, yes, the point of Rosh Hashanah is to not make your friends vomit. And there you have it. He still wasn’t happy about it, but at least he seemed to get that small part of it. We are still working on him to give up some of his toys to take to the orphanage. That is a work in progress. . .

And with that, we will wish all of our Jewish friends and family a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Shana Tova Umetukah!

Where to begin?

Well, our sea freight arrived, almost all of it anyway. We had a few damaged items and a few missing items. Our biggest loss was an 11x13 Persian carpet we bought while stationed in Pakistan over 10 years ago. Of course, the boys think the most devastating loss was the missing power cord to the Wii. Talk about disappointment.

So, now all the boxes have been unpacked. But, this is a point of contention in our home. My preference would've been to unpack one room at a time, organizing that room before moving on. My husband, however, insisted that all boxes be unpacked in their appropriate rooms and then items put wherever they will fit for the time being until we have time to better organize. So, I did it my way and he did it his way. We now have our main floor pretty much put away and organized (this is the floor I worked on). All boxes on all floors have been emptied. But, the upstairs and basement are chaos. When I open closets or drawers I feel overwhelmed at the complete lack of meaning, pattern, or place to things. But, I will admit it is nice to have no boxes taking up space and it is also nice to see exactly what it is I need to organize. So much still to be done!

So, one thing that did arrive in decent shape was our Red Crab Sandbox. Only finding play sand is not easy. After hearing all this stuff about silica from quartz based sand, too much dust for little ones to breathe in safely, etc . . . . I started to worry about what we could do. All we were seeing in the stores was cement. And, geese, do they use a lot of cement. Then we saw some pretty colored sand-like substance. But, it turned out to be grout. Hmmm, no, don't really want my kids playing in cement or grout. We couldn't find any type of sand at all. Then, we happened upon a garden nursery with a bunch of sand. It didn't seem dusty at all. We asked where they got it from. Apparently they dug it up from the walls of a cavern on the river. So, it may not be the most ecologically friendly sand, but it appears to be all that is available. And, after searching all day for sand, we are willing to give it a try.

The other thing that arrived was our charcoal grill and chimney. Now, we've been gas grill fans for some time. It's so much easier than charcoal. But, we thought converting our American gas grill to European standard would be too dangerous and European gas grills are 2 - 3 times as much for the same product. So, we decided to go back to charcoal. And, thanks to Alton Brown, I think we have a winner. Back home, we just loved to watch Alton on the Food Channel. My oldest loves to watch cooking shows with me. We have learned so much from Alton too. This, by far, has to be the best tip ever. A chimney starter to light the grill means it lights fast, reliably and without the use of lighter fluid. Oh, and the tip about a drizzle of vegetable oil on the newspaper was fantastic! We tried it for the first time tonight and OMG what a difference. Charcoal is not so hard after all. Alton, we love and miss you very much. When are you going to start putting your full episodes on Hulu????

And with that last ode to Alton, I will say goodnight to all.

6 Weeks In

Ok, so it’s been awhile since my last posting, so sorry for the few of you out there who actually read this thing. . .We've been here almost 6 weeks now and here's what we've been up to. . .

We took the boys on a hike up Vitosha Mountain - just from the top of the Gondola ride to close to the top of the "walking trail," more like climbing trail in spots. Yes, it was a little more challenging than we expected. Lessons learned: do not take a 3-year old on that hike! Don't wear your Trim Step shoes for such a hike. And, for goodness sakes, don't let the kids wear Crocs when hiking!

My 2nd grader had his first week of school last week and I have never seen so many parent orientation meetings as I have at his new school. I will say, so far from what we've seen, it seems like a good program in a good facility with a good teacher. They even had a welcome back barbeque. The school provided all the food, live music and free drinks (including beer). I guess if you charge university level tuition, you can afford to give free beer to all the suckers (I mean parents).

We are now on our second week and homework has started - about 20 minutes/day of written work and 20 minutes/day of reading. The school even has a website, with each teacher having their own page. Whenever Tak has a new assignment, I go to his class webpage and get all the information about what they are working on and what they are expecting from the kids. It also includes a month-by-month overview of the lesson plans for the year. It is awesome!!!!

Our preschooler started going to the Embassy preschool/daycare a few mornings/week. So, I now have a little bit of time to do shopping, errands, exercise, etc . . . . Some mornings he's happily on his way and other mornings, he cries "I stay home with Mamma." It just breaks my heart, but he seems to have such fun at school and is always happy when I pick him up. He needs the time with kids his own age and I need the time to myself every now and again, especially for exercising (though here I am finally catching up on this blog).

Speaking of exercise, my neighbor showed me some walking trails that are really walking trails, as opposed to climbing trails. And, we've been walking about 3 times/week. Though the weather is turning cold, so I don't know how much longer that will last. At some point, I need to start doing gym workouts again and HOPEFULLY find a pool where I can do some laps. I miss swimming!!!!

And, in our biggest news, all of our stuff arrives tomorrow. We are getting the house ready to TRY to fit everything. And, of course, I need to be putting the "Welcome Kit" back together to return to the Embassy. The Welcome Kit is a crate of basic necessities that we borrow until all our stuff arrives. But, seeing as we have 6,000 lbs of stuff arriving, I need to get everything that doesn't belong out of here ASAP. And, with that, I should go and finally get this thing posted. Hopefully, after all of our stuff is unpacked, I will be better about the blog. Keep in touch everyone.

It's Always The Little Things That Get Ya!

So, we have this spot in our yard where you plug in a garden hose. Only, it's not a spicket, but rather a hole in the yard, under a cover, with a snap on plug. Apparently, you are supposed to just snap on your hose to the plug and the water will start flowing. There is no on/off mechanism, just when you pull off the hose, the water will stop. So, I tried to hook-up our hose to the plug, but I couldn't get it to work. Stupidly, I twisted the plug that was in the ground. The plug popped off and the water started gushing, it was like a mini-geyser. I tried my best to screw the plug back on, but the water pressure was too great and I just couldn't do it. I'm soaking wet, with no way to stop the water, trying my best to hold the plug on, so that water doesn't go everywhere (feeling a little bit like BP here). Luckily, Seiji was home and was able to find the complex handyman to come and save the day. He called somebody who turned off the water supply, screwed the plug back on and then showed me how to snap the hose onto the plug. It's always the little things that get ya!

Old and New and Not Much In Between

So, last night, we went out to dinner in downtown Sofia, my first time to the old downtown section. There were some beautiful OLD buildings there, including government buildings, churches, a mosque and a synagogue. I also found out we are actually only a 6 hour drive from Istanbul, a 6 hour drive from Dracula's castle and a 5 hour drive to the Sani Beach Resort in Greece. Hmmm, the wheels are turning. . . .

Sofia is a funny place. They recently joined the EU and so now have an INFLUX of money. With all the EU money and international companies opening up shop here, they are building like crazy (e.g., new homes, new apartment buildings, beautiful new malls, etc . . .). However, there are still many old buildings. Yes, a few are historically old. In general, however, I mean old in terms of dingy, dilapidated, gray soviet era buildings. Add to that the Roma, who are a visible presence here, and it’s all just such a strange mix.

The Roma live in very simple structures and still use horse and buggy to get around. It is not uncommon to see their horse and buggies turning onto busy roads traveling right along with the cars on the same road. It's not just the Roma. The older generation of Bulgarians grew up under Communism and you can see a definite break between the young and the old. It's like third world country and first world country co-existing (not melding, but co-existing).

Of course, you have young and old Bulgarians playing this techno-music (think Sprockets from SNL)in their restaurants, taxis, etc . . . . It’s a whole other weird mix. And, yes, there is A LOT of German influence here for some reason. They must have some kind of special trade agreement with Germany, or something????

UPDATE: Oops, we are a 6 hour drive to the gateway to Dracula's castle, which is then another 9 OR SO hours beyond. At least, to the one that was discussed in the PBS special about Vlad the Impaler. There may be closer ones, as apparently many places claim that they are the location to Dracula's Castle.

Oh Richard, I Forgive you.

Today, after my language lesson, we headed home. However, the only route I know how to use was blocked by construction. Dare, I trust Richard (our GPS)? Hmmm???? Well, what choice do I have? Wouldn't you know it, today he worked. No weird small rocky roads, yeah! Richard led me to another main road a few miles away and then I was home. Richard, you are redeemed in my eyes (for now, so don't push your luck).

Who The Heck was Cyril and What the Heck Was He Thinking?

So, today I had my first introduction to Cyrilic. Here's the gist of what I got today.

A, E, O, K and some M are the only letters that are what they seem.

M with points are M, but any M written with rounded top are T.
B is V
H is N.
X is H (or more like a gargle)
C is S
P is R
U or a mirror image of N are both I
U with an accent on top is Y
3 is Z
Cursive N is P
4 is Ch
W is Sh

And, those are the easy ones! Hmmm, this is going to take some time to figure out. I curse you Cyril!!!!

Richard, You Let Me Down! :(

Today, I took the boys for a visit to the school. It is beautiful, albeit warm (they don't have A/C). I guess in Bulgaria, you really don't need A/C all that much, so. . .

Anyway, on the way home, I went the route I know well. However, I let Richard (that's the name of our GPS voice, hence the name of our GPS) chime in with his suggestions as well. I knew there was a short-cut coming up that is well paved and thought perhaps Richard might point it out. So, when he told me to turn left very near to the spot I thought would be correct, I followed his instructions.

Oh my goodness, what a HUGE mistake. At first, all seemed well. But, then the roads became narrower and narrower, less and less paved and finally just rocky, etc. . .At this point, I decided it was time to turn around, which I did.

On my way back, a car decided to stop in the middle of the "road" and park. I was stuck and had no idea when the person would be returning. Adding to my frustration, there was a truck on the other side of the parked car wanting to get through in the opposite direction. I tried backing out of the road to see if I could find another way. It was either that or wait to see if the driver of the parked car returned. I knew the road too rough and narrow to turn around. I understood that I really did not share Richard's idea of a suitable route. I was quite aware that I did not speak a lick of Bulgarian to ask "how the hell do I get out of here." I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. But, I told myself to "suck it up" and try to get me and the boys home. While I was backing out, I backed into some kind of pole and smashed the rear driver side tail light of the car we just purchased. I was so upset at this point. Damn Richard!!!! You know, it's all his fault, right?! I got out and picked up what pieces I could of the broken plastic tail light and of my bruised and battered ego. And, just as I got back in my car, the woman who parked in the middle of the narrow road returned and moved her car. Perhaps she heard my big BANG and decided she should move??? Then the truck backed-up and let me through.

I decided to not drive anymore today. And, I will only follow Richard if he takes me on fully paved, real roads. Otherwise, I will trust him far less than I can throw him. And, believe me, I was tempted to throw him out the window today. But, I didn't do that and he still lives for another day, another adventure.

Oh No He Didn't!

We had the most beautiful, freakin awesome day today (mostly). We had heard there was a gondola that goes up to the ski resort, not too far from our house. So, today, we set out to find it. It is not only close to our house, it is just two miles away. We have NEVER lived two miles away from a ski lift. We take the gondola up. It is a LONG way up, but so beautiful. We see some very twisty, narrow roads pass underneath us and are pretty dang happy right now that we can get to the ski lodge without having to drive those roads. It was about a 30 minute ride from the entrance of the Gondola up to the top. I imagine by road it would be hours. Once there, we got out and explored the beautiful scenery. On our way back, the boys were tired and so we agreed for a rest/snack stop.

As we are finishing up our snack, a restaurant worker (hoping he was NOT the cook) comes out and starts going through the GARBAGE. He pulls out two pieces of not fully eaten bread and takes them back inside. Hubby and I look at each other in astonishment, did he really just do that. OMG!!! Ok, we are not eating here ever again. Luckily we only ordered bottled water and some prewrapped ice cream treats this time. And, no, I don't think there will be a next time eating at this place. Just hoping the other eating options up there are a little more appealing come ski season. Even with Garbage Collector Cook, it was still a beautiful day and we are excited to ski, ski, ski. . . .