saturday through thursday...

so, my first week here is nearly over and i have already done and seen quite a few things. however, i have only been to the centre of sofia twice -- and getting there still proves to be some kind of adventure...

but let's keep the days in the right order:

SATURDAY i got here around 6 pm local time. vera showed me around a bit and i made myself at home in the room that i am currently staying in. then, vera showed me around a bit more and we (vera, georgi and i) had some vegan apple pie and coffee. then, vera showed me around again a bit more, so by then, i more or less knew my way around. yes, the place is big and if it wasn't for the different colours of the doors, i'd probably still end up opening the wrong ones ;-)

SUNDAY i woke up early, took my shower, went to the kitchen. that's when i got to know jamie. she's from US (oregon), has some cherokee blood in her (from her father's side), is the same age as me and a very good cook. while we were talking, john woke up and joined us in the kitchen. the kitchen is the meeting place for everyone. it's nice and comfortable and in the end of the day we usually all sit around the tables, talking, eating, drinking..... john is australian, a little bit older than me -but not much- he's been travelling around europe for about a year now, i think, and wears a moustache. he's got the typically australian sense of humour (well, at least, it seems typically australian to me though i wouldn't call myself an expert on that matter :-P) and i very kind. so, what do you think, of course i joined the two of them when they went to "nord park" to take a walk and sit in the sun.
It was quite a long walk to get to the park. Once there we walked through a part of it and sat near this interesting speciman of a bulgarian bridge ;)
On the way back, we got nearly lost looking for "fantastiko", the supermarket closest to where we live. We passed a man who was about to kill a sheep in the backyard between two blocks of houses and a bunch of cars. "oh, look, he's gonna shear the sheep" (john), "ah, no, i think he's going to kill it. let's get away, i don't wanna see it" (jamie)...so, we didn't see it, but pretty sure he killed it shortly afterwards.
Next, we went to have a look at the timetable of the trains leaving from "gara sofia sever" (trains station sofia north). you can't imagine how dangerous it can be to get into a train station. on the square right in front of it a bunch of bulgarian macho men were trying to impose a few women by making a little "doughnut contest" with their cars. that's how john called it, at least. they were driving in small circles as fast as they could around the square and i feared that any moment they might loose control of their cars and hit me while we were trying to pass them, as far away as possible.
back "home", we met a new arrival. a frenchman called arnod, who's never had a real job in his nearly 30 years of life and who studied something with agriculture, and is a real good listener.

MONDAY i went into the centre for the first time. the bus 79 leaves more or less in front of our house and it takes about 15-20 minutes to get into the centre. i have found out that it more or less leaves three times per hour, but when exactly is still a mystery to me. anyway, one has to signal to the driver somehow that he really stops and when you want to get off you have to do the same thing. the bus stops about a 10-minute walk away from the university. i can swith there to a trolley bus (mixture between bus and tram, they also have real trams here), but i haven't figured out which which stop is best to switch. it is more difficult than i thought, because the way into the centre and the way back home is not exactly the same route. well, by next time, i'll be smarter, i hope...
in the university i went to the erasmus office and tried to find out when and how i could sign up for my classes, get my student card, take a language course, meet other erasmus students, do the paper work that needs to be done, get registered at the police....well, all kinds of things, but i didn't get very far. nothing can be done before october 1st, so i'm waiting till then. besides that, i learned that there is pretty much nothing planned for the erasmus students. no help to adapt, no erasmus meetings, nothing. whatever, we're somehow gonna find each other anyway, and besides that i prefer getting to know bulgarians anyway, after all i am in bulgaria.
in the afternoon, john and jamie weren't there (they had left in the morning for the mountains close by) and i worked together with arnod in the garden.

TUESDAY i tried my luck once more in university. i wanted to see the dean of the faculty of philosophy where i will be studying during the next semester. he had written me in an email that he'd be there in either room 48 or 52 between 11 and 12 am. well, he was in neither of these rooms and i couldn't find anyone else who seemed to belong to the faculty of philosophy. i returned home, had lunch and worked some more in the garden.

WEDNESDAY i got up a little later. it was the first night i've really slept well and long since i am here. the evening before also dominik from austria had arrived. a friend of vera's from when she was living in austria. he's been here for a while, but had gone to the countryside for a few days. so, wednesday, we were all together and in the afternoon we all worked in the garden. in the evening we ate the "banitza" dominik and jamie had prepared. it's like turkish börek. we stuffed it with brennnesseln (stinging nettles) and tofu and with feta cheese and olives. yummy!

THURSDAY again some garden work. today, i "embraced the roses with small stones" (that's how vera called it. she speaks real good german, but sometimes she uses weird words and often uses cute descriptions ("du kannst die rosen mit steinen umarmen", das hat sie wirklich so gesagt ;))
i've got some pictures here
<-- Georgi and Arnod cut off the sign: "technological institute for furniture and furnishing"

John working and Dominik passing in the background -->







<-- Rosen "von Steinen umarmt" :D

Vera is also working -->