It’s been three months and three days (correction: one week by the time I got to actually finish writing this) since I first set my foot in Bulgaria for the first time. I tried writing something lengthy but it just didn’t come out right. My ability to write lengthy, journaly posts that might be of any interest to readers has become worse with time, especially during this year and the one past. Part of it may be that I started writing my morning pages last July, so the canvas for my thoughts put into words ceased to be The Dimension and became The Page.

I’m also suspecting that I have got more used to writing creatively on paper than doing so on a computer, exactly because the ritual of the morning pages allows me to write freely. Conversely, whenever I write a post, I feel restricted: by the context, the medium of the blog, by what I know I’ve said before, even by my readers’ expectations. I have also noticed a distinct difference in style between when I write longhand and when I type. I remember reading something about that in The Shallows and how Nietzsche also noticed he started writing differently, less eloquently perhaps, when he began using his typing ball. Maybe I should have my posts as scans. :O Anyway, I digress – which wouldn’t be a problem if this wasn’t a post!

So, let’s get to the point.

Things I thought back in January I would be doing now :

• mainly reading books borrowed from the library;
• practicing languages by playing games like Okami;
• refining the Extended Tandem website for the Sofia City Library, my personal project idea for attracting readers;
• meeting with my tandem partners for Spanish and German;
• doing Memrise exercises every day for Bulgarian;
• be able to have a basic conversation in Bulgarian;
• cooking every day, or at least every two or three days;
• continually improving my English conversation class workshop;
• reading American magazines;

What I’ve really been doing:

• realising, not without a little embarassment, that us volunteers are being effectively paid more than actual library employees;
• going out a lot – and I mean a lot, as in I-need-some-time-alone-guys! a lot – together with all the other volunteers we met in the on-arrival training a month ago;
• due to above reason, not keeping in touch with Daphne as much as she deserves, but trying to keep it as real as possible all the same;
• exchanging packages with Daphne filled with cookies, books and other goodies – positive aspect of doing your EVS close to home: the possibility of using the coach companies to send packages for dirt cheap;
• saying yes to as many proposals as possible;
• hosting multiple people pretty much every week, mainly volunteers who work in other cities in Bulgaria and come to visit (we’re hosting Christina, Niina and Hilal as I’m writing these lines – as I’m finishing up the post, my friend from Heterotopies Myrto took their place in Hostel Shar Planina 55);
• abstaining from alcohol for fifteen days – my digestion system went completely crazy for that period of time, but I felt great (and rich!) – now I’m back to drinking as usual;
• postponing/avoiding to find tandem partners;
• failing to study Bulgarian almost at all and improving much slower than I would have liked, especially after our classes ended;
• hardly playing any screen-based games at all;
• playing Dixit with Rian – excellent game;
• going on excursions;
• made a Prezi together with Zanda for an education day in the German embassy about the library’s activities (click on the link if you’re okay with Pharrell William’s Happy playing in the background);
• going running less often, but also trying to integrate bodyweight lifting in my makeshift fitness program, which includes changes in diet – discovering what vegetarian foods are rich in protein is a fun procedure all of its own;
• shaved my head;
• enjoying the amazing weather in Sofia – seriously, there was no winter this year;
• saying dobre a lot;
• eating ice cream from Confetti – to think I’d have to come to Sofia to try the best ice cream I can remember having;
• reading much more than what I’m used to ^^J (you can see the number of book reviews I’ve written in the past few weeks), but no books from the library, apart from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test;
• watching Breaking Bad with Daphne (yes, through Skype/Steam direct connection!) extremely slowly – watching Battlestar Galactica slightly, but not significantly, faster – preferably with Bulgarian subtitles;
• sucking at watching series;
• started the Easy Readers workshop, which is looking more and more like it will end up like another Engish Conversation Group – many more people want to practice their spoken English than their reading skills, apparently;
• I’m not reading American magazines, but I am trying to find new and exciting ways to use my Kindle.

What I’ll be doing soon:

• weekly English classes/activities for refugee children and teens from Syria;
• tandem(!!!) – actually I think I already found a Bulgarian guy who wants to learn Greek – perfect;
• filling out my 100 Obekta passport – I’ll write something about that soon;
• finding ways to make living together with three (usually more!) people sustainable in the long medium run;
• making that library-centred Tandem website;
• making some more qbdp episodes – it’s time;
• spending lot of time outside – the good part of climate change, or just call it spring;
• visiting more of the surrounding countries, including more places in Bulgaria – good thing we have lots of volunteers to host us all over;
• that includes Greece, and I hope I’ll get at least some of the volunteers to join me!

This post is well overdue but at the same time I feel like I’m missing something crucial. Ah well, let’s post it anyway.