sofia city library – Cubilone's Dimension

QBDP EPISODE #8 – THE GARRET EPISODE

Το καλό πράγμα αργεί να γίνει, είναι γνωστό, αλλά αυτή το φορά το παράκανα: Έναν χρόνο μετά, το podcast με τον Γκάρετ είναι επιτέλους ονλάιν. Ηχογραφημένο 6 Αυγούστου 2014 στο μπαλκόνι του Γκάρετ στην Γλυφάδα, πριν το μεγάλο βήμα του στον χώρο των games (είναι ο φίλος μου που δουλεύει στη Riot που αναφέρω όποτε και σε όποιον μπορώ για να κόβω αντιδράσεις!) και δεν τον έχω πολυδεί από τότε…

Αθεϊσμός vs «εναλλακτική» επιστήμης, ο κίνδυνος της εμπόλα (λολ), ιστορίες από τα Еnglish conversation groups και άλλες από το EVS στη Σόφια, ερωτήματα όπως «σε τι είναι χρήσιμη η νοσταλγία;», «τι θα γινόσουν αν μπορούσες να ξαναδιαλέξεις εναν διαφορετικό δρόμο;», «είναι χάσιμο χρόνου να παίζες games αν περνάς καλά;», «θα είναι το Angry Birds το Mario των hardcore του μέλλοντος;», «πώς θα είναι το facebook σε 50 χρόνια;», «θα ζούμε όταν θα γίνει η Ελλάδα έρημος;», «πόσο μπορείς να πιεις πριν οδηγήσεις;», «υπάρχει το Total Perspective Vortex;», «ποιό είναι το τίμημα μιας ζωής συνεχώς σε κίνηση;», «το Breaking Bad σε έκανε να θέλεις να δοκιμάσεις meth;», «ήταν μαλάκας ο Chris McCandless;» και άλλα πολλά. Μια συζήτηση για τα πάντα και τίποτα, ένα Ne-fest άνοιγμα μυαλών όπως συνηθίζουμε (και η αλήθεια είναι ότι μου λείπει τώρα που είμαστε πολίτες του κόσμου).

Ένα podcast μιάμιση ώρα για να γελάσουμε, να σκεφτούμε, να θυμηθούμε, και που αποκαλύπτει πολλά και για τους δύο μας που δεν μοιραζόμαστε απαραίτητα συχνά. Απολαύστε!

REVIEW: THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

If you don’t enjoy being patronised, don’t read this book.

I was thinking the other day: what would you do if you had a negative (and I mean really negative) opinion on a book but by chance happened to come across its author? What would you tell them if they asked you what you thought about their book?

Without the luxury of the internet or reviews or all the other ways we have of expressing a negative opinion on things without having to come into direct contact with their creator, we tend to be more insensitive with our criticism. The medium is the message… What is the message the medium of criticism conveys? That, perhaps, individual works of art can be analysed, praised or attacked as if they existed in a void – as if they weren’t created by people with flaws and feelings. I understand that criticism is necessary in a world as saturated with works of art as the one we live in, if only for us to be able to timidly navigate through this ever-expanding sea of creativity. However, I also believe it’s necessary to look at established institutions a little more, ahem, critically from time to time.

So: should we be writing criticism we wouldn’t be able to say it to the authors’ faces?

I’ll let you ponder that a for a sec.

…

Done? Great! At this point I’ll contradict myself, as I so happily and readily do, and say what I can say from the safety and isolation of my Goodreads account, albeit signed with my real name, a move I would predictably not make if I knew my review would be read by Kate DiCamillo and not get lost in the ego-stroking labyrinth of positive comments and reviews this piece of work has disappointingly received.

This, people, is one of the worst books I’ve ever read.

Terribly obnoxious, annoying, arbitrary characters; events I did not care about reading and that made me feel worse than before (what was up with the cauliflower ears? Come on!); an arrogant, didactic style of writing that’s pretending not to be so but which cannot help but seep through… I’d go on but it’s already been a couple of months since I read it so most of my vitriol has evaporated; that is, I can’t really remember more of the exact reasons I didn’t enjoy this book at all, but what I can tell you is that it managed to solidify itself in my memory as a bad reading experience, one that made me feel uncomfortable, a kind of uncanny sick inside. Maria did warn me, but I just had to sneak a peek at this train wreck… To not make this review longer than it should be, I’ll just say that I’d never read this to my child.

At least it had beautiful illustrations.

View all my reviews

EVS AT SOFIA CITY LIBRARY: GREEN LIBRARY 2014

Originally posted on our EVS at Sofia City Library blog.

We made this video with all our love for the event that was made of love. Library’s a giving tree. Enjoy!We were also on Bulgarian National TV. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video, so you’ll have to click on the link and watch it there. Here’s another reportage done by TV Evropa – I speak Bulgarian on that one! 😀

The theme song:

Download .mp3

Again, many thanks to Zanda, Maria, Valya and Boryana. You should write something about it too, girls! Post it on the comments and I’ll make it part of the post.

EVS AT SOFIA CITY LIBRARY: MOVING BOOKS FROM PORTUGUESE TO SPANISH READING ROOM

Originally posted on our EVS at Sofia City Library blog.

The Portuguese reading room is soon going to become the Korean reading room. For that reason, all of the books kept therein had to be moved to the Spanish reading room and section which from now on will likely be the Iberian section!

Meanwhile, we got some videos from the procedure and we thought they looked fun and representative of the good time we have in the library even when doing “manual work” like this, so I decided to up them.

EVS IN SOFIA CITY LIBRARY – GREEN LIBRARY 2014 PROMO AND BULGARIAN NATIONAL RADIO INTERVIEW

Originally posted on the EVS Sofia City Library blog.

This video was an exercise in spontaneity: we came up with the idea for it, wrote the lyrics and the music, shot it, cut it and uploaded it within 6-7 hours. Extra footage is from our first Green Library event at Lyulin, which took place last Saturday, and, apart from the rain, which spoiled our plans a little bit, it was quite successful.

I mean, we even went to the Bulgarian National Radio for an interview. Valya, Boryana and Zanda were the ones who spoke the most, presenting our activities and inviting the listeners to our event in Lyulin, but it’s no small thing getting to speak in Bulgarian on the freakin’ national radio, if only just for 15 seconds! The people were kind enough to share the interview with us. Valya starts speaking at 0:25, Boryana at 2:00, Zanda at 4:00, Maria at 4:20, Vicente at 6:55 and myself at 07:10. Here it is:

Many thanks to Maria and Zanda, who had the original idea, and everyone else who helped make this a reality. See you next Saturday!

EVS IN SOFIA CITY LIBRARY – JĀŅI – LATVIAN MIDSUMMER

Originally posted on our EVS in Sofia City Library blog.

On June 23rd we celebrated Jāņi together with our Latvian friends, which is their celebration of midsummer, complete with fires, homemade cheese, beer (very important) and attempting to stay up until sunrise – whoever fails to do so is cursed with sleepiness for a year, at least in Latvian tradition. What is important to note here is that of course the night of June 23rd in the high latitudes of Latvia isn’t more than 3 or 4 hours long, which means that Jāņi doesn’t translate so well for countries that aren’t situated quite as close to polar bears and baby harp seals as the Baltics are – call me Bulgaria. Some of us made the brave attempt, but the idea of sleeping around the fire, or in custom hammocks, beat the spirits of all but the toughest.

The celebration took place in a summer house on Stara Planina close to Rebrovo, which is in a forested valley next to Sofia. It never ceases to surprise me with how many beautiful spots of nature, mountains, lakes, rivers and forests, exist no farther away than a single hour’s trip from Bulgaria’s beating heart.

A taste of the 40-minute train ride, together with Janis, Rian, Zanda and Vicente.

Latvian homemade “cheese”

What? ZANDA is evolving!

So much green… Jāni had his day

Wild strawberries! City boy was excited!

Picking flowers for the Jāņi crowns

After the sun set, the fireflies came out to play. Some of us, including myself, had never seen a firefly before, and that we were excited doesn’t even begin to describe it. The attempt of a video above doesn’t remotely do the experience justice, but at least you can catch part of the vibe, especially played by the sound of the chatter of the crickets and the song of other little creatures of the night.

I’ll leave you with an interesting observation: Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Latvia, Denmark and I’m sure further countries still, all share the same obviously pagan celebration on the same day – the summer solstice – but it’s everywhere under the guise of the same obviously christian name: St. John’s. Vicente’s theory is that the pagan festival had existed everywhere in Europe since ancient times, and very early on in its history christianity decided to keep it intact in order to not not alienate the recently-converted pagans. It added, however, the “front” of the christian saint to more covertly incorporate the old celebration to its own traditions. Who knows?

POLYGLOT DIARY – 11/6/2014

Sí! Os dije que esta vez tendría la claviatura internacional! ÓωΌ

Estos días tenemos el trabajo de guardar una exhibición de arte en la biblioteca. Es siete horas cada día, así que cada uno de nosotros tiene de quedarse en la galería por 3-4 horas. Para mí no es problema para nada, porque puedes dejarme en una habitación con un libro por horas sin que proteste. Hoy hice un mucho de bulgaro – tengo ahora un libro para aprender bastante bueno, era un regalo – y seguí leer PiHKAL. De verdad, muy poco gente hoy aceptaría lo que Shulgin quiería compartir. El daño ya está hecho. Pero, bueno, el mundo está cambiando rapidamente, y claro que no son solamente malas cosas parte de este cambio. Quizás pronto vamos a ver pasos grandes al dirección de “vive y deja vivir”.

Mi grupo de discurso en inglés hoy era totalmente lleno de gente! Estaba completamente loco! Parece que todos, ahora que hace tanto calor, les apetecía por algo más tranquilo! Pondría aquí fotos también, pero estoy demasiado aburrido de cojer mi camera, pasar las fotos, encargarlas etc. Debéis que creerme, la gente simplemente seguió venir… Tan gracioso!

Después de eso, también vimos Vivir Es Fácil Con Los Ojos Cerrados en Cine Lumier. Era en español con sutítulos bulgaros, que era interesante para tratar de entender y era buena practica. Andalucía es tan bonita. Dicen que el pasado es un país extranjero. Lo sentí con esa peli. Y después, cuando salimos del cine, vivimos un grande tormenta que puso el cielo entero casi negro.

Los ojos se cierran…

REVIEW: WRITING COMEDY: A GUIDE TO SCRIPTWRITING FOR TV, RADIO, FILM AND STAGE

Writing Comedy: A Guide to Scriptwriting for TV, Radio, Film and Stage by Ronald Wolfe

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Another book from the fresh batch of donated books to the English section of Sofia City Library.

This book from the early ’90s is a guide for anyone who would like to try their hand in writing scripts for comedy plays, shows, sitcoms, radio or stand-up comedy.

Most of the actors, writers and productions referenced are from that time, leaving out the comedy I’m familiar with (Monty Python and the work of their individual members; britcoms of the last 15 years), with the exceptions of Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and Alo Alo.

Some specific tips for individual formats, like the importance of the gag in the sitcom, or more general ones that can apply to all forms of comedy writing, I found particularly effective and insightful, e.g. always asking yourself what’s wrong in a given situation when writing the story, or where the conflict could come from which might produce the comedic effect. These ones I think I’ll remember down the road, in contrast to most of the rest of the book which chiefly had practical information, i.e. how to pitch your script to producers or make it in America, content which as little (?) as 20 years later seems terribly out-dated.

The relevant parts I thought made for good and motivating advice that made me want to try writing something serious even more, seeing how simple and straightforward some examples of funny writing in the book were. What I realise, however, is that it’s not a guide I need the most; it’s the dedication and motivation to sit down and just write, whatever that could be.

Still, I’ll remember the part about conflict.

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Three Months in Sofia

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;

EVS dinner prepared by Hilal, Christina and Niina - Miro and Boyan's place — EVS dinner prepared by Hilal, Christina and Niina – Miro and Boyan’s place

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.

Paula's Farewell '80s Party - Rasa, Niina, Zanda, Florian, Maria and Freddie Mercury — Paula’s Farewell ’80s Party – Rasa, Niina, Zanda, Florian, Maria and Freddie

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.

Spanish Reading Room in Sofia City Library, complete with siesta-ing Spaniard. Will this be what our remaining six months will look like? The answer depends more or less on our initiative; such is the nature of the EVS project... — Spanish Reading Room in Sofia City Library, complete with siesta-ing Spaniard. Will this be what our remaining six months will look like? The answer depends more or less on our initiative; such is the nature of the EVS project…

EVS in Sofia City Library Blog: EVS On-arrival training in Hisarya

Reblog from EVS in Sofia City Library.

Part of every EVSer’s life is the on-arrival training, a get-together with all the fresh volunteers in the country and a familiarisation with everything he or she needs to know about his or her voluntary service: the personal project, his or her rights and obligations (and those of all involved), how the health insurance works, etc etc. But it’s not just that; if it was, the on-arrival probably wouldn’t be etched on every volunteer’s mind as a definite highlight of the EVS project and some of the best days in his or her life in general.

Some people thought we were actually trainers!
Who else was provided with t-shirts by their
awesome hosting organisation, eh? 🙂
Picture by Petar Markov.

Posing with the library shirts.
Picture by Petar Markov.

Agne, the volunteer who was working in the library before us, had this to say about their on-arrival last year:

All EVS volunteers have to undergo training. On 19-24 July we had our ‘on-arrival’ at the Black Sea resort of Albena, organised by the Bulgarian national agency.There
have been nearly sixty trainees in total – EVS volunteers from projects all over Bulgaria – some of them ‘on-arrival’ like us, others ‘mid-term’.

Four trainers were giving us workshops, supported by several other people from the national agency.

The training, of course, is not just about partying. A typical day included a couple of three-hour sessions, separated by a two-hour lunch break – the latter typically spent at the beach.

I was not the only one thinking the sessions were fun but intense. We did: ice-breaking games in order to get to know each others, our projects & countries of origin; psychology workshops (personality types, negotiations, conflict management); classes about practicalities of
doing an EVS (volunteerism, AXA insurance); plus creative tasks such as designing posters, shooting short films & running for quests all over Albena. […] (full post here)

Presenting Sofia City Library and our project to the group.
Picture by Petar Markov.

Everything’s better with posters and sketches!
Picture by Petar Markov.

In our case, the place was Hisarya, (warning: musical link!), an old town well-known in Bulgaria for its hot springs. It took place from March 7th to March 13th, making it one of the longest trainings ever – lucky us! Our accommodation was Augusta Hotel, a renovated communist era hotel built close to one of those springs and using the water to fill its swimming pool, spas and saunas. Apart from the food, the experience of staying in that place was quite… interesting. Hotels always give me the impression that they exist sort of independently from the rest of civilisation, like places that belong nowhere specific. But that’s another topic entirely.

That’s us. Kuba and Ula from Poland; Anna from Austria; Florian from France; Anna, Christina and Dimitris (that’s me) from Greece; Bojan from Serbia; Miro from Slovakia; Veronika from Czech Republic; Corinne from the UK; Niina from Finland; Elena, Paula and Vicente from Spain; Rian from the Netherlands; Zanda from Latvia; Maria from Denmark; Gabriele and Rasa from Lithuania; Hilal from Turkey; Susanna from Armenia and our two trainers Nasko and Maya from Bulgaria! A truly multicultural, European group!

Our trainer Nasko and the EVS project cycle.

A session on intercultural communication, they said…
Picture by Petar Markov.

Meanwhile, there were another 40 or so EVSers having their mid-term training in the hall next door. The “evening activities”, in which we could all mingle together after the tough sessions of the day, were pure pandaemonium. Let’s just say that by the end, our socialising limits had been tested.


Shot from the Uglies Party the mid-terms prepared for the on-arrivals. Guess what the dress code was.

All bowed to the superiority of the post-it game!

I’d love to be able to convey at least part of what makes these kinds of things like youth exchanges, and in turn this training, so special, but I find it very difficult to do so: while I was thinking about writing this post, I realised that I have actually avoided writing about such experiences in the past. Being stuck together with complete strangers for a week and by the end feeling you’ve known them forever, doing things that an outsider would probably find silly or weird but you’re greatly enjoying, is not an easy feeling to explain. A friend of mine says its false intimacy. Maybe in the case of youth exchanges it mostly is: after the exchanges, I’m sad to say, it’s impossible to keep contact with everyone. Even the people with whom you thought you could be great friends, the people you would genuinely love to keep in touch with, are in time forgotten…

This training, however, was happily different in this respect. After the final day of the training, after all the parties were had, all the games were played, all the informal education was, erm, unleashed, all the projects were presented and all the friendships made, we all knew that we would see eachother soon, or at the very least had the possibility to do so; we were all volunteers in the same country, after all…

Indeed, on the weekend after the training, more than half of the group almost magically ended up in Sofia (most of them don’t live here) and what followed was a crazy couple of days. It was also Zanda’s birthday then and everyone was invited to the party. That night we hosted 5 people in our tiny little flat! But for every person that wasn’t in Sofia for these moments, a promise to visit had already been made. A promise we can’t wait to keep.

We all had a secret mission assigned to us
by the trainers in the on-arrival, which we
had to work on throught our days in Hisarya
and presented to the group on the last day.
Zanda’s was to create a collage of everyone’s
national flags. After the training we took theposter
home and this is a picture of it with Florian
in our kitchen. Proof of the impact Hisarya
had on us and our relationships in Bulgaria…

So what did we all take away with us from this experience? Personally, I had the chance to come closer to my own personal goals for the EVS as a whole, got many ideas for improving my own experience and work in the library and of course met great new people. I’d really like my friends and colleagues to include their own versions and impressions of the on-arrival, so the following space is for them.

(SPACE!)

This one is the product of Corinne’s secret mission.
It, too, is hanging on our kitchen wall.