Part 18: Tis’ the Season

If you work at a school, the busiest times of the year are just before the end of the quarter/semester and just before major breaks.  So, my last few weeks have been incredibly busy and sleep-deprived and I am now procrastinating on my giant pile of grading that has recently fallen by the wayside as I became more and more busy with other things, such as:

1.  Balkan dance for the Christmas Concert.  Every year the student Balkan dance group and the parent Balkan dance group perform at the Christmas Concert and a special group of teachers (mostly international, though a few Bulgarians join in) is created.  So, we had a few practices to learn our dances, or horas, and work out our line-up, by height (I was in the "short" section, imagine that).  We also got to wear traditional Bulgarian dresses.  They were red wool (i.e. hot) with a white under dress and a bright, multicolored apron.  They don’t do much for your shape.  They mostly make you look very square, like a sturdy peasant woman that spends her days milking cows and churning butter, but they do make it possible to dance outside in the snow without getting cold. 

Wednesday night was the first performance.  A lot of parents and alumni came to the evening performance.  No one fell off the stage and it was a lot of fun.  Afterwards, we went to the alumni reception to eat free food.  Thursday afternoon was the second performance that most of the students go to.  Needless to say, we got a lot of applause.  After the concert, we went outside and formed a giant line to dance in the snow with everyone.  It was fun and I only slipped and fell once. 

2.  Christmas parties and Secret Santas.  We had our faculty party, complete with Santa, last Friday.  The food was great and almost everyone from the school came.  We also found out (though most of us had already guessed) who our Secret Santas were.  My was Z, from the public relations office.  She gave me a really nice planner and picture frame.  I gave gifts to R, who really liked the scarf I got him almost as much as the cookies I’d given to him earlier in the week.  P played Santa.  And oh, what a Santa he was.  Very jolly but otherwise indescribable.  Let’s just say he was awesome and future Santas will have trouble living up the standard he set. 

The international teachers also did a Secret Santa and party, which is nice since we don’t have our families here and most of us aren’t going home for Christmas.  A. cooked great food for all of us and we exchanged our gifts.  Oddly, B was my Secret Santa and I was hers.  We were the only two people that had each other and neither of us figured it out before the party.  I got some pepper-nuts (tiny gingerbread cookies) and a clock-picture frame combo- sorry, a blue clock-picture frame combo.  All my favorite things rolled into one. 

3.  Going to see the Nutcracker.  I enjoyed the performance, but it was unlike any Nutcracker I’ve ever seen before.  They didn’t seem to have enough strong dancers to fill all the parts, so Clara and the Nutcracker were pulling double duty.  She danced the Sugar Plum Fairy and they both danced in place of the Snow King and Queen.  Also, the choreographer was a huge fan of the flexed foot.  When the characters are dolls, this makes sense, but they continued this in the second act when they are alive and it drove me crazy.  Also, the characters (like the Russian dancers) had “Buzz Lightyear chop chop arms” (anyone from my dance class knows what I mean).  It was part of the choreography, but drove me crazy.  I guess I just prefer a little more ballet in my ballet.  Still, it was a fun diversion from all the work that was piling up at home. 

4.  Christmas Eve dinner.  The internationals that are left on campus today are having dinner tonight, which means that after I am done with this post, I am going to the grocery store to buy food so I can cook something to bring.  Cooking… yay. 

5.  Planning for Italy J  Ok, so due to all the aforementioned things, we still haven’t really planned well for Italy, but we have places to stay and plane tickets, so that is a start.  Anyway, I’m leaving on the 26^th and won’t be back until Jan 5.  I’m excited for warmer weather and pizza and NO WORK!

Until I get back, Весела Коледа и щастлива нова година everyone! 

Alexander Nevski Cathedral in the Snow

Part 17: The AmCham Christmas Party, Dec 7

All school employees are invited to the American Chamber of Commerce Christmas Party each year.  Apparently, it is the “party of the year.”  However, the guy saying this works for the chamber, so he may be a little biased.  I don’t really party like a rock star (as the saying goes), but I still had fun. 

We finally made it through Sofia traffic and arrived at the Sheraton where the party was taking place.  On the way to the coat check I almost fell down the stairs and died, but managed to recover by swinging my arms back so rapidly that I threw my gloves back up the stairs. 

Upstairs the party was very crowded, but I managed to find some food, get my water (straight up, of course) and found the table with the rest of the people I knew. 

I’m not really a drinker, but I find it interesting to watch how the night progresses for those that do drink.  Straight-laced, “I don’t dance” men end up with ties on their heads, swaying to the music.  Some people get very friendly (I haven’t been hugged that much since August).  Then there are the older women put me to shame on the dance floor.   I can dance, but only if it is choreographed for me.  Not that my lack of impromptu dancing skills keeps me off the floor.    

Anyway, once my ears were bleeding from the extremely loud music (I’m sort of an old woman in that regard), we headed out.  We grabbed a taxi being driven by a man who apparently can’t understand Bulgarian when you have an American accent.  We said the address at least three times before he figured out what we meant.  Then, we wanted to stop at McDonalds for some French fries.  And so began the best part of my night. 

My roommate K, asked him to stop at McDonalds (and she asked in Bulgarian).  He didn’t get it at all.  So we all started saying, “McDonalds, McDonalds.”  My other roommate S added, “Golden arches”(needless to say, that didn’t clear it up for him).  Finally we were close enough to point to McDonalds and he says, “Oh!  MacDonalds!”  McDonalds vs. MacDonalds?  Really? 

Anyway, he starts laughing and the taxi ride becomes hilarious.  As we pull up to the window, he informs the worker that we speak English, but we order our fried potatoes in Bulgarian, while he keeps laughing.  When our food gets handed to us, he even checks to make sure we got our sauce. 

He also tried to talk to us about where he is from or where we are from.  It was confusing.  Something about Italy and Germany and who knows where else.  It ultimately ended with him comparing his skin tone to my pastiness and laughing (but I’m used to that since that happens everywhere).  We then continue on, him laughing at our MacDonalds and us trying to give directions to the school, since he didn’t really know where we were going. 

We finally made it.  We laughed, said “thank you” and ciao and went to our house to eat our McDonalds. 

Now that my ears have stopped ringing, I’m going to sleep. 

Part 16:ViennaNovember 24-27

For the Thanksgiving holiday, Vienna seemed to be the destination of choice, as 6 of us independently ended up there.  The Christmas Markets were a big draw for some, with their ornaments and mulled wine, as for me, I pretty much just like going places, so I tag along for the ride. 

We left Sofia early on Thursday morning and landed in Vienna around 10 am.  We then proceeded to take the train into downtown.  That’s when the adventure started.  It took us over an hour to find our hostel.  We had to stop at a McDonald’s (where you have to pay for ketchup, what’s up with that?) to Google map it again.  However, once we were there, we headed out again to start some major walking. 

We didn’t really know what we wanted to do for sure, so we decided to do a walking tour of Vienna from the guidebook I had downloaded to my Kindle (which was very handy, but my hands were frozen from having to keep taking them out of my pockets to hold it, in spite of the fact that I was wearing gloves).  Our tour was supposed to start at the Opera House, so we began heading that way.  On the way, I saw a Steinway piano store.  Be still my heart.  If you are not a piano player or you have never had the experience of playing a Steinway, you probably won’t understand.  Let me put it this way, Steinways are to piano players as Iowa is to pork (the best, obviously).  Sigh.  Ok, moving on.

We made it to the Opera.  The Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) was built in 1863 and was highly criticized for its appearance upon its opening.  However, it grew into a renowned Opera that has hosted all the greats.   In 1945, it was hit by an allied bomb and most of it was destroyed except for the very front entrance and salons and the emperor’s lounge.  It was rebuilt (obviously), but now most of the building has a 1950’s style to it, since recreating the 1800’s style was cost-prohibitive. 

We then walked past the Hotel Sacher, a popular hangout for spies in WWII, the Albertina Museum (which we didn’t go to, but had its steps done up to look like a Monet painting) and the Memorial Against War and Fascism.  It is a very graphic memorial, which if you’re warning against something, makes sense. 

Our next stop was the Church of the Capuchin Friars.  It is a very unimpressive building that was built in the 1630’s.  The impressiveness comes from below, where every Hapsburg ruler since 1633 has been buried.  None of the titles are included with the names.  The questions “Who comes here,” is a traditional question during the burial ritual and the answer (on the monarch’s behalf) is, “We come with a sinful mortal.”  However, that is where the humility ends.  The vaults are very impressive.  Baroque style coffins are something to behold. 

Walking, we also passed Vienna’s famous auction house (the Dorotheum) and several buildings of the Hofburg Palace complex, including the National Library.  Continuing on, we saw the parliament building and the Burgtheatre, wherein we were sidetracked by the amazing Vienna City hall and the giant Christmas Market in front of it, where my friend finally broke down and bought a pair of gloves. 

After a few more churches (there were a lot of churches on this tour), we arrived at the Plague Column.  This ornate column was erected by Emperor Leopold I in thanks to God for delivering Vienna from the Black Plague in 1693.  At the top, of course is God, but Leopold is on there as well, praying for deliverance.  By this time we were on the fancy shopping streets that are pedestrian only (although, in Vienna, cars actually stop for pedestrians rather than speed up, so it is less needed).  There is a tree trunk, preserved in a building behind glass that was a place journeymen would hammer a nail into to signify putting down roots.  The tree lived from 1400-1440 and some of the nails were added while the tree was alive.  Then, we saw St. Stephan’s Cathedral.  The largest church in the Austro-Hungarian Empire after it was finished in 1433.  Whew.  Like I said, we walked a lot. 

We then went and me our other friends for Thanksgiving dinner (totally legit with turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie) at 1516 Brewing Co.  Clearly, a restaurant that caters to ex-pats and not Austrians. 

Day 2 started out with lots of fog and a trip through the royal treasury.  Lots of gold (which would become a theme for the trip) and jewels and robes and tunics from the 1100’s that somehow survived.  One of the crowns in the treasury was also seen on a skull carved on a coffin from the crypt the day before.  Very cool. 

After the treasury, we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  Located in a former palace-type building, it is a great art museum.  It holds a lot of ancient Greek and Egyptian art as well as lots of the Dutch masters (such as Rembrandt).  Plus, there was a really interesting exhibition on winter paintings.  We learned about the symbolism and the development of paintings made to represent and take place in this season.  There was even a crucifixion scene that someone had painted in snow (which is probably not how that actually happened, but, you know, art). 

We went to eat at the Naschmarkt, a giant open-air market (which must be incredibly cold in January).  We had great food.  I had a chicken wrap, which doesn’t sound all that impressive, but it was really good.  And, it was my birthday dinner J  That evening, we took in yet another Christmas Market by St. Charles Church (Karlskirche).  On the way home, I wanted chocolate cake.  Where, you ask, did we find chocolate cake?  McDonald’s.  The McCafe, to be specific.  So, while I felt ridiculous getting my birthday cake at McDonald’s, at least I got cake.  Besides, it was a super classy McDonald’s with columns and crown molding. 

Day 3 we went to St. Stephan’s early in the morning.  I learned that I love Gothic Churches.  They are not covered with stuff from wall to wall, but have many interesting architectural elements and carvings.  It was really impressive.  It even had 3 pipe organs, one of which was gigantic.  We then climbed the 343 steps (almost all spiral staircase- we were a little dizzy) to the top of the south tower.  The north tower has an elevator, but it was never finished, so the view is not as good.  Besides, we’re young, right?  The view was amazing.  Well worth the climb.  Then, on the way back down, we saw some gargoyles out one of the windows. 

From St. Stephan’s, we went to the Hofburg Palace.  First the ticket gets you in to see the royal dinner service.  I know that doesn’t sound that interesting, but it is basically rooms of solid gold plates, candle sticks, serving dishes, salad dressing holders, and butter dishes.  Along with some silver sets and more china patterns than JC Penny.  It probably took us 30 minutes to walk through it all before entering the palace rooms and the Sissy Museum. 

Sissy, or Empress Elizabeth, was 5’8” and 108 lbs.  She was tall and thin and has the typical story of hating the monarchy and wishing her husband was not the emperor.  She was very interesting and sadly was assassinated.  But, you can Google her, if you really want to know.  The palace was done up in red and it was beautiful.  It was interesting, however, that the emperor’s bed was basically twin sized and the empress’s was not much larger.  They almost looked out of place in the grandiose rooms.  Interesting fact: the emperor was the only monarch in Europe that had open audiences once a week.  Basically, any subject of the kingdom could come and the emperor would hear their concerns. 

After the palace, we went on a tour of the Opera house (see above paragraph for the main details).  It was really beautiful inside and I was really impressed by the stage.  It is a 200m deep stage anyway, and then there is an additional 200m of backstage.  So, it is 400m deep.  Then the side stages are 50m a piece.  This is humongous.  Also, the lifts and hydraulic system for moving set pieces is impressive.  They can drop an entire set through the floor, push it backwards, and then raise another set in less than a minute.  This is handy, since they do a different production every night.  Additionally, the opera house employs 1,000 people (the Vienna airport employs 4,000).  That is a production in its own right.   We then went to the Opera museum across the street and looked at some fabulous costumes.

Since we were in Vienna, we decided we should walk by the Blue Danube (we even hummed the waltz to make it extra authentic), so we did some more walking.  Down by the river and then to the Prater, which is an amusement park with a giant observation wheel.  We subway’d back to the Opera House to get in line for 4 Euro standing (though, I was almost willing to pay for a chair at this point) tickets to that night’s production, a modern ballet “Schritte Und Spuren.”  Parts were really beautiful, and parts were really strange.  You know, it was modern dance. 

The next day I got up early to go to Mass.  Ok, so I wasn’t really interested in the Mass part (especially since it was in German and I don’t speak German… at all) so much as the Vienna Boys Choir that performs at said Mass.  I was excited and you know, they were kinda good. 

Then I walked back to the hostel, pried our luggage from the stuffed (and I do mean stuffed) luggage room and headed to the airport. 

Overall, here is my impression of Vienna:  It was fun and beautiful and impressive.  I cannot function in German, at all.  However, it was nice to blend in since I look very German (I definitely do not look Bulgarian).  Ultimately, it was a city and I’m sort of a country girl at heart.  So, it was a fun trip, but Auf Wiedersehen, Vienna.  I don’t think I’ll be coming back. 

Part 15: Thanksgiving, aaaahhhh!!

There is a lovely tradition at my school where the international faculty cooks Thanksgiving Dinner for the Bulgarian faculty.  They repay the favor for St. Andrew’s Day (I think, I might have the wrong name).  Anyway, I signed up to help anyone that needed it (I didn’t want the responsibility of an entire dish resting on my shoulders), and boy did people need it.

Last week, quarter grades were due at 7pm Friday night.  Let’s just say the system for grade submission here is not user friendly and it takes forever.  While I managed to get finished Friday afternoon, many of my colleagues did not finish until, you know, 6:51pm.  Cooking for Thanksgiving also started at 7pm. 

Now, for some numbers:  About 16 of us international types were set to do the cooking… for over 150 people.   Before I sound negative about the tradition, let me point out that the actual party and eating of the food was great fun.  The cooking, well, not so much.

I arrived at 7pm to start in helping H. with the desserts.  We were making cheese cake.  So. Much. Cheesecake.  18 to be exact.  So, I began opening Oreos for the crust.  You can buy boxes of Oreos here, however, inside all cookies are wrapped in packages of 4.  20 Oreos per crust X 18 crusts = 360 Oreos /4=90 individually wrapped packages.  That’s a lot of opening.  Well, we finished off our crust and I was about to start in on the batter, but when we opened our cream cheese, spirits fell.  It was covered in colonies of bacteria and was clearly unusable.  Enter K and R.  They went on an emergency run to the HIT (our local hypermarket), where they found what translated into English as “milk paste.”  Unsure of this substance’s actual make-up, they opened a package (in the store) and ate some.  The employees were not amused until they literally bought 80 packages. 

Meanwhile, I switched over to help the other R finish making meatballs.  He was worried that they were too sticky to roll into balls and needed more bread, but I took a page from the Paula Deen handbook and recommended rubbing out hands in butter (or as Paula calls it, “butta”) so they wouldn’t stick.  It was a success.  All the meatballs were rolled and they had more butta, so they were probably going to taste better as well.

The cream cheese arrived and I started mixing, and mixing, and mixing.  H was in charge of putting the batter into the pan and getting them into the oven and I just kept mixing.  Thankfully, we had a stand mixer or it would have been horrible.  However, after the first 8 cakes, you memorize the recipe and it goes much faster.  I even ran home to grab every large bowl Pink House had to offer so I could continue mixing.  I left that night at 12:30 am. 

The next morning, I arrived at 10 am to find H having a minor meltdown over the desserts.  She had been there since 8am.  Well, I just started mixing again and we managed to knock out all the cheese cake by noon.  Then I folded in the butter to the fruitcrisp topping (our other dessert.  9 double batches, of course) and then got some help mixing in the sunflower seeds from another teacher’s 5 year old son.  Needless to say, I’m pretty sure more went on the floor than into the topping.  After this, I fired up the industrial dishwasher (thank you Lakeside Lab for the training and experience) and knocked out a few loads of dishes before going home at 1:30.

I watched Chasing Mummies on the History Channel (it is in English) and headed back over at 3:30 to prepare for dinner.  We baked the fruit crisp, cut up some cheese (naturally) and got ready to serve.  I was on gravy duty.  I served well over half the guests before I was relieved and able to go out and eat.  Then, it actually became fun. 

My table got 2^nd place at pub trivia.  We only missed two questions.  If only I’d paid more attention to the Mayan calendar.  We put that the world ends Dec 20, 2012 instead of Dec 21.  I guess, at times, being superstitious could pay off. 

After the fun, came the clean up.  Lots of dishes.  It was exhausting, but the Bulgarian faculty was so nice and appreciative of our work, that I will certainly do it again next year.  However, I probably won’t cook again until then. 

I have never been so tired after a weekend in my entire life.  On Sunday I caught up on the school work I couldn’t do Saturday and on Monday and Tuesday I was so tired that I told my Bulgarian tutor the date was October 24 (it was November 22).  I caught up on my sleep Tuesday night and on Thursday I am heading for Vienna Austria.  So, my next blog will recount my traveling adventures/traveling naps, since I am still tired from Thanksgiving.   

Part 14: Uchiteli Utd

(uchiteli= teacher in Bulgarian)

Every year the school I teach at has an intramural soccer tournament and the teachers always field a team.  This was part of the reason I ended up in Bulgaria instead of at a school in Costa Rica.  I love soccer.  Unfortunately, we lost our first game to some 9^th graders 2-1.  It was a close game, and we led most of it, but, frankly, even if you’re in shape at 25, that is not the same thing as in shape at 15.  But I digress.  

I showed up to the game and noticed that the 9^th grade team was all boys and so was the teacher team, Uchitelli Utd (although two more females showed up later in the game).  I’m certainly not intimidated by playing against boys.  In fact, I never played on an all girls team until I was 24, but I knew I had to play harder than the men on the team to prove I should be there as more than an occasional sub. 

I started playing soccer, or football as the rest of the world knows it, sometime in elementary school.  Then I played through middle school and joined the team in high school.  The boys team, since girls in my hometown ran track and only about 4 would go out for soccer every year.  4 girls and over 50 boys.   These boys were divided into 3 categories.  The first, and smallest, were my actual friends on the team.  My neighbor, a smattering of people I’d known since elementary school, and a few others that were nicer and more secure than the average teenage boy made up this group.  The largest group was the ignorers.  They ignored my existence at all costs.  Never spoke to me, rarely passed to me- super mature as you can see.  Then there were the jerks that insulted me, mooned me, etc.  The coaches were very strict on behavior, but no coach can see what’s going on all the time, especially when we ran 1.5 miles of trail before every practice. 

The coaches were very nice men, and excellent coaches (they really knew soccer).  However, I spent the large portion of my high school soccer career riding the bench because I was a girl.  I wasn’t expecting to start varsity, but for JV, I was just as good as the boys.  There was one assistant coach that would start me in games, but once he left, I was back on the sidelines, in spite of the fact that several of the boys on the team, including some in the “jerk” category, acknowledged that I was pretty good.  

So, you can understand why my jaw nearly hit the floor when two men from the teacher team complimented my playing- really complimented it.  What a change from the high school crowd.  Of course, the teachers I play with are obviously more mature than high school boys and they are genuinely nice, but I had still fully prepared myself to mostly ride the bench until someone needed a sub solely because the amount of estrogen in my body is greater than the amount of testosterone, but that may not be the way this one goes. 

So, maybe the “real world” isn’t always the same as high school (even though, ironically, I spend most of my time at a high school) and perhaps I will start to fill in this soccer ball shaped chip on my shoulder. 

Part 13: Paris Oct 29-Nov 1

What do you do over a four day weekend?  If you happen to live in Bulgaria, you go to Paris.  Paris, France.  I could have gone to Paris over a long weekend when I lived in Kansas City, but Paris, Missouri isn’t really the same thing.  So, early (really, really early) Saturday morning, I headed to the airport with two fellow teachers to catch our Wizz Air flight at 6 am.  Wait, make that 12 pm.  6 hours of sitting in the Sofia airport gave me time to come to the following conclusion:  Wizz Air has the “wizz” part down, as we had to use the lovely terminal 1 bathrooms several times, but they clearly needed to work on the “air” part.  Anyway, after changing us to a completely different airline and telling us they apologize for the “3 hour” delay (maybe I shouldn’t trust people who can’t do simple math to fly me through the air) we landed at the Paris-Beauvais airport and hopped the bus to the city center.  We were tired, so our first night in Paris consisted of watching French TV.  A show entitled something to the effect of, “My House is the Most Original in France.”  Needless to say, I was asleep before 10 pm. 



d'Orsay

After losing a day to Wizz, our next more started with croissants for breakfast followed by the Musee d’Orsay.  The d’Orsay is in a remodeled train station that is just as impressive as the art it houses.  There is a large collection of impressionist paintings here.  It was a little surreal to walk around every corner and see a painting that you’ve seen prints of in people’s houses, calendars, and textbooks.  We saw Van Gough, Monet, Manet (though I’m not a huge fan of his), Rodin, Degas, and Renoir.  I was feeling very cultured by the time we left. 



Seine

We grabbed some lunch, headed across the Seine and over to Musee De l’Organerie to see Monet’s Water Lilies.  They are displayed in 2 large rooms.  One represents early day and afternoon and the other room showcases the evening paintings.  They are extremely large and amazing to look at.  The Orangerie also has a large lower gallery with paintings by Picasso and the like and they had a 19^th century Spanish paintings exhibition there as well. 

Monet- Water Lilies



Stairs in the Arc

We hopped on the subway from the l’Orangerie to the Arc de Triomph.  First, we had to find the correct tunnel to take under the crazy Place Charles de Gaulle roundabout.  This roundabout is ridiculous.  Twelve streets feed into it and so many accidents happen there each year that insurance companies and police alike have a 50/50 rule on every accident.  In other words, if you get in a wreck here, the fault is always split right down the middle.  You do not want to walk across this road.  Once successfully navigating the tunnel, we climbed the 284 stairs up to the top.  The view was excellent.  From the Arc, you can get the Eiffel Tower in your pictures, which is what everyone associates with Paris anyway.  Once back downstairs, we saw a car cut off a motorcycle and cause him to wreck.  It was a little scary.  Luckily, he was alright and this wreck is what prompted our investigation into Parisian traffic laws.  We then went about imitating the carved figures on the outside of the Arc, using a poster tube for a sword, of course.  We meandered down the Champs-Elysées, taking in the shops we can’t afford as we headed back to our hotel to change for dinner at…

The Eiffel Tower.  We took the very large, two storied elevator up to deck one of the Eiffel Tower.  I didn’t really pay attention, because things like this terrify me, but I hear the view was nice.  We ate at the restaurant on Platform One, which is still plenty high.  The food was decent, but the service was bad.  Of course, when in France, I think it is obligatory to have a rude French waiter at least once.  Once dinner was over, the tower was closing, so we didn’t get to walk all the way around, but we still got to see the view from a few angles.  On the way back down, I actually managed to look out the elevator windows a little bit.  It wasn’t too bad; however, I was more than ready to be on solid ground again.  Once down, it was only 7 minutes to midnight, so we stayed to watch the LED light show.  It basically looks like the tower is covered in glitter.  However, I can see why the French hated it when it was first unveiled.  It is sort of gaudy and maybe a little tacky, considering the historical nature of the Eiffel Tower. 

The next day we were heading to St. Chappelle, a church with a sanctuary made almost entirely of stained glass.  When we left the subway, we turned the wrong way, but ended up eating at a really nice little café for breakfast.  We then got ourselves going in the right direction stopped briefely at Shakespeare and Company, a recreation of the book store frequented by Hemingway and Joyce in the 1920’s.  Basically, Mecca for English teachers, and I was traveling with an English teacher.  We got to St. Chappelle and added ourselves to the extremely long line to go through security.  Due to the way it was built, the entrance to St. Chappelle and the supreme court is the same, so you have to go through the usual metal detector-bag X-ray set up, which makes it take awhile.  It is worth it when you see this church.  It was finished in 1248 and has one of the largest collections of 13^th century stained glass in the world.  It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France and connected directly to one of his palaces, so he could basically get to church without going outside.  Although it has not been a church since the French Revolution, it has been fully restored and is considered a French monument and many concerts are held there every year. 

From St. Chappelle, we got some sandwiches and ate in the park behind Notre Dame.  My sandwich’s bread was delicious.  We then checked out some fun stores on the Île Saint-Louis where we got delicious ice cream.  On from there towards the Louvre.  We decided to walk because it was such a nice day and we wanted to see more of the city. 

When we got to the Louvre, my first thought was, “they need some landscaping.”  My second thought was, “Wow.  It’s big.”  You hear the Louvre is big.  It is the largest museum in the world.  But you don’t fully realize just how big until you are there.  It is also busy.  Luckily, we bought a museum pass for our trip, so we could skip the marathon line at the pyramid entrance.  Even if you don’t visit every museum on the pass, it is worth it to skip that line.  We got inside and decided to do the famous pieces.  First stop:  Venus de Milo.  It is a very beautiful statue.  I even managed to fight my way through the Asian tour group to get a good picture of her.  I also fought through the GIANT crowd to see the Mona Lisa. 

We saw so many famous paintings and sculptures, it was amazing.  We also took a quick turn by Gabrielle d’Estrees and Her Sister, or, as we liked to call it, the nipple painting.  Apparently, the woman (Gabrielle) was Henry IV of France’s mistress.  The odd nipple pinch is meant to convey the she is pregnant.  However, it is mostly just awkward.  We also saw the remains of a medieval fortress, that the Louvre was built on top of, in the basement and Napoleon III’s apartments. 

After the Louvre, we grabbed some coffee/hot chocolate in a café we passed before going to Cremerie Restaurant Polidor.  This is a local restaurant recommended by Rick Steves’ guide book.  They seat you at community tables and we started out by two French women that sort of laughed as my friend put the water into the wine glass, but we ended the night by a German couple that was in Paris for their 35^th wedding anniversary.  The women “would recommend it (marriage) if you get the chance.”  They were really nice.  Also nice, was the food.  I had curried pork and for dessert, chocolate pie. 

The next day we got up early to go to Notre Dame.  It was All Saints Day and we arrived just in time for Mass.  However, I was excited by this because we got to hear the organ play and the boy soprano who was the cantor (I think that is the term for the song leader) was really good.  However, one of the men in charge yelled at me for taking photos during the mass (which I wasn’t) so I was a little annoyed by that. I mean, I’d been sitting there respectfully for the entire service.  Anyway, Notre Dame is impressively large and also pretty simple, as far as cathedrals go.  I actually really enjoyed looking around.  We were planning to see the Catacombs after the cathedral and I was so excited.  This was the one thing I wanted to do in Paris and…  it was closed.   Sad.  I was really disappointed.  Oh well, we grabbed some breakfast and then went back to the hotel to pack up and head for the bus to the airport.  Luckily, our plane left on time and now I am back in Sofia and preparing for the hell that is the end of the 1^st quarter. 

Part 12:For Better or For Worse

A trivial list of things I find myself missing:

1.  Gallons of milk/jumbo packs.  Everything here comes in tiny packages, so you have to go to the store a lot.  Now, some people may just point out my “American ways,” but economy/bulk packaging actually saves consumers money, saves producers money, creates less waste for the landfill (plastics are forever, people), and saves energy in the manufacturing process.  Bigger really is better (for you and the environment).

2.  Running down Ward Parkway, looking at real estate I will never be able to afford on a side walk that is level, going to Irish dance on Saturday morning, and indoor soccer on Thursday night. 
3.  Ice tea glasses or Quick Trip giant cups.  I may only drink water, but I drink a lot of water.  All the glasses are baby-sized, so I have taken to double-fisting it.  I fill up two baby-glasses to get the same amount of water as my giant glasses in the US.  This way, I have to make the same amount of trips to the kitchen. 
4.  Forced air furnace.  We have radiators (granted, my house was built in 1929), so some parts of our house (downstairs) are chilly while some parts (mostly my room) are sweltering, or in the words my former student, Henry F, my room is “like a thousand Satans.”
5.  Mexican food.   You can get food that is sort of like Mexican food (you know, the menu says things like “taco” and “burrito”) but it’s really not.
6.  Food not drowning in cheese.  The first Bulgarian phrase I learned was, “bes cirene,” which means, “without cheese.”  There is        SO                 MUCH               CHEESE               EVERYWHERE
7.  Physics. Sigh. It really is phun. 
8.  Lunches with the SME science department that are full of horrible science puns and questions such as, "How do you throw a massless, frictionless rope?" 

9.  Tampax.  I’ll spare you the details, but if you want the details, my friend’s blog pretty much sums it up:  http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/09/10/one-of-my-favorite-pharmacies/

10.  Not getting a headache from reading signs.  The Cyrillic alphabet wears me out, plus I sound like a kindergartner when I read:  p-ar-k… p-ar-k-e…n-g.  Parking.  Yep, “parking” in Bulgarian is “parking” and it only took me 15 seconds to figure that one out. 

I’m not a Negative Nelly, so here are some things I find I like better:

1.  My washing machine.  My clothes are really clean.  I love it J
2.  I get lots of 4 day weekends that I use to travel around Europe. 
3.  Bread.  Lots and lots of bread.
4.  Doners (chicken, cabbage, French fries, some sort of sauce, all wrapped in a pita-type thing)
5.  Mega Extreme Bowling.  This is the name of the place.  How could it be bad?  Plus, I had a score over 100 there, and that is nothing less than a miracle. 
6.  The hot chocolate at Onda (the coffee shop in the school).  It is like drinking a melted Hershey bar.  I try not to buy it too often.
7.  Mountains with lots of trails. 
8.  Teacher intramural soccer against the students.  We will dominate.
9.  Large pizzas for 10 lev ($7).
10.  Being able to see the Science Building from my front door.  If I want to be at school by 7:30, I have to leave my house by 7:28.  Some people may not like this, but I think it is great. 

A brief mention of something I like the same:  McDonald’s French fries.  They taste the same everywhere, which is really nice.  Sometimes you just need reliable.