Ah, the Pink House. My current residence that is not actually pink. It was built in 1923 and for a long time, housed only girls, and, due to color stereotyping, was named the pink house. It is next to the Black House, which is not actually black but named after Floyd Black, the school’s founder, and is down the road from the Cat House which has no feline residents, but a dog that sleeps on the porch.
My room is huge. It has three closets, enough room for a king-sized bed, armchair, dresser, bookshelf, and desk. Plus, it has access to a very nice porch. This is a little awkward, however, since my roommate’s room has windows out to the porch that do not have curtains. Overall, I really love the house. It has much more space that what I was used to in Prairie Village where my bed and dresser barely squeaked into my room.
I met some of the other teachers that were already there later that evening and enjoyed talking with them about Bulgaria and what to expect from our students. After a much needed shower, a teacher about to start his 3rd year here took me to Luciano’s for dinner. Luckily, the menu had descriptions in English (since it is just down the road from ACS) but I felt completely helpless as he had to order for me and basically take care of all waitress interactions. I had my first Shopska salad: cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and cheese… lots of cheese. I had Shopska again the next day, but Natalia, a member of the school’s public relations team, got me the cheese on the side.
I am completely illiterate and need to get started on learning the Cyrillic alphabet so I can become a little more self-sufficient. Luckily, many people here speak English, but most signs are in Bulgarian only. Also, the head shaking anomaly of this country is extremely confusing. Side to side (although it is more of a sideways bobble) means “yes” and up and down means “no.” So, I tend to think everyone is responding very negatively to me in spite of them saying “da (yes)” over and over again. Plus, when I shake my head when I say “no,” I get really confused looks. This head shake reprogram is going to be difficult.
The school’s president’s wife, Thersea, took the new teachers to Technopolis and Hit. I bought an alarm clock and some groceries. Cereal is very expensive, but I love it so much, I will pay the price. You also have to buy things like Tylenol over the counter. It can’t just be thrown into your shopping cart and it comes in teeny tiny packages of about 10 pills. I miss jumbo sizes.
That night, all the teachers went downtown for dinner to a place called Motto. I had vegetarian lasagna and it was really good. Also, it didn’t have much cheese on it, which in Bulgaria, is hard to come by.
