Soon to Be on the Move Again...

This is going to be an uncharacteristically brief post (I know, you're sobbing in disappointment). Mainly just wanted to check in before heading out to Plovdiv tomorrow. Plovdiv, for my uninformed readers, is the second-biggest city in Bulgaria and has a really cool history. It was originally a Thracian settlement, then later was an important city in the Roman empire. Now there are ruins there from various different ancient periods and it's supposed to have a neat old town as well, with lots of 18th century architecture. Five of my fellow Americans and I will be taking a bus there on Friday afternoon, staying at a hostel in the city, and exploring until we return on Sunday.

Not much is new to report other than these exciting travel plans. I've finally (hopefully) gotten my wireless situation figured out...my wireless internet hasn't worked since I got here (like the AUBG network), which is a huge pain. Living with five other girls, there's not much time where I'm alone in my room, which makes it hard to skype or call home to the states. Our dorm has a labyrinth of lounges that get wireless, though, so once that's working it should be easier for me to be able to talk to people without being disruptive to my roommates/having them hear every conversation I have. The issue with the wireless, ironically enough, was a result of the differences between the European way and the American way of writing sevens and ones. We had to write down some long number from our computer (I only have the faintest grasp of this process), and what was supposed to be a one was entered as a seven. Probably my fault, but in my defense, their 1's look like our 7's...

Speaking of numerical errors, we tried to order a pizza this week, but due to our poor understanding of the metric system, we ended up with this:

(Chelsea, Kerri, and Abby, l-r)

So we had a lot of leftovers, to say the least. Not a terrible miscalculation to make...Hopefully I'll master centimeters by the end of the semester...I would say Celsius too, but I don't want to be too ambitious.

I had my first little bout of homesickness this week (understandable, since it was my mom's birthday and my grandpa's birthday right in a row). Luckily, though, my suitemate Chelsea is all over my emotional well-being and was able to cheer me up pretty quickly. The flip side of the lack of privacy, I suppose, is that I can't really be mopey or anything. I have near-constant company. I've started working out in the mornings, which is nice because I get some time to myself to clear my head. It's been awhile since I've lived in such close quarters with a bunch of other people.

In some sort of miracle of physics, six girls sharing one bathroom actually sort of works. I've never had to wait for the shower, and it never really seems like we're in each other's way. Back in Pittsburgh, just three girls successfully sharing a bathroom sometimes felt like we orchestrating the Berlin airlift or something requiring equal feats of intricacy and timing. But for some reason, it actually works here. I found out this week that a woman comes and cleans the bathroom for us (I think on every other Tuesday) and we each pay 5 leva a month for this. It's relatively cheap, and completely worth it when compared to the alternative of cleaning it ourselves.

Other than that, I've been doing my reading for classes, getting caught up on sleep, etc. Nothing too exciting. My classes continue to be going well: I like my East European history class more and more each time, and I haven't fallen asleep yet in Environmental Science (it's at 9 am, alright?). Bulgarian Folk Music continues to be an interesting challenge: I kept thinking that my professor was saying "in neuroscience" the other day (for example, "in neuroscience, syncretism is when two elements are..."). I was so confused as to why he was talking about neuroscience, then I figured out that he was saying "in narrow sense," like as in comparison to "in a broader sense." Also, he was talking about what I thought were "folk riddles" because it sounded like he was saying "rittles" and I was super confused because he was talking about having specific dates and costumes and dances. Finally I realized that he was talking about "folk rituals." But I find it somewhat funny to try to figure out what he's saying sometimes, and he's generally very sweet. And it certainly keeps me on my toes in lecture. I just have that class and Philosophy later today and then my weekend starts.

One last other thing: I don't think I've written about the basements yet. In all of the dorms here, there are these labyrinth-like basements that have all sorts of cool stuff in them. In my dorm, there's a gym, laundry room, multipurpose room, the center for counseling, the residence life office, and like a dance room with a bunch of mirrors. In one of the other dorms, there's a cafe, a room with ping pong tables, the dean of student's office, the international students office, the athletics director's office, and the academic advising center. It's not that strange for a university to have all of these things, but it is interesting to have them all in the basements of the dorms. Plus, depending which staircase you go down, you can only go to certain things. Like, one staircase will lead to the gym, but not to the residence life office. Hence the maze-like quality of trying to find your way to all of these little hidden underground treasures.

But, anyways, the next post will be more interesting, I promise. I should have a bunch of cool pictures and stories from Plovdiv then (hopefully). But despite its triviality, at least this post gives a little glimpse of my life abroad. More glamorous travel stories to follow....