So I’ve taken a little while to write again… There isn’t really a good excuse, in fact that only excuse I have is kind of a bummer. I haven’t really written in almost a month because, well, I’ve been a bit down in the dumps. Stuff hasn’t been so good here lately and when I’m sad, the absurd stuff that has amused me so much doesn’t seem so funny. It gets even worse when some of the absurdities harm people you like and care about. I don’t want to complain or make anyone feel bad or worried so I will just say that the Bulgarian educational system is terminally ill and the treatment that is being offered is like a bullet in the brain of the patient.
Okay, enough complaining. I am continuing the format I began with my last post (More pictures, less writing) partly because it is less work for me and probably more fun for you. I will begin by explaining the name of my last post. Several people have asked me what I meant by “Lovely Americans.” Well, we Americans have created for ourselves a certain reputation here in Europe. Sadly this reputation is not a good one. We have come to be seen as loud, obnoxious and domineering (and those are the tolerable qualities). In fact, the stereotypical American tourist is known quite simply as “The Ugly American.” In fairness to my countrymen, I do believe that the British and to a lesser extent the Germans are just as bad as us. But with this reputation shadowing us on our trip to Greece I was a little concerned about how the four of us would travel. By the end of the trip, however, I found my fears to be completely unfounded and actually quite foolish. Mom and Dad were excellent travellers and fine ambassadors of the United States. For all the teasing that I gave Dad over the years about being the super-tourist (Mike knows what I mean) I felt that all of us acquitted ourselves quite well. In fact Mom, Dad and Amy (and hopefully me) were so far from the Ugly American stereotype that I began to call them the Lovely Americans. You should all be proud fo them and the U.S. Government should sponsor the four of us to travel around the world as goodwill ambassadors for the United States. Anyway, here are pictures of the rest of our trip to Greece.
After we got back from Greece stuff went sour for a while. In fact, if it wasn’t for the amazingly different way in which the Bulgarians celebrate graduation we would have probably been on a flight home. The celebrations lasted the better part of a week and each one was, well, very different from what we could expect in the United States. I’m not going to elaborate too much but feel free to ask me about it when we get home. The other nice thing was that our friends Kelly and Rachel visited us for a few days. They live in Vidin which is about as far as you can possibly get from Bourgas and still be in Bulgaria. There presence was a good antidote to our case of the blues. That week also saw our last English class with our friends in Kableshkovo and at the church. While this means less work and freer weekends it was still sad to finish two of the activities we really enjoyed here. On Wednesday we celebrated Amy’s birthday. We went to a little town called Chernomorets that is still blessedly free of tourists. We had a great time apart from me braining myself on a low overhang on the sidewalk (quick note: The sidewalks in Bulgaria are terrible and you pretty much need to constantly look down in order to avoid tripping. I wanted to add that fact so that you don’t think I’m a clutz… although I am). We even found an isolated stretch of rocky coast to climb around on for a while. All in all it was a nice, if painful, time.
Well that’s all for today. This past weekend we went to Prague for a little escape. I will recount our trip there in a few days (I PROMISE!). Until then.
