Dobar Dan!

That means Good Day! in Bulgarian of course. I think this is the country in which this whole experience has hit me, and fully encouraged my love of travel. Also I've become even more independent. I'm sure half of everyone reading this is going "oh goodness", and the other half has no idea what I'm talking about :P Part of me wishes this trip was seperated into chunks so that it was easier to digest. I know it's hard to understand, but this is really a quite emotionally and personally stressful situation. In all good ways, but it's not meant for everyone. Many students handle it by drinking themselves into a stupor every chance they get, which I suppose is one way of going about it. I instead write in my journal and try to sort everything out. One thing is that all of Europe can be thoroughly digested by my country, and that I need to explore my own shorelines some, I love just seeing the different types of cultures just from within my own country. We have Texans of whom think they're their own country, I love them, but they're dillusional, it's still attached, and without us (the rest of the country) they would be Mexicans. Also we get a few people who haven't been out of their tristate area, so it's quite a change for them, especially a couple of the southern belles from the Alabama area, they're having a tricky time. I think part of it is how not all men are quite as polite as southern men, but they didn't realize that. So we have that, the shipboard culture "shock" I suppose and then in the countries themselves. Not being able to read road signs because the alphabet is different and in Bulgaria only a handful of younger people actually speak any english. Good thing I talk with my hands already.  haha Okay as for what I've done in Bulgaria...the first day I was still sick and had a fever so I slept until the afternoon, and then my friends convinced me a day at the beach could be therapeutic, and I'm glad they did. The black sea is wonderful, a bit angry, but more like what I'm used to. There were waves!! :)  all the beaches we've been to haven't really had any sort of wave activity. It was also only a 5 minute walk from our ship, and sandy. So I took a nap on the beach and then my two friends Craig and Jill wanted to stay out of the water and my friend Jeff and I wanted to go in. So he and I went and played in the water for two hours. It cleared out my sinuses, lowered my fever and was just fun in general. After that I never got my fever back, I've had a cough but I'm mostly good. :)  They were right, I should have known the ocean was what I needed. The water was wonderful, and that day it was only in the 80's instead of over 100 so it was overall...what you'd expect of a beach day. Then we went back to the ship for dinner and split into groups, I knew better than to go out dancing and such when I was just feeling better. So Jeff and I wandered around, we got internet at a cafe for a while (that's how I found the spot to post all the pictures) There were a lot of street stands selling corn on the cob which made me really happy because I thought I was going to miss out on it back home. Then we just wandered back and forth on the sandy beach. Really this is more a less a spring break for us, I even just found out we don't have real classes between here and Turkey, which is great because I didn't feel like writing papers. I'll probably start my spanish one so I don't forget what happened. Then Jeff and I went back to the ship and watched the 6th harry potter movie, and then it was bed time. We got up the next morning and spent the morning on the internet. Of which is how I posted those pictures on facebook. Sorry, I didn't have time to post any here on my blog. So hopefully you can get them on their, if not I'll be making a scrap book this fall in my "spare time" and I'll show you at some point. After that was another day at the beach, this time the water was too rough and there were jelly fish washed in so we didn't swim. So I read my book and relaxed. Yet again, not too shabby. There were people selling corn and bananas on the beach, but no drinks. I didn't want warm corn (it was hotter this day, probably 90's), or a banana but I would have bought drinks. That was a bit odd, but oh well. This is when I met cuddle bug. Most of the stray dogs you meet just want to hang out with you so you'll feed them. Cuddle bug was different, she refused food and water when we offered it to her. She was wandering on the beach, she's a miniature german shephard of sorts. All I did was call her attention and she came running over and sat on me. Not next to me...haha My roommate and i were super excited. This dog seriously spent two hours with us, eventually she dug a little whole in the sand next to my towel (well she buried it in the process, but oh well) and she spent two hours with us. I had a dog to pet as I read my book, and every so often she'd lay on me if i wasn't being attentive enough. She just wanted a friend, and I always wanted a dog that followed that well. If I went to rinse off in the water she'd come over and play with me in the water. Unfortunately we had to leave her after our day at the beach and I was sad because I lost my new friend. But I really did need dog time and that cheered me up in general. Then we ate dinner at this restaurant built into an old pirate ship that had been brought ashore and then converted. That was pretty cool, except the food was mediocre and cold, and took forever to come out. oh well, it was fun. Then we went into the city and explored the actually city parts. One of my favorite things about the city is the number of trees there were, and how people just come out to walk. This makes for good people watching, and they're not in a hurry because they're not going anywhere. So it's pretty stress free walking amongst these people. Then we went back to the ship. The next day I slept in and then went on a trip to two villages. It was mostly a site seeing thing. I have gorgeous pictures of a cape that has ruins. I met a lovely lady who had a souvenir stand. She wanted me to go to her village and have dinner with her and her family. Which i thought was incredibly sweet. I even managed to get a picture with her. Then we went to the middle of no where, past more corn fields (I can't escape, the corn follows) to where our tour guide said there isn't even cell phone reception. Not an issue for me, since I can't use my phone. Then we went to what was supposed to be a traditional dinner and folk show. The dinner was traditional, and yummy but I could never tell you what I ate...I took a picture...i don't know what most of it was. lol There was about 30 minutes of traditional dancing, and then a lot of dancing geered towards russian tourists, which was lame..and the dancers weren't professional. At the end they at least had a traditional fire dance that was cool, they danced on hot coals. I have a video of that. Then I went to bed, and I didn't go out today because I wanted to start my papers, which is good because they're not due. Now I have the evening free. I have belly dancing practice because a group of my friends and I are learning from our friend from Colombia and we're going to do it for the talent show. It's a good workout, and it's fun. Okay I need to go now :) Off to Turkey!  That should be a culture shock, however I'll be eating lunch in Asia on Friday...so it can't be all bad. haha Love to all!

Me