Man's best friend, indeed
Laura Butterbrodt
Multimedia Journalist
Bulgaria Week 3
January 29- February 4, 2018
Monday, January 29
6:45 p.m.
Well, back to reality from my weekend getaway to Sofia. I had quite a Monday! We got up at 5:30 a.m. to catch our 6:40 bus back to Blagoevgrad, but we missed it by four minutes. While purchasing tickets for the next bus, I realized my travel money card and student ID were not in my wallet. Nice! Sounds like a very Laura B. problem. I'm not exactly sure what happened there, but the card was declined three times at a Sofia ATM so I know someone found it. Also, there was apparently a Facebook account under my name adding at least one person, so that may or may not be related to my ID being missing. Don't accept any new friend requests from me! We are already friends. :)
We finally got back around 10 a.m., and I headed to the Main building to get my new ID. The security guard told me to come back at 11:30. OK, fine. I go back at 11:30. Wait for 45 minutes. No one shows up. OK, I am annoyed. (Without my ID I can't get in or out of the dorm, into my room, into the classrooms or get any food on campus. This girl is HUNGRY!) I treated myself to a Döner kebab, which helped me regain my strength to return to the Main building for a third time, where I was finally able to get my card.
Since then, my day has been fine. My parents helped cancel my travel card and a new one is on its way. I do have to say, this morning had me reflecting a lot on how unorganized this school is. I discussed it in Sofia with the girls there, but it seems no students, whether they were full-time or exchange, were prepared at all before coming here and no information is given out without asking for it. Most of the staff members, like security and food services, don't speak English, which is a little surprising because it is an English-speaking school. Trying to find out simple information like when someone will be back in their office or how to buy a book at the bookstore is very difficult to understand and then I feel like people get mad at me when I ask. Nobody taught me any of this! I know it's helping us be more independent and all that, but also it shouldn't be that hard to just explain in the first place. Anyway, this has been A Rant.
Friday, February 1
2:30 p.m.
Since my emotional Monday morning, things have been going so much better! I've been pretty busy this week. On Wednesday I moved to a new room with Lea, an exchange student from Germany. We are so much happier together! We talked Monday night about how sometimes being alone is when we get more homesick, so we decided to swap rooms with one of her suitemates and move in with each other. I now live on the other side of the residence hall, which is a lot closer to most of the other exchange students I am friends with. Luckily moving wasn't too hard because I didn't bring much here to begin with! I think living with Lea will make my semester so much more exciting!!
Look how cute we are!! A couple of blonde Germans with the initials LB :)
Moving was definitely the most exciting part of my week so far. I've been trying to learn how to organize my day so I get my work done during the day and have my nights free for friends. This has been so hard for me! I have no time management skills.
I already feel like I fit in with the people here better than a lot of people at SDSU. There are only a few people at SDSU that I would consider to be my really close friends. Here, I mostly feel at home with the exchange students because we are all going through the same things so it's easy to relate with everyone and get along, but I think there are so many more people here with personalities and values that match with mine really well. I feel like I am finally experiencing college and making the friendships that really matter. This makes me so happy because I've found such great people, but I'm already sad because I know it's only temporary.
One of the exchange students, Sindija (B.), has decided she is leaving AUBG and going back to Latvia. We are all so sad! We all understand the homesickness and know how difficult studying abroad is, but for me, I don't have the language barrier in the classroom like she does with English as her second language. I hope she is happier when she goes home because I am sure it is so hard for her. We are all going to miss her!
The weather here this week has been wonderful. I might be bragging a little bit since I saw it was -30 windchill back home! It was in the mid-50s and sunny the last few days here. I am not used to this kind of heat!! :)
(she is holding a pirouette cookie don't worry Mom and Dad)
Sunday, February 4
9 p.m.
It's hard to believe another week has come and gone. Time here is weird; it feels like it flies by, but it also feels like I've been here for a year already. It's probably because I've done so much already, with meeting everyone, sightseeing and just so many little encounters. Us exchange students have a proclivity to revel... :)
This weekend was very lowkey. I just spent a lot of time hanging out with friends. It was a really, really fun weekend, but it wasn't nearly as eventful as last weekend in Sofia! Maybe that's a good thing. Since I don't really have anything new to say this week, I'll just end with a few photos from this weekend with some of my wonderful new friends.
