Man's best friend, indeed
Laura Butterbrodt
Multimedia Journalist
Bulgaria Week 6
February 19-25, 2018
I'll start this blog with some great pics from the No Sense club from last weekend in Plovdiv:
Lifting Kevin (Why are we so extra???)
This girl judging us in the background is probably how everyone looks at us when we're together
Alli regrets every choice she made to get to this point
Thursday, February 22
5 p.m.
This week has been full of trip planning! I have definitely been bitten by the travel bug and can’t stop looking up the prices of plane tickets. Although I have been on a few big trips within Bulgaria, I am THRILLED to have finally arranged trips to new countries!
Next weekend I am going to ATHENS, Greece!! I am hoping to also get to Thessaloniki at some point because it’s only a couple hours away from Blagoevgrad by bus. But that’s another trip I have yet to plan!
Last night I bought my tickets for SPRING BREAK, which I am shocked is only two weeks away. January seemed to last about 30 years, and February has only been here for 30 minutes and is almost over! That is not great news for me since my deadlines for assignments due March 1 seemed miles away until now…
Anyway, I am going to Amsterdam, Brussels, Antwerp and Paris for spring break. I am so excited!! I am going to the Harry Styles concert in Antwerp with Laury (who is my favorite person alive for inviting me to go with her!!!!). I booked my plane tickets last night. It was a little bit of a wake up call when searching for places to stay, because it reminded me that not every place is as cheap as Bulgaria.
This weekend I am going to Sofia to see a ballet on Saturday. A ton of AUBG students are getting a giant Airbnb there for the night, so even though I told myself I was going to stay home for the weekend, I decided to join them since it’s only one night and I will be there anyway. Plus, it will be super fun, I can already tell!
I also have figured out plans for the end of the school year. I think I am going to Varna and Burgas on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Then after that, I am meeting up with Sidney (my best friend from the USA for those who don’t know her) in BARCELONA!!
Oh, and I don’t remember if I wrote in a previous blog that I am going to Bucharest over Orthodox Easter break??
Like I said, I caught the travel bug baaaaad. But in a good way!!!!!!! I am so grateful that I have all of these opportunities this semester. I know I will never have so many options and chances again!
Last night I experienced my first earthquake. It was like 1:30 or 2 a.m., and I was just watching Netflix in bed when my bed started shaking. I thought it was someone in the room next door hitting the wall or something, and Lea said she thought the same thing. Then after a couple of seconds I remembered I was told earthquakes are really common here; then it all made sense. It really was a pretty small quake here, but it shook our whole room on the third floor of a VERY earthquake-safe building. I guess I can cross “be in an earthquake” off my bucket list!
For my Writing for the Ear class, I am working with a girl named Elsa from Kosovo on an audio project about “Someone doing something.” We decided to go to a tattoo shop in Blagoevgard and interview the artist. We interviewed him on Tuesday, and it turned out to be really interesting! His shop is almost impossible to find if you don’t know where it is. There are no signs or advertisements. We only knew because Elsa’s friend told us about it, and when we went into a building I could hear the tattoo needle noise. He answered our questions, and by the end of the interview I was thinking to myself…. Yep, I want a tattoo really bad now! Sorry Mom, but don’t be surprised if I bring back any tattoos as souvenirs!
Since the month has flown by, it’s just starting to hit me that the semester is definitely in full swing and a lot of my classes are getting harder and more homework is piling up. I think it’s good that I’ll have a more low-key weekend to get some work done now before my string of trips begin.
Maddie made us pancakes last night! <3
Sunday, February 25
11:50 p.m.
On Friday, Elsa and I went back to the tattoo shop to interview the artist again. He is so interesting: he is scared of needles and doesn't have any tattoos of his own! He also only works on people he knows, so his shop is really hidden. He certainly is a character. After being there again I think it is almost certain I will get tattooed while I am here...
We went to a karaoke bar on Thursday night and kind of crashed the Bulgarian music scene. It was so fun and we definitely will go back again! We ended our night with a group sing-along to Bohemian Rhapsody. I'm pretty sure everyone else there hated us <3
I also received a package from home!! The Hublous sent me a Valentine's Day care package with all the essentials: Reese's cups, Cheetos, a coloring book, Chapstick, gum, slippers and a picture of Charlotte. It arrived super late because Bulgaria, but it made it! The Cheetos are already gone and the Reese's cups are in short supply.
I was feeling pretty homesick this week, and I know a lot of other exchange students were too. Getting the stuff from home helped so much! And of course my weekly calls with my parents and Marnie always make everything better.
The trip to Sofia for the ballet was so fun! We stayed at a really nice Airbnb that was three apartments, which worked really well because we had 14 people. The ballet we saw was Sleeping Beauty and it was at the Sofia Opera house, which was super fancy. Unfortunately, the low lighting and orchestra music was a little too relaxing. Let's just say there were a couple of sleeping beauties in the audience named Laura and Lea! (But only for parts of it. Don't worry, I still watched!) The dancers were so talented! It was just a little bit different from watching the Silhouettes dance though.
Afterward we were going to join on a pub crawl, but we got there really late and ended up only going to one bar and one club. The club was really cool! So much better than the Underground in Blago. And today is Quentin's birthday, so we celebrated extra hard with him!
We also had a really great cab driver in Sofia who played our favorite song Bella Ciao for us and jammed with us. There was a bachelor party at the club and they were all dressed in sheep costumes and the groom was Little Bo Peep. Bulgaria honestly doesn't even seem like it can be a real country because it can be SO STRANGE! I love it though.
I stayed in Friday night and started to catch up on homework, so today hasn't been as stressful as Sundays usually are. I still have a lot of catching up to do before my trips though, but at least it's a start!
As always, thanks for following along and reading my blog! Life here is crazy, but in the best way possible.
Love from Bulgaria,
Laura
Sofia Cab
