Karolinka In & Around Bulgaria

This week a student stopped by my classroom and asked me if I wanted to buy a postcard. Me: Um. Yes? But what is it for? Student, mumbles: For the Rozhen Observatory. The thing is given the large size of my classroom and a little mumbling I don’t understand what is being said. That and [...]

Read Full Post »

I know that I am not breaking any news here. In fact, I wasn’t sure if it was even something that I should write about here but this morning I decided that it was. Last Wednesday evening the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Burgas was rocked by a suicide bomber. A bomb went off killing [...]

Read Full Post »

Bulgaria is again in the news.  More specifically, the New York Times. When this happens it’s generally bad.  American’s don’t seem to care about the good things that are happening in a country it’s the bad stuff that sells from natural disasters to corruption to war. That’s why this headline caught my eye: Unlikely Allies [...]

Read Full Post »

I am really digging NPR. I grew up listening to NPR. That’s National Public Radio in case you’re interested. And recently I’ve found myself listening to it once again. I guess this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. My MoM regularly listened to NPR driving around town when we were little and in fact she [...]

Read Full Post »

Hey. Guess what? We just had an earthquake in Sofia. I was sitting at my desk checking email and as soon as it started happening I thought: Hey Cool. An Earthquake. And I watched the room shake. Then I thought: Carolyn!? That was your reaction? Hey Cool. Yep. That was my reaction. I wasn’t worried. [...]

Read Full Post »

The AC/DC concert was just as amazing as I expected it would be! The crowd was lively and very, um, Bulgarian–but in a good way. And the band really rocked–they played a good mix of classic AC/DC and some of their new album (who knew?). But there should be no illusions, the old stuff was [...]

Read Full Post »

I’m going to see AC/DC tonight in Sofia. It’s the first time that the band has ever played in Bulgaria. And frankly, I can’t wait. I think it’s going to be priceless. Like, unbelievable. Yes I think it’s going to be unbelievably good. I am looking forward to seeing the concert but also to doing [...]

Read Full Post »

Guantanamo detainee! Bulgaria has a Guantanamo detainee of it’s very own. The detainee has been granted refugee status in Bulgaria and now the government is working to help him (and his wife) get settled. First thing first, thanks Bulgaria. This Guantanamo Bay thing got out of control during the Bush-Cheney years.  Now 10 or so [...]

Read Full Post »

So I made my tv debut today! I made my big break into the morning news at 7:30am. Or at least that is what I hear.  I was well on my way to school at 7:30am.  That’s the thing with being a teacher–you have to get to school before your students, you’re supposed to have [...]

Read Full Post »

The Sofia News Agency has written a series of articles on Bulgaria accepting detainees from Guantanamo. However they’ve made it sound like Bulgaria is picking out stray-homeless kittens from the pound. Rather than making the difficult and potentially unpopular choice to accept men who have been labeled by the US at worst as terrorists and [...]

Read Full Post »