It snowed!

So last night it snowed. We were very excited to wake up and see that wonderful delight. Unfortunately it all melted very quickly and I have no pictures of it to show you.

Today was consumed with lots and lots of Bulgarian history. Thankfully, after 8 hours of reading, I'm finally getting a handle on the general framework of the history.

Found out today about ANOTHER field trip I get to take in March to see Communist propoganda. I don't know if it is because we are at an American school or just because Communism was such a huge force in people's lives, but it literally comes up in EVERY SINGLE CLASS. My professors really want everyone to remember how bad it was and they all take every opportunity they can to talk smack about Putin as well.

So European education (history-wise) is taking a bit of getting used to. Nathan would interject here to say that math is the same in every country, but, let me tell you, history is not.

Although I know more technicalities of using sources and writing histories than my peers here, they all know infinitely more than me in terms of dates and knowledge of European movements. I can really only chime in with specifics as to America and England, but they know the dates of every invasion that ever happened on the continent (it seems).

Also, we read a ton here. Seriously. I've read for 8 hours over the last 2 days and it is not nearly enough. I have a BOOK due in one of my classes Monday and, even just skimming, I haven't made it more than 5 chapters yet.

Today in Bulgarian class we learned how to order tea and coffee and what we would like in it. I love learning practical things! I can now ask for fruit, herbal or black tea--with cream, sugar or lemon.

The language so far is very logical and very much like Latin or French, but we haven't started using Cyrillic yet. I'm sure that will make it harder.

How about a side note on Bulgarian pizza? I wish I could bring you all some. It is so delicious. The crust is thin, but not crispy--like pita--and they put all sort of toppings on it. If you order a vegetarian pizza it will come with carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, corn, peas, roasted red peppers and tomatoes. Delicious.

Also, although I'm not big into soft drinks, I've had to fill the void of iced tea in my life with Coke Light. Delicious. So much better than Diet Coke.

On the tea front, another girl from North Carolina tried the mystery flavor of Nestea and said it was delicious so I might be trying that soon.

And speaking of food, today I ate spinach and feta soup (YUM--I can't to try and figure out how to make this) and stuffed cabbage leaves (also tasty).

Some of the Bulgarian girls are going to take me shopping for yarn on Saturday. They seem to think they can find an old lady in the open air market who can tell us where to buy yarn.

Tell us how things are in the US (or France for Gene and Mohini) and we love you all!