The night before arriving in Bulgaria, I also facilitated my first ever "panel discussion". I organized the formation of a group on the ship called "Future Teachers" so that the undergrads who are studying to become teachers on the ship are able to meet and network. Sidenote: many of the students studying to become teachers are NOT taking the education course taught on the ship...mainly because their home university will only recognize it as an elective-so they decided to take some other course they were interested in. Anyway, this discussion was a great success :) Almost 20 people attended and we had a great discussion about licensure, resumes, interviews, etc. I'm organizing another panel discussion on how to incorporate the SAS experience into the classroom and also discuss opportunities to teach abroad.
OK..now its time for Bulgaria :) Bulgaria happened to be the country that was added to our itinerary after our stop in Egypt got canceled.
SUNDAY, JULY 24: ARRIVE IN VARNA & SAS TRIP TO A BULGARIAN VILLAGE
On the bus on the way to the Village Visit....we passed so many sunflower fields. It was absolutely beautiful :) Our tour guide, Vicky, was the cutest Bulgarian woman who referred to the sunflowers by saying "This yellow flower is filling up the soul with positive emotions."
Our warm welcome to the Village of Donchevo. The entire village came out to see us. Aside from 6 American students who came to stay in the village a few years ago, no other international visitors have come to this village. It was a HUGE deal. We were in their newspaper the following day. Many of the villagers planned a "traditional style" welcome & dressed in traditional clothes for us :) Bulgarian hosts traditionally welcome guests by offering a warm piece of bread to show a warm welcome. The bread is then dipped in what they call "colorful salt" to add flavor. We were also presented with sprigs of geranium which symbolizes good fortune.
Me enjoying my "warm welcome". The bread was delicious :) And we got to eat itmultiple times throughout the day. Everyone wanted to show us their warm hospitality :)
Me with the mayor of Donchevo and the town police man?
Top left: Donchevo's school....children go to school here until 4th grade. Then they go to the larger city to finish...........Top right: Me and Melissa sitting in a classroom inside the school. Bottom: Me and Melissa with our new friend Bozhidar, who is home for the summer after finishing his first year at university studying engineering. He spoke great English...and said he learned it mainly from watching American movies.
The gorgeous children of Donchevo
I LOVE sunflowers!!!!!
After frolicking in the sunflowers, we went on a tour of the village and were invited into some families' homes....Every home has their own garden to provide food for their family. They are very proud of their gardens...they are beautiful and the produce is DELICIOUS!
Exploring the streets of Donchevo.
Singing and dancing time!! The village "grannies" put on such a great performance for us!
Even though we didn't speak the same language, it was amazing being able to communicate through dance, laughter, and smiles :)
I LOVE this little girl! What an AMAZING day this was. THIS is what Semester at Sea is all about...interacting with locals and valuing our similarities and differences
JULY 25 - EXPLORING VARNA
Me, Ashley, & Melissa on the "Hop-on, Hop-off" bus in Varna today after a failed attempt to locate an 'adventure excursion' travel agent we found online....it turned out to be a great day though!
Our walk from the ship to the beach in Varna and then into the city.....The church in the center of the city
We "hopped off" the bus at the 'Oriental Marketplace'....shopped around at the clothes and souvenier shops, then we found the food & produce market where we got the best lunch ever: fruit, olives, cheese, homemade bread, and beer. YUM!
Our next "hop off" visit was to Golden Sands beach where I went into the BLACK SEA for the first time ever!!! This beach area is extremely touristy but soooo relaxing. Except when a guy dressed as Sylvester harasses you to take a photo with him and then wants to charge you 10 Leva for it (about $8). Its a good thing I snapped this photo without him knowing...lol
Got back to the ship early that day and spent ALL NIGHT working on my thesis. I literally spent the entire night (9pm until 7:30am) working in one of the classrooms on the ship. I got a lot done....but it certainly made for a rough day since I had to leave for my SAS trip at 8:15am.
TUESDAY, JULY 26 - SAS TRIP TO HEALING MUD AND LYE LAKES AND COASTAL TOWN OF NESSEBAR
Healing Mud & Lye & Salt Lakes ......soooo different from the mud experience of the Dead Sea in Israel
Chilling in the Lye & Salt Lake....ouch it hurt to sit on huge pieces of rock salt for 20 minutes...and boy did it stink like sulfur
Getting healed by the natural and mystic powers of yucky smelling mud :) Definitely didn't do much for my nausea after staying up all night....my skin did feel AMAZING afterwards, though!
Black Sand beach on the Black Sea :)
No caption needed.....WTF?! lol
After the salt and mud experience, we drove about 20 minutes to the old city of Nessebar. Really beautiful place, but also really touristy. I was sooo incredibly delirious at this point, I laid down on the outside steps of a money exchange place and the people that worked there all came out and started laughing, speaking Bulgarian, and pointing at me..... :( lol
Wednesday, July 27 - Ship Day
Today, I stayed on the ship and slept all day. It was a combination of staying up all night on Monday and getting some sort of stomach bug....but I didn't even get off the ship on my last day in Bulgaria. No regrets, though. I had a wonderful time on the other three days that I am absolutely content with my experience in here. I will never forget it and I am glad we got 'rerouted' from Egypt to Bulgaria.
Tomorrow is "Turkey Day" and then we arrive in Istanbul!!!!
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