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| Buzludja! |
One of my favorite Bulgarian tales is as follows:
The Communists, attempting to seize control, created a plot to knock off a high-ranking general and then cause a little mayhem at the funeral. The general was indeed killed, and the government, king-and-all, were at his funeral when, at the beginning of the service, sharp, bombs went off. The entirety of the BG leadership was murdered; however, the monarchy survived! Why you might ask?
I'll let you ponder that, but the answer is simple: the King was a solid 15 minutes late. From then on, I've been told that being *a little late* in Bulgaria could save your life.
Now, I must confess that I have no idea whether this story is valid or not, but it lends a testament to time in Bulgaria. For that, I have found myself on Bulgarian time which is why my first blog post is a convenient 2 months after the start of my 2nd year with Fulbright Bulgaria. In attempts to process my own crazy doing's, I will do a 3 part serious highlighting the past two months starting from now and going back in time.
Elections
There are fewer things I love more than civic engagement. Seriously. As is my usual protocol as an educator on Election Day, I set up my voting box, had my ballots readied, and donned the walls with the Ohio flag! 89 students voted on two controversial topics: social media preferences and a monarchical reinstallation. Believe it or not, 42 students voted against the measure while 41 were in favor of bringing back the Bulgarian royalty. Of course, several specified I would earn the title (idk if I should be nervous or excited). A fav quote of mine from a colleague: "We already have a parliament. Why do we need another king? (translated)"
Travels
I had the great pleasure of having Natalie Davis--color commentator, friend, Buckeye, maverick, and Fulbrighter (Romania)--join me for class on Monday post-Media Literacy Conference (below). We rented a car, hit up class in the AM, and decided to take our travels northwards starting with the Thracian ruins in Stara Zagora, ancient Thracian tombs in Kazanluk, the Shipka momument, and Buzludja, and ending in Veliko Turnovo at Tsarevets! Also, the finest pizza i've yet to have outside of the US.
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| Hanging out with 6B |
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| Thracian Tomb - Kazanluk : Sadly, this is a replica, but the original one about 10 steps away is a UNESCO World Heritage Site! It's also locked. |
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| Shipka Monument is dedicated to the Russian and Bulgarian units who fought during the Russo-Turkish War! |
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| Buzludja, a Communist playground, was a former Soviet conference hall now turned into a derelict UFO. |
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| Ego Pizza and Cafe - Veliko Turnovo. You all dont understand how good this was. |
Media Literacy Conference 2018
You're probably why I aptly titled this post '*Fact*street's Back'; Fulbright Bulgaria, in conjunction with the State Department, held a 3-day conference in Sofia discussing the role Media Literacy plays in classrooms throughout the Balkans. We had the pleasure of meeting fellow ETA's throughout the region, and I couldn't have had a better time! Barbara McCormack, VP for Education at the Newseum and, overall, gem, dropped in for some v fun activities! Perhaps, the best time I had was simply showing off Sofia to the other ETA's via bread-making, fire-walking, folk-dancing, ambassador-meeting, and rakia-'sipping'.
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| Jumping into Media Literacy like! |
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| OSU Alumni and current Fulbrighters are very serious at Ambassador-hosted events! |
Halloween
Pumpkins are incredibly cheap. 70 cents per pound which is absolutely insane. So when the Bulgarian gods give you pumpkins, you make jack-o-lanterns! I decided to buy 20 some and have a giant party with my 5th, 6th, and 7th graders in my primary school (Hristo Botev - Galabovo) and my 11th graders at my high school (PGEE- Galabovo). 100 kids later, we had oodles and noodles of fun with costumes, medenka (bulgarian cookies), and, obviously, a ton of pumpkins!
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| TIKVANIK! It's this amazing pumpkin-filled banitsa (pastry). |
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| The mummy-making contest |
Stay tuned for more fun tomorrow!
This site FulbrightBlogaria.blogspot.com is not an official Fulbright Program site. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of Keegan Scott and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State or any of its partner organizations.
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