So this last Friday, in Blagoevgrad aka May 7th, Pau (the Spaniard) through his last Sangria night, for more information see previous posts. Anyway so I did make an appearance, despite the fact that I would be leaving in the morning pretty early, but alas that is the life of a student.

Everyone was there, and I managed to meet a lot more people too. Plus to blend in I put juice in a cup and it totally worked. Thank you cranberry juice

However as Murphy’s law is very strong and present in my life, after saying my goodbyes my friend Karolina wanted to take the elevator, so we got in with our other friend Anja and this new guy Antonio. I thought we were moving and Karolina hit the wrong floor so we went up and then down and then nothing!

It just stopped, but unlike the movies, there was no jerk and the lights stayed. It did get hot though and no I could not escape through the ceiling, epic fail Leverage, although the elevator was very “special”

So there we are, freaking out, cause it’s fun. The boy managed to open one part of the elevator so we were getting air and then we were yelling out for help and he was talking Russian. Thankfully one girl went to get help, finally after what seemed like forever but was only 20 minutes, but whatever the experience was still very “traumatizing”

The lights went out and then on, and we made it to the basement where we jumped out of the elevator and took the stairs to the main floor.

Otherwise that was pretty much it, no bombs, bad guys or Knights in shining armor, but we can’t have everything. I mean who can say they got stuck in an elevator, not many people that’s for sure, and to be more specific who can say they got stuck in an elevator with three drunk people. Like I said, a pretty special experience.

Therefore I would like to take this moment to thank AUBG and its buildings for many of my very awesome experiences.

As I am catching up on my posts, it’s time you heard about the AUBG Olympics.

Yes AUBG has its own Olympics, I know you’re shocked but they definitely happened and were actually AWESOME! On a lovely semi overcast day, my friends and I headed to the baseball field and tennis courts by Banchinoville (the park that everyone walks to and eats snacks and stuff). Of course after walking there in the heat we were thirsty, and headed straight to the free beer area (we did donate stotinki for the cause).

Yes there was free beer, and it was delicious. A perfect day outside with arm wrestling, futbol (that’s soccer in european ), badmitten, long jump, basketball, boxing, frisbee and tennis.

* At this moment I would like to mention that I fully support athletic events because they are a perfect way to show off one’s physical ability, and as that really was why the Olympics were created, I have decided that the AUBG Olympics succeeded in showing off AUBG students and bringing them together as a community.

Oh and I almost forgot, to begin the day a group of RA’s blasted music in the main courtyards for the dorms. Then when that didn’t work, get this, they actually used the fire alarms to wake the students up. They rang them for 30 seconds then turned them off, and did that 5 times. I’m pretty sure that is not what the fire alarm is for, but I could be wrong….

So the night began like any other except I was supposed to meet up with my friend Asylbek from Kazakstan, for you see AUBG is a university full of people from quite a few different countries. Anyway so we ended up getting together and he decided he wanted to go “spur of the moment” to a movie, as a result he dragged me along with him.

Not even bothering to grab coats we made it to the Cinema and decided on the recent comedy Date Night, problem was, it wasn’t going to show for another hour, and by this time it was 11:30 ish, so we ended up going for a walk. Needless to say it was cold, but he being a nice guy, bought me a beer, very sweet, and we sat in a square that I don’t know the name of and just talked.

Although according to him, he talked and I was to quiet. I don’t really know how that’s possible, and many of you who know me are probably thinking the same thing, but alas that is what he told me later.

Pretty much freezing by the time we got back to the cinema, he bought my ticket and then I went to use the ladies’ room. However, when I got out, I was happily surprised to see that he had bought popcorn and two (old school looking) Coca Colas. Very sweet and very moviesque. The night pretty much proceeded as a date should, with throwing popcorn at each other and holding hands.

Now he is currently back on his way home, and as it rains here in Varna Bulgaria, I am catching up on my stories, so untill next time….

You see by this time my hair had gotten very long and there were many  split ends. Therefore I decided to go with my friend Goran and get my hair trimmed while he got his done. needless to say it wasn’t at all what I was expecting.

We went right after classes, so my hair was in a messy bun on top of my head and I wasn’t really awake. Upon arrival at the salon we went straight to the hair cutting stations and waited. While waiting for Goran, a woman asked if I wanted a manicure and for 10 leva I decided to. She was very nice, and informed me on how the cuticles needed to be removed in order for the nail to grow.

After that it was my turn for a trim. Now in America there are a few different ways to cut hair, sometimes it’s wash, cut and blow dry. Other times its spritz and cut. Either way though, there is measuring.

That was not the case for today’s experience. In fact after brushing my hair out and getting very frustrated with the snarled dead ends, he put some product in it, gathered it into a pony on top of my head, grabbed some scissors and “snip” there went my hair. After those few seconds of snipping he was done, grabbed more products and informed me that I was not allowed to brush or straighten my hair anymore, and never to get highlights ever again. I felt like I was being scolded.

Of course I would have been upset except for two things; one in total the whole thing (manicure and “trim”) cost me only 10 leva (like 8 USD give or take) and two all the dead ends were gone.

Therefore overall I would rate this experience as a 6, as I am not sure if I will ever do it again…

The categories included:

Freshious

Lazy

Alcohol Friendly

Coolest Non-Student

Casanova

The Thing

Artificial Intelligence

Future Leader

Art Vader

And possibly one more, but I can’t remember. Anyway this event was huge, practically the entire school came. There were two hosts, trying to be funny, and they mostly succeeded. There were also clips and spot lights. Over all it was a good time and I now have some ideas to bring back to Fredonia

Any way more later

Some cool things I saw were the Blue Mosque, the Galata Tower, the Great Bazar and the Spice Market

I also got to, spur of the moment, take a take a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul, where we walked a really long distance, saw a really cool train station and went into a grocery store. For about 8 lira I got a set of 6 glass tea cups and 6 little spoons (the saucer plates were also included) in YELLOW – it will go perfectly with our PURPLE kitchen

I also ate cornbread and corn – was boiled and blackened – off the street.

Other than that I really don’t have much more to say about Istanbul, mostly because I now have to write a paper,as we’ve hit that stretch of school time where all of those essays are due.

My one-act play called “The Bear” by Anton Chekhov is Tuesday April 13th at 8pm. I am playing Popova, a young widow who gets to wear a very sexy dress I will try to have someone film it and then post it online, but I’m not making any promises.

Besides that I have about 4 weeks left of school and it’s really quite sad

Oh well, untill later..

Well technically no, because the second place in Greece was a HOTEL not a HOSTEL, that crazy “S” changes everything Anyway this recent hostel was called the Chill Out Cafe and Hostel.

It was really cool and actually ideally located, remember location is almost always everything!

Set on a small side street off the main “drag” of the part of Istanbul were in (by the Galata Bridge, sort of and the Galata Tower) all you would see at first was a lit of vertical sign saying “hostel” and a door.

Upon entering the door though, one is hit with pictures of famous crazy people, like Charlie Chapman, and tons of modern of art. I think the artwork is supposed to distract the viewer from the fact that they are walking from 1 floor up to 6 floors to get to their room. No there wasn’t an elevator and of course my room was on the 6th floor.

The room we stayed in, was labeled a dorm and had no door, or heater. Honestly it was probably originally an outside porch before they decided to add a roof, windows and some sort of linoleum floor. Here are some pictures

As was expected we had the always entertaining and interesting European style shower and toilet combo, as well as a “free” breakfast every morning of rolls, fruit and strong black tea in the cafe connected to the hostel.

This is the beginning of my recollections of my weekend to Istanbul for Easter. Which was awesome – More on that later.

Now for the experience based on my title above

To get to Istanbul we took a lovely overnight bus. This bus was quite comfortable with reasonable soft seats, infomercials playing in Turkish, free water and a bus attendant who passed out coffee and tea.

Sometime after midnight closer to 4 I think, we arrived at the border. Now a quick trivia question, Is Turkey apart of the EU?

Answer “No” so we could just fly through, like we did for Greece. No we had to get off the bus, show our passport, get back on the bus and drive through the Bulgarian border. At that point we were no longer in Bulgaria, and we hadn’t yet entered Turkey.

In fact we were in what I will call “No Man’s Land” or “Country Limbo”. It was between the two borders that they had a fabulous and very nice mall like building full of duty-free items, bathrooms and food.

After taking a quick 15 minute break we headed to the Turkish side and got in line to enter the country. There we waited, bought visas that were stickers, showed our passports, received stamps, got back on the bus, drove a little further and then got off to show that we weren’t smuggling anything.

All in all it took about an hour and a half, which was lucky compared to some stories I’ve heard….

Here is my official after school itinerary!!

Varna, Bulgaria

Paris, France

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Milan, Italy

Venice, Italy

Florence, Italy

Rome, Italy

Tons Of Airports - Back In the States June 5th

I kid you not, in class this morning (about 10am) the alarm went off, and instead of telling us to gather our things and leave the building, my professor continued his lecture. I’m dead serious he talked for five minutes untill one of the students was like “uh professor perhaps we should go that’s the fire alarm” At this the teacher responded with an annoyed look and reluctantly agreed.

Needless to say I am praying there is never actually a fire at AUBG. Haha, anyway thought this was an appropriate story. More later because this Easter Break I will be in…(wait for it)…ISTANBUL!!!!