My Bucharest Home

Here is the address to the apartment building (bloc) that is my current abode. It is located on Strada Brailita. Brailita is pronounced Brailitza. The t at the end is the one with the accent that is pronounced tz. This address is right above the entrance door to the building. Once inside there are mailboxes and then the elevators. My apartment is on the 3rd floor.

Here it is from the outside. My flat (apartment) is the fourth one from the ground on the corner. You can see the white insulated windows. I know I said the apartment was on the 3rd floor, but remember here the ground floor is called the parter and not the first floor. The next one up is the first floor.

Finally, here is the bloc from a distance. You can still see my apartment there just next to the trees. It is a nice studio apartment with a kitchen, a big bed, two chairs, a couch, a table to eat on, and a tv. All the comforts a guy could want.

The Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Church

This church, which sits on top of a hill in downtown Bucharest, is the home church of the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church. It sits right next to his home (which is a palace). It is easy to see why this location was chosen, it would have given you a commanding view of the city. Of course now all you can see are the high-rise building surrounding the area.

Here is a view of the altar area inside the church. As you can see it is quite ornate. All of the Romanian Orthodox churches are decorated nicely inside but as this one is the home church of the head guy, it is even nicer.

Lastly, for all of you who know that I am a saint. Here is a picture of Saint Mark on the outside of the church.

The Outdoorsman

Here I am hanging with the campers. I had just mounted this fine steed when apparently he felt that the load was too heavy. Since he felt that i was not going to lose any weight quickly, he came upon another way to lighten his load. If you look closely you will notice a stream of water coming from beneath the horse. He stopped and until he had lightened his load he refused to move any further.

Having lightened his load the horse once again was willing to move around the corral. Notice the expert horsemanship portrayed by the rider. Able to use only one hand to hang on. Yee Haw.

Now to the other skill event of the day, archery. Notice the perfect balance, the rapt attention paid by all bystanders. I think i was even able to hit the target. Another fun day had by all.
Talk later.

Reading Bulgarian

The first work on this sign when you pronounce it in Bulgarian says garage. The first letter is the g, the a is an a, the p is the r sound, the a, and then the last letter says something like zha, almost the j sound. Many words are familiar, it is just not obvious at first.

This is the name of the street where my apartment is located. The first part, the y and what looks like an a without the line is an abbreviation for yulitza, which is street. The second word is senchetz, which is the name of some kind of flower which I forget (Miss Tony will kill me now).

The sign in the middle talks about the sports complex for one of the local football clubs (by football I mean soccer). The word on the second line is the name of the club, Spartak. The logo to the left is the logo for the club and at the top it says FC Spartak or football club Spartak.

The sign is important to me because it is one of the ways that I decide when to get off the bus. Here you can see the bus stop that I get off at when returning home from the office. I took this picture while I was sitting on at the bus stop across the street waiting for the bus to take me to the office.
Having more fun that one person should be allowed, talk with you all later.

Here is my home in Varna. If you look closely at the bottom floor on the right side you will see a green sign above a window and door. The sign is for the Vista Language School. During normal times this office operates as a satellite office for the main language school. During this time however, it is operating as my home. It is a cozy place with everything I need to live.

Here is the view up my street towards my building. This is the view I see as I return from the bus stop. My apartment building is not in sight in this picture but I thought you would enjoy the view.

Last, here is a picture of me from my camping trip last weekend. I am at Kaliakra. There is a legend about 4 Bulgarian girls (or 14 I am not sure which) who were trying to escape from the Turkish army. They came to this peninsula and realized that they were trapped. It is a long narrow peninsula that stretches out into the sea. When they reached the point a little further than I am standing in the picture, they realized that they were doomed. They vowed to die together rather than be captured by the Turkish army so they tied their hair together and jumped from the edge of the peninsula. It is over 100 feet down to the ocean, which at that point is filled with rocks just below the surface. A horrible way to die, but to them, preferable to capture.

Hanging with the Vista Language School Summer Campers

Here we are playing a game called Dragon, Knight, or Princess. The dragon eats the princess, the knight slays the dragon and the princess steals the heart of the knight (like rock, paper, scissors). Each team selects a figure to be and they line up opposite each other. Then you count endo (pronounced like it looks) dve (davay), tri (tree), which is one, two, three and you show your figure. The team that has the stronger figure wins a point. The pretty pose you see me perform is the princess pose, since the other side was the knight, we won the point.

Now on to baseball. My title for this picture is "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play." We have our gloves, our baseball hats and a working knowledge of the rules. Now all we need to add is some fun. The game was a blast with everyone having a good time.

Here we are playing a little "American football". The campers all swore that they knew the rule of the game so I told them "Show me how to play." What they played resembled a cross between rugby and "keep-away". Nothing close to American football. So i liken them up and showed them a few plays. I am sure that they believe their version is more fun.

For a job well done, a little treat. If you look closely into the middle of the pile of intently staring campers you will find some McDonald's french fries. As a treat for working so hard on their English, while having fun, the campers were treated to McDonald's cheeseburgers and fries. Another day of fun here in lovely Varna, on the Black Sea.

Talk later.

Camping in Bulgaria

Here I am standing on the cliffs overlooking the beautiful Black Sea. We went on a camping adventure this weekend. We camped in a wilderness camping area very near to where this picture was taken.

Yes, I put up my own tent. As you can see the place was "really crowded". I wish Yosemite looked like this some days! The ground was covered with rocks so the secret was to pick a spot where there were fewer rocks and hope you could sleep without one underneath you.

This is a view of the coast after we had hike down to the water level. I picked "hiked" because it was more than a walk, you had to be careful when you were going down.

Now for a little fun. Tell me what that rock looks like to you. Imagine that you are in a small clearing below this rock and you look up, quickly what does it look like. The people I was with all agreed as to what it looked like. Tell me what you think.

Last a question for you. This "bed" in one of the caves that were all over the area was used for a special ritual that was performed by the people who lived here long ago. Take a good look and decide what it was used for. You can answer me here in the comments section. If you post anonymous just add your name to the end of your post so I can know who is answering. Your prize??? You think there should be a prize?? How about, your prize is the knowledge you gain from answering this question!!

Tomorrow, Monday I start my second week of teaching. I will keep you posted as to how it is going.