Work, work, work

Tuesday morning I went on an outing with our neighbor and her daughter.  It was fun to experience someone else’s routine and to spend some time with their daughter, who is my daughter’s age.  They showed me some additional shops in the immediate neighborhood and also gave me their recommendations of the best places for various needs.  I was particularly glad to find out about a nice, well-stocked market just around the corner from us on Oborishte, and a kitchen on Blvd. Yanko Sakazov that sells cooked food to go – chicken fillets, pork, roast potatoes, salads, and the like (sort of like Hy-Vee’s hot section).  I suspect these two finds will satisfy most of my meal needs at home in the short-term.

We spent an hour or so in Zaimov Park.  I know the weather here is extraordinary, but I continue to be amazed by the number of people in the park.   There is a nice playground where we spent some time before heading to one of several outdoor cafes in the park. 

I had to make a trip to the university on Tuesday afternoon, but the remainder of Tuesday and Wednesday were spent working from home.  I finished some revisions for an article that is scheduled for publication, and began reading and taking notes on two books – one related to the wrongful convictions course that I’ll be teaching, and one related to my habeas corpus research.  In some ways it has been nice to work without the distraction of the Internet. 

On the other hand, it has been terribly inconvenient to have to trek to the university or park when I do need it even briefly.  While the Internet is generally fast in Bulgaria and there are many public WiFi zones, these sources are not terribly reliable.  This morning, for example, I needed to update a single citation for my article revision.  This relatively simple task consumed about 70 minute by the time I walked to the park, moved twice to get a stronger signal, conducted my search of UN documents, and then waited for the relevant PDF documents to open.  The good news is that high-speed wireless should arrive in the apartment tomorrow!  Depending on game time, this might mean I can listen to the Cardinals-Braves wild card playoff on Friday.  (Update: Internet could not be connected.  Will be a few more days at least.  Frustrating....)

As entertainment (or maybe edu-tainment?) during meals, I’ve been reviewing my Cyrillic alphabet flashcards.  I think I have a basic understanding of the alphabet.  It’s kind of satisfying now to go into the kitchen or bathroom and be able to sound out words from the labels of products I’ve bought.  Once I can sound them out, the words are often similar enough to Latin roots or English words for me to take an educated guess.  I suspect this new skill will be helpful in reading street signs and business advertisements.

Some random observations:

• You would think that a bag of dried black beans really wouldn’t expire.  But apparently they do.

•  I was told Bulgarian wine (or Вино, to practice my Cyrillic) was good, and it is.  Fortunately, I remembered in the store that there’s no corkscrew in the apartment, so I bought a twist-off bottle.

• We had a brief thunderstorm this afternoon and it cooled off afterward, but otherwise it has continued to be in the 70s and 80s.

• Planes approaching Sofia airport fly almost directly over the city center.  It’s kind of fun to sit in the park and watch them.

• They have green bugs here that smell when you touch them.  I guess they’re the Bulgarian counterpart to the Asian ladybugs that my cat and daughter eat at home.

• Someone in one of the adjoining buildings plays the clarinet (I think it’s a clarinet, anyway) and often practices in the evenings.  It’s really quite lovely.