My New Home!

These are my colleagues. They are the people that I will be working with and sharing life with for the next two years and I think they are amazing. They seem progressive and energetic and are definitely excited to have me work with them. Everyone else had one counterpart come pick them up the day we found out our sites. This is my entourage. It is going to be a good two years. It makes a world of difference to have be surrounded by people that are excited that you are there. Granted have met them once for a total of three days but they bent over backwards to show me around and make sure I was okay. I didn't even get to walk to work in the mornings because they would come and pick me up. I suppose it was to make sure I don't get lost but the road in front of my apartment dead ends into the municipality where I work so I hope they don't think that. Anyways they are wonderful and I am excited. I will naturally keep you posted.

Welcome to my humble abode! This is the grand entry way and you are currently standing on the precipice of greatness!

My bedroom. Scandelous I know. It is a bit sparse right now but I don't move in until October and they are still getting a bunch of stuff for me. Way more spacious and nice than I was expecting! You're more than welcome to come and stay!

9/4/08 First and foremost Happy Birthday Dad, or as we say here Chesteik Roshdenden! Love you and miss you. Well I officially know where I am going to be living for the next two years. It is a little town of about 5000 called Nikopol on the Danube River. This is the border between Bulgaria and Romania so I will get to go to Romanian quite a bit and possibly even learn some Romanian. (Tobias you are the only one that I still hate…) When we first found out about our sites I, quite honestly, didn’t have a clue what was going on. We have all been waiting for this moment for a while and then you find out and it settles in that this is where you will be living, this is where you will be pursuing life, for the next two years. I can say, after spending a couple of days so far at my site, that I am excited about what the future holds. It isn’t where you are but who you are with that really matters. This rings true to me right now. When we found out where we would be going everyone else had a counterpart come and attend a day-long conference and then accompany them back to site. I had three and they took the mayors car down to drive me back so I wouldn’t have to take the bus. I have never in my life felt so warmly and enthusiastically accepted. I will be living in a new flat and the people I am working with are doing everything that is humanly possible to make me feel wanted and needed and comfortable. They are bending over backwards to accommodate me and I am sure that I have met every important person in town already. I think this might be close to what it is like to be famous. We had dinner tonight at the restaurant next to the municipality where I work. More on where I work and what I will be doing later… and it occurred to me that I am already part of an inner circle. These people have been working together for quite some time and they have already accepted me in and started to call me friend. I am not even officially at site yet. Good food. Great people. Rika. Beer. What more can a man ask for? Life is good and I am excited. Miss you guys. BK

The Kitchen. The people over here can't believe that I actually cook. I baked chocolate chip cookies the other day and you would have thought that the world turned upside down. This is my entry into Bulgarian society. I am going to cook my way to a place of prominence. P.S. If you have some good recipe send them my way!

One of my two terraces.

... So the first two days of my visit there was no water and I showered with a bucket. An absolutely amazing experience!

The extra bedroom!

This is my desk. The amount of cross cultural relationship building that will take place in that chair is mind-boggling!

The terrace out front. Naturally I am drying some clothes in the cool evening air...

My view!

Nikopol! Kind of. I will take better pictures when I move there in October! I can't wait!

This is Romania. In the summer there is a day where the kids in town swim across the river. I feel like I would like to be able to say that I swan to another country. That would make me feel like a man.