Hello again from Blagoevgrad. It is Sunday afternoon here and we are up at the University setting up a wireless network so we can both work at the same time. Well, Brent can check the football scores and I can post pictures on our blog.

We have been here two days. The first day was spent getting settled in our apartment and buying the necessary appliances (coffee pot and hair dryer). I've posted a couple of pictures of our apartment (Warner warning--we aren't in Kansas anymore).



Our apartment is the upper most balcony on the right. We overlook a garden and other apartment buildings from the balcony. A resident rooster wakes us up with a yell that sounds like "noc tuurrr nal" (without the consonants, of course). Our landlord says she has "such criminals" in her neighborhood as well.

The apartment has plenty of space. Kitchen, formal dining room, living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kitchen overlooks a busy street and the living room is connected to the balcony.





This morning (Sunday) we went for about a 2 1/2 hour hike in the hills above the old town in Blagoevgrad. Views from the top included the city to the north, and small villages to the southeast. Two views-- two different centuries. On one side there are streets filled with cars (some American and Russian, but mostly from France--Peuget, Renault, Citroen)and the other side has unpaved roads filled with goats and horse drawn carts. People are very friendly and always say some form of hello. We looked a bit silly in our shorts and hiking shoes but I guess it lets people know we are foreigners. We'll remember to bring our camera next time.

This afternoon we had lunch at a place called "Pizza Italia." I ordered a pizza with "three tipes" of cheese. It turned out to be quite good. There were two crusts. The bottom was traditional bread while the top was a kind of biscuit dough. In the middle were three cheeses--one of which was feta, the others were a bit more like mozzarella or provalone. Brent had a chicken and pickled cucumber pizza. The pickles were sweet pickles. Interesting.


We begin our orientation week tomorrow. Neither one of us has given any thought to our syllabi or lectures. But hey--what's new? Here's a picture of Brent in our office. Better get to work. Later. B