Now

Well here I am writing again, but this time I find myself in my homeland of Bulgaria, visiting the family. This is the first time I have ever been here alone, but it is largely how I imagined it would be...I spent a couple of days in the beginning in the capital of Sofia, where I was born, where I saw my aunt and some of my cousins. I spent the majority of the time with my aunt, who showered me with gifts of jewelry as she always does...earrings, rings, necklaces, all of it! We walked around the neighborhoods, ate some lovely Bulgarian meals that she cooked, and chatted about traveling around the world as the rain poured outside as well.

The past three days I have been here in Svishtov where one of my grandmothers lives. This is the place where it feels most like time really stands still..it's a small town in the countryside, and everything is very peaceful, isolated, conserved. You can definitely tell that the people here have more of a small-town-mentality here, but that's ok, its still good...I haven't had this kind of rest in weeks, so this is something to indulge in for sure. It is good to see my grandma as well, to talk to her about some of the life lessons she wishes to teach me, and to hear about some of her experiences of the past. She cooks wonderfully as well, so we have a wonderful time eating and chatting and taking strolls all day too. Today I went and visited my grandfather and cousin's graves as well, which felt good to be able to do. It is definitely really hot here though, at least hotter than some of the other places I have been these past couple of days..whew!

Tomorrow I head to another city called Plovdiv where my other grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins live. This sunday will by cousins Prom dance, so I get to see her all dressed up and pretty! I am so excited to be able to be there just at the right time for that! And we will see what else happens...I'm sure we will have some good times exploring the city with her and with my aunt, uncle, and grandma as well! =)

After that the plans are now aligning...I will head back to Italy for a day before visiting Greece for 4 or 5 days. Then I will return to Italy for a few days before heading to Barcelona where I will meet up with lovely Corey....we will tour Barcelona for a few days, then head back to Italy so I can show her Rome and Viterbo, and then we will be heading to India together to travel around there a bit as well! So as you can tell, things are progressing well, quite well indeed...



The semester in Italy finished about a week ago and it finished well. Overall I am very satisfied with the experience - both with the academic side of it and the social and cultural sides. I feel like I learned a lot about the Italian people, and I saw many things that I really loved. I am considering possibly moving back to Italy at some point actually, to live or to study. For someone like me, with a history major, Italy is an amazing place to be - Rome especially, I am absolutely in love with that city! I can now interact pretty fluently with the locals as well; I knew some Italian before coming, but after spending five months living with Italians and Spanish, I feel like my language skills have definitely improved. And it is a very fun language to speak as well, very lyrical, melodical, beautiful. It's painful to say goodbye to that country..I feel like it has become such a big part of me already, I would almost stay if I didn't have to go back to finish school for another year...but all is well, there will be time to return.

Other than that, I don't know much what to say...I am excited to be here in Bulgaria, I am excited for the next few weeks in Greece, Spain, and Italy...and when I finally have to say goodbye to Italy, at least I will be heading to another place I have greatly been wanting to see..India!

Hope you all are well, I will write when I can though now internet access is more limited than ever..keep in touch!

Bless

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