More Impressions

As I already mentioned, there are (surprisingly at least to me) quite a few military guys in my year. In fact, I sit next to one in my math class and one thing I noticed is that he is super organized and neat. I guess he gets that from his military training (or maybe not), but I haven't seen such neat handwriting from anyone in a while. It's pretty astounding (in a good way!) because my handwriting can't be deciphered by anyone most of the time (myself included sometimes).

I also met another fellow Eastern European, this time an Albanian. I guess that increases E.European representation to 3. We have to work on that; can't let our presence go unknown :)

On the more serious side, one thing that is amazing to me when I compare grad school and undergrad so far is just how much more you can relate to people in graduate school. Obviously, you share similar interests (both personal and professional) that brought you to this place and, as I already mentioned, everyone has pretty much worked/lived abroad and has incredible work experience. I feel humbled and inspired to be among such people (regardless of how cliched that sounds). Once the semester starts and I am drowning in school work, I might change my mind, but for now I am enjoying being here. Student life definitely is quite different from the working professional life I was leading in DC prior to returning to Bulgaria. This makes the transition back a lot easier and somehow helps with the nostalgia for BG.

Oh, and one last thing.... the squirrels. They are everywhere! I had forgotten what that was like since graduating from college. They are pretty amusing to observe. Sadly though, it has rained for most of the time since I arrived so I haven't really ventured around campus much, although it looks really beautiful. Somewhat similar to Smith (for all the Smithies out there) but bigger.