Happy New Year!

May 2009 be your year!

- from cold and foggy Sofia, where it's -13 degrees C (9 F)

Sofia in the Winter Time

Sofia can be pretty depressing during winter. I have always wondered why it appears more depressing to me than other cities. After all, many cities are gray, rainy/snowy, and dark during winter. Perhaps it's because it's "my city" (the one in which I was born) or perhaps it is because I know it much better than other cities and am able to make comparisons to what it looks and feels like during other times of the year. Although these things seem somewhat superficial to an extent. As I thought about this today, I realized that perhaps I feel this way because of something (or things) entirely different. To an extent, I always find Sofia a little bit depressing because I feel like a guest here (which, technically, I am). Although I have lived outside of Sofia for ten years now, this feeling still throws me off every time I come back. Similarly, it feels awkward to meet up with good friends just once or twice while I am here, for lack of time on both sides. It almost feels like I am just checking them off of some to-do list and moving on to the next item. It sucks! But this year I also noticed something else...the fact that nothing seems to change here. And I am not talking about new buildings, bars and restaurants cropping up, but rather about the way of life. A significant number of the people who hung out at bars, cafes and nightclubs ten years ago, still hang out at bars, cafes and nightclubs now. There is nothing wrong with that per se. I like it that people are social and like to go out, but sometimes I wonder if they actually want to get something more out of life, outside of the drinking and partying. Yes, maybe this makes me sound like a prune... or old or something, but I feel like people should be moving from one stage of their lives to the next, not be stuck in their teenage years forever. I realize that people are bound by certain constraints, which are greater for some than for others, but still ... I find the whole "standstill" quite depressing. It makes me wonder though why I didn't notice it while I was living here in 2006-07. I guess once you "go native", you lose the ability to view things more objectively. Or perhaps I have also changed since then.

While I've Been Living Under a Rock...

.... the first Starbucks opened up in Bulgaria (last month). I just noticed it today: Sofia, the corner of Gurko and Vassil Levski, where the Pizza Hut used to be. Somehow it seems almost symbolic that one American chain should make way for another. Also, does having our very own Starbucks mean we have passed some higher bar of development?

Year at a Glance

The things that I'll remember 2008 by:

1. Sitting in a Princeton dining hall until being kicked out at closing, realizing that sometimes the most seemingly mundane places turn out to be special
2. Obama's victory
3. Hiking volcanoes in Nicaragua
4. Seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time
5. Learning to love NYC
6. First babies among my friends
7. General silliness

Making It in the "Land of Opportunity"

About a week ago I received a phone call from a friend of my father's. He has been living in the US with his family for 7 years or so but has not been able to find a job matching his qualifications from Bulgaria. The longer I spoke to him, the more I contemplated the absurdity of the situation. A graduate degree and years of experience from another (I guess, non-Western) country apparently count for nothing. But how long do you stay before you make the decision to call it quits and return home (where, granted, quite a few things have improved over the last seven years)? Do you keep trying in the hope that with the next set of applications you will succeed? Do you stay because your son would have better opportunities here than back home? Even if it means that you have to drive a cab or deliver pizza? I guess the answer to those latter questions would be "yes", but it still felt strange to think that someone twice my age, with much more work experience than me, someone I consider my father's peer, has lower chances in the US job market than I do. I guess that's how the system works. Or perhaps there is an age limit to "making it" in the US? If you arrive after you've passed it, you have no chance.