On est arrivee!

We've arrived in our new home in Sofia, Bulgaria. The house that we share with two other couples is very nice: spacious, bright, and overlooking some woods at the back of the campus (which means it feels like it's away from school, even though we could, if necessary, roll out of bed and be in class within 5 minutes!).

We've spent our first days getting settled in the new place; learning the lay of the land in Sofia; learning a little Bulgarian; and making friends with our new neighbors, Ernie and Barb, who live upstairs. The campus is really quiet right now, except for a few administrators and the lovely security guards (who strike more of a grandfatherly pose than a defensive one, but it's nice to know they're there).

Sofia is a pretty city with some remarkable sights; we took an impromptu tour on Monday, including the Alexandr Nevski cathedral (which is not as old as it looks, dating back only to 1924), and St. Georgi's church, or "rotunda", which IS as old as it looks, dating back to the Roman period in Sofia--when the city was known as Serdika.

Here are some photos from the journey and the first days; more to come, of course, when there's more interesting stuff to share!

Self-portrait, JFK: last moments in NYC

The approach to Alexandr Nevski Cathedral, with terrifying traffic crossings

We found Mitzy's Bulgarian doppelganger!!

International Man of Mystery, outside Nevski Cathedral

A full view of the Alexandr Nevski Cathedral

Monument to the Soviet Army

Cooling off outside the National Theater in the Sofia City Garden

A walk past one of the campus houses (not ours)

A domestic scene in our new digs

The kitchen, after our inaugural dinner party

First attempt at baking in the electric oven