Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving- or as my friend Andy likes to say: "Chestito Turkey-den" (You have to hear it in his non-Bulgarian accent to really enjoy it!) I hope you had a great holiday. I was more than excited to receive this fun picture from my family--thanks guys! It is nice to be missed.

Branch and I went to Budapest and enjoyed a few Thanksgiving staples such as: Mexican Food, Christmas Markets, and long walks across the Chain Bridge. Okay, these aren't really Thanksgiving or Hungarian traditions at all, but I guess in our world of newlywed bliss anything can be a new tradition!



Over the weekend, I read a book by my favorite author, Jonathan Safran Foer, and I have been thinking about it all week. It is called "Eating Animals," and I HIGHLY recommend that you put it on your Christmas list. It made me extremely proud to be a vegetarian-- which I have been now for almost 6 years! It also made me realize how much the environment is going to depend on people really evaluating their food in the next few years. We simply cannot continue being so irresponsible. The book also argues that all animals deserve a good life--why would I cruelly slaughter a chicken or kill a fish when I would never want Gringo to endure such a fate?

Finally, the book made Branch and me re-evaluate our pescetarian stance (which Branch had been reconsidering over the last few months anyway.) After thinking morally about the fish, the environment, and the nasty lice that infests fishery farms, we have decided to be strictly vegetarian. (There are other reasons, but Branch doesn't want me to preach...) In addition, I am posing a challenge that after the New Year we try being Vegan for one month. I really don't think that we could do it full time (I do love cheese!!), but I wonder what it would be like. This reminds me of my friend Erin, who is not vegan, but loves a good challenge. To date, she is still looking for someone who will enter the "5 foods contest" with her (you pick five foods and see how long you can go)...and as much as I love competition, I have decided that I would hate to be in one with her.

So to sum up, I hope you had a great thanksgiving--but next year, consider making a pumpkin the staple (and symbolic) dish at your table rather than the poor turkey!

You can get your copy of Eating Animals here:

Or learn more about this book at the official website.

A "Thrilling" ACS Halloween Dance

And the teachers arrive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U77TdVbpVqE

The Gem of Koprivshtitsa

Picture of the Month

Construction Worker in Saturday Heat

Gringo - As Content As Can Be

A cat door +
field mice galore +
endless trees to climb up +
a fireplace to curl up next to +
owners willing to drag a cat from Paraguay to Virgina to Bulgaria +
hundreds of adoring students coddling over you +
being out of the apartment +
at least 4 other cat friends +
a warm bed to sleep in night after night =
a happy happy Gringo.


A cat nap.


Let's play how many cats can you find?




Be very, very quiet - I'm hunting birds...

Home ACS Home

At the end of June, our campus villa finally was complete and we were able to move in after a year-long remodeling job. Scurrying from the old apartment in Mladost and back to campus to move all of our stuff in a frenzied haze of hours before my flight to California, with just enough time to make various piles of boxes in the villa and campus maintenance crews assembling furniture, I did not have a chance to enjoy our new digs until our return at the end of August. It took a long time, but we have finally made this our home here in Bulgaria.

Living on campus has been a real treat for both of us. Besides the short commute - about 100 meters to our offices and classrooms - we have reveled in living in such a beautiful place. It is an oasis in the desert of old and ugly communist-style block apartment buildings that is typical of everything outside the city center. The boxes are all unpacked; the paintings from Roma, Paraguay, Argentina, and Sofia are up on the walls; the fireplace has been successfully utilized; a cat door installed; and we are happy to be home.

Our New Home

Our apartment is one of three in this villa; we are in the first floor apartment shown here.


View from our patio looking out. A great place to eat lunch or have a glass of wine.


This is what the morning sun does to our living room. Beyond the french doors, our bedroom is found.


A view of our living room that includes the grand fire place. We await you Mr. Winter.


A closer look out our windows.


Our Front Yard
(all of this beauty surrounds us, and separates our villas from the main campus)






























































The Campus Trail
(located behind our house and used by teachers as a running trail; by students as a place to make out and/or smoke)

A Return to Thassos, Greece

Thassos, Greece
September 18th - 22nd, 2009