Who needs the Groundhog?

I’ve been obsessed with spring recently.  Most people are obsessed with things like chocolate, fast cars, new technology, facebook or micro-brew beers.  But I am not most people and these days I am obsessed with the idea of spring.

I wake up and check the weather hoping for some sign that spring is around the corner.  I look out the window to see if we have more or less snow than the day before.  And for the record, it’s been snowy and cold now for the better part of three weeks.  It’s been so damn cold that you can see your breath on the bus and you bottom freezes if you sit down on a seat.  So I read the five day weather report hoping for something that’s not snow. I am obsessed.

However this morning, I got up late, made some coffee and I realized this: who needs the groundhog?

Margret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Margaret Atwood's--The Handmaid's Tale

I am going to start teaching Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale this week and in rereading it I was surprised how little of it I actually remember after reading it one summer in college. Here’s my conclusion: it’s such a good book. Now I am afraid.  I am afraid that teaching it is going to ruin it.

When I started studying literature in college on of my professors asked us this: how many of you love reading?  Every hand raises. Then she continued with this: this semester you will learn to hate it and if you’re lucky by the end of the term you’ll be able to rebuild your love of literature.

What she meant was this, reading when done right is hard work and when you study literature you stop reading for pleasure and you start digging.  In my case, I was lucky to be good at the digging, thinking and writing required of students of literature and I learned how to love literature.

But this past week when I finished reading The Handmaid’s Tale, I thought: what a good book and a well told story. I realized that I liked reading it–that even though I started rereading it because I had to when I finished reading it, it was with pleasure.  I am connected to this book.

That’s why I am afraid. I am afraid that in teaching it I am going to ruin it. That the act of teaching a novel I like it will ruin it. That my students will ruin it. That I’ll ruin it and end up hating it.

I sincerely hope that this is not the case but still I am worried.

Roaming in Rome

Rome was lovely. Rainy and lovely. I just got home and have to do a few things tonight before school tomorrow so here’s a peak into my time in Rome.

We stayed in a hostel near the train station. It wasn’t very fancy–even given the name: Hotel Beautiful.  But the location was good and we spent the better part of two and a half days wandering around Rome not in our hostel so it’s okay not to stay in the nicest place.

We ate a lot of food. A lot. Pizza, pasta, panini, galato, cookies, mozzarella, coffee and red wine.  Oh and I am sure I’ve left something off this list but this gives you a pretty good idea of the range of things I’ve consumed over the last three days.

I am cheating

By the time you read this, I’ll be in Rome. Yes, Rome. That means I am cheating on Bulgaria, my personal challenge to live within 400 leva for the month and I am cheating on my diet. Well, actually I am only cheating on the first two because I am not on a diet–good thing because I plan to eat lots of amazing food.

Still cheating is cheating.

But, it was just so hard not to.

Notes from Sofia: Getting to live in the Big City

I’ve been thinking about this for sometime now and here it is. I am starting a regular “column” on my blog titled “Notes from Sofia.”  The idea is this: every week or so I invite/ask/beg/steal/cajole/borrow a Bulgarian or expat living in Bulgaria to write a guest post about some aspect of their life in the city. This is the first installment.

I asked one of my regular followers if she was interested in writing. She has a Bulgarian blog that I look at from time to time.  Most of the time I have no idea what she’s writing about but she always makes such thoughtful comments on my blog I thought: ask Helen. So that’s exactly what I did.  Luckily, she said yes and what you’re about to read is her guest post:

Carolyn has asked me to write a guest post for her new column in the blog. This is because I am a renowned expert on two things:

a) taxi drivers

b) public transportation

I am flattered by this possibility to express my thoughts in front of her fans but bear in mind that this is me speaking; it is not Carolyn. Oh, and, Carolyn, I insist to call you Carolyn because you see Karolina or Karolinka it is not really a common name in Bulgaria.

Make’n Bagels

There’re a few things that I miss in Bulgaria–salsa and good Mexican food, bagels and cream cheese, and marshmallows in hot chocolate.  So, inspired once again by the food blog Macheesmo and my ex-roommate’s post on making bagels at home.

My Homemade Bagels

He made it seem easy.  It’s not so hard. There’s just a lot of waiting. That’s what his blog said.  And it turns out, he’s right. These are totally worth the effort of making at home. First because it’s really and truly not that difficult and second because they are very tasty. In fact I am already thinking about what I am going to put in my next batch and I’ve hardly made a dent in eating my original batch.

First you make the sponge.  This part is important. I guess this is because bagels need time to develop their texture and flavor.  These things can’t be rushed.

Living on Leva: More about me

I realized today that this experiment that I am undertaking is going to ruin any and every illusion each of you had left about me.  (Well maybe not my MoM, she’s known I am just human for a long time.) But for the rest of you, I am afraid I am only going to break your hearts.

Here’s what’s in store for you: You’re going to learn that I am creature of habit. You’re going to learn that I am not living some wildly-exciting (or extravagant) life abroad.  You’re going to get a glimpse at my groceries, my eating habits as well as a few of my little obsessions.  If you’re lucky you might get a recipe or two that you’re excited to try out at home. You might get laugh or two and you might be inspired to keep track of what you’re spending your money on each month.

Anyhow, here’s what happened today:

• Breakfast: coffee, oatmeal, milk and a banana. Cost: maybe 1.20 leva
• Lunch at school: chicken,  mixed veggies and a slice of bread. Cost: 2 leva
• In desperate need of caffeine after hours of grading: .30 leva for a long coffee made more or less drinkable with two sugars.
• Dinner: homemade bagel, yogurt, steamed veggies and a glass of wine.  Cost: 2.50 leva, maybe.  But, maybe I’ll have a second glass of wine. It’s been one of those days.

So, the pattern that you will begin to see emerging over the next month is this: in addition to my love of coffee, I also love oatmeal. 

Living with Leva: Feburary 1st

Apparently it’s going to be one of those months. One of those months where nothing really goes how you planned it.  I started my live on 400 leva for the month experiment today.

• Breakfast: coffee, oatmeal, milk and a banana. Cost: maybe 1.20 leva
• Lunch at school: mish-mash, slice of bread and what I thought was tikvanik (pumpkin strudel) but it turned out to be apple (oh, well). Cost: 2.3o leva
• Dinner: homemade bagel, yogurt, mandarin oranges and a glass of wine.  Cost: 2.50 leva, maybe.

I’ve also got a cold that will not stop and a pounding headache.  Uch. If that’s not awesome enough I am probably not going to make it on my live on 400 leva for the month plan.  Not that you would know this given the fact that I spent less than 6 leva today.

Why you might ask?

Bulgaria and Guantanamo

The Sofia News Agency has written a series of articles on Bulgaria accepting detainees from Guantanamo. However they’ve made it sound like Bulgaria is picking out stray-homeless kittens from the pound. Rather than making the difficult and potentially unpopular choice to accept men who have been labeled by the US at worst as terrorists and at best as terror suspects.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that what the United States did under the direction President George W. Bush at Guantanamo is inexcusable and inhumane. To deny one’s human rights because one is a suspected terrorist is, in my mind, more terrifying than a terrorist.

But the tone, language and focus of the Sofia News Agency articles comes across as kind of off.

Okay, I guess that I am probably hypersensitive to the entire issue seeing as I am an American who’s opposed to both the detention camp and the language and rhetoric that has surrounded the detainees in the United States since the beginning.  Fundamentally, the detainees are people. 

Paper Stars

I finally got my act together and made some paper stars (and then two weeks later I finally got my act together to write a blog post about it).  I first posted about my desire to make these lovely stars in December.  For Christmas, I received kite paper (a waxy-stiffer kind of tissue paper) from not one but two different people (thanks!)– so I’ve got lots and lots of paper to make stars with. But after making the stars, it’s pretty clear to me that you could just as easily use tissue paper for these stars.

The most important thing is color.  White tissue paper wouldn’t give you the effect that you’re looking for.  It would be a fair amount of work for not a lot of wow. And I think in craft projects like this you want the ratio of work to wow to be even if not more wow than work.

My kite paper stars in Sofia

These stars are lovely when the sun is streaming through.  The colors bleed and overlap.  I especially like the rainbow start for the bleeding-overlapping-kaleidoscope effect.  I also like the fact that these are easy to make and very satisfying.  I haven’t gotten to see much of the sun streaming through because I’ve been getting up before the sun and coming home in the dark but I am sure that during the day when I am at work and they’re here in my apartment they are lovely.

Maybe I should make some for my classroom at school.  Or maybe I should try to leave work before 6pm.  Heck, maybe I should try to do both.