Week 1

The first week, orientation week. The week of getting over jet lag. The week of meeting new people. The week of learning to navigate the city. So much has happened in the past few days. Filled with exploring, eating, night life, and lots of laughing, this was a great first week.

Only exchange students and some of the freshmen class were on campus this week at the American University in Bulgaria. There are over 35 exchange students from at least 16 different countries. Besides that, the University student body is made up of about 40% international students. There is an impressive mix of cultures here. Everyone speaks English to each other, even when it's not their first language. I realize it is the "American" University, but everyone really makes a point to speak English. A Bulgarian student even apologized to me for his "slow" English as if I didn't just waltz into his home country not knowing an ounce of Bulgarian. I knew more people across the world were starting to learn English at a young age, but I didn't realize how extensive that was. Another Bulgarian student told me that, a lot of the time, English really isn't even considered a foreign language anymore; it's almost understood as a sort of requirement to get by. Some of the people I've met sometimes catch themselves thinking in English. It's made me realize how little America values learning different languages, comparably, and we are fortunate that so many people work so diligently to learn English. 

University Main Building

The town of Blagoevgrad is in a valley and is surrounded by so many beautiful snowcapped mountains. From the dorms, it is about a 15 minute walk to the university main building in the city center where there are restaurants, bars, shops, and scenic walks. The Bistritza river runs along the dorms and through the city, so it's pretty simple to navigate. 

View of the dorms with surrounding pink mountains

   

Bistritza River

The orientation week included several meetings and activities where the exchange students had the chance to get to know each other. In just this week I've become friends with students from the Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Latvia, Spain, Belgium, and the five other people from the U.S. Imagine that group trying to sing karaoke together after knowing each other for less than 48 hours. It's pretty comical. We also learned about Bulgarian culture, including folk dances and traditional cuisine like shopska, banitsa, and yogurt, topics I will revisit later in the semester. 

Learning about everyone's home countries and the differences in Bulgaria is incredibly interesting. Sitting over dinner, I asked one of my Dutch friends how their grading system works. They are evaluated on a scale of 1 to 10 and so long as you have at least a 5.5, you're all set. She and one of the Bulgarians asked me how ours works. I explained how usually we are graded on a scale of 0 to 100 percent, where 90-100 is an A and so on. And then, if you make an A, you get a 4 for your GPA on a scale of 1 to 4. "But I thought an A was a 90," the Bulgarian said. I responded that it is, but at the end of the semester it is also a 4, and then there is averaging that goes in to get your overall GPA. He says to me, "Why do you have two different systems?" Honestly, I don't really know. "Why do Americans have to make everything so complicated?!" You know what, he's right.

As for other cultural discussions, if you Google Bulgaria you'll read that when Bulgarians nod their head, they mean "no," and when they shake their head, they mean "yes." Apparently this seems to be dying with the younger generations. When I asked my friend about it, he said that often he switches which way he shakes and nods his head depending on whether he is speaking English or Bulgarian. The Europeans laugh at the Americans as we try to do conversions from miles to kilometers and Fahrenheit to Celsius. They are shocked by how much we drive in America outside the big cities. We were showing each other on Google Maps satellite where we all live and people were raving about the trees in Arkansas, as I was amazed at how many roads there are in Germany. They absolutely hate that Arkansas is not pronounced how Kansas is pronounced, and we still argue about it. Also they find my last name hilarious; I'm glad it is a universal banter.

We ended the orientation week with a trip to the extraordinary Rila Monastery, for which I have written a separate post. The rest of the students arrived today, and tomorrow begins the first week of classes. Exciting days are to come.

Julia Dick