Home, Sweet Home

Ah... back. Finally.
Actually, it's been a week since I landed in the Bulga-ria. I've been sinfully lazy... Having a great time, too! :)
I've been hanging out with a whole bunch of friends in various locations, from mountain houses to jazz clubs :) It's been amazing, quite foodful :) Oh boy... good food is all around! And guess what, NO CORIANDER! :D Yeah!
Uhm, I was hoping for snow, but sadly there has been none... :( Sofia is bland and bleak. It's even worse than London cause at least London had tons of Xmas decorations whereas Sofia has almost none (kinda like my room). Sigh...
But the Christmas spirit of carefree happiness is all around!!! I'm happy :) You're happy... We're all Happy!!! :):D
And that's the point where my writing enthusiasm dies :P

Just One More....

Ooooonnneeee more eexaaaaaaam, oh yay, and I'll be happy ever after :)) Haha. Awesome!!! Alright... one more, one more, ONE MORE! :D

One down...

One exam is done. All we have left now is two more exams! YAY!
Only problem is, the first exam I had was also the easiest :S
So the next couple of days shall be hell in a way :) And after Wednesday, Heaven will come!!! :D
Just a few more daaaays...

4 days, 3 finals

Alright.... time is ticking away and my flight back home is drawing closer and closer! :D I am absolutely ready for a break from school. This has been one buuuusy semester, but it was also full of loads of fun events! :) I loved the pure randomness of some days... and the excitement, and the parties, and hanging out with friends, and exploring London, and walking in the rain, and running around like a crazy fool, and drawing and designing, and dancing in my room, and smiling, and all that jazz... That I'll miss (practically everything but classwork;)

However, back home I'm ready for even moooore fun!!! And seeing all my friends again and enjoying the Christmas spirit!

Really, really excited I am :D

Only packing up my stuff will be a bit of a pain, but I'll worry about that once exams are done. :)

See you all soon! (well, and others I wish I could see really soon...)

Almost there!

YES! Today marked the end of an era... the end of advertising management :) A class which haunted me at night and brought shivers to my spine lol. The idea of the class - brilliant, it's just what I want to be doing BUT the execution... eeerrm, far from amazing... it's never good to blame others, but in this case I think the entire class will agree that if the teaching method in the class was slightly different, the overall experience would have been phenomenal :) Alas, it is what it is... or... it was what it was :) And now all that's left is a teeeenie-weeenie final exam worth 50% of everything.

That's the way, a-ha a-ha, I like it, a-ha, a-ha! :D

Can't wait!!!

Only three more weeks!!! Just threeeee!!! And I'll be hooooooome!!!!!!!

:D
Can you tell I'm excited?!
Nope.
Hehe.

Well, here are but a few reasons to be looking forward to home (not necessarilly in order of importance... more like, in order of 'my-brain-just-thought-of-that-now')

1) Snoooooow - i can't wait to play in the snow and enjoy a real winter for a change ;) I think the main reason I put this as number 1 is that so many people now are saying that it's like a winter wonderland back home and I am becoming increasingly envious of them (in a good way tho)
2) Hooome - just the thought of chillin' back home with my puppy and basking in familial love makes my heart warm :)
3) Christmaaaas - OMG can't wait for that super fun holiday! I love the spirit of Christmas and how all people suddenly start acting friendly; it's a miracle ! especially in Bulgaria ;) Hehe.
4) Friiiieeeeeennndssssss - Wohoooo, that's totally reason number ONE! :D:D:D I can't wait to see everyone I haven't seen in, oh, so long (or not THAT long, but it still seems like forever!)
And just cause I'm in a Christmassy mood, I'll post a link that's for all you wonderful friends that I'm going to see very soon! (Cheesy at it might be, I still love the message of that song;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8rY0Fyws20

So be happy everyone, have an amazing time, enjoy everything, and see you sooooon!

Papers, papers, papers

Killing trees and squeezing all creative juices out of my brain - that's what I've been up to recently. And, naturally, I've been finding new and exciting ways to get distracted by the randomest things ever (making up words is so much fun!). I really need to make up about 1200 more words now, describing the works of a photographer of my choice (in my case, Elliott Erwitt - who I did NOT choose because of his fuuuunny images of doggies and life in general:) And then I have more work to do. And I will not sleep again... Sigh.. Hey, it's not even midnight yet, so I'm ahead of the game! :D (normally work starts after midnight and finishes at around 4 am .. though 2 days ago I finished at 6 am) Oh, University regime, how messed up you are!
I'll end this post now, as I feel it might be useful to add to my paper's word count now. Love you all!

November Rain

November is possibly the most pointless month out of all twelve. It's not quite Christmas yet, the pretty colorful leaves have all fallen down already, Halloween is done, and the only cool thing you get is Thanksgiving (only if you belong to a culture which celebrates it). Sure, happy birthday to everyone born in that month - you must have fun! But I think for most people, including Axel Rose & Co., November simply stands for rain and cold..

I don't like the rain that much, especially if it falls as often as it does here in London. Today, for example, is a disgusting day... so gloomy and wet. It's barely 3:30 pm yet it's already getting dark. Daylight savings should have gone the other way around... And while we're on that topic, why don't we make days last 48 hours instead? Work time will stil be 8 hours, but then there will be more opportunities for hanging out and wait, SLEEPING. Yay! That would be so cool :D And that way people will take twice as much to age.. so we'll all be forever young Hooray!

Oh... I think I got excited over something relatively impossible again.

November. Busy month. Lots of work, decisions to be made, projects to be completed, papers to be writ'. Sigh. But hey! It's also Kanye West month... I'll call it KW(ednesday). Sweet. Concert this Wednesday! I can't wait - I feel like dancing so much! And for once, I would like to dance outside the confines of my room ;)

And then Nov. 29 we have Roisin Murphy - who'll go crazy in the Carling Academy in Brixton! Another thing to absolutely look forward to!!! Oh, possibly Kid Rock concert on Nov. 30. Thanksgiving somewhere inbetween.

December, december, is so close! :D Come faster please, O, Month of Pure Awesomeness, snow, party times, and friends! Can't wait for Christmas!! :D

Hmm... you might actually say that this entry was just about as pointless as the month of November. Oh well. Updates are muy importante and so far I haven't been earning too many brownie points for them.

Till next time, brave adventurers!

8A

*****Just to make it clear: I wrote the entry below while airborne above Europe. It was a fun way to pass the time, and, as promised, I uploaded everything now that I'm back in London.*****

8A

… or 12F, to be more exact. I am sitting in my leather seat aboard an Airbus A320 heading to London. Currently, the fold-down monitor says, we are flying at 10 972 meters altitude, somewhere between Sarajevo and Zagreb. Ground speed 840km/h, air temperature -55C. Wow, that’s cold! Yes, I’m typing this up on my laptop and will not be able to upload it until I get back home to the glorious abode known as 23-24 Courtfield Gardens (where the internet will most likely not cooperate).

The flight was an hour delayed because of a passenger whose luggage was deemed dangerous to the plane’s safety. Paranoia is all over the place. At least now we’re airborne, at 4:30 Bulgarian time, 2:30 UK time.

I
AM
BORED
ABOARD
THIS AIRCRAFT.

Oh look, it’s like a wannabe Haiku.

Today is a bittersweet day. It is the end of Fall Break. Hence the bitterness of the day. Why is it also sweet… weeeell, I suppose it’s because of the sugar in the apple juice I’m sipping. Or perhaps because of the awesome array of memories and pictures I can now scroll through, commemorating the amazingnessnessness of last week. Let me tell you how it all went down.

Oct. 19

Left London really early in the morning… at 5:30a.m. I was out of my cozy apartment and into the dark, wild streets of Kensington. My goal was to get to the N9 night bus which goes directly to Heathrow terminal 5.
**Turbulence is shaking up my juice!**

Well, after about 30 mins of wandering around and taking random buses, I finally got to an N9 stop. The trusty sign said the bus would be there at 6:06 a.m. Great, that would get me to the airport at around 7:06 and my flight was at 8:30 – perfection. Only problem was, the bus didn’t come at the assigned time. So I panicked slightly. The next bus was supposed to come 40 minutes later which would ultimately make me miss my flight. Thankfully, 10 minutes later the N9 came after all. I got on, got to the airport on time, had a super quick breakfast thingy, and flew off to the magical land of Bulgaria.

Mom and Dad greeted me at the airport, bringing the two elders with them: Grandpa and Rex J

**Oh hot damn, this is my jam, keep me partying to the a.m. … in the a-yer**

We all went home where we had the traditional welcome-home lunch. Mmmmm, roast lamb and all that jazz. What followed was sleep. Sleep that I had needed for oh so long! Beauty sleep :P And chillaxin’. I was happy to be home in my room where I can dance around all night without much concern for any neighbors! :D Yep, I started dancing in the a.m. feeling happy as ever. I was full of energy after my afternoon nap and was already thinking about the following day when the excitement would be at its best.

Oct. 20

I’d been waiting for that day for so long! You know how I’m very keen on surprising people and being utterly random? Hehe, I got the perfect chance to do all of these. That was the day when Kety, one of my friends from my internship, had a birthday! Actually, that was the main reason why I decided to go back home for Fall Break instead of hitting the slopes and roads of a different country.

**We are now flying above the awe-inspiring Alps and the views are amazing**

I had tried really hard to keep my arrival a secret from everyone but my parents because I wanted to surprise Kety for her special day. I went to the LB office in the afternoon, my heart pounding with joy and excitement. The door opened and I entered the office where all my dear friends were working hard (or finishing up the work day). And hooray, I was so psyched to see them all again!! And indeed my secret arrival was surprising J It was so much fun seeing everyone’s expressions of astonishment. I was experiencing full-on bliss. And then I saw Kety and wished her a happy birthday – the moment was priceless :D Of course I had technically extended a cordial invitation to myself for her party, so as soon as work was over, Kety, Nina, Geri, Iliyan and I drove down to Olive’s bar in downtown Sofia where we had a quick dinner (and a surprise birthday cake for Kety – gotta love surprises!). After that we left the car in front of my house and trotted to Bash Bar where the real celebration began… or, when the alcoholly celebration began for me… Oh boy. It was a sweet bar full of lovely people. I was euphoric, ecstatic, and quite ready to drink… a lot… :S Well, it was fun while it lasted, minus the part where I had to drink soda and lemon and coffee to pull myself back together. Oh the embarrassment. But it was all in good fun anyway. It was a very special night! And I will remember it for a loooong time (hey, it’s good that I do remember details of that evening!) At 2:30 a.m. we closed the bar basically, took a couple of cabs and headed home.
All in all, October 20 was a day to remember! It totally made my break!!

The rest of the break was dedicated to spending time with my parents and only 1-2 people other than my internship pals… Laziness was upon me with full force. All my plans to be somewhat productive fell apart the moment that plane landed in Sofia… Sigh.

Now, I didn’t even get to feel the days as they went by so fast! Before I knew it, it was Friday! But guess what, that’s when the other super fun part of break began!

Oct. 24

For a few days I’d been trying to get some people together for a BBQ party at our mountain house. It wasn’t until late Thursday evening when the plan was finalized and we had 100% certainty that we’d all spend part of the weekend away from Sofia. Naturally, the people I had asked to go were my favourite LB gang J Kety, Iliyan, Petya, Jass, and Kossio were the five characters who joined in on that cunningly awesome plan. We started ‘leaving’ Sofia at about 7:30 p.m. First stop was shopping at Billa, buying heaps of food … literally, tons of food! Mmm, everything from chicken wings to smoked fish, from lettuce to cookies. Actually, it makes me sick just typing this up hahaha. By 8:30-ish we were on our way, legit. Six people, one smelly dog, loads of Billa bags, and extra luggage all packed nicely in Dad’s car, a Chrysler Grand Voyager (aka “the airplane”). Music booming loud, people shouting, dog farting… yeah. It was a fun trip alright :D

We arrived in Rayovo around 10:30 p.m., everyone starving and ready to get to the grubbin’.
**Ew, two kids are running around the aisle in the plane. My maternal instinct tells me to trip them! Too bad I’m not in an aisle seat… **

Iliyan and Petya were the firestarters (and BBQ-ers), Jass and Ket were responsible for the salad and other gourmet plateaus, Kossio was a boy for all purposes lol, and I was roaming around and seasoning steaks at the same time ;) Perfect organization, flawless execution. Radio 1 in the background…

As the grilled meats sizzled outside, everyone’s patience started slipping away and before we knew it, the table was all set and we all sat down and began a glorious hogging fest :) We ate and ate and ate and ate… we laughed, we sang, we snoozed, we ate. And ate some more. Did I mention we had tons of food?? It was gewd. We played some games whose goal I shall not reveal cause one of those days you’d be surprised… but I guess it would be loosely translated into English as “ML(hs)N” (oh looks like a scientific formula or something)

It was all quite entertaining :D And then at one point we all felt like sleeping. Good night…

Oct. 25

**We’re above northern Germany now. My apple juice is gone and my battery is almost dead…**

We started the day off with Team Pancakes. Slurp. We ate as if we hadn’t stuffed ourselves to oblivion the night before! It was still delicious :) And then we thought we’d had way too much to eat and simply HAD to go for a little walk by the river, with the main goal of giving Rex a bath (which failed miserably). Our walk was the Walk of Awesomeness. It was good that we didn’t run into many villagers, for they would have thought that we’re a bunch of lyo-lyo’s (ie crazy people).

Iliyan tried to communicate with cows (or bulls, as it turned out). Jassena almost fell into a well (a shallow one with no water but still), Rex carried a huge rock in his mouth, and the rest of just were being plain weird, as we always are :) We re-enacted TV commercials and band shots, we danced Bulgarian national dances (for about 3 secs), and did a whole bunch of other funny things. The walk was cut short because the puppy got tired. Oh, and we saw the craziest little tractor driver ever! He zoomed past us at 60km/h at least, smoking up the road, and sounding as if it was going to fall apart any moment now. Extreme!

Back at the house, we played a thrilling game of Monopoly where everyone owned quarters and houses, bargained around with properties, and was in particularly good relationships with the bank. Before we played, we had food. While we were battling for gameboard supremacy, we had more food. And, imagine that, we stopped playing at around 5pm to eat dinner! :D Our stomachs stretched out to the max. But it was all heavenly.

It was time for us to leave. Sadly. We had to be in Sofia by 7pm (Kossio had a family dinner at that time). Well, we were late (only slightly), but after another loud amazing drive we delivered Kossio to the right address where he had his dinner. The rest of us continued to my place where we led Rex into the house (he couldn’t handle much more car travel with that crazy bunch;) Later on, Petya and Jass left for home, and Kety, Iliyan and I went to Bash Bar again, as if to complete the great cycle of life that was this break. We had a nice, relaxing chat. Ivo, Kety’s boyfriend joined us too. After a few drinks, we drove Iliyan home (cause he was eager to go to bed:) and then parked the car on my street. The three of us decided we didn’t want to go home yet, so we walked around night time downtown Sofia in search for a place to chill some more. Eventually, we settled down in Blaze club which is on the street next to mine. It was a fun ending of an amazing week!! At around 1:30, Ket and Ivo went home and so did I.

BBQ-ing

Looking into the well

Loop-ing :)

Iliyan wooing *or mooing* the cow

Oct. 26

Family lunch! And then this flight.

I loved Fall Break! I would have loved it even more if it had lasted longer! But for what it was, it was absolutely amazing! I couldn’t have asked for more.

THANKS TO EVERYONE! LOVE YOU ALL! <3>

**and now my battery has 7% life left, so I have to go back to being bored on board of the plane for one more hour…**

A Few More Weeks...

In about 2 weeks our midterm break comes. AMAZING! I can't believe it!!! It's going to be fun non-school time, finally!

To compensate for that, though, the last two weeks of school are extra packed with work and projects. Go figure. I have to do layout for brochures, contact relatively famous people for a photography project, write several papers, and take a few midterms. Hooray!

I still have all the energy in the world, yet I seem to be lacking a little thing called... time. Yeah. Time flies. Especially this semester. A minute's here, the next moment it's gone... and then an hour has passed... and then a day. It's ridiculous. But what can we do, there's no escaping the man-made confines of a 24-hour day. Approximately 4 of those hours are allocated to sleep.

I don't have too many stories to tell. :( It's sad really. I am doing office hours right now at the Student Union office and the main reason why I decided to write a blog entry is cause I love the sound of this keyboard!! No, that's NOT an absolutely random and irrelevant reason to post this blog!!!

I registered for Spring 2009 now. I have all my classes for next term... all I have to do now is keep up my GPA and keep my scholarship so that I can actually continue my education. No biggie. Haha.

Okay, I'll actually be gone now since my office hours are over and I have to head back home for dinner. Love you all, and I will keep posting the most random blog entries when I have the time. PS: Happy birthday to anyone who happens to read this blog today (and who happens to have a bday today of course)

Horseman Sunday Photos

I just felt like uploading some pictures of horses... So enjoy footage (or hoofage hahaha) from Horseman Sunday, one of my favorite new traditions in London which brings together religion and about 70 horses on a festive day for the entire family.

Sicko

Soooo the entire University is sick, pretty much.

The Flu.

the who?

Oh well, it's an annoying illness that lasts for several days, includes sneezing, coughing, sore throat and complimentary headaches. Also, you feel pretty down most of the time. And things that would normally make you happy make you feel .. well.. crappy :(

How would I know? I've got it too!! Gah...

And that is why I'm going to sleep now. Wake me up when tomorrow ends.

Signing out... Gotta catch my running nose.... :S (ha, lame joke!)

Time is a'flying

1 A.M. is approaching again.
My pastime: helping Gregory House solve his puzzling cases. I wish.... I'm no help at all - and he always seems to know the answer before I do. Impressive.

Today was an amazing day. Main reason would be the gorgeous weather outside! Imagine that, sunshine in London! A friend of mine and I are speculating a great conspiracy... I mean, come on, TWO sunny days in a row in ENGLAND??? We think they moved the island close to Spain or something. They did it while everyone was asleep (and to ensure that all people were sleeping at the exact same time, they released some sleepy gas into the air at night). Yeah, we know what's really happening. The world is full of cool conspiracies like that.

Anyway, let's not drive the sunny weather away. Let's accept its amazingness as is. I spent most of the day out and about Kensington Gardens (technically part of Hyde Park). It's interesting to go out in the park on sunny weekends because all of London seems to be there! And I don't blame them either... in a country where the sky is rarely clear, every speck of sunlight has to be absorbed! Among the crowds there were, naturally, tons of kids, all of which were shouting and screaming and driving me insane slowly and painfully :) Haha. No actually I was in such a good mood that I ignored them.

I love good, fun days like that. It was relaxing and productive at the same time (there's no better place to read research articles than the park). It made me miss Rex though....

Tomorrow's going to be an even more exciting day though! I will go to St. John's church north of Hyde Park and take photos of an event known as "Horseman's Sunday" when more than 100 horses are blessed in front of the church. It's a tradition going way back in time... I think it's going to be amazing!!! Perhaps it's the fact that there will be 100 of my favorite creatures in the world around the church! I can't wait! Will upload pics as soon as have them... :)

Sweet and Sticky (Literally) in Wembley

Probably everyone knows what I'm talking about at this point... Or if not, it's okay, it took me a while to realize why people found those two S-words so attractive and used them together all the time..

September 12, 2008

Wembley Stadium. Crowd. People. TONS of people! And among them, Rocio and I - shorter than the average person :)

It was a day to remember - the day Madonna was in town!!!! MADONNA!!! Aaaaah! Hehe, so much enthusiasm! I was seriously exhiliarated on that faithful day :) It took me a while to grasp the idea that I would be one of the lucky (hundreds of thousands of) people who witnessed Madonna on her Sweet and Sticky Tour of 2008! And let me tell you, it was worth it!

The concert was so impressive - everything from the stage and special effects to Madonna's constant dancing and running around the stage! It was a feast for the eyes! Only issue was, Rocio and I could hardly see a thing since we were towards the front-middle field part of the stadium; it would have been easier if we weren't super short... but what's a concert if you don't jump up and around all the time trying to spot the celebrity (aka a blurb on the dance floor).

It was crowded, stinky, stuffy, hot, hard to see, yet AMAZING nonetheless! It was a sweeeeeet experience and I'm so glad we did it!! Madonna literally passed her excess energy onto the crowd and everyone was dancing the night away!

I took some photos.. with my phone... which automatically makes them really crappy photos. Still, at least I have them for memory's sake... :) (Note to self: apparently in the UK they allow people to go to concerts with their cameras - whereas in Bulgaria it's pretty much illegal though that rarely stops people from taking pics at events).

Wembley Stadium with crowds headed its way

I know it's mean to say that, but those two were one weird couple...

The stage! One of the few decent pics I have... haha.
And of course, in the name of randomness, a pink umbrella (next to the huge pink 'M')

Yeah the guy behind me was a freak :P haha

Look!!! It's Madonna and she's jump-roapin'!!

And So the Year of School Begins....

... it's been over a week since classes started and let me tell you, we already have more than enough work to do. What happened to the transition from summer to school time?! Oh wait... there was none! It seems that all of a sudden we have to be on top of school work and all that jazz again. Sigh. And I'm still lazy. Not in the sense that I don't want to do things, but I still haven't gotten into the fast school pace. Although let me tell you, I'm already a pro at the no-sleep regime...

Why no sleep? Cause I have interesting things to do in the morning... eg going out to take photos of a fish market at 5am in the morning! Whoopey! I'm so looking forward to that! (not really haha) But as you can probably guess, I either have to wake up ungodly early in which case sleep becomes obsolete (I wonder if that's the right word...) altogether... or I go to bed at around 3-4am, just before the sun prepares to rise. I usually prefer the second option - spending all night with friends, having fun, chilling around London... sigh. Right now though I'm killing time till 5 am.

London life is full of happenings as usual. I can't complain at all! I've met tons of new people, explored new areas of the city, and slowly started laying the foundation for a brand new school year! I still have my little Starbucks addiction... :) Caramel Macchiato's are my weakness! As is chocolate anything! However, I am looking for balance this time around, so I joined the local gym too - mainly cause it has a swimming pool!! (and I love swimming so much!)

London weather... typical. Rain. Rain. Oh wait! Suuuun! No, never mind, rain again... It is slightly depressing coming from a hot Bulgarian summer... But I suppose that's the natural order of things.

I'm living by Earl's Court station again in a triple room yet with only one roommate! Rocio spends more time with her hubby Andrew at their place, so Jessica and I were abandoned in a way. The good side of this, though, is that there's plenty of space for guests to sleep in - a whole extra bed and an impressively large floor ;)

I am excited about classes this year, especially one which has to do with graphic design and advertising. It sounds very promising!

All in all, life is good, school is good, all is great! Wish you all the best as well!!

Back to School

Here I am, sitting in my little room in Richmond University, watching the cloudy London skies, wondering if I should be happy I escaped from hot, sizzlin' Sofia or miserable that there's no more sun here... :) Haha, you know how some people can complain about pretty much anything? Instead of being happy with what they have (ie some cool weather for a change), they'd focus on what they don't have (sunshine). Well, I'm not one of those! :D I'm going to accept the grayness outside and enjoy the fact that I'm chillin' with my computer and actually have the time to update this blog again.

I arrived in London yesterday after a fairly uneventful flight *yaaaawn*. There were some kids in the seats right behind me who wouldn't shut up the ENTIRE flight... while I would normally go ballistic and imagine violent scenes of kid-stabbing in my head (haha yeah right), this time I didn't even pay attention to them. Part of the flight I slept, the other - doodled (oh that's a good verb!), and read for a bit. Like I said before: UNEVENTFUL. Not even worth this paragraph.

Let me go back now, to my last weekend in Bulgaria. Now THAT was a great weekend! Saturday was family day and friends evening.

Family Day: The good old family lunch, complete with mega tasty bean soup, steaks, and salad... Mmm, classy! In the morning Mom and I went shopping and what not, which is generally a sweet way to start the day! :D Lunch, as I said, was delicious, and I got a chance to chat to my grandpa's for a while. Still, I was glad when the whole 'ceremony' was over cause I felt so sleepy all of a sudden. Quick nap, then WHOOSH out of the house I went (yay!).

I met up with a friend from high school, walked around Sofia, and then went to a club/bar called Mono. There I started a most incredible evening with the most incredible people in advertising ;) My friends from LBS and I had a couple of drinks, then an Olympic meal, and ... a few more drinks right before the finish line.

So at about... 4 am... I went to bed, only to wake up 4 hours later and start packing. Gives a whole new definition to last-minute packing :D Thankfully, all the stuff eventually fit in the suitcase (which weighed 32 kilos! Overweight, indeed, and very difficult to haul from bus to bus). After some extreme packing, there was yet another lunch, and then

ZOOOOOOOOOOM

flight time!

The morning was just a tad hazy.... MAYBE due to some sex (on the beach) I had the previous night :P

Oh, memories, how awesome you are!

And now I'm actually going to leave my room and go meet some people I haven't seen for ages!

Summer Reflections

See, I knew it before I even started this blog - I was not going to be able to update it regularly.. :) Hmmm... I guess that's the way things are.

Sooooo, in about 10 days I'll be back in dear old rainy London... :) I can't wait!! Well, actually let me rephrase that: about 2 months ago I couldn't wait to go back. Now I have a slightly different view on things... lol.

I had an AMAZING summer!!! What made it one of the most memorable summers ever? For the most part, my internship! It was a super fun month! I miss everyone so much! Not only did I gain a lot of invaluable work experience, but I also found new, incredible friends - people with a hilarious sense of humor, awesome characters, cool life stories, and positive outlooks about the world. They may be a bit stressed out at times, haha, but either way I couldn't imagine my summer without them :) Hence I'm slightly sad now... It's bittersweet. I feel like working at the agency where I took my internship... I feel like hanging out with those folks all the time... I don't want to go back to London yet, especially considering how many friends are not coming back....

On the other hand, I'm so psyched about this semester... I want to travel, take animation courses or something, meet new people, etc, etc, and of course keep up my GPA haha. Many goals, many plans.... Some will work out, others won't, but it should be fun anyway...

Only I'll miss my colleagues from the summer. I can't stop thinking about that. Ah, I'm so easily attached to people :) And I'm a fiery Aries as we all know... :)

I love everyone I love!!! :D

Well, I'm in a little internet cafe in Greece .. it's weird cause I know it's Greece, but there are tons of Bulgarians here. Gah, annoying! Hehe. I love my country woohoo!

Alright I'll end this now... :) It was fun but I need to go to bed soon... I'm an addict.. sigh... And I shouldn't use 'but' so often, but who cares... :D

Busy days!

Whoever said that summer is The Time to Relax... was clearly from another world. In our world, every summer is just as busy as the rest of the year. At least that's how it works in my case :) My internship is great! I love it! I don't want to quit cause I have lovely colleagues, challenging tasks, and generally a pleasant activity to kill my spare time.

Of course when I get back home from work, I only want to walk my doggy maybe, go do something like acupuncture or what not, and then slouch in my chair, in front of ze PC, just staring at the monitor, watching movies or something. Not the most thrilling thing to do, but it's a good way to counteract the bubbly atmosphere at work :)

You know what's weird though? TIME FLIES!!! Seriously! By the time I get back home (considering I finish work at about 5 pm) it's already 7-8pm, and then by the time I realize I have something to finish up that night, it's midnight (like the time right now)... and then, by the time I get to do something, it's tomorrow. How sad. Why is it that time flies!?

How is it possible for me to be at the end of my internship when I barely started 'yesterday'? Hmmm... well, at least I know in about a month I'll be off to LONDON!! :D Woohoo! Not too psyched about the rain and cold, but still- can't wait to see all my friends.

Aaaaah... after that sigh I'm back to work.. sort of. I have the problem of thinking too much and acting too little. Or so I think....
:)

Goodbye for now!

Having a BLAST!

6:30 a.m. Approximately 3 and a half hours after I entered sleeping mode. I'm still dreaming something, when all of sudden I hear a muffled bang - at which the windows in my room shake a bit.

It's gloomy outside. My first thought - sending panicky notes through my body - is that lightning hit my computer! (which has happened twice before and dear Pesho survived both strikes) Then... I see that the comp is fine, then hear a second, quieter boom (more like a bass thud).

Nothing interesting... I chose to sleep some more. Eventually, at around 9 I wake up, almost late for work! I jump in the shower, and as soon as I get out, my phone rings - Mom calls from our little village mountain house. "Are you okay?" she asks me... "Uhm. Yeah. Why wouldn't I? I'm late, but okay still."

Apparently it was all over the news this morning - around 1500 tonnes of random military gun shells, missiles, and other ammo EXPLODED in a military warehouse near the Sofia airport. There are no victims, though a lot of material damage has been done to the surrounding villages.

See.. I missed it all! I had no idea what was going on. I basically heard the explosion at 6:30 but thanks to my calm nature and innate ability to sleep through anything (= laziness too), I didn't even bother checking things out.

Everyone else though seemed to be panicking more or less. At the office everything was hectic today! People were jumpy and aggressive - like they were about to go off any minute now :) And to top things off, there was an earthquake in the afternoon - a very insignificant shake of the ground, but enough to spark off more panic and paranoia in Sofia's citizens who thought there was yet another explosion.

Yep, I had a blast today!

Seaside Fun!

The Black Sea. Sounds like something off a pirate movie :) But 'tis just our local body of water.

I don't like our seaside mainly because of construction works that have taken over the entire coastline. Also, the Black Sea water is just that - black and polluted to a greater degree than, let's say, the Mediterranean Sea.

But still, I'm here, at our lovely seaside. And can you guess what? I'm lovin' it!! We are in the southern part of Bulgaria with my parents and some friends who own apartments in this cool new mini-village. It's very well built overlooking the sea from an elevated post on several cliffs. There are apartment buildings, a hotel, 5 pools, a spa and relaxation center, and the BEACH right there! (well, right down the cliffs, but still pretty close).

The best part about it all: ALMOST NO PEOPLE! No crowds, no annoying kids circling around their plump Russian moms lol, no "towely" beaches instead of sandy beaches... True bliss! Free brunch, wireless internet at the hotel and all that jazz! :D How can I not be happy?

And the sea is so pretty! Unbelievable! I've never seen it shine in that gorgeous turquoise tint.... Attached are some photos. Enjoy!

Some sunflowers along the way...

The view from our friends' balcony.

It is necessary for every Martina to have tried Martini, right? :) Background=the sea.

I was climbing some cliffs and saw these flowers which looked nice with the blue sea behind.

Mom and the sea. It was THAT blue, legit, no photoshop used ...

Off to see the sea...

Just passing by to say that I'll be off to the seaside for the next few days, so no updates from me, sadly... Not that I've been terribly good at updates this past year, but oh well ... :)

Mom and Dad are going with me, and we'll be swimming around the southern coast of Bulgaria - visiting some friends and what not. I'm looking forward to it because I haven't touched salty water since... I don't know, since last May *May of last year*.

YAY Swimming in the sea!

Will keep ya posted... :)

01:59

Once again the wee hours of the morning are slowly beginning to wallow in.
What happened to sleep? Why am I skillfully avoiding this activity of complete rest? Hmm. If only I knew.

I got an inspiration - to draw. And I thought I was inspired to use water colors, but it turned out I was in the mood for dry chalks as well... You never know. Well anyway, here are the two little pictures I drew in the last hour or 2...

Andalusian horse head, Water color

Arabian foal, Chalk

Lusitano stallion head, Chalk

Summer so Far...

It's been a month since I arrived back in Bulgaria.
And I miss London. I missed it SO MUCH, every day! I was bored, annoyed, nostalgic - all because I had left the safe confounds of my Earl's Court flat and Richmond University and had entered my 'home country' where life had changed... I mean, of course I was so happy to see my family and friends (the few friends I have roaming the streets of Sofia), but I felt lost in a way... I had been missing from Bulgaria for months - time during which everyone I know here changed, and everyone's life developed - and I missed it all... My life was back in London. Not here.

And then thankfully, I got a bit of London here - a good friend from Richmond (Kevin) and his friend from high school (Melissa) came to Bulgaria for a week. We had an amazing time exploring the country and generally sleeping and eating... I was so happy during that week and all my nostalgia disappeared ...

(in front of the amphitheater in Plovdiv)

... only to reappear after that, stronger than before! Sigh...

I also saw my dear friend Cynthia - almost a year after I last saw her on NYC ground :) Such lovely memories...

And last, but certainly not least, I got together with my best friends - Misha, Katya, Iliana, Dessi, Vessi, etc, etc, etc... Sadly not everyone is back for the summer... but we'll have to manage somehow...

As my lazy days rolled on, I thought it would be smart to take up random activities such as tennis and my most favorite thing in the world- horse riding!! :D I still haven't done as much riding as I hoped since my membership card expired and I have to get a new one... But I went to an international FEI Show Jumping event in Sofia and took some pictures (you can see more photos on my photoblog martynikphoto.blogspot.com (go-go self-promotion;))
Now I'm busier than usual because my lazy days turned to business days. I'm doing an internship which takes up most of my day and leaves little time in the evening to drive around and do whatever I want to do. It's great, I love it! (of course) For now, I'm stuck in Sofia for good, though I have random little getaway plans for the near future... Will let you know what happens...

And once again I realize that one of my greatest flaws is that I plan too much and don't do it all.. :) Weeeeell, one day I'll be good at planning everything perfectly (always leaving space for unexpected surprises though)

Bye for now! I'm sending you all lots of love!!

Time for another blog...

Summer time.
Sizzling streets.
Sun is out, 24/7 (it's actually 23/6/08).
Sofia is hot. Everyone is sort of mad... :) I guess the heat waves don't really appeal to Bulgarians that much, especially to all those individuals who cannot go swim in the sea but are forced to drive around Sofia all day - to work and back, to the mall and back...

And in that atmosphere (talk about a lack thereof), I sit at home (currently at work) and think. And since my thoughts are no good if they're just in my head, I've decided to start yet another blog and let you all know what's happening inside, around, and over my head...

So hopefully I will be able to keep you up to date with my random adventures, just like old times. After all, blogs are fun and I miss having one. Hehe. Therefore now I have a total of 6 blogs, 2 or 3 of which I might actually update... lol. Efficiency at its best :P

Yes, as of today, I will spend my online time writing blog entries too, not just stalking individuals on Facebook (bless Facebook by the way).

See you soon!