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!