Last week of vacation and then on to real life and first day as a teacher!

Quick update from the past few weeks and then detailed review of today. 

After Romania I spent all of a day and a half in Varna. I went to my school, met some teachers, sat through a painfully long meeting all in Bulgarian and went on my merry way. 

After I took an overnight bus to Sofia, spent the morning with one of my friends from FISI who is teacher in Sofia. We went to Alexander Nevski’s Cathedral, the big synagogue - which is gorgeous, and the women’s market - which is kind of like the shuk but only sells vegetables. I had such a nice time! 

Then I took a flight to Israel - got in at 4 am - went to sleep until 2 PM and then had Rosh Hashana with Rachel, Ari and the kids. It was a really short visit but really wonderful! Those kids are too cute and seeing family always makes everything better! 

After Israel, I flew back to Sofia and spent a few days with a different friends from FISI who is also an observant Jew. We explored the city together, met really cool people and celebrated Yom Kippur. 

One night we met with a former eta who is still living in Sofia. He introduced us to some cool people living in Sofia. We went to this really cool space that is set up for start ups. Its this open room with all these great signs around, a bar set up and cool climbing things. It reminded me of a cool advertising agency. 

For Yom Kippur another eta came for the weekend. The three of us made pre fast dinner together and prayed at the big synagogue. It was the most beautiful place I have ever prayed. The davening was hard to follow but the Rabbi was Israeli and everyone was very nice. I definitely want to go to Sofia for Shabbat a lot! 

After Yom Kippur I went back to Varna. I cleaned my whole apartment and prepared for my first day... 

Now on today! Today was the first day of classes. In Bulgaria this means an opening ceremony. Some students performed, students gave teachers flowers and there were some announcements. It was all very exciting and a very nice introduction. 

My mentor teacher with all her flowers 

After school at the beach

After the ceremony I went to the sea garden and down to the beach. However, I could not figure out how to walk down to the actual beach and in broken Bulgarian asked someone where the walkway was. This women was so nice and walked me to the stairs. We had this hillarious conversation about how I was a teacher from America. She was incredibly nice. Once I got down, I had lunch at a cafe on the water and walked in the sand. It was such a nice way to end the day and I felt truly relaxed for the first time in a while. 

I miss everyone!!!! Love you!