(with apologies to Aleko Konstantinov)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Thank you taking the time to read this new blog from the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy.  I will be using this space to tell you something about the inner workings of the imposing embassy building on Kozyak St.  Although I’ve done some classroom teaching, I don’t like to lecture, or even talk too much about myself, so I am counting on you, my readers, to make this blog interactive. 

That said, a lot of Bulgarians have asked me two questions:  Why I came to Bulgaria?, and, What are my impressions of the place? 

OK, why?  Having now lived a year or more in six foreign countries, I’ve realized that it is really the local people, and these people only, who determine one’s experience in the country.  I got to know my Japanese wife in Japan, so naturally I like Japan (J), but I also met a young Bulgarian diplomat who made a very good impression on me about her country.  I was duly impressed not only by how well she spoke English, but also how well she spoke Japanese!  Now this would have been enough to pique my interest, but actually I also met a young Bulgarian physician in West Berlin some 30 years ago, who has since become one of my best friends.  (His German wife calls him “Toshko” for “Todor.”  My wife and are tickled since this is also a Japanese name—for women!)  So the answer to the first question is easy:  I came here to learn about my friends’ country, and to meet more Toshkos and Lizzies.

Impressions

I’ve often been asked what expectations I had of Bulgaria before I visited for the first time, which is a good question, and “correcting misperceptions” –what living abroad can do-- is a cliché of public diplomacy.  Since I had already lived in Hungary and Ukraine, I expected to find a country more or less in this Eastern European model.  I didn’t know the Balkans and wasn’t sure how Bulgaria would be different from them.  Since my wife and I like to read and play piano, we hoped to find a place where people appreciate books and music.  I expected to find a thriving folklore culture, since I knew of musicians and music-lovers who spent their summers in Koprivshtitsa and Varna for folk festivals or classical training.  I’d also seen the map showing tall and rugged mountains, but I had no idea that the magnificent Vitosha would tower over Sofia.  Every day now as I cross Cherni Vruh St. on the way to the embassy I look up at that glorious peak and draw inspiration—and have to remind myself that I’m not in Switzerland!  I sometimes wonder if the residents of Sofia appreciate how spectacular the Vitosha Park mountain peaks are.

So let me ask you:  What do you recommend that foreigners see or do in Bulgaria?  And, if you have visited America, how did your expectations change after you stayed there?