After our dinner I walked home with both of them to scope out their apartments. Both apartments are very nice inside. Ian has a nice large multi-room apartment which will be great once the bedbugs are removed. It seems like all the apartments that VEGA found for us have been great (bedbugs aside). Of course, before coming to Bulgaria I was living on my friend’s porch (enclosed, but still a porch), so moving into my new apartment was like moving into a palace. Megan got the Ritz-Carlton deluxe shower with the multiple shower heads in the wall that sprays your whole body. When we checked it out her apartment the lever controlling the additional shower heads wasn’t working, but Delcho managed to get it up and running – completely soaking himself in the process.

Both apartments are in great locations. I’m a bit envious of that – then again, I have my beloved City Center Sofia mall (and associated food court, movie theater and supermarket) near me. Ian is close to the popular bar called “Blaze”, although we all call it “Smoke and Mirrors” because it is always really smoky and every wall is covered with mirrors. He’s also a short walk to Flannigans (i.e. one of the few places in town serving Guinness) and to the tasty pizza place Krivoto. Megan also has a prime spot near the corner of Gurko and Rakovski. She’s an easy walk to everywhere in the center and, as several people have enthusiastically mentioned to her, a short walk from Onda’s coffee shop.

Warning: (Another) Ondas Rant – Onda’s is the Bulgarian equivalent of Starbucks but without the Starbucks quality. I don’t like coffee and Onda’s non-coffee products are not good at all. The chai latte – uggghhh. The hot chocolate is essentially Hershey’s chocolate squeezed into a cup and warmed up … put some milk in it, already! I keep looking for ice cream to pour it over when they serve it to me. Even their sandwiches aren’t that great and they come in the triangle shaped, plastic sandwich containers I associate with gas station sandwiches. So, I guess if you like coffee, you’ll like Onda’s, but I’m holding out for a good tea shop or, better yet, an Au Bon Pain.

It’s a little strange to be on the other side of the coin being the “seasoned veteran”. When I arrived, Maury, Andrew, Karen and Rich were the incumbents and we were the new arrivals. They proved valuable information sources in my first couple months here and I’m sure the four of us will be the same to the new volunteers.

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My entire class consists of 10 people. In the picture we have (from left to right) Norm (Azerbaijan), Mike (Romania), Paris, Ryan, Julia (Bulgaria), John (Angola), Joel (Bulgaria), Tom (Angola), Manish (Kazakhstan) and Amit (Romania). Poor Manish is going to the far north part of Kazakhstan which is basically Siberia. He’s been spending the last few days trying to buy thermal underwear and other cold weather essentials. He’s from Bombay so the weather will be exactly the opposite of what he’s used to – something that the rest of us like to poke fun of him for on a regular basis.

Anyway, orientation takes up most of the day. It involves, among other things, panel discussions with former MBAEC members, introduction to the rest of CDC (MBAEC’s parent entity), and generally trying to understand the large number of acronyms that are thrown around. The evenings are consumed by drinking heavily. Two nights ago we went to Marrakesh restaurant for Moroccan food. The building is not readily identifiable (to me at least) because the sign is in Arabic, but is fairly well known in the DC area. It must be well known by many because inside the restaurant, on the way to the bathrooms, are many pictures of celebrities posing with the owner – or at least I think it’s the owner. Such famous people as Mick Jagger, Clint Eastwood and Sen. Paul Sarbanes. The dinner was a delicious 7 course meal with beef kabobs, coos coos, chicken, fruit – all washed down with Lebanese beer (apparently Moroccan beer isn’t so good). The best part, however, was the belly dancer that entertained us for 15 minutes in the middle of all of it. She was amazing. Despite the fact that she was half Italian and half American we resolved that perhaps a visit to Morocco was someplace we should move up on our to-do list. After dinner a few of us went to “network” (drink) at Brickskellers pub. Brickskellers is famous in DC because they have over 1500 beers. We managed to get through 30 or so between the 6 of us. One of the guys in my program, John, was fond of challenging the waitress to bring any beer on the menu which he would then attempt to guess. Needless to say he lost several times. We did find out that one of the popular Russian beers tastes just like Pabst Blue Ribbon. Perhaps the Russians should stick with vodka. Really, the best part of all of it was my weathly lawyer friend picking up the tab for all of us (thanks Lisa!).

Today we did a ropes course for various team building exercises. It can be rough when you have a bunch of MBA students all trying to work together – too many bosses and not enough followers. However, we still managed to make it through all the exercises. Tonight I’m sure will be another night of drinking – the only question will be where…..

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Anyway, I digress. In less than 2 weeks I leave Boston to start the next phase of my life. I’ve been accepted to the MBA Enterprise Corps for business development work on Sofia, Bulgaria. I’ll be working with Sagitta Company working on a variety of initiatives they have. The program lasts ~ 15 months. After a week of orientation in DC I spend 10 weeks of language training in Bulgaria followed by 12 months of work. What do they speak in Bulgaria? Bulgarian. I would say the closest approximation would be Russian, if only because they both use the Cyrillic alphabet. Do I know any Bulgarian? No. Heck, I was lucky to make it through Spanish in high school. Will it be entertaining to watch me try to speak Bulgarian? Most definitely.

Everything I will need for the next 15 months will need to be packed in 2 checked bags less than 70 lbs. and 2 carry-ons – should be interesting. I bought two big army duffel bags that I can stuff everything in. I got my flight confirmations this week and am excited to see I will fly exclusively on bankrupt airlines to DC and Bulgaria (USAir and United). Then again, what airlines aren’t bankrupt these days?

I’m sure the posts will get more exciting as I try to fit into the Bulgarian culture. I wonder if my mullet wig will be a big hit….

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