Dia Dos

Well we started the morning off with breakfast at the hotel, which consisted of some sort of filo dough/cheese/egg pastry. I think I showed up a good hour and a half late, so it was pretty cold and not the most appetizing meal in the world, but fun to try. Afterwards we went to the Varna Archaeology Museum, where our resident professionals gave a presentation. We're going to be working directly with the museum director, who will be on the dig with us, as well as a few PhD candidates, and two girls from the program last year. The group is made up of students is from USA, Canada, and Australia mostly, with a few other random Europeans and such. Two girls are from Sonoma and Davis, while another is from SF and knows a few kids I know, including my roommate in Vancouver, Davey.

After the short presentation at the museum, I walked around the beach area with Carly, the girl from Davis and Sam, from Queensland. The beach is interesting, packed with people, ubrellas, and bars, but all surrounded by remnants of more glamorous times. Run down buildings full of wire fencing and graffiti are right next to clean looking bars, which also just happen to have "no guns" signs in the windows. Are those really necessary?

walking back away from the beach there's a large, nicer looking park we walked through. It reminds me of the big open park boulevards I learned about from maybe 18th centery Europe, something out of Haussman's Paris designs. The large walkways have rows of nice flowers through the middle, then are lined with busts of prominent Bulgarians (we assume) from throughout history. Then, this major walkway leads to a large, about 50 ft stone statue of two men standing back to back, one with a gun and the other with a grenade. That was semi surprising. We assume bulgarians are quite fond of their firearms. It looked like something out of a James Bond video game.

Unfortunately, earlier today I tried to use my camera for the first time only to discover it had broken in transit. Unfortunately, pictures are going to have to wait until I figure out a new camera situation. That's a pretty big bummer, but what can I do?

Just finished lunch, and am heading to an old monastary cut into stone a few miles out of town in a bit. I wish I could take pictures! One of our directors took a quick hiatus today from the program to get married, but he'll be back later this afternoon to join us at the monastary. Talk about job commitment!

I think I'm running out of time here, but I'll be back soon enough. Lots of love!