foreigners2

Well I got back from my weekend about 4 hours ago and now have to play catch-up.  First of all a BIG THANK YOU again to my fellow volunteer Jez who made sure my birthday was special!  She made me a cake and everything AND used sprinkles!  I had to go to Sofia for a medical follow-up (no ear problems for the past 10-15 years and boom, I come to B and get a little infection.  Only little though and I can hear so much better out of my left ear now!  It's like a whole other  world that I can hear SO much better!) and then decided to take a side trip for the weekend.  It was just what both of us needed I think.  I also have to thank her for letting me help out with some things!   I can only imagine how hard it was for her and her trusting me enough was an awesome birthday gift!!  While considering what to blog about on one of my many buses back here I was reminded of how we were told when we first got here May 2010(yikes!) how "foreigner friendly" Bulgaria was.  I experienced that again today and thought "what a great blog."  I really have to wonder if the same friendliness to strangers would happen in the states.  I would love to think it would but truth be told I don't know that I can.  When I was in Sofia looking for the PC office AGAIN, been there 2 times and both times have gotten there different ways that were NOT how I was told to get there, I asked a man on the street where the street was that the office was on.  He started telling me and then just motioned for me to follow him.  He ended up walking me part of the way there!  Along the way we ended up having a nice conversation which was cool too; I found out he had lived in Columbus Ohio for a very short while some time ago.  Then just today on the bus when I was talking to my counterpart on the phone, my accent must have pointed out I'm not a native B speaker-go figure, the lady sitting next to me turned to me and said "do you speak English."  When I said I did she said she did too and asked me if I needed any help with anything.  I told her my situation and how I was going to take one more bus to where I would meet my ride.  Then when we got to our station,  after I had asked her at least 2 times "where are we", she offered to come inside and look at the bus schedule with me and ask about the bus.  I thanked her several times but said I'd be ok and we parted ways.  Again she had no reason to help me and didn't know me from Adam but she sensed I might need help and offered to help me.  This culture is so helpful to  outsiders and really does like foreigners!  They go out of their way to help and that is refreshing!  Like everything else this is dependant on several factors and really can't be a blanket across the board statement but has been my experience.  It almost makes getting lost fun!  I really hope that many of you reading this have the chance to come and experience this first-hand!  I know I'm late on this  and I'm sorry but HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY RON!!!  Love and hugs and congrats cuz!