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Monday, October 5, 2009

Overwhelming week... awesome weekend. :)

This week was a little bit of a reality check. Nothing legitimately frustrating happened (and we all know I'm a magnet for those "incidents!"), I just felt a little frustrated and down.

But I had a super fun weekend! Went out on Friday night with some new friends and had a blast, then had a na gosti (dinner and visiting as a guest) with good company that resulted in the obligatory Bulgarian food coma (yummmmm), then spent Sunday with my friends in Sofia!

And then, to top it all off, I had a very self-gratifying and productive day in Sofia today. I spent the night last night because I had to head into the city today to restart the process for my permanent residency card (lichna karta). I had to apply all over again since I never actually received my card last fall and its now expired... but I was determined to try and complete step 1 by myself. My counterpart was on standy here in Samokov, but she had to work until after lunch, so I braved it alone, and was able to call her and tell her she didn't have to come!

The first step was FINDING the police station. I didn't know how to distinguish the one department from others when asking for directions (no one knew if it had a name or not), so i totally winged it and ended up finding it pretty quickly, then was even able to ask for directions for a photo place to get the pictures I needed taken. Then I went into the office and was able to handle the entire process! I was missing a form, but we worked it out that I can bring it for step 2. She asked me why I didn't have a colleague with me since usually foreigners have someone with them, but I said she was working and I was going to try and figure it out. She said I filled out the forms beautifully, and she was impressed at how well I did. Haha, in reality I was terrified, but when I walked out of there having completed the first step, it felt amazing. :) I rewarded myself with a McDonald's cheeseburger!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

YEA for McDonald's cheeseburgers. I am so proud of you!!!

Jaimbob said...

yay for rewarding yourself with McDonald's! Did you get it before catching the bus home?

Katie F. said...

My love for McDonald's here is a bit pathetic... but I pace myself! And this time, actually, I SAT in McDonalds like a normal person and chowed down while enjoying a fountain drink (non-existent here except for McDs). Its funny, the restaurant here is sooo nice! The food comes out fast, but there is a fountain outside and a garden... not like fast food in the US! Fine dining!