Scavengers

Friday afternoon was a moving day of sorts at Serdon. Namely, we were moving stuff that had been accumulating over the years from the attic storage room to the new apartment (which will be renovated into new offices) and—more often—to the dumpsters on the street. It was a dusty, dirty, and strenuous affair; the attic is five floors up and there is no elevator in this building. After the first trip down to the street, I wondered how long it would take before gypsies…er, Roma would show up to scavenge recyclable metal from the junk we were brining down. Well, I quickly found out, because on the second trip, they were already there picking through the old furniture and office equipment, prying and hacking off any piece of metal for which they could get a few stotinki. Later that afternoon, I took this picture; note, the only thing left is wood and plastic—impressive.

Farewell Julia

On Sunday, we had an (inexplicably German) brunch at Flannagans (Raddison Hotel) for Julia, and then another get-together that evening in advance of her returning to the USA—in fact, tonight she will already be back in her native Chicago, where she will likely be able to continue to practice her Bulgarian with cab drivers. (inside joke: Julia has a lot of colorful taxi stories from Sofia, and Chicago does indeed have a large Bulgarian population.)

Below are the men of the MBA Enterprise Corps, inconsiderate as always, standing in front of the guest of honor, Julia—the only female of the 2005 Corps—on her last day in Sofia. Thanks for putting up with us for 13 months! Left to right: Mike (formerly MBAEC in Romania), Ryan, myself, Julia, Paris, Ian (2006 Corps.) The Bulgarian national parliment is behind us.