verve magazine fall 2011

AUBG Student MagazineVol. 11•Fall 2011

contents

2 | verve magazine, fall 2011

Editors Simona Atanasova, Marzhan Doszhanova, Radina Varbanova Copy Editor Molly May Visual Editor Mariana Barakchieva Writers Kristine Nelubina, Anna Zasheva, Tatevik Mkrtchyan, Gergana Stancheva, Inessa Lotonina, Ayna Pirkuliyeva, Hristo Hristov, Nikoleta Arnaudova, Enar Byashimova, Milva Matseva Photographers Inessa Lotonina, Mariana

Barakchieva Illustrators Viktor Angelov, Juxhina Malaj, Kristine Nelubina, Anna Zasheva, Tatevik Mkrtchyan, Ayna Pirkuliyeva, Inessa Lotonina, Gergana Stancheva Cover Mariana Barakchieva Back cover Tatevik Mkrtchyan Faculty advisor Mark Wollemann

Verve is published once each semester by the students of the American University in Bulgaria, with the financial support of the Admissions Office, Student Services and the Student Government.

Contact us at:[email protected]

3...Female MigrationA tale of women who take chargeBY NIKOLETA ARNAUDOVA

4...In da house of CohenSkulls, colors, and other wondersBY AYNA PIRKULIYEVA

6...AUBG KitchensStudents’ attempts to live a healthy lifeBY MILVA MATSEVA

7...Banitsa Baba SyleAn authentic banitsa recipe in picturesBY MARIANA BARAKCHIEVA

8...FictionArroz con leche, or Dreams of rice puddingBY MARIANA BARAKCHIEVA

Film Festival...22An account of the Manaki

Brothers Film Festival BY INESSA LOTONINA

AUBG in the Making...14Short history of the founding

of AUBGBY TATEVIK MKRTCHYAN

12...ConfessionsAUBG students share their secrets

Chits&Chats...17Professors Castagneto and Feeney

share thoughts BY JUXHINA MALAJ

Profile: Dimi Panitza...16A reflection on his contributions

BY ANNA ZASHEVA ,GERGANA STANCHEVA

One Day with...18Challanges the Green Market faces

BY HRISTO HRISTOV

Bicycling in Bulgaria...20Adventures around the hills of Blagoevgrad

BY MARK WOLLEMANN

10...Alumni TalkAnecdotes and AdviceBY GERGANA STANCHEVA

Exchange...23Exchange students talk to Verve

BY KRISTINE NELUBINA22

7

4

Blagoevgrad, the town whose streets we’ve walked a million times, with half-demolished houses, crowded parks and ever-open banichka places, was trans-formed last night. In a warm embrace, the snow covered the dirt and greyness we saw before. Suddenly, it felt as it the town was not the same anymore, it was resurrected from mediocrity and passiv-ity and revealed new colors and shades. Life has slowed down and AUBG-ers have found time for snowball fights and building snowmen. AUBG has become a place of childlike adventures and goofy exploits. Surely, each and every one of us felt the difference in his or her own

intimate way. The stories this semester have become

much more personal in dealing with in-dividual perception, giving us the oppor-tunity to see the world through the eyes of the other, to empathize with and ex-perience the moments of someone else’s life. The Green Market story narrates of world of people who are struggling to survive in today’s economy, thriving to comprehend the meaning of hardship. We present different opinions: talking to exchange students once again to get a fresh perspective on AUBG as well as to alumni to track down how their lives have changed since they graduated. Pro-

fessor Mark Wollemann shares a biking adventure in Blagoevgrad with us. Our visual editor, Mariana, reminisces on an exciting encounter one November night. As the blanket of snow gave us a fresh perspective of a town so familiar, so too do the stories in this issue offer us a new view of quotidian life at AUBG.

Stay hungry,The Verve team.

P.S: Please be aware that these stories were written during the fall semester of 2011.

20

Editorial

verve magazine, fall 2011 | 3

opinion

It was an early morning flight to Bulgaria. I was sitting at the gate, waiting for my turn in the long line to board the plane. Half-asleep, the sound of crying children all around me was only

making me crankier. Suddenly, I realized that more than half of the people surrounding me (economy class, Bulgaria Air) were women. Some of them were a few years younger than I, others were elderly ladies. Sev-eral were holding children and were trying to protect their suitcases from a chaos of toys, children’s books and the children’s hyperactive behavior. They were not returning from a holiday; there were no souvenirs, no tan, and no post-vacation glow. Instead, there were dark circles under their eyes and an ongoing discus-sion about how expensive the tickets were. The major-ity of women around me were seasonal workers. They would travel to a country (mainly in Western Europe), work a few months at a seasonal job such as harvest-ing fruit or housekeeping during the peak of the tour-ist season, and then return to Bulgaria with money to cover their expenses until the same time next year. Then the whole process starts over.

Women are the “new nomads in Old Europe,” says Antonia Zheliazkova’s research which is specially designed to identify a phenomenon called “fe-male migration.” It is a commonly known fact that women, in choos-ing to change their residency, are frequently guided by different in-centives from those that guide men. Consequently, female emigrants of-ten assume different gender-defined roles in the countries that accept them, thus maintaining a specific status and position in the society of the host country.

After the fall of Communism, many highly skilled female workers, such as engineers, chemists, and sci-entists, all employed in local industry, lost their state-protected jobs and were abandoned with no means to support themselves. This contradicts the perception that unemployed migrant women are frequently un-educated. Women composed 70% of unemployment in Bulgaria in the mid-90s. A crucial factor for emigra-tion was played by the gender-implied role of a mother who has to bear hardship in order to support her chil-dren. This was probably the main incentive for women to leave. Interviews with other emigrants, like Alba-nians and Turks, often bring up the “Bulgarian phe-nomenon,” which occurs when Bulgarian females go abroad to support their husbands and children. This is another important characteristic of the Bulgarian female emigrants to the EU: these women often have

just as highly-skilled husbands, however, the male emigrants are often disappointed and dissatisfied by the work they were offered in the new country - they deemed the work to be below their skill level, and in most cases, they choose to return to Bulgaria, leaving it to their spouses to provide for the whole family.

With the slow stabilization after the transitional 90s, Bulgaria began aiming at higher goals, such as acceptance into NATO and the EU. However, if one looks at the migration profiles from the 90s, there is not much change in the different types of Bulgarian female emigrants. The number of workers with few skills (such as seasonal housekeepers) from any East European country has remained the same, sometimes declining slightly. Female emigrants are still subject-ed to dangers and bad working conditions. However, the well-educated women are now also choosing to go abroad. For example, many women who graduated from medical school as nurses or even doctors leave for Germany, where the wages are higher. Statistics show that, as of 2011, nurses are leaving at a rate of 1,200 per year. Yet the seasonal workers are no lon-ger former chemists or physicists. An increasing num-ber of women have only high school degrees and come

from the lower-middle class or from poor background. They go abroad because even as servers, they would receive higher wages than in their home countries.

I was merely a student returning from a wonderful semester abroad. If you look at the statistics, I was also part of the move-ment between borders for 2011. Just like the thin, pale woman next to me, I was away from my country for a few months.

Still, I am not a nomad. Every time I hear that word, I think of Attila and his tribe, riding their horses through vast, unknown lands. The young woman was not particularly tribal. As she was holding her small luggage, her eyes tired and her hair messy, I saw a look that any nomad from the ancient times would understand. It was a look that meant survival, a look that said that she is ready to cross any land in order to make a living. She knew that she would have to go abroad again. And she was ready to do it. I had no idea whether she came from the middle class, whether she had a child at home or if she ever graduated from university. Somehow, statistics and research do not apply in moments like that. I liked this woman. She was fighting for a better life. She was not afraid of the unknown challenges ahead of her. A true nomad.

femaleBy Nikoleta Arnaudova

migrati n

in da house

Exclusive2Objects

Welcometo da house of

Michael Cohen

Museum2of2Strange


By Ayna PirkuliyevaPictures by Inessa Lotonina

in da house


By Ayna PirkuliyevaPictures by Inessa Lotonina

Do you want to see a dozen movie posters on bright yel-low walls; a collection of unique paintings and draw-

ings from all over the world; a black old-fashioned camera decorated with

skeletons; or a skull? No, you are not invited to the Museum of Strange Ob-jects. Welcome to Professor Michael Cohen’s home.

•Michael Cohen is a pub-lished author of short fiction stories who has been teach-ing literature and writing at AUBG for seven years. By chance he came to Bulgaria in the early 90s. In 1992 Co-hen decided to visit China and traveled through Eastern Europe on his way. On the streets of Istanbul he ran into a friend who invited Cohen to come to Bulgaria. Cohen agreed, and that was a twist of fate. He met a woman, his future wife, in a punk club in Sofia, and so decided to stay in Bulgaria for much longer than he had initially planned. Today, Michael Cohen lives in Blagoevgrad with his family – his wife, his daughter Lila and his stepdaughter Siana.

•The first thing that catches your eye upon entering the house is the brightly colored walls. They are differ-ent in every room: orange in the living room, yellow in the kitchen, lilac in the children’s room. This creates a cheer-ful atmosphere in the house and shows that this is the home of fun and artistic individuals.

•In the house one can find anything from a Milka cup to a hookah, from a lizard magnet to a huge cardboard mer-maid. Each object expresses that the host is a very adventurous and creative person. During his college years Cohen played in several rock bands (drums and guitar). He is still a devoted fan of rock culture; this too has a certain

reflection in the house interior. There are quite a few skulls, fake spiders, an old fashioned black camera decorated with skeletons, and Aleister Crowley’s books.

•Cohen pursues many hobbies. He

enjoys cinema (he used to work in cin-ematography,) reading, travelling, and playing poker. There are various old

movie posters in the house, as well as many books and souvenirs from different countries. There is a great variety of unusual paint-ings and drawings in his apartment; modern art in particular.

•As for travelling, Co-hen describes himself as “a man without a country;” he

has been to many places and he says he didn’t quite feel at home anywhere. “If I had to choose a country to live in right now, I would say Spain. I like the archi-tecture, the music, the fact that people who live there come alive at night.”

•This fall semester is very busy for the professor. He teaches four classes: Exposition, Introduction to Literature, Creative Writing and Public Speak-ing. His Creative Writing class is one of the most popular English classes at AUBG. Whether it is due to his final assignment, which is to write a piece of fiction in an altered state (intoxicated, exhausted, . . .) or a result of the fact

that this course gives you more freedom

to express yourself, there is always a long waiting list for the course during the registration period.

•One thing that frustrates Michael Cohen about his job is that it gets in the way of his own writing. Last year

the writer took a sabbatical and had some time to work on his novels. Cur-rently, Cohen and his wife are trans-lating a book of Bulgarian fairy tales, which is about to be published.

•“I am funny in real life, but I prefer

to exercise my darker impulses in my writing” Cohen says. Some of Cohen’s favorite writers are Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. “My big confession is that I’ve never read War and Peace by Leo

Tolstoy” Cohen admits .

opinion


Coffee and croissant for breakfast, pizza for lunch, duner for early dinner and, around midnight, a Shotfood order - students’ eating

habits, dictated by lack of time and stress are rarely healthy. So the fact that the kitchens in Skaptopara are al-ways full is no surprise.

There are three kitchens - one in each Skapto. The maximum

amount of time to book is 2 hours and the kitchens are open from 9 am to 11 pm. The newest one, in Skapto 3, looks like a TV show facility while the oldest - in Skapto 1, barely fits the stove and the cook without risking one or the other catching fire.

Even though students are very busy with classes, extra-curricular activities and socializing, some con-sider cooking to be a pri-ority. Not for the sake of cooking, but for the sake

of health. “We have to take care of our health, no matter how busy we are,” said Maya Kelova, a transfer student who explained that no matter how busy she is, she always finds time to cook. “It is

certainly better to be able to cook your own food, to once in a while eat something that has not been produced in a factory,” said Gergana Chinovska, a senior major-ing in JMC.

“The kitchen is busy all the time,” says Biliyana Vacheva, an RA in Skapto 2. Compared to last year, reservations have increased this year. Vacheva explained that now the kitchen is fully booked three days in advance with no free spots what-soever.

The RAs check the kitchen after every use, which has contributed to the overall condition of the facility - if you don’t wash your dishes or leave the stoves dirty, there will be a fine. “Since the check-ing up procedure started and a couple of fines got written, things got better,” says Vacheva.

Vacheva sees a trend in cooking- the heavy cooks are mostly the Russian speaking students from post-Soviet coun-tries. One of the reasons, she pondered,

may be the fact that “these people are more used to their own, cooked, food.”

The previous assumption was confirmed by Ekaterina

Al’ mukhamedova, a junior from Russia, who cooks at least once a week. She says that cooking is customary in her home, but that is not why she cooks at AUBG. “I am much more used to cooked food than to

some sandwiches or apples,” she said. However, this enthusiasm for cook-

ing is not met by the Skapto facilities. I ask, does AUBG provide enough facilities for cooking, to which Al’mukhamedova answers, “absolutely not!” The long line for the kitchen was one of the is-

sues and one kitchen for each Skapto is not enough, according to Al’mukhamedova. The whole procedure of going back and forth between the kitchen and the front desk “is too much of a bother if

you just want to make yourself a bowl of borsch,” said Al’mukhamedova.

Boris Minchev lives off campus and does not miss the Skaptopa-

ra kitchen at all. He shares Al’mukhamedova’s opinion that

AUBG does not provide enough facilities for cooking. As a former

resident of Skapto 1, he did not cook because “the kitchen is too small and it is inconvenient to go to another Skapto,” he said. He cooks all the time now that he lives off campus.

The AUBG Canteen in Main Build-ing could be an alternative to cooking. “They have some really nice soups there,” said Al’mukhamedova. However, if you are in Skapto and want some soup, Skap-py’s, the café that should have the same food as the Canteen, is unappealing. “The food there is stale and not tasty at all,” said Al’mukhamedova.

Not all students book the kitchen to cook food - some indulge in their artis-tic habits and spend time around the oven, baking… jewelry. Chinovska usu-ally brings not eggs and chicken to the kitchen, but polymer clay earrings. “I go to bake earrings,” she admitted. “It

is almost as if you are a kid again - you can create every-thing you imagine.”

Cooking is also a social experience for some. Even if you cannot cook, the act of gathering together in the kitchen, trying to help the cook and hav-ing fun is something that attracts even those students who have no idea how to peel potatoes. The kitchen experience for Cassandra Shelley, an exchange stu-dent from the US turned out to be exactly that: “very, very fun - I hang out with my friends, taking pictures and dancing and listening to music - good times.”

All in all, the kitchen appears to be

an important part of students’ lives and that makes the limited amount of time and place to cook all the more challenging. Why aren’t we allowed to cook in our rooms was the ques-

tion posed to Ilko Drenkov, Residence Hall Director of Skapto 2. “Fire safety,” he answered. Even if students could find new and less hazardous cooking devices,

Drenkov or any of the other Hall Directors do not decide anything, it all comes back to the student handbook and its chapter on fire safety.

But as the student body expands ev-ery year, one kitchen per dormitory will soon be less than enough. “I like the idea of having more kitchens, in the fu-ture maybe one on each floor. Or maybe to re-construct one of the offices into a kitchen,” said Drenkov. But, ultimately, these are only ideas. It is the students who can change the status quo, since the administration has no current plans for constructing more kitchens. “Students have to know their power, to organize themselves, not to be indifferent. They can contact the higher administration directly or through the Student Govern-ment,” said Drenkov.

The thing is, not everyone would take the kitchen mission seriously. As Drenk-ov said: “The kitchen is for those who love cooking and have good time-management skills.” For others, restaurants may be the better option. Especially if they need to clean the burnt food off the oven every time they step into the kitchen.

UBG Kitchens - trials and triumphs cooking banitsa baba stylewhat you need?

6 eggs 300gr. sirene [white cheese]

1 pkg of pastry sheets (phyllo)

+ + +sunflower oil

[or butter] AND

a baking pan

how to do it?

crumb the white cheese [

beat the eggs and add some oil or melted

butter [

[

grease the bot-tom of a pan [

[

[

add egg mix on top [

[ take 2 sheets [

[

[ cover the sheet with the egg mix ] [ add crumbled cheese ] [ roll it up ]

place roll in the pan [

[

repeat until the pan is

full

[

[

bake at 200°C until golden brown and

crispy ~20min [

[

cover with plasic sheet to soften

[

[

serve warm. share with friends. [

[

1

2

7

9

10

86

5

43

12

1113

By Mariana BarakchievaBy Milva MatsevaIllustrations by Anna Zasheva


cooking banitsa baba stylewhat you need?

6 eggs 300gr. sirene [white cheese]

1 pkg of pastry sheets (phyllo)

+ + +sunflower oil

[or butter] AND

a baking pan

how to do it?

crumb the white cheese [

beat the eggs and add some oil or melted

butter [

[

grease the bot-tom of a pan [

[

[

add egg mix on top [

[ take 2 sheets [

[

[ cover the sheet with the egg mix ] [ add crumbled cheese ] [ roll it up ]

place roll in the pan [

[

repeat until the pan is

full

[

[

bake at 200°C until golden brown and

crispy ~20min [

[

cover with plasic sheet to soften

[

[

serve warm. share with friends. [

[

1

2

7

9

10

86

5

43

12

1113

By Mariana Barakchieva

photostory

fiction


Washington’s Reagan airport is well-lit and is buzzing with all the arrivals and departures. Two hours re-

main until her flight. The longest hours of her life. She is hiding behind Harp-er’s Magazine, her eyes moving along the lines but her mind not analyzing the words. How will she get home? The plane is going to land late at night after the last shuttle bus has left for home. Even if she manages to get there, which she knows will eventually happen, how will she get used to the small, claustrophobic town after cosmopolitan Washington DC and addictive New York? Harper’s talks about psychosis, the state in which a person and his inner self start to identify as two dif-ferent beings; also known as schizophre-nia. To shed these troubling thoughts, she decides to text the recent stranger. ‘Hey, Emiliano. How’re you? I’m stuck at the airport in your city.’ She might not get an answer.

Arroz con leche

or dreams of rice puddingBy Mariana BarakchievaIllustrations by Anna Zasheva

fiction


The small bar is like a black hole in the formal, ordered capital. Strong Latino beats echo from inside while outside people are shivering in the cold, queued in a long line. After half an hour of convinc-ing the guards, she manages to get inside into the dense crowd of Latin Americans on Saturday evening. In the Latino bar in downtown Washington people are glued to each other and even the wide smiles on their flashed faces dance simultaneously. The small balcony is about to collapse un-der the weight of their passionate danc-ing. In the far corner he is experiencing a salsa rhythm with an older lady. You can always tell when somebody was born to dance and when he follows the steps learned during weekend classes at the lo-cal dance school. They are dancing with their souls. Emiliano’s eyes meet hers and the words follow naturally.

“Where are you from?” he asks. “Bulgaria. And you?”“Uruguay.” “I know a little Spanish… Me llamo,

que tal,” she laughs warm-heartedly, re-membering her irrational decision to take a Spanish class during freshman year.

“What’s your name?” he asks, his voice even and deep.

“Me llamo Myriam. Como te llamas? “Emiliano. I’ll dance with you later,

Myriam, if you are still here.”

The air shudders from the high sound

waves of a departing plane. A blissful smile partially appears on her lips, a result of the attention she had received. Attention she needed badly, attention she didn’t deserve and, most importantly, attention she shouldn’t expect. They didn’t dance that night but well enough, they exchanged sparkling glances and phone numbers.

‘Hey, really?! Don’t go, stay here. It’s my birthday today…’ appears on her phone. She shivers as her mind analyses the words. Why not? She will indeed have to sleep at the cold rural airport when she lands in Kansas… No, are you out of your mind? You don’t even know him. ‘Why do you need a stranger on your birthday?’ she texts back, trying to repress her ex-citement. ‘I just feel we’d get along. Don’t be scared.’ She has always wanted to be more impulsive. But how could she not be scared? What’s going to happen, how can she act like that?

The next thing she remembers was talking to the lady at the departures counter.

“We can put you on our first flight to-morrow morning.”

Two text messages follow. ‘Where are you Emiliano?’ ‘Home. Come for a drink. . . take the red line to Metro Station and the blue one to Shady Grove. I’ll meet you at the station.’

The wind outside whistles outrageous-

ly. Emiliano is approaching with a shy smile and determined step.

“I’m glad you came.” They hike the steep stairs to the third

floor of the chaotic apartment building. Everybody but her speaks Spanish. She feels uneasy. After an hour and a glass of stoplight-red wine things begin to settle and they flow, driven by the rhythmic music.

“I love dancing but I miss the rhythm,” she says. He catches her hand determined (and tenderly, she wants to believe) and pulls her towards himself.

“Just follow me, I’ll teach you.” Her wide smile remains on her face, some-thing she does when all else is out of her control. The odyssey goes on for hours and people are restless.

“What about now?” he asks. “Let’s go for a walk!” She pulls his hand, hoping that the

wind outside will air out her thoughts as it used to with her grandma’s rugs.

“Tell me more about you! Your whole life…”

“That would be difficult. My favorite song is Estranged by Guns’n Roses. . .”

“What’s your favorite dessert?” “Arroz con leche. Do you know what it

is?”“No, but I know you have an affinity

for strangers…”They continue walking the empty

Washington sidewalks in silence.“This is your night,” she sighs and

breaks the silence. “I fulfilled my promise about the danc-

ing…” he says.It’s dawn. “Promise me something else?”“Come with me,” he pulls her hand.

The monotonous voice of the airport at-tendant echoes through the empty room. She opens her eyes, irritated and dishev-eled. Her legs are folded and freezing and her head aches. 2:15. Four more hours on the stiff chair and the small shuttle bus will take her to the distant home that does not even fit her idea of home. It’s a long night but the dreams are good enough. They get her out of the ugly and lonely re-ality. This reality that she created herself, the reality that you can choose for yourself – fictional and unthinkable. Warming.

25 November 2010 Starbucks, Kansas City International Airport 09:50am

alumni talk


Stanimir Stanchev: BUS, 2008.Evgeniy Gondov: COS, 2008.Avi Stoyanova: BUS, 2007.Mladen Dimitrov: COS, 2008.Hristo Oreshkov: ECO/BUS, 2008.

Stanimir: HP. It’s not bad but I miss the diversity and the exciting moments at AUBG.Avi: Colliers International. It is a great company to start one’s career - a leader in its sector and great professionals with know-how.Hristo: Coca-Cola. Yes, I do.

Stanimir: It’s difficult to say now. Probably a lot has changed. It was going down when I was there – I hope it is the other way around now.Evgeniy: It’s going up in terms of infrastructure but down in terms of quality of students/ professors.

Stanimir: The freedom to do as you wish and have your own agenda, the constant contact with friends.Evgeniy: Everything! For me AUBG was one of the best places in the world to study, head to head with Oxford, Stanford, etc. I make such a comparison on the basis of my personal view of some aspects of AUBG compared to many other universities - including how easily some of our students get accepted to the best schools for their master’s!Mladen: The slow easy life of the student. The free time and the abil-ity to do what you want, whenever you want.

Avi: The studying, the noise, the lousy internet connection.Hristo: Finals week.

Stanimir: Winning the soccer championship and then drinking from the trophy. The worst would probably be fighting against three red-necks in front of Underground.Evgeniy: The greatest was when I finally graduated after 6.5 years of being at AUBG - at one point you feel that you simply need to move on! Avi: When I met my love and my great friends I still hang out with. I made good connections that still pay off. The worst - my 4th semester – I had my worst GPA.

Stanimir: Miree – she is probably one of the professors with the best people skills, very smart, very interesting. She had an up-to-date view of the business world, provided us with a lot of amazing tasks and games.

Alumni?Blitz. life expectations?

Evgeniy: Professor Sardamov be-cause I liked his subject matter and the materials that he was giving us (I did a minor in POS.)Avi: Lucia Miree – she had a great way of communicating the study material to students. Even boring information was presented in a way

2. Where do you work/study now? Do you enjoy your current occupation??

3. Do you think AUBG is improving or is the overall quality of the university declining??

4. What do you miss most about AUBG? ?

5. What do you miss least about AUBG? Was there anything you disliked??

6. Tell me about your best and worst experiences at AUBG? ?

7. Who was your favorite professor, and why? ?

1. What was you major and when did you graduate? ?

By Gergana StanchevaIllustration by Viktor Angelov

alumni talk


Stanimir: Definitely yes – people skills, being organized, thinking outside the box.Evgeniy: Yes, I got the best foundation possible, not just professional-ly but also personally. I liked the discipline, the different points of view we discussed, the diversity of courses, the fact that every professor was asking for your full devotion to the course.Mladen: Yes. The fact that we are trained to work in teams and under pressure is very helpful in any chosen career path afterwards.

Stanimir: No, not at all – it should be around 3.00 for later purposes such as a master’s. Knowledge is what is important.Evgeniy: Yes and no. It is important because it shows commitment to studying and an open mind to absorb knowledge. On the other hand, I know many people with great GPAs and poor professional perfor-mance!Mladen: No. This is not high school. As long as you feel good in the field you like and you give your best, you will be rewarded in the fu-ture. Grades are not everything.Hristo: I do. It is important for CVs and job-hunting – after all, it re-ally represents to what extent you have learned something.

Stanimir: Soccer club, beer pong club. They are important because they give students an opportunity for development.Mladen: As part of the social bonding between students and their dif-ferent cultures, clubs are very important. I personally did not partici-pate in any. I did not feel the desire to. Ah, I did join the Wing Tsun club.Hristo: I participated in everything I found interesting and intriguing. It’s a good way to create friendships, establish connections, and waste time in a useful way.

Stanimir: Going out more, studying less.Evgeniy: Yes, I regret not having enough time to get to know more people personally because I was studying too much.Avi: Not going to a Work and Travel program for the fifth time.

Stanimir: Definitely not, it’s the best place to study in Bulgaria.Evgeniy: No, for me this was the only opportunity to attend a good non-Bulgarian school at the time. If I have to choose today - I’d defi-nitely go abroad!

Stanimir: Live life to the fullest, be revolutionary and nothing less than legendary!Evgeniy: Study and network with your peers, create friends and not enemies, stay close to each other and don’t separate people on the basis of how beautiful or rich they are! Stay positive because AUBG is one of the best schools you can attend. Forget about the rankings. Avi: Enjoy your student years. Life after AUBG sucks and drags you into a routine that will last forever.Mladen: Never regret anything.

life in reality.

that made it one of the most interest-ing courses I’ve taken.

Stanimir: Marla Howard – she was like a robot.Avi: Marla Howard – a cold woman with no people skills.Hristo: Marla Howard - such a push.

14. Give some advice to the current AUBG students. ?

8. Who was your least favorite professor, and why? ?

9. Do you think AUBG provided you with a solid foundation for your professional development? ?

11. Did you participate in any AUBG clubs? Do you regard them as important? ?

13. If you could turn back time would you choose another educa-tional institution instead of AUBG? ?

10. Do you consider GPA to be important, why or why not? ?

12. Do you regret not doing something while being at AUBG? ?

confessions


I love you even when I don’t

show you that you are a very

special part and I’d say we will never be

apart

I confess that AUBG network in the

library drives me crazy. Finals are

coming and I can’t use my computer in the library. No, seriously it is driv-

ing me NUTS!!!

I wish, I wish with all my heart to spread my love

around and turn the sorrow into

light and happiness!

AUBG, the final frontier. These

were the classes I probably

should have attended. My

continuing mission, to hang

out, drink a lot, ask dumb ass

questions, and generally do

nothing productive. To badly

go where pretty much everyone

has gone before.

Pavel doesn’t let me sing Christmas

carols, so I’m going to get drunk and sing them in anyway...

tonight.

I’ve been having a ‘dry spell’ now for more than one year.

I like my Spanish professor Yavor Geor-giev (handsome men like him shouldn’t be allowed to teach, their appearance and gestures are too distractive).

Professor

Gurov is sooo

HOT!

I read

defacto

once

I AM SICK OF MY

ROOMMATES

WHO USED TO

BE MY BEST FRIENDS

I’m disappointed of being

student of this university.

University has no clear

mission. Everybody is

mercantile and material-

istic. I wish we had better

goal and mission state-

ment.

I’ve had wet dreams about one

of the guards in SkapTo 1.

AUBG

confessions

confessions


I have a nine inch

nail

I wish, I wish with all my heart to spread my love

around and turn the sorrow into

light and happiness!

Pavel doesn’t let me sing Christmas

carols, so I’m going to get drunk and sing them in anyway...

tonight.

I’ve been having a ‘dry spell’ now for more than one year.

I feel like I slept with half of Skapto and people still tend to think that I am an innocent creature…

AUBG

screwed me

up. What

about you?

Whenever I sleep with a guy I feel like

kicking him out of the room when we’re done, and never seeing him

again. I never go for one guy twice. Ain’t

it weird?

I bought a teddy bear to take my

mind off things. Now it talks back to me.

Do I need to stop studying and start

sleeping?

I have a third nipple :D

I am always piching on a guy with long hair and basically being mean to him all the time. But the truth is I like him for 2nd

semester now because of his smile and spiteful comments. But women’s

logic tells me to make him hate me =)

It’s been a semester I love my foormate. He’s so manly. His voice is mesmer-

izing. And I always intentionally go to

the balcony to smoke whenever he and his Spanish friend play

guitar there.

I love him but he doesn’t love me anymore! I wish everything would stay the same as

last year…

I am the great-est cheater ever. I always cheat on my boyfriends, and if they are not ok with it I get pissed at them and dump them

anniversary


“AUBG is a selective, residential, liberal arts university based upon the classic American model,” that is what the majority of applicants

learn about the university from its official web site. Those who were lucky enough to get in become a part of its community, broaden their horizons and start a new diversified life without geographical, so-

cial or cultural constraints. The American University in Bulgaria

opened its doors on June 24, 1991 with 208 students enrolled. Behind this state-ment lies a year of hard, wearying, but at the same time exciting, work from a group of people to whom we owe thanks. A few of us probably muse about how the university was actually founded. How was the location chosen? How was the money for its maintenance raised? What were local attitudes towards the univer-sity’s founding? So many questions hide behind four simple letters - AUBG.

To understand the complexity of the founders’ objective one should imagine Bulgaria in the early 90s: a complicated

economic and political situation, torn between the communist past and isola-tion, and emergence of democracy. The word “American” itself caused numerous arguments. A private university with a completely different educational system and board of trustees that consists of a collective body was something un-orthodox and new for Bulgarian soci-

ety. Nevertheless, the idea of an international educational institution preparing high-level professionals was so attractive that a plan of ac-tion was written out by Eli-ana Maseva, mayor of Bla-goevgrad at the time: firstly, a meeting at the American Embassy was to be arranged to discuss the idea; secondly, negotiation with the current government; and finally, a formal decision of the tempo-rary executive committee of the Blagoevgrad municipal-ity to set up the university.

Fortunately, the American Embassy officials were drawn to the idea of democratization of the region which could be achieved through the new university. Additionally, Zhelyu Zhelev, elected president of Bulgaria in 1990, also supported the thrilling undertaking. However, the major problem was to convince the repre-sentative from the Bulgarian Social-ist Party. In order to influence the op-position the founders appealed to the town citizens. “There were public dis-cussions,” Maseva notes, “we felt we needed the public to understand how the university would help the development of Blagoevgrad.” Eventually, a group of doc-tors, lawyers, and other supporters was

formed to popularize the idea.The next challenge was to find a pa-

tron to donate towards the creation of the university in Bulgaria. In the end, the University of Maine was chosen as a sponsor. However, it was decided that AUBG would not be a branch campus within the University of Maine; rather, AUBG would develop independently un-der the supervision of the University of Maine. Of course, there were also other donors whose contribution should not be overlooked, - Dimitri Panitza, George So-ros, and Sol Polansky are among the most

notable ones. The next step was to find an appro-

priate building for the university. Not without struggle the university acquired

Luben Nikov – worked as a cab driver for 22 years“[About the university] everything is okay, a lot of students, young people, profit the town. It affected my job in a way that we’re driving you, so more work for us. The students, they are very skilled people, indeed, this is an American university.”

Elena Popova – selling flowersStudents are not buying a lot of flowers, but when they do, they prefer roses. [How have the students affected the life of the town?] If it was not for the American Uni-versity, people would be in misery here. [20 years ago]

at the beginning of de-mocracy, we gathered a group of six citizens, young democrats and went into the Munici-pality with representa-tives of the American Embassy to establish your university.

Lelya Krasi – owner of a banitsa place for 10 years. I am exceptionally happy with the American University. It’s really pres-tigious but even though I own this small business, I still cannot afford it for my children. Students buy mostly banitsa with cheese, dzhumayka, and pizza, pizza, pizza… (laughs) They come mostly in the night, when I open at 3 in the morning. I am impressed by AUBG students, they are very well-mannered. It happened to me that when I open in the morning they start clapping and cheering my name, “Lelyo Krasi, Lelyo Krasi.”

AUBG in the MakingBy Tatevik MkrtchyanPictures by Mariana Barakchieva

anniversary


its first building, later known as Main Building. By the time the team to equip the classrooms arrived, they found out that a number of rooms were still oc-cupied by members of the Communist party. Otherwise, the building was al-most empty, so everything from dishes for the canteen to electronic equipment and furniture had to be bought. When all that was taken care of, the process of recruiting faculty, university staff and students had to take place and that was not an easy task. As the founders note, nothing went quickly or without effort.

Eventually, the long awaited day ar-rived and the American University in Bulgaria was officially opened. Without doubt it met its establishers’ expecta-tions and has been successfully func-tioning for 20 years. Although a lot has

Ivo Ve-likovski – has run a bicycle store for 16 yearsStudents and pro-fessors are riding bi-

cycles and I maintain them. There was one student who came to write an article about me. Wasn’t that you?

Boyka Minovska – tailor, running her private sewing store for three yearsStudents and professors are coming to me with clothes to repair, rather than to order new pieces – you know, it’s crisis, people don’t have money. One of my regular customers is a Russian student and I don’t know her name so we label her stuff “the Russian girl” (laughs). Even though some students don’t know Bulgarian, we always understand each other with the help of

gestures and face expressions.

Ivan Toporov – shoemaker Students are coming here, yes. They bring torn shoes and high heels. We are happy with AUBG stu-dents, they are good, well-bred.

Faik Boshnakov – seller in a mobile phone store We have just a little bit more work. The main problem is that foreigners don’t know Bulgarian at all and so we need to speak in English. It’s good because there

are young people coming from different countries and there’s exchange of experi-ence. Also financially because they are spending money in the town.

changed since 1991, one thing that remained constant is the attitudes of Blagoevgrad’s citizens. Looking back to the conception of AUBG people were as hospitable, open-hearted and supportive towards the university, students and professors as they are today. As many locals claim, the new educational institution brought not only economic advancement but also diversity and vivacity to its social life.

Gala

AUBG celebrated 20 years of success and prosperity on October 3, 2011

in the National Theatre of Bulgaria. The gala brought together faculty, students, alumni, prospective stu-dents and friends of the uni-versity. The performance of the AUBG choir followed the speeches of gratitude towards the founders. The singing of Female Folklore Ensemble “Svetlina” also impressed and entertained the audience. Surprisingly, even such a formal event passed in a very friendly, unofficial and easy man-ner. Students felt free to talk to the current presi-dent of the university Da-vid Huwiler or dance with the provost Cyrus Reed, especially when the “party” was moved to the outdoor grounds. No matter what your age or occupation, you are an “AUBG-er.” Alum-

nus, current, or even prospective stu-dent makes no difference; you are a part of one big family. This principle is not only appropriate to describe the gala’s atmosphere, but is also one of the fundamental pillars of the American University in Bulgaria.

Alexander Petrakiev and Yanita Malcheva – sociology students at the South-West UniversityI like it as a university, they are giving good education. There is a really good re-lationship between the students from the two universities. The students affect the town in a positive way, both in terms of economy and social life. They are bring-ing a spirit of an academic community.

profile


By Anna Zasheva and Gergana StanchevaPhotograph: Panitza Library Archive

Dimi Panitza remembered P anitza Library is a crucial part of the education of

all AUBG-ers and they should be proud to have the largest English language educational resources in the Balkans at hand. The library is an inexhaust-

ible source of books, periodicals, maps, videos, electronic and printed journals.

The library would not be what it is today without the sup-port of Dimitri Panitza who “is at the base of today’s overall appearance of the Library,” says Sophia Katsarska, the direc-tor of Panitza Library.

The new library was founded in September 2008 and in May 2009 it was named after Dimitri and Yvonne Panitza in appre-ciation for their valuable support for the university throughout the years of its development.

Dimitri Panitza passed away on the 28th of July, 2011 at the age of 80. An outstanding journalist, patriot, and a phi-lanthropist, he will be remembered and missed by the AUBG community. He played a crucial role in the evolution of AUBG, since its very founding back in 1991 by being on the Board of Trustees, helping out AUBG students and facilitating the li-brary. However, AUBG is just a small part of his contribution to the broader Bulgarian community.

Panitza was born into a distinguished family of Bulgarians. He is a great-grandson of Ivan Evstatiev Geshov, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria, a grandson of Dimiter Yablanski, Minis-ter and Mayor of Sofia, and grandson of Sava Panitza, banker and philanthropist. He emigrated from Bulgaria in 1948 and worked for a short time in Paris as a bank clerk, before going to the US. In the mid 50s he began working for Reader’s Digest which became his lifetime occupation. He spent four decades of his life working there, and was promoted to Managing Edi-tor of the magazine, a position he held until his retirement in 1994. He has been in charge of the European, Middle Eastern and African editions, which were published in more than 20 languages around the world, with a total monthly circulation

of 30 million copies for more than 100 million readers. A dream that was unrealized during his journalistic career, seeing the magazine in Bulgarian, eventually came true in 2005.

In 1991 Panitza and his wife established the Free and Democratic Bulgaria Foundation (FDBF) in Sofia, along with many other programs devoted to the educational devel-opment of Bulgarian youth. According to Katsarska, Panitza was an intelligent man with a strong conviction that youth should be well-educated.

In an interview with the editors of novinite.com, Martina Iovcheva and Monique Geiss, Panitza says that one of the greatest Bulgarian tragedies is that young, educated people leave the country for good. Panitza’s common practice when he travelled abroad was to go to campuses of prestigious uni-versities and appeal to young Bulgarians: “Don’t forget your home country.”

Panitza has immensely contributed not only to AUBG but also to the New Bulgarian University, and a number of other educational organizations. He was an Honorary Chairman of “Junior Achievement – Bulgaria” and has been a founding member of the Board of Directors of the American University in Bulgaria since 1991. In December 2000 he was awarded Bulgaria’s highest civilian decoration, the Order of Stara Planina, First Class. He was widely known as a socially ac-tive person who worked towards the social development of the Bulgarian community after the fall of the Communist regime.

According to Asen Dimitrov, an AUBG graduate, Dimi Panitza was one of the most prominent members of the Bul-garian diaspora during the 20th century. He believes that Panitza was one of those people who chose to get involved in the post-1989 development of Bulgaria among distinguished figures such as Ambassador Ivan Stancioff and Stephane Groueff. “Modern Bulgaria has largely lost its philanthro-pists, and Dimi Panitza was one of the last living ones,” he adds.

Panitza will be remembered for his valuable contribu-tions to the university and constant support of its develop-ment by providing scholarships for students who have the will and knowledge to attend but who cannot afford to study at AUBG. In addition, he has done much for the acceptance of the university by the American and Bulgarian govern-ments. He assisted in the purchase of 80,000 volumes from a Fairleigh Dickinson University campus collection to bring to AUBG’s library. He also gradually enriched the library with many donations and “has always taken an interest in its needs, ready to help with anything,” adds Katsarska.

He was supposed to be a guest lecturer in the popular “El-ena Poptodorova Distinguished Lecturers Series” at AUBG, and the first speaker of the “Tea Talks” that were planned out by a group of AUBG students. However, neither of these came true because of Dimi Panitza’s rapidly deteriorating health. Dimitrov remembers that Panitza was always very enthusiastic about meeting new students and listening to their ideas and opinions. “At the meeting that never took place, we wanted to talk about AUBG’s future, to get Board members to better communicate with students, and of course, the first person that came to mind was Dimi Panitza,” says Dimitrov.

comparison


One of the quirks of studying at AUBG is the diversity that al-lows Italian professors to teach American History. Pierangelo

Castagneto is one of the veterans at AUBG. Surprisingly, when he was young, he pursued a boxing career. One of his heroes died a day before the interview, the famous boxer Joe Frazier. “A piece of my heart is gone with him,” said Castag-neto. In fact, his father was a professional boxer and he was pushing his son in the same direction, but it turned out not to be a successful path. Castagneto also used to work for a newspaper but history had been his passion since elementary school and American culture in particular was his obsession. “Italy is a country with a lot of cultural influence coming from the US so it is pretty easy to be American-ized,” he says. His parents live in Genoa. They have never visited Bulgaria because they don’t like to travel. “They are farm-ers, and farmers don’t move. I am an ex-ception. I am the black sheep in the fam-ily, unlike them I love to travel.”

Another enthusiastic traveler here at AUBG is the new Accounting professor, Kevin Feeney. He has been to Europe 35 times. “I have been to almost every coun-try in the European Union. I have not been to Portugal and to the Baltic coun-ties. I have visited Poland, Turkey, Dubai, India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Panama, Puerto Rico, Mexico and others.”

* * *As Feeney later confessed, when he

first arrived to Blagoevgrad he felt like a kid in a store - everything was exciting.

He wasn’t sure if he could come to teach here for three years and once he was here he realized he couldn’t. “I have always been to big cities like New York, Phila-delphia and I have always been able to travel,” he says, “it is hard to travel from here.” So he decid-ed to sign a contract for only one year. He likes the school, the stu-dents, the diversity, and the dif-ferent views but he doesn’t like Blagoevgrad. “It is too small. If the school was in Sofia or Varna it would have been a different story.”

Castagneto, on the other hand, was curious about this part of Europe that was unfamil-iar to him. It was also a life ex-perience he was looking for, and so he moved to Blagoevgrad. Yet after living here for a couple of years it turned out to be a cage for him. “I felt like a prisoner, not because of the city, but as a result of liv-ing in my office all the time.” After living in Blagoevgrad for three years he decided to move to the big capital.

* * *After watching the Lick-a–fessor video

at More Honors last year, one may as-sume that the main two characters, Pro-fessors Castagneto and Diego Lucci, were good friends in real life and it turned out to be true. Kevin Feeney also found a good friend here. “I was very lucky that Professor Jeremy Cripps is new here as well. He and I are going to the movies to-night. Wednesday is our date night,” he

jokes. Both professors agree that there is an obvious separation between faculty that works in BAC and in Main Build-ing. “I see them only at faculty meetings. I can pass them by on the street and I don’t know who they are,” says Professor Feeney.

* * * “You have a chance to grow in a very

interesting community here with people coming from different countries. Working with other students outside the classroom is one of many things you can do in order to improve yourself. Real life is different,

By Juxhina Malaj Pictures from personal archive

Chits & Chats with professors

Pierangelo Castagneto

Kevin Feeney

it is tough. I don’t think you will have a chance to do that after you graduate from college because there are a lot of sharks waiting for you. Here is kind of protected environment but after that, unfortunate-ly, you have to face the reality. So take advantage of your time here because it is special,” Castagneto says.

experience

Just another biking day

I am hurtling down a rocky moun-tain path on the outskirts of Bla-goevgrad, Bulgaria, a 50-year-old man riding a bicycle, hanging on

for dear life and kicking up dust and debris in my wake. I’m giddy but also terrified that one wrong turn, a loose rock, some sandy soil, will send me fly-ing over the handlebars and down into a ravine.

Then I hear the dogs. They are bark-ing furiously. They are loose. I am heading right toward them.

***It was my third ride since moving to

Bulgaria with my wife to teach at the American University in Blagoevgrad. I was used to riding road bikes back in Minnesota and had just emerged from the RAGBRAI, the rolling-hills ride across the state of Iowa. It was 450 miles and I managed to handle the hills there. But being from Minnesota, what did I know of hills?

Soon after the RAGBRAI, my wife, Melody Gilbert, and I were on a plane to Bulgaria. When we made it to Bla-goevgrad, about two hours south of the capital city of Sofia, the first thing I no-ticed was the terrain. Hilly doesn’t do it justice. The city is ringed by mountain ranges, hills on top of hills as far as the eye can see. Over one, the majestic

Osogovska-Belasishka Range, is Mace-donia. To the north and east of the city lies the Rila Mountains, home of the Rila Monestary, a fixture since the 1300s. The peaks of the Pirin Moun-tains are visible to the south. From a biker’s standpoint, it was both an awe-some sight and an intimidating one.

But biking is what I had in mind, so my first task was to figure out how to get a bike and find a place to ride. Bike paths are non-existent, so road biking is a bit treacherous. There are expansive potholes, drivers who don’t yield much, and the occasional open or damaged manhole or sewer grate serv-ing as a dangerous obstacle in the best of circumstances. But those mountains ... you could see hiking trails high up in the hills. Could they possible handle bike traffic?

On our first weekend in Blago-evgrad, I lucked into a chance meet-ing with a fellow AUBG professor, Bill Clark, who was eager to share the bik-ing charms of this place. He spoke the language, eliminating one stumbling block to acquiring a suitable ride. Later that week, he helped me broker a deal with a local bike shop owner for his personal bike. It was a mountain bike, the heaviest rig I have ever owned. And when I’m pedaling it uphill, its weight

(and, ahem, my own) is a constant re-minder. But when flying down a hill, like the one that had me on a collision course with those dogs, I was happy it was so sturdy.

***The ride up that hill was steep.

We climbed about 2,500 feet over the course of about 10 kilometers. By com-parison, the climb from the river bot-tom on Mississippi River Boulevard to downtown Minneapolis is a couple of hundred feet.

We pedaled up, stopping halfway to admire the view of Blagoevgrad far be-low (and so I could catch my breath). When we reached the summit, the re-ward of the climb was vivid. Small vil-lages dotted the landscape in every di-rection -- Tserevo, Bistritsa, Dubrava, Zeledol, Pokrovnik. “Those are the vil-lages that some of our students come from,” Clark told me. “But now, only pensioners live there.”

Those pensioners live off of their 300 leva (about $220) per month stipend, residing in small, mostly brick houses with clay tile roofs and small gardens. Some have a few animals to tend to. Others, those who live in the sleepy interior of those “towns,” look on curi-ously from small cafes as cars and the very occasional bike rider roll past.

By Mark WollemannPictures from personal archive

This was not THE shepherd we encountered on this particular ride, but this is n

ot

an

un

com

mo

n s

igh

t o

n o

ur

rid

es in

to t

he

cou

ntr

ys

ide.


experience


Far above, we rode along ridgelines on a snaking dirt and rock-strewn trail. When we stopped, we heard the faint tinkle of bells and matched those sounds to movement in the valley below. Goat herds and their shepherds meandered through parched hillside fields, grazing on the dry grass and moving along at a pace that probably hadn’t changed for generations. The sight was otherworld-ly, the juxtaposition to our modern-day hobby stark.

Before beginning our descent, we stopped for a quick snack of wild plums and apricots, which were hanging heavy and ripe from a tree near the peak. As we regained our strength and started our long glide path down the dangerous path, we heard those dogs before we saw them.

We picked up speed and their barks picked up urgency. We slowed, dismounted and tried to calm them. Bill spoke sooth-ingly to them in his clear Bulgarian. They were guarding a small herd of goats. Their master, a woman in her 70s dressed in long black peasant clothing, seemed to command them to calm down. Or maybe she sent them af-ter us. Who knows? As we slowly tried to edge away from them, they became agitated again and started barking and snarling.

I was first to leap back onto my bike. It might have been a rookie mistake, but it seemed like a fight or flight moment and flight was the instinctual move. Bill was right behind me, urging caution at the coming sharp turns. We seemed to pull past the two dogs when two more surged toward us at the turn. I could feel their seething anger and saw their

bared teeth as we surged past them. As I made the turn, the two we had passed had somehow jumped in front of us. We sped past once again and in a few har-rowing seconds were home free.

“That was a little hairy,” I said.Bill was a little more composed: “Just

another day of biking in Bulgaria.”

Post-ride face – sweaty, flushed and grateful to have avo

ided

kil

lin

g m

ys

elf.

Check Mark’s biking videos here: http://vimeo.com/34201901

journey


We got on the bus around nine on a Saturday morning. The Manaki Film Festival was just ten hours away.

Some people had big bags, some small ones, some forgot their passports later claiming that “border control dude will let us in anyway, we don’t need a passport.”

It took about three hours for the bus to cross the border. A long road, humid weather, smoke breaks, border checks, and we were on Macedonian soil.

Cows, fields, smoky mountains and clouds passed by. The bus moved towards Bitola. We were unsure of what exactly we signed up for, but we knew we were doing the right thing.

A couple of hours later the bus dropped us off in Bitola. Chola, my hostel, had hot water for 5 minutes. Then it was gone together with my theory of the week-end flowing as smoothly as Professor Levchev’s classes.

We had two hours to check out the lo-cation and eat dinner at one of the local cafès. A group of us went to a restaurant where we ordered fairly simple dishes and waited for 45 minutes, a record that Prego can only envy.

After receiving our festival passes we went to the opening ceremony.

We entered Theater Bitola and even found seats at the back of the hall. The first movie shown was The Forgiveness of Blood in Albanian with tiny English sub-

titles. After the credits started scrolling up the screen, I went outside and looked around for familiar faces, as I didn’t re-member where the hostel was.

I came across a girl I knew and we de-cided to take a walk down the main street to see what was going on. We ended up meeting the whole group of AUBG-ers and decided to head to the local pizzeria. When the dinner was over we went to the main street to get some festival posters. Macedonians stared at us as we took the posters from the walls but we carried on maintaining confident expressions.

The next morning started at 11. It turned out that we were having a lecture about cinematography with a Finnish guest speaker, Peter Flickenberg, who became the object of admiration for all the females in the group. In his lecture, he mentioned that it is extremely impor-tant to know how to use the camera be-fore shooting, otherwise you’ll be trying to figure out menu settings and won’t be present in the moment. When asked what is more important - theory or practice - in filmmaking, Flickenberg answered, “theory can take you only so far, it’s bet-ter to watch other people’s work or watch movies.”

Later on we headed to a small hall for a screening of Flickenberg’s Rules of the Single Life. Its plot was wrapped around four men, three Bulgarians and one Mace-donian in Finland, and their attempts to

find true love. Less than an hour later we were already watching Melancholia, di-rected by Lars von Trier. The movie was a mix of a wedding gone bad, family is-sues and an apocalyptic drama. It blew our minds.

The last thing left on our schedule was an early morning press conference with Lech Majewski, director of The Mill and the Cross.

Majewski introduced us to the Bruegel painting “The Way to Calvary” and its main idea that people don’t pay atten-tion to the important things as they pass by unnoticed. People are consumed by their daily routine instead. He expressed his love for art of the past and revolted against modern art, “Why is art of today so lousy compared to art of yester years? You can’t compare playwrights of today with Shakespeare. Think of the best com-posers of today and try to compare them with Bach.”

After the press conference we went outside. The air was cold. The thought of leaving Macedonia in two hours was unsettling. I reached for my Macedonian Marlboros and ironically there was only one left; I smoked it and got on the bus. We were heading back to the midterms reality.

Firstilm

estBy Inessa LotoninaPictures by Inessa Lotonina

Lech Majevski, director of “Mill and the Cross” at a press conference.

Manaki film festival posters

fresh


Polish, Spanish, Dutch, Latvian, German, French. Sounds like the start of a joke. But these guys have something in common. All

of them are Erasmus exchange students who came to Bulgaria to experience the Balkan culture.

WHAT ASSOCIATIONS DO YOU HAVE WITH THE WORD “BANITSA”?

Joris van Duin (Netherlands): “It’s a typical Bulgarian dish, I usually eat it after a night out. After the first time, you say, never again. The second time, you say, never again. And also after the third time, you say, never again! But yeah, you just keep trying it in hope that the food might get better. And it’s not go-ing to happen.”

Christian Córdoba Andrés (Spain): “I found out about banitsa on my second night here. Some random Bulgarians next to Underground told us to try it. Then I fell in love with banitsa! And I kept eating it after parties, as a breakfast, as an afternoon snack... Love it!”

Victoria Litsova (Latvia): “It is a Bulgar-ian dish and I eat it almost every Friday after Under-ground. The taste of it, when you don’t have any alcohol in your system, is terrible.”

DO YOU KNOW WHAT “MASTIKA” OR “RAKIA” IS? HAVE YOU TRIED THEM? WHAT WAS THE RESULT?

Alexander Fo (Germany): “I know what rakia is and I tried it. Forgot the result for some rea-son.”

Nicolas Rolin (France): “I know what rakia is. Worst thing I ever drank.”

Justina Piotrowska (Po-land): “Of course I know what they are, but I have tried only ra-kia. Home-made wine in a plastic bottle is much better.”

WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE WEIRDEST OR CRAZIEST THING HERE? WHY?

Christian Córdoba Andrés: “The head movement! They shake their heads to say ok or yes but they don’t say a word. It is soooo confusing even now, months after our arrival.”

Victoria Litsova: “Ever-hungry dogs. And I still cannot figure out when the Bulgarians say yes and no.”

WHAT IS THE MOST AWESOME THING HERE? WHY?

Alexander Fo: “Being together with all the international students, be-cause it is an awesome experience and lots of fun.”

Victoria Litsova: “Diversity. Some-times I don’t understand who I am and what language I’m speaking!”

Joris van Duin: “The 2.5L bottles of Pirinsko! They’re really cheap, and in the Netherlands we don’t even sell beer in 2.5L bottles.”

HOW DOES YOUR HOME UNI-VERSITY DIFFER FROM AUBG?

Christian: “My university is as big as Blagoevgrad! And, by the way, we don’t

have a metal detector at the door.”Nicolas: “We don’t have beerpong

tournaments that are promot-ed on campus!”

WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT YOU MISS ABOUT

YOUR HOME? Justina: “I miss Polish

food - especially food prepared by my mom. The second thing that I miss is dancing. I am a member of two folk ensembles. And I miss embroidery too!”

Alexander: “Having a real kitchen. And Turkish bak-eries.”

Victoria: “Fooood, I re-ally miss it! I don’t understand how they can mix everything

on one plate.”Nicolas: “Two important things in

my ‘Frenchy’ daily life: I miss my X-Box 360 and the great taste of French white wine!”

exchange

students talk t verve

By Kristine Nelubina

Justina Piotrowska

Nicolas Rolin

Victoria Litsova

verve magazine fall 2011

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