Meeting Dr. Ilianna Ivanova

As we struggle through language and feeling reduced to bumbling fools in our attempts to communicate in Bulgarian, a friend who speaks English is a welcomed joy. I was able to meet one such woman at our local bakery (yes the same one in our afore mentioned blog!) A blondish haired, blue eyed baby stands out here and I don't exactly blend in as well so it was easy to pick up that we weren't "from around these parts," which opened up a conversation with Dr. Ivanova. Come to find out, she is a professor in micro-biology at Sofia University. Awhile back, she won a grant to go to Tennessee for 6 months so spent some time in the states. In our short meeting at the bakery she gave me her card and told me I could call her sometime.

On a beautiful Saturday in Sofia I was able to get together with her. It started out a bit rocky as a big difference we're finding with Bulgarians and Americans is that they don't plan much and can be a bit non-committal. Our telephone conversation started with planning a time to meet. After I thought we had agreed to 10 am Saturday, she then said, "Well maybe 1pm." Ok then, 1. "Well maybe 11, as I have to go to a showing of pots, pans and assorted kitchenware, or maybe you could meet me and go with me to the show?" We FINALLY agreed that we would meet at 11 and I would go with her to whatever this "show" was. I was thinking I was possibly going to the Bulgarian version of pampered chef? I would never find out exactly what I was supposed to go to because the next mistake I made was when she told me we would meet at Universidad I assumed that was the University she works at in the center of the city. I was mistaken and what she actually meant is that we were to meet at the Universidad sports complex which was only a little ways from our apartment. I was 20 mins away in the opposite direction! Thank goodness for cell phones, she called, then came to meet me in the center of the city. Finally united, we spent a wonderful day. We spent the morning touring one of the most well known cathedrals in Sofia, the Alexander Nevski. It is the cathedral in the background of our magnets we sent out. She gave me the insiders view of the city and I enjoyed every moment of it. While I felt bad Dr. Ivanova had missed her show, I had such a wonderful time and hope she did as well that I felt like it was ordained to be that way. I'm looking forward to calling her in the coming week to hopefully arrange a second meeting. This time I'll be more careful to get street names as to where I am supposed to go!

Much love to you all!

Lisa

(Picture insert is the Alexander Nevski Cathedral)