Varna in September

So far, I love Varna in September. I must say it's much better than any of the Latvian cities in September. And there is number of reasons for me to say that.

Latvia, not Lithuania. (almost "Istanbul, not Constantinople", if you know what I mean)

I personally think, that confusing some things might be even worse, than just not knowing, because when you confuse them it means that you don't know a ship neither about one, nor about another. this is why i wasn't really good with dictations at school, as in my opinion writing the other word instead of requested one shows that you are twice as stupid.
I got used to the fact, that when people ask me where i am from and i say Latvia, they usually don't really know, what the hell is the country named like that and where is it. but when the following conversation happens, it is just pissing me off;

- where are you from?
- Latvia
- Aaah, Lithuania, cool. 


if i know something about people, they tend to confuse Austria with Australia, Syria with Serbia, Sweden with Switzerland and things like that. and from all these countries Latvia and Lithuania are probably the most similar, I mean Latvian and Lithuanian are the only two languages in the Baltic group, the countries are at least neighbourts and the economies are similar, however still, they are different. and even though I have 2 really close friends in Lithuania and I like this country, when people ask me to say something in Lithuanian, well... i say some words i know in Lithuanian, but then i want to punch them in their faces. sorry guys, but those are kinda basics, at least to know the names of the countries in Europe... and our flags are completely different. well, actually our flag is confused with the Austrian one sometimes, but that's another story...

Bucharest trip

Few words about our trip to Romania – it was amazing, day and night comparing to what I was expecting. The image of this country that we have is really bad and completely wrong. All the people I know think about Romania as an a bit creepy developing country (how did they even get to EU?), with 99% of population being gypsies, creepy buildings everywhere, rubbish and graffiti on the streets, dogs that attack people and people that are not educated at all. In reality it is totally wrong. Like totally. If I didn’t know that I am in Romania (ok, not really possible to wake up somewhere not knowing where, but let’s imagine that), I could assume that it is Belgium or any other European country. 

Long week - longer weekend

Trying to pack my backpack, but it's hard, even though I have quite an experince in packing... Why I am packing? Well...

The day September 6 is a very important one in the history of Bulgaria. It is the Unification Day of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia (Southern part of Bulgaria) in 1885, separated in 1878 by Berlin treaty and given to Ottoman Empire with partial autonomy. However 7 years later brave Bulgarians finally got their territories back and are celebrating this day since then. For us as foreigners here this means two things - we are happy for our friends and we have one more day free. This is why this week we are working Monday to Saturday, however Sunday to Tuesday having 3 days holidays.

Loud birds vs partying neighbours

What do you do, when you start hating your neighbours? It's fine to be sleepy in the morning because of the party that you attended the night before, but is it ok to be sleepy because of the neighbours partying every night 2 floors below? Don't think so, however, I really don't know what is the best solution in this kind of situations. In my opinion, calling the police is the last thing to do, as no matter how much you want to sleep, it cannot compare to the problems the other people might have. However, when we had not even a party, just a bit more people than usual having some beers and talking even without any music, our neighbours called the police at 1 am. Now there is a party second night in a row and no one seems to care.
If I would be Bulgarian, probably, I would go downstairs and asked politely to be more quite, however being a foreigner makes is a bit more difficult. Yes, I am sure they speak English, or even may be Russian, however talking to drunk people at 1 am in English might be not the best solution.
Tomorrow I am going to write them a letter... But so far even my earplugs aren't helpful... Wish me luck.

Office things (good and bad)

Everything cannot be totally perfect. Even in our office there are drawbacks, even though I wouldn't want to say anything bad about it. It just seems rediculously stupid how people are fighting for the chairs. The fact is that there are couple of "better" chairs and the rest are just regular ones. And people are stealing the "better" chairs from each other. And this is not the whole story yet, they are putting the numbers on the chairs to recognise "their" chairs. When I came to the office, I had a "better" chair by defaul, but then someone put a number on it and it doesn't belong to me anymore. The problem is that at 16.30 the two shifts are changing, but for us it is about the time of making follow up calls to the clients. Do you think it's possible to hear anything oer the phone when there are twice as much people as there should be, all of them are talking and the chairs are rolling back and forward? I really don't want it to sound that way, but it's true, even our office is not always perfect.

Societies

Society is what makes people. Literally. First, outside of society people become animals. Second, because of the society people become what they are, because they want to be the same or completely different, depends on their value system.
In marketing this is known as "reference groups" -which is a person or a group of people that significantly influences the individual’s behaviour by providing standards or norms by which consumers judge their attitudes and behaviour. In real life it is know as opinion of the others and it's not a secret, that in different groups we behave differently in order to show that we belong there. Sadly, it will never change. Luckily for them, there are people who feel comfortable in almost every society. Me, I don't feel comfortable when I meet crazy people, because I never know what to expect, but luckily this doesn't happen too often.