wandERINg

It's time to change the title of my blog since as of next week I will no longer be in Paris. I'm not sure why I went with a name so specific since I knew all along that Paris was merely a launching point. I guess I was optimistic that we would get jobs right away and I could spend a few years becoming fluent in French language and French cooking. But since that didn't happen, rules are rules and we are moving on.

And so we are off next week to a sea-side town in Bulgaria. When we tell people here that we are going to Bulgaria, we get a lot of "oh that's great!" and "you'll love it". When we tell Americans, we get raised eyebrows and disbelief. (The raised eyebrows are just assumed by the tone of the emails).

I'll admit that it wasn't anywhere I expected to end up. But it's only for a few months and after that we will be on to somewhere else, hopefully with good stories to tell our future children. I have never lived near a beach so this will be a first. I hope to visit Istanbul, Ukraine, Romania, and maybe Russia. I doubt I will learn much Bulgarian while I'm there, but thanks to youtube I have already mastered "hello" in both informal and formal/plural forms.

So in renaming my blog, I was considering the following:

wandERINg - too obvious

Globe-Trotting - but we're only trotting around Europe so far, not the whole globe, so this wasn't accurate

Vagabonding in Varna - I think this suggests hitchhiking and not paying for apartments, neither of which we have yet to do

Beach Bum in Bulgaria, Ecrivain in the East, Drifting to the Black Sea... all of which are too specific

Finally, I chose Year of the Dog. Partly because from the very beginning of this adventure, everything has been complicated by our decision to bring our dog, which we knew it would. Yet having him here has also made this all the more enriching, and my life tends to revolve around him, as many of my blogs suggest. And also because many years of eating at China Doll in Dickinson taught me that I was born the Year of the Dog, and I believe the character attributes of the Dog are compatible with those that inspired me to be where I am now.

I am happy that these past three months have given me a chance to improve my french language skills (I can finally have phone conversations in French, sorta!), to meet all sorts of interesting and sweet French people, and to introduce Paris to a few friends and family who came to visit. For those who still want to visit, instead of a mat on the floor by Majerle's dog dish, in Varna we will have two bedrooms. So come on down!