I knew that there would be lots of new things in my life this year.  Sure I've been here for a year now but as an expat things are never exactly the same from year to year (hell, they never are the same year to year no matter who you are) but living abroad things often seem more transient. People come in and out of your life, the city grows and changes and you move and change as well.

Many of my good friends from last year M. the Fulbrighter has moved back to NYC and is starting a PhD (good luck and I home your summer math class went okay) and D. my Spanish friend and Macedonian travel partner has moved home to start a MA in diplomacy.  I couldn't be happier for both of them but I kind of wondered where that was going to leave me.  It's not as if I couldn't imagine my life in Sofia without them, in fact, I knew I had to. It was just that it was harder seeing as these two are woven into so many of my memories here over the past year.

This said, it's not as if I am going to find myself friendless in Sofia.  First off, I've still got plenty of Bulgarian friends and expat friends.  Secondly, I know that there are lots of 20 and 30 something teachers at the American College and I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know them.  Finally, there's a whole new group of Fulbrighters in Sofia and I've already been in fairly regular touch with two of them.  So already, I feel incredibly lucky to know this many people and to have the opportunity to meet so many new and I assume interesting people in the next few weeks.<!--more-->

Through a lucky turn of events, I met my now neighbor through my blog in July.  He is a new teacher at the American College as well.  We were in email contact for a couple of weeks before I arrived and yesterday morning I gave him (a rather desperate first) call.  My hot water heater is broken and dripping water on the floor (but don't worry I got it to stop--mostly) and I wanted to know if I could take a shower at his place.

Yep, that's how desperate I was for a shower.  I've never met this guy in person. He's read my blog, I got in touch with him via facebook, we exchange a few emails and now in my pjs totally jet lagged, hair a mess, I am calling him about a shower.  For the record, even in a digital age, this isn't how I prefer to meet people the first time. Well, as luck would have it he was in but he didn't have hot water either and for some strange reason he also doesn't have a hot water heater.  He tells me that he had hot water at the beginning of August but for the last few days nothing.  While this seems strange to me, it is what I've learned to expect of life here in Bulgaria. So I do the next best thing, I ask my neighbor if he wants to go into Sofia and have a coffee in the early afternoon.  He agrees.

I take decide that I'll run a load of laundry, unpack my suitcase of books and heat up some water on the stove for a "shower."  The hot and cold shower mix isn't exactly how I imagined my first shower in my new apartment.  And I am struck by the thought that maybe I am now cursed by hot water heaters rather than toliets as I used to believe.  If you've been a loyal reader of this blog you may remember two of my posts the first on <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/i-miss-you-hot-water/" target="_blank">my broken hot water heater</a> in my first apartment and the second on <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/toilets/">my love hate relationships with toilets</a> (and the fact that never seem flush how and when they should).

Here's the thing, knock on wood, I haven't had a toliet problem in over a year but now I've had two hot water heater problems in a little over a year.  Still I can't help but wonder if this is an improvement over my old "curse."  Also, it makes me wonder if I should have gone into plumbing as a career rather than books and teaching.  Then again, maybe I am getting an eduction in plumbing whether I want one or not.  The only thing I know for sure is that now whenever I hear water dripping my heart beats a little faster and I frantically go into hyper-drive looking for the source of the dripping and that now I am also getting better and better at improvising shot term solutions to my dripping problems.

The other thing that makes my heart beat like this is coffee so at the designated time I knocked on G. door and we headed into Sofia's city center proper.  We took the metro. Gasp. Yep. I took the metro from Mladost 1 to the Levski stop. It was easy as pie and delightful.  And I get a kick out of the fact that I rode the metro from the first stop to the last and it was maybe 10 minutes--there are after all only five or so stops open--but I am not complaining. I got exactly where I wanted to go and it was lots, lots faster than the bus.  Still, I am looking forward to a few more stops opening.

All in all, yesterday was a good start to this adventure, part two.  I am in the process of making a new friend, I am looking forward to teaching, I rode on the metro, I had coffee at one of my favorite spots Colours &amp; Flavours, and I was reminded (thanks to the hot water heater) that my expectations wont always be met--a new apartment have no problems? Ha.