@elykinabox The Fulbright is a great program.  The goal of the program is to promote the exchange of culture and ideas between people, to increase the creation of knowledge through research, teaching and study and finally to help foster world peace (as I write the last one I feel a little bit like a beauty queen waving from a parade float but that's another story). For me this year has been a challenge.  There was some part of me that thought that after working in a rough and tumble neighborhood in Washington DC where I was regularly the only white person that I would be prepared for the differences I would face here in Sofia, Bulgaria.

But that's the interesting thing about culture--it doesn't work that way.  Some of the differences here are very subtle while others hit you across the face on your way into town from the airport.  This said teaching and working with the teachers and students inside and outside of the classroom has been one of the most rewarding (and challenging) things that I've done here.  It's also given me a lot of insight into the culture.  In the field of intercultural communications theorists talk about the objective culture (for example, the things that people make, eat, and wear) and the subjective culture (for example, people's values, attitudes, norms and behavior). They say that the subjective culture is the place that most cultural misunderstanding occurs and I can't agree more.  However, being able to work with so many Bulgarian students and teachers has given me insight and access to this subjective culture and I am thankful for this exposure because it's clear that many of my expat friends don't have similar access to how Bulgarians see, imagine and value the place and the space that they live in.

I will not go so far as to imply that I "get" Bulgarians or fully understand the underpinnings of their subjective culture (this seems like an impossible task) but I will say that teaching has forced me to challenge many of the ideas and opinions that I hold about education, Bulgarians and the complicated, messy and often confusing country I grew up in.  Good luck on this project and your class. --From a Fellow AP English Student