You may remember that earlier this month I wrote about <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/02/05/bulgarian-census/" target="_blank">the Bulgarian Census</a>. I have to say, it was intense. I filled out the census yesterday afternoon. And frankly, had one of my work colleauges not filled in all of the hard answers I would have definitely failed.

Failed.

That is, if you can fail the census.

But really, who decided to make the census so hard?! I thought a census was just about counting people--Bible style. Last year the US census had 10 questions. Allegedly you could take it in 10 minutes.  This was not the case for the Bulgarian census.

It would have been a comedy of errors trying to fill this thing out in Bulgarian.

I filled my name in easily enough and then five or so pages later when I got to fill in my occupation as teacher that went okay.

What kind of stuff didn't I know?<!--more-->

Well the three or so pages of the census asking me questions about my apartment and the building I live in could have tripped me up if they hadn't already been filled in. Like the question regarding the materials used in the construction of my building. Um, some stuff?

Now, the color of my building? Had that been a question I would have nailed it: <em>orange</em>.

But the ratio of concrete to other building materials? No idea.

When was the building built? Sometime before 2009 when I move in. Is there an elevator? Yes. How many apartments are in your building? Not sure. I've never been past the 4th floor. What's the point? It's just more identical doors.

Equally interesting was the long line of heating options one could choose from. There must have been fifteen choices. Central heat was the option filled in for me. <em>Thanks</em>. Then there was the option: no heat. Ug. That would be horrible. And who builds a house without some source of heat in Bulgaria?! It gets cold here.

Then there was a series of questions about the rooms in my apartment and the size of these different spaces in square meters. You've got to be kidding me <em>square-meters!</em>?! I can't even venture a guess in square feet.

These questions were followed by another list. This time a list of home appliances. The appliances on this list ranged from tv to cable tv (I don't know what the difference is), personal computer to cooker, washing machine to telephone/cellphone to the internet. I think that a dishwasher was on the list but that a dryer was not. Oh and as an aside how the internet is a household appliance totally escapes me. I guess it works the same way as cable tv.

This census is concerned with <em>things</em>. Who has them, what they are made of and how big they are.  I just don't really understand what these things will ultimately tell us.  Without a question related to how much money one makes what's the point? Wont you just end up with a list of stuff that people have and the size and state of the dwelling that houses the stuff and some basic information about the person who looks over and/or owns the stuff?

Anyhow, then there was the question that made me how absurd the whole thing is. It was this: are you literate? Yes or no. Why this gem was tucked away on page four so is beyond me. It seems like this maybe should have opened up the survey but that's just me.

After taking the census I found myself thinking about the questions. It strikes me as a strangest combination of questions I've ever had to answer.  And really, how is a reasonable person supposed to know all the answers to questions related to the building and the apartment one lives in but rents? I mean I guess that I could climb the stairs or ride the elevator to the 6th floor and look around tonight but I'm probably not going to.

So that's that. The Bulgarian census is over and I am really glad that I took it in English.