I am back in Sofia and settling in nicely.  On Saturday night, I went out with a group of friends from the <a title="Fulbright " href="http://www.fisi-bg.info/" target="_blank">Fulbright International Summer Institute or FISI</a> for short (this is the program I've been on for the last two weeks in Tryavna).  And, I had my first two house guests which is not bad for a one bedroom apartment--I had some hot water problems and the internet went out so I probably wont make it on any "best bed and breakfasts in Sofia" lists but that's okay.  And for the record, the problem was of course me and not the apartment and I've got it all worked out now. In other words, this means that it's safe for my friends and family to come and visit.

Then I spent Sunday saying good bye to all of my new friends from FISI. It was strange to say good bye to everyone over two days--friends from Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Albania, Lebanon and Azerbaijan to name a few countries--and then to find myself at dinner with a group of Bulgarians and me, the American.  I realized at this dinner that I am going to be here for a year.  I said good bye one by one to my new friends and now here I am.

The great thing is that I have more friends then when I moved to Sofia (thanks to FISI and the wonderful students there), I know more Bulgarian than when I stepped off the airplane three weeks ago, and I finally feel like I am settling into this city.

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Luckily, I went straight from the Fulbright program to intensive Bulgarian language classes otherwise I am not sure what I would have done with myself and I probably would have ended up being lonely. Instead, I am taking language classes Monday-Friday from 9am-12:15pm for the next three weeks.  I am in the beginners class, which is just fine with me, but I should publicly praise my Bulgarian tutor in DC because at least the first two days have been review and I have been told that I have a good accent by my teacher a couple of times! (Also by taking this language class, I am also able to take Bulgarian folk dance classes two days a week at the school for free.  This I am sure will shortly make into it's own blog post.)

The Fulbright signed me up for the classes so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.  The only information I had on the first day was the name of the school and the address.  I got there about an hour early because I was terrified of using public transportation and I didn't want to be late on my first day.  Today when I took the bus to my class I figured that I would try to be 15 minutes early--still I arrived at the school 30 minutes early.

I think that it is because the public transportation system isn't, gasp, too difficult to use.  I fully realize that because I've written this I will probably never be able to use the public transportation system successfully again but I'll have to take that chance.

So here's the thing, it took me forever to figure out the bus system in DC and not even the metro was intuitive to me to begin with, so I assumed that the public transportation system would be even more complicated in Sofia seeing as I can't read Cyrillic very quickly and my Bulgarian is pretty elementary.

All I really knew before my first bus ride was that I had two options one was to buy a pass for the month and the other was to buy individual tickets.  I decided that I would buy a pass but then had no idea where to buy one of these.  It turns out however that there are kiosks that sell these but I guess that in some places you can also buy individual tickets from newspaper stands or from the driver on the bus.  I now have a month pass for the bus, the tram and the trolley but don't ask me what the difference is between the tram and the trolley because I don't know.  All I know is that they are marked differently on my map and I purchased a pass to use all three.

The great part is that my city map has all of the lines marked and shows you which number bus you need take to get where you want to go but more than this, there are predesignated stops and the map shows you exactly where these are.  This means that for someone like me who barely knows which way is up and struggles to read Cyrillic you can just count the number of stops before yours and then on the bus you just have to pay attention to how many stops have been made and you don't have to worry about ringing a bell to signal that you want off at the next stop.  This was one of the most difficult things for me in Washington DC because if you don't know the city and you don't know the what the streets are before your stop how are you supposed to know when you should pull the cord to ring the bell to get off at your stop?!

I guess that the downside of this is that there are fewer stops so you've got to know where you want to get off and if you accidentally ride through your stop, you'll have to walk a long way back to your stop.  But I also have a hunch that having designated stops means that the route can move along more quickly because not everyone is ringing the bell to get off the bus each block.  It's probably worth noting here that even though the bus riding in Sofia seems to be pretty straightforward there are absolutely some this-country-used-to-be-socialist differences (well compared to the US).

One difference is that the buses appear much older and while they seem to run just fine, they appear to be on the brink of breaking down.  Another difference is that there is nothing handicap accessible about these buses--good luck to you if a 12+ inch step is too much for you because I have no idea how you will get on the bus. Finally, one of my favorite differences is that the bus doors open and people stream out of all of the doors and then everyone waiting for the bus rushes on.  This is clearly because if you don't hurry you run the risk of being left behind or alternately stuck on the bus unable to get off at your stop.  And let me tell you, when the bus doors and tram doors shut--they shut.  It is not like an elevator where if your arm or leg was in the door the doors wouldn't close.  These will clearly close on anything and you don't want to be near them when this happens.

The other exciting thing about the public transportation system here compared to the US--specifically Washington DC--is the fact that as a passenger you more or less ride on the honor system.  Unlike in DC where you must either pay for your ride, show a transfer slip or a bus pass, you just climb on the bus in Sofia.  Clearly, you are supposed to pay and this means that you either have a valid pass or you have your ticket and you've stamped it/punched in on a machine on the bus/tram/trolley but unlike the US you don't show it to the bus driver upon entering the bus (see above for my description of getting on and off the bus and you'll understand why). Instead there are people who ride, undercover, on the bus and their jobs are to check to make sure that you've paid to ride the bus.  If not, they will fine you on the spot.

The same goes in Germany and when I was there a few years ago, I was told that Berliners joke that the likelihood is that an agent will only check for your ticket once a year so after you've been checked you're safe for the whole year.  I, of course, managed on my first day in Berlin to have my ticket checked on both the subway <em>and</em> on the bus--something that seems to be both highly unlucky and highly unlikely.

So didn't come as any surprise to me that on my first trip on a bus in Sofia, an agent checked the entire bus.  Luckily, I am too scared to ride without a pass but others were not as lucky and received, I think, automatic fines of 7 leva.  A fine of 7 leva isn't so much, but I have to say that the whole thing is a little bit scary--even when you know you have pass.  I think that this sense of being scared is probably compounded by the fact that you don't actually know what the agent is saying besides something about a ticket and she is wearing normal clothes with a shiny gold badge around her neck which she later tucks back into her jacket making it invisible.

I was a little bit surprised to be scared by this check.  But looking back I think that it was a mix of things that got to me the issue of an authority figure, the possibility of a fine (if I didn't buy the right pass) and not understanding what the agent is saying, but I think that there is something deeper at work as well.  It's this sense that you don't know who on the bus is merely a rider like you or alternately who has authority on the bus because everyone looks the same.  But the fact is, we are not all the same; even though on the surface, everyone seems to pretend that this is the case.  What stood out to me, was the fact that no one was really bothered by this check.  Everyone begrudgingly showed their proof of payment or paid the fine.  It was routine, everyday, expected.

For me, this standard check was anything but standard and made me think about issues of authority.  In the states, nearly all of our authority figures are clearly marked with specific and recognizable uniforms and insignia and even as a small child, I knew who these people were and what their role in our city was.  The difference is that these men and women were public figures and as a result, I wasn't afraid of them because they were known to me. This experience reminded me that it's easy to be afraid of what or who you do not know but in looking around the bus at the other passengers, I realized that this check was just a part of life.  It was known to them and they were not phased by it but still it gave me pause.

All of this said, it's clear to me that this system works Sofia.  So all I have to do is to get used to the system and keep my fingers crossed that the public transportation gods continue to smile on me.