Could part of the problem be that you're an English teacher and an English-language blogger, so your brain is exercised in your native tongue every day? Someone else mentioned immersion with a family who only speaks Bulgarian, and I would second that... the key is to have *no way out* when it comes to the language. My theory in France was if you need the language in order to eat, sleep, and love, your sympathetic nervous system will come to your aid and work with you to become fluent.