This weekend I bought a new pair of boots.  They may not be the most serious purchase of my life but they are very cute. They are comfy and I fell in love with them through the store window.  Are they going to keep my feet dry? Um, no not at all (yesterday's rain storm was a testament to that) but they look great. And they cause me to smile when I look down at them on my feet.

[caption id="attachment_1556" align="alignright" width="500" caption="My new shoes from the corner shop"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/dsc01221.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1556" title="New Shoes " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/dsc01221.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

Wearing my new shoes this past week has gotten me thinking about clothes.  This should probably go without saying but I am going to any way: I don't consider myself one of those vapid girls who only cares about clothes, hair and make-up because I also like to write, to read and to keep current when it comes to news, music and technology. This said, I realize the rest of this post on clothing may make you wonder where my head is and why I've just spent an entire post writing about clothes when it's not normally something I devote much if any time to on my blog.

I am writing about this today because I've had a clothing revelation. There's something rather startling when you look down at your outfit and realize that everything you're wearing you've purchased abroad.  I think that the surprise is built into the fact that it takes a certain amount of time to acquire enough clothing to put together an outfit and then when you finally look down and think: hey, I didn't own any of this stuff a year ago-- it reminds you of where you've been. This feeling of surprise hasn't hit me very many times mostly because I haven't lived abroad for very long <em>and </em>I generally try to buy high quality clothing so that I don't need to shop as often.

This said, two days in a row this week noticed that I was (and am) wearing European clothes rather than my standard uniform of American clothes--Gap, Ann Taylor, Target, Banana Republic and Macy's.  When I realized this, it made me think about what this subtle shift means.  On the surface, it means that I've lived abroad for 1.5 years and I needed some new clothes.  Gosh, even I know that.

But, on another level I think that it shows an acclimation of sorts to my surroundings. <!--more-->I am at home in my skin and in my surroundings.  I am not necessarily trying to blend in--I am trying to be the best version of me and I am letting Europe and more specifically Sofia influence me.  I am not sure that by looking at me you'd notice that my clothing was drastically different from one day to the next whether I am in my Bulgarian purchases or in my American purchases.   In part, I think that this is due to the ways in which I put together my outfits but aside from this I shop for color and fit and recently I've been on a black, eggplant purple, brown, dark gray and saturated blue kick. The aesthetic is me only now the clothes are Bulgarian and European rather than American.

What's interesting in my mind is that I go back to the States enough that I could if I wanted just buy what I need and what I want when I am there.  I could order an entire new wardrobe online in an afternoon from my favorite State side stores and be done with it. The clothes could be in boxes in my bedroom when I arrived home that would be that.  But this doesn't appeal to me.  I am not interested in this.

Clothes tell a story about who you are.  And I don't want my story to read: the Gap, Express, Forever 21 or Bebe.  My story is about adventure. It's about exploring and trying new things and because of this, I think I would be remiss if I limited myself to the things I know.

Thus the story is not so much about what I am wearing.  Rather the story is about what I've found and discovered in my quest to clothe myself.  The fact is that after a year in Bulgaria I now know where I like to shop, the range of selection in Sofia, what fits well, which stores have the nicest sales people and where to go for clothing that is both good quality and a good price.  It's easier to go shopping today than it was a year ago.  I know myself better today than I did then and I also <em>get</em> the shopping scene in Sofia a little bit more now than I did a year ago.

Growing up in the states there are about five options when it comes to shopping for clothing: the mall, a department store, a boutique, big box stores like Target, WalMart and KMart and thrift shops.  Most of these options are easy and quick but the risk is that you'll show up wearing the same Gap sweater that your friend is (and who wants this?).  For better or worse this is what I grew up with. Neat stacks of sweaters folded or hung carefully on hangers--one style of sweater in five or six different colors and a range of different sizes.  Everything is organized and you can pick out what you want based on color and fit. And maybe just maybe, you can pick from the crew neck, the v-neck or the turtleneck sweater.

The thing is it's different here. In Bulgaria, the shops are smaller and as a result the selection is smaller. This doesn't mean that there aren't good things to buy.  It just means in my case it takes me a little bit more time.  I look around a bit more and try on more things than I might have in the states.  The part that's the hardest for me is the fact that you can go into a number of stores and not have anything catch your eye--or all of the sizes are extra small (and it's not as if everyone in Sofia wears an x-small).  Items aren't always displayed as they would be in the states because the shop may only have one or two of each item.  It means that you have to really look through the racks and keep an open mind about things.

In the end, I think that my clothing revelation is about much, much more than finding shoes that fit or pants that don't look ridiculously short on me.  It's about realizing that I can fit in here but that I can still be me--that I am an American in Bulgaria and that's a good thing.