There's a lot that I like about living in Sofia.  There are somethings that I don't love as much (like the fact that after eight months here I still trip on uneven sidewalk tiles).  But this post is about things that I still don't really understand:
<ol>
	<li>Why doesn't my neighborhood grocery store carry the same brands from week to week? And more specifically, why is it that my favorite musli can be on the shelf for three or four weeks and then it will disappear for weeks on end.  At this point, I assume that I'll never see it again and that's the week say two bags show up on the shelf.  Also, when this happens why don't I buy both bags?!</li>
	<li>What are the drivers thinking who slow down at crosswalks to let me cross?! It seems to me that most drivers see me trying to cross the street and speed up.  Somehow I can't help wondering if these well behaved drivers know the "rules" here.</li>
	<li>How can it be that I always go to the post office stand in line for at least 10 minutes and then when it's my turn to buy stamps there's not a single person in line behind me? I know it doesn't seem possible but I've never been to the post office when I haven't had to stand in line.  The good think about this is that it gives me plenty of time to think about what I am going to say. These women do<em> not</em> speak English.  <!--more--></li>
	<li>I have no idea how streets or rooms in buildings are numbered.  In Sofia University for example all rooms no matter what floor they are on seem to be two-hundred and something.  Really, how does that help me find the room in the maze of a building that is Sofia University.  So every time I am there I'm the tall blond girl walking all over the place.  The same goes for many of the streets in Sofia.  We don't seem to do the odds on one side of the street an evens on the other side.  I am not sure who numbered the streets but I can't help wondering if he'd been drinking rakia the night he started numbering.</li>
	<li> Why are all of my 8th graders in to metal (bands I know but have never really bothered listening to)?</li>
	<li>I used to wonder where all of the bad sweaters I gave my dad each year for Christmas went but now I understand that these somehow end up in thrift stores in Sofia and I occasionally have seen a dAd Dave special out on the streets.  So this mystery has been solved.  How they get here from Walla Walla I am not so clear on.</li>
	<li>How did mozzarella cheese for pizzas get replaced with the Bulgarian yellow cheese--kashkaval? Sure the colors are similar and the texture is closer than the Bulgarian white cheese--sierne (or Greek feta)--but the flavors are very different and the two cheese melt differently as well.</li>
	<li>Why don't Bulgarians recycle?</li>
	<li>What's going on with the Bulgarian red?  How can every woman go to the hair dresser and come out with the same color of hair? Does she say: "oh give me what you just gave her" and point? Also, if I went to the salon how would I look in that color?</li>
	<li>How can it be that I never know the work schedule and why doens't anyone tell me what's going on? It's happened more than once that the government will give us the day off and then have us make the days off up on a Saturday.  For example it's scheduled to happen in May.  We get off May 1-6th but we've got to make up two days May 4th and 5th on two Saturdays later in May.  So we don't really get the 4th and 5th off after all...  I guess the good thing is that least I know this time.</li>
</ol>
There are a few things that I don't understand and love.
<ol>
	<li>How can a bottle of beer be so big and so cheap? 500 ml and 2 leva.</li>
	<li>Who is supporting all of the cafes? Man I love a good cup of coffee as much as the next girl and I get one at all times of the day but who are all of these other people? how are the cafes always busy?</li>
	<li>How is it possible that the babas (grandmothers) that I see struggling to carry home kilos of fruits and veggies are able to eat it all before it goes bad?</li>
	<li>Why people put up with me when my Bulgarian is so bad.</li>
	<li>People selling things everywhere from hand shelled walnuts to bras to homemade wine in coke bottles and lots of socks, scarves, umbrellas and flowers.</li>
	<li>When little kids say to me: I don't know the word for it in English and it turns out it's for some food or a person's name that we don't have English.</li>
	<li>Why everything that's homemade tastes better--it's like somehow the Bulgarians are able to bake, cook or can sunshine into whatever they're making.  Jam, bread, pickled veggies you name it.</li>
	<li>How can the simple combo of pastry and salty cheese be so amazing (banitsa... not to mention the other options cheese and spinach, cheese and green onion and even pumpkin) but in the States all of our pastries are sweet.   What's wrong with us?! Why don't we have a savory pastry?</li>
	<li>Why isn't the Cyrillic alphabet cool? This also goes for the Bulgarian language.  I'd love to have a planner that had the months and days of the week in Bulgarian but after a 3 month search no luck.  Shouldn't this be some hipster-cool thing? Alas, it's not.</li>
	<li> How this country can frustrate me to no end sometimes and still I am trying to figure out to extend this year into a second one.</li>
</ol>
Hope that you get a kick out of these two lists.