I don't think that this will surprise anyone. I love Sofia even though it's a hard city to love. At times it's maddening (stray dogs, uneven sidewalks, crowded buses, poor snow removal and inefficiencies of all colors and stripes both big and small) but now that the first signs of spring have emerged the city seems vibrant and energetic.

Winter coats have all but disappeared and it's as if by shedding some of the winter layers the city also shed some of it's gloom. In my book, that's pretty magical.<a href="http://instagr.am/p/JJhDVYmubv/"><img class="alignnone" title="Spotted in Mladost: a tree in bloom" src="http://distilleryimage11.instagram.com/7bca8928814411e1be6a12313820455d_7.jpg" alt="" width="612" height="612" /></a>

Anyhow, I've been reading this blog <a href="http://groundbeneathmyfeet.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">The Ground Beneath My Feet</a> for a while now and currently I'm in love with everything she's writing about Sofia. I think I originally found it through another blog <a href="http://www.themigrantbookclub.com/" target="_blank">The Migrant Book Club</a>.  Both of these blogs are written by Bulgarians in English and frankly I can't get enough of either one of them.

I've been thinking a lot about a post from The Ground Beneath My Feet titled <a href="http://groundbeneathmyfeet.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/balancing-on-top-of-the-dash-here-there-and-in-between/" target="_blank">Balancing on top of the dash: Here there and in between</a>. She's writing about the push and pull that so many young Bulgarians feel about their country and the opportunities or lack of opportunities here. The tug between living here or living elsewhere and what this inevitably does to one's heartstrings.

Two major questions seem to dominate this post. If you can leave, do you? But what if you stay, then what? The underlying problem seems to be one of responsibility--is it more responsible to take care of yourself or do you have some responsibility to your country as well?