Big news: I've just made my magazine début in the Bulgarian fashion magazine Moda. Yes, you read that correctly. I am in a fashion magazine. A Bulgarian one.

[caption id="attachment_1986" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Moda, February"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dsc01453.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1986" title="Moda " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dsc01453.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

I've never been in a magazine before (so it's kind of a big deal for me).  I was asked in November for an interview and in December I gave the interview and the photos were taken.  Now the project is out on newsstands and I am in it. I appear in a collection of stories on foreigners in Bulgaria. And for the record, I do not dispense a single word of fashion advice.  That's probably for the best.  I am after all a huge fan of layering things, sweatpants and tennis shoes (well, not all at once. not usually).

[caption id="attachment_1987" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Me in Moda"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dsc01450.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1987" title="Me in Moda " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dsc01450.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

However, had I been asked I would have shared this: everything I am wearing in these photos, I found in Bulgaria. The dress and necklace are from Paradise Garage, the ring is handmade by a Bulgarian artist and I came across the jacket at a little shop on lower-Graf Ignativ--near the stadium. I like to shop and buy locally when I can. I like to support up and coming talent and I don't want too look like everyone else.  But who's interested in fashion advice from an American? I am just glad that I look pretty pulled together in my photos.

Luckily, I do have a lot to say about life in Bulgaria which was what the interview was really about. This as you know is really the basis of my blog--which coincidentally is how the magazine editor found me.  Given the blog, I am pretty used to saying what I think, getting feedback and then writing some more.  Still there's something different about knowing that you're going to be in <em>print</em>.<!--more--> I began obsessing over it. Over what to wear, what I'd say, and what it meant to willing hand myself over for an article about me.  After all my story is something that I have ultimate control over on my blog.

But I got over my obsessions.  Simply the idea of being in a Bulgarian fashion magazine was too, um, amazing for words.  First, no one's ever asked me to me in a magazine. Second, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd ever end up in a Bulgarian magazine.  Let alone a fashion magazine.  Third, that I was asked in large part due to my blog was wildly amusing to me.  As I more or less started this blog so that I wouldn't have to spam my friends and family with group emails and as I said in the article my MoM was (and is) my biggest fan.  (Yeah MoM, you too make an appearance in the pages of Moda!) Oh and there's no way my Bulgarian is good enough to conduct an interview in Bulgarian so the though of actually seeing myself in an article in a magazine, in Bulgarian was the kicker.  I was hooked.

Now, this will probably not come as a surprise. There's something exciting about seeing yourself in a magazine. I really liked flipping through the magazine looking for my article. The feel of the shiny pages on my fingers and when I finally found the article, I really liked seeing my name in print, in Bulgarian. <em>I liked it lot</em>. Maybe even more than I should have.

[caption id="attachment_1988" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Karolinka and Moda! "]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dsc01449.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1988" title="Moda and Karolinka " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dsc01449.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

The first thing I did was look through the pictures, the other three profiles and then I returned to my own.  I tried to read it.  Ha. Too hard.

I couldn't get the thought out of my head: I said that stuff? This is not to say that I was misquoted. Nope, everything I said was me it's just that I gave the interview in English.  So to read myself in Bulgaria is kind of a strange thing. But I did like how many big words I know in Bulgarian and I apparently have pretty good grammar in Bulgarian too. The thing I had been most worried about was sounding stupid.  Luckily, I think, I sound okay.

But I am not sure that this excitement translates very well into a blog post. So I am sorry for this. Still I am writing. I tried to think of all sorts of funny, witty things to say. No luck. I mean it's not even like the pictures I posted are that interesting. I mean ultimately the pictures are just pages from a magazine--some of which have a story about me and pictures of me. You can hardly see the the print is Cyrillic.

So this morning I tried to decide if being in a magazine made any difference in my life but I don't think so as I feel neither more fashionable nor more Bulgarian than yesterday. Okay, it's not that I expected to wake up after being in a magazine and have clothes just jump out of the closet for me to wear or for me to suddenly be able to speak Bulgarian (but it would be a nice perk).  I actually didn't know what to expect.  So I was revealed to arrive at the pretty reassuring conclusion: it doesn't make much of a difference in my life that I am in a magazine.

Well, it's pretty fun. But that's about it.  I have no super powers as a result. It's not easier or faster for me to write a blog post.  The 111 and 76 buses are just as crowded as they normally are and I still have a stack of papers to grade for the end of the term.

But if you'd like to get a kick out seeing me in a magazine, reading more about me in Bulgarian or just wonder what the Bulgarian fashion magazine take on foreigners (like me) in Bulgaria is you should pick up the February issue of Moda! Also, You should probably do this sooner than later because I still need to buy 10 or so copies for my friends and family in the States.  I mean I can't not send a copy to my MoM.