The Bulgarian Census was intense. I filled it out yesterday afternoon. Had one of my work colleauges not filled in all of the hard answers I would have definitely failed.

That is, if you can fail the census.

But really, who decided to make the census so hard?! I thought a census was just about counting people--Bible style. Last year the US census had 10 questions. Allegedly you could take it in 10 minutes.  This was not the case for the Bulgarian census.

It would have been a comedy of errors trying to fill this thing out in Bulgarian.

I filled my name in easily enough and then five or so pages later when I got to fill in my occupation as teacher that went okay.

What kind of stuff didn't I know?<!--more-->

Well the three or so pages of the census asking me questions about my apartment and the building I live in could have tripped me up if they hadn't already been filled in. Like the question regarding the materials used in the construction of my building. The color of my building? Had that been a question I would have nailed it: orange. But the ratio of concrete to other building materials? No idea.

When was the building built? Sometime before 2009 when I move in.  How many apartments are in your building? Not sure. I've never been past the 4th floor. What's the point? It's just more identical doors.

Equally interesting was the long line of heating options one could choose from. There must have been fifteen choices. Then there was a series of questions about the rooms in the apartment and the size of these different spaces in square meters. You've got to be kidding me <em>square-meters!</em>?! I can't even venture a guess in square feet.

These questions were followed by another list. This time a list of home appliances. The appliances on this list ranged from tv to cable tv (I don't know what the difference is), personal computer to cooker, washing machine to telephone/cellphone to the internet. I think that dishwasher was on the list but that dryer was not. Oh and as an aside how the internet is a household appliance totally escapes me.

The question that made me giggle way more than I should have was: are you literate: yes or no. Why this gem was tucked away on page four so is beyond me. It seems like this maybe should have opened up the survey but that's just me.

After taking the census I found myself thinking about the questions. It strikes me as a strangest combination of questions I've ever had to answer.  And really, how is a reasonable person supposed to know all the answers to questions related to the building and the apartment one lives in but rents?

this census isn't just interested in people it's equally interested in things.