Foreign travel as a series of small victories
Yay: My Bulgarian language skills are adequate to purchasing a metro ticket.
Not-so-yay: When I arrived at the metro stop near the VMware offices, I came out of the metro station by a different exit than I'd used previously, and got briefly lost. I was at the point of phoning a colleague to come rescue me when I found a street sign and was able to work out where I was.
Yay: A passer-by asked me in Bulgarian how to get to the metro stop, and I understood and answered. (Mind you, we were half a block away, so I was able to point up the street and say, "tuk" (here). More complex directions would have been beyond me.)
Yay: Successfully negotiated entry into the office building, despite getting a firm "ne" (no) from the receptionist to my hopeful, "Govorite li Angleeski?" (Do you speak English?) (Normally, VMware would have given me a keycard for the building, but they have a lot of visitors this week, and they ran out.)
Not-so-yay: My Bulgarian language skills are not quite up to the task of ordering lunch.
Yay: My Bulgarian colleagues have taken it upon themselves to ensure that I don't starve, and have escorted me to lunch and helped me order.
Weird random factoid: My colleagues inform me that it is customary in Bulgaria to put ketchup and mayonnaise on pizza. And yet they claim to find rootbeer disgusting.
Not-so-yay: When I arrived at the metro stop near the VMware offices, I came out of the metro station by a different exit than I'd used previously, and got briefly lost. I was at the point of phoning a colleague to come rescue me when I found a street sign and was able to work out where I was.
Yay: A passer-by asked me in Bulgarian how to get to the metro stop, and I understood and answered. (Mind you, we were half a block away, so I was able to point up the street and say, "tuk" (here). More complex directions would have been beyond me.)
Yay: Successfully negotiated entry into the office building, despite getting a firm "ne" (no) from the receptionist to my hopeful, "Govorite li Angleeski?" (Do you speak English?) (Normally, VMware would have given me a keycard for the building, but they have a lot of visitors this week, and they ran out.)
Not-so-yay: My Bulgarian language skills are not quite up to the task of ordering lunch.
Yay: My Bulgarian colleagues have taken it upon themselves to ensure that I don't starve, and have escorted me to lunch and helped me order.
Weird random factoid: My colleagues inform me that it is customary in Bulgaria to put ketchup and mayonnaise on pizza. And yet they claim to find rootbeer disgusting.