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Hello

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About 2 weeks ago, as I was doing my regular walk on the sand, this kid, out of the blue, said hello to me. I was surprised. He is probably between 5-6 years old. I was surprised because normally, when people say something to me, they say it in Bulgarian. They assume because I’m here I speak the language. So, how could this kid assume that I speak English? A little over a week ago, it happened again. The kid said hello to me again. My curiosity was killing me. I thought of asking where they are from on my way back. I saw them sitting on the sand, farther from the water, where I was walking barefooted. I switched my direction towards them. And they knew, the two dads, I was approaching them. They started to smile as they watched me walk closer to them. I felt a little nervous. I was gonna do it anyway. I said, “Hi, I was just wondering, where are you guys from? Are you from the US or from UK? I asked because it was the second time your son said hello to me. Usually, they talk to me in B...
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“If It’s Not This, It’s Something Else”

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“If it’s not this, it’s something else.” I heard that from the movie, Elizabethtown, before and I have been thinking about it lately.  I have been thinking about it lately because the reason why I chose Sunny Beach is because it’s a walkable place. I wanted to be car free. I was tired of my car problems in the past. The first time I went swimming at the beach, I hurt my foot. It was not severe. I just have mild discomfort. Still, I have to be careful when I walk, so it won’t get worse. It’s a little bit swollen. It made me think of “If it’s not this, it’s something else” because I don’t have car problems anymore, but now I have a walking problem instead. The second time I went swimming, I noticed that the water made my foot feel better. It made the pain go away. It happened again the third time, so I decided to walk on the sand daily. I thought maybe, it would completely heal the pain. I started yesterday and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s one of those things that you do that yo...
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Nothing is Perfect

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Look at these pictures…   Other than my studio being small, I would say that it’s perfect. At least, perfect for me. And besides, I don’t care that it’s small because I got it for the balcony and the location. Nothing is perfect, though. Something had to go wrong and it did. The first time I used the shower, I started to hear a leaking sound. I didn’t see that coming. I found out it was the water heater. The water heaters here are placed differently. I’m not positively sure, but I believe that the water heater or heaters in the apartment buildings in the US are placed in one location because I never see them. Here, it is placed in each individual unit and usually placed above the toilet. And there is also a box in the wall where you turn the water on and off. My temporary solution was to turn it off when I am not using it. I’ve had this problem for 2 weeks since I got here, but I have been avoiding facing it. Maybe, because the last time I was at the apartment building off...
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Thank God for Google Translate

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The next day after I arrived in Sunny Beach, I went down to the front desk to ask them to fix my key fob just as the security guard said the night before. I went to the front desk, but nobody was there. The house keeper told me to go to the other building.  I went to the other building and the daytime security guard fixed my key fob, but when I asked her for the password for the internet, she said it was only for the  common area (like the swimming pool and the lobby). She asked how long I was staying and when I said 3 months, she said I should get my own. I told her I would, but I needed it just for now. She gave me a temporary one for 5 days only. 5 days have expired. My plan was to go to Vivacom. It’s popular here in Bulgaria. It’s walking distance. That’s why I chose Sunny Beach, it’s walkable to everything. I went there and I found out that they don’t provide internet for 3 months, they only do contracts.  Walking back to my place, I felt like crying. Not ha...
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Tiny Discoveries

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What a find! Cantaloupe ice cream in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria…Ahhh! The simple pleasures in life. I would have not noticed it if I didn’t see a lady taking pictures of the ice cream display. How could she not? It looked beautiful. And when she turned around, I realized she was a Filipina. The first and only Filipina I saw in Bulgaria, so far. It was a happy accident, another serendipitous moment. Those kind of accidents happen to me a lot when I travel. I don’t know why. Maybe because serendipity is always on your side when you follow your dream. The last time I had something similar to a cantaloupe ice cream was super long time ago in the Philippines. It’s called, “ice candy.” We shred the cantaloupe, add some sugar and make a drink out of it. We put it in skinny long bags and freeze them. Some people even sell them from home. My grandmother did. I never had corn on my pizza before. Surprisingly, it was delicious. This is chicken and corn pizza. It looks so much bigger in perso...
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Not a Vacation, a New Life

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I was scheduled to see my vacation home for the first time in April of 2020. In today’s world of cyberspace, long distance real estate is not a foreign concept. Lots of inventors buy multiple real estate properties without even seeing them.  There is only one thing specific I want for my dream home, a bedroom with a door that leads to a balcony or a patio. After a thorough research and with power attorney, I was able to buy a property in Bulgaria in November of 2019. Sadly, I was not able to see it in person as planned in April of the following year due to the coronavirus that caught the whole world by surprise. The month before I was scheduled to travel, US President Trump issued a travel ban for 30 days. The ban was prolonged as the virus continued to spread. To be on the safe side, I didn’t reschedule my flights until September of 2020.  By summertime, international flights started departing from the San Francisco airport to Europe, until   July 1st when the ...
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Christmas in November

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When I left New Jersey and went back to California, it hurt my relationship with my boyfriend to a point where he stopped answering my calls. Eventually, I gave up trying. This is why they say long distance relationship never works. I had a dilemma. My vacation has already been approved by my employer and I had already bought a non-refundable ticket long before all these happened. I decided to just go and see what happens even though we haven’t spoken for months. I thought I would give it one last chance.  Since I was not sure what was waiting for me when I got to New Jersey, I needed a plan B. What would I do during that long weekend all by myself in case he refused to see me? It was that time of the year when they light the tree in New York City, the  lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Plaza which happens the wee...
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