The office here at the park has been frantic and full of commotion lately. A European Union commission has been sent down here to audit our office as part of a large project that we have been working with, and my coworkers have been busy setting everything up in preparation of their arrival. Through this program (who’s goals I am still unclear of) Strandja park has received all sorts of new gear and equipment, ranging from new computer systems and GPS units, to a boat and tranquilizer gun. Most of this new equipment has yet to be used, a fact that was proven when my coworkers finally unboxed half of the stuff for the first time this week and asked me to set it up for them. As a result, I am now the resident IT expert at Strandja Nature Park. Need new printer drivers installed on a computer? Don’t have training on a GPS unit? Can’t figure out how to set up a PDA? Well I’m the guy to talk to.
To be honest, I didn’t know how to do most of this stuff either when I got here, but since I seem to be the most technologically savvy person in the office, it falls to me to figure it all out, and I have enjoyed doing it. I might as well pick up a new set of skills while I’m here anyway. So now every time we get a new piece of equipment, I read through the manual and search online so I can train myself on how to use it, and how to teach the rest of the office how to use it. I started off with basic stuff, like learning how to use manual functions on an SLR camera (one of those nice professional cameras) to my current goal of setting up an office network that links all 10 or so office computers and their respective peripherals, so that I can print or scan a document on any printer or scanner from any computer in the building.
While this sounds like quite the task (and indeed it is proving to be) I personally feel that it is much needed, because right now printing and scanning is crazy hard. For example, every month the assistant director of the park makes up a budget report on his computer, which doesn’t have a printer or internet. In order to print it, he has to save it to a floppy disk (remember those things?) and take it over to my computer down the hall. But he (and by he, I mean I) has to save it as a special file type because his version of Word and mine are different and not very compatible. Then once it’s transferred it gets printed from my computer. Doesn’t sound too difficult? Well, this process is usually repeated about 4-5 times for every document he prints because Word doesn’t spell check Bulgarian and he doesn’t catch the mistakes until after it’s printed. Same thing for spacing errors and what not.
We’ll see if my goal of an office network comes to fruition or not, but in the mean time I’m still busy helping with everything else. Right now I have been assigned the task of digitizing the parks records. It’s good and Im glad to be busy and helpful, but I have to admit that it’s not what I had imagined when I first came out here. Funny how things can change like that.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Small Town Life
Lately I have found that with no big projects underway, winter in full swing, and no tourists in the park, I have plenty of time for updating blog, but nothing interesting to talk about. Its the irony of writing blogs for me; when I'm doing tons of cool stuff, I only get a chance to update every few weeks. But when I have the chance to update every day, I have nothing to say.
Life here in MT is still plodding along like normal. There is still snow out on the ground from the snow storm after new years, and its overcast and drizzling. I have been trying to hang around here lately and save up some money, but I think in a few days I will need to get out to burgas for a change of pace. There is only so long I can stay here in this town with out going crazy, so in the interest in personal sanity, i think a weekend in the city with friends is a good idea. Overall though things are going ok. I have had plenty of time to catch up on my reading and lately I have been able to talk to my brother out in Kuwait (who is finally coming home in about a week!). I just need to appreciate this slow time because once the weather gets better and spring comes around I will get busy again.
Funny story though, my office building just got new blinds installed on all the new windows (we're coming up in the world) and my coworkers are super excited about them. however, its been really dark and overcast out lately so I keep pulling up the blinds to let in more light, and they keep lowering them down because, well, I'm not sure why. maybe just excited to have blinds I guess. Its funny, but now my office has natural lighting equivalent to that of a cave (Note on my office building: the Directorate of Nature Park Strandja occupies an old communist party headquarters looking out over the town center. It is complete with dark brown panel walls and padded double doors on every office to keep out eavesdroppers. Think of the KGB offices you see in old Bond films; that's where I work).
Life here in MT is still plodding along like normal. There is still snow out on the ground from the snow storm after new years, and its overcast and drizzling. I have been trying to hang around here lately and save up some money, but I think in a few days I will need to get out to burgas for a change of pace. There is only so long I can stay here in this town with out going crazy, so in the interest in personal sanity, i think a weekend in the city with friends is a good idea. Overall though things are going ok. I have had plenty of time to catch up on my reading and lately I have been able to talk to my brother out in Kuwait (who is finally coming home in about a week!). I just need to appreciate this slow time because once the weather gets better and spring comes around I will get busy again.
Funny story though, my office building just got new blinds installed on all the new windows (we're coming up in the world) and my coworkers are super excited about them. however, its been really dark and overcast out lately so I keep pulling up the blinds to let in more light, and they keep lowering them down because, well, I'm not sure why. maybe just excited to have blinds I guess. Its funny, but now my office has natural lighting equivalent to that of a cave (Note on my office building: the Directorate of Nature Park Strandja occupies an old communist party headquarters looking out over the town center. It is complete with dark brown panel walls and padded double doors on every office to keep out eavesdroppers. Think of the KGB offices you see in old Bond films; that's where I work).
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Dealing with Floods and Russia
It has been a very interesting last week here in Bulgaria. First off, we had a problem at the park visitor center. Someone forgot to shut off the water to the building before everyone left for Christmas break, and the pipes on the second floor burst, flooding the whole building. It was just noticed the beginning of this week, and we have been working to get it cleaned ever since.
The thing about Bulgarian houses is that they are not built out of wood and drywall, but out of cement and brick, which during a flood is both a good and bad thing. The good thing is that they dont rot or get mold inside the walls, but the bad thing is that the water doesn't really drain out. When we first showed up at the house there was a good two inches of water sitting on the SECOND floor, and over the past few week that had trickled down and left a good inch of water on the first floor as well.
Then, to make it even more difficult, Bulgaria doesn't have proper equipment used to clean up a mess like this. ordinarily I would use a wet-vac and some industrial floor driers and have the place cleaned up in no time. Unfortunately, that stuff doesn't exist over here, so we had to sweep the water out of the building with brooms, and then get all the wood burning stoves in the house going full blast to dry up the moisture. For the last few days it has been my job to sit in the house and feed logs into the 3 fireplaces. Not the most exciting task, but gave me a chance to catch up on my leisure reading while sitting in front of a nice fire. So I guess I cant complain too much.
The other big news, for those of you that haven't been keeping up to date with the headlines, is the gas crisis going on in Europe. Because of a conflict between Gazprom and the Ukraine over gas shipments, Russia closed down its Ukrainian gas pipeline to Europe. Unfortunately, this one pipeline supplies approx one fifth of all the gas used in the entire continent, and for most of the Balkan countries, it is the only source. Bulgaria doesn't have any sizable reserves on hand, so as soon as the gas stopped coming from the Ukraine, the gas outages began. homes currently receive no gas, trains have been running with out heaters, schools are closing, heavy industrial complexes have been shut down and only a few necessary buildings are being supplied (I am assuming stuff like government and hospitals).
Fortunately, most homes here are heated with wood (as is the case here in Malko Turnovo) or electricity from some coal or oil powered plant. But there are still a lot of people with out heat, or hot water, and that's a big deal right now because Bulgaria is in the middle of some pretty cold weather. there is still a good six inches of snow on the ground here, and most likely a lot more the farther north you go. I'm hoping that this gets resolved within the next week, otherwise its going to be a long, cold winter.
The thing about Bulgarian houses is that they are not built out of wood and drywall, but out of cement and brick, which during a flood is both a good and bad thing. The good thing is that they dont rot or get mold inside the walls, but the bad thing is that the water doesn't really drain out. When we first showed up at the house there was a good two inches of water sitting on the SECOND floor, and over the past few week that had trickled down and left a good inch of water on the first floor as well.
Then, to make it even more difficult, Bulgaria doesn't have proper equipment used to clean up a mess like this. ordinarily I would use a wet-vac and some industrial floor driers and have the place cleaned up in no time. Unfortunately, that stuff doesn't exist over here, so we had to sweep the water out of the building with brooms, and then get all the wood burning stoves in the house going full blast to dry up the moisture. For the last few days it has been my job to sit in the house and feed logs into the 3 fireplaces. Not the most exciting task, but gave me a chance to catch up on my leisure reading while sitting in front of a nice fire. So I guess I cant complain too much.
The other big news, for those of you that haven't been keeping up to date with the headlines, is the gas crisis going on in Europe. Because of a conflict between Gazprom and the Ukraine over gas shipments, Russia closed down its Ukrainian gas pipeline to Europe. Unfortunately, this one pipeline supplies approx one fifth of all the gas used in the entire continent, and for most of the Balkan countries, it is the only source. Bulgaria doesn't have any sizable reserves on hand, so as soon as the gas stopped coming from the Ukraine, the gas outages began. homes currently receive no gas, trains have been running with out heaters, schools are closing, heavy industrial complexes have been shut down and only a few necessary buildings are being supplied (I am assuming stuff like government and hospitals).
Fortunately, most homes here are heated with wood (as is the case here in Malko Turnovo) or electricity from some coal or oil powered plant. But there are still a lot of people with out heat, or hot water, and that's a big deal right now because Bulgaria is in the middle of some pretty cold weather. there is still a good six inches of snow on the ground here, and most likely a lot more the farther north you go. I'm hoping that this gets resolved within the next week, otherwise its going to be a long, cold winter.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Winter Break
Malko Turnovo has finally gotten its first big snow! It came down non-stop for over 36 hours and now there is a good foot of snow covering everything in sight. It is very pretty, and this morning I went for a walk around the town to see it all: The trees filled with leaves of snow, the villagers shoveling the sidewalks and freeing their cars, the soft silence of snow covered fields punctuated by an occasion bird chirp, and the cold crisp smell of winter air interspersed with the smell of smoke from the dumpster fire outside my apartment. actually, that last one is not so much a smell of winter, but a normal smell that happens every so often when the dumpster fills up before trash pick-up day and needs to be cleared out.
http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge
Overall though its very nice out here. I have plenty of firewood and have been keeping my fireplace going to keep my apartment nice and warm. Today is the first day back at work since New Years, and the office still has the lethargic feeling left over from the holidays. This morning started off with good German chocolates and Scottish whiskey, the perfect thing to uh, well, not motivate one to work hard but relax and stay warm I guess. Integrating back into the American work environment might take a bit of adjusting after two years of this.
I had a great time over the holidays though. On Dec 23rd I took an overnight sleeper train across the country to my host families house back in Simitli. Those sleeper trains are awesome. You get a regular bunk bed to sleep the whole way in, and before you know it you are at your destination! Not bad. Anyway, spent Christmas Eve with the host family and had the big traditional dinner like last year. It was fun and really nice to see the family again. On Christmas morning I made my way out to the town of Razlog, nestled up in the mountains to spend the big day with some friends of mine. It snowed most of the day and I got my first white Christmas in a while.
The day after Christmas I headed up in the mountains to a local ski area that I been to the previous winter, but this time I had reservations at the mountain lodge above the ski runs. I met up with a bunch of other friends and for the next four days we all hung out and went snowboarding all day, then hung out in the lodge all night. I was really happy to get out snowboarding again and for the first two days we had constant snow and fresh powder that made the runs real nice. The last two days it warmed up and the slopes became pretty rocky, but it wasn't too bad. Unlike America, Bulgaria so far has been pretty dry and the mountains here don't have near as much snow as they did last year. Because of this the ski runs didn't have a nice deep snow base so once the powder melted off rocks were all over the place just barley under the surface, and a couple of times i was gliding down the mountain and caught an edge on a submerged rock.
After the mountain adventure we all took a train out to plovdiv for a repeat of last years New Years party in the center of town. The weather ended up being pretty cold (somewhere around 20 degrees Fahrenheit I would guess) but that didn't stop us from going out to see the concert and fireworks in the center of town at midnight. We stayed out there for about 2 hours, dancing and celebrating the New Year Bulgarian style. It was good fun, and we had a decent size group so up for it. New Years day we left town and went to Stara Zagora where a few of us relaxed at a friends apartment and hung out. Getting food that day was a bit of a hassle though, practically everything in Bulgaria is closed on New years day, including the supermarkets, and it took a lot of searching before we found a place that we could buy stuff to make dinner. I imagine if I had been in a smaller town like Malko Turnovo and didn't already have something in the pantry, I would have starved to death. Ok, probably not, but you get my point.
Now I have to stay put here in MT for the next couple weeks and try to save up money again. I did the holidays pretty cheap (a day of snowboarding cost me less than 30 dollars, including lift ticket, board rental, and lodging on the slopes!) but a week of travel still adds up and I need to start preparing for activities once winter is over. I figure if I lay low for January and February, once March comes I should be able to get back out of town at least for a weekend trip or something. In the meantime, I need to find ways to keep myself occupied here because this town gets super boring. Hopefully I have enough books and movies to last me through the winter....
http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge
Overall though its very nice out here. I have plenty of firewood and have been keeping my fireplace going to keep my apartment nice and warm. Today is the first day back at work since New Years, and the office still has the lethargic feeling left over from the holidays. This morning started off with good German chocolates and Scottish whiskey, the perfect thing to uh, well, not motivate one to work hard but relax and stay warm I guess. Integrating back into the American work environment might take a bit of adjusting after two years of this.
I had a great time over the holidays though. On Dec 23rd I took an overnight sleeper train across the country to my host families house back in Simitli. Those sleeper trains are awesome. You get a regular bunk bed to sleep the whole way in, and before you know it you are at your destination! Not bad. Anyway, spent Christmas Eve with the host family and had the big traditional dinner like last year. It was fun and really nice to see the family again. On Christmas morning I made my way out to the town of Razlog, nestled up in the mountains to spend the big day with some friends of mine. It snowed most of the day and I got my first white Christmas in a while.
The day after Christmas I headed up in the mountains to a local ski area that I been to the previous winter, but this time I had reservations at the mountain lodge above the ski runs. I met up with a bunch of other friends and for the next four days we all hung out and went snowboarding all day, then hung out in the lodge all night. I was really happy to get out snowboarding again and for the first two days we had constant snow and fresh powder that made the runs real nice. The last two days it warmed up and the slopes became pretty rocky, but it wasn't too bad. Unlike America, Bulgaria so far has been pretty dry and the mountains here don't have near as much snow as they did last year. Because of this the ski runs didn't have a nice deep snow base so once the powder melted off rocks were all over the place just barley under the surface, and a couple of times i was gliding down the mountain and caught an edge on a submerged rock.
After the mountain adventure we all took a train out to plovdiv for a repeat of last years New Years party in the center of town. The weather ended up being pretty cold (somewhere around 20 degrees Fahrenheit I would guess) but that didn't stop us from going out to see the concert and fireworks in the center of town at midnight. We stayed out there for about 2 hours, dancing and celebrating the New Year Bulgarian style. It was good fun, and we had a decent size group so up for it. New Years day we left town and went to Stara Zagora where a few of us relaxed at a friends apartment and hung out. Getting food that day was a bit of a hassle though, practically everything in Bulgaria is closed on New years day, including the supermarkets, and it took a lot of searching before we found a place that we could buy stuff to make dinner. I imagine if I had been in a smaller town like Malko Turnovo and didn't already have something in the pantry, I would have starved to death. Ok, probably not, but you get my point.
Now I have to stay put here in MT for the next couple weeks and try to save up money again. I did the holidays pretty cheap (a day of snowboarding cost me less than 30 dollars, including lift ticket, board rental, and lodging on the slopes!) but a week of travel still adds up and I need to start preparing for activities once winter is over. I figure if I lay low for January and February, once March comes I should be able to get back out of town at least for a weekend trip or something. In the meantime, I need to find ways to keep myself occupied here because this town gets super boring. Hopefully I have enough books and movies to last me through the winter....
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