Monday

After sleeping like a rock, I awoke to find the sun shining in through our giant windows and the sound of cheesy techno coming from the pool area... maybe Bulgarians think it's what Americans listen to, but it's not what I wanted to wake up to! Breakfast was the next order of business and that we had a buffet that included lunch meats, olives, eggs, cucumbers, yogurt (which wasn't sweet!), and so much more! The choices were endless and it made for an interesting combination. After breakfast came the choice of what to do? For most? Head to the beach!

A group of us changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the sea. We reaized that we had to pay for the chairs and umbrellas that littered the sand, so we decided not to spend our levas on that. Our group picked up our stuff and headed down the beach, picking up shells as we went. We ran into another group of Americans and decided it was time for pictures. My favorite? We built a pyramid out of human bodies much to the amusement of the locals.

After getting tired of the hot sand we moved to the boardwalk where we were encouraged into a restaurant by a promoter and his promise of a free drink for all of us. He seated us on the roof of the restaurant where we had a view of the entire Black Sea. It was beautiful! The food was intriguing and most of us got a pizza which is way different than pizza is in America. It's much thinnerk and Faith's pizza even had tuna on it, while Tyler's had an egg! They were all good. Others got pasta or even a traditional Bulgarian dish of pork wrapped in what tasted kinda like a potsticker. All in all, a wonderful experience and reasonably priced. Granted our waiter probably thought we were crazy, but it was good!

We continued walking and we met up with more members of the choir and then we found ourselves talking to another restaurant promoter, but this one was younger and Jesse had many questions for him. We found out what it was like to be a young person in Bulgaria, what he did, how many jobs he had, what it was like to work at the resort, how big was his family, and so much more. He promised all of us a real beef steak and a free drink if we came to his restaurant. We just might have to try it... who knows.

We wandered back to the hotel after that and either swam, read, or slept for about an hour and a half until it was time to load the bus for rehearsal. Rehearsal was amazing. The conductor of the choir which we are participating in (Sounds of the Sea) doesn't speak English and so we had to have a translator. It's very entertaining to have to listen to directions in Bulgarian first and then in English, but we can still follow along which is good. The Brahms Requiem sounds amazing with an entire group. The piece just moves everyone and you could see a look of astonishment on all our faces as soon as we heard it with everyone... goosebumps. It just goes to show that music really is the universal language.

Christa