My journey in Bulgaria

When my teacher proposed me to go to Bulgaria, I was really happy and I didn’t hesitate one second!! I have always thought that discovering a new country is a great opportunity and we have to take it as often as we can.

So let’s go to Bulgaria! To begin I got in touch with my correspondent on the Internet, on the website of the Comenius project. We introduced each other and I was so excited to meet her.

After a little fear because of the flu epidemic, we were allowed to go to Bulgaria. My feelings were indescribable… I was between excitation, happiness, but also fear. Yes, going alone, in a family which we didn’t know was intimidating.

The journey in Bulgaria was surprising and interesting: every day we met again and again new people new nationalities,new habits, a new life, new stories!!!

This fear disappeared quickly when we met the others: the Spanish boys and the Polish girls took the bus with us from Sofia to Stara Zagora! It was wonderful speaking English with so many nationalities in a new and unknown country

My correspondent, Katya, was wonderful. It was so difficulty to understand each other at first ! With fear, with embarrassment, we managed little by little to appreciate and understand each other. We laughed a lot in the conversation: the best universal way of understanding. Katya's parents didn’t speak English and she played the interpreter between us and her family.

I loved tasting every new traditional food, and her mother cooked so many things for me. She tried to explain to me how it was made and meals were often transformed in sign language discussion to understand one another! I tasted of course the famous Bulgarian Yogurt which was very different from the French one, and a little bit surprising

I enjoyed discovering new traditions, with Baba Marta, and the famous red Martinici , walking in the street in the middle of six different nationalities, sharing with all these students and all these teachers our differences, our way of life, our clichés about the one or the others!

I loved each moment we spent together: the volleyball game, the visit of the historical museum, the visit of the university, Plovdiv and its beautiful houses …

…the work time when each country presented the others …

the party at the end of the journey !

This trip was just wonderful because it was true, so human and spontaneous. We were all different, but it didn't matter! We were there for that! We just discovered the others. They inspired us to build ourselves, open our minds and get rid of clichés.

What I’m sure is that I really DON’T regret this trip! It was enriching and a little bit magic! If I could make a trip like that again, I wouldn't hesitate.

Lucie