about your blogger
I am an American of Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish) ancestry, with roots in the Baltics and Ukraine. My Eastern European home away from home is Bulgaria, where I lived for a few years. I’m still not over the 15 hour overnight bus trip from Skopje to Sarajevo. (I am apparently suspicious to Croatian border guards. If you’re wondering how a bus trip from Skopje to Sarajevo could be interrupted by Croatian border guards: all things are possible when you’re in the Balkans.)
I have a bachelors degree in anthropology and a masters degree in public policy.
When I speak Bulgarian, I nod my head the Bulgarian way.
I know enough Russian to know that the Bulgarian word for fruit is the Russian word for fetus. (I still did okay on that quiz.)
about the blog
This blog was started for two reasons - first, whenever I hear Americans or Western Europeans talk about what “Europe” is like, it never sounds in the slightest bit like the Europe I know and love. It makes me wonder if they’re aware that something east of Germany even exists - and that it’s fascinating and beautiful.
The second reason is that when I got on Tumblr I looked around for a blog about Eastern Europe to follow and I couldn’t find one. So I started it myself.
