It's Sofia not Sofia

Now Chris and I have been here a few weeks and we have noticed that our English pronunciation of our new home city is, well to put it plainly, wrong. When we say the name it is "soFIa" where as the Bulgarian way to say it is "sOfia." If you need some help remembering this I like to think of Hermione Granger giving a lesson to Ron and Harry in Harry Potter about how to say "Leviosa" properly.

With that aside let me tell you more about this awesome city that we call home. It is located in between two mountain ranges and is home to over 1 million people. As we have mentioned before, this city is full of different historical dialogues. The city puts Roman ruins on display in the city center and less than a block away is evidence of the Soviet era.

However, for us we are located on the southeastern corner of the city. We are actually on the border of some Soviet era buildings that are still in use and a lot of new development. This new development includes plenty of new apartment buildings as well as new hotels, office space and retail space.

Despite being away from city center we do not mind the short metro ride into town to appreciate the architecture and the culture. We enjoy observing the locals visit and chat with restaurant staff or the dozen or so back-packers that travel through. There are so many monuments around here all with an explanation about what or who they are for but it is written in Bulgarian. I am still working on understanding the language.

Our school year has also started. We have kids living with us in the dorm now and campus is an even more vibrant place as students rush around to their classes. We definately have an exciting year ahead of us.