These last few days in Sofia have been awesome! We went to see Mom's school which is called The Anglo American School in Sofia, and it is so amazing! It looks a little out of place here because it is a brand new building, but it is beautiful! They definitely don't hold back for those kids! Their cafeteria food is fresh chicken with rice and veggies, not some bluish-green "surprise" casserole. The kids are amazingly well behaved and seem to never ever challenge authority, and Mom says they are wonderful.
After visiting the school, we went to the movie theater to see The Golden Compass. The theaters were insane! The screen was huge and the seats were stadium-like. The best part was you could drink beers while watching the flick! Can you imagine all of us and our friends drinking while watching a movie? That would definitely not be a peaceful movie at all! The movie was really good, but Dylan said it was too predictable. I think that was his way of saying there wasn't enough violence/sex/gore involved. :)
Yesterday I went to the airport to pick up a girl named Rachel. She is the daughter of a couple who teach at the school with Mom. When she finally arrived, I was so excited! It's nice to have another girl our age who speaks English and whose eyes are as wide and heart is as open to see the world as ours are. She plans to travel with us sporadically when we leave Sofia, and I really look forward to getting to know her!
Last night we went downtown to see the "real" Sofia with Rachel and her parents. It was incredible. We saw a couple cathedrals with the architecture I have been dying to see. Although a lot of Sofia is becoming more and more modernized, there is so much history I feel is being buried along the way. It was really refreshing to see buildings and statues that have been there for up to 1300 years. Can you believe that? America is merely a couple hundred years old. Talk about history! The lights that shone off the golden domes of the churches just took my breath away. Our driver, Vasil, told us stories of how the Communists used to beat him and many others down when they would try to attend church. At one time they actually broke his arm and leg just because he was trying to praise God. It's so incredibly liberating to know how free our country is. We can praise who we want, say what we want and love who we want. Although many may not agree with our actions in our country, we are still able to live our lives the way we want without being physically punished. We may not agree with a lot of the censorship we deal with in the states, but hearing these horrible stories of torture and violence makes me realize how fortunate we are to have the liberties we have.
Tonight we leave for Istanbul, Turkey and all of us are soooo excited! Mom says the history and culture there is even more amazing. Plus the shopping is supposed to be awesome! We take an overnight bus that will run for about 9 hours, but it is at a time when we can sleep through most of the trip. Nothing a little Nyquil can't take care of! I will definitely post more about that when we return on Sunday.
Homesickness is starting to rear it's head. I just really wish all of our friends were here to experience these adventures with us! Plus, I really miss Lola. Dad pulls her up on his lap when we Skype, but I would just love to hold her! We really miss you all and hope Newport isn't the same without us! :) Love you all!
