One Year

Yesterday, Byeong-Hun and I celebrated our one year anniversary! We didn't do anything super special. He bought me a cute shirt from Uniqlo in Korea, and we then took a long walk around the city. It was fun to explore again, this time with Byeong-Hun. He notices different things than I would, such as the small number of buses used for transportation and how people drive cars from all over the world here. I suppose this is a huge difference when compared to Korea, where most people have Hyundais or Kias. Our walk was huge, but we stopped for a kebab along the way, which is, arguably, the best food in the world. Of course, we also stopped by the big sights: the university, Alexander Nevsky cathedral, Starbucks, etc. And we saw a giant egg:

After we rested at home for a bit, I took him out for dinner. It was Byeong-Hun's first true Bulgarian meal; he had a lot of the staples: shopska salad, french fries with white cheese, and grilled meat. He loves the salad, and I hope the cheese is agreeable with him. Bulgarians definitely eat more cheese than Koreans do!
Back at home, we played a couple of card games (both Korean and American) while enjoying a two-liter of Bulgarian beer. An hour later, and a little tipsy, we headed downtown to meet up with Ellen and Kristin for some fun. I live about 20 minutes from the center, and Byeong-Hun and I had a fantastic conversation about where we are going, and the state of our relationship. Nice to talk these things through. We met up with the two other Fulbrighters at an Irish pub, and taught them some sign language and had our last beer of the night. Ellen is doing a great job learning signs, and hopefully she can pick up enough so I don't need to act as a translator around our speaking friends. We originally planned to go clubbing after the bar, but since we are both getting kind of old (ha!), we went home at around two in the morning. Overall, a nice way to spend an anniversary.