The Fannie Story

Recently I felt as if I did not have the inspiration to write. That is why I haven't had a post in more than a week. I sign into blogspot and I cannot write a single word. Maybe that was influenced by the alcoholic/euphoric/melancholic dream I had fallen into. As much as I have been having fun in the past week, I felt absolutely empty, desperately needing some inspiration to think. I finally found it back home, in Sofia.

My friends here are very, very different from my friends in Birmingham, interested in different stuff, having different problems, leaving different lives. Anyway, they have inspired me and now I can continue writing...

As I was walking along the dark alley around midnight yesterday I was finally feeling calm. I was on my way back from Fannie's, quite tipsy, with an amazing headache and a frightened expression on my face. I had forgotten how dark some streets in Sofia were. In this state I was recapping the event from the evening. I have always loved going to Fannie's... but wait you don't know anything about her yet.

Fannie was my closest teacher, and by closest I mean that I could actually share with her. After I graduated last year we have kept in touch and every visit in Bulgaria goes hand in hand with a visit to her house. Fannie lives in a huuuuge house. The best thing about it is the attic where her cabinet is. It is a small room with low ceiling, wooden floor, walls and ceiling. Half of the room is a gigantic book shelf with old books of her father's. Two wooden desks sit in the middle of the room and a bunch of other smaller furniture is spread around the centered tables.

Fannie was considered by most of my friends magical for her amazing orator abilities. She is capable of transferring you into the action of a story and I remember how in school we used to gaze enchanted once she opened her mouth and started narating. Anyway, now Fannie has become one of my closest people and getting drunk in the attic is a tradition now.

The best thing about my little visits is that they always go in the same exact way. Sometimes I think that even our conversations are the same. I usually take a bunch of old classmates with and we chat for hours. We always start with fresh gossip about absent people, then some stuff about the current situation in the old school, each informs us of any changes in plans and life, and then we start discussing world hunger/politics topics and start arguing. The best thing is that the political topics that we discuss are so controversial that we know we would never find a solution, yet we do it every time.

I am going to continue 'The Fannie Story' tomorrow since this post is getting a little too bulky. Of course I have to give - TIP No 6 for prospective students: Life abroad can get hard so find an inspiration, a person that can calm you down when you are stressed and help you look ahead!