To my friend Ruben – Andrew Kim – Fulbright to Bulgaria 2019
While living in Bulgaria, I made a friend named Ruben. He lived in Kazanluk, about a 30-minute bus ride from my host town, Stara Zagora, at the time. Ruben and I became friends through my student Yoan, who knew Ruben through a family connection. Originally from Portugal, Ruben was spending a year in Kazanluk with […]
Trekking the Globe with Fulbright – William Allen Brant – Germany 2004 & Bulgaria 2007
Luckily, my Fulbright journey began a couple months before the University of Mainz started its classes and before I began teaching at the Schloss Gymnasium in Mainz, Germany. I arrived in Vienna, Austria after a temporary break-up with my girlfriend in Texas. I began studying German once again because I had not studied any German […]
Lasting Friendships – Diane Quantic – Bulgaria 1986
Maria Mitreva, daughter of my colleague in Bulgaria, came to live with us when she was 16. She graduated from Friends University where my husband Bruce was a professor. She stayed in Wichita, married and began a career with CCH, a company that writes tax software. Her mother joins her a part of each year. […]
Celebrating the coming spring in the vineyard – Diane Quantic – Bulgaria 1986
On February 14, 1987, we joined the other foreign professors from the Veliko Turnovo University at a cooperative farm and school, a young girl in traditional dress bringing a ceremonial offering of bread to the vineyard, ceremoniously pruning the vines, spreading feasts in the snow for all, then watching a parade of decorated tractors and […]
The Year of Salt and Honey – Nancy Bartley – Bulgaria 2012
As I began my Fulbright in Bulgaria, I carried the weight of grief. My father had unexpectedly died only a month before and I arrived at the airport with no one to greet. I even went to the wrong hotel. I didn’t understand the Cyrillic alphabet, couldn’t read street signs or menus – and ate […]
A Delicious Friendship – Prudence Salasky – Bulgaria 2019
The doors to our apartments were inches apart in a shared hallway with room for two bikes. Yet weeks passed before I even heard my neighbors, let alone met them. I would see Kolya’s bike vanish and reappear and the tell-tale shoes on the mat. It wasn’t until one morning I woke at 5AM for […]
Emily Paxson – Bulgaria 2016
I had two professors of German who were both Bulgarians and I was always intrigued when they spoke about their native country. In the Fall of 2015, I returned to Miami University for my senior year. I was eager to apply for a Fulbright following a summer internship in Thailand where I was introduced to […]
Brenda McGadney and Phyllis Bell Miller – West Africa 1979 – Bulgaria 2005 – India 2006
Fulbright is about making connections – and sometimes reconnections. At the Fulbright Association’s 40th Annual Conference in 2017, Phyllis Bell Miller, who was displaying her research in a poster presentation, noticed the impeccable fashion of another poster presenter. As a fashion design researcher, she was specifically impressed with the African-influenced pattern of this woman’s clothing […]