March 2006

This week there is a series of baseball games in Puerto Rico.

Baseball is a very popular sport here and somebody pointed me to tonight's game between Puerto Rico and the Netherlands. Apparently this is the first time the Netherlands are joining the World Baseball Classic tournament. I was working in the bar of the hotel tonight and the game was on.

In the mean time, it seems like United has lost my bag (it took them more than 24 hours to get a phone call from the airport) and I bought some clothes here. Travelling back tomorrow, I wonder if the plane will be on time.

I justed arrived in Puerto Rico with the 8.30 am flight from Washington and United Airlines lost my bag.

I was waiting for my bag at the carousel but it was completely empty, and when I checked at the office it turned out that my bag never boarded the flight in the first place. So, my poor bag is still somewhere on the cold airport in DC right now. I hope I'll get it soon because I'm here for some important meetings.

It's the second time I'm flying with United, the previous time the flight back had a 5 hour delay (luckily I was able to get on an American Airlines flight instead that day).

Saturday evening we went to a concert of an amazing Bulgarian women's choir: The Great Voices of Bulgaria, or Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares in French.

The event was in The Church of the Epiphany, a church in downtown D.C. We arrived early because we weren't able to get tickets online. There was a line inside but luckily there were still some tickets available and we quickly got inside the beautiful Anglican church. We joined Stratsi and Lozana in one of the front rows and had a good view of the stage.

The show was really beautiful and the music amazing. The choir members, 25 women and 1 man, were all dressed in traditional Bulgarian costumes. I had heard the choir before on CD recordings, but hearing them acoustic was even better. They didn't use any microphones, and no musical instruments. The choir brought the show with a lot of humour, and it was a real pleasure to listen and watch.

The evening was organized by the Smithsonian, as part of a serie of French cultural events. Except for the name there is nothing French about the choir so it was a bit strange that the Smithsonian Resident Associates choose it as their kick-off event.

Friday was March 3, Liberation Day in Bulgaria. After work we went to a celebration organized by the Bulgarian Embassy.

We arrived just in time to hear a live performance of the Bulgarian and American National Anthems, followed by a speech by the Ambassador of Bulgaria, Mrs. Elena Poptodorova.

The celebration was held in the building of the Organization of American States, a very beautiful location, with a large indoor garden with tropical plants.

We met Bella and Ramiro just after we arrived, and later met many other Bulgarians and it was a very pleasant company.

Around 9.00 pm the party was ending, and we went with our group to Bistro Bulgari, a Bulgarian restaurant in Crystal City. We had a really nice evening there; we were with about 15 people, most of them Bulgarian -- one Dutch, one American. It was the first time Sasha and I were in this restaurant and it was a nice discovery -- great lukanka, rakia and an excellent shopska. And yes, they had my favorite... sirene po shopski. We went home late, after a fun evening.

The inside of the building of the Organization of American States (from their website).

After a long, warm day in the mountains we celebrated Sasha's birthday on the beach!

We went for our first snorkeling trip ever in the Caribbean, and it was magnificient.

Only a few meters from the coast there was so much life, so much beauty under water, it was incredible. Especially near the rocks in the bay there were thousands of colorful fishes, corals and plants. The beauty started from about 1 meter depth -- very near the shore, and even where the water wasn't very deep there was some much life under water.

We got our snorkels at the Blue Bay diving shop, and spent many, many hours in the water.

My favorite place was just outside the bay, where the real deep sea started; the deep sea had a beautiful, deep glow and an even large variety of life.