Learnin' Bulgarian in Babylon...

Interesting day. Spent some time in one of several dozen palaces. They obviously were built by Saddam. They have this ethereal 'plastic-ness' about them. Almost too perfect but crumbly and decrepit all at the same time. They remind me of something you'd find on Michael Jackson's ranch. Like they tried to create a perfect eden but missed the marked significantly. Saw a giant Great Blue Heron today. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any photos of it. Also saw several trees full of hundreds and hundreds of tiny blackbirds--something akin to Hitchkock's "The Birds". As for the Bulgarian, most evenings I wait in a rather long line for access to the internet. Whilst waiting I'm surrounded by Bulgarian nationals who are waiting with me. I finally got tired of not knowing any of their language and printed up a handful of 'useful phrase' sheets from www.omniglot.com So I'm trying to spend my wait time in a somewhat productive manner. Hence the Bulgarian. Here's the joke of the day...one of the 'useful phrases' on the list is "My hovercraft is full of eels!" Korabat mi na v'zdysna vazglavnica e palen sas zmiorki. In case you need to learn this very important phrase. Dobar vecer e dovizdane!