Is it better to blend in or to stand out? As a little child growing up in communistic Bulgaria, I always wanted to blend in. Not that there were many opportunities to stand out anyway. Everyone was wearing almost the same clothes, watching the same TV programs (no wonder, we only had two TV channels […]
Cultural difference or misused punctuation mark?
“Thank you for being such a ‘good’ friend,” she wrote and, although I knew what she’d meant, I was a bit taken aback. Was it a cultural difference or a misused punctuation mark? My friend had written this sentence on the beautiful card she’d given me before going back to her country. To her, putting […]
Cultural bridges – adjusting to new life in the US
There’s something about bridges. They always remind me of the time when I left my native country and began my life as a “foreigner.” I don’t know why they have such an effect on me; maybe because they always connect two pieces of something – land, buildings, or anything that needs to be connected. So […]