Photo: Vanya, Krasi, Evgeni, Sasha
Typical days at BG Plan, as I am sure most places, were largely unproductive. People would work long hours and say they were working hard. But much time was spent smoking cigarettes, sipping espressos at the cafe across the street, playing computer games, or just gossiping.
Soon after I started they hired Vanya, a young woman who had just received an economics degree from the university, and was to be another actuary. During the Communist era she had been to the US to visit relatives there. But now the US would not allow her to visit the US.
Photo: Downtown Sofia
Every morning someone would go to Cafe Brazil to purchase espressos. One day I said it was my turn to do this duty. Because one person wanted chicken bouillon and another wanted beef bouillon, Evgeni wrote the order on a piece of paper so I would not have to try to remember and pronounce the impossible Bulgarian words. I gave the paper to the woman at the Cafe Brazil who recognized me as the American. She gave me the espressos, but she hesitated before she gave me the two bouillons, which looked identical.
She held the first cup up, placed it on the tray, and then put each of her hands under her armpit and imitated a chicken flapping her wings. I got it. She knew I would not know which was which and that I would not understand her verbal explanation in Bulgarian.
Photo: Ivo & Jana
Usually at lunch time we would go to a cafeteria that was subsidized by BG Plan and a number of other entities. Krasi told me it was common during the Communist era, but because times were hard, people thought it was not a bad idea to bring the communist style cafeteria's back. Every day, after eating the meal, we would place our orders for the next day.
Early on Nikolai M. had told me he wanted to take me to Yugoslavia to meet his relatives, who lived just across the border. I was reluctant to do this, mostly because I did not want to see more of Plamen's and Nikolai's relatives. Nevertheless, I went to the Yugoslav (Serb) consulate to get the visa. The visa line was long and the people in the line consisted of some very rough looking characters. I decided to come back later. Although I got the visa, the trip never happened. Nikolai also talked of a trip to the Ukraine.
BG Plan staff, etc
