D-I-E, Bulgaria

1. DESCRIBE

Throughout our stay in Varna, we had quite many confusing moments when ordering something from restaurants, going to the stores, using public transportation etc. The service was often very rude. By rude I mean that the waiter, for example, would not necessarily reply anything on any language when we ordered. Many times they even rolled their eyes and just looked like we ruined their day by coming in. The taxis wanted to take the benefit of us being foreigners, and tried to get double prices for the rides.


2. INTERPERT

Coming from Finland, we are not even used to having too friendly service. It is quite normal for us that the service is lame, compared to Southern Europe or the U.S. for example. So it really was a surprising to find even less friendly service from Varna. Well, the taxi thing was expected because that happens all over the world in tourist resorts, but I mean everything else was a bit of a surprise.

I believe the rudeness had many times something to do with language barrier. We learned that Bulgarians are very aware of their language skills and shy to use a foreign language, if they don’t feel like they handle that 100%. One reason for the rudeness might also be that they have so many tourists there in the summer season that they get tired of foreigners. Another reason could also be that they would have expected us to greet them in Bulgarian, and thought that we were rude by going straight into talking in English.



3. EVALUATE

Talking to other foreigners in Varna, we found that we truly weren’t the only ones getting bad service. We learned pretty soon that it is not that much personal, so we just ignored the quality of the service and concentrated in the good things, like the good food and good prices. Putting a bit more effort into the interaction ourselves (meaning, greeting in Bulgarian, smiling more), helped sometimes as well. Positive attitude is always a good idea, no matter what – because even if you wouldn’t get better service right there with that extra kindness, it will make you feel better anyway. Of course there were days when it made us really frustrated and even mad to get treated poorly when needing service, but most of the time we didn't take it too seriously.

From the local’s perspective I actually understand getting tired of foreigners. Golden Sands, the tourist resort close to Varna, and Varna itself is a very popular destination among young adults who come to party hard. Working as a waiter, with very low salary, being too buzy and feeling underappreciated, it is surely tiring. The drunken tourists who trash and don’t respect the locals ruin the good service for many decently behaving foreigners too. That’s sad.

To balance the negative, I have to mention that we also had at least as many very good experiences, with very kind and polite service. And even more of that lame kind of ok-service that we also get in Finland. So we cannot say that all service is bad in Varna – but the level of the service surely varies a lot.

 We often visited this beach restaurant because of the decent service, good prices, family friendliness and the location. 

Letter home - Emilia Syrjälä

LETTER HOME

1. Where are you doing your internship? 

I am doing my internship in Varna, Bulgaria. My internship is divided into three parts; working in three different NGO’s in 3 different fields. The first one offers after school care for children and especially for children with learning problems and special needs. The second one is operating in the field of child protection, offering alternative care for children that need urgent replacement. The third one offers recreational activities for the elderly women.  

The beautiful city of Varna, photographed from our balcony.

2. In what Study program are you studying at Centria?  

I am studying social services in Ylivieska.  

 

3. What has your work placement been like? 

Macaroni art with kids at working pracrtice 

My work placement has been everything from confusing and challenging to interesting, rewarding and heart-warming. 

I have had a chance to experience a lot due to working in these three different organizations. It has been interesting to understand how different the field of social services can be within the limits of European Union. Bulgaria is the poorest and most corrupted country in the EU, and the social welfare system is way far from ours. But at the same time, the education of the social sciences seems to be at the same level as it is in Finland, and the educated people that I have met and who work in these non-governmental organizations are usually enthusiastic about changing the country!  

My teacher from the local University has been very active and helpful. She has taken me to conferences and to visit different organizations that provide social services. That has helped me to get a better picture of the current situation here and to understand what kind of knowledge there is despite of the challenges in the society.  

4. What is the corporate culture like? 

All of these three organizations are different when it comes to the corporate culture. In one of the organizations it is very obvious, that the hierarchy is very strict. Over there the atmosphere between the employees is mostly negative and competitive. It seems that no one feels respected and that results in undermining the others. At the same time, in the other organization the corporate culture is mostly pretty social; meaning that there is trust and respect among the workers and between the employees and the workers. They openly discuss about problems and there is room for innovative thinking as well. The workers as well as the employees pay high attention to keeping the working atmosphere good and warm.  

 5. What is your study group like?  

I don’t attend a study group on a regular basis, but have had the chance to meet some Bulgarian students of social services a couple times, which has been great. They have been nice to me, offering their help.  

 

6. Please describe what the everyday life is like in your host country? What do you like in particular?  

Everyday life in Bulgaria seems to be pretty easy-going. Well, at least our life in Bulgaria is easy-going compared to our life in Finland. After I come home from working practice, we go either to the beach, amusement park or to the playground with the kids. Eating in the restaurants is affordable, so we don’t even have to cook so much at home. We walk a lot, exploring the neighborhoods and I guess that is what keeps us so happy here.  

Compared to Kokkola, the public transportation also runs well over here. So, it is easy to survive without a car.  We have also enjoyed living close to an open market area, where we can buy fresh vegetables and fruit.  

And, of course I’ve got to mention the weather, because it’s just perfect. We all are glad that we could escape from snowy Finland to this nice, promising spring weather.  

 

7. What has been challenging? Why?   

It was quite challenging to get everything organized before our departure. We moved to my parents’ a month before, so that we could get our house rented. And then there was that packing for the four of us, getting vaccinations, finding a suitable family apartment from Varna, me trying to finish some school assignments, Joonas working and driving 160 km every day for work... Yup, that was a lot.  

During the exchange, the challenges have been among communication in the working practice and generally just seeing and understanding the level of poverty in which so many Bulgarians live. The poverty is visible everywhere, and it is saddening to see how it effects everything from the birth of the child till the end of one’s life, as well as the environment.  

 The sad side of Varna

8. What has been the highlight of your exchange so far? 

There are so many highlights, but I guess the brightest one is simply the very nicely balanced and smooth everyday life that we get to live here and to see how the kids enjoy spending time with their dad and to get to do things together as family so much more than usually.  We have also had the chance to travel a little around Bulgaria, which has been great

From the internship itself, I want to mention a couple great moments. One was when I got to plan and accomplish an English class for the older women together with American volunteers as well as with my mother in law (who was visiting at that time). It was good team work, and so lovely to see that the ladies really enjoyed having us there.  

Another good one was when I finally found a way to reach connection with some of the teenagers in the child protection organization. I had been told that they wouldn’t want to participate in any kind of activity, and it was a difficult task for me to “sell” the idea of participation to them, since we didn’t have any common language. But I wanted to try, and when it finally worked, it was worth it. Having those rebellious teenagers all excited about foot massage or painting the sidewalks with chalk paint, instead of just watching horror movies the whole day, made me truly happy. 

Introduction

Hello everyone,  

My name is Emilia Syrjälä, I am a 30-year-old mother of two little boys and happily married for 9 years. Currently I am a third year student of social sciences and I am writing this introduction letter just “a bit” late, since I have already done my traineeship abroad. But I guess it is never too late to go back to the thoughts that I had before leaving; although it is more than likely that the memories have formed new tones as looking them from this kind of retrospect.  

One day in early December last year, as I was sitting in the classroom, our teacher, prof. Helinä Nurmenniemi brought up an opportunity of doing a traineeship in Varna, Bulgaria during spring 2018. I immediately texted my husband and proposed that idea. It was all quite clear after he texted me back “Yes, let’s do that. My boss said that I can take those months off.”  

Many people asked us beforehand “how do you have the courage to do that from those circumstances (meaning; having kids & a house etc)?” I guess some were actually admiring this our “courage” but I could tell that some were also thinking that we are a bit nuts to take our kids away from their home for such a time. I understand that people wonder other people’s choices when those choices are something unusual for them, but for us there were no doubts. We had a confident trust that our kids would be fine – we knew already that they like traveling, since we had traveled together many times before. Doing my working practice abroad also meant that the boys would get to hang out so much more with their father, who usually here in Finland comes home from work right before, or during their bedtime.  

Of course there was a lot to do to arrange things before the departure (including for example renting our home, moving out & packing, finding a suitable apartment from Varna) , but it was still manageable.  So I can say that we were expecting to experience good things as a family, instead of worrying about anything. Meanwhile, from the traineeship itself, I was simply expecting it to broaden my understanding and to give me some perspective to working in the field of social services.  In the picture below it is me with my crew.