Mia > Recent Status Updates

Ok I give up, I'm returning the book tomorrow and reading the rest on a pirated copy on my computer, I hope you're happy now, Cambridge Libraries

1878
The FUCKING BRITS and the AUSTRIA-HUNGARIANS

They've absolutely decimated my boy Bulgaria because they're scared about Russian influence.

After defeating the Ottomans, they split it into Bulgaria and "Eastern Rumelia", whatever the fuck that is.

Its giving, inheriting Palestine from the Ottomans, then chopping that up too?? Sound familiar??

Karavelov Levski and Botev mentioned!!! My boys

1840: The first Bulgarian printing press in the Ottoman empire
Owned by a Greek
Who had imported Slav type from the United States
At the request of the British and Foreign Bible Society

Also I've learnt about the "chitalishta", they sound very cool, very balkan

One of the great symbols of the Bulgarian cultural renaissance was the rebuilding of Rila monastery after a disastrous fire in 1833...

Covered markets replaced old open air stalls; fountains were installed, and, most typically, a clock tower was erected in the centre of the community; it gave the time according to the Christian as opposed to the Muslim and was therefore a symbol of cultural self-assertion.

Book by Paiisi, considered start of Bulgaria cultural revival, often referred to as just the History. My book says the History was returned to Bulgaria after the revolution of 1989, and current location is apparently unknown.
So I had to do some googling.
Looking at BTAs archives they have Jan 12 '98
The Bulgarians STOLE it off the Greeks Dec 85 (only revealed in 2012 by H.Hristov)
Then the President GAVE it back 98

Just learnt you can be Turkified. Also Islamicised, but that doesn't sound nearly as cool.

Reading this on the train, can't tell how useful it will be for me yet.

"An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements"
"...the capacity to bring old elements into new combinations depends largely on the ability to see relationships"

you MUST NOT cycle on the pavement

"But the people watching from a distance demand that you tear up, as though you'll see the trajectories more clearly with eyes full of tears, to give proof of humanity."

Started reading this with Maddie on the Eurostar. In/under the channel.

Bulgaria fact #3

Syrians and Armenians brought a rise in popularity for hermitism, which was a willingness to withdraw from the world. This sense of 'internal migration' was encouraged by bogomilism. Bogomils argued that the entire visible world was the creation of Satan and only the human soul was created by God. A reaction to mounting hardship felt by the common people; it was easy to believe the devil responsible

Bulgaria fun fact #2

Alphabet for use in Slavonic languages emerged mid/late 9th century. Origin believed to be in 862, when the ruler of Moravia requested an alphabet for his people so that the influence of the Franks and Germans could be contained. Its creation is generally acknowledged to be the work of Salonika-born monks, Cyril and Methodius.

It enabled Bulgarians to create their own literature.

Major aura loss for Emperor Nicephorus in 811

Khan Krum (803-14) took the recently fortified Sredets (Sofia) from the Byzantines, went in to seize Nesebûr on the Black Sea coast then marched as far as the walls of Byzantium.

Nicephorus became the first of his rank for almost 500 years to lose his life on the battlefield; Krum encrusted his deceased enemy's skull in silver and used it as a drinking goblet.

This is riveting stuff.

I now know what to do if I ever find myself on a horse at a roundabout.

Better late than never I guess

Ohhhh they're GAY. And this is AIDS? They be fucking in the baths. I don't have this kind of vocabulary.

Started listening to this immediately after the first one. The heat wave here has made it hard for me to do almost anything, including using my eyes, so I read with my ears. 😛🙉

Oh boy I'm so confused. My Spanish comprehension is so low. WHAT GENDER IS THE NARRATOR? Mens hot baths? But I thought woman? Naked? I don't knowww 😭

Ok I'm reading this in Spanish, attempting to translate without any thinking/looking up words, then comparing with the English.

So far I've learnt the word for aquarium, everything makes the first paragraph make more sense when you know that word.

6: "forehead was striking low..."
Sort of giving neanderthal vibes here

"'Phillip Phillippovich!' Phillip Phillippovich cried irritably"
I guess this makes more sense in Russian? Who says their own name as exclamation?

"Ar-es-ef-es-ar"
RSFSR Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the largest and most populous constituent republic of the soviet union

Noooo the library want it back ): just as I'm about to go on holibobs as well

5: his testes?? I hadn't picked that up in the surgery scene
what is camphor what is alimentation and why'd they enema my boys butt???

Hell yeah the dog knows bourgeois when he sees it
"He has completely accepted the trousers. Spoke a long gay phrase: "let's have a smoke, or I'll give you a poke.""

Also this is starting to feel like a sci-fi book, also Jekyll and Hyde but I can't put my finger on why

What is pood

3:
"something resembling a tiny dark loaf of bread" what is this

"Hapless cardboard duck which hung upside down next to the cupboard" also what

"Six-legs" to refer to a dog out with its owner is good

"Photograph with an Easter rose hung over it" what is that

4:
"Little white lump dangled on a thread" what this

"A cigarette Zina, at once. Fresh underwear, and a bath." Honestly... Hell yeah that is a vibe.

1: what is french love? "You may be sure he will not take her in some ordinary way, no, he'll insist on French love."
"She has female trouble from that French love of his"

"Follow you? Why to the end of the world. You may kick me with your fine suede shoes, I wouldn't say a word"

2: why is the visitors head green and tobacco-brown? And baby pink wrinkly skin? I can't work out what he's seeing the doctor about.

I think this might be the first time I've thought one of the discworld books was dragging

Wait if this one is about Australia (but not) I hope they mention Captain Cook (but not). That would be very cool because I'm literally travelling across the UK to go learn stuff about captain cook right now.

Reading this in the Foyles café with a flat white. I think this is what it feels like to be a performative male. I'm so sensitive and smart and different to all the other guys wow.

But actually I am dumb, so many words I don't know. Who is Euripides? You rip these? What the hell is bacchantes?

Is this a journey to the center of the earth reference? A magical storm in a huge cave under the sea/earth? 😛

Ladies and gentlemen. I did it