Workspace woes

 So anyone who's met me in person knows I'm tall.

 Very tall.  I learned my height in cm in Mandarin before I learned it in English, since we use Freedom Units in the US, as 196cm, or 6'5.  With a body like that, it's hard to find ergonomic desk setups.

So it's been no real surprise that I've gone through two desk arrangements now, as well as two chairs, without finding something truly sustainable.  Either my wrists are sore from being at one angle, my lower back is angry from one chair, or my shoulders and neck are angry from one desk.  And the most frustrating thing is not knowing what's wrong.  Is the chair too low?  I could probably find bigger casters.  Is the desk too low?  I could get something to prop it up on.  Is my keyboard too far back or too close? I can move it, and find a wrist support if I need to.  But no combination of things I've done has actually had me able to work for more than an hour or two without getting really tense and sore.

I've run out of time I feel like is worth trying here in Plovdiv - I'm only here for one more month, and then it's off to the next place.  So I'm going to just kind of suffer/limp through for now, and when I get to Batumi, try some other setups.  If I can find a set of IKEA furniture that really works for me, then I'll just get that at every place I stay from here to whenever.  That'll be a nice easy solution, and it's not something I'd be too loathe to spend at each place since it'd make me more productive by reducing how many breaks and stretches I have to do.

Anyway.

In the studio where I first started pole dancing, they had a term, "pole kisses," to euphemistically describe the bruises you sometimes get from training.  It's odd to me, but despite training in Colorado for a few months, I didn't get my real first pole kiss here in Bulgaria.  I assume there are more to come as I continue training.

Also, it was only a day or two ago that I actually noticed what the welcome mat to the apartment cluster I live in said.  And I found it charming.

I've talked before about the limited soda options here, but I'm not sure I ever  provided evidence of how Fanta variety thrives but not much else.

And finally.  Enjoy this pretty tree 

Plov-living

 So for the record, Plovdiv is pronounced with a long "e" sound, Plohv-DEEV, but I was struggling with a clever post title.  So here we are.

 I've mostly settled in here.  I'm starting to figure out how to feed myself well, I've learned my way around for a few essentials, and I've even gone on a little walk to see some of the Maritsa River, which runs sort of through the middle of Plovdiv.  I saw this little path and started going down it, but turned around fairly soon because my GOODNESS were there a lot of bugs.  Flies, dragonflies, and other things I couldn't identify easily.  I'm such a marshmallow in so many ways.  So I got a quick picture and went back up to the street level, which still got me a few nice shots of the river.

Not quite as well settled is my secondary monitor which apparently didn't survive all the traveling I've done to this point.  I'm finding that I work and live well enough with just my laptop, so I probably won't replace the monitor any time soon.  Still a bummer, though.

I'm adapting to prices here, which are lower than the US but not shockingly so like they were in China.  One thing that strikes me is how expensive candy is.  For reference, that's about a 5oz bag.  A "sharing size" is 3 oz.  And the conversion puts that, at time of writing, at just over $3.  Really most things with sugar (cookies, candy, ice cream) tend to run high here.

There's something else I've noticed about Plovdiv, at least my region of it, and it's growing into a kind of fascination: the men here are really homogeneous.  I don't say that to dunk on the culture or be ethnocentric or anything, as I'm sure it's just a surface-level observation with more depth and reason behind it than I can see.  But in terms of style, build, a lot of things.  There are far fewer overweight people in Bulgaria (and pretty much across Europe as a whole) than in the US, but the men are even less so, particularly the younger men.  And I think I've only seen one or two I'd say looked like the stereotypical 'nerd' (namely, like me).  I don't really have any particular point here, because it's purely speculative and perceptual.  But it is certainly interesting to me. 

In closing, please enjoy this friend I found walking home from pole dance class the other day.  And race car beds, eat your heart out!