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Coming back from Nigeria
Bulgaria and other communist countries had agreements with African countries, whereby qualified professionals would live and work in Africa for a bit, so that maybe those countries would support the communist Bloc. My grandmother was a midwife in Bulgaria, so when they got the opportunity they took it and went to Nigeria for most of my Mom's early childhood. They came back from the assignment during the summer. -
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Working in Highschool
In Bulgaria at the time, all students had to give up 2 months of service in the summer to go to farms and work for free. However, you could get exemptions if you were working an educational or volunteer job. In order to avoid working on the farms, my mom briefly learned Esperanta, became a swimming instructor, and was translating some English books for a side hustle. -
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Highschool
My mom was a very good student, with GPA of 5.82 out of 6. She didn't get a 6 because she had to take high school level Russian, but had not completed the preliminary classes in middle school or elementary because she had been in Nigeria. However, she felt that she was somewhat constrained by all the limitations on what you could say or think under the communist regime. She didn't have many friends, mainly two guys named Assen and Lybumir, but she was chill. -
Starting high school
On September 15 1977 my Mom resumed her schooling in Bulgaria. Nigeria used to be an English colony, so she knew pretty good English from her time there. However, when applying for the prestigious English High School, you had to say if you or your parents were not members of the Communist party. Since they weren't, my Mom couldn't get in, and instead opted to go to a school with intensive English programs as she knew that English was her ticket out of the country. -
Esperanta Club
My mom, in her quest to avoid mandatory service in High school, learned that there was going to be a Esperanta (an international language for the future) world conference in Brazil and that Bulgaria would send some representatives. Thus my mom was really dedicated to learning the language, and after winning some competitions began to share that she wanted to go to Brazil, when she was told that only communists picked by the government would go. So she quit Esperanta. -
Graduation
My mom's high school graduation was pretty chill, although one of her teachers had started to dislike her and they had some beef towards the end of senior year. After graduating she wanted to major in International Tourism, mainly so that she could be more mobile and leave the country that way. However, the issue of her parents not being communists came up again, and she couldn't get into the one school that had the program. After trying for 2 years, she decided on majoring in accounting. -
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College
Bulgarian college lasted for 4 years, in addition to a half year internship guided by a thesis at the very end. My mom, majoring in accounting and taking multiple economic/ financial based classes felt very constrained by the system, simply because professors had to repeat the party line over and over. She did well though, and the only real hiccup was a final exam in the form of a panel review. -
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Working in College
While in college, my mom continued to work to make some money on the side. Initially she got a job as a secretary for multiple sports federations. But when they learned she was fluent in English, she became the translator for the water polo and ski teams. This landed her a stressful gig at the water polo world championships in Bulgaria, as well as the fact that she could go to ski resorts with the team and hang out, which was nice. From this experience she got a lot of contacts in sports. -
Internship
My mom decided to do her thesis on sports marketing, and interned at the Bulgarian Football (soccer) federation for 4 months. The reason she didn't last all 6 months was because she had come across some serious issues in the books and suspected money laundering, and so brought it to her boss. He told her to shut up about it, and not come to work for the rest of her internship, although she would still be getting payed. Essentially he was paying her to stay quiet about it, which she did. -
The Expulsion of the "Turks"
As the eastern bloc began to fall apart, and news of the uprising in Poland reached Bulgaria, the communists began to get very nervous. In order to distract from all that, the government began expelling Muslim Bulgarians of Turkish descent, who were concentrated near Varna and another city in the south. -
Seminar for International Skating Federation
My mom had been working away as a translator and was pretty respected at this point among the various Bulgarian teams. She was given the job of accompanying some international skaters to a seminar in Varna. When they flew from Sofia to Varna, the "Turks" were resisting the expulsion, and the army had tanks and soldiers around the airport. An American named Bill asked my Mom if she was "Ok with living here," to which she replied that she didn't have a choice. -
Panel Review
In order to get her degree, my mother had to go to several final exams in the form of panel reviews by some professors. At one of these, she was reviewed by a couple of her professors and a woman she didn't know. It was going well until the woman asked her about the ratios of production that Marx wrote about. My mom hadn't bothered to study that because Marx wasn't an economist, but the woman was really pissed off, and had to be talked down by the other professors so she would pass my mom. -
The Letter
After my mom graduated from college, she continued working for various sports teams. At this point she wanted out of Bulgaria, so when Bill, the American skater, requested her to come and translate for a seminar in the U.S, she was shocked. Then Bill sent another letter telling her that his house would be open for her if she wanted to defect. Convincing the coach of the skating team to recommend her for a visa, she told her mom days before she left and came to America in the spring of 90'. -
America at last
When she got here, she had nothing but $490 to her name, and stayed with Bill and his family for 3 months, before leaving to start her own life in America.
