{"id":4169,"date":"2022-06-25T19:42:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T19:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/?p=4169"},"modified":"2022-06-25T19:42:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T19:42:45","slug":"bulgaria-a-hidden-secret-gem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/25\/bulgaria-a-hidden-secret-gem\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulgaria: &#8220;A hidden secret gem&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three Florida educators who lead study-abroad trips say Bulgaria is an ideal spot for students looking for some adventure and a rich learning experience.<br \/>\n&#8220;The people are very welcoming and kind and friendly,&#8221; said Lori Lee, a historical archaeologist at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. &#8220;The landscape is absolutely beautiful. The layers of history are incredible, absolutely incredible.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;The people have been so happy and so proud. Resilience is &#8230; what they have,&#8221; said Jessica Howell, a history professor at Flagler College. &#8220;What it is to be a Bulgarian has really survived and thrived.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;The people are amazing here,&#8221; said Lisa Fiala, a Flagler College instructor and former Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria. &#8220;The food is incredible. The scenery, the nature&#8230; Bulgaria is &#8230; a hidden secret gem.&#8221;<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b_q5qBQHH-g\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nA nonprofit called Stone &amp; Compass handles Bulgaria program activities for Flagler College. Rob Goodwin, the NGO&#8217;s co-founder, described the Bulgarian people this way:<br \/>\n&#8220;At first sight, stoic and maybe rugged. Within 30 minutes, bundles of love, hearts on their shoulders. I think that&#8217;s the best way to describe them. They&#8217;re such amazing people. They have such a wealth of history all rolled up into one, good and bad. But they&#8217;ve persevered through, you know, 1,000 years of multiple different occupations and they&#8217;ve come out of it still smiling and giving and warm, which is really commendable and it&#8217;s rare.&#8221;<br \/>\nFlagler College students are traveling to Bulgaria as part of a program called Flagler College Sophomore High Impact Practice, or FlagSHIP. Its goal is to prepare second-year students \u201cto be informed and ethical citizens in a diverse, dynamic, and globalized world.\u201d<br \/>\nI plan to teach a FlagSHIP course about travel writing and photographer in Bulgaria in May 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three Florida educators who lead study-abroad trips say Bulgaria is an ideal spot for students looking for some adventure and a rich learning experience. &#8220;The people are very welcoming and kind and friendly,&#8221; said Lori Lee, a historical archaeologist at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. &#8220;The landscape is absolutely beautiful. The layers of history &#8230; <a title=\"Bulgaria: &#8220;A hidden secret gem&#8221;\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/25\/bulgaria-a-hidden-secret-gem\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Bulgaria: &#8220;A hidden secret gem&#8221;\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[241,40,240,243,244,245,98,23],"class_list":["post-4169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-bulgaria","tag-flagler-college","tag-flagship","tag-jessica-howell","tag-lisa-fiala","tag-lori-lee","tag-study-abroad","tag-tracey-eaton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4170,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169\/revisions\/4170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}