By George!


I promised you a big piece of news and here it is: I have a new teaching job in Sofia, starting in January. Yes, yes, I do know that I am supposed to be retired and in many ways I was looking forward to being retired. Now, however, I miss the buzz of school life and there is not much for us to do in Kalotina in the winter.

Blogger in interview mode
On Monday I went for what was supposed to be an “informal chat” with the headmaster of St. George’s School in Sofia. The photos on the school website make the new school building look quite posh (and huge) and the head also has quite a posh name, Justin Kilcullen-Nichols. The salary is not quite so impressive, alas, but the important thing is that we are going to get an apartment in Sofia as part of the deal. There is no way that I can commute from Kalotina each day. (It is at least an hour and a half’s drive from our house to the far side of Sofia.)

The not-quite-finished-but-still-amazing theatre at St. George's School

The swimming pool! Yes, it is big.
St. George’s School is an amazing place. I have seen quite a few schools over the last thirty-something years and I have never seen anything like this one. The theatre is most impressive, the sports hall is huge and the swimming pool is massive! I could not believe it when I saw the special area for entertaining visiting parents. It looks just like a nice old English pub, with wood-panelled walls, a bar (yes, a BAR) and even a big fireplace.


Financially, it would not be such a bad thing for us if I were to start a new job because we invested some money when we were in Qatar and the markets are down at the moment. Oil stocks looked like a good investment at the time, but ours are in the Far East and Trump’s trade war with China has not helped things at all.

Some nice students showed us round
As for the idea of buying a property in Sofia, we are not so sure about that one. Renting out your property might not be such a secure investment in Bulgaria, especially if you are a foreigner. Maybe we might just leave our money in the bank. It would certainly make things simpler.
We had thought of letting out our apartment in Veliko Tarnovo, but the truth is that we just cannot bring ourselves to do it. We spent so much money on the lovely furniture in the dining room, not to mention the leather sofa and chair and the silk carpet in the sitting room, so we do not want anyone else to live there.

I am sorry about the lack of photos. I promise that I will be adding some more St. George's pictures in the not-too-distant future.


Comments

  1. Unknown13 March 2019 at 20:00

    Hi Simon,
    I wanted to send you an email to ask how your time at St George is going?? And what the school is like??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the hippopotamus15 March 2019 at 09:50

      Yes, of course. You could contact me through the TES, where my username is "the hippo" and you will find lots of my posts on the TEachong Overseas forum.

      Delete

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