Bulgaria, Work Hub-bubb, Wrestling, and London?

                 

We traveled for 19 hours or so and arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Immediately, Will pulled out his computer and got on an all-hands company meeting to announce Complete Solar's merger with the panel manufacturing company, Solaria.  

The next day we walked around Sofia and bit then Will went back to work so he could announce at another all-hands duo company meeting that the new company, Complete Solaria, would be going public in a SPAC.  No big deal.  Big deal, it is actually a huge deal.  Complete Solaria will trade on the New York Stock Exchange some time in early 2023.  Bonkers.

Sofia is the big city but not really charming.  Still kind of industrial.  We toured a cathedral and ate the most delicious carrot cake any of us had ever had.

               

After just one night in Sofia we drove out to Plovdiv, the town where wrestling would happen.  The tournament had been moved to Plovdiv from Sofia a few months before because Bulgaria was having an election and the sports arena was needed for voting.

Plovdiv was beautiful, old and so charming!  For the first few days it was preparing for wrestling and wrestling time.

Will wrestled hard and took home bronze.  He won his first and second matches.  In his third match he tweaked his hip and the injury set him behind.  It was his only loss.  He wrestled in his fourth match for 3rd and won.  The guy he lost to won gold and was also on team USA so we were proud.  Team USA ended up winning the whole tournament!

                 

  

It was a stressful but fun day.  We were all relived and proud of Will.  Andres came along to cheer Will on (and help work on the merger/SPAC) it was nice to have some company in the stands.  We laughed a lot about the stuff we didn't understand in wrestling (most of it).

We explored Old Plovdiv and the downtown the next day.  It was beautiful...I love old things and old places.  Plovdiv delivered for me.  And Google Translate delivered on helping me understand signs and things all around town.

We had to cut our trip to Bulgaria short in favor of a hop over to London.  Some of the investors in Will's new company were in London and wanted to celebrate.  They also set up some more investor meetings for Will.  So we packed our bags and scooted over to England.  My brain had no way to relate to or understand this.  We landed, got to the airport, went to Selfridges to buy nice clothes (we only packed wrestling and casual clothes) and went directly to dinner.  

We ate at a Michelin starred restaurant.  It was delicious.  We sat with fancy people down at the chef's table in the kitchen.  We ate fancy food.  I talked comfortably with people it would have given me a self-concious-tummy-ache to talk with four years ago.  I was proud of me.  I didn't cry about it or beat myself up over it.  It was a miracle of self-development.  

        

 

Between meetings Will and I spent the next days checking out London.  London also over delivers in the old-places-old-things department.  All of the roads are about seven feet long and you have to zig and zag like crazy to get anywhere.  We took an uber a few times before learning how to use the Tube.  The Tube was waaaaay better (and cheaper) even with a train operators strike! 

It was an amazing trip.  I cannot believe all we got to do!  I feel like I am living someone else's life...but it is my life and I love it.

We came home to a hero's welcome.  Lorien had taken really good care of the kids and the house.  Truthfully, the kids took good care of themselves and Lorien let them.  Then it was a team effort led by Lorien to keep the house clean.  All good things.  Lorien made this great poster for Will and a gold medal for me.  It was sweet.  

It was fun to be away and to see new parts of the world...but I missed my kids very much.  Home is a wonderful place too.