AFTER moving to Bulgaria in 1976, Jaroslava Todorova from Czechoslovakia, as it was then, was amazed by the quantity of mineral springs throughout the country.

She found this great, but also felt a sense of disappointment, because so little was being put to good use. Most was just flowing away, the healing water going to waste.

Now 52-year-old Jaroslava, who lives in Sofia, finds it very amusing that for the past five or six years she has been working at a private company for purification of polluted waters.

"The company takes care of sewage waters from small villages and private enterprises, such as hotels, and even contaminated waters from chemical plants. I work so that the water gets clean again, and thus it is saved up," she says.

"The Bulgarian laws in this area - ecology/environment - are now completely in-tune with the EU laws, but nobody cares about abiding by them," Jaroslava says.

"If for example, a huge hotel is built, the owner only cares about the beds and the restaurant as money-generators; he does not consider it necessary to take care of the sewage produce of his enterprise."

So the company's work is a bit in advance, but as Bulgaria joins the EU, Jaroslava hopes their services will be much more sought.

She is an economist, but "in a private company, everybody does everything," she says; thus, she is also a translator and everything she has to be. Since her arrival in Bulgaria, she is happy that she has always been able to practice what she studied - economics - initially in the Czech centre and Cedok (the then Czechoslovakian national tourist company), then in state and later in private companies.

The small, smiling, energetic woman defines herself as a "moderate optimist." She considers herself lucky, because after so many years in Bulgaria she still does not know the hospitals in Sofia - because neither she nor a family member has been seriously ill. "I've had a most ordinary life, without any striking events," Jaroslava says. "I am just a regular person, who has arrived to live in a foreign country. "

She moved to Bulgaria in 1976, with her Bulgarian husband, cameraman Nikolai Todorov, whom she met while the two were students in Prague. After his graduation from FAMU - the Czech Film Academy - he had to return to Bulgaria for his "assignment" - a three-year period of working where he was assigned by the state, in order for the state to recover the money invested in a student.

"We intended to go back to Czechoslovakia after the 'assignment' was over - especially me," Jarosalva remembers. But when the three years were over, things had changed, and there was no further work for her husband there, so they stayed in Bulgaria. Now their 26-year-old son is a student in Jaroslava's home town Prague, where he intends to stay and live.

She learned the Bulgarian language in everyday interactions with people.

"The first half a year I was as silent as a fish, I only listened, and I started to understand." Now one can hardly tell she is not a native speaker. But then she started from another Slavic language, which has many words with a common meaning or pronunciation. Words which sound the same in both languages but have different meanings, have caused funny accidents, she remembers.

One of Jaroslava's first and very strong impressions of the country was the fact that unlike in Prague, in Bulgaria people were much more open and warm.

"One could go to visit a friend without a prior appointment, and all of a sudden a rich table would be set, and conversations would last until after midnight."

Lately, this has changed, she says - at least in Sofia.

"The way of life here has become faster, and harder. People have less time, maybe less money, thy visit each other much less, especially uninvited. They have become more nervous, more spiteful - because life has become harder, and it provokes a person's worst sides," the Czech says. According to her, life in Bulgaria has always been more difficult than in her home country, with more efforts, more nervous, more complicated.

Still, Jaroslava does not regret coming to live in Bulgaria.

"There have been a few times of difficulties, when I almost grabbed my bags and left, but I stayed - maybe because of my family," she says. "Now I am too old for such a major change; there is no work waiting for me over there."

If however, she had to say goodbye to Bulgaria, she would take with her a few sprays of wild geranium.

"It has a very specific aroma, and to me is typically Bulgarian, but it is not widespread in the Czech Republic."

She says she has been so long in Bulgaria that she cannot tell what she likes most about the country. Two things she appreciates are the much more favorable, warmer climate, and the incredible variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as their fantastic taste.

"Such a taste one can hardly look for, and find in the EU, and the people there don't even know that fruits and vegetables can be that tasty!"

Jaroslava is very much against the wide-spread phrase that "Bulgaria is soon to enter Europe."

She accepts it in the economic sense only, but not in geographic or historic.

"Bulgaria is one of the oldest states in Europe. Bulgarians should acknowledge that, in stead of lowering their already low self-respect. They should think of all the inventions made by Bulgarians, and put up their noses a bit, even a lot," the Czech woman says.