HEATHER Stepanek is just like that cool kid in school that everyone hopes will be their friend.

She listens to great music such as The Clash, Rolling Stones, The Pixies and The Shins. She spends her free time "chilling out" with friends, socialising into the wee hours of the night. However, what differentiates this Long Island girl from other Americans her age, is her clear passion to experience the unknown in an effort to seek new adventures and gain a greater insight of the world beyond her familiar environment.

As a recent Boston College graduate, Heather arrived in Sofia in late September to begin her year as a Fulbright Grantee. She will be spending the next 10 months conducting a research project concerning Bulgarian public opinion on American military bases in Bulgaria. Heather will be focusing on the sociological and economic impact of the bases though journalistic reports and personal interviews. Currently, she is in the beginning stages of this research, spending much of her time familiarising herself with Bulgarian current events, especially involving her project topic, and establishing contacts with local non-government organisations in Sofia.

While professionally Heather would like a career in human rights, her enjoyment and sensitivity to art, especially the paintings of Frida Kahlo, would serve as a more accurate indicator of her core personality and private self. In 2002 she spent a semester studying in the heart of Mexico City to better understand the influences and context behind Kahlo's work. The artist's utter lack of inhibition in creating forceful images of self-reflection, feminism, sexuality, and fertility in a conservative and traditional country can serve as a source of inspiration and courage for women in various societies around the world. The way in which she draws on the mythology and heritage of her indigenous roots while at the same time defiantly rebelling against the tastes and sensibility of these same roots, is a microcosm for how culture and our ancestry can both liberate and oppress, as well as strengthen and destroy. Heather's belief in the complex duality of things is what colours her perception of the world, the places she visits, and the people she meets.

It comes as no surprise then, that aside from interests in the Bulgarian political situation on an academic level, Heather comes to Eastern Europe because of a rich cultural and literary history. The controversial psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva has introduced to the Fulbright scholar a meaningful way to appreciate the country that motivated such extensive writings on the female psyche and defence of the female body. Equally interesting is her theory on the "semiotic" and the "symbolic," a discourse on the inability of language to express real sentiment. Such linguistic analysis makes perfect sense for Heather, because it underscores a deeply rooted belief that art, poetry and music are essential for human life because they are the only median with which we can properly estimate true meaning. This winter, similar motivations and interest in the arts will bring Heather to the Czech Republic, home to favourite writers such as Milan Kundera and Franz Kafka, as well as the home country of her paternal grandfather. In addition to the Czech Republic, she plans to take advantage of the centrality Bulgaria presents for such an enthusiastic traveller and visit as many countries as one life will allow.

Eventually Heather plans to draw on her various interests to make a rewarding career that will ultimately serve the greater good. Economic development programmes or world aid organisations are essential to living standards, and she hopes her capabilities can some how strengthen their efforts. Heather believes her Fulbright research on American military bases in Bulgaria is important because it will help educate Americans about the effect their government has on smaller countries, that it uses to fulfill its greater foreign policy agenda, and question merits of such agendas. Despite the stresses of the cultural and linguistic barriers Heather has encountered since her arrival in Sofia, she looks upon this year as a fun filled adventure!