Name: Allen Stevens
Place of birth: Lancashire, United Kingdom
Nationality: British
Occupation: English literature teacher
Date of arrival: 1998

What does it take to leave your native land and build a new home some place else? Or could it be that a home is signified by more than just the physical place: by something one can acquire anywhere in the world?

A short interview with English literature teacher Allen Stevens elucidates the pondery. Born in Lancashire in the UK, Stevens has spent the past eight years in Bulgaria. And that is not too long. He adds with definite certitude that he is not at all planning on leaving his new residence. Married - he and his wife have two children, Silvia and Christina - he believes the most important factor that keeps him here is his family.

The story begins in homeland Britain, where Allen met a Bulgarian woman, his future wife. They got married and now live together, here in Sofia, where Allen teaches English literature at the American College of Sofia. He depicts his job and employment in an Eastern Europe nation as "not difficult" as it occupies half his waking time.

Stevens first heard about Bulgaria because of the murder of Bulgarian journalist Georgi Markov in London, in the 1970s. After a few visits here, his overall impression was that there existed a "great gap between those who have and those who don't". He thought that this would change, but it has not. Although he usually avoids generalisations, Allen thinks Bulgarians are "too patient with the difficulties they encounter in their everyday life". According to him, they do not demand enough of their politicians. After so much time in the country, Stevens describes Bulgaria as a… tortoise: "moving slowly, but finally getting there".

Life in such a unique place as Bulgaria does not lack problems. However, it has taught him some lessons, too. Among them are that he should be "more tolerant of day-to-day difficulties": such as water being turned off and bureaucracy. Bulgaria has also definitely changed his lifestyle, as the standard for him here is lower than it was in Britain, but "the perfect job" and the fact his own family (and two dogs) also dwell in Sofia firmly keeps him in the country.

The new homeland has also altered some aspects of his beliefs: he is more positive toward young people and more hopeful about the future. Maybe a root to that is the fact that the students here are more motivated than those he used to teach in England. There his role in the classroom was mainly that of "a policeman, keeping order" and there was very little time for teaching. In his words, his students in England "lack the prospect of a career", which "affects their attitude", too. Hence, his happiest recollections while on Bulgarian soil date back to those moments in his teaching career when he saw "students discovering about literature, finding and understanding things".

Obviously, integration is an essential element of a good life in a foreign land when you are an expatriate. Stevens, however, states that he does not feel as such: he does not "hang with expats", but rather lives with his own family. The English literature teacher socialises mostly with Bulgarian people as well, and that undeniably adds to his feeling even more at home here, so many miles away from his original birthplace. The life he has acquired has erased all feelings of nostalgia, too, for he does not miss England much at all.

Many positive aspects of life here come together to create a homey image of Bulgaria for the literature teacher. "Bulgaria is my home." Nevertheless, Stevens does not deceive himself that he is a Bulgarian. This is not his background, as he clarifies, and he is not trying to "lose his culture", although he finds the Bulgarian one unique and interesting. He is British after all, one brought up in a family of close relations, and thus he finds himself visiting his family once each year.

Of course, there have been some irritating occasions while in Bulgaria, but none of them were serious enough. As he jokes, he is lucky he has never been robbed, not even cheated. Allen recalls one single time when Bulgarians did not welcome him in the best of ways. Once he was having work done on his flat and the "maistor" (master) left with the money before he had completed his job. For a while Stevens was "quite fed up", but as he concludes, that could have happened anywhere around the world.

Other times there are the typical complications of language and being understood, but, after all, these concerns are too minor when one has already found his place in life.