s-1
| I was born in Kuwait, but Im originally from Palestine; I came to Bulgaria in 1992 when I was five years old. |
s-2
| It is hard for me to point out something specific that I miss about Palestine, since I have been here for most of my life. |
s-3
| I am a full Bulgarian by now. |
s-4
| I hadnt been back to Palestine for such a long time; I went back for the first time in November last year. |
s-5
| That was the first time I got to see what is happening in the region. |
s-6
| There are two questions I am never fully able to answer: what is your name and where are you from. |
s-7
| The answer to the first one does not sound at all like it should in Bulgarian. |
s-8
| It has nothing in common with my original name. |
s-9
| Because of this, to make it a little easier, my friends thought of a nickname for me eight years ago, Habibi ('my love' in Arabic), and they still use it. |
s-10
| The second question is hard to answer because my parents were born in Palestine, but I was born in Kuwait and have lived in Bulgaria my whole life. |
s-11
| What I enjoy the most in Bulgaria is nature and my friends. |
s-12
| I like to travel and walk a lot, mainly in the mountains. |
s-13
| I can combine both in my job as an architect. |
s-14
| I get to travel around Europe for conferences and other gatherings. |
s-15
| My favorite Bulgarian food is tripe soup; we are the only ones, besides Bulgarians, that can make and eat that. |
s-16
| There is a Palestinian community in Bulgaria and we meet up from time to time. |
s-17
| I have some friends among this group and we keep in contact, but most of them went back to Palestine. |
s-18
| My mom is a teacher at a Palestinian school here. |
s-19
| My dad is also a teacher, in physics, but he moved to Qatar to work for a few years. |
s-20
| I also speak Arabic; I graduated from an Arabic language school in Bulgaria. |