| Lolita's 2004 Scrapbook |
| Copyright © 2004-2005 Lolita Nikolova, Ph.D. All rights reserved. |
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| Season's Greetings |
| Wishing you ... joy and happiness at this beautiful Christmas season (Nedra) Nedra is my sunshine in Salt Lake. If I don't see her at least once a week, I would feel sick forever. |
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| Wishing you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (Rob) Rob reminded me that I bought my condo this year! Thanks to him I have a Downtown home even in the best place to live in the world - Salt Lake City, Utah. Thank you Rob! I always live in Downtown. |
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| With every good Wish for your Happiness this Holiday Season (Lorna) Lorna is my genealogy friend. I have never seen her in my life, but feel her so close. I have tried to help her to find her ancestors in Poland. |
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| Salt Lake City, 21 April 2004. Lolita's Birthday Bush (45th Anniversary and 3 years of the International Institute of Anthropology). Best Western Plaza Hotel. IIA's "Beauty in Everyday Life" Nominees, an art exhibit by Daniel Hitkov, presentations of students from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, the wonderful assistance of my friend Audrey, a raffle and ... a lot of fun. |
| Hotnitsa, August 2004. This summer continued the essential excavations of Dr. Stefan Chokhadzhiev at this site. International Institute of Anthropology had supported the team by a small fund for a student field school there. |
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| Greetings of the Season. Christine G., Christine H. and Bonnie surprised me with this postcard which I found in my SLCC mailbox weeks before Christmas. "Dear, Christine! You helped me so much during this semester. Everything was new for me and thanks to you there were even no administrative problems. Thank you for your prompt assistance and guideness. You are just wonderful!" |
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| Salt Lake Community College. It is a special college in the USA and in the world. The members of the administration really care about the students and the teachers! And we have smart students there. I think even the future presidents of the USA can begin their undergraduate education with this college and will remember it to the end of their life. "... I phone call that I had dreamt only. Professor John Fritz (now the Division Chair of Humanity Department, SLCC) invited me to have taught Cultural Anthropology during the Fall Semester. And who is HE? Well. (Between us only). Years ago Professor Fritz was elected for the best teacher in Westminster College. I think it is enough for everybody to imagine who is he. |
| "Thanks for all you do to bring the gifts of teaching and learning to our students and community. Best wishes for health and happiness throughout the coming year!" |
| We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give Winston Churchill |
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| "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14 KJV) |
| In front of the Marriott Library I had got a gift, "The New Testament". It is for my library at home. ... And I had one more wonderful gift this year - from Gevalia. A huge luxury coffee maker. ... just to try their coffeee. It is really of high quality. |
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| In June 2004 I moved to live in a historical building in Downtown Salt Lake - Belvedere Condominium Building. Now I have two homes - in Salt Lake and in Karlovo, Bulgaria. |
| Bill Garbett. He sold me the condo but as a matter of fact, he is the alive memory of Belvedere Building. He wrote on his Christmas postcard "Lolita, it is nice having you in the Belvedere". Thank you, Bill! And it is really nice to have you and all others living in the Belvedere as neighbors. |
| "tis the season of the heart we celebrate the birth of a little boy called LOVE remembering that the gift is inside each of us may we be present for each other knowing that our hearts are the best presents we can open" (Golden Braid) |
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| The ability to read Cyrillic has helped me in Salt Lake, and in this case as well. It is written "Happy Christmas" but probably I have to refer gratefully to the wonderful wish by Family Fol "Merry Christmas!" Professor Fol was my favorite teacher at Sofia University. I remember when I was a undergraduate student, was asked by my friend Stefka, a journalist in Radio Sofia to have talked about my favorite teacher at high school. And I talked about my teacher in history. Stefka was a secretary of Lyudmila Zhivkova, one of the Bulgarian politicians who had attempted to have helped the Bulgarian culture to be better known in the world. At that time Stefka had understanding of enculturation as a transmission of culture values and how it is important to have your favorites in the life, especially at school! I am recalling this fact right now, but this semester my students in Cultural Anthropology were so smart and finally we even integrated ourselves in a social group, so I brought in the last class a small Santa Claus and asked them who is their favorite student to give him/her the Santa Claus as a present. Almost all of them voted for Tina Coates. We do have our favorites around us and they have to know they are our favorites! However, two days later I read in Globe, the SLCC newsletter, about a student innovation - instead a student evaluation of teachers (there is such in SLCC every semester!) - elections of favorite teachers. Obviously, it was independent innovation that we needed. And now we have a favorite scholar of Balkan Prehistory (Professor Ruth Tringham). Next year IIA will begin to nominate not only a favorite scholar of Balkan Prehistory, but also favorite books, articles, smart excavations, etc. We do need them. But I want to share a secret about the lectures of Professor Fol. He had talked so interesting things that I recorded his lectures and listened to them at home again and again. He talked for instance, about cyclical and linear thinking. However, with our cycles of holidays, I think our thinking is not absolutely linear. Probably a point for a discussion. |
| Totko Stoyanov (Sofia University) sent me a nice postcard, although .mac is .mac. I could not save the picture as an image for my scrapbook. But the last jogged my memory on the New Year champagne in Bulgaria. Here in Utah - Cider. It tastes good, by the way. The postcard of Elmar Christmann is beautiful but also I cannot save the image to import to my scrapbook. Obviously, I need to update my software. "Boban, Hallmark are my favorite e-cards. I used to send them this year almost every day to one my friend. I love the story about Christmas." "Sasho, I love this song and all e-cards and greetings that I have received for this Christmas!" Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! |
| DEAREST, THANK YOU ALL OF YOU WHO SENT ME YOUR SEASON'S GREETINGS AND INVITED ME TO CELEBRATE WITH YOU! JOYCE, I PROMISE YOU! I WILL VISIT YOU FOR SURE. NEXT YEAR AT LEAST ONE DAY IN MY LIFE I WILL FORGET HOW BUSY I AM! WARMEST REGARDS, LOLITA! |
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| No excavations this summer! Books from the Marriott Library! And many pictures for my project "The Beauty of Everyday Life". Last year I recognized that the only way to understand Prehistory is to research in depth the cultural theory of the everydayness and to turn to our everyday life as an anthropological problem. My colleagues will witness some results in March 2005 at SAA Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. |
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| And I became even "Grandma" this year. My "adopted son" Travis married and left Utah. |
| Everyday life and cultural reproduction There are "pieces of paper" in our everyday life that we usually throw out. But it is so easy to scan them and leave for our memory. Who knows? You might later realize that the postcard that you have received, the movie watched or a party attended was in fact an essential event and even the most important event in your life. This is the magic of everyday life! |
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| Vili, Your e-card was the only one that could save on my computer and include in this scrapbook. It has been really my pleasure to work with you. And a promise - as oon as possible to publish the Dubene ceramics on Internet. |
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| My favorite party! I have been invited to celebrate Christmas with my colleagues from the Universal Genealogy Center for 4 years. This year I took pictures, but the film was dark. Hope for the next party will have better camera. |
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| Shila sent me this postcard. This year she tried to move to Idaho, to work in the company of her father, but unsuccessfully. Soon she came back in Salt Lake. I think we both believe that Salt Lake is the best place to live in the world. |
| 11/2/04 |
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| 21 April 2004. 45th Anniversary. |
| April 7, 2004. Lecture at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. |
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| Archive 2003 |
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| 26 April 2004. Lecture in my favorite university in Europe - Heidelberg. Professor Maran, thank you for the invitation! |
| The Eastern European Genealogy research group invited me for a lecture in June 2004 |
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| Professor Korfmann, Thank you so much! Your Season's Greetings arrived exactly on 31 December. I opened the mailbox coming back from the Lion's House in Downtown SL where we celebrated the European New Year (at 3.00 PM). I think Troia is one of the most exciting archaeological projects in Circumpontica. Good luck in Georgia as well ! And I will never forget my lecture in Tuebingen! December 31, 2004 11.00 PM |
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| Dear Igor, Thanks for your greetings from Ukraine! I am glad for the democracy there and wish you to witness its bright sides only. Jan 3, 2005 |