Learning a New Alphabet

Before I head overseas, the PC wants me to at least know the alphabet. I think I'll try to learn a bit more than that, but right now, learning a whole new way of seeing words naturally seems somewhat strange. Before I move on to anything more complicated like... words, I'm just trying to get used to the sights and sounds of the language itself.

Bulgarian uses a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet, similar to the one used in Russia and other similar countries. Apparently, from what I read, this alphabet was actually created in Bulgaria, and it is a part of their history that the people there are very proud of.

As you can see from the image below, it is somewhat similar to the Latin alphabet. Unfortunately I think this visual similarity makes it a bit more difficult for me to get a grasp on sounding them out. There are letters that are identical in both languages (like the "A"), and there are characters that are unique to Bulgarian (such as the letter that makes the "D" sound). Finally, there are characters that are similar but that sound different. This third group is the hardest - getting used to reading "B" and making the "v" sound, reading "H" and making the "n" sound, etc. There's also characters that are backwards forms of Latin letters, which just adds to the craziness.

Anyway, just wanted to give the readers out there some insight into what stage of preparations I'm at. I'm still waiting for my staging information, and so am again in a sort of holding pattern until I am contacted again by the Peace Corps. Until that time comes, I'm still trying to gather whatever information I can.