So begins our conversation with her - a young, educated, charming and lovely piece of the puzzle of the other Bulgaria in Greece. Andromahi is a child of two countries, two cultures and two languages. A child of the opportunities and the shortcomings of the 21st century. But when she talks about Bulgaria, you can see the true bond this girl has with the country. An essential thread in this bond is her mother tongue. "At home, my mother spoke Bulgarian, but my father didn't because he's Greek. And I've spoken Bulgarian since I was little, but very badly," she recalls. So, at the age of 13, she started attending the oldest Bulgarian Sunday school in Athens, "Sts. Cyril and Methodius". There she had to "catch up" with her classmates in learning the language. 

"Then I was admitted to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens to study Russian philology. I took Bulgarian as a second language, which helped me fill in the gaps in my vocabulary," Bardi says proudly. She became so good that she now teaches in the same school that helped her start her journey and come to terms with who she is - Bulgarian and Greek. 

Bardi teaches Bulgarian language and history to first and second graders in the Bulgarian Sunday school and to students. Some of them are of Bulgarian origin who do not know their mother tongue very well and have to learn it as a foreign language. "But there are also foreign students who find it extremely difficult to master our reading and writing," Andromahi admits. She is sympathetic because she herself knows that Cyrillic is not easy to "tame". She has been there herself.

Like many young people, Andromahi wondered why she needed to learn her mother's language when she was already fluent in both Greek and English. 

"Not because I don't care," she replies immediately, "but because I have the feeling that since I don't live there and have no first-hand experience of all the problems of life there, who am I to vote or have an opinion on something that directly affects someone other than me?  I feel that my opinion won't make any difference. That's the way it is here in Greece. The important decisions, frankly, don't come from the "common people", they come from a higher level that I can't reach and can't change.

I think that life depends mainly on our everyday life, on how we talk to people, on how we perceive the things that happen around us, on whether we are honest, on whether we are kind to everyone. We have to understand that we are all the same. We are only strong when we are all together. And believe me - it makes no difference if you vote in an election. But when something bad happens, it is the united reaction of the people that changes decisions and policies.