I've moved!

You can now find my blog at: www.JimmyBulgaria.WordPress.com. I've changed because the format of Blogspot was getting frustrating. Plus I think Word Press is much cleaner. All the entries here have been imported and I've linked my Flickr photo account.

First snow in Chirpan

Political turmoil

It's been an odd day here in Chirpan. About two months ago elections for every single local government in Bulgaria were held. The election for mayor here went into a run off, which was held two weeks after the first one. The mayor was re-elected and sworn in about a month ago. It turns out, the election may have been flawed, and the number two guy challenged it in court. The election board recounted the ballots and re-certified the re-elected mayor as the winner. Today, the court in the providential capital, Stara Zagora, issued a ruling, essentially reversing the election board's decision. In order to preempt this court order, the city council met yesterday (illegally, I've been told), and appointed a interim mayor until everything gets sorted out. I've been told they guy they nominated isn't very well liked and this drew protests against the council's decision. So when my colleagues found out about this ruling, they all (pretty much everyone-lawyers, secretaries, accountants, janitors) went and stood outside the mayor's office to 1) show their support for the mayor who was re-elected and 2) pressure the interim dude out of the mayor's office, where, if I understand correctly, he had been holed up.

I headed up stairs, not wanting to be seen (and violate the PC policy of getting involved in local politics) one of the city lawyers was heading up too. "Ah, Democracy!" he said. I thought to myself, kinda reminds me of Florida in 2000...

As of right now, I have no idea who the mayor is. The courts rule the mayor isn't the mayor, but he's already been sworn in. I wonder what'll happen next. I also have no idea what either of their platforms are. The current (?) mayor was very helpful of the PCV I replaced and I've met them both and they're pretty nice. Who knows.

Well I don't think it's that bad

I've encountered a few problems with my apartment over the past few days. The biggest one by far has been the complete lack of hot water. Yes, this means I haven't been showering for the past few days. The pipe under the sink has also broken (Again. Good money says it'll be fixed with tape. Again.) as well as the freezer box door, which is now dripping on my food. And there is water damage from last week's rain on my kitchen walls. I tell my colleagues at work about these problems and they, as always, are always attentive to my concerns (not just about my living situation).

I was told that they couldn't get a repairman to my apartment then. It wasn't a big deal; I'm oddly calm about everything. I started out with "Well, my apartment might be frigid, but at least I have hot water" I just rolled with it and changed it to "Well, I might be able to see my breath and can't take a hot shower, but at least the pipes aren't frozen". Glass half full kinda stuff. But still, it got me thinking, if I lose power? I'd probably just shrug my shoulders "meh" and stick it out to morning. Odd, don't you think?

So back to the story. Today, my colleague gets a phone call saying my land lady is going to meet me at my apartment to get the boiler fixed. Thankfully, it's still under warranty (it was installed four days before I moved in). I get to the apartment with someone else from the office and she and a repairman are already there. I walk in, still wearing my boots, and notice everyone else is too. My land lady points to all the Bulgarian words and verbs I've taped around the foyer and smiles. She asks me for something from the kitchen, I go in and walk across, still in my shoes, to get it. She is horrified! And goes on about not wearing shoes in the apartment.

The boiler gets fixed (it turns out it was just a fuse) and I head back to the office. I walk in, and my colleague is on the phone...with my land lady. She (my co-worker) gets off the phone and tells me my land lady is very concerned about how messy my apartment is and the fact I wore my shoes into the kitchen. She goes on to tell me about how Bulgarian children are taught never to wear shoes in the house and that my land lady has offered to show me how to clean my apartment! My colleague then offers to show me how to clean my apartment as well! I'm sitting there thinking, ok, yes, I am a guy living alone, but it's not that bad. Should I be grateful or mildly insulted? She then calls my land lady back to assuage her. "Jimmy," she says laughing, "she wants to know what day she can come over and show you how to clean". I think she's joking, but no. She's coming over Sunday morning to teach the hapless American. I told my site mate I was going to pre-empt her and clean before she gets here. She just laughed at me "There is no way you can clean better than a Bulgarian" (she's lived in a small town in Bulgaria for over a year).

So that's my Sunday. Oh, and I have to work on Saturday (but I get the 31st off).

Dance party!

Last night was a holiday celebrating university students ("College" in Bulgaria is like a commuity college in the US). I was invited to attend a dance party at the bar/restaurant where I usually eat dinner with my colleagues and their friends on Fridays.

We walked in, and the place was starting to fill up; mostly with university students. We sat down and started to order. I ordered a Coke along with my meal. This got immediate attention from the people around me "without alcohol!?" "Do you drink?" "Are you ok?" I guess the people assumed I'd be drinking since it was a celebtration. My colleage leaned over and told me "I heard you didn't order any alcohol. Do you want a glass for our wine?" I agreed and all the questions stopped.

The evening was full of eating, drinking dancing and general merry-making. I danced the horo (I'm sure to the amazment of several people) as well as had some converstations in Bulgarian and met several people. I grew tired and left around 2am. I later found out that my colleague left at 5am and several other people left around 7:30. They don't mess around with partying here. I was told, laughing "It was practice for New Years". Last year, they didn't go home until 8 or 9 after their New Year's celebrations. And I plan on joining them.

Name Day

Today was the name day for everyone named after St. Nicolas (Nikola, Nikali, etc). Name days are the feast day of Christian Saints and in Bulgaria, they have the same significant as birthdays. According to tradition, the person celebrating is or her name day is supposed to treat everyone. Usually this is a drink and some sugary food. For closer friends, the person takes his or her friends out to a drink or a meal at a restaurant. As far as I know, hardly anyone celebrates the religious significance of the day.

I went to school to teach the computer class. When I walked into the teacher's lounge, the table was covered in cookies, nuts, bon boni and soda. The teachers kept telling me to eat. I wasn't going to argue about sitting in a warm room being told to eat cookies. After teaching class, I went back to work. When I got there, I was informed I needed to contribute some money to help one my colleagues pay to help him celebrate his name day. The time came to go to his office. When I got there, there were several people crammed into his small office. The cover table, once again, was covered in nuts, cookies and candy. The only difference compared to the teachers' party was the half empty bottle of whisky. So I sat in an office drinking whisky with secretaries, lawyers and other people in the administration. The whole situation a was a bit surreal.

I ate dinner with my site mate; she made some awesome chili, cornbread and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We were both stuffed to begin with from the name day, but that chili was_so_good!

On a sad note, I expirenced my first blatant bigotry towards the Roma. I was in a conversation with someone about the town. They told me where I shouldn't go in town, which quickly degraded into an anti-Roma tirade. I won't summarized the converation other than it made me feel really uncomfortable and I wondered how an educated person can hold such beliefs.

A few cultural notes

One of the hardest things that I’ve had to get used to here in Bulgaria is simple gestures. In the rest of the world, shaking your head means “no” and nodding means “yes”. But Bulgaria is the only country in the world where it’s the opposite. And it can be maddening (at least at first). When I first got here, I was completely thrown off. I had no idea what people met. And in smaller towns, such as Rila, they do a head bobble. It was very frustrating. I thought “why do they have to go against the grain on this? Why be so different on such a simple and universal thing. This is silly”. But that was when I didn’t know the history. Bulgaria has been the crossroads of history and is the gateway to the Middle East and Central Asia. All of the Crusades had to go through Bulgaria. So you can imagine, Bulgaria has been occupied by several empires and has been an important battleground of European history. For over 500 years, Bulgaria was under the Ottoman Empire, a period of history they refer to as “Turkish Yoke” They have only been independent of Turkey for just over 150 years, after being freed with the help of Tsarist Russia. Animosity towards the Turks is still high and during the final years of Communism, the Turkish minority was subject to a program to “Bulgarianize” them in an effort to assimilate them into Bulgarian society. This involved the suppression of Turkish traditions, language, Bulgarianization of Turkish names and sometimes, forced relocation. The Bulgarians, during the Ottoman rule, had what can be described as a mutual understanding. When they were ordered to do something by the Ottomans, they would nod, appearing to agree to their Turkish master. But it was universally understood amongst the Bulgarians that they were actually saying “no”; a silent defiance. After they were freed in the mid-19^th Century, what they actually meant stuck and nodding became “no” and shaking became “yes”. It’s starting to become a habit now with me and it can be really confusing when I get together with other PCVs. “Wait…is that a Bulgarian “yes” or an American “no”?” As time goes by it’s slowly becoming “yes”. I’m sure things will get interesting when I travel to another country and when I move back to America in two years.

The superstitions are still playing a role here in my life. I finished dance practice last night and I was unusually sweaty. But it was hot and I didn’t put my sweater on. It was someone’s birthday and there was plenty of food and drink. As it got late, I decided to leave. I hadn’t put on my jacket when I several of my classmates, including the teacher, callout to me to put my jacket on. They were all very concerned since I was told I’ll be performing with them on the 18^th. They didn’t want to lose one of the few guys by catching a cold and dying!

My site mate had a frustrating time when she was in Sofia (the capital) over the weekend. She was with her Bulgarian boyfriend and was planning on spending the night at his cousin’s apartment. His cousin was so excited that they were coming to visit, that he called his family in the small town where he is from (roughly 1,000 people). Unbeknownst to him (and my site mate for that matter), she and her boyfriend had gravely offended the family and were forbidden to pay his cousin and his wife a visit. They didn’t attend the wedding of a distant relative of her boyfriend; someone she had met nor heard of and was completely unaware of the event. She told me it was frustrating having to deal with the “protocol” of a small town. Hopefully this fo paux will blow over quickly.

Side notes:

I’ve been asked by the office I work for to hold off on writing the grant for the medical center until after my In Service Training where I will get more information on how to apply for this particular grant. It’s ok since it’s not due until late February and the office is on top of things. The whole project will cost a little more than 27,000 leva or about $19,000. The grant is for a maximum of $5,000. The Municipality will cover the difference.

I will be meeting with the “Sports Minister” tomorrow (the nickname given to him by his colleagues in the Obshtina because he loves sports and setting up games) about setting up a charity football (soccer) tournament in the spring (late March, early April). For the PCVs out there, stay posted for the details! I hope to form a few PCV teams.

I’m starting to get some Christmas packages from home as well as a few letters. Thanks so much! It’s great to hear how everyone in the US is doing.

It's supposed to snow tonight. Not sure how I feel about that.

Catch up

It's been a while since I've posted and I'm not doing a very good job with journaling. It's getting harder and harder to motivate myself to do this everyday. But here's a glimpse of what I've been up to:

I went na gosti, which is a type of party where you show up at someone's house and drink and eat. I went to my tutor's house to watch the Slavi Show (the Bulgarian Jay Leno). However I didn't really watch the show but more talked about American and Bulgarian history. Her husband wanted to know more about Missouri so I told him about The Cardinals, Budweiser, the Arch and Mark Twain.

The following evening I went to a pub with my colleagues and some of their friends. There weren't as many people as there has been, but it was good to get out of the apartment for a bit. While I was eating dinner, I talked with some of them about a charity football (soccer) tournament I want to put on this spring. I'll get the ball rolling, so to speak, this upcoming week.

Yesterday, a PCV from Karlovo came to visit. I was waiting for her at the bus stop when a guy asked me when the bus to Stara Zagora was coming. I told him, in Bulgarian "I'm sorry, I don't speak much Bulgarian." He started to laugh "Seriously?" "Yes. I'm just here waiting for the bus from Plovdiv, which should be here at 8:30". We struck up a conversation. He was very surprised that I was an American who was learning Bulgarian. So after, people walking by wanted to chat. I told them where in was from in the US, how long I've been studying Bulgarian, where I studied and how long I would be living in Chirpan. One lady told me that my colleagues spoke English well. I thought I misheard her because I never told her were I worked. After I told her, she simply replied, "Oh, I know". I was a little surprised at her answer! As the bus pulled up, I said good bye to my new friends. One lady told me she was going to be interviewed for her green card. I don't think she'll get it as she was in her late 40s/ early 50s and her English was quite fractured. I've been told it costs a nonrefundable $100 to apply and can only apply once a year. Most people who do get it are younger, have a good grasp of English and are trained in high demand job.

I went to Stara Zagora to go shopping at Billa, a Bulgarian supermarket chain. Just walking through the doors can be overwhelming. I don't know what to do with so much choice! I got a bag a 3-1 (a very addictive instant coffee) and jar of marmalade. That evening we went to the SZ PCV's apartment and made hamburgers with some type of ground meat (I have no idea what it was, some sort of combination of beef, pork and/or veal). But it was tasty! We mixed garlic, onion, oregano and bread crumbs into the patties. We covered them with cheddar cheese! (very difficult to find) and Heinz ketchup (the ketchup in Bulgaria is much sweeter than the salty American stuff). When heading home, I struck up a conversation with a 14 year old girl. She was very surprised that I was a Bulgarian speaking American. She travels to Stara Zagora every day to study English and has been studying English for eight years! However, most of our conversation was in Bulgarian. She asked if people in America her age smoke, as she was pulling out a pack of cigarettes! I told her that they don't and in fact, none of my friends in the US smoke. She was quite surprised. I've read somewhere that the average Bulgarian smokes an average of seven cigarettes a day! It doesn't really surprise me, as everyone I know here (with the exception of maybe three people) smoke!

That's or less it for now.