How to Graduate from High School in Bulgaria

1. Wear the most revealing dress you can find.
2. Count from 1 to 12 out loud over and over and over and OVER....and OVER.
3. Act as if the streets, the clubs, the city etc. are yours and don't care about what anyone else around you might want.
4. Show up in the flashiest car.
5. Don't be caught dead without a date.
6. Count from 1 to 12 out loud over and over and over and OVER (oh... oops, I already mentioned that)

The above may be slightly exaggerated, but it is not that far from the truth. End of May is the time of high school graduation balls in Bulgaria. Every evening at the end of May involves lots of honking, cars with balloons driving by, dressed up teenagers on the streets, in restaurants, clubs, etc., screaming (did I mention counting?), drunkenness and celebration. It's like the city is overrun by high school graduates all of a sudden. It is an interesting experience, especially since I haven't experienced this since my own high school graduation. A few things have changed since then though. For starters, we didn't count from 1 to 12 (for all the school grades completed). Our families also didn't arrange for fancy celebrations at restaurants prior to the actual ball. We simply celebrated at home. I was talking with a friend about this and we were wondering how much money parents throw on such an evening. Your guess is as good as mine.

Back from the Long Weekend (or Why I Love Being in Bulgaria)

Before the long weekend approached (May 24-27), I had decided I was going to spend it in Sofia. Given that I had been away from Sofia most of the previous 4-5 weekends, I wanted to spend some "quality time" at home. Well, that lasted all of one day. On Thursday, a friend called me up and asked me whether I would like to go to her AUBG reunion in Blagoevgrad (a city an hour and a half south of Sofia by car; AUBG=American University in Bulgaria). So on Friday we took the bus and off we were. The following 2 days were fantastic and I am so thankful that she dragged me along!

I hadn't been to Blagoevgrad in 10 years... a lot has changed since that last time. The town is cleaner and more developed. My first impression was how lively and cheerful and packed with young people the city center was (which I guess is no surprise, given that this is a university town). By now, as I have previously mentioned, I have gotten used to meeting old acquaintances in random places, this is Bulgaria after all :) and as a friend once said, "Well, there is only 8 million of you, so what do you expect?" This reunion was the perfect setting to do lots of "random acquaintance meeting"--people from high school, people from Mojito, friends of friends, etc. I even met someone whose New Year's party I had been to 9 years ago... it took us a while to figure that out though. We both had that "I-know-this-person-from-somewhere" feeling, but couldn't quite place the time and location of our last rendezvous... and slowly the memories started resurfacing. It was an interesting process. From initially looking only vaguely familiar, I started remembering the name, the place, the conversations, the people who were part of that same evening.

From there, the rest of the weekend was spent with a group of people (some old, some new acquaintances) eating, drinking, dancing at Underground (the all-time favorite club/bar for AUBG-ers), walking around. I didn't really know these people or not very well at least, but it was as if we were old friends. Connections were immediately made; you know someone who they know, etc. and in that way it's like you know each other. On Saturday night, as I sat watching a play put on by AUBG alumni, surrounded by people laughing, it occurred to me: This is why I love Bulgaria... this is why I am very very happy that I came back here. For moments and times such as these. Even when you don't really know the people who surround you, you know that you are connected to them somehow, through someone, and you feel close to them regardless ... like in that theatre. You feel in your place.

Estrangement in Bulgarian Society

This morning I witnessed the following scene: an old lady (probably in her late 70s or early 80s) with a walking cane was trying to cross the street in the middle of construction of tram tracks (which has been going on for a few weeks now). The problem was that the construction people had not thought of creating a temporary bridge or walkway of some sort, so people have to literally jump over recently installed tracks and through dug-out holes a foot or so (30-40cm) in depth. So the old lady was struggling to make these maneuvers. Every step with her walking cane took her at least 5 seconds. At the same time, people were simply passing her by, breezing right past her as if she didn't exist. That saddened me. As I neared her (since I was crossing in the opposite direction), I offered her my hand as support to make the last steps to the pavement. She was totally surprised, but immediately started offering words of gratitude and blessings. (She said something to the effect of, "Thank you very much. May you have much health, my child." Благодаря много. Да си живо и здраво детето ми. )

As I walked away I thought to myself: How simple it is to do something good, to help someone, to make someone happy even for a moment. The sad part is that unfortunately Bulgarian society, as I have come to notice, has become a lot more individualistic and selfish to an extent. With the changes that have taken place since the fall of Communism, the economic hardships that most have gone and still go through on a daily basis, we have become estranged to each other. I remember when neighbors used to regularly visit each other. Now, we all hide behind our apartment walls, often barely saying hello as we pass each other in the hall or elevator. We simply ignore what goes on around us and pretend we don't see (just as was the case with the old lady). I share this here not because I am trying to make myself look like a saint for helping her; on the contrary, what I have come to realize and what has shocked me is that I feel that inevitably I have somewhat started to turn into those uncaring people that would rather ignore than do something.

With my return here I learned that I can't always be polite, make way for people on the street, or wait for a customer service rep to take notice of me in a bank, for example, because then you are just trodden upon and don't get anything done. To a degree, you need a little bit of "non-caringness" to live here. That's the simple truth. However, that should not reach the point of complete callousness or selfishness. Despite the somewhat harsh reality here at times and the bullshit, we need to remain human. I need to remain human and myself. Doing what I did today reminded me of that. It also made me feel good inside.

Where Is That Draft Coming From?

A non-Bulgarian friend once said to me "Bulgarians really don't like to open the windows in public transportation, do they?" And with that one observation he pretty much summed up one pretty unique phenomenon (correct me if I am wrong here, of course): that Bulgarians are afraid of catching a cold from a draft of moving air. I mean we even have a phrase for "there is a draft" (става течение), which is pretty commonly used and is definitely not a catchphrase in English. From the time you reach an age at which you start comprehending things, the idea of a draft and how bad it is for you is hammered into your head--your grandma, your parents, your parents' friends, your teachers will tell you to close a door or a window (if two are open at the same time somewhere in the apartment, house, classroom, etc.) in order to prevent a draft. I never really paid attention to this before (although I myself "suffer" from the same concerns), but since the weather has gotten warmer and public transportation hotter and stuffier, the fact that people are afraid of opening windows to let some air in (there is no air conditioning on BG public transport) is becoming pretty obvious. (Now, I am not saying that once it gets really hot, we will still all suffer in silence with windows closed in a bus; what I am trying to say is that unless it is absolutely necessary, we (especially the older generations) prefer not to open too many windows. We also don't like AC too much.) Compare this to the AC-loving U.S. where in my nine years living there, I never once heard anyone mention the word draft (unless of course that person was Bulgarian). People are just not concerned with such things, which makes it even more interesting to wonder why we are.

Fortune "Cookies", BG Style

You see that rolled up piece of paper to the left of the cup--that is the fortune that comes with your coffee (given our lack of cookies to insert these into :) )

Your fortune, with compliments, please.

Translation: Money doesn't make a person richer, just more busy. (Being the editor that some people claim I am, I already spotted a spelling mistake, but never mind. The idea is still interesting.)
Nice reminder! And all of that with just a cup of coffee... you don't even need to order a whole meal :). Next time you are in Bulgaria, be sure to order one.

Immigrants in Bulgaria

When I first arrived in Bulgaria last September I was extremely surprised to find out that 3 Afghanis were living in our apartment building (a father and two sons). Turned out that they own the small store selling fruits and vegetables across the street. Since then I have learned that they moved to Bulgaria 7 years ago, but I don't know any further details. From time to time I do wonder how they made their way over here and why they decided on Bulgaria in particular. One never thinks of Bulgaria as a place one wants to move to. We (Bulgarians) always think of it as a place we want to get away from. But I believe that that has begun to change and will probably change even more rapidly in the future. Especially given our entry into the EU. Coining Bulgaria as an EU country makes it a lot more attractive to potential immigrants from Asian and African countries for example. Personally, I am looking forward to having more immigrants enter the country. For one, Bulgaria needs more diversity of people. I have missed the diversity of the U.S. in that respect. Also, I am often saddened and even shocked by how intolerant Bulgarians tend to be in general. Having never really had to have much to do with other races, many people disdain and offend without having a clue as to what they are talking about or any personal experience whatsoever. (And I am not even going to get into the debate regarding the Turkish population in Bulgaria. Suffice it to say that I just can't stand people talking negatively of Turks when they have never spoken to a Turk in their lives, let alone had any further interaction.) It is high time we learned to be more tolerant and that we accept the fact that Bulgaria is not only for Bulgarians (just like we have emigrated en masse to countries all over the globe). Especially given the significant lack of both qualified and unqualified labor, I think soon we will also need immigrants for economic reasons (not only for the socio-cultural ones I named above).

Personally, I am really interested to see what the developments in this area will be. Don't know about you. Will more people immigrate to Bulgaria? What countries will they come from, if so?

What is your take on potential increased immigration to Bulgaria? Or about immigration in general? What countries do you think immigrants to Bulgaria will come from? (My guess is some from former Soviet republics, but more from South Asian coutries, like Pakistan, Afghanistan, India). I know this could be an expansive topic... but would be great to hear even quick thoughts :)

The Double E-Mail

One thing I had noticed a while back but kept forgetting to write about is the phenomenon of the "double" e-mail in Bulgaria. (That's the name I have given it.) What is the double e-mail? When you send official e-mails in Bulgarian you are supposed to write them in Cyrillic. Frequently, however some people's e-mail programs don't automatically recognize Cyrillic. Then you have to manually switch the message's encoding, etc. etc. A process that although not that complicated just makes it that tiny bit more annoying for you to read your e-mail. The solution to this problem is the double e-mail. The message first appears in Cyrillic, then is transcribed with Latin letters underneath. Not a very efficient solution either, since you have to write every message out twice basically. But... for official e-mails this seems to be the norm. One can ask, why not just go with the Latin-script version, as do most Bulgarians that e-mail/message each other? But there is a whole school of people who oppose this although it would save quite a bit of time. I don't necessarily understand their reasoning. It goes something like, if we give up Cyrillic in e-mails, then slowly we will give up Cyrillic script altogether. Which I don't think is necessarily the case. Although I must say that since kids have started using computers more often, and thus Latin script to e-mail and chat instead of Cyrillic, their spelling errors have significantly increased. One might argue this is not only due to computers... but I think that computers and less use of Cyrillic have a lot to do with it.

Another note on this topic: there is also a growing school (especially of younger people) who want to get rid of the Cyrillic script altogether...and have us switch to the Latin one. Apparently, they will be holding protests on May 24th, the Day of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture and the Slavonic Alphabet. Now that is a bit too much... although who knows maybe in time, with the ever-growing use of technology and less need for writing things out, there will come a day in which for simplicity's sake we will switch to the Latin script. Personally I think that would be a shame... but can also easily see it happening. Any thoughts/feelings on that possibility?

HIGHFLIGHTS Highlights

Yesterday I was browsing through HIGHFLIGHTS, the magazine of Sofia Airport, which by the way is a pretty cool magazine. Something you wouldn't expect from an airport, let alone a Bulgarian one. I was a bit taken aback and now wish I could actually subscribe to it. The magazine covers travel spots (both in BG and abroad), curiosities from around the world, ongoing events of interest in Sofia, places to eat etc. etc.

But that is not what I wanted to post about. What I wanted to post about was something that cracked me up towards the back pages. The so-called Bulgaria for Beginners section and more specifically "Some useful phrases you are likely to need as soon as you enter Bulgaria". Along with Dobro utro (Good morning) and Dobur den (Good afternoon), I came across:
Napishete mi akt, nyama da vi dam pari v broi (Write me a ticket. I am not going to give you any cash)--for those moments when a police officer is expecting a small "gift" in order not to fine you. yes, a frequent occurrence still.

Iskam da se ozhenya za teb i da te zaveda v Shtatite (I want to marry you and take you back to the States)--when the reason for your visit to Bulgaria is to find a Bulgarian bride :). (I think I laughed out loud at this one. Well, what happens if you are not from the States? The phrase doesn't work for you then, I guess.)

Kontroll in BG

I was sitting on the bus yesterday when a group of 5-6 people got on at one of the stops. Actually, a "gang" would probably be a more accurate description, because they were of different ages, dressed differently, but yet seemed to belong together as a group. It took me about 2 seconds to realize that they were ticket inspectors. I have gotten pretty good about spotting them. They act all nonchallant and stuff. Get on, sit down. Wait for the bus to leave the stop, get up and take out these sleeveless jackets that identify them as inspectors and proceed to check everyone's tickets. What struck me about this group was not only how numerous they were (I had seen at most 2-3 inspectors working together, but here there were SIX for a small bus) but also how diverse the group itself was. There were two young men (probably in their mid- to late 20s) who seemed to be the lazy ones in the group. They didn't even bother to check anyone's ticket. One was dressed in a very "stylish" blue Levski tracksuit (Levski is the name of one of the football clubs in Sofia). Then there was a woman in her 40s or 50s... glasses, manly looking, rough voice. She is the one who first doned on her "controller's jacket" and announced loudly "Have your tickets out and ready please." Then there were 3 older guys who after coming upon a young man with no ticket had a long discussion amongst themselves whether to fine him in the bus or make him get off the bus and then fine him. I had to laugh to myself... because this group of joe schmos (or as we would say от кол и от въже) really reminded me of the ticket inspectors in Kontroll, the Hungarian film by Nimrod Antal and one of my all-time favorite movies.

The next stop came. They all got off and ran together to get onto the bus that was in front of ours. A very Kontroll-esque moment :) If any of you have funny ticket-inspector stories to share, please do.