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.