Mimicking Without a License

My Christmas in Varna was wonderful. Great people, old and new. We had a gift exchange (I got a beautiful new scarf from Kerri along with some kick-ass American candy, which I consumed within 24-hours), ate amazing food, played games, and enjoyed the unique holiday atmosphere that is Peace Corps Bulgaria.

Italy was amazing. A stark difference from Bulgaria in terms of people and culture and I swear I actually experienced a bit of culture shock. But in a good way. We mostly ate. And ate and ate and ate. I pushed my stomach to the limit and am really proud of the amount of pizza I can eat in one setting and the fact that I can always manage to squeeze in some gelato. I’m like a pro.

I won’t go on and on about that trip cuz I know that type of thing gets boring so I’ll just highlight:

• There was a two-story, paper frog in the center of Bologna. This frog was set on fire at the stroke of midnight and we all cheered and kissed and watched it light the sky ablaze while Italian firefighters and policemen patrolled the area. It was surreal. Our new hostel friend, Richard kept saying, “There’s a f*ing frog on fire. I mean, there’s a f*ing frog on fire!” It was epic.

• An Italian boy ran past me when we were walking down the streets of Bologna so, naturally, I start to run after him in a mocking fashion. He suddenly turns around, sees me chasing him, and then I burst into convulsive laughter because I was totally busted. He mocks my laughter, grabs my shirt sleeve, and marches me down the street saying something about a “magistrate” before I realize he’s taking me to the police station. He’s basically putting me under arrest. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. We later saw the same little boy dancing the cha-cha in the town center surrounded by 50 or so people. I chose the right little boy to mock.

• We ate a lot of pizza. Pizza is good.

• Where’s Matt? We never knew.

• We saw the statue of David. Well, kinda.

• Lots of girl talk. It was fun.

• We found the most delicious beer in the world called Kwak. Yeah, Kwak.

All in all, I had an amazing vacation and have spent the entire day today in bed recovering from it. You always know it’s a good vacation when you need to take an extra day off just to sleep in until noon.

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Time to get back to work and make the world a better place!

-Age

Drinkin' Outta Cups

So, I recently went to a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with some lovely Bulgarian and Peace Corps friends and took some fun pics. We had a GREAT time - I missed family and friends from back home but Bulgarian Thanksgiving was uniquely fantastic and I'm excited to do it again next year. After Thanksgiving, we all traveled to our In-Service Training which was also a lot of fun as well as highly informative. I'm also giddy with excitement when I think that in just a few, short weeks I'll be celebrating Christmas in Varna and New Years in Italy!!! Does life get better than this? I don't think so. And one more thing: it's not snowing. (Well, not yet anyway)

We ate

We smiled

We cheered

We made awkward faces

We laughed

We ate some kick-ass cake (thanks, Evan!)

We played Dirty Mind (of course)

We were drinkin' outta cups (but not bein' a bitch)

It was a lovely time at Red-Headed Mary's!

-Age

I Can Be Your Hero

Yesterday was quite an eventful day for me here in Bulgaria. Enrique Iglesias, of all the gorgeous, Spanish-speaking pop-singers, was performing in a free concert on a huge stage in Sofia. My neighbors, Marietta, Desi, Ani, and Sylvia, all wanted to go and I of course could not pass up such an opportunity. We left after school around 2:00, driven by our friend, Tihomir. They all spoke in rapid Bulgarian while I day-dreamed out the window though Tiho would occasionally ask me questions and then we would all laugh when I stared at him wide-eyed. Не разбирам. At some point I used the phrase Okey-Dokey which evoked the curious question from Marietta, “What means ‘Okey-Dokey’?” Later, I asked her what “дабе, дабе” meant and she replied, “this means Okey-Dokey.” We’ve since decided to switch roles and she now says Okey-Dokey while I say дабе-дабе and then we both laugh cuz it’s funny to no one but us.

Tiho dropped us off and Marietta and I met the other three girls (all sisters, two of which are identical twins, all of which are drop-dead gorgeous as so many Bulgarian women are). We did a little shopping in which I had the opportunity to covet many a clothes I do not have the money to buy. When we were waiting at the bus stop to drop off Ani’s boyfriend, Sylvia noticed a celebrity walking down the street. I was told that she is a very famous Bulgarian singer and actress who is married to a very famous singer and actor. Basically, she’s the Jennifer Lopez of Bulgaria and I got to watch her buy oranges. She bought five oranges and considering how skinny she is, I don’t think she was planning to eat them. She’s probably learning to juggle for her next music video. Someone should tell her that apples are much easier to juggle than oranges.

We then went to this awesome café to have pizza and cake. The place is decorated so amazingly I couldn’t stop staring. It’s like being on a safari under the sea. Upon reading those words you were just struck by how amazingly fantastic that sounds, weren’t you? Yeah, it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. If I was a mermaid with a tiger-striped tail, I’d of fit right in. And the cake was pretty dang scrumptious too.

We then trekked our way to the concert, squeezed through the immense crowd and found the perfect spot to admire the beauty that is Enrique. He came out on stage singing falsetto while the crowd roared. The Bulgarian audience knew every line and sang at the top of their lungs, it was beautiful. It’s easy to get lost in lyrics so deep, “I saw you on the phone. I knew you weren’t alone.” Yet another classic, Enrique, bravo.

Despite the fact that his lyrics are rather cheesy, Enrique turned out to be a pretty cool dude. Not only did he memorize several phrases in Bulgarian, he also pulled two young guys up on stage, poured them a shot of vodka (cuz no one’s gonna bust him for serving underage drinkers while he’s in Bulgaria), and said, “Носдраве!” to the crowd. He then allowed one of the boys to sing his latest hit “I Like It” and do a little dance. This boy didn’t mess around. He took that microphone, marched to the front of the stage, and sang his heart out. Not only that, when Enrique remarked on his dance moves, the band started up a Michael Jackson beat and this boy went to town. He danced up and down that stage and had the crowd going crazy. And he was good. Enrique sat there on the stage with mouth open. I so badly wanted to say, “Welcome to Bulgaria.” I enjoyed myself immensely.

All in all, it was a great night and I feel so lucky to be in such an amazing place and have such wonderful new friends. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

-Age