Na Gosti and Gardens

na gosti- to go on a visit
baba- grandmother; a name the whole community calls any woman with grandkids

The other day I had my first na gosti at my friend Yordanka's (Dani, Danche) house. Her father was there; he's a local artist and showed us his studio, very cool. While we were walking to Dani's house I noticed this amazing house with an immaculate garden. Now I've never wanted to be friends with someone just because of their garden, but there is a first time for everything. So being cunning and thinking about how to find a way to befriend whoever lived in that house I asked Dani who lived there. "Two babas." she replied. Hum... I'm still trying to develop a strategy. All I need is to let them think I can't cook, or get them to find out I don't know how to can. Baba's are the best of the Bulgarian life. They live to take care of other people and make sure everyone is doing ok. Everyday on each street corner you can see a gathering of the the baba's where at least 4 and maybe 9 grandma's sit in the early evening sun and talk about the day, thier husbands, garden, or kids, the weather, and other assorted subjects you can only guess at. They look at each person who passes by taking the time to think about whether they have anything to say to them, or about them. If you say hi to them sometimes they just stare at you... probably because they didn't hear, maybe because they are in shock. Other times they say hi back. They might be the most stereotypical thing about Eastern Europe, and I have to say all the stereotypes are not stereotypes at all, they are fact.

Baba's, or babushka's as my mom likes to call them, are usually found wearing black or navy scarves over their hair. Many walk hunched over, others with a cane. They work long hours and are often found doing tasks that people half their age would find too strenuous and difficult to pull off. I take my hat off to all the baba's and hope that I can find a way to have the two with the nicest garden I've seen adopt me.

Don't belive it? Well, it's all true.

If you haven't heard (which if you are in the USA I doubt you have) there is a heat wave sweeping through Eastern Europe. Lots of people have died already, only 2 in Bulgaria as of two days ago, but I'm sure the number has risen. Today, in a town 45 km's away the high was 107 F, and that town is in the mountains, however mine is not and I'm guessing we peaked out at about 110 F with 7% humidity. There hasn't been a drop of rain in weeks, the humidity level never rises about 20%, and there are fires everyday. It's pretty serious actually.
I came to Bulgaria specifically for COLD weather. That was one of my only requirements for placement. And what do I get? A heat-wave that's setting records and proving Global Warming isn't a joke. Well, I didn't need proof. I believed it just fine before coming to a scorching hot place that's supposed to be cool and even frigid. Instead of enjoying a warm sunny apartment I feel like I'm baking. Instead of having a good lunch and a long walk, I eat two cucumbers because I feel like anything more will make me sick and then take a cold shower or lay on my bed.
Ahhh! The heat is wilting me. Lucky for me there is a two day break in the 100+ temperatures this week. On Wednesday and Thursday it will only be in the mid-90's... Oh how lucky. And yet, I really am happy over this break. For the past 7 days the high has been over 100. In the past month there have only been 6 days where the observed high was below 90 degrees! It does cool down for about 2 hours during the night, but then before 9 am it's hot again.
Please send me cooling thoughts. :-)

My Day with Mr. Bean

*For any of you who don't know who Mr. Bean is go google him now. *
One of my students asked me if I wanted to go to the pool and being completely bored out of my mind and craving any human contact I said "Of course!!!" So as she, her best friend (and another student of mine), her boyfriend, and I drove to the pool I was excited. We spent 4 hours at the pool, I didn't burn, and I got to meet about 10 people... a record so far. While we were goofing around I had a funny feeling this girl's boyfriend looked familar, but I couldn't figure out why. After 4 hours of pool time they invited me to go out to dinner after a little R&R time. I was still haunted by the boyfriend's familar looks; it was starting to bug me. Then I figured it out, after dinner when we were at the cafe. I had spent from 1:30 to 11:30 pm with this guy and it took me until 11:05 pm to realize he looked exactly like Mr. Bean.
It was a good day. And I'm happy to report Mr. Bean is really nice and isn't as weird as he seems in those sketches and movies.

The Stump-tailed Cat

I have a cat now. An orange, sad, short-broken tailed, old cat. It meows loudly to announce my arrival into a room... or to ask me for something, usually I can't figure out what (unless it's canned cat food, which it might be every time). It curls up with me on the couch as I watch Frida or Mission Impossible on TV and try to learn new words. I like the cat very much because, like me, it is a cat of paradoxes. Relaxed and quiet, then loud and rambunctious getting stuck under the couch. Aloof and solitary, but also craving bursts of attention and bent on curling up in your lap. It's a good cat... I only wish I could find a decent name for it. It's been Boomerang, Tiger (Tigs, Teague), and Kitty so far. None of them suit the cat. I think I may end up calling it Teague so it doesn't have an identity crisis, not that it hasn't so far. I'm sure that cat has years of therapy to undergo because none of it's 2-year-long ownerships have managed to keep the same name. It's a Peace Corps cat and it gets passed from old-outgoing Volunteer to new-incoming Volunteer. So for the next two years Teague will be with me and we will keep each other company.

Picnics and Parties

I have to say that Bulgarians do picnics right.
Yesterday I went on a trip to a cave with a group of new Bulgarian friends. I should have known better than to think we were just going to a cave, but I didn't. We met at 8:45 am and were off by 9:15 am: two cars, eight people, and supplies for a picnic. Now what I have discovered so far is that as an American I think of the destination more than the journey. I was all excited and ready to get to the cave, but as a dweller of Bulgaria I need to learn the mentality that the journey is the adventure, not the destination. The first stop on our trip (the caves were two hours away) was to pick up a friend of the people in the other car. The second stop was to have a visit with the parents of my friend Irena's brother's wife's parent (wow). Then we were on to what I think we all thought were going to be the caves, but turned out to be a 3 hour dead-end hike by the longest river in Bulgaria, the Iskar, and up a mountain with no shade in 90+ degree heat. It was pretty and nice, but no cave. So at this point I'm thinking maybe there is no cave and we are just going to picnic and go home...wrong. It's only 1:30 pm by the time we finish meandering through the woods and my stomach is growling. So we set up our picnic.
I went with Sehee, the other PCV at my site, and we each brought a sandwich, granola bar, crackers, grapefruit, and cookies for the picnic. This is OK picnic food right? Pretty standard and normal for an American picnic. Our friends pull out their picnic bags, start setting up and put us to shame. This is the third Bulgarian picnic I've been on and you think I would learn by now. Yordanka has 10 sandwiches grilled this morning, a container full of whole tomatoes maybe 9 in all, a bag of 15 cucumbers, a full bag of napkins, a table cloth, and a box of cookies. Irena has 7 sandwiches and 4 tomatoes. The family of four brought chicken meat pulled from a whole chicken if not 2, a loaf of bread, 15 tomatoes, a 2 liter Tupperware with bagel chips, silverware, and cutlery. I'm sure I left out something but the point is to say that we all sat there and passed around the food, cut up tomatoes and cucumbers, laughed, and ate for at least an hour if not two (I wasn't counting). Every Bulgarian picnic I've been on has been like this. I love it, it's wonderful, they feed everyone.
After the picnic we drove around for about an hour trying to figure out where we wanted to go. Well we knew where we wanted to be but not how to get there, and there was some car to car discussion which was funny. Every time the car in front would go to make a turn they'd stop mid-turn and someone from the car in back would go up and discuss the turn then run back and we would either make the turn or try to back up. After about 2 real turns and 2 false turns we found the road we were supposed to be on. We got to the cave around 3 pm. After the cave we went to sit by the river and eat more that we hadn't eaten from lunch. Then at about 5 pm we packed up to leave. When we dropped the girl that we had picked up off we went to a cafe and had a coke and talk for maybe about another hour then finally at 6:30pm we were on our way back home. We got back at 8 pm and couldn't believe how exhausted we were. I'm still recovering; I took a 3 hour nap today. Excursions here are like meandering paths you go down them only to see, only because you have time.
I had a great time and saw a whole bunch of beautiful nature so I'd say it was a good meander and a day well spent.

Home Sweet Home?

I'm in Byala Slaltina now and have a wonderful apartment. I've been incredibly busy and have had no time to unpack my room. It's crazy, they tell you the first few weeks if not months are boing and you have nothing to do, but here I am with barely any free time and suitcases strung everywhere. Tomorrow is the 4th of July and here that means absolutely nothing! But there are 4 volunteers here right now (including me) so we're gonna celebrate in style with watermelon, real hamburgers, salad (with real lettuce), guacamole (I know it's not traditional but it's a real treat here), and maybe even sparklers. I miss you all incredibly much and I'll write more when I get internet.