MASS EMAIL #5: Happy Holidays Bulgarian Style
Greetings and salutations!
Hope all is well in your corner of the world. My corner is a little colder than I'd like it to be (the temperature is in Celsius though - a system I still don't get - so I don't know the exact measure of my discomfort). Heat here isn't centralized (actually, there is central heat in my building - it just doesn't work - looks nice though) so we heat by these inefficient electric heaters. Most Bulgarians heat only one room in the winter and they sleep and eat and watch TV and read and do everything there. Together. The whole family. Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of murders here. The thought of endlessly sharing a small room with several other people makes me want to go all Tony Soprano. They are a patient people (sort of).
For those on the mailing list who can count, you've surely concluded that the one room where you sleep and eat and hang would not be the bathroom. To repeat more clearly: the bathroom isn't heated - at all. It's an outhouse with plumbing (fitting well into my bloc apartment - a cement bunker with windows). Showering isn't much fun. In fact, it's really, really, really cold. And then there's the unheated hallway from the bathroom to the bedroom - more fun. (I don't follow the Bulgarian one room rule, even though I live alone. Shh! Don't tell Peace Corps. I just don't see the point of sleeping in my living room that takes two heaters to keep warm when there is a BEDROOM that only requires one. I turn the heater on at 8pm and by 10 its toasty. For two hours I heat two rooms a night. Ah, the luxury!)
Oh, right. This email is about the holidays, not about the stinking cold. So, Thanksgiving was a blast. John and I hosted 8 other volunteers for a semi-traditional thanksgiving meal. "Semi-traditional" because some things are just not here (like cranberries), other things are a little odd (see turkey story below), and the 10 people included 3 vegans and 2 other vegetarians. A little improvisation was needed. Almost two days of cooking later, we pulled together a honey-baked ham, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, lots of veggies, vegan stuffing, deviled eggs, banana-raspberry bread (I don't like banana bread, so I added raspberries - it's a tasty addition), and the traditional table of pre-dinner snacks. One guest brought a pumpkin pie and John baked a show-stealing apple pie - truly awesome. Everyone had a great time. It was quite an accomplishment (and if you need vegan gravy or stuffing ideas, I am now your girl).
So, the turkey story: Most food outside of America is smaller - we eat A LOT! - except for turkeys in Bulgaria. Through a co-worker we found one in a local village - a live one - that weighed 10 kilograms (approx. 22 pounds). It was the smallest one he could find. Here's the really freaky part (well, one of them): Bulgarians don't eat turkey outside of Christmas. Turkeys are raised for Christmas dinner, so this turkey was still not at its top weight - it still had about a month of eating and growing to go. Due to the size of the turkey, the limited size of our ovens (my oven can hold a casserole and a bread pan - that's it), the limited number of carnivores at dinner and the fear that the bird would arrive in some pre-Butterball state (alive, unfeathered, whatever) we opted out of it.
The holiday season isn't as measurable as it is in the States. We know it starts at Thanksgiving - the shopping, the lights, the songs, whatever. It starts on Thanksgiving. When you eliminate Thanksgiving you eliminate the starting point. So, the holiday season trickles in little by little. Then, you eliminate all the shopping. There is shopping here, but nothing like in the States. It's mainly for the children and even then seems like it is quite limited. There aren't so many Christmas (called koleda) carols here, in fact, the ones I've heard are ours and the outside of apartments and homes are rarely decorated and lit. It doesn't seem like much of a holiday season at all.
For Christmas, I am going "home" to my host family in Velingrad. They are quite excited to have me over and it will be fun to see the different cultural traditions. Not fully aware of what people do here for gifts and such I will be armed with peanut butter cookies and mix CDs and toys for the little girl (Betina, 6). I think it will be a lot of fun.
Under communism people weren't allowed to openly celebrate Christmas (and perhaps under the "Turkish yoke" as well), so some of the old timers still don't make a big deal out of it. New Years is often the day of big winter fun - with lots of food and people. The young people though, like the American idea of Christmas presents and a day with the family followed by New Years with friends. I'll be following that model and spending New Years with a friend or two in another town.
Work is busy and the social life is up and down. I met with a Peace Corps staff member who assured me that I needed to be here at least 6 months before things started to really click together. Six months is a LONG time. In New York everyone is always trying to catch up to everyone and everything else. You are propelled forward - like it or not. Here, the coping mechanism is getting used to whiplash - going forward and then being halted for no damn good reason.
So, I have been rather methodically going through the old emails in my inbox and trying to respond to them as best I can. I realized when I started doing this just how behind I have allowed my emails to get. Sorry. If you want immediate feedback, I am on Yahoo! Messenger (j*****) and AOL Instant Messager (s****) most evenings (afternoons for you). Also, if you are curious about my daily happenings ( the smaller stories and feelings that never seem to make it to these letters), I have started a blog. It is: http://jenbulgaria.blogspot.com/. I'll be making entries regularly.
Hope your holidays are wonderful! More news in the new year.
Best,
Jen
Hope all is well in your corner of the world. My corner is a little colder than I'd like it to be (the temperature is in Celsius though - a system I still don't get - so I don't know the exact measure of my discomfort). Heat here isn't centralized (actually, there is central heat in my building - it just doesn't work - looks nice though) so we heat by these inefficient electric heaters. Most Bulgarians heat only one room in the winter and they sleep and eat and watch TV and read and do everything there. Together. The whole family. Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of murders here. The thought of endlessly sharing a small room with several other people makes me want to go all Tony Soprano. They are a patient people (sort of).
For those on the mailing list who can count, you've surely concluded that the one room where you sleep and eat and hang would not be the bathroom. To repeat more clearly: the bathroom isn't heated - at all. It's an outhouse with plumbing (fitting well into my bloc apartment - a cement bunker with windows). Showering isn't much fun. In fact, it's really, really, really cold. And then there's the unheated hallway from the bathroom to the bedroom - more fun. (I don't follow the Bulgarian one room rule, even though I live alone. Shh! Don't tell Peace Corps. I just don't see the point of sleeping in my living room that takes two heaters to keep warm when there is a BEDROOM that only requires one. I turn the heater on at 8pm and by 10 its toasty. For two hours I heat two rooms a night. Ah, the luxury!)
Oh, right. This email is about the holidays, not about the stinking cold. So, Thanksgiving was a blast. John and I hosted 8 other volunteers for a semi-traditional thanksgiving meal. "Semi-traditional" because some things are just not here (like cranberries), other things are a little odd (see turkey story below), and the 10 people included 3 vegans and 2 other vegetarians. A little improvisation was needed. Almost two days of cooking later, we pulled together a honey-baked ham, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, lots of veggies, vegan stuffing, deviled eggs, banana-raspberry bread (I don't like banana bread, so I added raspberries - it's a tasty addition), and the traditional table of pre-dinner snacks. One guest brought a pumpkin pie and John baked a show-stealing apple pie - truly awesome. Everyone had a great time. It was quite an accomplishment (and if you need vegan gravy or stuffing ideas, I am now your girl).
So, the turkey story: Most food outside of America is smaller - we eat A LOT! - except for turkeys in Bulgaria. Through a co-worker we found one in a local village - a live one - that weighed 10 kilograms (approx. 22 pounds). It was the smallest one he could find. Here's the really freaky part (well, one of them): Bulgarians don't eat turkey outside of Christmas. Turkeys are raised for Christmas dinner, so this turkey was still not at its top weight - it still had about a month of eating and growing to go. Due to the size of the turkey, the limited size of our ovens (my oven can hold a casserole and a bread pan - that's it), the limited number of carnivores at dinner and the fear that the bird would arrive in some pre-Butterball state (alive, unfeathered, whatever) we opted out of it.
The holiday season isn't as measurable as it is in the States. We know it starts at Thanksgiving - the shopping, the lights, the songs, whatever. It starts on Thanksgiving. When you eliminate Thanksgiving you eliminate the starting point. So, the holiday season trickles in little by little. Then, you eliminate all the shopping. There is shopping here, but nothing like in the States. It's mainly for the children and even then seems like it is quite limited. There aren't so many Christmas (called koleda) carols here, in fact, the ones I've heard are ours and the outside of apartments and homes are rarely decorated and lit. It doesn't seem like much of a holiday season at all.
For Christmas, I am going "home" to my host family in Velingrad. They are quite excited to have me over and it will be fun to see the different cultural traditions. Not fully aware of what people do here for gifts and such I will be armed with peanut butter cookies and mix CDs and toys for the little girl (Betina, 6). I think it will be a lot of fun.
Under communism people weren't allowed to openly celebrate Christmas (and perhaps under the "Turkish yoke" as well), so some of the old timers still don't make a big deal out of it. New Years is often the day of big winter fun - with lots of food and people. The young people though, like the American idea of Christmas presents and a day with the family followed by New Years with friends. I'll be following that model and spending New Years with a friend or two in another town.
Work is busy and the social life is up and down. I met with a Peace Corps staff member who assured me that I needed to be here at least 6 months before things started to really click together. Six months is a LONG time. In New York everyone is always trying to catch up to everyone and everything else. You are propelled forward - like it or not. Here, the coping mechanism is getting used to whiplash - going forward and then being halted for no damn good reason.
So, I have been rather methodically going through the old emails in my inbox and trying to respond to them as best I can. I realized when I started doing this just how behind I have allowed my emails to get. Sorry. If you want immediate feedback, I am on Yahoo! Messenger (j*****) and AOL Instant Messager (s****) most evenings (afternoons for you). Also, if you are curious about my daily happenings ( the smaller stories and feelings that never seem to make it to these letters), I have started a blog. It is: http://jenbulgaria.blogspot.com/. I'll be making entries regularly.
Hope your holidays are wonderful! More news in the new year.
Best,
Jen
posted by Jen at 11:00 PM
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