MASS EMAIL #6: Yes, I am still alive
Long overdue greetings, one and all.
Hope this finds you well and welcoming bursts of spring. There was a spring day here today. Yes, it’s the first. Oh so welcome though.
I know this letter is long overdue. I haven’t written since before Christmas, which seems like an eon ago. I think I am going to just try to make this letter monthly. It would keep me on it to have a date when I felt I was supposed to do it….in any case, I bather on already.
So, Christmas. I went back to my host family in Velingrad and was welcomed with open arms by everyone. I sorely missed home and all the little traditions I am used to, but it was really great to share the event with my host family. As Eli, my host mom, said to her brother in the States: “see, she’s not just a friend she really is family”. It felt like it for sure. Here in Bulgaria, as I may have mentioned, Christmas Eve is of significantly greater importance than Christmas proper. Christmas Eve is for family and Christmas is for friends. Each family seems to have their own version of what happens on Christmas Eve and why, but here was what we did in my family: a vegan dinner was cooked – no meat or dairy, for purity. Food was placed on the floor with wine and three lit candles for the Trinity. The meal honors those dead and the leftovers are kept on the floor overnight to feed departed loved ones. The meal is eaten with everyone sitting in a circle on the floor, but it’s set as a table. It’s fairly somber. ….Well, that what was SUPPOSED to happen. Here’s what happened: A vegan meal was cooked. We all sat on the floor, plied our plates and there was this long silence. I didn’t know what everyone else was doing but I was hoping for some yummy yogurt sauce to go with the otherwise strange stuffed cabbage leaves. How was I going to choke this down?! Suddenly Toshko, my host dad, gets up, goes to the kitchen and comes back with….YOGURT SAUCE! Everyone was so relieved! So, out with the “pure” dinner. One of the candles had a problem with it, so eventually it was just put out. No Trinity. After about five minutes of eating we were all uncomfortable. We were supposed to eat off the floor, but eating off a plate in front of you is hard. Do you sit Indian style and risk dropping crap all over yourself (a REAL risk for me!)? Do you sit with your legs to the side? They fall asleep after awhile and how do you get up from the floor with deadened legs? After a lot of shifting we all just picked up our plates and ate holding our plates at chest level. No proper floor eating. Once finished with the meal, we cleared the empty plates. There was quite an amount of excess food on the “table” though and it was supposed to be left there overnight. My host mom, quite a sassy thing, decided to put the family ghosts on a diet. She piled a plate for them and left it to the side. Tripping over the leftovers the next day was a family tradition she’d had enough of. All of the improvising and makeshift measures made me love the event even more – and really added to the feeling of being family.
New Year’s Eve is a much bigger event for Bulgarians. It’s the day where you nearly get burned alive by teenage boys. Seriously. Every male (and there was an enormous gender divide here) threw fireworks all day long. We’re talking things like M-80s. Huge noisemakers. Scariest part? There are no fuses. None. There’s this tip that you light and a few seconds later the thing goes off. Walking down the street that day was dangerous business. I spent the holiday with some friends in Pravitz, a college town in western Bulgaria. Not fully realizing the seriousness of the holiday, we failed to make reservations long in advance and found ourselves making a makeshift meal at home. We celebrated more properly the next night, when we could walk into any restaurant without a hitch and without risking our lives. Who needs to celebrate on the exact day anyhow?
Let’s see…that leaves another 2.5 months to explain. Damn. Um…there was this Peace Corps conference where they all talked to use like children. And then lots of the volunteers got so drunk they ACTED like children. Oh, yeah. Those were good times. Darwin has decided that my family has made it too far and has delivered various complications to various family members, which I’ve gotten to hear about via instant messaging and email. That’s pretty grand. My friend Megan and I were harassed and intimidated (and Megan sexually assaulted) on a train one night. That was…well, that was just damn scary. I’ve also spent a lot of time fighting the winter blahs. One never fully understands the Eastern European mentality of heaviness and despair until one lives through a winter in a cement blok apartment, I say. There were times when The Cure was just too perky for me.
There must be good news though…there MUST be…hmmm….Well, work is picking up a bit. I am working on some women’s employment projects and a networking project…also waiting to hear about multiple proposals we submitted for things like a regional women’s rights newsletter. John and I are helping local vets and animal lovers start pet registration and a more humane shelter. Looking for computers and books for the local library. Thinking of a project to train local NGOs in strategy and marketing. Oy!
Part of the Bulgarian holiday tradition (there’s a point to going back to that, I promise) is to have bread with things stuffed inside signaling luck or health or love or any number of other things. The large loaf is torn by the eldest man of the house and handed to each person without looking at the contents. Of course, no one told me this so when I found all these twigs in my bread I was very…appalled. It turns out that the twigs stood for health – each one did, and I got all six that were in the loaf (it was freakish, and not appreciated by my superstitious and aging host grandmother). I mention this (in addition to wanting to share a fun tidbit) because I, along with a host of other Peace Corps volunteers in Bulgaria, am participating in the November Athens marathon. OK. OK. No, I did not have a personality transplant. Nor did I have a physical one. I won’t be running it – more like speed walking or fast shuffling – but I figure that 26 miles of anything is quite an accomplishment. I’m sure I’ll have various stories along the way, of the comical “I am such a klutz” type, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless.
That’s the basic news, since it’s all so old now I don’t know what else to say. I will take a moment though to promote….MY BIRTHDAY! Oh yeah! I’ll be 29 on the 29th (April, that is). My golden birthday and my last year in the stinking, rotten 20s (good riddance!)!! My address is below. Feel free to send me lots of presents and cards and pictures. I could really use some new Eddie Bauer v-necks (large, no white), some Starbucks coffee, scented candles, good music, random gourmet food, REI or Amazon gift certificates…I can come up with other ideas too, I have sooo very many.
Hope all is well in your world. I’ll send another letter in April (I SWEAR!) with more details about Bulgaria and what I actually am doing here, since no one seems to know that (and I don’t ever get around to telling it).
Best to you and yours,
Jen
Hope this finds you well and welcoming bursts of spring. There was a spring day here today. Yes, it’s the first. Oh so welcome though.
I know this letter is long overdue. I haven’t written since before Christmas, which seems like an eon ago. I think I am going to just try to make this letter monthly. It would keep me on it to have a date when I felt I was supposed to do it….in any case, I bather on already.
So, Christmas. I went back to my host family in Velingrad and was welcomed with open arms by everyone. I sorely missed home and all the little traditions I am used to, but it was really great to share the event with my host family. As Eli, my host mom, said to her brother in the States: “see, she’s not just a friend she really is family”. It felt like it for sure. Here in Bulgaria, as I may have mentioned, Christmas Eve is of significantly greater importance than Christmas proper. Christmas Eve is for family and Christmas is for friends. Each family seems to have their own version of what happens on Christmas Eve and why, but here was what we did in my family: a vegan dinner was cooked – no meat or dairy, for purity. Food was placed on the floor with wine and three lit candles for the Trinity. The meal honors those dead and the leftovers are kept on the floor overnight to feed departed loved ones. The meal is eaten with everyone sitting in a circle on the floor, but it’s set as a table. It’s fairly somber. ….Well, that what was SUPPOSED to happen. Here’s what happened: A vegan meal was cooked. We all sat on the floor, plied our plates and there was this long silence. I didn’t know what everyone else was doing but I was hoping for some yummy yogurt sauce to go with the otherwise strange stuffed cabbage leaves. How was I going to choke this down?! Suddenly Toshko, my host dad, gets up, goes to the kitchen and comes back with….YOGURT SAUCE! Everyone was so relieved! So, out with the “pure” dinner. One of the candles had a problem with it, so eventually it was just put out. No Trinity. After about five minutes of eating we were all uncomfortable. We were supposed to eat off the floor, but eating off a plate in front of you is hard. Do you sit Indian style and risk dropping crap all over yourself (a REAL risk for me!)? Do you sit with your legs to the side? They fall asleep after awhile and how do you get up from the floor with deadened legs? After a lot of shifting we all just picked up our plates and ate holding our plates at chest level. No proper floor eating. Once finished with the meal, we cleared the empty plates. There was quite an amount of excess food on the “table” though and it was supposed to be left there overnight. My host mom, quite a sassy thing, decided to put the family ghosts on a diet. She piled a plate for them and left it to the side. Tripping over the leftovers the next day was a family tradition she’d had enough of. All of the improvising and makeshift measures made me love the event even more – and really added to the feeling of being family.
New Year’s Eve is a much bigger event for Bulgarians. It’s the day where you nearly get burned alive by teenage boys. Seriously. Every male (and there was an enormous gender divide here) threw fireworks all day long. We’re talking things like M-80s. Huge noisemakers. Scariest part? There are no fuses. None. There’s this tip that you light and a few seconds later the thing goes off. Walking down the street that day was dangerous business. I spent the holiday with some friends in Pravitz, a college town in western Bulgaria. Not fully realizing the seriousness of the holiday, we failed to make reservations long in advance and found ourselves making a makeshift meal at home. We celebrated more properly the next night, when we could walk into any restaurant without a hitch and without risking our lives. Who needs to celebrate on the exact day anyhow?
Let’s see…that leaves another 2.5 months to explain. Damn. Um…there was this Peace Corps conference where they all talked to use like children. And then lots of the volunteers got so drunk they ACTED like children. Oh, yeah. Those were good times. Darwin has decided that my family has made it too far and has delivered various complications to various family members, which I’ve gotten to hear about via instant messaging and email. That’s pretty grand. My friend Megan and I were harassed and intimidated (and Megan sexually assaulted) on a train one night. That was…well, that was just damn scary. I’ve also spent a lot of time fighting the winter blahs. One never fully understands the Eastern European mentality of heaviness and despair until one lives through a winter in a cement blok apartment, I say. There were times when The Cure was just too perky for me.
There must be good news though…there MUST be…hmmm….Well, work is picking up a bit. I am working on some women’s employment projects and a networking project…also waiting to hear about multiple proposals we submitted for things like a regional women’s rights newsletter. John and I are helping local vets and animal lovers start pet registration and a more humane shelter. Looking for computers and books for the local library. Thinking of a project to train local NGOs in strategy and marketing. Oy!
Part of the Bulgarian holiday tradition (there’s a point to going back to that, I promise) is to have bread with things stuffed inside signaling luck or health or love or any number of other things. The large loaf is torn by the eldest man of the house and handed to each person without looking at the contents. Of course, no one told me this so when I found all these twigs in my bread I was very…appalled. It turns out that the twigs stood for health – each one did, and I got all six that were in the loaf (it was freakish, and not appreciated by my superstitious and aging host grandmother). I mention this (in addition to wanting to share a fun tidbit) because I, along with a host of other Peace Corps volunteers in Bulgaria, am participating in the November Athens marathon. OK. OK. No, I did not have a personality transplant. Nor did I have a physical one. I won’t be running it – more like speed walking or fast shuffling – but I figure that 26 miles of anything is quite an accomplishment. I’m sure I’ll have various stories along the way, of the comical “I am such a klutz” type, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless.
That’s the basic news, since it’s all so old now I don’t know what else to say. I will take a moment though to promote….MY BIRTHDAY! Oh yeah! I’ll be 29 on the 29th (April, that is). My golden birthday and my last year in the stinking, rotten 20s (good riddance!)!! My address is below. Feel free to send me lots of presents and cards and pictures. I could really use some new Eddie Bauer v-necks (large, no white), some Starbucks coffee, scented candles, good music, random gourmet food, REI or Amazon gift certificates…I can come up with other ideas too, I have sooo very many.
Hope all is well in your world. I’ll send another letter in April (I SWEAR!) with more details about Bulgaria and what I actually am doing here, since no one seems to know that (and I don’t ever get around to telling it).
Best to you and yours,
Jen
posted by Jen at 10:28 PM
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