Happy Independence Day

Bulgaria, as most Bulgarians can tell you, suffered under the Ottoman yoke for some 500 years. It wasn't the worst of empires, and relatively passive compared to other European empires' intense assimilation efforts, but I assume it is never nice to be under the rule of a foreign power. In the late 19th century, however, foreign powers stepped in and the Treaty of San Stefano was signed on March 3rd, 1878. Although early drafts of the treaty re-created a Bulgaria that was similar in size to pre-Ottoman times, foreign powers eventually changed their mind, worrying about having another great power in southeastern Europe. On the map below, the dark black line corresponds with the original draft, and the black-striped white line represents the borders of modern-day Bulgaria. Thanks Wikipedia!

This treaty, however, did not grant Bulgarian independence. Instead, it became a semi-autonomous region of the Ottoman Empire. 
Thirty years later, in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria declared itself free of the Ottoman Empire and a sovereign state. Like March 3, 1878, today, September 22, is a significant date in Bulgarian history. Ah, the sweet smell of independence. Bulgaria was even given the freedom to be involved in the Balkan Wars, World War I and World War II (whoopee). During these wars, Bulgaria hoped to become the size of its former emperor, but its irredentist dreams were never fulfilled. This ideal of a greater Bulgaria has not died, however, as is apparent in any nationalistic youtube video. Watch out Macedonia!
The biggest celebrations for today are in Veliko Tarnovo, but there might be something going on tonight in Sofia. Nationalistic celebrations often leave a bad taste in my mouth, but I might peek in for a bit.

50 Words

So you may be curious about what I do. I'm eventually going to be researching the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a political party in Bulgaria that mostly represents ethnic Turks, but for now, I'm just brushing up on my Bulgarian. For three months. This was my original proposal, and it is fun. A little boring, but fun.
My current project is learning fifty words a day. My 'work' day lasts for around 8 hours, so this isn't really a problem. For now, a lot of these words are also review, so I've had a lot of time to relax and sleep. If, however, I can continue this process and learn fifty words a day, five times a week, after three months that should be about 3,000 words. That is a decent vocabulary, and hopefully can be useful when I start actual research in the Bulgarian language.
This methodology got me thinking about a conversation I heard once in a Korean subway. There was an English-speaking teacher with one of his students. His student, being Korean, was being very self-conscious about his level of vocabulary. The teacher responded with, "Oh, your English is great. You know way more words than the average American. The average American only knows about 200 words." I don't know where this guy got his information, but he was surely confused. 200 words? I bet an average third-grader knows at least 50 Crayola colors, 50 different animals, 50 different cartoon characters, and 50 states. Oh wait, that's already 200 words! And those are all nouns! It's remarkable how many words that we have at our disposal. Maybe we only use about 200 in our daily conversations. Well, if your daily conversations go something like this:
Man: Hi.
Woman: Hello.
Man: Get me a beer.
Woman: Ok.
Man: Cool.
However, even if this man chooses to use only a handful of words, he has way more at his disposal. A first-grader should be able to recognize some 500 words by sight. There are more than 200,000 words in the English language. I'll be happy if I can memorize my first 3,000, and sound like a silly elementary student. Then again, a Bulgarian elementary student would probably be able to name all the animals at the zoo.
That sounds like a good batch of 50 new words. And an excuse to go to the zoo...

Fire and Dinosaurs

Whoever thought up street theater is brilliant. What's not to love? They are pretty much free. Sure, you can give a couple of bucks, but you are under no obligation. They are outside. Unless you have photophobia, that's good news. And they are allowed to do crazy things. Like throw fire around. Or dress up like dinosaurs.

On Friday night, Dian, a couple of his friends and I went out to see the fire show. There is currently a week of puppetry in Sofia, and this was the first show that I saw. 

God, I love when the happy one starts skipping rope. Too awesome. On Saturday I went to another show. This one had dinosaurs. It was fantastic. I kept thinking of Ben Lynch, my best friend from college, and how one of the few words he knows in sign language is dinosaur. I'll let the video speak for itself. 

Can't get you out of my head

'Yes' and 'no' seem like such universals. Shaking your head side-to-side means 'yes', and up-and-down means 'no'. Right?
Unfortunately, the opposite is true here in Bulgaria. A little wiggle back and forth means 'yes'. Kind of similar to what they do in India. Then you can either go up-and-down for 'no' or a more clear side-to-side. My Bulgarian professor told me a story once of a group of Americans traveling to Bulgaria. They stopped for a beer and asked the waitress if they had Zagorka. She shook her head. They asked if she had Ariana. She shook her head again. They went through the entire list of beers and she shook her head on everyone. Disappointed they were about to leave, when she asked them why they didn't choose a beer, since they had so many choices. This Bulgarian peculiarity is truly confusing, but important to remember.
This difference, coupled with living in Seoul last year, has caused me to make an ass out of myself on a number of occasions. 'Ne' in Korean means 'yes'. 'Ne' in Bulgarian means 'no'. I'm so used to bobbing my head up and down and saying 'ne'; I can't stop this habit! My landlady was asking me yes or no questions and I was trying to agree with her, but just continually said 'no, no, no'. I think in about two more weeks I'll be Bulgarianized. Which will be great, until I leave the country. Then I'll have to confuse my lil' old brain once more.

Not everything you put in your mouth is delicious

I really enjoy food. People who know me know this. I can eat most anything. Even though I used to be a pseudo-vegetarian, while traveling I usually eat meat. At a little restaurant in a park I thought it would be fun to try something new. I looked on the menu and saw something about chicken. So I asked for that and waited for about a half an hour to be served this:

It looks pretty good, right? And the smell was wonderful. But the closer I looked at the chicken to see what part of the animal it was the more worried I became. I've tried some weird meats in Bulgaria . . . so I took a bite and immediately could tell it was one of those 'delicacy' meats. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't eat. I almost puked at the table trying to swallow the first bite. After three tastes, I gave up. The waiter tried to convince me it was delicious, but I just told him it wasn't delicious for me. Turns out it was дроб- liver. Not my cup of tea. 

Recall

One of my favorite parts about being in Bulgaria so far is the constant language recall. I studied Bulgarian for two semesters at Boston College and did two summer sessions in Veliko Turnovo, a small city in the center of the country. At the end of my studies I would say I was at about an intermediate level, with a decent conversational ability.
Coming back to Bulgaria after a year in Korea, however, has diminished me back to a bumbling pre-elementary student. Sure I remembered hi and a couple of basic verbs, but most of the vocabulary I had viscously studied in University had retreated to the far corners of my brain. This was quite upsetting.
Well, it was until I started walking around the city. I'll just see a word on a sign, and there will be an instant recall. If you would have asked me how to say, for example, 'real estate agent' five days ago, I would have had no idea. But the other day I saw 'PEMOHT' and thought to myself, 'hey, that's the word for real estate agent' and in no time its back in my lingo. Not like I can use that word very often, but it feels good to have these 'aha' moments.
This must be similar to the life of a person with photographic memory. To just see a word and instantly be able to use it. I worked hard, years ago, to memorize these vocabulary words, but now I just need a quick reminder and they are back on the tip of my tongue, ready to be used. I haven't really picked up my Bulgarian books yet, but I know I will need to soon. After these initial weeks of just recalling vocabulary that I had already learned, I will be back to the grindstone- memorizing words and studying grammar. Luckily I love grammar. And I love getting paid to do what I love.

Going the Distance

Thursday nights have 5 leva shows at the theater in the Mall of Sofia. I ended up meeting up with Dian, who was one of the coordinators at my first Bulgarian language seminar in the summer of 2007, and a couple of his friends to see the movie Going the Distance with Justin Long and Drew Barrymore. Although it was a very predictable American comedy, it was enjoyable and decently funny.
I really enjoyed watching the Bulgarian subtitles and quickly remembering some vocabulary words that I had forgotten. Of course, there were also times that the subtitles did not match what was happening on the screen. Korea loved to do this. Taking curse words and replacing them with something more appropriate for polite company. When one character said 'f***er' they replaced the word with 'idiot', so of course I asked Dian how to say f***er. After he told me and helped me with my pronunciation, he immediately told me why I shouldn't use it. However, you never know when it might come in handy.
The movie is about a couple who quickly fall in love, but know that they have a deadline, since Barrymore needs to get back to Stanford to finish up grad school. They decide to try a distance relationship, and the movie explores the difficulties that are part and parcel of such a relationship. Of course, it got me to thinking about my own relationship, and how Byeong-Hun and I are trying to make it work in a much wider distance. It has only been about a month and a half, but it is not pleasant. I used to make fun of my sister, Anna, because she would ALWAYS be on the phone with Mike during their four-year long-distance relationship. Now that I have had a taste of the very real trials of a long distance relationship, I truly respect how much work and effort my sister put in for Mike. I'm already going crazy after a month and a half. I don't know how I'd fare if it was a whole year apart. Now, the time difference is easier, with just six hours separating us. However, we have such different work schedules that it is sometimes hard to connect. I just can't wait for October 15th, when we get to live together again!