Mom does Bulgaria – Guest blog post!

Last week, I was thrilled to show my parents and sisters around Bulgaria! I met them in Bucharest, and then showed them around Silistra and Sofia before heading to Munich, Germany. Since you hear from me all the time, I thought it would be nice to bring in some different perspectives. The first guest blog post is from my wonderful mother Marilyn! Thank you Mom–Enjoy!

Guest Blog Post – Marilyn Pelehach

Dining with Krassy and his wife, Nadia, was one of the highlights of our family trip to visit Michael in Silistra.  As a Mom, it is wonderful to see that Michael has a “best friend” who really cares about him.  I know that if Michael runs into a medical, cultural, language or transportation problem, Krassy and Nadia will be right there to help Michael navigate through the crisis. He has already prescribed treatment for Michael’s recent congestion, and one day insisted Michael needed a haircut, and took him to his neighbor barber!  Krassy and Nadia greeted each of us with hugs and Bulgarian gifts.

Nazdrave! Cheers!

Krassy had prepared a multiple course dinner which Nadia graciously served.  Conversation flowed over Lutenitsa (homemade Bulgarian specialty of tomatoes and peppers), shopska salad (traditional local salad of tomato, cucumber and Bulgarian white cheese), sausages, beef, homemade rakia (STRONG brandy), wine and a variety of desserts.  Now keep in mind that Krassy speaks NO English, Nadia holds her own with English, and Michael has a fairly good command of Bulgarian for having been there less than 3 months.  Mostly it is Krassy’s tutelage coupled with Michael’s motivation to learn the language that has given Michael these skills.  Krassy is very dramatic, gesturing, acting out and drawing pictures to communicate.  Humor can even be communicated with a language barrier.  We met “Peshoo,” the female rabbit given a male name that Krassy says is in the Mafia.

Michael with “Peshoo”

Krassy played his favorite Serbian music for us.  Since most of the conversation was in English, leaving Krassy at a disadvantage, he was constantly calling out to get Michael’s attention, teaching him more Bulgarian vocabulary.  Our dinner was very leisurely, the numerous courses spanning about five hours.

Krassy pretending to be relaxing at the beach!

Displaying his devotion to Michael, the following day Krassy called Michael’s teacher mentor twice trying to arrange a city tour for our family.  While we were unable to take advantage of that kind offer due to our travel schedule, that didn’t stop Krassy! When we arrived at the bus station to board our bus to the capital of Sofia, Krassy was waiting for us with a bag full of two dozen apples and three jars of his homemade Lutenitsa!  Quite a send off for our family!

Krassy says goodbye at bus stop

Impressions of Bulgaria

Several things struck me as unique to Bulgaria.  We had learned before our trip that Bulgaria is one of a very few countries that nod their head to indicate “no” and shake their head to indicate “yes”.  This takes some getting used to, especially since with some Western influence, some Bulgarians have started to adopt the Western way and nod for yes and shake for no.  Michael had tipped us off to notice head gestures and pointed out to us that many times Bulgarians will do more of a “bobble” circular motion with their head meaning…well, you are never sure!  At dinner with Krassy and Nadia, we discussed this and they both insisted that they nod and shake like Americans do.  Shortly thereafter, Michael told his family members to watch Krassy’s response to “Do you like Serbian music” (which he loves).  His response was a head shake indicating “yes”.

As you pass Bulgarians on the street, they are sometimes very serious, not greeting others with a smile or acknowledgment.  All the Bulgarians we met were Michael’s friends, colleagues or students and consequently were very friendly to their American visitors. Interestingly, while visiting Michael’s ninth grade class, I was asked to share my impressions of Bulgaria. I stated that I found Bulgarians to be very friendly. The classroom teacher chuckled and told me, “No, we are not friendly.  We are known to be very serious people.” We discussed this with two Bulgarian friends of Michael’s who he had met at the summer Fulbright Institute. They explained that Bulgarians are serious by nature. They have many hardships, and have lived in poverty with much political upheaval over centuries.

My barber shop (not kidding)

We learned that Bulgarians consider it bad luck to say they are happy or are having fun. On Monday morning he asked his class if they had a fun weekend and asked them to share what they did ( to practice speaking in English). The universal response was that they didn’t have any fun.  Later when dining with his friends in Sofia, we inquired about this too.  They acknowledged that they never respond to a question that everything is fine or they had fun.  It just isn’t the way it is done there.  Unlike here where when someone asks, “How are you”? we almost always respond “Fine”, even if that isn’t the case.