It's A Library in Bulgaria!

So I've been to the library for a week or two, and I think I've seen it all. In Peace Corps' arms, thinkin' I'll go far. Back home my type is rare. I dig ethnicky jazz and pop songs playing on a 2-bit radio. Now I know what it is to be cold, living next to the slums with so much soul!

Before I began working, I had a day of introduction. We walked into the library on December 9th, with its 25-foot high ceilings, and it was freezing! My counterpart apologized to me and told me that they'll start heating the place in January, but until then, wear a jacket. For the first week, every time I saw a thermometer outside it read -1, 0, or +1.

On my first work day at the Partenii Pavlovich Library, I attended an 8am meeting with all the staff. There are 24 employees here, but 8 of them were on vacation. My counterpart is just under the director as she manages all the departments of the library. At the meeting, I was asked to speak a little bit about myself after I was introduced as speaking phenomenal Bulgarian and an excellent resource for the library staff who want to practice their English (there have been two so far).

I started my normal goofball introduction in Bulgarian, saying that I am Andrew the Beautiful, eternal bachelor! It comes from a traditional Bulgarian song and usually people laugh their heads off when I say it. But this time it only cracked a few smiles and I felt like a jerk. My saving grace happened a moment later, after my spiel, when one lady asked me to sing the whole song at the library Christmas party!At the end of the day, I walked out of the library with my counterpart and the director to see the whole center lit up with Christmas lights! I said, "Look how beautiful it is!" and before they could respond, I continued, "Hey, I'm over here!" They got a great kick out of that! We walked 20 meters and my counterpart said, "Can you see how beautiful it is?" I responded with, "Yes. I have a mirror." Ha! Oh man! They kept calling me a sweetheart. I think they don't have a word for cornball, but I love that they appreciate my sense of humor!

My counterpart has been insanely helpful in making sure I'm comfortable in the community. She goes so far out of her way to make sure I'm happy that I feel bad not being able to reciprocate, although I'm trying the best I can. She told me, unofficially, that we're going to start working 7-hour days because it's too cold to be here for 8 hours. =) I was complaining about how cold my apartment was and so the director said she'd lend me one of her blankets! Super nice! She even tried to hail a cab for me so I wouldn't have to walk all the way home under the burden of a 3-pound blanket! I took the opportunity to tell her to relax because I'm a strong man!

Half way through my first week, there was some kind of children's event in our big hall. They came for a presentation about Christmas, more or less. But since I'm such a hot item, the gal running the show asked me if I would be part of the introduction and say a few words. No problem I thought. Well, actually, there's a very big problem. Once in a while, I encounter a Bulgarian that I simply can not understand. It's not a matter of them speaking too quickly or not slow enough. I simply can't understand them. Either how they speak, or the words they choose to use. Nothing works. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand a word she was saying. But I feel bad about it so I always say that I do understand and hope my genius level I.Q. will figure it out before it's too late. Well, that didn't happen this time. All of a sudden, I was standing in front of about 30 kids, and welcoming them to a presentation that I didn't understand. I was supposed to talk about myself and my counterpart was nearby to say, "tell them how you celebrate Christmas." Alright! A starting point! I said, "We celebrate Christmas by eating dinner with our families." That's it. Crap. When I realized how lame that sounded I tried to recover but just dug myself a deeper hole. Humor didn't save me this time.

Later, I was invited to a Christmas recital in the same hall and as i entered there was one gal singing as people took their seats. She had the most beautiful voice! As she started another song her voice cracked, and she paused before trying again. It cracked again and she stepped off stage to ask her teacher who was playing the piano if she could step down. Then she walked to her seat with tears streaming down her cheeks. =) The recital officially opened up with what seemed to be a 4 year old and a 6 year old singing their heads off! They were really belting it out and it was sooo cute!

Our library hosts so many events and I seem to be paraded around to them all as if I had a hand in them. Really, I think they want to show me off. I enjoy being a novelty, to a point. I get invited to this or that and then show up to loads of curiosity, which I also enjoy, but then I'm asked to say a few words. It's a reasonable request - I just seem to get stage fright every time! They ask me to say something at the last minute and I usually don't know what's going on. The shock of the moment usually leads to me speaking crap Bulgarian and not saying anything at all aside from, "Uhhhh". I lose all my vocabulary and then I get more nervous and I spiral out of control!

I was invited to another event. I thought, as I always do, that I would be going to watch something. It was a typical traditional Bulgarian event that I've never seen before. Kids decorate sticks so that they may hit each other on the back on New Year's. I guess the belief is that it brings them good health. I don't see the connection, but I don't think anyone would be too surprised to learn that I don't understand everything. So I arrive to this event, expecting to see kids running around and hitting each other with sticks. I prepared myself for a good beating cause I'm the novelty foreigner and I'm sure the kids would want me to have good health in the new year. Turns out, they were just decorating at this event and I was invited to decorate a stick, too. Looking around, the whole scene reminded me of Charlie Brown's Christmas!
Of course, these kids weren't decorating Christmas trees, but Christmas whipping sticks! They have a Bulgarian name, but I don't think it translates.Anyway, I was having all kinds of fun tying different random things to my stick in "decoration" when all of a sudden, the organizer gal asks me to say a few words in Bulgarian and thrusts a microphone in my face!Well, because of my previous failings I have worked out an outline of a few things to talk about when someone says, "here, talk about yourself." I gave my spiel and I could hear people talking about how well I speak Bulgarian. I felt damn good about myself! And on top of the giddiness from the Charlie Brown Christmas Stick Whacking, I was on Cloud 9! Then, all of a sudden, there was a reporter from one of the national news agencies with a microphone in my face, asking me questions about this particular holiday. Between the chaos of the screaming kids, the overly-loud kids music in the background, and having to listen to more than just, "talk about yourself", I was stumped! "Do you celebrate New Year's like this or similarly where you're from?" she asks. "Uhhhh", I respond, "Well, we celebrate, but we don't use sticks, we use beer and champaign." In hindsight, that probably wasn't the ideal answer at a children's event. But it's sorta true. What kind of kid activities are there at New Year's in the U.S.? Fireworks? Anyway, the interview went on and I continued to fail to impress. When it was over, I sat down, almost exhausted, and explained to my counterpart that I like talking to people, but it's hard for me when I can't prepare. She stopped me to introduce me to so and so, from the regional news for another interview. And unfortunately, this was another lady that for the life of me, I could just not understand. I tried to salvage my dignity when she pointed to my stick and either asked me, "How beautiful is that?!" or "How beautiful are you going to make that?" and I interrupted to say - "I'm always beautiful!" Haha! Ya know, if no one else is making you laugh, sometimes you just gotta make yourself laugh!

Near the end, the deputy mayor presented me with an award and I whacked her with my stick and told her happy new year. And finally, we danced.As I left the crowded hall, I asked a guy to get out of my way. He turned around, stuck out his hand to shake, and said to me, "You are cool!" Awesome!