These past few weeks, I have been asked some rather strange questions, and have some odd coments directed my way. A couple of them, and the answers:

Are there apples in America?
I of course, answered no. I had never seen an apple before I came to Bulgaria.

Are there chickens in America?
Again, no.

I wanted you for my daughter-in-law, but my son just got married two months ago. ( the same lady who told me this later asked me what my name was.)

Do you want this cat? He is very nice. (said of a cat that I know has been rooting around in the dumpster.)

You shouldn't kick that stone. You will fall down. (it was a pebble, and I was kicking it down the street. I did not fall down.)

That's about all that I can think of. The apple question cracked me up, for several days, though. It was definately a teaching moment.

Hi All.

Sorry that it took a whole month for this update. It's been pretty hectic, and I've been lazy.

So, Let's start with Valentine's day, the day my friend Kevin says that everyone catches VD. It's really rather sad.

But, with Meghan, Alyse, Margaret, and some other volunteers, I went to Plovdiv for a night of chalga and Bulgarian food. For those of you who do not know what chalga is, be thankful, and wait the day that I bring some home so that your eardrums are permenently scared.

It is a mixture of Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek and Turkish music. My current favorite is Malko po Malko, sung by Gorgiana, and it's translated refrain lyrics go something like this:

You didn't know how to wait,
Every night I cry,
It gets better, little by little.

Are you awed? Of course, it is sung with a lot of emotion, and my drama queen side comes out whenever I hear this song. It's quite a good bit of fun, really.

Anyways, the star of the VD dinner was a fat man named Azis. Now, it is quite possible that Azis is the only Roma Gay man to be accepted widely in Bulgaria. I would even go as far as to say that the fact that he is accepted, being in either one of those categories is amazing. He was quite good. He didn't sing so much, but man, could he ever shake his booty. Again, some choice lyrics: I love you, I want your heart.

The only down side of his performance was that he was not made up as much as he usually is. Not even sparkely eye liner. Considering that he has been photographed wearing more make up in one night than I believe I have ever worn, this was a cause for considerable sadness. If you want to see, you can check out: http://sunny-music.bulgariancds.com/cgi-bin/p.cgi/azis-shou-spektakyl.html which has an album cover of his on it. Scary, huh?

So that was Valentines day. It was fun, and I got to hang out with some great people. However, there was a drunk Englishman there (Well, we were kind of celebrating his birthday with him), and I danced with him. It was strange. I think that this might have been one of the top ten VD's ever.