You know you are Bulgarian when...

Miss Biliana painted a custom fashion print for me. I don't know which one but I hyper-ventilated over my first Marc Jacobs bag a few weeks ago and I'm guessing she might have picked up on that. Anyway.

Here's our email exchange from earlier today:

Miss B: Just a quick note to ask if you received your drawing, I sent it about ten days ago. I hope you like it if you did!

Petya: No! It's not here yet! How did you send it?! Shouldn't take that long...

Miss B: Hmmm, I sent it regular mail. It is not very big, I put it in a magazine. Let me know, the post office here said it should take about 5 to 8 (!) business days, so this sounds about right. Let me know, I wanted you to get it for Valentines Days since it is red....

As this was going on, I realized... shit, I'm responding in such a Bulgarian way to this. Don't you see it?! I panicked that the postal worker might have kept my package!!! When I shared my realization with Biliana, she said: I would panic the same way, this is why I am writing!

You know you are Bulgarian when anticipating a friendly package in the mail makes you anxious.

Memphis style

Because Memphis is HOT HOT HOT in the summer, fashionable people here are fashionable in this unfussy, unpretentious, easy kind of way that I absolutely LOVE. Here are some examples from the Memphis Flyer Style Sessions blog:



It's all dresses and simple tops and cotton, cotton, cotton. So comfy! Not sure if it's Memphis that makes people here so cool and laid-back or cool and laid-back people make Memphis the city that it is. But, so early in the game, I don't care either way. I just love it.

What would Grandma think

My friend Nicole made a list of 25 goals for her 25 year self. One of her rules is not to eat anything your grandmother would not recognize as food. I think that's such an awesome rule. I would only add that one should also not wear anything that their Grandma would not recognize as clothing.

Never wear leggings as if they were pants.

Purple Pigs and Prezidentski Izbori

Because you have been good but also, because I need to clean my apartment and would do anything to postpone THAT, you get to hear not one but TWO stories tonight:

STORY No.1:

A couple of weeks ago I saw a pair of men's leather gloves that I thought I really liked. A few days ago, I decided to go back to the store and get the Professor an early Christmas present. It was all good until I saw the gloves again. The leather was not even close to black (i.e. the color I had thought they were). They were PURPLE. No way in hell am I buying my man purple gloves!

I must have been obviously disappointed because the sales person came by and asked if there was anything she could do to help me. I tell her, well, not really. I simply can't buy a pair of PURPLE gloves. At which point she proceeds to explain to me how the gloves are actually very nice and they are made of GENUINE leather and see how soft it is. That's when I look up at her like she's out of her mind and with all my seriousness ask: Who do you think you're fooling telling me this is genuine leather?! Have you ever seen a PURPLE PIG?!?!?!?!!? And, of course, stomp out of the store.

I tell the story to Professor and he says, babe, you know that they actually dye leather before they make shoes or clothing out of it, right?!

What??!?!!!!

I guess I could have figured it out on my own if I had thought about it. But, come on, how often does one think about this kind of stuff! Yes, thank you.

STORY No.2:

Prof. Grady and I are talking about the second round of the presidential election in Bulgaria (that was last weekend, for those of you who don't go by the Bulgarian political calander).

Professor: So, are you voting for Izbori?
Me: What?!
Professor: Who are you voting for? Izbori?
Me: Babe, what are you talking about?
Professor: I thought you said that you might need to vote for the incumbant?

This goes back and forth for quite some time, but eventually we figure out that Prof. Grady thought that Presidentski meant President and that Izbori was the name of our president. In other words, he thought he had been asking whether I would be voting for President + Name (and assumed that Izbori was our president's last name). What he was actually saying was "Are you voting for the Presidential Election."

As someone who's relatively new to the wonder of the Bulgarian language, Prof. Grady is doing pretty well. However, he already is starting to build a history of confusing nouns with adjectives. On his second day in Bulgaria, he was approached by a guy on the street. Not knowing what to say, he responded with:

Изнивете. Американски съм.

***

As I finish up, I keep thinking that I should maybe go back and change the title of this entry to 'Dumb and Dumber'. Prof. Grady would play Dumb and I would definitely be Dumber.

Healthy Relationships 101

Prof. Grady and I are both people of strong opinions. Just to give you an idea, here's three things we've recently argued about:

- Is it rude to write email while talking on Skype. I think, emailing someone else is totally unacceptable. I mean, are you talking to me or what?! According to the professor, it is no big deal at all. It's not any different than doing the dishes or doing other seemingly innocent task while talking. ESPECIALLY, when you have a busy day ahead of you and really need to get stuff done as efficiently as possible.

- My explaining things by saying 'it's a Bulgarian thing' and insisting he won't understand. He really strongly dislikes me saying that. He's originally from California, has lived on the East Coast, survived Central Pennsylvania, got photographed in China and hiked in Mexico. He's only been to Bulgaria once and can count to 1000 and is actually moving here pretty soon. So...he adjusts pretty well. It's a Bulgarian thing definitely does not fly well with him.

- Whether he should wear a knit turtle-neck. Professor thinks: pretentous. Methinks: so sexy I can't even begin to tell you.

All three topics are still up for debate. I'm truly curious what you guys think.