Oh, the Places You'll Go!

I know a while back I griped about train travel. Now, it's probably one of my favorite things about being in Bulgaria. Yes, it's long and seemingly cumbersome at times but I feel closer to the wanderlusters that came before me. Most recently I returned from a 7 hour trip from another volunteers house. 7 hours. That is almost as long as it will take me to get to America. However I can't complain as I didn't even have to travel the farthest. We do that here. Travel great distances just for the chance to hang out with other volunteers. We pack ourselves into each others apartments claiming beds, floor space, couches, kitchens, balconies....Wherever there is room. I never regret it. I'm lucky here, I have really good friends. I love laughing and for some reason being around these fools invokes some sort of deep guttural laugh I never knew existed inside of me. 
The way back home this past weekend was more of the more enjoyable trips I've had. Relatively speaking, I'm always excited to go somewhere but rarely excited to journey back home. I ran into a friend on the train and we went in search of a train car with more leg room. We were hesitant to join what my friend dubbed as "The Grumpy Old Men" car, but we did and spent the next 5 hours with two men that bore a similar resemblance to these guys:

One of the men was the most talkative Bulgarian I've ever come across. I don't think he stopped speaking during the 5 hours I was on the train. Our car filled up some so I was able to take naps while he regaled newcomers with his stories or interrogated them accordingly. Our conversation jumped from questions about America, to Bulgarian children's songs, to questioning why I'm a vegetarian, to a lesson on Bulgarian history. It was ridiculous, and I'm lucky that someone could share in the absurdity that the situation was. I've never had anyone pantomime snails for me before, it was incredible to watch. But this is what makes train travel exciting. Isn't that why we travel? Isn't that why we joined the Peace Corps? Not to just see the world, but to live it, to experience it. No one interacts on airplanes, the setting is hardly conducive to it, here you're sitting face to face with mere inches between you and the next person. It's more intimate. I think what I found most fascinating was towards the end of this journey one of the men got off and it was only then that I realized that the two old men had only just met. They seemed like old friends but their friendship was only that of however many hours.  When I got off the train we said our goodbyes and that was that. No trying to exchange phone numbers or emails, no concerns about whether or not he was going to try and find me on facebook. We left each other taking with us only the stories of people we met on our travels. 

Ouch. European Burn

Watching this clip made me think of the times that people made fun of my brother. It's only okay if I do it, when other people do it I get offended. David Cameron did you really have to go there?

Ignorance is Bliss

I'll be honest, there are many Bulgarian things that I don't understand. Why does shaking your head mean yes while nodding your head means no? Why do they like to serve food that should be hot cold, but will not hesitate to microwave pickles which should be cold? Why does my school give 15-20 min breaks between classes so kids can get food but then are shocked when the kids are late since 736 people are all standing in line trying to get snacks at the same time. I don't understand any of this. However the latest fetish to boggle my mind is mostly occurring in America and its name is Chatroulette. The basic premise of this website is that you can randomly video chat with strangers all across the world, clicking next as you please. A friend of mine mentioned that he had seen a satire of this site on South Park and had to check it out. He was so shocked and horrified that a group of us had to see what the fuss was all about. After a few libations we all gathered in front of the computer and decided to test our fate. We were so excited to see people at first but were being quickly nexted by one person to the next until we landed on a girl in a very compromising position. I expected to see men being voyeurs but not a lady. She remained this way until she dexterously used her foot to click the next button without every revealing her face. Also I should have been careful what I wished for because it seemed like from then on out every guy was sitting with the camera positioned at seductively to accomplish what I don't know. It just seemed to ridiculous to me that I couldn't stop laughing. Maybe I just don't have that voyeuristic instinct in me. I've taken an accidental foray into this arena when I didn't realize for about a week after moving into my apartment that my curtains were indeed see through. I immediately bought blinds, I didn't install a webcam and make a show of it.

Luckily the internet went down and we focused our attention back to more productive activities and conversations, which is what friends are supposed to do when they are together. I think our biggest problem with this site and the people on it, who are mostly American, is that they have the opportunity to go out and meet and interact with each other. Living abroad in small towns we don't have the same luxury and use the internet as an outlet to keep our relationships and friendship alive. It seems that this site is just another hinderance to actual human connection. I wonder what they'll think up next.

Who knew Larry King would bring so much joy to my life?

You're welcome.