SO I was hanging out at a cafe the other day with a Bulgarian friend, who just happens to be the awesome guitarist in the Chernoriztsite - a local rock band. He likes to practice speaking English whenever he can, and we somehow got on the topic of how he actually learned English. The story was one of the coolest things I have ever heard...
Back in the days of Communism, listening to heavy metal was forbidden. Music had to be from within the country and approved by the government. Most Western rock (including metal) was not on the list. However there was an underground system of passing around Western music, and cassettes containing hard rock songs were the choice of the times in the 80s. However, if you got caught listening to them, the consequences were not good. Understandably, lyrics were not readily available, and almost nobody spoke English. So groups of people would get together and listen to the songs over and over again and imitate the sounds of the words in the songs. He went on to say that listening to the songs now, they were horribly off base, but back then it was as if they had found the Holy Grail.
Eventually, through context and other sources, words started getting translated. For example, one of the popular bands someone found out that Venom (the name of one of the bands) meant "vitrova" or poison. Then a cassette came out featuring songs from the band Poison, and they asked each other "what is the difference between this Venom and Poison?" (they are the same word in Bulgarian). Eventually they gathered that venom comes from an animal, and posion comes from somewhere else. He went on to say that heavy metal was responsible for the basis of his (very good) English abilities, and that he went on to attend an all-English speaking university. Aside from his spot in the rock band, he works in the local government and is currently creating an NGO to help local underserved farmers gain access to grants, small business loans, and other resources.
And who said rock and roll isn't good for anything?
In other news, I am now officially the only American in Preslav. My amazing sitemate of a year left yesterday (as her 2 years of service are officially up), and is off to the States for a short spell before turning around and signing up for another stint in the Peace Corps. Her ultimate goal is to serve in every continent... What a life! As for me, I've made enough friends here in town to keep occupied through the year, which will be great especially through the winter. It's already a lot colder than it was last year... Still it's going to be a much different place with her gone and I wish her the best of luck wherever she ends up next.
(This is the point at which all the other volunteers laugh because I have now become a regular volunteer without a sitemate. Yes... most other vols have been putting up with this for a year now haha)
Until next time...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Madara Rider
Located about 15 minutes away from Preslav is one of Bulgaria’s most iconic symbols, and consequently one of the country’s most important sites. Standing high above the small, unassuming village of Madara is the Madara Horseman – a relief in the cliffs dating back to around the year 700. The sculpture includes rider mounted atop a horse, spearing a lion below and followed by a dog, apparently symbolic of victory. If the fact that creating something like this back then wasn’t hard enough, the entire thing is located about 50 feet off of the ground on a sheer rock face.
Of course, it’s not as if some guy back in the day saw a cliff and thought it would be a good idea to carve a sculpture into it. The entire area is said to have a certain spiritual energy – so much so that one of the founding fathers of Bulgaria, Han Asperux, built a fortress here to tap into the mystical forces held within. You can climb up from the site of the rider to the top of the mountain using a huge path of stairs winding through rocks on the side of the mountain. Nearby Pliska, Bulgaria’s first capital, was purposely built within close proximity to this place in order to both protect the mountain, and for the mountain to supply the capital with strength.
When you explore the nearby caves, it’s easy to see how the ancient Bulgarians thought this was a special place. There is a set of ruins located under a giant half dome in the side of the mountain. Overlooking this site is a giant rock about 100 feet tall, delicately held up by a collection of smaller rocks underneath. A small chapel was then built into those rocks, making for a beautiful little cave sanctuary.
While I was there, a small group of religious pilgrims from elsewhere in Bulgaria was worshipping at the chapel, still tapping into the “spiritual vibrations” that the rocks gave off, just as the first Bulgarians did. I had a fascinating (if somewhat odd) conversation with one of the pilgrims, who told me that if I stood a certain way while touching the rocks, my third eye would be opened. They also told me that Madara was one of 4 places in Bulgaria with special magical powers (the other being Belogradchik, the Trigrad Gorge, and a place in the southeast that I wasn’t familiar with). Unfortunately, I didn’t really sense that myself, but everyone else seemed really into it.
Taken as a whole, the area was a great day trip. With so much to see and experience in such a small area, it’s understandable to see that the whole place was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. This year the village is celebrating 30 years of having the Horseman on this distinguished list. Even more impressive, in my opinion, is the fact that the place is relatively untouched and uncrowded.
The Rider is also celebrated as the “Global Symbol of Bulgaria.” I know this because a giant sign at the entrance to the site proclaimed it as such. But it is indeed a powerful symbol and a great source of national pride. The image is inscribed on the reverse of most of the stotinki (coins) here. Recently, the Bulgarian people also voted to have the Horseman inscribed on their own Euro coins when they switch over from the lev in the coming years.
This shows that the site is still as important in the minds of the people here as it was so long ago. And with a good reason… The day spent there was one of my most fulfilling in all my travels around Bulgaria.
Until next time…
Of course, it’s not as if some guy back in the day saw a cliff and thought it would be a good idea to carve a sculpture into it. The entire area is said to have a certain spiritual energy – so much so that one of the founding fathers of Bulgaria, Han Asperux, built a fortress here to tap into the mystical forces held within. You can climb up from the site of the rider to the top of the mountain using a huge path of stairs winding through rocks on the side of the mountain. Nearby Pliska, Bulgaria’s first capital, was purposely built within close proximity to this place in order to both protect the mountain, and for the mountain to supply the capital with strength.
When you explore the nearby caves, it’s easy to see how the ancient Bulgarians thought this was a special place. There is a set of ruins located under a giant half dome in the side of the mountain. Overlooking this site is a giant rock about 100 feet tall, delicately held up by a collection of smaller rocks underneath. A small chapel was then built into those rocks, making for a beautiful little cave sanctuary.
While I was there, a small group of religious pilgrims from elsewhere in Bulgaria was worshipping at the chapel, still tapping into the “spiritual vibrations” that the rocks gave off, just as the first Bulgarians did. I had a fascinating (if somewhat odd) conversation with one of the pilgrims, who told me that if I stood a certain way while touching the rocks, my third eye would be opened. They also told me that Madara was one of 4 places in Bulgaria with special magical powers (the other being Belogradchik, the Trigrad Gorge, and a place in the southeast that I wasn’t familiar with). Unfortunately, I didn’t really sense that myself, but everyone else seemed really into it.
Taken as a whole, the area was a great day trip. With so much to see and experience in such a small area, it’s understandable to see that the whole place was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. This year the village is celebrating 30 years of having the Horseman on this distinguished list. Even more impressive, in my opinion, is the fact that the place is relatively untouched and uncrowded.
The Rider is also celebrated as the “Global Symbol of Bulgaria.” I know this because a giant sign at the entrance to the site proclaimed it as such. But it is indeed a powerful symbol and a great source of national pride. The image is inscribed on the reverse of most of the stotinki (coins) here. Recently, the Bulgarian people also voted to have the Horseman inscribed on their own Euro coins when they switch over from the lev in the coming years.
This shows that the site is still as important in the minds of the people here as it was so long ago. And with a good reason… The day spent there was one of my most fulfilling in all my travels around Bulgaria.
Until next time…
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Halftime
Last week the B24s had our Mid-Service Conference, marking the halfway point of our service as volunteers in country. We’ve been in country for a bit longer than that (actually 3 months longer), but we’ve been at site for a whole year now. We celebrated the milestone in true Peace Corps fashion… going to a conference filled with service-related games, discussions about sustainability, and countless post-it notes. It was actually helpful to refocus my goals and to get some new ideas for the coming second year, and especially nice to hang out with the rest of my group, some of whom I haven’t seen in a while.
Before that, I survived my first ever experience with Bulgarian dentistry, having had a cleaning in Sofia. We as volunteers get to go to one of the best people around (as evidenced by the cards and pictures of ambassadors and other politicians lining the walls). After a thorough polishing with what seemed to be a sandblaster (the dentist made me wear protective goggles and close my eyes), my teeth have never felt cleaner. On top of that, no cavities! And on that note, I don’t have TB either! Woohoo! On the other end of MSC (after all the sessions), I got to go to Plovdiv (one of my favorite places in Bulgaria) to hang out with some good friends, see a movie, and just have a good time.
Now that I’ve been here a year, that means renewing all the documents required to stay here for another year. Last year’s process to obtain a lichna karta (Bulgarian ID card) was a huge, bureaucratic process that involved multiple trips over the police station in Shumen and the filling out of several forms. One would think that renewing it would be a much easier process, since all the paperwork is all on file. Instead, in true Bulgarian fashion, this time around it’s actually proving to be harder, with a whole mess of new paperwork to be filled out and signed by people all around town. I’m already up to two trips to Shumen and getting turned back around for various reasons… We’ll see if I can finally decipher this whole process.
The halfway point also means that fall is in full swing, just as it was when I got to site last year. I have to say, this time of year is my favorite of all – being not too hot or too cold. Good sweater weather. All the grapes are ripening and being plucked from over the sidewalks in town. Everyone’s getting in their last bit of work before the cold hits, creating a sense of liveliness around town that is a great thing to see around here. The kids are all getting in their last kicks outside, which has meant hiking or taking walks together and setting up speakers outside the orphanage and dancing. It seems everyone wants to enjoy the fall before holing up inside for a few months.
All in all it’s a strange feeling sitting here at the halfway point, looking forward at another year here in town and looking back at all the things that have happened this past year… How much has changed for me personally, and the successes achieved at the orphanage. Things here don’t seem so strange or scary to me anymore, and things that I considered major challenges to me last year I now embrace and invite. I feel that even if I left here tomorrow I’ll never be the same person I was before I stepped onto that plane to DC over a year ago, and this town will never be the same place it was before I stepped off the late bus for the first time almost exactly a year ago. And I have to say, that’s a great feeling to have.
Until next time…
Before that, I survived my first ever experience with Bulgarian dentistry, having had a cleaning in Sofia. We as volunteers get to go to one of the best people around (as evidenced by the cards and pictures of ambassadors and other politicians lining the walls). After a thorough polishing with what seemed to be a sandblaster (the dentist made me wear protective goggles and close my eyes), my teeth have never felt cleaner. On top of that, no cavities! And on that note, I don’t have TB either! Woohoo! On the other end of MSC (after all the sessions), I got to go to Plovdiv (one of my favorite places in Bulgaria) to hang out with some good friends, see a movie, and just have a good time.
Now that I’ve been here a year, that means renewing all the documents required to stay here for another year. Last year’s process to obtain a lichna karta (Bulgarian ID card) was a huge, bureaucratic process that involved multiple trips over the police station in Shumen and the filling out of several forms. One would think that renewing it would be a much easier process, since all the paperwork is all on file. Instead, in true Bulgarian fashion, this time around it’s actually proving to be harder, with a whole mess of new paperwork to be filled out and signed by people all around town. I’m already up to two trips to Shumen and getting turned back around for various reasons… We’ll see if I can finally decipher this whole process.
The halfway point also means that fall is in full swing, just as it was when I got to site last year. I have to say, this time of year is my favorite of all – being not too hot or too cold. Good sweater weather. All the grapes are ripening and being plucked from over the sidewalks in town. Everyone’s getting in their last bit of work before the cold hits, creating a sense of liveliness around town that is a great thing to see around here. The kids are all getting in their last kicks outside, which has meant hiking or taking walks together and setting up speakers outside the orphanage and dancing. It seems everyone wants to enjoy the fall before holing up inside for a few months.
All in all it’s a strange feeling sitting here at the halfway point, looking forward at another year here in town and looking back at all the things that have happened this past year… How much has changed for me personally, and the successes achieved at the orphanage. Things here don’t seem so strange or scary to me anymore, and things that I considered major challenges to me last year I now embrace and invite. I feel that even if I left here tomorrow I’ll never be the same person I was before I stepped onto that plane to DC over a year ago, and this town will never be the same place it was before I stepped off the late bus for the first time almost exactly a year ago. And I have to say, that’s a great feeling to have.
Until next time…
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