What do you do when....

There is no nightclub you can go to? You make your own.

Tunovo is a small city, eventhough Veliko means, great. Yes there is a small Turnovo too thought I dont know what the Bulgarian word for that is. And actually, I am not even sure if this even IS a city. Whatever it is, it's small and going out to nightclubs means bumping into your students (yes they are under age but that doesnt stop anyone here). SO since I haven been here, despite my students insistance on going out anyway, I have refrained. Hence I am constantly itching to dance, and apparently I am not alone in that.

Last night the party was a great success. The bruchetta got eaten to the last piece, the curried tuna had return clientel, and we went right through the smoked salmon and creme cheese on cucumber Hors Doeuvres (sp?). They were Peters favorite, Peter my boss who as it turns out is younger than me!

Yesterday was a beautiful day. A good day on clothes as they say in Newfoundland. It was dry (ish) and sunny. The evening proved to be magnificent and since everyone in the country is born with a cigarette hanging out of their mouths, we all sat in back yard in Brents' garden (formerly mine).

One thing you need to know about Bulgarians, if you have a party and people volunteer to bring food, always accept. Also be ready to have food for a month! I tasted many delicious dishes last night including home made Baklava which totally blew any other baklava I have ingested in my lifetime RIGHT out of the water, and has hence ruined it for me for the rest of my existance. I also had home made Banitsa, a filo pastry and white (feta though they insist its different) cheese filling, and a few other yummy pastries and salads.

We all sat outside all night and enjoyed the weather, food, Rakia (not me though) rum(yes me), and Jack Daniels- not to mention beer and wine. Many bottles of booze were consumed, and when we were sufficiently lubed, talk started of going dancing. I, of course perked right up, and was into it, but the question was where to go. American College Arcus, why not? Lets turn it into a disco! I was in no position to argue, nor did I care to. We called 4 cabs, threw the remainder of the bottles into bags, and headed back to school.

Ivan, our computer dude hooked up his computer to the sound system and before I knew it, we had Bulgarian line dancing going on. I am already an old hand at that so I jumped right in and kicked up my heels. This was only the warm up of course, and as we danced around the auditorum I thought to myself I like these people. I feel totally uninhibited (no I was not drunk in fact), as for the last two years I have been living on pins and needels with the school staff I worked with, and this is cool.

Another totally endeering quality of the Bulgarians is that they love 80s music. Its everywhere, on the radio, in the dance clubs and in most peoples cars. Its like I have fallen into the time warp of my dreams and it is stuck right where I want it; in the 80s. So soon I was dancing to Alphaville. I tried to think back to the last time I was dancing to Alphaville and I think it was when I was 16, had a part mohawk (which was red), and was wearing black nailpolish. Not my shining years, but there you have it.

We danced and danced and no one could smoke inside which made it the perfect nightclub to me. All the teachers were really kicking up their heels, and enjoying themselves, and I realized I really liked all the people in that room. Yes! even Dr. Jacob Alexander who still thinks he is in the 19th century when it comes to his teaching methods(Brents words not mine, but "a propos"). So I was in a smoke free environment, with a room full of people I liked, and dancing to 80s music. I wondered when I was going to wake up from this dream.

We packed it in about 2, and I walked home, with a bottle of Rakia and Vodka under my arm. They were Brents actually but he was already gone so I had to cart it home. The streets were deserted and I was mildly nervous, but this time, I escaped unharmed. I dont think I will do that again.

As I was walking home though, I went by a square with a beautiful monument in the center. I walk by it all the time but never at night. Its on the way to and from school obviously. It suddently dawned on me that I am living in Europe. And I love it here. I never want to leave here. If I move to another country, it will have to be in Europe, but this will do just fine too, even for part of each year. Why is it though that so many people want to go to North America? They dont know what they have here, but perhaps, I dont know what I had in Canada. Whatever it was, I can always have it again, but for now? I will take this Thank you very much!