A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

Rozdenden Mi

This past Saturday was my 30^th birthday.  I’ve often chided friends and relatives when they hit the Big Something-Oh – usually saying they’ve entered the next decade of their life.  For instance, I’ve now entered my 4^th decade (my first being 0-9, 2^nd being 10-19, etc.).  Luckily for me, no one remembered these chides and I was able to celebrate without too much grief. (pictured above: Myself & Pavlina)

Being away from the states for this might have caused some pause, but for me it wasn’t as big of a deal as it could have been.  I had friends, both American and Bulgarian, around me the entire weekend.  I have to admit it was rather nice.

Friday, Liz came up from Ivilograd bearing homemade chocolate chip cookies.  For all of you in America, this is a real treat.  Cookies, cakes, and pastries are just not the same here and I honestly miss them as much as I miss Italian food or hamburgers/hot dogs.  I’m trying my best to savor them, but anyone who knows me and cookies knows that I’ve plowed through most of them. (pictured: Myself & Liz)

That night we went out to Rimini, one of the nicer restaurants in town.  We polished off a bottle of Merlot over a scrumptious broccoli dish, mozzarella covered tomato slices and pizza.  After dinner we headed up to KDK, my local pub, and were adopted by a number of my students and other acquaintances.  I discovered people who are interested in learning how to play baseball (next spring) and someone who will take me to dance classes here in town.  It’s something I’ve long wanted to do, and I can’t think of a better time to do it.

After KDK, we went out to Exclusive (a local disco) to meet up with Pavlina.  It’d been a while since I went there – I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy it.  Pavlina even made sure to have them announce my birthday and play a song for me.  I danced with her and a few other BG friends most of the night.  I also ran into a few of my 12^th class students and had a blast with them.  We finally succumbed to exhaustion around 3am and headed home.  Liz had to be up at 6:30 Saturday morning to catch a bus back to her town for some work. (pictured: Pavlina looking gorgeous as usual)

One would think I’d head back to sleep after seeing her off, but instead I caught up on all the television shows I downloaded the previous week.  I’ve luckily been able to stay up to date with some of my favorites like Lost, The Amazing Race, Grey’s Anatomy and the like due to the wonder of the internet.  If you would have told me that I’d join the Peace Corps and still watch American TV, I’d have called you crazy.  Just goes to show how small the world is getting.

My good friend Erin came over Saturday afternoon and after dropping her bags off at my apartment we headed out for dinner at Rimini once again.  I decided to go back there since she’s a vegetarian and they have a wide selection of things for her.  It was rather amusing for the waitress since I was there a second night in a row with a different woman ordering the exact same thing as the previous night (sans the wine). (pictured: Panjo, a waiter at KDK and friend, & myself)

In keeping with patterns, after dinner we headed up to KDK where Ethan and a number of Bulgarian friends joined us.  I was surprised with presents from Kalina (a white elephant figurine), a few of my students got me a Zippo lighter (to my utter shock), a bottle of wine from Ethan and Angie/Krassi (a few BG friends), and the promise of scarf from Erin once her knitting improves.  Many people went out of their way to insure I won just about every game of pool I played.  This became increasingly difficult as the night wore on and I drank more.  The night was capped off after heading home and falling asleep during a mini Lost marathon. (pictured:  Myself and Suren, a BG/Canadian and taxi driver extrodinaire)

The weekend wasn't exactly as I would have planned it – but I enjoyed myself immensely none the less.  I’m truly appreciative of those who came to help me celebrate.  Once again I have to say that I am wonderously  blessed by those whom I call friend.  I hope that this upcoming year sees as much change and growth for me as this past one has.  It is, after all, the beginning of my 4^th decade.  I should make the most of it…

Posted by: mjmarble at October 23, 2005 22:07 | link | comments (2)

Comments:

#1  24 October 2005 - 16:59

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I'm glad that you enjoyed yourself. And, yes, Pavlina is beautiful.

Ctevia

#2  25 October 2005 - 00:11

 

Happy Birthday Mr. Marble. I wish you had been here course we the youth group wouldn't have taken you to a disco or a bar, but we would have had an interesting time. LOL When you come back we're going to force you to give up smoking. You tried but we weren't pushing to much. Well i hope you are having a fun time (although your not really there to party :P ), and having fun teaching. See you in 07.

Eric S.

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