London Adventures: Weddings, Birthdays, Boys...

In the past three days, I got a total of 12 hours of sleep, which has happened before (during the school year of course) and has always ended with the same state of "I'm-so-braindead-and-wanna-sleep-but-I-can't-cause-I-

had-too-much-Coke/Red Bull." In such cases, the best therapy is writing long blog entries about the reason why there was little sleep. So here's all that happened:

Preface

This is the story of how a beautiful Bulgarian girl marries a wonderful American boy in Bulgaria on August 25, 2006. Maggie is the daughter of Dani, a friend of our family from Rayovo, the village where my parents go nearly every weekend. Maggie's been living in the US for a very long time, and she met David there. It was love at first sight, and four years later the happy couple decided to become a happy family. They planned a double wedding set in Bulgaria first and in the USA later this year.

Chapter I
The Airport

One thing I learned is that right before a wedding, everyone gets a bit too overwhelmed with all the preparation that has to be done. When Dani asked me to help her on Thursday, I was more than happy to do it. My mission: to go to the airport with David to meet his cousin and her boyfriend. Dani also told me that there were two other girls who were supposed to arrive that day, but had missed their flight to Sofia and I would most probably have to go pick them up from the airport the next day, right before the wedding. I told her not to worry and quickly got in the car with David. We arrived at the airport where I saw the ACS blue van and Ivaylo, the school driver, picking up one of the new international teachers (I didn't get to say 'hi' though cause I was there on a different mission :)

The problem with flights and airports is that almost always you end up waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting for your friends to arrive until you lose your patience completely and start getting grumpy. David had spent half the day at the airport, and I could understand why he was being more impatient than me. I would have probably freaked out completely if I had spent so many hours at the Sofia airport which is about as boring as airports can get. At least this time David and I waited together and made time pass more quickly by chatting about random stuff. We kept our eyes on the arrivals table and saw that his cousin's plane had just landed. We knew there was at least half an hour more for us to wait while everyone went through check in, but about 5 minutes after the plane had landed, David said, 'Hey, wait a sec...' and headed towards some arriving people. They were two women, the same ones that had supposedly not made their flight... It turned out that after some weird complications, they finally made it, but with another company. Once all the confusion was set aside, I learned that their names were Shelby and Leyla. David told them we were waiting for his cousin as well, while they noted what a lucky coincidence it had been that we all ended up at the airport at the same time. After ~20 mins, David's cousin, Beth, and her boyfriend, Jesse, also joined our group. Being six people, we had some doubt that we would all fit in my car, yet we managed to all squish in (and we weren't too squished in either), including a couple of large suitcases. We had a fun, groupy drive back to the house where everyone else was. The next step of this great adventure was transporting all the foreigners to the Lozenetz Hotel which was only a couple of blocks away from the house. I took pretty much the same group in my car (minus David, so at least the people in the back we're squished any more) and got to the hotel. Everyone took their luggage up to their rooms, and that's when I thought it was time for me to head home. There was a dinner planned for all the guests, but I hadn't been invited... until Maggie came to thank me for the driving and asked me if I wanted to stay for the food part. Facing the prospect of going back home to an evening with my grandfather and in front of the computer, I thought it would be really nice if I stayed and brought a bit of variety to my schedule.

I waited a short while for everyone to get ready to go to restaurant, and then we all headed 200 meters down the street to a place called 'Toucan.' All the parents and older relatives of the newlyweds-to-be were already sitting at a large table outside the restaurant. Unfortunately, there was no more space out in the open for the rest of us, so we had to settle for a big, but stuffy room inside. The dinner was lovely... Ok, so ordering was a bit chaotic, but other than that (and the slight lack of air...), we had a wonderful time. I was happy to get to know everyone since I hadn't met anyone before, not even the bride (I only knew her mom and her step-dad who were sitting at another table). It was really fun to meet so many new people and to speak English all evening :D By the end of the dinner, I had already arranged a meeting with Shelby to go to a hairdresser's salon in the morning on the next day. I had met Shelby and Leyla at the airport, and at dinner I also met Jyoti and Kristina. They were all very friendly and curious to know more about Bulgaria. That's why we also decided we were going to go on a Sofia tour on Saturday. And so, in sweet talk and laughter, the dinner ended at 1 a.m. and I drove Maggie and David back to their house, and then went home to 'sleep.'

Chapter II
The Morning

I wasn't surprised at all when I had to wake up after only four hours of sleep. I had done that before, so it wasn't a problem to simulate the 'I'm so very awake and ready for action!' behavior ;) Plus, for a person who has caffeine in his veins, it's even easier! (I guess I have both caffeine and alcohol in my veins, as I can act awake and drunk at all times :) At 8:50 a.m., I arrived at the hotel. It turned out everyone else had stayed up pretty late the night before, so our 9 a.m. meeting didn't quite happen on time which was fine because I talked to Beth and Jesse who were awake early until the others prepared to go out. Jyoti and Leyla came down to eat breakfast, and a bit later Shelby came down ready to go to the hair salon.

We got in the car and drove to Vitosha street. I parked on a small side street as Vitosha itself is still a pedestrian zone, and we walked over to where we thought the salon was (one of Maggie's BG friends had told us of that place). It turned out she had told us of a wig shop which was part of the salon, but the salon itself was on a different street, very close by (unless you have my perfect sense of orientation which takes you to the final destination after 4 times more time than you would normally need to get to it:). Anyway, we reached the salon, had our hairs done, and were very happy with the results. We then walked some more, took a couple of pictures, and went back to the car. Of course, there had to be a surprise for us... The car was there, thankfully, but it had a nice little 'boot' - in other words, one of the tires was locked, and there was a note on the windshield saying, 'You parked here without having the special persmission tickets. Therefore, you shall be punished!! You need to call this number and then pay 10 lv.' I got very worried since we were running out of time. It was 1:10 p.m. and Shelby had to be at the hotel, ready to go to the first part of the wedding, at 1:50 p.m. We bought a phone card from a nearby store, found a payphone, and called the number. No one picked up the phone. Second try. Nope, no one there. We waited for a couple of minutes, then I called again. Finally, a sleepy female voice said, 'Hello' and then told me she was going to send people over to 'release' my car. The 'saviors' came in 2 minutes, I gave them the money, and I took Shelby back right on time. I went back home since I wasn’t supposed to be present at the first part of the wedding.

Chapter III
The Wedding

I called Dani to find out when I was needed again. She told me to go the Seminary at 4:30 p.m. to pick up people from there and take them to the restaurant where the reception was held. I took my dad’s car since it big enough to carry more people and was at the Seminary at 4:25. I saw David and told him ‘Congratulations!’ for being a married man now, but then I realized something was just not right. Everyone was heading towards the church in the Seminary’s yard. People were dressed up and were all excited. Then I realized what had happened! I was actually going to see the wedding itself! This came as a kind of shock to me not because I didn’t want to be there, but because I thought I was only going to be a driver. What’s more, my parents were only invited to the reception. Anyway, there was no way to back up now, plus I liked the idea of attending the ceremony, so I met up with the US girls and went inside the church.

My parents had their Christian marriage 3 years ago, so I remembered what the basic procedure was. If there was anything unclear, I used the method ‘Follow the herd.’ The ceremony was long, but emotional in a way. There’s always something magical in marriages, especially when you can see that there is such great chemistry between the bride and groom. After the couple received the pope’s blessing, we all went outside in the yard to wait for them to come out. Everyone was taking pictures (I had left my camera in the car…) and congratulating the newlyweds. In the mean time, I ran to the car which was parked away from the Seminary, and then drove the vehicle in front of the Seminary so that Jyoti, Leyla, Shelby, Kristina, and Lisa could get in. After a short detour to the hotel, we went to the restaurant.

Chapter IV
The Reception

We were among the first people to arrive at the restaurant. Since there were more than 120 people present, everyone had assigned seats. At first I saw that I had to sit at a table with 9 complete strangers, but then I talked to Dani who told me the seating charts were wrong and told me to sit at the ‘international’ table. We each had to take a glass of champagne (I didn’t even drink mine, only 3 sips of it) and then sit at the table. We sat and waited for the other guests to come. As time passed by, we slowly turned to vicious hungry monsters :) While we were wondering whether we were ever going to get some food, we heard an announcement that the bride and groom were now going to go down the stairs to the main hall. We turned towards the staircase and saw Maggie and David, gorgeous as they could be coming towards us under the sound of lovely music. They had to get a taste of a special ritual bread with salt and honey. The salty piece ‘showed’ them that life could be salty/bitter, and the honey proved just the opposite. Then the couple kicked a metal bowl full of water because according to beliefs in Bulgaria, if you spill water and walk over it, you’ll have good luck and success in whatever you’re undertaking. After that the two most important people of the day had their first family dance. From then on, the party continued with food (yay!), dances, speeches, and special surprises (Valya Balkanska, a famous Bulgarian folk singer whose recording has been sent out in space -- don’t ask how it keeps playing or why in the world someone sent it there -- , sang several popular Bulgarian and Macedonian songs. We danced horo’s (traditional Bulgarian dances) and enjoyed the evening.

The dance floor was packed. Everyone, from two kids to several energetic (and totally cute) Grannies, moved to the grooves of their favorite songs. The party was superb! Every now and then people got emotional and were moved by the touching speeches of the parents and relatives of the happy couple. There were several very powerful sayings which almost brought tears to my eyes. The truth is, I wasn’t in the mood to cry… I was very happy for Maggie and David, though. It was all lovely.

Chapter V
The ‘Boyfriend’

I was very much in the mood for dancing, so I spent a great amount of time on the dance floor. I was just recovering from an exhausting dance when the DJ played a Bulgarian blues song. That’s when I found myself in the hands of a guy… A guy I didn’t even know! He looked older than me; tall, slim, not quite my type as far as visuals went, but definitely not bad looking. He started talking to me and I realized he was the guy doing some construction works at our house in the village Rayovo. He talked to me all the time and was apparently enjoying the intimate dance and touching me a bit more than I wanted him too. I couldn’t escape, so I simply accepted my faith and hoped that the end of the song would come quickly and that the DJ wouldn’t dare play another teary song like that. Finally the song ended and I escaped from the clutches of this semi-stranger. I thought he was history now and he had just asked me to dance once because I was standing closest to him, yet I figured I was wrong when he came back to me again when the next blues started playing. I wasn’t very good at refusing the dance, so there we were, on the dance floor again, he, with his hands around me, and I, smiling vaguely and keeping my body as far away from his as possible. This time he talked about our future family, and about our house. I told him to buy me a horse and a dog, and build me a huge house. We bargained over the size of the house and decided that we only needed 4 stories. I told him I was leaving for London now, assuming he’d get the idea that it was never going to work between us. Boy, did he keep saying things about our future together, and about how great my parents were, and how he’d seen pictures of me, and how I’m the best, and how he wanted my phone number (which I refused to give to him), etc., etc. He was officially falling for me, and I was officially not falling for him. He thanked me for the second dance and ‘awayed.’ I had some time to relax and dance on my own. I also tried to skillfully avoid going within a close distance of him, simply to make sure he wouldn’t come dance with me again. After many a dances my body finally said, ‘Dude, gimme a break!’ so I sat at our table and drank cold coke to cool off.

The chair next to me was free, but not for long. Can you guess who sat there?? It was him again. He proudly said he had taken a friend’s cell phone and was ready to save my number. I couldn’t believe this guy! I gave him my number thinking he was simply drunk and would never call me. After that he was happy and kept on talking about us together, and the house, dog, and horse, and about how sensitive and shy he was… I kept messing around with him; I let him hear what he wanted to just to keep him satisfied and keep him from asking any more questions than he already was. I kept throwing ‘Help me!!’ looks to the US gang while they were really amused to watch that flourishing relationship. There was an old lady sitting next to the guy, whose name is Peter, by the way, and when he shut up for a second, she told him she knew where the next wedding would be. ‘Where?’ he asked. I was already making a stressed out look. ‘At your house,’ she told him, then looked at me only to see my ‘WTF, mate??’ look. No, woman, no! Unfortunately that lady’s comment inspired Peter even more. I was getting very desperate on the inside, but tried to act happy-shly on the outside. He was just starting to seriously get on my nerves when Mom came over.

Chapter VI
The Piano Bar

Mom came over to ask the internationals whether they felt like going to a piano bar (she had a birthday on the 25^th and felt like treating everyone to a drink:). They were all excited by the proposition, and I jumped from my seat as jolly as can be, knowing that this would be the end of my unwanted relationship. However, Mom stabbed me in the back by asking Peter to come with us! OMG! Whyyy?? I’m glad no one was looking while I was making even more wtf looks and was shaking my head in the no-no direction, praying that I wouldn’t have to cope with this guy any longer. Can you imagine what his reaction was? He jumped just as excitedly as I had a few seconds before that and told Mom he was going to tell his uncle or something to come along as well. Headshot… in my head. About 2 minutes later, he came back and stuck to me like a bee to honey. At least I knew that Shelby and the gang were coming, which meant I could talk to them instead of to him (and he didn’t know a lot of English, for which I was glad). I walked along, my newly formed attachment right behind me, prancing around while I walked with little thunderstorm clouds above my head. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind people liking me, but that was simply too much! He was just like all the kids I attract; kids I don’t even want to talk to that somehow decide I’m their best friend. That ‘kid’ thought I was his girlfriend. Jesus! Boys can be so annoying! And he had annoyed me even before the final, most dreadful part of the night came…

The piano bar was a cool place with live music and very comfy sofas. He and I walked in the bar first, and I wanted to wait for the other guys to come in so that I could possibly sit next to them and not to him, yet my master plan didn’t work out. I sat in the middle of our table, and he sat right next to me. Jyoti, Leyla, and Kristina sat next to him, and Shelby sat next to me which I was grateful for. Mom and Dad stayed at a respectable distance, observing me and giggling. Peter’s uncle and his wife I guess were sitting next to Shelby and another friend of our family. Everyone at the table was amused except for me… Shelby told me she’d be like my big sister and was kind enough to push Peter away from me a couple of times and tell him not to buy any alcoholic drinks. With combined efforts, we made him drink peach juice (the same thing I had). Then when we had a toast in honor of Mom’s birthday, Peter told me not to have the toast with my non-alcoholic drink because we were going to have ugly children! ‘Our children,’ he said, ‘will be very ugly if you do that toast!’ WTF? OUR children? He was sooo barking up the wrong tree. ‘Let them be ugly then!’ I replied. I think he learned I wasn’t quite ‘normal.’ After I told him I loved my dog more than I did most people, I completely shattered his idea of me being his type of girl… or at least I hoped that was going to be the effect of that little remark. Nothing! He didn’t get a single hint! It was fun playing around with him again… He was so obedient, and I was so taking advantage of this:) I treated him like a kid. He wanted to see my cell phone, so I told him to lean away from me, stand up straight, and give me his right hand, or else he’d never see that phone – and he did what I told him to! He was like soft clay that I cold mold into any shape, yay! I found a way to amuse myself (after I had accepted the situation I was in); ‘How to Train a Boyfriend 101.’ Still, he was annoying cause he kept leaning towards me at which I kept leaning more and more towards Shelby. Mom was particularly amused by the angle at which we were sitting at the sofa. Anyway, he kept telling me the same things about our future life, and the worst part was he wouldn’t shut up. All I replied was ‘Yea,’ ‘ha ha,’ ‘of course,’ ‘you would?’, and more of these short phrases. There was no way to get him off me! Finally, salvation!! His uncle’s wife was starting to feel sleepy, and since she was the driver, they all had to leave. That’s when he tried his final move.

‘Come on, won’t you give me a goodbye kiss?’

‘Oh, no, sorry, I can’t… I’m grossed out by saliva.’

*wtf look* ‘What? You’re kidding, right?’

‘No, I’m absolutely serious… I’m really grossed out. I can’t kiss you. I can only give you a small hug.’

‘You can’t be serious…’

‘Oh but I am. I can only kiss my dog.’

*even more wtf look :) * ‘…’

He was baffled and confused like most people would be after such a conversation. Actually what I told him was more or less true. And it was the only way to make him not kiss me. Of course he tried one last time by leaning towards me very confidently, hoping I would close my eyes and kiss him, but instead I looked at him in the eyes and ‘gently’ pushed him away from me, laughing and telling him, ‘No, honey, not today.’ I guess that surprised him a lot. He probably thought I was the type of girl who would give in to love (unrequited love, alas…). Instead, when he left, I believe I had left him with the impression that I was a zoophilic stubborn totally weird girl. He told me bye, asked me to go visit him in Rayovo on Sunday (which I refused to do, wow), and then told me he’d call me. What? If that guy ever called me again, I’d say he’s plain crazy. I cut him off so obviously, and he still wanted to hear from me? :{

Other than that, our stay at the piano bar was great. All the girls were having fun, my dad went crazy dancing with everyone and being the showman of the night, and Shelby got to sing again (she sang a superb a-cappella song at the reception). Dad and I then drove Jyoti, Leyla, Shelby, and Kristina back to the hotel, then went back to the bar where we stayed with Mom and 2 friends until 4 a.m.

Chapter VII
The Saturday Tour

I don’t think I have to mention how sleepy I was that day :) Still, I woke up in the morning and went to the hotel. When all the girls were ready, we met Maggie and David for lunch at the ‘Toucan’ restaurant again. The food was great again, yet there were two wasps which disrupted the peaceful lunch. I had to kill one of the wasps so that most of the group would come back to the table. The second insect came, flew around, and then left when it saw its buddy’s corpse. After the tasty meal, we started our tour with Vitosha street. The girls wanted to do lots of shopping, so we walked along the main shopping streets in Sofia. We entered all sorts of boutiques, shops, mini malls, and so on. It was fun, but also exhausting. At 3 p.m. I got a call from Dad that he wanted the keys to his car (I had borrowed it again). At that point, we split up for 1 ½ hours while Leyla, Jyoti, and Kristina went back to do more shopping, and Shelby and I went to my house (which was really close to where we were) to give Dad the keys (and look at the Horse’s Butt, of course). I wanted to take the keys to my car and drive back to the 3 shoppers, pick them up, and drive everyone to the hotel, but my plan was ruined because I realized my Grandfather had taken my car… Dad had his own car, and Mom had hers (yes, a lot of cars for one family, but see – even 3 cars for 4 people are not always enough). Since there was no car, Shelby and I ran back to our meeting place, told the others the news, walked a bit more, and then the girls took a cab to the hotel while I sauntered back home. It was 6 p.m. or something when I got home, and I was so tired I went to bed for about 1 ½ hours, then woke up and drove to a friend’s house where Mom had her official birthday celebration. Both she and Dad, as well as all of our friends, were there already, and wanted me to go there quickly, for they were in serious need of vodka :)

The party at the house was amazing, as usual. There was food, then dancing and partying until 2 a.m. All our friends were satisfied with the celebration. I loved it too, but kept thinking how I’d have to wake up at 7:30 a.m. in the morning in order to have time to take a bath and go to the hotel at 8:30. Yes, we had arranged a final meeting so that we could go on a mini tour of the main cultural attractions in Sofia. When I got home from the party, I stayed up some more time (until 3:30 a.m.) when I thought it was high time to go to bed.

Chapter VIII
The Final Day

I was at the hotel at 8:30 a.m., sort of braindead, but happy nonetheless :) Jyoti was already up and eating breakfast, and I sat with her and chatted for a while until the others came down. The meeting had to be extra-early this day because Maggie and David, all the parents, and all the Americans were going to leave for the seaside at noon. It turned out we weren’t going to be able to do the tour after all because there were much more important things to get done, such as packing for the seaside and leaving some luggage at Dani’s house. Actually, in the end, the morning worked out really well. Everyone was packed on time, checked out of the hotel, and went to Dani’s house on time. The entire group was ready to leave… I said bye to all of my new friends and exchanged e-mail addresses and such. I was happy I got to meet everyone there. They’re all wonderful, happy people :D Yay! Those were three really good final pre-London days.

Well, that was all. 'Twas a long one! You probably noticed how every other paragraph kept getting shorter and shorter... Guess why? I started this entry yesterday at 9 p.m. About 20 mins after that, Mom called me to talk to her, and we talked until I went to sleep (late, wow). I finished it today at 3 a.m. :) Yep, it's now 3 a.m. but I'm not going to sleep. I'll write another entry in about 20 mins... :)

The downside of it all was that I didn't take enough pictures... :'( But here's a few...

Maggie and David doing their first dance