NEW BLOG

Please visit my new blog: HOW TO MARRY A BULGARIAN.
It's where most of the action seems to be these days.

Hugs and kisses,
Petya

Ｈｏｗ ｔｏ Ｍａｒｒｙ Ａ Ｂｕｌｇａｒｉａｎ

As you may or may not have heard, I started a new blog titled How to Marry A Bulgarian.

Those of you have been here for a while will notice that it's not really a NEW blog per se. It's rather a collection of topical entries documenting the adventurous life of Prof. Grady and I. That and, of course, all the new stuff that I will be writing about starting today.

There are many reasons why I decided to do this:

• In the last few months I have realized that writing about the comedic aspects of our family affairs gives me great joy and pleasure. The stories about our little weird issues and misunderstandings are by far my favorite stories on this blog.

• Writing my feminist blog helped me realize how much easier it is to write regularly if your blog is at least somewhat topical. It is easier to generate ideas. It is easier to keep things up. And easy is good. Easy helps you write more.

• Ever since I started writing about the bureaucratic issues with Kyle's residence permit and my green card application, I have been receiving numerous emails from other Bulgarians marrying non-Bulgarians or non-Bulgarians trying to make sense of or seek advice about their marriage to one of my fellow countrymen/women. It seems that a lot of us are going through a lot of the same trials and tribulations. So I would like to use the new blog to bring us all a little bit closer together. I hope it will be a place to chat, get the info that you need but also laugh about that thing we've gotten ourselves into.

• Most importantly, however, I think that the blog will be interesting to all people who are dealing with other kinds of non-traditional relationship arrangements. Because all those things that may appear as obstacles at some point or another, really make our relationships that much more special and are often PRETTY DAMN FUNNY.

I might or might not write here. I haven't decided yet. But I promise to keep you posted. For now, check out How to Marry A Bulgarian, bookmark it, subscribe to the RSS feed and if you haven't said hi to me already, be sure to do so ASAP.

Much love to you all!

He lives

I'm at Saints. The guy sitting next to me has the exact same voice and accent as Borat.
From what I've gathered so far, he's a visiting math professor from Russia.

It was a good day

I had the biggest ice-cream cone of my life today, which made me very proud of myself.

Me: I finished it all by myself!!! I didn't even need to use a napkin!!!
Prof. Grady: Yeah. What you just said is the Pennsylvania version of that Ice Cube song, It was a Good Day.



So...yeah... We're doing pretty well these days. How have you been?

At the UPS store

Man: So, did you watch a little bit of news today?
Boy: Eeerrrr. No. Why? Was I on it?
Man: No! John McCain picked a WOMAN to be his vice-president.
Boy: Oh... (no enthusiasm nor surprise in his voice whatsoever)... I don't really follow the news. I work. I don't have the time.
Man: She is VERY conservative.
Boy: Aaah...
Man: Which is GOOD!!!

Anniversary

This time two years ago Prof. Grady learned to order мекици for himself. Три мекици и една кола was one of the first things he learned to say in Bulgarian.

This time last year, we were not really eating. We had no time. It was our wedding and all we did was drink champagne and dance.

In a couple of hours, we are going out to dinner to celebrate our first WEDDING WEDDING anniversary. I will be pracitising the five German sentences I learned earlier today in my first German class EVER.

See, we've come a full circle.

American, again

The other day prof. Grady and I went to a place called Irving's. As we were adding half $ half to our coffee, we started talking about the new cups they were using. MUCH better insulated... just SO MUCH BETTER, really. We leave and start walking down the street and keep talking about the cups and how wonderful they are and how great it is to be able to just HOLD your coffee and not feel like your hand is about to turn into charcoal and fall off.

That's when we realize we have already slipped back into being American. We expect fast, reliable, high-quality service + convenience, convenience, convenience everywhere we go.

I've got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I feel like I'm turning into a more uptight version of myself. I want things and I want them NOW. On the other hand, however, this uptight version of me is significantly more... relaxed. So I'll think twice before I complain about this.