A Na Gosti & a Rojden den

Megan, a volunteer from kostenets, came over this weeked. She trained in Bratsigovo. On Friday we hosted a na gosti (guest party) together in my apartment and invited her host family. We served deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms for appetizers. The main course was roasted chicken with carrots, potatoes, and onions. We also had potatoe salad as side dish and made carrot cake for dessert. They were blown away by the cake. They had never heard of cake being made out of carrots before, but they really liked it. And for alcohol we drank Jack Daniels. It turned out to be a pretty American na gosti as planned.

Saturday we went to a birthday party (rojden den) for a girl at work. I got her wine and a shot glass souvenier I bought at Peir 39 before I came to Bulgaria. They rented out a restaurant and we danced and ate all night. Did the hora of course and learned a new dance called the rechinitsa or something. I think it's there version of the macarena. That one lady that drags me all over the dance floor at occassions like this wasn't there this time; however, there was this other guy that always tries to get me into a dance competition with him, but I'm not interested. He starts dancing around poles and doing extra hip movement. It's kinda scary. I just look away. Sometimes he starts to strip and someone has to stop him. I don't know why he always wants a dancing competition with me, but me and Megan just laughed the whole time.

When they brought out the birthday cake with lit candles, guess what song we sang. "Happy Birthday to you" in english. I thought that was interesting. It's like the mechanical Santa Claus we had out in front of my office building that sang "Jingle Bells." We left the party at around five in the morning, while a few others stayed behind and talked, waiting for the sun to rise I presume. It seems like it's not considered a good party unless you stay out till to see the sun rise. I wasn't gonna make it that long, but I think I did pretty good.