VioNet 2

The card I received from Boyan put it, "Well, our tadpole days are over, feelings older, tired, and broke; can't hop as high, can't catch no fly but at least we haven't croaked." Yes, I am glad I am still alive (not croaked, dead) and I can live to the fullest and make the best out of my life. I had celebrated my birthday in Moscow while I was a post-graduate student at Moscow State University and now life gave me the opportunity to celebrate March 4 in Arizona. According to http://www.etn.nl/distanc4.htm with information about the flying distances between 325 major airports in the world the flying distance between SkyHarbor Airport, Phoenix, Arizona and Sofia Airport, Bulgaria is 10 397 km (6 460 miles). And though I am that far away from my family and friends in Bulgaria, I felt the positive energy from the teachers and students at Hamilton High School, my friends throughout the USA and the world and, of course, my father, daughter, husband, relatives, in-laws and old friends. Their love and efforts to make me feel special on March 4 made my birthday a real holiday for me.

The birthday person stands out on her/his day in different ways in Bulgaria and the USA. At HHS it is common for the the birthday girl or boy to walk proudly with a bunch of balloons and flowers. The students carry them from one classroom to another and sometimes there are announcements that there are gifts left for them at the front desk. I decided to celebrate my birthday at school the way I always do it in Bulgaria. In our country it is the birthday person who buys some candy and treats his friends to them. I had no Bulgarian candy, but Boyan and I had found a shop in Mesa that sells food from Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and some Arab countries. I gave all my students lokum (Turkish Delight) I had bought from Guiado (on Dobson St., near the corner with Guadalupe St.). When they saw the lokum chunks with toothpicks, some of them asked me what it was, wanted to know whether I had made it, and some were honest to say that they were scared. I explained it that lokum is a desert that is a popular food in the Balkan countires and that the best lokum is made in Turkey. Its ingredients are sugar, starch, water, flavorings, and nuts. To make the students feel comfortable with tasting lokum I was the first one to put a piece of lokum in my mouth and eat it in one gulp. All three boxes of lokum were eaten and the students were smiling, it seemed everybody liked the delight from the Balkans. During the lunch break while I was at the table with some other teachers in the staff room, a messenger approached me with a vase of fresh red roses and a greeting card - it was the greeting of HHS: "Happy birthday, Violeta!" followed by a smiling emoticon. From that moment on I had to carry the vase of flowers with me. I was invited to a potluck party in the E-wing. The teachers there had prepared food and taken it to E-100. That was their way to cebebrate the end of the AIMS exams, the latest benchmark test (Feb 28-March 4) and the inevitably approacing end of the third quarter of the school year. I joined them and tasted some of the deserts as I have a sweet tooth. During conference time my colleague Diana Moore entered the classroom with a gift, her gorgeous smile and very stylish hair. She apologized she would not be ablle to come to my party in the evening as she had almost lost her voice. Before I left school in the afternoon I was given a large greeting card signed by some teachers. On March 5 I received one more card from HHS that was signed by the school authorities and it had a bee on the front. The working bee was the connotation that I made as soon as I saw the card. Hard work as this of the working bee always pays back, this is how I decoded the message.

In the afternoon Boyan and I continued our preparations for the birthday dinner. I had invited a few teachers from the English Department and had promised them Bulgarian food and sort of theme party whose topic would be Bulgaria. Bill rang the door bell at 6 p.m. sharp, a bit later came Cheryl carrying a birthday cake, and finally Doug showed up. First we had tarator - a cold soup made of yoghourt, fresh cucumbers, dill, olive oil, garlic, salt and walnuts. Next we served roasted peppers breaded with sheep's cheese and eggs. There was also Bulgarian lyutenitsa we had bought from Guiado- a dip made of steamed tomatoes, roasted red peppers , carrots and spices. The main dish was pork steaks stewed with onion, Cheddar cheese, sour cream and Bulgarian spices. The banitsa (cheese pastry) served with Bulgarian red Mavrud from Haskovo topped the dinner. Doug asked many questions about the food and how it was prepared. We decided to have a culinary workshop where I would teach Doug and some of our students how to cook some Bulgarian dishes.

Every gift I received from my colleagues was with a message. The cake from Cheryl had the "Happy Birthday, Violeta" sign written in red and it was a merry spot on the table - just as Cheryl is - she always smiles ans she is good-hearted and compassionate. The pink bag full of BodySource cosmetics was her reminder that I should take care of my body when exposed to the heat and sun of Arizona. Bill had decided to make history with a very special gift - one that addressed my soul. He gave me John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath with the expectation not to make it "a burden, a curse" but a challenge for me during the last quarter of school. Doug had chosen a CD of collection of topical songs by Pete Seeger in which the banjo and 12-string guitar player sings about prominent events and themes of the 20th century - the Spansih Civil War, the civil rights and the anti-war movements, etc. On that day I received once more flowers from Irina and Vassil that followed up the ones I had received from them on March 1. The jumbo card the teachers from HHS had signed and their greetings dominated the day and the gift table. In fact, all those gifts came to prove the Latin saying "Mens sana in corpore sano." I hope this wish will come true while I am in Arizona and next back in Bulgaria.

Boyan's gifts were with a message as well. He had wrapped a CD with the comedy Raising Arizona with Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter and a stylish ballpoint pen Jarden de Paris. This reminded me of our dream to go to Paris together and visit the places that Boyan had been to while he lived there with his parents in the 1970s. Another gift of his is his friendship and attempts to make me happy not only on my birthday.

March 4 was a special day for me and I spent it with friends. Those who could not be with me on that day, sent their e-cards, e-mailed, called by telephone, sent cards by traditional mail. My ex-students sent their greeting from different parts of the world. Alex sent his greeting from Canada, Atanas – from France, Dimiter - from Germany. I am thankful to everybody who made me feel special on March 4 and enjoy life. Now I am writing this while I am listening to Pete Seeger singing. Little Boxes is there, too. This is a song that my students and I heard in the English Language classroom last year when Radha Blackman took a cassette of her favorites to my class. March 4, 2005 was a day of American-Bulgarian friendship in Chandler.

# posted by violeta @ 12:40 PM 0 comments