Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Говорите Български? Или Рускии? Nevermind.

The other night on the bus to work I definitely heard a woman speaking either Russian or Bulgarian/Macedonian on her cell phone. I assumed it to be Russian, because the odds of the other are pretty slim. There were plenty of "Къде Си?" A a whole lot of "Кажа Ми" along with the few other things I could pick up from across the bus.

I felt really compelled to go speak to this woman, but what would I say? "Excuse me, but that language you are speaking... I know some of those words. Lets be friends." Somehow I don't think it would have worked out. I used to be so good at talking to strangers in a different language, and by good I mean moderately bad. But still, I feel like I missed an opportunity for something. What? I don't know.

Then today I was in Boarders with a friend who was looking for something, and I felt myself oddly drawn to the travel section, and of course to the Eastern Europe shelves. I found the two books about Bulgaria and almost broke down when I saw a picture of the Virhin mountain. I used to look at it outside my window, and it somehow seemed reduced to that picture. In a guidebook. That no one ever looks at. It was all a bit too much.

2 comments:

Quill said...

There's no present tense "to be" in Russian, so it was probably Bulgarski or Makedonski.

Brent keeps telling me that I'm just like you because I don't like beers in green bottles. I think that's the extent of his argument, but it seems pretty indicative of something.

Bryce Wesley Merkl said...

Here's a place that you can practice your Bulgarian skills:

Български wiki browser