bench sitting weather.

bench sitting weather in the village has arrived. this means that what was once my five minute walk home from school is now a 50 minute walk home from school. in bulgaria everyone has a bench. some benches are made up of two stumps with a piece of plywood balanced inbetween and others are more fancy, complete with backs and arm rests. no matter what type of bench you have, if you live in bulgaria you have one. because my village has only one road running through it everyone places their benches on the main road or overlooking over it, making walking down the street an extreme sport of villager greeting. this is why it takes me an hour to walk the equivalent of two city blocks. ела тук is what i here when i walk down the road "come here!" so i do. and i sit. and sit. and talk some. don't understand a lot. sit. share some pumpkin seeds. sit. and then excuse myself. i continue down the road until i hear another ела тук and then proceed to do it all over again. if i gathered all of the food eaten when sitting on benches and put it onto a plate it would reveal a full meal of nuts, seeds, fruit pulled right from the tree above, and chocolate.

bench sitting is a nice pass time. i have truly learned to love it. when i first arrived in the village i dreaded the long bench sits, the food forced upon me, and the never-ending questions because i didn't speak very much bulgarian and it always seemed to last for hours. but now it almost seems like a luxurious part of summer that i need to revel in before the cold puts everyone back inside sitting next to their stoves. the eight o'clock hour is the best time to bench sit. it is a nice way to end my day. in a way i feel like i am narrating my own goodnight moon book. while sitting on the bench i say goodnight to the sun, to the goats coming home from the fields, to the babas, the diados, and the kids. goodnight to the mountains and the muezzin. goodnight to the part of my brain that needs to conjugate bulgarian. goodnight to the fresh air, the wildflowers, and the tobacco leaves waiting to be strung and dried. goodnight village. until tomorrow, or in bulgarian до утро.