This is a truth widely accepted among foreigners living in Sofia: Bulgarians are bad at standing in lines.

Mostly they like to cluster and clump up. Places this happens:
<ul>
	<li>Coffee shops.</li>
	<li>Sofia Airport.</li>
	<li>The post office.</li>
	<li>At the movie theater.</li>
	<li>The mall.</li>
	<li>Mtel anytime, on any day, at any one of their 100+ shops trying to pay your bill.</li>
</ul>
You name it, <em>clumping</em>.

Basically there's a clear group of people waiting and no clear order to the waiting. This encourages cutting and grumbling and some how I always end up at the end of the "line."  Often even when more people arrive, I still find myself at the end of the "line" because they have somehow merged into the middle.

Bulgarians stand in line like they drive.<!--more-->

Anyhow, I've given up fighting this. When I was younger my MoM told told me to pick my battles and this is clearly not a fight I'm ever going to win.

I've given up being angry about it. I'm resigned to the fact that I'll be the tall blond at the end of the line waiting for her turn. I know I'll eventually get to the front and that's enough for me. I just don't know how long it will take.

Truth be told these days when the barista at Onda skips over the 5 students in front of me to ask me for my order I <em>always</em> give it to her.

I no longer feel badly about this. Although I probably should.

At times like this, a part of me wonders how many people there actually are in this city and how many of them are standing in line at any single time. Because really, the amount of time I've spent over the last four years in Bulgaria standing in line verges on absurd.

So I take the coffee and run.

No wonder Bulgarians have given up the line in favor of the clump. There is something semi-hopeful about the line if you're willing to be wily.

For the rest of us, a line gives us plenty of time to think.

You might ask yourself, about what?

Well the Awl may sum it up best in this post titled: <a href="http://www.theawl.com/2012/12/sad-places" target="_blank">The Worst Places To Wait On Line In Order Of How Much Time They Allow You To Imagine The Sad, Everyday Lives Of The People In Front Of You Until You Eventually Confront The Depressing Reality Of Your Own Existence And The Crushing Burden Of Being For All Of Us—A Pain Which Only Ends With Death, But Never Soon Enough</a>. Aptly part of the url for this post is simply: sad places.

Just for the record, these places are definitely less sad when you have your coffee in hand and are no longer in line.