I just had my first "Real Conversation" in Bulgarian!! I conjugated verbs and everything.  It was amazing.  My landlord came over to give me the receipts for internet, water, electricity and the like and I was able to communicate to him that water heater seems to be dripping.  Okay it helped that I could show it to him and that he is patient but it was great to know that I can talk to other people in Bulgarian.  I didn't even have to use that much German with him today.  Wow!

I know that this is a little triumph but it's enough for me (for today anyhow).  It reminds me that I am actually learning Bulgarian and that I need Bulgarian for more than just ordering coffee in cafes or food in restaurants.  I like talking and it's hard on me sometimes to find myself surrounded by people who seem to be talking all of the time on the bus, on cell phones, in the grocery store and on the streets and for me not to understand any of what they are saying.

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Yesterday, when I thought I was having a no-good, ugly-rotten day, an older woman came up to me at the bus stop to either ask me about a bus route or if a bus had been by but she spoke too fast and I probably didn't know the answer anyway so I told her that I only spoke a little Bulgarian (with the emphasis on little).  She smiled and found someone else to ask the question to.  The thing is, I wanted to answer her but I couldn't.  I know that I am not going to become fluent overnight but I hate stumbling around in the language.

I also hate that I can't get used to the Bulgarian head nods.  The problem is that the Bulgarians do this side to side head thing for yes--which looks very much like the way we shake our heads no in America.  Here's how it usually happens: I decide I am going to get a coffee so I go to one of the many coffee places in my neighborhood.  On the way I practice my order in my head.  Specifically, I try to make sure that I get the gender agreements on the adjectives correct and I repeat over and over again the word for mineral (минераленa) as in mineral water because for some reason I can never get it off my tongue correctly.  So by the time I've done this a few times, I am usually at one of the cafes.

I sit down and wait for someone to take my order.  For the record, I should add here that I've never made an order and had the waitress look at me blankly but that is my fear so I practice every time.  I also try to think it quickly so that I can say it succinctly.  For some reason, I think that being able to do this will make me less well not-Bulgarian (unlikely, I know).

The waitress will come and I'll order and then I try to inflect an okay at the end of my sentence and additionally, I try to give her a look that says: you do understand what I want right? Then without fail, she'll give me the side to side head nod which I know means yes but I always think she's shaking her head no.  In this moment, I have this sinking feeling: oh, how am I going to explain what I want? and while I am thinking this I realize that she is walking away from me to fill my order because... she actually understood my order and was shaking her head yes--stupid.

So it's for this reason that I am inordinately proud of myself today after meeting with my landlord.  Oh and he saw the post-it notes around my apartment which I've used to label most everything: chair, table, tv, stove, sink, and the list goes on and on--and he added the word coat rack (I did this because I realized the other day that I need a much, much bigger vocabulary and I figured why not start with what I use everyday? ).  And then because he used to be a teacher, he told me what a great job I was doing.  He also saw my Bulgarian Language certificate which I posted near my front door so that I can admire it and I think he was very impressed with my score of 6.0--that's the highest.  And that was that. He kissed me on both cheeks and I told him that I would see him soon and to have a nice day in Bulgarian.

The best part is that he's coming back this week to fix the dripping so that means I get to have another conversation with him!