[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="Martenitsi @ ACS (thanks to isogloss for the photo)"]<img title="Martenitsi on Campus (thanks to isogloss for the photo I've been too lazy to take &amp; liberally linked to)" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4467925206_ef2e01f364_b.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" />[/caption]
<p style="text-align:left;">I got back from Morocco to find out that Spring had come to Sofia without me. The luck. I've been <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/who-needs-the-groundhog/">waiting for Spring</a> for months now if you remember I was <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/chestita-baba-marta/">thrilled for March 1st</a>. Sure it's not super warm and rain has been threatening all spring but isn't what we expect? A few beautiful days, sprinkles, some serious rain, green trees, green grass and finally some flowers.</p>
It doesn't look like I am going to be disappointed.

This morning though I woke up thinking about what I was going to wear and martenitsi.  I thought, it was kind of cold yesterday. Today I should wear a cardigan. Oh and I should hang up my martenitsi on a tree.<!--more-->

Now all I have to do is find the perfect tree. I want to leave my martenitsi in the best tree possible. I just haven't found it yet. Then again I am not sure exactly what I am looking for in the perfect tree.

Apparently my colleagues think it's time for me to shed my martenitsi too because one asked me: why do you still have one on your purse? Me: Because it wasn't spring when I left for spring break. This was an acceptable answer.  But then she told me, I saw a stork this past weekend.

I was instantly jealous. Storks are, I think, the pinnacle of good luck when it comes to the martenitsa tradition. That's when I thought: I want to see a stork too!

Who needs a budding tree?! When you could just keep your eye out for a stork. I <em>want</em> to see a stork.

Later, I realized the problem with this is that 1. I live in a city. 2. I don't really know what a stork looks like.  And 3. what if there was some confusion and the stork accidentally got the Bulgarian and American traditions confused or mixed up and he actually brought me a baby instead!?

This made me reconsider my lust for a stork. It turns out that I am very happy to settled for a nice sensible budding tree.