Yep. Two weekends ago I bought a pack of cigarettes. It was my first pack ever.

Before you start freaking out, they weren't for me. I know, I know. Isn't that always the cliche?

<em>No mom those cigarettes you found in my backpack aren't mine they're a friend's.</em>

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Merilyn Cigarettes: it&#39;s the beauty mark that completes the feeling"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Merilyn Cigarettes" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6088579222/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6081/6088579222_ba3cba3552_b.jpg" alt="Merilyn Cigarettes" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

Here's the thing, <em>really</em>, they weren't for me but for the little 75 year old woman I was staying with in <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/08/22/a-weekend-in-zheravna/" target="_blank">Zheravna for the folk life festival</a>. She lives at the far end of town. It was a hot day and there are lots of uneven cobble stones on the way down to the city center. So when she asked, I agreed.

I agreed even despite the fact that she woke me up the first morning with a hacking cough. I agreed because I understood was she was asking me to do in Bulgarian (!!) and who am I to say no?<!--more-->

I felt super sheepish at 30 years old buying a pack of cigarettes. I've never bought a pack of cigarettes before.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Merilyn Cigarettes, her face wraps around the box"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Merilyn Cigarettes" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6088032545/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6197/6088032545_e7d55608e3_b.jpg" alt="Merilyn Cigarettes" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

In all honestly, I've smoked fewer than 10 cigarettes in my entire life and I smoked those 10 cigarettes over the course of two years of college as everyone came back from study abroad with newly adopted "exotic and worldly" smoking habits. After college my sympathetic sure I'll have a cigarette with you as you tell me about your study abroad adventures habit ended. That is, if it was ever even a habit. I am guessing it was not.

Since then I've never even considered smoking.

Now that's saying something seeing as I live in Bulgaria. This is a country where it seems like everyone is smoking everywhere. Bus drivers smoke and drive city buses. All cafes have ashtrays as a permanent part of their decor. Some restaurants have non-smoking sections but these are mostly for looks and in practice are in fact anything but smoke free.

Smoking seems to be a way of life here. I've even heard smart educated Bulgarians make the argument that their smoking doesn't hurt anyone and if smoking is banned in public, drinking should also be banned because drinking hurts more people than smoking. Um, this is not a debate I'm even going to enter into.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Merilyn Cigarettes"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Merilyn Cigarettes" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6088032313/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6209/6088032313_eb139eb858_b.jpg" alt="Merilyn Cigarettes" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

Back to buying the cigarettes. I was instructed to buy Marilyn cigarettes.

Now I've always thought it was strange that there's a brand of Marilyn cigarettes in Bulgaria with the actress Marilyn Monroe's name and likeness on the box. But with the pack in hand I realized two things. First, these cigarettes are actually Merilyn with an "e" not Marilyn with an "a" and second, the picture evokes a sense of the Marilyn I know but it is more of a caricature of her than anything else. Ah, that's who they get away with it.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Coffee in a plastic cup and sparkling water"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Coffee in a plastic cup and sparkling water" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6088578366/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6089/6088578366_3b09d493a1_b.jpg" alt="Coffee in a plastic cup and sparkling water" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

I sat down outside the shop with my purchases.

Coffee in a plastic cup, a sparkling water and a pack of cigarettes and I realized that without even trying I've become cliche--well except the fact that I was looking at the box, turning it over in my hands and not smoking. After my coffee I walked home with the cigarettes in my purse. At home, I handed over the pack and was invited to join my hostess in a coffee and a cigarette. I declined the cigarette but I had a coffee and we talked for a long time.