Tag: firefly

EVS IN SOFIA CITY LIBRARY – JĀŅI – LATVIAN MIDSUMMER

Originally posted on our EVS in Sofia City Library blog.

On June 23rd we celebrated Jāņi together with our Latvian friends, which is their celebration of midsummer, complete with fires, homemade cheese, beer (very important) and attempting to stay up until sunrise – whoever fails to do so is cursed with sleepiness for a year, at least in Latvian tradition. What is important to note here is that of course the night of June 23rd in the high latitudes of Latvia isn’t more than 3 or 4 hours long, which means that Jāņi doesn’t translate so well for countries that aren’t situated quite as close to polar bears and baby harp seals as the Baltics are – call me Bulgaria. Some of us made the brave attempt, but the idea of sleeping around the fire, or in custom hammocks, beat the spirits of all but the toughest.

The celebration took place in a summer house on Stara Planina close to Rebrovo, which is in a forested valley next to Sofia. It never ceases to surprise me with how many beautiful spots of nature, mountains, lakes, rivers and forests, exist no farther away than a single hour’s trip from Bulgaria’s beating heart.


A taste of the 40-minute train ride, together with Janis, Rian, Zanda and Vicente.

Latvian homemade “cheese”
What? ZANDA is evolving!
So much green… Jāni had his day
Wild strawberries! City boy was excited!
Picking flowers for the Jāņi crowns

After the sun set, the fireflies came out to play. Some of us, including myself, had never seen a firefly before, and that we were excited doesn’t even begin to describe it. The attempt of a video above doesn’t remotely do the experience justice, but at least you can catch part of the vibe, especially played by the sound of the chatter of the crickets and the song of other little creatures of the night.

I’ll leave you with an interesting observation: Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Latvia, Denmark and I’m sure further countries still, all share the same obviously pagan celebration on the same day – the summer solstice – but it’s everywhere under the guise of the same obviously christian name: St. John’s. Vicente’s theory is that the pagan festival had existed everywhere in Europe since ancient times, and very early on in its history christianity decided to keep it intact in order to not not alienate the recently-converted pagans. It added, however, the “front” of the christian saint to more covertly incorporate the old celebration to its own traditions. Who knows?

And we think 24 hours are not enough

So yesterday was Garret’s birthday… We bought him a cake along with Mario, Mordread and Housemaster and paid a visit far earlier than what he had told him we would. We decorated the cake with a “6939”, aka his days played! I was thinking of maybe having a 10011 on the cake, that is 19 in binary, but Housemaster came up with that other slightly less geeky but loads friendlier idea. We struggled in the heavy rain on our way to Garret’s, running for shelter and realising once again that umbrellas are only a minor help when having to deal with downpours… It reminded me of No-Man’s song “Only Rain” which has been acting as my earworm for the last couple of days (and pleasantly so). At some point it goes: “No more fountains, only rain.“, a lyric I find strangely optimistic…

Anyway, after we somehow managed to get the cake ready, candles and all, under the storm so that Garret wouldn’t catch wind of us, we invaded his place, Happy Birthdayed him all the way home and had a jolly good time! Few of our clothes were dry, footwear not included, so we all took off shoes and socks and left them to dry. The whole barefoot theme was quite unique and fun! Gave the evening a whole new tone of coziness and proximity. And once again, I demonstrated my unique abilities of clumsiness, dropping cake everywhere, accidentally knocking over plastic cups and managing to get all this on video. After the mess I made a few days ago at Mordread’s house while playing D&D, spilling coke TWICE all over the table we played on, for the first time ever I caught myself mentally or even physically nodding when my friends shouted “RE HALL!” when any kind of disaster struck. Mordread likes doing it even when I’m not the cause of blunderous mayhem… I wonder if I indeed emanate this “Clumsiness Aura” *WoW mode: prone to 50% more accidents when within 30feet of me* but what’s mostly funny about is that when I’m alone far less accidents happen. Or maybe it’s because I don’t pay as much attention to them as when I’m in company?

Clumsy or not, it was another of these times I really enjoy nowadays, an atmosphere the Dutch call “gezellig” which means great coziness, right company, right lighting, right discussions, right food and drinks, at the right time. Don’t you just love sitting back and savouring these moments? I’m sure there will be plenty of such moments in Athens when I’ll be going back there in a few days – 5 to be exact – when I’ll be meeting more friends than ever before. I think I’ll have to make a tight schedule to manage to meet everyone I want to… Wonder if I’ll manage to actually sit back and relax at home or with dad in Aegina when I’ll have so many things to do, including of course choosing the parts for my new PC which is underway or helping George with tweaking my current PC which I’ll be handing down to him minus the chassis. Oh yes it will be a busy fortnight, but no less fun (if not more fun) I’m sure!

Today I also had my first Aikido training session. Katana stances, staff, tried some rolls and fighting exercises. It was a great workout too! Even if it’s a bit on the expensive side (45 euros per month), I think it will be well worth it. The philosophy behind the art, which represents peace, spiritual energy and trying to bringing no harm to others while reverting their attack power back to them are very welcome additions to the stylish combat and weapon training… And aren’t japanese weapons just COOL? Yes they are! *takes katana pose*

Also, I’ve been watching a lot of Firefly, this cool little TV series that could. I’ll post my thoughts on it when I finish the two remaining episodes, I doubt they’ll change my seriously positive impressions though! I also wish I’d manage to get 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy before I leave but I think in the end I’ll just take my Wii with me, it looks like it’ll be getting some playtime one way or another in the holidays anyway!

Oh it’s 4:28am… Gotta keep to that uber leet sleeping schedule of mine so oyasumi, goedenacht and kalinyxta!