Here through contact with women and men of Bulgaria (most of them artists) I have learned:

- Fighting the world error systems with impure methods corrupts the pure fighter.
- I should learn to be the honey man, discover the sweetness and giving in myself.
- The loss of feeling is the main issue in the world.
- In art, communication, especially music: the sounds, world, movement are just a framework we can infuse with our feeling, our energy. THAT is what moves hearts.

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Bulgarian culture snippits:


One famously annoying flute seller in Old Plovdiv asks where both my mother is from. Upon hearing the answer he comments "so your mother left Iran and moved to the colonies (meaning the USA)?" and went on to say "once Islam came to Iran it dropped off the cultural map. You don’t hear anymore of great lights coming out of Iran like Omar Khayyam" and added that "the 300 or so words common to Bulgarian and Persian came to Persian (Farsi) from Bulgarian." “

Here are some examples of words in common to Bulgarian and Persian:
Dooshman – enemy
Tepe – hill
Cheshme – spring
Raw hat (pronounced differntly) – relaxed, comfortable

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Pazardjik Journal Entry

In a small town at their public pool in late evening. Besides two young men we are the only ones here. The pool is fed directly from a natural spring under us (this sounds nice but is far too cold). Now swimming under the freezing mineral water, so clear and heavy, so deadening to my muscles, I feel sure it is time to move on from Bulgaria.   I miss my peers.   In the thought-haze of the capital Sofia I could not see it: but now as one breaking the surface upon I leave the urban closeness for this small town, breathing new air - I know I am done here.