New Years Eve: A Comparison

As the ball dropped in Times Square last night, we greeted the New Year in style back home in Lexington (though hopefully I'll be able to call Times Square and New York my home by this time next year!) Champagne - and sparkling cider - fizzed over in tall-stemmed glasses as everyone went around wishing and hugging their closest friends and family.

And now a flashback...

A classic Lusi picture - a pro avoiding cameras since 1997

New Years has no doubt always been my favorite holiday. I mean, Christmas and my birthday are up there, but you know, they just can't compare to New Years. At least the way we do it. The glorious picture of me above is from last year, or perhaps two years ago? I'm not quite sure anymore, but regardless it's still a fairly accurate representation of me now as well. Whenever it was, what I do remember is that it was the year I was in my rebellious phase with my hair dip-dyed the brightest red imaginable, and I thought I was the coolest. Every New Years, we gather the entire Bulgarian community and party it up - Bulgarian style. That pretty much includes getting the party started at around eight, watching the Times Square ball drop and popping the champagne at midnight, and then dancing until our feet can't take it anymore which usually isn't earlier than four in the morning. The year the picture above was taken was the year in which our group was so big that we had to rent out a hotel just for all of us to fit, thats how many of us there were. It was also the year we left around five in the morning, where I danced for one of the longest times, and one of the best parties we've ever thrown.

Now fast forward to the present and above are Diana and I without our incredibly cheesy hast ringing in the new year, 2014 version. No matter how much things change within the years (and how much the quality of my new year's pictures declines) our Bulgarian parties will always be constant. I remember last year I brought two American friends to our party: boy, was that entertaining. They managed to stay awake for the ball dropping and the survakane (a Bulgarian tradition in which the younger generation lightly beats the backs of friends and relatives with a decorated tree branch. They recite a poem to usher in a year of health and prosperity and in return they receive a dollar or two.) and I'll give them credit for dancing for a little bit. But one-thirty rolled around and soon enough they were collapsed on top of each other, squished up in a couch in the corner. Clearly, they weren't prepared for our parties haha. I think we stayed until four-thirty that year? And I didn't stop dancing until my parents had to drag me away from the dance floor. If you haven't gathered, I love to boogie. 

Back to this years, it wasn't one of our traditional parties. We had to change locations, and only a small part of our usual crowd showed up, but we still made it work. There was food and drink and music and decorations and dancing, ah dancing - really, that's the only thing I need. And more than anything, I'm grateful that I every year I get to spend the coming of a new year, a new slate, with all of the people I love. Thankfully, I know I can always count on our Bulgarian New Years parties to get me through the year just to have what is probably the best day of the entire year.

And now for my 2014 resolutions!

There's this Bulgarian New Years tradition in which we bake multiple banitsas (plural) which are salty phyllo dough pastries with egg and cheese. We bake these all the time, they're a staple of our culture, but on NYE we change it up a bit. When baking them, we pre-cut the banitsa and within each piece we bake a good luck fortune for the upcoming year. Then, right after the champagne and the countdown, everybody takes one to see what their luck will be for the new year. Some are funny accidents, like my friend Silvia's which was that she was soon to welcome a new baby into the house! That would have been fine had Silvia not been a sophomore and as of recently insisting to her male 21-year-old cousin that when she went to college she wanted to join a sorority. AS soon as he read her fortune, his eyes bugged and he quickly cut any dreams of hers for joining a sorority. All the while, Silvia's grandmother heard about her fortune and immediately went to her and started kissing her and hugging her and gushing about all the grandchildren she would have! Needless to say, Silvia's mother made her draw another fortune haha. As for mine, it wasn't anything near as exciting as Silvia's  but I still found it to be very fitting: "Smile, and forget about all of your worries." 

-Take more risks and do more things out of my comfort zone, whatever they may be. I can't          keep letting doubt and worry cloud my mind. I challenge myself to this, and I plan on succeeding. 

-Finally keep a consistent journal for an entire year. I swear I make this resolution every single year. I really should stick with it for at least this year.

-Read more. Travel more. Cook more. Write more. Laugh a lot. 

-Spend as much time as possible with my family during this last semester, before moving to college.

-End high school on good terms - meaning grades, exams, teachers, but most importantly, friendships.

-Breathe.