"The American Embassy and the American Center took little interest in us Fulbrighters. They requested our addresses, but never sent us their newsletters, and we often learned about events, films, lectures, and readings, after they occurred. Near the end of my stay, at the Bulgarian Fulbright Commission Christmas party, a joke-telling contest developed between Director Julia Stefanova and myself. By the time we had each told about twenty jokes, I realized I was scraping the bottom of my memory, whereas she was just tapping into her copious repository of Balkan humor:

‘Why doesn’t God speak to us as in the days of the patriarchs? Because he doesn’t want us to know He’s Bulgarian’


‘How about the wrestler who caught a goldfish and was about to throw it back because it was too small, and the goldfish squeaked, ‘Wait a minute, what about the three wishes?’ ‘All right, but hurry up,’ growled the wrestler, ‘I am waiting.’

‘A mosquito was making love to an elephant who suddenly died of a heart attack. "Oh my God," whined the mosquito, reaching for a shovel to prepare her grave. "A moment of pleasure and now a lifetime of digging!’

Jokes such as these were instructive in sensitizing one to culturally specific faultlines, and to heightening one’s awareness of what humor is transnational and what is dependent on a particular language’s puns and signifying anxieties. Anyhow, I surrendered to Dr. Stefanova’s superior trove of comedic lore, acumen, energy and wit, bade all remaining revelers farewell, and vanished into the Sofia night."

:)