Peanutbutter Terrorist

You know the world is messed up when peanut butter is seen as a potentially dangerous weapon of terror.

My four jars of delicious Skippy brand chunky peanut butter were confiscated by a polite and slightly embarrassed security woman at the JFK airport this past Thursday.

"Rules are rules"

"Peanut butter?"

"It's a liquid."

"Only when heated...I promise not to heat it during the flight. I just want to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in Bulgaria."

There is nothing more wholesome and American than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And I am a Peace Corps volunteer. Shouldn't that speak for something? Well, I guess it's possible to go to great lengths, living in Bulgaria for 8 months, just as a front to cover my plans of utter terror involving 4 jars of chunky peanut butter.

So that was Thursday, when I arrived at Heathrow in London for my change-over I had to consolidate 2 overstuffed bags into one...for no apparent reason. So, goodbye Golden Grahms and Captain Crunch. Not to mention Rice-a-roni. Let's not talk about that.

Yesterday (saturday) was interesting. I went to the bus stop to go to Pleven and as we were leaving the bus was chased by a group of drunk men dressed as goats with sticks. I was later told that this is a Bulgarian tradition. They are called Kokeri (sp?) and they somehow drive away ghosts and give good luck for the coming year. I'm not going to make judgements about this tradition because where I live they think eating pork and sauerkraut will give you good luck for the year. At least this tradition seems to be fun.