IS IT BECAUSE I'M BLACK?

Disappointingly I've not been accepted to teach in a school in my home country. I'll be having a nice rest till October when classes at the local university start, where I occasionally teach. Better luck next year.

On receiving the results I thought up today's entry title...
"Вие не сте приета /Vie ne ste prieta/ You have not been accepted," says the receptionist when advising on a rejected application. I'd not heard this phrase since my mother told me that I'd not been accepted by my first choice university to study English philology. This brought on similar feelings and thoughts, and a very different thought provoked by the word приета /prieta/.

It's funny, I'd considered the word after listening to a local Mexican radio programme, hosted by a lady called "prieta". I asked my husband what it meant and he explained that it's colloquially used to talk about dark skin. So the journalist's affectionate nickname was "dark-skinned/brown", Ms. Brown, in Spanish. I, in turn, explained that in Bulgarian приета means accepted. As she was the only female journalist on the panel, it was strange and funny that she was called PRIETA - accepted by her male peers.

So, if the receptionist had said this to a Spanish-speaking teacher, would s/he have taken it as an offence? Thinking, "is she calling me brown?" or "is she telling me that I'm not brown enough? Is it a whites-only or a browns-only school? Am I just being paranoid?" Clearly,"yes" but it's ironic to come across the word again. It too brought on the questions: If we were to have children, how would they feel growing up and studying in Bulgaria? How does my husband feel working here, and learning the language from scratch? etc.

I am disappointed by the news, and more so because it's Bulgaria. I remember when applying for scholarships to study abroad, one of the conditions was to return and give back to the local community. What opportunity does one have to do that when coming back? I'm probably getting ahead of myself, there are ways to become integrated again.  Meanwhile, here's to Wu Tang Clan's Hollow Bones.
Enjoy!