Turkish Dramas in a Bulgarian Home

The first exposure I have ever gotten to anything close to a Telenovela, were Turkish dramas. When I was young, I spent all of my summers in my home country, Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a second- world country by definition, meaning cell phones and wifi were not as available there as they were in the United States. This made my life for 3 months there, a little more different than my life in Atlanta. The Disney channel episodes were always several months behind and replayed throughout the day, at about 2 weeks days into my trips I had already memorized the entire season of Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place. What was always different though, were the Turkish dramas. New Turkish dramas played every single weekday on BTV, and with all of the action, even if the episodes repeated, I would hardly notice. 

    While I cannot recall any shows or characters' names from these shows, I will always hold the feeling so deeply in my heart. I remember waking up to my grandmother making breakfast and asking her what time the "seriál" would be playing today, and if they had played any sneak peaks while I had still been sleeping. All day leading up to the time of the showing, usually around 6pm, I would find myself doing random things simply to kill some time. I would frolic in the garden while my grandmother brought attention to her plants, feed our animals, and sometimes even try and take up cooking a traditional Bulgarian meal, with my grandmother's help of course. All of this was done, while we spoke about our show. 

    

    When it came time to watch, my grandfather and cousin knew it was not the time to speak to us. Often, dinner would be served at 5:30, so we could all finish eating by the time the viewing begun. Sometimes, we would even bring our dinners into the living room, and my grandfather would get in on the action. He always said they were dumb, but I knew he loved them because of the way it brought us together. 

    

    Not only were the dramas popular in our home, but in all of Bulgaria. Until a show was finished, it was the only one that played on our broadcasting channel. So, everyone who watches Turkish dramas in Bulgaria would be watching the same show at the same point. This is great because you could meet a stranger on the street and would automatically have something to talk about. The dramas bonded my family and my country. 

    I will never forget the sweet memories that these dramas brought me.