Shopping 101: Bulgarian Style

As if picking grapes and making wine wasn't enough of a true Bulgarian experience, I upped the ante a couple of days ago. While sitting around the dinner table I was talking to my host dad when he told me that one of the rabbits which they keep just had seven babies. Since these babies would be kept in the same cages as the current rabbits, he informed me that he had to kill one of the adult rabbits. Not wanting to miss out on this opportunity I asked him if I could help and thus, ended up walking over to the house the next day at 4:30 for my first rabbit slaughter.

To start the process, Stefan grabbed a large, black rabbit by his ears and carried him over to a a part of the yard where he had placed two large pieces of cardboard. Stefan lowered the rabbit to the ground and due to a large amount of struggling by the rabbits, stepped on the rabbits two hind legs. The rabbit proceed to scream and cry in a high pitched whine which I was previously unaware rabbits were able to make. Taking a large knife, Stefan tilted the rabbits head back and proceeded to completely severe the head from the rabbits body. The head and body twitched for a good 30 seconds, all the while bleeding over the cardboard. Stefan then carried the rabbit, head in one hand, body in the other, to a ladder he had set up with a hook hanging from the middle. By cutting behind the achilles tendon of the left leg he hung the rabbit from the hook and began to break and cut off the rabbit's four legs. We then began the surprisingly easy process of skinning and gutting the rabbit.

To sum up this wonderful story I will simply say that I am extremely excited to head back to Boboshevo tonight for a family meal of shopska salad, mish-mash, and rabbit stew.

-Currently Reading: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain
-Currently Listening to: "Greetings from Michigan" by Sufjan Stevens