December 12: Kumanovo on strictly business- so no sight-seeing. Must go back later! If nothing else for the seasoned fries at the Irish pub!

 December 14^th: Taught a class on Advanced English learners at the university so they could hear a native speaker. Mira Beaker, a former Fulbrighter to the US, had met up with us a few weeks ago and asked me to present a topic to her class. We met on Monday to discuss the topic, and the I prepared to teach. I was kinda terrified, to be perfectly honest. But it all went smoothly.  I literally followed the examples in the book and had them do a popcorn reading of the text they were supposed to read. Jen would be a better resource than I am, but college is really different in MK than in the US. Classes are a lot easier, they have almost no concept of homework or outside preparation. But, they only have one or two exams in the class and if you don’t pass that you get two more chances. If you don’t pass by then, you have to take the course over again.

Dec 16^th: I met with an NGO contact in the morning. Then I went to an American Corner event: A Christmas workshop where we attempted to make German Christmas stars. I failed at the workshop, but it was a huge turnout and that was awesome! It was more than anyone expected! Then Nicola (sp?) the Peace Corps volunteer that taught the workshop stayed at my apartment overnight. But before that, we and another Peace Corps Volunteer (Lillian, who is leaving Dec 24^th) went out to eat at Mecho’s. I had been told it was a pizza joint, but it isn’t! It is traditional Macedonian food. Lillian ordered frog legs, while Nicola and I ordered Tavche Grache. Yup, frog legs. Apparently they are a specialty in Eastern MK. Nicola and I enjoyed hanging out and trying the stars again at my apartment later that night. It was refreshing to talk to a Peace Corps Volunteer that doesn’t hate the country and want to leave ASAP!

Dec 18^th: First train ride in MK! I went to Bitola, because I had two appointments with NGOs on the 19^st.  The train was pretty crowded, but cheap! I got a student discount that made the price 150 MKD or $3.17 USD. Yup for a 3.5-4 hour ride across a country. I met his really nice lady that helped me figure out which train to get on, and where to go. The train pretty much emptied out after Prilep, and I figured that the next stop would be Bitola. Well the next stop where most people got off (p.s. it was). Some pictures of Bitola decorated for Christmas!

Dec 19^st: Met with two different NGOs. One went really well, the other only sort of well. I ate lunch as a restaurant in the center of Bitola, but it was horrible food. The spaghetti sauce was basically sweet ketchup, ugh. I Couldn’t even finish ¼ of the food! I took the bus back to Skopje that afternoon. It was crowded, uncomfy and 450 MKD. I will try my hardest to plan around a train schedule to go back to Bitola. I do NOT want to take the bus again if I can help it. I even managed to aggravate someone. When people were getting off, I had to switch seats to let someone off, and then when people started coming back on, I went back to my original seat…but some lady thought she was supposed to sit there with her friend. Then when they realized that I didn’t speak Macedonian (it’s a great ploy even when you understand some of what they were saying). Turns out that it was ok, the girl just sat up front next to the bus driver. Then at the stop, when I tried to switch with her, the Bus driver thought I was crazy and then found me a seat somewhere up front (not next to him- apparently some one had gotten off, so there was a free seat). And the people in the front kept saying something about the Foreigner. The bus driver said something to the guy that he found the seat next to about me being English of French or something and I didn’t understand anything. I’m sorry- but I don’t understand all the social rules for riding a bus, we don’t really have that form of transportation in the US! I just keep smiling and hoping it will be ok.

More Bitola for Christmas!

Dec 20^th: First snow in Skopje!!!

Dec 21^st: I went and had coffee with the International Women’s Association (well hot chocolate). Then I went to a doctor. I will write a separate post on that soon- but the end result is I am fine, but getting over a virus. That night, I had Conversation Hour at the American Corner. We discussed Holiday Traditions (New Year and Christmas), vegetarian lifestyle (did ya’ know that children NEED meat to function?), and a few other random topics. I kind of like not having a real plan, it makes the conversation more free flowing.

Dec 22^nd: Off to Tetovo again! I seem to always catch the same combi driver. We pulled forward to a little bakery so the mom and kid also riding with us, could grab a bite to eat, and the driver turns around and goes “Sthul?” (the university that Jen works at).  Then he proceeds to ask me if I go over every day- now you know you take him combi too often! This guy is super nice and friendly however. I was going to Tetovo to see the Deputy Prime Minister of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) give a talk. Apparently SEEU had complied a book about the 10 years since OFA. The OFA ended the conflict in 2001. See this previous blog post for a summary of the OFA. The speech he gave was only about 20 minutes, but still worth going to see. He said some interesting things that I thought were poignant.

·        We should leave the OFA and the past 10 years to history and move forward to a new direction

·        The future of MK is the country of all parities with no one party better than another.

·        One of the goals was the protection of citizen’s ethnic identity and culture.

·        The implementation WAS hard (I liked how he used the past tense, implying that it had been implemented)

·        The implementation was an investment into the future of MK.

·        The OFA is a process, not just an agreement on paper. It is important for the democratization of MK. It was a goal for opening and strengthening the state institutions.

After the talk, he and the rector and editor gave a press conference while Jen and I picked up the book that they published. I have it in Albanian, Macedonian, and English. I look forward to reading it and then possibly donating it to FAU’s library. Then I went back to Jen's office and worked on my research blog while Jen went to her class that she teaches. After she got back we went to a 3:30pm linner with Vesna, who leaves for the US and her PhD program on the 28th! Linner (lunch-dinner, like brunch) was pretty good. I had pizzia because that was one of like 3 things I could order off the menu!

Dec 23^rd: I started a mini exercise program in my apartment, after realizing that I needed to get in better health and that finding a gym that wasn’t out of my price range would be hard. (I have a hard time spending over $40 for a one month membership, but maybe I will break down and do it in Feb…). I also just realized that I never told you about aqua aerobics in MK- see future blog post… I had a meeting with another NGO in the afternoon. But the guy stood me up. He thought that we hadn't confirmed the meeting, or he never recieved the email about confirmation. I also started private tutoring in Macedonian. It took this long to find a class or private tutor that I could afford. No one gave me any ideas for where to look for classes until mid-November! And then I found a wonderful lady at Lumina Lingua! She has VERY reasonable prices and is super super nice!

Prilep and to Skopje

On Sunday, we got up to go to Prilep. Sadly Justin wasn’t feeling too well so he decided to stay at home while the girls went to Prilep. Once we got to the bus station, this random guy started yelling at us “Prilep? Prilep?” I turned and looked at him and said yes, but we wanted to know how much. He told us it was 120 MKD “same as bus.” These “taxis” are quite common, and basically the same as the regular taxis. Just guys trying to make an extra buck. Just like giving a ride to a friend for a little bit of money. We got in the back seat and off he drove (there was an old guy in the front seat who got off part of the way to Prilep). He dropped us off in front of the bus station and we tried to figure out the money (who would owe who what later) and he came up and told us 120 MKD again. He was super nice and spoke pretty good English. At that time, (when he came up to tell us how much we owed) and took the money out of my hand and gave me the correct change. It was rather complicated, because  you know when your thought process gets interrupted and you can’t refocus? Well, that is what happened.

But anyway, we left and started walking towards the Thai restaurant. There is a Thai restaurant in Macedonia. Only one. Yup and it is in Prilep. Go figure. However, we didn’t originally know where the restaurant was. So we stood at a corner and tried to find it on the map (small little bus about 1/8 of a inch in black on grey). Once we found it, we knew which way to head off and off we went wandering down to the center of Prilep. Stopping to take some pictures along the way, of course.

Prilep is a big tobacco town.  

We started walking up towards the Thai food without knowing exactly how far it was from where we were. It ended up being about a half a mile or so. It was a nice easy walk, pretty and not too cold.

Once we got there we had yummy Thai food. Although it tasted more like Chinese than Thai, it was still good. And the server was super nice and friendly. After food (which took about 2 hours or so, even though we were the only people there), we headed back down to the center to see the (very) few sights that Prilep had to offer. And took some fun pictures of course.

THIS CAN"T BE SAFE! 

Random things: A "Facebook style boutique" and a bad named club "The End"

And then the ride back home. We walk into the bus station and ask for a ticket to Bitola. They lady tells us that there isn’t a us to Bitola until 4pm, and it is the one from Skopje so we wouldn’t be able to buy tickets until it gets here anyway. It was 2 pm. So we walk back outside hoping to catch a “taxi” back. Low and behold there is a guy asking “Bitola? Bitola?” We say yes. Him: “How many?” Me: “How much?” Him: “120, same as bus. How many?” Me: (pointing) “Three.” Him: “Ok, come on.” He then proceeds to wave to two other people and walks us over to his normal size car. Yes. A five seat car with 6 of us supposed to go into it. The three of us started laughing and going, this will be interesting. So Jen gets in the front seat, while the other two people (a bf and gf it looked like) Lizzie, and I got in the back seat. I was basically sitting at an angle with half of me on Lizzie’s lap and the half on the arm of the car seat. The best part? When the cops pulled in front of us. The guy had been going the speed limit and then he slowed WAY down, driving so they couldn’t really see us. They were going way under the speed limit but who would pass a cop in Macedonia? Once the cops turned off the road, he immediately sped up and all of us started laughing (well none of the Macedonians did, but we Americans did). The driver looked at us and smiled. Which made us laugh more. Once we got back to Bitola, we went to Vero to grab some stuff for Jen’s mom’s spiced tea.

Black Tea

Frozen orange juice

frozen pineapple juice

3/4 c sugar

a cinnamon stick

3 or 4 cloves

1.    Brew  a strong Quart of tea

2.    Add the other ingredients to the tea and heat to boiling.

3.    Let steep for a bit

4.    Enjoy!

With the frozen juices:  they are the 12 oz size frozen which calls for adding 36 ounces of water...  I usually only add about 1/2 of that...  you can tell by the taste.

SO, if you cannot find frozen juice and.... use ready to serve juice....  make a little less tea water  and use another tea bag to make it stronger.

Once we got back we made the tea and watched TV/looked stuff up online/hung out until we went to bed.

On Monday, Jen and I got up to take the 8:30 am bus, according to the online schedule, and got to the bus station. We arrived there with about 10 minutes before the bus. We were approached by this guy offering to take us to Skopje for 10 Euros (why can’t people just quote me in MKD? We are in Macedonia not the Euro Zone!), but we decided to just get a bus ticket since we didn’t know the price in MKD and thought the bus will be here in less than 10. Well, we were wrong bu the guy would have charged us 150 over. Not enough to make up for the difference. The lady at the bus station said the bus would be here at 9. So now we had a 30 minute wait. So we just sat at the bus stop and waited. We chatted up a few taxi drivers. And saw this:

Then we took the looong bus ride back to Skopje, complete with beautiful scenery.

We had a random police stop on the turn off to Skopje. The police just stopped us for about 20 minutes, no explanation. Even the Macedonians were curious. They had 22 cars, an SUV and us stopped before they let us all go. Then once we finally were let go, we got stopped at the tool booth, just a long line of cars. And there were police in full riot gear (minus the shields). And then there were about 4 SUVs full of the guys in a bit. So of course, I took a picture. For a minute I thought the guy was coming towards the bus to make me delete the photo, but he was not. We have no idea what they were there for, but maybe someone arriving to the airport? Someone important?

Jen and I caught a cab down to the center (basically to make this guy shut up because he wouldn’t let us think), ate at Anja’s. We even had a 30 minute conversation with the bartended who was curipous about why we were in Macedonia. It is hard to tell someone that the *main* reason you are in Macedonia is to act as a people-to-people ambassador and what we are currently doing, talking, is what they are really paying me for. Kinda weird, so we hedged it. Then I walked Jen to the bus stop, where she caught another “taxi” to Tetovo, and was dropped off at her front door (well the entrance to the university, but who is quibbling over minor details?

I then went to pick up our special order thing (can’t tell you what because the person who it is for reads the blog). And went looking for this place to buy terra cotta pots, but I couldn’t find it. However, on the way back I passed this artist who does drawings of sights around Skopje that I had been eyeing for a while. He was finally here and I asked him how much it was, for 2 it was 500 or 350 for one. So I of course got two. J Then home and to do little things after one gets back from a trip.

See you around the globe!

To Prilep and to Bitla

On Thursday I paid bills and visited two different NGOS. The Macedonian Center for Media Initiative and the Skopje Red Cross. Both are willing to let me work with them in some way. The Red Cross is even willing to let me participate in their training. J Bills were fun and entertaining. I had to go to the post office twice because I forgot to mail the post cards the first time because I was so focused on paying bills.

On Friday (10/21) I was picked up like a VIP to go visit a NGO in Prilep. They were super nice and gave me lots and lots of info (even some stuff that no other NGO had even MENTIONED). They even took me out to lunch and I got traditional Macedonian food. Ajvar (roasted, crushed, baked, and dried red pepper dish) and other stuff. I wish I had felt comfortable enough to take a picture, because the first plate they brought out was all fried! Literally all fried food with a whole tomato and olives. So good, but way too much food! And then they dropped me off in Bitola to stay with Lizzie (thanks Micky- the driver who lives in Bitola works in Prilep and drove back and forth to Skopje just to pick me up).

When I was in Bitola, Lizzie and Justin took us out to this delicious restaurant where we had Macedonian Cheese (baked in garlic and butter), traditional Macedonian meat dishes, and I had Tavche Gravche (a bead dish). It was so yummy. So SO yummy! Then for dessert I had palichinki (crepes or blini) with eurocream (nutella), banana, and slag (whipped cream). We wandered back to the apartment and then just bung out until we went to bed.

The restaurant

the city center

On Saturday we (well they) woke up late and we didn’t leave the apartment until about 12ish. We went to the green market and got some fruits and veggie for dinner tonight. And we found an awesome souvenir shop! It had bumper stickers and playing cards! I was even able to get a Bitola key chain. The guy was super nice! We then went to a delicious lunch where I got “white pizza” that was supposed to have sour cream and yellow cheese. But it was also with red sauce. Interesting…Yummy. And I got European hot chocolate for dessert. After all of this we went to the Vero and grabbed some staples that we couldn’t get at the market, like bread and other stuff.

As we were wandering around I was able to snap some pictures of the town:

After all of this wandering we went back to the apartment and just hung out. They made BBQ chicken and watched some American football online. Dinner was sporadic but delicious. We got a squash and just cooked it in the oven covered with nothing added. So delicious! Food here is just so much better than food in America. The fruit and veggies just take so much more like they are supposed to! Also, the food is supposed to stay fresh longer than in the States, and we think that is due to the lack of pesticides and that they don’t ship everything around for months. But this is just a guess.

See you around the globe!

P.S- Oh by the way- they live above the "Super Mario Market"