Tiger Day!

Vladivostok's mascot is a Tiger. So, of course, they have to have Tiger Day holidays!

There was a parade of school children in the morning, followed by a  bunch of performances from adults and children. There was, of course, a small market to buy stuff as well as food. Then at night, they had a free concert of B-2/Б-2 a pretty famous Russian rock band. I didn't listen to anything they did before the concert, but free + concert +Russia = of course you go!

Pictures from the day!

I was the only one who wanted to go see the parade.

The cool costumes people wore!

School children performances.

The concert

lead singer

 See you around the globe!

Russian House

The Russian House is a cultural house where you can experience a Russian Tea plus see traditional clothing that women and men wore. As well as play with traditional toys.

The SRAS Americans went with a Japanese group that was on a study holiday.

This place was totally cool.







They first served us with bread and salt. Which sounds really weird, but totally works. Didn't hurt that the bread was absolutely yummy!

Then we had tea, black of course. But the funny thing here was that those traditional Russian glass tea cups with the metal handles?

Those are only for men. Women weren't supposed to served tea in those. We got dainty teacups.

Then they showed us traditional costumes from different eras while playing classical Russian music.

Then the funny thing happened. They had Alek and a Korean girl get up and get dressed in traditional clothing, without telling them what was going on.

Well apparently they were getting "married"!

This is about when they realized it.

One of the cute traditional toys was a cow that walks. I of course had to buy it. I can't stop giggling when I watch this wooden cow walk down a wooden plank. Don't ask why. Probably has to to with "It's Russia"

Just so you can understand the adorableness how crazy I am.



See you around the globe!

Excursions in Irkutsk

Kazan Catherdral

Hayley and I decided to go find this beautiful Orthodox Church that we had seen a picture of and drove by on our way to Olkhon Island. It was worth the walk, and if you like looking at beautiful paintings of a church motif, I recommend you to go here. Plus, you get your exercise.

Art Museum

This surprisingly well done museum (it looks run down from the outside/first entry), hosts two floors of art. I didn’t recognize any of the names, but it was beautifully done. They had a lot of portraits of Tsars and Tsarinas, more than I was expecting of Siberia. Also some far eastern art and a few (very few) modern art pieces. I essentially had the museum to myself, which made it nice to walk around and just enjoy.

Random statue garden had these little monkeys

See you around the globe!

Four days of good bye...

As the title of the post suggests, we faced four days of good byes before we all left. At this point, Daniel was already back in Arizona and we hadn’t seen Naum in a few weeks. While an emotional time for us, it was also just what we needed for closure. We started off in Tetovo with Jen’s last kids club at the American Corner. They gave her so many gifts, so many kids loved her. And boy the car was packed! We barely had any room to sit.

On the 2^nd, we had out last goodbye party. It was at our lovely little kebab place we found. Everything with food for what felt like 40 for pretty cheap. We had a blast just sitting around talking with everyone. A nice mixture of people just mingling. We then went out to a club afterwards. It was a perfect MK ending to the year.

After a day of packing and just hanging out with friends, we spent the next day relaxing at a spa. We all had massages and either a pedicure or a facial. The prices were so great I wish I had done this about once a month. We all then went to join Erin at Ajana’s. This was one of the first places I ate at in MK and one of the last ones. It was touching and difficult to understand how 9 months had already passed. We saw Lizzie off to Bulgaria where she was going to catch her plane.

My last day in Skopje was spent hanging out at home and with new friends. I made sure to go see Hyun and Vancho one last time. As well as my friend from Macedonian 2025 before I left. Jen and I had made up our mind to not go to sleep before leaving thinking it would help us re adjust to US time zones. I think it did help, but boy was it super hard to do so! I have to admit, that I think the bit of wine and coffee helped us both.

We headed off to the airport at around 2:30 in the morning. The last bit was epic! We had been told by United that whatever we got to take over the Atlantic, we could take on every leg of our trip. We already had to pay for three suitcases so we went and paid for them, then we stood in line to check them. We also had our two carry on’s, which we thought were fine. Then we went to security….and we were only allowed one bag. At this point we didn’t want to pay for another over limit bag for our 4^th checked bag. We tried explaining what had happened and got mad, threatening to complain to United…speaking really fast in English at the same time (I felt a little bad afterwards) but I think they decided to left us go just to get rid of us. We kept talking about how we were going to complain to United until we got past security…we looked at each other, laughed and said there is NO WAY we are complaining…this was the best last minute gift from MK.

The planes were nice and almost empty the whole way home.  In case you don’t remember, we had to go from Skopje à Vienna à Zurich à New York à Houston/Chicago à Home. The first transfer was super easy…Switzerland was a bit, well stereotypical….line and directions and organization and comfy waiting locations and free wifi. And we had to go through security all over again. I thought Erin was joking when she told us about them looking at her weird with her glass bottle, but no they totally did. We barely had time to get through the airport before the plane loaded. We had to go through one last security checkpoint where they asked us questions about “Have you had your electronics repaired recently?” I mean is there a terrorist out there going “I only accept and repair electronics that are flying internationally so I can set you up to take the blame and blow up the plane?” oh well, it wouldn’t totally surprise me. We had a whole row to ourselves on the transatlantic! Totally nice. It was hard to say good bye in New York, but we knew we would keep in contact over FB.

It might be sad, but the first thing I bought was Auntie Anne’s Pretzels…delicious and American. When I got into Houston, I was dead. I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid of missing my flight, I couldn’t eat because I could barely stay awake, but I needed food. (Chili’s with a veggie burger and fries). And then my plane was a bit delayed.  But eventually (or so it felt) I made it on the plane and was finally going home.

It was nice to be home, to see family and friends. But I still miss the lifestyle of Macedonia and the food. I want to go back. I will go back, who knows when, but it will happen.

See you around the globe!

Road Trip to Bulgaria!

After spending the night in Bucharest, I headed down the road to Sofia. I wanted to see more of Bulgaria and hit some sights in eastern MK on my way back to Skopje. It rained all day. Literally all day long. I think I saw sun for about 2 hours, max. But it was still pretty. I got a pretty good start and made it to the border with no problems. It was a really weird border with a long driveway thing and then one stop check point followed by about 1 mile of road before reaching the actual border. Just when I think I have borders under control, something strange happens.

I pull up to the border control place and hand over my passport and the rental car papers. That’s all I needed or got at the border on the way in (see previous post). The lady askes me where this other paper is. *BLANK STARE* What other paper? The one that you get when you cross the border, (They gave me no paper) the one they gave you when you bought gas (Like a receipt? Well…..I through that one away!)…..pull over there. So I pull the car over and wait. About 2 minutes later I realize I can’t find any of the receipts where I bought gas (because it only happened once) and I don’t have this paper, and I can’t speak a word of Romanian to help me out to understand what this paper is supposed to be! I get my passport and the car papers. I walk back over there and hand this new lady the paperwork. They inform me that the fine for not having this paper is 10 Euro a day (total of about 80 euro for me) for all of the days I was there. But they give me no option to pay it. I keep apologizing, hoping this will change something. I can’t leave because they have my passport. After about 5 minutes of “You should have this paper!!!” “You need this paper!” They finally asked what border I came in on (Serbia), they shug and roll their eyes. I offer to pay the fine, but ask where I can pay it. They look at each other and hand me my passport and car papers back. Apparently there was nowhere to pay the fine and thus I don’t have to pay the fine…..(Make this the second time that I have gotten off of paying a fine for a law that I didn’t know about that I broke!)

I cross into Bulgaria over this amazing looking metal bridge- totally surrounded by factories. The Bulgarian border goes off with no problem (just had to wait a bit longer than normal). In Bulgaria, you have to have these little stickers on your car or you are driving illegally. I also had to get gas, so I stopped at the first gas station I saw. While filling up on gas, I go in and ask for the “vinegrette” for the car. After much discussion, I have to buy the 7 day one because that is the shortest one they have. Since it still wasn’t that expensive, it didn’t bother me that much. The drive was very interesting. The countryside varied so much! From rolling hills to forest to lakes. While totally rainy- just gorgeous!

I made it to Sofia just fine and stayed at my friend’s apartment. Got a bit of work done as he worked on his project as well. Then we headed out to dinner! We went to the Bulgarian restaurant that I went to the last time I was in Sofia (forget the name, but oh well). The restaurant messed our food up so bad they gave us free whisky. No joke. After walking home we both basically went to bed.

As I was typing this, I realized. I have absolutely no pictures. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Wow- way to go Cassidy!

See you around the globe!

Budapest Day 1!

On Thursday April 26, I hopped on a night train to Belgrade to go off to Budapest! This was to be my first trip out of the Balkans since September (as well as my first trip alone since then as well) and I was excited!!!

I had heard that the trains were bad and slow and I shouldn’t take them-from the locals, but from the internationals, I heard they were fine and I should take them. The options were either a 10 hour night train ride or a 6 hour night bus ride. I choose the train- more leg room, actual sleep, locking compartment door- all major pluses for me to choose the train over the bus. When I bought the ticket, the lady told me 8pm, but the schedule said 8:45; I decided to arrive 10-15 minutes before 8pm. Luckily I did because the train left at 8:10 on the dot (its scheduled time, by the way). I had to pay a little bit more to have a sleeping compartment, but it was worth it! The train was really clean, and the compartment steward was really nice.

The train goes north to Serbia, and it takes about an hour or so to reach the border. When we got there, something that I had secretly been hoping to happen did! I have been to Kosovo twice, and have three stamps from there. Now, as you may know, Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a country, but rather a wayward province that needs to give up on this silly independence idea and get with the program. The International Court of Justice has stated that when Kosovo declared Independence, it was legal, with Serbia responding that it will Never recognize Kosovo independence. According to Wikipedia, Kosovo had gained 92 diplomatic recognitions as an independent state (90 out of 193 UN members, 22 of 27 EU members, 24 of 28 NATO members). The US does recognize Kosovo as a state. Now, I had heard that Serbia would annul the Kosovo stamps. But this hadn’t happened yet. But this time, they came in and asked for my passport, glance at my name and went to stamp me in. Then he saw the Kosovo stamps, flipped back to the front, looked at my name and looked at me, then back at the Kosovo stamps. Then he said “Just a second, problem with stamps Kosovo.” I just said ok and waited for him to bring my passport back. They drew two lines over them and wrote “anule” (which by which I think he meant annul, but I digress). This ended up striking up a conversation with the guy a few cabins over, because he was all- “what was the problem with the Kosovo stamps? I have them?” Then we got to talk in Macedonian for a bit. When I actually have to use the language, I seem to remember more than I give myself credit for.  [There was also a customs guy carrying a battery operated drill-I’m not real sure why they needed that, as there was no where to open with a drill in the cabins. More on this later]

A little bit later, I promptly feel asleep. It wasn’t great sleep, but better than nothing or what I would have got on a bus! When I woke up in Belgrade, I went in to buy my next ticket. I thought I was going to have to wait about 2 hours, but low and behold, the online schedule was incorrect! There was a train at 6:50 to Budapest (well technically Prague, but it stopped in Budapest, so who cares!). Hopped on the train, grabbed my seat and promptly fell back asleep for a bit. I always have this internal debate- do I stay awake and force myself to see this new scenery or do I take a much needed nap? I usually choose the nap- because then I won’t be cranky later.

I did get to see about an hour or 2 of scenery in Serbia, it was flat. No joke, the flattest country I have been in since August! Lots of pretty fields and small houses. I got some reading done that I had been meaning to do since last May (sorry Dr. Ely! I promise the book is interesting and I’m enjoying it, just a bit hard to get into…). All in all a peaceful, easy journey to Budapest. At some point this little old lady got on and she just gave me the heeby jeebies. I swear she was trying to smuggle stuff into Hungry. She walked back to the bathroom with a bottle of alcohol and came back empty handed. The border crossing took about 2 hours though. SO long, and they turned off the A/C and didn’t open any windows. Very hot. And they came on with drills again. But this time I heard/saw them unscrewing the compartments in the bathroom areas. Then the customs guys walked through with about 6 bottles of hard liquor. So maybe she was smuggling something…They passed by me with no incident.

When I arrived in Budapest, I went to the Tourist Information Center to buy a Budapest Card. This came highly recommended to me, but I can’t do the same to you. Unless you are over 26, the card doesn’t save you any money. You can buy a travel pass that does the same thing, but lesson learned later. I also bought a ticket to a folk dance performance and dinner cruise. Then I adventured off to find the hostel. Let me tell you- Hungarian is a very difficult language. I couldn’t pick up a single word while I was there. It is basically its own language family. It is connected with Finnish and Estonian, but they are not mutually intelligible.  All I knew was that I had to look for “Sventi Ivanti” or something like that to get off this trolley bus.

But there was construction and my directions from the tourist info center included “Go to the Burger King Street.” I wish I could make this up. I walked out of the train station (much less the train station itself), and wanted to just stop. Within eye sight there was a McDonalds, BK, Mexican restaurant, subway, trolley, tram, buses, people, big buildings and more. I felt overwhelmed and a bit like a country bumpkin. This city life was way faster than the Skopje life I had gotten used to over the past 8 months. But I followed the signs to the trolley bus and using a little guess work found the right one. I almost got on the wring one, but the guy said something in Hungarian and pointed at the one in front of me. So I picked that one. It is amazing to me how much you can understand about a language or communicate without understanding a word. Gestures and facial features and tone of voice are so much more important than the words sometimes. I figure this out when there is a bit of words and then a hand gesture and I think I know what they mean. Even in a language I have never studied before. I did make it to the hostel after getting to see a lot of Budapest on the way. The lady was super nice and told me where the National Dance theater was so I could go try to get a ticket to the ballet that night.

After unpacking a bit, I headed downtown to try to visit the National Ethnography Museum. The day was beautiful- warm and sunny (and it stayed that way the whole time!!!)  I got to the museum about an hour before closing time and asked if it was enough time- the lady said “no, but you can come back tomorrow.” So I decided to go in. The building itself was breathtaking.  I’m not sure what it used to be, but I’m sure it was a palace or mansion of some sort. I always get like a little girl at times like this and picture myself walking down the stairs in a big ball gown all dressed up for the ball. But the beauty aside, the museum houses nearly a quarter of a million artifacts, 2/3 of which belong to the Hungarian collection. “Its primary concern, however, remains to impart knowledge of traditional Hungarian culture: how the peasants and craftsmen who formed the bulk of Hungarian society lived under the circumstances typifying the period prior to the advent of the modern industrial age.” It also shows a bit of global culture as well- there was a Amazonian and Greenland exhibit. The lady was right- you needed about 30 more minutes of time to see it all. If I had possessed a map (which museums here don’t seem to believe in), I would have picked to see the rest of the Hungarian exhibit rather than the one about the Amazon and the melting ice caps. But all in all a great museum. And you could take pictures!

After this, I grabbed an ice cream cone and walked towards the bus stop to go up to the castle area where the Dance Theater was. We passed the most colorful church I have ever seen, more on this later though. As I got off of the bus at where the hostel lady had said was correct, I was lost. There were no signs to anything. And the national Dance theater was the least of their concerns. But I had about 45 minutes, so I wandered through this little handicraft market and fell in love with this way overpriced jacket that I didn’t end up getting. But I did figure out what I wanted to get from Hungry!

Then I kept walking in the general direction of the theater and actually found it. I was able to get a ticket to the performance of Romeo and Juliet for that night! There was a dance fest going on and the tickets were a bit cheaper than normal. But I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. This age old story was totally rethought and very modern. I couldn’t tell who Romeo was until he killed himself at the end. (I don’t remember that Juliet actually went on and killed herself too, but apparently she does.) the way to tell these two sides apart included green kitchen sink gloves, and red arm bands. No joke. And this weird monk guy who went back and forth. The dancing was beautiful, although modern, and engaging. You were just watching the stage the whole time, and you couldn’t take your eyes off of them!

View from the Buda hill to more of the Buda side.

After this, I hopped on a bus. This nice guy tried to tell me that the bus wasn’t going where I wanted it to go, but I didn’t understand until it didn’t actually go where I wanted it to go. lol. But that was ok, I was able to hop on a metro (after finding it- they hide it with the littlest signs ever!). I tried to go eat at this one vegetarian place recommended by the  map, but it was  closed, so I headed to the next place only to find that it too was closed (this time due to the time of night and not the state of the restaurant. ) This is when I realized that it was 21:45 (or 9 pm) even though a Friday, most places were closing at 22 (10). I had walked past a few Chinese restaurants, including a take out one. Since it was so late, I decided to just grab some stuff to go and head home! I’m also very glad that other people learn English- because traveling would be so much more difficult if they didn’t.  Note: I don’t expect them to at all, it is just a nice surprise and relief when they do, especially in countries where the language is like Hungry!

See you around the globe!

Road Trip Day 4: The Long Drive Home!

The final day of our road trip got off to a really slow start. Justin didn’t want to leave until 11am for our 13 hour journey home. But hey, he was the driver. Sadly this was just early enough to not get to go see another museum :( But it started off again with burek! And French fries. Don’t ask, but they were yummy! We drove north towards Croatia, hoping to avoid the bad roads that we encountered on our way here, and shorten the time (only worked by 2 hours, but we saw something different).  On our way out of the city, we pasted the site of the 1984 winter Olympics!
It was cool to drive by.

On the way out of the country we also saw something not cool- signs warning us to stay out of the mountains because of mines. We even saw a team de-mining an area. Just another reminder of the war. But beautiful countryside none the less. We were able to stop for lunch before we left Bosnia, but this was an adventure in itself. We tried about 4-5 different places advertising food before we actually found food. Yummy food, but just the same thing we’d been eating all four days- salad and fried stuff nothing too fancy.

warning us to stay out of the woods

 

Then we were in Croatia, to jump on the interstate (I use this instead of highway because it was a legit interstate! or in this case intercountry?). Then we were in Serbia. No it was really that quick. Serbia looked a lot different than what we had been seeing when we drove the rest of the time- it was pretty flat! We drove through Belgrade and Nis on our way to Skopje, but didn’t really stop anywhere. We did buy gas, and I found a CD of a singer I had been looking for that is Croatian! There were no real funny stories to make this part of the trip more interesting, sorry guys. Just a normal day on the road! We got back to Skopje at about 12 am  and Jen, Justin and Lizzie decided to keep driving to Tetovo and spend the night there. I tried to find food, but failing, just went home and ate some cereal.

See you around the globe!

Road Trip Day 2: Mostar and Wine!

The next day we woke up before our alarms went off, well Jen and I did. And off we went to get breakfast. Turned out to be delicious potato burek with yogurt. I had some of this in Strumitca and wanted it again, well I got my wish and fill in Bosnia. Apparently, they do it often there. Then we bought some stamps for our postcards and some books for Jen. Then we hopped in the car with everyone else and were on our way to Mostar.

Mostar is located on a river in the mountains and thus developed as a city. It’s basically famous for its bridge that was built in 1565, then it was destroyed and rebuilt a few times. So of course we headed straight to the bridge when we got there.

After lunch and souvenir purchasing, we left for a winery or two. We didn’t really know where they were located, but figured we would see signs and that we did. We also went up a seriously scary mountain side.I refuse to call this anything other than a mountain, although, it did look like it might be more of a plateau while where we were was gouged out of the regular landscape and made lower. Oh well. We found one winery, but it wasn’t open so we kept looking for a new one. We found another winery, this one was called Andrija. And normally they don’t do tasting on Saturday, but they opened up a two bottles for us and poured us a glass. They gave us one red and one white. And cheese. This cheese was so good. I wanted to buy the cheese not the wine. The white wine was really good, but I didn’t like the red. However, the rest of the party thought the opposite. Then the guy gave us a tour of the winery.

And off we went to find the next winery. This road was vicious and I almost got sick twice on the way to these wineries. I eventually had to just close my eyes and hope for the best. The wine made it so much worse! The next one we found was Brkic. The guy was super nice. He told us all about his wines and how he makes them. Then invited us to join this tour that they had arranged for some local embassy workers (American, Polish, and Norwegian to be exact). We ate some more delicious cheese and olive oil. I mean this was the best olive oil I had ever had- it actually tasted like olives! Then we got to taste 3 whites and 3 reds. One of the whites was called “Moon Walker.” They allow the grapes to get some yeast on them before putting the whole grape into the barrel. Then when the moon is young, they churn the wine. When the moon is full, they let the moon church the wine (with gravity). It was interesting. The last red we had tasted the best, but it wasn’t for sale sadly.

Then we headed back to Sarajevo. We had to go down the creepy side of the mountain again. It was a lot less scary going down. People suggested that it was less scary because I was in front, but I claim that it was just less fast.

We stopped for dinner in a little restaurant on the side of the road. It was kind of creepy because I knew out the back of the restaurant was basically a giant river, but because it was so pitch black dark, we couldn’t see it! They literally had no veggie food. The guy just shrugged when we asked for some. Eventually we convinced him that shopska and cabbage would be an acceptable version. Then he seriously over charged us, but apparently the hunk of lamb was yummy. We made it back to Sarajevo in time to go to sleep to be functional tomorrow while exploring!

Ohrid Conference Day 1: Opening Ceremonies and Travel

This past week has been very very busy! I had two conferences back to back in Ohrid and then in Thessaloniki. They were very interesting conferences filled with many wonderful people and new connections. Each day deserves a separate post so I can highlight the special comments and presentations. These are mostly going to be wordy posts- not a whole lot of pictures taken.

The week started off with a fun filled trip to the post office, but as that particular saga is still on going, I will save that story for later.

We started off in Skopje on a bus down to Ohrid with the other participants of the Macedonian Political Science Forum (which is part of the Sv. Ciril I Methodi university in Skopje) for their 2^nd Annual Academic conference: Europe with (out) borders. It is roughly a three hour bus ride down to Ohrid, where we were spending the next 3 days. We stayed at the University’s conference center (literally called Congress Center) which is on the shores of the lake. Sadly, I didn’t have a lakeside view or roommates. I did, however, eat мекици и сирење (mekitsi and cheese). It was sooo yummy! Basically fried dough with cow’s cheese. But yum! When we arrived, I walked down to the beach and took some pictures/relaxed before the official opening.

The conference kicked off with an opening ceremony where they introduced some of the themes of the conference and welcomed us all to Ohrid. There were participants from Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia! It was a great chance to mingle. Although horrible for someone who is not at all good with names (me!).

Afterwards we had dinner (for the program’s 15^th year anniversary). The food was interesting for both conferences. I don’t think I ate more oil and fried/drowned in oil foods in one week than I had in this week. Since food is rather important, and they gave us so much of it, I thought I would share exactly what it is we were eating: cheese burek, tomato/cheese/garlic appetizer, minestrone stew with potatoes (or fish), fried cheese, and Ohrid cake. It was layers of caramel, nut vanilla cake and some sort of thick desserty style thing.

Then we had some time to just relax and hang out! It was nice to talk with people and just relax a bit.

Februrary

I promise I will write stuff on this blog when I am actually doing things. I wish I could be like Jen and tell you about my daily life, but I’m afraid it would get boring. So let me update you about February. (As I type this I realized I did do a bit more than I thought I actually did….funny how that happens!)

I have started working at a wonderful NGO, Macedonia 2025, which is actually using me and letting me be beneficial to their work. I go in once a week and have a great day with Biljana, who works there.

 In February, I didn’t leave the country. I know, shocking, especially after my declaration to travel. I am ashamed at myself actually. I did do a lot in Macedonia.  I hung out with these Canadians who own a company in MK, that I meet thorough Hyun (the embassy worker I met on Christmas Eve). That was a fun week, and they are genuinely nice people. But that week ended with their first annual company party where they invited everyone they knew to come hang out and celebrate.

Then a few weeks later, Chis (one of them) came back to wine and dine a client/friend. And that week we went out every. single. night.  And ate dinner at 9:30 each night. No joke. Welcome to Macedonia. But it was really nice to hang out with them. They are some nice people here in Skopje and they seem to genuinely care about having fun and welcoming new people.

I also went over to Hyun’s one day when he wasn’t there to cook with his housekeeper. He asked her to make all Vegetarian food, and I thought it would be cool to learn some new recipes. She was really nice and we never lagged for conversation the whole day. One of the funniest parts of the day was that he had someone come over and fix his broken front door, and they so thought I was the lady of the house and kept asking me questions and commenting to me about things. It wasn’t until the very end that they figured out I didn’t live there (although “I don’t have a key” should have been a good indicator). Dinner that night was super delicious! We had croquettes, stuffed peppers and potatoes, quiche, stuffed mushrooms, and cous cous salad. So many yummy dishes that I will  be trying to make on my own in a bit.

One weekend in February, I was supposed to go Brussels for a conference. But the airline I was on went bankrupt. Luckily, I found out the week before I was supposed to go, so I didn’t show up at the airport and then find out, but still. I am currently going trough my credit card company to get my money back.  That weekend I went to a one day conference with an NGO Progress about MK and EU integration. It was very interesting and I got to see what one of the main parties here SDSM (the opposition, progressive party) thought about a lot of the different issues. I also picked up a lot of cool literature about the Balkans.

That night (2/11), there was a fundraiser for an animal shelter here in Skopje at the Irish Pub. A bunch of us went to support the cause. They had a live band with “rock.” (Rock here means oldies and classics, by the way not real rock.) It was a bunch of fun a definitely a girls night out. We had an amazing time! And supported a really good cause- there are a lot of homeless dogs around Skopje that need food and love. Everytime I see them, my heart breaks a little because I know I can't save them.

I also went to Tetovo and Stip to present about American Wedding Traditions. It was neat to see Stip, where I had never been. The ride down was very pretty and I had a yummy lunch at a local restaurant. See pictures from Tetovo by clicking here and from Stip by clicking here. And I presented at the Skopje corner as well, see here.

Other than this, in Feb. I was busy meeting new NGOs and working on writing up my research blog.

Oh and it SNOWED! Like a mini- blizzard. And went down to -20C/0 F. Yes, ZERO DEGREES! Let’s just say that was a bit cold. And every single Macedonian disappeared and never went outside. And they didn’t want to go to any American Corner events either. Then in the first nice weekend, suddenly there was an EXPLOSION OF PEOPLE. SO MANY PEOPLE ON THE STREET!!!

See you around the globe!

Venice- Day 3 (with Mama!)

After a delicious breakfast, we headed back out to Ca’Rezzonico. It was easier today because we took a vaparetto directly to the boat stop where the Museum was. It contains furniture, decoration, and artwork from the 1700s. It was apparently “the best place in town to experience the luxurious, decadent spirit of Venice in the 1700s.” It also looked like a really cool place to host a wedding, by the way. They had some really cool paintings in there, but it was kind of cool to see the rest of how the house was set up. On the top floor they had a special exhibit of random paintings by locals, but they were some really cool paintings. Also, they had it set up so you could look outside and see the skyline of Venice. Kinda cool, if I say so myself.

We then caught 2 vaporetti (?), to go visit one of the islands in the lagoon. We stopped off in the Cemetery island, technically called San Michele. We weren’t supposed to take pictures, they claimed that it wasn’t respectful enough. I disagreed and took some pictures anyway. It was created when Napoleon decreed that no bodies could be buried on the main islands of Venice. he claimed it wasn’t “healthy;” imagine that- dead bodies on the sinking islands where everyone lives?

We then headed off to Murano, our main goal for the day. Murano is famous of it’s glass factories. In 1292, a law restricted the factories to the island of Murano- they were afraid of setting fire to the islands where people lived. (We got off where Rick Steves’s suggested but I disagree with his suggestions. I think you should take it all the way to the museum stop, visit the museum first and then walk back through town. ) We walked along a canal to head towards the museum of glass (also included in our museum pass). We bought some cool non-breakable-ish glass stuff on the way (including my bridesmaids presents!).

The museum was cool- it actually reminded me a lot of the other glass museum I had visited- except this glass was so much more intricate! I got some cool pictures of stuff you weren’t supposed to take pictures of again. But these works of art were amazing!

Then we waited for the next vaporetto and headed back to Venice. We shopped a little on our way back, and then ate some dinner. We also decided to take a night time tour of the canal, so we caught a boat to catch a boat. We got to see part of the city that tourist probably never go to. It looked pretty residential. Apparently there is a really fancy hotel there. Then back to pack and eat some more before going to sleep!

Disabilities in Macedonia

The meeting with Polio Plus (only in MK, the EN page is not working) was a bit different than my other meetings. I recently met a Political Officer at the Embassy who has been giving me some more contacts with NGOs. She had a meeting scheduled with Polio Plus, who I had been trying to meet with for about 2 months, and invited me along. This made for some different observations and discussions that I usually had. They were more direct in asking the US government for help, specifically stating that “we” should help them lobby. At the same time, they were much more critical of the current government and their actions regarding people with disabilities than many NGOs I had visited. I was able to learn most of what I would by myself. I might try to email them a few more questions soon. As I was typing this up, I realized that I actually learned more about how disabilities are treated in MK than I did about Polio Plus, so this is more about that than the organization (thus the reason I am putting it on my travel blog and waiting to publish it on my research blog!).  

They had one of the larger offices that I had seen in Skopje. The had one large office room/entry way where there were three desks and a seating area set up, then there were two smaller rooms off to the side, with a conference room in the back. We met in the conference room.

They tend to focus on policy implementation and legislative changes, rather than services to the people. They do help those who are disabled fight for their legal rights. They do provide some services, such as mediation in the labor market, providing legal advice (such as how to make complaints), and helping them write business plans.

They are mainly funded from international organizations or embassies. The funds are small for NGOs in MK especially if you are focused solely on one issue. Even further, disability is lower on the funding tier in all locations, according to Polio Plus. Disabilities have received some funds from the state, roughly 2 million Euros, but it only goes to the older Union of Disabilities that was set up by the state. In the Union of Disabilities, there are 7 separate organizations that provide services to the disabled. The regulations, however, are from the Yugoslav era. The funding also only goes to the traditional organizations that use the medical approach.

Like in the US and elsewhere, disabilities still face harsh discrimination. Although in MK people with disabilities are almost all treated as if they are “crazy” or “have something wrong” or “aren’t normal and need to be excluded from daily life.” There is a law on discrimination that, according to Polio Plus, is actually discriminatory. In order to be hired as a manager or someone above the bottom level of employment, you have to be tested if you have a disability. The person with a disability, be it mental or physical, has to prove that they are mentally capable by going to a medical commission that examines their ability to work. All people with a disability are grouped together, in the guise of protecting those with mental disabilities.

There is no “gate-keeping” for disability status in MK. Almost any one can be declared disabled. The government then provides a subsidy for the disability (roughly 7,000 MKD/month minimum[$150]). However, with all of the “extras” that people might qualify for, they could end up getting 15-16,000 MKD/month [$318-340]. This is a decent salary in MK, and thus provides no incentive for them to go out and search for work on their own, especially if they are employed at all (even part time), they only get the lower 7,000 plus their salary.

Polio Plus submitted the first (and only so far) Citizen’s Initiative law to the MK parliament. It was essentially a law to retrofit all building to make them handicapped accessible. In order to do this, you have to get 10,000 signatures. To get these, you can’t just sign them with a notary, oh no, you have to go into your local governmental office with an official register and sign there after proving that you are who you say you are. They submitted this law a while ago, but there has been no movement on it in the Parliament. The word is that this law would be too expensive to implement, so they aren’t voting on it.

In the years that Polio Plus has been around (12), there has been a change in the attitudes of people towards those with disabilities, but it is slim to none. The example they gave, is that if in 1991 those with disabilities were considered at step 1 to the rest of society being at step 5, now they are at 5 while the rest of society is at 10.They were trying to show that while changes have been made, those with disabilities are still the last considered group of people. Many people here do not have a creative mentality, and they believe that change is taking too long to occur. While many work to solve the issues that people with disabilities face, no real progress is being made. There has been a shift from institutionalization to community based care, but not enough of one.

They claimed that almost no one is motivated to learn to work with those with disabilities because it takes too much work. There is some training available, but mostly it is in the medical approach. (which is a way of thinking about “what they can NOT do” rather than what the CAN do. According to BFI’s educational resources, the medical approach sees the disabled people as the problem. That the people who are disabled need to be adapted to fit in the world as it is, and if this isn’t possible, they need to be hidden. I had to look this up as I was not quite sure what she meant by the medical approach).

They have tried to work closely with different Members of Parliament, and different governmental bodies, but the others often do not want to work with those with disabilities (they don’t make as good of a picture story). Polio Plus isn’t sure how to change the system. They have to be extra cautious on how they try to change things.

There is also a group of companies called “Shelter Companies” (this lead to a bit of miscommunication in the beginning of the description), because they “shelter” those who are disabled. In these companies they must meet a few regulations: have a minimum of 10 people working, with 4 of them with disabilities. They must also keep the people with disabilities employed for 3 years, and in the second company where the person is hired, they have to be employed for 5 years. They get the following benefits as a way of getting companies to hire more people with disabilities:

• they don’t have to pay taxes for any of the people working for them
• The state can pay between 20-100% of the salaries in the form of a grant (less common)
• The companies do not pay the profit taxes.
• The customs fees are free
• they get reimbursed for 10,000 MKD for equipment.
• The social packages are covered by the government for all workers

The companies can request this after 9 months of employing the people with disabilities. Mainly the companies in graphics and printing take advantage of this program. However, there is a large scale abuse in this program. There is a commission that has to determine if you meet the standards for receiving this aid, and it is staffed by those who are connected. They often run the companies that are already receiving this aid and therefore have no desire to allow more companies into this special tax zone.

Водици / Vodici

January 19, on the Orthodox Calendar, is known as Водици/voditi. It is, apparently, the celebration of the baptism of Jesus. It is very good luck to catch the cross, especially the cross in Ohrid. We were warned that trying to get to Ohrid would be really really difficult! So we decided to stay in Skopje.

We wandered through Old Town/Charshia a bit before going to watch The Event (which was an AMAZING show that some stupid execs cancelled). There were a ton of people there. Oh and did I mention that this religious event seemed to be sponsored by a winery? Yeah, I was a bit shocked too. The City Red Cross was also there to help out in case anyone gets hurt.  (Although, legend has it that no one will get sick trying to catch the cross in the almost freezing water in the freezing temperature. God will protect them.)

See...sponsored by wineary. Also, "sup? no worries, just walking home after a day's work"

We stood around for about 10 minutes before the singing started. Then then there was a speech by the head priest guy (yea, my orthodox religious topics need some work). I didn’t understand much, but there was a lot of talk about water (Daniel later said that he thinks they were retelling every story that had water in it. They started with Moses or Noah and went from there. About 10-15 minutes later they tossed the cross into the water. One very happy man caught it. Then everyone tried to kiss it and hug that man. Eventually the priest guys congratulated him and his family and wished him luck.

Someone was carried out in a stretcher (see above?).

Mama and I then went to The Cuban (it has a different name, but no one calls it anything but the Cuban) for lunch with the Pouts. Mama and I order pumpkin soup and carrot chips. Everyone liked the carrot chips! Especially Eliana and Aidan.

Afterwards, we went back to Old Town and wandered around some more. Then we went through it to Kale (the fortress) to over look another view of Skopje and see the closed off fortress. If we had just stayed around a bit longer, we could have sweet talked our way into the fortress with these other tourists, but no avail. We stopped off in a cafe to have Salep and just talk. Salep is a flour made from orchids and sweetened into a hot drink, sprinkled with cinnamon. It was very delicious!

Then we went to Anja’s again, but this time we got shopska, pizza, and palichinki. The guys remembered us, and brought us free rakija after dessert.

The waiters are really super nice, by the way. We just talked for an hour or so, and then we  went home to go to bed for a early start the next morning.