Bulgarian Highways and English Sky-ways

Here we are! We've finally arrived in the balmy spring season in Macedonia and it has been well over two months since I have posted anything of my adventures here. Currently, we've been a busy lot here at Together Macedonia since the end of the holiday season in January. We had a reunion with our partner organization in Sofia earlier in the month, which turned out to be very fortunate because the weather during this time was great. From Bitola, Sofia is a nice solid, 375 kilomters away. Normally, there are two separate buses that run between the two cities, each taking approximately eight hours and costing close to 40 Euros for a ticket. Rather than take this simple route, we elected to travel with several friends who we met along the side of the road. On the course of the journey, we met several new friends, including - a traveling duo who regaled us with stories from their hitchhiking days and took us from Prilep to Shtip, an anti-Semitic Greek Slav who showed us every village in Eastern Macedonia and told us the history of them, a serious man from Makedonska Kamenica who supported Crvena Svezda and had a strong distaste to our neighbors in the west, and finally, a super sweet lady who worked in Delcevo but lived in a small Bulgarian town just across the border.

Leaving at 6:30 in the morning from Bitola, we did not make it to Sofia until about 8:30 PM. This included stopping for a break to eat gyros in the border town of Delcevo, as well as two additional hours of walking 10 kilometers to the border. Needless to say, by the time we arrived in Blagoevgrad, after the sun had already departed beyond the hills, we elected to take the 6 Euro bus the rest of the way to the capital and pass out in the comfortable seats.

Looking at the fancy new version of Google Maps, the distance does not seem as far as it is. However, walking 10 kilometers to get to a border crossing puts it into perspective.

After living in Macedonia for the past 18 months, I find it strange that the only neighboring country I have been to so far is Bulgaria. From Bitola, it is literally the furthest destination. Greece is approximately 15 kilometers from the front door of my apartment, yet I still haven't crossed the border there and gone south to Thessaloniki. Instead, I've been four times to Bulgaria. Four. I just cannot get enough of the denial of Macedonian history and drunk Bulgars insisting that as a Macedonian, I don't have a national identity: that I am just one of them. Under normal circumstances, I just politely insist, 'actually... I am American. So your entire argument is a moot point.'

Despite the neighboring disputes and territorial disagreements, I always have a blast every time I am in Sofia. Comparatively speaking, it is twice the size of our own capital, Skopje. As a member of the European Union, there are also things that we just simply do not have locally here that we can find there. For example, there are lots of McDonalds to eat at, as well as Subway. The grocery stores are massive and completely full of things we cannot get, the restaurants are international and there is more than one sushi spot in the entire country. While the culinary miracles in Sofia are one thing, the architecture is in a league of its own. There are tons of old historic buildings, churches, and university halls in the city center which make for really nice photographs.

 This is the Nevsky Cathedral. It's really cool and is one of the largest Orthodox cathedrals in the world!

 Here is another angle of the big church. Its style is Neo-Byzantine (there are other, older Byzantine style churches in Sofia as well), and you can see the Russian influence with the golden dome. I think that when they designed the set for Return of the King, a lot of the style of Minas Tirith and Osgiliath are copied from this church.

The People's Park! I love the old communist statues that are still up in Sofia. Macedonia tries to ignore the years under communist Yugoslavia and plays down its importance in the history. However, if you talk to anyone over 30, they remember Tito and the Yugo days as pleasant ones. This particular monument is to the Soviet Army and has unfortunately been neglected over the years. 

 Another old statue, this time outside of one of the main government buildings. There was currently a lengthy protest going on, and people had painted 'ОСТАВКА' (resign!) on many of the public spaces as a protest against the government corruption. In the background, you can see the beautiful domes of Nevsky's cathedral.

Bulgaria's national theatre! Named after Ivan Vazov, this theatre is only 110 years old. It's beautifully lit up at night and still has many great shows throughout the year.

Following the Sofia adventure and another 14 hour journey home (with seven different, new friends!), I only had a few days to prepare before I had to set off for London to work on a new youth project with partners from Together UK and Together Czech Republic. I was very excited for this trip, mainly because I had planned this entire youth exchange, developed workshops to lead for it, and had a good plan for the events during the course of the week.

For our London trip, I was sent to the project as the coordinator in order to prepare for the upcoming youth exchange that would be a few weeks later in Bristol. So, we were in London for a nice three day meeting to discuss the workshops, timetables, and events for the photography youth exchange.Unfortunately, our mid-service Peace Corps conference came at the worst possible time and I was unable to lead the youth exchange (my colleague from Together did instead) and I had to help set up the teams and logistics from Macedonia.

The postmodern London skyline with the great glass obelisk protruding  into the foggy sky. Everyday in London looked pretty much like this in terms of weather. I really wanted to go into this building (the 'Shard'), but it cost 20 pounds (almost 40 dollars) to go to the observation floor. Ain't nobody got money for that.

The trip was a nice way to connect with the team leaders from other countries that would be involved with this project. Aside from myself; Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Slovenia were also included on the APV (advance planning visit). We stayed in the most interesting, low cost hotel I have ever seen. Easyhotel, like Easyjet, offers the bare minimum for the price; which is great that they can offer things so cheap. However, the room had literally nothing but a bed. No night stand. no decorations on the walls, just a completely empty room with beds, and an interesting bathroom that looked like the inside of a plastic submarine. I fully regret not taking a picture of it.

After the brief meetings to discuss the plans, the group was turned loose in the city to explore all that London has to offer, which as it turns out, is quite a lot. London is approximately 12 million people, compared to Macedonia, its about six times the size. There were millions of different things going on all the time, and after the brief meetings ended, I was able to explore on my own and see all the great things that the city had to offer.

Inside the Tate Modern! This was the most exciting thing for me on the entire trip. The museum is full of modern art, and the whole gallery is situated inside an old warehouse right by the river. 

 Here is St. Paul's Cathedral from across the river. This weird little bridge was in the 7th Harry Potter movie and is destroyed when the death eaters are wreaking havoc in the opening scenes in downtown London.

Shadows lengthening in the sun. It was finally sunny one afternoon in London! Here you can see the iconic telephone booths that are everywhere in the city. It surprises me that anyone would still use these, but I think the best use is to go inside, shut the door so its quiet and then talk on your cell phone.

 The most efficient way to travel anywhere is to take the underground. It has a really cool system, and if you buy the Oyster card, its really not as expensive as you might think. However, if not... it costs approximately 9 USD for a one way journey on this sucker.

Big ol' Ben. No trip to London is complete without seeing it. Here are some lovely flowers next to Westminster Abbey instead.

Following London, I was able to travel to Oxford and visit a friend from our youth exchange in Gradiste the previous fall. Oxford is definitely one of the more interesting towns I have ever been to. It's old. Really old. The town is mostly centered around the famous Oxford University (its famous because James Bond went there), and the university plays a massive role in the population of the city. Like London, Oxford is incredibly diverse, and there are literally people from all corners of the world, studying at the university and living in the community. Unlike London however, the atmosphere is much more relaxed... and it feels like a much safer place to spend the afternoon and evening.

One of the alleys near the campus. There is a sign that says to not enter. But I was told to ignore these signs and went on an alternative tour of the school. 

Here's me! Hanging out and pretending I go to university here. They have a guided tour that you can pay to go on, but I find it easier to just know people who work there for a private tour. Thank you Marketa!

This place is awesome. I've never been to such an incredible historical center of education before. Its sure better than going to Baldwin Wallace. By the way, that's a statue, not me.

So, here's a little history about the university itself. The school doesn't actually have a date of foundation, but records go back to as early as 1096, which makes it one of the oldest universities in the world. Undergraduate work is based in the self-governing colleges that make up the university. Its very strange compared to American style universities, where in Oxford you are living in a college for the entire period of your studies. However, the campus is stunningly beautiful and the town itself has its own charm. Getting back from Oxford to Bitola presented a challenge of its own. First, I had to bike to the local bus station at 2:30 am, and take the bus for an hour and a half to Luton airport. For those of you who have never been to Luton, imagine purgatory, with multiple gate changes, and no power stations or WiFi. At Luton, I had to wait three more hours for my flight, which was the most shaky, unstable plan I have ever flown on. Every time I fly Wizzair, I feel relieved when it finally touches down again that it did not fall out of the sky. However, here we are, two months later, so alls well that ends well.

Czech Republics and Carnivals

So welcome to the month of January in Peace Corps. It has been awhile since there have been any posts in this blog, so I can only imagine everyone has been so worried and wondering when the next entry will be. Well look no further, because these last two months have been so busy with activities that there has been little time to add any information.

The month of November was a particularly long and difficult month, full of projects, training seminars, and sad goodbyes. The month started with spending a far too short of a week in the capitol, Skopje, with the girlfriend before sending her back home to Los Angeles with two years of life and love in Macedonia. Sitting in the cold and watching the plane take off has been the hardest thing I have experienced since coming to the Balkans, and reflecting on this, I cannot imagine how difficult it will be next year when I do the same thing, and depart Macedonia for new adventures. California, South Korea, Serbia or Sweden; the plans are always changing and the road is always winding... but its the drive to experience new places and cultures that are keeping the days passing.

From the airport, the time to mourn was brief because by the time I arrived back in the bus station, we were already leaving for Bulgaria, and a youth exchange that we had been working for months to plan. From Bulgaria, it was a nice, short flight to Prague, in the Czech Republic. Of all the cities in Europe I have visited thus far, Prague may have been one of the most beautiful. The bridges, the architecture, the beer, and just the atmosphere in the city is just incredible. Did I also mention the beer? For a euro, you can get some of the best beers you have ever drank in your life; light lagers, dark stouts and tasty pilsners.. It is all in the Czech Republic. After landing, we were free to wander the city for a few hours before heading out of the town on the train, into the Czech countryside where our project took place.

 Here are some lovely buildings near the main station in Prague, in all the lovely colors of Easter.

Karlov Most (Charles Bridge) is one of the best things  to see in all of Prague. The bridge is known for its statues and local artits who work, selling paintings for extremely high prices. This picture is taken from a second bridge, but there are like 8 awesome bridges crossing the river here.

Our exchange was held in an awesome little town called Dankovice, which is located approximately halfway between 'nowhere' and 'somewhere'. The nearest town was an awesome little place called Zd'ar, where they had an awesome UNESCO World Heritage church, and lots of little cool places to eat and drink. For our eight day exchange, we discussed many interesting topics related to the fields of photography, racism and European identity. We also conducted lots of experiments involving alcohol's effect on the body and reveled in the beautiful fact that for one euro, about 26 Czech Crowns, you could buy three or four big beers at the local grocery store. However, the exchange went incredibly smooth, like a delicious, cold glass of Kozel Cherny.

 Here is our Italian participants investigating the beautiful old church in Zd'ar on one of the free days.

One of the final products from our project was a group gallery exhibition. During the week, everyone was constantly taking and editing their pictures, so for the final day, we had a printed copy of everyone's best pictures. The winner of the contest received a delicious beer as a prize. Consolation prizes to everyone else, ironically, was also a beer. 

The day after the competition, I took one of my favorite photographs to date. Sounds like my luck... Here is the fog rolling in as our group prepares to depart our small town of Dankovice and head back to Prague on the train. The countryside in this part of Czech Republic is absolutely breathtaking.

Coming back to Macedonia is always a nice feeling after a long trip away from home, and during the winter, it is particularly great due to all of the holidays celebrated locally. Particularly in the month of January, it seems there is a wonderful holiday every single week. By far the most interesting, outlandish, and possibly offensive of these holidays is the Vevchani Carnival.  

The festival occurs each year on St. Vasilij Day, which is an Orthodox saint and marks the beginning of the old Julian calendar. The festival is rooted in pagan rituals and for many of the past year, the festival has gained a lot of attention due to the nature of some of the costumes and political and ethnic sensitivity. It is not uncommon to see participants dressed in outlandish outfits, as demons, Nazis, various politicians, and the like. If you'd like to learn more, here is an interesting article written by the Atlantic. This is a legitimate publication with much better writing than my own since its what they do for a profession.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/01/the-carnival-of-vevcani/100661/

 If you think these people dressed in red KKK outfits look like Grand Dragons, its not so far from the truth. However, they play an interesting role in the festival. They roam through the streets of the village carrying whips, and animal hides covered in dirt and shit. If you get too close to them, they will wrap you up and smack you in the face. Truth.

 This playful reveler has jumped into the fountain near the people who were trying to remain far from the action and watch the chaos. This is January by the way, and that water is probably 4 or 5 degrees Celsius, like the outdoor temperature.

The group parades through the center and gather around here with their costumes and dance. Following the parade, everyone visits various houses to drink and share in life. The following day of the festival, all of the costumes are burned to ward off spirits and celebrate the new year. The festival comes full circle, but after 1400 years, there is always the next.

This year was the first chance I had to attend the Carnival, and I can only hope that I will be still in Macedonia next January to attend it again. Mix pagan tradition, with St. Patricks Day and men with red suits whipping you with dead animals and you've got one crazy recipe for a holiday. With that notice, it is currently 3 in the morning in Macedonia, I must wake up in two hours to head to Bulgaria for a reunion and planning visit with our lovely Gradiste volunteers! Back on the road!

Welcome to Sweden - Take a Ticket

During this past month, I was fortunate enough to be able to escape from my Peace Corps life and live lavishly for six whole days in the Kingdom (yes... there is a monarchy) of Sweden. Why might someone go to Sweden from Macedonia as a vacation you might ask? Good question! Not only was this trip a vacation, it also served as a very important fact finding mission to a Swedish University to visit their PhD program for Economic Geography and International Development. On my list of potential schools... I would probably put it at number 5 or 6. Gotta keep them options open!

When coming from Macedonia, Sweden may seem like an entirely different planet. Buses function through systems of credit cards and payment via cellphone. Transportation is organized. People use the parking space as they are designed. While many of things may seem different, the biggest change that confused me the most were the tickets. Like the title of this post, everything you do revolves around taking a ticket from an automated machine, receiving a number, and waiting to see your number on the display board. My first encounter with this ended in a near disaster... as I stood helplessly near the counters hoping to be helped or at least pointed in the direction of someone who could. Nope. When I finally found the ticket machine, the whole system seemed so flawless and well engineered. No crammed lines of people waiting to be helped, no angry babas hitting you in the shins with their cane or pushing past you with giant burlap sacks of vegetables. Clean. Efficient. Organized. Sweden.

If I had to describe the country in three words, that would be it. Clean. Efficient. Organized. Sure there is the standard European display of garbage on the sidewalks and alleys, as well as urban artistry scrawled across each and every surface, but in general. The whole place just feels so sterile. Like some hospital full of free healthcare and government funded medical equipment. However, the people are very clean, and extremely well dressed! Interestingly enough, Sweden is experiencing a huge boom in immigration, particularly from Balkan and East Europe countries. Likewise, there are also countless migrants from Africa, Southern Asia, and the Middle East as well, filling the streets of in the cities, selling interesting things.

When I first arrived in Stockholm and was frantically trying to find a bus to Uppsala (where the University is located), I met an interesting guy who had been living in Sweden for 10 years, despite being half Polish and half Greek. We were even fortunate to find that the bus driver did not care if we had tickets or not (there were only 3 people on the bus), and we rode for free since the website to buy tickets online was malfunctioning. On our journey, I told my new Greek/Polish friend about my life as a volunteer:

- "Yeah, I am an American volunteer living in Macedonia,but I am actually half German."

- He frowned, "Hmm..I see. You should probably never go to Greece then. Make up a new story if you do."

Lesson learned. Never be German and go to Greece on holiday because they will blame you for every problem in their country. Likewise, don't tell them you're Macedonian unless you want a long lecture about how 'you know nothing about history' and that Greece is the cradle of civilization in Europe... Clearly my new friend was misinformed, and that the only country that truly matters is the good ol' US of A. However, he helped me greatly and even took me around the city of Uppsala on a bike when we arrived.

Uppsala itself is a great town, it has a beautiful cathedral in the center and an amazingly vibrant student life. The academic programs there are some of the best in Europe (and definitely the best in Scandinavia). I visited the university, toured the campus and the faculty, and learned a little bit more about the program. As appealing as it may be, I worry that during the winter I will literally freeze to death since I was there for 6 days in September and it never got above 50 degrees F.

 Here is the lovely cathedral in the center of the city. It was built in the 13th and is still the tallest cathedral in Scandinavia. What a cool fact! I just learned that from Wikipedia.

 Here is one of the buildings to the university. Daunting, and with such fantastic architecture. I realize that almost 100% of my photographs were of buildings on this trip.

Here is going towards the main part of the town. This was an old bridge, and really really beautiful! Also you may notice the bicycles everywhere. I have never seen more bicycles in my entire life than in Sweden. The whole country is like a big Portland stereotype.

Following my brief stay in Uppsala, I was also able to hang out a bit in Stockholm, Malmo, and I spent an afternoon in Copenhagen just across the channel. It was an amazing experience overall. To get to the south, I took what amounted to 5.5 hours of Scandinavian trains, to transverse a huge span of the country. I had a break in Stockholm to check out some sites and speak Serbian with a local Turkish man who was selling doner kebabs. He was very proud of the fact that he spoke Swedish, Turkish, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, English (not at all well), and German. But when you can speak that many different languages, I don't think English even matters anymore.

Interestingly, while I was on the train to Malmo, I met a family who were speaking in a language dangerously similar to Macedonian, so after an hour of arguing with myself for being anti-social, I said hello and asked them where they were from. They were so excited to talk! As it turned out, they were a family from Serbia (near Novi Sad) and they were living in Sweden for work and to give their children more opportunities. They were confused why I, an American, was speaking Serbo/Macedonian (yes, that is my new dialect I made up after spending too much time with my girlfriend in her Serbian-speaking village of Rankovce), and what I was doing visiting Sweden alone. Sometimes I don't think Balkan people can understand the concept of being alone. To them, it is the same as being lonely.. which is very negative. As an American, the personal time alone is crucial, and traveling alone is the most relaxing. Throughout our talk, I found myself saying, quite often, "Ја не разумем много.. " or "I really don't understand very much..." It was humbling.

Here is a clock in Stockholm... and some poor fellow whose job it is to support it.

 Swedish flags! These were near a traditional Swedish restaurant, which I could never, ever afford, even if my monthly paycheck wasn't in Macedonian Denars.

Near the river! This was another really cool old church that I got a chance to photograph. I have this thing for architecture and I miss teaching it at Oklahoma State.

The final leg of my trip took me to Malmo and Copenhagen, which for me was the best part of the entire adventure. I had heard stories about Malmo, and how it was dirty, crime-ridden  and crowded with foreigners. Never have I ever been so wrong. The city is incredibly clean and very modern, yet it maintains its old town medieval charm. While there are many foreign born people in the city, it doesn't feel at all dangerous or unclean. Every type of restaurant, except Korean unfortunately, can be found there, and while it is all still very expensive, its not criminally overpriced like most of Sweden.

Here is Malmo's famous building by Santiago Calatrava, the 'Turning Torso'. I told my host that he should move to an apartment inside and he just laughed and asked if that was more important than eating for the entire month. Yes. Yes it is.

...and here we are again at dusk. I really loved this building, and I took about 40 pictures of it.

 

Hello Copenhagen! I was unaware that a city could be more expensive than Sweden, thank you for proving me wrong. This is the famous port in the city with all the cafes and old style buildings. Its quite pretty.

Apparently you are not supposed to go within 2 meters of the guards, or they can rightfully take your ass out. Nobody told me that... and this gentleman with the fuzzy cap looks quite unhappy on my encroachment into his personal space.

 So. Much. Beautiful. Architecture.

Here is a nice view of Copenhagan from atop on of the towers.I was outraged that I had to pay 2 Euro to climb to the top, but the view may or may not have been worth it.. I will let you decide.

The coolest part of my trip, aside seeing my good friend Rune in Denmark for the whole afternoon, was that I finally had a chance to couch surf while in Malmo. I stayed with a total stranger, based on reviews from two friends and the website, couchsurfing.org, and had the time of my life. My new friend took me around the city, showed me all sorts of cool (and cheap) places to eat, and even cooked pasta one night. I think from now on it will be the only way I stay in foreign cities... You save money and learn about everything from an entirely local perspective - it is really cool.

I think the second best part of the trip though, was visiting Christiana, which is the hardcore hippy commune in Copenhagen. This place is a Libertarian's wet dream. The government doesn't come in to regulate it, so drugs are sold openly in the streets. While there is the general rule of 'no hard drugs', there are still a wide array of different types of marijuana, hash and  mushrooms. While the whole community is controlled by drug cartels; the overall mood is reminiscent of Haight-Ashbury in the late 1960's and people are just happy to hang out. The zero tolerance for cameras however is the only reason I don't have any nice pictures to share with you.

Please enjoy this fountain of a small, silly looking man instead as a consolation prize. Welcome to Scandinavia!

Exchanging Youths on the Shores of Ohrid

Welcome everyone, back to the world's most neglected blog. I realize now that I am writing this in the beginning of October, and it has been over two months since I have added any information about my life in Macedonia. In short, it has been quite busy these few months. The events of summer in Bitola have come to a close. BitFest. the 60 day long multi-cultural event which flooded our city with performances, concerts, art exhibitions and various creative works has finally drawn to a close. Many of the tourists and Macedonian diaspora have returned back to their countries. Throughout the summer, there were more cars from Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria than from Macedonia. Simultaneously, the Sirok Sokok was litered with extended family members returning to Macedonia from Canada, Australia and New Jersey.

Now the question to ask is, 'what does a Peace Corps Volunteer have to do in these last few days of summer while everyone is returning back to their homes?' Youth exchanges! Our organization, Together Macedonia, has been fortunate enough to hold two youth exchanges in the past month; one in the beginning of September and one at the end.

Those of you who are non-European Union citizens may probably be wondering, 'what is a youth exchange?' Well, a youth exchange is an excellent program funded by the Youth in Action project and the European Commission. It is designed to combine workshops with cultural immersion on a variety of different topics. For example, our first exchange lasted for eight days, in the lakeside community of Gradiste, Macedonia. The topic of this exchange was 'I Know my Rights,' and focused mainly on human rights involving migration, marriage equality and global issues such as human trafficking and modern day slavery. For the project, I got to lead the Macedonian team as group leader, which means I was responsible for the well-being of all my participants. Being from the hosting organization, I was also responsible for all the logistical support, organizing people to and from airports and bus stations, as well as leading a tour in the UNESCO protected old town of Ohrid.

Here are some of the best photo's from the exchange:

 This was the sunset from our little villa on the shores of Ohrid. The mountains across the water are in Albania. Very rarely in my life have I been blessed with any site more beautiful than this every evening. The only rain was on the final day when the participants all left back to their home countries; as if Macedonia was lamenting our departure.

Visiting the Ohrid Opstina as a part of our tour. Here we have a traditional band playing while our participants dance in anticipation for the tour ahead of them. 

 The 'Museum on the Water', one of the key tourist attractions in Gradiste. They refused to believe I was a student and charged me a full 100 denars ($2) to enter. I was furious...

...But I found my future house! I convinced a nice family from Negotino to help me take this picture to send to the gf, who ironically, has the exact same picture of herself. It was almost like somebody planned it!

The King and Queen of Gradiste in their royal attire (complete with Ray Bans) and fitted crowns made of leaves. This was an awesome training exercise known as the 'Royal Debate' where the King and Queen chose participants and made them debate moral and ethical questions about European Union and human rights.

Our group (and only Ivan's head) on the night of our bye bye party. What a tremendous group of talented young people. The members from this exchange came from Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Czech Republic and the UK.

Continuing on in the month of September, Together Macedonia held a second exchange, this time located in Bitola rather than along the lake. Unlike the first exchange, the topic of this session was about sports and social inclusion within the European Union. Unfortunately I arrived on the third day after the exchange had already started due to the fact that I was in Sweden on a na gosti (visit) to Uppsala University. (P.S. a full report on the Swedish Adventure is to follow in the coming days).

However, I jumped right into the project as soon as I returned, although due to several delays and poor management by Wizzair, that return was postponed many many hours. Fortunately, all the participants on the exchange were friendly and easy going. While the topic was not as interesting to me as human rights and political freedom, the exchange was still a good time. There were many physical activities included, such as an exhausted trek up the mountain to the lodge of Neolica, a day at the local technical school to use their gym and climbing wall facilities, and of course, another day trip to Ohrid.

Check out some more photos from the second exchange here:

Half of our group after an exciting morning visiting the local Opstina in Bitola. We have participants from Serbia, Albania, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Macedonia.

The weathered and beaten testaments to communism that still reside in various places in Macedonia are my favorite thing about this country. Here we have an awesome old monument commemorating the Partizan's defeating the fascists. The text says „Народ за доен со борбата за слобода, никогаш не умира“ or in English, 'People who nurse with the fight for freedom, can never die.' I dig it.

 Polish participant Daniel, races to the Fico out of sheer excitement. Above, the beautiful skies smile down on such a testament to Yugoslavian craftsmanship.

 The view from Neolica is fabulous. This is about halfway up to the top of the mountain, not the big mountain by the way, the smaller mountain. Still the view is stunning.

Final night on the exchange, so why not learn some Macedonian oro? Here we have the group (trying to) learn the steps to 'Makedonsko Devojche', the most classic oro in all of the country.

These exchanges took a total of three weeks from my life, but they made the month of September just fly by; completely unlike the time spent waiting in the airport to return to Macedonia from Malmo. However, that's a story for a future day.

A Festival for all the Beers

Good evening friends! Mid July is bringing lots of exciting changes in Macedonia. First up, the weather finally feels like summer has arrived. I wake up every morning, completely soaked with sweat in the hot-box that I call my apartment bedroom. 90 Degrees everyday from 9 am? It's still much cooler than living in Oklahoma. While this may seem negative, trust me, it is far better than the blowing cold winters that freeze the Turkish coffees in the gezve (the device for making this type of coffee) and buries the city in a layer of ice and snow.

No no no.. The summer is a much better time. There is tourists everywhere, clogging the thoroughfare on the Sirok Sokok; like the cholesterol from too many Big Macs clogging the arteries of Americans from Maine to Hawaii. Aside from the rampant Australians everywhere in the city, there have been cars pouring in from all over Europe. Like usual, I am extremely excited about seeing these foreign license plates from places which were just names in an Atlas when I was a child. In my building in Bitola, there are two new cars both from Germany in the parking lot. Many Macedonians work in Germany during the year,while still having family here in Bitola. Also, there have been many cars from Sweden, Austria and Switzerland everywhere in the city.

One of the more exciting events that have taken place in the past week has been PIVO FEST, or for those of you in the English world, BEER FEST! Here is the flyer from the event:

Here is our completely incorrect list of available beers. Much to my dismay, Erdinger and Jelen were both missing from this event... My hopes for a delicious German Hefeweizen were crushed.

Despite the lack of German beers, the event was still a much greater variety than I could have asked for in the bars in Bitola. All the major names in Macedonia were present, as well as Union (from Slovenia), Becks (from Germany), Kamenitza (Bulgaria), and Tuborg (Denmark). There was also Lasko! My favorite Serbian beer aside from Jelen, and the beer I am currently drinking as I type this entry. After many many rounds of beers, I would consider the festival a big success, and I will do my best to summarize the days for you all with brief details and hazy memories.

Thursday: Arrival at the event. 4 adventurers (1 American and 3 Macedonians) set out from Bitola in an old Tico from the 1980s. The trip to Prilep is merely a 40 minute drive, filled with beautiful mountains and scenery. We congregate at a PCV's flat outside the center of the city, proceeding to drink rakija and Krali Marko (the Natural Light of Macedonian beers). After some time, we venture to the festival that is full of volunteers and all sorts of friends. We drink approximately 7 or 8 beers throughout the course of the evening. The headlining performance is a group called 2Cellos from Croatia. They give an epic performance and the drunken crowd is pleased. Around 3 I walk across the city after attempting to speak Macedonian with the brewing company from my city. Our host is missing when I return and the guests are sleeping on the stoop.

2 Cellos! Great performance from these awesome Croats! I couldn't get a very good picture from where we were standing but the music was great and everyone had a good time.

Friday: Waking up in an uncomfortably hot sauna with 5 Americans, sleeping on the floor, in chairs and on the small sofa. People open a 2 liter bottle of beer. Another day, another denar. We eat delicious Thai food on the way to the center to meet the other Americans. We play a giant game of chess near the center and drink coffees. I, remember my disaster games of chess versus the ex convicts in Cleveland while working for the CMSD decline to play and watch from the sidelines. Drinking continues throughout the day. Sunburn continues throughout the day. We see a sign that says 'Collect 7 cups, recieve one free beer'. Search all afternoon for the space to deposit our cups to collect said beer. Never exists. By accident at 10 pm, I stumble across the location that distributes the free beers! After hours of carrying cups, I am ecstatic. Accept free Zlaten Dab. Zlaten Dab in Macedonian means 'Golden Dab'. Please don't confuse this with 'Zlatna Zora', which is not a beer, but a right-wing hate group in Greece that targets immigrants and praises Hitler. Continue drinking all evening, return to the apartment. Sleep on floor with kitten named 'Megatron'. 

Team Kumanovo is planning their next move. Step 1) Beer. Step 2) Chess. Step 3) ????? Step 4) Profit?

Saturday: Liver is angry with my life decisions at this point. Decide its best to have a water instead of a beer. Eat a massive pizza near the center. Disappointed with the state of affairs that have led to this choice to eat massive pizza. Sulk to the bus station. Take bus back to Bitola. Guy on bus next to me has the same phone as me (for the record I hate this phone and will never buy an LG again). Point out this interesting fact to the guy with the phone. He shrugs. Chance for making conversation with a stranger ruined. Arrive home in Bitola. Sleep for the rest of the weekend and do not drink any more alcohol until writing this blog.

All in all, the event was pretty successful, and the weather was great. I will finish up with some local pictures from Bitola that were taken recently and some good news with work. Work has been fairly exciting in the past months, mainly due to the flood of activities occuring during the summer festivals. There is always something to do, a performance to watch, and an activity to take part in. For the fall, I have been gearing up to begin my own project in Bitola that is part of the ongoing and successful CLIPS project that essentially is an advanced and professional develop program for interested students who want to learn how to become better suited for the working and academic environment. While the project is still in its planning stages, I have never been more excited to take charge of something like this. I am making this my pet project for the upcoming year and have many goals for it, since it is closely related with my own future goals of working with universities. Lets hope it all goes well!

No big deal here, just me standing on a tank that was formerly in the command of the JNA (Jugoslavian National Army).  Once a machine of war, it is now a favorite for the children to climb on and take photos. I think this is a much more applicable use for several tons of steel.

The encroaching storm as seen from my balcony in Bitola. Its a stunning backdrop for sure. I still wake up in disbelief that I am a Peace Corps Volunteer some days and am lucky to be in such a lovely and dynamic place!