Welcoming the New Year

It is mid-January now in Macedonia, which would normally mean by this time (especially in Bitola) that the current outside temperature should be -10 degrees Celsius and all signs of life outside temporarily cease to exist. However, this is currently not the case. As I sit currently in the office and stare out the window at the Shirok Sokok, it is a dreary and rainy day, with the temperature hanging out around 8 degrees Celsius. As the rest of Europe is currently in a ‘deep freeze’, potentially the second Ice Age due to global climate change, I briefly consider the possibility that Bitola has switched roles with foggy, rainy London. Being someone who despises the cold weather, I cannot complain too much, for me this is much preferable to everything being coated in thick ice and meters of snow.

There is snow on the distant peak of Pelister, but there is none here on the ground. The streets and rooftops are nice and dry!

The start of the New Year means lots of exciting things going on all over the country. First on the list is an exciting New Years Eve celebration. Now each town in Macedonia has different traditions, and from what most people have told me, a majority of people (especially the younger crowd) flock to Skopje for a raucous evening on the town, much like people would in Times Square. However, living in the second largest city in Macedonia also has a plethora of benefits. Here we had a massive gathering in the town center; a few thousand people, and listened to live music, drank rakija, and watched the fireworks. Firework safety in Macedonia however, is hilariously nonexistent as compared to the U.S, where people will freak out for selling M-80s and fireworks must be set off from a safe distance. In Bitola, there is not a chance in hell of this type of micromanagement. The epicenter of the show was from the roof of an embassy in the town square. The fireworks exploded directly overhead of the massive crowd to the point of where if you starred at the sky, the remnants of phosphorus and shrapnel would rain down into your eyes. After the celebrations, the streets remained full of people into the wee hours of the morning, with children throwing firecrackers at things (and people) while the revelers stumbled back to their warm homes.

So an interesting fact, the "Christmas Tree" in Macedonia is actually used to symbolize New Years instead of Christmas. When I think of people in the United States, up in arms about some bullshit 'War on Religion' over saying, 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas,' I can just smile, because the religious holidays here are personal and spent with family while the big, fun, secular holidays are celebrated by everyone.

Following New Years is a slew of Macedonian holidays; including Bozik (Orthodox Christmas), Stara Nova Godina (Old New Year), and Vodica (the Orthodox equivalent of the ‘polar bear swim’). I, like many other of the MAK 17s, decided to use the week of vacation to travel back to Kratovo to spent time with my host family and see some friends. Spending time with the family during the Macedonian holidays is extremely similar to the United States. There is a tradition of lying around all day and eating, visiting family members and sitting awkwardly because you still cannot speak much of the language (still!), and watching movie after movie on TV. Overall, visiting the family during the holiday is great! If Bitola was closer to Kratovo, I would come back much more frequently… but considering it takes approximately six hours to go, I feel it is best to save the trips home for special occasions.

Visiting Kratovo gave me lots of time to go visit friends and take scenic pictures of the town. This is from the front yard of my 'cousin's house in Kratovo. 

I had some new housemates to visit when I went home to Kratovo. These fellas were hanging out in our garden, waiting for the right time to be deliciously butchered and cooked. Looks like their chickens have come home to roost, bawk bawk!

The biggest adventure by far from the trip was returning back to my site in Bitola. First, I had to catch the bus to Skopje, which is relatively difficult because there are only a few per day in Kratovo. The first bus was insanely crowded, with half the passengers standing like the Tokyo Metro, and the driver looked at my suitcase and just shook his head, “nema mesto dechko.” Since there was no space, I waited two hours for the second bus to arrive, while the temperature outside was -5 (but felt like -50). The next bus, probably built during the 1920s, decided around Kumanovo that it was tired of living, and died on the side of the highway. This meant another hour waiting for a new bus, while the other passengers rotated on and off the bus, chain-smoking cigarettes like Joe Cool. By the time we arrived in Skopje, it was 7:40, and I was delighted to learn that the last train to Bitola left at 7:30. Ten minutes, seriously!? All I could do was catch the next bus, which was another 2 hours of waiting, followed by 3.5 hours of traveling, all the way back home. I left my family in Kratovo at 2:30, and finally arrived to my apartment at 12:30; angry, exhausted, but generally relieved to finally be able to sleep.

Back to Bitola also means back to work! We started off the New Year with more meetings, and new plans for the upcoming spring. Some of the plans include new exchanges, new EVS volunteers, and some opportunity to travel. The trip I am most excited for is Montenegro, which was pushed back to later in the Spring, so that the weather will be better. For now, it will be sometime in late April, hopefully not the same weekend as the Peace Corps in-service training. I have exciting plans to take a day trip from the exchange to visit Kotor and Budva, two very old and beautiful ancient cities that 99% of Americans do not know exist. The exchange itself will be exciting as well, since the topic will be “Youth, Media, and Democracy,” three topics that I will be getting to know very well in the next two years with Together.

Even more exciting news, I was finally able to eat at the Thai restaurant in Prilep. Officially the only Thai restaurant in Macedonia, it is also extremely delicious (albeit somewhat expensive). For me, someone who is kitchen illiterate, making a day trip to the City of Monkeys (weird nickname, I know), hanging out with some friends, and stopping by the restaurant is a very worthy day trip. Hopefully there will be many more day trips in the near future that I can take my camera along for, and upload proper photographs to this blog. As of now, I am still a slave to the ease and accessibility of Instagram.

Feast your eyes on the only Thai restaurant in all of Macedonia. The owner is actually from Thailand, somehow he moved to Macedonia, married a Macedonian woman, and by some miracle, opened up this restaurant in Prilep. I feel like fate has brought him to us, and give thanks on behalf of all the PCVs in Macedonia.

Happiness comes in many varieties. For me, it is always through traveling, eating delicious food, and learning new and exciting things. This upcoming week, I will be blessed enough to return to Skopje to pick up some things from the office, and this adventure will afford me the chance to eat at the one and only sushi restaurant in Macedonia. Surely there will be photos to document the adventure!