More Snow, Less Electricity

Hello patient readers, and welcome to February in Macedonia. Two weeks ago, we were blessed with this amazing break in the weather. For several days, I would wake up to bright sunshine penetrating through the blinds rather than the dull, overcast mornings that persisted through the majority of January. For these several days the temperature also reached a lovely high of approximately 12 degrees, Celsius, not Fahrenheit. It seemed that the all was going to be right in the world, that the spring would be fast approaching and all up hill from there. No. Two days after I awoke, wide-eyed and excited to begin another beautiful warm day, I was morbidly disturbed to walk outside into drifts of snow and the cold driving winds that Bitola is known for during the winter months.

Here comes the snow, yet again! While this photo may be picturesque and pretty to all you out there who LOVE snow, and enjoy the cold weather, for me it is not so. 

On a better note, my apartment has electricity again. Now, I know full well that it is extremely selfish to complain about losing power as a Peace Corps Volunteer (since there are PCVs in other countries without power or running water for two years), but this past week, half of the fuses in my apartment decided to blow, leaving me without lights or hot water. Ironically enough, it only affected the light switches, leaving all the outlets in my apartment functional. If I had a lamp that plugged into the wall, I could have had light... yet alas, I have no such lamp in my apartment. So the only working light source available was my laptop screen, and the blinking green light on the wireless router. For three nights, I had to conduct my work by the pulsating glow of the router, after visits by my coworkers, landlady, neighbors, and finally, an actual electrician who fixed the problem in approximately 32 seconds.

During this miniature electricity crisis, my body also decided that it hated me and everything happy in my life. I started feeling flu like symptoms on the first day I noticed that there was no longer any hot water or lights. This quickly degenerated into being completely incapable of leaving my bed for two whole days, and sleeping for approximately 18 hours. Fortunately, without electricity and a sunset that occurs around 4 pm, sleeping for 18 hours is an easy accomplishment.

Finally getting back to work, we have a number of very exciting activities and changes coming to the organization. Sadly, our EVS volunteer from Turkey finished her six months of service, and moved home to Istanbul. But this week, we also welcomed a new volunteer from Turkey who will be working with Together Macedonia for the next four weeks (short term service). There are some exciting workshops coming up with the organization, including a Speed-Dating event for Valentines Day that I will be the photographer for. The following week will begin my English Conversation Hour, on Tuesdays. I am very excited for this opportunity, because I will be structuring it differently from last years session. We will be focusing more on casual conversation and American pop culture, television and music. This provides me an opportunity to share shows with the Macedonian youth (18 - 25) such as Always Sunny in Philidelphia, Southpark, Family Guy, Futurama, Friends and Seinfeld. We will watch American shows, listen to American music, and then discuss its value and relativity in today's society. I have high hopes, since it would be a terrible shame if the younger generation abroad was subjected only to American culture via The Jersey Shore and Top 40 songs from the radio.