Furthermore, Peace Corps was kind enough to offer us a very nice hotel in the capital and to give us 300 denars each evening to buy food with. For me, this is like a golden ticket. Normally for dinner in Bitola, I either starve to death or eat whatever snacks don't require cooking. Sometimes, if I am really lucky, I will go out to buy a sandwich or a fold-over pizza at one of the little shops near the apartment. Some days I even find people willing to sit through an entire meal with me at a restaurant.. For our training in Skopje however, every night was an entire meal in the restaurant! On top of that, Skopje actually has options for 'international cuisine'. I am pleased to announce that there are now TWO, I repeat, TWO!! Indian restaurants in Skopje. Both with absolutely delicious food. Also, there is one sushi restaurant and two Chinese restaurants, as well as two Mexican places. As a resident of Bitola, where the only 'International' option is pizza completely drowned with mayonnaise and ketchup, I can fully appreciate this variety.
Alright! So about this conference. The Peace Corps event was the in-service technical training, which is the first of many in-service trainings that we are heavily persuaded (meaning, we have no choice but to attend) into attending. With the seminar, we talk about thrilling topics such as 'how to fill out your VRF (volunteer reporting form), raising money with grants, and how to adjust to differences in working culture. This one poses the most interesting challenge for me. My organization still has this idea of how Americans are supposed to be, and how they work - all Americans are hardworking, on-time, and love being creative. I am about as opposite of this idea as humanly possible. For starters, and with all-due respect to myself, I am a lazy ass.. and I gave up on the concept of 'being on-time' to things the very second our plane touched down in Skopje. Mostly because, in general, Macedonians always run late to things... which to me is perfect, I can totally accept meeting people at 10 when we agree to be somewhere at 9:30.
Secondly, we are having issues with ideas and creativity. This is a difficult thing to grasp with the nature of my job, mainly because I have zero experience in this field of work - or this style of work. While I am constantly being asked for ideas of workshops and exchanges to write, I am asking "what makes a good workshop or exchange?" I have never been to a youth exchange, and every workshop I have ever attended has been a form of slow torture... where after 15 minutes, I have completely stopped paying attention to whomever is speaking. Some days I really do not feel I am a good match for this type of work. I am much more comfortable teaching things that I know, and leading class discussions than I am at developing workshop programs and sitting at a desk all day. However, these are not my things to decide. As much as I would love to give lectures at the university here or the economics school - my duty is to remain as lost and confused in the NGO sector as possible.
So many frustrations! I apologize for that unintelligible rambling, but it is difficult to discuss these issues without somehow pissing someone off, somewhere. Speaking of frustrations, the youth exchange that I was to take part in - in Montenegro, was unfortunately cancelled... thus dashing my hopes and dreams of escaping from Macedonia for at least a few days. However, last weekend, in spite of the trip being cancelled, I decided it would be best to take a weekend vacation to Sofia, just for a change of scenery.
Let me walk you through the grand adventure! Complete with stories, pictures, and our country director. So this journey began like any other.. except that it didn't, because I left Bitola at 3:10 in the morning, after not being able to sleep for some unknown reason, and taking the lovely train to Skopje. Arriving at 7 am, I had two hours to hang out, drink coffee and chain smoke a pack of Ron Hill Menthols before the crew converged on the station to set off for Sofia. Normally the bus ride to Sofia is a little over four hours, however... when you factor in the border crossing, you may as well add an extra two hours for the bus. Lucky for us, when we stepped off of the bus at the border, we were greeted by our country director! Driving in his fancy SUV with diplomatic plates, he was there to remind us that 'we cannot escape this country without him knowing, he will always know.' I was just happy that I had done the Peace Corps approved thing and turned in a vacation request form.
Welcome to Bulgaria, where your Macedonian nationality isn't recognized and your heroes are all Slavic. Since Bulgarians think that Macedonians are just Bulgarians with accents, the relations between the two countries are less than steller. Possibly an underlying reason that it took a few years for us to simply pass into the country.
And then we arrived in Sofia, which was to be fair, quite the opposite of everything else. The city was lively, full of beautiful eclectic architecture, mixed with Russian Bourgeoisie styles and lingering Ottoman influence. Sofia, or "София ", is a very old city... with a long history foreign occupiers and cultural exchange (much like Macedonia). Formerly a Thracian settlement during the era of Philip II (of Macedonia - obviously), the city was under the rule of the Huns, the Slavs, the Ottomans, the Russians, etc. In fact, their Cyrilic alphabet, is the most similar to the modern Russian alphabet of all the Slavic countries, notice the 'io" looking character and the backwards 'R', with exception of Belarus and Ukraine. There are many reminders of this this foreign influence in the city, with beautiful results.
Here is the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia. The style is much different from the Byzantine influence that is elsewhere, and the cross itself is different (with two horizontal bars, and one diagonal). This was on the walking tour of Sofia we participated in the second day.
Here is perhaps the most famous church in all of Bulgaria. The second largest in the Balkans, this is St. Alexander Nevsky's Cathedral. Who is Alexander Nevsky? Why, he is also a Russian of course! While the style is completely different, there are some Russian influences... including the 3 bar-cross on the front, and the golden domes.
Here at the end of the prominade, you can see the church of St. Nedelya. The patron saint of Sunday (Nedela). This is a much older church, build in the Medieval style sometime around the 10th Century.
This was just a beautiful building I saw while on a walk down a side street near the hostel. I thought the color and style was spectacular and well contrasted against the bright sky.
Overall, it was a very solid three day vacation and could not have come at a better or more welcomed time. During the short time I was there, I visited Starbucks, ate sushi, drank amazing European beers, and basked in the glow of being an entire country's distance from any sort of responsibility related to work. It was an absolutely glorious feeling. One day I will be sure to go back and see some more of the town that I missed during the short excursion. It is a good mental preparation to travel, and in a few short weeks, I will (hopefully) be heading to Estonia to experience a youth exchange.
This is quite a lengthy post, I will save the stories from the First of May for another entry, filled with even more beautiful pictures of Macedonia.
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