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!

Estonia and Italy and the Beginning of Bit Fest

Well, it has certainly been a long time since I have updated any of my avid readers with some new and tantalizing stories from my Peace Corps travels, so I apologize profusely for so much slacking. Well, after a brief break, I am back in Macedonia and back to our very busy summer schedule of holding workshops and planning events. For two weeks, I was on a work-sanctioned trip to participate in and held organize a youth exchange in Estonia. The best part of work-sanctioned trips means that at no point during this awesome adventure with my counterpart, was I required to use vacation days. On the downside, I was technically still working everyday on activities.

However, the youth exchange was an awesome program and a truly interesting way to meet excited and active young people around the world. For this exchange, we had participants from Estonia, Poland, Turkey, and our group from Slovenia/Macedonia. Sticking people in a small town in rural Estonia is the best way to learn each others cultures and to form great friendships. The theme of this youth exchange was 'Media in Action' and thus the participants were divided into three groups connected to media projects. One group worked on projects related to photography, one with video, and the third group connected them all with social media.

The groups were relatively successful in their categories, however, the most exciting part of the exchange was being able to travel and see both Tallinn and Narva, two very unique and interesting cities in Estonia. Our first day trip with the group took us from our town, Sillamäe, to the very Russian city of Narva. I am going to take a brief second to talk about our town, Sillamäe, first though. During the Soviet days of the USSR, this town was the site of a hidden nuclear research facility, and was what is referred to as a 'closed city'. Closed cities during this era were fairly common, and no one without authorized Kremlin permission was granted access to the town. While most people were upset that we were so removed from civilization, I thought this historical information was incredibly interesting. As a result of this, approximately 95% of the town is Russian, rather than Estonian. The city of Narva however, is closer to 99% Russian, considering it is one of only two border crossings with their former comrades. 

 Here is one of the two border crossings with Russia in the country. Although the Estonia flag looks like its over there, it is on the EU side of the border. I wanted to go across but without paying for the ridiculous visa cost for Americans, it is impossible.

This is the castle at Narva on the Estonia side of the river. It was really old and pretty amazing to visit. I am fairly certain it was built by the Danes in 13th Century. Like Macedonia and South Korea, Estonia has a long history of foreign invaders. 

Here is a photo of the Russian castle across the river. Although we couldn't go, we could still wave at the tourists there and take pictures. It is probably the closest I will ever get to Russia. 

Here is our happy group of Macedonians hanging out in the castle. From here you can see both sides of the river. 

Continuing on our fun adventure, the following Saturday we were given the opportunity to spend the entire day in Tallinn.It was a great adventure and we decided that after the exchange, to spend a few more days in the city to take it all in. The city contains so much interesting architecture and history, including the old defense towers, monumental Russian Orthodox churches, and all sorts of Gothic and Classical style buildings. I won't bore you with the details, just give you some of the pictures from the journey, as well as some pictures of our stay in Sillamäe. 

 Checking out the view from the top of the hill in Tallinn. Awesome view, and in the background you can see the old towers and the steeple of St. Olaf's Cathedral. 

Here is the Russian Orthodox Church that is located conveniently across the street from the houses of Parliament.  So polite and considerate of the Russians to put it so close to their Estonia friend's government offices.

 This picture I just happened to enjoy. It was taken while walking down the narrow alleys that comprise the Old Town, which is in the center of Tallinn.

 Here is one of those very narrow streets mentioned above. This flag is not Estonia, it is from the Lithuanian Embassy that is in Tallinn.

 Gothic towers and  pretty flowers. That is all there is here.

Another narrow alley with the cobblestone street. Like in Macedonia, many of the streets in Old Town are the original cobblestones  It gives a very real feel to the city.

 Back in beautiful Sillamäe, here are the famous 'stairs' that our tourguide claimed to be a Wonder of the World. Town pride has to start somewhere. The town hall in the background is quite stunning though.

 Russian typewriter from the museum. Badass.

 ЖИГУЛИ! Surviving the Cold War and still running.

This is perhaps the single most amazing thing about being in Estonia in June. Its at such a high lattitude that the sun never really sets. This photograph was taken around 11 pm. At 2 am, it becomes a little more dark, however, the sun rises again at 3. Perfect for partying all summer long.

After saying goodbye to Estonia (and my phone charger at the hostel, unfortunately) we were headed off to Milan, where we had a full 26 hours to enjoy the country until we had to leave the next day. Now many of you in America have this beautiful notion of what Milan 'should' be:

    "Wow! Its the fashion capitol of the world!"
    "Milan!? The Center of Culture in Italy and the Renessaince!"

    "Ooooh Italy, the pasta is so good and the lifestyle is wonderful!"

...And then you come back to reality and realize that, yes you are in Italy, and there are more immigrants and tourists than actual Italian people. The over-hyped ideal of the city contrasted to the reality was a complete reminder of being in Paris in 2008. While I truly enjoyed the experience, people overly romanticize these places and imagine them to be something they are not. In reality, Milan is a city of vast 'have's and have-not's, much like New York City, Paris, and London. We met many people who were foreign to the city, searching for a better life by escaping the poverty of their own country, only to be impoverished and homeless living in a new country.

While hiding out at the local McDonald's  we even met a homeless man from Bangladesh, who joined our table, ate our french fries  and blamed me (as an American) for killing of Muslim people worldwide while the media ignored the issue. Inspiring. Sleeping all night in the public park produced many of the same results; with people on drugs being treated by EMTs and a Roma woman who looked approximately 14 years old, going into labor in front of that same McDonalds. All in all, after sleeping for 45 minutes during the entire trip through the country, I can say I have had enough excitement traveling in Italy for a lifetime.

This park was one beautiful exception in Milan Center. In the middle of the concrete (and mostly ornate marble) jungle, this park was wonderful. Many people were riding bikes everywhere in the city!  

 Walking through the city of Milan, there was a huge international festival, despite the fact that everyday is an international festival in this giant mess of a city. We searched for hours and couldn't find the Macedonian flag represented. Here is our good buddy Ilija with the flag of our friendly neighbors over in Albania.

 Lots of coffee, no sleep and the sun is starting to set on the Duomo di Milano. This massive cathedral is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen, it took 6 centuries to complete, and we had the luxury of sleeping on a bench in front of it!

 Here is our brief nap on that bench next to the cathedral. Overall, there are worse places to be homeless for the night.

 Following our lovely evening as Milano vagrants, we were off on the train towards the East. We had a brief stop in the city of Vicenza, which compared to the cluttered and polluted industrial hub of Milan, it was like being in a beautiful Italian villa. Here are some of the old buildings in the square.

 Vinceza houses along the river bank.

Such a magnificent old bridge! This town is beautiful!

Upon returning to Macedonia, I wouldn't change a thing about our trip. Everything was exactly what an adventure should be. With zero planning, and no expectations, everything turned out to be fabulous. We made a ton of new international friends on this trip, and were given such a wonderful opportunity to learn. Much knowledge was gained about new cultures, and I for one, learned that Estonia has one of the better brewing companies I have sampled since moving to Europe. One day I will go back and buy cases of Saku to smuggle into Macedonia.

Once back in Bitola, things slowly returned to normal, currently we are in the middle of our massive summer festival, Bit Fest, which is a wild two month long festival full of daily concerts, parties, plays, workshops, and various other activities. Recently I have been holding a workshop for drawing comics (something I have zero experience with), and working with youth volunteers to help organize things. It's a real challenge but rewarding, plus it is always better than sitting all day in an office.

I realize this is an overly long blog post, and from now on, I will try to make these posts shorter and more frequent, maybe with pictures and quick descriptions. It is much more intriguing to the reader to see my life, rather than listen to my mundane details and stories.

A Week Full of Celebrations

Now, I know what you are all thinking. Its only the 9th of May, and this is already the second post for the month. Astonishing, right? However, the past week has been full of holidays and fun adventures, so I feel that it is my sworn duty as a Peace Corps Volunteer, to report on all of the excitement.

May 1st is an important holiday in Macedonia, mainly because its the equivalent of Labor Day in the United States. Just like in the United States, nobody goes to work on this day and everyone takes the day off to hang out in the great outdoors, picnic with friends, and enjoy the nice spring day. This year, I joined some of my Macedonian friends for a roadtrip from Bitola to one of the most famous monasteries at Sv. Naum. The monastery was established in 905 by St. Naum of Ohrid, and he is buried in the church. I was told that if you listened closely, you can hear his heartbeat. I paid 50 denars to go inside and see if this was true, but sadly I couldn't hear anything.. Such an outrage! I am  glad I was able to 'sneak in' by only paying the Macedonian price, rather than the international tourist price. If there is anything I gained from my language training... its how to buy something, tell people my name is Darko, and pretend that I am from here until they realize how terribly my accent is and that I don't understand anything they are telling me.

Anywho! The monastery is by far one of the most beautiful places I have been thus far in Macedonia. Its literally situated on the bank of Lake Ohrid, and is only a few kilometers from the Albanian border. Actually, driving down the mountain from Lake Prespa, at the summit you can see both Lake Prespa, Lake Ohrid, Macedonia and Albania. Its quite an impressive view, and extremely high up. Even on our very warm day, about 80 degrees Farenheit, there was still plenty of snow at the peak. However, the coolest part to me was the current residents of the monastery, dozens of beautiful, brightly colored peacocks. They roam the grounds, eating bread from the tourists, and pecking at the children who try to touch them. In fact,there are signs posted all around that proclaim the dangers of leaving your kids unattended near the birds:

"Warning! The birds will fuck up your kids! Don't let them try to touch the peacocks"

I paraphrase, of course, yet, this is essentially what the signs say... in Macedonian and English! Here are some of my favorite shots from the monastery.

 The long road to Sveti Naum. We turned south at Resen, and headed for the hills in between the two lakes (Prespa and Ohrid). I was told very few people actually drive this road, and I was lucky that as a foreigner, I would get to see it. It was quite scenic. 

Here is the iconic monastery! This is one of the most beautiful monasteries in all of Macedonia. I argued with my friend Goran about which was more impressive, Sv. Naum (here) or Sv. Joakim Osogovski (Kriva Palanka). They're possibly the two fartherst apart in the country, and are so different in design and significance.  

Another shot of the towers, the building has had some additions, but its over 1000 years old. about 10 times older than the oldest buildings at Oklahoma State. Crazy. 

"Pretty bird... can you say, pretty bird!" 

"Peetie!? You sold my dead parakeet to a blind kid!?"
Here is the monastery's current residents, not parakeets, but gorgeous peacocks that eat children. This handsome guy posed for a picture.

After leaving the monastery, we drove from Sv. Naum, up the coast through Peshtani, and eventually to Ohrid. Ohrid is by far the most tourist-driven place I have been in the past 8 months. Everything there is designed for the throngs of people coming to admire the coast and soak up the culture. Ohrid is very interesting to me, because it seems to be much more culturally diverse than Bitola... and differences are more tolerated. I saw Albanian, Turkish, Macedonian and Greek people all in the same place.. and nobody was complaining about it. It was like an alternative universe.

Perhaps this is because the city is extremely accustomed to having many different people all of the time. In fact, much to the confusion and dismay of my friends, began to take a count of all the different countries license plates that I saw. Everytime I saw a new country, I would loudly proclaim how cool it was:

"Oh look! this car is from Geneva! WOW! How interesting!"

"Uh yeah man? That... is really awesome?"

This was the general trend of my conversations all day, however, over the course of the afternoon, I saw cars from 15 different countries:

Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Poland

I was even crazy enough to create a nice map of Europe, with Macedonia in red, to illustrate how far each of these cars had to travel to get to Ohrid. 

Clearly I have way too much free time on my hands... and should probably find a hobby, like painting or chasing girls. Admittedly, I am good at neither of those, so I will just stay weird. Here's the map I made, showing all the countries that were visiting Ohrid and Peshtani on May 1. However, I also saw a new Chevy Camero, with New York license, but its not on the map.

Also, here are some more of the photos from Ohrid.

What idiot would wave their 300 Euro camera out the window to take pictures? This idiot! The chase is on, down the mountain, through Peshtani, and to Ohrid we go!

Welcome to Ohrid, the fortress town on the lake. Up on the hill is the fortress, and near there is a very awesome church.

Welcoem to yet another monastery  This one is accompanied by ancient ruins from many many centuries ago. The church is not nearly as old, but the ancient pillars make for a nice decoration. 

Our May 1 Crew. Hanging out near the lake, enjoying the beautiful weather and a day off work.

That about sums up the vacation day for May 1. Following was a very nice celebration for Orthodox Easter. Originally I had planned to travel back to my home in Kratovo to visit the host family, however, after traveling all through the west of Macedonia just two days before, I figured it would be best to wait until the summer to stop by. For Orthodox Easter weekend, some friends from out of town stopped in to Bitola, and hung out for a few days. I met some great new volunteers who live in Skopje, and hopefully will be able to stop up and visit them before they return to their own country.

Until then, I have only three more weeks left until leaving for the exchange in Estonia. Plus an extra day of traveling in Tallinn and in Italy. I am more than excited. It will be nice to see some new things and update all the hungry readers back in the US about a Europe that is more than just the Paris, Rome and London.

Feeling Frustrated? Go on Holiday!

Good day everyone! So, it has officially come to my attention that I am the laziest blogger on the planet... After checking the history, it has been an entire month since I have posted anything. Yet, from the beginning of April to now, there has been so many exciting activities to discuss. The second week of April was very important, for this week, all the Peace Corps Volunteers from the MAK 17 group (all 36 of us) had to gather in Skopje for four days of Peace Corps mandated fun and training. Overall, it was actually quite nice because it was a great opporuntiy to catch up with other volunteers from around the country and to share stories of projects (or lack there-of) in different sites.

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.

Two hours later, we were finally leaving the border crossing and heading through the Bulgarian country-side. Now the Bulgarian countryside is actually quite pretty.. its exactly like in Macedonia, similar architecture, small town's, bullshit trivial politics, and in general, extremely friendly and warm people. Upon the first larger city we passed through however, I felt like we were driving into a post-apocalyptic Soviet nightmare. Picture, if you will, the most stereotypical Eastern-European town, complete with the concrete block - 'soul-deafening' architecture. Welcome to " Кюстендил " or in English, Kyustendil. A quick Google-search of this town is highly misleading. Between the communist-deco high rises and crumbling infrastructure.. I could only compare this town with the beauty of Kumanovo. A happy little Bulgarian Kumanovo, just across the border - an aging tribute to the bi-gone area of Leninism and communist prosperity. " Перник ", or Pernik, slightly further up the road, is much of the same... abandoned factories, crumbling facades, and desolate poverty. Driving through, I was reminded of the scene in the movie 'Eurotrip', when the group goes to Bratislava and the old man says 'Ah, it is good you come in the summer... in the winter, it is very depressing!' Looking out at the broken lives, I was overwhelmed by feeling that I could never be happy again.

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. 

Adventures in the East and the Coming of Spring

Well, welcome to April in Macedonia everyone. The first day of April in Macedonia is a big occasion. Its a day when all the children and young people dress up in masks, similar to Halloween, and walk around the city. Today has had perfect weather for the event, with lots of sun and temperatures near 18 degrees C. Other than this fun event today, there hasn't been too much going on in this part of the world. March was a long and cold month, but hopefully now that Spring has arrived, the flowers will start to bloom and the sun will shine. However, while this is bad news for my allergies, its good news for the rest of the country.

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to take a trip all across the eastern portion of Macedonia with my counterpart and one of our friends. We stopped in Prilep, Negotino, Valandovo, Strumica, Kolesino, Radovis, Stip, Probistip, Kratovo, Kriva Palanka, Kratovo (again), and Veles before finally returning back to Bitola. The whole trip took four days, and we were fortunate enough to stay with all kinds of great Peace Corps volunteers while we visited the new places. Here are some of the photos from the trip:

Here is one of the oldest trees in Valandovo, a tiny little town near the Greek border, between Gevgelia and Strumica. I thought the tree would be a good photo opportunity. 

 This is one of the waterfalls near the Greek and Bulgarian border, about 2 kilometers walk from the town of Kolesino. The whole area is remarkably devoid of garbage, and the Opstina (municipality) has taken good care of this region.

 Heading back towards Bitola, the sky was looking like it would rain, fortunately we did not get wet and got a ride from a local friend who coordinates an NGO in Kocani. If you follow this road East, it will eventually lead to Kocani, then Delcevo, and eventually into Bulgaria. Its only 80 km to the border.

This man was a total badass, he hung out with us in Kratovo for an hour or so for coffee so I could visit my host family, and drove us all the way to Stip. This is our group photo, outside of the town.

Our friend Vera! The coolest girl from Germany ever, walking near the hills by Kratovo. One of the few people I've met in Macedonia that speak less Macedonian than me.

My host sister and me in Kratovo! I had to stop in Kratovo twice during this trip, the first to visit my parents, and second to visit my sister because she was working the first day we were there. Hopefully I can make it back soon to spend more time there, although its difficult since I have made zero progress with the Macedonian language.

In other news, not much else has been going on here. I spent Catholic Easter traveling to Prilep to watch a handball match, and eat Thai food by myself. It was a nice time! As far as work has been, its been busy. I have started teaching 2 additional English classes, plus the English Conversation Hour that I host every Tuesday. The radio show on UKLO FM has been going well.

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time  searching for a new apartment, for a variety of reasons that I don't want to explain at this current time. Its possible that there may be a new place, pending approval very soon! The only downside is that it is on the opposite side of the city, which is a shame because I currently live in the neighborhood, Stari Bolnica, which is one of the best and closest to center. The new place would be in Bela Cesma, near the smaller bus station, assuming I get the approval from Peace Corps. The major upside of this new location would mean that I would finally have a television in my apartment! I currently pay for cable tv, and internet in a package deal (its cheaper), but I do not have a television in this place.

On a closing note, I will leave you with this picture of Bitola that I took from our old office.

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.