Tuesday, May 8, 2012
First of May in Macedonia
The first of May, (1ви Мај) is a big day here in Macedonia. It is the Macedonian version of Labor Day and is celebrated pretty much exactly as Labor Day is celebrated in the US. Most people don't have to work, there is no school, and just about everyone spends the day outside- walking, grilling, having a picnic, listening to music, etc. It is a day for relaxing. For weeks people had been asking me what I was going to do for the 1st of May and where I would be. After considering several invitations, I decided I wanted to spend the day at home with some of my neighbours and it was a great choice. I ended up going on four different na gostis, ate lots of good food, and took lots of pictures with my neighbour girls (side note: if you ever need a way to befriend Macedonian teenage girls, bring your camera and let them take pictures and take pictures with you- they gain instant popularity by having pictures with you on Facebook!). Here are some of the photos from the day. The girl in the black dress is my neighbour Simona and the other girl, in the shirt with dots is her sister Marija.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Moving? Bulgaria?
This week has been filled with great things. On Tuesday, we celebrated the 1st of May, or the Macedonian version of Labor Day (a whole post with pictures on this to come).
Yesterday one of my friends here found me a couple places to look so that I can move from my current house. I was able to check one of them out. I would classify it as a semi-homestay. I would have one big room that has a mini kitchen, table and chairs, sitting area, several couches (the standard Macedonian bed), and a balcony. I would have a shared bathroom and the landlord's bedroom is right across the hall. I like living on my own and I want to continue doing that, however, my current place is too expensive, so I am willing to make some concessions. One of the best parts is that it is literally 2 minutes from school instead of 15. I would still have a wood-burning stove for heating, but because the landlady is retired, she said if I wanted she would build me a fire each day so it would be warm all the time. She also offered to cook for me and give me fruits and vegetables from her garden. I still have one other place I am going to look at, but it looks like I will be moving next month! I am very excited about this.
Other big news came yesterday in that our Country Director approved for another volunteer and I to take Business Leave (meaning no vacation days need to be used) to go to Sofia, Bulgaria this next weekend for their National Spelling Bee. We will have a chance to observe their structure and talk with the PCVs who run their event about how they do it so we can get new ideas from them and work on improving our Bee. We will be there 4 days. In addition, I might also get to see one of my best friends from high school who is a PCV there. She will be finishing her service and leaving in July, so we have been trying to figure out a time when we can get together.
This weekend I am headed to Stip for the Macedonian Model United Nations Conference. The weather is now gorgeous, bordering on hot some days. Life is busy here, but that is the way it should be!
Finally, a few kid quotes:
Teacher: This country is where men wear skirts and play the bagpipes. The capitol is Glasgow.
Student 1: Cowboys?
Teacher: No. This place is in Europe.
Student 2: Texas?
(Apparently Scotland is now located in Texas and is home to the cowboys)
Student: I am going to mate with Superman tonight.
Teacher: Ah.... I think you mean "meet", not "mate".
Assignment: Guess what the people in these sentences are doing. Use "going to".
Sentence: Tom's making a shopping list.
Student's guess: He is going to give the list to his small brother and make him go to the store.
(Other students had answers like, He is going to go to the store. This would be my best English student who right after started talking about demonstrative pronouns. *I just had to Google what these were*)
Yesterday one of my friends here found me a couple places to look so that I can move from my current house. I was able to check one of them out. I would classify it as a semi-homestay. I would have one big room that has a mini kitchen, table and chairs, sitting area, several couches (the standard Macedonian bed), and a balcony. I would have a shared bathroom and the landlord's bedroom is right across the hall. I like living on my own and I want to continue doing that, however, my current place is too expensive, so I am willing to make some concessions. One of the best parts is that it is literally 2 minutes from school instead of 15. I would still have a wood-burning stove for heating, but because the landlady is retired, she said if I wanted she would build me a fire each day so it would be warm all the time. She also offered to cook for me and give me fruits and vegetables from her garden. I still have one other place I am going to look at, but it looks like I will be moving next month! I am very excited about this.
Other big news came yesterday in that our Country Director approved for another volunteer and I to take Business Leave (meaning no vacation days need to be used) to go to Sofia, Bulgaria this next weekend for their National Spelling Bee. We will have a chance to observe their structure and talk with the PCVs who run their event about how they do it so we can get new ideas from them and work on improving our Bee. We will be there 4 days. In addition, I might also get to see one of my best friends from high school who is a PCV there. She will be finishing her service and leaving in July, so we have been trying to figure out a time when we can get together.
This weekend I am headed to Stip for the Macedonian Model United Nations Conference. The weather is now gorgeous, bordering on hot some days. Life is busy here, but that is the way it should be!
Finally, a few kid quotes:
Teacher: This country is where men wear skirts and play the bagpipes. The capitol is Glasgow.
Student 1: Cowboys?
Teacher: No. This place is in Europe.
Student 2: Texas?
(Apparently Scotland is now located in Texas and is home to the cowboys)
Student: I am going to mate with Superman tonight.
Teacher: Ah.... I think you mean "meet", not "mate".
Assignment: Guess what the people in these sentences are doing. Use "going to".
Sentence: Tom's making a shopping list.
Student's guess: He is going to give the list to his small brother and make him go to the store.
(Other students had answers like, He is going to go to the store. This would be my best English student who right after started talking about demonstrative pronouns. *I just had to Google what these were*)
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, April 26- WINS
Tonight I was walking in town with a few of my neighbour kids. It was
starting to get dark and near one of the apartment buildings there was a
group of 4th and 5th grade boys hanging out. When we got close, they
started talking to me (the usual, "Hello" "How are you?"). I answered
and we kept walking. After we got a little ways away, they started
chucking rocks at me (Win #1) and yelling, "Sara, do you like
spaghetti?" (Win #2 and #3).
You might be wondering how these things can be wins. Well.... Win #1, during training we read case studies and it seemed PCVs getting rocks thrown at them was a common occurrence. I take this to be my real initiation as a PCV (and just so you know, I wasn't hit by any of the rocks. The kids really didn't have good aim.). Win #2, the kids were speaking English and Win #3, they pronounced in spaghetti, not shpaghetti like most do. We worked on that in class one day.
I actually was laughing during all of this and had to text a few other PCVs about it because it just was too funny. I mean really, yelling about spaghetti while throwing rocks. One of them responded asking how I retaliated. I told him I didn't think it would be appropriate to throw rocks back, but I felt very comfortable throwing words back- words like ravioli and tortellini. Take that kids!
You might be wondering how these things can be wins. Well.... Win #1, during training we read case studies and it seemed PCVs getting rocks thrown at them was a common occurrence. I take this to be my real initiation as a PCV (and just so you know, I wasn't hit by any of the rocks. The kids really didn't have good aim.). Win #2, the kids were speaking English and Win #3, they pronounced in spaghetti, not shpaghetti like most do. We worked on that in class one day.
I actually was laughing during all of this and had to text a few other PCVs about it because it just was too funny. I mean really, yelling about spaghetti while throwing rocks. One of them responded asking how I retaliated. I told him I didn't think it would be appropriate to throw rocks back, but I felt very comfortable throwing words back- words like ravioli and tortellini. Take that kids!
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