English Library

This school year has definitely been an improvement over the last. I have been able to get more involved in classes and finally completed my first "big" project at school. I wrote to Darien Book Aid, a US based NGO that ships gently used books to Peace Corps Volunteers (and other aid workers) all over the world. My school was selected to receive a shipment of books in January and they finally arrived the end of April. However, I wanted to get the books cataloged and organized before it was a free-for-all with the kids.

Last week, we introduced the English Library to the students (or the English teachers were supposed to....) and our first books were checked out so the kids can practice their reading in English over the summer. There were probably 90 books in the English Library (the school had a few from a previous PCV) and in the matter of just two days, the shelves are empty and kids are still looking for books. One of the worst things I have had to do here yet was turning kids away from checking out books because we were out. I have found another company in the US that is willing to donate books, however, they don't cover shipping. I am still debating if I can come up with a fundraising scheme that would raise enough funds to ship more books over here for my students.

My first group of 5th graders checking out books.

The book choices ranged from fairly easy picture books like Hop on Pop to really advanced books like Twilight and Harry Potter.

They were so excited to get their books- despite the lack of smiling.

The books are all labeled and ready to be checked out- I organized them according to levels and each book was labeled with a corresponding colour star sticker. I am my mother's daughter.

There are two shelves of English books. I also created several binders of resources for my teachers to use when I am gone (at the top).

Helping the kids pick out books was pretty fun too- I was able to give out some of my favourite books from my childhood including Double Fudge, Ramona Quimby, and Junie B. Jones.

After one day of books being checked out, this is all that was left. The bottom left corner are really easy books (shapes and colours), the two groups of white books are kinda lame (donated by the English Language Teaching Association of Macedonia many years ago), and the top right books are the ones that are too difficult for most of my students (i.e. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger).

I also worked on creating a bunch of resources for my teachers to use when I am gone. These range from worksheets to holiday themed activities, Bingo cards that use the textbook's vocabulary, grammar games, and lots of additional reading, writing, and speaking activities. Most were things I had used in the past year and a half, however, I also created some new things just for these books.

My illustrated alphabet letters that will help the 3rd graders learn the alphabet.

I created an illustrated alphabet for one of the teachers to use when she teachers the alphabet. The kids can make the letter in the shape of the animal/object that starts with that letter. I got the ideas for the first couple from another PCV and based the rest off of the AlphaFriends commonly used in US kindergarten classes.

A is for alligator, B is for bee, C is for caterpillar made out of circles, D is for dalmatian dog, E is for elephant, F is for flag, G is for giraffe, H is for house, I is for inchworm, J is for jeans, K is for king, L is for leg, M is for mouse, N is for nest, O is for octopus, P is for peacock, Q is for queen, R is for rabbit, S is for snake, T is for tiger, U is for underwater, V is for volcano, W is for world, X is for x-ray, Y is for yarn, Z is for zebra

Moderation is Overrated

I've always been a fan of moderation. While there are times that call for excess, moderation is almost always the best way to go. I am struggling with this a little now.

My host parents have a cherry tree in our backyard. We are right in the middle of cherry season. About a week and a half ago my host mother brought me up a kilo (2.2 lbs for the American folks) of cherries freshly picked from our trees. I was overjoyed. I do enjoy cherries and free ones are even better! I happily ate some cherries that day, but made sure to save some for the upcoming days because a kilo of cherries really is quite a few. The next day, however, another bowl of cherries appeared. Now feeling like I had way to many cherries on my hands, I made some cherry sauce to go over french toast. Well with that many cherries (not using all, but still quite a few), I made a lot of cherry sauce, which when blended with a ripe banana, poured into plastic cups, and frozen, made fantastic cherry banana popsicles.

The following day even more cherries arrived. I can now say that in the past week and a half, I have been given easily over 10 pounds of cherries. Cherries are a somewhat fickle fruit that require one to use them quickly before they mold, so I have had to become quite creative in my cherry usage.

I have made:

- Cherry sauce

- Cherry banana popsicles

- Cherry muffins

- Cherry crisp

- Cherry cobbler

- Cherry muffins (again)

I have also:

- Frozen cherries for the future

- Eaten what seems like my weight in fresh cherries

- Given cherries to another PCV

However, as I write this, yet another half kilo of cherries just arrived and I am left with needing to become even more creative. My next cherry adventure will most likely be either a cherry pie, cherry liqueur, or a recipe I found for a cherry salsa.

I guess if you have to eat something in excess, cherries aren't a bad way to go.

1st Annual Guthrie-Scholin Spring Wine Festival 2013

Phil and I had our first date at the 2012 Spring Wine Festival in Skopje. This year, we were unable to go to the 2013 Spring Wine Festival, so we decided to have our own wine festival and have decided to make this a yearly event (next year, we might even invite guests, depending on where in the world we are and if we have any friends!).

Without further ado, here is the 1st Annual Guthrie-School Spring Wine Festival- 2013, held in Shtip, Macedonia.

He might hate me for uploading this, but one of the most memorable moments of the 2012 Wine Festival, and the whole reason we went there, in fact, was that the 7:00pm bus was full, so we had to take the very last bus to Shtip- the 8:37 Strumica Express Komvi. Phil decided to make this a part of our 2013 event and turned himself into a Strumica Express komvi complete with a driver who was talking on his phone, smoking a cigarette (fake), and blaring turbo-folk music. His creativity is one of the many things I love about him!

We each had the job of buying some wine. Note- we did NOT drink it all. As an entrance fee into the 2012 Wine Fest, you had to buy your glasses, so Phil and I have nice glasses with the logo on it. This year, I thought I would surprise Phil with making us some glasses to commemorate this year's event. Well, with only about 1 hour and limited supplies (white nail polish), I had a few struggles. I spent the first 55 minutes trying to draw and cut out a template of the poster logo out of tape to stick on the glasses. Then I was going to paint over with the nail polish. FAIL. We ended up with glasses that just say "WINE" in big letters and the date on the base. I was quite frustrated they weren't perfect, but in the end, they are far more "Peace Corps-ish" this way.

The wine selection: A very nice Vranec from Bovin Winery in Negotino (the expensive 450 mkd bottle), the cheapest bottled Vranec you can buy, a Cabernet Sauvignon made here in Shtip, a gross jug of white wine that was left by another PCV who is famous for her love of large jugs of wine, a new one to us- a Vranec and Merlot mix, and a Kavadarka- a PCV red wine staple as its only 99 mkd. Again, we did NOT drink all of this.

One of my goals for this next year is to do a better job of taking people pictures, not just pictures of scenery, etc. The smoke from the grill made it a little hard.

The wind decided to switch directions.

We grilled pork kebabs and potatoes.

They were delicious!

And ate part of this massive vegan strawberry and coconut cream chocolate layered cake I made.

 It was a great night and I can't wait to see what is in store for the 2nd Annual Guthrie-Scholin Spring Wine Festival in 2014.