Јади, Јади, Јади, Земи, Земи, Земи

Јади: to eat

Земи: to take

All of the food (Храна) here has been absolutely amazing. I have been in Macedonia for three weeks now and I have only eaten a few things I didn't like. The first was паштета. If you decide to come visit me, I may ask you to bring some canned cat food with for comparison. Although my guess is that it will, without a doubt, be better than the canned meat known as паштета. I knew I wouldn't like it just by looking at it, smelling it, and knowing what exactly it was. However, my philosophy here is try everything I am offered. If I don't like it, I don't eat it, but try. When my host mother opened a can of it one of my first days in Lozovo, the smell was astounding. I could feel my taste buds running for shelter as I started to breath a little faster in anticipation of what was to come. She was very "nice" and gave me 1/4 of the can (lucky me!). I slowly picked up my fork and very delicately scraped a dime-sized piece onto my fork. Taking a deep breath, I put it into my mouth and even without a mirror, I know I made a horrific face. Let's just say, I am pretty sure that face guaranteed that I will never be offered that again!

Паштета: Avoid if at all possible!

A lot of the meat I am hesitant about, but I will usually eat a bite or two of it, since we have been told that the families normally don't eat a lot of meat since it is expensive, but they are doing it just for us. This morning I passed on the supposed salami, that was a pale pink and looked somewhat spreadable. I also just barely touched the sausage from the other night that had lots of hard chunks in it. Oh and I can't forget the American style hotdogs. They look like uncooked, extra soft, Fun Dogs. I try to avoid these, but sometimes it isn't possible, so I just take a deep breath, go to a happy place, and eat quickly, but not too quickly or I will get served more. (*I should mention thought that I have had some very delicious meat here as well. Not all of it is as sketchy as the types I have mentioned.*)

On a more delicious note, I have had some AMAZING meals here. I wish I had grabbed my camera every meal so I could take a picture of how delicious most of the food is. My host mother and sister do most of the cooking and it is одлично (wonderful)! The food is very fresh and almost everything is homemade as many fruits and vegetables grow right in my frontyard or backyard. My mother makes homemade plum jam and both she and my баба (grandma) make a dessert called слатко, which literally means sweet. My mother makes a plum version and my баба makes it using figs (смокви). Figs aren't super common in Minnesota, but they are a fruit I have learned to enjoy here and are plentiful. I discovered a few days ago that my family has a pomegranate tree and in one month, we will have многу (many) pomegranates. I am looking forward to this.

Pomegranate tree in my frontyard 

One of my favourite meals that I am served fairly regularly, usually for dinner (which tends to be served around 9:00 or 10:00pm) is eggs and peppers. The dish is usually about 75% peppers with some scrambled egg. So delicious (especially considering I didn't really eat eggs in the States). Another delicious meal is called мусака. It reminded me of a classic, hearty, Minnesotan hotdish. It was potatoes, a ground meat combination (that tasted amazing despite how sketchy it sounds), egg, and peppers. And of course I have to mention ајвар. Ајвар is a homemade пиперки (pepper) spread. За појадок јас сакам да јадам леб со ајбар (For breakfast, I like to eat bread with ајвар). I have not had the opportunity to help my family make ајвар, but I have certainly helped them eat it!

Another delicious item that is often served with a meal is tomatos, cucumber, and onion, either all together or the tomatoes alone. I wasn't a huge tomato fan previously, but I have had some mighty delicious tomatoes here. They also make really good cabbage and cucumber salad with a little oil and salt.

My host sister makes fabulous homemade cookies and I have asked her to teach me how to make them. My host mother made палачинки (they call them pancakes, but they are actually crepes) the other night and let me practice flipping them. I did pretty well if I do say so myself, and I learned how to make them, so I can make them on my own. It is a very basic egg, water, flour recipe, but I am very excited to experiment with that basic idea when I get to site. I might even try making an apple cinnamon version for my family here, since I am missing apple season back home.


Summary: No need to worry. I am eating quite well.

Goal #2

During PST, we are told that we will work a lot of Peace Corps Goal Two: Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. I have certainly done that recently.

Last night, my brother and I worked on it. After spending some time with Shannon, Andres, and Anna at Trend (the local coffee bar), we walked Shannon towards here house on the other side of town, then went home around 1am. Здравче and I then stayed up until 3am talking via Google Translate. He asked me what I thought was the funniest about Macedonia/what I didn't understand and I told him three things: 1) If a female has wet hair, she will get sick, 2) If a female sits on the floor, she will become infertile, and 3) промаја (pro-mi-ya).

He then clarified a few things. He said yes, I can't have wet hair or I will get sick. I then told him that at home, in America, lots of girls go outside with wet hair and in Minnesota if you do that in the winter, you're hair will freeze into icicles. The concept of just how cold Minnesota can be is hard for some here to comprehend.

He said in his house, it is fine to sit on the floor, but why would you do that when you can sit on the couch. I told him, sometimes it is comfortable to sit on the floor. He said, "ok, you can try, but my mom and dad will make you sit on the couch instead." (paraphrased the awkward Google Translate version)

Finally, on the topic of промаја, we could not come to an agreement. промаја is the belief here (and I believe other places in the area as well), that if you have a cross breeze in your house, you will get sick. It is fine for the wind to blow on your outside, but not inside. If you have one inside, you will get sick and possibly die (which is why even in the summer, on super crowded busses, you can't open your windows). I told him that in America, we don't have промаја (which that alone blew his mind). I then asked him if he had ever gotten sick from промаја and he said yes. He had промаја in his car once and got a headache and then later his back hurt, so he hasn't opened multiple windows since. I then told him that I like the breeze and am willing to chance getting sick from it and he shook his head and finger at me and made the disapproving clicking sound and said Не. Apparently, I am not allowed to try it here, so I am glad that it is getting cooler here.

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For dessert today we had the Macedonian equivalent of Oreos. We could have just eaten them and enjoyed them, but then I wouldn't have fulfilled goal # 2. Instead, I taught my host mother, sister, and brother about the ancient American tradition of using the "Oreos" to determine who you are going to marry. We spent the next 15 minutes twisting our "Oreos" open and determining which side of the cookie had more frosting, thus selecting our future husband/wife. They loved it and after the first time, they did it with every cookie. My brother then decided to use his "Oreos" as first a monocle, then using two to make himself a pair of glasses. I finally was allowed to take a picture, but I know if I post it and he saw it, I would be in trouble (he laughed at the pictures and said, "глупи слики", which means stupid pictures.

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I am starting to feel much more at home here. I am comfortable sitting on the couch relaxing, rather than sitting straight up with my feet on the floor and my hands in my lap. I will, to some extent, get food from the fridge if I am hungry (although I am very rarely hungry here as my family is still trying to feed me as much as a 18-year-old football player). I am fine making a fool out of myself with my limited language.

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I jump back and forth from being the middle child in the family and the youngest in the family (despite actually being the oldest age-wise). Здравче really is my big brother now, despite being 3 1/2 years younger than me. He is always looking out for me and it is clearly his role to be my security here. He is like the ideal big brother. He told me yesterday when we were Google Translate talking that if I ever need anything, let him know. If any of the Americans need anything or have any problems, let him know as he wants to help all 9 of us. Growing up, I sometimes wished I had an older brother (nothing against you Anna), and now I have it, for a few months anyway. Sometimes I am the next oldest child in that my host parents let me stay out late and I can drink and I am an adult. That leaves Бојана as the youngest (which at 14, she is quite young still). Other times, I am treated like a two-year-old, not capable of doing anything for myself. The lack of language and cultural knowledge is the main reason for this. I definitely prefer it when I am the middle child. I am ok having my "big" brother take care of me, but I am not a huge fan of being treated like a child when I haven't lived with my real parents for quite some time.

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I asked Здравче the other night if he liked living with his parents (last year he lived 20 minutes away at college, but this year he is living at home) and he said he did. His parents give him money when he needs it and take care of him. I told him that in America, most people don't live with their parents after age 18 and he knew that from a previous volunteer. I said I liked living on my own. That concept isn't really seen here. You live with your parents until you get married, then the bride moves to her husbands house, sometimes in the same house as his parents, sometimes in a house nearby.

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Language learning is going really well, in my opinion. Later this week we all meet individually with our LCF to get his interpretation on our abilities. I was finally able to figure out the conjugations (thanks to Shannon's magic memory trick) and I already have a fairly large Macedonian vocabulary considering I've been here for three weeks. Јас се викам Сара. Јас сум од Америка. Јас живем од Лозобо. Јас имам дваесет и четири години. Јас имам една сестра. Cестра ми се викате Ана. Таа живее од Калифорнија. Маијка ми се викате џуди. Татке ми работи како професор по компjутери. Јас сакам да јадам леб со ајвар за појадок. Jас одиме школо со куче ми, Бени. (I am called Sara. I am from America. I live in Lozovo. I am 24-years-old. I have one sister. My sister is called Anna. She lives in California. My mother is called Judy. My father works as a professor of computers (I have yet to learn how to say Technology Coordinator). I like to eat bread with ajvar (a Macedonian specialty- red pepper spread) for breakfast. I walk to school with my dog, Beni.)

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I am still trying to figure out how to:

• Say stop feeding me. I am not hungry. Actually, I know they understand what I am saying because they understand the word "full" and Јас не сакам де јадам сега (I dont want to eat now), but they pretend not to understand so they can keep feeding me. I was told this morning that chocolate will build muscles.
• Explain that I am learning Macedonian at school and while I appreciate their help at home, I can only handle so much. I can't remember 100 new words a day and my text book from Peace Corps is correct, it is just a different dialect than they speak here.
• When I can shower. You have to heat the water up here, so there isn't always hot water. It takes a few hours to heat up. I have been able to shower a few days in a row and I have also had the opposite. The last time I showered was on Wednesday...its Sunday (I did just shower like 20 minutes ago and it was one of the best showers I have ever had since it had been so long). I have tried to ask when I can shower and establish a routine, but it has yet to happen. I much prefer showering daily to showering every 4 days.

When I start to get frustrated with the above things, I just tell myself, I only have to deal with this until the end of November, then when I move to site, I can do things how I want to do them (or I better be able to!).

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All in all, life is still good. I am still in the "honeymoon" phase. It has yet to hit me that I am in Macedonia for two years. We've been told, for some people, it will hit during PST, for others, it won't hit us until we have been in our site for a few days/weeks.

Hub Day!

Enid, Michele, Dan, Kenzie, Dan, Shannon, and Me
eating dinner at the Irish Pub in Kumanovo

Yesterday we had our first Hub Day, where all 36 PCTs from the four training communities met together in Kumanovo for training. It was great to see everyone else, since we haven't seen them in 2 weeks. It was like seeing old friends. The interesting part about it though, was even though there were some people from other communities that I really wanted to see, many of us hung out with others from our training communities, as those are the people we have really bonded with. For the most part, everyone is having a great time. The only real negative I heard was of one person who has either fleas or bedbugs at their home stay, but they are enjoying it despite that minor inconvenience. The statistics say that we will most likely loose at least two people from the MAK-16 group before Swearing In the end of November, but so far, everyone is holding up strong.

Shannon, Hana, Enid, and Me

It was kind of weird being back in Kumanovo after being in Lozovo since there is such a dramatic size difference. Those of us from the two small villages were a little overwhelmed at first. There was so much going on- people everywhere, lights everywhere.

Going back a few days, on Thursday we had our site placement interviews. They went really well. We met individually with the Program Managers, the Program Specialist, and the Program and Training Department Head. They asked questions about our previous experiences, our ideas of what we hope to accomplish in our time here, how we make friends, what our hobbies are, etc. I expressed interest in not caring if I am with a host family or not, I just want to be able to cook for myself and I would like to work with younger children. They were really excited that I have had experience with curriculum development and said the English curriculum for the youngest children (1st/2nd grade) needs a lot of work and is where English teachers are struggling the most, so hopefully I will get placed at that age level. Peace Corps anticipates us finding out our site placements on October 26th, so in one month I should know where I will be living for the next two years!

We were given our Macedonian bank accounts yesterday and will be getting our next months allowance put into them any day. One of the best parts about being in a village is you really don't spend much money because 1) there aren't places to go that cost money and 2) things are pretty cheap. Many of us still have a sizable chunk of our first walk-around allowance from Peace Corps, which is nice because right now we are getting 125 dinari, the equivalent of $2.75, a day. For the village trainees, that is a lot! That would buy us 8 coffees, or 3 bottles of Coke, or 5 large candy bars, or 2 1/2 bottles of Ckopcko.

Starting next weekend we can travel on our own for day trips. I don't know how much I will do that, but it will be nice to have the option. Next Saturday we have a training workshop in Probistip, so we will get to see everyone again.

5 Days in Review

Writing blog posts now is hard, not because there is nothing to report, but because everyday there is so much that is new. I guess I will write about the highlights since my last post.

Saturday

Jori was still at my house (she was here all weekend). We had a great talk Friday night about my host family, TEFL, and PC in general. She had a lot of great advice that, along with what I have been told by other PCVs, has given me a much better idea about what I will be doing until 2013.

Julie, Boban, Zdravche, Anna, Jovan, Me

A group of us went to Pastrmailijafest in the neighbouring town of Shtip. There were 8 of us total (Julie, Andres, Morgan, Anna, and I for the Americans and Jovan, Zdravche, and Boban for the Macedonians). There had been much discussion trying to figure this all out because PC has a policy regarding travel for PCTs and you are not allowed to travel out of your village during the first three weeks unless you are with your host family. Well, Julie had Jovan and I had Zdravche, so we were fine, but no one else's family was going. However, after quite a few phone calls to the PST director and the Homestay Coordinator, everyone got approved to go. Pastrmailija is a Macedonian pizza-like food without cheese or sauce, just dough with seasoned pork. It is very good. At Pastrmailijafest, we ate, drank, listened to the bands playing, and of course people watched (which included watching some young boys dancing in the street and trying to hit each other in inappropriate places- lets just say 9 year old boys are the same everywhere!).

Morgan, Julie, Me, Jovan, and Andres is laying in front

After a little while, Anna, Zdravche, Boban, and I went to a disko. Anna and I felt incredibly underdressed as we were wearing just regular clothes, but one thing we have learned about Macedonian girls is they dress up to the 9's. My LCF said that even if a girl doesn't have 200 denari in her purse to buy a drink, she will look like she is dressed for the Academy Awards. We talked for a while, participated in more people watching, then once the others joined us, we decided to take the opportunity to work on PC Goal #2 (Helping promote better understanding of Americans on the part of peoples served) and busted out some of our best American dance moves (which really just meant we actually danced as Macedonians, as a rule, don't really dance at bars/clubs). We even got our Macedonian counterparts to join in with us.

Sunday

I hung out at home with my family and Jori until Jori's bus left. Then Bojana and I went to watch Zdravche's football game. There, we met Julie and Jovan, Morgan, and Andres. Lozovo won and Andres managed to catch the winning goal on camera and later played it back for the man who scored the goal. We hung out at the motel for a little while, before parting ways. Shannon then came over to my house to work on homework. She and I ended up having a 45 minute conversation with my host mother in Macedonian and legitimately understood like 75% of it. I have learned that I feel so much more comfortable with my knowledge of Macedonian and using it when I have another American with me and I have heard others say the same. It is so much easier to tag-team it as we all have learned some different words and phrases.

Monday

Monday wasn't too eventful. We had class until 4:00, then I did homework, ate, went to my host Baba's house to visit my host cousin who was there, did homework, then played cards with my host sister and brother.

Tuesday

We had class until around 1:30 on Tuesday. After class, Shannon and I went to her house to work on homework, but ended up spending our time there making small talk with her family. We also ate lunch there. Shannon had been bragging up how good the food was at her house (which I still think mine might be the best...just sayin') so she was excited to see her host mom and sister preparing spaghetti as the last time they had it, it was absolutely amazing I guess. Well, this time, we were served tuna spaghetti. Neither one of us likes canned tuna, but we ate it anyway (I think we all have this desire to always be polite, which sometimes makes us stomach things we don't really enjoy) and although I didn't enjoy it, it wasn't the worst thing I have ever eaten.

After lunch, it was such a nice day that we decided to go find somewhere in the village to sit and do our homework. On our walk towards the train tracks, there was a man with a herd of goats walking down the street in front of us. We both had seen goats before, but never really up close and personal, and we certainly did get more personal with them than either one of us ever hoped we would. The goats were dropping pellets everywhere (if you haven't seen a goat poop up close, it is in a very very odd way, kind of interesting) and peeing (you do not want to be anywhere within 3 feet of a goat when it pees or your feet will be soaking wet). We were trying to be polite and have a conversation with the herdsman while walking, but it was quite hard with all of this going on, however we were doing pretty good. Then one of the goats mounted another one and we lost it. I mean really, how can you have a conversation with someone when two goats are getting busy right in front of you?

After we left the goats on one side of the train tracks, we sat down to do our homework and were literally 2 minutes into it when three children approached us, curious about us, so we used our limited Macedonian to talk to them. We discovered their names, ages, grades in school, and that one of the girl's dad works at a restaurant in Florida that is NOT by the ocean. We also found out where they live and told them where we live (in terms of the word there and pointing in the general direction).

Julie called right when we were exhausting our small talk and invited us to go on a hike with her and Jovan, so we put our homework away and went to join them. Now last time I went hiking with Julie and Jovan (when we went to Milino), we were walking along a road and the train tracks, so it was more walking, less hiking. I figured it would be about the same, so I threw on my TOMS and Shannon her sandals. We then took off on our hike, that Jovan said was to another village (with a much longer name, so I don't remember which village it was). Well this time, instead of walking along a paved road, we ended up trekking up a mountain through lots of tall plants and lots of burs. You're all smart people so you have figured out already that TOMS are not the best shoes for such an adventure. I got pricked and poked with every step, but it was amazing none-the-less. We got to see Lozovo from the top of the mountain and just look out over the beautiful countryside. Macedonia really is a gorgeous place. If you are up for an adventure, I would certainly recommend coming here.

Some highlights along the way include, finally really understanding what Goce (the PC Safety Coordinator) meant about the vicious wild packs of dogs (but don't worry, we were very vigilant, Goce's favourite word) and managed to come out unscathed, although one did almost bite Jovan. He was very nice and put himself between the dogs and Shannon, Julie, and I. We also saw some beekeepers in the village and were invited in to check out their bees. We even got to sample some fresh, sticky, honey, straight from the comb. Delicious!

Once we returned from our adventure, Shannon and I decided to continue our visiting of the American's houses and this time it was Andres's house. We were offered homemade wine that was delicious. Julie and Jovan came over a little later, and the five of us, plus Andres' host mom, Vera, played the game Pit. It was so much fun. Very fast paced, but enjoyable. Andres ended up narrowly beating both Jovan and me.

We left Andres's around 10:15 and Shannon and I went back to my house to quick do our homework, which proved to be slightly more difficult than we anticipated as my whole family was there watching us do it. When we finally finished, we were served dinner at like 11:15, even though neither of us were that hungry.

Wednesday

Today I haven't done a whole lot. I was at school until 1:30 and have been working on homework/pictures/this blog since then.

Things to Look Forward To

Tomorrow we have our site placement interviews, where we will be meeting with quite a few of the Peace Corps Coordinators to discuss what our preferences are for our permanent sites as well as talk about our skill sets so that they can match us with the best placement possible. Friday we are leaving Lozovo bright and early to drive back to Kumanovo for our first Hub Day. Hub Days are when they bring all of the trainees from the four communities together for a training session. I think we all are excited to see everyone else and hear how life in Macedonia is going for them. It has been two weeks since we have seen the others.

Pictures

To mention again, I am uploading pictures to Facebook, but including links under the Photo Albums tab at the top of my blog. Check them out. Another great place for pictures is my friend Shannon's blog.

I would love any updates from home that anyone has. You can Facebook message me, Leave me a comment on here, Email me: sara.scholin@gmail.com, or Snail Mail me: Sara Scholin, Peace Corps Macedonia, Oslo 6, 1000 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, Eastern Europe. I think it takes about 10 days for a letter to come, which isn't too bad.

Greetings from Lozovo (Title Courtesy of Shannon)

I have been in my PST placement for one week now and all is good. We have been quite busy, so I haven't updated yet. Lots of information to share though.

My Host Family
My host family consists of my mom, Жаклина (Jacklina), my dad, Томе, my 21-year-old brother, Здравче (Zdravche), and my 15-year-old sister, Бојана (Boy-ana). Oh and of course my dog, Beni (Macedonians typically do not have animals as pets. Dogs run wild in the streets and most people try to avoid them. However, Beni was the dog of a former PC volunteer, Jason, a MAK-12 and my family has agreed to take care of Beni until Jason comes from the US to Macedonia in November to bring Beni back to the US- an idea I don't understand). My family is great. They are very hospitable and are always trying to make me feel at home. My sister speaks English quite well and has been studying it for years. My brother also studied English in school, however, his teacher apparently was horrible and his speaks only a little English. Бојана was doing most of the translating between the family and me, however, just in the past two days, she stopped and I found out from Здравче that she doesn't want to translate anymore. Luckily in this technical age, there is Google Translate. While it isn't perfect, it usually gets the point across. Здравче is going to college in another town starting in October, however he will still be living at home, which I am very thankful for. Once Бојана stopped translating, Здравче has become my main life-line for communication, which is great. I like all of my family members a lot, but Здравче is amazing. I definitely have more in common with him (since he is 21) as opposed to my 15 year old sister. Здравче has become a favourite of the Americans and I can't wait until I can have more of a conversation with him.
more.

Lozovo
Apparently it is ok to say the name of our town, so I am in Lozovo. It is a small village of about 900 people. My friend Shannon described Lozovo as very Beauty and the Beast-esk (think the opening scene when Belle is walking in town and everyone says "hello", there are small shops, and animals freely roaming the streets) and I couldn't agree more. Every morning as Benny is walking me to school, I pass by chickens, other dogs, and cats all freely wandering. There are goats in a large field across from the school and as we look out our classroom (which is actually just a closet) at school, we can usually see some cows, maybe more goats, and maybe some sheep. Lozovo has a school, a motel (which coincidentally does not have any rooms to sleep in) but is more of a restaurant/bar, a post office, a few small markets, and a coffee bar, which is the hang out place for the local youth on Saturday nights. Despite all the small, quaintness of the town, I discovered last night that the Google Earth images are much more detailed for Lozovo than they are for Pine City. There is even a photograph of our school on there. My family was entertained that Lozovo's Google Earth is better than somewhere in America's.

Americans
There are nine of us PCT's here in Lozovo and we are all good friends. Our entire MAK-16 group of 36 was split between four different towns for training. There is one group who is learning both Macedonian and Albanian. One group is composed only of CD (Community Development) volunteers. My site is only TEFL volunteers, and the last town is a mixture of TEFL and CD volunteers. The Americans here in Lozovo with me are:

Julie, who was my roommate in Philadelphia and Kumanovo. She is from Washington D.C. and full of energy. Morgan, who is from Nashville. She is our expert video maker. I will certainly post some of her videos on here so you can see life in Macedonia. Kenzie, who is from Chicago. He actually went to college with one of my friends from elementary school. Shannon, who is the first MAK-16 I met. We met in the Philadelphia airport (pretty easy to spot other PCVs since we all were struggling with our massive amounts of baggage). She is from Kansas and has spent a lot of time at my host family's house. Claire is from Oklahoma, but went to U of C, so we have had some Hyde Park talks. Amy is from near Philadelphia. She and I have both been told we are the least athletic person people have met, so when we played soccer with some of the locals one day, we were clearly outmatched. Andreas is our other boy. He is from Seattle and is fluent in Spanish, having Columbian connections. I learned yesterday he got his digital camera from a lost and found. He is very laid back and loves the hospitality aspect of Macedonia. And last, but not least, is Anna. She is from near Milwaukee and is very into sports. We are all between the ages of 22 and 25, so we share quite a few similarities.

School
At school, we are split into two groups for language learning. We have two awesome teachers, Душко/ Dushko and Voikan. Kenzie, Morgan, Claire, Shannon, and I are with Dushko. He is quite entertaining- full of jokes and we have lots of fun. We have language class every week day from 8-12, which is a lot. Somedays I can handle it, other days, my brain just wants to shut off. Today was one of those days. We were talking about how to make the definite singular and plural forms of fruits and vegetables. That involves first knowing the what the word is in Macedonian, then making it plural, then making it definite. An example would be: the word for watermelon is лубеница. The plural would be лѕбеници. And the definite plural would be лубениците. However, whenever I get frustrated with it, I think, wait, we have been in this country for only two weeks and I this is where I am at. Two weeks ago, I couldn't even tell you the entire cyrillic alphabet. My host dad said the other day that he thinks we have learned about 10% of the Macedonian language so far (I think he is a little optimistic). My family helps me learn lots at home as well, however, their pace for making me learn things is much faster than I can comprehend. Last night I was given about 50 new words that they wanted me to know by today. Let's just say, it is not going to happen.

We also have technical sessions, cross-cultural sessions, and medical sessions. Our technical sessions involve us learning how to teach ESL. We had our second technical session this past Wednesday and, while I understand the purpose, I don't feel like I have learned a whole lot. I think partially it is because the Gustavus Education Department is so amazing! Our cross-cultural sessions so far have been mostly answering questions about things we have seen and why Macedonians believe/do certain things that aren't typical in the US. A few examples would be promiya, which, in short, is the idea that a cross-breeze is ok outside, but inside a house it can cause you to die, become infertile, or have a whole assortment of other problems. Another is that if a female goes outside with wet hair, they will become infertile. Some things that we have witnessed are not a cultural phenomena, but rather our families individual beliefs. We have a medical session in just a few minutes to teach us basic first aid.

Pictures
I am hoping to post some pictures soon. I am still debating whether to post of Facebook, Picasa, etc. However, I have created a page on my blog so keep checking, I will hopefully get some up soon. Others have already posted some (if you check out the Fellow MAK-16 Blogs section, both Shannon and Morgan have posted pictures on theirs).

Posh Corps
Eastern Europe placements for Peace Corps are often jokingly called the Posh Corps. We have electricity, houses, supermarkets, hospitals, my family even has wireless. We have many American comforts here, but don't get me wrong, it isn't perfect. Earlier this week the power was out for quite some time one night (good thing I have the most amazing flashlight ever- it seriously lit up two rooms of the house). At school the power goes out frequently. But overall, we are leading a good life.

Communication
Communicating with people around here is still very difficult. I know a fair number of words, but I don't know how to use them. I can tell you the Macedonian words for fork, spoon, knife, winter, family members, foods, school supplies, colours, etc., but I don't know how to use those words in a sentence or communicate very well on a basic level. A few nights ago, we visited some of my host family's relatives in a village not too far from Lozovo. Very little English was spoken and Бојана was not in the mood for translating, so there I sat, awkwardly trying to figure out what people were saying, focusing on the words I know (all while trying not to look bored and tired). There was a cute five year old boy who was playing and I kept trying to interact with him, but he was very shy. Finally, I was able to play with him, and I have to say, that is probably the most I have ever felt on the same level with a Macedonian. I could understand much of what he said and use my very broken Macedonian to ask him questions. Keep in mind we probably only said like 20 words to each other the whole time! But, it was nice to be able to communicate with him without needing to use words. My family commented that I am on about the same level as him. I took that as a compliment!

PCVs
I have been lucky enough to have been able to talk to quite a few current PCVs about their life and get tips and suggestions from them. There is a MAK-14, Ricky, living here in Lozovo until he COSs in November and it has been great having him here. He is definitely all of our biggest advocates. If we need anything communicated to our host families, we can talk to him about it and he will help us. Last weekend two other MAK-14s, Jason and Dan, were visiting Ricky and so we got to hear about their experiences. Now this weekend Jori and Chris (both MAK-15s who trained in Lozovo last year) are back for the weekend. I have been given lots of good advice from them, mostly about how we should interact with our host families. It has also been a lot of fun to see the difference in language abilities. With three different years of volunteers here, you can tell the difference. However, it was great to see that they can all communicate very well in Macedonian. One day I will be there.

Experiences
There is a lot I could write here, because everything I have done has been an experience, but there is no way I can ever write it all, so here are a few:

Last Sunday Julie and I went to tour the local winery where Julie's host brother, Jovan, is a security guard. He explained the process and told us about the winery. It is apparently the third largest winery in Macedonia and they ship their wine all over Europe and Asia. He said the wine is cheap to buy in Macedonia, but if you buy the exact same stuff in Germany, it is much more expensive. Jovan took us up a set of stairs up above the outdoor tanks and we had an amazing view of Lozovo and the surrounding area from there. As I said before, I am going to try and post pictures soon.

I also went with Julie and Jovan on a walk to a neighbouring village, Milino. It was about an hour walk, but it was absolutely gorgeous. That is one thing I have learned about this country, there are breathtaking views everywhere. We climbed up on top of the old abandoned train station and could see so much.

I experienced my first earthquake just this morning. Jori (the PCV who lived with my family last year who is visiting for the weekend), Здравче, Бојана, Tome and I were sitting down eating breakfast and all of a sudden there was a huge rumble and shaking and Jori and I were ushered out of the house. It took us a few seconds to realize what was going on because neither one of us had been in an earthquake before. Apparently it was a magnitude 4, which isnt that strong, but it was located just 10km away from Lozovo, so we certainly felt it. It left us feeling a little unsettled for a few minutes. Apparently the last time they had an earthquake anywhere near as strong was five years ago.

When we didn't have electricity this past week, Shannon and Ricky were both over at my house. So the two of them, Здравче, Бојана, and I played two different card games. They were both Macedonian versions of American card games, and despite having Ricky translating the rules, the three of us were quite lost with them. However, we had lots of fun making fools of ourselves. After Ricky left, Shannon and I showed Здравче and Бојана some American dances (such as the chicken dance) and I also taught them how to play the Minute to Win It Game, Face the Cookie. We all thoroughly enjoyed laughing at ourselves and each other.

Questions
If you have any questions about my life, how to write your name in Macedonian, Peace Corps or anything at all, send me a message/leave a comment and I will do my best to answer it.

Summary
Life in Macedonia is good. It is very relaxing and there is a much slower pace than life in America. It is Saturday morning and I have done nothing except eat and finish this posting that I started like 3 days ago. My next goal is posting pictures.

Ciao!

PST Placements

A quick update as we are packing and meeting host families in half an hour. We just got our PST placements and I am very excited.

First, my training group is amazing- Kenzie, Morgan, Claire, Shannon, Julie, Amy, Andreas, Anna, and I. We are very well matched as a group. And, we have awesome LCFs (Language and Cultural Facilitators).

Second, we are going to a small village near Veles. Veles is in the center of the country. We are not supposed to publicly disclose our exact location for safety reasons, but if you really want to know, send me a Facebook message. We will meet our families soon and we have to read a sentence in Macedonian to them. Our sentence tells us something about our family. Mine sentence sentence says Ќепката на Томе се вика Бојана. Which you would pronounce Kyepkata na Tome say vika Boy-ana. It means: Томе has a daughter who is called Бојана.

Hopefully more info soon. Because I will be in a small village, we do not have an internet cafe, but we were told the school where we will be studying has free wireless. We just received Macedonian cell phones, but they are pay as you go and its not exactly cheap, so I don't really plan on using it outside of my Macedonian/Peace Corps friends.

Macedonia is playing Spain in EuroBasket today at 4:30 our time, you should check out the game (or at least the results as I can't imagine it will be a highly publicized game in the US).

Ciao!

Здраво oд Македонија!

So I know I posted last night and not a whole lot to update on. However, I will have internet today, tomorrow, and then I may not. It all depends on my home stay family and their accommodations. We find out who are families are on Friday, which is very exciting.

A few highlights/things I haven't mentioned yet.

• If you come visit, do not flush the toilet paper. Only the most soiled piece may be flushed. The pluming infrastructure here is not able to handle toilet paper, so every bathroom has a small garbage can next to the toilet where you place your used paper.
• Pictures are to come. I am still investigating what is the best option to share photos.
• Macedonians and Americans have some very different body language sometimes. In language class today, the whole group of Americans thought we were being taught how to say, "I am not good" when asked "How are you?" because our language instructor swung her fist and was not smiling. She intended it to be a happy gesture, however, we all misunderstood.
• Macedonia plays Lithuania tonight in the EuroBasket Final Round tonight. It is a huge deal here and everyone is super excited to see if they move on. Needless to say, many of us will be venturing from the hotel outside of Kumanovo into town to enjoy some скопско, a Macedonian beer brewed just a few miles away in Skopje, and cheer on Macedonia. We were even taught the cheer to use- "Go Bo Go" for the most popular player, Bo McCalebb.
• We met with the US Ambassador to Macedonia, Ambassador Paul Wohlers, the sixth U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia. He was sworn in on August 11th of this year by Hillary Clinton.