Morgan Paige: The YouTube Sensation

Morgan has made more movies and they are AMAZING! I wanted to make sure to post the link to her YouTube again so you all can check them out. The newest is the trailer for our Turkish Soap Opera style film that will be released on Thanksgiving Day in front of all 36 of our families, Peace Corps staff, current Peace Corps Volunteers, the US Ambassador, and many other important people. It should be quite entertaining, so be sure to check back after Thanksgiving to see the whole deal.

Link to Morgan's YouTube Page

Butchering the Language One Day at a Time

Today has been an interesting day for language. This is unfortunate because we had our LPIs (language tests) today and while passing/not passing isn't life or death, it is kind of a big deal. We need to reach at least an Intermediate Low level for language, which we've been told shouldn't be too hard for most of us.

During class today we each had to tell a story in past tense and the others had to ask questions about it. Morgan was telling a story about ghosts that lived in an old house. My question for her was supposed to be, "Did you meet the ghosts?" meaning did she ever encounter the ghosts. Instead, however, I asked, "Дали ти мило ми е ооооооооооооо?" or "Did you nice to meet you (ghost sound)?" I had no idea what the word for ghost was and even after Dushko told us several times, it became more fun to just say, "oooooooo". Also, I have been told the real word for meet, запознавеме, many times, however, I can never remember it, and I have turned "nice to meet you" into a verb that I use on a regular basis.

After this statement, Dushko went over the word for "to meet" once again. I wrote it down again and tried to memorize it quickly. I had it down. Well, when it came time for my LPI with Ivana, the Language Coordinator, I was asked what I was going to do after the LPI. I started explaining that a group of us are going to Veles to....(dang, I couldn't remember the word for meet). What did I say, "Ние ќе мило ми е со Џасон, Сами, и Карен". So much for speaking correctly!

You Know You Are In PST Macedonia When.....

As PST is coming to an end shortly, I decided to compile a list of things that I that remind me I am in PST.

- You have been told јади, јади, јади so many times and given in so many times that the Freshman 15 has nothing on you compared to the weight your host mother has forced you to gain.
- You no longer question what sort of animal droppings you are walking in on your way to school and you no longer try to avoid them since they are everywhere.
- You pretend you don't understand a conversation in Macedonian when you really do, just to avoid having to say the same awkward sentences over and over again.
- You no longer are weirded out by throwing your toilet paper in the garbage instead of flushing it.
- You find yourself not being able to remember words in English.
- You accept that showering every day or even every other day is over rated and are lucky if you are able to shower two times a week.
- You don't think twice about being offered ракија, пиво, or сок for breakfast.
- You play dumb with your family so you can listen in on what they are saying to the entire town about you.
- You realize the locals who study English at the University know far more about the English language than you do.
- You have a new "p" word in your vocabulary......промија and you better be scared of it...it might kill you.
- You acknowledge and accept that every person you meet is going to ask you about how much money you had, currently have, and will have.
- Despite the many errors, you have used Google Translate at least once to talk with your family.
- You have been a part of 8 hour на гости.
- When writing in English, you use a combination of Cyrillic and Latin letters and you can't spell in English to save your life.
- Your stomach never really quite gets used to all of the oil used in the food.
- You find yourself agreeing that Тоше was the best musician ever.
- Times that would have been awkward silences in America, are instead welcomed as breaks when you don't have to try and figure out what someone is saying.
- You are cautious when you get in the shower because if you turn the water on just a little too much, you will be burnt.
- Whether you are male or female, you have become quite a good домакинка.
- While on a hike you take photographs of everything in sight so you now have 50 pictures of donkeys and chickens.
- You learn to hate Greece without ever having been there.
- Despite not tasting the best, you get excited when you are given a крем croissant instead of the ham and ketchup variety as it is much less disgusting.
- Your not surprised when the water in your house is suddenly gone and doesn't return for a few days.
- You log into Facebook and discover you have 8 new Macedonian Facebook friends and you don't know any of them.
- You've figured out how to drink just the right amount of coffee so you aren't chewing the grounds.
- You've discovered that mixing Sudafed and ракија is the perfect cure for a cold.
- While on a walk, you are offered coffee by people you don't know.
- You have to walk less that two minutes to find yet another gorgeous view of this country.
- During class you sometimes break into fits of laughter out of no reason other than exhaustion.
- You agree to questions in Macedonian without knowing what they mean, later to realize you just told someone you that you hate them.
- You have had at least four marriage proposals.
- You watch your host siblings creeping on your Facebook profile and "liking" every picture of yours while you are in the room.
- You are given flowers by a Turkish girl that you just met while her mother is yelling to her to ask if you have a boyfriend.
- Even when speaking in English to other PCTs, you throw in a few Macedonian words that have become staples in your vocabulary.
- You have random dance parties and break into song whenever the moment allows.
- You have been frustrated multiple times by the direct and indirect objects in Macedonian.
- You are comfortable walking through random people's yards.
- You have seen more animal's getting it on in the broad daylight on the main street than you ever have before.
- You embarrassed yourself trying to learn the Оро, but that doesn't stop you from trying again.
- You have experienced the ајвар making process....all 10 hours of it.
- You have people standing outside your house yelling your family member's names because they can see you through the window.
- You wake up to roosters crowing, you eat lunch while roosters are crowing, and you go to sleep with roosters crowing as the roosters have no sense of time.
- You wear your jacket, hat, and scarf in the house because even with a fire going, you are still freezing.

Kamenica Love!

WARNING: This is a long post; probably the post of all posts. The last few days have been very busy and I have learned a lot!

The past few days, the MAK-16s went on our Site Visits, meaning we spent three days at the place that will become our new home. This was a great opportunity to ease some of our anxieties about leaving our training communities and moving out on our own.

Tuesday morning I set out for Makedonska Kamenica. I decided to take the 7:25 bus from Lozovo to Stip, visit with one of the volunteers currently serving there, and then continue onto Kamenica. I got to the bus stop (hut on the side of the road) in Lozovo about 7:15 and waited. There were a bunch of guys waiting as well, so I knew the bus was coming. At 7:25 a bus shows up headed to Stip and we all get on. The bus is full of males and they are all staring at me, but no one says anything. The driver looks really confused and starts to pull away slowly. Finally someone tells me that the bus is only for men in the military traveling to base. I’m glad no one wanted to say anything for a little while! Oh well, at least me making a fool of myself gave them all something to talk about for the rest of the day- the crazy American girl who had no idea what she was doing. I waited some more at the bus stop and an old man shows up and starts talking to me. I love the fact that now I can have a conversation with someone in Macedonian. I know I don’t speak perfect and I give a lot of blank stares, but I can do it and most people really are very patient and are just excited that I am trying to speak their language. We talk for a while in the cold before he gets impatient and leaves because no bus has arrived. Turns out the 7:25 bus doesn’t exist anymore and the 8:40 bus comes at 8:20, so after waiting for over an hour, I finally got on the bus. This was the first time I had been traveling on my own and it was a great lesson in Macedonian transportation- there is always something, but the times and frequency can vary every day.

When I got to Stip, I met up with Dan, a MAK-14 who has finished his service and COSing this week. During packing he had found some items he thought might be useful to pass on to a new volunteer and I got to be the lucky one. I am most excited about the Macedonian-English-German-French phrase book he gave me. He said it is out of print, but since he knew the author he was able to get one and it came in handy many times. I think it will become a new friend of mine.

I was very nervous when I got on the bus to Kamenica since I was really on my own (going to Stip wasn’t a big deal because it was close and I knew who was meeting me there). However, much to my delight, there were three other MAK-16s on the bus going to their towns near mine. We all had the same anxieties and were happy to have one another to help ease our minds. Paul got off first in Obleshevo. It is a small village outside of Kochani, but it seemed much bigger than other villages. After Paul left, it was Morgan’s turn to depart in Kochani. Kochani is a big city (around 28,000 people), but her counterpart has a current volunteer, so Morgan knew more than most going into it since she had talked to the current PCV a lot. After we left Morgan, Alastair and I looked at each other, growing a little more nervous since it was down to just the two of us. Alastair is living in Kratavo for training, so I haven’t really spent much time with him, but we had the exact same feelings about what lay ahead and were very happy to have each other (a couple times we even said exactly what the other person was thinking). It was especially nice having him when we got higher up in the mountains and the roads became more narrow, very windy, very high, and with limited guardrail (Dad, Mom, and Anna- think similar to Trasillico, but on a bus and having a little more guardrail and roads a little wider). I was the next one off, leaving Alastair by himself for the last 15 minutes of his journey.

The view Alastair and I had on our ride towards Kamenica/Delchevo

My counterpart, Maja, met me at the bus station. I had talked to her briefly on the phone the night before, but didn’t know a whole lot. During this time, I have discovered we are very similar. She is 26, so very young, single, and into a lot of the same things I am. She is very excited to be working with me. She has made me feel very at ease about coming here and I feel like I really will be able to work with her. She wants suggestions and my input into her lessons and I feel like we will learn a lot from each other.

After my arrival, Maja took me to where I would be staying for these few days. On my sheet from Peace Corps it said, “rooms for let arranged by the school” which had me a little scared. I figured I would be staying in a room in someone’s house- someone who wanted to make a few extra denari. We met up with the art teacher from the school and walked into this slightly run down looking building and up quite a few flights of stairs. It was dirty, broken windows everywhere, and looked abandoned, but when we got to one of the top floors, we went through a door and were suddenly in a nice little boutique hotel. There I met my future landlady who owns this hotel here (hint, hint). There are five rooms, each with their own bathroom. I was in heaven. I suddenly have a real bed, legitimate heat, hot water, American TV, and alone time!

My hotel room in Kamenica

And my bathroom- unlimited hot water was AMAZING!

Living with my family is good, but I haven’t been by myself for almost two months except when I am sleeping or in the bathroom. After I got settled, I walked with Maja and the art teacher, Marija, around Kamenica and they showed me where the most important things are and I really have everything I need- there are two Супермаркети (small grocery stores), Стопанска банка (the bank Peace Corps uses), амбуланта (mini hospital/dentist), пошта (post office), ресторани (restaurants), and several other small stores.

I got a good feeling on what Kamenica is like from this. It is a larger town, 5000 people (the 8000 I said earlier is in the municipality which includes several small villages), but it really does have a small town feel. It was obvious I was a foreigner and the fish bowl affect happened immediately, but everyone I met was very nice. The pace of life here is very similar to life in a village, except apparently in August when it is like a big city since hundreds of people that work in other countries come home. I also have been able to learn a little more of the dialect of Macedonian that I will be learning. The dialect of the area has a lot of Bulgarian influence, so Maja told me I will probably know both Macedonian and Bulgarian by the end of my time here.

I learned a lot about the town. Kamenica is only about 40 years old. The town was built because of the mine. The mining company built lots of flats (they speak in British English here) and hotels for people to stay in. However, when the economy started to change, the wage for minors went down and the town has lots a lot of people. When Maja was in school here, there were over 1400 students, now there are just 650. Most of the hotels are vacant currently. The schools (there is a primary and a high school here) were built 30 years ago when each person in Kamenica gave two months of salary towards the building of the schools.

Part of the School

Despite the decreasing population, a lot of work has been done to make Kamenica a much nicer place to live and while I haven’t had much experience in other towns in Macedonia, I feel like Kamenica is pretty progressive. Within the last three years, they have built a beautiful new church, town square, and the arts teacher is actually organizing the building of a brand new playground in town with funds provided by the Swiss government. It is scheduled to open in December and the Swiss Ambassador will be here, so it is a big deal. I also learned that the mayor is putting in wireless for the entire town. It is currently functioning, but the signal doesn’t reach everywhere yet so in the next month or so they are hoping to amplify it so every house in town has access to free wireless. There are very few towns in America that even have this!

The site of the new playground

The new church that was just opened in 2009

The fountain in the new town square

On Wednesday I spent the day at the school with my counterpart. I went with her to classes. She teaches 4^th and 6^th grade English. The kids were so excited to see me and I think the school will be a great place. I might also be working with another English teacher in Kamenica as well as one who travels to the satellite schools, but I won’t know about that until December when I move here. I met with the Director of the school and he was excited to have a volunteer. He kept talking about a project another PCV had helped with in a neighbouring town, building a music classroom, and wants to meet later on to see what I want to help with. I feel like I really will have a lot of opportunities to do a lot here if I want to. The town seems very focused on change for the better right now. I met lots of other teachers and staff at the school and they were all so friendly and got excited when I spoke in my limited Macedonian. The school has a lot of young staff, which surprised me. There were certainly plenty of older staff members as well, but many more young staff members than I saw when I was in Veles.

After school I had the opportunity to see my house where I will be living when I move here. It is so much more than I could have asked for. It is very nice, especially in comparison to other PCV houses I have seen. First, my house is kind of in the country of Kamenica. I have a 15-20 minute walk into the downtown area of Kamenica, which will seem long in the winter when I have groceries, but otherwise, not bad. My area is all houses and it has the village feel. At least one of my neighbours has chickens and my closest neighbour is a police officer, so I was told it is super safe in my area.

My house

I have the entire floor of a house and as of right now, no one lives below me. I have a large second-story balcony, which will be wonderful in the summer. When you enter my house there is a large entryway. My bathroom is on the right and in my bathroom I have a washing machine!

My bathroom- nothing amazing, but it has indoor plumbing, so I am happy!

The next door goes into my large kitchen/dining/living room. I have a large (for this country) fridge, a big wood burning stove, and lots of cabinet space as well as a nice table and chairs set. Connected to my kitchen is my living room that has two couches and a TV. My landlady clearly likes deep red.

My very nice kitchen

Large wood burning stove

My living room

My bedroom is great too. I have LOTS of closet space- more than I have ever had in my entire life! There is a big bed- a real bed, which is exciting after seeing how many of the beds in this country are fold out, hard, wooden things. I have a TV/DVD player in my bedroom as well.

I have what looks like a real bed! In this country, that can be hard to find.

Loving the closets already!

I have one other room in my house that I didn’t look at. I probably won’t need the space since it is already a large place, but I am sure I will explore it when I move in. My landlady had a headache and didn’t want to stay long.

I am pretty sure the free wireless will not reach my house, but I won’t need to spend much of my settling in allowance since my place has basically everything I would need. My landlady rents the house out for a business, which I think will be a real advantage. Many PCVs have talked about the frustrations they have with landlords, so I am hoping I have escaped that.

View from my house

After seeing my house, Maja and I met up with one of her friends, Elizabet, who teaches English at the kindergarten here in Kamenica. She was excited that I will be coming and had already told the kindergarteners that I would come visit. She said she would love to have me come help her out in the kindergarten sometimes, so I might see if I can work that into my weekly schedule. They work on colours, animals, family, and some basic phrases and learn it through games, stories, and songs.

After tea with Maja and Elizabet, I met up with two currently serving PCVs who live in Delchevo (where Alastair is moving to). One of them is a MAK-13, Rochelle, has extended her service and will be leaving in January. The other, Jenny, is a MAK-15, so she will be here for another year. They were both super nice and I am really excited to have them nearby. As typical of PCVs, they gave me lots of great advice.

Coming up I have Ricky’s (the MAK-14 who lives in Lozovo) going away party as he has completed his service and is headed back to Are-Kansas (that is how it is pronounced here). Shannon and I have spent a fair amount of time with Ricky and are really going to miss him. He has been a great resource for us on what life will be like for us. Our time in Lozovo is coming to an end quickly, however, I am excited about moving out on my own to site after having the opportunity to visit Kamenica.

Site Placements

In the past two days, all of the MAK-16s have learned where we will be living for the next two years. This was much awaited news for all of us, despite the fact that we don't have a vast knowledge of the cities, towns, and villages here in Macedonia. We were given very little information about or new locations, however, we will be visiting them this next week. It will be so great to see the school, meet my counterpart, and hopefully even see my new apartment/house.

My new home is Македонска Каменица, or Каменица for short. Каменица is in northeastern Macedonia, just 30 minutes from the Bulgarian border (My friend Megan from high school is a PCV in Bulgaria and I discovered I will be about 3 hours by bus from her). Because of the proximity to Bulgaria, it was recommended that I also learn Bulgarian, so that will be interesting. It is a town of just over 8,000 people (which is more than twice the size of my hometown in Minnesota). I will be working at the local primary school with 6-15 year olds and a young female English teacher. The school really wants someone to help co-teach, but also to assist with integrating technology into the classroom and creating extra-curricular activities. Каменица is a mining town up in the mountains. I was told there is a fountain there. My host mother's first cousin works in the school (or she thinks he does) and I met a guy here in Lozovo last night that is related to the Mayor of Каменица. That's pretty much all I know right now. I have found a little more information on the internet from on the Municipality's site. While I am the only volunteer in my town, I have quite a few volunteers within 30-40 minutes from me with direct bus lines going between us.

The Lozovo group is rather spread out in the country. In the Northeast with me will be Anna and Morgan. Amy is in Southeast Macedonia on the Greek boarder. In the Southwest are Shannon and Claire. Julie and Kenzie are in West Central Macedonia. And finally in the Northwest is Andres bordering Kosovo. Good thing it is only 8 hours by bus from one end of the country to the other (aka the distance between Shannon and I since I think we are as far away from each other as possible).

Skopje and Practicum

This past Saturday, the Lozovo group went to the capital city of Skopje for the day. We met my teacher, Dushko, there and he showed us around the city. Dushko took us around and showed us the many monuments (I now understand why there was a recent CNN article questioning where Skopje is becoming a theme park) and gave us a Macedonian history lesson.

Alexander the Great Monument in Skopje

Close-up of the Alexander the Great Monument in Skopje

Dushko, Shannon, Sara, Morgan, Kenzie, Julie, Anna, Amy, Claire, Andres

Street view in Skopje

The inside of one of the Orthodox Churches in Skopje

Mother Theresa's House

When I got home from Skopje on Saturday, my family had started the first step of making the traditional Macedonian dish of Ajvar, fire roasting the peppers. I sat in the garage with them helping. They let me attempt to de-stem/seed the peppers (a much harder task than I imagined) and then they even let me help roast them. Once the peppers are roasted, they place them in a bag overnight. Sunday morning I woke up, we ate breakfast (peppers stuffed with rice, meat, and assorted vegetables), and then we peeled peppers for three hours. I failed miserably at peeling the skin off of my first few peppers, but by the end, I wasn't half bad. I would even go as far as saying I was somewhat decent at it. Once the peppers were all peeled, my host brother and mother put them through a machine that ground them up into a spread. The final step in making the ajvar is cooking it over a wood fire with lots of sunflower oil and salt for 5-6 hours. While it is cooking, it must be stirred constantly. When it was finally done cooking, we canned it for the winter. It is quite the process to make it, but it is well worth it.

This week we have our TEFL Practicum. We were each assigned an English teacher in the area to shadow for the week and then we are to teach a lesson either on Thursday or Friday. Monday and Tuesday I shadowed an English teacher at the largest primary school in Macedonia. It is in Veles. Veles is a large city (43,716 people according to Wikipedia) about 20 minutes from Lozovo. Julie and Claire are also at the same school as me. We were told there are over 2000 students attending the school. Because of the large number, the school has two shifts (one from 7:00-11:45, and another from 1:00-5:45). The students and teachers switch which shift they are on, which I would find really confusing. There are around 15-20 students per class, which may make some of the American teachers reading this jealous of class size, however, the students I observed didn't listen one bit to the teachers, so it seemed like far more students. Classes are 40 minutes long and with all of the distractions going on in the classroom, I don't feel like a whole lot was accomplished. My teacher is young and told me right away she struggles with classroom management, but from what I saw, it wasn't just her, it was other teachers as well. Overall, I thought she did quite a nice job, despite the challenges with students. She said she has a deaf and mute student that she is supposed to teach English too, which she said is a huge challenge. I asked her how she does it and she said she gives the student pictures with words written on them for vocab and the student looks at them during class, however the student is pretty bored. She also has a student who grew up in Ohio, so he is clearly fluent in English, but she said she likes having him in class because he helps her with her English and challenges her to learn more. I have been able to observe 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders at that school and there is quite a difference. The first graders know "hello", numbers, and are learning family members and most of the lesson is in Macedonian. The third graders can read some simple sentences, but still a majority of the lesson is in Macedonian. The fifth graders are pretty good English speakers, so much more of the lesson is in English.

Today, we shadowed different teachers at different schools to see how another school works. I spent the morning in the Milino school (Milino is a nearby village) with their English teacher. It was quite a different experience. There are only eight students in the whole school (one student in 1st grade, two students in 2nd grade, three students in 3rd grade, zero students in 4th grade, and two students in 5th grade) with two regular teachers and an English teacher who is there two days a week. The students were split 1st and 3rd grade in one classroom and 2nd and 5th in another. The English teacher meets with students in the small teacher's lounge. There is no Director (Principal), no gym, no library, nothing really. From the outside, the school looks kinda like it is abandoned. There are some broken windows and doors, the road leading to the school is horrible, and the grounds do not look like they have been taken very good care of. The classrooms are quite large (especially with only 4 students per class) and they felt kind of empty. However, despite all of this, I loved Milino's school much more than I like the large city school I have been at in Veles. There were 0 discipline problems and the kids were so respectful. The teacher I shadowed was great. I feel like I know her much more than I know the teacher I am with in Veles. I think largely because the school day is so rushed in Veles with so much going on. Milino had a very relaxed atmosphere. The teacher in Milino let me help the students right away instead of me just sitting there and I had a chance to actually talk to her. I felt like if Milino were my permanent site, I would be needed there (something I think every Peace Corps Volunteer wants- the feeling of being useful), and I don't feel like I would be any benefit to the school in Veles. For all of these reasons (and others), I really hope I get placed in a village for my permanent site. I would be ok if it were larger than Milino (the whole village is around 350 people, which makes Lozovo look large with its 760 people).

The short and sweet:


1) I now drink coffee.... and I actually enjoy it. Most of us who came not drinking it now have acclimated ourselves to the local custom of lots of coffee.

2) On Monday Shannon and I на гостивме (visited) Kenzie's house since we keep being told how adorable his little (19 month) host brother is. Adorable is an understatement. Vadren was very shy at first and wanted to hide, but by the end, I was getting constant hugs and kisses. I think from now on I will на гости Vadren, rather than Kenzie because nothing can compare to an adorable child.

Kenzie and Vadren (*Photo courtesy of Morgan's Facebook!)

Again, Morgan's photo

3) I ate white pig lung last night at Julie's house. It was not enjoyable. When I told my host family I had tried it and didn't like it (I figured I should tell them to hopefully avoid being served it for dinner at my house), they said they would make the black version one night for me since it is better. I tried to explain I would be ok if I never ate pig lung again, no matter what the colour, but they were insistant I try the black.

4) We are going to Skopje again this weekend for what is called "Field Day". It is a volunteer put on PC event, where all of the volunteers in the country can meet the new trainees (I have heard it referred to as the PCTs's "coming out" event) and the COSing volunteers (in this case the MAK-14s) can sell their belongings that they don't want to bring back to America.

Ајде чао!

The Village of Lozovo: A Journey Through Paint

Things are still going great in Lozovo. The 9 of us Americans here have embarked on a new project.... We are painting a pretty intense 3-walled mural on the inside. We have been working nightly on a mural of Lozovo, a traditional Macedonian feast, the journey to the neighbouring village of Milino, and possibly even attempting Skopje and part of America. We have been working from about 4pm-10pm the last couple nights. Or I should say, working and enjoying the fabulous hospitality Mama and Tatko are providing us all with. Our wine glasses are never empty, multiple shots of rakija are passed around, and we have been served two very delicious meals as well as constant snacks (I swear every time I turn around, Mama is bringing out a new plate of something delicious). This is the Macedonia everyone should experience- the extreme graciousness and hospitality.

This is the Lozovo wall. Claire and I are working on the цирква (church) and the winery.

Trend, the local coffee bar. It is wood paneled, so I used a fork to give it a wood-like texture.

Andres, Me, Julie, and Claire painting away.

While blending the many greens in the grass, I found it much more effective to use my hand.

Shannon used the one colour effect on her camera. 

The Lozovo wall.

The Wednesday Night Painting Crew with Julie's Mama:
Julie, Mama, Andres, Me, Claire, Shannon, Amy, Kenzie

Language is going extremely well. It is fast paced, but I am certainly learning a lot. On days when I am frustrated either because I can't understand what my family is saying or I am unable to communicate something to them, or I am overwhelmed by everything we learned in class, I just take a step back and remember I have been in this country for just over a month. I came not knowing the entire alphabet even and now I am able to have a decent conversation in Macedonian. I know my sentence structure is lacking, but I am able to put the words I want to use together. Even if the words aren't in the correct order, the Macedonians understand what I am trying to say (i.e. Yesterday I with other Americans paint Lozovo picture Julie's house- It doesn't make sense grammatically, but you certainly know what I am trying to say!). At the end of October we have a practice LPI (language assessment) to see where we are at. At the end of PST, Peace Corps requires us all to achieve at least an intermediate low level of language. If we don't reach it, we are required to have tutoring during the start of our service and then take the test again a few months later. I am not too worried as I have seen I can communicate on a very basic level already and we still have a month and a half of PST.

Tomorrow we have another Hub Day in Kumanovo with all 36 of the PCTs. Last time we talked a lot about STDs, this time, we are talking about the History and Politics of Macedonia. Then starting next week, we have one week of Practicum. Since Lozovo only has one elementary school, most of us are traveling to the nearby large city of Veles. I will be working with an English Language teacher who teaches 1st and 5th grade, so it will be nice to see two different ends of the spectrum age/language wise. I am with my teacher Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I shadow another English Language teacher who travels to the small villages around Lozovo. Then Thursday and Friday I am back at my original school teaching a few lessons (potentially). The following week is a big week for us....we find out our site placements a.k.a. where we will live for the next two years!