First Couple Weeks in Resen

I just completed my first couple weeks in Resen.  Nothing too exciting.  Work has been a little slow as the Opstina looks to find a role for me.  I recently took a couple pictures:

 For the next couple years, this apartment building will serve as Marlin Headquarters.  My apartment is on the second floor, directly above the red Yugo.  (Yep, that's a Yugo).

 This is the Apple Statue in the town center.  Resen's main industry is the exportation of apples.  Resen's economy depends on them. 

 Another pic of the town center.

 This is the House of Culture.  It is a mansion built in the early 20th century, when the land was ruled by the Ottoman Turks.  Legend has there were two rich, young Turkish men who lived in Resen. (I forget if they were brothers or best friends).  Anyway, one of them left to live in Paris and the other stayed in Resen.  The one in Paris had a picture made of some fancy Parisian mansion and sent it to the one who lived in Resen.  Almost to spite him, the Resen guy replied back "Big deal, there is a building like that in Resen" and he built a similar building to live in!  The town is literally built on spite.  I found my home!

  Picture of a pedestrian-only alley way near the city center.

I went and visited my neighbors for the first time this past Wednesday.  In Macedonia, visiting neighbors is a big thing.  People in Macedonia generally don't have a whole lot of money, so rather than go out, people often host each other.  My neighbors are pretty chill.  They are in their 60's and have adult kids who moved away.  Visiting neighbors here is different than in America.  In America, hosts generally offer food or drink, but it's generally like a non-offer.  Nobody is really expected to accept.  However, here, if you walk into somebody's home, they get out the coffee and juice and cookies and if you don't accept, it's like offensive.  Different in that regard.

PS: I have a new address:    Please send all correspondences here:

Dan Polykov
Naum Veslievski br 46
stan 8
Resen, Macedonia 7310

Swearing in and Resen

Thanksgiving was the official Peace Corps swearing in ceremony for us trainees.  We had spent the last two and a half months learning the language and learning how to function in everyday society in Macedonia.  The Peace Corps makes a big deal out of the ceremony.  In addition to the Peace Corps staff in attendance, all of the host families come, as well as the American ambassador to Macedonia and the Macedonian Minister of Education.  All of the major dignitaries gave short speeches.  It was welcoming to know we felt ‘wanted’ in Macedonia.  I mean, if we didn’t, the Peace Corps would simply pull out of Macedonia.  Still, it was nice of them to say it at least.  The swearing in was complete with a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.  However, there wasn’t any stuffing, which is the best part of Thanksgiving dinner.

My host family and I at the swearing in ceremony

 

In the center right is U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia Paul Wohlers

This past Friday (Black Friday in America), I traveled from Probistip to my new home, Resen.  Saying good-bye to my host family was sad.  I am happy to be on my own again and be a true Peace Corps volunteer, but my host family cared for me the past two and a half months and I genuinely cared for them in return.  I left Probistip at 7am and by 2:30pm, I was in Resen.  I saw my apartment for the first time.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Easily nicer than the dump I lived in Woodlyn my last 10 months in America.  The apartment is fully furnished, with a television and washing machine to go with a bed, a couch, a dining table with chairs, and a kitchen with pots and pans. 

An interesting note about apartments and buildings in Macedonia: central heating is like non-existent and electricity is relatively expensive.  Many things are cheaper in Macedonia than in America.  You can go to a café, for example, and get a good cup of coffee for 40 denari, which is about 90 cents.  Electricity is not one of those things.  And because of the lack of central heating and the relative expensiveness of electricity, Macedonians often only heat one room or part of their houses or apartments.  I am in that same boat.  My heater is in my common room, which is connected to my kitchen and dining room.  That  is the part of my apartment that is heated.  My bathroom and bedroom are not heated.  Ergo, I do not go into my bedroom and I go to the bathroom only when I absolutely have to.  (And I really hate going there – I can literally see my breath in my bathroom).  I sleep on my couch, which sadly is approximately three inches too short for me to lay comfortably across.  

My first weekend here, I did not have cable and internet at my apartment.  From a surfing the internet standpoint, that was hard.  I was used to having the internet going and watching television at the same time.  Not having either made the weekend a drag.  But, in a remarkable act of foresight by me, I planned ahead.  I downloaded an emulator of Chrono Trigger before I left America.  Because most people who read this blog do not care about Chrono Trigger, or even know what it is, I’ll spare the details.  But, right now, I am all about it.  Without that game, I think I would have gone crazy this past weekend.  And because I do know one person who does want to hear all about it, I’ll just ask nobody give me any spoilers.  Right now, I am a little over halfway through the game, at the point where I just defeated Magus and his henchmen in his castle and have been thrown back in time unwillingly.  No spoilers.  For real.

Resen is a beautiful town and I hope to take pictures of it when I get the chance.  It’s not that I have been so unbearably busy that I can’t, it’s just I work until 4pm and by that time, it’s a little too dark to take pictures.  Hopefully, this weekend I’ll have some time.      

Probistip and Training Comes to an End

This is the last full night that I will be a trainee.  Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving, is our swearing in ceremony.  The Peace Corps makes a really big deal out of this.  All of our host families are gathering in a restaurant in Kumanovo and having a traditional turkey dinner.  Also, the Ambassador from America will be attending, as well as the Macedonian Minister of Education I believe, as well as other dignitaries.  So, it's a really big deal.  I am excited to get to work.  Training had its ups and downs.  Living with a host family was tough at times for me because in America I was accustomed to living on my own and the freedoms that provided.  But, as a whole, I am very thankful for the experience.  Obviously, the training was invaluable.  I will miss Probistip dearly.  I finally got around to taking a couple photos of the town:

The fountain in the town center

Another picture of the center square of Probistip

A picture of Risto's family farm in the village

This is Crazydog.  I saw him nearly everyday walking to school.  In Macedonia, it is customary to keep pets outside.  Crazydog would approach us as if to play, but then when he got too close, he would jump back in fear or something.  I never quite knew what he was thinking.  I never did figure out if he wanted to play or bite my face off.  That, plus the disheveled fur and the chain for a collar really makes him the craziest dog I've ever met.  I'll miss you, Crazydog!

We had our last day of language class today.  I took some pictures of the class.  It's cool, because we have a whole bunch of posters with our lessons on them.  Next time I upload photos, I'll post them on the blog.

This past Saturday, I went to a wine festival in Veles, a city in central Macedonia with a friend of mine.  First of all, let me say my frame of reference for cities has totally been skewed.  I was excited to go to the 'big city' and take in metropolitan life for an afternoon.  Then I realized: Veles has about 50,000 people.  This is like the equivalent of me getting excited to go to Scranton.  Seriously, what does Scranton have?  Anyway, the festival was fun.  I had a couple glasses of wine.  There was traditional music.  All in all, a pleasant time.

My friend with cotton candy.  That shit gets stuck in your beard, by the way.  In case you wanted to know.

After the wine festival, my friend and I went to Stip (Shteep).  Stip has an old church and ruins of an even older fortress on a mountain.  We climbed up it.  There was a huge path of stairs in the middle of the mountain, almost like an RPG.  At the top, you could see all of Stip.  Also at the top, by the fortress, there is a gigantic illuminated Orthodox cross that is visible from nearly all of Stip.  Seeing it set up this exchange:
My friend:  "Hey, check out that cross.  Isn't that cool?"
Me: "Thank you, Electric Jesus!"

Stip, from the mountain.

The other side of the mountain, with the ruins of the fortress in the foreground and the scenery in the background.  The ruins are around 1,000 years old.

This is the last post I'll be making in Probistip.  Thursday is swearing in and Friday I am off to Resen!

And now Marlin related news:  I forgot to post this last time, but the Marlins changed their team name, uniforms, and colors.  They will now be the Miami Marlins (as opposed to the Florida Marlins), and if you Google new Marlins uniforms, you can see them.  Personally, I don't care for them much, but that's not my decision of course.  Worst of all, they dropped teal from their team colors.  This is particularly bad for me, as I have grown accustomed to calling them the Teal Sox or the Tealies and I thought they always looked best in teal; it was identifiable and unique.  I think the compromise I'll come to is for this site, I'll refuse to acknowledge the changes, so they will still be called the Florida Marlins here and I will keep the teal-based nicknames as an anachronism.  But, understand that they will be called the Miami Marlins.  Additionally, the team signed oft-injured shortstop Jose Reyes to a big deal.  I think the money can be spent elsewhere, so consider me a skeptic of their biggest free agency signing in possibly the history of the franchise.  Best of luck to them.  This off-season has already proven to be one of the most busy for the Marlins in their 18 year history.

Holy Shit, it's been a long time since I've posted.

Sorry.  I've been mad busy.  Still, that doesn't excuse the behavior.  So, without further ado, let's get to the stories:

I went to a couple Macedonian parties over the past couple weeks.  The first was Etno Day, which is sort of like 'Tradition Day'.  Risto, Zlatko, and I went to a picnic and festival in a random village near Strumica, in the SE part of Macedonia. The festival had loads of traditional Macedonian food and kids wore traditional Macedonian dress.  The kids put on a dance that I assume people here used to dance.  The fact that it was a random village struck me.  Every year this festival occurs at the end of October and I wonder if every year, the residents of the village think to themselves, "Here are those city yahoos again" or something like that.  That's what we would do in America.  About 60 or so people showed up.  The village is adjacent to a waterfall and after the festival, everybody hiked up the hill to the waterfall.  The pictures of it were pretty cool.  Well, being there was pretty cool too.

Just to prove to you that the festival was really called 'Etno Day'

Kids in traditional gear.  Better them than me.

Us with the waterfall in the background.

That hill was damn high too.  I was winded after going up it.

About a week after that, my host family had a 'Svadba'.  My family is Orthodox and from what I surmise, the Orthodox have Saints, like the Catholics.  'Svadba' is when the patron saint of the family has his day.  I'm not explaining this well, but every Saint has a day.  So, the 'Svadba' is the celebration of the family.  We went out to the farm in the village and nobody tells me anything before it happens.  So, when we went out to the village, I was expecting just the close family, but when I walked inside the house, there was prolly around 30-40 people.  It was intimidating, man, because I don't speak Macedonian and the vast majority of these people (especially the older ones) don't speak English, but that doesn't stop them from talking a mile a minute in Macedonian to me.  Running through my mind at the time: "FUUUUUUUUU..."
But I lucked out.  There were so many people, they all just sorta let me be.  And I know that's the wrong attitude to have.  But, it is so hard to actively partake in conversation when you can't understand it.  And you feel bad.  Because you don't wanna seem impolite.  But, you really don't understand what is happening.

As the party died down and people started to leave, I was talking basketball with some of the younger people.  Kids love basketball over here, especially the NBA.  I told them how growing up I watched Michael Jordan and how I thought he was the bets of all time.  Then we talked about today's players, like Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant.  Like I said, they just love basketball.  And football.  I talked a little football with them.  I told them how Wesley Sneijder is my favorite footballer.  Prolly cuz he's like the only one I know!  It ended up being a lot of fun.

This past Sunday, I chopped wood.  Over here, wood heaters are the norm and obviously, to obtain fuel for such heater, you chop it.  It was a whole day process.  We began in the village doing the chopping.  Then, at around 1pm, we load up the trailer on a tractor with the pieces.  And the trailer was full mind you.  When we got back to the apartment, we put the wood in sacks, standard burlap size, and hauled them to the basement of the apartment building, where the family has a storage locker.  Risto is a master at this.  I am utterly convinced after this that he could be one of the world's greatest Tetris players if he tried.  We stacked a trailer full of wood into what was a 4'x4' area.  At the beginning of the stacking process, I would have bet my entire life savings that couldn't be done.  And it couldn't if the family used my strategy, which would have been to just dump the wood on the ground as quickly as possible to be done with it.  But that's why he's the Macedonian and I'm the American.  I don't think I have ever been as tired as I was at the end of the today.  I am terrible at chopping wood and I think some of the older guys seem to take a little pleasure at seeing the American make an ass of himself.

I took my final language assessment today.  I'm sure I passed, which is a relief.  I will get the marks back on Monday, but nothing to worry about.  As far as the Peace Corps is concerned, I am functional in Macedonian.  But, IRL, that isn't true.  Our swearing in (where we become 'official' volunteers, and not just trainees) is Thanksgiving.  The Friday afterwards, I will move to my site in Resen and the Monday after that, I will begin my job in the municipality building in Resen.

Once more, I apologize for the late posting.  I will do better in the future.

A Taste of the Real World and Marlin Nation gets a New Home!

This past week has been the 'Practicum Week' during training for me.  Practicum is sort of like real world training.  I, as well as two other volunteers in Probistip, visited the Municipal building as well as two Non-Profit Organizations.  The goal was to see how these organizations functioned in the real world and get a concrete idea of their needs, as well as how I may fit into one of their organizations.  It is important to note here that since I will be leaving Probistip, I won't actually work for any of these organizations.  I am only learning from these examples.  But, at all three of these organizations, we met with representatives who spoke English.  They told us how the organizations functioned.  It put my mind to ease somewhat.  I had no idea what to expect.  At various training lessons I've been to, the instructors told us what we may encounter, but that's all in the abstract. 

At the Municipality, we visited the important departments.  While we didn't meet the mayor, we met his assistant who told us how the local government more or less functions.  Then we met the Budget office, which prepares the comprehensive budget (natch) every year and then we spoke with representatives from the Office of Economic Development and Office of Juvenile Services and Community Relations.  Currently, the Office of Economic Development is in the midst of a Special Business Zone that the city hopes will spark small business development.  Unemployment is easily the largest issue Probistip faces and by developing small businesses by giving them breaks on buying land, for example, the city hopes employment will increase.  Risto, my host father, works in the Office of Juvenile Services and Community Relations.  Until now, I didn't know really what he did.  I knew he worked in the Municipality, but that was it.  He doesn't speak English and I don't speak Macedonian really, so there was no way for him to effectively communicate his job functions, until now.  The department focuses mainly on education and it also plans the yearly festivals, celebrations, etc.

The two Non-Profits we visited were the Probistip chapter of the Red Cross and the Women's Organization of Probistip.  The two are night and day with regards to their organization.  The Red Cross obviously is an international organization and is able to provide the Probistip chapter with funding and structure.  The Women's Organization has none of that.  It was interesting to see the differences and how they both operate. Prior to the Practicum Week, I was nervous because I really don't know the language and I don't know how organizations in Macedonia function.  So, I didn't know where I fit in or how (or if) I would contribute.  After seeing the organizations first hand, they no longer are abstract concepts, but concrete machines, with visible moving parts.  At the very least, I feel less nervous about beginning my job in a month or so.  Again, I would like to reiterate, I will not be going to any of these three organizations, specifically.

Today, we received our site announcements.  These announcements told us where we will be going after November and what my job will be.  I hoped to remain close to Probistip, as I've made great friendships here.  Aside form that, though, I really wasn't nervous with my placement.  No matter where I was placed, it most likely will be in a town I have never heard of.  In that regard, it was all the same.  But, I did want to know, just to get it out of the way and to begin thinking about the next phase of my journey here.  I was assigned to the Municipality of Resen, in Southwest Macedonia.  If you look to the map to the right, it is in between Bitola and Ohrid, just north of Lake Prespa.  It is clear on the other side of the country.  I will be working in the city hall.  In fact, when the Municipality applied for a Peace Corps volunteer, it specifically asked for an accountant, so I know I will be doing accounting work (and I know I will be working in the office of the budget there).  That is a relief for me, because I know and understand accounting and the knowledge I gain from this experience will probably be useful down the road.  Resen is a city of about 9,000 people (a little less that Probistip) and currently has a Peace Corps Volunteer, who works in the school as an English teacher.  That's all I know of Resen so far, except for what's available on Resen's wiki page (added to the right).  Next week, I will have a site visit out there.  But, today I can safely say I know where Marlin Nation is for the next two years!     

Down on the Farm

This past Saturday, I went to the family farm with Risto and Zlatko.  We were going to slaughter a pig.  We left the apartment around 12:30 in the afternoon and arrived at the farm around 1.  By that time, the other men helping out were in the pig pen getting the one pig ready.  In no time, they had placed a rope and tether to one of the pig's legs and were dragging her out from the pig pen into the clearing by the house.  That was the first time I got a good look at the pig.  The thing was huge.  It almost certainly weighed more than I did and on all fours, was prolly around three and a half feet tall and maybe five and a half feet long.  Dragging the pig to the necessary spot was a challenge, as it literally was kicking and screaming the entire time.  And mind you, there is only the one restaint on one of its legs from keeping it from going loose.  That didn't look very secure, so first chance I got, I went up the stairs on the outside of the house.  But, it was secure and these guys are pros at this.  They dragged the pig to the required spot and for whatever reason, the pig laid down.  I don't know why.  One of the men grabbed the nearby ax and I moved into a position where I could not see the head of the pig.  I could hear the ax connect with the pig and afterward, the pig made one of the most horrid screams I have ever heard in my life.  Another ax, another horrid scream.  After the third stroke, the pig was more or less subdued.  I think I will always be able to hear that scream, though.  Man, that was tough to listen to.
From that point, the men were tasked with skinning the pig and carving out the meat.  One of Risto's friends, Slavche, is really a pro at the skinning and cutting.  He was working twice as fast as the rest of the men.  I wonder if he is the designated pig slaughterer, such that whenever somebody needs a pig slaughtered, the first person they think about is Slavche.  "Hey, I need a pig slaughtered for an event next Tuesday.  Better get Slavche", you know that kind of thing.  The process is long and boring and I really didn't want to help, mainly because I'm not really all about skinning a pig on a Saturday afternoon.  But sure enough, as Risto was removing the skin from one of the pig's front legs, he calls out, "Hey, Obama (which is how he likes to refer to me), get over here" [In Macedonian, but this is the translation].  He asked me to hold the leg up while he removed the skin.  The day before, I was holding hands and fooling around with a girl I am kinda seeing.  The next day, I was holding the leg of a pig carcass.  Some days are easier than others.

The kids here really know English.  On the farm, one of the boys came over.  I think he is Zlatko's cousin and he looked to be about 10 years old maybe.  But, he was talking to me in English.  Asking where I was from, what music I listened to, what sports I play.  I truly was impressed.  That night, friends of the family visited the apartment and they brought with them their daughter, who was eight years old.  She was enrolled in English tutoring lessons and her family, as well as my host family, was all excited.  They were telling me to ask her questions in English and so I obliged.  I asked questions like how old she was, what grade she was in, and if she had any brothers or sisters.  That kind of stuff.  And she answered in perfect English.  It was remarkable.  And it goes from there.  A girl who lives in my neighborhood is 18 years old and never has visited or lived in an English speaking country before, but she has been taking English classes for 10 years in school and is perfectly fluent.  Like I said, it truly is impressive. 

Finally, over the weekend, I went to a bar that was doing karaoke.  By that time, I had already had a bunch and was in a pretty good mood.  A lot of the people wanted me to sing a song because a) I'm the new guy and everybody always wants to egg the new guy on and b) I'm American and half the songs available were American pop hits (which everybody listens to over here).  So, I selected Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling".  It's a good party song and I felt it would be a good way to introduce the people here to my Jewish heritage.  I looked back before I started and the bar was full.  All the tables were occupied and there were a lot of people standing as well.  I start singing and I am ridiculously bad.  I haven't heard the song in a while, which certainly didn't help.  Plus, I am a bad singer to begin with.  Plus, I was drunk.  I was so bad that at the end of the song, I turned around, and only like 10 people were left in the bar.  I can say now that I am such a bad singer that I cleared out a bar during the span of a 4 minute song.  I won't be doing karaoke again for a while.  To the owners of the bar: I am sorry.  It won't happen again.

Chao for now! 

Weeks 2 and 3 in Probistip

Sorry for not posting sooner.  But, now that I have my pictures uploaded onto my computer, this may be a good time for a recap.  Three weeks ago, we, the Peace Corps team, were in our hotel, nervously awaiting our home-stay assignments.  The tension was nearly unbearable as we waited seemingly forever in the third floor of our hotel, waiting for the queue to come down to meet our families.

Here are a couple of team members passing the time there.

I met my host family and drove to Probistip.  The drive was approximately an hour from Kumanovo.

Here is a picture of my host family.  Risto, the head of the household is furthest to the left.  Then, Jorgen and Peter, his work friends are beside him.  (Jorgen is wearing brown and Peter is wearing green).  Peter spoke English, which made the first day a lot easier.  Risto's wife, Venka, is to the right.

Here is a picture of me with the group.

Probistip itself is situated in the mountains.  Actually, to put it more precisely, it is past a mountain.  Probistip itself is relatively flat, but we drive through the mountains to get there.

This is a picture taken from the balcony of my host family's apartment.

Another picture from the balcony.  This one is of the sunset.

If there is one thing I love, it's hand-drawing my maps.  Now that I live in a new city, I thought it appropriate to have a map.  The Peace Corps does not supply city maps for everyone, but I borrowed the one map we did have for an evening and jotted down the important stuff.  But, right there is Probistip.  Interestingly enough, there are no street signs naming the streets.  People just know where things are.  For an outsider, that can be frustrating, but even after just three weeks here, I know where things are such that I am okay walking around.

This further proves that the internet is nothing but pictures of cats.  Risto's family has a farm out in the village approximately 15 min from Probistip.  I spent a day out there doing farm stuff and it had all the things one would expect in a farm: chickens, pigs, etc.  This cat was also hanging around.

We're starting to get down to business during our training.  Today, I had my interview which will help determine my placement.  I still don't know what I'll be doing once I start work for real yet.  The interview today was an opportunity to share my strengths and weaknesses and from that, the Peace Corps will look into the available openings and determine which one is the best for me.  Mind you, this isn't like Survivor, where the last one goes back home.  Everyone gets a place.  It's just a matter of determining the best fit.  I hope I can remain in Probistip.  I love it here.  I've met a lot of great people and there are a lot of fun things to do.  But, the math of the situation suggests that an assignment to Probistip is a long shot.   

These past couple weeks have been rather eventful, so let's get down to it:

Not this past Sunday, but the Sunday before, was the last day the Water Park in Probistip was open.  As a final send off, admission was free.  The Probistip Peace Corps team all made it down there at some point or another during the day.  It was interesting too, because a lot of us came with members of our host families, so we really didn't plan it.  The park itself was a lot of fun.  There were about a half dozen or so slides and a huge pool.  One difference from the United States: The pool had no shallow area, alcoholic drinks were served, the area around the pool was very slippery (I almost fell twice), and there were no lifeguards visible.  If this were America, the Aqua Park would last three seconds before getting shut down.

This is a picture of some of the team, with me on the right.

The unofficial national drink of Macedonia is rajkia, which is somewhat similar to whiskey, but not really.  Many families make their own, and people drink it in a social atmosphere.  It is usually stronger than whiskey in America.  For comparison's sake, whiskey, as well as most vodka, gin, and rum purchased in America is 40% alcohol, or 80 proof.  Rajkia here is usually a little over 50% alcohol.  So, the first time I had it, I was with Zlatko and his friends.  One of his friends gets the shot glasses out and fills them.  I knew this day would come, but had kind of dreaded it because I hate whiskey and I hate drinking hard liquor straight.  But, here I was, holding my shot glass.  We all cheers.  And in America, when people have shots of hard liquor and then say Cheers, they take the liquor as a shot.  Of course, that's what I thought we would do here.  So, we said Cheers and I took the shot like a man, for the record.  Did it all in one effort.  Then, I look around and everyone else just took a sip!  And everyone else looked at me and they said "No, no, no, no, no! You don't take rajkia as a shot!"  Dumbass American.  Another shot was poured for me and I drank it in sips, like a true Macedonian.  I understand the higher alcohol content makes doing shots of it a tricky prospect, but I don't understand how you can sip it.  In the infamous voice of Ralph Wiggum, "It tastes like...burning".

Finally, last Sunday was Risto's 55th birthday.  We had a little get together in honor.  Some of the neighbors came over.  Visiting another family's house is a fairly common practice. Visiting hours in Macedonia are much later than in America.  This get together didn't get started until like 9:00pm and lasted until about 11.

Picture of me, Risto in the center, and Zlatko on the right.

Again, sorry for not keeping up with everything.  This past week has been especially busy for me.  But, this I think squares me up.  Hope everything is going well with you all. 

Probistip

I finished my first full week in Probistip with my host family.  Things are going great over here.  I have no serious concerns and my wants/needs appear to be tended to.  I settled into a routine where I have my language class in the morning, from 8am to noon.  Some days we have additional classes, others we don’t.  But after that, I go home, get my homework done and on the weekends, my host brother, Zlatko,  invites me out with him and his friends.  At this point, that pretty much is my life.  The language is difficult.   In class, we learn valuable stuff, but then we go out into the real world and people are speaking a mile a minute, or don’t speak clearly and even the words/phrases we do know we have a hard time picking up in the real world.  But, I never really intended for this blog to be about learning or feel good stories.  Instead, I would like to tell you about the more interesting things that happen:

First, the flushing mechanism of the toilets here is different than in America.  In America, we press down on a lever.  Here, there is a rope that protrudes from the top of the toilet and you pull that string to flush.  As I learned at my host family’s home, there is a rhythm to pulling the string.  You want to pull it once, forcefully.  Ok, that’s the back story.  So I was at a bar with Zlatko and I had to go to the bathroom.  And, at this point, I had a bunch, so I go to use the restroom and I finish and to flush, I yank the rope.  Maybe I don’t know my ‘drunk strength’ (def: the additional strength you gain once you become drunk – or more realistically, the fact that when you are drunk, it is difficult to judge how much force to apply to a given physical task), but when I yank the rope, I ripped the fucking thing right off the toilet!  I just stood there, dumbfounded for a couple seconds.  What could I do?  I determined the only proper thing to do would be to drop it and walk away.  I mean, what else could I do?  I was drunk.  The situation was entirely unavoidable.  

Second, a traditional Macedonian specialty is Ayvar, which is a paste made from red peppers, which are plentiful here.  Making ayvar is a huge process and from start to finish takes approx. 12 hours to make.  The end result is a thick, jam-like paste that is spread on bread.  It is often pared with a special type of white cheese, but since I don’t eat cheese, I don’t enjoy it that way.  Anyway, every mother makes ayvar here and for the first 4-5 days I lived with my host family, I ate it every day, either for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  Being from red peppers, it is red.  And I ate so much of it, I literally starting shitting red.  The first time I saw that, I panicked for a couple seconds.  Was there blood in my stool?  That’s never a good problem to have, let alone when you are in a different country and can’t speak the language.  But, after about 3 seconds, I connected the dots.  Ayvar = red.  No problem.

Finally, we were at a bar and I wanted to buy a beer.  A bottle of Skopsko is 60 denari, or roughly $1.75 maybe.  But, I look in my wallet and all I had was a 500 denari note and a bunch of birds (10 denari notes).  Rather than take the birds out of the flock and start counting them, I just give Zlatko the 500 note.  Using a 500 note to pay for a 60 denari bill is kind of frowned upon (it’s like going to a bar in Philly and whipping out a $50 to pay for a $5 bottle of beer).  So, instead, I just told Zlatko to go up to the bar and buy a lot of beer so I wouldn’t have any change.  For whatever reason, that made more sense to me at the time than to see if I could change the 500 or if I did have enough birds.  Zlatko comes back with like 6 bottles of beer and we are handing them out to anybody we know.  Craziness.  

So those are some of the misadventures I was telling you about.  I still have not uploaded the photos onto my computer.  But, I think I’ll do that Monday.  Chao.

Orientation Week/Meet Host Family

First week under the belt.  One casual observation: it really helps to know Macedonian in Macedonia.  If I had a nickel every time I found myself stuck because I couldn’t express myself well, I would already have a lot of nickels.  But, Macedonians use denar, not nickels, so forget it.

Kumanovo itself is a neat looking town with a couple good bars.  The city has a defined center that is wide open and only pedestrians.  Everything is located there.  We really don’t have anything comparable in American cities.  

Center of Kumanovo

 Statue of 'Drunken Georgi'.  Legend has it he was the town drunk years ago and to shame him, they erected a statue. Either that or our guide is a liar.  Don't quite know what I believe.

During orientation, our days were busy.  We had a language class that lasted about an hour and a half everyday and we also had classes regarding Peace Corps rules and regulations, safety and security, medical issues, Macedonian culture, and a Q&A with current volunteers regarding what to expect for the 3 month home stay leg of the race.  We also had a chance to try a lot of the Macedonian cuisine.  Of all things, eating Macedonian food was the thing I was most apprehensive about.  I am a crazy picky eater (no cheese, no mayo, no salad dressing, and I’m sure there’s a lot of other things I am forgetting), but Macedonian food seems edible, even to my high standards.   There was nothing too strange.  Of course, I’m sure they’re saving the Lamb Brain Stew for later.  

Things are in like a totally different universe over here.  I’ve been gone a week, which means everybody in America has already forgotten me.  Which is cool.  I’m cool with that.  But, for example, today is the first time I’ve thought about how the Phillies are doing.  Roy Halladay could have had a stroke and I wouldn’t have known.  I’m sure the Phillies are doing alright.  It’s the Teal Sox who I am really worried about.  

During the week, I got to know the rest of the Macedonian Peace Corps team.  There are 36 of us, altogether.  Most of them are kids my age or thereabouts, but we also have some older volunteers who are now retired.  We went out drinking every night and negotiating the bars in Macedonia only being able to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ is a real trip, let me tell you that.  If you ever are looking for a good time, consider going to a part of the world that does not speak English and try to order something at a bar or restaurant.  ‘Pivo’ is beer and ‘Vino’ is wine.  Skopsko is the beer of choice in Macedonia.  It’s a light beer, similar to any cheap domestic light you would get in America.  But, at 100 denar for 1.5 liter (approx $2.30 for a little over 40 oz.) you can’t go wrong.  And every store sells beer too.  It’s certainly not like PA. where this store can only sell beer and this one only spirits and six packs and cases can’t be sold together and people wearing blue shirts can’t buy wine on Wednesdays.  Lots of drinking during orientation week.  That is for sure.  I’m not a good sleeper to begin with and when I drink it’s ten times worse and so, no joking, I think I slept a total of 20 hours during the 5 day stay at Hotel Satelit.  But did that stop me from drinking?  No.  That’s a true gamer.

 Bottle of Skopsko.  What all the kids drink.

Pack of Benston.  What all the kids smoke.  And in Europe, you can smoke.  Nobody is all uppity like in America about it.

Joke's on you guys.  We were really only sent to Macedonia to introduce them to planking.  This is one of the team members.

Some other team members. The gentleman in the middle was my roommate in the hotel for the week.

Here is another team member mean-mugging 'cuz she hates me.

The entire team in an Orthodox church in Kumanovo.  I am on the top row, second to the right.

The entire week had been leading up to an ominous climax.  Friday, we were assigned host families throughout Macedonia where we would live for the next three months.  The 36 of us were split into 4 groups and each group was sent to a different city.  The volunteers waited on the third floor of the hotel while the host families all made their way in.  The wait upstairs was easily one of the worst waits in my life.  We didn’t know anything about the people we were going to live with for the next three months.  If they had kids, how large was the house, if they had working utilities.  Nothing.  And we just waited there for about a half hour.  Each of us was given a sentence written in Macedonian and each family was given the same sentence.  When we found a family with the same sentence, we would find our host family.  

 

We got down into the dining room of the restaurant and after maybe 5 minutes of awkward looking, I found my family.  The father, Risto (REE-sto) greeted me and he was joined by his two friends, Jorgen and Peter.  Peter speaks English as well, so communication was not too awkward.  After a short ceremony, we hit the road to Probistip (Pro-bi-SHTIP).

Probistip is a small city, with approx. 15,000 people and is an hour drive southeast of Kumanovo.  (For comparison’s sake, Kumanovo had approx. 50,000 people or so).  Living with Risto are his wife, Venka and son, Zlatko.  They also have a daughter, Elena, who works and lives in Skopje.  Zlatko is 25 years old and I am very happy to live with someone my own age who has the same interests.  He also speaks some English, which is a big help.  Their apartment has fully functioning utilities and even wireless internet.  I am not sure if they have monthly broadband limits, so until I find that out, I’m still gonna take it easy with the internet.  Probistip is a beautiful community situated near mountains.  It too has a defined center with bars and restaurants.  Zlatko was nice enough to show me around and invite me out with his friends.  He is a trip to be around.  I only wish I didn’t just sit there with a blank expression on my face because I have no idea what anyone is talking about.  This post is damn long, but it covered everything.  I’ll post smaller entries in the future.  I also have pictures of Probistip and my host family, but they are not uploaded to my computer and I am too lazy to do it now.  I promise to upload them this week.

 

Zdravs, y'all

I made it into Macedonia today.  Obviously the flights were long and boring, but thankfully, uneventful.  We arrived at Skopje, the capital city at around 1pm on Sunday.  That would be 7am Pennsylvania time.  From there, we took a half hour bus ride to Kumanovo, the site of our training and the 2nd largest city in the country.  We'll be here for a week doing various orientation activities before we go out to host families.  For now, we are in a hotel. 

This is the front of the hotel.  As the name implies, it is from the future.  Kidding aside, it has wireless internet, which is a huge plus.

 Interior of Hotel Satelit, which is decidedly no-frills compared to American hotels.

From an urban planning standpoint, Kumanovo is an interesting exhibit.  On the map to your right, you can see that Kumanovo is the city about 45 degrees northeast from Skopje, which itself is above the "E" in Macedonia.  But, the streets are not in a grid formation at all and roads go every which way.  On top of that, drivers go flying around bends.  That and the fact that we're out in the edge of the city, so we are surrounded by open fields gives the area around the hotel a Mad Max feel to it.

Kumanovo is 40 mi from Skoje.  Yes, that sign is in miles, not km.  I looked it up. 

Around here, luxury isn't spared when making children's playthings.

But, I just wanted to let you all know I got to my final destination safely.  Training for real begins tomorrow.
PS: If you ever want to get the Macedonian time thing down, just add 6 hours to Pennsylvania time.  So, if it is noon in PA, it is 6pm over here.  Good luck to you all and the rest of the volunteers!

Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Ironic Twist of Fate!

Tonight is the last night before orientation for the Peace Corps on Friday.  By a stroke of luck, orientation is in Philadelphia, so the first leg of the journey will only be about a half hour for me.  For some other volunteers, arriving in Philly means taking a cross country flight.  This being my last night, I wondered how I was going to feel now.  I thought I would be anxious or scared, but in reality, I'm just stressed.  There is so much to do.  My last day of work was Tuesday and I thought I would just have to pack a couple suitcases and that would be it.  But, it has been non-stop this entire week.  Doing laundry, getting my oil changed in my car, double checking my paperwork.  I've barely had time to surf the internet three hours a day. 

This being the last day before I head out, I thought I would take the time to answer some questions I've been asked about:

How long is the stint?
27 months.  3 months training in Macedonia, then 2 years of actual service

What are housing arrangements like?
During the three months of training, I'll be living with a host family.  Afterwards, I am not sure.  Either I can get an apartment on my own, or the Peace Corps will set me up with another (most likely different) host family

What can I take?
Two suitcases and a carry-on.  Whatever will fit, I can take.

What's the weather like?
Weather is similar to that of Pennsylvania or any other state in the Mid-Atlantic region.  4 defined seasons, including a snowy winter.  Macedonian seasons match ours, so just like us, they are approaching fall and winter.

What do they speak?
Macedonian.  From what I've heard, it's most similar to Bulgarian, but I don't have any experience with either.  Macedonian uses the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet.

What will I be doing?
I really don't know.  My title is Community Development Volunteer, but that is so open ended.  It could be anything.

What's the travel plan?
Orientation is Friday.  The flight itself is Saturday and leaves from JFK in New York.  The flight is approx. 11 hrs and touches down in Skopje (the capital and largest city in Macedonia) on Sunday, at like 1pm. 

Can I leave whenever I want, if I really don't like it?
If I want to leave before my stint is up, I can leave.  But, I would have to pay for my own ticket.  As it stands, if I make it the entire stint, the Peace Corps will pay for my trip home.  That is not the case if I leave early.

Can I travel around?  Can I come back home?
Yes.  As a Peace Corps volunteer, I accrue vacation days which I can use to go wherever I feel (or sit in my underwear and play video games - whatever the situation may warrant).  I can travel back home, but would have to pay for transportation.

Do I get paid?
I get a stipend, which is like walking around money.  I also get room and board covered.  However, nobody gets rich volunteering for the Peace Corps.  Without performing the formal cost of living calculations, I am sure what I get 'paid' is a fraction of what similar work would go for in America.

What about health care?
Each country runs the country's health care for volunteers.  So, in my case, providing health care is the responsibility of Macedonia, not America.  So, I would go to a Macedonian hospital if I get hurt or sick.  However, the Peace Corps ensures that all volunteers are placed in situations where most basic health care needs are met and if I need serious attention, I'll be sent somewhere.

Will I have internet?
I really don't know.  If where I live does not have internet access, there are always internet cafes.  Because I may not have instant internet access, I may not be able to post or respond to any questions/comments in a timely manner.  But, I will try my best to respond back as soon as reasonably possible.

I feel bad because I totally forgot to leave my contact information to my work friends, but my email address is dp8039@gmail.com.  Like I said above, I may not be able to respond immediately, but I will respond.  Also, before I leave, I would like to thank everyone, my friends and family.  I will miss all of you and wish you all the best of luck.

As I said above, Macedonian uses the Cyrillic alphabet.  In that spirit, I outfitted my computer keyboard with Cyrillic decals.

My fool-proof way to keep people from stealing my stuff at the airport.

Prologue

Hello, my name is Danny "The Marlin" Polykov.  To answer your first question, yes, the nickname is self-proclaimed and originates from the fact that I am a big fan of the Florida Marlins.  But, regardless of the baseball team I cheer for, I joined the Peace Corps and was invited to serve my country in Macedonia, a country in Eastern Europe.  Macedonia itself was part of the former Yugoslavia and became a country on its own upon the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early nineties.  I'm sitting in my place in Ridley, approximately two weeks for departure, ready to go.  As I continue on, I'll try to keep this blog regularly updated, if only to keep some people abreast of what I am doing.  Because, let's face it, "How's it going in Macedonia" is such an open ended question, it's difficult to answer.  "I don't know, fine".  That's how I would answer the question, let's not kid ourselves, here.  Hopefully, whatever I do over there is interesting enough to read about, because the only thing worse than leading a boring life is reading about some other shmuck's boring life.  So, I'll try my best in that vain.  I wish you all luck in your journeys.