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.