Istanbul? I call it Gaul...

Think I got that one mixed up, but no time to look it up for sure.  I went to Istanbul for a week.  It was great.  But before that, I had an opportunity to host 5 scouts from England for a weekend.  They were young adults, aged 18-24.  One of the projects they have is to go to a different country and learn all about the culture and customs, then, when they return to England, they give a report about the country.  Obviously, these young men and women chose Macedonia.  They traveled first from Skopje, then to Gevgelija, Strumica, Kochani, then to Veles for a weekend, before setting off to Bitola and Ohrid.  Basically, it was my job to show them a good time around Veles.  Admittedly, this was a pretty easy assignment.  If there is one thing this experience taught me, its that the English are more polite than Americans.  For example, I was cooking eggs one morning for them and I was setting the table.  Before I set my own plate, I went back to mind the eggs for a minute when one of them asked "Aren't you going to have any?"  I assure you, an American would not have cared.  But, the coups de gras was after one of them took a shower, he said to me "I cleaned your bathroom...", which in and of itself is like the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.  I've never had anyone ever spontaneously clean my bathroom.  But, that's not even the nicest part.  Because if I complete the quote, he actually said to me "I cleaned your bathroom.  Is that alright?"  I nearly shat myself when he phrased it in such a manner.  Yes.  It is alright.  But, thanks for confirming first.  Kidding aside, I had an absolute blast with them during the weekend.  Best of luck, guys!

Here they are at the bus station, getting ready to leave for Prilep and Bitola.

So, back to Istanbul.  We took a 12 hour bus ride from Skopje to Istanbul.  That was a long ride, but I've dealt with worse. Our hostel was in the historic district, approximately 5 minutes from the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia.  I'll give the usual testimony of how beautiful the city is.  It really is.  Especially because the Muslims really go all out on their mosques.  And, its not just the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia (which was originally a church in the first place).  But, even the run of the mill mosques are impressive structures.  Anyway, if you're considering going, definitely see the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia (they are like right across from each other), the Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar, and - I'll say it - the Museum of Islamic Science (I posted pics on facebook, so I'll decline to put them here).  All great places.  We also went to the Prince's Islands via ferry which were just south of Istanbul.  Fun day of beaches and sun there, even if the beach itself is rocky (and excruciating to walk on).

Best story of Istanbul is on our last night, we went out to the "New Part" of the city, where all the night clubs and stuff are.  First off, a beer at one of these clubs cost like 5 or 6 Euro, which is truly outstandingly high.  But anyway, we were walking around when a really drunk guy broke a glass beer bottle at our feet.  He and I made eye contact and then he chased after me looking for a fight.  He threw a punch that glanced my right ear before the crowd subdued him.  Truly a cherished memory.

  

The break is over

It has been a while since my last post.  I should do the whole "last time I posted, this kinda stuff was still going on" type thing.  So here we go:  The last time I posted...

• William Taft was still president
• Gasoline was only $1.03/gallon
• You could buy a Snickers bar for a nickel
• The Lawrence Welk Show was the highest rated show on television
• Jimmy the Greek was still giving football predictions

So what's gone on since then?  Well, a lot.  An entire post's worth of material.  Let's get to it:

First, I live in Veles now.  In late July, my site was changed from Resen to Veles basically due to lack of cooperation with my previous worksite.  It took a whole lot of complaining on my part, but in June the Peace Corps finally acquiesced.  I moved to Veles on July 23rd and since then things have gotten immeasurably better.  My new worksite is the Dimitar Vlahov Scout Organization of Veles, or basically, the Veles Boy Scouts.  The guys at my site have been very friendly, taken me out around Veles and enjoying some drinks.  Veles is a city of approximately 50,000 in central Macedonia, only about an hour south of Skopje.  Here is the wiki of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veles_(city).  The landlords at my new apartment have also been friendly.  I'm enjoying myself very much.  Here are some pictures of V-Town:

      Veles has this picture of a guy on a horse in the center of the city.

This is a street.  So we got that going for us in Veles.

Like I said, I'm mad excited to actually have a chance to work out here.

In the first week of July, I went to Odessa, Ukraine.  I posted the pictures on facebook, so I won't post here. But, it was awesome.  The beaches out there are beautiful.  Like, they are pretty legit, by any standards.  I was amazed.  It was crazy expensive out there though.  Normally, in Macedonia, for a bottle of beer, I pay about 60/70 denari, or about $1.50.  Out there, I was paying like $3 or $4 a bottle.  If I was still making Senior Accountant money, that would be no problem.  But, on Peace Corps money, that is pretty harsh.  And one time, I went to the 'hottest' nightclub in Odessa with some of the other guys in the hostel I stayed at.  One of the guys got the idea to buy a bottle of vodka and a whole bunch of Red Bulls.  The bill came out to about $18 per person.  When I heard that, my eyes bulged out of their sockets like a Tex Avery Cartoon.  Oh well, that's the price for living large.  It did make me miss my old job and wish I could travel like a kingly American, though.  Odessa is a more modern city than anything Macedonia really offers.  It has street signs, for instance.  Skopje is a city of approx. 800,000 people and zero street signs.  So, navigating Odessa was a breeze.  Plus, being able to read Cyrillic really helped.  

In late June, I went on an archaeological dig in Sveti Nikole for two days.  I knew it would be hard physically beforehand, but man, I was killed at the end of each day!  I had no idea how tough it would be.  I don't get how the other diggers (who are actually part of the archaeological organization working on the site) can do that kind of work day in and day out.  I was so relieved when my service was over.  The site itself is rather interesting.  As I was told, normally, for younger, inexperienced archaeologists to work on a dig, they have to pay a fee to the organization hosting the dig.  And that's if they let you there at all.  So, it's difficult to get experience in archaeology, if you were thinking about it.  But the organization that hosts the dig in Sveti Nikole, the Texas Archaeological Institute (or something to that effect) hosts this dig and allows volunteers without experience to help out, so long as they bring their own water.  Basically, that gives a chance for people like me, who normally wouldn't be allowed a mile within a dig, to live out their dreams of discovering a Pterodactyl or something like that.  More importantly, it gives students a chance to get some experience in a low-pressure environment.  The site itself was uncovering a building dating back to approximately the 6th or 7th or 8th century.  The people who were running the dig were still trying to figure out exactly what the building was.  They didn't think it was a house.  I didn't bother with the particulars.  The guys at the dig were all real friendly and very willing to assist.  And also, we played a game where we all named our 5 most important people in history.  I never played that game as an accountant, that's for sure!  I picked William III of Orange, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Newton, FDR, and Karl Marx.  I totally forgot about the Big J and Martin Luther until the next guy said him.  But, I stand by my picks.  I always liked William III.  He's sneaky.  A very underrated guy.

In two weeks, I'm heading off to Istanbul, or as I like to call it, Byzantium.  I'm sure I'll make every iteration of that joke over the next month.

ParenteBeard....I Miss you!!

So, I haven't posted in like two months.  The reason why is I don't do anything all day.  Nothing worth reading about, at least.  The Opstina of Resen has like no desire to work with me, let me do anything, or even show me how to do anything.  I am on reddit or Facebook or news.yahoo all day.  I don't know what the hell made the Opstina here think that getting a volunteer was a good idea.  Or at they very least, why there is no plan in place to utilize me to any extent.  Just the same, I don't know what the hell the Peace Corps was thinking when it approved a volunteer for the Opstina.  I mean, I can't imagine the Opstina presented the Peace Corps with any plan or ideas of utilization.  If it did, it must have thrown them out the window the second it got notice of approval.

Long story short: I never thought I would say this, but - ParenteBeard, I miss you!  I'll even do my timesheets right next time!!  I guess it's true.  The grass is always greener on the other side.

Killing Time with the Marlin

Hey.  Nothing too exciting to report on the Macedonia front right now. So, I thought I'd take the time to talk about routines.  When I got to college my freshman year, I thought I would be so busy, between going to parties and writing those 20 page papers that always seem to be due the next day.  One thing I didn't realize is how much down time I would have.  Classes were only 15 hrs a week and I didn't have a job my freshman year.  But, there is this expectation that college life would be mad busy.  (College life really did get busier, just not at first).  Peace Corps is the same.  When I applied for the position, I thought I would be spending all day every day building huts or hugging trees or whatever.  Instead, I am at work 8-4 every Monday through Friday.  On top of that, when I go home, it's not like I watch tv, because there is nothing on that I understand.  So, I decided to pick up some hobbies, just to keep myself from going crazy.

First, I've continued my trek through SNES and Playstation RPG emulators.  I beat Chrono Trigger and then its sequel, Chrono Cross (It was the second time I beat Cross - and thanks to finally playing Trigger, I think I understand it this time).  I'm working on Final Fantasy VI right now, but I don't care for it as much as the Chrono series.  The villains aren't particularly interesting and VI has a habit of not letting me pick who I want to be in my party which is just frustrating more than anything.  Locke can't fight for shit, yet he always insists on coming along.  Fuck him.  After VI, I think its Xenogears then Wild Arms 2.  That's some cool stuff right there.

Next, I joined the gym here in Resen.  Actually, Resen has two gyms (ostensibly so people can say, let's not go to that gym, let's go to the good one).  I go prolly like 4 times a week.  A gym membership is very cheap.  It's 500 denari/month, or a little less that $10/month.  I've been going for like 2 months, and I'm prolly in the best shape I've been in since college.  Add to that joining a gym pressures you to eat healthier (why waste the time at the gym if you're just going to pig out on junk food).  I even quit drinking, or at least, drinking by myself - which is no small feat.  Alcohol is widely available in Macedonia.  I can walk 2 minutes to the nearest corner store and it sells wine and beer.  Because of that and the inherent loneliness of being like the only American (or one of a few) in a small town, the Peace Corps Macedonia has had problems with alcohol usage by volunteers in the past.  I think I'm one of the few over here who, when presented with alcohol that was more accessible than in America, actually drinks less.  Take that, liquor control board of Pennsylvania!

I even read a book.  Cover to cover.  Already.  It was Speaker of the Dead, which is the sequel to Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  It wasn't very good.  I wouldn't recommend it.  Ender's Game is a sci-fi book filled with action.  Speaker is set 3,000 years later and is all about how characters in some faraway planet colonized by Portuguese Catholics all have like 4 names and why I'm supposed to care about how they got each one.  I really didn't.  But, man I was ruling in Cross with Norris and Karsh.  I think that is worth mentioning.

Lastly, it has snowed over here tremendously.  Like, every day.  There's probably around a foot and a half of snow on the ground right now and today and yesterday were like the first two consecutive days it did not snow since mid-January or something like that.  Here is the view outside of headquarters:

Unlike America, there are no snow plows here, so the roads are never clean.  People just drive slower and don't freak the hell out.  It is a little easier to drive here because there is less traffic and people don't drive an hour or so to work every day.  They are in town, so it's like a 10 minute drive at the very most.  I hear it's been unusually warm in the winter in the Philly area.  Winter here sucks.  That's all.  I originally promised when I started this blog I wouldn't post about boring shit.  Sorry.  I think I broke the promise here.

End of the Holiday Season

The end of the holiday season is finally upon us.  The best holiday is Orthodox New Year, which occurs on January 14th.  Every year, on the 13th and 14th, Vevcani (Vevchani), a smallish village in western Macedonia, hosts a celebration where participants dress in costume and parade around town.  These participants go to various people's houses.  The people invite them in and everybody has a drink.  The costumes are insanely involved too.  One person dressed as Gaddafi, while his friends dressed as soldiers, one group of men who we followed around for a while dressed as trees, and there were other costumes as well.

 As you can see here, the group is a colorful lot.  In this vain, it's like the Mummers in Philly, but with less drinking.

Some more people in costume.

To add to the ambiance, the day before, it snowed in Vevcani and it was like the snowball-type snow, too.  So, while we were following the parade around, a snowball fight broke out, first between the other volunteers, but then, some Macedonian youths jumped in and for a while it was Americans vs. Macedonians.

Every ten minutes or so, we went into another house and got a drink.  I think I had somewhere between 8-10 shots of rakija on the day.  The other trick about Vevcani is its in the mountains and there is no flat land.  Wherever you walk, you're either going up a hill or down one.  From the snow and the cold, the streets all iced over (and in Macedonia, they don't salt the roads - people are just careful).  I think everybody slipped and fell at least a half-dozen times on the day.  It truly was dangerous going (and a volunteer broke his arm, too).



This is a view of a mountain from the base of Vevcani.

That's pretty much all there is to report.  I still don't do much at work and am just getting over a cold.

Holidays In Macedonia

The holiday season has just begun in Macedonia.  Macedonians are primarily Orthodox, so they celebrate Christmas on January 8th.  In addition to that, they still celebrate the New Year on the old Calender, on January 15th.  But, they celebrate New Year's on January 1st, just like everybody else in the world.  I headed out to Bitola for the holiday, as the volunteers in the area had a party.  Bitola is one of the largest cities in Macedonia, with approximately 100,000 people.  It is just to the east of Resen, about a half hour away.  Bitola also has one of the largest New Year's Eve parties as well.

Prior to the fireworks, there was an outdoor concert, same as America.  In fact, the singers even sang a bunch of pop songs in English.  I think we were the only people who knew the words.

I think all this pic shows is that my camera isn't all that hot at taking pictures of fireworks.

Bitola is a beautiful city in its own right, but just as American cities get all the Christmas lights up, so too did Bitola.  That and the snow that was on the ground really made the city feel like any other city in the Northeast during the holiday season.  Interestingly enough, they do have the lights, decorated trees, and Santa Claus over here, but here its for New Year's, not Christmas.  It's like they know Western Europe and America have these things at this time, but the only holiday at the end of December for Macedonians is New Year's, so over here, all these decorations and Santa Claus are for New Year's.  New Year's is the "celebration" holiday, anyway, whereas Christmas is more of a family thing.

January 1st was also the birthday of one of the other volunteers, so we had cake.  Here is the Marlin enjoying some fish food.

The only other thing that's really going on is I started teaching an Adult English class.  I didn't start the class; another volunteer in Resen did, but it is an interesting experience.  Especially considering that 3 months ago, I didn't know any Macedonian, it's pretty crazy to think that know I am teaching some of these guys English.  And of course, some of the people back home know that I am the last person that should be teaching proper English.  But, it requires a lot of thinking on your toes.  Especially because like one awkward silence or taking too long to think about the next thing to do totally throws the class off track.  There's more to classroom management than I realized, that's for sure.