- 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.
