Today over Macedonia

New pictures

2009-08-25T11:37:00.001-04:00

I was in and out of Struga quite a lot this summer--here are some photos from my latest trip to northern Greece and Mount Athos.

Dickinson College article

2009-06-28T07:24:00.002-04:00

There's an article about me on Dickinson's website here. Some of the information is originally from this blog and the rest is from an email interview from back in January or February. But despite the time elapsed my opinions still hold about the same.

Cultural Heritage of Struga

2009-05-19T17:25:00.002-04:00

Here's a cool site with lots of pictures and history of Struga. There are many old images and most of the writing is available in English:

http://www.org.mk/struga-heritage/-lang=eng.htm

Gallery: A Struga History

An excerpt from Rebecca West's famous Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, describing her 1937 trip to Yugoslavia.

It must be tourist season...

2009-05-06T10:37:00.003-04:00

Today I met a native American from Peru in Struga. Dressed in a typical Inca tunic, he was selling CDs of traditional Incan music on the main bridge, along with all the other usual souvenir hawkers. I learned that he lived in Skopje, for about a year now. He spoke a little English but more Macedonian, so we conversed that way. Definitely an out-of-the-ordinary experience, for an American to meet a Peruvian in Macedonia and have to use a language that has about 2 million speakers worldwide as a lingua franca.

Ethnic tensions interminable

2009-02-10T16:35:00.002-05:00

If you happen to be a Macedonian news junkie, you'll know that problems between the Macedonian and Albanian students in Niko Nestor High School, which I am assigned to, have flared up again and have continued for about two weeks now. Yesterday a big meeting was held with teachers, the administration, parents, students, and the Minister of Education, in which it was decided to institute ethnically divided shifts, meaning that Albanians would attend classes in the morning and Macedonians in the afternoon. Today was to be the first day of these shifts, but classes were cancelled instead. Following is a series of articles about the events of the past couple days. When I find and read articles about Struga it makes me think that I'm in the thick of these events. Yet I really am not. I'm not a full time teacher or student at the school, and I've been here in Struga for less than 2 months. Each day I learn something new about the conflict, which just points up how little I understand. As time goes on, the teachers I talk to are more candid with me, but even brief news items like these contain important information I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Feb. 9 - Macedonian and Albanian high school students to attend seperate classes
Feb. 10 - Separate shift classes in Struga high school
Feb. 10 - Albanian parents and teachers oppose ethnic shifts
Feb. 10 - Albanian students boycott classes in Struga'ss high school
Feb. 10 - Struga authorities urge for reversal of decision on ethnic-based high-school shifts

I hope that these articles give you a bit of an idea as to what's going on in Struga. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, much less how the issue will be resolved. For now, suffice to say that it has a years-long history and it would have been a surprise to all involved if yesterday's meeting had solved the problem.

Un update!

2009-02-05T15:19:00.002-05:00

...but sorry, a short one. You can finally see my pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/dvdrk625, and I will put the highlights on Facebook shortly. AND THEN I will post a real update! For now suffice to say that things are fine here in Struga, and I'm getting more comfortable in the town as time goes on.

Farewell, Romanovce: 11/1-12/7

2008-12-09T10:12:00.009-05:00

Today ends my last full week here in Romanovce. On Friday we will have our swearing-in ceremony, and the next morning everyone goes their separate ways across the country. I am very excited to start life in what will be my home for the next two years, but at the same time I really value these last few days with the host family. Lately I have been understanding much more Macedonian and we are much less inhibited when we speak. And living with people who let me do little for myself makes life pretty relaxing. I am a tad anxious about living on my own. My independence is pretty important to me, and I find myself getting more independent even here in these last couple weeks, but this will be the most independence I've ever had for the longest period of time, and there will have to be many changes. One night last week I got ready for bed fairly early. My host mom always makes my bed but she hadn't at that point, and I started putting it together myself. My host dad walked in on me and exclaimed (as far as I gathered), "Oh, David, you're making your bed by yourself! Why didn't you go find Mama and ask her to make it for you?" I couldn't think of what to say, so I just gave a slightly confused "Da." Lyubcho responded, "Well, when you go there to Struga you're going to live on your own, right? So you need to practice how to do things by yourself. Alright then, study!" And he left.

It has been an eventful month since my previous update. I finished my practicum at the high school with a day in which I taught all of Afrim's classes on my own. I followed the typical straightforward teaching method, and it grew a bit mind-numbing after four classes. It's not hard to understand Afrim's frustrations after that, but it was good to experience it and know what I don't want to be doing for all two years. Plus it was really great to get to know Afrim and have him as a counterpart. The next weekend he took me and another volunteer on an outing that he had been talking about since the day we met, to a reservoir in the mountains called Lipkovo. It is very close by to Kumanovo, and we got to see some more of the country and some hillside villages.

The dam at Lipkovo

One Sunday evening I went to a wedding with my host parents. They had been talking about it for a week, but I had little idea what it would be. All I knew was that it would involve music and dancing. My host mom's brother acted as the kum (best man or godfather) and there was dancing and visiting all day before the actual ceremony that I didn't witness. That evening my host dad commanded me to get dressed and we drove to the old church in Kumanovo. We were there early so we went to the office and hung out with the fathers, one of whom spoke English. The wedding party then arrived and the ceremony began. It was fairly brief, and not terribly formal. Most people were dressed nicely but not everyone, and small conversations went on while the priests chanted and swung incense. A couple times people answered cell phones out loud. At the end everyone had a piece of candy and threw coins on the ground as the couple exited the church. Everyone then removed to the restaurant where the celebration was to take place, and about four times the number of people who were at the ceremony showed up. They had a live band and the guest seemed to dance the oro non-stop for all six hours or so. I joined in as well, and after about two hours I could follow the steps decently well.

The happy couple at the church

Not long after that the rest of the trainees not in the dual language program found out where their permanent placements will be, and then we all went on three-day visits to see our sites. All of us in Romanovce made our way to Skopje, and then split up: Benson and I traveled to Struga, Evan and Ree to Kichevo, and Heidi stayed in Skopje. The small bus to Struga made good time, despite the narrow curving highway through the mountains and the snow we encountered south of Gostivar.

Snow by the road to Struga

When the bus emerged from the mountains and entered the valley north of Lake Ohrid, it was foggy and raining, and we couldn't see the lake until we reached the highway right next to it. As we approached the city, Benson and I called our respective counterparts, who were to meet us and take us to our hotel. Benson's counterpart at the municipality told him to get out of the bus right then and there, while I told my counterpart we would meet at the bus station, on the same road as the high school. As it turned out we had taken a bus that doesn't stop at the bus station, and instead goes by it and then fifteen kilometers north to a nearby village. But I didn't know this as we passed the sign for the bus station, and then the bus station itself. I looked back worriedly several times, then tried asking a couple on the bus if we were going back to the bus station, using whatever Macedonian or Albanian I could think of. They asked if I spoke German but at that moment I couldn't remember any German. Finally I asked, "Struga, finished?" "Da!" they replied emphatically. I turned to another nearby passenger, asked if he understood English, and then asked where the bus was going. Labunisht, he told me. "Does Labunisht have taxis? I want to go to Struga." He told me there were taxis there, and I relaxed, anxious, however, to get off the bus and get going back so as not to keep my counterpart waiting. The bus picked up another passenger, and he learned of my plight from everyone else on board, who by now were all invested in helping me. "If you get a taxi from Labunisht, only pay them 3 euro, not 5, three!" he warned me. When the bus finally arrived in the village, the couple I had first asked got off and took me to get on the local bus back to Struga, which was arriving at just that moment. They flagged the bus down for me, opened the door, and told the driver, "You take him to Struga!" On the way there my counterpart called me twice and told me where to get out by the high school, and we finally met a few minutes later.

Daniela, my counterpart, is in her third year of teaching, and this is her second at the high school. That week she was teaching in the evening, so I was able to observe three of her classes not long after I arrived. She teaches at the vocational school, so each class is divided by profession. The first class was the medical students, who were the best behaved, the second was the chemistry students, who were fairly well behaved, and last was the architecture students, who were rather chaotic. I introduced myself to each class, and asked them if they had any questions for me. Most students were too shy or unsure of their English to say anything, but in the third class I got a number of questions about my favorite futbal team or players. A number of the students also asked me if I would hang out with them in a cafe-bar.

The next day was Tree Day, so no school, and Benson and I went to the beach by the lake and planted a tree with his counterpart and other bureaucrats from the municipality. The fog from the morning had largely lifted and we could see the other end of the lake, and the mountains looked spectacular with the freshly fallen snow laying lightly on their slopes. Next we met up with Peter, who was in his last week as a PCV in Struga. He took us to see two of the three possible apartments the Peace Corps chose for us, both in the same building close to the lake. Both were very livable--the one on the first floor has a nicer kitchen, and the one on the fourth floor has a great view. We then went with Peter to his last English club meeting at the high school, and afterwards he took us to his favorite art gallery, and introduced us to his contacts at a local NGO. We had dinner at his place with one of the current volunteers in Ohrid, and a fellow trainee, Cheryl, who will be teaching in a village close to Ohrid. It was a rather interesting and helpful day. The next day Peter took us on a short bike ride along the lake and the surrounding area. We said our farewells and thanked him profusely, and he went off to start packing up his apartment. Benson and I went to see consider the third apartment, also eminently livable. Afterwards we realized we both preferred the fourth floor apartment with the view. Before leaving for the site visit the previous week, we had joked that we might have to resort to rock-paper-scissors to decide who would get the better apartment, and now it seemed that would be the fairest way to choose. Statistics show that rock wins the most often, and I stuck to that the whole game and won. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, but Benson will have a good place on the first floor of the same building, plus he has a much bigger fridge than me. Neither apartment has a washing machine--a problem to solve when the time comes.

On the return to Skopje all five of the Romanovce trainees met up at the train station and swapped stories about the visit. It was great to have a taste of more independence, but I was happy to go back to my host family for the final three weeks. That evening however I went with my host family on a visit for the upcoming Archangel Michael holiday, which I was in little mood for. I asked to leave around ten and we didn't get on our way until eleven. The next evening we had another visit in Kumanovo with my host mom's mother and brother, along with the couple whose wedding we went to. I was still pretty tired from the site visit and said little during the dinner. As the hour got later, I decided that we were still there at midnight, I would go lay down on the couch. Midnight came, I lay down, and was asleep until my host dad woke me to return home around two.

Since then the major events were a counterpart conference in Negotino, which my counterpart couldn't make, and then Thanksgiving. It was a huge gathering. All the trainees, two members of each host family, the language teachers and other Peace Corps staff, and all the current volunteers who could make it were there. Each training location had to put on a performance, and we went for brevity with a Thanksgiving haiku, read in Albanian, Macedonian, and English.

The day before Thanksgiving we had some unfortunate news when we learned that our fellow trainee, Ree, had decided to leave training and return to New York. We were all unhappy to see her go, but everyone recognized that it was the right thing for her. She did come to Thanksgiving and said farewell to everyone, and several of us saw her off in Skopje before her flight.

Now it is our last week in training and the end approaches swiftly. I find that I anticipate having my own place more and more as it gets closer, but there is no doubt that I will miss my host family, the other host families, our professors, and all fellow trainees. We have our last Hub Day on Wednesday, and then the swearing-in ceremony on Friday, which promises to be a big event, with members of the Macedonian government and media in attendance. The next day there will be mass movement across the country to our permanent sites. Others are already making concrete plans for visits and travel during the holiday season. I am looking forward to those, but I am going to wait until I'm a bit established to make any actual plans to travel. Except, that is, for the Presidential Inauguration--the director of Peace Corps Macedonia has invited everyone to come watch it at his house in Skopje, and I will definitely be there.

I have had a loyal ally in the glorious struggle against the chickens here in Romanovce. Her name is JJ, and as soon as she is unleashed her attack in the yard begins. Here are a few shots of her in action.

Getting Comfortable

2008-11-01T19:11:00.014-04:00

I have now been in Romanovce nearly a month, yet I keep hearing the words, “halfway done.” When I first arrived here, I couldn’t help but look forward to December, when I will move into my own place in Struga and have a larger measure of independence. Those thoughts have largely faded by now, however, and only crop up when other volunteers mention our departure date. I’ve become fairly comfortable with my family and in the village, and with my fellow trainees here. Life passes by smoothly—plenty of things happen, but they are all pretty much part of the fabric of life now, and rarely stand out. Still, there are a number of events worth recounting.

The family Yugo is twenty-three years old, the same age as me and much worse for wear. Several weekends ago Lyubcho woke me up and informed me that we were going into Kumanovo to get the car repaired and registered, and then we would go to the pazar to get me some new slippers.

Produce at the pazar.

Until then I had been using some bright pink ones Rosa gave me, fashionable but rather too small. We got into the Yugo and Lyubcho put it in neutral and let the car coast backwards down the hill to the driveway where it faced the road, then turned it on and the ancient jalopy coughed to life. It buzzed and sputtered as we bounced down the narrow country road at surprisingly high speeds. My seatbelt functioned somehow and I put it on, but derived no feeling of safety from it—the car’s production standards are similar to those of a tin can. But it was an exhilarating experience. “Yugo!” Lyubcho exclaimed. “Ne Amerikanski Ford, ne Toyota. Yugo! Naidobro!” Meaning the best. I was admittedly quite impressed. The car lacked a rear bumper, both side mirrors, windshield wipers, functioning headlights, and probably a number of other things. But it got us to Kumanovo, where we met one of Lyubcho’s old colleagues from their days in construction, and left the car with him to get it worked on. We then walked to my host cousin’s café, had a coffee, and proceeded to the pazar. Lyubcho picked out new slippers and decided that I needed some cologne as well. We then spent a substantial time among the produce vendors, where he quizzed me on the names of all the fruits and vegetables I’d learned in class that week. Every time he picked up a tomato, or olive, or other such thing, the stall keeper would rush over and give us the price. Lyubcho would then explain, “This is my son from America—he’s here to learn Macedonian!” At least that’s what I gleaned from the words I recognized (“cin,” “Amerika,” and “Makedonski”). Afterwards he showed me around the town center, most of which I’d already seen, and showed me the two main churches. He ran into about five friends and I ran into two fellow trainees, Benson (also living in Romanovce) and Conor (living in nearby Cherkeze). I showed Conor my new purchases, and was later informed that his host dad subsequently felt that Conor also needed new slippers.

My host brother Marijan working on the Yugo.

A major change in my schedule came with the start of my practicum, a four week period in which I am to observe, assist, and teach classes at the Albanian branch of the secondary high school in Kumanovo. The endeavor is complicated by the fact that schedules in Macedonia are mind-boggling. It seems that the teachers set what time is best for them to teach their classes. School-wide schedule changes are announced the day they are to be affected. Plus we have to fit our language classes in each day in Romanovce, and since everyone has his or her own practicum schedule, we’ve had to split classes on certain days to accommodate the five of us. I’m not sure what to make of the attitude toward schedules here—on the one hand it is very relaxed because there is always time (“ima vreme”), and on the other hand there is any number of arcane rules and regulations that keep schedules from being streamlined. I’m not trying to understand it though, because I’ve come to expect constant changes, and since I have plenty of time too, it doesn’t bother me.

In any case, I am working with an English teacher as a counterpart on Mondays and Wednesdays, and have been going to second and third-year classes. It has been an eye-opening and enjoyable experience, and more than anything else has driven home why the Peace Corps has a role in Macedonia. The Albanian high school moved into its present building a few years ago, and it is in bad condition. Most classroom doors have been wrenched off their hinges, walls are bare, floors are dirty, and there is at least one broken window in each room. It is mostly tolerable, but nothing like comfortable. There is one classroom that seems to serve as the graveyard for old chairs, tables, and blackboards that have outlived their use. There is a computer lab full of year-old computers, now completely infested with viruses and unusable. The wireless internet reportedly still works. Last week, my counterpart, Afrim, showed me a classroom that had less than half the chairs and tables needed for a full class and told me that the students who were supposed to use the room had been going home early for several days, since there was nowhere to sit.

Besides those things, however, many of the students I have met and taught have impressed me with their fluency in English and their dedication to learning. Somehow, despite limited resources and what we call “traditional” teaching methods, many of them have very good English. Those dedicated students dominate the front of the classrooms, and the uninterested students keep mostly quiet in the back, ignoring the lesson or chatting amongst themselves. The teachers tend to tolerate the talking and wasted time in the class period, explaining that the students that want to learn will learn. I can’t blame them either, as they have very few systems to manage student behavior. Afrim’s students tend to be very respectful to him, however, and he has a lot of great kids in his classes. He is aware of many modern teaching methods, but is limited by the situation at the school and the Education Ministry by what he can do, so teaching largely comes from the textbook. It is a good book and almost all his students have a book, something which is slightly remarkable this year. As Afrim explained to me, the Ministry announced this year that it would provide textbooks to every student, but he told his students to buy their own books anyway. Indeed, the Ministry-provided books are still nowhere to be found, and teachers who told their students to wait for the free books are restricted in what they can do. Afrim explained the many problems that exist within the school and the Education Ministry on the second day of the practicum, and suffice to say the list is long.

Perhaps this sounds depressing, but rest assured I am enjoying myself. I’ve come to look forward to my rides back to Romanovce from Kumanovo, as the bus (actually a van) is usually full to the brim with Albanian high school kids going home. They invariably pepper me with questions, and I practice my Albanian with them, asking about the song playing on the radio or where they live.

A couple other events of note. Last weekend the Sokolovskis brought out the rakija still and started making the local moonshine, similar to brandy. Lyubcho and Stojko explained to me how the process worked, emphasizing that if Macedonia joins the European Union, this kind of backyard distilling would be outlawed. On Sunday the trainees from Cherkeze came to visit, and Lyubcho had everyone don his special rakija-making hat and coat for a picture.

Evan and Lyubcho making rakija.

I’ve had two trips to Skopje so far. The first was for the Peace Corps “Field Day” in which we met a large number of current volunteers working throughout Macedonia. All five of us crammed into one not very large taxi to get from the bus station to the school where the event was held, and here is a lovely shot of Heidi enjoying the ride.

The second was last week, to my host mother’s brother’s house in the Dame Gruev neighborhood. It took me two days to understand that the brother was not visiting us, rather that we were visiting him. The evening we were to go, Lyubcho arrived at my language class to hurry me along. Yet the rest of the family took twenty minutes to prepare after I was ready to go, and then we were the first ones to arrive at the house. After about an hour the house was full of about forty family members, mostly Rosa’s siblings and their children and grandchildren. I later learned that the occasion was Saint Petka’s feast day.

Crap. I just accidentally deleted all 57 pictures I’d taken since arriving in Macedonia—all that’s left are those posted here and a few others. Luckily they are the best ones.

My study of the family chickens continues apace. The roosters do not bother me as much now—it seems that they have quieted as the weather has gotten colder. But my hatred for the entire species has only grown, and I do not know why. Perhaps it is because their descent from the dinosaurs is evident, and the fact that we have to settle for such ridiculous fowl instead of majestic reptiles roaming the earth seems like evolutionary thievery.

Nema voda: 10/8-10/1

2008-10-08T10:05:00.015-04:00

I am approaching my second full week in Macedonia. Right now I am sitting outside on my host family’s porch in a village in northern Macedonia called Romanovce. The population here is mixed between Albanians and Macedonians, with Serbian influence as well, but I will get to that later. First I will give you a bit of an overview of what has happened since I left home. Much has happened, and it was only today that I felt like I am developing a routine.

We had staging (orientation) in Philadelphia for about a day and a half, in which we met the fellow volunteers and had some preliminary training. The ambassador from Macedonia to the US also spoke to us and answered some questions. On Sunday we flew from New York to Vienna and from there to Skopje, where some Peace Corps staff met us and took us to our initial training site, a hotel near the city of Kumanovo about twenty minutes north of the airport. There we took some much needed time to relax while meeting more Peace Corps staff and some current volunteers. The next day we started sessions for training. There was a lot of new information to learn, and we also started learning some simple Macedonian. The classes were oriented to listening and speaking, and were pretty fun. The days during the week at the hotel were pretty full but fun and interesting—we took a tour of Kumanovo, had a talk with the US ambassador to Macedonia, and visited a local Macedonian Orthodox church and mosque.

A main street in Kumanovo

Also during training, the staff explained that we could sign up to learn both Albanian and Macedonian. Anyone who was selected for this would then be placed in an Albanian or mixed Albanian-Macedonian community for homestay and training, and would find out their site for assignment immediately, rather than midway through training as for other volunteers. This is something I wanted to do since I read about the option over the summer—I figured it would allow me to communicate with more people and make the experience even more of a challenge. Plus I’d become most interested in the western region of Macedonia, where the Albanian population is concentrated. More than that, however, I’m very interested in minority-majority communities and their relations, and this is a perfect opportunity to experience one. After a brief interview, the Peace Corps staff (who by the way are enormously friendly and very well-organized) were happy to place me in the dual language program, and gave me a plum site assignment in the city of Struga, a place I would have assigned myself if I could have. I couldn’t be happier with it. I will be working with English teachers in the vocational high school, and I may do a secondary project in the university. There will also be another volunteer there, working with the municipality, and he is also here with me in Romanovce.

Romanovce is where I am training until mid December. I have a full schedule here, with Albanian classes Monday and Tuesday, and Macedonian Wednesday through Friday. It is only about ten minutes from Kumanovo, but it is a true farming village—tractors and cows on their way to pasture are a regular site on the road. The population is majority Albanian, but I am living with a Macedonian family. The dialect they use has a lot in common with Serbian, and they have family on both sides of the border.

Meeting my host dad.

I’ve always prided myself on my ability to adjust and take changes in my surroundings in stride, but I definitely had culture shock on my first arrival here. We had a little ceremony at the hotel where everyone met their new host families, saw some Albanian and Macedonian folk dancing, then went off to our new homes for the next three months. My host father, Lyubcho, and his son Marjan were there to load me and my luggage to the house—I thought I had a relatively small amount of belongings, but all the stuff and three people nearly overwhelmed the little car. Upon arrival I met my other host brother, Stojko, his wife Jasmina, their one year old daughter Marija, and my host mother. Jasmina’s sister’s husband, who speaks fluent English, was there visiting, and he directed the initial questions and answers. I told him that I felt like Marija, as I can’t speak, and he suggested that we learn together. But he soon left for his home in Serbia however, and I was left somewhat uncomfortable with my host family’s limited English and my even more limited Macedonian. Some cool things happened despite my discomfort—I showed my host parents (Mama and Tato) a book about Washington DC I got for them, and we looked at some maps and pictures together. They seemed overjoyed to have me here. Later Marjan, who is twenty-one, asked me “You computer. Good?” I found that he had a problem with his computer, which I tried to fix, though I only made it worse, but I did meet two of his friends and we hung out for the rest of the evening. I got out my computer and we looked at some of my travel pictures, and Marjan showed me through Google Earth the town in Crete where his brother is now living, as well as some pictures. The evening was fun, but I was too unsettled to fully enjoy it. Earlier in the evening my host mother had told me “nema voda,” and emphasized this by turning on the kitchen faucet and showing how no water flowed out. I thought I understood at the time, but I didn’t really until I retired that night and attempted to take a shower. There really was no running water.

The next day we met with our teacher in what is to be our classroom for the next few months—a former coffee shop, now a bare room with a table and some chairs. From there we did a grand tour of the town, going from host family to host family to introduce ourselves and get to know the local people. It was an extremely fun experience, and everyone was extremely hospitable. There are three Albanian host families and two Macedonian, all friendly and happy to meet us. The next day we had our first Albanian class, and that afternoon, the water was back on! I was overjoyed to see it when Marjan turned on the tap. I wanted to take a shower right away, but was told I would have to wait an hour for the water system to start working. But the shower was magnificent when I was finally able to take it.

Some of my clothes hanging to dry at the house.

Over the rest of the week I have been learning Macedonian and Albanian piece by piece, getting to know my host family and the rest of the clan, and becoming accustomed to this new life. I am thankful for having the other trainee volunteers here in Romanovce; I feel that I could hardly have chosen a better group, and I think that they will be an important outlet for me.

That is a good update for now. The weekend is coming and I will soon meet a current volunteer who lived with my family’s in-laws last year. Before I go, a few random thoughts:

One thing I’ve learned in this village is that roosters do not crow to announce the dawn. They crow 24 hours a day, and in response to other roosters. I once counted six crows in quick succession, around 2 am.

Right now I can’t help but laugh at the scene in front of me. My host mom is helping her one year old granddaughter walk up the steps, while both she and her sister-in-law across the yard shout Macedonian baby talk.

In the several days it has taken me to complete this post it is remarkable how much more "normal" and regular life feels today than it did yesterday.

Dobre dojdovte

2008-09-23T13:05:00.005-04:00

Welcome. This is my first post, but I am not in Macedonia yet--that will happen when I arrive on September 29 to start training.

Until then, here's a few things about the country itself.

Where Macedonia is:

Macedonia's most famous native son:

Here is a picture I made in 10th grade of me as Alexander the Great:

Yeah.

This is a highly acclaimed movie about Macedonia. It has a good soundtrack:

If you see Macedonia in the news, it is probably because of its naming dispute with Greece. Indeed, that's all I knew about the country before I started looking into joining the Peace Corps. This Wikipedia article is fairly long and I can't admit to having read the whole thing. But from what I have read it's obvious that it is a very passionate issue for Greeks and Macedonians, plus it is not a simple matter to resolve, as the dispute has lasted since Macedonia's independence in 1992. In any case, I'm definitely looking forward to talking to the natives about their views on this--I'm sure theirs will be very strong opinions.

That's all for now! Tomorrow I'm off to Philadelphia for staging, and then I leave from JFK Airport on Sept. 29. Until then, priyatno!