Thursday, January 26, 2006
Freezing
It has been a biting bitter cold lately, so cold that when I walk to school in the morning tears come to my eyes in the wind. Yesterday I guessed it was about 0 degrees Celsius outside (32 F). Today I took my pocket thermometer and put it outside the kitchen’s window ledge. I was surprised to discover I misjudged…it’s more like -5 C, or 23 F. And that’s without the wind chill factor. I’m no expert on detecting how many mph wind travels, but if it’s at least 10mph that makes it 9 F! and that’s during the middle of the day. At night it gets down to -10 C or 15 F! I ‘d been reminded of Alaska’s winters here and now I know why! It really is as cold as Anchorage was in March! It’s colder outside than in the fridge. Not only that but my apartment has very little insulation, the windows in the kitchen and bedroom both have cold drafts. I’m pretty much dragging my portable PC heater around the apartment with me now, and it’s making me more sedimentary too. I can’t wait for Spring!
Monday, January 23, 2006
My Mailing Address and other triumphs
Success at last! Preservation has won out! I finally got a PO Box! So, if y'all want to mail me something (hint, hint), either post here or e-mail me and I'll send it to you!
Funny thing, I got the key to my box, but it is the master key. I have to go make a copy of it and then return the master back to the post office. Sometimes ya just gotta laugh about these little annoyances. We take so many conveniences back home for granted. I know that in the states I could get a PO box immediately at any post office. I'm just glad to finally have it! It's been like a month that I've been trying (it took longer partly due to the fact that it was during the holidays).
AND my landlord finally came over and hooked up my washing machine last week, it needed a new hose to connect to my sink. Now whenever I want to do laundry, I can. I just have to make sure that it doesn't rattle around too much and that the second hose properly expells the water back into the sink. That and I can't use more than one appliance at a time. However, there's no complaining from me! Tthere are many of my fellow PCV's that have the joy of handwashing their clothes for their entire two years of service. For more details about this particular challenge, check out my friend Dennis' blog: http://mac10dennis.blogspot.com/ and read his humerous post, "Doing landry in 13 easy steps." (Dec 29th,05)
As another triumph, I am actually cooking. Yes, you read it right. Cooking! Me! Although I still don't exactly enjoy it, it is going well so far and I'm really appreciating having an oven (something I didn't have in Ecuador) and the PCV cookbook we got at the end of training. The first meal I made was meatballs. Yum.
Today was the first day of school after the holidays and it went well. One of my co-workers gave me two jars of homemade aijvar. With the aijvar my host family gave me, I'm set for at least a couple months! :)
Funny thing, I got the key to my box, but it is the master key. I have to go make a copy of it and then return the master back to the post office. Sometimes ya just gotta laugh about these little annoyances. We take so many conveniences back home for granted. I know that in the states I could get a PO box immediately at any post office. I'm just glad to finally have it! It's been like a month that I've been trying (it took longer partly due to the fact that it was during the holidays).
AND my landlord finally came over and hooked up my washing machine last week, it needed a new hose to connect to my sink. Now whenever I want to do laundry, I can. I just have to make sure that it doesn't rattle around too much and that the second hose properly expells the water back into the sink. That and I can't use more than one appliance at a time. However, there's no complaining from me! Tthere are many of my fellow PCV's that have the joy of handwashing their clothes for their entire two years of service. For more details about this particular challenge, check out my friend Dennis' blog: http://mac10dennis.blogspot.com/ and read his humerous post, "Doing landry in 13 easy steps." (Dec 29th,05)
As another triumph, I am actually cooking. Yes, you read it right. Cooking! Me! Although I still don't exactly enjoy it, it is going well so far and I'm really appreciating having an oven (something I didn't have in Ecuador) and the PCV cookbook we got at the end of training. The first meal I made was meatballs. Yum.
Today was the first day of school after the holidays and it went well. One of my co-workers gave me two jars of homemade aijvar. With the aijvar my host family gave me, I'm set for at least a couple months! :)
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Vodici, the Last January Holiday
Thursday, January 19th, was another holiday here in Macedonia called “Vodici”. But my PC friends call it "The Cross Toss”. On this day in every village and town everyone goes to the river or lake where a priest will bless the water. Then he blesses a cross (usually wooden) that can easily be held in your hand. He then throws the cross in the water and a few local men jump in to retrieve it. Whoever gets it first is then blessed for the following year. He also usually wins a prize (like a new TV set) and everyone in town gives him money. I went to see this event at a nearby village (see photo above) where a married PC couple, Sean and Jennifer live. They are the closest PCV’s to me, I call them my neighbors. It was fun to watch the Cross Toss event. The water was so cold there was some ice floating in it. Before the priest throws the cross in the water he sings and chants. The men were really anxious to get going (there were eleven of them) and at one point the priest stopped singing and said, “Get out of the water, it’s too early” and everybody laughed. You could tell it was freezing, some of the men were shivering as they waited for the priest to finish his blessing. This is the last major holiday in Macedonia, for a holiday period of about 5 weeks. This village is incredibly beautiful with nearby snow-topped mountains. I’ve seen photos of it in spring and it is as prettier than a Hallmark greeting card.
(Note: in one of the above photos, you can see a red flag with the yellow 16-pointed star of Alexander, this was the first flag of Macedonia ('92-95), but created so much controversy with Greece that they modified it to the current flag. I'll post a photo of the current flag in another post soon).
Also, classes start up again on Monday the 23rd, wish me luck!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Holiday Photos
May the "Seelah" be with you!
I had a pleasant surprise the other day when I purchased two of the original "Star Wars" movies on DVD. I discovered they have Macedonian subtitles! What a great way to learn the language than by watching some great classic films!
Friday, January 13, 2006
The Holidays
Have I mentioned that there are so many holidays this month that January is almost it's own holiday?
Well, not that I'm complaining. This season I'm getting two Christmases and two New Years. Because the majority of Macedonians are Orthodox, they go by a different calandar, so Christmas is on Jan 7th. And also according to a different calandar (not sure if it's Orthodox or not), New Years was originally on Jan 14th, so they call it "Old New Years".
But backing up...for New Years (Dec 31st), despite having a cold, I went to a fellow PC volunteer's party in the capital city of Skopje. There was a small group of us who got together and then went to the city center where there was music and dancing going on, as well as plenty of crazy teenage kids goofing around and lighting firecrackers, which made me nervous. At midnight there was an excellent fireworks display and our group celebrated with sparklers and dancing. It was loads fun, except that being out in the cold for several hours made my cold worse. I got pretty sick for a few days after that, even met with the PC doctor who gave me some meds.
On Jan 5th, it was the eve of Christmas eve, also called "Badneek", and people in Macedonia celebrate it by having a big party and lighting a tree on fire. My counterpart, Ljubica, invited me to the party in her neighborhood and it was a blast. There was a bonfire of tree branches, constant loud music, food, drink and fun. After the fire burned down they cooked sausages and when it was a pile of ashes the little kids jumped over it for good luck.
Jan 6th was Christmas eve and again Ljubica had me over for dinner with her family. It was very nice. Part of the tradition here is for a loaf of bread to be cooked with a small metal coin inside. At dinner the bread is broken and the pieces divided out. Whoever gets the piece with the coin has good luck for the next year, which was Ljubica this time.
Jan 7th I went to Bashino Selo to visit my host family (despite still having a cough). It was a nice visit, and another one of my PCV friends, Shauna, was visiting there as well, so we hung out for a bit which was fun. She's now near Ohrid, on the other side of the country, a few hours away, so I hadn't seen her since we all moved to site almost 3 weeks prior. I also got to meet my other host brother, Ljubche, for the first time. He is studying at a university in Holland, speaks English and was home visiting his family for the holidays too.
Friday Jan 13th is the Old New Years Eve. This is a big festival in Vevchani, a village near Ohrid, where another one of my PCV friends is. I was planning to go. But unfortunately this week I've been sick again. This time it hit me hard, so all this week I've not gone to work (fortunately there are no classes) and just stayed at home and rested and I'm getting better now.
Tonight there was a celebration in the parking lot of my apartment building, so I went to check it out for just a short time. It was a little like the tree lighting, there was a small bon fire, a few people playing instruments (accordion, drum, tuba), people drinking and eating and a few people dancing oro. It was nice. And I saw my landlord too and spoke with him briefly. So I may finally get my washing machine hooked up this weekend! Yippee!
Well, not that I'm complaining. This season I'm getting two Christmases and two New Years. Because the majority of Macedonians are Orthodox, they go by a different calandar, so Christmas is on Jan 7th. And also according to a different calandar (not sure if it's Orthodox or not), New Years was originally on Jan 14th, so they call it "Old New Years".
But backing up...for New Years (Dec 31st), despite having a cold, I went to a fellow PC volunteer's party in the capital city of Skopje. There was a small group of us who got together and then went to the city center where there was music and dancing going on, as well as plenty of crazy teenage kids goofing around and lighting firecrackers, which made me nervous. At midnight there was an excellent fireworks display and our group celebrated with sparklers and dancing. It was loads fun, except that being out in the cold for several hours made my cold worse. I got pretty sick for a few days after that, even met with the PC doctor who gave me some meds.
On Jan 5th, it was the eve of Christmas eve, also called "Badneek", and people in Macedonia celebrate it by having a big party and lighting a tree on fire. My counterpart, Ljubica, invited me to the party in her neighborhood and it was a blast. There was a bonfire of tree branches, constant loud music, food, drink and fun. After the fire burned down they cooked sausages and when it was a pile of ashes the little kids jumped over it for good luck.
Jan 6th was Christmas eve and again Ljubica had me over for dinner with her family. It was very nice. Part of the tradition here is for a loaf of bread to be cooked with a small metal coin inside. At dinner the bread is broken and the pieces divided out. Whoever gets the piece with the coin has good luck for the next year, which was Ljubica this time.
Jan 7th I went to Bashino Selo to visit my host family (despite still having a cough). It was a nice visit, and another one of my PCV friends, Shauna, was visiting there as well, so we hung out for a bit which was fun. She's now near Ohrid, on the other side of the country, a few hours away, so I hadn't seen her since we all moved to site almost 3 weeks prior. I also got to meet my other host brother, Ljubche, for the first time. He is studying at a university in Holland, speaks English and was home visiting his family for the holidays too.
Friday Jan 13th is the Old New Years Eve. This is a big festival in Vevchani, a village near Ohrid, where another one of my PCV friends is. I was planning to go. But unfortunately this week I've been sick again. This time it hit me hard, so all this week I've not gone to work (fortunately there are no classes) and just stayed at home and rested and I'm getting better now.
Tonight there was a celebration in the parking lot of my apartment building, so I went to check it out for just a short time. It was a little like the tree lighting, there was a small bon fire, a few people playing instruments (accordion, drum, tuba), people drinking and eating and a few people dancing oro. It was nice. And I saw my landlord too and spoke with him briefly. So I may finally get my washing machine hooked up this weekend! Yippee!
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Introducing Stanley
So I realized that I hadn't posted pictures of my new apartment...aptly named "Stanley" because the word for 'Apartment' in Macedonian is "Stan"...
Peace Corps was right...it is small, but it's cute and given some time I'll soon make it mine once I get some posters/shelves up on the wall and add to some of the 80's decor...
The bathroom is so small I can't really get a decent picture of it, but rest assured there's a shower and a western toilet.
Stanley is on the 4th floor (3rd in Europe) and there's no elevator. No matter, I'll get some exercise...
Oh, and since taking these shots I now have a TV (that'll work once I get cable) and a washing machine (that'll work once it gets installed...)
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