The Journey is the Goal (CHINA)

See China Right in Front of You

2011-04-04T04:04:00.000-07:00

Five weeks go by fast! I can't believe I've been here that long already! Well, as some of you know, I was not able to access certain websites once I arrived in China, with Blogspot being one of them. The Chinese government censors certain websites that happen to be too political (yup, even Facebook). But fortunately one of my fellow American teachers happened to have a proxy, which allows me to once again be able to get back to this website and start blogging again!

As an update from January, I got my general science endorsement in late February, just before leaving for China. I was thrilled to finally get it DONE!!!

I also really enjoyed my ESL job teaching Korean exchange students. I wish it could have been a more permanent position. But it also reinforces to me that I enjoy teaching English and ESL, so perhaps after China I will look into those kinds of positions (although the Science endorsement can only help as well).

So much has happened, I'll have to backdate some of my posts...so, stay tuned and follow along on this crazy new adventure of mine...Teaching in China!

Arriving in Shanghai

2011-04-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

February 27th

I have arrived safely in China. It is 12:30am local time and 8:30am Seattle time. Just wanted to let you know that everything is working out just fine. I was met at the airport by a gal named Helen who works for the Shanghai Maritime University (not Academy, where I’m teaching). There was a van and driver from the school, who brought me to my new home. I am now in my little dorm "apartment" and delighted to discover I have internet. My dorm has no kitchen, so guess I"ll be eating out a lot. Tomorrow morning someone from the school is picking me up at 9:30am and I will meet the director of the school. It sounds like I won't start teaching classes until Tuesday (whew!). My dorm is 3 bus stops from the school. Someone will show me which bus to take, probably tomorrow.

One unexpected snafu was that I almost missed my connecting flight in Seoul because our flight was delayed in arrival and then I accidentally went to the wrong gate. I don't know if they displayed it wrong or if I misread it. (How do you misread gate 123 for gate 30?) I also misplaced my boarding pass twice, but that was definitely due to fatigue on my part. I slept about 6 hours on the 12 hour flight to Seoul.

OK. I'm exhausted and going to bed now. After I figure out what to wear tomorrow that isn't wrinkled. ;)

Getting Settled

2011-04-04T04:01:00.001-07:00

February 28th

I'm doing great! There is so much to tell you! The important thing is that the school is taking good care of me, I am happy and warm and safe. My “apartment” is really is dorm room, it is small, but it is big enough for one person. It is about half the size of my Macedonian apartment. But, good news, there is a public washer and dryer I can use downstairs. The dorm rooms are above a restaurant; I just had lunch there. This morning I was told someone would come by at 9:30am to take me to school. They arrived at 9:15am, a very nice girl Nikki, from the Shanghai Maritime University. She shepherd me around today. The nice thing is that I didn't have to teach classes today, I will start tomorrow. Today was like an orientation. I met with the head of the English department, got my teaching schedule (only one 8am class on Thursdays and no classes on Friday). The school is much more strict about how I will teach the English major classes and much more flexible about how I teach the Marine Engineering classes. I have to submit lesson plans for all of the classes (4 a week). Then Nikki and another girl showed me where my first class will be tomorrow, I think there will be about 30 students. Then they helped me buy a SIM card so that my Chinese cell phone (thanks Riley) will work. I have it now, but will wait for tomorrow to use it so that I don't have to pay for February, since tomorrow is the first of March. Then Nikki took me to a local bank and got me an account so that the school can pay me my salary through the bank. I also now have an ATM card for it. Then we had lunch and now I am relaxing in my apartment and finishing my unpacking. You would not believe the number of bicycles parked outside my building! The traffic here is crazy, I am so glad that I don't have to drive. My dorm is a short bus ride away from school. Nikki showed me which bus to take. Last night I met my landlady, Mrs. Huong, and tonight she will take me to dinner. Tomorrow another student will arrive in the morning to bring me to school.

My apartment has a heater/AC unit, a fridge, TV, water cooler, a double size bed, a window with a little bit of a view, a western toilet and shower and some closet space. There is no microwave or hot plate, so no real cooking here. Food seems to be reasonable priced.

It is cold here today so I'm wearing my long underwear under my clothes. There are many things here that remind me of Macedonia (or really any developing country). People stare at me a bit, I'm so obviously a foreigner, but it doesn't really bother me. I find it slightly amusing, at least for now.

One thing that is interesting is that it appears that Facebook is not accessible online. I don't know if that is true for all of China or just my server. I will find out more for sure.

OK, back to unpacking. Let everyone know that I'm doing well and thanks for asking about me. I'm a little nervous about teaching tomorrow, but it should be fine, the first day is really just going to be about introducing myself to the students (for an hour and a half?!) This is definitely looking like it will be quite the adventure. So far it feels like a very exciting dream...

Lessons learned

2011-04-04T04:00:00.004-07:00

February 28th

I'm getting settled into my new home. My "kitchen" includes a fridge, toaster and tiny coffee maker, but no hot plate. I live on the third (top) floor of a dorm room which is unfortunately not a part of the school, but is a short bus ride away. I woke up this morning to Chinese firecrackers, go figure. I asked someone about it and was told it was probably celebrating a wedding or some other good news. Here are a few lessons that I have learned (or been reminded of) so far...

* Don't assume that sidewalks are for pedestrians only. They can also be used for bicycles, motorbikes and cars.
* Always watch where you are walking.
* Don't assume that everyone around you doesn't speak English or that they can't understand what you're saying.

When walking around, I am reminded of Skopje in Macedonia, only Shanghai is A LOT bigger. I haven't yet seen the heart of downtown with the huge skyscrapers, but I'm sure I will soon. I took an evening walk tonight and noticed that the buses are PACKED and saw interesting foods being sold by street vendors. I'm also slightly amused at how many people stare at me. I haven't really seen any other foreigners yet, although I'm sure they are hiding somewhere!

Also, I have found the biggest drawback to my dorm room (so far). The shower. It only runs two settings...icy cold or scalding hot. I will have to ask my landlady (via a translator) if there is a trick to getting something in between.

The Oscars here made Chinese news, which is kind of disturbing IMHO (is it really THAT important?).

Oh, another thing is that I have internet in my apartment (woot!). I think it's something like $10 a month, so not bad.

The bathroom situation

2011-04-04T03:45:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, March 1st

Today was my first day of classes and it went just fine, other than the fact that I forgot to bring an adapter for my laptop computer so was unable to use the powerpoint I had planned to show. I managed to wing it and my students enjoyed looking at the photos that I brought of my family from back home.

But let me tell you about one thing that was really unpleasant that I was not expecting. THE BATHROOMS. I thought I had seen it all and I *have* been in some really awfully gross bathrooms before, but this was something that really threw me. I knew that the school had squat toilets, so I was expecting a little hole in the ground with cement foot pads and then a way to flush it all down. Well, what I discovered in the crowded girls restroom were stalls with doors that are about 3.5 feet tall, so people can see who is in them when standing, but not when squatting. I noticed girls were turning sideways, not facing forward before they would disappear when they squatted, which, in and of itself is a little embarrassing. When it was my turn, I tried not to speak out loud what I was thinking. Oh my god, no way. There was no hole in the floor. Instead there was a sideways trough that you straddle and pee into. Plug your nose and don't ask me what they do about solid waste. At one stall on the end is a cord that is pulled downwards to flush. Fortunately I found that in the administration buildings they have bathrooms that at least have doors that stretch up to the ceiling, so you can't see the person inside the stall when they stand up.

It is really cold here, especially with a biting wind. I am having to blow my nose a lot due to the cold. I'm going through tissue pretty quickly. In my apartment I spend most of my time on my bed next to the heater, which is reminiscent of when I was in Macedonia, in the winter. I am already looking forward to it warming up!

I am in e-mail contact with Andrew, another English teacher. I have met two other English teachers at my school, but they are both Chinese. I have seen a total of two other foreigners ("white people") since I arrived but did not speak to. I hope to meet up with Andrew in the next day or so.

The school is taking pretty good care of me. I met Madame Jia tonight, the one responsible for connecting me from Riley to getting this teaching job in Shanghai. Her assistant Helen has been very helpful and she assisted me in purchasing "coupons" (little slips of paper) to pay for my meals at the restaurant downstairs. I asked why I needed the coupons and was told it is a management system.

Today I had two big firsts. I crossed the street today by myself and I figured out how to take the bus home after school on my own. Traffic in this city is absolutely insane. Pedestrians have no right of way in China. In fact, there really is no concept of "right of way" here. Although most cars and buses follow the rules of the traffic lights, bikes, carts, motorcycles etc do their own thing. I've learned that you have to have 360 degree vision when crossing the street here. You have to look in all directions and just be super aware of anything that might be coming at you. I've also learned to cross the street when other people do and try to have them be a buffer between me and any oncoming vehicles!

Tomorrow I just have one class in the afternoon. I am all unpacked now and soon I will need to go to a supermarket to get a few things for my dorm like cleaning supplies, a hairdryer, an iron and board, and, of course, tissue.

Although I think that I am not having much aftereffects of jet lag, I am pretty worn out at night, I think it is due to a combination of all the energy I need to use for experiencing all of these new things and from all the walking and climbing stairs that I must do. My hips are sore at the end of the day! So, I am getting to bed by 10pm at the latest. It is just after 8pm now and I am getting sleepy.

I am grateful that I have already learned how to use chopsticks, since that is the only thing available to eat with. I will have to learn to be more dexterous with them. It was a challenge to eat a chicken drumstick using only chopsticks. I have had white rice with almost every single meal so far. I hope I don't get sick of it.

My students seem to be pleasant and eager to learn. In the English majors class they seemed to understand me pretty well. In the Navigation class they seem to struggle to understand me, but are receptive and also are very jovial and like to joke around with each other, so I tried to be a little more strict with them, at least in the beginning. Even so, in both of my classes today, we had some good laughs.

JOBS!

2011-01-10T16:47:00.002-08:00

After two and a half years from graduating with my Masters in Teaching, I finally have a job that does not involve substituting! Just before New Years, I was happy to get hired by Vision Haksa, a private Christian organization that hosts Korean exchange students for 6 weeks to visit the United States. Starting January 14th, I will be teaching 11 students, grades 5-10, conversational English. I think that I will enjoy it, and even though it requires a lot of lesson planning and curriculum, I hear that these students are motivated and fun to work with.

Now, just after New Years Day, I learned of an opportunity to teach English in China. At first I didn't seriously consider it, because it started before my ESL job ended. However, thanks to some great connections, I learned that the start date was negotiable. So now, ten days later, I have been offered a teaching position at the Shanghai Maritime Academy from the end of February to the end of June. I've been told that Shanghai is a westernized city (with a population of a mere 20 million) and that it is easy to get around with English. They've got Starbucks there, so I know that I'll survive!

This has been a challenging two and a half years which also gave me the opportunity to do some soul searching. I really don't know what will greet me in the future once I return to Seattle this summer. I will continue to look for a job for the fall, however, I often wonder if traditional classroom teaching is for me. The teaching of students I absolutely love. It's the behavior problems that burn me out, as well as the politics and excessive societal demands that teachers deal with every day. While I would love to teach those students who really need it, the ones at risk, I don't know how I would handle it for more than a year. That is why I started looking into teaching jobs outside of the classroom and landed this ESL job. Although I am overqualified and there were only two open positions, I am very happy and grateful to have gotten hired. As for China, I am convinced that was divine intervention. I didn't even apply for the job, much less know about it. I got the position because I happen to have a relative who was over in China at the time who is a treasure trove when it comes to networking. The school had hired a teacher for a year and he ended up having to leave suddenly for personal reasons (sound familiar? It's similar to why I got the job a year ago at the Private Catholic School).

So off I go, into the wild blue yonder. I have a lot of preparation to do. Never have I had such little time to prepare (physically, mentally, emotionally) to go live abroad. Yet I am very excited to start another chapter in this amazing incredible adventure called life! :)

P.S. This fall I finally finished (hopefully) the last requirement for my general science endorsement, taking a mycology (botany) class. Now I am waiting for Seattle U to approve all the paperwork and then I will have the general science endorsement in my hot little hands!!!

Subbing (again)

2010-09-09T21:37:00.006-07:00

The new school year has begun so I'm trying to get motivated to substitute again after thoroughly enjoying having the summer off. I have a half day tomorrow, that'll be my first day back in the saddle and I have to admit that my heart is not in it. The one good thing about it is that it'll be nice to have some income coming in again.

Oh by the way, did I mention that I do not qualify for unemployment? Yup. For two reasons. First of all, when you work for a religious organization (which I did from Jan to June) they do not take money out for unemployment, so those six months don't count. Also, when you are subbing, you cannot apply for unemployment during the breaks because you are technically employed (there's just no jobs available). Lame, huh?

I'm registered to take my last science class, Botany. This (should be) my last requirement to fulfill the Science endorsement. It is a 6 credit online class, which basically translates to a lot of reading and hard work. I'll be glad when it is all over. Once I finish the endorsement, and it will be January, I expect one of three possible things will happen:

1. I'll get a science teaching job somewhere (maybe in Washington, if I am lucky)
2. I'll get a position teaching abroad (which may not happen until next fall, but the job fair for International Schools is in Jan or Feb)
3. I'll get a job doing sometime completely different.

I'm ready to go abroad again, I am sick and tired of not getting a job around here. I've heard from local teachers that many open positions get several hundred applicants. How can I compete with that? With teachers who have 20 years experience, teachers coming in from out of state, yadda yadda. I've hardly bothered with applying for jobs for this fall. The one hitch to going abroad is my 14 year old cat. I don't want to leave him again, like I did when I taught English in Ecuador and when I was in the Peace Corps. But it'll be strenuous on him, and I'd want to make sure that my living conditions would be favorable for him, as well as making sure I get good vet care.

I was helping out with the Peace Corps booth at Bumbershoot festival recently and was talking to a recruiter. She encouraged me to pursuit working for the Peace Corps. It's an interesting idea...

The adventure is not over yet

2010-08-21T21:06:00.005-07:00

Wow, where has the last 4 months gone? I can't believe it's been so long. The other night I rented "Julie & Julia", which I hadn't see before (cute movie) and it made me realize that I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up my blog (and I could relate to Julie's blogging quest, and wondering if anybody even reads this anymore).

I started this blog when I began my Peace Corps adventure in Macedonia, which was quite exciting. Now, for the last two years I've been trying to find a teaching job in a tough economy, which has not been very exciting, and to tell the truth, pretty depressing. A few months ago the New York Times came out with an article that stated that it is as difficult nowadays to get a teaching job as it was in the Great Depression. I believe it!

As for my job at the Catholic School, I learned later that I was one out of 400 applications for 3rd & 4th grade position. One job and 400 people applied for it. Yikes! Well, unfortunately, I did not get the job, which totally floored me. I worked my butt off at that school and sacrificed many hours and much of my personal life to do the best flipping job that I could. The staff liked me, the students liked me and the majority of the parents liked me and I was doing an excellent job, so why wouldn't they hire me back? I already had plans to get my own apartment up in Everett, my career was finally taking off! Well, my deepest fear came true. They did not hire me because I am not Catholic. It is a small school and they really need teachers who can teach Religion. My principal told me that she "would hire me back in a second", but they needed Catholic teachers. Now, I'm not bitter or anything, but out of 400 applicants, they ended up hiring a gal who is about 22 years old and straight out of Graduate School and only 5 months of subbing experience under her belt. However, she is Catholic, so she got the job. Did I mention that I'm not bitter?

So, here I am now back in the subbing pool, still looking for a job. I'm just about ready to throw the towel in and start applying at restaurants and retail stores, in order to find a job with regular hours and a steady income. But even those jobs are hard to come by. I can't even qualify for unemployment, it's pathetic.

On the bright side, I have completely enjoyed having the summer off not working. I went to San Antonio, TX to visit friends, visited my sister, brother-in-law and cutest nephew in the world in Indiana for a week and then went to Cannon Beach, OR for a little vacation and R & R.

School starts up soon and subbing jobs will probably start creeping up around October. I have such mixed feelings about returning to subbing.

My long term plan is to pursue a job in International teaching. The sky is the limit to where I could go, but I am feeling an urge to return to South America (I could regain my Spanish skills!). Argentina sounds fantastic...

The adventure is not over yet.

Spring update

2010-04-25T17:47:00.003-07:00

Well, I've been so swamped with my job that I haven't had time to keep the blog up to date. Here's a quick synopsis: coming into this classroom in the middle of the year with NO info on where the kids are at assessment-wise with very little information from the previous teacher and NO lesson plans to go with, I think that I've managed to keep my head above water pretty well. Of course, I'm still in survival mode, but things are better now that I've established myself a little bit. My job is incredibly stressful, overwhelming and rewarding too. I think it is pretty common for most teachers to want to embrace and strangle their students, sometimes at the same time. I LOVE MY STUDENTS!!! They are clever, funny, intuitive, sweet, talkative, curious, loyal, devout, kind and energetic. There is *never* a dull moment in my class. I have done so much for my kids, to the point of sacrificing my own time and energy, I barely have a life outside of school. I am working on average 15 hours a day and mostly on weekends too. Part of the reason for this is due to the fact that this is my first year teaching. I have run into some problems with parents, AKA "Helicopter parents" who hoover over every little thing that their kids do and want to control every part of their child's education. Fortunately, this is a minority.

My long term sub job goes from January to June. Now I am applying for a permanent position at my school for this fall. I really pray that I get it. My job interview is tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I wish I had the time to write some stories about funny, humerous and poignant events that have happened in my class. I feel very blessed to be working with such an amazing group of kids. I also am grateful to have a supportive staff that have made me feel at home.

I'll keep you posted when I know more of what is to come!

Teaching Adventure

2010-02-06T16:31:00.003-08:00

My teaching job is going well, it is just very time consuming. I'm about 5 weeks behind in grading and correcting papers, so that is one of my biggest challenges right now. I'm teaching at a small private Catholic school outside of Seattle (and I'm not even Catholic), teaching 4th and 5th grade. I really enjoy it, even though it is my life...all I do is go to school and work like 14 hour days and then drive home and plan for the next day and try to get more than 5 hours sleep before doing it all over again! But I don't mean to complain, I'm just really happy to have a job! And I love the kids and the staff are great so there's lots to be grateful for! There are many funny stories and anecdotes I'd love to share, so someday I hope to write them down and share them with you. My class has 5 girls and 13 boys and many of the boys are natural entertainers, so they keep me laughing, that's for sure! :)

I am really grateful for this opportunity to be teaching at this school with these wonderful students. :)

The Best Christmas Present Ever!

2010-01-10T01:41:00.006-08:00

I got a job! I got a job! I got a job! It all happened so fast, I got a long term sub job for the remainder of the school year on Dec 22nd and had a week to prepare before my first day of school. I'm teaching 4th and 5th grade at a Catholic School outside of Seattle and I have 18 students! It is a wonderful way to start out my first official certified teaching job.

And just to bring you up to speed on the last 6 months, I finally finished taking classes towards my Science endorsement and passed the West-E Science exam in November, exactly one year from when I first attempted the standardized test. So, although I don't have the endorsement, I am now highly qualified in Science. And this all works out great with my new job because since I'm not Catholic, I can't teach Religion. So another teacher will teach my class Religion while I teach her class Science. It is a good arrangement for us both.

Above is a photo of my classroom. Although this is all new and overwhelming, I am so blessed to have this job and so happy to have a new chapter in my teaching career! My students are great!

I'm a first-time aunt!

2009-06-18T23:19:00.011-07:00

My sister Heidi and brother-in-law Rick just had their first baby, which makes me a first-time aunt! His name is Richard James Bagnall, or R.J. for short. He was born on May 22nd, 2009 in Lafayette, Indiana at 8:30am after 23 hrs of labor, 9lbs 15.8 oz.

Standardized Tests Suck

2009-06-18T23:05:00.005-07:00

I just got notified via e-mail that I did not pass the West-E general science and biology exams. I am pretty depressed about it, as this was my second attempt on the general science exam and these tests are $130 a pop. I believe I was ONE QUESTION away from passing. The bottom line is that I do not take standardized tests well and a lot of questions were about obscure concepts. Plus I haven't taken Physics yet, which was about 15% of the exam. I took the tests now so that I could get hired as a science teacher for this fall. Well, that's not going to happen now. I won't take the tests again until I'm finished with my classes, which will be later on this fall. It appears that it's going to take at least a year to get the science endorsement. So, needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed. I was talking with a school principal last week who told me that this is the worst time in 30 years to get a teaching job. Lovely news, huh?

I have a phone interview with the Anchorage School District next week. I'm pretty nervous about the idea of moving to Alaska! But I'm also pretty nervous about the idea of subbing this fall in classrooms of 30+ students.

I'm finished with subbing for the school year and am not working this summer. Just taking my physics class. I'm going to have to be even more creative to make my small savings support me through this summer!

On a different note, I recently went to Nebraska to attend my friend Shauna's wedding. Shauna was my best friend in Macedonia Peace Corps and she married her Macedonian boyfriend. It is like a fairytale. I will post the story and photos soon.

3,000 teachers

2009-05-17T19:36:00.008-07:00

May 15th has arrived, the day that the legislature dropped the other shoe down on the school districts and we finally got word on the big issue of funding. It doesn't look good.

The Seattle Times reports that 3,000 teachers statewide are being laid off. These are teachers who typically have 1-3 years teaching experience. This is 3,000 more teachers I am competing with for jobs. The Seattle School District alone has laid off about 175 teachers. Provided, some of these teachers will be re-hired, but that is what I am up against, not including all the newbie teachers like me who are vying for positions and have not been able to get a job yet.

So, I'm looking out of state. I just completed my application for Anchorage and next I'm going to apply to Indiana, where my sister is.

I am trying to mentally prepare myself for another year of subbing. There are pros and cons. If I am subbing, I will continue to work on getting my science endorsement. It is almost like I need another student teaching experience to satisfy all of the competencies for getting a science endorsement. But what I need is to pass the West-E exam as the bare minimum to be hired without the endorsement. This is my second time taking the test (I took it last fall and didn't pass). Now I am taking the General Science exam AND the Biology exam. The day is May 30th. I hope I pass them!

My Cellular Biology class is kicking my butt. I am really struggling to keep up with the reading and the assignments. At this point, I just want to pass. I feel like I'm just trying to keep my head above water, with subbing, my Biology class, applications and somehow having a life in between.

As a side note, I had a fist fight in my class on Thursday, where I was subbing. I'd been in the class before, I know the kids, and I knew there were some words between these two boys (3rd & 4th grade), but I had no idea it would escalate to fists flying. Fortunately I was able to keep my cool on the surface and call for back up, but my heart was racing like crazy for the next half an hour! Both boys were, of course, suspended and I found out this was not the first time they had gotten in a fist fight.

Also, when subbing in middle school the week before I noticed a boy with cuts on his forearms. I sent him to the nurse and later the counselor came in to talk to me about it. It is suspected (and I think most probably) that it was self-inflicted.

One thing about teaching: There's never a dull moment!

Road Blocks

2009-05-12T22:28:00.004-07:00

This is a crazy time to be looking for a job, and that is especially true in education. With many schools RIFF'ing (laying teachers off), the job market is saturated. It doesn't look good for a newbie like me. So, still considering out of state. Besides Indiana, where my sister is, I'm also thinking about applying to Alaska, since they are hiring. I was in Anchorage in 2002 for the Iditarod Dog Sled Race, so at least I have an idea of what their winters are like! Don't want to move, but my options are limited.

I just found out that the principal at the middle school where I was planning to teach my lessons (as part of getting my science endorsement) is probably not going to give me permission. Don't know why, some kind of red tape, so I'm pretty frustrated about that. At the same time, I learned that I have to do a lot more than teach two science lessons, I have to show about 40 competencies before getting final approval. It's like having to do student teaching all over again. So it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to complete the science endorsment by fall anyways, which is very disappointing. The good news is that if I can just pass the West-E exam then I'll be "highly qualified" and can get hired to teach Science, even without the endorsement. I've registered to take the test on May 30th. I only have two more classes to take, which I plan to take this summer. It looks like I won't be able to work this summer. I've applied to a bunch of summer school jobs, but then I just learned that Edmonds School District has nixed all of their summer school classes anyway. And I probably can't even get a job at McDonalds because of unemployment being so high. So, I have to scrimp and save with my measily little substitute teaching wage so that I can survive three months without any income. I am living with other family members, I cannot support myself on my substitute income. The main comfort of my current position is that I'm not the only one who is struggling during these difficult times.

Bound and determined

2009-04-21T22:20:00.006-07:00

I had a weeklong sub job in early April that went really well. This was for a class that I have subbed for before, a 3/4 split grade classroom in the Edmonds school district. So I already had a good rapport with the kids and knew their names. I also asked the principal if he would do a formal observation and write me a letter of recommendation. This was the smartest thing I did, because although it was a lot of work, I now have THE best letter of recommendation now in my file and it is current for this year and it is very complimentary!

April 16th was the annual Washington Educator Career Fair (this was my third year in attendance) and boy was it interesting. The sign of the times was that there was only about HALF of the usual number of school districts present. I took advantage of the opportunity and spoke to almost every school district present, which was 45. From 9am to 3pm I pounded the pavement, threw modesty to the wind, talking myself up and gave out over 40 copies of my resume! Although most everyone is clueless as to their employment needs until the Federal Government passes the budget (May 15th), many districts told me about their anticipated needs. So here's the scoop:

There are very few leads for elementary positions. If I was strictly an elementary teacher I would be discouraged right now. It's not hopeless, but there's more competition in this area. However, there are a few leads, all of them are South of Seattle with the exception of private schools.

I have a few more leads for Science and ELL (since I'm highly qualified in that area, meaning I have a number of credits and I passed the Praxis exam in English Language Learning). This might be my saving grace. This was what many people at the job fair were interested in, compared to my K-8 endorsement.

I am also considering the idea of going out of state. Most of the jobs leads are south of Seattle (Tacoma, Federal Way, etc). I had been considering going to Eastern Washington, but I get the feeling that there are less jobs over there than west of the mountains. Again, nobody knows anything until after May 15th, this was just the impression that I got. So, where would I go? Well, Alaska is hiring, so that's a possibility, but I have more of an interest to go to Indiana than anywhere else out of state simply because I have family there. My sister, brother-in-law and future nephew live in Lafayette (they are expecting next month). So, we will see. I will apply in-state first and will go from there.

I had another job interview for a long term sub position in Shoreline. I didn't get the job and am frankly not surprised. I suspect they already had someone in mind before they started interviews.

I survived Chemistry and am now taking Biology. It is going fine except that it is a lot of work and is time consuming. I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water, with subbing, studying, finding time to work on applications, other commitments and somehow manage to have a social life as well??? However, this is probably good practice to what it will feel like when I have a full time teaching job.

I also have found a junior high science teacher that has agreed to let me teach her class for my formal observations (for the endorsement), which I will do next month. Wish me luck!

I'm bound and determined to do my best to get a full time teaching position for next year and that is what I am focused on. I'm not sure what I'm going to do this summer, other than take the remaining classes I need for science. I have applied to numerous summer school positions, but I don't think I have a good chance of getting anything. I think school districts are more likely to hire experienced contracted teachers for these jobs than a newbie like me.

More will be revealed...

When life gives you lemons...

2009-03-07T22:23:00.010-08:00

I just realized that I haven't posted in several months, so it's time for an update.

Since last spring I've been on the search for a full time teaching job, and it has been a lesson of humility, grace, patience and reflection. I had high expectations of landing a full time teaching job after graduating from the #1 Teacher Ed program in the state, and with having 5 years of teaching experience already under my belt, who would have guessed? Some of my Seattle U colleages got teaching jobs, but for whatever reason, that has not been in the cards for me. Besides the fact that, across the state, there are less teaching jobs, it appears that demographics plays a role too. There was less hiring on the north end of Seattle than down south, such as Redmond and Federal Way, school districts I didn't even apply to due to the long commute.

Like a pebble thrown into pond water, there has been a ripple effect of many things due to the economic downfall. School districts are scrambling as their budgets are being cut, less teachers are retiring because they can't afford to, some schools are closing due to funding issues, more people are subbing than ever before, because, like me, they haven't found full time teaching jobs, there are less sub jobs due to less professional development opportunities for teachers...etc, etc

However, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

So I've been subbing and continue to sub and have been discovering the positive side of subbing. For example, when I see a cool project or teaching method that I like, I make a note of it for future reference. I don't have to plan lessons. And if I'm teaching in a class I don't like, I don't have to go back to it again. The biggest downside is that I am not working full time, there's simply not enough sub jobs to go around. I have been working, on average, 2-3 days a week.

To showcase my newly acquired experience: I have subbed in the following areas: Gifted elementary, high school special ed, middle school science, PE, Art and ELL, 5th and 6th grade band (THAT was interesting...) and Learning support.

I have applied for many long-term sub jobs and had a couple of interviews this fall, but nothing panned out. One interview was for a private Catholic school in Snohomish, another one was for a middle school science position.

Another new development. I am now taking evening classes, working on getting my science endorsement. This will give me more options, because there is more demand for science teachers. So, perhaps I will get hired to teach middle school science? I am hoping to have the endorsement by Fall '09. This will require several more science classes, including chemistry, biology and physics, being formally observed teaching a couple of lessons (maybe while subbing?) and passing the PRAXIS standardized science test. Wish me luck!

Schools are just now starting to prepare for hiring for next school year. I've just updated my resume and cover letter. Now I need to start updating my applications and apply to school districts I haven't applied to yet. This time, I'm not holding back. I'll be casting my net out much farther this year, but focusing my search in Western Washington.

I'll keep ya posted!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-12T23:11:00.006-08:00

“I truly believe that compassion provides the basis of human survival.” - The Dalai Lama

Last spring I was blessed to be able to attend one of the “Seeds of Compassion” events in which the Dalai Lama spoke during his visit to Seattle. It was an amazing experience and one that I will never forget. One of the things that I took away from the experience is that people, relationships and the entire world is nurtured by compassion and in this global community, it is essential that we not only learn to practice compassion ourselves but that we teach it to our children.

2008 has been an important year for me in the fact that I completed my year-long studies at Seattle University, which included three months of student teaching, and ended in July when I earned my Masters in Teaching. My student teaching experience turned out to be a very challenging experience, but one with many important lessons (mostly ones that I learned myself). I had a wonderful cooperating teacher who practiced compassion, not only with her students but with me as well and I am grateful to her for that.

Since last spring and throughout summer and fall, I have been applying for teaching jobs. As we all know, it is a tough economy at the moment, and so, I have not been able to find a full time teaching job. I am currently subbing in Edmonds, Mukilteo and the Shoreline school district (areas around Seattle). Subbing has its pros and cons but the bottom line is that I am getting more experience and hopefully it will lead to a long-term sub job.

My family is doing well. My sister Heidi and her husband Rick moved to Indiana in August, which was a mixed blessing. Rick got accepted to Purdue University (a full ride!) to pursue a PhD in Chemical Education and when he is finished will be a Chemistry professor. We are happy for this advancement in his career, but were sorry to see them go. They do plan to return to the Pacific Northwest after he graduates. My brother David and his long-time girlfriend Natalie are still living over in Maui and soaking up the sun and surf. My parents are doing well, my Dad enjoys retirement and my mom continues to care for my grandmother.

I plan to stay in the Seattle area for now, and hopefully will find a teaching job next year. I plan to go to Nebraska in June because one of my Peace Corps buddies is getting married. I also hope to go to Japan for another friend’s wedding, but much will depend on the job situation.

I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah & Chreken Bozheek!

If you want to learn more about the Seeds of Compassion tour, check out: http://www.seedsofcompassion.org/

Love,
Jesse

Macedonia Update

2008-11-07T12:23:00.006-08:00

MACEDONIA UPDATE:

Well, one thing that is interesting is that Kosovo got independence from Serbia on February 18th of this year. To read more, check out:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23203607/

Also, on a personal note, my friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Shauna fell in love with a local Macedonian guy during her service and they have been in the process of getting him a U.S. Visa for almost a year now, after she finished her PC service and returned to the U.S. Yesterday he was granted the Visa and soon he will join her in Nebraska. Can you imagine being separated from your fiance for a year??? I am very happy for them both and will attend the ceremony sometime next year.

In addition, I'll be attending a wedding in Japan next year as my friend Maki will be marrying her friend Fulgence, from Tanzania, that we visited on my trip there almost 2 years ago. I have Fulgence to thank for the opportunity to visit Tanzania and who really made my stay there an enjoyable one, as well as giving us a place to stay, and being a tour guide and translator.

Both weddings are tentatively scheduled for either spring or summer of 2009.

I am also happy to report that the National English Essay contest that I helped to start has been continuing thanks to other Peace Corps Volunteers that came after me, as well as local organizations. They are currently working on the 3rd annual contest. I am proud to be a part of the creation of this awesome tradition!

"I'm a guest teacher AND a real teacher"

2008-11-07T11:42:00.007-08:00

Now in my second month of subbing, I just survived my eleventh day. There are not a lot of sub jobs out there, October was a very slow month. I'm realizing that everything has a domino affect. Due to the economy, there are less jobs, more people subbing and so, less sub jobs to go around. Budgets are tight for many school districts, so less teachers are taking part in professional development, so less sub jobs. Due to the Boeing strike, there are spouses of machinists that normally sub on occasion who now have a need to sub more regularly, therefore, less sub jobs to go around....you get the point.

So for awhile there, the only sub jobs I had were when I was requested, which wasn't much since I hadn't subbed before.

My first day of subbing was for the same class that I did my student teaching with (my teacher moved up a grade and kept most of the same students). They were excited to see me, which was fun, and were surprised to learn that although I am a guest teacher (a nicer term for substitute) I am also a REAL teacher now. This news also surprised a group of high school students I taught this week.

So, I have subbed grade school, a gifted class, middle school science (that turned out to also have a PE class!) and high school special ed.

I am currently subbing in Edmonds, Mukilteo and soon in the Shoreline school district.

I continue to apply for leave replacements, but with no luck. I had one interview last week for a private Catholic school up in Snohomish, but I didn't get the job and that was mainly because I am not Catholic. I am totally OK with not getting the job, the commute would've been tough.

I am now working on my science endorsement, and I'm taking the WEST-E exam next Saturday, the 15th. If/when I pass, I will be "highly qualified" to teach science, which makes me more marketable.

I'm considering pursuing a job in middle school science, so I just need to take a few more science classes, which I can do in the evening at a community college while I'm subbing during the day.

I'm also now tutoring a 6th grade girl in math.

Substituting

2008-09-27T23:16:00.003-07:00

Finally! After one month I have been cleared to start subbing in the Edmonds School District. I've been waiting (im)patiently for my paperwork to get processed and jumping through hoops so I can get in the classroom and get some income flowing in. I've also applied to sub in the Mukilteo school district, but they hire in waves and the next round isn't until next month. As of right now, I am set to start subbing on Wednesday, Oct 1st. I have a few leads on some long term subbing positions (also called Leave Replacements), so I'm hopeful that something like that will work out in the near future (otherwise I'm SOL when it comes to health insurance with my job).

Speaking of income, I am continuing to sell PartyLite candles. Contact me for more info if you are interested or have questions.

I told someone the other day, "You know, for someone who is unemployed, I'm pretty busy!" I have been looking online, applying for job openings and have not had more job interviews, which has been frustrating. I've probably applied or sent letters of interest to over 30 job openings (I would count how many, out of curiosity, but I think it would just depress me). I've expanded my job search, looking into jobs that would require a further commute. I've networked like crazy. Now, my latest thing is that I've started a support group for SU MIT grads that do not have full time teaching jobs and I call it, "Jobless in Seattle". There's been a decent response, enough people to have a group. We have our second meeting this week.

BTW, many people have asked me about teaching abroad at an International school, which would seem like an obvious choice for me, given my history. So, here is my answer...

Yes, I would love to, but now is not the time.

First of all, I'm broke and in debt. Second of all, I've gotten burned out from living abroad and Lastly, my family needs me (insert collective "awwww"). Now that both my siblings have moved away, the tables have turned. I am now the only kid left and I have missed my family (and friends, and my favorite city in the world) very much over the years. Now is the time for me to be home.

However, the nice thing about being a teacher is that I get summers off (from teaching, I'll still be working of course). So have no fear, my travels are not over. They will just look different in the future. And I do plan to teach abroad again, sometime in my career. Who knows when.

But, in case you're interested...I have plans to go to Japan next summer for a wedding.

For now, my next adventure is Substitute Teaching. Stay Tuned!!!

Now that I have the degree, what to do with it?

2008-09-07T00:14:00.003-07:00

Since graduating, I've been very busy! I've applied to 7 school districts all north of Seattle, helped my sister and brother in law pack up for their move to Indiana (he got accepted to Purdue, full ride, to get his PhD in Chemistry Education) and even managed to take a few short vacations.

Now it's 4 days after the beginning of school and I still don't have a job! I'm trying not to get discouraged. I've had two job interviews, but no job yet. It's a tough market right now and very competitive. There are more teachers than their are jobs, school budgets are tight, less teachers are retiring than expected and they say that it is all due to funding issues and the economy. For every job opening there is, I've heard there is anywhere from 70-100 or more applicants. Like I said, it's competitive! I've sent in my paperwork to substitute teach in Edmonds and waiting for them to process the paperwork so I can start!

My best bet for getting my foot in the door is taking any kind of teaching job that I can get, whether it is part time, long term subbing, what have you.

Since school started I've been volunteering and observing at Beverely Elementary in Lynnwood. There's a good chance that I will be able to get into a long term sub position this fall. Keep your fingers crossed!

Graduation and Beyond!

2008-07-20T21:03:00.001-07:00

July 18th, 2008 12pm= Freedom!

I graduated from Seattle University with a Masters in Teaching on Friday. I also earned my teachers certificate so now I can say "I is a real teacher now". LOL! A lot of people are surprised to find out that this Masters program is only a year, but that is typical for an MIT degree, as long as you are going full-time.

Now I have the joy of finding a teaching job. I have applied to Mukilteo and Everett and will apply to Edmonds shortly. So I'm looking for something in the area. Getting a teaching job, interestingly enough, is very competative, despite the pay (WA state is nationally 48th in Teacher Pay). Believe it or not folks, this chick is actually going to set up shop, get rooted and stay home in the U.S. (for now). I had a job interview with Everett last week, to be hired into a pool of teachers, but later learned that I didn't get in. This bummed me out until I remembered that I didn't really want to live in Everett anyway. I'd rather be closer to home.

Student teaching was one of the toughest things I've ever done. It was right up there with my Peace Corps experience...challenging, frustrating and also rewarding. My biggest challenge was behavior management, and I learned A LOT, so I'm feeling better prepared for my first year of teaching this fall

It doesn't really feel like I'm done with school. It seems like I should be writing a paper, reading a textbook or cramming for a test or something! I think it will hit me slowly during this next week.

Also, I spoke at a Peace Corps informational session on Saturday and it went really well. It actually got me nostalgic for Macedonia. It also reminded me that I need to write to my host family...

(By the way, anyone notice that Kosovo followed Montenegro and gained independence from Serbia in February? This is an area of the world to keep an eye on! Never a dull moment)

Hope you are all enjoying your summer! I'll try to get somewhat caught up with this blog before I start teaching and then you'll really think I fell off the face of the earth...

Finals! The end of Winter Quarter

2008-03-18T20:31:00.003-07:00

It's finals week, do you know where your brain is?????

I wish that I had the time to make regular posts about how the Masters in Teaching program is going, but take my word for it, it is A LOT of work and at times it is VERY STRESSFULL. This is one of those times. I have 5 papers/projects to finish in the next 48 hours. So why am I bothering to take the time to make a post? I guess it's because I need to vent.

I just created a webpage to accompany my 50 page Literacy Unit, here is the website.

http://denazureus.googlepages.com/home

This quarter we have to do 3 unit plans, one on Social Studies, one on Literacy and one on Math. I still have to do the one on Math.

Wish me luck, I really need it!

On Monday, the 24th I start officially student teaching, even though I have already been working in my class, once a week, this quarter.

I am at Cedar Valley Elementary, in Edmonds with a 2nd & 3rd grade combination. The teacher and the kids are great!

Fast Forward 5 months...

2007-11-25T19:07:00.000-08:00

I've been reminded by a few people that I am woefully behind in my updates. Those of you who know me personally know that I am now in the midst of a new adventure called graduate school. I am currently in the Masters in Teaching program at Seattle University, and loving it. Despite having to work and study very hard and trying to balance work and school and a personal life, things are going great. I started in September and will graduate summer 2008 with a teachers certificate and my Masters. I want to teach 5th grade somewhere in the greater Seattle area.

I am thrilled to think that starting in September of 2008 I'll have my own classroom. It is exciting and terrifying at the same time, but the Seattle U program is so great, I expect I'll be prepared when that time comes. I plan to do my student teaching in Edmonds with an experienced teacher.

It is hard to believe that almost a year ago I was in Macedonia getting ready to go on my trip to Tanzania. Although I had no idea what trouble lay ahead for me, and the challenges that I had to overcome, I am very grateful for how everything worked out.

Thanks to everyone for their support!

P.S. Since school keeps me so busy, I've been unable to get caught up with my posts about Tanzania, Macedonia, Romania and my sister's wedding. Well, they all went really well and were all amazing adventures. I hope to be able to include some more posts (with pictures) during my Christmas break. Stay tuned!

In Transylvania

2007-06-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

My visit to Macedonia was like a whirlwind, but it was also very satisfying to see my friends (Macedonians and PCVs) again as well as my former students and host family. I went now so that I could be at my school on the last day, which is a day of music and dancing and celebration. I had a lot of fun. My time in Macedonia was full of smiles and laughs and tears. But I'm very glad that I did it, I have no doubt that it was the right decision.

Ten days flew by in a wink and then I took the bus/train to Bucharest, Romania and met up with my friend Matt. We were in the Romanian capital for 2 days, I was able to see a little bit of the city, which reminds me of a combination of Skopje, Budapest, Buenas Aires, and Brussels. Sometimes I would have to stop and remember where I was! I also took a tour of the Parliament Building, which is apparently the second largest building in the world, after the Pentagon.

Next we stopped in Sinaia, where there is a beautiful fairytale-like castle. Now we are in Brasov, in Transylvania. It is a beautiful country and a very interesting region. And yes, we plan to visit Count Draculas castle!

Last Big Trip (for now)

2007-06-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

...Fast Forward a few months!

I've gotten very busy this spring with a new part-time job (selling Partylite Candles), taking little trips here and there (ie; Maui with my family, to visit my brother who now lives there) and catching up with old friends while making new ones!

After many months of paperwork and airline bureaucracy, I got my plane tickets from Seattle to Macedonia (originally in January) switched to June. I'm returning to Macedonia for a visit to see friends again and get some closure. Since I'm over there I've made arrangements to meet up with my friend Matt who is traveling around the world right now, and tour a bit Romania together (see his blog at http://velotrek.blogspot.com).

I leave Monday, June 4th and come back on the 27th. This will be my last big trip for awhile because...

I got accepted to Seattle University Masters in Teaching program and I start September 4th. I'm very excited about this opportunity, I'll finally make it official and get my Teachers Certificate. Just imagine, Fall of 2008 I should (hopefully) have my own classroom! I plan to teach general ed and I'd like to teach 5th grade.

Not only that but I just learned that I am a recipient of one of several $3,000 MIT alumni scholorship, for outstanding applicants who have financial need. I am thrilled and honored to be one of the chosen. Seattle U isn't cheap, but it does have an outstanding reputation and I know that I will get an excellent quality education in my pursuit to be an excellent educator!

(I still plan to post about Tanzania and my sisters wedding, just be patient with me!)

Medically Separated

2007-03-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the verdict is in. Unfortunately I'm being medically separated from the Peace Corps. I just don't have all my medical issues resolved within the PC policy of 45 days.

I've been on medical hold for about 6 weeks, waiting to see if I could return to country or not. I got my answer about a week ago. It wasn't the answer I wanted to hear, but the good news is that at least I'm not in limbo anymore. Being sick wasn't fun, but at least it taught me what the more important things in life are (for me): family and health.

I just want to let you all know that I'll miss those of you in Macedonia and I've enjoyed my experience there and learned so much professionally as well as personally. I'm disappointed that I won't be able to finish my PC service, but it appears that it wasn't meant to be. My health has restricted me returning to country, but the good news is that I'm almost back to "normal" now, mainly I just need to regain all of my strength, although I'm doing a lot better now.

So, for now I'm focusing on my health and moving on. I've applied to graduate school this September at Seattle University (interviews are this month, fingers crossed). I'm also planning a short visit to Macedonia to say goodbye, probably in June before school gets out. At least I'll be able to get some closure then.

A thank you to the overwhelming number of people who have been so encouraging, supportive, and have kept me in their thoughts and prayers. I feel very blessed.

All the Best,
Jesse AKA Jill

P.S. Yes, I still plan to keep posting on this blog. Stay tuned for more info about my African Adventure and Wedding Photos!

Sick in Seattle

2007-02-12T03:25:00.000-08:00

This wild and crazy adventure we call life never ends...

I have much to say about my fantastic travel experience in Dubai and Tanzania, which I will at a later time, however, this update is more pressing...

I got some kind of bug in Tanzania and got extremely ill on the plane back to Seattle (Jan 9th). I was taken by ambulance from the plane directly to a hospital once we landed and was in the hospital for four days, high fever, low blood pressure, and stuff coming out of both ends. They really are not sure what I got but blame gastro-enteritis. I was released from the hospital just in time for my sister's wedding (Jan 14th) and I was in a wheelchair for the ceremony. I returned to the ER a week later with a stabbing headache. In the ER they were not sure what was wrong with me and gave me some treatment that did little to stop the pain. They blamed a migraine, but that is not what it was. A few days later I went to a neurologist who diagnosed me with Trigeminal Neuralgia, which is a cranial nerve disorder. It is believed to have been caused by my illness. I am now taking medicine that has stopped the headaches entirely, which has been a blessing. I also had a CT scan and MRI which shows that my brain is normal (hey, proof that I am normal everybody! Ha ha!)

I was supposed to return to Macedonia on Jan 17th, but of course that didn't happen. I am at home, in Seattle now, recuperating and impatiently waiting word from the Peace Corps Medical Office. Unfortunately there is a chance that I will not be able to return to Macedonia. My deadline date for clearance is Feb 24th. The good news is that I'm slowly regaining my strength and energy (I lost almost 20 lbs). So I'm getting back on my feet so to speak and praying that I'll be able to return to Macedonia, at least to finish up the school year. I'll keep you all informed as things progress.

At least it's nice to spend a little more time with my family and my cat.

A thank you to the overwhelming number of people who have been so encouraging, supportive, and have kept me in their thoughts and prayers.

The Muslim World

2006-12-31T22:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

From the Seattle PI, this is a well-written article about the need for compassion and tolerance for those of different faiths. I recently had a chance to learn a little bit about the Muslim faith when visiting a friend in Dubai, UAE, my first time in the Middle East. It made me realize that our society has a lot of misperceptions and misunderstandings about this part of the world and the people there. Not every place in the Middle East is dangerous and not everyone who is Muslim is a terrorist. We are quick to judgement and fear to make these kind of damaging associations. Extreme religious fever of any kind can be dangerous, and does not represent the vast majority. As a global village we are in need of more tolerance and understanding. I hope that this article can help people to realize that the common thread for many people of different faiths is for peace, love and compassion.

---------------------------------------------------------------
> I didn't find 'them' in Muslim world

> Muslims are savages, a reader told me. So I flew overseas to
> part of the Muslim world to see for myself. What I
> saw is something that can help people, in Seattle and
> beyond, grapple with the kinds of religious flare-ups that popped up
> so often in 2006.
>
* Read the full article at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/297855_robert30.html

Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai

2006-12-20T01:24:00.000-08:00

This lavish luxury hotel of 202 suites is an architectural marval, designed to resemble the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. It opened in Dec '99 as the World Tallest Hotel (at 321 meters or 1053 ft) and has been a controversial project. It includes 3 restaurants, an enormous atrium, a helicopter landing pad and gold-plated furniture with rooms starting at $900 USD. 22-carrat gold leaf and marble are also part of its construction. It also sits on its own artificial island. Just to go inside and take a tour is 40 Euros (about $50 bucks). I'll see the outside and save my money on a desert tour and camel ride instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_al-Arab

In Dubai

2006-12-20T00:23:00.000-08:00

I am currently in Dubai, UAE in the middle east, at my friend Renee's Private International American school. I arrived at 2am this morning with no problems, flying from Skopje with a stopover in Istanbul. I'm at the school library and they are playing "The Nutcracker" music. This is such a strange and wonderful place, Dubai is a modern, multi-cultural, unique city with massive growth, commercialism, and attracts a lot of international business. It has amazing buildings, signs in Arabic and English as well as different ethnicities, with people in western dress intermingled with men wearing white robes with head coverings and sandals. It is "cold" at 60 degrees and winter time. I can't imagine how hot and humid it is in the summer!

I haven't seen much of the city yet, but I will in the next 3 days. Renee has been living and working here for the last 9 years and says there has been a lot of recent growth. More than 70% of the population is made up of foreigners and ex-pats (although the number of Americans is about 1% of that).

Renne's apartment is beautiful, right in the center of downtown and has a swimming pool. I have discovered that there is Starbucks here (as well as Seattle's Best!) and I can't wait to eat some Middle Eastern Food.

After school today Renne will take me around and give me a tour. I'm especially looking forward to seeing the world-renown "Burj Al Arab" luxury hotel that is shaped like a billowing sail and is an amazing architectural accomplishment. Also I'm hoping to take a desert tour which will include a 4 X 4 dune drive and a camel ride!

On Saturday the 23rd I fly to Tanzania and take a 1 day safari tour of Ngorongoro Crater and Wildlife Park (with views of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I'll be camping out on Christmas Eve and the next day fly to Dar es Salaam to meet my friend Maki with two of her Japanese friends. We will rent a car (safer than the bus) and go to a small village near Songea, passing thru Mikumi National Park to get there. We will also spend a few days visiting the touristy island of Zanzibar.

I arrive in Seattle on Jan 8th and will be in town until Jan 17th, with my sister's wedding on the 14th. It will be an exciting and busy time.

I don't expect to have internet access while I'm in Tanzania and don't know when I'll be back online.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Chreken Bozheek and Happy New Year!

Another Great Travel Opportunity

2006-12-05T12:17:00.000-08:00

January 14th is my sister Heidi's wedding to my future brother-in-law Rick. I am excited to be the maid of honor. So, naturally, I have been planning a trip back to Seattle at that time.

Then, about two months ago, my friend Maki (from Japan & came to visit me with my sister last Spring) called me up and told me she is going to Tanzania in December with some friends and would I like to come along?

Would I?

This is a dream come true for many reasons. Not only have I never been to Africa, but it is the last of the 7 continents for me to visit! I am incredibly grateful and blessed to have been so fortunate with opportunities to travel the world, it has always been a lifelong goal to visit all 7 continents. It's also been a dream of mine to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. I also plan to take a safari of the Ngorongoro crater (a World Heritage site), where I'll get to see all the typical wildlife in their natural state.

A couple of weeks later, while investigating airfair costs and itineraries I happened to notice that many European flights to Tanzania have a stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the middle east.

...and it just so happens that I have a friend Renee (an American ex-pat) who lives there, teaching at a highschool.

So, now that I have managed my itinerary, budget and flight details I can announce my next adventure!

Starting Dec 19th I leave Macedonia for Dubai, spend 3 days there, then fly to Tanzania, take a 1 day camping tour of Ngorongoro, fly to Dar es Salaam on Christmas day, meet Maki and her friends, travel to another safari site, visit a village school and Zanzibar island with a total of 2 weeks in Tanzania. On Jan 7th I fly to Seattle, the wedding is on the 14th and I return to Macedonia on the 18th after 10 days home.

It's going to be a real whirlwind experience I have no doubt.

So let the adventure begin!

Kitten Caboodle!

2006-12-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

I don't remember if I said this or not, but my kitten Miloyka was adopted by the PCV couple who took care of her while I was on med evac status this summer. They fell in love with her and asked if they could keep her. It was a tough decision but I decided to let them keep her. Besides, I have a cat back in America anyways. That was back in August. So once again I was living solo without a "roommate" this fall.

But I have a soft spot in my heart for animals and Macedonia has plenty of stray animals to go around. So, about a month ago after returning from a weekend in Skopje I discovered a little kitten crying in the hallway of my apartment building. This is not the first time that this is happened, so I did what I normally do and gave it a bowl of milk. This kitten didn't act afraid of me, as most other stray animals do. She was very affectionate and purring all over the place and...

Well. You know the rest. I now have another kitten as a "roommate".

Her name is Mila, which means "dear" in Macedonian. Don't be fooled by her adorable looks, she really is quite a rascal and gets into more trouble than Miloyka did.

However, it is nice to have some company around the apartment, especially now that winter is here and it gets pretty cold at night, so I have something warm and fuzzy to snuggle with now.

Mila

Mila, the "Angel"

The Rascal

Mila's favorite place

Thanksgiving!

2006-12-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner is a big celebration in Macedonia where all PC volunteers and the new trainees attend along with their host family members. We must have had about 300 people there. Turkeys are ordered, everyone brings food, and an entertaining program follows dinner. This year, due to the large size of attendees, was held at a Veles hotel instead of at a local restaurant. I believe 17 turkeys were consumed. I made a Jello salad topped with whipped cream (I had brought Jello back with me when I was in the states this summer). The Macedonians didn’t know what it was and asked me if it was sweet or salty. They must have liked it because it was all eaten up. In fact, all the food was consumed. Dinner was served buffet style. I made sure that I got a little turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and desert. It was delicious! After dinner all the training groups put on skits or songs, one group even did a fashion show of traditional Thanksgiving dress including an American Indian and a Puritan Pilgrim. It was really funny! That weekend Shauna and I went to visit our host families. One sunny afternoon we got together with our host family children and went on a walk in the nearby hills.

The Turkey

The Dinner Dash

The Dinner

Yum!

Host Family Members

The Roman Aqueduct near Skopje

2006-11-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

I went to Skopje to visit PCV friends Noell and Anya in November and we went to a cool historical site nearby. It is called the Roman Aqueduct. No one knows how old it is, some say it goes back to Roman times and it is believed to have been used in the 16th century by the Turks (perhaps to fill their baths?). It is possible that this one was built on the ruins of a Roman aqueduct, hence the name. Unfortunately there is little being done to protect it, although a small portion has been renovated.

Roman Aqueduct

The Aqueduct

Noell & I

Anya & I

The 2nd Annual Field Day Extravaganza!

2006-10-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

October 21st was the 2nd annual Field Day of all PC volunteers in Macedonia. This tradition began last year by the Mac 9’s and now it was Mac 10’s turn to try to do as good a job, if not better than the previous group. This is a project that I headed up with an organizing committee of about 10 other PCVs. However, because I was the closest to the location (Prevalec) and because I was the head of the committee, yours truly ended up doing a lot of the work! There were games to organize, budgeting to sort out, awards, lunch items to decide on, T-shirts to design, supplies to collect and purchase and lots of logistics! We had the fortune to use last years’ event to base our plans off of and improving on. So this year was quite a success and a lot of fun for everyone. At the time we had almost 100 PCVs in country (Mac 9’s are in the process of finishing their service and returning to the US and the new group, Mac 11, is an unusually large 49 trainees!) We had about 80 people in attendance and 60 of them were participating with about 10 people running the games. There was a potato sack race, tug of war, egg-toss, steal the bottle, 3-legged race, shoe kick, egg-spoon relay, limbo and a potato chip eating contest. I hope this tradition continues as long as Peace Corps exists in Macedonia. It is the only official volunteer event that is purely for fun and socializing amongst the volunteers and it is a chance for the current volunteers to meet the new group of trainees and often the last time that the “old group” get to hang out before the end of their service. We were also fortunate to have good weather and lots of helping hands to make the day a lot of fun and well worth the hard work!

A Great Line Up

Tug-of-War

Potato Sack Race

Lunch Time

3-legged race

Eating Contest

My PC Training Put to Good Use

Work? What work?

2006-10-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

I realized that I never mention my work on this blog, just about my travels, discoveries inside fruit and special events like holidays.

Well, I actually do work. I go to school 5 days a week and work with the local Macedonian teachers teaching English. This year I loathe my schedule because classes start at 7:30am everyday (except Mondays, which are at 9am). Ugh. There are three English teachers that I work with, following around and going to class with them. All the teachers in Macedonia use the same book, "Dream Team" and all the kids here learn British English (also, all the teachers have British accents, which was weird for me to get used to at first). During the lesson, from time to time I am able to teach part of the lesson, or add to it if I have personal experience. For example, yesterday the lesson was about London, so I shared a little bit about my being a tourist there in the past. One time last year there was a lesson about Australia and I brought in some Aboriginal music for the kids to listen to, which they loved. Sometimes I do the reading so kids can hear a native speaker. Sometimes the teachers are absent so I teach alone, which is, at times, nice because then I get to do my own stuff and make the lesson a bit more interesting. "Dream Team" is a fine book except the kids need more practice speaking English and learning grammar.

So I am at school about 25 hours a week in the classroom (which is a full teaching load in Macedonia) and then I have my afterschool English club. All the kids are welcome, but there are often just a small core group of about 8 girls who attend. We meet twice a week for an hour at a time and we play games, read books and sometimes listen to music, which gives them a chance to practice their English. I also have some crossword puzzles that the kids can also color, which are a real hit.

In addition, I just started up a Club GLOW at the local highschool. This is a club that is based directly from the girl's summer camp I worked at this summer. We just had our first meeting and we will meet once a week for an hour and learn about topics similar to camp like leadership, health, environmental issues, self esteem, etc. Think of it sort of like Girl Scouts. I never thought that I would enjoy working with highschool students, but I really love these girls, they are so much fun to work with.

Now if that wasn't enough, I also have lots of projects that I work on. I'm very involved with Peace Corps activities and I attend meetings often, and go to the PC office in Skopje about twice a month. The following are projects that I have worked on in the past or ones I'm working on now:

Member of VAC (Volunteer Action Committee), think Student Council
Head of the planning commitee for Field Day (last weekend, more on that later)
Coordinator for the National Essay Contest in English, including holding essay writing workshops at my school and the nearby highschool.
Member of TIP commitee (Human Trafficking, a big problem in Macedonia)
Working on getting the PC traveling photo exhibit to come to Kochani (next month)
Moderator of English Teaching Listserv for PCV's and Macedonian Teachers
Co-editor of "Pauza" the Macedonian PCV magazine
Writing supplemental curriculum (grammar focused) for "Dream Team" and having it available on the listserv (in the future will add it to the Resource room at the PC office)
Working on getting English books donated to my school.

In addition, I started attending the local Methodist church in town. It is very small, many people are surprised to learn that one exits here. The other interesting thing is that all of the members are Roma, there are no Macedonians that go. But just like Macedonians they are very friendly and welcoming. The second time I attended the minister asked me if I would teach the congregation English after the service. I was hestitant to agree (everyone heard the conversation), but I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Lastly, I also hope to start a class to teach the teachers at my school English, as many have expressed a real desire to learn. So, if I can sort it out in my busy schedule that is also another secondary project I hope to start up this fall.

So, I guess I had more to say about work than I had thought!

Stay tuned for pics and info about the 2nd annual Field Day event that was last weekend.

Baths & Buildings in Budapest

2006-10-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

“I’m on vacation” became the theme of our trip, whenever my PCV friend Stuart and I would question whether or not to splurge for desert, sleep in or have to exchange money with a lousy rate. (It also became humorous trying to convert in four different currencies; Euros, Hungarian forint, Bulgarian lev and Macedonian denars)

Budapest is an incredible city and for some reason I didn’t expect it to be crawling with tourists, although I can understand why. This beautiful and ancient city was once actually three cities divided by the picturesque river of Danube; Buda, on the west, O’buda in the north and Pest on the eastern side of the river. There are still Roman ruins nearby, although I didn’t have time to check them out myself. I did however enjoy seeing the very old buildings from the earl 1900’s on the Buda side of the river, including the medieval castle and Independence monument, with amazing views of the city, the Fisherman’s Bastion, Matthias Church and of course, relaxing in the fantastic Turkish Baths which are a true highlight of this wonderful city.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Budapest is such a great place (some say it’s better than Prague, although I haven’t been there myself yet to say if I agree or not). However, with a mix of old and new, fantastic views and really cool architecture and beautiful buildings, there’s a lot to see and do. It’s also a huge city that Stuart and I ended up spending much time just walking around, especially up and down the river and across several of its picturesque bridges.

The original purpose of the trip was because my friend and fellow PCV Sara is running in the Annual Budapest Marathon and we were going to be her personal cheering squad. But unfortunately, due to an outbreak of violent protests two weeks prior, the Marathon was postponed until later. The protests were a reaction of Hungary's prime minister admitting he and other officials had lied about the economy. It was a tough decision, but I decided to stick with our original plan of going last weekend, especially due to the fact that I’d already booked my flights out of Sofia, Bulgaria and hostel reservation (Sara will go to Budapest with her visiting family two weeks later). I was concerned that the protests might flare up again and make it difficult to get around the city; however we swung by the mammoth parliament building on the last day and found it to be very mellow and peaceful.

Three days ended up not being enough time to see and do all that I’d wanted, but I enjoyed visiting the city and seeing all that I did. And who knows? Perhaps I’ll be fortunate enough to return for another visit after I finish my Peace Corps service next year. I wish I could have had more time there; a longer vacation. But isn’t that often the case when it comes to vacations?

Budapest Photos

2006-10-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Parliament building

Hungarian Dolls

Matthias Church

View of Budapest from Castle Hill

Gate at Castle Hill

Church and Park

Chain Bridge

Basilica St. Stephen

Inside St. Stephen Church

Fishermans Bastion with Matthias Church

Colorful Buildings

Szechenyi Bath (by belgianchocolate at www.virtualtourist.com)

Happy Anniversary!

2006-09-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

It was a year ago and a day that I arrived in Macedonia for the first time to begin my Peace Corps adventure. Hard to believe it's been a year now that I've been here! (And subsequently, a new group of Mac 11's just arrived on Monday, they're a big group, 49 of them! They are now starting their 3 months of training in Veles, just like my group did last year).

Now, before you think that this means that I will be back in Seattle 12 months from now, I must remind you that PC service is a total of 27 months (2 years and 3 months of training). So, technically my COS (Close of Service) date is Dec 15th, 2007. However, since I plan to start graduate school (I'm deferring my acceptance to the University of Washington Master in Teaching program) in January 2008, I hope to leave a little earlier, so it will be sometime in the fall of next year that I'm thinking of finishing my PC service. Ke vidame! (We'll see).

"Happy One Year Anniversary to MAC 10!"

A Turn of Events

2006-09-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this happened today...I had just stepped outside on my way to school, wasn't looking where I was walking and managed to stumble over the curb and turn my ankle! Arrrgh!

Not only did I sprain my ankle (same one as last February) but I ripped my last pair of jeans in the knees.

Up til now, school has been going OK, but I really want to start my other projects, English club, Drama club and teaching the teachers English. I was planning to start my English club this week, but now I'll have to wait since I must stay home for a few days. Don't worry, I'm using the RICE method religiously (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation).

At least I've got some good movies to watch and books to read!

Are you Hungary?

2006-09-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

I’m excited about my upcoming travel plans for a much-needed vacation outside of Macedonia.

October 1st is the 21st annual Marathon in Budapest, Hungary and my friend and fellow PCV Sara is going to be running in the 42 km event. Stuart, another PCV and I are going along to be her personal cheering squad (as well as be tourists).

We will depart from Skopje on Sept 29th, fly to Budapest, have a day of sightseeing and then it’ll be the day of the race. The next day, Oct 2nd, Sara and I will fly back to Macedonia. Stuart is going to continue traveling for a little bit before his return. (I wanted to spend another day sightseeing, as I've heard lots of good things about Budapest from those who have been there, but it didn't work out this time. Ce la vie!)

I can’t wait! Here is what they say at the official Budapest Marathon website:

Budapest, the 'daughter of the Danube' makes you think of the quays of Paris, of Prague's old cobble stone streets, and multi-coloured houses, of Vienna's imperial and art nouveau architecture, of Barcelone's alleys, of London's Parliament and of Lissabon's hills, small winding roads and yellow tramways.
Budapest, the seven bridges and three hills have already won the hearts of the foreign runners. In 2002 more than 2000 foreigners of 41 countries came to discover this charming and mysterious capital.
The contest starts at the imposing Hõsök tere (Heros' Square), which is usually the main meeting-place for skaters and skateboarders, but for a few days in the end of summer thousands of two-legged reconquer the square and admire the 24 sculptures representing important actors of Hungarian history. It's not a coincidence that also Fred Lebow - a Hungarian by origin - wanted the Budapest-Marathon to start here.
The competition is specially attractive because of the city's fascinating beauty - e.g. the Andrássy avenue (part of the Unesco World Heritage), the art-nouveau-style Gresham Hotel, the good old Chainbridge, the Buda Castle (also part of the Unesco World Heritage), the idyllic Margareth Island, the monumental Parlament - all these can be admired by the runners, which really eases the pain on this long distance.
After the contest, the competing can relax their numbed feet in one of the 22 pools of the Széchenyi thermal bath, the most famous spa in Budapest.
The companions can visit the whirling fair next to the start, where they will find a 'sports- and lifestyle' information, showmen, concerts and other various programs. In the evening, a fascinating firework closes the running-festival.

http://www.budapestmarathon.com/eng/marathon/info

Look Ma! No Pesticides!

2006-09-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Earwig in my peach

It's great to eat fresh fruits and veggies that are organic and don't need a lot of chemicals and stuff to grow. However, there are drawbacks. One time this summer I bought peaches at the market. Upon cutting one open I discovered this earwig inside *alive*. Yuck!

Holidays and Medival Fortresses

2006-08-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

This summer I’ve had the opportunity visit a few sites around the country. It’s funny that I’ve been here for almost a year, yet I hadn’t visited some of these really interesting places before! This country may be small (about the size of Vermont), but there doesn’t seem a lack of places to go and things to see!

Bashino Selo: August 2nd is called Ilinden and is an important holiday here. There was a big battle in Kruchevo, back in 1903 against the ruling Ottoman (Turkish) empire, where the Macedonians won and created their own Republic, which held for 10 days before Turkish reinforcements came in and destroyed the republic. The revolutionaries (Nikola Karev, Goce Delchev, Pitu Guli) are memorialized all over the country. For the holiday, I went to visit my host family in Bashino Selo. The village people go up to a nearby hill where there is a cross, a priest comes and leads a short service, food and clothing and people are blessed and then everyone eats lots of yummy homemade food.

Priest blessing

My extended host family in Bashino Selo

Tetovo: I went to Tetovo (west of Skopje) to visit my friends Keith and Megan who took care of my kitten Miloyka while I was gone. During that time they fell in love with her and asked if I might consider letting them keep her. It was a hard decision, but in the end I decided they could adopt her. Miloyka was alone for long periods of time and plus I already have a cat back in Seattle. Tetovo is a big city with a sizable population of Albanians. Unfortunately there is still some tension between Macedonians and Albanians as there was a war between them in 2001. Walking around town in some ways felt like being in a different country, there is so much more diversity in the western part of the country. Turks and Albanians (and Muslim) men wear caps on their heads, Muslim women cover their heads with scarves and sometimes wear dresses that look like cloaks, that go all the way to the ground. There are also a number of Mosques there. I visited one that is famous called “The Painted Mosque”, built in the 16th century. Up close the exterior looks like large, brightly colored playing cards! It also has a nice garden

The Painted Mosque

The Albanian Flag, Wedding Procession

Skopje: I did some sightseeing in the capital city, which I hadn’t done before, even though I’ve been to Skopje many times. Usually I’m there for Peace Corps business, so I haven’t done much else. This time I visited “Kale” (pronounced “Kah-lay”), which is a fortress up on the hill above the city. My guidebook says that this Ottoman fortress and the River Vardar Valley may have had human settlements from as early on as Neolithic times (3500BC)! A Byzantine town was believed to have been built on this location between 700-500BC. The fortress that is seen today was constructed probably during the Medieval period, between 9th-14th century. There is very little information at the site, but interesting to walk around, and has great views of the city below. I also saw evidence of some damage, which I suspect was from the devastating earthquake in 1963. I also visited the site of the house where Mother Teresa was born, which is now just a plaque next to a busy shopping center in downtown Skopje. Mother Teresa was Albanian, although born in Macedonia (1910).

Ancient and Modern Skopje

Downtown Skopje

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa's House Was Here

Prelip: a large city south of Veles, in the south-central part of the country also has a lot of history, as it is just next to the Towers of Marko, which is another medieval fortress built on the top of a very large hill overlooking the city. Archeological evidence has been found here that date back to the 3rd & 4th centuries BC. The fortress was built about the same time as Kale in Skopje, with the purpose of keeping out the Turks (which wasn’t successful given that the Turks ruled Macedonia for 500 years--until early 1900’s). But there were a lot of battles fought in this region, and even though the fortress is in ruins, it is still interesting and gives a great view of the large city below. In the center of town is the old Turkish center, with a large pedestrian area and the wall of an old Turkish bath still remains. There are also the ruins of a Muslim mosque destroyed in 2001 during the conflict with the Albanians.

Downtown Prelip, Statue of Alexander III with Towers in the Background

Marko's Fortress

View of Prelip from the Towers

Soon it’s back to work for me, first day of school is Sept 1st!

A Photo That Needs a Caption

2006-08-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken by my dad at the airport in Seattle on Sept. 22nd, 2005. This was just before I got on a plane to Washington, DC and started my Peace Corps Adventure.

So, I challenge all you cool cats to think of a caption and share it as a comment...I'm sure you can come up with something really good!

Camp GLOW

2006-08-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

“I’ve told a lot of my friends about Camp GLOW and they’re very fascinated. I gave them some of my knowledge that I get in the camp! I wanted to ask you if you knew the web site “Camp GLOW”? I hope we’ll stay in touch, With all respect, Stephani, Kumanovo.” --A text message I received after camp

"I just want to say a BIG THANKS for all of you. I had a wonderful time at the camp GLOW, i made new friends, i learned a lot of knew things and i just want to say thank you for everything. I look forward to hearing from all of you
P.S. i hope that i will see all of you some day.
ALEXANDRA-KAVADARCI
KISSES AND HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!" --An e-mail I got from another camper

When the girls first arrived they were greeted by us counselors lip-synching and dancing to Arethra Franklin’s song “Respect”. By the end of the week 5 teams of girls were giving their own renditions of songs such as “I Will Survive”, “Independent Women” and “Sisters are Doin’ It For Themselves”.

From July 24th to 29th 60 girls from all over Macedonia congregated at a beautiful site on Mt. Pelister for a one week leadership camp called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). We had 6 full days of activities, and a lot of sessions and activities on issues such as health, self-esteem, goal setting & career counseling, discrimination, environmental issues, arts and crafts, nature walks, dances, creative writing, self defense and team building. The campers were from ages 14 to 18 and we had both Macedonian and Albanian girls attend. Some girls were from big cities and others from small villages. It was so cool to see the girls quickly become friends, support and encourage each other and offer up ideas and participate in the sessions. These girls were chosen for their leadership qualities as well as language skills, since the camp was held entirely in English. I was very impressed with how intelligent, perceptive and creative these young women are; they all have so much potential. I am so glad that I was a part of this experience, it was the best experience I’ve had yet in Macedonia.

On the last evening of camp we had a Candle lighting ceremony where each of us had a candle and we went around and shared things that we were proud of from that week. Many of the girls were crying, a reminder to me of how special this week had been for these girls, who don’t have other opportunity like this to attend camps.

So, now what? Well, many Peace Corps Volunteers, like myself, will continue the legacy by creating Club GLOW’s in our own communities: groups of girls (some previous campers and some who might be able to attend next summer’s camp). Funding for these kinds of projects are getting harder and harder to come by, so we hope that we will be able to do some fundraising projects with our clubs. But even more importantly, we can continue to work with the girls, have activities, projects and sessions about important topics that can educate and inspire these bright young women of Macedonia!

Website: http://campglow.tripod.com/

P.S. There was also a leadership camp held for boys this summer near Berevo, which was also a great success and a lot of fun too.

Camp GLOW 2006 Photos

2006-08-01T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Camp at Mt. Pelister

The Tigirls Team

Outdoor Skills

I Will Survive

Jesse With Campers

Going to Morning Meeting

Group Sessions

Field Day

Candlelighting Ceremony

Photos of my Visit to the US

2006-07-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

Was having some trouble uploading pics. Anyway, here are a few from my recent trip:

My Sis Heidi and her Fiance Rick!

View of DC from Arlington, VA

Dad & Me

Natural History Museum

Fireworks on the 4th of July in DC

Back in Macedonia & My Time in the US

2006-07-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m back in Macedonia now, having been gone just 3 weeks. I flew to Washington, DC, had a few doctor’s appointments and then had a break before my surgery so I got to go home to Seattle, WA for 4 days. It was great, but way too short. I spent most of the time with my family. I got to meet Rick, my sister’s fiancé for the first time, try on bridesmaid dresses, see my cat at home, have home cooked food and saw some old friends.

My dad came to DC with me so he could be with me for the surgery. I was really grateful for that. After the surgery I was really tired, the general anesthesia really knocked me out. I stayed at the hotel and didn’t leave for about 5 days because I had no strength. I spent a lot of time following the World Cup Soccer Championship and eating take-out food. When I was able to get out and about I enjoyed some of the Smithsonian museums, eating ethnic food, meeting up with two friends who live in the area and going to Starbucks almost every day.

I also enjoyed meeting other Peace Corps Volunteers when I was in Washington DC. I made friends with Andrea, who is serving in Ghana, Africa. I was amazed at the stories she told me about living there. I am really glad I did not go serve in Africa. I also met volunteers from the South Pacific, Ukraine, Morocco, and other countries in Africa. They were surprised to hear that I have electricity, plumbing and internet at home. One guy saw the photos of my apartment and said it was nicer than the hotels in his country!

The 4th of July was fun too, being in DC, which is reputed to have the best fireworks display in the nation. People go to the mall early, have a picnic and enjoy the concerts before the fireworks. But I knew I wouldn’t have the strength to be out and about all day. Instead, I met up with other Peace Corps friends and we just walked down the street a little bit where we could see the fireworks. It was incredibly crowded, but it worked out really well and was a lot of fun.

Well, now I’m back in Macedonia at my apartment. I’m busy unpacking and cleaning. When being med evac’d, Peace Corps makes you pack up all your stuff in case you’re not able to return, so they can just ship everything home for you. Actually, unpacking isn’t that bad. The worst thing is that I forgot to defrost my fridge before I left. So when I returned I discovered that the ice had melted and that my fridge was covered in mold. Yuck! I spent three days scrubbing it out as best I could (with bleach) and today I have “resurrected” it by plugging it back in.

My kitten Miloyka has been in Tetovo, a city about an hour west of the capital. A married couple (PCV’s) have been taking care of her while I’ve been gone. They have really enjoyed having her. Well, they still have Miloyka and will keep her for another two weeks because I’m going to be gone for a week at a girl’s summer camp the end of this month. I miss Miloyka a lot, but at least this way she won’t have to be at home all by herself for a week. I’ll get her back the beginning of August.

The girl’s camp is called GLOW: Girl’s Leading Our World. It is a summer camp for Macedonian and Albanian girls and will teach them about leadership, self-esteem, goal setting, decision making, health & beauty, and the environment. It will all be in English too. The girls are from ages 14 to 18, with a total of 60 campers. One of my host cousins will be there too. I’m looking forward to it; almost all of my female PCV friends will be there as well.

P.S. I got a new digital camera, so stay tuned for new pics coming soon!

Macedonia on Yahoo!

2006-07-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

Check out this great article featuring Macedonia on Yahoo Adventure!

"...discovering the sacred mysteries of one of the world's oldest civilizations and newest nations."

http://adventures.yahoo.com/

Hmmmm, can't get the hyperlink to work. OK. Well, you should be able to find it by going to

http://www.yahoo.com

And search for "Richard Bangs, Macedonia".

Let me know if this works or not.

Med Evacuated

2006-06-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

It has suddenly come up that I need to return to the US for medical reasons. Nothing life threatening, I’ll have a simple surgery and the PC is sending me to Washington DC this summer for a month to six weeks. It isn’t that uncommon that a volunteer needs to be “medically evacuated” from their country, and apparently I am the next lucky candidate! Assuming that everything goes as planned, I should be returning to Macedonia later on this summer (I’ve been telling people August). Unfortunately this means I will most likely miss the English summer camp that I’ve been working on for the last several months (however, they can still really use your financial support and I have some students who will attend).

Anyway, health is a higher priority, so I am fortunate that the PC is taking care of me. I will be staying at a hotel in Washington DC. Once I check in and have a room number, I can have mail sent to me. Let me know if you’d like the address and/or phone number.

Thanks for all of your prayers, moral support, kind words, good energy and thoughts. I am very honored to serve and represent our country with the Peace Corps and appreciate all of the encouragement and support I’ve gotten from everyone.

First National Essay Contest

2006-06-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

Since January of this year I've been working on a project with a couple other volunteers. We were coordinators for the First National Essay Contest in Macedonia. This was part of this years events to honor the Peace Corps 45 year anniversary. So, the topic was about volunteering:

"What does the word 'volunteer' mean to you and what is the importance of volunteering? What have you done in the past as a volunteer? What volunteering opportunities do you see in your future?

Students grades 7-12 all over the country participated, and the essays were written in English. There were workshops on writing and about volunteering, since it is not a very familiar concept in this culture. We had a good turn out, considering this was our first year.

We had judges who picked 5 regional winners. Two of my students at my school were regional winners and they got certificates. I was very proud of them and so were their English teachers that I teach with.

Then we had a National Awards Ceremony on June 2nd. This was a big day. We had 3 National Winners that were invited to the awards ceremony at the Peace Corps office in Skopje. The US Ambassador, Gillian Milovanovic was there to present the awards. We had prizes donated and our winners got a very nice brand new mobile phone, a 2 night stay at a classy hotel at Lake Ohrid, a very nice English-Macedonian dictionary, a World Almanac and a framed certificate.

A few local Macedonian newspapers wrote about the Awards Ceremony and Essay Contest and we even made the US embassy (in Skopje)'s website!

http://skopje.usembassy.gov/outstanding_essays.html

This was a lot of hard work that really paid off. We hope that this will become an annual event!

US Ambassador Gillian Milovanovic with the three essay contest winners.

Yoda Speak

2006-05-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

I've been meeting with a Macedonian tutor since March, been in country for 8 months and just recently learned that I've been using "Yoda Speak" in my new language all this time.

I've been saying "Expensive it is" and "Cold it is".

Cute huh?

Graduation

2006-05-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

May 22nd was the day of the highschool graduation in town. My friend and former PCV Leanne, who was in this town as a volunteer prior to me came to visit. She had worked at the highschool and came to see her students graduate.

It was fun to go and see. Many folks from town come to the highschool to see the 4th year students (seniors). They get all dressed up and come to the school entrance like it's the Oscars. Everyone clapps and cheers and hollars while they walk past and they go inside the school. Leanne told me it's tradition that they go to the school, meet their home room teacher, and give them a gift. Then when it's all over they leave and they went to a nearby restaurant on a lake and partied the night away.

Leanne was visiting for a week and she stayed with me. It was nice to have her company here and I was sad to see her go. It also made me realize how much of an impact you make as a volunteer and how much of an impact Macedonia makes on you after two years. Wow.

My Birthday

2006-05-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

May 19th was my 32nd birthday. I decided to have a birthday party in my English club and give my students a chance to experience what a kid’s birthday party is like in the U.S. I had decorations (including cone hats), noise makers, a banner saying “Happy Birthday”, sweets and soda. I didn’t have time or funds for a real birthday cake so I bought some brownies, we lit the candles and the kids sang “Happy Birthday” to me. Then we played some games, the highlight was “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” (a new game for them, and they loved it). The winner got a prize of a mini stuffed football. Then my students totally surprised me by giving me some gifts, a jumbo chocolate bar AND the funniest stuffed animal frog I’ve ever seen. He is a cartoon character here called “Crazy Frog” that is an advertising gimmick for a phone company. But he also has his own song and sounds similar to the Tasmanian Devil, with a jibberish spiel.
Crazy Frog, my stuffed animal is a copy of this.

That weekend I also got together with some of my fellow PCV friends in Negotino where I was treated to pizza and coffee. It was low-key, but we had a good time.

What do Macedonians do on birthdays? They have a big party and young people will go out dancing afterwards. They also buy a box of chocolates or sweets and hand them out to their friends, colleagues or classmates (which I did as well). One of my fellow teachers gave me a small elephant figurine that is supposed to be good luck for the house. If you’re a young, unmarried woman like me than after the birthday wishes they will ask you when you will have a boyfriend and get married?

P.S. My digital camera is currently broken, unfortunately. I don't know how long it will take to get it fixed. A friend let me borrow her camera for the birthday party, so if I can, I will later post the pics. But it'll be awhile before I have pics of my own.

Sofia, Bulgaria

2006-05-09T15:26:00.000-07:00

May 1st and 2nd were Macedonian holidays. So a friend and fellow PCV and I went to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, for three days. It was about a 6 hour bus ride away from my town (and departs at midnight!), including an hour wait at the border.

Sofia is a beautiful city with lots of charm, and cool, really old buildings and churches. Skopje might have become like this if it hadn’t had a terrible earthquake in the 60’s and most of the buildings were replaced with communist-era concrete structures. We were also hoping to meet up with some Bulgarian PCV’s, but it was not in the cards, not this visit anyway.

I also discovered that things in Bulgaria are cheaper than in Macedonia, generally speaking. We did some sightseeing and did some shopping (I spent all my money) and I went to Dunkin’ Donuts almost every day and had American filter coffee.

Also, the Bulgarian language is very similar to Macedonian (as is Serbian and other Cyrillic languages), so Cheryl and I were able to get by with our Macedonian. However, we found that a lot of people also knew English, such as all the employees at the hostel we stayed at.

One of the highlights was Aleksander Nevski Church, a must-see with beautiful massive gold-domes, built between 1892 & 1912. We lucked out in that there was a service going on inside with a choir and orthodox priests swinging their incense holders and blessing us. The music was haunting as it echoed inside the huge room filled with ancient icon paintings and religious art.

I definately plan to return to Bulgaria, hopefully this summer. I hear that the beaches on the Black Sea are fantastic!

Krusevo (updated!)

2006-04-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

Me at the "Makadonium" monument

Inside the monument

The Town of Krucevo (see the Makadonium monument on the hill?)

The Macedonian flag

The nearby hills & site of battle for independence

I went to Krusevo for a week long conference, an In Service Training (IST) from April 17th-20th. Krusevo is an interesting little town in the mountains, (32 km from Prilep). At 1,250 meters, it is the highest point in the Balkans. It also has a very important historical significance because it was the location of the famous Ilinden Uprising, on August 2nd, 1903. This is when the Macedonians and Vlachs (ethnic groups) fought for independence from the Ottoman Empire (The Turks, who ruled them for 500 years). It was a fierce battle which liberated Krusevo, created the Republic of Krusevo and were independent for 10 days. Then the Turks came back with reinforcements and the republic was no more. The rebel leaders are today regarded as heros, and their names are sung in the national anthem… August 2nd is a big holiday in Macedonia (called Ilinden) and it is like the equivalent to the 4th of July in the US.

The strange white monument "Makadonium" houses the tomb of Nikola Karaev, one of the rebel leaders and president to the Republic of Krusevo and is also an interesting museum. Krusevo also has very traditional architecture of old churches and houses and it was fun to just stroll around the town and do some hiking in the hills nearby (as well as see the ski lifts from the heart of the town heading up to the hills).

Chreken Veligden! Happy Easter!

2006-04-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

Orthodox Easter is today, May 23rd, and the Holy Week is observed here, starting on Thursday the 20th. On Saturday, the 22nd I went to the church in town because I had heard that there is a bed at the altar that young and old people walk under. This bed symbolizes the bed of Jesus Christ when he was triumphant over death and by walking under the bed, people are under His protection. At the church I followed the other young people in front of me, two of which happened to be my students. I just copied what they did; put some small bills on the “bed”, which was more like a tall table covered in a intricately designed plush blanket with golden needlework. I leaned over to walk under the bed, and on the other side found a priest who was dispensing small handfuls of flowers. Another priest stood next to a wooden cross and insisted that I “cross” myself (which always feels a little awkward to me, seeing as how I’m Protestant and never grew up with this practice).

Saturday eve just before midnight I again returned to the church and bought a tall thin candle. It was incredibly crowded; people were pushing each other to get up to the church, past many other people who were standing around the church yard with their candles lit, listening to the lovely singing. It reminded me of a time in Ecuador where it is a custom for devout Catholics to visit seven churches in one night and I found many a persistent crowd pushing into each other. The singing was haunting, sung by male priests. It was too crowded to see the singing priests, due to the hundreds of people all around. I saw a number of my students and recognized a few people from the community. At midnight the head priest said “Hristos Voskrese!” (Christ is risen!) and everyone replied “Voistinu Voskrese!” (Indeed he is risen). Then my students presented Easter eggs dyed red (hard boiled). The color red is to symbolize the coming happiness in the resurrection. Each holding an egg, we hit the eggs together, whosever egg doesn’t crack has good luck all year. After that everyone proceeded home, trying to keep the candle lit the entire way. I have heard that the sight of hundreds of people walking with lit candles down the hill from the church is very beautiful. The candle is to remain lit all night (until it burns out) for happiness to abound all year.

The next day is Easter Monday and no businesses (or school) are open. Yay!

My Visitors and side trip to Greece!

2006-04-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

Gold Death Mask from Thessaloniki Museum

March 24th I planned to take the evening train from Skopje to Thessoloniki (aka Solon) in Greece to meet up with my sister Heidi and friend Maki, who had flown in Athens a week before and were touring Greece before visiting me in Macedonia. It was a happy reunion at the train station when I saw Heidi and Maki, as we hadn’t seen each other in 6 months. March 25th was Greek Independence Day, so many shops and businesses were closed. My brief visit to Northern Greece was low key, although we did visit the Archeological Museum in Solon, as well as the beautiful waterfront and the White Tower. The next day we were planning to take the night train back to Macedonia, but were given the incorrect time (maybe due to the difference in military time and miscommunication between languages), so we missed that train and had to spend an extra night there. I wasn’t thrilled, as Greece is a lot more expensive, especially for one on the Peace Corps budget! (Greece I believe is more touristy and expensive than it was 9 years ago, largely, I believe, to converting to the Euro as well as having hosted the Olympics).

We took the train the next morning and benefited from seeing the beautiful views, including the Demir Kapija Canyon. First stop was visiting my host family in a village near Veles. We spent our entire time visiting with friends and family and it was a wonderful visit (although it got tiring after 8 straight hours of it!). People really aren’t used to seeing people from Asia (as Maki is from Japan), so they had lots of questions and at one house, Maki showed us how to make Origami Elephants!

From there, we went to Kochani. It was great to show Maki and Heidi my home town. They got to see where I live, meet my friends, fellow teachers and kitten and tour around town. I had a meeting to attend in Skopje on Friday, March 31st, so I brought Heidi and Maki along. While I was in my meeting they did some sightseeing and shopping. For the weekend, we went to Gostivar, a city in the West where I have PCV friends living. I wanted Heidi and Maki to see the west, as it is comparatively different to the East, where I live. We walked around town, visited a Turkish café, drank Turkish coffee, met some Albanian friends of my PCV’s and heard the call to prayer at the nearby mosques, which sounds like beautiful haunting chants.

Heidi and I said goodbye to Maki in Skopje on April 2nd and then headed down to Lake Ohrid in the south where we met up with a few other PCV friends of mine. I’d seen pictures, but was still very much impressed with the beauty of the Lake and now understand why many Macedonians flock there for their summer vacations! Heidi and I then returned to Kochani for a few more days, attended my school football tournament (we won!) and school concert. We returned to Skopje the next day and I said goodbye to my sister on the 9th. It was a wonderful visit and I was sorry to see her go.

Now I’m already getting excited about my parents who plan to visit me Spring 2007!

Maki, Me and Heidi in Solon

Heidi and Maki at the Waterfront in Solon, White Tower in distance

Demir Kapija Canyon from the train

Gostivar Mosque

Heidi and I in Kochani

Jesse, Baba Booba & Heidi

At Lake Ohrid; Jesse, Shauna and Heidi

Sveti Jovan's Church--Lake Ohrid

The Road Not Taken

2006-03-23T09:25:00.000-08:00

I went to a performance recently of the highschool students, which consisted of music, drama and a poetry reading. One student recited this poem by heart (in English) and it has always struck a chord with me and how I try to live my life...

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference

Congratulations Heidi and Rick Bagnall!

2006-03-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Woo-hoo! My sister Heidi and her boyfriend Rick have just gotten engaged! Yaaaaaaaaaay! Heidi called me the other night to give me the great news, which I’m absolutely thrilled about. They are planning their wedding to be in January 2007 and, of course, I’ll return home (Seattle) for the event and to be her maid of honor! So, Congratulations to them both! I'm pysched to have a brother-in-law!

I announced the news to my fellow teachers at school the next day and we had a little party to celebrate. After giving me their congratulations, of course, the most common response was for them to say to me "You're next!". Ha ha.

If that wasn't enough great news, Heidi and friend Maki are coming to visit me in Macedonia soon. They will first arrive in Greece and next week I'll meet them in Thessaloniki (about 6 hours by train). From there I'll bring them into Macedonia where we will visit my host family, my town of Kochani and perhaps go to a few other placs to sightsee and visit other volunteers.

As of today I've been at site for 3 weeks and the travel ban has been lifted. A PC policy, volunteers are not allowed to travel outside of country for the first 6 months. Reason being, they want you to be committed to your site, to get connected to your community and be focused on work. Peace Corps is definately NOT a two year vacation!

Happy Birthday Peace Corps and other exciting events

2006-03-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Peace Corps!

March 1st, 1961 was the day of Peace Corps’s inception by John F. Kennedy. Now it is 45 years later, and we are celebrating the anniversary of Peace Corps all year. As the kick off event, volunteers in Macedonia all held “birthday parties” at their sites. I made oatmeal cookies and brought soda to my school, with signs in Macedonian saying “Happy Birthday Peace Corps” and a brief description of what PC is (a lot of Macedonians don’t know, it sounds a little militaristic doesn’t it?). We had a little party in the teachers lounge, and they loved it. All the cookies got eaten up and all the soda was drank. I took some pics too.

Strumica and Women’s Day

March 7th was Carnival, held in the city of Strumica, south of Kochani. A bunch of us PCV’s congregated there and took part in the festivities by being in the parade! Also, as a part of celebrating the 45th anniversary, we had a sign, flags of both Macedonia and the US, had our face painted and/or wore masks. It was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was snowing, at night and cold. I met some jugglers from Belgrade (Serbia Montenegro) and they let me borrow their clubs, so I also juggled in the parade. During the parade they also had fireworks. Afterwards we all had dinner and then went out dancing at various clubs until 3am. Much merrymaking was to be had.

As if that wasn’t enough, March 8th is Women’s Day. I took a morning bus from Strumica to Kochani so I could get back in time for the celebration of Women’s Day. The teachers at my school went to a celebration at a nearby hotel. There was a nice dinner and lots of oro dancing, which was great. That night I returned home exhausted!

Tonight I went to a concert of “The Greatest Gypsy Singer” named ECMA who came to Kochani on her tour around the country. She was very cool! I loved her outfits, the music was mystical and a little mesmerizing. To my unskilled ears and knowledge, it sounds Turkish or Indian. She also had a band with a trumpet, bongo drums, accordion, bass guitar, and clarinet. The energy in the room was amazing. I am so glad that I went.

My New Roommate

2006-03-04T15:52:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I was taking the garbage out to the dumpsters next to my apartment. It was after dark and I was on the way to my friend’s for coffee. I was surprised to discover next to the dumpster a dead cat and next to it was a little kitten that was crying. They had similar markings, so I believe the dead cat was the kitty’s mother. I shone my pocket light on the cats and debated what to do. I couldn’t help but pet the kitten, but then turned and walked away. The kitten followed me for about 20 yards before I turned around and she ran away. I went to my friend’s house for coffee. Four hours later, at about 11pm, I stopped by the dumpsters when I got home. Sure enough the kitten was still there. So I brought her home with me and resolved to try to find a home for her. The next day at school I asked the Macedonian teachers if anyone wanted a kitten. Their reply was “Good Luck”, nobody wanted a flea-infested virus-carrying animal in their house. The concept of pets and animal treatment tends to be very different in other countries, including Macedonia (most people don’t have animals in their homes, for example). Needless to say, it soon became apparent that the kitten was here to stay. I gave her a flea bath and took her to the vet, where she got her needed vaccinations. The vet says she’s four months old, but she must be small and undernourished for her age. I decided to call her “Miloyka”, which means ‘cute’.

I know that it is common for PCV’s to have pets and Miloyka has turned out to be a nice companion to have around.

The Winter Olympics

2006-02-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

In the US we take it for granted that we will have Olympic winners. But for smaller countries, just being able to compete in the Olympics is an honor. For example, in 1996 one athlete from Ecuador, Jefferson Perez, won the first Gold medal for his country (in speed walking, of all sports). The entire country erupted in celebrations for many weeks to follow.

Macedonia sent three athletes to this years Olympics: Darko Damjanovski in Men's cross country, Ivana Ivcevska (Women's Alpine Skiing) and Gjorgi Markovski in Men's Alpine Skiing.
There were no hopes for medals, (maybe some day)...

By comparison, our neighbors Albania had one athlete, Bulgaria had 22 (with a Silver Medal in Women's 500 Meter), Bosnia and Herzegovina had 7, Serbia and Montenegro had 6, Slovenia had 43, Romania had 33.

The US had 216 athletes.

Superbowl, Sprains and Websites

2006-02-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

I finally got cable TV last Thursday, just in time for the Superbowl! I was happily surprised that the Superbowl (Seattle Seahawks vs. Pittsburgh Steelers) was televised over here! I'm not a fan of American football, but since this is the first time my hometeam has ever gone to the SB and I'd never actually watched the event before I decided to watch the game. It was televised live from midnight to 4AM. It was disappointing the Hawks didn't win...

Last weekend I went to Tetovo, a city about 45 minutes west of Skopje. I met up with a bunch of other PCV's for a joint birthday/skiing party. Not only were their about half of the current PCV's in Macedonia(35 of 65), there was also 7 volunteers from Albania. And guess what? One of them is from Olympia, WA! What a trip! It was fun to meet them, hang out and make comparisons. It's obvious that life in Albania is more rugged than here. I'd like to visit them this summer.

There's a ski resort outside of Tetovo and a bunch of us went there Saturday morning. My plan was to snowboard, but the conditions and equipment were horrible and I had no luck, so I swapped my board for a sled, went on a couple runs and then managed to hit an embankment zipping down a steep slope and sprained my ankle! And here I was nervous about injuring myself with snowboarding (the last time I went was 3 years ago and badly sprained my wrist).

I've included a photo from the birthday party after hitting the slopes with me, my sprained ankle and fellow friends/PCV's of Macedonia. Don't we look cute?

A former PCV of Macedonia has posted pictures of last summers IST (In-Service Training), which also includes photos of his trip to Albania. Here's the website:
http://web.mac.com/s009009009/iWeb/PC/IST.html

Training Accomplishments

2006-02-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

I finished training almost 6 weeks ago, and I wrote the following document soon after swearing in. I came across this yesterday and realized I forgot to put it in my blog. So, here it is...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Training Accomplishments for MAC 10 and Me. :)

Training lasted 12 weeks (keep in mind I was also sick one week)

125 Hours of Language Learning (approx)
35 Hours of Student Teaching/Practicum
12 Hours of TEFL technical training
Cultural Discussions and journal assignments
Safety and Security Meetings
Panel discussions (workplace issues, racial discussions, homestay issues, etc)
3 Hub Days (meeting days at hub city of Veles where things like safety & security, medical sessions, cultural and workplace issues were discussed)
Got vaccinations
5 Medical sessions (discussions on food, water, alcohol, illnesses, health concerns)
Training Assessments
Administration meetings
A Resource Day in Skopje
NGO (Non-Government Organization) fair in Skopje
Community visits- 2 Saturdays
Halloween party and Thanksgiving Dinner
Organized and arranged for MAC 10 T-shirt order
Site placement Interview
Site visit of 3.5 days (Kochani)
Counterpart Conference in Veles
Project Management Workshop
Attended the First Annual Ultimate MAK Field Competition, PC volunteers and trainees
11 weeks living with a host family in the community of Bashino Selo near Veles
Passing the LPI language test: Language Proficiency Interview
Becoming an official Peace Corps Volunteer!

Freezing

2006-01-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

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!

My Mailing Address and other triumphs

2006-01-23T11:19:00.000-08:00

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! :)

Vodici, the Last January Holiday

2006-01-21T10:31:00.000-08:00

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!

Holiday Photos

2006-01-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of the recent holidays!

New Years Eve with fellow PCV's in Skopje

Goofing around with kids in Shauna's host family.

Eating sausages cooked in the fire with a local friend.

Oro dancing in the neighborhood on Baneek (Jan 5th).

May the "Seelah" be with you!

2006-01-18T10:29:00.000-08:00

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!

The Holidays

2006-01-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

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!

Introducing Stanley

2006-01-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

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...)

Mail and the Holidays

2005-12-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

I'm still working on sorting out my mailing address for those of you who would like to send me something (It's been about 2 months now that my folks have been patiently waiting to send me a package!)

After the director of my school opened my mail (yes, I'm sure it was an accident, as it has happened to other PCV's too), I decided to have personal mail sent to my apartment. So I gave some folks my address and the next day asked my landlord where the mailboxes were. He pointed to a small metal box with several doors, one of which was opened with a broken door. All the mail to the apartment building goes to the one with the broken door.

So, plan B sent me to the post office to find out about renting a PO Box. The good news is that it's only $13 a year. The bad news is that I have to try to track down the person who will register one to me. I went two days in a row and got the run around, finally they told me to come back after New Years. This may take awhile as almost the entire month of January is a holiday...

So I'll keep you informed about the mailing address...

Also, a reminder that if you are sending me a package, make sure that the contents are not valued above $60 US (or at least that you don't claim that it is worthmore than such). Otherwise customs intervenes and charges ridiculous fines. Besides, the shipping costs to Macedonia alone are crazy. In addition to your shipping costs I have to pay postal fees for every package I get (regardless of it's value). Yes, it's bureacracy and red tape at its worst, I know. Thanks for your cooperation, patience and above all else, your generosity!

And, as a further update, Christmas (Dec 25th) was very low key, but still I had a nice time visiting my host family and friends. (Christmas here is on Jan 7th) This weekend I plan to again visit my host family, and then attend a party by a fellow volunteer in the capital of Skopje, a couple hours away by bus. I'm looking forward to it! (And the 3 weeks of vacation after that!)

Thanks for all your love, support, prayers and best wishes. I'm thinking of you all and hope your holiday season is wonderful and warm!

Why Macedonia?

2005-12-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

I've been published! The following is an article that I wrote a few months ago and submitted to the Peace Corps Macedonia magazine, "Pauza". It was published this month...enjoy!

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"Why Macedonia" by Jesse Warner (MAC 10)

“Why did you come to Macedonia?” My host cousin asked me (in English). I hesitated. “That’s a big question.” I said, preparing my standard reply to why I joined the Peace Corps (e.g.; to help people, to teach English and have an adventure abroad). “No, it’s not,” she replied. “Why didn’t you go somewhere like France?” I then explained a bit about the process from applying to getting sent to a PC country.

This question “Why Macedonia?” is one that I believe I’ll be asked many times during my service. In fact, given the time and opportunity, I suspect that many more locals would ask me this question. I feel it burning behind their stares as I walk down the street, as if silently asking me, “Why are you here?”

People are often surprised to learn that I didn’t decide where the Peace Corps would send me. Not only that, I had requested and was nominated for Asia.

Why Asia? I’ve always enjoyed going to new places and it’s a part of the world I haven’t really explored (yet). When given the choice, I’ve always preferred to go to a new place, rather than return to a previous location, despite having friends and fantastic experiences there. I thought I already knew Europe, I’d already “been there”, including Greece. Close enough, I erroneously thought. I’d quickly dismissed the region, as if three days each in Paris, Rome, Athens and Brussels was a sufficient illustration of Europe.

My first impression is that Macedonia is like a weird and wonderful combination of South America and Greece, especially in terms of physical characteristics. The red tile roofs, pockmarked asymmetrical sidewalks, street vendors and ubiquitous taxi cabs zipping around remind me of the place I called home for a year in Ecuador. Some of the food, the village babas, donkey-pulling carts and some traditional dances and music remind me of Greece. But this is not Greece, or Ecuador, or Paris, or some time-warped town in the US either. Three minutes in language class is one potent reminder of this. Or biting into a tasty ajvar sandwich. Or the fact that, at times, I am reminded that this is an “adolescent” nation. I think it’s pretty exciting that this may well be the only time in our lives we’ll be living in a country this young and personally witness its “growing pains” as it matures.

There’s more unique art, music, history, language and culture of Macedonia that I could mention, but much of it I still have yet to discover, having just been here for a month now. I know that during my service I’ll discover even more wonderful, interesting and surprising uniquenesses that Macedonia has to offer. And this will be even more fuel to the fire of how I will answer the inevitable question…

Why Macedonia? Why not?

For Further Reading

2005-12-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

If you're interested in reading about another adventure of mine, check out my blog about my adventures teaching English in Ecuador and traveling around South America...(2002-2003)

http://azureus.diaryland.com

Once there, you can click on "Older Entries" and Dive In!

(I must warn you that parts of it are incomplete and unfortunately there are no photos...it's still a work in progress, but then again, many things in life are...)

Moving In

2005-12-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

The day after swearing in it was time to leave. Since my bus left in the afternoon I had time to see my fellow trainees off that morning; Todd, Lindsay and Marita. Then I visited my friend Shauna and her family since she was leaving after me. Back at my house many friends and relatives were invited over to see me off. Before you knew it there were about 20 people there and all of us were in tears. It’s really amazing when I think about it; I lived with these people for 3 months and really became a part of their family. You don’t realize how much of an impact you have on others lives most of the time. I didn’t know until the time came to say goodbye not only how much of an impact I had on them, but the impact that they had on me. I was given several last minute gifts including a jar of ajvar, sweets, and homemade baklava. There were many hugs and kisses goodbye before the taxi shuttled me off to the bus station.
When I arrived in Kochani my counterpart and landlord were there to greet me and help me with my stuff. I had 10 items with me including my PC heater, water distiller, and first aid kit. Not bad for 2 years huh? My apartment is on the 4th floor and is very small. It has the basics (fridge, oven, stove, bed, chairs, table, toilet & shower, etc) but there is no washing machine, closets or place to hang my clothes. My landlord says he’ll get me a TV set and kitchen utensils. I didn’t have any eating or cooking utensils or cleaning supplies. (I noticed later that it needs to be cleaned). Fortunately I am only 10 minutes walk to my school and to the center of town.
Peace Corps gives us a settling in allowance, so I will use that to purchase the things I need for my apartment. Yesterday I bought some cleaning supplies, power strips with extension cords, and a jezbah (a small pot for making Turkish coffee). Needless to say, the first thing I made at my new home was coffee!

Swearing In

2005-12-17T12:01:00.000-08:00

The Swearing In ceremony is a rites of passage of the Peace Corps experience. It signifies the end of the 3 months of training and the marks the beginning of Peace Corps service as an official volunteer. The ceremony was held at a restaurant next to a lake outside of Veles. Two members of each host family were invited as well as current PC Volunteers, all of PC Staff and some dignitaries, such as the Mayor of Veles, US Ambassador, director of NGO US Aid and the Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski (he wasn’t able to make it, so a minister came in his place). About 300 people attended and everyone was dressed to the nines. We sang the national anthems of both Macedonia and the US. There were speeches by the Mayor, the PC Country Director, and two of our colleages, Sara and Keith. At one point they asked our host family members to stand. I noticed that more than a couple had tears in their eyes. Then they had the 32 of us stand up one by one as they read our names, home states and Macedonian cities where we are going. Next the US Ambassador gave her address and then had us collectively raise our right hand and give our oath of service, and “swear in” as PC Volunteers. I don’t remember much of what we had to say except to uphold the US constitution. I’m going to try to get my hands on a copy. It was also noted in the speeches about the fact that we are the 10th group of PC Volunteers in Macedonia. That’s pretty cool.
Afterwards there was a little reception of food and music (unfortunately no oro dancing), as well as lots of photo taking. It was then that I discovered that there were more people that I knew who had attended, including the Macedonian grade school teacher that I’d worked with in Veles for my practicum. There were also several Mac 9’s in attendance, including a married couple, Sean and Jennifer, who are in a village about 9 km away from me.
That night my family held a little party for me, since they know how much I enjoy dancing the oro and the traditional Macedonian music. They called up a few of their friends/relatives and soon we were all dancing and singing in my grandma’s living room. One of my host cousins plays the accordion, which is one of the most common musical instruments to play traditional music. One popular song that I like is called “Makadonka Dayvoika”, which means “Young Macedonian Girl”.

Good News

2005-12-14T05:33:00.000-08:00

Great News! I passed my language exam! Woo-hoo! And now our training is over. No more language classes. No more practicum student teaching, no more medical or technical sessions...etc. Now I just have to go home and PACK!

Tomorrow's the big day, the Swearing In Ceremony. At 11AM tomorrow (that's 2AM Thurs Seattle time) we have our swearing in ceremony and we'll all become official Peace Corps Volunteers!

Friday is when we all move to sites. We have to put all of our stuff on public buses and go to site. Thank God I don't have to transfer buses! My counterpart will meet me at the bus station and take me to my new home, my own apartment and I will be "settling in" this weekend.

Wish me luck!

Harry Potter, Skopje & the Macedonian Language

2005-12-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

This last weekend I got permission from PC to go to the capital city of Skopje to meet up with some other PC Volunteers and to go see the new Harry Potter movie at a real movie theater (the pirated versions are already out). Then I spent the night at an apartment of a married couple that are also PC volunteers living in Skopje. There were about 8 of us PC volunteers that went to the movie (okay, so technically I'm not a volunteer yet, but I will be in 3 days). It was a lot of fun. Oh my gosh, the movie was so good. The special effects are awesome and it was just so cool to see on the big screen. Of course, there were a few things that I didn't like about the movie, being a staunch HP fan, they left out a lot. Well, they had to or else it would've been a 4 hour movie. For someone who hasn't read the books, I don't think they would enjoy it as much cuz it moves so fast...But even so, it's worth seeing. I want to go again and next time invite my fellow trainees who are HP fans as well!

Another reason for going to Skopje was an NGO fair (Non-governmental Organization) that a bunch of us trainees went to, so I met up with the gang on Saturday morning at the event. It was really interesting and I got a lot of information and talked to a lot of different people. For example, Habitat for Humanity has just started here. I also talked to an amatur astronomy group, found the local United Methodist Church as well as numerous organizations that work with youth and education. In addition, there were several groups working with the Roma, one of the poorer disadvantaged ethnic groups in Macedonia (and I'll be working with them in Kochani too). We had the whole day in Skopje so we broke up into groups to different restaurants, stores and a craft fair as well. Other than the rain, it was a good day.

Today I had the dreaded LPI test (Language Proficiency Interview)...yes, we actually are tested on our language skills at the end of training. Fortunately if we don't pass it, we're not kicked out of PC, but we will be required to get a tutor at site and re-take the test in 3 months. Aaack! Everyone says not to worry, but I was nervous anyway. It is required to get an Intermediate Low score. For the practice test I got a Novice Mid. We'll learn our scores in two days. On the third day we have swearing in. (I plan to get a tutor at my site anyway, but it'll still be nice if it's not required).

The end of training is swiftly near and I feel like I've still got so much to learn. At the same time, I am feeling very ready to move into my new apartment and have a little more independence. Yesterday when chatting with my host grandma she got a little teary-eyed talking about my moving to Kochani. She has already offered to move with me and be my personal cook! I have reassured my family many times that I plan to come visit them often. Ending training is bittersweet. I will miss having my fellow trainees/ friends around to hang out with on a regular basis. At the same time, I'm ready to spread my wings and start this new chapter of my service!

December already!

2005-12-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it is already December. Time has flown by so quickly! There are now only two more weeks left before our group finishes training and becomes official Peace Corps volunteers! There is a big celebration, called "Swearing In" and it will be a big ceremony, including the American ambassador and the Macedonian president. There will be speeches and we will sing both the US National Anthem and the Macedonian one (which we are learning in our language classes, I like the song a lot). Our host families and counterparts are invited as well as current volunteers, so it'll be like Thanksgiving, maybe even bigger. The next day, on the 16th we will move to our sites. I just found out that Peace Corps has secured an apartment for me in Kochani. They said that it's "small, but cute". I'm very close to the city center and about a 10 minute walk from my school.

Winter is cold here. It snowed the week of Thanksgiving and it was beautiful to see it covering the mountains. There is no central heating in the houses here, in fact, the buildings are really like big ice boxes, they retain the cold very well. Often times our rooms are colder than the outside temperature. I have a little pocket thermometer which stays at a steady 40 degrees F (or I think 5 degrees C). We got our Peace Corps issued heaters a couple weeks ago, which is nice, but mine doesn't have a blower, so it takes awhile to heat up my bedroom. They are also going to be a pain to lug to our sites because they are heavy and bulky. People here normally keep the main living room warm by keeping a wood burning stove going, which also lends itself to all congregating in the same room for hours on end. It is nice for company and if you want to watch TV, but it is harder sometimes when I just want a little time to myself.

Last night one of the trainee's (Todd) host brother in our village apparently got engaged to a young woman from Veles. This was announced by a spontaneous celebration at 1 in the morning. Apparently the host brother and his buddies went around to their friend’s houses (including mine), rang the doorbell in the middle of the night and invited them over to his house to celebrate. I had heard people at the door, but ignored the noise and fell back asleep. Unfortunately that wasn’t an option for Todd. Suddenly the house was filled with music, dancing and a lot of strange people drinking alcohol and making merry, including shooting a shotgun off the front porch, just next to Todd’s bedroom. The party lasted until 5am! Todd stayed in his bedroom, trying to ignore the knocks on his door and invitations to join in the celebration. He got about an hour of sleep. I found out about it the next day, including that my host dad was present and was one of the individuals who shot the gun from the front porch! Apparently it is tradition at a wedding or at the reception to shoot a gun three times to signify a man marrying a woman. I find it amusing that in this culture and living in a village, that this kind of custom exists, having a spontaneous celebration in the middle of the night. This would never fly in the states. I can just imagine a friend showing up at the door, being gregarious and slightly tipsy, announcing their engagement at 1am. We would probably grumble a congratulations, remind them what time it was and tell them to come back tomorrow!

One of The Best Thanksgivings Ever

2005-11-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Thanksgiving has been a beloved tradition for PC in Macedonia, with a big Thanksgiving dinner for all the staff, current volunteers, trainees and their host families. It was a real festive occasion; there were probably about 200 people in attendance (with about 70 volunteers & trainees currently serving in Macedonia). It was held at a nice restaurant in Veles, all the families and volunteers brought food. Peace Corps provided the turkeys (15 total, shipped over from the US). My host mom made mashed potatoes (purée kompiree), baked tikva (pumpkins) and a kind of cornbread. She wouldn’t allow me to help with the cooking. However, I did help with the decorating and setting up at the restaurant. We took pumpkins from my family’s garden for decoration, as well as dry leaves and flowers.
First our country director got up and said a few words. Then my friend Erika and I gave brief speeches about what Thanksgiving is and the history behind it. Erika gave hers in Albanian and mine was in Macedonian. We both read our speeches that were written with the help from our language teachers. It was the first time that I had heard Albanian spoken, Erika did an amazing job, the language is very melodic, it reminded me a little of French! When I gave my speech, I was nervous, but it went well and I was glad I did it. Then Sara W. (another trainee) gave a short, touching and humorous speech about things we are grateful for, including the hospitality of our host families, the assistance from the PC staff, as well as the support and love from our families and friends back in the US…oh yeah, and letters & packages from them too!
Then the dinner began, which was buffet style. One of the restaurant staff carved the turkeys. There was an incredible amount of food there; the table was packed and the dishes were almost overlapping each other, so there was plenty of food for everyone. Both Macedonian and American food were present (some people got creative with making things like stuffing and apple pie with the ingredients that were available). The only common staple missing were cranberries (not available here). There was also raijka (“rock-eeah”), liquor made from grapes, and plenty of “sok” (sodas).
The program continued after dinner with a group of us trainees leading a rendition of “America, the Beautiful”, and trainees from Negotino giving a short skit of a typical Thanksgiving day in the states (including pie-making and football watching). Then the group from Chaska led the traditional Macedonian dance “The Oro” (which is A LOT like Greek dancing; a little like line dancing, but slower, holding hands, stepping and leg swinging in unison). This was one of my favorite moments of the evening. There were perhaps 150 people, Macedonians and Albanians, Volunteers and Staff, young and old, people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, skin color, languages and gender smiling and laughing over a universal custom: dancing and making merry.
After returning home, I shared the photos and stories with my host grandmother (There was a limited number of people allowed to attend). Then my host brother and two of his friends/cousins arrived. One of them brought out an accordion and the party continued in the small living room with dancing and music! I laughed, danced and, of course, took photographs. Overall, it was a fantastic evening.
This has had to be one of the best Thanksgivings I’ve ever had. The only thing I would’ve changed is to have had my family back home in the US to share it with!

A little more about Macedonian culture & some other websites...

2005-11-23T08:56:00.001-08:00

Macedonian Culture

Promaya: a draft. There is a prevalent belief in this culture that sitting in a draft will get you sick.

Over indulgence of children, yet physical discipline, like slapping is tolerated.

Students are responsible for their education, not parents or the teachers. The teacher’s responsibility is to cover the curriculum (which has been mandated by the government).

Preferring never to be alone

Wearing or using each other’s clothes and possessions (between family members)

Always offering food or drink to everyone present

Freely commenting on each other’s personal appearance

Viewing older people as family leaders

Giving an odd number of flowers except for occasions of mourning

Wearing black clothes for one year after the death of a close family member

Asking pointed questions about how much money someone makes, how much personal property/possessions cost.

Hospitality:
Guests are treated like royalty here. My family treats me like a guest. They insist that I not lift a finger to help around the house (although I try at times), my host mom does my laundry. Food is a big deal here. My host family is constantly shoving food at me, even after I have said several times that I am full. If I am not paying attention, they will give me a larger portion of food than I can physically eat. They are confused by the fact that I don’t eat bread (because apparently everyone in Macedonia eats bread). If I don’t eat enough food to their liking, they think that I didn’t like it, that their must be something wrong with it.

Volunteering:
This concept hasn't really caught on in this culture. People often don't understand why someone would want to volunteer. Sometimes people are suspicious as to why we PC Volunteers come to their country, occasionally they suspect we are spies for the US government. Sometimes I am asked for the real reason why I am in Macedonia. I've written an essay about this and will post it here very soon.

WEBSITES:
Sometime soon I will create links for the following websites, however I don't have much time to figure out how to do so...until that time, here they are:

Other BLOGS from PCV's/PCT's in Macedonia:

http://sararish.blogspot.com
http://lizabbett.blogspot.com/
http://www.adamanddanielle.com/
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/darcieswein/macedonia-pst/1099750560/tpod.html

Info about Macedonia:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/europe
http://www.macedonia.org/
http://faq.macedonia.org/

Visiting Kochani

2005-11-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday Nov. 15th we met our counterparts in Veles. My counterpart’s name is Ljubica (“Loobeetsa”); she is a teacher with 15 years experience and does not hesitate to speak her mind. The good thing is that she has some previous experience with the “Pees Korpz” and Ljubica seems to be very receptive to working and team teaching with me, for which I’m grateful for. I quickly got on her good side; she was especially pleased to learn that I like coffee with sugar.

I must mention here that smoking cigarettes is extremely prevalent. The entire school staff smoke, including the headmaster and the teachers lounge is like a chimney. Second-hand smoke is an inevitable health hazard in this country (with upper respiratory infections being the most common health issue).

On Wednesday I met Ljubica at the hotel and then we caught a bus to Kochani (for about $4 one-way). Everyone has told me that Kochani is a very pretty city, and they were right. In a little less than 2 hours we arrived. First we went to the school where I’ll be working, and I met most of the staff. It was a whirlwind of names and faces. My three days visiting Kochani were full of meeting people, being stuffed full of more tasty, fattening Macedonian meals, visiting numerous classrooms, introducing myself to students and touring the small city. It was also nice to meet the currently serving volunteers in and near Kochani. Unfortunately one of them is COS'ing (Close of Service) and will have left by the time I move there. However she was a wealth of great info and advice. I now know where to buy tofu and dried fruit, eat great pizza, get cheap CD’s and DVD’s as well as visit the local mosque and buy a guitar!

I am ready for my training to be over, but I still have one more month to go. I will be glad to finally move to my city and have my own apartment. Training is hard for many reasons, but one of them is living with a host family and not having that much privacy or independence. I love my family, I know they mean well, but they treat me like a little kid, they even put (too much) sugar in my coffee for me, as if I was incapable of doing it myself! I know it is just a cultural thing. Learning the language is tough too. I think I'll do better when I work with a private tutor. Talking with the other volunteers after returning to site visit makes me realize we are all kind of burned out from training and language lessons. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one.

Oh, and I just bought a copy of the first Harry Potter book in Macedonian! I’m going to try to read it too, but it’ll be slow going for now. Hopefully it will be a good motivator to keep at my language learning!

P.S. Some people have asked about Thanksgiving...obviously it is not celebrated here, but the Peace Corps is going to have a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner for us (15 turkeys have been shipped over from the states) and we will also have entertainment. All of the PC staff and volunteers will be there, including our host families. They project 200 people will attend.

Before the Rain

2005-11-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

I just watched the movie “Before the Rain” directed by Milcho Manchevski, a Macedonian film, 1994, which won tons of awards including a Academy Award nomination in ‘95 for Best Foreign Language Film.

I was really impressed. This is a movie more Americans need to see. Keeping in mind that it has an "R" rating, and is pretty graphic at times, it is thought provoking and very well done. It may be hard to find, but I encourage you to see it if you can. “Scarecrow video” in Seattle specializes in movies like this.

Of course I am feeling pretty naïve at this point about all of the politics and history involved in this region of former Yugoslavia. Pretty naïve indeed. We are encouraged not to talk about politics, at least until we have been here longer, have a better grasp of the language and are more familiar with the situation.

The tension between Albanians and Macedonians is omnipresent. There is a monument in the middle of my village to a single Macedonian soldier that was killed by an Albanian in the recent (2001) conflict. When I learned that, I got a little more insight into why there is a lot of anger and tension against Albanians.

There are no easy answers, there are no winners. Healing and closure feel like a long ways away.
Like right now, the fact that Macedonia is struggling with the current situation in Kosovo, which I don’t even really know much about other than the fact that Americans are strongly encouraged not to go there right now, and this country is also still bickering with Greece over their official name…Greece has issues with them using the name of Macedonia so, to placate their NATO neighbor, the country name is currently “Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia”.

Of course I am forming my own opinions…however, I will not try to sway you, the reader, at this time. With the Peace Corps encouragement…I am still very much an observer, quietly listening and learning more about the history and politics before I tiptoe into politically heated debates and discussion.

In the meantime, go check out the movie “Before the Rain”…

P.S. There is a sequel as well, “Dust” (2001)

My future home in Macedonia...

2005-11-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

Thursday I got out of the house for the first time so that I could go to the meeting to learn about site announcements. They took us trainees in one at a time. Todd got Negotino, Marita and Shauna are both near Lake Ohrid, probably the most beautiful region of the country, Lindsay is in the large city of Kumanovo and I am in the city of Kochani.

Overall, I am happy with my site, although I think I would’ve liked a larger city. Kochani is approx 33,000 and the school I’ll be working at also has some Roma kids, so I’m glad about that. There is also another current PCV in this town, Marilyn, who is working with an NGO to help the Roma population, which I’m excited about. I’m also not that far from Stip, which is where Rachel, a Mac 8 who’s extended for a third year, lives and teaches at a high school.

My guide book says there’s not much about the town of Kochani, but a couple things of interest to me is that there are some hot springs nearby, as well as some ancient roman ruins and is near to the ancient Roman Road “Diagonal way” which connected Stobi to Bulgaria.

Also I've been told that this is a beautiful part of the country and that there are some nice hikes in the area. It is roughly 2 hours away from the capital of Skopje.

Next week we will all be meet our counterparts and visit our future sites for 3 days.

“There is not much in the town itself as, until communist industrialization, it had mostly been a farming settlement since the time of Aleksander III of Macedon. Around 330 BC, Aleksandar brought back rice from India, which was planted in these fertile fields. The ancient paddy fields are still worked today, many by hand, and they provide most of Macedonia’s rice.”

--The Bradt Guide to Macedonia by Thammy Evans.

Sick and Smothered

2005-11-11T08:15:00.000-08:00

Let me first preface this by saying that I love my host family and they are sweet people with good intentions.

So I’ve been sick for almost a week. I started feeling crummy last weekend when our group visited the trainees staying in the nearby community of Sveti Nickole (Saint Nickolas). That morning I had woken up to a sore throat. By that evening it turned into a headache as well. I ended up spending the entire day on Sunday in bed.

Superstitions are common in some cultures. In Macedonia, there is a common opinion that sitting in a draft, called “promaya”, will cause you to get sick. My family has a couple of ideas about what caused my illness. Mostly they blame the fact that I’ve been washing my hair in the AM and going out without drying it (an advantage to having short hair). They also blame Sveti Nickole and the fact that I drank cold soda when I was there. (I, of course, believe I got a virus because my immune system was down due to stress and not enough sleep).

By Monday I knew that I had a bad cold. I stayed in bed all day. My family became very concerned and tried to persuade me to call the doctor. I tried to explain (in my broken Macedonian) that I didn’t think it was necessary. I knew that the doctor would tell me to do all the things that I was doing already; resting, drinking liquids, taking aspirin, cough suppressants, etc (which fortunately are supplied in my medical kit). By Monday evening I gave into their insistence and called the Peace Corps medical doctor. I explained my symptoms and what I was doing to get better. She agreed with me and then spoke to my family to calm their nerves. Monday after lunch my family wanted me to stay downstairs with my baba (grandma) because it is warmer down in her room (thanks to a wood-burning stove) and it’s next to the outdoor bathroom. Of course, it’s also where everyone eats their meals, watches TV is and where all the guests “negosti” (visit). I ended up in the bed of my baba’s living room for the next two days. Although I could lie down and rest and I was being pampered like a small child, my family also kept waking me up every couple of hours to see how I was doing. They were frequently offering me coffee, tea, bread, vegetables, meat, and chocolates. I soon developed a runny noise and a bad cough.

Monday night I vomited so on Tuesday I stopped eating all foods and only drank water and tea. At this point my family acted as though I had something life-threatening. I tried to rest while my host dad watched football on TV. I declined all offers of food from them. I told them I just wanted to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep very well with my nose all stopped up and coughing all night. My baba was sick as well, and my host mom had three teeth pulled! (I suspect that once you have a bad tooth in this country, they just yank it out, which would explain why most of the old people don’t have many teeth left!). So here we were all feeling ill.

It was very interesting to me how there seemed to be no concept of what foods are best to feed a person who is sick. I was offered all kinds of foods that I know are not easy to digest. I did request eggs a couple of times, but that was about the only kind of “easily digestable” food I got. My sore throat longed for something cold to help the swelling; a cold drink, an ice cube or ice cream. But I knew I would get none of it. After three days one of my fellow trainees smuggled me a soda when she came to visit me, from my request, it was awesome.

At one point this week I vaguely remember six women entering the room, all sitting down to “negosti” and have tea. I could hear them clucking their tongues as they talked about me, how I was sick and not eating. They again offered me food and tea. I mumbled in Macedonian that I was tired and wanted to sleep. Then I remember one of the women standing over me, saying my name, practically wagging her finger at me, lecturing me in jumbled bunch of words about my being sick, that I should eat. I barely opened my eyes to look at her, I was so tired. Next thing you know my language teacher was above me calling my name. The women were gone. I learned later that she had driven them out. She stayed for a short while, talking with family and with me and I was so happy when she suggested I move back upstairs to my room. On Wednesday I had a house call from a Peace Corps doctor and nurse, which was nice. They were able to confirm that I didn’t have anything more serious than a viral infection, so no antibiotics were necessary. It was then that I learned that there were single-use strip thermometers in the medical kit, as well as some nasal decongestants. I was given some more cough drops and ibuprofen. They also gave my host family some peace of mind as well. I started to feel better mid-week, but it’s been a slow recovery.

A lot happens during PST

2005-11-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

A lot happens during PST (Pre-Service Training) that it is difficult to write about a “typical day”. However, during the week there is almost always language class for 3 to 4 hours a day and twice a week I have my student teaching in Veles (now always at 8am). At the end of training we will be tested on our Macedonian and are supposed to achieve an intermediate level. If we don’t pass the test then we will have a tutor once we go to our sites and have to re-take the test again later. They say that PST is the most stressful time of the PC experience, which I agree with, but I am also a little concerned about when we get plopped down at our sites and we won’t other trainees around to talk to, hang out or get support from. PST is for preparing us for that time. Fortunately we all will have a counterpart, which is a HCN (Host-country National) that will help us and work with us during our assignments at site. "Swearing in" is a big deal. For us, it is on December 16th. There will be a big ceremony and all the important people of Macedonia will be there, including the country president, the US ambassador (who will swear us in) and the mayor of Veles. All of our host families and counterparts will be there, as well as all of the PC staff. At that point we are official Peace Corps Volunteers. Immediately after Swearing in we will go to our sites. I forgot to mention that unfortunately one in our group has left us. Mike, from San Francisco, had to ET (Early Terminate) a couple weeks ago. He had to go back due to family obligations at home. While we are sad that Mike had to go (and most of us didn’t get a chance to say goodbye) it is a general consensus that it is better that he left now than later, after getting to site and being more invested in the community and work. Now our MAC 10 group has 32 trainees. Also, I must say that Macedonian kitchens are ‘magical’ places. The food here is very greasy and starchy, almost always cooked in vegetable oil. A big part of the diet is meat and vegetables. There is some fish, a lot of peppers, salt and sugar. I love the mountain tea here as well as the Mousaka, which I’ve had back home at the Greek restaurant I used to work at, although it is a bit different (cooked vegetables and meat). Also, something unique to this country is ajvar, which is like pureed peppers with tasty spices and then often laden on the plain bread and cheese that is like feta sprinkled on top. It is not too difficult to find a village baba (grandma) or mom stirring up a big vat of ajvar, or carefully peeling each individual pepper, a mound of discarded peels next to them. The other thing that makes them magical is that they frequently do not refridgerate their cooked food. They will store the dishes inside the oven (that is turned off) or in the cupboard and the food will not spoil. My personal theory is that there is too much sugar/oil/fat for it to go bad within a couple of days (because it usually gets eaten up within 2 or 3 days at most). The other volunteers prior to us told us this would happen and no one has gotten sick from the food yet due to this strange habit (it’s not that they don’t HAVE refridgerators, although they are considerably smaller than what we have in the states. Things like yogurt, wine, and milk are usually stored there). Also I should add that a lot of the women here, at least in the villages, make a lot of their own juices, jam and can a lot of fruit. Paulina, my host mom makes a mean apricot juice that is very sweet. Last weekend I went with my fellow village volunteers to another town, Sveti Nikole (Saint Nickolas). We saw a beautiful orthodox church and for the first time, I got to go inside a Macedonian church. It was fantastic, between 500-700 years old. It reminded me a lot of churches in South America, as well as in Greece; lots of frescos, paintings and icons of the saints. This town of approx 10 to 15,000 wasn’t even mentioned in my guide book. Our group from our village hung out with the five other volunteers in Sveti Nikole, they showed us around. There was a little park and plaza, a hill with a large cross on top and a nice view of the town. The previous Saturday the Sveti Nickole group had visited us in our village. We took them on a little hike up the side of the mountain where there’s a great view of Veles, then we went to each of our homes and “negosti’d”, getting stuffed on coffee, “sok” (juice or soda) chocolate sticks, slices of cheese and meat, as well as “slatko” or sickly sweet homemade deserts.
We had just had our site assessment interviews where we met with the program managers and gave some input into what we wanted in terms of our future site and program for the next 2 years. I inquired about the position working with Roma kids near Skopje, but they disappointed me by really talking it down. I let it be known that I was most interested in being in a city the size of Veles (30,000) or bigger and that I wanted to work with Roma kids, either as a primary or secondary assignment. Having previously only been to Veles and my little nearby village I worried about what kind of town I was going to end up in. Rumor had it that our group (Mac 10) was going to be primarily placed in small villages. Once seeing Sveti Nickole, a community smaller than what I would prefer, I realized that even if I got a town this small, I could probably handle it. It didn’t even feel that small. There were the standard things, a post office, market, plaza, coffee shops and restaurants as well as a movie theater (that functions once a week). So it gave me peace of mind about my placement.

More photos!

2005-11-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

Photos of my host family (mom, dad & grandma), my language class (fellow Peace Corps Trainees in my village and Language Teacher) and a bunch of us in front of the local church.

Traditional Macedonian Costume

2005-10-31T07:52:00.000-08:00

Image from the web: http://www.ethnicdance.net/ethnicmusic.html

This is only ONE KIND of traditional Macedonian costume, but it is indicative of what they look like. Each village and community (and other smaller ethnic groups, such as the Albanians) have there own costume, with different kinds and colors. Cool huh?

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T07:43:00.001-08:00

Mac 10 had a Halloween Party that I organized. No one had made any definite plans, so I decided that someone had to just do it. I tried to get some input from the others and then announced that we would meet at a local bar in Veles at 7:30pm on Saturday night. I encouraged people to bring something scary, as well as chocolate and candy and that there would be a prize for the scariest thing. I also shared some of my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Dennis brought himself, as a Republican, which was pretty funny. Several of the PCT’s in Veles made carved gourds jack-o-lanterns, since they don’t exactly have pumpkins here. They were really well made. But what took the cake was Luke’s video on his digital camera. That day, several groups had visited other communities of fellow PCT’s. Our group in our village hosted the group from another nearby town. Two other groups had visited each other that day and it just so happened that a family picked that day to slaughter their large pig. So several in the group watched it and Luke videoed it on his digital camera. When I watched the video I felt nauseous. I don’t think I could’ve watched it if I could’ve heard the sound over the loud music at the bar. The video was pretty disturbing and he got the popular vote for first place (but was nice enough to share the prize of chocolate candies with everyone).

Other than us crazy ex-pat Americans, Halloween is not celebrated in Macedonia.

One down, twenty-six to go!

2005-10-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that I've now been in Macedonia one month exactly. So much has happened in such a short time. It's also incredible to think of how much of the language I've aquired in this time, although I still struggle to have anything other than really basic conversations and I still am the slowest in my advanced class!

Today was one of my practicum days, when I go into Veles to go to the elementary school and work with a Macedonian English teacher. I've finally realized why I do not exactly get excited about or look forward to my practicum teaching days. I have no idea what is going to happen before I go to these classes. Being unprepared, especially for teaching, goes against every teaching experience I've ever had and is something that I detest. The reason for this is that my practicum teacher (who I like on a personal level) gives me little to no direction on what I am supposed to do in these lessons. Today turned out to be "ask Jesse whatever you want to" for the students, which was very amusing and funny, and I didn't mind, for the most part.

I will say that kids are kids are kids everywhere.

But the same is definately NOT true for schools and teachers.

Today my teacher whacked one of the kids on the head (I missed what he was doing, I'm sure he was misbehaving). And yesterday I witnessed a physical fight in the hallways. Despite several teachers and lots of kids witnessing it, and the teachers yelling at them to stop and making a half hearted attempt to split them up, there were no consequences for the two who were fighting, which blows me away!

The kids today were curious about what America and Seattle are like and what kinds of things I am interested in, like music, food, hobbies, etc. They wanted to know what the nightlife in America is like and what my impressions of Macedonia are, as well as if I have a car and a boyfriend. They asked what the curfew for young people in America is. They asked me what sports I like, if I like french fries, who my favorite actor is, what kinds of clothes I like to wear and not wear and how old I am. They asked how many US states I've been to and what the prices are in America.

I have a site placement interview on October 31st. This is in regard to where I'll be placed for my 2 years of service. They'll be asking me questions about what kind of location I'd like to be in and the kind of work I want to do. I'll ask them lots of questions regarding this particular assignment of teaching homeless Roma youth near Skopje. The more I think about it, the more I am interested, even if it is not everything I want. It may be a very difficult, frustrating experience, but then I didn't join the Peace Corps so that everything would be nice and easy and simple.

A possible prospect assignment

2005-10-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I met with some Peace Corps staff and learned of an interesting possible assignment. It is rare to learn of specific assignments before placement interviews (which don't take place until October 31st), it is like classified information about where and what specific assignments are available. However, from word of mouth and talking with PC staff I had heard a few things. For example, that there are no TEFL placements this year in Skopje or Veles (which disappointed me because I'd been thinking that I'd like to be in one of those sites).

When I mentioned that I'm interested in working with street youth as a secondary project (TEFL being my primary one), I learned about a placement that really piqued my interest. There is a placement for teaching at a school for street kids. I know that this would be a very difficult assignment. It is working with the Roma population, who are an ethnic group where the people are, generally speaking, poor and disadvantaged. I also know that the location would be a suburb of Skopje, the capital (pop approx 600,000), which would also have it's advantages. I don't have any other specifics, I'll have to wait until our site placement interviews. This really sounds like something up my alley, something that I would really like to do.

So, I'm very jazzed right now about this prospect, it is going to be difficult not to get my hopes up too high. Besides, the Peace Corps has already been teaching me all about expectations...so far, with my track record, most of my expectations have been challenged. For example, I was originally nominated for Asia. So I had 9 months of expectations that I'd go to Asia, and hopes of going to China or Thailand. I was also nominated to leave in June. Instead I was sent to Eastern Europe (Macedonia), and left in September. I had also had hopes of being in Veles for training, instead I got a little village, but fortunately it is nearby to the town. Fortunately, it has all worked out for the best and I have no resentments about all of it now. But it really is a reminder to me not to future trip, which I'm so good at doing! :p

Oh, and by the way, it appears as though I may have been able to adjust my schedule so that I don't have to teach at 7:30am anymore (I hope). Regardless of the time, fortunately I only have student teaching twice a week, and the schedule switches week to week whether it is morning or afternoon. Kind of strange huh?

An Unusual Americanka

2005-10-18T02:13:00.000-07:00

My weekend was good but it went by too fast. Some of the other volunteers and myself went on a little hike on Saturday, we walked up the nearby "mountain" (large hill) that our village huddles next to. It was soooo nice to get out of the village, get a little break, some fresh air and sun and everything. One of my favorite moments was when I discovered a praying mantis and was able to pick it up and get some photos of it. I've explained to my host family and other locals that it is unusual for American girls to like insects and frogs like I do. I wanted to explain that because it seems that a lot of what we volunteers do and how we are is interpreted to represent all of the US. My host grandmother thought that since I do not eat much bread that all Americans do not like to eat bread.

I just finished my second day at the local elementary school. Other than having to be there at the awful hour of 7:30am, it is all good. I am hoping that I will not have to go to the school that early on a regular basis, but it doesn't look promising. I have to get up at 6:30am in order to get a taxi there on time. And as many of you know, I am not a morning person!

The other thing that my family thinks is strange is that I do not like to drink whole milk with a dallop of honey in it, yet I'll add sugar to my yogurt (since it is plain and soupy). They don't understand why us volunteers don't like the cheese, why we want to spend time alone or why we don't feel the need to spend the entire day having "nagosti"; hanging out having tea and goodies at each others houses.

I've also had to tell my family and locals that I am unusual in the amount of traveling I've done. Even amongst the other PC volunteers, I've been surprised to find out that I really am a kind of freak about traveling. I know it's not that common for Americans to travel as much as I have. And I'm not trying to boast here, I feel a little self conscious about it.

I also am probably driving my host mom crazy because I don't give myself a full half-hour to eat breakfast and she thinks I'm going to get sick because I don't dry my hair after a shower (one of the advantages to having short hair).

Well, this can all be politely chuckled about and that is fine. My family is really sweet. The other day I also was able to watch a football (soccer) match on TV with my host brother. Oh, that's another thing, an americanka interested in sports? I think my host brother and dad can adjust to that just fine.

An Afterthought about the PC

2005-10-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Another thought about the Peace Corps.

I've talked to a few fellow trainees about the Peace Corps and they reminded me of a few things that I'd forgotten to mention in a former post...

The PC program only goes to countries where it is *invited* to work in. The countries themselves request that PC volunteers come assist them in certain areas, usually education, business, health, environment and agriculture. At that point, before volunteers are sent over, the PC Staff will meet with the government officials to find out the best way for PCV human resources to be best utilized and helpful to that country.

Peace Corps works with local people in the communities, so it is starting from a grass roots level. Each PC volunteer has a counterpart, a Host Country National, that they collaborate with, so it is a team effort for things to be worked on and improved together.

Peace Corps provides cross cultural training, so that we, as volunteers can collaborate with the locals with a sensitivity to the cultural differences that occur, often on a subtle or invisible level.

It can be argued, at times, that local people can be trained to do the same job that a PC volunteer does. If I felt that were true in my case, then I would see if there is another way that I can be useful because I don't want to put a local person out of a job, especially since unemployment is very high in Macedonia. However, being a native English speaker is not something a local person can provide. In fact, when I met with my teacher today, she asked a few questions about saying some phrases in English and receptive to working with me, which I am really grateful for.

Adjusting to the adjustments

2005-10-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Milomeay!
I met my Macedonian teacher today, the one that I will be working with. She is the same age as I am and she is a good teacher. I like her and her classes a lot and I feel so much more at ease about my student teaching. It turns out that she teaches middle school, which at first I wasn't crazy about (6th, 7th & 8th), however, the good thing is that they have a couple of years of English under their belt. And since I'm really limited in my Macedonian, that will make it easier for me to communicate with and to teach. The kids are fascinated with us, we are probably the first Americans they have ever seen in real life.

Now it is the weekend (yay!) I am ready for a break. Even though I've been here for 2 weeks I feel like I've been here for about 2 months. I think it is because my days are jammed pack.

Every day I have 4 hours of Macedonian language lessons with the 4 other volunteers in my village. Then twice a week we'll go to Veles for our student teaching practicm. Then at least once a week, sometimes twice we'll have Peace Corps meetings (either TEFL training or medical meetings, cross cultural meetings or something like that). And then perhaps I'll have some private tutorage for Macedonian so I can keep up with my advanced classmates! That doesn't leave me much spare time! When I do have spare time I like to go on walks with my fellow trainees in my village (which we're really limited with since the village is pretty small and often have an entourage of little kids following us everywhere), or go into Veles for internet and/or socializing.

I feel tired a lot. I'd been wondering why. Then recently I was reminded...it takes a lot of energy to adjust to everything that we've been having to adjust to! A new country, a new language, a loss of language (English), pre-service training, settling in, living with a new family, a new culture, a new job, the food, the weather, doing without the familiar comforts of home, culture shock, a loss of routine, spending time alone, not having as much privacy or independence, etc etc.

Also, yesterday, I bought my first CD of a Macedonian pop singer. It turned out to be slightly cheesy and overall, pretty good. Today I got my second, one of the most popular Macedonian singers "Toshe", who is incredibly cheesy and pretty good. The best thing about it is that both CD's have lyrics, so it will help me to learn Macedonian. As some of you know, I really got into Latino music when I was in Ecuador, and I fully expect that I'll do the same here. The music in other countries can be cheesy, but I enjoy it. The cheesier, the better! Music is one of my favorite components of other cultures.

Feeling like the Christmas Goose

2005-10-12T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well, time is trodding along and overall things are going well. Everyday I have 4 hours of language lessons. Then sometimes we have Peace Corps meetings in Veles in the afternoon. Like today, we came into town for medical meeting where we got the rest of our vaccinations. I thought I wouldn't have to get any, but as a precaution the PC gave me a tetnus booster and Polio (which I got once as a little kid, now I should be good for life). Two shots, one in each arm. Now both my arms are sore. Oh well.

The language lessons are with the other PC volunteers in my village (there are 5 of us). My school is just next to my house, since I live off of the village square. I like my teacher a lot. The problem with my class is that as a class we are really advanced. But I'm not advanced. I'm just normal. So compared to my classmates I'm the slowest one. Well, I'm tired of being in an advanced class, I want to be in a normal class now. But that's not an option. I will probably opt to have some private tutorage with my teacher once or twice a week. At least it's free.

As for my host family, they are very sweet, but they overfeed me. I've been joking with the other PC volunteers that I think my family is trying to fatten me up for Christmas. I feel like the Christmas Goose! And then yesterday they actually weighed me! They brought me back to a storeroom where there was an old scale and they had me stand on one side while they added metal gram boxes. I know it is true that they want to fatten me up. They think that I'm just being polite when I tell them I'm full. I know that this is a common issue and it is one of the cultural differences between the US and Eastern Europe.

But I'm not having as many issues with my host families as some of the others. Some of the other host families don't give the volunteers any privacy or free time. Some of the volunteers in the Albanian community aren't getting fed very much. One gal in our village had her host grandfather pass away yesterday! The family is now all in mourning, it is really tough.

Tomorrow we start our student teaching, we are all at schools in Veles. We'll all be paired up with a local elementary teacher. I'm a little nervous, but with the way things have been going, it will probably be fine.

Last weekend one of the relatives visited and she is about my age and speaks very good English. Her name is Vane (prounounced "Van-aye"). We spent some time hanging out, she did a lot of translating. We went to the family's garden and then to their summer house on the lake. We got along really well. She is a student in Skopje. She has invited me to visit her. I am so glad to have made my first Macedonian friend!

Now I'm off to go find a CD store nearby so that I can discover the best of local Macedonian music!

Photos We've All Been Waiting For!

2005-10-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

A local near my village.

Jesse at Stobi, a nearby archeological site, about 2000 years old.

Some members of the "fan club".

The Macedonian Alphabet.

The city of Veles with the Vardar River, view from our hotel.

My Brother is a Brat

2005-10-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

Learning Macedonian is very interesting. The language is very unique, using a Cyrillic alphabet (and not latin based, as Spanish is). However, there are words that are similar to English or Spanish. For example, the word for "table" is "masa". The word for "brother" is "brat". The word for "dog" is "koo-chay" (which sounds a lot like one of my best friend's dog's name). The word for "small" is "malo", where the word "malo" means 'bad' in Spanish!

Although I'm not the fastest learner, I do enjoy learning other languages. I like the way the words are pronounced and roll off your tongue. Macedonian also has a rolled "r" like in Spanish. Writing it is also proving a challenge (however, learning Macedonian is not as hard as Chinese would be! As some of you know, I was originally nominated for Asia! And I learned that indeed, had I been medically cleared in time, I would have gone to teach at a university in China--I met my original Placement Officer in DC). Nevertheless, I am now very glad to be in Macedonia, learning their language.

Oh, and have I mentioned that they have Turkish toilets here? Thank goodness my host family has a western toilet, but in restaurants and in my school where I have 4 hours of language lessons every day, there is a turkish toilet (just do a google search of images to see what one looks like). And when I was in Ecuador I quickly learned that the plumbing system cannot cope with toilet paper and so therefore, the paper goes in a bin next to the toilet...well, it is the same here!