Yoda Speak

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

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

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

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!