Christmas: Round 1

They say Christmas only comes once a year but really, why limit yourself to just one? This holiday season I am celebrating two rounds of Christmas--American in December and Macedonian in January. On Christmas eve, ten of us gathered at fellow volunteer Ashley's house in a village near my site. Seeing many people for the first time since we went to our permanent sites, I enjoyed catching up with them over copious cookies and much frivolity ensued as a gathering of that many 20-somethings is apt to generate.

Christmas Day I hosted at my apartment, with the guest list ballooning to 15! First we took turns using my computer to Skype home to our families. Because we were talking on the computer, we could hear each others' conversations and we got a big kick out hearing so many accents from all over the U.S. As for Christmas dinner, luckily I got out of cooking the main dish because one of my guests, Natty, home-made spaghetti and meatballs. The pasta prep work was done in my apartment, with my laundry rack put to work as a spaghetti drying rack. You can see it in the background of some of the photos I posted under the Picasa albums. Unfortunately I didn't have enough seats for everyone but Christmas dinner is no less delicious eaten on the couch, a stool, standing up, or sitting on the floor.

Having so many friends travel to my town to celebrate Christmas was a wonderful present and there have been other holiday treats too. On Tuesday, I sang carols in the streets with my upstairs neighbor Heather and her guests from Australia. Wednesday, Bitola had a German Christmas festival and I snarfed down a bratwurst and German pretzel while listening to Macedonian Christmas carols for the first time. On Saturday, a few of my visitors and I ate at the Chinese restaurant in Bitola. Chinese is a rare find in Macedonia, so this was my first Asian food in four months and I'm eager to indulge again. And continuing the wonderful food, Heather and her friends made tacos on Monday. I've been in Mexican food withdrawal and I really savored another food first since my arrival in Macedonia. I'm planning to train for the Skopje marathon and my training can't start soon enough with all the delicious food I've been consuming...and I've still got two more weeks of Christmas season to get through!

I'll Take You There

I admit that there are times in America when I go into a store looking for something and can't find it, but there's a certain logic to most things that you learn over time. Peanut butter and jelly tend to be near the bread, coconut milk is in the Asian foods section, and tomato sauce is next to the pasta. These patterns do not hold in Macedonia--peanut butter (yes, we have it here in a jar with a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it) is in the refrigerator case next to the butter butter, coconut milk is in the liquor section next to the Malibu rum, and tomato sauce is with the ketchup in a whole other aisle from the pasta. And if there's something I can't find in an American store, it's no problem to ask a salesperson. Here, I may not know the Macedonian word for what I want and even if I do, they might not understand my pronunciation. A request this week for nutmeg--muskat, according to my Peace Corps-issued cooking-in-Macedonia cookbook entitled, "Eat, Eat!"--had the saleswoman directing me to muesli, seasoned salt, and cinnamon before I gave up on finding nutmeg.

What I really want to talk about though is how Macedonians are great about going out of their way to help the wayward American when they can. Monday illustrated this in spades. My go-to place for questions is the American Corner, a resource center for Macedonians about American schools, culture, and the English language. Now, I'll be the first to admit that my query on Monday shows that Macedonia is not the type of country the name Peace Corps conjures up--I wanted to find a place to get my eyebrows done. Maybe I should let my brows go native for two years but hey, I'm in a country where I can get them done so I am. The gal working at the corner, Tasha, didn't know where I could go but her friend who'd stopped in to say hi offered to take me. Not only did she go out of her way to take me to the salon, she told the woman there what I wanted and made sure I was set before she left. Afterwards, I went looking for a longer modem cable so I can sit more than 2 feet from my modem (I know, another less-than-Peace-Corps-esque image but it can't be helped--this is Macedonia). First I went into a hardware store and they didn't have the cable, but a customer heard my request and said he'd show me to an electronics store that carries cables. Sure enough, he walked me about 3 blocks to a place that had just what I needed. I've certainly had people in the states give me directions, but I can't remember anyone physically taking me somewhere, let alone two in one day. I'm pretty lucky to be assigned to a country where people are so willing to help a stranger in a strange land.

I'd chalk my experience up to Christmas spirit, but Christmas in Macedonia isn't until January 7th. This is the first time I've been somewhere where December 25th isn't Christmas and truthfully it feels strange. On the plus side, a goodly-sized contingent of my fellow American volunteers are coming down my way to celebrate American Christmas and I'm looking forward to sharing the holiday with them. I don't know if you can quite consider this blog a Christmas letter, but it's the closest that I'm bound to get around to so Merry Christmas! I hope the spirit of helpfulness reaches your side of the globe too.

P.S. A few folks have asked for my snail mail address--if you want it, send me an email and I'm happy to pass it along.

Bitola: The Opening Scenes

Last week was my first as a capital-V Peace Corps Volunteer after moving to my permanent site, Bitola. The swearing-in ceremony on Thanksgiving was a nice affair. The American ambassador to Macedonia performed the swearing-in (they really do have us say a pledge) and there was a moving speech in Macedonian and Albanian delivered by two of the volunteers from my group. As you can imagine, it's not easy to deliver a speech in a language you have been speaking for 3 months in front of almost 200 people! As good as it felt to finally be a volunteer, the highlight was the Thanksgiving feast. There was a plethora of American and Macedonian dishes, including turkeys flown in from America. For some reason, turkey isn't really eaten here so it was the annual opportunity for turkey. Peace Corps intended the turkeys on the buffet table to be decorative with plates of carved meat brought out later but instead at our buffet table, one host dad helped all of us clamoring for turkey by essentially tearing it apart with his bare hands and serving it to people. My biggest score was some apple pie but unfortunately there was no green bean casserole--I'll see if I can't doctor some up for next year. If you go to the Picasa web albums on the right side of my blog, there's a new album with photos from swearing-in and Bitola.

The day after swearing-in, I hauled my 3 ginormous bags to Bitola by bus. Thankfully I had help getting to and from the bus station but it's a relief not to have to pack my life into 3 bags again for about two years. After I arrived my landlady, Lubica, showed me around the bazaar and called the internet installers for me. The bazaar is an outdoor affair open during daylight hours and is for all intents the only place in town for fruits and vegetables. On the plus side, most things at the bazaar are really affordable and fresh. As for the internet installation, the installers were supposed to come on Sunday. In reality this meant the following the following Saturday, 6 days later. And I thought American installation windows were long! Not only do I have internet now, I also have cable TV. I suspect Peace Corps volunteers in other countries would look at me in distain (and possibly envy) for these luxuries, but this is where the program sent me so I might as well have internet and TV if Macedonians do.

Setting up shop in my new apartment is an ongoing affair. I'm making almost daily trips to buy food as well as odds and ends like a laundry drying rack, hangers, etc. My splurge item was a scale so I can keep track of losing the 5 pounds I gained during training. I also have my eye on getting a mixer and blender so I don't have to do things like make hummus with a potato masher like I did last night. The hummus really was a project--cooking from scratch is basically the only option here. That means to make hummus I bought dried garbanzo beans, soaked them overnight, cooked them for two hours, peeled them, and them used them in my recipes. I will never take canned garbanzo beans for granted again.

And lest I forget, I did start work. My "primary site" (in Peace Corps lingo) is Pelister National Park. The office is just off the main pedestrian mall only about 10 minutes from my apartment. My counterpart, Aleksandra (Sashka), is the main person that I will work with at the park. She and the director have been very good about giving me time to get settled. I think our first project together will be to apply for European Union (EU) funds available to countries like Macedonia that want to join the EU; the funds would go towards initiatives outlined in the Park's management plan. When I'm not at work, I'm taking Macedonian lessons from my new tutor, Biljana, meeting people in my new hometown, and checking things out on runs. Nothing is happening at a breakneck pace but my days are pretty full, so I expect the next 103 weeks will go by before I know it.

Top 10 You Won't See On Letterman

My training draws to a close this week and I’ll be sworn in as an honest-to-goodness Peace Corps volunteer tomorrow on Thanksgiving day. Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Macedonia but we are having a feast of American and Macedonian specialties (including turkeys flown in from the States) to thank everyone who helped us survive training. Then my fellow volunteers and I disperse to our new homes and begin work. Volunteers in Macedonia either teach (or train others to teach) English in schools or work on community development, usually with non-governmental agencies or municipalities. The end of training is bittersweet—I’ll definitely miss my host family, my classmates and teacher in language school, and the coziness of Sveti Nikole. On the other hand, I am eager to explore Bitola and see what I can contribute there as a volunteer.

No more training also means no more daily language classes. The good news is that everyone in my training group passed the exam they gave us measuring our progress, so we’re all at an intermediate-low level or better. While I am eligible to work with a language tutor (and I definitely will), my progress with Macedonian is now more or less in my own hands. There are surely languages in other Peace Corps countries that are harder to learn than Macedonian but it’s no slam dunk either. To whit, here is my list of the top 10 reasons learning Macedonian is hard:

1. It’s in Cyrillic, with 31 letters to the Roman alphabet’s 26 letters. Some Cyrillic letters look the same as Roman letters and are pronounced the same; some look the same but are pronounced different; and the other letters are just alien to a native English speaker.
2. Same word, multiple definitions. For example, weather and time are the same word. So are Sunday and week. How do you tell the difference? Context, just context.
3. Genders. As is the case in many foreign languages, there are masculine, feminine, and neuter words. Truthfully, genders are easier to discern in Macedonian than German but this segues us to number 4…
4. Pluralizing nouns. There are 4 different ways to pluralize Macedonian nouns, which depends on the noun’s gender and whether the word is polysyllabic. Oh, and of course there are exceptions to the “rules.”
5. Verb conjugation. Verbs in Macedonian end one of three different letters. All verbs are conjugated differently for I, you, him, her, it, we, y’all, and they. This means there are 18 different patterns of verb conjugation to remember—in present tense. Then there’s future tense, past tense, and other tenses with names too complicated to remember. And while we are talking about verbs…
6. Optional subjects. With all the precise verb conjugation, putting the subject in a sentence is optional in Macedonian. For example, instead of saying, “They are going to the mountains,” it’s just “Are going to the mountains” because the verb conjugation indicates the subject. Which is fine, if I remember the right way to conjugate the verb.
7. Formal and informal “you.” Again, lots of languages employ formal you and informal you, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me to discern which is appropriate to use.
8. Genders again, this time with adjectives. All the adjectives have to be conjugated for the noun they describe, based on the noun’s gender. So “short” man, woman, child, and people are all different words for “short.”
9. Direct and Indirect Object. In Macedonian, the direct object or indirect object in a sentence must be identified twice. So if a sentence is something like, “Every day I drive my mom’s car,” then in Macedonian it’s more like, “Every day her I drive my Mom’s car.” Really confusing stuff.
10. It’s just not English!

Of course, knowing Macedonian is great and here are ten reasons why:

1. I can feed myself. Knowing at least some basic food words means I can buy food at the market and restaurants. This is closely related to number 2…
2. Sometimes I can not feed myself. It’s hard to talk a Macedonian out of giving you food, but it is sometimes possible with the right phraseology.
3. Getting directions. If I get lost or can’t find something, I can ask for assistance and *hopefully* understand the response. I can ask for all the important locations a Peace Corps volunteer needs—the bus station, bank, and hospital.
4. Understanding jokes. When someone is making fun of you (or better yet, someone else), it’s good to be in on the joke.
5. Making friends. It’s hard to strike up a conversation with someone if you don’t speak the same language—obvious but true.
6. Fun words. There are some real tongue twisters in Macedonian but there are fun words too. My classmates I are especially fond of “wait, wait” checky checky and “tsk, tsk” lei lei.
7. I can refresh myself. Sometimes you’re, you know, thirsty. I’m pretty good now at requesting the appropriate beverage for my mood and the occasion.
8. Exploring differences. Macedonia is quite different from America and vice versa. It’s good to be able to point out how and discuss why. For instance, why don’t Americans usually go visit friends and neighbors on the fly but Macedonians do?
9. Most American’s don’t know it. Even if my Macedonian is terrible, most American’s don’t know any Macedonian (or that it’s even a language that exists), so I’m well ahead of the curve.
10. It’s just not English!

Is It Still Eggplant Parmesan If There’s No Parmesan?

Ever since I moved in with my host family, I’ve been promising to make an “American” meal. If you think about it, this is harder than it sounds. For one, what’s American food? I know at home in the states I eat pasta, stir-fry, soups, etcetera on a regular basis but they tend to originate from Italy, Thailand, Mexico, and many of the other cuisines Americans have embraced and made our own. The second challenge was identifying a meal to prepare with ingredients available in Sveti Nikole. Ultimately I settled on making eggplant parmesan, “American” salad, garlic bread, and brownies.

I set out with my host mom, sister, and nephew to scout out the ingredients for our American meal. The first stop was the open air bazaar where we got eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, walnuts, eggs, and spinach. My Macedonian family doesn’t usually eat spinach, so there were several jokes about turning into Popeye (which is shown on TV here, dubbed into Macedonian). Next we moved on to the challenging items, namely parmesan and mozzarella cheese. After stopping at four grocery stores, we found one package of what claimed to be mozzarella (but upon tasting it later while cooking, that claim seems dubious) and a pretty passable parmesan substitute (but no actual parmesan). The other hard-to-find ingredient was tomato sauce because Macedonians typically put ketchup on pasta (and yes, it’s about as disappointing as it sounds, particularly when they do the popular ketchup-mayo combo). I did locate two jars of tomato sauce, unfortunately not of the same flavor combination, but I didn’t let that deter us from buying them. Once we got everything home, my host sister Katerina cryptically said the meal “would be interesting” and left me to the cooking.

Eggplant parmesan (or whatever kind of cheese it is that I used) is pretty labor intensive and I’d never made it before, so I’m sure that didn’t help. It took me about 4 hours to crank out the entire meal and dessert. All told, that’s a very fair tradeoff for my host parents cooking every other meal for 10 weeks.

The surprise hit of the meal was the salad. I thought the spinach would be a deal breaker because Macedonians usually eat either “chopped salad”—tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and feta—or shredded cabbage with olives, both salads topped with copious amounts of oil. For my "American" salad, I doctored up my own dressing and my family polished off the whole thing. I can’t say the eggplant parmesan was as well embraced—I think the tomato sauce was too much for their ketchup palates. They did like the eggplant sans tomato sauce and I think they might do just the fried breaded eggplant on their own again. The garlic bread definitely fell flat—I guess it’s an acquired taste. But luckily I ended strong with the brownies, with half the pan polished off in one sitting. At my family’s request, I translated the brownie recipe into Macedonian (as best I’m able) using our Friday language lesson vocab on cooking. I also made my shopping list in Macedonian so cooking, like watching TV, is something I’m calling “studying.”

Winning the Lottery

Joining Peace Corps takes a gambling spirit. When you apply, you do not know where you will be sent. Even once a country assignment is given, trainees wait several weeks to know where they will go and what they will be doing. I would say that I hit the jackpot by being assigned to Macedonia and then to working at National Park Pelister in Bitola. I got to visit my new home and office this week and everything looks great. All volunteers are assigned a counterpart with whom we work and partner with in what are known as our primary sites (Park Pelister, in my case). My counterpart is named Aleksandra—she’s in her mid-twenties, has worked for the park for 3 years, and like me studied economics. I had a very leisurely lunch with her and another colleague my first day in town. They both have excellent English, so I will have to push myself to work on my Macedonian at the office. There seem to be about 10 people who work at the office itself and then other staff in the park. I will be sharing an office with Aleksandra once I start in December.

My second day in town, I got to visit the park itself. It was an overcast, not particularly pleasant day in Bitola but in the park, we drove out of the clouds into beautiful sunshine. Ironically, it’s almost as if Peace Corps placed me in my home state of Colorado for 2 years. The topography of the park reminds me a lot of home. Not to mention there were trees in their fall colors and snow on the ground, a classic Colorado combo. Afterwards, I got to see my new apartment. It’s a nice one-bedroom deal in the same building as another volunteer who is doing a final 6 months on top of the 27 she’s already completed. You know Bitola is a good assignment when people voluntarily stay longer. The apartment’s location is hard to beat, near the market, close to the pedestrian mall, and walking distance from work. Plus, there is a washing machine for our apartments and that’s an amenity not to be underestimated.

I have to be careful around my fellow trainees not to rave too much about my great assignment. There are several people who have more of a “traditional” Peace Corps site—a small village without any other volunteers in the same place. I completely recognize that they have a much more challenging situation because they may not have easy access to food, transportation, and the like the way I will. The best I can do is offer to let them visit me in Bitola (and I’ve had lots of people express interest in visiting). I have a feeling that I won't mind playing tour guide in such a wonderful locale.

Taking a Bite out of Bitola

The big looming questions ever since I found out that I’d be moving to Macedonia have been where and what I’d do here and now, seven weeks into training, I’ve got some answers—working at the Pelister National Park in Bitola. For those not well versed in Macedonia’s geography, Bitola is in the south about 10 miles from the border with Greece and not too far from some of the country’s large lakes. People I’ve talked to have raved about how beautiful it is and how nice the mountains are, so it sounds like a place that I want to be. The city itself has about 95,000 people and is Macedonia’s second or third largest city, depending on who you ask. There are a few other volunteers in and about Bitola, so luckily I will have some help learning about my new home.

My work assignment is with the Pelister National Park, helping them to implement their management plan. Their website is www.park-pelister.com, if you want to get a feel for my new "office." I get to visit with my new colleagues next week and get my bearings in Bitola, so I’ll have a better sense of things then but my initial sense is that this is a good placement for me. I like that I’ll have both the city and the wilds at my fingertips and working with a national park will be an exciting new challenge!

Channel Swim

There are several ways that I’m trying to pick up Macedonian--naturally there are my language classes and studying, plus talking to my host family and other folks around town. Then there’s watching TV. My Macedonian host family is a lot like my American family in that we tend to sit around in the evenings and watch TV. However, watching TV to learn Macedonian is pretty tricky. First there are the programs in Macedonian, which tend to be news, dramas, or variety shows with lots of ballads and accordion. I don’t have quite the appetite for Macedonian ballads that my host family does but maybe it’s because I don’t understand the lyrics. Then there are programs in English with Macedonian subtitles. I find these programs pretty helpful but the pickings are eclectic. I’ve seen Prison Break (Season 1) and One Tree Hill, plus several movies from the 80s and 90s (particularly sequels) including My Girl 2, Coming to America, and Judge Dread.

From here, my Macedonian learning from television gets more challenging. Next in line comes programming from other countries dubbed into Macedonian. I’m getting drawn into a show called “1001 Nights” which is a Turkish show dubbed into Macedonian. Of course, it’s hard to follow when their lips don’t match the words. Then there are shows broadcast in their native language with Macedonian subtitles. There are several popular Spanish telenovellas, and nothing is much more confusing to me than hearing Spanish (which I don’t speak) and reading Macedonian (which is in Cyrillic). The Macedonians also have a lot of programming from Serbia because they understand Serbian—I however, do not. Apparently many of the neighboring Balkan countries can understand each other’s languages but they aren’t similar enough to me yet so I’m dependent on the Macedonian subtitles. I am trying to watch Serbian Survivor that just started a new season and has a Macedonian contestant. I also watched Serbian Wife Swap. They don’t seem to fight as much as on American Wife Swap and the wives always bring gifts for the family they are staying with but otherwise the premise is the same.

I have not seen any shows in Albanian, which about 25% of Macedonia speaks as its native language. My guess is that this is either because most Albanians speak Macedonian anyway or because the programming is done regionally and my region does not have an Albanian population to speak of. At any rate, I don’t know any Albanian but one of our training communities is learning Albanian in addition to Macedonian. Tackling Macedonian is plenty for me.

I understand that cable TV here is a whole other story. At my host sister’s house I did watch some MTV in English with German subtitles and I’ve heard that there is an entire channel devoted to fashion. Also, it would be wrong to omit the sports broadcasts which are primarily soccer but sometimes handball, a popular sport here that I’m still trying to understand the rules of.

So now you know that I’m not being a couch potato, I’m “studying.”

At long last--photos!

If you check out my Picasa photo stream on the right side of the screen, you'll finally see some photos from my first month in Macedonia. I was able to upload these pictures using the wireless internet at the Irish Bar in Kumanovo. Yes, I know, that sounds 1) weird and 2) not very Peace Corps. But, we have what's known as a "hub day" every other Friday in Kumanovo. Hub days are when all the volunteers in my group get together for common training. Afterwards the usual stop is the Irish bar because it has ample seating and free internet. However, I am being quite antisocial spending all this time posting photos so I'll let the pictures speak louder than words.

On the weekend, I...

never know what we are going to do. As a person who likes to make plans and schedule, this is one of the more difficult things about being a trainee in Macedonia. This weekend I watched my host sister's wedding movie (both DVDs) and the video of her son's christening. The christening was not so surprising but the wedding was pretty fascinating. First of all, there is a lot of people dancing in a circle, hand-in-hand--in front of the groom's house, in front of the bride's house, at the reception, and probably some other places I'm forgetting. There was also a lot of bread involved--many times they took circular loaves and tore them apart and ate from them. I'm guessing this is about the circle of life and sustinance for a new life together but that's just my guess. I also enjoyed the part where the wedding couple gave gifts to their family--they would toss them in the air several times the way we sometimes shake a present before we open it. Katerina, my host sister, said tossing the presents is meant to give the couple many children but when I'd asked her mom Victoria why earlier she said, "I don't know." I don't know, coincidentally, is one of my favorite responses to questions here. I may know, but probably I don't know the words to answer and it's easier to reply, "I don't know." We really are learning a lot of new words but a Macedonian this weekend told us we are up to a 2 year old's level of Macedonian. I don't know many verbose 2 year olds so you can imagine where we're at.

Saturday was also Katerina's 24th birthday and we celebrated at her house with a plethora of snacks and beverages. I felt bad that she was doing all of the cooking and cleaning during the celebration but she seemed to enjoy herself nevertheless. Afterwards I went to the local pizza joint with some fellow trainees and assorted host relatives for beer. It's the place we frequent the most because the beers are very affordable, $1.50 for a large bottle.

On Sunday, I visited my host grandparents so I could see grandpa make rakija (Macedonian moonshine). Almost every home here has a setup similar to his--there's a drum that a fire is built in with a clay element on top where the grapes are put in. As the liquid is cooked out, it goes through a water cooling tank and then drips into a collection tin. Eventually I'll get some photos up of this but maybe not until I get to my permanent site. The deal with internet here is that everyone is limited with how much they can upload or download per month, so although my internet availability has improved I don't want to eat up all of their capacity.

In the evening, Katerina had a performance with the local folk group she participates in. She and another gal did all the singing and there were dancers. There were also 2 groups of muscians, singers, and dancers from Slovenia (which is between Austria and Croatia, in case you are behind on your geography like me). Everyone in my trainee class came to watch and it was really entertaining--I would have paid good money to go but it was free.

Anyway, that about sums of the weekend--spontaneous but busy. Oh yeah, and my host dad got a pig that he started butchering in the basement yesterday. It's about 100 pounds of pork, so I think I know what we'll be having to eat for awhile!

Etiquette Lessons

Mostly through trial and error, I'm learning proper etiquette in Macedonia. Early on my fellow trainees and I caught on to taking off our shoes at the door when we enter any homes, including our own. I know lots of people do this in the states but I've yet to see a Macedonian household that doesn't have some sort of closet or rack or space near the doorways for shoes. When I was unpacking, I knew that I couldn't put my shoes on the floor so I tried having them on plastic bags on the floor of my room. My host mother took one look at them and then proceeded to start clearing out two shelves of what I call the "shoe closet" near our front door for my footwear.

Dining is another area that elicited some surprises. I know, all I do is talk about food but seriously, it's a big deal here. The main meal for most families here is lunch, which my family usually eats around 3 pm. I thought I would starve waiting that long but I've developed a system that works pretty well. I have some cereal in the morning, fruit during the breaks at school, and then the big lunch at 3 o'clock and snacks like popcorn, fruit, or cake in the evening. At lunch, we each have our own bowls for things like soup but if there's a salad (and their usually is) the typical approach is for everyone to dig into it in the center of the table. We also don't have bread plates (bread is possibly the most popular food here) but put it directly on the tablecloth. One of the biggest differences is that drinking does not correspond directly with eating here. For instance, I grab my own glass of water to have with lunch but most of the rest of the family doesn't have any beverage or possibly something like beer or rakija (the local brew) as they finish eating. One Macedonian told me that drinking while eating interferes with digestion. They do tend to be thin here so maybe that's the secret but I'm not totally convinced.

I'm writing this post at a local internet cafe as young boys (maybe 12-16 years old) shout at each other and play video games. The main difference from the states is 1) they aren't just playing from home and 2) several of them are smoking. I can't say this is very condusive to my writing and it's almost lunchtime so that's it for now.

Life as a Trainee

My first week of classes is over, so at least now I can say "I like [fill in the blank with limited vocabulary words], I don't like [X], I have [X], and I don't have [X]" in addition to introductions and greetings. We meet for 4 hours in the mornings for language school, then we have other trainings like medical and vocational sessions most afternoons. Homework has a whole new meaning when your life depends on it--I think I've never been so diligent about my homework and that says something coming from studious me. This week we'll also start spending time visiting local nonprofits and municipalities to see how these types of Macedonian institutions approach their work.

Part of my training, besides being a good classroom student, is to take in as much as possible in the community. One way I did so this week was to assist in making a Macedonian specialty, Ajvar. Ajvar is a delicious red pepper spread that many households make themselves. For my host family, this started with me, my host sister Katerina, her son Mario, and Katerina's grandparents going to the open-air market for red peppers and other ingredients. The number of peppers is AMAZING. I think we bought about 20 pounds worth. Then we took the peppers and other ingredients home and began removing the stems and seeds. Next Baba (grandma) blackened the peppers on a wood fired stove on the patio. Then we worked on removing the skins before they were chopped up. If this sounds easy, it's not. I think this part of the cooking process took about 5 hours. The next day, they mixed up all the ingredients (I missed this part, which I think was part of keeping the secret recipe in Macedonia) and started cooking on the wood stove again. The ajvar is continously stirred with a big wooden paddle for probably about 3 hours. Apparently my stirring techinique needs some work. Then the finished product is put into jars and presto, 8 hours later you have ajvar. Certainly you can see that when it comes to food, Macedonians do not cut corners. I took copious pictures of the shopping and cooking that I hope to get up next week.

Macedonian Hospitality

After an intense week of initial language training and guidance on Peace Corps policies, I moved in on Friday with my new host family. I'm living with a very nice couple, Victoria and Lasto, in the town of Sveti Nikole about 30 minutes from the capital. I have my own room with a pull-out sofa bed and storage for all of my belongings that I hauled halfway around the world. Right now I'm writing from my host sister Katerina's house. She's a few years younger than me and has been married to her husband Panche for 4 years. They have a 3 year old son, Mario, who already knows more Macedonian than I do. There are a handful of other Peace Corps trainees (we're not volunteers officially until we finish training and are sworn in) going to language school here and every other week or so, we'll meet up with the other trainees for trainings together. My host family is incredibly nice, even though I can't say much and I don't understand 99% of what they say to me. I'm carrying around a Macedonian-English dictionary and I'm lucky that Katerina knows a lot of English. I must not be making a terrible impression because already they suggested I date and marry a Macedonian.

After arriving here, we did a tour of the town and stopped at each of the host family's houses. In Macedonia, it is polite to offer guests food and drink and for guests to partake of said food and drink. This means that we ate from 11 am to 4 pm on Saturday, 7 stops plus lunch afterwards with my host family. As I said before, the food is very good because everyone makes fresh baked goods, pepper spreads, etc. I have gone running a few times but I think I'll need to go more. Running is not a very popular sport here, especially in comparison to soccer and handball, but maybe I'll help bring it into vogue.

It may be awhile before I can post photos because of my limited internet access and rampant computer viruses in Macedonia, but I'll get some up as soon as I can.

In Macedonia

I'm here! All my big bags arrived. Peace Corps is taking very good care of us. So far I can say "My name is Katie, I'm from America, nice to meet you." My internet access is very limited this week (and maybe for the whole training) but I'm happy to be able to tell you I arrived. Macedonia has beautiful countryside (kind of looks like Nebraska) and good food, so I think this will be a nice place to spend the next two years.

Gruesse aus Wien

That's right, greetings from Vienna! Our group is sitting on the floor at the Vienna airport during our five hour layover, forming a semicircle of Americans on laptops taking advantage of the free wi-fi. The trip here went relatively smoothly, though we had to put bags in the aisle of our tour bus to the airport because we had more baggage than the luggage compartment could handle. We have a 1.5 hour flight from Vienna to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, getting us in about 3:30 pm.

I think there are 37 people in my group, nicknamed MAK 14 (14th group in Macedonia). There are folks as young as 22 and as old as 70-something. At yesterday's staging, we spent time starting to get to know one another and go over basic Peace Corps policies and goals. In the evening, I got to have one last spicy Indian meal and mango lassi. I also got in one final run in DC and a bagel breakfast. Other than being sleep deprived right now, I'm feeling good and am excited to get to Macedonia!

Annual going away party

Last night my friends reminded me that when we got together a little over year ago, it was my going away party for my move from DC to Portland. As much as I've moved around over the last 10 years--Colorado, Nebraska, Germany, Nebraska, North Carolina, Colorado, DC, Oregon, Colorado, and now Macedonia--I really have been having going away celebrations on an almost annual basis. On the plus side, I do treasure the opportunities they provide to catch up with people if only briefly. Plus, moving presents a chance to make new friends too. Staging starts today and I'll be leaving from Sharyn and Nick's place soon for our convening hotel. All along I've been pretty excited (but there's definitely some nervous anticipation too).

My last few days stateside have been spent in DC, a greatest hits tour of my favorite people and places. I'm also filling up on cuisines like Thai that might be scarce in Macedonia. Seeing friends here and having them wish me well is a good way to depart, so thank you to everyone who's helped send me off!

Carrying around my body weight

I returned from Costa Rica on Tuesday and have spent most of the last week packing. My parents have been very indulgent about having my belongings strewn across the upstairs hallway as I struggled to pick 100 pounds of clothing, shoes, electronics, and other "necessities" that would fit in two duffel bags (plus a carry on and personal item). Below are photos of me with my obscene resulting baggage which my parents assure me is legitimate for 2 years but still feels excessive when strapped to my person. There's also the photo of everything I tried to shove in those bags (and while it didn't all fit, you'd be surprised what I got in there thanks to the magic of ziploc bags). On the subject of photos, I posted a few from my trip to Costa Rica as well. There should be a link to a Picasa album on the right hand side of this blog.

Tomorrow I take off for DC and I'm so excited to catch up with many of my friends there. My orientation (Staging in Peace Corps parlance) starts on Friday, we leave for Macedonia on Saturday, and arrive on Sunday. After the first week, I'll be placed with a host family that I'll live with for the 3 months that I'm in language school. I don't think I'll have regular email access while I'm living with the family, but I'll try to post here as I'm able from an internet cafe. Hopefully when I'm placed in my permanent site, I'll be able to get home internet access. I'd love to hear from folks while I'm gone but just bear with me if it takes me awhile to respond to you. I am happy to say that you should also be able to reach me on Skype (for the uninitiated, Skype is a free online phone / video phone service). I also got a phone number through Skype that you can dial just like a regular phone number but I answer it on my computer. The cost for the call is whatever you are normally charged for a call to a 202 area code. Pretty nifty, huh? I'll send out the numbers via email, I don't want to post it online but if I miss someone, drop me a line.

Hang on tight

Costa Rica is, well, bumpy. Yesterday I went river rafting on Class 3-4 rapids and it was amazing but I was the only one who got thrown from the raft into the water. I grabbed an oar handle for dear life and then started to worry about hitting a rock as I plunged through the rest of the rapids. Luckily I came out unscathed.

Before that, we were at a remote (and I mean REMOTE) jungle resort called Rara Avis. The only way there is by a 3.5 hour tractor ride. This really means a trailer dragged by a tractor on a potholed, muddy path pretending to be a road. Of course, halfway there the flatbed broke away from the tractor and we walked the rest of the way in our loaner rubber boots. At Rara Avis, we did a lot of hiking and I can honestly say I hope never to get that muddy again. Rather than face the tractor going back, I joined 3 others in walking the whole way--we arrived exactly 2 minutes ahead of the tractor (sigh).

Today I went canyoneering, which is rappelling down waterfalls. It was pretty neat but I wish we could have done more. Before Rara Avis, we were in a town called Tortuguero where we saw green turtles laying eggs at night and walking back into the ocean. The turtles only come on land for laying eggs, probably because they are about 3 feet long and that is a lot to heft around. The conservation efforts for the turtles seem to be a success story for the green turtles, if to late for some other species.

Got to run to go hike a volcano...

Costa Rica...on the Pacific Coast

Less than 5 minutes of internet time, so I'll spit out what I can. I'm on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica right now in a town called Puerto Viejo. Today I got in some snorkling and a coastal hike where we saw 3 toed sloths, howler monkeys, and some pretty insane spiders whose webs I will avoid. There are 12 of us traveling together, ranging from about 20-32 years old and from the US, Canada, UK, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Our guide, Cindy, is Costa Rican. Today was perfect Katie beach weather--overcast. I'm looking forward to moving on to the part of the coast with turtles tomorrow, followed by the jungle. Slowly but surely, I'll transition into the Pura Vida here (I think that's something about being relaxed, which I struggle with sometimes).

Marching orders are in

Peace Corps sent my marching orders this week and my staging (orientation) starts on Friday, September 11th in Washington, DC. Apparently everything we need to know to leave the country for 2 years can be learned between 1:30 and 7:00 pm that day and then we fly on the 12th to Macedonia. After arriving in Macedonia's capital Skopje, my group (the 14th in Macedonia) goes to a city 20 miles north called Kumanovo. The first week our group (about 35 of us) has more orientation in our hub city, then we are split into 6 satellite towns around Kumanovo where we live with host families and do language and vocational training, reconvening every so often in the hub. Training lasts 3 months and then I'll be given a permanent assignment, probably in another part of Macedonia, after I'm officially sworn in as an official Peace Corps volunteer (inshallah).

My preparations for Macedonia center primarily on two areas--packing and learning the language(s). Before I leave, I think I will single handedly restore the American economy with my purchases of long underwear, wool socks, and waterproof boots--I've heard the Macedonian winter can be mighty cold. Peace Corps provides online language lessons which I diligently studied earlier in the summer and lately...well, less so. There are actually two languages spoken in Macedonia--Macedonian (which some say is a dialect of Bulgarian but I doubt the Macedonians would corroborate) and Albanian. Macedonian uses the Cyrillic alphabet (like Russian), so that adds an element of difficulty. One quarter to one third of the population speaks Albanian and once I'm in country, I'll find out if I'll be assigned to an Albanian community and therefore learning both languages.

Now of course my Macedonian/Albanian will be greatly furthered by spending the next two weeks in Costa Rica. I fly out tomorrow for 16 days of just about everything Costa Rica has to offer--beaches, the jungle, a volcano, and many critters.

This weekend, my Kalinowski aunts and uncles came by to help send me off and to meet my brother's fiancee, Jenny. The Kalinowski family motto is "The one who eats the fastest gets the most," which I believe comes from my grandfather being one of 19 kids, and eat we did! So a good time was had by all and I'm glad that we could catch up.

I return from Costa Rica on September 1st and I'll set out for DC on September 8th so I'll have a few days to visit my Beltway buddies. In between, I have one week to figure out what 100 lbs of belongings (plus a carry on) will accompany me to Macedonia!

Where in the World...

is Katie? Portland, Oregon at the time being but only for another 48 hours. I've called Portland home for the last year (this is news to some, I'm sure--5 cities in 10 years makes me hard to keep track of) but I'm taking off soon for Macedonia. Why Macedonia and where is it? Well, I'm following a dream by joining the Peace Corps and Macedonia (north of Greece) is where they've seen fit to send me. My assignment is NGO development with an environmental focus, so I think this will mean working with an environmental nonprofit on things like workplans, fundraising, etc. You'll have to stay tuned to see if this is actually the case--I understand that there can be departures, so to say, from the expected in Peace Corps.

Being the great wanderer that I am, I've sent many dispatches from my travels over the years via email but in an effort to keep up with the young kids and not clog your inboxes, I'm giving blogging a go. I'll try not to disappoint in this new medium.

After I leave Portland, I'll be spending a week in Colorado with my family and hopefully seeing some friends (you know who you are). But you didn't really think I wouldn't leave the country with some extra time on my hands, did you? I'm closing out August with two weeks in Costa Rica, then I come back to Colorado and depart for Peace Corps orientation at a time yet to be confirmed by Peace Corps.

Portland and Oregon may not have pulled me in as a permanent Northwesterner, but I will miss the bike commuting, food carts, gorgeous scenery, diverse microbrews, and entertaining people. Cool and overcast as it is today, it seems like the perfect farewell to my PDX year.