Scary Good Fun

Today it was frights and delights bringing America to Bitola with Capture the Flag and Halloween. The American Sports Club played Capture the Flag this morning in a new location, the city park, which seemed appropriately spooky filled with fog and autumn leaves. I learned to say Capture the Flag in Macedonian, which has a wonderfully fun-to-say rhythm: фати го знамето (fah-tee go znah-meh-toe). The realization came to me today that I enjoy playing these types of games much more now than I did as a kid and I think it comes down to the fact that I was so short as a child that it was almost impossible to play as well as everyone else, but now my 5'2" stature puts me squarely in the middle of the pack among kids and I can capture the flag now and again.


Halloween is not celebrated in Macedonia, but the American Corner held a Halloween party with a terrific turnout of ghosts, witches, and Arabs (seriously, these were the most popular costumes). I went as a pirate, proud of my homemade cardboard-and-aluminum-foil dagger and blue eyepatch (blue because, well, I don't have a black marker). Almost everyone there was celebrating Halloween for the first time, so we filled them in on the traditions and their origins, followed by playing games. Some more of the boo-tiful shots from the party and sports club are up on Picasa.