Professor Kalinowski's Excellent Adventures

I began trying to write a blog based on the carol "12 Days of Christmas" but got stumped on about day 5, so it's going to be the usual prose instead. First off, I think it's important to note that winter is officially here and I dug out my long underwear again. It snowed about 6 inches on Monday and it hasn't gone anywhere because the temperature also hasn't broken freezing since then. Thank goodness I am one of the volunteers here with a decent heater--others are literally wearing stocking caps inside.

A new project of mine, a Readers' Club, officially kicked off in the last couple weeks with discussions of the books Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. For a new book club, I thought the meetings were well attended and the discussions were lively. We face the limitation of only having 8-10 copies of every book, but everyone is encouraged to read the book within two weeks so we can have up to 20 people take part each month.

With the new chilly temps, American Sports Club moved inside this month with Finger Football, otherwise known as folded-paper-triangle-American-football. Although not as cardio intensive as previous months' sports, Finger Football was a good introduction to American football terminology (touchdown, field goal, extra point) and scorekeeping. Plus, everyone had a good time and went home with their own paper football.


Professor Kalinowski has taught two lessons recently, one to an adult English language class on Thanksgiving and another to college students studying public administration on Strategic Planning. After both classes, the students were invited to ask me questions about my experience in Macedonia and the queries ranged from, "What is your favorite food here?" - answer: sarma and ajvar, to, "Do you find guys in Macedonia attractive?" - answer: I have seen attractive guys, but I'm not much for the ones who wear flashy jeans or lots of hair gel.

There are good and bad things to report about Pelister National Park, my work assignment from Peace Corps. The good news is that Pelister held a grand opening for its new tourist information center. This is the center that they have been telling me would open any day now since August, so it was gratifying to see the day indeed arrive. However, we seem to have our wires crossed when it comes to when they want me to work and my counterpart has gone incommunicado, so that's bad. Luckily I have kept myself busy with the above and helping my new sitemates get acquainted with Bitola.

It is tough for me to believe it is less than 12 days to Christmas because here it will not be Christmas until January. I miss the carols and decorated trees the most, but there are some lovely lighting displays up the center of town and my parents sent me super packages with goodies like homemade cookies and new running shoes. Truthfully, being in a country where gift-giving is not a major part of Christmas is very freeing but I'm not sending back all my new treats either!