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!