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!
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