the little things

i had the best (privaten) bus 19 ride last night. the bus itself was roomy and immaculate (not only by general Skopje bus standards) there was a working radio and sound system, and the bus driver was playing classical and opera. i really wanted to go up to the guy and just shake his hand for a job well done.

it did make up for the 'how to keep an american idiot busy for at least an hour' game that the komerzialna banka employees were playing earlier in the afternoon. i have to open a bank account to get my SPA project in motion. easier said than done. i went to the branch in the trgovski center, they said no, i have to go on the other side of the vardar to the main branch. ok. there are about 4 different entrances, i pick door #2. i explain in broken macedonian: треба да отворам нересидентна денарска сметка, or i need to open a non-resident denar account. one person said its not possible, i refused to leave so she asked someone else, who then said i cant have a denar account, but a foreign currency account and gave me a form, but said i needed to go to one of the other 3 entrances to actually get an account. i am familiar with this game after trying to send packages with ajvar to the US at various post offices in skopje. needless to say, when the employees at the other entrance gave me the same spiel and told me to go back to where i just was, i walked out, shaking my umbrella vigorously in frustration.

today i returned, armed with a native speaker who did not know english but knew my plight. after some more labyrinthine games, i now hold a non resident denar account and our SPA project can move right along.

at least my bus ride yesterday was nice right?

I've found my peeps.

Most of my life prior to er...sophmore year of college was spent as the weird kid looking in on everything that seemed not awkward. I watched other friends and acquaintances flit through public school like it was the Best Thing Ever while I felt uncomfortable and out of place for about 90% of my waking life. I think I gave up early on trying to fit in and just made the most out of being as nonconformist as possible (and in the process, becoming an attention whore). If you asked me then, I would never never have admitted it.

College was great because I made a few close friends and with those people, I could do anything and everything that was interesting to me and it wasn't awkward (chinese checkers). it didn't make me feel like an outsider. Of course, in the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog that was Marist college, I can't say we were really in our element overall, but we were insulated enough with other people with similar interests that it didn't matter. At least, it didn't matter to me as much as it did in high school.

Grad school further pushed me into a group of people who were so similarly minded, intelligent, driven and dynamic that I don't even remember wondering what the rest of Rutgers Camden was like, in hind sight, this might be better.

My experience thus far in the Peace Corps has been like grad school x 20. There must be a certain pattern of experiences, qualities, interests etc that tend to draw people into the peace corps, making this small cache of about 70 Americans the largest pool of people that I feel totally comfortable around. It feels to me what I always imagined public school being like for all the people that seemed popular. Only in this case, there is significant meaning behind what drives us, attracts us to this work and bonds us together.

(I was trying to get to a point where I could rationalize why I played 3 games of risk over the course of 5 nights of IST rather then go out on the town in Ohrid or do other less nerdy activities.)

sometimes i would give anything for coffee to go that tastes just ok and to drink it while driving. anywhere.
to go to a movie at a theater like its no big deal.
to go to a diner, in the wee hours of the morning with a friend.
to want to go to a restaurant, so someone can/will cook food for me that i dont think i could cook better myself.
to find what i want within a half hour of looking. and knowing exactly where to go to start looking.
to have a beer worth drinking.
to go someplace by myself and not feel weird.
have a good radio station to listen to.
a long island beach.

october. me. america. its on.
and transsiberian railway 2010.

You can't avoid it, its definitely election time.

I can tell it is election time. How? Because nearly overnight, there are posters everywhere of guys in suits with uber serious "Vote for me, I know" faces. Everywhere. Huge billboards, empty walls now plastered with posters. Vans outfitted with advertisement. TV reklame/marketing time now devoted to izbori (sic?) 2009. i had asked a friend about this and he said that it was all for local elections, but that didn't make sense after seeing all the efforts going into these campaigns. I check with the Internet, and I see this is all for president. Well, that makes more sense.

here is my reaction as a passive observer.

Macedonia, unlike Germany, has a thriving pop culture of its own. they have their own tv shows, movies, music etc.

TANGENT: Germany was severely lacking here. some people I had asked about it said that the US influence was so great following WWII that Germany never had the chance to build up its own media culture. meh meh, maybe this is true. hence, when i went to ask for metal music at stores, i was directed to Rammstein or any number of US or scandinavian bands. why all the tv shows were american- exception of Verliebt in Berlin, but even that wasnt original, ive seen that story line in Ugly Betty and now here in a spanish soap opera. movies- ok germans do make movies. and very good ones. but they aren't pumping out a whole lot of em. maybe this is tied in a way to cultural pride. macedonians- very proud of being macedonian. germans- thanks to the Holocaust, not so much.

ANYWAY. where i was going with this is that the quality of tv shows and news here in Macedonia are not what i'm used to as an American. not talking about content here, i dont understand much of what is said. but film quality, camera techniques etc. but now with all these political ads for candidates, I am shocked to see some damn fine commercials. like artistic and really good. this one I saw was really beautiful, panning in and out on older Macedonians watching a candidate give a speech and the lighting was all soft and luscious and it almost brought a tear to me eye.
So now I'm thinking, wow, it is possible to up the quality of film here. But the next thought is, ah right, it probably comes down to money. Now I'm just curious how much money is going into the elections. I'm letting that question simmer.

It is also interesting that the candidates are assigned numbers. I remember watching this selection happen on the news, not really understanding what was going on. Click, got it. People don't even have to remember the name of the candidate, just the number.

What I do like is that the election stuff hasn't been in your face until now. The elections are on the 22nd of march i think. and its just now ramping up. Lets look at the US election campaign that started well over a year before the actual presidential elections. However, I think Macedonia could benefit from a longer campaign cycle. Now it seems more like a popularity/beauty contest after seeing all the posters.

Remember, just a passive observer.

Dear Mongolia, I am a comin'.

the planning begins.

preliminary internet surfing shows that there is a 30 hr train from beijing to mongolia with delicious scenery. thats a good start.

any peace corps volunteers in Mongolia reading who have input, please comment/share.

This is my life and I like it.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder or something like that right? Apologies for the unannounced vacation from the blog and leaving you with just a snarky cartoon for weeks.

The truth is, my life has found its way to normalcy again. Once the holiday month was over and I started going to work for more than 3 consecutive days per week, things just got comfortable. I’m reminded everyday that I am still living in a foreign country when I fail to understand simple commands in local languages, but its no longer something new. You just get used to comprehending 30% of any given conversation. When you think about it, its not that hard being abroad (exception: missing people who are not in Macedonia, that is tough) because like some volunteers said in training, its still life. You go to work, you see your friends, you go food shopping, you watch the news. The new part: I eat ayvar.

Let me take you on a written tour of my typical day here in the Skop.

Somewhere between 730 and 830, my alarm goes off and if you have ever lived with me at some point, you know there is another 30-45 minutes of absolutely ridiculous snooze button abuse.

I get out of bed and make some Turkish coffee, or lately a cup of Lipton tea with milk and sugar thanks to some awesome people in NJ who know that my love of Lipton knows no bounds. (ps. I made sun tea already and a “cauldron” of iced tea, it was glorious.) If its nice outside, I’ll go drink my caffeine out on the balcony in the sun.

I eat tropical fruit muesli (35% fruit!) for breakfast and read a book until about 930 when I realize its getting late and I need to shower. “Shower”. I miss a real shower every once in a while. Some volunteers have jury-rigged shower curtains and have gotten holders for their shower heads to simulate the American Shower Experience. I have not, I’m not sure it would work out in my bathroom. Instead, I have a bathtub with a giant step and a handheld shower head thingy. Its fun in its own way, but not when I’m late. At least being late here isn’t a big deal like it is in the US.

I get dressed and I still haven’t figured out what is and isn’t considered ‘business casual’ for Macedonia. I think I could wear anything I want really, but I harbor this notion that looking slightly professional will help my credibility and cancel out the “you’re not 23?!!” problem. Yes, I have had to resort to the passport to prove that I am not <19 years old. In the end, I’m sure that what I think of as professional looking clothing is not quite there yet; I only just got out of band t-shirts, grungy jeans, old sambas and studded belt. Its still weird to see myself in the mirror devoid of external character every day.

I try to leave my house by 1010 so I make it to the office by 1030 on time, but hey, I’m all about the polychronic perception of time that is the norm in this region. I enjoy the walk to work. When I talk to some people from Macedonia about it, they comment on how far it is. My perception of distance is very different from most people here and I attribute that to growing up in Wurtsboro and then living in Philly. In the ‘boro, you had to drive 15 minutes in any cardinal direction to get to anything of interest or to go shopping. In philly, I walked whenever I could to avoid spending money on taxis or the subway. You get used to it. But a 15 min walk here seems to be quite a hardship here….or not.

Work 1030 to 1500. Some days go faster than others; some days are more interesting than others. In this sense, it’s the same as in the US. The struggle is coming in on the scene not really knowing the language or the organization as well and trying to get a feel for what is going on project-wise or what has been done in the past. It is great to have a counterpart that speaks fluent English though, I’m not sure how it would work out otherwise. Its amusing to see how my carefully nurtured academic approach to development handles reality in a different country. Or, how it doesn’t. As I get to understand the culture here, I realize that some of the concepts I learned are just going to get shelved indefinitely.

1530-1630ish is my pauza time. When I get home from work, I sort of zone out for a while, have lunch, maybe watch some Доктор Ху (Doctor Who) on tv. Monday-Wednesday I have an hour or two of language tutorial at 5 or 6 in Albanian and Macedonia. This is a far cry from the 4 hours a day, 5 days a week of PST and my present language skills show it.

I’ve been engrossed in some big books lately so I end up spending the later part of my nights reading like a madwoman until I fall asleep with my face, and glasses, smushed in the middle of the book. I also have gotten very into playing around with dreamweaver and GIMP 2.

And there you have it, the average life of a (debatably bookish) Peace Corps volunteer in Skopje.

No sign of atlantis.... yet.

Its cool.