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.

on the subject of blogging

marriedtothesea.com

maybe not so relevant for this blog, since im in macedonia and all, but for those who knew the last one... yeah. my apologies.

Welcome to the Posh Corps

I’ve made the move to my post, in Skopje, the capital city of Macedonia. Swearing-in happened on December 12th without any problems. My counterpart and my host family (Mitat and Razije) came to the ceremony. If you want to see some of it, go to the US embassy page for Skopje, or click here. The remainder of the day was happily spent at the Irish Pub with многу лашко темно.

Move-in day was uneventful, beyond the scope of actually moving. My only gripes were failing to say proper goodbyes to my Romanovce friends and losing my med kit in a wild taxi. Besides that, everything was great.

My apartment is super nice. To anyone reading from MK who heard me complaining about my housing situation – strange bathtub, lack of washing machine, hotplates ‘n’ toaster oven etc, I offer my sincerest apologies. I feel like this place looked so different when someone was living in it. It is interesting to think that what I paid for 4 months in Philly for a room in a row house could more than cover the entire year’s lease for my place here. (edit: 3 weeks later, i find out that i have a view off of my balcony of snow capped mountains. i just needed a sunny day to find out.)

Cooking with two hotplates, one burner 1400W and the other 1000W, has been an adventure. You have to remember that the burner is still hot for several minutes even after turning it off. I’m still figuring out the oven. I used it for the first time today to make sarma. My sarma wasn’t nearly as good as the sarma Evan’s host mom makes, but it was good for a first try and with a makeshift kitchen. I also used soy granules for the first time. I like them so much I might try to be a vegetarian for realz- but no promises. I did my laundry by hand two nights ago too. That was as horrible as I expected it to be, but it was also my fault since I hoarded up a lot of dirty clothes so I could avoid the laundry detergent of choice in Romanovce. I am not convinced hand washing actually cleans clothes either, but when i think about it, what more is the machine doing?

My first day on the job involved 4 hours of talking about conspiracy theories and ethnicity issues with Blerim since the president was in Kosovo for a conference. Very interesting. The second day, I was proofing an English version of a project proposal. Today, third day, I had a meeting with my Peace Corps program manager Nadica who helped me sort out some misunderstandings with my org that made me freak out on the inside yesterday. By the end of today, I was really psyched about what we are working on. Yes, we are already doing work.

I finally had a creepy old man experience in Macedonia. I thought it was strange that it hadn’t happened yet, after all the prepping for unwanted attention during training. Someone I had met and should have been trustworthy turned out to be a bit pervy. He saw me walking home from work at 3 in the afternoon and offered to give me a ride, indicating that I should sit in front. I would never sit up front in a taxi alone, wild or no, but I had already met this man in a safe setting with people I already trust completely. As we are going towards my apt, he starts grabbing my left hand and just holding it, or patting me on the leg. And then, saying something about coffee and massages at his house, or so I thought. wtf? Seriously? You are Old and Married and Ew. I make up something that my friends are coming over and I have to go back home. He drives past the entrance of my building and turns to park on the side, and turns the engine off. Then I realize he meant at massages at My House. When it all sunk in, I just started to say No and Bad in Macedonian/Albanian with the finger wagging and tongue clicking. There is no way that would fly with any woman from Macedonia. He stayed in the car and I went home, but it was still totally weird. Eh, I knew it would happen at some point, and I’m positive it will happen again. I hope next time I'll have better vocabulary for verbal chastising.

I’m getting sleepy, but for my last tidbit:

Last night I went to a Christmas get-together at the British Embassy, hence the title referencing the Posh Corps. I had gluwein (I don’t even like gluwein that much, but the atmosphere made it better and necessary), mini mince pies, and christmas carol singing surrounded by people with nice accents. Most people who know me know that I am not a fan of Christmas, but this one occasion made me feel happy that it was Christmas time. Maybe it was close to what I’ve always wanted Christmas to be in my head. Or maybe it was being surrounded by people who speak English in a foreign country and feeling like we are united by this holiday’s traditions. Either way, there is small glimmer of hope that I will come to love christmas again someday.