End of semester blahs

I have officially decided that it is time for the semester to end. I am tired. Tired of unmotivated students, and also of motivated students. Tired of going to work every day. Tired of planning classes and grading papaers.
However, not to worry. It will soon be over, and at the end of the month I will be home for a visit.
I have a visitor coming this week and I am sure we will do lots of sightseeing, so expect some new photos soon!

Thanksgiving, Balkan style

Last Thursday, we had the day off for Albanian Alphabet Day (yes, that is apparently a real holiday), which, luckily, coincided with Thanksgiving. I decided to host a traditional Albanian Alphabet Day/Thanksgiving feast in my apartment. Here is the festive table:

R. and I, being the resident Americans, were responsible for most of the food. We made roast vegetables, pumpkin pie, apple pie, mashed potatoes, and I cooked a turkey! J. was in charge of stuffing and did a very good job, although, as usual, there wasn't enough. Here are some pictures of the food:

The round pie is pumpkin, while the other two are apple. There don't seem to be any round pie tins in all of Skopje, so we were forced to improvise and use square baking dishes. Square pie tastes just as good as round pie.

All in all, it was a very successful Thanksgiving. It was the first for my Irish colleagues, and I think it gave them a good impression of the holiday. After all, what's not to love about spending the day eating delicious food until you feel like you're ready to burst? The only thing missing was the football!

Where I work

As I've mentioned before, I work in a university in Tetovo, which is about 45 minutes from Skopje. There doesn't seem to be much going on in the town, but it's surrounded by mountains, which are very pretty. Also, whoever designed the university really went in for bright colors, as you can see from the pictures. The buildings come in 3 colors: white, blue, and yellow. The colors mean different things, but I can't remember right now what each stands for.

Here's another picture:

In this one, you can see the mountains in the background. It was a little cloudy that day, so they're not as impressive as they usually look. Also, if you look closely, you can see two of my colleagues, J. and B.

New post

I just realized it's been over two weeks since my last post. I seem to have mislaid the cord the attaches my camera to my computer so I've been unable to download pictures, which has put a damper on me posting. Anyway, I have now borrowed a cord from the lovely R., so I'm back in business!

Trash and Spitting

One thing I'm finding hard to get used to here is the amount of litter on the streets. I've lived in places that had litter before, but nothing like this. People just throw their trash anywhere. A few weeks ago, in one of my classes, a student took his gum out of his mouth and threw it out of an open classroom window. Of course, I yelled at him, but he didn't seem phased. "At least I didn't put it under my desk" was his defense.
The other thing that bothers me is people spitting on the street. Sometimes I'll be walking and there will be an old man, or even a not so old man, and suddenly I'll hear the unmistakeable sound of someone coughing up phlegm from the back of their throat, after which it is deposited on the sidewalk. It never fails to gross me out.
But then, sometimes I think, who am I to judge? I shouldn't come here and impose my conceptions of what is and isn't polite behavior on a culture that isn't mine and that I don't have enough experience with to fully understand.
I found this article addressing the same topic:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=42670

What do you think? Am I being a cultural imperialist?

Never a dull moment

Today began like any other day. I arrived to work early because of a meeting and then taught my first class at 12. After my first class, I returned to my office, which was all abuzz with the news that some kind of conflict was taking place in Tetovo and the surrounding areas, which is near where I work. We weren't sure exactly what was going on or what we should do, so we decided to teach our next classes as normal.
About half an hour into the class, a student came in with an announcement. He told us that other instructors were allowing students to leave early, as there was some fear that the roads would soon be blocked off. Of course, I let my class go early and then joined my fellow foreign colleagues to try to make our way back to Skopje. We were able to get a ride and made it back without any problems. But as we were on the road back, we did notice several military trucks and jeeps going in the opposite direction, towards Tetovo.
Apparently, what happened is that some fugitives from Kosovo were being chased by the police in the area and there was a shootout which killed 7 people. Here's a link to an article about what happened:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/07/europe/EU-GEN-Macedonia-Fugitives.php

Saturday night in Skopje

I've been informed by certain people that they are not that interested in the animal situation in Skopje and would much rather hear about my doings. As I always aim to please, I will write about what I did last Saturday evening.

I started by going to a cultural evening dedicated to the sea hosted by the Italian embassy. It was held at the museum of modern art. It consisted of exhibitions of sailboats and stalls hosted by sailing clubs and companies. There was also some food, and some artwork and poetry done by students from the area. And of course there was a fashion show which didn't surprise me because if there was one thing I learned while living in Italy, it is that Italians love fashion shows (please feel free to pillory me for perpetuating national stereotypes). I found it a bit ironic that the evening was focused on the sea, seeing as how Macedonia is a landlocked country; however no one else seemed to feel that way. Anyway, there is sailing in Macedonia, on Lake Ohrid in the south. I hope to go there at some point.

The best part of the evening was getting to see the art housed in the museum. They had closed off the galleries for the evening so most people were not allowed to go in and see the art, but I was with people who apparently have connections and so we got the VIP treatment. Here is a picture of the art museum:

And here is some of the art that was in the museum. You can't really tell what it is here, but it was kind of raunchy:

After the museum, we went to meet some students at a local restaurant in the city park. We spent a while there eating and drinking. The restaurant was really cute and a little rustic looking, with traditional costumes hanging on the walls:

The final stop of the night was a nightclub called Coliseum, a place I hope to never go back to. It's a giant club with three levels located near the train station in Skopje. We walked in, and the first thing we saw was several guys having a fight. The bouncers, instead of ushering them out of the club, seemed to be directing them back inside, which seemed a little out of the ordinary, but there wasn't any more trouble while we were there, so I guess it was ok. It was someone's birthday, so, in my second VIP experience of the night, we were ushered upstairs to a private part of the club. Once there, we sat and listened to terrible techno music and watched girls trying to dance in their 4-inch heels. Here's a picture of the club, taken from the top level:

I know the picture quality is not so great, but I think you can get the idea of how it was. It is my hope that Saturday evening was my first and last time going there.

Random Animals

I've mentioned the stray dogs and cats that roam the streets of Skopje previously in this blog, but you will all be interested to know that there is plenty of other semi-wildlife in Skopje and its surrounding areas as well. For example, every morning on my way to work, I pass an ostrich farm on the side of the highway. I haven't been able to take a picture of it because the bus is always moving to fast.

I've also seen goats grazing by the side of the river in the middle of Skopje, which is not really something you expect to see in the middle of a city, but there you go, that's life here, I guess.

A few weeks ago, while I walked through the old town in Skopje, I noticed this animal outside the Orthodox church there:

Yes, that is a ram. Please keep in mind that I did not see this animal out in the countryside, but rather, in the middle of the capital city of the country.

And the other day, on my way home from work, as I got out of the illegal minivan that takes me back to Skopje every afternoon, I saw a tortoise roaming around a patch of grass just outside of the national archives building. I thought maybe it was just a fluke, but then I saw it again once more after that.

There are also the horses (or maybe they're donkeys) that pull the gypsy carts around. Here's a picture of one grazing beside one of the main streets in Skopje:

Food, glorious food!

Who doesn't like pictures of food? I know I do, and since my other food picture received lots of positive feedback, here are some more to feast your eyes on. This is another Macedonian casserole that I ate the other night for dinner. Here it is, pre-eating, living in its little clay pot:

The contents of the pot were as follows: various kinds of vegetables, 3 kinds of meat (veal, chicken, and I think pork), and what tasted like a whole kilo of salt. To be honest, the salt kind of ruined it.

Here is a picture of the inside of the clay pot, along with a vegetarian version of the same dish, also extremely salty.

Italy

This past weekend I took a trip to Italy to visit A. He's living in the north now, in a little town called Aviano. It's near an American military base, so I saw a lot of Americans around, but I didn't really talk to any of them. It's a cute little town. Here are some pictures:

The bakery is my favorite. All that delicious bread!

Tose Proeski

A few days ago, a very famous pop star here in Macedonia died in a car crash. His name was Tose Proeski, and apparently he was like Princess Diana to them. I had students weeping about him in class. Here's an article about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7046808.stm
People are really upset about it and have made a shrine in the center of Skopje. I went there yesterday and took some pictures.

Sofia; Part 3: Big, beautiful buildings

Sofia is bigger and more cosmopolitan than Skopje. It has a lot more impressive buildings and I think we saw most of them.
The first impressive building we saw was a mosque:

After that, we saw the Russian Orthodox church. It was built from 1912-1914. I overheard a tour guide telling a story about the church, that it was built for some high muckety-muck in the Russian Orthodox church who came to visit but for some reason didn't want to visit a Bulgarian Orthodox church. I'm not exactly sure if this story is true or why he didn't want to visit a Bulgarian Orthodox church, but there you go. I guess that's what you get when you hang around the edge of a tour group straining to hear what their guide says without appearing to obvious about the fact that you don't belong with them.

After the Russian Orthodox church we went to the Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral, St. Alexander Nevski. It was big and beautiful and the inside was awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll have to just take my word for it. In the crypt below the church there was an exhibit of icons, which was also interesting.

To complete our tour of three of the world's biggest religions, we passed a large synagogue:

After wandering around churches and other holy buildings all morning, we decided to take a rest in a park. I have to apologize because I'm not exactly sure what the park is called. However, it was near a giant sculpture surrounded by a graffiti-covered wall. Apparently the graffiti was done there as part of some kind of competition a few years ago.

Sofia; Part 2: Hotel Rodina

\Our hotel in Sofia was called the Hotel Rodina and it is known for being "the tallest four-star hotel in Sofia." It had a casino and a large number of very small and excitable Greek ladies. Our rooms were decorated seventies style:

I was sharing a room with R. and we had a giant old stereo in the room and the speaker was in the bathroom. So upon arriving, we spent some time rocking out to old 80's tunes.

Trip to Sofia; Part 1: Crossing the border

So, it's taken me a little while, but I am finally posting about my trip to Sofia, Bulgaria last weekend. We had an extra day off from work for a national holiday, so R., J. and I decided to spend the weekend exploring Sofia. We took the bus from Skopje bus station on Thursday afternoon. It was about 2 hours from Skopje to the Macedonian border. Along the way we passed a large number of fields, mountains, farms, and goats! The goats were being tended by old men or old women sitting in chairs in the fields. We reached the border, where we stopped, and a border guard got on. He proceeded to make his way down the aisle, collecting our passports. He then got off the bus, and spent about fifteen or twenty minutes presumably examining them and stamping them. He got back on after that and handed all our passports to a passenger on the bus who had the responsibility of handing them back to everyone.
We drove about 50 feet and then stopped again. This time, a Bulgarian border guard got on, collected all our passports and got off again. We drove another 20 feet to a little area where we were allowed to get off the bus and stand around. Finally, after another fifteen or twenty minutes, the border guard came back, we got back on the bus and another passenger was entrusted with the task of giving back our passports. I don't think I've ever had a border crossing quite like that before, but the important thing is that it went fairly smoothly. After that, we drove another two hours along dark and windy mountain roads until we reached Sofia.

Going to Bulgaria

Tomorrow is a national holiday here so I have a long weekend. I'll be spending the weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria, with two of my colleagues, R. and J. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures and post them when I get back!

Gypsies

Skopje is full of gypsies, or Roma. Apparently, there's a large gypsy settlement located just outside of Skopje, one of the biggest in Europe. I haven't been there yet, but hopefully I'll go at some point in the next year.

The gypsies are responsible for what little recycling goes on in the city. They ride around in their horses and carts and go through the dumpsters looking for recylables.

Another thing I've noticed is that wherever there is a patch of grass, you can see them grazing their horses and growing things in the grass. This isn't a great picture of that because I was a little far away and trying to take a picture without it being noticed.

More crazy politics

Here's another link about the fight in Parliament here which I posted about a few days ago. Apparently, it went further than just what happened here in Skopje.

http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7022&Itemid=259

Macedonian lesson number 1; or How not to Teach

Tonight my 3 colleagues and I went to our first Macedonian lesson and I believe it will also be our last with this teacher. One of the first things she said after walking into the classroom was, "I've never taught beginners before. I'm used to teaching people who already know Macedonian." That seemed like a bad sign. Then she started on the alphabet, using the "drill and kill" technique, which basically meant repeating the sounds after her, ad nauseum. Then each of us had to say the alphabet on our own, without her. Of course, our pronunciation was not perfect, but this teacher was obviously a perfectionist and would not let us rest until we had it perfect, which was difficult considering it was our first lesson ever. And when we made mistakes, she laughed at us! She kept putting one of my colleagues on the spot and when he got more and more flustered, she just kept picking on him. It made everyone extremely uncomfortable. I almost cried at one point. I needed a drink afterwards.
So we will not be going back to her, needless to say. Next week we're going to try another place that's been recommended by someone we work with.

Politics

Balkan politics are volatile. Last week, there was a fight in Parliament. An actual physical fight between the two Albanian parties: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7014698.stm
This actually relates to my work situation. Apparently, there was one Albanian political party that was more powerful than the other, so that party got to pick the deans of some of the departments and if you knew the right people in that party, you had a good chance of advancing your career. But now the other party has more power, so they are putting their own people into the more powerful positions.
People always say that universities are political; however, my university is Political. Luckily, as a foreigner, it doesn't really affect my position at work.

Work

Anyone reading this blog so far might be getting the idea that my life here consists solely of sightseeing. This is not the case, or at least, it's not the case anymore. Last week, I started teaching at the university. The university is not in Skopje. It's in a smaller town about 30 minutes away, and I go there by bus every morning. It's in the Albanian part of Macedonia, so most of my students, and many of my colleagues are Albanian.
I started last week, but classes officially started the week before that. However, due to some kind of glitch in the system, students were unable to regisiter for class and therefore didn't come. So that was my first introduction to higher education in Macedonia.
The university is an interesting place. I will post pictures of it at some point, but for now a description will have to suffice. It's not a big university and it's fairly new. The buildings are all one storey or two storey structures, and whoever was in charge of the design of the university thoughtfully color-coded them for easy identification. Administration buildings are white, dormitories are a lovely mustard yellow color, and classroom buildings are bright blue.
Students and teachers both seem to be nursing serious coffee addictions. So far I have counted 5 places to have coffee! Three of the places are regular cafes and they are all within 50 feet of each other. One of them is only for staff, and when you walk in, it's like walking into a housefire because of all the cigarette smoke. The other two coffee places are actually in classroom buildings, in case one of the other three places isn't close enough. There is no one ever in the library, but the cafes are always full. Luckily, I enjoy a cup of coffee very much, so I think I've landed in the right place.
The other teachers at the university seem friendly enough so far. My boss is not only the head of the English department, but he is also a minor celebrity. He's a pop star! I think it's great that he's pursuing his interests, but it does make it a little difficult to take him seriously during faculty meetings.
I think it's going to be an interesting year. . .

Lake Matka

Yesterday I went to Lake Matka, a lake about a half hour outside of Skopje, with some of my new colleagues/friends, J., B., and R. The lake is surrounded by mountains and there's a path that goes along the mountains. You can't really tell from the picture, but the sides of the mountain are pretty rocky and so is the path, so you have to be careful when you're walking.

There's a 14th century church at one side of the lake just before the path starts. Inside the walls are covered with frescoes, icons in the Byzantine style. It used to be part of a monastery.

Matka must be something of a tourist attraction because there seemed to be a higher concentration of non-Macedonians there than I've seen so far in Skopje. In fact, while we were walking, we met a Greek couple who asked me to take their picture. There was something wrong with their camera and I tried to help them, and I even managed to talk with them in Greek! I was surprised at how many words came back to me. Of course, the people I was with were suitably impressed, which was obviously the most important part of the exercise.

We kept walking along the path, but didn't go the whole way, since it's 14 km. Here is some more prettiness:

And here are some cute little kitties that were hanging around outside the church.

The most famous person from Macedonia

Macedonia is a small country. Lots of people have never heard of it. Other people may have heard of it at some point, but would be unable to locate it on a map. I admit, I wasn't sure exactly where it was either before I decided to come here. But Macedonia does have one claim to fame, and that is that Mother Teresa was born here. She was Albanian, but born in Skopje. There's even a statue of her on one of the streets in the center of the city.

The really important stuff

Food!

So far, I've been eating really well and have not been struck with "Balkan belly", as one of my new co-workers refers to it. Skopje has more of a variety of restaurants than you would think. There's an Indian restaurant that's pretty good and of course the ubiquitous Chinese and Italian places.

I'm still getting a feel for Macedonian food, but it seems to involve a lot of meat. There are also various dishes cooked in earthenware containers. I had some beans that were cooked that way, and also a stew. Here's a picture of the stew in its little pot. I meant to take a picture of the beans too, but I ate them before that was possible!

There's also a salad that's typical of Macedonia, called Shopska salad, and it's basically tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions covered with grated white cheese. The cheese is salty and tastes a lot like feta. I'll post a picture of one later.

Skopje old town

Skopje is made of concrete buildings, but it is also so much more! There is an old part of the city, with little streets and historical sites, and all those wonderful things you get to see when you go to Europe. There's a big fortress, Fortress Kale, which overlooks the rest of the city. It's basically ruins and, like a lot of other things I've seen here, there is a lot of potential which is not being lived up to. It has a great view of the city and wandering around the ruins is interesting, but it is full of litter and there is no way to find out any information about the place. Even so, it's a nice site and a good place to take pictures. The picture to the left here is one I took from the fortress of Mount Vodno, which is where the giant flaming cross lives.

There are some Turkish baths in the old town, too. I didn't go inside, but here they are from the outside.

The other fun parts of the old town are the little windy streets and the big covered market. I went there on a Sunday, so a lot of places were closed and at one point I realized that I was the only woman in sight. I think the old town is mostly inhabited by Albanians, who are Muslims, so maybe that explains the lack of women. I don't have any pictures of the market at the moment, but I will be sure to post them when I do. Going into the market is a pretty intense experience. There are rows and rows of tables and stalls, and different parts of the market sell different things. The fruit and vegetable area is my favorite part. The tables are heaped high with all different kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables, and you walk down the rows and sellers call out to you to try to get you to buy from them. At least, I think that is what they want, but since I don't speak Albanian or Macedonian, they could really be saying anything to me.

The river Vardar

My favorite part of Skopje so far is the river Vardar, which runs through the city. It has a nice path that runs alongside of it where people ride their bikes, rollerblade, and go running, although I get the impression that most of the runners are ex-pats. I've seen several goats grazing on the river banks and I've also seen locals fishing in the river, something which I personally would feel a bit leery about, since the river doesn't seem to be particularly clean. Parts of it are quite nice, but other parts have a lot of litter.

More impressions of Skopje

One thing that you really notice when you come to Skopje is the giant cross that stands on one of the mountains that looks down on the city. You can see it from anywhere in the city and it can be useful for orienting yourself. At night they light it up and it looks like a flaming cross, which was kind of unnerving at first, but I'm used to it now. I've tried to take a picture of it, but because it only lights up at night, it didn't turn out the way I would have liked. Anyway, hopefully you can get the general idea from this photo.

According to my guidebook, the cross was erected in 2002 and is "an overt sign of hostility towards the Albanian minority, who populate the opposite side of the valley." The Albanians feel discriminated against in Macedonia, especially since they haven't been allowed to erect their own monuments where they would like.

Arrival in Macedonia

So after weeks of planning and anxiety, I arrived in Skopje on September 4. I was met at the airiport by J., my contact at the university and G., a taxi driver. I was taken back to my hotel. My first impression of Skopje was that there seemed to be an inordinate amount of concrete buildings, and some of them were pretty strange looking. A particular favorite of mine is the main post office. Every time I see it I try to think of what would be an apt description of it. So far, I've come up with: upside-down spider, space age temple, concrete insect.

Another thing that I noticed right away was the number of stray dogs hanging around. They all seem pretty healthy and tame and they don't seem to bother anyone, although sometimes at night I hear them barking at each other. They tend to hang around outside butcher shops and at restaurants looking for spare scraps of meat and other food. Here's a particularly cute one that we saw at a restaurant. He laid under our table and was so sleepy that he couldn't even be bothered to eat the piece of food we dropped in front of him.

The day after I arrived, the other two new teachers got here. One is from California and the other is from Ireland. So we are all new together and are automatically friends. But aside from that, I do like them and think we're going to get along quite well this year.