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. . .