Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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.

Monday, October 29, 2007

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:

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

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.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

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.






























Wednesday, October 17, 2007

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.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

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!

Sunday, October 7, 2007

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.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

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

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

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.

Monday, October 1, 2007

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. . .