Alright, well, it’s been over 2 weeks, so I should probably update you on a few things. The biggest thing I did in the last 2 weeks was I went to Macedonia. Here’s the story of that trip…
A group of about 12 of us teachers decided to take a trip to this really beautiful lake, Lake Ohrid, in Macedonia. The lake is very deep—the deepest lake in the Balkan region, and one of the deepest in Europe. It was a very beautiful place, and reminded me a lot of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Anyway, we had Monday off for Columbus Day. We really think we had it off for Canadian Thanksgiving, since our principal, Charlie, is Canadian, but either way, we didn’t care. We had a 3-day weekend! So we left Saturday morning around 7 am. It was about a 4-5 hour drive, which wasn’t too bad really. We took 2 vehicles—there were about 8 of us in the van, and then 4 in a car. Some of the notables in the group were Scott, Joe, Courtney, Mark, Fellanza, Charlie, and about 4 or 5 others that most of you don’t know cuz I’ve never mentioned them.
We arrived in the early afternoon, but it was raining. It pretty much rained all day that Saturday. It kind of sucked actually. Plus it was cold. Like, 40’s for temperatures. Ugh. Anyway, we made the most of our time there. The first day we went around the city, did some shopping, grabbed a coffee (like always—getting a coffee is a VERY popular thing to do here. I do it sometimes, but usually only on vacation), and visited a few museums. The first museum was a paper museum. Yes, it may sound boring, but I thought it was really neat seeing how old paper was made. First, they grind up wood into teeny tiny little pieces. Then, they mix it in water. They take a rectangular screen and collect the tree/water mix from a tub, then place it onto a drying rack. Initially, the “piece of paper” just looks like a really thin piece of some sort of slimy yellow snotty mix, but after it dries for 21 days, it’s a pretty solid piece of paper. Much thicker than today’s paper, but nonetheless, it’s amazing to think that someone ever thought of this idea on how to make paper. They also had an original printing press there, from like the 1700s or something, which I found really interested.
The next museum was full of old Roman and Greek artifacts. There were stones, knives, coins, trinkets, and many other types of artifacts. Some of these things were from B.C. times! Wowza! Growing up in the US, you don’t usually see something over 500 years old, let alone 2000 years old. My favorite part of this museum, though, was when the tour was over, another teacher, David, and I hung around and talked to our local tour guide for awhile. First, we were asking him history questions, about the Balkan region. All I have to say is WOW. I never realized how complicated a region’s history can be. Everyone claims that every part of this region used to be theirs. It’s madness. And a lot of them still hold a grudge today over this—examples: Serbia/Kosova, Macedonia/Greece, Macedonia/Kosova and Albania. Then he started telling David and me about his personal feelings on all the local issues. I won’t go too in-depth on them, but basically it opened my eyes and made me realize that all the stuff I hear from local Albanians about the rest of the region is definitely their opinion, because this guy made it sound like a lot of people don’t really care for some of the Kosovars and Albanians… I like to hear both sides of the story, and there’s really no way of ever hearing someone’s opinion unless you talk with them one-on-one, so I was really glad I talked to this guy for awhile. He was very polite and respectful to us—I have a feeling he wouldn’t have been as open or nice if an Albanian would’ve been along with us…
Anyway, we all went out for dinner together that night, then had a few beers at a few bars, and then called it a night. I think it was about midnight when we went to bed. The next day we got up and decided to travel about an hour down the lakeside to the Monastary of St. Naum. St. Naum was an Orthodox Saint and built the monastery himself in the year 905. Yes, that’s right—905, not 1905. Like I said, it’s so cool here cuz everything is so old! Anyway, Sunday wasn’t very rainy, but it was WINDY! And being on the edge of lake, when it’s cold and windy out, it’s not a very fun experience. We tried to make our visit here quick. The scenery was cool, but you had to pay to go into the church, and I can’t remember what it was, but it was more than I wanted to pay, so I didn’t go. We just walked around for a little while, had a coffee, then left.
That evening, once we got back, Joe, Courtney and I decided to hike up this huge hill in the middle of town where there is a castle. As we walked up, we passed a really old amphitheater. Once we got to the top, the sun FINALLY peaked out from the clouds, which was the perfect time to see it. The castle was really cool! It had towers and long walkways, going from tower to tower. Not sure how old it was, but I’m sure it was like 1,000 years or so, since everything is that old over here. After we got done exploring the castle, we went for pizza, Joe, Courtney, and I, then met back up with everyone else. The Brewer game was on this Sunday night, and since Joe had his computer with him and our hotel had Wi-Fi, we just sat the rest of the night and watched the game in Joe and Courtney’s room. The game was played in Milwaukee, so we won of course. Looking back, I think it was game 1 of the Cardinal’s series… we won’t talk anymore about that series.
The next day (Monday) we got up, got some breakfast, and I went and bought a Macedonian soccer jersey, since that’s kind of my thing to do when I visit new countries. Then we left around noon, and started heading back to Prishtina. It was a really nice trip overall, even though the weather was kinda crappy. I will definitely go back to Ohrid again, hopefully in the summer when it’s warm and you can actually swim in the lake.
Since that weekend, nothing too crazy has been going on. We decided for Thanksgiving break we’re going to go to Turkey (how fitting, eh?). We’ll be going there for 4 nights, 5 days, a group of about 10 of us. Should be a blast, although I don’t think it’ll be very warm, and I recently read that Istanbul gets more rain per year than London, and November is the 2nd rainiest month in Istanbul, so yeah, we’ll see how that goes. Last week we went to trivia—we only got 4th though… grrrr! But we got the most right in the music round, so we got free shots… yay!
The weather's been getting a little chillier lately--nights are in the 20's and 30's, and some of the days have only been in the low 50's or upper 40's. However, this week the weather was nicer--only 40's at night and 60's during the day. So I wear a jacket in the morning, but when I go outside later in the day, I really don't need it. I don't think this weather is going to last for much longer though--it'll start getting very cold. And apparently some people said there were little flakes of snow falling last Sunday morning. I didn't see it, but it was cold enough where they could've been there...
Last weekend I didn’t do too much. Friday night I felt sick, so I just stayed home and relaxed. Saturday night we went to a fundraiser event, drank some beer, then at 2 am I went to my friend Drew’s house to watch the Badger game. I didn’t get home until 6 am on Sunday morning, since the game went really late. That’s all I’m going to say about the game. I’m still heartbroken over it…
But at least the Packer’s are doing awesome! My Badgers and Brewer’s have been faltering or are done, but the Pack is kicking butt! I’ve been watching almost every game this year so far. I think the only one I missed was the first one, vs. the Saints, but that was at like 3 am on a Friday morning so that wasn’t an easy one to watch. This week they have a bye, so no biggie. This weekend (tomorrow night, Friday) we have a party at our principal’s house. Saturday night I heard the US Embassy is having a costume party, so I might have to go out on the town and find something creative to whip up. Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Oh, about school—once again, I love my students, but the rest of the school has been quite unorganized, and there are a lot of teachers, including myself, that are getting quite frustrating with some things, including our class load. We signed a contract for 5 out of 7 periods to teach, then we get here and they’re making us teach 6 out of 7. 45 minutes a day for planning is pretty short—I find myself staying at school most nights from 2:30 (when school is done) until 5 or 6 pm. It sucks. But anyway, I hope it will only get easier. Oh, and I finally got my x-box live account working, so now I can play x-box with my cousin Andy back in WI. Granted, the time difference is difficult to deal with, and it’s a little laggy sometimes, but we still have fun, and it’s nice to talk to him for a few hours here and there. Ok, seriously, that’s all for now!
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