First Week of School

I started teaching!!! My first class I had 17 students enrolled and only 5 showed up (the whole week). My elective class has 30 signed up and I had 17 show up. The elective class is public speaking and they are very active, which is great. I know that it will be a great class. My other class is English Skills. The students are what we consider Seniors. Next semester they will graduate. It’s hard to tell what the class will be like because the students that bothered to show up the first week are the cream of the crop, so there’s no telling what the other 12 will be like. I might have an idea by a guy that came on Thursday. He showed up 10 minutes late. The other students were filling out a survey, so I gave him the survey, and then we moved on to a timed writing. He didn’t do the timed writing, instead he completed the survey and asked me if he could leave. What could I have said? He’s a grown man; I can’t say no! He ended up leaving after being in my class for about five minutes. Let me describe his appearance and what he said on his survey. He was wearing all white, with a shirt that said “Husla”, and a headband that was like this /\/\/\/\/\/\ (remember those, they’re kind of old). His answer to what are your long-term goals was “to become a star”!!!! His interests were working out, and hang out. He marked all of his English skills as poor. Remember, this guy is a Senior and in theory would be teaching English next year!!! I’m getting excited because the graduate course starts next week. I can see that my challenge for this semester will be providing material that is a challenge for the top students, while keeping the lower students from drowning. Wish me luck!

FOOD

I went to “Beverly Hills” today. It’s a shopping center that is kind of high class. There is the one and only place that sells tofu. I bought 3 blocks and some energy bars. I came home and prepared it with a red curry sauce. It was really gross. So I thought “who cares, I’ll have cereal tonight”. I prepared a bowl of cereal and took one bite, the milk I bought today was sour. I’ve been really frustrated not being able to eat a full meal. My oven is broken. I must have been craving protein because I wanted eggs this morning. It’s to the point that I might have to resort to an occasional meat to keep myself healthy. Yes. It’s in writing. I’m tired of eating bananas and peanut butter. The first thing I want when I get to California is a large cold glass of milk. mmmmm Sounds sooooo good. ☹

Cream Sauce...

Finally, I’m feeling better. Yesterday, I think I had the flu or some type of bug. I was in bed all day. I’ve never slept so much in my life. Today, I don’t feel 100%, but I feel better. I’m optimistic about tomorrow. It seemed as though everything hit at once. After I threw up, my electricity went out, and then I called John-Paul and my credits ran out on my phone, so I couldn’t use my landline because the electricity was out. It was one of those days. Everything worked out though. John-Paul came to my rescue. He brought bananas, medicine, water, and some movies.

Enough about me being sick. A funny story, which would happen probably anywhere in the world because people can be ignorant when it comes to being a vegetarian. Christina and I went to a pub/café a couple of days ago. It had a vegetarian section! I was so excited. I had some questions for the waiter. I asked what the cream sauce was mixed with vegetables. I asked does it have animals? Meat? He said no. So I asked one last time, no animals? He said no, just bones. o_0 HAHA! I said, so it’s not vegetarian? He shrugged his shoulders and said, well I guess not. I now know that cream sauce means gravy. :P Just another day in the life of a vegetarian.

Tetovo and my new apartment!

I wrote this on different days because I didn't have the internet for a while. Enjoy!

Today I arrived in Tetovo, which is where the city is. I woke up this morning with a little cold and that took my emotions for a roller coaster. I took a bus to this city and then went to the supermarket with Bruce, who also lives on campus. He’s from the states. Bruce is very passionate about helping the dogs. He has two that follow him around campus. I bought a ton of things for my dorm. I still can’t believe how cheap it is and it makes me feel guilty for some reason. I will return tomorrow by myself to make sure I know how to get around before all the students show up. I found something I need. Bug spray! I watched a movie on my laptop and when I got up to go to the bathroom I saw three roaches!!! Two were…not small. I was a little hesitant to live here because the guy who worked here last year lived in this dorm and he just disappeared, so some of his things are still here and it hasn’t been touch in about nine months.

After having a conversation with Bruce and John-Paul, I know a lot more about Macedonia, and the university. In case you don’t know, Macedonia used to be a communist country, so everyone worked, and basically didn’t care about their job because of the security of always having it. At the university there are two basic types: good and lazy. There are the people who are helpful and great at their job, and there are people who are lazy, don’t really care about anything, and make you run in circles. Why don’t they get fired? Because they have a connection to the university, some political connection. What is the result of this? Some people who are actually qualified to have a position are rejected because they don’t have a connection. This is the reason why there isn’t an academic semester already planned (finals didn’t work last year and they’re not planned for this semester), etc. Another result of the past is that students don’t have good work ethics because their parents don’t or didn’t. I’m told students are going to show up late, not do their work, and then cry after they get their grades and ask me to change it. I’ll let you know how much of this is true after I start teaching, which I can’t wait for!

I’ve finally moved into my own apartment. It is very nice. I live about five minutes walking to the major grocery store and about five minutes from my Irish colleague Ben. My landlord is nice. She is well educated. She’s a lawyer and her husband is Montenegrin and an Engineer. Since I’ve been in Macedonia, I’ve thought of some things to be thankful for in California:

1. Flushing toilet paper in the toilet (not having to throw it way in the trash!)
2. Not being asked “Sparkling or still water” (If I wanted gas in my water I would have ordered soda!)
3. Having lines dividing the lanes in the streets. (People drive crazy!)
4. Having a stable shower. (a showerhead that doesn’t face out of the shower, but in the direction you stand)
5. Nobody smoking everywhere you go!!!

Other than those things, I am enjoying this country and look forward to compiling a list of the things I love here.

Greetings from Macedonia!

It didn’t really hit me that I was leaving until I arrived to the airport and was told to pay an enormous amount for my luggage. If my mom hasn’t told you already, I had to pay $762 for overweight and excess luggage, okay, okay, my parents eventually had to, but it still was A LOT!!! All of my flights went well. In fact, the food was fantastic on all the flights. As a sort of welcome to Europe, I noticed how good-looking Europeans are as they were taking their seats on the plane. I was then feeling guilty about the snickers bar I bought and held off on eating it, until a girl sat next to me mid way during the flight and ate a candy bar. She was a cute thin Slovakian, so why not indulge with her? I finally arrived to Skopje and customs was nothing. I couldn’t believe how easy it was.

The country is absolutely beautiful. I haven’t figured out the language yet, the script isn’t helping much. I did learn a new word today. Sit. I was walking to the town center, about a 45 minute walk. It was around 9 am. There were a lot of older men and couples walking. It’s in the open also, so I wasn’t worried. As I was walking, there was a man on a bench (as there was on several benches I had passed). I glance at him and made eye contact, and then noticed his pants were open and he was fondling himself. That’s when I learned the word sit because he said “Sadeuch”. I remembered the word and thought it was some awful meaning, so when I came back to the hotel I asked the receptionist who is my Macedonian consultant. She said it meant sit, so the man wanted me to sit next to him while he enjoyed himself. I know it was very disgusting, but it’s kind of comical looking back and it’s something I won’t forget. Also, there are many stray dogs, harmless, but sad. I counted seven on my walk today. They just lay around and some look for food. They don’t follow people. I was thinking “Thank God Brandi isn’t here, her heart would be broken and so would her wallet from trying to save these dogs.”

Other than that I had a great day with the new friends I’ve meet. The other girl from the states is great. We clicked right away. She has a lot of view points that I do, she loves coffee. Who can’t get a long with someone like that? Tomorrow I will go to the university and put my stuff in the room, but return to the capital to have dinner with more colleagues. I have a phone number that I will write below. You might want to ask my mom how to call exactly. I better get to sleep now. I love you all and miss you.