The Last December

Well, it's the start of the "lasts" - this will be (barring a change in plans) my last December in Macedonia; and so on into my last year.

It's already snowed (a lot) and more snow is expected today, sneg (Macedonian for "snow") is definitely something I will not miss.  I will miss a lot of other things about Macedonia: the rural beauty, the close-knit communities, the sheer safety (I've never felt as safe in America as I do here - the benefits of a small country where everyone knows everyone, i.e. you mug me, your mom, grandma, aunts, etc... will all hear about it), the trust and sincerity, I think I'll even miss my 1-mile walk to work everyday.

Of course I look forward to getting back to America and getting back to typical American work, schedules, pace, etc. (who knew I would miss all that - what can I say, I am a product of my American existence).

I do hope to take back appreciation with me.  Appreciation of relationships.  Appreciation of slowing down.  Appreciation of holding onto things and not just falling back into my old disposable American lifestyle.

I have already learned one thing for sure, there's a big, wide wonderful world out there.  It's worth checking out.

*fyi, sorry for no photos. my camera broke.

From Macedonia to America and back.

According to the calendar today is November 5th, hard to believe considering I spent less than 2 full weeks in Macedonia between Sept. 1 - Nov. 1.

Seemingly ages ago (Sept. 7th) I flew up to Croatia for a short trip along the southern Dalmatian coast. I spent the first night in Croatia in the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik. It was a beautiful city, although it was overrun with tourists and very over-priced. From Dubrovnik I ventured up the coast to the tiny coastal village of Ston. Ston was a strategic salt producer back in the days of spices, and as such was protected by a series of stone walls that run along the hills above the town. Today there's not much left to the town except for the salt and oyster (mmm..) works and the ancient stone wall, and on September 9th the town hosted the Ston Wall marathon. It was a beautiful, and brutal (think of a marathon with 4-5 Ks taking place on a stairmaster) race, definitely one of the coolest experiences I've had yet.
From Ston I went further down the coast, past Dubrovnik, to the town of Cavtat. In retrospect Cavtat was without a doubt the best town to stay and visit, it's filled with water-front shops and restaurants without the crush of tourists that Dubrovnik suffers.

Less than a week after I returned from Croatia, I was back in Skopje to board a flight bound for Washington, D.C. (via Zagreb > Frankfurt > Philly). The medical officers in Peace Corps determined that I needed to have surgery to correct my damaged hand tendons from way back in January. At first things seemed to be moving along like clockwork in DC; I met my hand surgeon for a consultation 2 days after I landed and was in surgery the next morning. Unfortunately there is a lot of physical therapy that goes along with ligament and tendon repair, so I was marooned in DC for the next 5 weeks for rehab. Aside from my 2 PT appointments each week I had no other obligations in DC, so what is a guy to do with 5 weeks of "weekend"? Turns out lots of eating and drinking, with some sight-seeing thrown in to mix things up. Even that got boring though. I ended up doing completely random things like going to a Georgetown football game (yes, they have a team) and joining some members of the Georgetown triathlon team for runs. I also got to travel quite a bit; I made 2 trips to Philly and a trip to Texas to visit Austin and Dallas. Finally, as the week of my release and return arrived, a slight hurricane (Sandy) decided to throw a wrench in things. Luckily my flight was scheduled for Wednesday, the day after Sandy blew through.

Now, back in Strumica, I feel like I'm getting re-acclimated to Macedonia all over again. Lucky or unlucky timing, I am headed to Istanbul this Saturday for a trip that was planned months before I knew I'd be going to D.C. for 6 weeks. Oh well, I gotta travel while I can. After Istanbul I'll be grounded for a while, and hopefully diving into some serious projects here in Macedonia.

Happy Holidays all.

Dubrovnik walls and fortress, at night:

Driving down the Dalmatian coast:

Checking out the Zagreb Cathedral during my layover:

The walls above Ston, Croatia:

View from my room in Cavtat:

Cavtat, Croatia:

Trying to make it to the top of the Ston wall @the Ston Wall marathon:

Hand, post-op:

Where did the summer go?

Yeah, it's been a while since I last posted, in my defense it is summer here so the slow pace of life slows even more, and that includes my blogging.

As for what's been happening since my last post in May...In June I traveled and then traveled some more.
The first weekend of June I joined a group of other PC volunteers for a trip to Mavrovo National Park. The next weekend another Peace Corps volunteer and I took a trip to Sofia, Bulgaria. We caught the one daily bus from Strumica (at 3am) and stayed with a former Bulgaria PC volunteer who has since returned to continue to work/volunteer in Bulgaria. As for Sofia the city - it's interesting. It's big, so there are nice neighborhoods, ex-pat neighborhoods, and a lotta rough hoods. The great thing about staying with a local was that he knew where all the good places were and showed us all the interesting "local" spots we otherwise never would have found, such as Hambara (The Barn) a completely unmarked bar tucked down an alley that was only lit by candle light. My final opinion of Sofia is I'm glad I went, but once was enough.

From Sofia we boarded an all-night bus to Struga, Macedonia to attend a week of PC training meetings. Our meetings were held in a great hotel on the shores of Lake Ohrid, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Between the meetings all day and the socializing into the night I tried to find what I could find in the surrounding area, I really wanted to see if I could somehow make it into Albania on foot. I failed. I did make it to the border on the lake shore, but there was no crossing, merely an imposing barrier which looked impossible and impossibly stupid to try to scale. I did stumble across an amazing, picturesque village on the coast called Radozda, I was so impressed I had to cajole others to return with me the next day and share some drinks in a village cafe.

A week after returning from Struga I traveled to Salzburg, Austria. Salzburg was great and terrible. The terrible parts being the travel there (I had to travel to Thessaloniki, Greece then fly to Dusseldorf, Germany then to Salzburg. Macedonia and Greece don't get along, so just traveling to Greece was an adventure), and the tourists. Holy #$%. Yeah, it was June and sure Salzburg is known for Mozart and The Sound of Music, but I was shocked by the number of tourists, easily 2:1 tourists to Salzburgians. And Salzburg is a pretty small city (150K), so it was impossible to escape the masses. Salzburg without the tourists would be amazing.

After my June wanderlust I stayed put in Macedonia for the remainder of the summer and actually did some work. In July I did get the opportunity to participate in an archeological excavation outside the village of Sveti Nikola. It was hot, back-breaking, unglamorous (you lied to me Indiana Jones) work, but it was pretty rad to be standing on the remains of a city from ~500 B.C.

Well, that pretty much sums up my 1st summer in Macedonia. Next week I'm heading north to Dubrovnik, Croatia, then the week after that I'm headed back to the USofA!

Mavrovo Nat'l Park

Sofia (so many things about this photo scream "eastern europe")

View of Lake Ohrid from my hotel room in Struga, Macedonia

May Malaise

It's been a banner month of May. First I lost my Kindle, then my shoes and Friday night I lost my pride.

My apartment door happens to lock automatically and it's on a hair trigger, seriously it slams shut if you break wind near it. Anyways, Friday night I went to take out my trash and before I could grab my keys from the inside lock the door shut on me. After pondering my options (of which there were none), I introduced myself to my neighbors, who speak no english; not surprisingly they have a key to my apartment. Nevertheless since my keys where in the inside lock it was impossible to unlock my door from the outside. So after asking me 37 different ways in Russian why I was so stupid as to close my door with the keys in the lock on the inside, they proceeded to invite me into their apartment while we waited for my landlord, where I was offered my fill of rakia (booze) and cigarettes.

Eventually, after watching half an hour of Turkish soap operas and a few shots, my landlord showed up...only to encounter the same predicament. The next idea was to attempt to beat open my door (which aroused the interest of every other person in my building, who all wanted to know why I would do such a stupid, stupid thing. To which I just shook my head and said I was a "глупав американски" (gloopav americanski = stupid American)). Quickly realizing that I have the Ft. Knox of front doors our attention turned to my balcony (which was also locked), luckily for me though my balcony door proved a little more inviting to B&E than my front. Finally after taking nearly 2 hours and a village (or at least an apartment building's worth) of assistance, my neighbors and I scaled my balcony with some crowbars and determination and removed my door. Simple.

On a positive note, all my neighbors know me now. And I was invited to go out with some people the next night, which proved both awesome and exhausting. We went to a bar and saw a band (a blues/rock cover band, it was like Roadhouse), then when the band finished at 1:00 we went to a pub, when the pub closed at 2:00 we went to a disco, when the disco closed at 4:00 we went home. Finally. I am still tired.

Here's to June.

Riding the Cobblestone highway

Returning home last week, slightly nauseous from riding on the upper level of the ~40 year old double-decker bus with no A/C and a bone-jarring ride from the 15-mile cobblestone road that happens to be the main artery to Strumica, I realized that I had not updated my ol' blog in a while.  I guess I'm due.

It's been a busy month, by far my busiest time here thus far.  Briefly, April 1st I joined the crazy trail-running club for another run through the mountains, but we were hit by a freak cold front half way through our trek and had to book it back down the hills so we didn't freeze our asses off.  A few days after that I took an assortment of buses, taxis and combis (vans) across the country to make it to beautiful Lake Ohrid for some required PC training.  The next weekend was Easter (according to the Orthodox calendar), so we had a 4 day weekend and I made a trip with my counterpart and his wife to the Bulgarian border.  Finally the weekend after that I took an old, and by old I mean OLD, train from Skopje, Macedonia to Belgrade, Serbia.  It may be only 277 miles from Skopje to Belgrade, but the train takes ~9 hours, luckily it rumbles all night so I slept, read and relaxed in my empty car.

As for Belgrade itself, what an unexpected awesome city.  I know it's not at the top of most people's travel  lists, but it's a great place.  Very bohemian with many pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and lots of history, both old and not so old.  As the one-time capital of Yugoslavia and the current capital of Serbia, it receives more than it's fair share of government investment, so it's also a manicured, well-kept place.  While there I re-decided to run the Belgrade Marathon.  By 're-decided' I mean that I had registered to run it when it was scheduled for a Saturday morning, but 2 weeks before the race the organizers decided to bump it to Sunday.  Because this would, theoretically, interfere with my Saturday happy-time and Sunday travel plans, I had planned to skip it.  Well,.... following Saturday night's, booze-induced logic and bravado, I was convinced to "give it a shot".  Woe to whoever had to run downwind from me, I'm certain I reeked like a brewery, although maybe not too bad because I also noticed that in my dehydrated state I was not sweating nearly as profusely as the other runners/normal humans.  Luckily my kidneys and I survived the run, but I learned a valuable lesson on how not to prep for a marathon.

In other events, I moved to a new home at the end of April.  It's an apartment in an old Yugoslav-era housing block, but to me it's the Taj Mahal.  It has this amazing machine that washes my clothes.  The joy of not having to wash my clothes by hand any longer cannot be undersold.  Five months of doing that was 5 months too long, I'm not sure I could have toughed it out for 2 years.  Of course it's not perfect, I have no Internet access and no water in my kitchen, but no worries.  It's funny how the PC is supposed to be about increasing the capacity of locals, but instead it's increasing my own capacity for patience.  Whereas in America I'd be pitching a fit if my kitchen had no water, here it ain't nothin' but a thing.  No water, no worries.

On the work front things have been hectic as well.  May 31st marks the application deadline for some EU development funds so we are feverishly putting together 4 project applications.  Beyond the byzantine bureaucracy that is the EU and all of the paperwork that that entails, we have also had to travel to the capital Skopje and to various places in Greece for partner meetings.  I'm holding my fingers and crossing my breath that at least 2 of our projects get approved.

I guess that's about all from Macedonia for now.  Next month is going to be quite busy as well.  The first weekend of June I'm joining some other PCVs to visit Mavrovo Nat'l Park, then the next weekend a friend and I are paying a visit to Sofia, BG (I hear tales of Starbucks there), immediately after that I have to head to the lakeside town of Struga for a week of training, and finally at the end of June I'm making a trip to Salzburg, Austria.
Needless to say hopefully my next post will include better photos and maybe juicy gossip and such..,

Beautiful Lake Ohrid

Orthodox Easter tradition. Everyone gathers outside the church at midnight (then we crack each other's eggs)

Sweet mural art around Belgrade

St. Michael's Cathedral, Belgrade

the Kalemegdan (old Belgrade fortress, built ~535)

buildings hit by the NATO bombings in 1999, the old Yugoslav Ministry of Defence. They are left as a memorial.

Yep, Belgrade.

The Cathedral of Saint Sava. The largest church in the Balkans, it is big.

A waking life

The most difficult and the best thing about being here in Macedonia is that I only exist in 3 states.

1. It's so amazing that I am here. Living this.
2. What the Hell am I doing here?!
3. Forget everything else, just try to make it to tomorrow.

Okay, perhaps it's not the state of minds that are difficult, it's the fact that I am lucid of them.  I no longer think of such breezy things as seeing my friends, going to a game, eating at a great restaurant, seeing a movie, or even chance meeting a girl.  But the longer I'm here I hope the less all that matters.
Sitting on this precipice, believing in the in-between...I hope I don't fall in it.

Over the hills and into the woods

Well Spring is in full swing here.  With a week's worth of warm weather under our belt Strumica truly has emerged from it's winter hibernation, and I've been the busiest since my arrival.

-Over the hills.

I was able to connect with a group of trekkers/hikers/ultra-marathoners (call them what you will) who invited me to join them on one of their training trail runs in the mountains.  I accepted the invite (ego and age can be a hazardous combination), and set off at 4am last Saturday to see if I could keep up.  After catching a bus to Shtip and then catching a ride to Veles, the team got dropped off at the starting point near the village of Kamen Dol.  Only 23 miles and 5,740 feet of elevation change later we made it to our finish, all in one piece.

• The route profile:

• The team:

-Into the woods.

This past Saturday was a little less strenuous physically but no less mentally.  I, with a barrel of assistance from some high school students, hosted a regional spelling bee qualifier for the National Spelling Bee in Skopje.  For 3 hours Saturday we ran students from 5th-8th grade through a spelling bee gauntlet, and mercy was for the weak.  Of the ~45 students that participated, 11 qualified for the National Spelling Bee, that means they went through 10 rounds of getting 1 chance to spell an English word correctly in front of a room of peers, teachers, and 2 Americans.  One mistake and they were eliminated.  Needless to say, I was very impressed - but I also hope to never host another spelling bee for the reason that telling the students that they had misspelled a word and were disqualified was a new, miserable experience.  Teachers, I have a whole new respect for you.

The Sun Also Rises

Finally, finally, after weeks on end of mind-numbing cold, glacial ice and dump trucks of snow the winter finally appears to have come to an end (ok, light snow is forecasted for Thursday).
After being cooped up for too long my anxiousness was anxious to get outside as much as possible last weekend, so I thought "how far can I realistically 'get out'?"..... forgetting, or just ignoring, the fact that I'm over-the-hill and not minding the ~15 lbs I've gained here, I thought 'why not just run to the Koleshino Waterfalls!?  So, I did.  12 miles later I made it to....

While it was well worth it on Saturday, the pounding my usually desk-bound feet took is taking a toll.  Let's just say I am really, really hoping that the pain in my right foot is just a sprain and not a fracture. (dammit)

In other events, Strumica held the annual Lent carnival on Saturday, Feb. 25.  It was a pretty wild party and about 30,000 visitors filled up the town, essentially doubling the pop for the weekend.  Unfortunately other than some disturbingly low-altitude fireworks I didn't capture many photos.
Strumica sparkling before the Carnival parade:

Fireworks!

Pozdrav,
FS

The Real Peace Corps

I'm reposting this from another blog.  This guy writes a great summation; and replace "Ethiopia" with "Macedonia" (or any other PC country as you can see from the replies on his blog), and it's still presciently accurate.

The Real Peace Corps

I feel as though I’ve done somewhat of a disservice throughout this blog. I’ve painted a picture of my time here that isn’t precisely accurate. I’m an emotional person, romantic, optimistic to a fault. I like extremes and superlatives. I exaggerate in an attempt to draw the reader in, and to make sense of things I can’t make sense of.
I romanticize this experience as a function of my personality but also as a coping mechanism. Peace Corps is really hard.
So I want to write about the real Ethiopia. And the real Peace Corps experience. That way, if a future volunteer reads this, they understand what to expect, and won’t hate me for only showing sunset pictures and kids holding hands.
So what should you expect?
Nothing is the best answer. Expect nothing and you will be pleasantly surprised. Every experience is different. My friend Jon lives 80 miles away. Our lives could not be more different. His house has no floor save for the mud it was built on. He is lucky to have power one day out of the week.  My sitemate Dave lives 200 meters from my house and our experiences are entirely different.
So here are some observations, a look into what I do, and an idea of what your potential service will look like.
Peace Corps is defined by a strange dichotomy. Freedom and containment. I wake up every day with a blank slate. I can do anything. I can do nothing. And while the possibilities are only limited by my own imagination, the ability to do as I please is corrupted by a number of social, political, and cultural practices.
Case in point: Most volunteers assume they will run to let off steam in their new country. However, running here is a cause of stress more so than a release. You get stared at as a foreigner here. These are stares that know no shame. Stares that you can feel without seeing. They are honest and curious stares, but can crack even the kindest of spirits. But a foreigner in shorts? Running? That is unheard of.  Running here means being followed by hordes of children, the last thing you need when trying to let off steam.
I want to export coffee to benefit local farmers and provide an organic alternative to the Starbucks mess we have back home. The bureaucratic structure here has destroyed those dreams. Disappointment is part of the PC experience.
Doing something like the Peace Corps will be your lowest of lows and your highest of highs. Highs that shatter your previous world views.  You will feel refreshed, walk in a forest and quote Thoreau. The lows can last so long that you need a fleeting moment of existentialism just to make it through the rainy season. Well, that, and a ton of movies. You will consider going home. You will count down the days until you leave. You will count up from the day you arrived.
“I can’t believe we’ve been here for a year.”
“I can’t believe we’ll be here another year!”
You will understand yourself, question yourself. Compare where you came from to where you are. I have days when I miss America. I have days when I loathe it. Why do people care about Charlie Sheen and Amy Winehouse? How many marines died last week? How many kids in the horn of Africa died of hunger? I can’t even imagine dying of hunger. When I’m hungry, I eat.
But I eat strange food. Ethiopian food is unlike anything else in the world. Sometimes it is delicious, but most times it is very mediocre. Other times, it is so incredibly bad that I consider burning down every plant that grows whatever the hell is in ‘gunfo’
Don’t try gunfo.
Universally, Peace Corps volunteers crave food. I have dreams about it. Vivid dreams where I belly flop into a bowl of ice cream off of a hot fudge brownie diving board. Sushi. I have a long distance relationship with Sushi and we are not communicating well.
As volunteers, we love to complain. We joke about our poop and our pooping locations. We laugh about smelling bad.
We smell bad.
We yearn for hot showers. But I think it’s just for show. Any volunteer, more so than food or showers, miss people and places. You will miss friends and seasons. During your service, you will be alone on the Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving. You will miss your family, your really hot girlfriend, and the contextual clues you associate with fond memories. I know what the Chesapeake bay feels like on thanksgiving. I can feel the football, and taste the sweet potato pie. I know what Glebe Park looks like, the green asphalt and the smell of cut grass.
You will be stared at 24/7 365. I understand what it’s like to be a good-looking girl at a frat party. Stay strong ladies.
You will develop an eerie sense of calm. I’ve spent 75 hours in the last two weeks on a bus. The DMV will be a breeze now. I’ve found new and embarrassing ways to entertain myself. I could watch paint dry and be perfectly happy.
One of the great things about Peace Corps is you have a massive amount of time to become a better person. The best advice I can give is to try and do something everyday to improve upon yourself. For some people this is writing or reading. For others it is teaching English or working out. Learn an instrument or paint. Do whatever works for you, but know this: You will stare at the wall. I stare at the wall a lot. I’ve had every thought someone can have. Probably twice.
Transportation completely sucks.
I just got out of a bus with 12 seats on it. There were 25 people on it. There were two chickens and probably 20 kilo’s of rancid butter. Here’s a quck letter:
Dear Ethiopia,It’s ok to open the windows on the bus. I promise you won’t die from the wind. I promise it’s not that cold. Currently, sweat is running down my lower back and into the danger zone. My sweat is sweating. Fresh air is nothing to be scared of. Tuberculosis is. As much as I like saunas and the smell of chicken feces, can we please crack the window’s for 2 minutes? I will love you forever.Yours truly,MichaelThere is no average day.
Last week, my Tuesday was crazy. I had a meeting with the tourism office about making them a website. I taught a man how to make guacemole and tortillas which he will sell in his store. I played basketball, added a layer to a clay oven and worked on the newsletter I am writing for Peace Corps.
The next day? I slept in, watched a silly amount of the show ‘Dexter’ and checked my fantasy baseball team while the internet was up. Yeah, I’m cool.
There will be times when, despite your pictures of you hugging little kids, you just want to tackle one of them and scream, my name is NOT,
“you you you!!!!!, give me money!!!!!!”
In America we ask for the time. Here, we ask for the month. It’s the most obvious difference. The pace of life here is slow, methodical, cyclical. Everything takes a long time. If you aren’t a patient person you will become one.
Life here is completely different. It is another world, lost in space and time. It is hard, and the little annoyances can manifest themselves into a black cloud. They certainly will, but it is important to make note of the small victories and the little moments. When I open my eyes I am reminded of why I am here. Just when I think a kid is running up to me to ask me for money, she tells me that she loves me and blows a kiss. But then I get on a bus and start crying. I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere with a busted engine. It’s getting dark, I have a chicken in my lap and personal space at this point is a distant memory. People are yelling into their cell phones, begging me to speak to them and take them to America. Oh and the only food in the town by the road is Gunfo.
And when you are feeling down, just remember to go outside and let Africa save you.

Remember in times like this to take a deep breath. Peace Corps really is a roller coaster. An exhilarating and scary ride that completely sucks and totally kicks ass.

Somewhere between Mayberry and Mars

In the span of a few hours yesterday I oscillated between being asked and explaining what the Super Bowl was to being informed that I need to make the short trip to Thessaloniki, Greece because they have an IKEA and H&M, of course.  The extreme disparities and similarities between typical American life continue to keep me off balance.  Well, that and the extreme Siberian arctic beat down that's come to pass in Eastern Europe.  How the ancient Macedonians survived in mere loin clothes and capes only proves their bad-assery, it's no wonder Alexander the Great was able to conquer the known world.

In other news, it's February and only 3 short weeks until the Strumica Carnival, the Lent festival of Macedonia.  Here's to hoping winter will break before then and I can finally start to see Strumica in full bloom.
Work-wise things are really starting to pick up as well.  I had a great Sunday night meeting with our mayor; a very progressive man who has been beyond supportive.  We are planning on numerous branding, marketing, and community development projects - at this rate it is going to be a busy and exciting 2 years.  Lookin' forward to it.

To everyone in America, enjoy your unending Indian summer - it's gives me hope that the Sun hasn't burnt out.

First few months in MACEDONIA...(enjoy the music)

Ratcheting up and breaking down

After about a month the holiday season is finally winding down here.  Macedonia enjoys a mixture of Catholic and Orthodox christians, and as such we celebrate according to both the Gregorian and Julian calendars.  Yes, that means we do get 2 Christmases and 2 NYEs!  I hope this is a tradition I can bring back with me to the States - just think, you could "re-gift" all the meh gifts on the second Christmas and reconsider all those New Years resolutions on NYE II.  A holiday re-do.  Brilliant.

As for my own misadventures, I've been managing to manage through the cold and snow.  We have had a surprising amount of snow here in Strumica (well, surprising to me), and we are only ~75 miles from the Aegean Sea.  Really, it's not the cold outdoors that's so unbearable, it's the fact that it's colder indoors.  There's some mysterious winter tipping point when the houses begin to retain the cold air and not the warm, needless to say central heating is racing up the 'things-I-miss-the-most' list.

Aside from the cold I've done some traveling, both expected and unexpected.  For American Christmas I travelled to the small town of Makendonska Kamenica near the Bulgarian border.  Christmas was shared at the home of a local volunteer with a handful of fellow PCVs from around Macedonia.  Good food, good drink, good catching up and good cheer all around.

As for the unexpected travel.  I managed to make it through 2011 and my first few months in Macedonia unscathed; welcome 2012 and the wheels fall off.  The first week of the new year I accomplished tearing and dislocating some of the tendons in my right hand.  I figured I could just rub some dirt on it, tape things in place, and by morning I'd be right as rain.  Reality bites.  The next morning (orthodox Christmas eve), my hand was as wrong as warm mayonnaise.
I emailed the PC medical office some photos of my hand hoping for some magical macedonian medical fix, instead I got a call telling me I need to catch a bus to the capital Skopje, ASAP.  So ~5 hours later, after a 4 hour bus ride across the country through a Christmas eve snowstorm, I'm in a Skopje hospital getting my first Macedonian cast.  Three days later I'm back in the hospital getting my first Macedonian cast removed.  Now my hand is taped up in an awkward splint and I'm just hoping it's serviceable in a month.

Other than my handicap, my hot water pipe bursting, and flushing my glasses down the toilet (true stories), 2012 is looking pretty solid.  I've started taking language classes again with a tutor and after March I can travel outside of Macedonia.  Looking forward to warmer weather and wanderings.

The small town of Makendonska Kamenica. I'm pretty sure those snow-covered peaks in the distance are Bulgaria:

My snowy street in Strumica: