Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
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:
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:
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