Happy New Year to all. It's been a beautiful 2013 so
far here in Strumica, mainly because there hasn't been any snow, yet.
Walking to work today through my town of ~40,000, that also
happens to be the regional urban center, I couldn't help but think that in a
year from now I'll be back in America where 40,000 barely qualifies as a suburb
(the "suburbs" here are villages, never larger than 5,000). The
past 15 months have offered an interesting diametric view to life in
America. In America it's a fact of life that change is a constant and
that immigrants are always arriving, in Macedonia change is slow and emigration
is a dire fact of life. Imagine America if one out of every ten people you grew up with were to leave the
States, permanently. That's close to reality in Macedonia, and it makes
for slow change and tenuous economic prospects.
In the day to day minutiae, I have moved to a new office for
work, it’s great, it’s modern-ish, I’m in a cube…yes, I joined the Peace Corps and moved halfway
around the world to spend my days in a cubicle.
Maybe this is a sign that it’s time for me to move back to America.
But my new office does overlook this park (for real).
Have an epic 2013 everyone, after Dec. 21st we’re
all playing on house money anyways.
