Friday, October 08, 2004

Skopje, Macedonia

Just a quick note on my last post before moving on... I would like to thank both my parents for reassuring me that they never dropped me on my head, but reminding me that my father did drop a large tree branch on my head while trimming the trees in the front yard when I was two or three, resulting in a missing tooth for the next 3 years. Well that explains a lot!!

So, last weekend Travis and I went to Macedonia to visit the ELFs there. Now mind you, Macedonia is still one of the poorest countries in Europe, but it seemed like paradise to us. They have electricity 24-7, water all the time, hot water in the bathroom AND the kitchen. The streets are all paved, and the sidewalks even. There are streetlights, and it's not necessary to carry a flashlight at night. AMAZING!!! I find it funny how easily you can adapt to whatever living conditions you are in. I have just begun to take it for granted that I have to get home before 11 pm after Salsa classes in order to take a shower, and that I won't have electricity to dry my hair most mornings (I can plug my hairdryer into the inverter, but it only lasts long enough to get my bangs dry and then I'm without light - pick your battles). I actually used my little one burner camp stove this week to boil water for tea. Whatever works.

Anyway, the trip was grand, even after all my stupid little mistakes (see last post). We spent Saturday hiking around looking for an old monastery in the mountains behind the city. We must have been looking lost, because a group of 4th graders and their teacher took pity on us and let us walk with them for a while. They were a little shy at first, but with a little coaxing they decided it was a good time to practice their English and started chattering away. Then they pointed us off in another direction, flagged down a taxi and sent us on our way. The taxi dropped us off at the site of an old monastery that has a new church built on it, only to find out it was not the place we were looking for. The owner of a near by restaurant pointed us down a dirt road and off we went. We ran into a group of high school students who pointed us down another path, and suddenly we found ourselves back in the city. We never did find the monastery, but I swear it's up there somewhere, and we'll go back and find it. It was a good hike anyway - nice to get out of the city.

That night we went to a great little bar that reminded me of all the little loungy places in LA (Joey, you'd be proud), with the dark wood and red velvet booths, hiding in a dingy basement of an apartment building. The "band" consisted of a guitar player and a synthesizer, and two female singers - one that was pretty, the other that could sing. All of the songs were popular American tunes - everything from Eric Clapton to 4 Non-Blondes. We started taking bets on what they were going to play next, kicking ourselves for not coming up with Extreme "More than Words". We stayed out till four in the morning, gettin' our drink on, to quote Travis, and just having fun in spite of some jackass ex-Peace Corp guy trying to make a fashion statement by wearing the Communist hammer and sickle while spewing bullshit for four straight hours. We were all pretty much wiped out on Sunday and didn't do much but eat and lie around until time to go to the bus station. Oh! Did go to the grocery store there and bought a can opener, some tortillas and bacon - all things you can't find here. I was excited, anyway.

I'll post the pics soon. I've got them all ready, it's just a bit of a hassle to upload them on dial-up. The next time I go to my favorite coffee shop, I'll get them up there for you all.



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