Expedition: Macedonia

As you know, I live in Macedonia. Well, check out the newest Yahoo! Adventures for an amazing travel account of this beautiful little country!!
Go to: http://adventures.yahoo.com/

I'm so proud!! Peace and Love,
Sara Woodward

A day in the life

It's been a couple of months since I posted something on my blog, so probably no one is visiting it anymore, but I was reading the blogs of a few other PCVs from other countries, and decided that I should try to revive my communications effort. There's a lot of potential of things to be learned from my experience here.

I've been in Macedonia a little over 9 months now. Three months of language training and living with a host family. And six months of living in Kriva Palanka and travelling on weekdays to a number of different villages to teach English mostly, but a lot of other more creative and interesting things!

I've been one day in Bulgaria and two days in Thessaloniki, Greece, but most of my time has been spent exploring this small country that is about the size of Vermont!

From the time I moved to my quaint pituresque mountain town, until June 10, was the second semester of the school year. From June 10 until the end of this week has been summer holiday for the kids, but not for the teachers...

What's an average day in the life of ME?
6:30am, my little mobile phone alarm wakes me up... I take a shower, get dressed, and get ready for school

7:30am, the public bus leaves for Rankovce, the main village where I work... I converse with whoever is riding the bus or just look out the windows which never gets old.

8:15am, I arrive in Rankovce, a village of about 1,000 people, go in the school and say hi to everyone and drink a cup of tea (cause I don't want to get addicted to the Turkish coffee everyone else drinks)

9:00am-12noon, depends on the day and month, but this time is usually spent either with the English teacher in her classes or teaching my own English classes to children or adults

12noon-3pm, again depends... but most afternoons are spent in the school's computer lab where we have a donation of 8 computers from China and free internet from USAID. I monitor open lab hours with the Informatics teacher (which is a program I helped initiate at the school) and we work on the website that I also helped initiate.

3pm-8pm, every day is different of course, but many of my afternoons are spent "NA GOSTI" which means going over to people's houses for anything from a cup of coffee to a four-course meal, but always including deep conversation and cultural exchange. I love visiting with my co-workers and talking about the future of Macedonia and differences between U.S.A. and Macedonia... Also in the afternoons I often go "SHETA" down the main street with my best friend Suzana. Just walking and maybe stopping for "BOZA" (a beverage) or "SLADOLED" (ice cream)... If I'm really motivated, I might even go for a run at the soccer field :)

8pm-11pm, well... on Thursdays I go over to Suzana's and we watch LOST!!! I talk on the phone with Douglas, my boyfriend who is also a PCV here in Macedonia... I surf on the internet sometimes, do dishes, maybe cook something... Plan English lessons and prepare materials for my classes... If I go "SHETA" I usually don't get home until 11pm... Lately, been going to Fashion Cafe to watch World Cup football!!

WEEKENDS... anyone who knows me knows that I see every weekend as an adventure to be conquered. I've spent weekends in mountain villages around here, on epic hikes, visiting just about every town in Macedonia, exploring everything possible with Douglas in either Berovo (his town) or Kriva Palanka (my town), cooking, going to the Disco until 3am, going to the Bazaar, visiting friends and co-workers, catching up on work I'm doing...

I feel like my life is really busy and fun, and I'm always working on something, but not forgetting to have fun. The best part about life is the relationships you have with the people around you, and I'm really blessed to have some great friends here!

I'm gonna start blogging more and more! Wishing you peace, love, and adventure
Sararish, OUT