My sister is in Macedonia!!

My sister is in town!! IT IS FANTASTIC!!

Jessica arrived about midday on Wednesday. Unfortunately for me, I still had a little over 3 hours left with PC things, so my language teacher agreed to walk her back to Milevka's house for me. By the time I got done with my PC stuff, I ran home and greeted my sister, who was sitting in the kitchen with my host father. He was showing her all of his "homework," which is basically all the stuff I wrote out for him to pronounce different simple English words. He was showing off!! Jessica and I sat around and caught up a bit. We drank a lot of coffee and relaxed a bit with the folks. Andres swang by for a hot minute and joined us for dinner, before the three of us headed out for a short walk around the village.

The walk was really nice!! Jessica was able to see what Lozovo looks like at night, and we were able to do some much needed chatting about what's been going on at home and such. The entire time it felt so surreal....just the fact that my sister was in Lozovo!! Later that night, Jessica and I organized all the fantastic items my mother sent my way. Later, we laid in bed until around midnight just chatting up a storm...again, MUCH needed!! It felt so good to have my sister.

Yesterday, Jessica came to school with me for the day. She mainly sat in the back and did some stuff on the internet and read a bit, but it was nice to have her see what class is like for me. Luckily for us, it was an early day, and we were out of school by noon. After school, Jess and I caught a bus into Velec. We walked around the city, ate at a local restaurant, visited my old counterpart, and shopped a bit. We arrived back in Lozovo after the sun went down and decided to visit Andres's house for a quick visit! I wanted Jess to see what another village household was like, and Vera is by far one of my favorite women in Lozovo.

There, we were offered MANY drinks (surprise, surprise) and food. We sat around just chatting a bit with everyone, and around 7, we went back home for dinner. It's really quite entertaining to be in the middle of my sister and Milevka communicating. There's a lot of "What did she say?" going on, and me doing my best to translate on both sides. Sometimes, I caught myself speaking poor English even, because Im so used to thinking in the Macedonian sentence structure. My host father walked around all night showing off his knowledge of the phrase "oh my god," which we all found to be hilarious. After a while of relaxing with the host parents, Jess and I retreated back into my room where we spent another night just laying in bed and talking.

By the time I decided to actually go to sleep, I felt an enormous weight of sadness run over me. I realized Jessica had not much time left with me, and that I was beginning to miss her again already. I now see why PC suggests we do not have company from back home for the first few months, because seeing and speaking with her has just made me feel homesick. She has promised to come back for a couple week in the spring though, so I'm going to convince her to bring momma with her so we can all be together!! Dont get me wrong....it's really difficult to not have my family here, but you know I am doing just fine. : )

Today, we are going to Skopje after school!! We will be having dinner at an Italian place, relaxing at a bar later, and enjoying a nice breakfast together tomorrow morning, before Jessica hope on a plane for Istanbul. I'll still get to spend the rest of the day and night in Skopje on Saturday, followed by coming back to Lozovo Sunday night for a party at Kenzie's house. Monday, we are in Skopje again for PC stuff, and Milevka has said she'll make the Funfetti cake mix my mother sent me in the mail for that evening. YAY FOR FUNFETTI!! More of an update on Tuesday, seeing as how I'll be out of town until then. Miss and love you all!!