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!!

About to be the best week ever!!

I made this video a while ago, although for some reason it never fully uploaded onto youtube...so here it is now:
http://www.youtube.com/user/morganpaige01?feature=mhee#p/u/0/txQNbidqcPk

All is well here!! Im feeling extra exhausted lately, only because we've been so busy lately. My sister comes in town on Wednesday. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!

That is all for now. Expect a good video or two next week : )

My new home!!

My kitchen!! Notice there is no oven or stove. I have two hot plates and a toaster oven though.

The view from my apartment!! BEAUTIFUL!! I am on the 6th floor....the highest up you can go.

Another view of Kocani.

My den/bedroom. That couch will be moved into the kitchen and hopefully a bed will be there when I move in on the 25th. There is also a small balcony attached in the front and back.

The bathroom. It is typical, although Im lucky that I have a washing machine!! Ill be hanging my clothes to dry.

That's that!! I loved every minute of Kocani, and I am SO EXCITED for the 25th!! I wont be around much until next week, but Im sending all of you my love!!

Ciao-

Kocani!!

So, I dont have very much time to write an update, but I finally got access to some internet, so I figured I'd fill ya'll in on my new soon-to-be-home!!

Kocani is FANTASTIC!! I love it here already!! I spent my first day running around the school I will be working at with my counterpart. My counterpart, Emilija, is AMAZING!! We made an instant connection, and I seriously adore her already. She is a fantastic teacher, which I got to observe while sitting in on her classes. Her students were wonderful as well. Most of them can speak and understand a great deal of English, which is going to make things go smoothly!! The school itself holds about 900 students, and a lot of the teachers are young and nice. i havent gotten too much time to speak with many of them, but the ones I've met seem great. Oh!! and the Director is wonderful!! He speaks fantastic English and is so excited to have me there. Not only will I be helping Emilija out in her English classes, but her and I will be setting up a school newspaper and radio station, along with a photography club!! I KNOW!! IT'S AWESOME!!

So after running around school all morning, I met up with Laura, the current PCV living in Kocani. She is leaving the day before I move in, because her 2 years are up. Having her has been a blessing!! She will be handing off some things for the house to me, which is fantastic. She's also going to take me around today to tell me about all the places she likes to eat, shop, and drink. Kocani, although is a "big city," doesnt really look too big when you're in the middle of it. There's a small creek/stream that runs through the center of the city, and everything follows it. My future apt, which I got to see yesterday, is smack dab in the center!!

First off, you have to go up 6 flights of stairs to my apt. I will have some killer legs when I get back, haha!! My apt is basically just a kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Currently, there is no real bed in it, but we are going to fix that tomorrow. It's pretty tiny....just like a studio apt or something, but it is nice! What i really like is the amount of ORANGE that is everywhere!! The carpets and chairs add to the orange, and the entire apt. has a sort of retro feel to it. I also have a washing machine, so i wont have to wash my clothes by hand. YAY!! One thing that does bum me out is the lack of a real stove or oven. I have a type of toaster oven, but that's it...and I have some hotplates, instead of a stove. I will totally make due, so dont you worry!! : )

I've spent the whole morning at school, and now I am resting for about an hour. I'll be doing a late lunch with Laura and her husband before they take me around to show me the rest of the city. Later tonight, Laura is introducing me to a close local friend of hers, who is actually an artist!! I am SO excited about meeting her, because as you all know, art is very important to me. Hopefully, I can find out where to buy paints and canvases here!!

Tomorrow, I will travel back to Lozovo. This next week will continue to be crazy!! I'm out of town on Saturday and Tuesday. My family is throwing that epic party Tuesday night. My sister comes in town on WEDNESDAY (yayy!!!!!!!), and we will all travel up to Skopje that next weekend for my birthday. Basically, every day for the next 3 weeks is totally booked with seminars, language classes, workshops, and conferences. On November 24th, I will swear in as an official volunteers, and on Nov 25, I will move into my new home of Kocani. I cant express how lucky I feel to have been given Kocani as my permanent placement. If any of you could see this place, you would say "oh, that looks like Morgan!"

As always, thanks for everyone's love and support. Miss ya'll!!

Video

A link to the Halloween video:

http://youtu.be/RqFreFDV7gI

: ) Enjoy!!

Happy Halloween

This weekend was AWESOME!!

The weekend technically began for me on Thursday night. Claire and I had an impromptu costume making night. As mentioned before, we’d all decided to go as Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. Well we simply didn’t think our costumes were good enough, so we decided to take the extra step and create some fake beards and tools out of paper. Once we finished, we taped on our new beards and showed off our costumes to my host mom and dad, who thought we were totally mental, but they loved it!!

So Friday morning rolled around, and the bus ride into Kumonavo was hilarious. Kenzie and Andres got into their costumes, seeing as how they couldn’t exactly walk down the streets of Lozovo wearing dresses and skirts. After adding some final touches, we made a GRAND entrance!! We spent most of the day entirely in character, and to our surprise a lot of the other volunteers also dressed up!! The day was a lot of fun, really. They had a big map for us with our photos on the places we were each placed. They also made us a fancy Peace Corps cake as part of the celebration. That evening, we all joined at the Irish Pub in the city. I do actually have a video for all of this, but my computer's battery life will not allow me to upload it just yet. Something to look forward to, I suppose : )

The following morning, a handful of us caught the 7am train into Skopje. Some of the volunteers were wanting to shop, seeing as how it is getting colder, esp at night. I ended taking a journey around town with a local. We went up Vodna Mountain (the big cross overlooking the city). We ate traditional Macedonia food, drank local beer, and walked all over the city. I was also introduced to some new people, and it felt fantastic just being able to hang out with people my age who are not American and to not feel like Im standing out at all. It was really nice to make some new friends. The day was just perfect though. I couldn’t have asked for a better guide!! That night, I traveled all the way back to Lozovo by myself. All the volunteers went back home at different times, but my new friends helped me arrange some accommodations so that I could stay longer. The first time traveling alone at night was interesting!! I rode on a train, a bus, and a taxi, and I had not one problem. Here, as long as you know the language, you can figure it all out….and having friends who will personally call a specific cab for you doesn’t hurt. : )

Sunday morning was strange. I woke up at 6:30am, and I could not go back to sleep!! The ONE morning I get to sleep in, and I can’t. I guess I was just all worked up from being in such a fantastic mood, I just don’t know. But I took advantage of the time, and I relaxed in bed, mostly thinking about a lot of things, for two whole hours before actually getting up. The rest was nice to have. The rest of the day was a great way to spend a Sunday. I visited with Andres and Kenzie. We walked down the road and grabbed a beer outside, because the weather was beautiful!! We met up with Shannon for a hot minute, before all retreating back home for our lunches. After lunch, Milevka took me over to a house Ive never been before. There is this really nice woman whom Ive met several times around the village, and she’s asked Milevka on several occasions to bring me over for a visit. So we just kinda showed up unannounced. This family has a lovely home and the most adorable children!! At first, I didn’t say much. They slowly started to ask more questions and got excited that I was able to understand most of what they were saying. The husband also speaks pretty fluent English, and he was a blast to talk to!! He’s worked in the army, and has spent time in the Ukraine and Afghanistan, so we were able to talk about our travels. Then, I’m not sure how it got brought up, but I made mention of the films I’ve made. They had INTERNET, which I was so jealous of, but they were excited to look up the videos!! So for the next 15 minutes, we did nothing but sit around and watch all of my films on youtube. They thought it was fantastic!! I love that I get such positive feedback. Everyone in the village knows me as the girl who makes the videos, and people ask me to film their children or to come over so I can film their families. It’s so funny, and I take it all as one big compliment. J Even on Friday, when we were all in Kumonavo, I had a lot of the Peace Corps staff coming up to me and complimenting the films. They said everyone in the main office has seen them and just think they are great!!

Anywho…this week is going to be busy. I am telling ya’ll right now, I kind of doubt I will have internet. Starting tomorrow, I will not be in Lozovo. Tues-Thursday, I’ll be staying in Kocani, meeting everyone I need to meet and seeing as much of my soon-to-be-home as I can. If you happen to send me an email, please be patient and understanding in that I may not be able to respond to you until the following week. I may also not be able to update the blog, but we shall see. That being said, keep the emails coming, of course!! Loving you all <3 

WHAT A GOOD DAY

Another video....nothing special, but our "taco night" was beyond epic. And you get to hear me speak one sentence in Macedonia at the end:
http://www.youtube.com/user/morganpaige01?feature=mhee#p/u/0/CdP_eucCBAQ

So not much to update. I am still in a fantastic mood from finding out about my placement. I spent the entire night lounging around my house with my fellow volunteers and celebrating.

Tomorrow, we will all go to Kumanovo for another "Hub Day," which we are pretty pumped about!! Since they dont celebrate Halloween here, we are taking it upon ourselves to celebrate it while in the city tomorrow. There are 9 of us in Lozovo: 7 girls and 2 guys. So we have decided to go as Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. Kenzie and Andres will be dressing up as the lady roles, complete with dresses and skirts, and the ladies will be the 7 dwarfs....myself being Doc. : ) Anywho...we are pumped, because we will get to see all the other volunteers tomorrow and get to talk about where everyone is going. We will also receive information about next week, which is when we all travel to our new placements for a few days.

Now, on the topic of Halloween, I was pretty bummed it wasnt a huge celebration here at first. THEN, I found out that they have their own form of Halloween in January. Check it out:
http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/creepyt-carnival-in-macedonia.html

So I am TOTALLY going to that!! Anywho...all in all, everything is awesome. I want to extend a warm THANK YOU to everyone who emailed me this week. I received more than I ever have, and boy did it make my day. I must say, I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends and family....I couldnt ask for a better support system.

Oh, and this weekend is going to be fantastic...have I told you? : )