Applause for Saying "Hello"

Zdravo Everyone! Sorry it's been awhile since I have posted, but I am trying to take advantage of all the great things that Macedonia has to offer. Here's a quick update of what has been going on with training in Kumanovo:

9/17/18
Today we had the US Ambassador for Macedonia come and visit our group. It was interesting to hear about his experiences with the country, although his experiences have been slightly different than Peace Corps volunteers based on his relationship and role with the US and Macedonian governments. To reiterate, Peace Corps is funded by the US government, but our affiliation (from what I understand) ends there. It was an honor to have him visit our group.

Look at how professional I look to meet the ambassador!

Our Country Director, Stephen Kutzy then had all the Peace Corps Pre-Service Training staff members introduce themselves. The new Peace Corps volunteers were than asked to introduce ourselves and say where we were from in front of everyone. When it got to me, I stood up and said "Zdravo" before I said my name, which resulted in all the Macedonian staff members GIVING ME A ROUND OF APPLAUSE! SERIOUSLY! A ROUND OF APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FOR SAYING "HELLO!" I think this probably one of the nicest countries that I've ever been to. I've been told that  Macedonians like Americans, and I have yet to meet anyone who has been hostile to our loud, obnoxious group : ) . Later that day, we went into the center of Kumanovo. Kumanovo is a fairly good-sized city in Macedonia (I think it might be the 3rd largest in the country). Our first stop was to the money exchange, and as you can see below, many of us were excited to get our Macedonian "denar."

Sam is considering robbing Alex of his denar : )

We had a group of Roma children lead us to the money exchange, which then resulted in Alex and a few other people giving them money for helping us (maybe Alex shouldn't have been waving his money around, as you can see in the picture above). This THEN resulted in the children following us around for two hours asking us for money. One reason why Peace Corps tells us not to give money to local children....

Beverly and I (Beverly was from the plane ride in the previous post) walked around Kumanovo, taking in the sites and doing a little shopping. I got a nice leather (possibly fake leather) purse at a boutique for about $13(!!!!) We then went to find food with the limited Macedonian words we knew. Fast food was the best option, and we found a small location where we could point at pictures of food. Turns out "Hamburger" is the same word in English and Macedonian. THE SANDWICH WAS AS BIG AS MY FACE! Sandwich and fries = $1.75, and I couldn't even eat the whole thing.

This photo does not do the "хамбургер" justice. It was as big as my face.

Walking to and from town felt very safe, and it was interesting to see how one could walk 15 minutes outside of the center of town and be in an area that looked like South Dakota. Seriously, there was a goat outside of my hotel room. (See photo below)

Can you spot it? It's in the center and is a brown dot : )

Thanks for reading! I will have another post tomorrow!