Toilet Paper and My Liver

Hello (Zdravo!) everyone and welcome to my excellent Macedonian blog for my excellent Peace Corps Macedonian adventure! This is my first of what I hope will be many posts for the next two years. I am amazed at how little sleep I have been going on since last Thursday (9/13/12), so I will let you know what is going on and then enjoy the comforts of "Hotel Satelit" http://www.satelit.com.mk/en/.

(9/14/12) I flew into DC from O'Hare airport in Chicago with two other volunteers from Illinois (LeDora - Quad Cities, Kaitlin - Naperville), and proceeded to our hotel for one day of training before leaving the country. That's right. One. Day. This "Meet-and-Greet" felt as if it was designed more so for us to get to know each other than for actual relaying of information...most of the information could be found in the handbook that I have kept near and dear to my heart since April. So far, my fellow volunteers seem wonderful and in the program for all the right reasons. We have people from age 22-60+ (I believe our oldest volunteers are a retired, married couple. So cute!) I then enjoyed my last evening in the United States with my good friend Tim enjoying the great American cuisine of....Chili's. Okay, maybe not the best choice for a last meal in the states, but I was going on zero sleep at this moment and it seemed like a good idea at the time. After many hugs and tears, I went to back to my hotel to awaken the next day for my adventure.

(9/15/12) For whatever reason, I had decided the previous day that it would be a good idea for me to be a group leader while traveling to Macedonia. This meant that not only was I in charge of getting myself to Macedonia, I was also in charge of 4 other souls. Luckily, I didn't screw up and I am happy to announce that they are all here with me. One of the guys in my group (Sean) has been a Peace Corps Volunteer before in Kazakhstan and had many interesting stories to share. One of the most surprising stories was that one girl in his Kazakhstan group decided to quit Peace Corps as soon as she got off the the plane in the capital! Turns out that the Peace Corps has a drop-out rate of 25% once volunteers are overseas. Yikes!

I sat next to my fellow volunteer Beverly during the flight from DC to Vienna. Beverly is in her 50s and had never been out of the country before. I find that to be so amazing and inspiring. I love all the different stories I've heard from other volunteers on why they are doing Peace Corps. No answer is the same. Some are like me and feel as if they've always wanted to do Peace Corps, while others made the decision less than a year ago.

(9/16/12) After a quick flight from Vienna to Skopje (the capital of Macedonia), our group took a bus to the town/city called Kumanovo (near the Serbian border) https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Kumanovo&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x13544fcc1ff6258d:0x91a2643775422ed7,Kumanovo,+Macedonia+%28FYROM%29&ei=mJJXUM86kPbhBK7AgOAH&sqi=2&ved=0CIgBELYD

We were greeted by current Peace Corps volunteers and enjoyed a traditional "bread greeting." Honestly, I never found out who these two people in the photo were, or why bread and salt is a traditional greeting, or any significant information associated with this tradition. I was that tired. I just went to my buffet lunch, ate some great Macedonian food (Volunteer Nick - "I'm glad fried food can be found in Macedonia" : )   ), enjoyed very cheap wine (I don't know if my liver will be able to take the copious amounts of liquor being thrown my way) and then proceeded to take a nap. It was right before my nap that I learned another great, useful piece of information for my transition into Macedonia...you can't flush the toilet paper. That's right ladies and gentleman, used toilet paper goes into the wastebasket next to your toilet. Honestly, if this is the worst hardship I have to face in Macedonia, I'll take it! Everything else in this country has been wonderful, and I am so comfortable and happy (despite the lack of sleep).

After my nap we had a tea with the Volunteer Support Network. I spoke with current volunteer Marlys about the dual-language program, where I would learn both Macedonian and Albanian during my training. I would most likely be living with an Albanian Muslim family if I decide to do this. Not sure what I am going to do yet, but I will keep you posted.

Dinner consisted of an interesting blend of penne noodles and an eggy-cheese additive. I think my rule for eating will be "eat anything unless it makes you sick." I'll keep you posted on the progress of me and this motto as well. : )

Thanks for reading and I will let you know later this week how pre-service training is going. збогум! (goodbye!)