The Beginning.

Well, since I wrote a couple weeks ago quite a lot has happened!  I am currently sitting at the desk in my new apartment in Kiel, attempting to pass the hours until I feel sleepy (damn you, 3 hour afternoon nap!)  I suppose a recap of the past 13 or so days is in order, so I will start from where I left off in my last post.

... I don't quite remember where that was off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to open another browser tab and look, so I'll just go by the pictures I had set aside to put in this post.  Igballe's cousin came to visit from Kosovo for a couple days and we all went into Skopje to visit with their other cousins.  The two sisters we met with had each just had an adorable baby boy, so we spent the say hanging out with them before bidding adieu and wandering around the mall.

Mother Teresa's "house" in downtown Skopje.  As I mentioned before, she was born in the city.

Alexander the Great looking majestic in the setting sun. 

The next day we went to Igballe's family's house to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, breaking the Ramadan fast.  The meal was great, and fortunately by that point I had learned to eat the amazing food, but politely refuse when I'd had enough.  The previous meal we had there I didn't want to be rude and ate everything heaped onto my plate.  That resulted in me feeling like I was about to vomit and being thankful that I was wearing a high waisted dress, leaving room for the gut I acquired. 

Me with my awesome hosts!

The next couple days were pretty chill as I had a lot to do to get ready to leave for Germany and Igballe started a new job on September 1st.  The time I spent in Macedonia was truly unforgettable and I sincerely hope I'll be able to visit again soon.  

Last night in Tetovo.

On September 2nd I went to the Alexander the Great airport in Skopje for my flight to Germany.  Just a side note, in case you're wondering if the airport is "great" in the vein of Alexander, the answer is no, not really.  There were two departure gates. Two.  To be fair, they did just build a whole new airport complex, but it was opening a few days after I left, so in my mind it still doesn't exist.  I had a few hours to kill during my layover in Vienna so I left the airport and wandered around, found a Turkish/Greek restaurant (I just wasn't ready to give up that great Balkan food), and saw the Stephansdom without scaffolding for the first time ever.  That night I stayed in Frankfurt before my Saturday morning train to Bonn to meet up with my friend Stephanie.  

In the Frankfurt train station, about to board to Bonn.

Train ride from Frankfurt to Bonn along the Rhine river. 

The infamous Lorelei.  Not Gilmore. 

Stephanie is from Australia and was in town for a scholarship thing she got from Deutsche Welle to do some media coverage of some sort of UN gathering.  That sounds like I was uninterested in what she was told me, but it did sound pretty awesome.  We had studied together in Graz, Austria a few years ago and since then have only seen each other once when she was in NYC last New Years Eve.  Even though we only had one night together we definitely made the most of it and I think its safe to say we both a great night laughing, catching up and partying.  

Steph at the start of our great night together.

The next day I went to Cologne and met up with some guys we had met the night before.  They were nice enough to drag themselves out of bed on extremely limited sleep and show me around the city a bit.  We went to the top of one of the skyscrapers across the river from the Cathedral.  The view was pretty cool and when we came down we also discovered there was a huge race in the city that day.  

Cologne.

Tilt-Shift mini train station below us.

That marathon was all over the place!

That night I met up with another German guy who was my first official CouchSurfing host.  And what a great host he was!  After dropping my stuff at his apartment he took me around the city old town and told me a lot of the history of the city.  We then went to a tapas restaurant before heading to the apartment so I could rest before my big day.

Cologne old town at night.

Monday September 5 found me wandering around the Cologne train station looking for a large group of Americans, which I found.  After some standing around and making introductions, 140 of us were piled onto buses and taken to Altenberg to begin our three day Fulbright orientation.  There we spent the time listening to lectures, learning teaching techniques, and mingling.  Overall, I'd give the orientation two thumbs up, even though I'm still kind of scared shitless to start teaching children.  

Cologne cathedral.

Last Thursday, after the orientation ended we again shipped back to the Cologne train station.  I took a mid-morning train 5.5 hours north to Kiel, where I presently find myself.  My awesome new roommates met me at the train station with this adorable sign:

That night was spent getting acquainted and unpacking a bit, and even though I told myself I would go to bed early I ended up going to sleep around 2am.  Flash forward to Friday morning when I was supposed to be up at 6am to get ready to be picked up for my school's carpool at 7am.  As I blearily open my eyes and squint at my ipod, I realize my alarm never went off and I had five minutes to get ready.  No use accounting for my ride being a few minutes late, Germans never are.  As I was hopping around trying to put my pants on and grabbing my bag, I completely forgot to eat anything, do my hair or put makeup on and turned up at the school to meet the head master looking like a huge slob. Very embarrassing for my first day.  Technically it wasn't my first day however, as I was just there to meet people and be introduced to some of the classes. 

I was shown around the school, introduced to a handful of teachers and asked the same "Do you like horses?" question from every student that interviewed me.  Apparently all equine-related things are very popular in this area.  Overall the day was *interesting* if not totally overwhelming.  Luckily the school day ends around 12:30 and I was driven home in the carpool again, desperately trying to keep my eyes open and vaguely follow the conversation.  At home I scarfed down cold pizza and napped for a good portion of the afternoon. 

My first official day is Tuesday as I have Mondays as my free day.  Tuesdays and Wednesday I have open at the moment and teachers can ask me to come to their classes those days for the next few weeks and I'll suss out which ones I like best.  Thursday and Friday were pre-planed for me with a few 7th and 8th grade classes, and each of those days I'll have three morning classes and am done around 10am. Sweet. 

Back on track: Saturday I met some a couple of the other Fulbright girls living in Kiel and we saw some sights and shopped in the city.  That evening we took the train to Neumünster to visit two of our other Fulbright friends and go to a wine festival.  The trains stopped running earlier than they stopped selling wine, so we decided to stay at our friend's house for the night.  The next morning when we got back to Kiel there was a big city wide marathon going on.  I lazily walked the route from the train station to my apartment, watching children 15 years younger than me easily run gazelle-like toward the finish line on Rathausplatz with not a bead of sweat on their foreheads.  Dumb super in shape German children.  One day... just one day that beer will catch up with you.  Cherish the ease of fitness while you can.  The rest of my walk was extremely pleasant in the beautiful warm sunny Kiel weather.  

Kiel Rathaus

Kiel marathon.

Kiel houses.

The park near my apartment.

View from my window.

Back at home I spent the day finishing my unpacking, cleaning, napping, etc.  Tomorrow being my day off, I have a billion errands to do to officially be allowed to live in Germany.  I really hope I don't forget anything I need and that everything goes smoothly.  Wish me luck.

Until Next Time,

Chelsea

Здраво Македонија.

Well here I am! My first official overseas blog post.  A lot has happened since I left the States on Thursday, but I will try to give an overview in the most interesting way I know how, therefore I will be putting a lot of pictures in this post!

  First things first, my flight to Germany went fine and after I landed I met up with a girl (hey Franzi!) I met through CouchSurfing (see previous post) who showed me around her city of Frankfurt for a few hours.  I had a really nice time getting brunch and walking around with her since we have a lot in common and tons to talk about.  Hopefully we'll get to see each other again during the course of the year!

The Frankfurt Cathedral 

Römerplatz.  The historically restored square.

Panorama of Römerplatz with the Cathedral in the background.

  After some sightseeing jet lag finally caught up with me and I passed out around 8:30pm to wake up at 5:30am the next day for my flight to Macedonia.  Saturday morning, after some trauma at the airport (Where does it say that Austrian Airlines only lets you have 2 suitcases weighing up to 20 kg combined and not 20kg each like I thought??) I left Germany slightly frustrated and quite a bit poorer.  I survived though and was met in Skopje by the beautiful smiling face of my friend Igballe.  It was then that I found out my luggage did not actually arrive with me from my transfer flight in Vienna, but no matter, I was ecstatic to be reunited with one of my best friends in the whole world!

  We drove from the capital of Skopje to her city Tetovo, about 40km away.  She showed me around the city a bit, but she noticed my apparent lack of zest and decided to fix me some Turkish coffee, something I have become quite fond of.

Turkish coffee and Macedonian halva.

In case you are unfamiliar with Turkish coffee, it is quite thick and strong and served in much smaller quantities than American coffee.  It takes a little bit of getting used to, but luckily I had been introduced to it in Austria and now am able to really enjoy it here in the Balkans.  Along with the coffee, Iggy served me a new speciality called halva.  It is apparently very popular in many countries in this region, but the kind she gave me was specifically Macedonian.  It looks pretty weird in the picture above and its really hard to explain, but it is made from dried sesame paste, sugar and pistachio nuts.  It's amazing and I've housed pretty much a whole can for myself. 

Aforementioned can.

  That night, being the first night I was there, Iggy and I met up with her friend in Skopje at the old city Bazaar.  It is an area of the city that until just a few years ago had a pretty sketchy reputation but was completely rejuvenated and now has a bustling cafe and bar scene.  We were there on a Saturday night and the small winding, hilly streets were packed with men playing cards, jazz bands, people smoking shisha and young people downing Rakia.  We seated ourselves at a small plaza restaurant near a jazz cafe with live musicians.  There I tried my first Macedonian beer (very tasty) and first Turkish kebap (different from the döner all my German friends are thinking of, but also very tasty). 

Igballe at the Bazaar

Me trying some Turkish kebap.

  That night we also walked around the main part of the city a bit and she showed me the large main square filled with statues of former leaders, politicians, writers, Mother Teresa (She was born in Skopje? Yeah, I didn't know that either!) and various other things. 

Iggy on the bridge from the bazaar to the main square.  

Notice the large horse statue in the middle of the picture? That's Alexander the Great. 

  The next day we met up with a couple of Igballe's friends and drove into the mountains near Tetovo to a hotel called Radika that had an amazing outdoor pool with a view of a lake and the surrounding peaks.

Really doesn't do it justice. At all.

  The day was spent lounging by the water, boiling in the Turkish steam rooms and Finnish Saunas then jumping in the pool before lounging again.  Not a bad way to spend the day if you ask me.  Afterward we drove to a restaurant in a different part of the mountains for dinner.  The girls explained to me that everything served at the restaurant was grown and/or homemade on the property... and boy was it obvious from the exceptional taste of the food! 

Home made bread and cheese with tomato, carrots, salad, cabbages, cucumber, potatoes, and onions grown on the property.  And home made Coca-Cola! No, I'm just kidding about that one.

Fish raised on site and caught fresh after we ordered. Presented complete with head!

The view from the outside seating area wasn't too bad either.

  After our amazing meal was completed and the sun was well below the horizon the restaurant started to get extremely full.  As Iggy explained to me much of the population in the area is Muslim and as it is now the time of Ramadan people pack into restaurants around 8pm or so to break their day long fast.  We hightailed it out of there after a bit of car maneuvering (the small size of the roads and  aggressiveness of the drivers here make for some interesting scenes, but I will save that for another post) and enjoyed a nice coffee in the city before heading home.  

  The next day was a day for relaxing and errands (such as going to the post office and asking if can I avoid a 170euro fee for overweight luggage by shipping my belongings to myself at my new German apartment.  The answer: yes, yes I can.)  In the evening we met up in Skopje with the same friends from the previous day and a couple of others.  We went to the old bazaar again and enjoyed some food and drinks.  

More Turkish coffee, this time with a nifty little cup hat.

The people that I have met so far have all been so interesting and enlightening and I have found it fascinating to hear their stories of living in such a unique culture as this.  Thanks to centuries of occupations and cultural meshing, Macedonia at times seems like a hodge-podge of worlds; at the same time Orthodox and Muslim, Macedonian and Albanian, rich and poor.  These contracts seem to blend perfectly however into one bustling, lively society.  

A view of the top of an Orthodox monastery with a Muslim mosque in the background. 

   So back to what I've been doing, today was dedicated to sightseeing around Tetovo.  First we went to The Painted Mosque, a mosque built by one of Igballe's super-great-grandfathers in the 16th century.  The building was absolutely beautiful, having been hand painted by two sisters a really long time ago.  This was also my first time being in a mosque and though I was worried about overstepping any cultural bounds or somehow offending anyone, everyone we met there was extremely nice and inviting (even to a dumb American tourist).  

The mosque's dome ceiling.

The front of the inside of the mosque. 

Igballe

The man we spoke to even encouraged me to stand in the alcove in the front, which represents the direction (toward Mecca) that Muslims pray to. 

Outside the mosque compound.

  We then walked down the road to the old house that Igballe's ancestors built.  There are now modern houses inside the compound, but the old house still remains and it was pretty cool.

Igballe's ancestral home from the 16th century.

  We then made our way to visit some Orthodox churches, but they were all closed and we couldn't go inside.  We also went to Arabati Baba Teke, a community for Sufi Dervishes which was also built in the 16th century.  There wasn't much to see but the outside of buildings there because it is still a working Sufi community.  We did meet some adorable little girls playing in a fountain though!

  The final tourist stop of the day for us was a trek up a mountain above the city (in the car of course, no way we were hiking in the 100 degree heat) to the old Tetovo fortress.  Even Igballe had never been there, so it was a really breathtaking and awesome experience for both of us.  Probably even more so for her as, yep you guessed it, her family built the fortress!  There was actually a tunnel connecting the compound I mentioned earlier and the fortress on the mountain.  

I think the antenna was installed a bit more recently.

View of Tetovo.

My amazing hostess and I.

The opposite side of the mountain from Tetovo.

  Our day was concluded with a huge dinner at Iggy's parents house where the director of the new bank she recently got hired by was the guest of honor.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but let me just tell you I have never been treated or fed so well.  The food was amazing (and there was so much of it!) and Iggy's family are the most welcoming people I have met in a very long time.  I tried tons of new foods, most of which I am still not sure what it was, but enjoyed all of it immensely.  

  I have only been here in Macedonia for four days and already I can tell I will have to book a return visit very soon!  I had previously mentioned that we were planning a trip to Greece, but that ended up not working out.  Instead tomorrow we will be driving south to the lake side town of Ohrid for a few days of beach relaxation.  Thinking back on the things I have already experienced though I really must say, I'm quite happy to be staying right here in Macedonia.  

Until next time,

Chelsea