1st of many challenges

Your probably wondering why I have not written in so long.  Well it was because I was faced with my first challenge, no internet.  When I had heard about Losovo, they had said that most of the families had internet and that there was also an internet café in the town.  Well when I arrived at my host families house I asked, more like acted out, if they had internet.  Lydia said no.  On Saturday, all of the Losovo volunteers and our two language teachers met up at the school to walk around town and see what is in Losovo.  As we walked, we say a few small grocery stores, two restaurants, and a bar that Kiki and Tete had taken me to the previous night, but no internet café.  It is definitely hard not having access to something that Americans are so used to having.  As I talked to the other volunteers all of them said that their families had internet and they were able to use it.  This of course made me a little sad since the internet was how I was going to communicate with my friends and family.  Luckily while in Kumanovo, the volunteers had gotten cell phones so that we could communicate with each other but I will now be using it to also talk to my friends and family.  It’s a little expensive to call America from Macedonia, but during this transition period it is very comforting knowing that I still have that connection. 

            My fellow volunteers in Losovo have all been wonderful.  They know that this is hard for me and have offered to help any way they can, inviting me to come over to visit their families and use their internet.  Also, on Saturday night I found out that Lydia’s brother-in-law, Gusef, lives in town and he has internet and I can use his to skype, or facebook, whatever.  So as of right now you probably will hear from me like every other day.

            My host family’s house is very nice, small and quant.  I have my own room, I think it was Melanie’s room since there are pictures of cartoon characters on the wall haha.

            We spend a lot of time in the living room, since this is where we both watch TV and eat our meals.  They have a satellite dish, but it does not work on regular bases so most they watch Indian Soap Operas with Macedonian subtitles underneath.  But the one thing I have noticed is that the music around here is American music, definitely heard some Taylor Swift on the radio yesterday.

            They grow a lot of their own food and right now you see many people drying our pepper and tobacoo.  There are apple trees, and fig trees every where in town and we even found someone who has a walnut tree.  Even with all this fresh produce around I can’t help but laugh when Lydia serves pasta with butter and then they put ketchup and mayonnaise on it for breakfast. The food is good, but going to get hard to get used to, especially when I am not the one cooking it and Lydia fries a lot of stuff.  One thing they told us turn training is that our families are going to want to feed us and if we gain weight then they feel like they have done their job.  Guess my idea of losing weight while over here is out the window or at least until I start living on my own. 

Sorry that there are no pictures, I tried to upload some but the internet connection was very slow.  I will put pictures up as soon as I can because I know I keep talking about things but that no one can visualize them.