Wine Making 101

It is getting to be that time of year where everyone is preparing foods for the winter. They are picking/buying their peppers and starting to make avjar; pickling veggies, making russian salad; picking grapes, and making wine.  Irena's dad one day had the idea that he wanted to make wine this year.  Irena said that the last time her family made wine was 10 years ago, so I saw it as a little treat for me. When I heard what he wanted to do I jumped at the chance to help. Irena laughed and said "of course you can help us drink the wine" but when I corrected her and said "no, can I help make it?" she was surprised. Every time I ask if I can help do something that I think is "cultural" I get the look (you must be nuts) because what I see as fun and interesting they see as a chore and hard work. Irena's family now understands my "strange" American ways of wanting to "do things" and they were nice enough to teach me how its done.

 Irena's dad went out and bought 150kg of grapes, which is around 300lbs. In the past, they use to squish the  grapes in a large trash can with a stick and their hands. Doing it that way would have taken them around 5 hours to squish all those grapes. (No, they do not do it the "I Love Lucy" way)  Irena's dad borrowed a machine from a friend that looks like a big meat grinder and it squishes the grapes for you.

My job was to take the grapes out of the cartons, fill a smaller bucket about half way full and then dump the grapes into the machine.

 There they go!!!
Then Irena's dad was in charge of working the machine. He was turning the crank; and if necessary, push the grapes down so they all get squished.

I was surprised to find out that you use every bit of the grape to make wine. I had always thought that all you need was the juice and was expecting a machine to separate the juice from the skin, seed, and steams.  But no, everything goes into the machine, gets all squished and then everything is used to make wine.

They had a bucket below to catch the squished grapes.

A close-up shot of the grapes. You can see the juice, the seeds, the skins, and the steams.
Then it was Irena's job to come over and get the bucket and then empty it in the big barrel.

They had a funnel on top so it would not splash and get grape juice everywhere.  It took the three of us a little over 1.5 hours to go through 300lbs of grapes and to fill up the barrel.

You don't want the barrel all the way filled up because when it starts to ferment it will bubble and you need to leave some space.  For the next 10 days, it will be juice or "sok", as they call it.  Then after about 2 weeks, it will start to ferment and get sour.  I was surprised to hear that you do not have to add anything to it to turn it into wine. It does it all buy itself. Then in about a month it will turn into wine. After that, they will have to seal the barrel air-tight so that the fermenting process stops and it stays wine.  When they did the math they figured that the 300lbs of grapes, not sure how much it cost but it was relatively cheap, will make around 70L of wine, averaging at around 50 cents a liter, and then afterwards if they decide to make rakija, brandy, out of the leftovers it will make around 10L, about 25 cents a liter (pretty cheap for alcohol right?). This is a Macedonian "skill" that might stay with me when I return home!!!

My First BIG Fat Macedonian Wedding

On Sunday I attended my first wedding in Macedonia. It was the wedding of the computer teacher at my school, Vesna. She married the son of one of the 3rd grade teachers, Jovan.  They met in high school and dated for 10 years.  Looong relationships are very typical in Macedonia. Casual dating is not common here; neither is divorce.  Once you decide that you are "in a serious relationship" with someone, it typically ends in marriage, even if that is years down the line.

There are many components to the wedding making it an all day event.  First, it starts wthl celebrating in the home. The groom's friends and family go to the bride's house to "bring her to her new home" (normally after the wedding the bride goes to live in the same house as the groom's family).  There is some traditional ceremonies and celebrations that happen in the bride's house; and then everyone goes to the groom's house. Traditional ceremonies and celebrations there are the same. I am sorry to say that I do not know what they are because I only attended the reception. After celebrating at the groom's house, it's off to the church.  There they have a religious ceremony consisting of putting crowns on the bride's and groom's head.  After the church ceremony, they head to the municipality (town hall) to sign the paper officially making them husband and wife.  After all that there still is the reception.

The reception is probably the biggest part of the wedding and when I say big, I mean BIG.  Over 650 people (yes, you are reading that number correctly) attended this reception.  This couple attended alot of weddings and are well known in the town; so, of course, they had to invite alot of people to their wedding.  The totally being over 650.  Irena, Maria, and I met up with some of the other teachers outside of the big reception hall in Resen.  I learned that the bride and groom stand at the entrance and take a picture with everyone that comes in.  Here is our group shot.

The photography company prints out the pictures and puts them in a card along with the couple's wedding photo and sells them during the reception so everyone has a souvenir to remember the wedding.

After we congratulated the bride and groom and took our photo, we then congratulated the parents of the couple who were all standing inside the hall.  I was told that the saying that the parents of the married couple tell the guests literally translated is "on your head" but means they wish good fortune and happiness for us. There were two tables for our school.  All of the older people sat at one and then it was Irena, Maria, and I left at the other until....the lively group of teachers showed up.

Part of our table.  Susan, who teaches at one of the village schools, me, Irena, Maria, Vesna, who teaches 5th grade and Lile, who teaches 2nd. The other teachers at the table included Petze, the very enthusiastic music teacher (he was behind the camera), and Betti, 3rd grade, and some of their spouses.
I had heard about Macedonian weddings and prepared myself before going, took a nap, and ate dinner because you might get dinner until midnight.  But I was surprised that as soon as we sat down the waiters brought over the salads.

After about an hour, when all the guests had arrived, the bride and groom made their entrance and had their first dance. The Macedonians have adapted some of our western customs into their weddings/ceremonies, this being one of them.  The rest of the evening was full of traditional Macedonian dancing (oro) and surprisingly a few modern songs as well ("Rollin on a river" and the tequila song).  I was told today at school that the teachers were surprised and impressed by my Macedonian dancing skills. Over the past year it has improved and I now know a few other dances.

Dinner was traditional.  You get a hamburger patty or a chicken breast, and they also served something that looked like a roast with veggies, potatoes, and rice. Along with all the soda, water, wine, and beer that you want. Later the waiters brought out the cake. Also a traditional cake that has layers of cake (with nuts) and layers of custard and frosting. After some more dancing, the bride and groom and their parents toasted with champagne and then it was time for the bride to cut the wedding cake.  Yes we ate cake twice.

The wedding cake was located at the front of the room.  It was a bunch of round cakes that were decorated with flowers.  All of the young people, those not married, come up and the bride cuts a piece for them all. This represents passing the good fortune of marriage along.  Then another western custom, the throwing of the bouquet.  A gentleman caught it and started to run off with it. Then he remembered that he was already married; so he turned around and handed it to his best friend, a female who is not married. I got home around 1:30 am and had to be a school at 8 am the next day.  When I arrived at school, Irena and Maria both looked tired but I was surprisingly peppy, but the lack of sleep hit me by the time I got home.  All in all it was a wonderful wedding; and now I can say that I have attended a BIG Fat Macedonian Wedding!!!

Independence Day- 20 years for Macedonia and 1 year for me

Yesterday, September 8th, Macedonia celebrated its 20th year of independence.  There was a huge celebration in the center of Skopje and everyone was invited, and over one hundred thousand people attended.  Municipalities from all the cities offered free transportation to anyone that wanted to attend.  So, of course, Irena, Maria, and Maria's boyfriend Vasko, and I took full advantage.  The 4 buses and 1 combi (van) left Resen around noon and we arrived in Skopje around 4 pm.  It was my first time being on a bus that went straight to Skopje, not making stops in each city on the way up. But still it would be not a bus ride in Macedonia with out the pauzas, aka coffee and smoking breaks.  Normally we just stop once, but for some reason this time we stopped twice. When we arrived in the center, Irena and I met up with another volunteer, Austin, and his counterpart, Tode.  After recovering from the bus ride with a quick bite and a beer we made our way back to the center.  The first event was a parade.  There was a path roped off for the political figures and other participants to make their way through the crowd to the main stage.  Unfortunately, because of all the people, this was how Irena and I had to watch the parade....

Tode, who is very tall, was video taping it. So Irena and I stood underneath him and watched the parade on his little video camera.  After the parade, there were some performances on the main stage and then the prime minister gave his 7 points speech which took over an hour and a half.  We were all waiting for the 2 big events: a famous singer that was "rumored" to drop down from a helicopter and land on top of the new and large Alexander the Great statue with a dress made out of 350 meters of silk, and the grande revealing of the Alexander the Great statue and fountain.

The singer did perform in a 350 meter silk dress, but sadly she did not drop from a helicopter. She was raised above the crowd on a lift instead.

And then finally, there was a water show around the new fountain.

 During the grande finale.

Alexander in his full glory.  The first time I saw it I had to laugh because the statue is not proportionally correct.  First, Alexander and the horse are about the same size; and second, you have this huge man on his huge horse holding this little tiny sword.  But all in all it is still a very impressive statue.

There were also other statues reveled since Skopje is going through a "face-lift" which is suppose to be finished in 2014.  Besides adding statues, they are also building 3 new museums.  The museum of history also had their grande opening that evening.

From what I could see on the big TV screens in the center, it is very pretty both inside and out; and I can't wait to go and see inside.

The evening ended with a BANG.....literally.

Beautiful fireworks filled the sky over the Vardar River to celebrate Macedonia's 20th birthday.  Then it was back to the buses around 11 pm; and we finally arrived back in Resen around 2:30am.  (Luckily they did not stop at all on the way home. Everyone was exhausted and slept the whole way back.)

Celebrating Macedonia's 20th birthday was a wonderful way to end my first year of service.  On Sunday, the new group of Peace Corps volunteers, the MAK 16s, will be arriving.  It is strange to think that a year ago today I was in Philly about to begin this new adventure.  And now year later, I am living happily in a beautiful town, working at a wonderful school, meet amazing people that are now my friends, and about to start my second year which I know will be full of wonderful experiences and adventures.