New Years in Belgrade

Some of my fellow volunteers came up with the idea of going to Belgrade to celebrate the New Years. Celebrating New Years in Belgrade is like celebrating in New York, the biggest there is over here. Since we only get two vacation days a month, and most of us want to spend the majority of our days on bigger trips, we decided to do Belgrade in a day. We left Macedonia on the morning of the 31st and arrived in Belgrade around 2pm. As it gets dark here around four, we wanted to see some of the sites of the city.

 The group, minus the one behind the camera,  just off the bus and ready to explore the city.

We walked up to the old fortress and explored around there until it started to get dark.

This was the first sign that we were all getting hungry. So we decided that the next stop had to be Pizza Hut!!!  We had to ask the workers at KFC for directions, but we finally found it. There are no pictures since we were all too busy enjoying the familiarity of good pizza.

 With our bellies full it was off to the center.  They had a huge stage set-up and a concert going with popular Balkan artists. As you can see, there were tons of people, but the area was big enough that we were not all pushed up against each other, there was still room to breath.

 Excited to ring in the New Year in Belgrade.

 Let the countdown begin!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!  We bought a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate.

After we explored the city, we looked for a night club that was not going to charge us poor volunteers an expensive cover charge to come in for a few hours. We ended up finding this small bar where a private party was being held; and when they heard we were volunteers from America, they invited us in to celebrate with them.  We stayed until 4am and then went looking for some food. We ended up finding a pizza place that was still open and then it was off to the bus station.

There was barely a place to sit,  so we all made ourselves comfortable on the floor. A few of us, mainly the boys, fell asleep as we waited for our bus to come at 7am.  We then slept on the bus; and when we woke up, we were back in Macedonia. The first thing we all did was contact our Safety Officer because we knew he was worried since we were planning on staying out all night.  Before we left, he send us emails and a text message tell us to be careful and have fun. After fully recovering and catching up on sleep, I can now honestly say that it was the most memorable New Years I have ever had. 

Last Christmas in Macedonia

I know I have not written in a while; and I have a lot of catching up to do. It's been busy here, full of holidays and travel.  Luckily, I do not have school on top of that.  For the past 3-4 weeks we have been on Winter holiday; but it will all start again on Monday.

So where did I leave off....Christmas.
For my last Christmas here in Macedonia, I wanted to celebrate with the other volunteers.  I spent Christmas Eve at home because I wanted to open presents with the family, over Skype.

 My cousin's girlfriend and her son joined my family for our Christmas Eve dinner.  They explained to him that I would be joining them via the internet; and that I was teaching English in Macedonia.  I have the ability to be in two places at once with the wonderful invention of Michelle on a stick!!

Jenny and I "acting" surprised since we already knew what we were getting.
The next day I went up to Veles where we were having a traditional American Christmas full of football and food!!!

When I arrived, I met up with some of the volunteers that were going to go meet some of the local high school students to play some football and basketball.  Later, we all went over to one of the volunteer's house.  We had two turkeys, ham, green beans, potatoes, mash potatoes, gravy....you name it we had it. The volunteer also invited his host family so they got to see what a traditional American Christmas is like.

 Food and.......

.....Football!!!  Sam did not know that he could get American football on his TV. So everyone was excited to sit and watch the Jets verses the Lions.  It really did feel like a Christmas back home.

Too focused to know that they are being photographed.
It was a great last Christmas in Macedonia; but I am excited to know that next year I will not be celebrating via Skype.