"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Friday, June 8, 2012

Ending the Year with a BANG!

I ended the school year with many adventures.  The first was this weekend, a group of  PCvolunteers and I did a tour of Western Macedonia.  We spent our time horseback riding, hiking, and visiting some monasteries.
 The group of adventurous horseback riders.
 Yes, that's me on a horse.  Check it out Jenny!!!!
The beautiful Mavrovo National Park, located on the western side of Macedonia.  This was the area that we toured and got to explore on horseback.
 Hotel Tutto, where we stayed.  It is a nice hotel in the small village of Jance.  We had a feast for dinner, which included everything on the menu.
This is the owner of the hotel.  He promotes the "slow food" movement (slow cooking), an example of which is avjar.
 One of the monasteries that we visited.  It's more of a convent since eleven women live there.  We arrived on Pentecost so we got to see the nuns in prayer.
Then we went to the Duff waterfall.  It's one of the prettiest and most powerful waterfalls that I have seen in Macedonia.
 This is known as the most beautiful monastery in Macedonia. It is located outside of Debar.
My second adventure was that Mr. Crippen (my Geography professor and my Teacher/Mentor during the MAT Progran at CNU) came to Macedonia!!!  He was on a tour and spent a day in Ohrid.  I met him and Peggy for dinner and I told them about everything that I have been doing.  We had a great time!!

Third adventure, and this is where the "BANG" comes from.... we had an EARTHQUAKE!!! Yesterday, when I was resting, I felt that my couch was moving.  My first reaction was that someone had jumped on it with me, but then the next thing I know my whole building started to shake.  I ran out of my apartment and noticed that none of my neighbors where in the hall and they were acting like nothing happened.  When I talked to Irena she said that she did the same thing, ran out of her building, and saw that no one was out there....just her.  There was no damage.  I was just a bit shaken. Then this morning at 5:30am we experienced the aftershock.  It was just two more small quakes, but still enough to wake me up.

That's it for now. I will be out of touch for a while.  I will be starting my tour through the Balkans  next week.  So I probably will not write anything until the end of June.