What you ALL have been asking for.

Here are some pictures of the house that I am staying at.

 This is me, obviously, standing in front of the gate.  On our first Saturday here all of the volunteers and our 2 language teachers walked around to see what was in town and to see were everyone lived.  We each took a pic in front of our houses.

This is the front of the house.  It is small and cozy.  There are 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, the living room and the kitchen.  All of the rooms are one right next to the other, so when I feel crowded and want my michelle time I can at least go into my room and close the door. But because the rooms are so close I can hear everything lol.  Especially little Melanie when she wakes up in the morning.  But that is the Macedonian way of life, you

 This is the living room.  This is were we spend most of our time. The little table is also used as the dinning table so we eat all of our meals here as well.  They has 2 TVs lol.  One is for local channels and they like to watch Turkish and Indian soap operas on it, with Macedonian subtitles.  The big one in the pic is hooked up to a satellite disk and they use that one to watch/listen to music on VH1 and MTV.  I have been using it to watch cartoons and a few other American shows, since soap operas are not my fav and I thought Melanie would like the cartoons.  She is not a fan of the Flinstones.  Pretty much both TVs are on all the time.  Which I was not expecting, but at least they have modern aspects of the house. 

 This is the front of the house.

This is the kitchen.  There is a small burner in the left corner on the counter.  That is what I thought Lydia did all of her cooking on until today, read below and you will see.  She does not use the stove, it is more of a storage devise lol and there is a frig/freezer in there too but I could not get it in the pic.

 Right now it is the time for making avar, a pepper spread, and preparing foods for the winter.  Typically people are hanging their left over peppers to dry so that they can use them during the winter and also there are many families drying out tobacco and getting that ready to sell.  Not sure what my family is going to do with these peppers, but this is a typical site here around Lozovo, peppers hanging out to dry.

 That is babas house, the grandmother, aka Lydias mother in law.  She tends to keep to herself and does not eat with us or watch tv with us. She comes out and sits at that small table under the peppers when Melanie is playing outside and I sit with her as well.  She is very nice, and I cant wait to get to know her more when I know more of the language.  As of right now the only thing we say is hello and how are you doing today.  I also learned that the kitchen where lydia cooks lunch, the big meal of the day is in there as well.  I was wondering how she cooked such big meals on a little burner in the main kitchen, since it did not look like she used the stove.  It was full of papers and bottles lol.  But I saw the working kitchen today in there.  There is a stove and 2 bigger burners.

 This is the patio.  I sit out here sometimes when I want fresh air and its a nice place.  Only thing is that there are alot of flies that hang around, but that is just typical for this area in general
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 This is the courtyard where Melanie plays.  You can see the satellit dish and more peppers hanging.  There garden is there at the right.  They have peppers, flowers, tomatoes, and leeks growing there right now.  Other families has apple, fig, and pear trees. Squash plants, berries, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, etc.  Grapes are also popular in this area and there are many families that are right now making their own wine and a liquor called rockia that is also made from the grapes, it tastes like a whiskey. Any vegetable you need they grow.  There is no grocery store in town where you can buy fresh produce, they all just grow there own.  There are 3 markets in town but they are more like 7-11s they have the packages items that they need and only the basics, one type of each, maybe 2 brands if your lucky.

 Thats my room.  I think it was Melanie's because there are Disney characters on the wall lol.  It is small, there is a bed and a little table and a dresser, but what more do I need right.

This is Melanie!!!! She is 2.  She is Lydia's grand-daughter.  She is the cheif of the house lol most children in Macedonia are, they are all princess and princes.  She sleeps when she wants, eats when she wants and plays when she wants.  Macedonians do not live on a schedule so its easy for her to make her own.  She is starting to get used to me and we play alot.  She likes to sit with me when I do my homework in the living room and she "pretends" to do work as well.  We have a nice little system going where I will point to something and ask what it is in Macedonian and she will give me the name.  This is how I am learning alot of my vocabulary lol. 

Thats all I have for now, just wanted to get the pictures up so you all can see where I am staying.  Either mom or I will write the next time, probably mom since she has a better access to the internet.  Chow for now!!!