First Week Back to School

Things are starting to pick up which is good.  I came home today after school hoping to relax and take a nap and I get online and had a bunch of things to do for GLOW and tutoring with Despina and 5 hours later I am finished and writing this blog while making mac and cheese!!!

So whats new?
School started back up on Monday.  It was nice to get back in the classroom and see all the kids.  I now have a schedule with the 3 English teachers and I will be going to each class (only grades K-6) at least once a week.  Some classes see me more than once.  Monday after school my bookcase was delivered!!! It is soooo nice having a home for all my food and getting it off the floor.

 The before shot.  All the food on the floor.  Do you see now why I need a bookcase!!!

 Right after the guys brought it in.  They had to carry it up 4 flights of steps, cause I live on the top floor.  When they brought it in and asked where I wanted it they gave me a strange look when I brought them into the kitchen.  I later explained it was really for food and not books.  За храна, не киниги.

 The after shot!!!!  With all my food.  I posted it on facebook when it came and the other volunteers commented on all my American food.  You can take the girl out of American but you cant take American out of the girl.  Mac and cheese and peanut butter are here to stay!!!

I did some baking this week.  My treat was buying a hand mixer, remember when my treat was buying a coach purse?!  After about my 3rd batch of cookies I got sick of trying to cream sugar and butter together with a fork.  I made orange peel bread and groundhog cookies.  I made the cookies for Kids Club.  I told them the story about groundhog day and what happens, they made groundhog puppets and I showed them a podcast from 2009 Groundhog Day.  The ladies at the American Corner take pictures during each event and they have not posted them up on facebook yet, when they do I will add them to the blog, but I do have a picture of the cookies.

They have corn flakes, oats, almonds (the recipe called for sliced almond, but your not going to find those in Macedonia, you buy whole ones and grab a knife and start chopping) and then you add 2 raisins as eyes.  The kids did not seem to like them, the recipe makes 4 dozen and each kid only had 1, some did not even finish their first one.  I took the rest to my GLOW meeting the next day and the volunteers finished them off for me, cause I did not want to bring the cookies home.

I taught one of the kindergarten classes this week by myself.  Maria had to go to the other primary school in Resen to work on a Macedonian test.  They told her to be there at 10:30, and she had a class to teach them.  Instead of pushing it to another time I took it.  It is very strange how they view and run schools here.  They have no problem pulling a teacher out of their lesson to go to a meeting or send them to do something else.  They also do not have a substitute system in place, so if a teacher is out they can ask the other teachers for help to fill the time or the kids just have a free time.  School here seems to be over looked and it does not take precedence like it does back in the states. Teaching a kindergarten class by myself was interesting and I was actually nervous about teaching it.  It was strange since I have taught before and I have NEVER felt nervous about teaching, but image walking into a room with 20 6 year old's there is no classroom management system set up and they speak another language.  It would be different if I was teaching the older students since they know more English and we could, after a view tries, start understanding each other.  But the kindergartens only know the vocabulary words that they are learning.  I had to use some of my Macedonia.  The class ended up going well. I had to teach them some vocabulary, toys: doll, ball, yo-yo, robot, and car. I had flashcards with a picture of each object on it and then I would say it in English and they would repeat. I also had them say it in a sentence "This is a ball."  "This is a doll."  Each kid had a turn and before I knew it the 40 mins was up and class was over.  The kids were well behaved, some of them, there is always that one that wants to talk and be funny, and how are you suppose to get them back on track when you cant fully speak their language?  You give them the teacher stare, and they shut their little mouths and get right back to work.....it works every time and in any country.

Another thing that was interesting at school was when I was in class with the 6th graders.  Their teacher, Snesha, asked them what they wanted to be when they got older.  I was curious to see what Macedonian children would say, since the typical answers in the states would be: a model, an athlete, a doctor, or anything that pays a lot of money. She called on a few kids and every single one of them shrugged their shoulders and said "I don't know".  I was floored, how can a child not have a dream of what they want to be when they grow up.  I asked Snesha if in and when in school they learn about professions.  In the states they learn about them in kindergarten and it comes up more through out their education.  She told me they learn the English names in 5th grade, I said no, when do they learn about profession, not in English, just in general.  She did not know and asked one of the students as they were walking out the door.  The student said that they did not learn about professions and was kind of surprised about the question. As Snesha and I were leaving the classroom we talked about it a little more.  If students do not know what types of jobs are out there then how will they know what they want to study later on?  Snesha replied their parents help them pick classes that will give them the skills for certain jobs which at the time have a high rate of employment.  I am assuming that there are kids that study and get a job they want, but most study and get a job just to get the job.  I understand that getting a job is important, but every kid should at least have a dream of what they want to be when they grow up. 

Thursday I had coffee with the Country Director and his wife.  Our country director, Stephen Kutzy, makes the rounds to see each volunteer to get to know them better and see how they are doing.  He also said that later he would return when school was in session to see the teachers and to make sure they are utilizing me as a volunteer.  The picked me up in the Peace Corps car, its always nice to ride in a car!!  We went to the museum in Resen, the Versille of Macedonia, and walked around.  They have driven through Resen a bunch of times but never stopped to see the city.  In the museum we met a man and he explained some of the ceramic pieces.

The 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps is March 1st and PC Macedonia is getting an exhibit ready to celebrate.  Stephen and his wife thought of the idea of having me pose with the gentleman and submit it to the exhibit.  We will see if it gets put in the show.  After we walked around the museum, we went and sat and had a cup of coffee.  They got to know me better and I got to know them better.  Stephen asked how I am liking Resen and how it compares to the first place they were going to put me, Injevo.  His wife looked confused and then it clicked and she said "ohhh your the one!"  lol I hear that every time Injevo comes up.  She said that it was good and brave of me to speak up and say what I did about my the environment of my first location and I agree.  I am very happy here in Resen and looking back I don't think I would have made it this far if I stayed in Injevo.

Saturday I had a GLOW meeting in Skopje.  I took the bus up and Karen and Elena, the other Jr Coordinators, got on in Veles and we road the rest of the way together.  When we arrived it was still a little early and we were going to meet the others in front of the Holiday Inn, yes they have a Holiday Inn in Skopje.  Karen, Elena and I went and sat in the lobby.  It reminded us of home.

Everyone that was coming in and out of the lobby was speaking English.  There were even 2 gentleman sitting near us talking to another man.  They were here on business and we got to talking.  We told them that we lived here and they looked surprised until we told them we were with the Peace Corps.  They were both from Boston and they asked where home was for us and what we were doing here.  After we meet the others outside and went to the Coffee Shop!!!  It is a good thing that I don't live in Skopje or close to it cause I would be in the Coffee Shop everyday.  It is just like Starbucks, they have all the fun, special drinks, they have treats and food and you can sit and have a conversation or work on something.  This is the one place in Skopje that has coffee to-go and every time I am in Skopje I go and get my coffee to-go, my Americanized treat.  I could not get it to go since that was were our meeting was, but I did get a golemo cappuccino. And when I say golemo, which is big in Macedonian, I mean golemo!!!!

 I drank the whole thing!!!!  And it was glorious.  Our meeting lasted 4 hours and by that time we were all starving.  Another good thing about not living in Skopje is that I am not tempted to eat at the different restaurant that Skopje has, buts its nice when I come in once a month for GLOW meetings.  There is one Mexican restaurant in Skopje, that I have not been to yet, and there are some Chinese restaurants as well.  We went for Chinese.  On the main strip there is a Chinese restaurant with paper lanterns and everything, but that is not the good one.  The good one is down a dark street across from the Russian embassy, figure that.  I had a BIG plate of chicken and peanuts, soooo good!!!  I left Skopje full, tired, and happy.  I spent the night in Veles since going back to Resen that night would have taken forever.  Sunday I had coffee in Veles with my language tutor Despina.  She was my language tutor in Lozovo and we continue doing lesson over Skype. Recently I have been learning the names of Macedonian foods.  Because every time PCVs go to a restaurant we always order the same thing since that is all we know.  I want to be able to try Macedonian food and know that I am not ordering brains (yes its on the menus) or other organs that I can live with out trying.  We sat and talked about, non-language lesson things, it was nice to catch up and learn more about her.

Ok, I think this is the longest blog so far and I have caught you all up on the events here in Macedonia and also I have finished eating my mac and cheese.  Now it is time to relax and possible watch a movie.  I will write again next Sunday!!!

Last Week of the Winter Holiday

I bet most of you are wondering why I have not been writing about school and just writing about all the festivals and events that I have been going to. The past 3 weeks have been the winter holiday, their Christmas break.  The teachers have been coming to school some days, most of them (during the first week) were working on grades and report cards. While some teachers worked the other teachers that do not have to write out report cards just hang around and socialize.  It is something new to me and I still really do not understand it, in the states if the teachers have to be in school they are preparing lesson and spending all of the time in their classrooms. Here the teachers spend the time in the teachers lounge talking about non-related school topics and drink coffee.  This week I went to school on Monday and Friday for a few hours, sat and listened to the other teachers talk.  Tuesday only the teachers from grades K-4th had to come in and since they did not have anything to work on I heard that a few were planning on not coming in.  Same thing with Thursday, it was only for the teachers of grades 5-8th.  Wednesday was a religious holiday, Vodici, and non of the teachers had to come in and the municipality, mayors office, was closed as well.

Vodici, (also know as the Epiphany) it celebrate the baptism of Jesus.  People gather around a local body of water, I went to Ohrid Lake, a priest carries a blessed cross and after signing a few songs he throws it into the water.  Local men dive into the water and try to retrieve the cross.  The man who gets the cross is considered blessed and lucky for the rest of the year.  I met a few other volunteers done at Ohrid because I want to see the events and Ohrid has the biggest celebration.  There were 5 volunteers that decided that they were going to jump in the water too.  They were not allowed to go try and get the cross because A they are not Macedonian and B you have to sign up and register in order to attempt to get the cross.  I decided just to watch this year since seeing frost of the grass on the bus ride there turned me off to jumping into the lake in the middle of January.  The dive started at 10am and there were tons of people hanging around the lake.  At events in Macedonia they serve free alcohol, which is definitely a bonus, and in the winter it is hot rakia.  Rakia is similar to brandy and it is made from grapes.  They heat it up and add some sugar to it.  There were stands all around the lake of people passing out hot rakia.  I believe it is not just for the social atmosphere but also drinking it warms you up and it probably takes off some of the chill when you jump into the coooold lake.   After the dive and the 5 volunteers had dried off we all went looking for a place to eat.  All of the restaurants looked crowded.  This was my 3 time in Ohrid and I had never seen it sooo crowded.  They 14s said that it looks this way in the summer and that you have a hard time finding a place to sit.  Point taken: plan for LOTS of crowds and people in the summer.

This is the closest that I got to the lake.  There were vendors selling decorated bottles for you to put the "holy" lake water into.  A few of us got them for keepsakes and decoration.  I got a small one that has a picture of Ohrid Lake on it.  Now it is in my apartment, full of holy water, to bring me luck this year.  When I go to Vodici next year I will have to bring it and refill it to get another year of luck.

Here are some more pictures from Vodici:

 The volunteers swimming back.  They had a race between all of them to see who could make it to the boat first.

 The cold troopers!!!!

Yesterday, I went to Kavadarci with a 7 other volunteers (5 were PC and the other 2 were European volunteers).  Kavadarci is located in the wine region and is the home of the Tikves winery, the biggest winery in the Balkans.  We had a tour of the winery and also a wine tasting: 6 different bottles of wine, 1 type of rakia, and a meat and cheese plate for 600 MKD about $12, not bad!!!  We had a lot of fun talking about the different types of wines and acting like we knew what we were talking about, since non of us were real winos.  But I did take some notes, our waiter had interesting things to say about each one and there were definitely a few that I really liked and will have to buy some bottles and bring them home.Oh did I mention that our tour and tasting started at 10am.  Cant think of a better way to start the day!!!

 The entrance to the winery.  This is where our tour started.

 This building is where they make the rakia.  I believe that they cook it to help the grapes ferment more and to get a higher alcohol content.

 These were some of the tanks where they are keeping the white wine from the grapes that they picked in the fall.  This will be the 2010 wine that will come out next year.

 During the tour we were taking down to the cellar.  The barrels behind me are fulled with the new line of wines they are making that are mixed wines made by French wine makers.

 This is our tour guy and waiter Alexander.  The first glass that we got to taste was from the huge barrels outside the restaurant.  They were filled with one of the classic red table wines that they make.

 The restaurant is 2 stories. One the bottom level there is a large fire place and a nice bar, picture below, upstairs there is another bar and tables.  That was were we have our tasting.  The bottom floor was being set up for a large party of 100 people that were coming in after us.

 When we picked the meat and cheese tasting we all assumed that they would put out big plates for the table to share...oooh no. Each person got their own plate: 3 types of cheese, 4 types of meat, and some nuts. They also gave us bread, delicious soft bread.

These were the wines that we tasted.  We got them in the order from right to left.  My favorites where the Limited Edition Chardonnay, the black bottle with the gold label, the Alexandra, the rosy next to it, and the rakia, the furthest on the left.  The 2 bottles with the colorful labels are from the new collection of wines that they are making.  Each bottle is a mix of two wines and they are made by the French wine makers.  When our tasting was all over and the wine was all gone we left fully and happy volunteers.

Tomorrow school starts up again.  I was able to sit down with 2 of the English teachers and start talking about what they want me to help with, but I need to sit down with the director of my school and ask him the same question since he was the one that wanted a volunteer.  I will be nice to get back to a normal routine and back in the classrooms. I have my schedule set up so I got to grades K-6th and I can meet with each of the English teachers once a week so we can start planning together.  I also am hoping to get working on an English teachers club/meeting.  So once a month the English teachers that live around Resen can meet up, talk about strategies and have workshops to learn new ones.

I was going through my pictures and forgot that I had these. They are from the schools holiday Christmas lunch that we had at the end of December.  So now you can put faces to the names of the English teachers that I will be working with.

 Irena, my counterpart, me, Snesha, and Maria.

We went to one of the restaurants in Resen.  This was actually my first time eating at one of the restaurants we have.  I normally cook at home, but it was nice to have some authentic Macedonia food.  These are some of the other teachers.  The gentleman in the suit located on the right is the director of my school.

I will post next week and will have more pictures!!!

Vevcani Craziness!!!

This week has been more eventful then last week.  Monday, Maria (one of the English teachers) helped me find a man that is building me a bookcase.  So now my food will have a home and be off the floor!!!  They said it would be ready by Friday, but by the time I got home it was late so I am waiting until Monday to go and get it.  I also wanted to wait for when Maria is free because I might need help asking if they will help me bring it to my apartment.  I ordered it all by myself, but this part is a bit more tricky.  After ordering the bookcase on Monday I was on a high.

Tuesday went well too.  I had Adult Conversation hour at the American Corner and we played "never have I ever".  Each person had to say something that they have never done before. For example, I said that I had never made ajvar (the red pepper spread).  Those that had made it got a jelly bean (Jelly Bellys that I had brought with me).  At the end, the person with the most jelly beans was the most adventurous.  Macedonians love sweets so it was fun to see their reaction to the different flavored jelly beans.  As I was leaving the American Corner and walking to the bus station I thought to myself this week could not get any better.  Well I jinxed it.  I got to the bus station and as I was waiting for my usual bus a boy standing by the ticket counter told me, that there was no bus tonight. Of course I froze.  I called Ana who works at the American Corner and she called the bus station to see what was going on.  The boy was right.  They had cancelled the bus and they had nothing planned for those of us waiting for the bus.  Transportation here in Macedonia is interesting.  Most people rely on the buses, but there is no reliable organization system.  Each city has their own bus schedule. I later learned that they cancelled the bus because of the tobacco strikes and roadblocks that have been happening on the main route from Skopje to Bitola. Peace Corps has been keeping us updated on the protests, but it was interesting how it effects everything.  There were 4 boys waiting for the same bus as me and they were all going to Ohrid.  They bargained with a taxi driver and were able to find a way to get to Ohrid.  I was out of luck, being the only one going to Resen and 5 people cant go in a taxi.  Thank goodness there are Peace Corps volunteers all over Macedonia because I was able to spend the night at one of the volunteers apartments in Bitola.  It was no big deal since I was suppose to be coming into Bitola the next day anyways for a workshop with Maria.  So really it saved me a trip on the bus, but definitely got me thinking that now I have to plan for anything (meaning now I have a small overnight kit in my purse if something like this happens again).  Got to be prepared for the unexpected over here.

Wednesday was the workshop in Bitola.  It was on Learning Styles and was presented by the British Council of Macedonia.  It was very interested and I was surprised on how many English teachers attended.  The classroom was packed!!!  I was the only volunteer and everyone in the room was whispering and trying to figure out who I was after we had gone around the room and introduced ourselves, since they could tell by my accent that I was not Macedonia.  I sat with other English teachers who lived in Resen, that I did not know existed.  After the workshop the presenters were talking about the English teacher's night that is held once a month at the American Corner in Bitola because they were trying to get people to attend.  The Resen teachers started talking about how there is nothing in Resen like that for them. LIGHT-BULB!!!  My new goal is to try and contact all the English teacher in Resen and help them set up a English teacher's night here.  Once a month, a place where they can all meet and talk and host workshops.  I hope I can get this started because it is something that I think is needed here, something that they want, and something that I have a background in (all those SVEA workshops have paid off). Cross your figures for me!!  When I got back to Resen that night I had Karen and Jori staying with me.  I made them mom's famous potato soup and we talked and watched movies.  They had come down because we were all going to Vevcani the next morning.

Thursday morning we got up, caught the bus to Struga and then caught a taxi to Vevcani, a town located on the mountains separating Macedonia from Albania and where this crazy festival is held.  We arrived their early and found a place to eat by the springs.

The village was very pretty and they had walking trails along these fresh water springs.  The girls and I hung around up there for awhile while we waited for the carnival festivities to start.  At 2:30pm the parade started.  We walked down to the center of town and ran into other groups of volunteers and tourists from all over Europe.  This is a very popular event.  Everyone lined the main streets and watched the parade. The people of Vevcani, mostly the men, dress in crazy costumes, get drunk, and celebrate the Old New Year.  This carnival represents the "evil" coming in and the next day, New Years, the burn the costumes from the day before to represent the cleansing in order to have a good clean new year.  Here are some pictures from the parade:

 This was a bunch of older man.  They all wore suite and these funny masks and each had an instrument that they were playing very badly.

 The drunk who started off the parade.

 Children dress up for the carnival too.  But their costumes are more like what you would see on Halloween, cute, instead of the disgusting and scary costumes that the other people wear.

 Debbie, with the spider.  The coolest costume I saw during the parade.

 This was a big dome of sticks that a bunch of men were carrying around.  They occasionally stopped and pretended to climb out of it, you can see one of them in the middle. On Friday, the stick dome was used to fuel the fire were they burned the costumes to bring in the clean new year.

The next photo requires a WARNING.  Please move all children, adults, and animals out of the room!!!

Now when I said there were disgusting costumes this is what I meant.  This one took the cake.  A bunch of guys dressed up a babas (grandmothers, a very popular costume).  They made a bed out of wood and corn stocks.  Another guy was lying on the bed pretending to be a woman giving birth.  The baldy, who is smoking a cigarette, was the baby.  There costume was representing woman in villages and the hardship that they have to go through giving birth, but they definitely took it a little too far.

The rest of the afternoon was full of partying and celebration.  Later that night there was a concert in the center and the day ended with a fireworks show.  Some of the volunteers only came for the day, but a group of us stayed the night in Vevcani.  Since this is such a popular tourist attraction the people of Vevcani rent out their houses.  Myself and a group of 7 other girls had a very nice house where we only spend $10 per person for one night.  Cant beat that!!

Friday was the day that they burned the costumes from the day before.  Everyone came to the center of town and all those in costumes parade towards us.  They lite a fire and those in costumes started throwing masks, parts of their costumes, anything they had into it.

You can see the sticks from the dome was the main fuel for the fire and the devil next to it just makes the photo even better.

The center of town was packed and those in costumes were dancing the oro, popular dance here, around the fire.  There were no ropes or any barrier separating the spectators from the dancers so there was a lot of pushing, shoving, and falling since most of the people dancing were still drunk from the night before.  I want to see the fire and the parade better so I held my ground and stayed right in front. It was a good idea in theory until some guys started swinging around a dead pig carcass and I got pig juice on my pants.  I was done after that.  It carnival was the craziest thing I have EVER seen!!!  I have not decided if I will go back next year, but if I do I might only go for the first day.  2 days was plenty, and I left tried and smelling like dead pig.  I can cross Vevcani carnival off of the list of things to see in Macedonia, because by-gaully I saw it!!!

If you want to read more about the history of the carnival in order to understand it better here is a website I  found: http://www.struga.org/eng/vevcani_carnival.htm.

January Blues

Sorry that I did not write earlier this week...I have been getting over a bad cold.  It started on Monday and pretty much leveled me for the rest of the week.  That was why I did not post, not much happened this week except cough, sneeze, cough, tissues, and more sneezing and coughing and plenty of tissues.  The kids are now on their winter holiday so I did not really have to go into the school.  I went on Monday because I thought there was going to be a meeting.  But the meeting was going to be pushed back till the next day.  It was interesting going in because the other teachers were going to be working on grades.  The way it works for grading is that everything goes in the BIG RED BOOK.  They do it old school and nothing is electronic like in the states.  Also, the homeroom teachers are the only ones that have to do grades.  The other teachers, that are not in charge of a class where still there at the school but they all just sat around and talked.  It was more social than work, that was strange for me to see since whenever I walk into a school I expect to do some work, not sit around and talk.

Even though I am half way around the world, when I am sick I still need my mommy to make me feel better.  We were video skyping one day this week and while we were talking the phone rang.  I asked who it was and when mom answered I could hear Jenny on the other side.  She was calling to tell mom that she was also sick.  My parents like to think that they are "empty nesters" but when you have one child on skype sick and the other calling on the phone sick it felt just like old times. Mom found this funny and ran to go get the camera leaving Jenny and I to have a conversation, me on skype and her on speaker phone. When mom came back we "posed" for a photo, me holding up a tissue and Jenny saying "cheese" through the phone.  Does not matter how old we get, somethings will never change.

Because I was sick, I was not able to go visit Lozovo and celebrate Macedonian Christmas with my host family. I was not up to the travel and my bedroom in Lozovo was very cold, which would have probably made me worse.  So I stayed in Resen in order to get better.  On Wednesday, there were bonfires around town.  It is an old tradition where people get together around the fires and talk about the past year. I could see a bonfire from my apartment, but I did not feel up to going out and exploring.  There is always next year.  I was still interested in participating in a Macedonian Christmas so I asked Irena if I could take part in her families.  So Friday afternoon I went over to her house for lunch.  Her family has been fasting since the beginning of December so this was the first time that they were able to have eggs, cheese, meat, and sweets. They had pork and a chicken that they stuffed like a turkey, cause they could not find a turkey.  I made chocolate chip cookies, an American classic, and they loved them.  Macedonians do not know what chocolate chip cookies are.  You can not find Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips at the store.  They do have semi-sweet chocolate in candy bar form so that us Americans can chop it up and create our classic desserts. I told them next time I would make brownies.

 This upcoming week is looking better. I have Adult Conversation at the American Corner, myself and the 3 English teachers at my school are going to a workshop, and then at the end of the week its the Vevcani Carnival!!!  I will leave you in suspense until next week.  Then I will tell you about Vevcani and have pictures!!!

The Beginning of 2011

Happy New Year!!!!

My new year started off with a last minute decision to go to Bitola to celebrate.  I was waiting to hear what happens in Resen for the holiday and when I heard that most of the older people leave because the younger people take over the coffee shops I decided I would hit the road too.  I was not interested in celebrating with any of my students at the coffee shops, since I do not see that as professional and I am here to be their teacher and not a buddy.  There was a group of volunteers celebrating in Bitola and I decided to join the fun!!!

We all were at Lauren's place.  She has planned a shepard's pie for dinner.  Baba Chris is helping Lauren out by cooking up some onions.  I made some "amazing" (in quotes cause it came from the others) dip from sour cream, dried onions, parsley, pepper, and a little garlic powder.  The others were asking me where I got the recipe and I told them I just made it up.  That and I also made some "amazing" honey mustard for their chicken nuggets.  Again they asked what I did and I told them its all in the name, honey and mustard, lol.  Who would have thought.

After dinner 2 of the other groups celebrating in Bitola came over, there were some MAK 14s at Katie's house and there was a group of the older guys from MAK 13 and 14s at Phil's place.  They all came over to Lauren's and we continued to talk and celebrate until it was time to walk to the center to join the Macedonians.

 There were 4 of us from the Lozovo training group so we had to show our love to Lozovo.  So no the "L" does not stand for loser......it stands for Lozovo!!!

Some pictures from the celebration at Lauren's house.
Once it got closer to midnight, we all headed out to the center of town where there was a big celebration going on.  Kind of like a mini Time Square celebration in New York.

 As you can see the place was packed.  There were people everywhere.

 There was live music!!

And once it hit midnight.....out came the fireworks. Once the fireworks were over everyone cleared out of the center pretty fast, but the Americans stayed around to celebrate and dance to the live music.

 This was our first attempt at representing 2011.

But the second time and the basic way was the best.

The whole group in the center after the celebration, plus 2 Macedonians that wanted to take a picture with us.  It was a great way to celebrate the New Year with MAK 13, 14, and 15s (3 groups of volunteers).

The next morning when we walked out of Lauren's house, some of her neighbors were standing outside around the car.  They had woken up early and decided to start off the New Year with a feast.  Definitely not something you would find in the states.  Normally our pigs are found at the store and ready to cook, instead of on the hood of someones car.  But its culture and the only thing you can do is take a picture of it!!!  Hope this image helps to start your New Year off right!!!  lol