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!!!