Not a Piece of Cake

So besides my normal routine of going to school and language lessons, I have started attending an aerobics class that is offered twice a week at the other primary school.  It is only for ladies, which is nice, and the only man is the instructor who is one of the P.E. teachers at the high school.  Irena and I went to our first class on Monday.  It is in the school gym, which is more or less a room with wood floors and one basketball hoop.  I was surprised  to see how many woman were actually there.   I would guess around 25; and they were all different ages.  There are even some 10-year old girls that come.  The movement and the good music made the 1.5 hours fly by; and next thing I knew we were slowly walking home.  It was a VERY intense class, not what I was expecting.  While most Macedonians spend their day at a slow and relaxed pace, I was not expecting boot-camp when I got to aerobics class.   It is a good work-out.  He does a combination of kick-boxing, aerobics, and mat work and has you doing it for the full class,  which Irena says normal lasts 2 hours. So after a quiet, winter where I was doing a lot of baking and eating comfort foods, now I am getting myself  back into shape.  Now I know what you must be thinking....aerobics class in the Peace Corps?  Well yes, and its cheap too!!!  I pay 300 dinar, around $6 for 2 classes a week for the whole month.  For that price my goal is to come back slim and trim.

On Wednesday, I did game night at the American Corner.  The  ladies there wanted me to teach the kids how to play Scrabble.  They want to form a Scrabble club in the hopes that later on all of the American Corners throughout are going to be putting on a Scrabble tournament.  So I spent the day before brushing up on the rules.  I know the gist of the game; but if they were going to be having a tournament,  I wanted to make sure I was teaching them the game correctly.  That night I had 12 kids; and since, for all of them  it was their first time ever playing, Scrabble I was helping them.  As I had mentioned in an earlier blog, critical thinking skills are lacking in the students here.  Almost every time I would hear them say "I don't have a word" or "I can't play my word."   They were only looking at their tiles to make words and not using the tiles on the board to help them.  I seemed to be repeating the same thing "look at the board and see what letters you can use first and then form the word around that."   But then I would still get "I don't have anything."  They could not see past the tiles that they had; and once they found a word there, that was it, they could not see or find any other words.  They played the whole time and next thing I knew it was 7 o"clock and their parents were at the door.  Hopefully, with some more practice they will get it and start seeing more words on their own.

I  forgot to mention in my last blog that on March 8th, while I was in Greece, it was International Women's Day.  That is what they consider Mother's Day.  It is still a school day, but after school all the female teachers go out to lunch and the students bring their teachers gifts.  So when I arrived back at school, I had 3 classes that really wanted to see me.  That Monday when I was walking down the hall, one of the 5th grade classes saw me and the kids started yelling my name and running into their classroom to get the gift that they had gotten me.  It was a nicely wrapped gift with a bracelet, necklace, scarf, and jewelry box. They were all pink.  Now pink is not a color that I normally wear, but I told the kids that when I find the right outfit I will show them how it all looks.  For Mother's Day I also received another necklace and matching pair of earrings from 3 of the boys in the other 5th grade class and a flower in a vase from one of the 4th grade classes.  It was very sweet and the look on the students' faces as they were giving my the gifts is something I will never forget. They were all so proud and happy that I liked their gifts and that I gave each of them a hug.  It is moments like this that make the Peace Corps an experience of a lifetime.  

Back to Reality

This first week back after my trip to Greece was good and busy.  I think that helped with the transition not to mention going to a place that we both had to travel too, knowing that we would be returning to different locations afterwards.

I am sorry to say that I do not have any interesting and adventure stories this week.  This week was all about getting back to the normal routine, which was kind of hard to do at school since the ministry came for 3 days to observe and look around.  The teachers have been stressed for weeks in preparation for them coming and this week it was even worse.  The teachers were putting together last minute posters to decorate their walls, even though all of their classrooms already looked great and they were trying to add more interactive elements, like the computers, to their already short, 40 min, lessons.  This plus constantly wondering when someone would be coming to watch their lessons really made the week crazy.  These poor teachers were stressing themselves and the students out for no reason. They had been preparing for weeks and when the ministry people did come into their classrooms they only stayed for 5 mins, literally.  The first day they visited 10 classrooms in 2 periods, each being only 40mins long.  How can you get a good idea of what the teacher can do in 5 mins? You can't.  I mostly stuck with Irena this week, since we have a good routine and system down when we teach together and I wanted to stay out of the other teachers way.  By the end of the inspection/observations all of the teachers had been visited by the ministry, all except Irena.  The days they visited the older students, she was teaching the younger ones, and the days they were visiting the younger students, she was teaching the older ones.  So she was able to slide under the radar all week.  Irena seems a little disappointed that they never came to watch her teach, since she had prepared for them to come, but she was not heart broken.  In the end the school was given a 3 on the grading scale.  That is average and good for the schools in Resen, since the other 2 schools in Resen both got 1s.  The grading scale is from 1-5 and Irena said that they do not give out 4 or 5s because if they do then they would have to raise the teachers salary.  So really a 3 is very good. Our director told Irena that it is a good thing for the ministry that they did not watch Irena teach because then they would have had to give the school a 4 or a 5, because she is such a good teacher.  For Irena that compliment made up for the fact that they did not watch her.

On Friday, I did Kid Club at the corner and the topic was St. Patty's Day, of course.  I wore green and had Irish music playing as the kids came in.  We talked about St. Patrick and some of the Irish legions and what people in American do to celebrate.  Then I danced, of course  I had to dance, and the kids each made their own leprechaun.  Afterward, myself, some other volunteers, and 2 of the ladies that work at the corner went to one of the bars in Bitola because they were "celebrating" St. Patty's Day.  Now I say "celebrating" in quotes because they had green and orange balloons up and a big paper shamrock on the door and Irish music playing but that was it.  No green beer, no Irish car-bombs, and the only people wearing green were the volunteers and the bartenders.  I think some people know or at least have heard about St. Patrick's Day over here, but they have not adapted the full concept of celebration like what happens back in the states.  I guess that is just another thing that I will have to add to my to-do list of things to teach/show people over here in Macedonia. A Peace Corps volunteer's job is never done.

Family Bonding!!!!

"Family bonding" is a popular phrase used in the Carr household. When said it holds a little sarcasm and a lot of love. Our 8 day trip to Greece was just enough time. We were able to see everything that I wanted to see and also have relaxing days at the hotel, a must in a Jenny vacation.  When I arrived at the airport, Mom, Dad, and Jenny were waiting at the baggage claim for me.  There were hugs and tears.  The rest of the day we just hung around the hotel.  We stayed at the Herodion, a very nice hotel with a comfortable lobby (we spent most of our evenings there reading by the fire).  We had our first dinner at the hotel restaurant because Mom, Dad and Jenny were tired from their trip; and the next day we all had to get up early.

Saturday we did a bus tour around Athens.  We saw all the highlights:

The stadium used for the first Olympic Games held in Athens. Our tour guide told us that it is still used today and there are concerts held there during the summer.

In front of our tour bus. Mom found it funny that the first form of transportation that I get on in Athens is another bus since that is the ONLY form of transportation that I use in Macedonia.

This is the new Acropolis museum. It was actually located next to our hotel so we could see it all lit up at night from the roof.  It was built on top of ruins and they had plexiglass floors so you could see all of the ruins as you were walking around and looking at the statues and exhibits in the museum. There were many historical statues there; but if you want to see most of them, we were told that you have to go to the museum in London because that is where they all are now.

Our tour group with our tour guide.  She knew everything! It was interesting listening to her talk about the history and also the stories that she told along with it. 

The Acropolis!!! There were a lot of people walking around that day. I could not imagine what it would be like during the summer since we went during the off season.

It took a few tries with a bunch of different people but we finally got the family photo in front of the Acropolis. The pictures before were all of us zoomed in but no one ever fit in the Acropolis also.

After our tour, Jenny went back to the hotel to rest and Mom, Dad and I went and checked out the Platka area.  It is full of restaurants and shops, most were the typical tourist shops.  After awhile, it got a little annoying because every time we would just walk in a store to look around someone that worked there would follow us around the store and tell us about the items that we were looking at. By the middle of the trip Mom said she was tired of shopping and would not walk into another store.  Also the restaurant owners, would stand on the street:as we passed, they would stop and tell us that their restaurant is the best, has the best Greek food, that there will be live music and that we should come back or eat right now.  They also handed us their card so that we would  remember where to come back and eat.  By the end of our walk, I had 6 restaurant cards in my purse and that was all just from one street. 

Sunday we took a one day cruise to see 3 islands.

It took us awhile to get use to the motion of the boat, and Jenny announced that she hates boats along with the other forms of transportation that she is not found of.   To make the list short, the only 2 forms of transportation that she likes are cars and horses; meaning that she will not be traveling anywhere far in her lifetime.

The first island that we stopped at was Hydra. It is know for 2 things: cats and burrows.

When we got off the boat there were about 8 cats sitting there right next to the dock.  As we continued to explore the island we kept finding more and more.  There was a bunch sitting by the fishing boats waiting for the fisherman to throw them some fish, which they did.  The island has about 1,000 cats.  It is due to the fact that cats in Greece, just like in Macedonia, are all outdoor cats; and the Greeks, like other Europeans, do not neuter their animals.  The result being that on this small island you have about the same amount of cats that you do people. The good thing is that the people of the island all take care of the animals and they all looked happy and healthy.

The only thing that Jenny wanted out of the whole trip was to ride a burrow. So I joined her along for the ride; and let me tell you it was not comfortable.  The saddles that they put on a burrow are meant to be riden  side saddle, but the guy throw us up like you would ride a horse; and it was not until halfway through the ride and some sore legs later that I figured the whole side saddle thing.

After walking around Hydra and doing some shopping, we all got back on the boat and it was lunch time.  Now as you can see from the picture I cleaned my plate, Jenny, Mom, and Dad were not that pleased with the food.  The reason why I ate it all is because in the Peace Corps you learn to eat what is put in front of you, without asking what it is; and you eat until you are full because it is free food.

The 2nd island Pordos, we just walked around and stretched our legs.  It was pretty and it was a nice day for our cruise.

The last island, Aegina, is know for the pistachio nut. There are pistachio groves all over the island and we even went to a factory that is run by a family and they produce the most pistachios.  We left with plenty of bags of nuts to eat and share with friends and family back home.

Monday was "Clean Monday."  It was the beginning of their Lenten Fasting.  Everyone goes to the top of a big hill in Athens to fly kites.  There was also music and people dancing the Oro. It was interesting to see part of the Greek culture. 

It was also the best day for me because I found a STARBUCKS!!!!  I went about 4 times while I was there. I needed my Starbucks fix.

Tuesday we relaxed and hung around the hotel; did some walking and some shopping.  A Jenny day of vacation.

Wednesday we went to the Jewelry Museum in the morning and then went on a bus tour to Cape Sounion.  We drove along the coast and then ended up at the ruins of Poseidon's temple.

 While Mom, Jenny and I walked around and took pictures, Dad wondered off somewhere.  Can you find him?

It was very windy and kind of cold that day and Dad found the perfect spot. He said it kept the wind off but left you in the sun so sitting there was not that bad.

This is where you could find us every evening.  We went to the lobby and sat by the fire, read our books and had our cocktails.  It was like being at home with all of us sitting in our own living room. The only thing missing was the kitties.

Thursday was our tour with Joe. Joe was our travel guide and we went with him to show us the "true Greece" and to eat "real Greek food" on a personal tour.   We went along the coast and saw all the nice beaches and the more quiet and non touristy side of Athens.

Joe's tour was more Jenny's speed. She said she would come back to Greece if we spent the whole time on one of the beaches or at a nice resort.

He took us to a place where you could see all of Athens. Behind us is the "Friendship and Peace" stadium built for and used during the 2004 Olympics.

This lake is 70 degrees all year long. And it is a place where people with diseases come to get cured.  They believe that the water can help and there is a resort next to it that has doctors and nurses.

Friday was our last day.  Mom and I went to the Archaeological Museum because we were told it was a must and that it is number 3 in the world. As I walked around and looked at all the pieces, Mom more or less took a picture of each one. So if you would like to see what is in the museum just ask to look at Mom's scrapbook, you won't have to pay admission. She had the idea in her head as she was walking around taking the pictures...." this is going to be a 4 page mosaic!"  Dad and Jenny hung around the hotel.  They were tired.   That evening we all had our last family dinner.  The next day Mom, Dad and Jenny woke up early and left the hotel around 4 am. I was able to go back to sleep and have a nice breakfast at the hotel before catching my flight.  It was a wonderful trip and I can't wait to have another "family bonding" experience.