Spring Time in Macedonia

Life in Macedonia changes in the Spring.  You will now see more people in the center of town talking and drinking coffee.  The kids are playing outside more and ice cream is back!!!  You might think that it's to early in the year to see people walking around eating their ice cream cones......but its never too early for ice cream.

April 1st in Macedonia is known as Април лили, April lili.  It is just like April Fools.  The kids try and trick the teachers and the teachers try to trick the kids.  "Ok, sit down.  Pull out a piece of paper and a pencil;  you are having a pop quiz today."  "WHAT?!"  "April lili"   The only difference is the younger students dress up.  I am not sure what the reasoning is behind it, but as you walk around the center it looks like Halloween; but the kids here do not go around and collect candy.

 Nikola!!!!  He chose the perfect costume, even though he is normally the one to disrupt the peace instead of keep the peace.

 Irena with one of the 1st grade classes.

 Sarah was a bunny and Angela was a clown.  Angela's mom works at the store in town where I bought all my pots and pans and essentials for my apartment.

 My 5th grade boys.  The boys were soccer players and the girls were.......

cheerleaders.  They had a dance routine that they performed in front of the municipality after school.  All of the kids in Resen, including both elementary schools,  gathered there and each class performed something.

The other 5th grade class.  Same idea, boys soccer players and girls were cheerleaders.  

Another indication that Spring is here is that more people go walking.  For a PCorps volunteer's birthday, she organized a hike through Pelister National Park, located outside of Bitola.  The trail we planned on taking would take us to churches and monasteries located in towns around the park.  The only thing was that these "trails" probably had not been used in years; so what was once a path ended up being an overgrown area.  There were times we had to make our own path up the mountains.

Pelister National Park.  It was a perfect day of hiking.  It started out sunny, then there was some rain, then sun, then hail.....yes hail, about the size of rain drops, and then sun again.  Mother Nature could not make up her mind; but we kept on going.  I made granola bars for the hike and during a break they were a big hit.  By the time the bag got back to me there were none left.  Good thing I had saved one back at my apartment, but from the comments and looks on people's faces they turned out very good.

 As we were walking through one of the towns, we saw a man and his sheep.  When we stopped to take a picture of the herd, he started to move out of the way; but then we told the man that we wanted him in the picture too.  As we were walking away we could hear his buddy yelling "Did they take your picture too?"  The man responded with "Yep!" and started to laugh.

 One of the churches on our hike.

Our tour guide!!!  We met up with this dog on the hike and he followed us the whole way.  At the end we had to leave him at one of the villages.  I hope he found his way back home because he went quite a way with us.  

The reason behind the delay in this week's blog was because I was in Ohrid for a technical training session.  It was a conference for us and our counterparts.  We stayed at a very nice hotel called Hotel Belvedere, http://hotelbelvedere.com.mk/Home.html.   Every night after we were finished with the training sessions and dinner you could find me, and others, sitting by the fire with a glass of wine.  It was the perfect place to unwind after a long day. After the conference, many of the volunteers stayed in Ohrid for a mini-vacation.  On Friday, I just walked around and window shopped.  On Saturday, we all went out on a boat to Svet. Naum.  It has a monastery and is a popular attraction.  It was a beautiful day; and we brought snacks (wine, cheese, and crackers) and sunbathed on the front of the boat.  As one of the volunteers said "Life in Macedonia is just rough isn't it?"  (can you hear the sarcasm?)

There were about 15 of us that went on the trip, so we had to take 2 boats. 

 This was the summer house of the President of Yugoslavia.

The monastery, we were able to walk around the property.  There is a restaurant and hotel there too. 

 The church located inside the monastery.

 All over the grounds of the monastery there were peacocks.  I had never seen so many and have never been so close to one.  Also, I found out they can fly.  I learned this as one was flying over my head down to the ground from where it was perch on a branch of a tree.

 There was a smaller and newer church located outside of the monastery grounds and I was able to watch a man paint the fresco.

As you can see, alot has been happening and things are starting to pick up now that Spring is here.  I have a busy weekend coming up with GLOW, so expect the next blog to be on Monday.