Wrapping up the School Year

Two weeks left!!!  It doesn't matter where you are in the world, if you are a teacher you still count down to the last day of school.

Even though school does not officially end until June 8th, all the students and some of the teachers have more or less mentally checked-out for the summer.  It also doesn't help that they will be collecting the textbooks on Monday even though we have to teach the rest of the week.  And some of the teachers still have tests planned to give that week.  It doesn't make any sense to me or Irena, but oh well.  So since we won't have any textbooks, we are planning some review activities and possibly do a short play with our older students.

As for the summer, the word that sums it all up is TRAVEL!!!  I have about 22 vacation days that I need to use before August 25th and I plan to use every single one of them.  Right now I have one trip planned and another in the works.  The first is a tour of the Balkans.  Myself and another volunteer are planning on seeing Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and coming back to Macedonia through Albania.  It's going to be a great trip and we are planning to leave right when school gets out. The trip that is in the works is to Hungry and Romania.  I have heard from other volunteers that Budapest, Hungry is more beautiful than Paris.  And like Istanbul, Budapest was on my list of places I definitely wanted to see before leaving.  After seeing Budapest, I plan to make my way over to Romania to Bucharest and the Transylvania area to hang out with Dracula.  So I am really looking forward to these upcoming trips.

Besides travelling, I have GLOW to look forward to.  It has been taking up most of my time; but it will be definitely worth it when the girls arrive and they have a great week at camp.  That is about it for now.  But I will leave you with a clip from the Eurovision competition.  It is very popular over here and EVERYONE is talking about it.  Each country sends a music group/artist to represent their country.  Macedonia sent over one of its famous singers.  Of course, everyone was hoping that Macedonia would win, but a group from Russia was also very popular.

Singing Babas at Eurovision

Who does not like singing Babas (aka Grandmothers)? I think everyone's favorite is the smallest one.
So enjoy and remember "Party for Everybody"!!! (You will get it once you watch the clip)

Some R&R in Venice

A week ago, myself and two other PC Volunteers went to Venice for a few days.  There are cheap flights from Skopje to Venice so we decided to take full advantage. Venice is exactly as you see it in pictures, canals everywhere with boats and gondolas.

 This was just after we arrived.  Proof that I was in Venice, Italy standing on top of the Rialto Bridge looking out onto the canal.

 The Rialto Bridge.

 After walking though the maze of streets and alley ways, you enter into Saint Marco's Square.  At the end, you can see the Basilica.  In the evening, the restaurants and coffee shops have live bands playing and it a nice place to sit with a cup of coffee and relax.

 The Basilica, and as you can see there are tourists everywhere.

 Tourists playing with the pigeons.

 Gondolas and Carnival masks, the two things people think about when they hear the word Venice.  .

But when you hear the work Italy you think about . . .

 . . .THE FOOD!!!!  Even though Venice is not know for its Italian cooking,  I still enjoyed eating a lot of pizza and......

Gelato!!!

I know I have been writing mostly about my travels, but for the next few months that is what I will be mostly doing.  Since PC only gives us two days a month; and I did not travel a lot during my first year, I have many vacation days that I need to use up before I leave.  But don't worry, I am still working. School is starting to slow down, ever since the beginning of May the students have been acting like it is summer. GLOW  (Girls Leading Our world) camp is starting to pick up and has been taking up most of my time.  The camp, that I am one of the organizers for, is starting to come together and will be held at the beginning of July.  So for the next two months my time will be spent working on GLOW and traveling. 

The Adventure to Snake Island

Resen is about 20 km from Prespa Lake.  In the middle of the lake is an island called Golem Grad, also known as Snake Island.  Last week I had some other PCVolunteers visit because they wanted to see Golem Grad before they left Macedonia.  There is only one way to get to Golem Grad.  You have to go to the small and isolated village of Konjsko and find someone with a boat to take you out there.

The view from Konjsko. Only about 50 people live in Konjsko. It's just houses and the closest mini market is about a 20 minute drive on a windy, bumpy, dirt road on the side of the mountain.

 Approaching Golem Grad.

 Since it was a warm and sunny day, I was terrified of running into any of the snakes that live on the island.  But surprisingly, I saw more turtles than snakes.  Everywhere we walked we saw turtles and occasionally a few rabbits as well.  I think my stomping around did the job and kept the snakes away.

 The church of St. Peter.  The only building that still exists on the island.

 The ruins of an old church.

 The ruins of an old Basilica.

 The ruins of an old Sistern. There use to be a Roman settlement living on the island and there were some ruins of old houses on the island too.  We had a great time and spent about two hours walking around the whole island.

Heading back. This was the man that took us out to the island on his boat.  When we got back he let us sit in his yard and offered us rakija and coffee until our taxi arrived to take us back to Resen.