Where in the World is Michelle?

I got back from GLOW on Sunday and headed off for my last trip ---Budapest, Romania and Transylvania on Tuesday.  Will be back the first of August and will post then.  Sure will have alot of catching up to do!!! 

Balkan Trip 2012

I'm back!!!  I know its been a while since I have written, but there was a good reason....I was on vacation.  Another volunteer and I  just got back from touring the Balkans. We had a great time, little fast paced, but that is what you have to do in order to see everything in a limited amount of time. I am not going to put up every detail of the trip, since that will take a loooooong time, so I thought I would put up a picture for each place we hit and write a little summary.
So here we go...........

 Our first stop was to the Plivice Lakes in Croatia.  It is a beautiful national park that has tons of waterfalls.  We spent two days walking around enjoying the wonderful weather.  The first day we got there it poured....

and even though I am smiling the picture, I was not a very happy camper.  I don't like being out in the rain; but then the next day we went back and it was beautiful and well worth the trip.

 Then we were off to Split, Croatia.  It is a nice old town, located on the water.  It has historical sites and lots of shopping.  We spent most of our time wandering around looking at the palm trees.

 Then we left Croatia and headed to Bosnia.  Even after all that Bosnia had been through, it was still a beautiful country.  This is the bridge in Mostar.  It was destroyed during the war and then rebuilt. There is even a club of men that dive (more like jump) off the bridge.  While we were there we saw two men jump off the bridge.

 Then it was off to Sarejevo, Bosnia.  Even though it had been awhile since the war, you could still see the remains.  This is the tunnel that "saved" the city.  It started at one ladie's house and went all the way under the airport.  The Bosnians say that if it was not for that tunnel they all would have starved.

 We took a tour of the city.  This is our tour guide.  She was fantastic and we really learned alot.  It was nice to hear about everything that happened from someone our age that actually lived it.  We were surprised to see that the Bosnian people are so hopeful after all the horrible things that they went through.

 Once we left Bosnia, it was back to Croatia.  This is Dubrovnik.  The Old part is a tourist destination. We took a cable car up the mountain to get the areal view of the whole city.

 After Croatia, we went to Kotor, Monetnegro.  This is one of the small centers that makes up the Old Town.  Do you see the mountain in the background?.......

 We hiked all the way to the top to see the old castle. The guidebook said that the hike was for the "adventurous traveler".  Why I decided to go, I will never know.  Guess I had a burst of energy because up we went.  All the way to the top.

Our last stop was Budva, Montenegro.  This was our beach day.  At some of the other places we also took some time away from siteseeing to go to the beach; but in Budva all we saw was the beach.  I got my chair and my umbrella and I was good to go.  No shoes, no shirt, no problem!!  It was a wonderful trip and when people ask me my favorite part, I have been giving a political answer: Croatia has beautiful cities, Bosnia has wonderful people, and Montenegro has great beaches.  That pretty much sums up the trip!

Now that the vacation is over, I am off to camp.  Will write again when I get back!!!
YEAY, CAMP GLOW!!!!

Ending the Year with a BANG!

I ended the school year with many adventures.  The first was this weekend, a group of  PCvolunteers and I did a tour of Western Macedonia.  We spent our time horseback riding, hiking, and visiting some monasteries.

 The group of adventurous horseback riders.

 Yes, that's me on a horse.  Check it out Jenny!!!!

The beautiful Mavrovo National Park, located on the western side of Macedonia.  This was the area that we toured and got to explore on horseback.

 Hotel Tutto, where we stayed.  It is a nice hotel in the small village of Jance.  We had a feast for dinner, which included everything on the menu.

This is the owner of the hotel.  He promotes the "slow food" movement (slow cooking), an example of which is avjar.

 One of the monasteries that we visited.  It's more of a convent since eleven women live there.  We arrived on Pentecost so we got to see the nuns in prayer.

Then we went to the Duff waterfall.  It's one of the prettiest and most powerful waterfalls that I have seen in Macedonia.

 This is known as the most beautiful monastery in Macedonia. It is located outside of Debar.

My second adventure was that Mr. Crippen (my Geography professor and my Teacher/Mentor during the MAT Progran at CNU) came to Macedonia!!!  He was on a tour and spent a day in Ohrid.  I met him and Peggy for dinner and I told them about everything that I have been doing.  We had a great time!!

Third adventure, and this is where the "BANG" comes from.... we had an EARTHQUAKE!!! Yesterday, when I was resting, I felt that my couch was moving.  My first reaction was that someone had jumped on it with me, but then the next thing I know my whole building started to shake.  I ran out of my apartment and noticed that none of my neighbors where in the hall and they were acting like nothing happened.  When I talked to Irena she said that she did the same thing, ran out of her building, and saw that no one was out there....just her.  There was no damage.  I was just a bit shaken. Then this morning at 5:30am we experienced the aftershock.  It was just two more small quakes, but still enough to wake me up.

That's it for now. I will be out of touch for a while.  I will be starting my tour through the Balkans  next week.  So I probably will not write anything until the end of June. 

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. 

Istanbul- Part 2

We went to the Topkapi Palace, Turkey's #1 tourist attraction.  It was a beautiful day and we walked around looking at all the rooms that the Sultans use to live in and then visited the Harem. We learned that at one point over 300 women lived in the Sultan's Harem.

 The entrance to the Palace.

 Part of the Harem

All of us at the Palace overlooking the Bosphorus Straight.

After the Palace, we made our way over to the Spice Bazaar.  It was a lot smaller than the Grand Bazaar, but filled with spices, dried fruits, sweets, and teas.

 Dried pepper, eggplants, and some other items. They dry their pepper just like the do in Macedonia.

 When you walk around all you see is piles and piles of spices.

Different kinds of teas.

After the Spice Bazaar, we head towards the water and took a ferry cruise up the Bosphorus.

 All ready for our two-hour cruise.

 On the water.  This is a famous bridge, Faith Bridge, that connects the European side of Turkey with the Asian side.

 Enjoying my Turkish tea on the boat. It got a little cold and windy.

 Afterwards, we grabbed some fish sandwiches.  There are three boats that sell fresh fish sandwiches.

Since it was windy, every time the boat rocked towards the pier the chef threw a sandwich to the waiter.

I could keep going on and on about my trip to Istanbul, but that would take a week of blogging. These were just some of the highlights. We also went to some museums and experienced a Hamam, the traditional Turkish bath.  The women and men go to separate areas and get "washed" and then a massage.  I can say it was an interesting experience; and I can cross that one off the list.