Sweet City Woman
“You chose this?”
That’s the question I get most often when explaining to local friends why I’m in Macedonia and it comes out that I indeed directly applied to be here. It’s not for forever, I say, and they seem relieved when I tell them I’ll move back to America after a year or two... Why any American would choose Macedonia over the States long-term bewilders them. But, that doesn’t mean they don’t try to make the absolute most of my time here while they can.
University begins again next week, and I’m happy to report the groups of students I teach got the highest grades in their class years. 😃 I have new strategies for teaching this semester, and I’m looking forward to getting acquainted with the new groups I’m in charge of (but I do get to keep my favorite group, which I’m secretly very thankful for). Getting to school will now be stress-free, because after no less than six attempts and months of dodging the JSP ticket-checkers, I got a bus card! Vindication is MINE. Take that, Macedonian transportation bureaucracy.
Sofia
My final trip during the break was to Sofia, Bulgaria, this past weekend, with three Fulbright ETA men who also teach here. I haven’t spent much time with them because we’re spread out all over the country, and I’m typically reluctant to leave city life for rural Macedonia (despite how beautiful it is). But, I had some proxy business to attend to at the Indian Embassy in Sofia, and as they say, “when in the Balkans, drive to as many neighboring countries as possible”.... do they say that?
No matter, I rented the same car I took to Tetovo and Kosovo (and after three safe journeys, I am now taking nickname suggestions for the vehicle…) and we made the mountainous, four-hour drive to Sofia. With our temporary resident IDs now in hand, we had no issues at the border, although I suspect it would’ve gone faster at the Bulgarian entrance if I had let the customs agent bum a smoke. Alas, the lasting effects from a CDC ‘Tips from Former Smokers’ ad meant I had none to give, and we waited an extra few minutes.
Sofia looks much more like Central or Eastern Europe than it does the Balkans. It’s cleaner, they have Starbucks AND McDonald’s, and no one parks on the sidewalk. They have trams (and gasp! Women can be employed as tram drivers. There is not one female bus driver in all of Macedonia) and a metro, which I took for a short ride because I miss taking trains. During the Roman Empire, Sofia was called ‘Serdika’, and the ancient ruins of the city still exist. One of our group, David, majored in classics and earned his seat in the car for the return trip by taking us through the ruins and giving context for what was there.
Generally, I found that Bulgarians are ruder than Macedonians; at one point, I led the charge out of a bar because the waiter was so outrageously rude to Trevor, one of our group who looks like a 7-foot-tall lumberjack (but wouldn’t hurt a fly), and I won’t stand for that.
I wrote a bit about the trip for Macedonian homework, so here’s a sample: ‘Ние возевме до Софија за три и пол часа. Првата постојка беше Индијската Амбасада, бидејќи јас морав да ги дадам документи за другарка ми. После, јадевме ручек (ние бевме сите многу гладни) и шетавме низ Софија. Убав град е – прекрасни згради, многу кафе-барови и многу видови ресторани. Во сабота, ние шетавме и ги видовме Римски урнатини, Зградата на Народното Собрание и пазаревме.’
The weekend weather was beautiful, which definitely made the visit more worthwhile because everyone was out on Saturday afternoon enjoying the soon-to-be-spring weather (thank you, Punxsutawney Phil, for the great prediction). I liked Sofia more than Prishtina, but Skopje is still my favorite Balkan capital, for better or for worse… not like I’m biased or anything. 😉 Still grateful I chose this.
If anyone has any tips on preventing pigeons from making a nest on your balcony, please drop me a line…
(Song Credit: Stampeders)
