A Warm Welcome to Prilep

Here I am, all moved into my permanent site for the next TWO YEARS.  Writing that out reminded me how long this experience will be.  But these next two years have definitely started out well.

Early on Saturday morning, Ted, Sarah, and I waddled over to the bus stop with all of our belongings (plus the 20 pounds of extra crap that the Peace Corps gave us) to wait for the bus that would take us to Prilep-Bitola-Ohrid.  As the bus pulled up to our little stop in Lozovo, we gave our farewells to our PST host families (though we will see them again, and soon!), and boarded the bus.  Once I arrived in Prilep, I was happily greeted by my two counterparts, Megi and Angela, who had a taxi ready to take me to my new home.  Once I had unloaded my belongings into my apartment, my counterparts mentioned that we needed to accomplish some tasks, but that I could relax for a bit before we got to work.  No chance.   I wanted to get to work right away, so we headed to the Economics University to hammer out some documents and plans for the next week.

Later that night, I finally experienced the “club scene” in Macedonia.  I was both pleasantly surprised and a bit shocked about the nightlife in Prilep.  First, people danced and drank a lot.  This is something that Peace Corps said Macedonians do not do.  The first bar, Calypso, was filled with a lot of young people, most younger than me, and they were all shooting back shots of vodka and tequila and dancing to the DJ and live band.  However, even though the drinking age in Macedonia is 18, there were plenty of high school students drinking at this bar.  The table next to ours was filled with high school boys dancing and chugging down beers and shots.  It was very weird when, after we left the first club, I introduced myself to somebody who was 16, mentioning to him that I was 25.  Never did I think that I would meet somebody nine years my junior at a bar this early in life.  Also, after stepping outside for a bit and then re-entering the club, I was stopped by the bouncer because he thought I was underage (under 18).  This is the first time in a while that somebody thought I looked younger than 18.  However, there is a chance that he stopped me because I looked out of place (American) or looked Roma (more on that in another post).  Afterwards, we went to another club, which was literally underground and was pumping trance.  I finally returned home at 3AM, staying out later than I ever had in Macedonia.

From Sunday on, I spent the week shopping a bit, hanging out with my new host family, and roaming around my new city. Posted below are pics of Mogila, my favorite part of Prilep.  Mogila, which means “mound” in Macedonian, is the biggest green space on the edge of the city.  I promise to post more pics of Prilep as I further explore this city.  That night, I participated for the first time in a well-established Prilep PCV tradition- Mexican dinner at Terri’s house!  Monday was the busiest day this week, as I purchased the majority of my food, joined a gym, and met with my tutor for Macedonian language. 

Mogila

Llamas in the park

Mexican dinner at Terri's!

Life at work has been pretty laid back, as my organization has allowed me to ease into my new position.  Eventually, I will take over the marketing and external relations responsibilities for the AIESEC Prilep.  However, I spent most of the week accompanying Hristijan, one of my other counterparts, to the in-class presentations describing AIESEC and the opportunities it offers for students to volunteer or intern abroad.  The other half of my time was spent shadowing Angela to primary schools to present surveys to students, inquiring whether they would be interested in having a foreign volunteer teach English, German, or French in their classrooms.

Hanging out with my new host family has also been great.  Olga and Ljube, my host mother and father, are older and work a lot.  Olga is a cleaning lady at a building in the center, and works two shifts per day- early in the morning, and then later at night.  Ljube owns his own construction business, and on the weekends heads to the mountain to hike, hang out with friends, and slaughter pigs.  They also own a vineyard close to Prilep that they use to make homemade rakija and wine.  Ljube has promised to take me to the mountain and the vineyard within a few months.  Finally, Ljube and Olga recently adopted a cat, Pero, which is the fourth installation of our new family.  I am very happy to live with these lovely people.

Pero!

Upon waking up this morning, I realized that I have not interacted with an American for five days at this point.  It is quite surprising how easy it is to integrate in a place like Prilep.  I will be honest, I knew that the Peace Corps experience in Macedonia would be easier and closer to American life compared to other Peace Corps countries.  However, I understand that there are unique challenges that I will face, and I hope to stay flexible and creative once I face them.