Back in the Mak

As many family and friends know, I have returned to Macedonia to continue my service.  Unfortunately, after the initial tests and discussions, the doctors had decided to move my father’s operation to a different hospital.  This means that the operation has been postponed for an unknown amount of months, and thus we had decided that it made more sense for me to return to Macedonia than to wait indefinitely.  Obviously, this decision is not at all what I had expected, and my frustration with the way that the doctors delivered this news only adds to my general disdain for doctors and the American health care system.

Overall, it was great to see my family, especially my father, during the tail end of the winter holidays.  Despite my first two days alone at home (well, with my cat), most of my time was spent with my family.  My brother invited me to bring in 2015 with his friends at a Wicker Park bar, I enjoyed so much good Mexican/ Chinese/ Japanese food with my family, and I was able to run outside without worrying about stray dogs.  And to answer the question most people ask of those returning to Western Civilization after an extended period of time, yes, I did eat at Chipotle once.

My brothers and me in front of the tree

NYE 2015

With my father, stepmother, and the rest of their family

Being home for a brief period of time was definitely enjoyable.  However, the most eventful part of the trip was definitely the flight back to the States.  I had booked a flight with Austrian airlines, which unfortunately departs from Skopje at 4.30 in the morning.  Thus, after a one-hour delayed bus ride to Skopje from my site (which broke down en route from a flat tire), I stayed up all night to catch an early flight to Austria, connecting to Zurich, and then flying to Chicago.  Unfortunately, just before flying I contracted a cold, and 24 hours of consciousness made the thought of staying awake for so long unbearable.  Upon exiting the plane that left from Skopje, I was reminded how small Macedonia really was.  On the transport shuttle, I ran into my PC program manager, who told me that the Macedonian Ambassador to the USA was also on our flight.

After landing in Zurich, I experienced bad luck that I rarely have while traveling.  Not only was my flight to Chicago delayed due to the snowstorm passing through Central Europe, but there was no indication from which gate my plane would fly.  Thus, sick and at this point awake for about 24 hours, I meandered around the airport aimlessly for hours, too sick and too tired to read, but too restless to sit and stare at the falling snow.  By lunchtime, I decided that I may as well force myself to eat something, and after choosing a small meal, I experienced my first culture shock of returning to the Western world.  I had no idea how many Swiss Francs converted into US Dollars, but when I saw that my meager meal cost 27 Euros, I thought to myself how many days of food I would be able to purchase in Macedonia with that money.

I was also surprised that I would run into a Macedonian during my time in the States.  My brother ordered an Uber car (my first time using it since it was not very prevalent in Chicago over a year ago), and we discovered that our driver’s name was Todor.  I had a feeling that he was Macedonian, and through circumlocutory language I was able to confirm his ethnicity and start our conversation in Macedonian.  Overall he was flabbergasted that we met, and he even commented on my Prilepski dialect.  

In many ways it felt good to be back in the city in which I spent almost all of my life.  But returning to Macedonia has not been difficult, especially since I feel that I have adapted to the culture and lifestyle so well.  Of course, I worry about my father’s health, and seeing him again gives me faith that he will stay strong until I finish my time here.