Waiting around

I've spend the last few days with Iskra, Verica, and Snezena (they were all in my Greece program) and their friends and family (Igor, Sasho, Andre, Sanchka, etc.). I've seen most of Skopje, the capital of Macedonia... there's nothing much here, it's pretty calm. The city is in the far North of the country, near Serbia (the Kosovo region). It sits between two small mountain ranges and has a river running through it that flows directly south towards Thessaloniki. Yesterday we went up to one of the bluffs where there is this ancient 12th century Orthodox church; it was very interesting. Up above where we were (about a 2 hr hike) is this huge metal cross, the Millenium Cross, which was constructed by Macedonia and the Orthodox Church in 2000- very cool, it can be seen from all over Skopje.

We spend most of our time going from cafe to cafe, being really lazy - that's what they do here. OBSERVATION: I've been really suprised at the European lifestyle since I've been here: there's the notion that they think American's are all fat and lazy, but I'm so anxious here from doing nothing, it's rediculous how lazy they are... it's just their society, nothing wrong with it, but don't call Americans lazy! Also, there are plenty of fat europeans, contrary to popular belief.

But anyways, breakfast here is pretty good: pastry's with meat and cheese inside. The lunchs are a little different: salad and raki (a very, very stiff liquor that tastes like tequila and rum) - they just munch on salad and bread and sip on this liquor straight (no ice, no mixers, nothing!). A traditional dinner consists of something that looks like a huge hamburger patty but it is stuffed with this gouda-like cheese... it's delicious.

So I've been talking more and more with everyone here about thier history an culture and what the modern conflicts are - this place is very interesting. Macedonia has the oldest Orthodox church in the Balkans (excluding Greece I think) and considers itself to have a soverign Orthodox patriarch... yet Serbia refuses to recognize thier claim and holds that Macedonian Orthodox are really a part of the Serbian Orthodox church. To the east, they have some disputed land claims with Bulgaria, but it is a peaceful border. To the south with Greece, there is a very heated debate between the countries- The norther province of Greece is called 'Macedonia' and the country refuses to recognize this country by it's constitutional name, so it refers to the government here in Skopje as 'The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' (FYROM). When I was in Greece, every Greek refered to this country as FYROM, but here in the country, you need to say 'Macedonia'. I guess it is political for Greece, since thier northern region, 'Macedonia', actually used to be a part of this soverign nation, 'Macedonia', but was divided and given to the Greeks by the British after the first world war. If Greece was to actually recognize this country as Macedonia rather than FYROM, they might be admiting that their northern region should actually belong to Macedonia as well. This is probably boring to all of you. The last main issue in this country is with Albania... i could talk all day about this. Let's just say they are sort of like our problem with Mexican immigrants (don't assimilate, break the law, have lots of kids) but they are also make up the largest Mafia in europe right now (Albanian mofia is greater than Russian or Italian). I'll have more to say about this country after I visit my friends in Serbia!

My friends Artem (Israel) and Irena (Croatia) should be getting in today by train. The rough plan is to drive 2hrs south tommorow morning to Ohrid where there is supposedly a beautiful lake... i'll do anything to get into some water, it's very hot here! So I'll tell you how that goes. Then we'll probably leave for Belgrade, Serbia sometime this weekend.

Caio,
John

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