Blogs from Macedonia, Europe - page 17

On December 12th the Mak13 group had our swearing-in ceremony. Let's see... I played a version of the national anthem of Macedonia on my guitar whilst the others sang. All I know is that I was glad to be done with our Pre-Service Training. It is nice to also be done with the middle school antics of many of my fellow volunteers. I can honestly say that the amount of ridiculous gossip that goes on in the Peace Corps, thus far, has been the most negative part of my service. ... read more

OK, so long story short. Me & two of my Peace Corps buddies went to the TAKSIRAT Festival in Skopje two nights ago. The Roots, Marky Ramone, Neville Staples from The Specials, and Bernays Propaganda (awesome local band) all played. When we arrived, we walked in the wrong way. One of the security guards saw us and assuming one of us was in a band, ushered us backstage to The Roots' green room. (P.S. One of my friends is black as are The Roots.) We kind of just played along and got free beer and got to hang with some of the groups. It was pretty cool meeting Black Thought. He said I looked and talked like Jack Black (maybe not the first nor last time someone has said that to me). HA! I just stood ... read more

Here are some photos with some of my friends, a local artist, and in my practicum school, Goce Delchev.... read more

So I was planning on not mentioning anything on my blog about anything other than Macedonia, but...YES!!! I am so happy to have a president-elect Obama! While I was in the U.S. teaching a 6th grade class, we were talking about different attributes of both Obama and McCain. The kids came up with Republican/Democrat, young/old, believes in universal healthcare/believes in status quo, supports war in Iraq/ doesn't support war in Iraq, etc. But not once did black/white come up and I could tell it was the furthest thing from the kids' minds. That was perhaps the proudest moment I've ever had as a teacher. Truly, the United States of America has lived up to its creed and has seen the American dream come to fruition. MARTIN LUTHER KING: AUGUST 28TH, 1963 "I have a dream that ... read more

Took me 45 minutes to figure out where is Antonio's GH after being dropped off by this stupid taxi driver to another place on the same neighborhood hoping i would stay there, he probably will get commission if i did, luckily i fianlly saw the number of the house and it wasnt it, it was dark at 430am quite difficult to read the address, walking around like a lunatic cursing the taxi guy, i swore to myself i wont stay where he dropped me off, no commission for him, dogs barking with 2 backpack on reading every house number making sure i dont miss it, finally found it, quite dark and no sign that it is a hostel, luckily i read cyrillic and read the names of the people who live there listed next to the ... read more