After my last posting, two days later I moved into my new place in Kocani. I already love the place, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, I barely had a chance to get settled (though my landlord made every effort to help, like installing a new laminate flooring in my kitchen/living area the same day I moved in), before I left 3 days later for Pogradec, Albania to attend a week-long Youth in Action program training course on Sept 19. The topic of the course was "Give Voice to Minority Youngsters." I was invited to go by my work counterpart, though normally these training courses involve only European citizens. Therefore, it was a fascinating opportunity for me as an American to not only see 'how they do things here' but also meet people from 12 different countries in both Western and Eastern Europe.
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| Pogradec Albania, short walk from our hotel. Lake Ohrid from the Albanian side. |
Most of our 7 days (well 8 total to include travel) were spent at the hotel, usually outside or by the park area along the lake. We had great weather and it was a good social atmosphere throughout. I did wish though that I had reviewed some of the basic Albanian I learned at our language IST in June, because the hotel staff was friendly and couldn't say much to them other than thank-you and good morning.
After the training sessions concluded for the day, we had chances to see a little more of Pogradec at night, as well as an 'intercultural evening' where each participant (or groups of participants) prepared a table spread that included food, drinks, and a short video presentation about their respective countries. Rather than try to put something together for the US (I was fresh out of Twizzlers and Jack Daniels), I joined up with my counterpart's Macedonia table. Egregious as it was that we had no ajvar for sampling, we nonetheless still had some domashna rakija, smoki, and ressani. It was, naturally, 'timeless.' Other tables included variations on the raki/rakija concept. For instance, Turkey has raki, but it is much more like Greek ouzo in taste than Macedonian rakija. Both the Bosnian and Albanian rakija were closer to the Macedonian variety, though of course јас секогаш повеќе сакам македонска ракија во секоја прилика. That being said, it was great to sample the other types, along with the great food that people either brought or prepared.
Outside of the training course and entertainment, I kept up with my running schedule, which also helped me get to know Pogradec a little better. I couldn't help but snap a few photos with my phone:
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| Pogradec from the hill above the town. |
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| Looking north along the coast of the lake from the hill. |
In the process of one of my morning runs, I managed to trip on a rock and went tumbling over into the dirt. Luckily no major damage aside from a few scratches, but I did tweak a muscle or tendon on some rock when I hit the ground so I took a day off two days later. Yep, I apparently needed to have a really painful following day of running in order to have the common sense to take a day off.
Once we finished up the training on the 27th, I made my way home and immediately set out to get my new place livable...or more specifically, get my kitchen stocked so I could start cooking. Three days later I've got an adequate spice collection and some full cabinets of cooking supplies. As a testament to that, I've cooked meals at home the last four nights, the first time I've had a chance to do that in about a year and a half. Since I generally have ample free time most days (running in the morning and work till 5ish...that is my life!), I get the strong feeling that cooking will become my new hobby. In the past, I've intermittently enjoyed cooking, usually only when I'm making my favorite foods or cooking for guests. Now, it's going to be a major way to pass the time, so I might as well finally get into it for real. After all I am part of the Bonwich clan, so I'll start looking for the Macedonian Cooks Illustrated.
Beyond the kitchen, I went for a walk yesterday and I realized that I live in a really nice part of the city. I am basically at the northern edge of town, so I'm just a few steps away from the road that leads to the dam/lake area 'Gradce' and what I think is one of the nicest outdoor areas in the region, Osogovo mountain. So naturally on my walk I took some photos, and here are a few that give a good perspective on Kocani and the surrounding area:
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| The Kocanska Reka (Kocani River), near my house |
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| Looking back to where I live, one of those houses down there. |
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Macedonia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Macedonia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez