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| The Plaza in Santa Fe. |
The last time I wrote here I had just survived a marathon, and this time around, a week ago I returned to Europe from spending the Christmas holiday in the United States. Time flew by quickly while I was in Santa Fe, NM with my family, perhaps partly because it had been 15 months since I'd been back in the states. It was very enjoyable trip though, and it was so nice to spend time with everyone and see how quickly my nieces Helena and Danica have grown up. Of course there were plenty of Skype calls over the past year so, but seeing people in person is definitely much different! My youngest niece Danica could not even talk when I last saw her in June 2011, and maybe had just managed to stand up on her own. Now she's running around and talking up a storm. As per Bonwich tradition, we had plenty of great home cooked meals, and on several occasions we got to sample the local New Mexican cuisine. Amazing food! I really missed the spiciness of a great red or chile sauce, and New Mexico definitely has the best that I've tried. Besides that, Santa Fe is a nice little town, with lots of interesting architecture, art culture, and beautiful mountain scenery as a backdrop. I went running nearly every day while I was there, and the high altitude (over 7,000 feet) definitely provided some great workouts! I wouldn't be surprised at all if professional long distance runners come to the area to train before their big races.
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| A sample of the Santa Fe architecture with watercolor effect from my sweet new camera. |
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| View from Sandia Peak. |
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| Albuquerque down below. |
The next day we boarded our flight to DC, and I continued on with my long journey back to Bulgaria through Munich. Overall the brief time in the states was just enough time to 'recharge' and get motivated for my last year in Macedonia and in the Peace Corps. I really tried to show a little bit of Macedonian culture to my family, so brought Macedonian honey, rakija, wine...and made a Shopska Salata one night (naturally served with the rakija), and made a version of a Macedonian musaka one night for dinner. Oh, and I prepared some Turkish coffee with the gesve I bought as a gift for my grandmother. One thing I noticed about myself in the process is that I was very defensive when it came to following tradition, in some cases much more than I needed to be! I think in some ways that was a result of the 'readjustment' I went through in coming back, and eventually I just kind of accepted that strictly adhering to what 'they' do in Macedonia wasn't really necessary. More important was just to make the effort to show something different. I guess it's just one of those reverse culture shock things. Another thing I noticed is that people actually run outside in the US :) It was refreshing and motivating to see, and makes me look forward to running with people or maybe a club when I come back home.
So after spending hours on planes and in sitting around at airports, I finally made it back to Sofia on December 31, and had previous plans to spend New Years there rather than attempt to find a way back to Macedonia that same day. I met some new friends and had a nice time at a house party with local Sofians to ring in the New Year. Unfortunately I did not sleep on the plane across the Atlantic so I was pretty exhausted by around 2am, but was a 'trooper' until most of the energy drained out of me around 4am and I needed to go home. Thankfully the next day was relaxed, and I even had a chance to go see a movie called "The Impossible" at the mall before catching my evening bus back to Macedonia.
Since I returned, we had the Macedonian Christmas holiday and all the festivities part of that celebration. Much like last year, I spent the night before Badnik (Christmas Eve) in Obleshevo at the bonfire they hold annually on the soccer field in the village. And exactly like last year, I drank plenty of hot rakija, and listened while my old host father played the accordion and everyone sang traditional folk songs.
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| The guy with the cigarette was playing the drums with two forks and metal trash bins. It was pretty cool. |
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| I really like this photo. My host dad with the accordion. |
After waking up late the next day (thank you hot rakija), I woke up to some noise outside, and walking out my door I saw my landlord's dedo and a neighbor making rakija in the backyard. In my semi-hungover daze I must have looked like hell, but I was still offered rakija at 10am. I declined, for 'sometime later', but around noon I joined them for some kebap and rakija. Not bad for Christmas Eve. In evening I was invited up to my landlord's house for the traditional Badnik dinner, composed of meatless dishes like zelnik (a pie made with phyllo dough), bean soup, along with the ceremony of breaking bread to determine who in the family gets the 'parichka' (a coin) hidden inside. According to tradition, the person who gets the coin will have a great luck for the year.
Unfortunately, I missed out on the lucky coin, but I'm optimistic about 2013. My parents are going to visit me, I'm going to run another marathon, visit my great-grandfather's old village in Ukraine, finish my Peace Corps service, and start a new chapter in my life. And those are just some of the obvious highlights. I'm sure there will be plenty of other things, unexpected probably, that will make 2013 a 'banner year'. I don't know why, but I have a good feeling about it. Ajde 2013.
