Cat hair sweaters?

As we left work on Friday evening, walking through Alexander the Great Square, Biljana wondered where the loud noise was coming from. It was the call to prayer from the mosque across the Vardar. Biljana kindly walked me over to my appointment at the realtor's. When we got to the building, Biljana wanted to escort me up to the fourth floor office. I had told her how the night before I had gotten "lost." After quite a bit of negotiating, I convinced here she could go home.

Biljana has tickets for a Saturday performance of Carmen Burana.


As it turned out, I did mistakenly try to enter the wrong office on the third floor. The people inside were quite surprised to see me. I will not tell Biljana about this.

I had told Rozeanna - the realtor - that my wire transfer had not yet been completed and I wondered how I could sign the lease and take possession without giving anyone any money. Rozeanna had assured me this would be no problem. At the office, she confided that she had not informed the landlord, Mr. Dusha, about this. She simply hoped he would not mind renting to me without any immediate payment.

Mr. Dusha arrived a little late- his friend had died recently. As Mr. Dusha noted, "this is life."  Mr. Dusha was actually representing the real landlord, his daughter, who lives in Holland. Mr. Dusha had no problem allowing me to move into the apartment with the idea that if I ever come into some money, I will pay him. He was, however, quite concerned over Article 13 in the lease. According to Article 13, although  I am signing a lease for 6 months, I can terminate at any time with no penalty if I give 30 days notice.

Between jet lag and traveler's intestinal distress, I did not even care what the terms were. I told Rozeanna's asst that I would be happy to just cross out Art. 13. Mr. Dusha and  Rozeanna then began a long discussion in Macedonian (Mr. Dusha does not speak English). Mr. Dusha has been to America 10 times- to NY, Florida and California. He is partial to San Diego. We paused our business activities to admire Mr. Dusha's cellphone pictures of the sign outside the Hotel Coronado and his relative standing in between two large teepees - of which he assured me were in  Calif.

In a spirit of compromise to move things along, I then said that perhaps as is often the practice in the US, if I should terminate early, I would pay the rent or a penalty if the agency in good faith used due diligence to rent it to someone else to mitigate. This, according to Rozeanne's asst did not sit well with R. She does not cotton to whatever we may do in the U.S. If something is a law or provided for in Macedonian law, then R will fight to the death for it and so eventually poor Mr. Dusha and I gave up and  Article 13 remained in the lease. We are in Macedonia- not the USA.

R had on a sort of mustardy yellow sweater from which protruded numerous tufts of what looked like some sort of fur tassels on the top part of the front (cat hair???). I complimented the sweater- R assured me it was a Macedonian sweater. Then, in a fit of graciousness and cultural rapprochement, she complimented me on my sweater of whose origins I remained silent . Of course, isn't it quite possible Eileen  Fisher has sweatshops in Skopje?

The lease signed, I learned the evening had just begun. R's other asst, Rada, myself and Mr. Dusha had to go to the apartment where Mrs. Dusha was waiting to show me around.

Rada explained to me that  the 40's F degree weather would be over by March and that Macedonia actually has over 200 sunny days a year. He explained in great detail that if I took a special bus to the end of the city, I could take a chair lift up Mt Vodno where it would be sunny no matter how foggy and gray it was in the city center. He seemed quite certain I would do this.

It is important to only take taxis that have numbers on the side - the others are "illegal."

Having lived in China, I have learned a few things the hard way. I asked, through Rada, if there would automatically be hot water. No. One has to push a special button on the hot water tank and wait till it heats up. There is a limited supply at any given time. Mr. Dusha assured me that the TV would get stations from all over the region. Rada showed me the grocery store and explained that no one walks by the main roads- there are a million little shortcuts through the side streets and apartment complexes that one should use to get back and forth. This is very helpful to know, since many of the street crossings do not have lights - you must rely on the cars to stop for you. But this is not Singapore. You must be aggressive and gauge if the car is going to stop or not.

Everyone complains about the traffic.

Leaving the apartment, Mr and Mrs Dusha saw their car was blocked in by a BMW. This made me homesick for Brooklyn.

Rozeanna gave me a handful of her business cards. I had to promise to refer to her all my friends who are coming to Skopje to live. She is very  happy to have met me.

Jelena called in sick today. I think we have all exhausted ourselves with our week of activity, arrivals and changes.

Tomorrow I begin the move. Priatno Hotel Solun.

After all was said and done, I still do not know where I will deposit my garbage. Can it really be that I take it a couple blocks to a dumpster by the side of the main street?