After leaving MN about 8 am on Sunday, I arrive in Skopje about noon on Monday, which was Monday evening there. In Vienna, after several hours of delay we were told the Skopje airport would be closed until Tuesday due to fog. Apparently, the fog was so bad in the morning no one could see in front of them. Apparently, Skopje is prone to fog because it sits in a valley between mountains that trap the clouds and the moisture from the river, Varda.
So, Austrian airlines (whose flight attendants dress all in red- including shoes and stockings prompting not just me to stare at them to see if they are really going to walk around like that) flew us into the nearest airport in Pristina. Of course, although Pristina is only a couple hours from Skopje it is in a different country - Kosovo. Some passengers had visa problems and had to arrange special dispensation to get to Macedonia to Kosovo. Pristina is ....well,.... from what I saw from the bus the airline arranged to take us from Pristina to Skopje is.... well... not Paris - not even New Jersey. If you leave Pristina around rush hour on a weeknight traveling the main road that is one way in each direction it will take hours. You will also have a passport check on the Kosovo side and then a repeat on the Macedonia side. Hours and hours. Once across the border, the fog prevents actually seeing the city, esp in the dark. The bus nicely dropped us off downtown instead of the airport, which seemed like a good deal since the Holiday Inn where we stopped was right by my new office. However, the bus stopped down the road from the hotel necessitating me rolling my huge overweight excess luggage suitcases over the uneven road across the crazy main street with no stoplight until I reached the hotel and my staff- Jelena and Biljana who waited all day for me to arrive. We taxied to my hotel in the center of town. The tiny taxi could only fit one of my suitcases in the trunk so Jelena had to go home instead of coming with me.
On the bus, by chance, I sat next to the only other American- a young girl who was in hour #50 in her quest to return to Macedonia from Idaho. Hannah is in her third year as a Peace Corp Volunteer in a small village near the Greek border. Her Macedonian boyfriend was waiting all day in Skopje to drive her back- peace corp volunteers are not allowed to drive. (Hannah was unable to visit Istanbul in June with her parents s a peace corp volunteer due to terroristic threats but she agrees with me that it is one of the best cities). Peace corp people like to marry the locals. Hannah has been to 6 such weddings so far. Hannah said in Macedonia how you "be" is more important than what you
do. She must take all her coffee breaks and lunches and be generally extremely available for lots of socializing. People drop by each other's homes with regular frequency and one must be around for the visits. Although the village is at the border, due to the hostilities between Greece and Macedonia, the Macedonians are not welcome to cross the border- Greece will sometimes refuse to stamp their passports. Most of the village is friendly to her despite that they cannot fathom why a young American girl has left home and family to live in eastern Europe. A few people are still mad about the US, in their view, having supported Albania in the 2001 Balkans conflict. Hannah does not like all the indoor smoking. She does not yet have a "life plan" but will soon have her masters degree. For awhile she was a forest ranger in Idaho. She is fluent in Macedonian.
Today, I spent the day with Rada and his young colleague - whose name I have already forgotten, looking at apartments. Rada wonders why the Greeks hate the Macedonians so much. He said traffic was okay in Skopje till bout five years ago. Now, it is impossible to find parking. His colleague was very surprised and glad to be alerted to the fact that I can't be called a native American- that term is for the real native americans. She told me that in Macedonia if you want to insult some one you tell them, for example, you act like an Indian. At stoplights the squeegee people wipe your windshield and you pay them something. There is also a term the Albanians call themselves but you cannot use it when talking about them. Rada and his colleague bemoaned having to remember all these rules about what you can and cannot call people.
I was asked to come up to the office and have a snack with the realty office manager. She feels very sad for the Macedonian people in Greece and Bulgaria whom she believes live oppressed lives as second class citizens. She does not care to join the EU - she feels it was enough that Macedonians had to bossed around when they were part of Yugoslavia. She would love to come to the US. First on her list is Las Vegas - not for gambling which she does not do but for the tops in American entertainment and shows. Then, if possible, Boston and New York since Boston, she believes, is where the US began. She said the Macedonian language is the foundation for all the Slavic tongues.
Mostly in Skopje, at least, everyone speaks English. Do not even bother asking people if they speak English. It is equivalent to asking them whether they appear so stupid that maybe they don't know how to speak it. Assume they do. Macedonia is about as big as Holland but only 2 million people - a out 500,000 in Skopje.
Last night turned out to be Russian Orthodox New Years. Biljana agreed with me that probably what I heard last night were firecrackers and not gunshots. Macedonia does not have a death penalty or life without possibility of parole. A really, really long sentence might be about 20 years. People don't kill each other very much. Jelena and Biljana had a hard time trying to answer my question about the most common crimes people commit , what kind of illegal drugs people sell, etc.
My office has a list of holidays .Apparently we get off for Pentacostal day but no one could tell me what this day celebrates or whose holiday this is. Yom Kippor was listed but not Rosh Hashanah. Mayday gets us a 2 day holiday - one day of which is for picnicking. Biljana said there were no marches or protests for Mayday- she believed it was simply some holdover from the "communist days."
I now have a Macedonian Samsung smart phone. It will only tell me the temp in Celsius and the time as a 24 hour clock.
Next week we attend a party at the US embassy. It will be "business casual." Jelena was very surprised when I told her I don't wear skirts except in extreme circumstances. Jelena loves to wear skirts. Biljana, who is some undetermined years older than her 43 year old brother lives alone which she told me is very unusual- mostly people are forced to spend their entire lives with all their families due to lack of finances.
The realty people kept asking me if I was oriented to where the apartments I looked at were in relation to the center city. I kept trying to explain to them that I will likely never be oriented. They chose to politely pretend they did not understand. No driers in any apartment but several has dishwashers - very, very small ones.
Tomorrow - picking an apartment, opening a bank account and seeing how long it will take me to find my office from my hotel. Biljana understands she will likely get called to come rescue me after I veer wildly off course.
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