Ohrid, Macednoia

I spent this weekend in beautiful Ohrid, Macedonia. It was such a fantastic weekend that I should warn you in advance that the length of this blog will be insane.

We woke up early on Friday morning and were out of Tirana before 7am. We headed up in the mountains for the ride or our lives. Scott was a great driver, however the other people were not the best drivers in the world and there were a few times I was worried we would be run off the road and die falling down the mountainside. The car cost us only 21 Euros person, including insurance in 2 countries, so it was quite the deal. We stopped twice to take some pictures, and once to pee.

First view of Ohrid just before the boarder crossing

Cortney did some research about things to do while we were there and discovered a great hike to a 14th century church in Vishni, called the cave of St. Spas. Apparently single girls would pilgrimage there to be blessed to find a husband (I wasn't blessed, so I don't think I'll find one.) Once we got across the boarder we tried to navigate our way with Bobby's trusty GPS. Unfortunately it doesn't really recognize roads, so we got a bit lost. We stopped to ask several people "Vishni?" with a puzzled look on our faces. Luckily on the back of a mud road in the middle of some farms we ran into a man who spoke German and one of our 5-person crowd was able to speak to him. We eventually arrived in Vishni and found a parking spot. The hike was one of the most beautiful short hikes I've ever been on. I don't think we went far, but it felt like something out of Lord of the Rings. After living in a city that hardly has grass and trees for the last 2 months this hike was heaven. We spent about 20 minutes at the church (we needed a breather after the steps) and headed back to drive into Ohrid.

Such a pretty deserted building.

At the beginning of the hike. Check out how happy I am about the grass!

Check out the amazingly clear water
and mountain view!

Our hostel was located in Old Town, which we hardly left all weekend. There were beautiful cobblestone, curvy roads, old looking houses, fresh vegetation, and beautiful view of Lake Ohrid. We arrived and immediately had some delicious food at Sveta Sofia, including trout, stuffed peppers, Macedonian salad, and creamy chicken. The restaurant was located right next to the church of St. Sophia. Our hostel was inexpensive and comfortable for the 5 of us. It included a balcony with a view overlooking the lake. We ventured off to find the beach and watch the sunset. This of course included a  coffee and a bottle of wine. After we had finished our bottle of wine we ended up in the slightly touristy area to purchase some postcards and simply walk around. We became a bit famished and stop at a restaurant to split some pizza and dessert, which ended our first night in Macedonia.

Macedonian flag and a view from the Fortress

The second day began with a hike to find some breakfast. We ended up at Sveta Sofia again, for salty pancakes, fruit salad, and some eggs and bacon. After filling up we were ready for our day of sight seeing. Our hike began at the upper gate and headed to the King Samoil Fortress. We paid a whopping 60 cents to get in and saw some spectacular views. We spent a bit hiking on the top of the Fortress and taking pictures of all the views. I purchased myself a Ohrid Pearl necklace with matching earrings for 20 Euro.

St. George church

We continued on a beautiful hiking trail with plenty of trees and grass to St. George Church. Hiking felt so fantastic that we just kept exploring paths until we ran into St. Clements University. Here, they have dug up some very old archways, have preserved them, and are currently building a University around them. We were able to enter the church for a few minutes of silence. At this point, we were quite warm and decided to test out the water at the beach. It was too cold for our bodies, but sticking my feet in felt quite refreshing. We had a late lunch of salads, honey pork, lamb in a pot, and a veggie dish at Damar.

Walls around Old Town

We still hadn't found the wall that was built around the city. Rumor had it that you could hike on top of it around the whole city. After a bit of searching we found it and began hiking. Part way through it became just woods, and there wasn't much to see, so we turned around and headed back to the hostel to change into our warmer clothes. The temperature difference between the day and the night was quite large, and pants and a jacket were necessary after the sun set.The first night of sunset watching was so good that we headed to the beach to do the same thing. Unfortunately the service was so terrible that by the time the sun was down we had been served so we just left to go to Sveta Sofia for dessert and wine. I highly recommend their sexy salad. It was incredible. Malwine had visited a traditional Macedonian store and we thought we should have a quick look in the touristy part of the city one more time. Afterward we headed to the Jazz club for some fancy drinks and delightful music. The live music didn't start until midnight and we were too tired to last until then, so we headed home for bed.

The following morning we ate some more delicious breakfast at Sveta Sofia and then headed home in our car. The trip home consisted of a stop to look at the bomb shelters, a stop for some ice cream, and a whole lot of car sickness.

Sunset on the first night

Overall I would say that this was one of the best vacations of my life. Especially considering the time (3 days, the company (4 wonderful people,) the weather, and the cost (only about 120 Euro including souvenirs.) It was relaxing and the perfect amount of time to spend in one place.

Meridian and my typical weekend in Tirana

I started a second job this week. I work for Meridian language center teaching English to other teachers. I work 1 night a week for 90 minutes and don't have to do any prep for the class. It is a TEFL course (or they use TEFL methods) and they were so desperate for teachers that even though I'm not certified to teach they asked me. I teach 10 females, who are all Turkish or Albanian and are older than me. The youngest is 23.

Basically I go into the class and we practice school phrases such as "please have a seat" and "why are you late." They repeat after me and I correct any pronunciation errors. They I read a passage out loud to them stopped at the end of each sentence to answer vocabulary questions. This weeks questions were about words like implicit, rebellious, and notoriously to name a few.Then they each read a few sentences of the passage stopping to clarify pronunciations. Then I read the passage through one more time. We also take a 10 minute break.

I think it is a fairly easy job and it pays well enough to cover my water, beer, ice cream, and machiato consumption each week. I think the thing that makes it so easy is that they are all so eager to learn. I mean they know enough to understand these long passages, and yet they still feel it is necessary to learn words like notorious. When I tell them the meaning/give them examples, they all talk until they find the turkish and albanian precise words to match it. I'm glad they are able to help me out in this way. At the end of the class I told them to please bring me and questions they had next week, on either pronunciation or vocabulary.

During break time they were nice and sat and talked to me about my move here. Jeff (my principal) said I should prepare myself to be invited out to a lot of coffee meetings and dinners with them. He said they are very cliquy  but also really want to practice english as much as they can.

I feel like my first graders are finally starting to learn :) they are getting incredible at addition. Also, they are starting to recognize sight words when they see them on worksheets. I taught them all how to spell/read more and less through a game (these words show up in our math books a lot.) One of the kids had a girl in our class translate for him about two weeks ago. This week he translated for another boy in my class. I'm also enjoying my new social studies time with the kids and used it to teach them manners this week. English is improving :D On Friday our word of the day was "whine" and I told them if they didn't whine all day i'd bring them a treat. I only had to give 2 reminders, so the kids are getting chocolate tomorrow. This week we are going to start nutrition lessons during my social studies time. Eating habits are terrible.

I spent my weekend hanging out with my co-workers in Tirana. Friday night we headed to Hostel Tirana to hang out with our friend Joe (he works there.) I had a great walk in the pouring rain (wet season is here!) had a few beers, and got a nice leg massage from Joe (he is also a certified masseuse.) Typically the weekends here consist of us searching for food that isn't Italian or Qhofte. This weekend we headed to the Stephen Center (missionary based restaurant) for burgers and Dr. Pepper. They also have Mexican food (2 weeks ago I had chimicangas) and America breakfast (last week I had pancakes and eggs benedict.) It's wonderful except for the service. They are very busy and we often feel ignored.

In the afternoon we hiked to the American favorites food store, which really isn't a store, but a room in a christian home stocked with processed American food. I purchased some Ramen (in case I get sick) some tomato juice (for bloodies) taco seasoning, taco shells, maple syrup, wild rice, and Reeses.
The store wasn't at all what I expected it to be. I thought it would be on a major road. We headed out for the 6KM walk and ended up on some curvy, muddy, hilly, back roads. By the river (still on the main road) Cortney was taking some pictures of building and some men thought we were taking their picture. They started shooing us away and came aggressively after us a bit, trying to get us to leave. I yelled at Cortney that we needed to go but she didn't even notice. I was seriously nervous one was gonna whip out a gun and start shooting us. Some sort of illegal something was going on. A little further on we past some sheep and wild chickens on our way. At one point we thought we were definitely lost, but they we spotted a ginger girl with a disney princess shirt on. He mother kindly pointed us in the right direction and then an old Albanian man did the same. We shopped and on our trip home we ran into the couple who run the market and printing press (that is why they originally moved here) and gave them our e-mails.

Today I did some lesson planning, and we out for Pizza and brownies/a machiato. Now I'm gonna veg out and relax before the week starts. Next week we have Friday off for Mother Teresa day (god bless her) so we are heading to a new country. We will be spending the weekend at Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. Hiking, biking, and fresh air here I come. Whole weekend should cost about 100-120 dollars, including hotel, car rental, entertainment and food. It will be fantastic! Also...they are playing oldies instead of pop today :)