The best naps are taken in street clothes and in a place other than your bed. And they are usually started between 2:30 and 4. How do I know this you ask. It's quite simple really. I've been practicing taking naps every day for like 2 whole weeks, so I've gotten pretty good at them. It's been going great too. (Update: I'm no longer taking naps. They ended up not working out too well with my schedule because I like to sleep for 2 or 3 hours.) If you take the time to change, it completely messes up the whole ambiance of the nap. Even if you think your sweats are gonna be more comfortable than a pair of slacks when you slide your legs into them, don't touch that belt. OK, well, I guess you can take the belt off because that buckle can be bothersome sometimes--especially if you like to lay on your stomach--but the pants stay on. And that's final! I know that I didn't have to join the Peace Corps and come all the way to Macedonia to learn this, but I should mention that a lot of people here are pretty pro at taking naps, so it might have helped me.
How many of you have ever seen a nearly full thing of lip balm disappear in one sitting after accidentally putting it through the washer and dryer? I know I have. Well, I have some breaking news for you. I discovered that it remains unharmed if it just goes through the washer. Thanks Macedonians for not using dryers. This is the first time I can say I truly appreciate that. I recently thought that I lost my very manly lip balm. I won't go into details about brand or flavor because that would just be embarrassing--for others of course, not for me. It turns out that it was just hanging out in my pants pocket. There was no permanent damage caused by the washer. It just makes the lip balm a little wetter than normal which I happen to think is great. I mean who doesn't want to hydrate their body with a little liquid and protect their lips from those deadly UV rays all in one glide around the mouth? If I had known this was gonna happen, I wouldn't have waited so long to start putting my lip balm through the washer.
In other news, I think I have a colony of ants living in my computer. Just the other day, 5 of them crawled out of somewhere and onto the screen. Or who knows, maybe they were just playing a friendly extended game of hide and seek. Either way, I'd appreciate it if they'd just move out or find a new playing field because I prefer my computer to have no ants inside, on, or around it. Of course if I was an ant, I don't think I'd be able to resist the nice insides of a laptop either, so I can't really blame them. (Update: The ants have moved on. Either that or I killed all of them. I'm not sure. I'd like to think it was the first thing. And now I'm beginning to think that this might in some way be related to the "k" problem I've been having.)
Let's see, what else has been going on? Oh, I recently lost a tooth (OK, I didn't really lose a tooth, but let's just act like I did for a paragraph) and I wanted to know if I was going to be able to make some money off of it while I was here or if I should wait until I got back to the US so that I could scam a couple of bucks off my folks. So to figure this out, I went to a professional on Macedonian culture who knows how to speak some English (i.e., I had a talk with my old host dad). It turns out you don't get a single denar for your teeth here, so I'll be saving this one for when I get back to the states (I'll also take a check if you're reading this mom and dad. On second thought, you better make that a wire transfer since I can't cash checks here. Thanks a lot Bin Laden. OK, I know it's not Bin Laden's fault, but it sounded so cool when Zach Galifianakis said that in Hangover). Instead of putting their tooth under their pillow, they throw the tooth up on the roof of an old building and say to the crows "I give you old. Now give me gold." The only thing is, they don't ever actually get the gold. The crows get the teeth and they get to keep their gold. Sounds like a scam if you ask me. I do wonder what the crows are doing with all of those teeth though. I told my old host dad about the Tooth Fairy and I think we both decided that it was a better system--at least for the children.
So the actual reason I'm doing these word of the blog things is so that you guys know I'm actually learning another language and I can show off. Otherwise how else would you all know that I'm bilingualish. I choose this word since the weather's getting nice and it's almost every child's favorite time of year because they won't be in school (well, at least the ones that were smart enough to pass won't be. for the "slow" ones that got stuck in summer school, it really sucks to be you).
лето (leto) - summer
Speaking of summer vacation, hopefully I'll get some travelling in this summer. I've got some stuff in the works but nothing official yet so at this moment I'd prefer not to reveal it to the public. I was able to get a few trips in during the school year though, and I'm more than happy to talk about those.
I went to Greece for a weekend to go hiking on Mt. Olympus. Hiking was awesome, but by far one of the best parts was being so close to the sea. It was great to see a big body of water like that after so many months of going without. I'll go to Greece again even if it's just to see the sea. Plus I had a great time there, and there's so much more for me to check out.
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| Me, Kelly, & Drew hanging out with the gods on Mt. Olympus |
I also went to Budapest on a school trip with the juniors. We took a bus up there from Kratovo. I'm pretty sure it took a lot longer than it needed to, but luckily I was able to sleep through most of it. Even with all of the turbofolk playing and jingerlaking (from my understanding, this is a crazy type of dancing) that was going on. Budapest is an amazing city, and it was awesome being able to go there with some of the teachers and students. I will definitely be returning to the city to see more of the sites that I didn't have a chance to see this time. We did have a tour guide for our group. Unfortunately she was speaking Serbian and my Serbian is lacking so I pretty much understood nothing that she said. Correction, I understood absolutely nothing that she said. A few of the students did translate some of the stuff for me (Thanks Christina and Sara. I didn't forget about mentioning you in my blog). Some highlights from the trip are bowling (it was the first time for pretty much everyone), a night cruise on the Danube River, and eating leskovacka.
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| Me and the other teachers that went on the trip |
I know I didn't write much about either of the trips I went on, but I just didn't want to ruin those places for you. Now you will still be able to go there and everything will still be brand new to you.
Please feel free to resume your usual daily activities now.
Stay classy world.
