Language Journal: I've got the blues.

I haven't studied in 2 days.  I'm not proud of it. But circumstances arose, and I found that everything else in the world was more important than studying.  Really, I just didn't feel like it.  Yesterday, I was feeling kind of down.  I'm a little homesick, and I miss working.  I'm just saying, sleeping in, having no deadlines, and wearing comfy clothes all the time is nice, but I miss interacting with people.  And people that understand me, my humor, and/or language.  It's been a year since I've been home, and I'm feeling it.  :(

Language Journal 3:

I didn't study today.  But I talked for 30 minutes with my mother-in-law getting the recipe for zucchini burgers.  And another recipe that uses zucchini in soup.  It's really amazing that I can manage to go days living in a foreign country and not have to speak the language.  Today, I managed to pay the electric bill, the water bill, and buy groceries without uttering a single word.

Macedonian Zucchini Burger Recipe

Just a week ago, my grandfather was complaining that there were no zucchini and that he wanted to pull up the plants because they were taking up so much space and not producing any fruit.  Well, one week later look what happened.

I started with 11, but I gave away 5 and used one for dinner, and this is what's left.  That tiny little dot is a quarter. All from only 4 plants.  I don't understand how they can grow this fast, especially when last week they were only flowers.  

Anyways, I discovered a new way to cook them, zucchini burgers.  They are so good, and great for a non-meat meal.  I made them tonight and my family loved them.

Serves 4 people.

Ingredients:

• 800 grams zucchini
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 medium onion
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 2 heaping spoons of flour
• ground black pepper
• 1 cup of Italian bread crumbs

Preparation:
1.  Wash, peel, and grate zucchini.  Add salt and leave for a few minutes and then drain the water.  (It helps if you squeeze them out by hand).
2.  Finely chop onion and parsley, add to grated zucchini.  Add flour, eggs, black pepper, and
bread crumbs.  Mix well and make small burgers. (I find that if you shape them into balls first and then press them down once they are in the pan, it helps keep the mixture from separating.)
3.  Fry in preheated oil.

Enjoy!!

Language Journal 2: Talking with children & trip to Bitola/Ohrid

I used to really enjoy talking to kids, before I moved to Macedonia.  Joking around with them, getting them to laugh.  But trying to communicate with children in a foreign language is beyond difficult.  Especially when the children speak in dialect.  Today, as usual, I studied Macedonian for 30 minutes, then headed out to run some errands.  I met up with my husband at his parents house, and some close friends of the family stopped over for some coffee.  Amongst the group were two children, ages 12 and 7.  The older of the two is studying English in school, and communicating is only slightly easier than impossible.  But for the little one, I don't stand a chance.  Not to mention, I can't predict the kind of questions that children will ask.  They are completely random, and I usually understand the majority of conversation through context alone.  But children are quite unpredictable. Today she asked me where my cat was.  And I replied, "на прокривот."  trying to convey on the roof.  Then she asked me something I couldn't figure out, but heard "згуби", which I knew meant lost. But I couldn't figure out the rest of the sentence.  Then I realized that she was asking me if I had lost my cat.  See, I wasn't expecting that question.  And what makes it even more challenging, is that children have no patience.  They say something, and if you don't understand it, they will repeat it, and after that, they run away or they look at you like you weird or something.  And if they still really want to know the answer, they will ask someone else the question.  Which is what the little girl did today.  She asked her mother, and her mother translated.

But, at least I can say I was able to practice speaking a little today for the first time in days.  I didn't have a chance this weekend because me and my husband went out of town for the weekend.  Saturday, we headed to Bitola for a Biker Party. 

Then Sunday, to the Претора Beach in Ohrid.  This beach was really beautiful.  It's surrounded by mountains, the water is super clean, it wasn't too crowded, and the prices were reasonable.  I really liked it there.  But the entire weekend, everyone in our company spoke to me in perfect English.  Even the waiter replied to me in English when I asked, "Каде е толет?"  (Where is the bathroom?)  What would motivate me to speak broken Macedonian, when everyone replies to me in English?  And I'm not sure if they are speaking in English to make communicating easier for me, sometimes I think they just want to show off how well they speak my language.  Plus, it's so embarrassing to want to say something witty and it comes out not making any sense at all. But, it was a nice trip anyways despite the language part.

Language Journal 1, and Recipe for Stuffed Zucchini

I have new motivation for studying Macedonian.  I was recently contacted by this woman in North Carolina, who has asked me to keep a journal of my language studying.  So, since I already have a blog, I figured I will just make small posts each day on my progress.

Today, as usual, I studied 30 minutes of the Book2 English-Macedonian, which I programmed into Anki, which is a digital flashcard program.

I didn't get a chance to speak Macedonian with anyone today, but I did watch one of my favorite cooking shows.  I think that should count for something, since the entire show is in Macedonian.



I don't remember the cook's name, but she a really pretty woman with black hair.  She used to have  a cook book for sale on Amazon, but I can't find it anymore.  It doesn't matter, I only wanted to give a reference.  But today she was making stuffed zucchini.  Which looked extra amazing, and I so want to try this one, since I'm growing zucchini in the garden at the country house.  It's really easy, and if your interested here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 4 zucchini
• 3 or 4 fresh tomatoes
• 1 finely chopped onion, 
• 500 grams ground beef, 
• 1 tsp. vegeta, 
• 1 tsp. salt, 
• 1 tsp. (trienna sol???) I need to find a translation for this. But it is a salt that smells like curry,
• 1 tbs. ground red pepper,
•  pinch of black pepper,
•  handful of rice, 
•  3 or 4 cups of boiling water,
•  handful of chopped parsley,
• 2 or 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic,
• olive oil or sunflower oil,
• large frying pan,
• casserole dish

1.  Remove the center of the zucchini, but not all the way through, just enough to put the mixture in.
2.  Over medium heat, cook onion until soft, about 5 minutes, add the ground beef, cook until no longer pink, than add vegeta, salt, trienna salt, red ground pepper, black pepper, and rice. Cook for a few more minutes.
3.  Place the ground beef mixture in the zucchini.
4.  Chop up 2 or 3 tomatoes (depending on the size of casserole dish, you just want to have a even layer on the bottom), and add to casserole.  Add to the top a pinch of vegeta, salt, and olive oil or regular cooking oil.
5.  Add stuffed zucchini to casserole.  In between the zucchini, add parsley and garlic.  Add boiling water to each stuffed zucchini, and fill the casserole about half way.
6.  Then add a slice of tomato to the top of each stuffed zucchini.
7.  Bake in a preheated oven 200C or 375F for 30-45 minutes.

Serve with a vegetable salad, hot pepper, and kiselo mleko (cottage cheese, I think??)

Enjoy!!!!