The study strike is over!!

Yeah, I finally began to study today for the first time in days.  I was really unmotivated for a number of reasons.  But mostly because I'm a lazy miserable homesick brat.  It's the fourth of July tomorrow, and all my family is telling me there fun plans, and I'm so jealous.  I wish I could go to the barbeque with everyone, but I can't this year.  I'll say, I never really appreciated family gathering so much in the past, but I guess I'm starting to get a little sentimental as I approach my 30's.  Anyways, I've kept busy during my strike.

I baked a cherry pie:

I made my first Зелник со сирење (Pastry with cheese):

I discovered the mysterious hssss that made my husband think the a/c was broken.  After some investigating, it turns out that one of my canned cherry jars didn't make it and started to leak and release gas.  That was the hsss'ing sound.  Well, dummy that I am, decided to help release the gas, so that I could throw away the bad cherries and the jar exploded all over my kitchen.  I had cherries at least 4 feet from the crime scene.  In an attempt to hide the evidence of my housewife failure, I decided to clean the entire apartment from top to bottom.

Which was rather convenient, because afterwards, my husband called and told me that we would be entertaining guests that evening.  Which I did so, very successfully.  I say that, because I've had some rather terrible experiences in the past with entertaining Macedonians.  Like for example, not standing up and greeting the guests at the door, not walking the guests to the door or car at the end of the night, not making sure their drinks were full, not making enough food, or not having some sweet to serve with coffee, etc... And I heard about it from the husband or his mother.  I kind of developed a phobia when guests come over because of the damn formalities.  But this time, I decided that I wasn't going to pretend I was some native Macedonian housewife. Rather, an American who choose to live in Macedonia, that keeps a average clean house, is not working at the moment, is somewhat polite, and will make and serve food if she feels like it.  And it just so happened that I was in the mood for making food, and so I did.  My house was clean enough (actually cleaner than usual, due to the event that occurred earlier that day), I kept the drinks full as best as I could, and the our very small living room table didn't have an ounce of room for more food.  My husband was so pleased at the end of the night, and so was I.  But mostly, for not freaking out because I'm not perfect.  I mean, who set the damn standards in this country for hospitality anyways???  I think even Emily Post herself would struggle here.

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!!!!

Thanksgiving in Macedonia

There are so many things that I will have to adjust to while living in Macedonia.  Not recognizing American holidays is just one of them.  It's not Thanksgiving here, all the stores and banks are open. I guess I can consider that a plus because I need to go to the bank today, but it's really not that big of a deal, because if I really needed cash in the States I would just hit up any random ATM. But I'm trying to stay positive.  And I don't think I will ever adjust to the random speaker system set up around the city that randomly plays Muslim music. I don't understand for the life of me, how that is legal here.  How the city allows a group of people to install a public broadcast of religious music. Ha! I'm not even sure there is a city that has a speaker system that publicly broadcasts anything other than maybe a siren for tornadoes.  I heard that go off once when living in Cleveland.

Last Thanksgiving was pretty rough here...My family sent off the ridiculously expensive turkey (no joke it was like $30 for 7 or 8 pds.) to be cooked somewhere where they cook pigs, and it came back flattened and dry.  My mother in law put the dough for the apple pie in the freezer, when I told her to put it in the fridge (communication error). And then she also kept turning off the stove that was keeping the vegetables warm, every time I turned my back.  I swear she was out to sabotage me, but of course my paranoia was high that day. And she made three salad's in addition to the my side dishes, which were not put on the table until after the main course.  I'm still a little bitter about that, which is why I told everyone that today wasn't that big of a deal and I wasn't planning on making anything special.  But I'm not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed that there won't be any turkey or apple pie.  :(
What can I say, it's not Thanksgiving in Macedonia!

11 Macedonian Woman and 1 American

The other night, I went to a dinner party, held in my honor with my mother-in-law's colleagues to celebrate my recent wedding.

She told me she had worked with these women for 30 years, and they were more than just co-workers, they were family.  It amazed me that anyone was able to work at the same company for 30 years, but even more amazing that they were all friends for that long as well.  I only worked for the government for three years, and I wasn't very close with anyone.  But this group was different, they had shared every important and significant moment in each others lives, and now they were sharing their children's significant life events.  And while all these women chatted and laughed, shared stories about their children, I did what I do best, and observed.

Macedonian Icons for Sale at ROMStore11

Jesus-Christ-Christian-Icon-from-Ohrid-Macedonia-Wood-Wall-Plaque

Item has sold!!!

Items has sold!!!

My first knit sweater

After a over week of hard work, and new challenges with knitting, I finally finished my first sweater.  I made it for my dog, Max, and it turned out amazing.  I was so excited to put it on him, I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of it, but this is what it looked like.  It ended up being a little big on him, so me and my mother-in-law sewed on some elastic so it would fit him better.  Max loved it!! He was so excited, that I decided I let him out so that he could show it off.  Then 15 minutes later little Max came back, but the sweater didn't.  I looked everywhere for that sweater, walked down every street in the neighborhood, for an hour with no luck.  It's gone forever.  All that work for only 15 minutes of wear.
I hate to say it, but I just have this feeling that someone took it off of him.  It couldn't have been that easy for him to wiggle out of it, could it? So sad.  :(

Macedonian home remedies for a cold & sore throat

Cold and flu season has arrived, and I've picked up a terrible cold & sore throat.  However, my wonderful Macedonian parents have instructed me on some interesting home remedies they use and I thought it would be interesting to share them.

MK Remedy #1.  Tea with honey and freshly squeezed lemon. 

Not sure why, but my mother-in-law always tells me to wait until the tea has cooled before adding the lemon and honey. 

MK Remedy #2.  Sliced lemons covered with sugar. 

"Lemon drop" minus the vodka. :)

MK Remedy #3.  1 tsp. of sugar mixed with equal parts of honey and brandy (aka Rakija)

This is supposed to be really good for coughing & sore throat.

MK Remedy #4.  Hot Brandy (Rakija) & Black Pepper
          Another great remedy for sore throat, and usually done right before bed.You will need:

• 2 cotton bandanna's or hand towels roughly the same size (long enough to wrap around neck)
• Home brandy (warmed)
• Black pepper

In the center of the towel add ground black pepper. Then roll the towel so that it may be wrapped around the neck & throat comfortably, pour hot brandy on the towel (be careful that it is not too hot); wrap the towel around the neck and throat.  Add an additional towel too keep the heat in, and go to sleep. 

MK Remedy #5.  Hot water & Salt 

Soak feet in hot water mixed with a few teaspoons of salt, when the water cools down, add more hot water.  Keep doing this until the heat reaches your head and your done.  (I'm a little skeptical about this one, but it's supposed to help with a cold.)

Fun Facts:
I was told at the Church of Saint George Monastery that, historically, people would scrap the eye's from the icons and use it to make potions.  They believed that the powder from the eyes of the frescoes was healing. 

The Slavic Smile

This was pretty funny and also a little sad.  I recently got married in the Republic of Macedonia and at my civil ceremony, my sister ended up taking a lot of the pictures.  A little background:  She and I are both American and my husband and his family are Macedonians. But my sister and I are a little different than my fellow slavic family members; we smile when we take pictures.  I'm already familiar with the mug shot look, given when I pull out the camera; and have become quite accustomed to it.  However, my sister didn't realize what was going on.  She was snapping away, and couldn't get a picture with everyone smiling.  After a few pictures, she decided she would take action.  She starts telling my mother-in-law, who doesn't speak English, to smile over and over.  I didn't notice she was doing this, or I probably would have burst out laughing.  Then when that failed, she started telling my father-in-law to smile.  But picture after picture, no one smiled, except for me.  After a few more attempts and motioning with her hands, she gave up and let it go.  Later when we got home she said to me, "Man I couldn't get Matza or Zike to smile in one picture. I even tried to show them how to smile."  I burst out laughing and said, "They were smiling." Btw, my sister's awesome  Canon camera took this picture. 

My Macedonian Wedding

If someone would have told me three years ago, that one day I would work in Afghanistan, meet my future husband, quit my job and move to the Republic of Macedonia and be married in a Christian Orthodox Church, I probably would have punched them in the face and told them they needed medication.  But, I would be wrong, because all of those things happened.

It's been forever since my last post, but between the wedding planning and paperwork for citizenship, it was too overwhelming to post anything.  But now that things have settled, I can finally digest what I went through.  I will start with the Church ceremony.


The ceremony was held at Saint Nikola Church in Kumanovo, Macedonia, on September 30th, 2011.

Worldwide travel Alert from Department of State

Worldwide Travel Alert

As we mark the 10^th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Department of State informs U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad of the continued threat posed by al-Qa’ida and its affiliates. While we have not identified any specific threats from al-Qa’ida affiliates and allies to attack the United States or our interests on the 9/11 anniversary, U.S. citizens should be aware that al-Qa’ida affiliates and allies have demonstrated the intent and capability to carry out attacks against the United States and our interests around the world. In the past, terrorist organizations have on occasion planned their attacks to coincide with significant dates on the calendar. 

This Worldwide Travel Alert supplements the July 26, 2011, Worldwide Caution, and expires on January 2, 2012.

U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad should enroll in the Smart Travelers Enrollment Program (STEP) at the following website: https://travelregistration.state.gov. U.S. citizens without internet access may enroll directly at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate at their destination. By enrolling, U.S. citizens make it easier for the Embassy to contact them in case of emergency.

Updated information on travel and security may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or, for callers outside the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. For further information, please consult the Worldwide Caution and other consular information, including Country Specific Information, for specific countries. These products and the latest international travel information for U.S. citizens are available on the Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website at http://travel.state.gov.

U.S. citizens living or traveling abroad are encouraged to register with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate through the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. The U.S. Embassy is located at ul. Samoilova 21, 1000 Skopje. The telephone number is (389) 2-310-2000, e-mail.

Happy Independence Day Macedonia!!!

I'm so loving this song right now!! 

I have two reasons to celebrate today.
1.  Today is Macedonia's Independence Day, and
2.  My sister is coming to visit me!!! 

Two more days until my other sister returns, then there will be three Bergey's in Macedonia!!! Yay!!!

Dailing International Land lines or Mobile Phones in Macedonia

The procedures for calling from inside and outside the country of Macedonia can be rather confusing.  After having issues trying to contact the US Embassy today, I asked my husband to explain this topic in detail.
 
If you wish to call a number within Macedonia from outside of Macedonia: 
For an example, we will use the US Embassy's phone number.
+389 2 310-2000
 Dial: (00 389 2 310-2000)  

+ = Equivalent to dialing 00
389 = Country code for Macedonia


If you wish to call a number in Macedonia from within Macedonia:
Delete 00389 or +389 and add a "0" before the number you wish to dial.
00-389- (0) 2-310-2000
Dial: 02-310-2000


For Land Lines Dial:
02- Land lines in Skopje
031- Land line in Kumanovo

For Mobile Numbers:
071, 071, 072 - T-Mobile cell numbers
075, 076 - One Operator Mobile numbers
077,078 - VIP Mobile Operator

Calling Cards:
OneSimCard International SIM Card for 200 Countries with $10 Credit 
National Geographic Talk Abroad SIM,1070 International SIM Card
LG KP500 Cookie Unlocked Phone with 3.2 MP Camera and Digital Media Player--International 

International Phone & SIM Cards:
T-Mobile USA (Tmobile T Mobile) SIM Card and Prepaid Activation Kit
Nokia X2 Prepaid Phone (T-Mobile)

OneSimCard International SIM Card for 200 Countries with $10 Credit

Wedding Veil purchased from "Silver"

I finally purchased my veil.  I've had my gown for over a year, but I waited or procrastinated to purchase this.  Good thing I did, the veils are super inexpensive in Macedonia.  I wish I could say the same for wedding gowns, but they are about the same as the States.  I purchased a hand made two tier veil, finger length, for only $12.  It looks very similar to the picture.

However, this veil retails at David's Bridal for $189.  Some things are so inexpensive here!!!  I don't normally shout out customer service from stores in the Bulkan's, but this place was very special.  The Bridal store is named "Silver", and it is located in Kumanovo across from Rafael's Bakery.  The woman that made my veil was so sweet and helpful.  She made my veil in less than a couple hours.

I had visited two other Bridal stores and was very dissatisfied with the service & cleanliness of the floor.  The first location had very dirty floors covered with dust and dirt.  And the second location refused to make a veil for me if I didn't purchase my wedding gown from the same location.  In addition, the workers in the second location were so rude, they didn't even speak to me for the first five minutes upon my entering the store, and refused to turn to face me when they did decide to speak.  Both of these two stores were located across from My Market on Boulevard, in Kumanovo.  A word of advice, do NOT go to these locations.

I would recommend to anyone that is interested in purchasing Bridal gowns or accessories to head to Silver for exceptional service and quality.

 

Located on Mosha Pijade Street.  

Links to Veils online:
Simple Elegance Cut Edge White Wedding Veil with Comb 
Double Layer Curly Edge White Wedding Veil with Hair Comb 
Ivory Bridal Veil with Satin Edge Pearls and Rhinestone Accents 

I went with "ski"

After much thought, I decided that my last name would end in "ski" rather than "ska".  Yeah, I know the consequences of Macedonians thinking I am a man.  But I've been American for 29 years, I don't want to change my tradition of taking my husbands last name.  It's what I've always wanted.  It was kind of funny that during the civil ceremony when the officiant asked me what I wanted my married name to be, my father-in-law started to say.."ska", but my husband promptly interrupted with Karastojanovski.  And so it is, Jennifer Lynn Karastojanovki...

Just Married!!!

Just Married

Yesterday was the civil ceremony and it went very well.  From left to right, the mother of the Godfather, the father of the groom, the Godfather, or in this case, the godmother, me, the bride, the groom, and mother of the groom.  After waiting almost two years, we finally got married.  This process is only the first step.  We decided to have the civil ceremony, before the church ceremony, rather than on the same day, due to me being a foreign citizen and the many challenges I've faced trying to get married in Macedonia.  The ceremony began with reviewing my rights in a marriage to a Macedonian, all translated into English by a translator.  Then we discussed legal matters that would prevent us from being able to get married, such as blood relations, withholding health information, etc., and moved on to signing the book. 

It was very poetic and I almost cried several times throughout the process.  Some of the words did not translate exactly, but it was a very beautiful ceremony.  Afterwards, gave kisses to the wedding party, and toasted with champagne.  Then upon exiting the building, the godfather threw candies, rice, and coins on us for good luck. 

Summary about Vendi

My real name is Jennifer, but everyone calls me Jenny in Macedonia. I currently live in the Republic of Macedonia, with my husband.  I studied to be an Accountant and half-way through the Associates Program, I changed my mind, and decided I wanted to be a hair stylist.  I then began an 11 month program to become a hairstylist.  I felt bad leaving behind unfinished business with my Accounting degree, so I finished up the classes and got my Associates Degree in Accounting.  After that, I decided to get my Bachelor's Degree, while I was on the school kick, and graduated from the University at Buffalo.  In my senior semester, I accepted a position to work for the Department of Defense, Inspector General, in Cleveland, OH.  In May 2009, I took a temporary assignment in Afghanistan and while I was there, I met my future husband and June 2010, I quit my job and moved to the Republic of Macedonia to live permanently.