Cassidy stayed the night last night and got to sleep on the new sheets! I am going to have to make another blanket for that bed since I bought two fitted sheets- ah well. We woke up this morning and walked to Burektore Midpoint. This is the place where I made my first purchase ALONE in Macedonian. You might recall that it was the place with the yummy pastries. We went and ordered from the same guy that helped me get my pizza the other night. He is really nice and does a great job speaking English- one of these days I will speak Macedonian or Albanian to him! The pastries were amazing, and it was only a ten minute walk one way to get there. Can’t wait to take people there!
After breakfast we walked back to campus- for some reason my internet service was not working, I tried texting someone to see if internet was down, and my phone wouldn’t work… I couldn’t even look up my smetka (receipt for minutes) so Cassidy and I walked to the campus supermarket to fill my SIM card. The guy at the supermarket who is really nice, doesn’t know much English and he shared that “network not working” or “not working” I thought he meant that the guy that sold them wasn’t work or something… nope the Turkish Prime Minister was in town, so all service was turned off. Pretty amazing what they can do for a diplomat! Service came on about 40 min later so it was not a huge interruption, but it was pretty strange till we know what was going on.
We then attended a defense of a Master’s Thesis on Service Learning in English Language Learning. It was for one of the master students here at the University. I had never been to a defense before, even in the United States. It was a neat experience!
I then got to take Cassidy for her first Burek!! I took a picture of this one because
1. It was so good
2. this one had yogurt
3. I want you to see all the different kinds
We then continued walking toward the Colored Mosque. We thought it would be a good Friday afternoon activity, since neither of us had been there yet. (I only have walked by) We started to get suspicious that something was going on when the streets were closed. But at first we didn’t think too much about it… but we started talking more, there were no people waiting for something to happen… what could it be. Then in the distance we started to see people waiting for something… all looking to the west. The closer we got, it became obvious that these people were all standing around the Colored Mosque. Our thought- pictures may be tough… Cassidy got a couple of the action-
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| Outside the Colored Mosque, the street was filled with these buses and black cars |
When we made it to the American Corner later we asked, and it was the Turkish Prime Minster still. We thought that was interesting since cell phones and internet had turned back on. We will have to save our tour of the Colored Mosque for another day. HOWEVER- in our journey around the madness we decided to go take pictures in front of the Turkish Amam. To our surprise it was also an art gallery! We being the cultured people we are, had to go in! The paintings were more modern than the other galleries we went to last weekend. I took some pictures of the inside.
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| Me standing outside the Turkish Amam |
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| From the back, looking to the front door |
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| The main front room |
Our journey continued and we decided to walk away from the center and off the main road. Here I was able to see other buildings. I took pictures of some of them. See the comments under each to know what the picture was of. We also saw a funeral procession outside the Orthodox church. I have never witnessed an Orthodox ceremony before, but these individuals were walking through the street some carrying flowers, many crying, and the deacons and priests were singing. It was amazing to witness.
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| A mosque off the main road |
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| A very old building- I thought it was so beautiful |
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| building- looks like damage possibly from the conflict in 2001 |
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| School and school yard |
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| Outside of the Orthodox Church |
After stopping for some of the very unique and yummy ice cream we stopped at the American Corner so that Cassidy could see Tetovo AMC. We then started our walk back to campus. It is just over 2.5km from campus to the city center, just to give you perspective on our walk. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up items to make dinner, and then stopped at a couple of other shops on the way. I bought a few kitchen items, like a pan, glasses, cheese grader, and a pitcher to put in the fridge so I can have my version of iced tea. My favorite stop was an Albanian book store! I knew on this journey that I wanted to pick up many souvenirs to remember all of the amazing experiences I am having, and to be able to bring them home to share with my family, friends and students. Today I purchased several books that are common in America, but they are all in Albanian! I took a picture so you could see!!
Our evening concluded with cooking the first meal here at SEE-U. I have made salads, and heated up some things in the oven, but Cassidy and I made an entire meal complete with tomato/cucumber salad, sautéed zucchini, pasta with red sauce and toasted bread! Way to go us!!
Lesson: Pasta sauce does not have to be heated up if you put it on boiling hot noodles!
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