This week is a week of Holidays! Today was - Day of the Albanian Alphabet.
There are several types of holidays here in Macedonia. The first kind is when all people have time off from work. This would include New Years, Independence Day… and other non-religious holidays. The second type is holidays that are related to the Macedonian ethnicity and in this case people who are Macedonian do not have to come to work. The third type is holidays that are related to the Albanian ethnicity and on those days, people who are Albanian do not have to come to work. Today, Day of the Albanian Alphabet meant that people who are Albanian did not come to work. South East European University has mostly Albanian students and a high percentage of Albanian staff members. This meant that the campus was pretty empty… but a few of us still came to campus. (Well, I live on campus so I didn’t “come” to campus I was already there I just went to the Language Center) When we arrived, we realized that the internet was down, and that most everyone else had not come to campus so we called it a day by 9:45am. No internet meant that my room would be pretty quite and lonely… so I packed up and headed to Skopje for the weekend a day early. You might be thinking, but Jen, its only Tuesday… well with Thanksgiving on Thursday I had planned to go to Skopje on Wednesday after classes, but my planned changed when it was announced that Wednesday was Tree Day. This is a holiday for both ethnic groups. It is like our Arbor Day, all people are to plant a tree on this day. With this holiday being added to the week, I decided I was off to Skopje.
When I arrived in Skopje I got to accompany Cassidy to a presentation at The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. It was a class of 1st year students all starting their journey for an engineering degree. It was interesting seeing the difference in this university setting than what I see each day at SEE-U. University students are similar no matter where you are… but the difference in facilities was interesting. The classroom looked older and had desks that were older that filled the room, one side to the other side. The teacher desk was right in the center of the front of the room, and it was placed on a slightly raised platform and in front of a chalkboard. The classroom was furnished with a projector and smart board though. At SEE-U the classrooms are more modern and desks can move around the room. There is a teacher table, that also can move, and marker boards. But we don’t have projectors for each classroom. Just comparisons…
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| The most amazing bread and cheese dip - OH MY WORD! |
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| Pasta, red sauce and calamari |
For lunch we went to this AMAZING Italian Restaurant. I had to take pictures of the food!
Then it was back to Cassidy’s to make plans for food for Thanksgiving. I have decided on Stuffing and also a Roasted Carrot dish. I have never made either… and my attempt to find Thyme and Sage was unsuccessful this evening. I will try again tomorrow morning…
Lesson: Try to remember to look up names of items you might need from the store prior to going… otherwise you too will be in an isle, shaking little seasoning pouches hoping you can smell through the packages in an attempt to find what you are looking for…
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