Just a quick note to let you know that I'm outta here! In about two hours, I'll be on the road to Skopje for a few days of administrative fun and frolic at the Peace Corps office.

Thanks, Struga! You've been a great place to spend the past year!

The following article appears in the latest issue of "Pauza!," the semi-official periodical of Peace Corps Macedonia. "Pauza" means "pause" or "break" in Macedonian, and is usually preceded by the word "kafe" (coffee). So, can I add this to my portfolio?

Larvae in My Legumes, Nits in My Nutsby Liz AbbettMAK8

Every few weeks, I have some unwanted visitors. No, not the swarthy guys from the local cafe-bar. Not my host family, not my landlords, not the Peace Corps volunteer who lives in the apartment below mine. These particular visitors eat my food then excrete in it.

I have bugs.

Now that I have ensured that none of you will ever come visit me, let me explain. I have had bugs in the past. I probably will have bugs in the future. If you have been here for a year, you have had bugs. (If you think you haven’t had bugs, you probably just didn’t notice and ate them all. Dude. Gross.) I hope that by exposing my experience with bugs and offering some of the strategies I have found for preventing and treating bug infestations, I’ll be able to save you from some of the stomach-turning experiences that I have had.

Most of the bugs that have found their way into my home entered via packaged nuts and grains. I also have extensive experience with ants, so much so that “mravki” (Macedonian for “ants”) became a staple of my lexicon, both in English and in Macedonian. For example, “Ajde mravki” could originally be translated as “Let’s inspect the floor for ants and then kill them,” but eventually became used as “Let’s go, guys.” The ants followed me from my hometown of Gostivar to our in-service training in the village of Oteshevo, where my roommate and I were dubbed “The Mravki Girls” by a Peace Corps staff member. (For the record, the ants did not actually follow me, nor did I transport them on my person. I was just fortuitously assigned to a hotel room that was already booked for Ant-fest 2004.) Despite my experience with ants, most of this article will be devoted to the first category of critters, including which foods tend to harbor bugs, how to inspect foods prior to purchase, how to store foods to prevent proliferation, and what to do if you find bugs in your kitchen.

1. If it’s healthy, bugs like it.

You’ll inevitably find some bugs in your produce. However, these bugs are less dangerous to your food supply than the kinds that come with dry goods since dry goods will likely be nestled in with lots of other stuff and will sit on your shelf longer, giving the invaders a chance to spread. Here is a list of the foods that I have found to host bugs: rice, cereal, wheat grains, sesame seeds, baked chick peas, pecans, walnuts, almonds, raisins, prunes. I have also found bugs in the corners of tea boxes, which most likely traveled from the neighboring nuts in search of a cozy place to spin a cocoon. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you an idea of which foods are vulnerable.

2. Fish for CHIPS when shopping.

Before purchasing a suspect item, fully inspect it using the CHIPS method, a handy mnemonic device that I made up five seconds ago. You will want to be in bright light, if possible. I inspect these items again before stashing them, as well as before I use them.

Crumbs – As bugs eat their way through your potential foodstuff, they generate a lot of small crumbs that settle at the bottom of the package. Lots of crumbs calls for closer inspection.

Holes – Look for circular holes that are a millimeter or two in diameter. These holes have been on every infested bag that I have seen. Sometimes, there will only be one or two holes, so look closely. You may also find holes of this size in produce.

Insects – I have not yet bothered to identify exactly which bugs I have found, but for explanatory purposes, I will classify them as “larvae” and “weevils.” The larvae are about a centimeter in length, off-white and wormy. The weevils look like tiny black ants on steroids, with scary little projections coming off their bodies. The larvae can be hard to spot in foods such as walnuts and wheat grains, but are my most common offender. As for the weevils, I bought a package of brown rice and I thought they were just the darker grains of rice. Oops.

Packaging – The flimsier the packaging, the more likely you are to find bugs. When I find bugs, they’re usually in items in the “store brand” clear unlabeled baggies. However, I have also found them in factory-packaged goods, such as the above-mentioned brown rice. Also worthy of note is that the rice was purchased at a well-known “American-style” grocery store. Bugs are not a problem limited to convenience stores of questionable repute!

Spiderwebs – Larvae leave a trail of spiderweb-like stuff in their wake. In addition to looking for the web-stuff directly, I suggest you do the “Crazy Crumb Test.” The web-stuff clings to loose material (like crumbs and flakes), causing them to do strange things like levitate, wobble and dangle. If the crumbs do not respond normally to gravity, then you probably have bugs.

3. Fort Knoxify your kitchen.

Even if you thoroughly inspect your purchases, there is still a chance that you will find a bug or two in your cabinets. Your goals should be to contain any bugs in their host food and to keep any freelance bugs out of your bugless food. I highly recommend transferring vulnerable food to sturdier containers, such as jars, Tupperware and Ziploc bags. (Finally, the jars of ajvar from your host family have a purpose!) For you cheapskates out there, look for foods that come in reusable Tupperware-esque containers, such as olives, margarine, peanut butter or that Eurocreme goop. The medical kits also have some great containers. Additionally, if you have any foods that are valuable (i.e. expensive or imported), put them in sturdier containers to protect them. If you do not have such containers readily available, double bag and make sure that the bags are securely closed.

4. Debug your kitchen.

If you follow the above recommendations, then any bugs in kitchen shouldn’t get very far. If you find an infested food product, throw it away (if it was cheap) or sort through it (if you have the patience) and wash the remaining bug-free food. Inspect any neighboring food products for signs of bugs, as well as the walls of the cabinets (much like Peace Corps volunteers, these suckers like to travel). Remove and inspect everything, if you feel so inclined.

5. Antagonize ants.

Ants are more of a springtime problem, so commit the following tips to memory. Some household ant deterrents are cinnamon and cloves. If you can locate the point of entry for the ants, sprinkle whole cloves (one every couple inches) or cinnamon in that area. If you cannot find the point of entry, at least safeguard your kitchen by sprinkling cloves or cinnamon around the food that you want to protect (e.g. around the edges of your cabinet). I had ants of mysterious origin in my kitchen but they never got into my food, thanks to lines of cloves on my shelves and cinnamon in the cracks between my cabinets from where the ants seemed to emerge.

This article probably makes me seem crazy and/or squalid. The jury is still out on the crazy charge, but I keep a pretty clean house. If bugs can get into my kitchen, they can get into yours. Unless, of course, you subsist on a steady diet of canned meat paste and the Turkish answer to Pringles. I don’t know about you, but I’ll keep taking my chances with the bugs.

Bon appetit!

1. You respond to losing your cell phone with "Eh."

2. You're begging other volunteers to come over and take your forks/ripped jeans/neglected houseplant.

3. You start buying your toilet paper by the roll rather than by the 4-pack.

4. You remind your friends and family to stop sending you snail mail (FedEx still OK, Mom).

5. You have explained air travel baggage limitations to 23 people who want to give you jars of ajvar to take home.

6. You give people "presents" such as a half-empty box of salt or an individual tea bag.

7. Everyday you say, "This is the last time I will ever--" at least once.

8. You no longer know what the date is, only how many days you have left ("What's today?" "Sixteen!").

9. You're plotting how to discreetly dispose of that cubic meter of compost on your balcony.

10. You throw away your underwear rather than wash it.

11. You're desperately trying to get the posters off the walls of your apartment without taking off the paint (solution: hairdryer).

12. You're using a bottle of white-out to cover up the spots where the paint chipped off anyway (stupid hairdryer).

13. You're freaking out. In a good way. I guess.

Last weekend, a sizeable group of Peace Corps gals was supposed to hike Mt. Pelister, which is rumored to be the best (marked) hike in the country. Well, first, half of the group backed out. Then the forecast called for rain all weekend. Thus, no hiking for anyone. Since I had cleared that weekend anyway, I decided to go to Bitola (near Pelister) to visit my friend Kristin. We had a lovely little time drinking lots of tea and picking over the past two years. And we found fresh mushrooms. (At a grocery store, not in the wild. And “fresh” is opposed to “packed in a bladder of formaldehyde-esque brine solution.”)

I have spent most of this week complaining about how much work I have to do without actually doing any of it. Well, I have agonized over my Description of Service (DOS) statement, which is supposed to be a detailed résumé for the past two years. For those of you who have been keeping up with my life here, you can imagine that it’s not an easy task. And I have checked a few other things off my list, such as washing my plastic tablecloth, printing a bunch of pictures for my host family (SHH! It’s a surprise!) and creating interesting recipes from my remaining dry goods.

And tomorrow I head to Gostivar to say good-bye to some friends and acquaintances. Friday, I go on to Skopje for my dental cleaning and medical exam, then continue to the other corner of the country to visit my host family one last time. Monday, I’ll probably start heading back to Struga, with an overnight stopover in Veles, which is where the newest group of trainees is currently stationed. Luckily, Monday and Tuesday are holidays, so I don’t have to fill out oodles of paperwork to request vacation time. (Bless you, Macedonia, and your many less-than-successful uprisings!)

Important numbers:

21 – days until I leave Struga for Skopje

25 – days until I leave Macedonia for England

41 – days until I’m home!

If you use these for Lotto, I want a cut of your winnings.

Thank you to Declan for bringing this to my attention. Here are two of my favorite FSM-related graphics. First, the paragon of scientific support for FSMism... ...and now an artistic rendering of Him by Niklas Jansson. I now feel complete.

Tonight, I was watching a Thanksgiving episode of The Simpsons (second season; Bart flings Lisa’s centerpiece into the fireplace) and I started to cry. Especially when they mentioned the sweet potatoes. Don’t get no sweet potatoes ‘round these parts. No yams neither.

And just because I feel like it, here’s a picture of one of my favorite signs in Struga. In case you can’t read it, it says “Welcome to the best grill in the town end all kinds lake fish thanks you for your trust welcome again!” When I am deciding which restaurant to patronize, trustworthiness isn’t usually one of my criteria. Perhaps it should be.

It was bound to happen. Spend two years in a foreign country and you’ll inevitably have at least one run-in with the cops. Or, in my case, a swim-in.

Yesterday, the weather was beautiful, so I decided to go for a swim in the lake. Of course, it is now far too late in the year for any right-minded bearer of a Macedonian passport to go swimming, so I was the only person actually in the water. (“You go swimming NOW?! But it’s too cold!” Wimps. Get into an outdoor pool in DC in May, and then we’ll talk.)

I should probably mention that when I go swimming, I GO SWIMMING. None of this standing-around, old-lady-sidestroke, little-mermaid-hair-flipping bullhonky. Racing suit. Cap. Goggles. Stopwatch. Giddy up.

So, in my usual fashion, I headed out past the reeds and weeds toward the middle of the lake, then turned to swim parallel to the shore and around the aforementioned reeds and weeds. I swam past a couple beaches and reed beds, then turned back after about a half an hour. I realized that this might be the last time I’m in the lake, so I took off my goggles and did a little elementary backstroke (AKA tickle-T-touch AKA monkey-airplane-soldier) so I could look at the beautiful mountains that surround the lake.

I was in mid-monkey when I saw a nice speedboat heading straight for me. (Cue “Miami Vice” theme song.) This was particularly unusual because (1) there were no other boats on the lake, and (2) nice boats are few and far between here. Not so unusual that it was heading straight for me, as boaters in these parts like to use me for target practice. As the boat approached me, it slowed down and I saw POLICIJA emblazoned on the side. Was I breaking a law? No swimming after September 15th? Speeding? Illegal breaststroke kick? At least I felt comfortable that they wouldn’t deliberately run over me. They kept pace with me for a few minutes, then they continued on toward my destination, the little beach by my apartment building. I noticed that they were poking around the reeds a lot, but still wasn’t sure what they were doing.

After a few more minutes, the boat turned around and began to return from whence it came. They honked at me and asked if I was going to “that beach.” Yes, I replied. They said something else that I didn’t quite understand and sped off. Then, as my little beach came into view from behind the reed bed, I saw four men standing and looking toward the lake…and I understood.

I had been gone for so long that they called the police to search for me! Apparently, going swimming for an hour is highly unlikely here. The men on the beach greeted me with a heroine’s welcome, thoroughly amazed that I could still walk after such an ordeal. I was touched that these strangers were so concerned about me. I was sorry that I worried them so much. I was disturbed by a mental picture of my body entangled in the reeds. But more than anything, I found it hilarious.

What I find particularly amusing is this: The police were responding to a call about a missing swimmer. They head directly toward the only swimmer in the lake, who happens to be relatively close to the place that the missing swimmer was last seen. They pass the swimmer, spend fifteen minutes poking around the reeds, THEN ask the swimmer if she’s the missing person. Brilliant.

What a way to end the summer. If I manage to get in another swim this year, I’ll be sure to tell the nearest sunbather to call the police only AFTER I’ve been gone for an hour.

PS: In exactly 6 weeks, I will be in London. Holla.

Last weekend, Beth came down to Struga for a weekend of local sightseeing. First, we hit up the cave churches in the villages of Radozda and Kalista. The cave church in Radozda is dedicated to Archangel Michael and dates back to the 13th century. The church is usually kept locked, so we had to go into the closest restaurant and ask for the key.

The inside of the cave church in Radozda.

Kalista has two cave churches. The church dedicated to the Holy Mother (Sveti Bogorodica) dates back to the 15th century is attached to a hotel (Comfort Inn and Monastery). It consists of a rickety staircase that joins a few creepy cave-rooms that have frescoes, altars and other orthodox-y things. (Sorry, no pictures yet.)

The other cave church, Sveti Atanas, is much less attached to a hotel. Beth and I had seen enough churches, so we decided not to seek the key to this one, and instead opted to take silly pictures.

The second cave church in Kalista... and me. Next, we went to Sveti Naum, or as Beth kept calling it, Sweaty Naum. (In case you haven’t figured it out yet, “Sveti” means “Saint.”) Here, there is yet another church/monastery attached to a hotel. Thankfully for these churched-out girls, Sweaty Naum also boasts a peacock colony, freshwater springs, a few beaches and beautiful vistas. And we were boasting wine, chips and salsa in our backpacks.

Apparently they breed the peacocks to match the paint jobs on the nearst car.

Funny story (that you may or may not find funny): We saw a little hut-church called Saint-something-other-than-Naum. Inside there were lots of traditional orthodox offerings, such as money, oil and knitwear (seriously). Outside of the hut-church, there was a little sign with an arrow indicating “Saint Water.” We followed the arrow, and it led to A FAUCET. And the faucet was surrounded by the same kinds of offerings as in the hut-church. At the time, we were in dire need of a bathroom, so we proceeded to look around for an arrow pointing to “Saint Toilet.” (We didn’t find it. A non-holy toilet sufficed, though.)

Krushevo was not only the site of our COS conference—it is also a hotbed of Macedonian history! Early in the 20th century when Macedonia was still under Ottoman rule, a bunch of Krushevites rose up against their oppressors and founded the first incarnation of an independent Macedonian republic, conveniently called the Krushevo Republic. The Krushevites held down the fort (a figurative fort, I think) for all of 10 days before the Ottomans returned and put their feet up on the nascent republic.

Krushevo is somewhat of a tourist destination these days. In the 70s, a monument in honor of the short-lived Krushevo Republic was built. However, two fatal errors were made with regard to this monument. First, they named it the “Makedonium.” I don’t know about you, but for me, that name evokes images of a crumbling sports complex. Second, they modeled the monument after a retro-futuristic tinker-toy spaceship.

Makedonium aside, Krushevo was a darling little mountain town. And they have a great public transportation system.

From Tuesday until Friday of last week, I joined my fellow volunteers from the MAK8 group at our Close of Service Conference in Krushevo. Various members of the PC staff in Skopje gave us tons of information about all the things we have to do before they will honorably discharge us—mostly paperwork. We also talked about what it will be like to leave Makdo and return to the United States. At some point, I realized that as much as I am looking forward to coming home, I will probably go through a rough transition period and sink into a mild depression for a month or so. Mom, Dad, this means I will likely spend hours on the phone with my PC friends, almost all of whom live in different time zones. We will probably just cry into our respective receivers, bawling about how no one in the United States gets it (“it” yet to be determined). Please just put up with me and soon I’ll return to normal (“normal” also yet to be determined).

At the COS conference, we did such things as list our accomplishments over the past 2 years. And on a scandalous side note, three of the (male) volunteers in this picture are either already married to or planning to marry women from Macedonia! Thus far, we have a total of 5 lifetime love matches in our group (2 female PCVs and their Makdo men, and 3 male PCVs and their Makdo women). Our Admin Guy, Jim, has playfully dubbed the Peace Corps Macedonia program the "Macedonian-American Dating and Marriage Service" or MADAMS, for short.

Just thought it was about time for an update. Today (Thursday) I am heading back to the village to take advantage of a spanking-new PC Makdo policy: The old policy was that if we wanted to travel during the work week, we had to take vacation days (we are allotted 2 vacation days per month), even if our host organization or school was closed (as most are during July and August). Now, that policy is still basically the same, but with the exception of visiting our host families. If our local supervisor says it’s okay for us to leave, then we can go visit our host families during the week and not have to use vacation days. Hooray! Actually, I think my host parents are more excited than I am—after all, I’M the one who has to sit on a sweltering hot bus for six hours with people of questionable personal hygiene.

Anyway, I’ll be in Zrnovci making hundreds of jars worth of ajvar (Macedonia’s national condiment) until Tuesday, when I will board another bus (this time, only for about 3 hours) to go to a picturesque mountain town called Krushevo for our Close-of-Service (COS) conference. This will be the last official hurrah for my group, MAK8. We will do exciting things such as learn about the kind of post-service healthcare that PC provides, touchy-feely things such as reflect on our personal growth blah blah blah, and intoxicating things such as down many a gin and tonic. I should be back in Struga next Friday sometime, so don’t freak out if I don’t return your e-mails immediately (Mom).

And two months from today, I will be out of Struga and staying in Skopje to go through the official week-long COS probing.

Rachel, I was going to send you an e-mail, but planet-save is on the fritz. And this way, everyone gets in on the fun. Happy Birthday! Soon, I'll be saying "Happy Thanksgiving" to you in person!

Yesterday, a group consisting of 6 PCVs, 2 Serbs, a Macedonian and a Polander went on a long day hike starting in the nearby village of Vevcani and ending at an awesome little lake between two mountain ridges. On the way up, we were moving fast and sweating bullets. Once we got above the timberline, though, it got really cold and all of our sweaty clothes turned into wearable ice packs. That wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t been planning on going swimming in this mountaintop pond. Some people decided to stay on dry land, but the rest of us were stubbornly committed to going for a dip after all that hard work. Alex and Josh got in first, and said that the water was “cold but refreshing”. Ha! “Refreshing” my foot. The water was so cold that it knocked the wind out of me and I struggled to take in a single breath. After about a minute I was okay, and we swam around for a few more minutes before getting out. Getting dressed was a challenge because cold-induced rigor mortis had set in and my fingers stopped working. The sun was starting to go down and I had visions of turning into a human icicle. Luckily, once we got back into the trees and as long as I kept moving, I was fine. Look, ma, no hypothermia!

To get to the swimming hole, we had to climb a really steep ridge (not quite as forbidding as the ones in the background), but it was all worth it. I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Matt, Josh, I and Alex br(rrr)ave the snowmelt.

We had a great view of Struga and Lake Ohrid. My apartment building is one of those white blocks on the right.

Struga has a (clean) river running through the center of town with about 5 bridges spanning it. A favorite summer pastime among local adolescent boys is to jump off the bridges. Of course, as Peace Corps Volunteers, we are supposed to participate in local customs, so we MUST jump off the bridges as well. On this particular day it was unseasonably cold, so I decided to put off jumping for another time. Here you see Chandra, Kaitlin, Adam, Josh and Alex taking the plunge off the highest bridge.

A few months ago, I discovered a website that has potential to revolutionize travel as I know it. Lots of you probably already know about CouchSurfing.com (or the similar HospitalityClub.org), but for those of you who don’t, here’s a brief synopsis: These two non-profit ventures match up people who have a spare bed/couch/gymnastics mat with people who are looking to for a place to crash. The crash-ers search for crash-ees in destinations of their choice and contact those with whom they want to crash. Or, even if a match for accommodations isn’t made, folks can meet up for a beverage, meal, or other wholesome activity.

Well, the potential for free accommodations is very tempting, so I signed up for CouchSurfing.com. Both of these websites are based on systems of references, trust, and accumulated good experiences, so I figured that I should be open to letting people stay at my place in Struga. That way, when I want to invade peoples’ homes later, they will trust me to not harvest their organs while they sleep.

As a result, I hosted my first couch-surfer a few days ago and had a great experience. Her name’s Anna, and she’s a French medical student who was studying for the past year in Bucharest. Before coming to Struga, she had couch-surfed in Thessaloniki (Greece) and Skopje. She stayed at my place for two nights. I showed her around Struga a little, gave her my Macedonia travel guide, sent her off to Ohrid for a day, and talked with her about the post-communist mentality that is common to Macedonia and Romania. She also met a bunch of PCVs at a party that was going on in Struga. It was fun to meet someone new and introduce her to the area, and even better that she (probably like most couch-surfers) was happy to explore the area independently, leaving me to maintain my normal routine. And I still have both of my kidneys.

Anna, I hope you have a pleasant 30-hour bus trip from Bucharest to Lyon, and good luck with the rest of medical school! (And I promise to write you a nice reference soon!)

A few days ago, I returned from a whirlwind trip to Prague and Istanbul. Originally, the idea had been just to go to Istanbul and meet up with my mother, but after realizing that I had extra vacation days to burn and that there were no flights from Makdo to Istanbul on the day that I wanted to go, I decided to tack a 4-day stay in Prague onto my trip.

Prague

Prague was an adventure for me because it was my first trip alone. I went there alone, I did all my sightseeing alone, I ate all my meals alone... and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I stayed in a great hostel, Sir Toby's, which had nice rooms and lots of friendly travelers to chat with over a pilsner. I also found a vegan buffet. Prague is a beautiful city, but completely overrun with tourists. I highly recommend going in the off-season.

Istanbul

My mother and I spent about a week in Istanbul. It was plenty of time to do everything that we wanted to do without having to feel rushed. Also, the ten words of Turkish that I know came in rather handy. Istanbul is also a beautiful city, and was probably not as overwhelming to me (and Mom, for that matter) as it might have been if I hadn't lived in Macedonia. Macedonia and Turkey share a number of cultural traits (the Ottoman empire included Macedonia, after all) that might strike some visitors as disconcerting, annoying, or simply different, but I have come to accept these traits as part of life here and have figured out how to accept or even enjoy them. That freed us up to enjoy Istanbul rather than freak out about the cultural differences.

I'll write more later.... There are some people here at the NGO center who need the computers to do some REAL work!

Probably the most interesting and unexpected thing we saw in Istanbul was the Sufi religious ceremony-show at the Mevlevi Monastery. My mother and I now have a whirling dervish obsession. We have started writing a musical about whirling dervishes using parodies of Beach Boys songs. Sample: "Round round spin around, I spin around!"

I took a day trip from Prague to the medieval town of Kutna Hora. One of K-H's big draws is a church that is decorated with the bones of 40,000 people. Here is the crest of some big-shot family, with a skull garland to make it more festive. That's a giant pyramid of bones behind the fence.

Here's the requisite picture of Prague Castle. It's a very pointy city.

I...I don't know what to say. You all will have to fill in for me. Click that comment link. You know you want to. (The first two words say "Music Group" in Albanian, in case you couldn't figure it out.)

October 29, 2005 is the magic day, my friends! I asked our Country Director (i.e. PC Macedonia head honcho) if I could move up my Close-of-Service (COS) date by a month, and she gave me the thumbs-up. It was surprisingly easy. I was expecting to have to plead my case before a jury of my superiors, but all I had to do was say “I want my mommy.” (Okay, not quite THAT easy, but close.)

If everything goes as planned, in exactly three months and eighteen days, I will be on my way to London for a nice, long, wear-out-my-welcome visit with Dan “Big Shot” Levy, who just received word that he will soon be moving to merry ol’ England and will be responsible for an obscene amount of GE’s money. (Single ladies in the London metropolitan area, call 1-900-DANIMAL for more information. Gentiles need not apply.) Dan and I will relive our dormitory days by fencing with my knitting needles while wearing funny hats and chemistry goggles. (Dang, I wish I had that picture to post.) From London, I’ll hop across the pond and FINALLY get to spend the holidays with my family in my own home. *Happy sigh*

I ran into this family of swans at the beach near my apartment building. They kept me entertained for half an hour. I highly recommend that everyone watch a swan preen its feathers while on land (the swan, not you) at least once. They manage to contort their necks into every position imaginable. Neither nook nor cranny is safe from the probing proboscis of the swan! Henceforth, I shall refer to the swan as “Nature’s Colonoscope.” Especially that one on the left.

In an attempt to use all my remaining vacation days, I have tacked a 4-day trip to Prague onto my rendezvous in Istanbul with the Flomster. The Flom is doing a great job planning the Turkey stuff, but I'll be on my own in the former Czechoslovak Republic of Czech.* My travel guides are pithy about Prague, so please pass on any recommendations, warnings, websites, or contact information of distant relatives that might be helpful. I'll be there from July 17 to July 21, then to Istanbul until July 29, then back to Makdo for a short 3 months of fun, frolic, and FINISHING!**

*If you don't get this, Google "FYROM"

**Finishing my service, that is. Not like finishing floors. Cowinkidinkally, another PCV in Struga actually IS finishing a floor in a nascent eco-tourism center.

In Macedonia, most people buy their produce at the pazar (think bazaar), the local marketplace which usually has some sort of open-air structure with display booths. Most towns have an everyday small pazar with a few greengrocers. However, once a week is the big pazar. On big-pazar-day, you can find everything. The freshest seasonal fruit? Check. Imported fruit that tastes like cardboard? Check. Livestock? Check. Lacy lingerie? Check. Some-assembly-required moonshine distillery unit? Check. It’s like Wegman’s, but everything has a thin film of dust on it.

Big-pazar-day (Saturday, in Struga) is always chaotic, with all of the villagers coming out of the woodwork to find the perfect sofa slipcovers or the best deal on ten kilos of parsley. Many people who are normally absent during the week will set up shop on the streets around the main pazar structure, selling their garden surplus, home-woven handicrafts, or “medicinal” mountain herbs off of cardboard boxes-cum-tables.

I love going to the pazar. Whenever I need a mood-boost (or, y’know, food), I go chat up my favorite grocers. On Saturdays, though, I go with a specific mission in mind: broccoli. Of the hundreds of produce stands, maybe one, occasionally two will have broccoli. And the good stuff gets snatched up quickly. Well, my friends, this Saturday, I found not only beautiful broccoli, but a host of other treasures…1. Chick peas – it’s hummus time! Like Hammer time, but with a longer shelf life.

2. I don’t know what these are called. I think they’re related to plums.

3. Tofu – a store near the pazar sometimes has tofu, but often they only have gross flavored kinds (tofu with caraway seeds?!). Fortunately, they had unflavored tofu this weekend, so I stocked up and bought their entire supply…which was only four.

4. Eggplant – finally making its debut.

5. Dill – first time I have EVER seen fresh dill here. I was so excited that I almost shoved it up my nose to confirm that it was in fact dill.

6. Broccoli – to quote Shayne (who was quoting Gilgamesh or whatever his name is in reference to HER broccoli), “my precious…”

7. T-shirt – for the low low price of two dollars, I became the coach of the local sport feeling team. Right now, they’re just a rag tag bunch of kids, but a few show real potential in the 200-meter despair dash and the 400-meter boredom backstroke. We’re still working on curling with contentment.

8. Zucchini – pale, yes. These are small ones, believe it or not. They get up to two-feet long here.

9. Peas – I have no idea how to cook these. I just got caught up in the moment. It was an impulse buy.

10. Bonus banana – below-mentioned man-grocer always gives me a free piece of fruit for my patronage.

11. Cherries – I bought these from my favorite middle-aged Albanian man-grocer (like a man-servant, but more entrepreneurial). He likes me because I’m a non-Albanian who speaks some Albanian.