katiemcdonough (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} katiemcdonough) wrote,@ 2005-05-08 21:47:00 |
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I think I was born in America…
by mistake. I wouldn’t trade my family, friends or experiences for anything in the world but I am pretty sure I am not supposed to live there. America is a nice place, don’t get me wrong - it will always be my home - but I think I am supposed to live an ex-pat life. I don’t know where or doing what but I think that is what I am supposed to do. I think the only places I would want to live in the US would be DC or Chicago and if I lived in either of these place I would need to have a pretty damn good job because I want to take public transportation which would mean that I would have to live IN the city which means big bucks. I don’t see myself with a big bucks kind of job (I guess you never know but I don‘t think so). Next week I could curse this place but right now I feel like I could stay in Europe forever. While some people may see Europeans as very lazy - and at times they are (refer to my last entry about my counterparts) - but they value leisure and LIVING. By living I mean relaxation and personal fulfillment. From my work experience in the US I have found that American employers suck their employees dry and don’t respect the balance between personal and professional life. I don’t want to be a part of that ever again. What is the American nonsense of 10 days of vacation a year? I my opinion that is just it, nonsense.
I went to a seminar this weekend about domestic violence. It was great. I could only understand about 10% of it but this very nice lady took me under her wing and did brief translations for me. Her name is Mira and she is a dentist. She is about 45, her husband is dead and she has 2 kids. A son who is 25 and a girl who is 24. Her English is pretty good and she was quite excited to sit next to me and help me understand what was going on. She is one of those ladies that holds your hand while she is talking to you. Not offensive or creepy, very genuine. On Friday night we sat next to each other for dinner and she ate fish. Fish here is served as the whole fish. Scales, head, tail and all. She took the head and said, “I eat the head. It has a good vitamins for people going through menopause. I am going through menopause”. Then she popped the whole head in her mouth as if it were and M & M. I cringed and she laughed. I ended up going out with the girl who was the facilitator of the seminar. Her name is Gabi and she is 24 and lives in Skopje. Her co-worker also came with us. He is a lawyer who volunteers his time at the organization. His name is Darki. We had a nice time talking and drinking beers. From what I didn’t get out of the seminar in information, I got out of it in good conversation with Mira , Gabi and Darki.
This past week I had to go tot he high school and start recruiting girls for camp GLOW. I think I’ve talked about this camp before. Girls Leading Our World. Thank God for my tutors because they took me around to about 15 classrooms to talk to the students. The camp is a week long in July. It only costs about $6 for the girls to come but the good and bad thing is only 3-6 girls from Kichevo will get to go. There will be 60 girls total from all around Macedonia. It seemed like a lot of girls were interested so we’ll see. I hope they are but the bad part is I don’t want to have to choose. They fill out an application then come for an interview. I asked Chandra - the volunteer who lives in Brod (about 15 miles away) - if she would come and do the interviews because I don’t want to have to tell girls they weren’t selected and that I am the reason why. I know some of the girls too so I don’t want to be biased in any way. I already had this one guy who I know come up and tell me that I ‘was going to choose his girlfriend, right?’. I told him no and that I don’t have any part of the decision making process. He asked me if I knew the person who was making the decisions and I said that I did then he suggested I tell her to just choose his girlfriend. I told him no because it was not fair to the other girls. He was baffled. Things here always work with ‘who you know’. Then I told my counterpart Ismet about going to the classes and that I thought a lot of girls were interested and he said I should stop recruiting. I guess I should preface this by saying that the schools have 2 sessions and I have only been to one session so far. I am supposed to go to the other session next week. “The girls will be disappointed if they are not chosen so you should just stop telling people about it”. I told him that would not be fair for the girls in the other session because they wouldn’t even have a chance to apply because they wouldn‘t even know about it. I do feel bad that some girls are going to be disappointed but in each class I told them that only 3-6 girls from Kichevo would be asked to go so they know the odds upfront. Ismet and I just think so completely differently.
You know the screen saver where there are 2 green hills/mountains against a bright blue sky with a cloud or tow? Well, I think I live in that place. The screen saver is probably a computer-generated image but I swear it could have been taken here in Kichevo or in Buzalkovo.
I kind of felt bad for Ismet today. He had some brochures made up for a meeting that they are going to have with the new mayor. He went to the print shop with a whole mock-up of the thing and they printed all the stuff on the wrong pages. He was so mad and I was mad for him. I asked him why he didn’t ask them to do it over in the correct way he showed them. This is were being in a small city gets tough - he said that he would make an enemy if he did that. He could have asked them to re-do it but then he said their relationship would be severed and it would cause a problem for him in the future. I see his point but its not like Ismet is in the wrong. He showed me the mock-up and it was very easy to follow. I think I feel bad for him even more because for the first time I saw him do something very specific and it looked good - then the printer had to go and screw it up.
I met a girl from the US today. She is 17 and was born in Chicago. Chicago and Alaska must be FILLED with Albanian people because every single one that I have met here has some connection to one of those two places. Her parents moved back here 2 years ago and naturally she came with them. I asked her how she felt about it and she said quite plainly ‘it sucks’. I could tell by her body language that she was nervous to talk to me for some reason. It was really cute - she said ‘can we go out for coffee sometime, as friends?’ I think she is happy to have a fellow American here. I am sure we will go out sometime.
That is it for now.
Have a good week everyone!
Kaitlin
by mistake. I wouldn’t trade my family, friends or experiences for anything in the world but I am pretty sure I am not supposed to live there. America is a nice place, don’t get me wrong - it will always be my home - but I think I am supposed to live an ex-pat life. I don’t know where or doing what but I think that is what I am supposed to do. I think the only places I would want to live in the US would be DC or Chicago and if I lived in either of these place I would need to have a pretty damn good job because I want to take public transportation which would mean that I would have to live IN the city which means big bucks. I don’t see myself with a big bucks kind of job (I guess you never know but I don‘t think so). Next week I could curse this place but right now I feel like I could stay in Europe forever. While some people may see Europeans as very lazy - and at times they are (refer to my last entry about my counterparts) - but they value leisure and LIVING. By living I mean relaxation and personal fulfillment. From my work experience in the US I have found that American employers suck their employees dry and don’t respect the balance between personal and professional life. I don’t want to be a part of that ever again. What is the American nonsense of 10 days of vacation a year? I my opinion that is just it, nonsense.
I went to a seminar this weekend about domestic violence. It was great. I could only understand about 10% of it but this very nice lady took me under her wing and did brief translations for me. Her name is Mira and she is a dentist. She is about 45, her husband is dead and she has 2 kids. A son who is 25 and a girl who is 24. Her English is pretty good and she was quite excited to sit next to me and help me understand what was going on. She is one of those ladies that holds your hand while she is talking to you. Not offensive or creepy, very genuine. On Friday night we sat next to each other for dinner and she ate fish. Fish here is served as the whole fish. Scales, head, tail and all. She took the head and said, “I eat the head. It has a good vitamins for people going through menopause. I am going through menopause”. Then she popped the whole head in her mouth as if it were and M & M. I cringed and she laughed. I ended up going out with the girl who was the facilitator of the seminar. Her name is Gabi and she is 24 and lives in Skopje. Her co-worker also came with us. He is a lawyer who volunteers his time at the organization. His name is Darki. We had a nice time talking and drinking beers. From what I didn’t get out of the seminar in information, I got out of it in good conversation with Mira , Gabi and Darki.
This past week I had to go tot he high school and start recruiting girls for camp GLOW. I think I’ve talked about this camp before. Girls Leading Our World. Thank God for my tutors because they took me around to about 15 classrooms to talk to the students. The camp is a week long in July. It only costs about $6 for the girls to come but the good and bad thing is only 3-6 girls from Kichevo will get to go. There will be 60 girls total from all around Macedonia. It seemed like a lot of girls were interested so we’ll see. I hope they are but the bad part is I don’t want to have to choose. They fill out an application then come for an interview. I asked Chandra - the volunteer who lives in Brod (about 15 miles away) - if she would come and do the interviews because I don’t want to have to tell girls they weren’t selected and that I am the reason why. I know some of the girls too so I don’t want to be biased in any way. I already had this one guy who I know come up and tell me that I ‘was going to choose his girlfriend, right?’. I told him no and that I don’t have any part of the decision making process. He asked me if I knew the person who was making the decisions and I said that I did then he suggested I tell her to just choose his girlfriend. I told him no because it was not fair to the other girls. He was baffled. Things here always work with ‘who you know’. Then I told my counterpart Ismet about going to the classes and that I thought a lot of girls were interested and he said I should stop recruiting. I guess I should preface this by saying that the schools have 2 sessions and I have only been to one session so far. I am supposed to go to the other session next week. “The girls will be disappointed if they are not chosen so you should just stop telling people about it”. I told him that would not be fair for the girls in the other session because they wouldn’t even have a chance to apply because they wouldn‘t even know about it. I do feel bad that some girls are going to be disappointed but in each class I told them that only 3-6 girls from Kichevo would be asked to go so they know the odds upfront. Ismet and I just think so completely differently.
You know the screen saver where there are 2 green hills/mountains against a bright blue sky with a cloud or tow? Well, I think I live in that place. The screen saver is probably a computer-generated image but I swear it could have been taken here in Kichevo or in Buzalkovo.
I kind of felt bad for Ismet today. He had some brochures made up for a meeting that they are going to have with the new mayor. He went to the print shop with a whole mock-up of the thing and they printed all the stuff on the wrong pages. He was so mad and I was mad for him. I asked him why he didn’t ask them to do it over in the correct way he showed them. This is were being in a small city gets tough - he said that he would make an enemy if he did that. He could have asked them to re-do it but then he said their relationship would be severed and it would cause a problem for him in the future. I see his point but its not like Ismet is in the wrong. He showed me the mock-up and it was very easy to follow. I think I feel bad for him even more because for the first time I saw him do something very specific and it looked good - then the printer had to go and screw it up.
I met a girl from the US today. She is 17 and was born in Chicago. Chicago and Alaska must be FILLED with Albanian people because every single one that I have met here has some connection to one of those two places. Her parents moved back here 2 years ago and naturally she came with them. I asked her how she felt about it and she said quite plainly ‘it sucks’. I could tell by her body language that she was nervous to talk to me for some reason. It was really cute - she said ‘can we go out for coffee sometime, as friends?’ I think she is happy to have a fellow American here. I am sure we will go out sometime.
That is it for now.
Have a good week everyone!
Kaitlin
